The Opelousas courier., 1891-02-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.

"; Ialinage has begun a series of sermons
On MS recent trip to the HOLY Land Ths
1olo"lng Is the first sermon of the series:
TEXT THE half scds not told ,a.n-r
Kings X, I. "e
ahis is the first sermon in a corrse of Sab
n gu nlofning sermons on my Recent jour
10y rnrongh the Holy Land and Nefghbor-
~ Soantfles: What 1 Saw and What I
learned" Out OF the sixty-four millions of
our present American population and tba
unions OF our past only about five thousand
lave ever visited the Holy Land. ar ali
bnose who cross to Europe less than five nor
-cenO. ever get as far as Rome. and less fban
Two per cent. ever get to Athens. and less
I1an q quarter of one per cent. ever get To
Iaisselne. VI the less than a quarter Of one
Per cent: VINO do go to the Holy Land some
see nothing but the noxious insects and the
nitn or the Oriental cities, and come hack
wishing they had never gone. OF those yUho
see much OF interest and come home onIv a
sman portion can tell what they have seer.
enS tongue unable to report the eye.
lhe rarity OF a successful, intelligent and
Sappy Journey through the Holy Land is
very marked. But the time approaches when
q Journey to Palestine viii be common
thousands win go where now there are
scores. Two locomotives We're recently sent
up from Joppa to Jerusalem. and railroads
are about TO begin in Palestine, and the day
VIII come when the cry viii be, "AIl out for
SerusalemPs Twenty minutes for break
fast at Tiberias!' ttChange cars for Tv1ep
Grand Trunk Junction for Nineyahr p SaAiI
u for DamRscusp Meanwhile the wet locks
OF the Atlantic Ocean and Adriatic and Medi-
gefranean Seas are being shorn, and not only,
lis the voyage shortened, but after a while.
without crossing the ocean, you or your chill
dren Will visit the Holy Land. A company
OF capitalists have gone up to Behring
Straits, where the American and Asiatio
continents come within thirty-six miles of
meeting.
These capitalists or others will build a
bridge across these straits, for midway are
three islands called '1The Diomedes.5 and
Che water is not deep end is never disturbed
with fcebergs. Trains Of cars will run from
America across that bridge and on down
through Siberia. bringing under more i'm
mediate observation the Russian outragcs
against exiles and consequently aboifshdng
them; and there are persons here to-day,
VINO, without one qualm of sea-sicknesS will
visit that wonderful land where the Christ
like, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic Solo
rnonic and Herodic histories overlap each
other with such power that blythe time /
took my feet out of the stirrups at the close
OF the Journey ! feltso wrung out with emo
tlon that it seemed nothing else could ever
absorb my feelings again.
tn chief hindrance for going to Palestine
with many is the dreadful sea, and though L
have crossed it ten times it is more dreadful
every time, and fully sympathize with what
was said one night when Mr.: Beecher and |
went over to speak in New York at the an
niversary of the Seamen' Friend Society,
n the clergyman making the opening
prayer quoted from st. John, ssThere shall
be no more sea- - and Mr.. Beecher, seated be-
side me, in memory of q recent ocean voyage
said, Amen; l am glad Of that" By the
partial abolition of the Atlantic Ocean and
the putting down of rail tracks across every
country in all the world, the most sacred
land on earth will come under the observa-
tion of SO many people who will be ready to
tell of what they saw that infideiity will be
pronounced only another form of insanity,
FOR no honest man can visit the Holy Land
and remain an infideI.
This Bible from which Ipreach has almost
fallen apart, for I read from it the most Of
the events in it recorded on the very places
where they occurred. And some of the
leaves got wet as the waves dashed over our
boat on Lake Galilee, and the book was
jostled in the saddle bags for many weeks,
but it Is a new book to me, newer than any
book that yesterday came out OF any OF oul,
great printing houses. All my life | had
heard of Palestine, and / had read about it,
and talked about it, and preached about it,
and sung about 1t, and dreamed about 1t,
and PRAYED about it, until my an~ticipations
were piled up into something like Hlrnaiayan
proportions, and yet 1 have TO cry out, as
did the Queen of Sheha when she frst visited
the Holy Land, The half was not told
soe.s
lii order to make rhe more accurate and
vivid a book I have been writing, a life of
Christ, entitled From Manager to Throne,nI
left home last October, and on the last night
of November we were walking the decks of
the Senegal. a Mediterranean steamer. Tt
was a ship of immense proportions. There
were but few passengers, for it is generally
rough at that time of year, and pleasurists
are not apt to be voyagers there and then.
The stars were all out that night. Those ar
mics of light seemed TO nave had their shields
newly FURNISHED. We walked the polished
deck. Not much was said, for I'm all our
hearts was the dominant word tomorrow
Somehow the Acropoiis, which q few days
before had thrilled US at Athens, now In our
minds lessened in the height of It's columns
and the glory of its temples. And the Egyp-
tian pyramids in our memory lessened their
wonders OF obsolete masonry, and the Coils
cum of Rome was not so vast a ruin as it a
few weeks before had seemed to be.
And all that we had seen and heard
dwindled in Importance, for tomorrow, to-
morrow we shall see the Holy Land. Soap
tain, what time will we come in sight of
Palestine9' .Well, z he said, If the wind
and sea remain as they are, about ~daybreak.p
Never was I SO impatient for q night TO
pass. / could not see much use for that
night, anyhow. / pulled aside the curtain
from the portfolio of my stateroom, SO That
the first hint of dawn would Waken me. But
it was a useless precaution. Sleep was
among the impossibilities. Who could be 50
stupid as to slunnber when n momen there
might start out within sight of the ship the
land where the most stupendous scenes OF all
time and all eternity were enacted-land Of
ruin and redemption. land where was Fought
the battle that made our heaven possible,
land OF Godfrey and Saladln, OF Joshua ana
Jesus2
win the night ever be gomez Yes 1T is
growing lighter, and along the horizon there
Is something like d bank of clouds, and as Q
watchman PAGES the deck ] say 20 hlnl5,
ssWhat is that out yonderfp ssIhat IS iand;
sir. 2 said the sailor. 1.-THE landf1 4 cried, ana
soon all our friends were aroused from steep
and the shore began more clearly 20 eve ~
itself. With roar and rattls and bang bne
anchor dropped in the roadstead q hair mile
from land. for though Joppa is the only mar,
hor If Palestine il is the worst harDor on AL
tha coasts. Sometimes for weeks no ships
ston there. Between rocks ABOUT seventy
ave feet apart d small boat must Gake tne
Messengers ashore. The depths are streWh
with tbe skeletons of those who have at
fempted to land or attempted to eInDark.
Twentv-seven pilgrims persisted WIN one
c,sssh of d boat against the rocks. Wnoie
saass If Crusaders, of Romans, of Ssyrians,
r. Errntjans have gone to snlinfers there.
writer eight hundred years g said he stood
on the beach in a storm at Joppa, and out OF
thirty ships all but seven went to pieces on
the rocks, and a thousand Of the dead we're
washed ashore.
Strange that with q few blasts Of powder
like that which shattered our American Hell