St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-01-09

world ever saw Or ever will ses Paul
landed there, and that was enough to make
1t famous while the world stands and ia
nous in heaven when the world has become
charred wreck.
This island has had wonderful history
With six thousand Knights of ST. John, it at
one time stood out against two hundred
thousand warriors under 'Solyman the
Magnificent" The city had three thousand
| statues. and a statue to Apollo called Co.
lossus, which has always since been con-
sidered one of the seven wonders Of the
world. 1t was twelve years in building and
| was seventy cubits high, ana ha a winding
stairs to the top. 1t stood fifty-six years
and then was FRUSTRATED by an earthquake.
After lying in ruins for nine hundred years,
it was purchased to be converted to other
purposes, aud the metal, weighing seven
hundred and twenty thousand pounds, was
| put on nine hundred camels and carried
away. We were not permitted to 60 ashore,
but the lights allup and down the hills show
where the city stands, and nine boats come
out to take freight and to bring three pas
| sengers. Yet all the thousands of years of
its history are eclipsed by the few hours or
days that Paul stopped there.
| AS stood there on the deck Of the Min
| erva, looking out upon the place where the
Colossus once stood, bethought myself of
the fact that the world must have a God OF
some kind. 1t is to me an infinite pathos-
colossi in many parts of the earth. This is
| only the worlds blind reaching up and feel
| ing after God Foundered human nature
| must have a supernatural arm to help it
| ashore. All the statues and images OF heath
| endom are attempts to bring celestial forces
| down into human affairs. Blessed b our
ears that we have heard OF an ever present
| God, and that throu ID Jesus Christ He comes
! into our hearts and our homes, and with
| more than fatherly and motherly interest
and affection He is with us in all our strug-
| giles and bereavements and vicisstuieS
| Rhodes needs something higher than the
Colossus, and the day will come when the
Christ, whom Paul was serving when he
sailed into the harbor OF Rhodes, shall take
possession of that island.
As we move on up through this archi-
pelago, | am reminded of what an important
part the islands have taken in the history of
the world. They are necessary to the
balancing of the planet. The two hemis-
pheres must have them. As you put down
upon scale the heavy pound weights, and
then the small ouuces-and no one thinks of
despising the small weights-so the con-
tinents are the pounds and the islands are
the ounces. A continent is only a larger
island, aud an island only smaller CONT
nent. Something Of what part thu islands
have taken in the worlds history you will see
when I remind you that the Island of Salamis
produced S3lon and that the Island Of Chios
produced Homer, and the Island OF Samos
produced Pythagoras and the Island Of Coos
produced Hippocrates.
But there is one island that longed to see
mora than any other [ can afford to miss
the princes among the islands, but [ must see
the king of the archipelago. The one longed
to sea is not SO many miles in circumference
as Cyprus or Crete or Paros or Naxos or
Sco or Mitylene, but had rather, in this
sail through the Grecian archipelago, 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 1t / feel my
pulses quicken. II, John, was in the island
that is called Patmos." 1t is pile of rocks
twenty-eight miles in circumference. A few
expresses and inferior olives pump a living
out of the earth, and one palm tree spreads
its foliage. But tue 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 min
lister of the Gospel stepped from tossing
boat to these dismal rocks and walked up to
the dismal cavern which was to be MS home
and the place where should pass before him
all the conflicts OF coming time and all the
raptures of coming eternity. Is it not re-
rnarkable that nearly all the great revela-
tions of music and poetry and religion have
been made to men in banishment-Homer
and Milton banished into blindness; Beeth-
oven banishei into deafness: Dante writing
bis "Divina Commedia" during the nineteen
wears Of Punishment from his native land;
Victor Hugo writing his lies Miserables'
exi!ed from home and country on the island
of Guernsey and tde brightest visions OF
the future have been given to those who by
sickness or sorrow were exlled from the
outer world into rooms of suffering. Only
those who have been imprisoned by very
hard surroundings have had great reveal
tons made to them.
So Patmos, wild, chill and bleak and ter
rible was the best island in all the archi-
pelago, the best place in oil the earth for
divine revelations. Before panorama can
be successfully seen, the room in which you
sit must be darkened, and in the presence of
John was to pass SUCH panorama as no
man ever before saw or ever will sea in this
world, and hence the gloom of his Surround
ings was help rather than an hindrance.
All the surroundings of the place affected
ST. Johns imagery when he speaks OF
heaven. st. John, hungry from enforced
abstinence, or having no food except that at
which his appetite revolted, thinks OF
heaven; and as the famished man Is apt to
dream of Doubtful tables covered with
Injuries. SO st John says of the inhabitants
of heaven They shall hunger no more"
Scarcity of fresh water on Patmos and the
hot -tancue 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 voice. and all the waves together make
chorus and they remind him of the multi
tudinous anthems of heaven, and he says
"They are like the voice of many waters"
One day, as he looked off upon the sea, the
waters were very smooth, as it is to-day
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 out from his cavern home upon
that brilliant ssa he thought of the splendors
of heaven and describes them ''As sea of
glass mingled with fire" Yes, seated in the
dark cavern Of Patmos though homesick and
hungry and loaded with Domitian's anathe
mas, St John was the most fortunate man
on earth because Of the panorama that
passed before the mouth of that cavern.
Turn down all the lights that we may bet
ter see it. The panorama passes, and lol the
conquering Christ, robed, girdled, armed, the
fash of golden candlesticks and seven stars
in His right hand, candlesticks and stars
meaning light held up and light scattered.
And there passes throne and Christ on it,
and the seals broken, and the woes sounded,
and dragon slain, and seven last plaques
swoop, and seven walls are poured out, and
the vision vanishes. And we halt moment
to rest from the exciting spectacle. Again
the panorama moves on before the cavern Of
Patmos, and John the exile sees great city |
representing all denominations, Babylon tow
cred. palaced tempted. fountained. foliaged. |
sculptured, hanging gardens, suddenly going
crash! crash! and the pipers cease to pipe,
and the trumpets cease to trumpet, and the
dust, and the SMOKE and the horror fill the |
canvas, while from above and beneath are
voices announcing. Babylon is fallen, is
And we halt again to rest from the
spectacle.
Again the panorama passes before Che |
cavern of Patmos, and John the exile sees
mounted Christ on snow white charger |
leading forth the cavalry of heaven. the long
line of white chargers galloping through the. |