Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-11-13

/
days that Paul stopped there.
As / 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 God OF
some kind. 1t is to me an infinite pathos-
this Colossus not only OF Rhodes, but the
colossi in many parts of the earth This -
| only the worlds blind reaching up and feel
ing after God. Foundered human nature
must have a supernatural arm to help ~
ashore. All the statues and images OF heath
endom are attempts to bring celestial forces
down into human affairs. Blessed be our
ears that we have heard o. an ever present
| God. and that throu gh 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 vicissltudes
Rhodes needs something higher than the
Colossus, and the day will come when the
Christ, whom Paul was ssrving when he
sailed into the harbor of Rhodes, shall take
possession of that island.
As we move on up through this archl-
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 hemisr
pheres must have them. As you put down
upon scale the heavy pound weights, and
then the small ounceS-and no one thinks oil
despising the small weights-so the con-
tinents are the pounds and the islands are
the ounces. A continent is only a larger
island aud an island only a smaller conti-
nent. Something Of what part the islands
have taken in the worlds history you VIII SEQ
when remind you that the Island of Salamis
produced Soon and that the Island Of Chios
produced Homer, and the Island OF Samos
produced Pythagoras and the Island OF Coos
produced Hippocrates.
But there IS one island that | 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 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. ~ John, was in the island
/ that is called Patmos" 1t is pile of rocks
twenty-eight miles in circumference. 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 prison
/ for the banished evangelist.
Domitian could not stand his ministry,
and one day, under armed guard, that min
lister of the Gospel stepped from tossing
boat to these dismal rocks and walked up 10
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-
markable that nearly all the great revela-
tons of music and poetry and religion have
been made to men in Punishment Homer
and Milton banished into blindness: Beeth-
oven banished into deafness; Dante writing
his "Divina Comme1ia' during the nineteen
years of Punishment from his native land;
Victor Hugo writing his Les Mlserables
exiled from home and country on the island
of Guernsey, and the brightest visions OF
the future have been given 10 those VINO by
sickness or sorrow were eXied from the
outer world into rooms of suffering. only
those who have been imprisoned by very
hard surroundings have had great reyela-
tions made to them,
So Patmos, wild. chill and bleak and ter
rible was the best island in all the archl-
pelego, the best place in all the earth Tor
divine revelations. Before panorama can
be successfully seen, the room in which you
sit must be darkened, and IN the presence oil
John was to pass such panorama as no
man ever before saw or ever will see IN TINS
world. and hence the gloom Of his surround
inqs was a help rather than an hin1rance.
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 al
which his aDpetite revoted, thinks of
heaven. and as the famished man is apt to
dream of bOuLtful tables covered with
luxuries, 50 St. John says of the inhabitants
of heaven "They shall hunger no more
Scarcity of fresh water on Patmos and the
ho4 tongue of st. Johns thirst leads him to
admire heaven as he says, "They shall thirss
no more
St John hears the waves of the sea wildly
dashing against the rocks, ana each wave
has voice an all the waves together make
a chorus, and they reminl him OF the multi
tudinous anthems Of heaven, and he says
They are like the voice of many waters
One day, as he loOke1 off upon the sea, the
waters were very smooth, as II Is to-day
while we sail them in the Minerva, and they
were like glass, and the sunlight seemed to
set them on fire, and there was a mingling OF
white light AMI intense flame, and as st.
John looked ont from his cavern home upon
that brilliant sea he thought of the splendors
of heaven and describes them "As n sea Of
glass mingled with fire" Yes. seated in the
dark cavern Of Patmos. though homesick and
hungry and loaded with Domitian's anathe-
mas ST. John was The most fortunate man
I
passed before the mouth Of that cavern.
Turn down all the lights that we may bet
ter see it. The panorama passes, and 10 the
conqueTing Christ, robed, giriled, armed, the
fash OF golden caudlesticks aud seven stars
in His right hand candlesticks and stars
meaning light held up and light scattered.
And there passes a throne and Christ on It,
aud the seals broken, aud the woes sounded,
and dragon slain, AMI seven last plaques
D l. 81 out ar,l
the vision vanishes. And we halt a moment
to rest from thu exciting spectacle. Again
the panorama moves on before the cavern OF
Patmos, and John the exile sees a great city
representing all denominations, Babylon tow
cred, palaced tempted fountaine1, foliaged,
sculptured. hanging gardens, suddenly going
crash crash and the pipers cease 70 pipe,
and the trumpets cease to trumpet, and the
dust and the smoke, and the horror fill the
canvas, while from above and beneath are
voices announcing, Babylon IS fallen, Is
fallen And we halt again to rest from the
spectacle.
Again the panorama passes before the
cavern of Patnos, and John the exile sees
mounted Christ on a snow white charger
leading forth the cavalry of heaven the long
line of white chargers galoping through the
scene, the Gathering Of hoofs, the clinkng OF
bride bits, and the fash of spears, all the
And we halt again to rest from the spectl-
Gle. Again the panorama passes before the
cavern of Patmos, and John the exile sees
great thrones lifted, thrones of martyrs,
thrones of apostles thrones of prophets,
thrones of patriarchs, and 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 of fright, and the sea empties its
sarcophagus OF all the dead OF the sunken
shipping ami the earth gives way, and the
heavens vanish. Again we rest a moment
from the spectacle.
The panorama moves on before the cavern
of Patmos, and John the exile beholdsa city
OF gold. aud river more beautiful than thu
Rhine or the Hudson rolls through it, and
fruit trees bend their burdens on either
bank, AMI all is surrounded By walls in
which the upholstery of autumnal forests,
and the sunrisas AM sunsets Of all the ages
and the glory OF burning worlds seem to be
comminglel. AMI the inhabitants never
breathe sigh, Or utter a groan, or discuss
| a difference, or frown 4 dislike or weep