Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-11-26

uuarian wild. The most of its glory
THE GLORY OF THE PAST.
and the typhoid fevers that sweep its
roast and the clouds OF locusts that
often blacken its skies Though $780,
900 were expended by the British en-
pire in one year for the extirpation OF
these noxious insects, vet failing to do
the work, and the frequent change of
governmental masters, binders 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 eclipscd by the
agricultural and commercial and re-
ligious triumphs of the ages to come.
Night came down on land and sea and
the voyage became to me more and
more suggestive and solemn, Ii you
are pacing it alone, aship's deck in the
darkness and at sea is a weird place,
and an active imagination may con-
jure 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
Archipelago and do you wonder that
the sea was ropulous with the past
and that down the ratlines Bible
memories descended? Ourfriends had
all gone to their berths. Captain"
said, "when will we arrive at the
Island of Rhodes9" Looking out from
under his glazed cap, he responded in
sepulchral voice: "About midnight"
Though it would be keeping unreason-
able hours, concluded to stay on
deck, for l must see Rhodes, one OF
the islands associated with the name
OF the greatest missionary the world
ever saw or ever will see. 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.
AS we move on up through this
archipelago, 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.
But there is one island that longed
to see more than any other. l can af-
ford to miss the princes among thei is
lands! but I must see the king OF the
Archipelago. The one l long to see is
not so many. miles in circumference as
Cyprus or Crete or Paros or Naxos
or Scio orMitylene, but | had rather,
in this sail through the Gre
clan Archipelago, see that than all
others; for more of the glories of
heaven landed there than on all the
islands and continents since the world
stood. AS we came toward it 1 felt
my pulses quicken. ~, John, was in
the island that is called Patmos." tits
apple OF rock 20 miles in circumference.
A few expresses and inferior olives
pump a living out OF the earth, and
one palm tree spreads it's foliage.
All the surroundings of the place
affected 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 bountiful
TABLES COVERED WITH LUxUKrEs,
so st. John says OF the inhabitants OF
heaven, "They shall hungerno more"
Scarcity OF fresh water on Patmos
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
each wave has voice and all the
waves together make a chorus and
they remind him of the multitudinous
anthems of heaven, and he says,
''They are like the voice OF many
waters" One day, as he looked off
upon the sea, the waters were very
smooth, as it is today, while we sail
them in the Minerva, and they were
like glass and the sunset 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
splendors OF heaven ard describes
them LAS sea OF glass mingled with
fire" Yes, seated in the dark cavern
of Patmos, though homesick and
hungry and loaded with Domitian's
anathemas, st. John was the most
fortunate man on earth because OF the
panorama that passed before the
mouth of that cavern.
Again the panorama passes before
the cavern of Patmos, and John the
exile sees a mounted Christ on a
snow-white charger leading forth the
cavalry of heaven, the long line of
white chargers galloping through the
scene, the gathering Of hoofs, the
clinking of bride. bits and the flash
of spears, all the earth conquered and
all heaven in Doxology. And we halt
again to rest from the spectacle.
Again the panorama passes before
the cavern of Paumos, and John the
exile sees great thrones lifted, thrones
of martyrs, thrones OF apostles,
thrones of prophets, thrones Of patri-
archs, and a throne higher than all
on which Jesus sits, and ponderous
books are opened, their leaves turned
over, revealing the names of all that
have ever lived, the good and the
bad, the renowned and the humble,
the mighty and the weak, and at the
turn Of every leaf the universe is in
rapture or fright and the sea empties