Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-11-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject; 1.-THE Island of Patmos."

tuS NOiiOs tASCPtluH tue llOil lfdut. Ley pb
was to me somewhat depressing. 1t was a
post mortem examination of cities that died
four thousand years ago. The mumuiies. OF
wrapped up bodies of the dead were pre-
pared with reference to the Resurrection
day, the Egyptians departing this life want
ing their bodies to be kept in as good condi-
ton as possible so that they would be pre-
sentable when they were called again to &C.
cupy them. But if when Pharaoh comes to
resurrection he finds his body looking as
saw his mummy in the museum at Boulac
his soul will become an unwilling tenant,
The Sphinx also was to ME a stern monstros-
ity, statue carved cut of rock of red gran
lite sixty-two feet high and about one hun
dred and forty-three feet long, and having
the head of a man and the body OF lion.
We sat down in the sand of the African
desert to study it, With cold smile it has
looked down upon thousands of years of
earthly history, Egyptian civilization,
Grecian civilization, Roman civilization,
upon the rise and fall of thrones in
Vulnerable; the victory and defeat of the
armies of centuries II took three thousand
years to make one wrinkle Oh its red cheek.
1t is dreadful in its stolidity. Its eyes have
never wept tear. Its cold ears have not
listened to the groans of the Egyptian ma
ton, the burden of which | tried to weigh
last Sabbath Its heart is stone. 1t cared
not for Pliny when he measure it in the
first century. 1t will care nothing for the
man who looks into its impertubable coun-
tenance in the last century
But Egypt will yet come up to the glow OF
life. The Bible promises it The mission
aries, like my friend, good and great DR..
Lansing, are sounding a resurrection
trumpet above those slain empires There
will be some other Joseph at Memphis There
will ho nfhop Mnsac on ,a ho,,iyc cf fb..
Nile There will be some other Hypatia to
teach good morals to the degraded. Instead
OF a destroying angel to slay the firstborn of
Egypt the angel of the New Testament will
shake everlasting life from his wings over
nation born in day. When, soon after my
arrival in Egypt, [ took part in the solemn
and tender obsequies of a missionary from
our own land, dying there far away from the
sepulchers of her fathers, and saw around
her the dusky and weeping congregation OF
those she had come 10 save, | said to myself:
Here il self sacrifice of the noblest type.
Here IS heroism immortal Here is queen
unto God forever Here is something
GRANGER than the pyramids Here is that
which thrills the heavens. Here is a speci-
men of that which will yet save the world"
Goodby, Egypt This sermon finds us on
the steamer Minerva i'll the Grecian aTchi-
pelago, the islands of the New Testament.
and Islands Paulinian and Johannian in their
"Reminiscences. What Bradshaw's directory
is to travellers in Europe AMI what the rail
road guide is to travellers it America the
Book of the Acts in the Bible ia to voyagers
in the Grecian, or, as shall call it, the Cos
pei archipelago The Bible geography OF
that region is accurate without shadow of
mistake. We are sailing this morning on the
same waters that Paul sailed. but in tae
OnnOCita OirpNfIOU IN fbaf WrIsi Pqul
aged. He was sailing southwark and we
northward. With him it was EphesuS, Coos,
Rhodes, Cyprus. With us it is reversed, and
it is Cyprus. Rhodes Coos Ephesus There
is no book in TIE world so accurate as the
Divine BOOK
My text says that Paul left Cyprus on the
left; we. going in an opposite direction have
it on the right On our ship Minerva Were
only two or three passengers besides our
party, 50 we had plenty OF room to walk the
deck, and Oh, what a night was Christmas
night of 1889 in that Grecian archipelago
islands of light above, islands of beauty be-
meath 1t is a royal family OF islands tais
Grecian srchipeiago-the crown Of the
worlds scenery set with ,apphire and emerald
and topaz and chrysoprasu', and ablezs with
glory that seems let down out Of celestial
landscapes God evidently made W His
mind that Just here He would demonstrate
the utmost that can be done with islands for
the Identification Of earthly scenery.
The steamer had stopped during the night,
aud ii the morning the ship was as quiet a
this floor, when we hastenel up TO the deck
and found that we had anchored of the
island Of Cyprus In boat, which the ma
tives rOwe1 standing up as is the custom,
instead OF sitting down, a when we row. we
were soon landed on the streets where Paul
and Barnabas walked AM preached. Yea.
when at Antioch. Paul aud Barnabas got
into tightaS ministers sometimes did, AMI
sonnet mes DO. for they all have Imperfect
tons enough 10 anchor them to this world
till their work is done | Say--when, because
81 that bitter controversy Paul and Barna-
bas parted Barnabas came back here to
Cyprus, which was his birthplace Island,
wonderful for history. II has been the prize
sometimes won by Persia, by Greece, by
Egypt, by the SaracenS. by the Crusaders
nnd last OF all, not by sword but by pen, and
that the pen of the keenest diplomatist of the
century, Lord Beaconsield, who, under a
lease which was as good as purchase, set
Cyprus among the jewels Of NictOria's
crown
We went out into the excavations from
which Di Cesnola has enriched our American
museums with antiquities, and with no bet
ter weapon than our foot we stirred up the
ground deep enough to get a tear bottle in
which some mOurner shell his tears thou
SANDS of years ago, and lamp which before
Christ was born lighted the feet of some
poor pilgrim on his way. That island OF
Cyprus has enough to set an antiquarian
wild The most of its glory is the glory OF
the past, and the typhoid fevers that sweep.
its coast, and the clouds Of locusts that often
blacken its skies though two hundred thou
sand dollars were expended by the British
empire in one year for the extirpation Of
these nOxious insects, yet failing to do the
work.. and the frequent change OF govern
mental masters hinder prosperity.
But wien the islands of the sea come to
God, Cyprus will come with them, and the
agricultural and cOmmerc al opulence whic
adorned it in ages past will be eclipsed by
the agricultural and commercial and relig-
ious triumphs Of the ages to come. Why is
the world so stupid that it cannot see that
nations are prospered in temporal things in
proportion as they are prospered in religious
things Goodness is profitable not only for
individuals, but for nations Questions of
tariff, questions OF silver bill, questions OF
republic or monarchy have not so much to
do with nations temporal welfare as queS-
tons of religion. Give Cyprus to Christ
give England TO Christ, give America to
Christ, give the world TO Christ, and He will
give them all prosperity unlimited. Why
Is Brooklyn one of the queen cities Of the
Garth: Because it is the queen cities Of
churches
Blindfold me and lea1 me into any city
of the earth so that cannot see a street or
warehouse or home, and then leads me
into the churches and then remove the
bancage from my eyes, and / will tell you
from what | 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, IFS
prosperity or its depression. and igno-
rance and pauperism and outlawry The
altar of God in the church is 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.
SO thought on the evening of that day we
stepped from the thy streets Of Larnaca,
Cyprus, onto the boat that took US back 10
the steamer Minerva. which had already
begun TO paw the waves like a cDurser i'm.
patient to be gone. and then we novel on
and mp among the islands Of this Gospel
archipelago.
Night came down on land an sea and the
voyage became TO me more and more sIg
gestive anl solemn. IL you are pacing it
alone a ships deck in the darkness AMI at sra
is weird place, ami an active imag inatiol