Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-13

on deck, for must see Rhodes, one Of
tho 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 i'll
Heaven when the world has become q
charrcd wreck.
This island has had a wonderful his
tory. With 5000 knights Of st. John. il
at one time stood out against 100000
warriors under "Solyman tho Magniii-
cent" The city had 3, ZOO statues, and a
statue to Apollo called Colossus, which
has always since been considered one OF
the seven wonders of the world. 1t was
twelve years in building and was seventy
cubits high, and had winding stairs to
the top. 1t stood tifty-siX years. and then
was Frustrated by an earthquake. After
lying in ruins for 800 years, it was pur-
chased to be converted to other pur-
poses. aud the metal, weighing 72O, 900
pounds, was put on 900 camclS and car
rcd 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 come out to take freight
and to bring three passengers. Yet all
the thousands of years of its history are
Paul stopped there.
Bus there is one island that 1 longcd
to sen more than any other. / can afford
but ! must sec the king of the archipei-
ago. The one longed to see is not so
many miles in circumference as Cyprus
or Crete or Paros or Naxos or Scio or
Mitylcnc, but / had rather, in this sail
through the Grecian archipelago, soc
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 feel my
pulses quicken. II, John, was on the
island that is called Patmos" IL is o
pile ct rocks twcnty-eight miles in cir
conference. "A few Expresses and inferior
olives pump IL living out OF the earth, and
ono palm tree spreads its foliage. But
the narrcnncss and gloom and loneliness
of the island made it prison for the
banished evangelist
and one day, under armed guard, that
minister of the Gospel stepped from a
tossing boat TO these dismal rocks and
walked up to the dismal cavern that was
to b. his home and the place where
should pass before him all the conflicts
of coming time and all the raptures of a
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
Milton banishcd into blindness; Bectho-
ven banishcd into Deafness; Dante writ
ing his ''Divina Comcdia" during nine
teen years of Punishment from his native
land; Victor Hugo writing his Lies Mis-
cradles" exiled from home and country
ou the island OF Guernsey, and the bright
est visions Of the future have been given
t. those who by sickness or sorrow were
eXiled from the outer world into rooms
Gf suffering Only those who have been
imprisoned by very hard surroundings
Lavc had great revelations made to them.
So Patmos, wild, chill, and bleak and
terrible was the best island in all the
archipelago, the best place in all the
earth for divine revelations. Before a
panorama can be successfully seen, the
room In which you sit FAUST be darkcncd,
and in the presence of .lOhn was to pass
such d panorama as no man ever before
saw or ever will see in this world, and
hence the gloom of his surroundings was
help rather than hindrance. All the
surroundings Of the place affected St.
Johns imagery when he speaks OF
Heaven. St. John, hungry from en-
forced abstinence, or having no food ex
cept that at which his appetite revclted
thinks of Heaven: aud as the famlshed
man is apt to dream of bonntiful tables
covered with luXurics, so st. John says
of the inhabitants of Heaven, ''They
shall hunger no more" Scarcity oil
fresh water OH Patmos and the no,
tongue Of st. Johns thirst leads them tc
| admire Heaven as he says, They shall
thirst no more"
| ST. John hears the waves of the sea
wildly dashing against the rocks, ant
each wave has u voice, and all tbs, wave!
together make q chorus, and they re
mind him of the multtudinous anthem:
of Heaven, and he saws, "rhey arc Xix.
voice of many waters" One day, as ht
looked off upon the sea, the waters wer,
very smooth, as 1t is To-day while VIC sal
them in the Minerva. and they were lik'
glass, and the sunlight seemed to Sc
them on fire, and there was minglin;
OF white light and intense flame, and a.
st. John looked out from his cavern
home upon that brilliant sea he though
of the splendors of Heaven and de
scribes them "As a sea of glass mingle,
with fire." Yes, seated in the darl
cavern OF Fatmos, though homesick an,
hungry and loaded with Domitian'
anathemas, st. John was the mos
fortunate man, on earth because of tn,
panorama that passed before the moutl
of that cavern.
Turn down all the lights that we ma
better see it. The panorama passes, an,
10! the conQuering Christ robed, grdled
armed, the fash of golden candlestick
and seven stars IN His right hand
candieStcks and stars meaning ligh
held up and light scattered. And ther
passes throne and Christ on it, and u,
seals broken, and the woes sounded, an
a dragon slain, and seven last plague
swoop, and seven walls are poured GU,
and the vision vanishes. And we halt
moment to rest from the exciting spec
tacIe. Again the panorama moves O
before the cavern of Patmos, and job
the exile sees great city representa-
all denominations, Babylon lowered
palaced, tempted, fountained. foliaged
sculptured, hanging gardens, suddenl
going crash! crash! and the pipers ceas
to pipe, and the trumpets cease t
trumpet, and the dust and the smoke
md the horror flll tho canvas vLil