The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-11-13

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 had rather
In this sail through the Grecian arcli
pelago see that than all the others, for
more of the glories of heaven landed
there than on all the islands and cont
nents since the world stood As we
come toward it | feel my pulses quicken,
~, John, was in the island that is
called Patmos."
1t is a piles Of rocks twonty-eight
miles in circumference. A few Expresses
and inferior olives pump u living out
of the earth, and one palm tree spreads
its foliage, But the barrenness and
gloom and loneliness of the island made
1t a prison for the banished evangelist,
Domitian could not stand his ministry,
and one day, under armed guard, that
minister of the Gospel stepped from n
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 coming eternity,
Is it not remarkable that nearly all
the great revelations Of music and pc.
etry and religion have been made to
men in Homer and Mil
ton banished into blindness; Beethoven
banished into deafness; Dante writing
his "Divina Comnedia" during the
nineteen years of Punishment from his
native land; Victor Hugo writing his
Lies Miserables" exiled 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
revelations made to them.
So Patlnos, wild, chill and bleak
and terrible, was the best island in all
the archipelago, the best place in all
the earth for divine revelations Be
fore a panorama can be successfully
seen, the room in which you sit must be
darkened, and in the presence of John
was to pass such a panorama as no
man ever before saw or ever will see iu
this world, and hence the gloom of his
surroundings was a help rather than It,
hindrance
All the surroundings of the place af
fected st. Johns imagery when he
speaks of heaven. st. John, hungry
from enforced abstinence or having no
food except that at Which his appetite
revolted, thinks of heaven; and as the
famished man is apt to dream Of boun
tiful tables covered with luxurics, SO St
John says of the inhabitants of heaven,
They shall hunger no more" Scarcity
of fresh water on Patnos and the hot
tongue of st. Johns thirst leads him 10
admire heaven as he says, They shall
thirst no more st. John hears the
waves of the sea wildly dashing against
the rocks, and each wave has a voice,
and all the waves together make u
chorus, and they remind him of the
multitudinous anthems of heaven, ard
he says, THEY are like the voice Of
many waters"
One day, as he looked off upon the
sea, the waters were very smooth, us it
is today while we sail them in the Min
erva, and they were like glass, and
the sunlight seemed to set them on fire,
and there was mingling of white light
and intense flame, and as st. John
looked out from his cavern home upon
that brilliant sea, he thought of the
fplendors of heaven and describes them
LAS sea of glass mingled with fire.
Yes, seated in the dark cavern of Pat
os, though homesick and hungry and
loaded with Domitians anathemas, St.
John was the most fortunate man on
earth because of the panorama that
passed before the mouth of that cavern.
LET US VIEW THE PANORAMA.
Turn down all the lights that we
may better see it. The panorama
passes, and 10! the conquering Christ,
robed, girdled, armed the fash of
golden candlesticks and seven stars in
his right hand, candlesticks and stars
meaning light held up and light scat
tered. And there passes a throne and
Christ on it, and the seals broken, and
the woes sounded, and dragon slain,
and seven last plaques swoop, and
seven walls are poured out, and the
vision vanishes And we halt mo
ment to rest frO:n the exciting spec
tacle.
Again the panorama moves on be
fore the cavern of Patmos, and John
the exile secs Il great city representa-!
all abominatious-Bu Babylon tuW".c'!,
palaced, tempted, fountuiIrd, f2Ii,t~cd,
sculptured, hanging GaH!ets, suddenly
going crash crash! alH the pipcr5 cease
to pipe, and the tri!apcts cease IL
trumpet, and the dust and the smoke
and the horror fill the canvas, while
from above and beneath are voices an
nouncing, Babylon is fallen, is fallen
ana we Hait it9ulll W rest rom tiit
spectacle.
Again the panorama passes befOrt
the cavern of PatnoS, and John ths
exile sees mounted Christ on II Snow
white charger leading forth the cavity
of heaven, the long line Of white cliarg
ers galloping through TIE scene, til,
gathering of hoofs, the clii.hing o
bride bits and tic flash OF spears, ri
the earth conquered and all heaven il
Doxology. And we halt agaiu to res
from the spectacle. Again the pano
rama passes before the cavern of Pat
mos. and John the exile sees grea
thrones lifted, thrones OF martyrs
thrones of apostles, thrones of prophets
thrones of patrarclis, and "A thron
higher than all on viich Jesus sits
, and pondcrcus BOOKS are opemcd
their leaves turned over. reycalii;.
( the names Of ail that lave ever lived
: the good aud the bad, ne re;Iownci
' and the humble, TIC iiii,;lity and In
: weak and ST Iiic tiir,I ff every ie.f th