The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-10-26
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "HaIf a Planet"


So God said to Moses in Bible times, ani
SC He said to Cristoforo Colombo, the son OF
q wool comber Of Genoa, more than Iour
hundred years ago. The Nations had been
looking chiefly towarl the east
But while Columbus. as his name was
called after it was Latinized, stood studying
maps and examining globes and reading cos
biography, God said tn him, "Lift up THINE
eyes toward the west" The fact was it must
have seemed to Columbus very lopsided
worli-like a cart with one Wheel like a
side of camel, needing a sack on the other
side to balance it. Here was bride OF the
world with no bridegroom.
do not wonder that Columbus was not
satisfied with half world, and so went to
work to find the other half The pieces Of
carved wood that were floated to the shores
of Europe by westerly gale. and two dead
human faces unlike anything he had seen
before, likewise hoated from the west, were
to him the voice Of God saying, "Lut up
thine eyes toward the west"
| Old navigators said to young Columbus
SIT can't be done" The republic of Genoa
said, at can't be done" Alphonso V. said,
SIT can't be DONE" A comm ttee on mari
time affairs, to whom the subject was SUBJ
mitted, declared, "1t can't be done" Eene-
tiaus said, 1T can't be done" After awhile
the story OF this poor hut ambitious Column
hus reaches the ear of Queen Isabella, and
she pays eighty dollars to buy him decent
suit of clothes, so that he may be ht to ap-
pear before loyalty.
The interview in the palace was success
full. Money enough was borrowed to fit out
the expedition There they are. the three
ships, in the Gulf Of Cadiz. Spain. If you
ask me which have been the most famous
boats of the world. I would, say, first Noan's
ship. that wharfed on Mount Ararat: Sec
ond, the boat Of bulrushes, in which Moses
Aoa1ed the Nile: third, the Mayaower, that
put out from Plymouth with the fllgrlm
Fathers, and now these three vessels that on
this che Friday morning, August g. l4s2, are
rocking on the ripples.
There is the Santa Maria, only ninety feet
long, with four masts and eight anchors.
The captain walking the deck is ffty-seven
years old. his hair white, for at thlrtY-hVe
he was gray, and his face is round, his nose
aquiline and his stature little taller than
the average.
There are two doctors in this feet OF ships
and a few landsmen, adventurers who are
ready to risk their necks in wild expe.
ditiou. There are enough provisions for a
year. Captain Columbus, where are you
sailing for?' II do not know" 'Howlong
before you will get thereY II cannot say"
'sAli ashore that are going" Is heard, and
those who wish to remain SO tdthe land.
For sixteen days the wind is dead east,
and that pleases the captain because 1t blows
them farther and farther away from the
European coast and farther on toward the
shore Of another country, if there IS any.
To add interest to the voyage on the
twentieth day out a violent storm sweeps
the sea, and the Atlantic ocean trIes what 1t
can do with the Santa Maria, the Pinta and
the Nina. The mutinous crew would have
killed Columbus had it not been for the gem
eral opinion on shipboard that he was the
only one that could take them back home In
safety.
The promise of silk waistcoat and forty
dollars in money to the man who should first
discover land appeased them somewhat, but
the indignation and blasphemy and threats
of ASSASSINATION must have been awful.
On Friday morning at o'clock, just long
enough sfter Thursday to make it sure that
it was Friday, and so give another blow at
the worlds idea Of unlucky days-on Fri
day morning. October II, 1493, gun from
the Pinta signaled "land ahead ;" Then the
ships lay to and the boats were lowered, and
CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER Columbus first stepped
upon the shore amid the song Of birds and
the air a surge Of redolence and took pos
session in the name of the Father, and the
Son and the Holy Ghost.
81 the voyage that began with the sacra-
meut ended with 'Gloria in E1celss Dso."
From, that day onward you say there can
be nothing for Columbus but hoqors, re-
wards, raphsodies, palaces and world wide
applause. No! no! On his way back to
Spain the snip was 50 wrenched by the
tempest and so threatened with destruction
that he wrote brief account OF his discov-
ery and put it in a cask and threw it over
board that the world might not lose the ad-
vantage Of his adventures. Honors awaited
him on the beach, Sat he undertook a second
voyage. and with it came all maligning and
persecution and denunciation and poverty.
He was called land grabber. liar, d
cheat, q fraud, a deceiver of Nations.
SPECTATORS robbed him of his good name.
courtiers deprecated his discoveries. and
there came to him ruined health and i'm.
prisonment and chains, Of which he said
while he ratified them on his wrists II
will wear them as memento Of the grati-
tude of princes Amid keen appreciation
Of the worlds abuse and cruelty, and with
body writhing in the tortures of gout, he
tuas Domino commendo spiritum meum'
Into Thy hands, o Lord, I commend my
spirit"
OF course he had regal obsequies. That is
the way the world tries to atone for its
mean treatment of great benefactors. First
buriel in the church of Santa Maria Seven
wears afterward removed to Seville. Twea.
fv-three years afterward removed to San
Domingo. Finally removed to Cuba. FoU
postnortem journeys from sepulcher To
sepulcber.
What most impresses me in all that
woncrous life. which for the next twelve
months we will be commemorating by ser.
mon and song and military parade and
80, Nations :
something 1 have never heard stated, and
that is that the discovery OF America was d
religious discovery and in the name o
Goo. Columbus by the study of the propb
ecies. anu oy what ZecnarIan ana MICAH rand
David and Isiah had said about the lends OF
the earth" was persuaded to 60 out and find
the lends of the EARTH" and he felt himself
called by God to carry Christianity to ths
lends or the EARTH"
Atheism has no right here: infdelity has
no right here; vagabondism has no right
here. And as God is not apt to fail in any
of His undertakings lat any rate have never
failure), America is going to be Gospelizsj,
and from the Golden Gate Of Cair
fornia to the Narrows OF New York harbor
and from the top Of North America to the
foot Of South America, from Bering strait:
to Cape Horn, this is going to be lmmanus'E
land.
A divine influence will yet sweep the con-
tinent that will make iniquity drop like
Stacked lime, and make the most blatant in
fidelity declare it was only joSing when il
said the Bible was not true, and the worst
atheism announce that it always did be-
Geve in the God Of Nations.
1t would not do for our world in its lost
and ruined state to have communication
with other worlds. 1t would spoil their
morals. But wait until this world is fully
redeemed, as it will be, and then perhaps
interstellar correspondence may be opened.