Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-11-20

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-
yestive and solemn. IL you are pacing it
alone a ships deck in the darkness and at sea
Is a weird place, and an active Imagination
may conjure up almost any shape he will,
and IL shall walk the sea or confront him by
.he smokestack or meet him under the cap
,ain's bridge. But here | was alone on ships
ieck in the Gospel archipelago, and do you
wonder that the sea was popuous with the
past and that down the ratlines Bible memo
ries descendedl Our friends had all gone TO
:heir berths.
Captain, said, "when will we arrive at
The Island Of Rhodesy' Looking out from
lnder his glazed cap, lie responded in sepu-
chral voice. About midnight" Though 1t
would be keeping unreasonable hours, | con-
cluded 10 stay on deck, for | must soc
Rhodes, one of the islands associated with
the name of the greatest missionary the
world ever saw or ever will soc. Paul
landed there and that was enough to make
it famous while the world stands, and IA
nous in heaven when the world has become
Charred wreck
This island has had a wonderful history.
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.
ossus, which has always since been con-
sidered one Of the seven wonders of the
world. 1t was twelve years i'll building and
was seventy cubits high, and had a 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
put on nine hundred camels and carried
away. We were not permitted to go ashore,
but the lights all up aud down the hills show
where the city stands, end nine boats come
cut 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 | stood there on the deck of the Min.
srva, 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
:olossi in many parts Of the earth. This is
only the worlds blind reaching up and feel
ing after God Foun1ered human nature
must have n supernatural arm to help it
ashore. All the statues and images of heath
sndom are attempts to bring celestial forces
down into human affairs. Blessed be our
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 stlug-
Cles 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 have taken in the history of
the world They are necessary to the
balancing of the planet. The two hemis-
pheres must have them. As you put down
upon scale the heavy pound weights, aud
then the small ouuces-and no one thinks Of
despising the small weights-so the con-
tinents are tho pounds aud the islands are
the ounces A continent is only a larger
island, aud an island only smaller conti-
nent. Something OF what part the islands
have taken in the worlds history you will see
when remind you that the Island Of Salamis
produced Solon, 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
J 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 l had rather, in this
| sail through the Grecian archipelago, see
| that than all the others; for more of the
| ylories of heaven landed there than on all
| the islands and continents since the world
| stood. As we come toward 1T l feel my
| pulses quicken. II, John, was in the island
that Is called Patmos." 1t is pile of rocks
twenty-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 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 to
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 coming eternity. Is 1T not re-
markable that nearly all the great revela'
tions of music and poetry and religion have
been made to men in observation-disclosures
and Milton banished into blindness; Beeth
oven banished into deafness; Dante writing
bis "Divina Commedia" during the nineteen
years of banishment from his native land
Victor Hugo writing his Lies Miserables'
exi,ed from home and country on the islanc
of Guernsey, and the brightest visions o.
the future have been given to those who by
sickness or sorrow were exlled from th
outer world into rooms of suffering. Only
those who have been imprisoned by yer!
hard surroundings have had great revela
tions made to them.
So Patmos wild, chill and bleak and ter
rible was the best island in all the archi
pelago, the best place in all the earth To-
divine revelations. Before panorama cal
be successfully seen, the room in which yol
sit must be darkened, and i'll the presence o
John was to pass such panorama as n
man ever before saw or ever Will see IN TN
world, and hence tho gloom Of his surround
| ipgs was help rather than an hindrance
All tle surroundings OF the place affecte
ST. Johns imagery when he speaks o
heaven. st. John, hungry from enforce
abstinance, or having no food except that a
which his appetite revoted, thinks q
heaven; and as the famished man is apt I
dream of bountiful tables covered wit
luxuries. SO St. John says of the inhabitant
Of heaven "rhey shall hunger no more.
Scarcity Of fresh water on Pntmos and tn
hot tongue Of St. Johns thirst leads him
admire heaven as he says "They shall thiri
40 more"
st. John hears the waves OF the sea Wild
1ashng against the rocks, and each way
ans q voice and all the waves together NAL
chorus, and they remind him of the multi
tudinous anthems of heaven, and he say
"They are like the voice of many waters
One day, as he looked off upon the sea, q
waters were very smooth, as 1t is to-dt
while we sail them in the Minerva and th
we're like glass, and the sunlight seemed
: set them on fire, and there was mingling
white light and intense flame, aud as
John looked out from his cavern home up
, that brilliant sea he thought Of the splendo
, OF heaven and describes them "As sea
/ glass mingled with fire." Yes, seated in
dark cavern Of Patmos, though homesick a
, hungry and loaded with Domitian's anatf
/ mas, 81. John was the most fortunate NJ
J on earth because OF the panorama I'll
3 passed before the mouth of that cavern.
! Turn down all the lights that we may b