The Forrest City times., 1891-11-13
GOSPEL ARCHIPELAGO.
pR. rALMAoE BREACHES ON
 RHODES AND PATMoS.
A Night View Of the Island Visited by Paul-The Birthplace or the Gospel Of sI John-Lasf Glimpse of Egypt

oyerfowing congregation at the Brook lvu Tabernacle this morning attested the interest the religious public IS talk ing in the series of sermons Dr. Iai- mage is preaching on what he saw, confirmatory of the Scriptures, during his tour from the Pyramids to the Acropolis. This mornings sermon, the fourth of the series, was on the islands of the Greek archipelago. Inc Doctor took two texts: Acts 2l:5, ssWhen we had discovered Cyprus we left it on the left hand" and Revela- tion 1:o, .'l. John, was Tn the lsie that is called Patmos
 Good-by Egypt Although interest ing and instructive beyond any country in the world, excepting the Holy Land, Egypt was to me somewhat depressing, It was a post-mortem examination of great cities that died 1000 years ago. The mummies ,or wrapped up bodies of the dead, were prepared with refer ence to the Resurrection day, the Egyptians departing this life wanting their bodies to be kept in as good con dition as possible so that they would be presentable when they were called again to occupy them.
  Minerva in the GrecIan archipelago, the islands of the new testament, and islands Paulinian and Johannian in their reminiscence. What Bradshaw directory is to travellers in Europe, and what the railroad gnide IS to travellers in America, the book of the Acts in the bible is to voyagers in the Grecian, or as l shall call 1t, the Cos gel archipelago. The bible geography of that region is accurate with out a shadow of mistake. We are sailing this morning on the same waters that Paul sailed but in the op- posite direction to that which Paul voy- aged. He was sailing southward 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 the world so accurate as the divine book My text says that Paul left Cyprus on the left; we, going in the opposite direction, have it on the right. On our ship Minerva were only two or three passengers beside our party, SO 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- neathl It is royal family of islands. this Grecian archipelago: the crown of the worlds scenery set with sapphire and emerald and topaz and cnryso- prasus and ablaze with a glory that seems let down out of celestial land- scapes. God evidently made up his mind that just here he would demon strate the utmost that can be done with islands for the identification of earthly scenery.
 The steamer had stopped during the night and in the morning the ship was as quiet as this floor, when we hastened up to the deck and found that we had anchored off the Island of Cyprus. In a boat, which the natives rowed stand ing up as is the custom, instead of sit ting down as when we row, we were soon landed on the streets where Paul and Barnabas walked and preached. Yea, when at Antioch Paul and Barna. bus got into a fight-as ministers some. times did. and sometimes do, for they all have imperfections enough to anchor them to this world till their work is done, 1 say-when because oi that bitter controversy Paul and Bar nabas parted Barnalas came back here to Cyprus, which was his birth place. Island wonderful for history 1t has been the prize sometimes won by Persia, by Greece, by Egypt, by the Saracens, by the Crusaders. and last oi all, not by sword but by pen. and that the pen of the keenest diplomatist oi the century, Lord Beaconsfield, who under a lease which was as good as a purchase. set Cyprus among the jewels of Victoria's crown. We wen out into the excavations from which Di Cesnola has enriched our American museums with antiquities and with nc better weapon than our foot we stirreC up the ground deep enough to get a tear bottle in which some mournei shed his tears thousands of years ago and a lamp which before Christ wa. born lighted the feet of some poor pll grim on his way. That island ot Cyprus has enough to set an antiqua rian wild. The most Of it's glory i. the glory of the past, and the typhoid levers that sweep its coast anC the clouds of locusts that often blacker its skies, (though S20O, 1000 were ex pended by the British empire in ont year for the extirpation of these nox. ious insects, yet failing to do tn, work and the frequent change o. governmental masters: flinders pros perity. But when the islands of the sea come to God, Cyprus will com'
 with them, and the agricultural anl commercial opulence which adorned it in ages past will be eclipsed by tn, agricultural and commercial and re ligious triumphs of the ages to come Why is the world so stupid that i
 cannot see that nations are prosperet
 in temporal things in proportion a
 they are prospered in religious things
 The Christian religion triumphant. al l other interests triumphant The Chris
 tian religion low down, all other inter ests low down. So l thought as ol
 the evening of that day we steppe, | from the filthy streets of Larnaca | Cyprus, on to the boat that took u
 back to the steamer Minerva whicl
 had already begun to paw the wave | like a courser inpatient to be gone and then we moved on and up anon,
 the islands of this Gospel Archipelago Night came down on land and SC and the voyage became to me more an
 more suggestive and solemn. If yo
 are pacing it alone, ships deck il the darkness and at sea is weir 1 place, and an active imagination ma
 conjure up almost any saape he wi
 and it shall walk the sea or confron
 him by the smokestack, or meet hir
 under the captains bridge. But her
 I was alone on ships deck in the Go' pei Archipelago and do you wonde
 that the sea was populous with th
 past and that down the ratlines bibl
 memories descended? Our friend
 had all gone to their berths." Captain,
 l said, ''when will we arrive at u