Sharp County record., 1891-11-26

lAAA AAl- so VI AlAA-A1AA- nm ---H
smOkestack. OF meet him unde; the
captains bridge. But hero l was
alone on ships deck in the
Gospel archipelago and you Won
der that the sea was pOpulOus with
the past and that down the ratlines
Bible memories descended? Our friends
had all gone to their berths- Cap
tain I said, when will you arrive at
the island Of Rhodes?H Looking out
from under his glazed cap, he re-
spOnded in a sepulchral voice: About
midnight Though it would be keep
ing unreasonable hours, I concluded TO
stay on deck, for I must see Rhodes
one Of the islands associated with the
name Of the greatest missionary the
world ever saw or ever will see. Paul
landed there, and that was enough to
make it famous while the world stands
and famous in Heaven when the world
has become a charred wreck
Bat there is one island that lOnged
10 See more than any other. I can af-
ford 10 miss the princes among the IS
lands, 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 Naxon,
or SciO, or Mityleu, but I had rather,
in this sail through the Grecian archi-
pelsgO, see that than all the others;
for more Of the glOries of Heaven
landed there than on all the islands
and continents since the world stood
As we come toward it l feel my pulses
quicken. Il, John, was in the island
that is called Patmos" 1t is a pile Of
rocks twenty-eight miles in circum-
ference A few expresses and interior
olives pump living out Of
the earth, and one palm tree
spreads it's 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 minister 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 Z coming
eternity. Is it not remarkable that
nearly all the great revelations Of music
and poetry and religion have been made
to men in observation-disclosures and Mil
ton banished into blindness; Beethoven
banished into deafness; Dante writ
ing his "Divina COmmedian dur
ing the nineteen years Of banishment
from his native land; Victor Hugo writ
ing his Les MiserabEes" exiled from
home and country on the island Of
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 revelations made 70 them. So
Patmos, wild, chill and bleak and ter
rible, was the best island in all the
archipelago, the best place in all the
earth for Divine revelations. Before a
panorama can be succezgshaliy seen the
room in which you sit hust be dark
ened, and in the presence Of John
was TO pass such panorama
as no man ever before saw or ever
will see in this world.p and hence
the gloom Of his surroundings was a
help rather than hinderance. All the
surroundings of the place effected st.
Johns imagery when he speaks of
Heaven. St. John, hungry from en-
forced abstinence, or having no food
except that at which his appetite re-
volted, thinks of Heaven: and as the
famshed man is to dream of bountiful
tables covered with Injuries, so st.
John says of the inhabitants of Heaven:
They shell hunger no more" Scarcity
Of water on Patmos and the hot tongue
of st. Johns thirst leads him to admire
Heaven as he says; They shall thirst
no more" St. John hears the waves
of the sea wildly dashing against the
rocks, and each wave has a voice
and all the waves together make
n chorus, and they remind him
OF the muliiiuoinOus anthems of
Heaven, and be says: "They
are Ike the voice Of many waters"
One day, as be looked off upon the sea,
the waters were very smooth, as it is
to-dsy while we sail them in the
Minerva and they were like glass and
the sunlight seemed TO set them on fire,
and there was mingling of white light
and Intense fame. and as st. John
looked ou, from bis cavern home upon
that brilliant sea, he thought Of the
spleDdOrs Of Heaven, and describes
them "As sea of glass mingled with
fire Yes, seated in the dark cavern
Of Patmos, though homesiclS and hungry
aud loaded with Domitian's an0thcmas
ST. John was the most fortunate man
on earth because Of the panorama that
passed before the mouth OF that cavern.
Turn down all tho lights that we may
better see IT, The panorama passes,
and lol the conqucring Christ, robcd,
girdled, armed, the fash Of golden can.
dlcsticks and seven stars In His right
hand, condlcsticks and stars meaning
light held up, and light scattered. And
there passes n throne and Chst on H.
and the seals broken, and the wocq
sounded and dagon slain. and seven