Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-11-26


the steamer Minerva, which had alread
begun to paw the waves like a courser in,
patient to be gone, and then we moved ii
ana up among the islands of this Gospe
archipelago
Night came down on land and sea and tn
voyage became to me more and more SIG
gestlve and solemn. If you are pacing I
alone a ships deck in the darkness and at Sc.
Is weird place, and an active Imagination
may conJure up almost any shape he will
and 1t shall walk the sea or confront him n,
the smokestack or meet him under the can
tain's bridge. But here | was alone on shin,
deck In the Gospel archipelago, and do yol
wonder that the sea was populous with tn,
past and that down the ratlines Biblemeno
fies descended Our friends had all gone K
their berths
Captain" said, when will we arrive a
the Island of RhodesY" Looking out from
under his glazed cap, he responded in sepul
chral voice, About midnight" Though il
would be keeping unreasonable hours. I con
Guided to stay on deck, for | must sci
Rhodes, one of the islands associated with
tne name OF the greatest missionary the
world ever saw or ever will see. Pau
landed there and that was enough to make
1t famous while the world stands, and ia
nous In heaven when the world has become
a charred wreck
inls island has had a wonderful history.
with six thousand Knights of ST. John, it al
one one time stood out against two hundred
thousand warriors under ''Solyman the
Magnihcent" The city had three thousand
ssoatues' and statue to Apollo called Co
sidered one of the seven wonders of the
world. 1t was twelve years in building and
was seventy cubits high, and had winding
STAIRS TO the top 1t stood fifty-six wears
ana tnan was Frustrated by an earthquake.
Alter lying IN ruins for nine hundred years.
IL was purchased to be converted to other
purposes and the metal, weighing seven
nu t ana twenty thousand pounds, was
put on nine hundred camels and carried
away. We We're not permitted to go ashore,
D9t the nights all UP and down the hills show
"here the city stands and nine boats come
out TO take freight and to bring three pas
sehgers Yet all the thousands of years OF
lts history are eclipsed by the few hours or
Gays that Paui stopped there
AS stood there on the deck of the Min
erva, looking out upon the place where the
Colossus once stood, l bethought myself of
the TACT that the world must have God Of
some KIND. 1t is to me an infinite pathos-
thls COLOSSUS not only of Rhodes, but the
coiossi IN many parts of the earth This is
only the worlds blind reaching up and feel
ing after God. Foundered human nature
must have supernatural arm to help it
ashore. All the statues and images of heath p
endom are attempts to bring celestial forces
down into human affairs. Blessed be our
ears that we have heard of an ever present
GOD, and that through Jesus Christ He comes
INTO our hearts and our homes and with
more than fatherly and motherly interest
and affection He is with US in all our strug-
giles and bereavements and vicisstudes.
Rhodes needs something higher than the
[ ,OlOcG11a nd fho xp.ll :.
Christ, whom Paul was serving when he
sailed into the harbor of Rhodes, shall take
possession of that island
AS we move on up through this archi-
pelago, am reminded of what an important
part the islands have taken in the history of
the world. They are necessary to the
balancing of the planet The two hemis-
pheres must have them. As you put down
upon scale the heavy pound weights, and
then the small ouuces--and no one thinks of
despising the small weights-so the CON
tlnents are the pounds and the islands are
the ounces. A continent is only larger
island and an island only smaller CONT
nent. Something of what part the islands
have taken in the world history you will see
when remind you that the island of Salamis
produced Scion, and that the Island of Chios
produced Homer, and the Island of Samos
produced Pgthagoras, and the Island of Coos
produced Hippocrates.
But there is one island that l longed to see
more than any other. / can afford to miss
the princes among the islands, but must see
the king of the archipelago. The one | longed
to see is not so many miles in circumference.
as Cyprus or Crete or Paros or Naxos or
Scio or Mitylene, but l had rather, in this
sail through the Grecian archipelago, see
that than all the others, for more of the
glories of heaven landed there than on all
the islands and continents since the world
stood. As we come toward it | feel my
pulses quicken. II, John, was in the island
that is called Patmos." 1t is pile of rocks
miles in circumference A few
expresses and inferior olives pump living
out of the earth, and one palm tree spreads
its foliage. But the barrenness and gloom
and loneliness of the island made it a prison
for the banished evangelist.
Domitian could not stand his ministry,
and one day, under armed guard, that min
ister of the Gospel stepped from tossing
boat to these dismal rocks and walked up to
the dismal cavern which was to be his home
and the place where should pass before him
all the conflicts Of coming time and all the
raptures OF a coming eternity Is it not re-
f;ons 81 PIE r that nearly all the great reyela
bean made to men in banishrfielsGion have
and Milton banished into blindness; Beeth-
oven banished into deafness; Dante writing
his .'Divina Commedia" during the nineteen
years of Punishment from his native land;
Victor Hugo writing his lies Miserabies"
exi,ed from home and country on the island
of GUERNSEY and the brightest visions OF
the future have been given to those who by
sickness or sorrow were exiled from the
outer world into rooms of suffering. Only
those who have been imprisoned by very
hard surroundings have had great revela-
lions made to them
So Patmos wild, chill and bleak and ter
rible was the best island in all the arcnl-
nelago. the best place in all the earth Tor
divine revelations. Before panorama can
be successfully seen, the room in which you
sif must be darkened, and in the presence OF
John was to pass such a panorama as no
man ever before saw or ever VIII see III TINS
world and hence the gloom OF his surround
ings was help rather than an hindrance;
All the surroundings of the place a1ected
ST Johns imagery when he speaks OF
heaven. ST. John, hungry from enforced
abstinence, or having no food except that al
which his appetite revolted, thinks OIL
heaven. and as the famished man is apt 70
dream of bountiful tables covered with
Injuries. so st. John says of the innabitants
of heaven "They shall hunger no more,
Scarcity of fresh water on Patuos and the
hot tongue of St. Johns thirst leads him to
admire heaven as he says, "They shall thirst
no more"
st. John hears the waves OF the sea wildly
dashing against the rocks, and eacn ways
has a voice, and all the waves together make
a chorus, and they remind him OF the muiti-
tudinous anthems OF heaven, ana ne says
r