The Penn's Grove record., 1891-11-20

past and that down the ~ratlines Bible memo
ries descended? Our friends had all gone to
their berths.
'Captain,r / said, "when will we arrive a,
the Island Of RhodesY' Looking out from
under his glazed cap, he responded in sepul-
chral voice, about midnight" Though II
would be keeping unreasonable hours, l con.
cluded 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. a
landed there, and that was enough to make
1t famous while the world stands, and ia,
nous in HEAVIER when the world has become
a charred wreck.
This island has had a wonderful history
With six thousand Knights of st. John, 1t al
one time stood out against two hundred
thousand warriors under "Soiyman the
Magnificent" The city had three thousand
statues. and a statue to Apollo called Co.
lossus, which has always since been con.
sidered one Of the seven wonder of tho
world 1t was twelve wears in building and
was seventy cubits high, and had q winding
stairs to the top. 1t stood fifty-six years
and then was prostrate1 by an earthquake.
After lying in ruins for nine hundred years,
1t 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
where the city stands. and nine boats CONF
out to take freight and to bring three pas
sengers. Yet all the thousands of years oil
its history are eclipsed by the few hours OF
days that Paul stopped there.
As / stool there on the deck of the Min
erva, looking out upon the place where the
Colossus once stood, l b%ethought myself OF
the fact that tho world must have a 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 i,
only the worlds blind reaching up and feel
Ing after God. Foundered human nature
must AVE a supernatural arm TO help IL
ashore. All the statues and images OF heath
endom are attempts to bring celestial force,
down into human affairs. Blessed be ou1
ears that we have heard of an ever present
God, 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
giles and bereavements and vicissitudes.
Rhodes needs something higher than the
Colossus, and the day will come when the
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'
pelago, / am reminded of what an important
part the islands lave taken in the history Of
the world. They are necessary to tht
balancing Of the planet. The two hemis
pheres must nav them. As you put down
upon a scale the heavy pound weights, and
then the small ounces-and no one thinks o.
despising the small weights-so the con
tinents are the pounds and the Islands arr
the ounces. A continent Is only a larger
island, aud an island only a smaller CONT
nent. Something of what part the islands
have taken in the worlds history you will see
when l remind you that the Island of Salamis
- n - Al A.. Ilo-1 .f fvl.,.
produced Homer, and the Island Of Samos
produced Pythagoras, and the Island of Coo
produced Hippocrates.
But there Is one island that 1 longed to see
more than any other. I can afford to miss
the princes among the islands, but L must see
the king of the archipelago. The one l longed
to see is not so many miles In circumference
as Cyprus OF Crete or Paros or Naxos or
Scio or Mitylene, but l had rather. in this
sail through the Grecian archipelago, sea
that than all the others; for more of tha
glories of heaven landed there than on all
the islands and continents since the world
stood. As we CONF toward 1t l feel my
pulses quicken. II, John, was in the island
that is called Patmos." 1t is a pile of rocks
tw~enty-eight miles in circumference. A few
expresses and inferior olives pump a living
out of the earth, and one palm tree spreads
Its foliage. But the barrenness N gloom
and loneliness of the island made it a prison
Tor the banished evangelist.
Domitian could not stand his ministry,
md one day, under armed guard, that min
| lster of the Gospel stepped from a tossing
boat to these dismal rocks and Wake up to
.he dismal cavern which was to be his home
| md the place where should pass before him
all the conflicts Of coming time and all the
captures of a coming eternity. Is it not re-
narkable that nearly all the great reveal
ions 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 Commedia'' during the nineteen
years Of Punishment from his native land;
| Victor Hugo writing his Les M~iserabies"
sxiled from home and country on the island
| If 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 revela'
tons made to them.
So Patmos, wild, chill and bleak and ter
.ible was the best island in all the archi-
pelago, the best place in all the earth for
Irvine revelations. Before q panorama can
| be successfully seen, the room In which you
| it must be d~arkened, and in the presence of
John was to pass such q panorama as no
| nan ever before saw or ever will see in this
| world, and hence the gloom of his surround
ulRS WAS D noip AdbucI udh all INT ~
All the surroundings Of the place affected
st. Johns imagery. when he speaks OF
heaven. St. John, hungry from enforced
| abs~tinance, or having no food except that at
which his appetite revolted. thinks of
heaven; and as the famished man is apt to
iream of bountiful tables covered with
Injuries, 50 St.. John says of the inhabitants
| # heaven "They shall hunger no more"
Scarcity OF fresh water on Patmos n the
lot tongue Of st. Johns thirst leads hin to
admire heaven as he says, "They shall thirst
10 more"
st. John hears the waves of the sea wildly
iashing against the rocks, and each "a
has a voice, and all the waves together make
/ chorus, and they remind him of the multi
adinous anthems Of heaven, and he says
They are like the voice of many waters"
1ne day, as he looked off upon the sea, the
waters were very smooth, as il is to-day
while we sail them in the Minerva, and they
we're like glass, and the sunlight seemed to
et them on fire, and there was a mingling OF
white light and intense flame. and as st.
Tohn looked out from his cavern home upon
hat brilliant sea he thought of the s~plendors
II heaven and describes them "As a sea OF
Klass mingled with fire." Yes, seated In the
lark cavern of Patmos, though homesick and
hungry and loaded with Domitian's anathe-
mas, ST. John was the most fortunate man
IN earth because Of the panorama that
plBSbu DtltEe lue ulDutu u L tudb Chfcfu.
Turn down all the lights that we may bet
er see 1t. The panorama passes, and loi the
sonquering Christ, robed, giriled, armed, the
lash of golden candlesticks and seven stars
N His right hand, candlesticks and stars
meaning light held up and light scattered.
And there passes a throne and Christ on IL,
and the seals broken, and the woes sounded,
ind a dragon slain, and seven last plaques
iwoop, and seven walls are poured out, and
he vision vanishes And we halt a moment
10 rest from the exciting spectacle. Again
the panorama moves on before the cavern of
, Patmos, aud John the exile sees a great city
| representing all a~bominations, Babylon tow
red. palaced. templed- fountainAd- foliaeed.
| pculptured, hanging gardens, suddenly going
Tashi crashi and the pipers cease TO pipe,
md the trumpets cease to trumpet, n tina
| lust, and the smoke, and the horror fl the
| canvas while from above and beneath are
voices announcing, babylon Is fallen, IS
falleur' And we halt again to rest from the
spectacle. -
/ Again the panorama passes before the
cavern of Patmos, AMI John the exile sees a
| mounted Christ on a N white charger
leading forth the cavalry of heaven, the long
line of white chargers galloping through the
scene, the clatteriTg Of hoofs, the ciuking OF
! bride bits, and the fash OF spears, all the
earth conquered and all heaven in Doxoiogy.
Aud we halt again to rest from the specta-