Connecticut western news., 1891-11-12


 Saracens, by the Crusaders and last of all, not by sword, but by pen, and that the pen of the keenest diplonatist of the century, Lord Beaconsfield who, under 8 lease which was as good as pur- chase, set Cyprus among the jewels of Victorias crown.
 We went out into the excavations sSom which Di Cesnola has enriched our American museums with antiquities and with no better weapon than our foot we stirred up the ground deep enough to get a tear bottle in which some mo,irner shed his tears thousands of years ago and a lamp which before Christ was born lighted the feet of some poor pilgrim on his way. That island of Cyprus has enough to set an anti quarian wild. Thenr st of it's glory is the glory cJ the past, and the typhoid levers that sweep its coast, and the clouds of locusts that often blacken the skies (thougls two hundred thousand dollars were expended by the British empire in one year for the extirpation of these noNious insects, yet failing to do the work), and the frequent change of governmental masters, hinder pros perity.
 But when the islands of the sea come to God, Cyprus will come with them, and the agricultural and commercial opulence which adorned it in ages past will be eclipsed by the agricultural and commercial and religious triumphs of the ages to come Why is the world so stupid that it cannot see that nations are prospered in temporal things in proportion as they are prospered in religious things. Godli- ness is profitable not only for individ uals but formations. Questions of tariff, questions of silver bill, questions of re- public or monarchy have not so much to do with a nations temporal welfare as questions of religion. Give Cyprus to Christ, give England to Christ, give America to Christ, give the world to Christ, and he will give them all a pros perity unlimited. Why is Brooklyn one of the qneen cities of the earth9 Because it is the queen city of churches
 Blindfold mo and lead me into any city of the earth so that 1 cannot see a street or a warehouse or a home, and then lead me into the churches, and then remove the bandage from my eyes. and will tell you from what I see in- side the consecrated walls, having seen nothing outside, what is that city's mer- chandise, it's literature, it's schools, it's printing presses, its government, its homes, it's arts, it's sciences, it's pros perity or it's depression and ignorance and pauperism and outlawry.
 The altar of God in the church is the high water mark of the worlds happi ness. The Christian religion trium- phant, all other interests triumphant. The Christian religion low down, all other interests low down. So thought as on the evening of that day we stepped from the filthy streets of Lar naca, Cyprus, onto the boat that took us back to the steamer Minerva, which had already begun to paw the waves like courser impatient to be gone, and then we moved on and up among the islands of this Gospel archipelago.
 THE SEA POPirLOUS WITH THE PAST.
 Night came down on land and sea and the voyage became to me more and more suggestive and solemn. If you are pacing it alone, a ships deck in the darkness and at sea is a weird place, and an active inlagi: i:.ation may conjure up almost any shape he will and it shall walk the sea or confront him by the smokestack or meet him under the captains bridge. But here was alone on ships deck in the Gospel archipel- ago, and do you wonder that the sea was populous with the past and that down the ratlines Bible memories de scended? Our friends had all gone to their berths.
 Captain" I said, ''when will we arrive at the island of Rhodes?' Look ing out from under his glazed cap, he responded in sepulch.'al voice, About ing unreasonable hours, I concluded to stay on deck for must see Rhodes, one of the islands associated with the name of the greatest missionary the world ever saw or ever will sec. Paul landed there and that was enough to make it famous while the world stands and famous in heaven when the world has become a charred wreck.
 This island has had a wonderful his tory With six thousand Knights of St. John, it at one time stood out against two hundred thousand warriors under ''Solynan the Magnificent. :" The city had three thousand statues, and a statue to Apollo called Colossus, which has always since been considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was twelve years in building and was seventy cub;ts high, and had a winding stairs to the top. It stood fifty six years and then was prostrated by an earthquake After lying in ruins for nine hundred years, it was purchased to be converted to other purposes, and the metal, weighing seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds, was put on nine hundred calnels and carried away.
 We were not permitted to go ashore, but the lights all up and down the hills show where the city stands, and nine boats come out to take freight and 70 bring three passengers. Yet all the thousands of years of it's history. are sclipsed by the few hours or days that Paul stopped there. As stood there on the deck of the Minerva, looking put upon ,he place where the Colossus once stood bethought myself of the tact that the world must have a God jf some kind It is to me an infinite pathoS this Colossus not only of Rhodes, but the co!ossi in many parts of the earth This is only the worlds hind reachinsr m and feelino after