Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-09
AN ISLE OF VISIONS.
Where the Lord Dictated to John the
Book of Revelation.
THE ARCHIPELAGO OF THE GOSPEL.
lev. Or. Talmage Describes His Visit to
Cyprus and Patmos.
TIE STIRRING STORY OF THE FIRST

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,
BROOKLYN, Nov. S.-Dr. Talmage is still
preaching on what he saw, confirmatory of
Scriptures, during his tour from the Pvra-
mids to the Acropolis. This mornings SER
mon, the fourth of the series, was on the
Islands of the Greek Archipelago. The
Doctor took two texts: Acts xxi:3 ssWhen
we had discovered Cyprus we left it on the
left hand;" and Revelation 10, 81, John,
was in the isle that is called Pat
mos"
Goodby, Egypt! Although interesting
and instructive beyond any country in all
the world, excepting the Holy Land, Egypt
was to me somewhat depressing. 1t was a
post-mortem examination of cities that died
1000 years ago
The Sphinx also was to me a stern mon-
strOsity, statute carved out of rock of red
granite 62 feet high and about 143 feet long
and having the head of a man and the body
Of lion. We sat down in the sand of the
African desert to study it. With cold
smile it has looked down upon thousands of
years of earthly history.
Egypt viii Have Another Moses.
But Egypt will yet come upto the glow of
Of life. The Bible promises it. The miss
ionaries like my friend, good and great Doc
tor Lansing, are sounding resurrection
trumpet above those slain empires. There
will be some other Joseph at Memphis
There will be some other Moses on the
banks Of the Nile. Goodby, Egypt! This
sermon finds us on the steamer Minerva in
the Grecian Archipelago, the island of the
New Testament, and islands Paulinian and
Johannian in their reminiscence. What
Bradshaw's directory is to travellers in Eu-
rope, and what the railroad guide is to
travellers in America, the Book of the Acts
in the Bible is to voyagers in the Grecian,
or as l shall call it, the Gospel Archipelago.
The Biple geography of that region is ac-
curate. Without shadow of mistake.
We are sailing this morning on the same
waters that Paul sailed but in the opposite
direction to that which Paul voyaged He
was sailing Southwark 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. NY text says that Paul left
Cyprus on the left; we going in the opposite
direction, have it on the right.
Ministers, Too, Are Human.
When at Antioch Paul and Barnabas got
into ight-as ministers sometimes did,
and sometimes do, for they all have i'm
perfections enough to anchor them to this
world till their work is done, 1 say-when
because of that bitter controversy Paul and
Barnabas parted, Barnabas came back here
TO Cyprus which was his birthplace Island
wonderful for history! 1t has been the
prize sometime won bv Persia, BY Greece,
by Egypt, by the Saracens, by the Crusaders,
and last of all, not by sword but by pen, and
that the pen of the keenest diplomatist of
the century, Lord Beaconsfield.
That island of Cyprus has enough to set
an antiquarian wild. The most of its glory
is the glory of the past, and the typhoid
fevers that swept its coast and the clouds of
locustS that often blacken its skies (though
$500, 900 were expended BY the British EN-
pire in one year for the extirpation of these
noxious insects, yet failing to do the work.
aud tie frequent changes of governmental
masters, hinder prosperity.
But when the islands of the sea come to
God, Cyprus will come with them. Why |
is the world so stupid that it cannot see that |
nations are prospered in temporal things in
proportion as they are prospered in religious
things
Great Praise for Brooklyn.
Why is Brooklyn one of the queen cities
of the earth? Because it is the queen CITY
of churches. Blindfold me and lead me
into any CITY Of the earth SO that i cannot
see street or warehouse or a home and
then lead me into the churches and then re-
move the banGage from nv ewes and 1 will |
tell YOU from what / see inside the conse- |
Grated walls, having seen nothing outside, |
what is that city's merchandise, its litera- |
ture, its schools, its printing presses, its |
government, its homes, It's arts its sciences, |
e. ,-1+
ance, ard pauperism, and outlawry. The |
altar of God in the church is the high-water |
mark of the worlds happiness.
But here l was alone on ships deck in |
the Gospel Archipelago and do YOU wonder |
that the sea was populous with the past and |
that down the ratlines Bible memories de- |
scendcd? Our friends had all gone to their /
berthS
Captain said 1. ''when will we arrive |
at the Island of Rhodes?"
Looking out from under his glazed cap |
he responded in sepulchral voice: about |
midnight" Though it would be keeping |
unreasonable hours, concluded to stay on |
deck, for l must see Rhodes, one of the !
islands associated with the name of the /
greatest missionary the world ever saw or
ever will see.
An Island With History.
This island has a wonderful history With
5000 knights OF ST. John it at one time
stood out against 100000 warriors under
''Solyman the Magnificent The CITY
had 5000 statues, and statue to Apollo
called COLOSSUS, which has ALWAYS since
been considered one of the seven wonders
of the world.
1t is to me an infinite pathos-this Colos-
sus not only of Rhodes, but the colossi in
many parts of the earth. This is only the
worlds blind reaching up and feeling after
God. Foundered human nature must have
q supernatural arm to help it ashore. All
the statues and images of heathendom 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 affec-
tion he is with us in all our struggles and
bereavementS and vicissitudes.
As we move on up through this Archi-
pelaSo, L am reminded of what an import
ant part the islands have taken in the his
tory Of the world. They are necessary to
the balancing of the planet. The two hem
ispheres must have them.
The King of the Archipelago.
But there is one island that L lonced to
see more than any other. j can afford to
miss the princes among the islands, but I
must see the king of the Archipelago The
one / longed TO see is not so many miles in
as Cyprus or Crete or Paros
or NaXos or Scio or Mitylene, but had
rather, in this sail through the Grecian
see that than all the others:
Tor ulOrp of the ploriee of heaven londaj |