The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-10-11

FRIDAY ana so give announcer DloW az .io
worlds idea of unlucky days-on. Friday
morning, October II, 1892, gun from the
Pinta signalled LAND Ahead Then the
ships lay to, and the boats were lowered,
and Captain Christopher Columbus hrst
stepped upon the shore, amid the song OF
birds and the air surge of redolence, anu
took possession in the name OF the Eather
and the Son and the Holy Ghost. SO the
voyage that began with the sacrament ended
with Gloria in Excelsis Dec. From tnat
day onward, you say there can be hothlhS
for Columbus but honors. rewards, rhap-
sodies. palaces and worldwide applause.
No, no! On his way back to Spain the snip
was SO wrenched by the tempest anc so
threTtened with destruction that he wrote
a brief account Of his discovery and put 1t
in a cask and threw it overheard, that the
world might not lose the advantage OF ms
adventures. Honors awaited him on the
beach, but he undertook Il second voyage
and with it came all maligning and persc-
t.utiOn and denunciatiOn and poverty. lie
was called a land-grabber, a liar, cheat.
a fraud. a deceiver of nations. Spectators
robbed him of his good name, courtiers de-
preciatcd his discoveries, and there came
to him ruined health and imprisonment and
chains, of which he said while he ratified
them on his wrists: Il will wear them as q
memento of the gratitude of princes;
Amid keen appreciation OF the world
abuse and cruelty, and with his body writh-
Wv
his last words: In manus tuas Domino COM
mcndo spiritum meum;" Into thy hands,
Oh, Lord, l commend my spirit
OF course he had legal obscquies. That
is the way the world tries to atone for its
mean treatment of great bcnefactors.
Many man has had tine 1ide to his
grave who during this life had TO walk
all the way. A big funeral. and instead
of bread they gave him a stone, that is
n tomb stone. But death that brings quiet
to the body of others did not bling quiet
to his. First buried in the church OF Santa
Maria. Seven years after removed TO
Seville Twenty-three years afterward re-
moved to San Domingo. Finally removed
to Cuba. -Four pOstmortem journeys from
sepulchre to sepulchre. | wish his bones
might be moved just once mo1a, ana now
that they come so near to America as Cuba,
they might during the great Columbian
year be transported to our own shores
where they belong. and chat in the fifth
century after his dcceaSe the American con-
tinent might be built a maussolcum worthy
of him who picked this jewel of the hem
isphcre out of the sea and set 1t IN the
crown of the worlds geography.
But the bright MONDAY sun OF that Old
sailors prosperity went down Ill thlckcSt
night. and though here and there monu-
mcnt has been lifted i'll his memory, and
here and there city called after him, the
continent that he was the means OF found-
.'iAN'
no fitting commemoration of his work has
been proposed until nearly foir hundred
years after his body turned TO dust. May
the imposing demonstration now being MADE
i'm his honor on the Atlantic coast, ana 10
be made next year III his honor mld-cohti
npnt, be brilliant enough aud 1ar-resound-
ing enough and Christian enough and mag
niticent enough to atone for the neglect
of centuries May the good Lord allow
that most ilustrious sailor of all times to
look over the amethystine battlements
long enough TO see some of the Sarla1idS
wren thed around his name and hear some
thing of the hemisphere shout that small
greet his memory.
What most impreSses me in all that
wonsierous life which, for the next twelve
months, we will be comm 'moratng by
sermon and song and military parade and
something that have never heard stated
and that is. that the discovery of America
was a religious discovery and in the name
of God. Columbus. by the studies OF the
prophecies aud by what Iccharah and
Micah and David and Isaiah had said
persuaded to go out, and find the
ends of the earth and he felt
himself called by God to carry ChllStlanity
to the END of the earth. Then, the ad-
ministration of the last supper before the!
left the Gulf of Cadiz, and the evening
PRAYER during the voyage, and the devont
Inscription as soon as they saw tne
new world, and the doxologles with
which they landed. confirms me in saying
that the discovery of America was re-
licious discovery. Atheism mas no Tish'
here: indefinitely has no right here; vaga-
bondism has no right here. And as God
is not apt to fail in any of his undertakings
lat any rate | have never heard OF his nav
ing anything.to do with failure). America
is going to be gospelized, and from
Val,
the the narrows of New York Harbor.
and from the top of North America
TO the foot of South America from Behr-
inc straits to Cape Horn, this is goig TO be
Immanuers Land. All the forms of II,
religion and abOminaton that have cursed
other parts of the world VIII land here
yea. they have already landed-and they
will wrangle for the possession of this hemls
phere, and they will make great headWay
and feed themselves alnott established
But God will not forget the prophecies
which encouraged Columbus about the
God" nor the Christian anthem which
Columbus led on the morning OF the I'm
of October. 1892, on the coast Of San Sal
vodor Like that flock of land birds which
met the Santa Maria and She Pinta and the
Nina far ont at sea, indicating TO the com
manders of that fleet that they We're APP
preaching some country. so whole flock
of promises and hopes, golden-Wlnged ana
sonrful. this morning alight around MS,
assuring MS that We are approaching the
glorious period of America evangelization.
A Divine influence will yet sweep the CONT
nant that will make iniduity drop like
Stacked lime and make the most blatent
infidelity declare it was only joking when
it said the Bible was not true. and the worst
atheism announce that it always did be-
leve in the God of Nations. Let others
call for Requiem and Dead March. | call
for George Frederick 1andcl's Ilalleluiah
chorus There has been much talk of late
Mars has come so near we can see it's
canals, and it has been hoped that by sig
nails after a while we may communicate
with other stars. All. that will not be pos
sible until our world has been reformed and
evangelical. 1t would not do for our world
in its lost and ruined state to have cOmm,l-
ncation 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. Till then. this smitten and sickened
world of ours must be quarantined from
coming too near the mfallen worlds. But
thank God. the prophecies which cheered
Columbus in his great undertaking cheer
us. America for God. Yea the round
world for God. There can be no doubt
about it.
That great Itolian navigator also i'm
presses me with the idea that when one does
a good thing. he cannot appreciate it's rami-
ficationS. TO the moment of his death
Columbus never knew that he had discover
ed america. but thought that Cuba was a