The Bossier banner., 1891-02-05
THE SEA OF GAIILEE.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Spends a
Day on the Historic Waters.
The Tenth discourse OF the Holy Land
Series. Descriptive of Scenes and
Incidents Set Forth In
Holy Writ.

kn9 series on the hOlN Ldhi, uells0EcU
by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage in Brook
lyn and New York City. from the text:
He entered into ship, and sat in the sea;
and the whole multitude was by the sea on
the land.-Mark iv., l.
It Monday morning in our Pales-
tine experience, and the sky is blue
Galilee above, as in the boat we sail
the blue Galilee beneath. 1t is thir-
teen miles long and six miles wide, but
the atmosphere is so clear it seems as
IL I could cast a stone from beach to
beach. The lake looks as though it had
been let down on silver pulleys from the
heavens and were section of the sea
of glass that st. John describes as a
part of the celestial landscape. Lake
Galilee is a depression of six hundred
feet in which the river Jordan widens
and tarries little, for the river Jordan
comes in at its north side and departs
from its south side, so this diver has its
cradle and its grave. It's white satin
cradle is among the snoEs of Mount
Hermon, where the jordan starts,
and its sepulcher is the Dead Sea,
into which the Jordan empties. Lake
Como, of Italy. Lake Geneva, of Swift
erland, Lake Lomond, of Scotland, Lake
Winnepesaukee, of America, are larger,
but Lake Galilee is the greatest dia-
mond that ever dropped from the finger
of the clouds, and, whether eneamped on
it's banks as we were yesterday, and wor-
Shipping at its crystal altars, or wading
into its waves. which make an ordinary
=. u. H.. Lnr =
ting out upon its sparkling surface in a
boat. it is something to talk about, and
pray about, and sing about, until the
lips with which we now describe it can
neither talk, nor pray, nor sing.
We put our overcoats and shawls on a
small deck in the stern of the boat. the
very kind of deck where Christ lay
on a fshermen's coat, when of old
tempest pounced upon the fishing
smask of the affrighted disciples. Os-
preys and wild duck and king-fshers
fly overhead or dip their wings into the
lake, mistaking it for fragment of fall
len sky. Can it be that those Bible
stories about sudden storms on this lake
are true? is it possible that sea OF
such seeming placidly of temper could
ever rise and rage at the heavens? II
does not seem as if this happy family
elements could have ever had a falling
out, and the water strike at the clouds
and the clouds strike at the water.
Pull away, oarsmeni On our right
bank are the hot sulphur baths, SO hot
they are scalding, and the waters cool
off along while before hand or foot can
endure their temperature. Volcanoes
have been boiling these waters fol
centuries. Four springs roll their re,
sources into two great swimming reser
yoirs. King Herod there tried to bathe
off the results OF his excesses, and
Pliny and Josepnus describe the
squirting out of these volcanic
heats, and Joshua and Moses
knew about them, and this mo
ment long lines OF pilgrims from al
parts of the earth are waiting for thei
turn to step into the steaming restor
atiyes. Let the boat, as far as posi-
- BILE, and not run aground, hug the west
ern shore of the lake that we may set
the City of Tiberias. once a great capi
tai of the architecture of which few
8 mosaics, and fallen pillars and pedes
tails, and here and there broken an,
shattered friezeremain, nightly sug
gestive of the time when Herod Ansipa,
had palace here and reigned with al
opulence, and pomp, and cruelty, ant
abomination that paralyzes the finger
of the historian when he comes to writ
It, and the fingers of the painter whel
he attempts to transfer it to canvas.
suppose he was one of the worst me-
that ever lived. And what contras
of character comes at every momen
to the thoughtful traveller in Palestine
whether he walks the beach Of thi
lake or sails as we now do these waters
Side by side are the two great char
acters of this lake region, Jesus ant
Herod Antipas. And did any age pre-
duce any such antpodes. any sucl
antitheses. any such opposites? Kind
ness and cruelty, holiness and filth
generosity and meanness, self-sacrifc,
and selfishness, the supernal and tn,
internal, midnoon and midnight TIL,
father of this Herod Antipas was
genius at assassination. He could man
ufactnre more reasons for putting ueo
pie out of this life than any man in al
history. He sends for Hyrcanu
to come from Babylon to Jerusa
lem to be made high priest and slay
him. He has his brother-in-law. Will,
in bathing with him. drowned bJ tht
Kings attendants. lie Stays his wifi,
and his wife's mother. and two of hi
sons and his uncle, and filed volume
of atrocities, the last chapter of which
was the massacre of all the babes al
Bethlehem. With such q father a.
Herod the Great, you are not surprised
that this Herod Antipas, whose palac,
stood on the banks of this lake We nov
sail, was a combination of wolf, reptile
and hyena.
While the Christ who walked yondei
banks and sailed these waters was S,
good that almost every rood of thi.
scenery is associated with some wis,
word or somo kindly deed, and all lit
erature, and all art and all earth, ant
all Heaven are put to the utmost eff
!. fort in trying to express how grand ant
glorious and lovely He was. and is, ant
is to be. The Christly and Herodi,
al. a, -, s&ars ao dffFaranS &c 4ba fu.o lalxa