The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-11-12
The Tabernacle Pulpit
IContinued FROM First Page. !

paInos - TINS Colossus not only Of
Rhodes. but the colossi in many parts
of the earth. This il only the worlds
blind reaching up and feeling after
God. Foundered human nature must
have O supernatural arm to help ii
ashore. All tie statues and images OF
heathendoin are attempts TO bring celes.
tial forces down into human affairs.
Blessed be our cars that we have
heard of an ever present God, and
that through Jesus Christ lie come.
into our hearts and our homes, and
with more than fathcrly and motherly
interest and affection lie Is with US In
oil our struggles and bcreavements and
vicissitudes Rhodes needs something
higher than the Colossus, ana the day
will come when the Christ, whom Paul
was serving when he sailed into this
harbor of Rhodes, shall take possession
of that island
IMPORTANCE or ISLANDS.
AS we move on up through this
archipelago 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 hemispheres must have them.
AS you put down upon scale the
heavy pound weights, and then the
small ounces, and no one thinks Of de-
spising the small weights, SO the cont
nents are the pounds and the islands
are the ounces. A continent is only a
larger island, and an island only a
smaller continent. Something OF what
part the islands have taken In the
worlds history you will see when re-
mind you that the island of Salamis
produced Scion, and that the island OF
Chios produced Homer, and the island
Of Samos produced Pythagoras, and
the island of Coos produced Hippo
rates.
But there Is one island that longed
to see more than any other. can af-
ford to miss the princes among the
islands, but 1 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 archi
pelago see that than all the others, TO,
more Of the glories of heaven landed
there than on all the islands and cont
nents since the world stood AS We
como toward it feel my pulses quicken
nI, John, was In the island that /.
called Patmos" ~
It Is piles of rocks twenty-eight
miles In circumference. A few Expresses
and inferior olives pump living out
OF the earth, and one palm tree spreads
It's foliage, But the barrenness ant
gloom and loneliness of the island made
1t o prison for the banished evangelist
Domltian could not stand his ministry
and one day, under armed guard, tina
minister of the Gospel stepped from 1
tossing boat to these dismal rocks ant
walked up to the dismal cavern which
was to be his home and the place
where should pass before him oil tn,
conflicts of coming time and all tn
raptures of q coming eternity.
Is it not remarkable that nearly al
the great revelations of music and pc
etry and religion have been made t.
men in observation-disclosures and Nil
ton banished into blindness; Beethovel
banished into deafness; Dante writin
his "Divina Commedia" during tn
nineteen years of Punishment from hi
native land Victor Hugo writing hi
Lies Miserables" exiled from home an
country on the island of Guernsey, an
the brightest visions Of the future hav
been given to those who by sickness {
sorrow were exiled from the outt
world into rooms of suffering. On]
those who have been imprisoned b
very hard surroundings have had gres
revelations made to them.
So Patmos, wild, chill and blea
and terrible, was the best island In a
the archipelago, the best place in a
the earth for divine revelations. B
fore q panorama can be successful
seen, the room in which you sit must
darkened, and in the presence of job
was to pass such q panorama as I
man ever before saw or ever will see
this world, and hence the gloom of b
surroundings was a help rather than
hindrance.
All the surroundings Of the place {
fected st. Johns imagery when
speaks of heaven. st. John, hung
from enforced abstinence, or having
food except that at which his appeti
revolted, thinks of heaven, and as t
famished man is apt to dream of bou
tiful tables covered with luxuries, SO
John says of the inhabitants of heave
'They shall hunger no more" Scarci
of fresh water ON Patmos and the Il
tongue of st. Johns thirst leads him
admire heaven as he says, They sh
thirst no more" st. John hears t
waves of the sea wildly dashlng agair
. the rocks, and each wave has a voit
and all the waves together make
chorus, and they remind him of {
nultitudinous anthems of heaven, a
he says, They are like the voice
many waters"
One day, as he looked off upon
sea, the waters were very smooth, a!
u today while we sail them in the NJ
erva, and they were like glass, a
the sunlight seemed to set them on ii
and there was q mingling of white Lis
and intense flame, and as St 10
looked out from his cavern home up
that brilliant sea, he thought of
splendors Of heaven and describes tn
"As q SEQ Of glass mingled with flr
Yes, seated in tho dark cavern OF P
mos, though homesick and hungry a
loaded with Domitian's anathemas,
John was the most fortunate man
earth because of the panorama Il
passed before the mouth Of that cave
LET Us VIEW THE PANORAMA.
Turn down ali the lights that
may better see It. The panoral