Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-11-27

| of the earth 50 that I cannot see a street OF
| a warehouse or home. and then leads NE
| into the churches and then remove the
| Dandage from my eyes. and VIII tell you
| from what l see inside the consecrated
walls, having seen nothing outside, what
is that city's merchandise its literature.
| its schools, its printing presses, its govern
| ment, its homes, its arts, Its sciences, its
| prosperity or its depression, and igno
! rance and pauperism and outlawry. The
| altar of God in the church Ia the high
| water mark of the worlds happiness. The
! Christian religion triumphant, all other
/ interests triumphant. The Christian relig-
! ion low down, all other interests low down
! Sol thought on the evening of that day we
stepped from the filthy streets of Larnaca,
Cyprus onto the boat that took US back TO
the steamer Minerva, which had already
begun to paw the waves like a courser i'm
patient to be gone, ara then we moved on
and up among the islands Of this Gospel
archipelago.
Night came down on land and sea and the
voyage became to me more and more sug-
gestive and solemn. II you are pacing it
alone ships deck in the darkness aud at sea
Is weird place and an active Imagination
May conjure up almost any shape he will,
and 1t shall walk the sea or confront him by
the smokestack or meet him under the CAP
taln's bridge. But here I was alone on ships
deck IN the Gospel archipelago and do you
wonder that the sea was populous with the
past and that down the rarlines Bible memo
ries descended? Our friends had all gone to
their berths
Captain" said. when will we arrive at
the Island Of RhodesY' Looking ont from,
under his glazed cap, he responded in sepul-
chral voice, about midnight" Though it
would be keeping unreasonable hours, con.
GUIDED TO stay on deck, for I must see
hnodes, one OF the islands associated with
Cne name OF the greatest missionary the
world ever saw or ever will see PauI
landed there, aid that was enough to make
It famous while the world stands, and ia
nous in heaven when the world has become
a charred wreck.
With six thousand Knights of st. John, it at
one time stood out against two hundred
thousand warriors under ''Solyman the
Magnificent" The city had three thousand
statues. and statue to Apollo called Co.
lossus, which has always since been con-
sidered one of the seven wonders of the
world. 1t was twelve years in building and
was seventy cubits high, ana hal q winding
stairs to the top. 1t stood fifty-six wears
and then was prostrate1 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 camels and carried
away We were not permitted to go ashore,
but the lights all up and down the hills show
come
out to take freight and to bring three pas
sengers. Yet all the thousands of years Of
Its history are eclipsed by the few hours or
days that Paul stopped there
AS l stood there on the deck of the Min
erva, looking out upon the place where the
Colossus once stood, bethought myself of
the fact that the world must have a God of
some kind. 1t is to me infinite pathos-
this Colossus not only Of Rhodes, but the |
colossl IN many parts Of the earth. This is !
only the worlds blind reaching up and feel |
ing after God. FOundered human nature |
must have a supernatural arm to help it
ashore. All the statues and images of heath
endom are attempts to bring celestial forces
Town into human affairs. Blessed be our
ears that we have heard Of an ever present |
Iod, 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-
5les and bereavements and vicisstudeS
Rhodes needs something higher than the
colossus, and the day will come when tho
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-
oelago, am reminded of what an important
part the islands have taken in the history of
he world. They are necessary to the
of the planet. The two hemis-
'heres must have them. AS you put down
lpon scale the heavy pound weights, and
|
espising the small weights-so the con-
lnents are the pounds and the islands are
he ounces. A continent is only a larger
siand, and an island only a smaller CONT
tent. Something of what part the islands
ave taken in the worlds history you will see
Vhen remind you that the Island of Salanis
PRODUCED Scion, and that the Island Of Chios
reduced Homer, and the Island o. Samos
reduced Pythagoras, and the Island Of Coos
reduced Hippocrates.
P11f 41o,ao i-0 i,lo HIoA
lore than any other. I can afford to miss
he princes among the islands, but must see
he king of the archipelago. The one longed
0 see is not so many miles in circumference
S Cyprus or Crete or Paros or Naxos or
clio or Mitylene, but had rather in this
all through the Grecian archipelago. see
hat than all the others; for more of the
tories Of heaven landed there than on all
be islands and continents since the world
5ood. AS we come toward it I feel my
ulses quicken. II, John, was in the island
nat is called Patmos." 1t is a pile of rocks
miles in circumference. A few
ypresses and inferior olives pump a living
ut of the earth, and one palm tree spreads
$ foliage. But the barrennesS and gloom
nd loneliness of the island made it prison
or the banished evangelist.
Domitian could not stand his ministry,
nd one day, under armed guard, that min ,
ter OF the Gospel stepped from a tossing
oat to these dismal rocks and walked I'D to :
10 niSnaI cavern Whlcn was TO be his home ,
nd the place where should pass before him
4 the conflicts of coming time and all the {
lptures of coming eternity. Is it not re- $
variable that nearly all the great revela- !
ons Of music and poetry and religion have $
zen made to men in banisnment- Homer :
I'd Milton banished into blindness: Beeth- !
ven banished into dea ness: Dante writing
IS ''Divina Comme6ia' during the nineteen :
ears of Punishment from his native land: :
ictor Hugo writing his LES Miserables' +
llled from home and country on the island :
GUERNSEY and the briohteSt ySious Of ! !