The Opelousas courier., 1892-12-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
lHE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON

deuteronomy IL, ~.
So God said to Moses in Bible times, and
sc He said to Cristoforo Colombo, the son of
a wool comher of Genoa, more than four
hundred years ago. The Nations had been
looking chiefly toward 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 to him, Lift up thine
eyes toward the west" The fact was it must
have seemed to Columbus a very lopsided
world-like a cart with one wheel, like a
scissors with one blade, like a sack on one
side OF a camel, needing a sack OF the other
side to balance it. Here was a bride Of the
world with no bridegroom.
l do not wonder that Columbus was not
satisfied with half a world, and so went to
work to find the other half. The pieces of
carved wood that were foatei to the shores
OF Europe by a westerly gale, and two dead
human faces, unlike anything he had seen
before, likewise floated from the west, were
to him the voice of God saying, Lift up
thine eyes toward the west.''
Old navigators said to young Columbus.
ut can't be done" The republic of Genoa
said, ut can't be done" Alphonso V. said,
lit can't be done" A comm;tte on mari
time affairs, to whom the subject was sub
mitted, declared, at can't be done" Vene-
tlans said, 1T can't be done After awhile
the story of this poor but ambitious Column
bus reaches the ear of Queen Isabella, and
she pays eighty dollars to buy him a decent
suit of clothes, so that he may be fit 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, [ would. say, first Noah's
ship, that wharfed on Mount Ararat: Sec
ond, the boat of bulrushes, in which Moses
hoated the Nile; third, the Mayfower, that
put out from Plymouth with the Pilgrim
Fathers, and now these three vessels that on
this the Friday morning, August 8, 1892, 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 thirtY-fve
he was gray, and his face is round, his nose
aquiline and his stature a little taller than
the average.
There are two doctors in this feet of ships
and a few landsmen, adventures who are"
ready to risk their necks in a wild expe.
dition. There are enough provisions for a
year. Captain Columbus, where are you
sailing forg?' II do not know Show long
before you will get there" 81 cannot say"
"All ashore that are goingf' is heard, and
those who wish to remain go to the land.
For sixteen days the wind is dead east.
and that pleases the captain because it 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 it
can do with the Santa Maria, the Pinta and
the Nina. The mutinous crew would rave
killed Columbus had it not been for the gen.
oraI oniniNn m ehiphoor 1 that ha Wac thai
only one that could take them back home in
safety.
The promise of a silk waistcoat and forty
dollars in money to the mar Who should first
discover land appeased them somewhat, but
the indignation and blasphemy and threats
| of assassination must nave been awful.
On Friday morning ats o'clock, just long
enough after 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 IL, 1892, a gun from
the Pinta signaled land ahead" Their tha
| 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.
So the voyage that began with the sacra
| ment ended with 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo."
From that day onward you say there can
be nothing for Columbus but honors, re-
wards, raphsodies, palaces and world wide
applause. No! moi On his way back to
| Spain the ship was SO wrenched by the
tempest and so threatened with destruction
| that he wrote a brief account OF his discov"
erv 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, but he undertook a second
voyage. and with it came all maligning and
persecution and denunciation and poverty.
He was called a land grabber, a liar, a
cheat, a fraud, a deceiyer OF Nations
SpecuIators robbel him of his cool name
courtiers deprecated his discoveries. anc
there came to him ruined health and i'm
prisonment and chains, Of which he sal.
while he ratified them on his wrists, :,
will wear them as O. memento OF the gfaUi
tude of princes" Amid keen Apr eciatio
of the worlds abuss and cruelty, ID VII
body writing in the fortunes OF govt,
groaned out his last words, "ln manu-
fuas Domino commendo spiritum meum
Into Thy hands, o Lord, com mend m
spirit MI
OF course he had regal obsequies. That
the way the world tries to atone Tor !
mean treatment o. great benefactors' FIT
buried In the church of Santa Maria. SIEVE
wears afterward removed to Seville. liver
ty-three years afterward removed to Sa
Domingo. Finally removed to Cuba. Eou
postalortem journeys from sepulcher I
sepulcher.
/ What most impresses me in all tina
wondrous life. which for the next twelv
months we will be concentrating by sci
mon and song and military parade an
Worlds Fair and congress OF Nations,
something l AVE never heard stated, an
that is that the discovery OF America was
religious discovery and in the name
Goo. Columbus, by the study Of the propt
ecies, and by what Zechariah and Micah an
David and Isiah had said about the lends G
the earth" was persuaded to go out and fin
the lends of the earth" and he felt himsel
called by God to carry Christianity to tn
lends OF the EARTH
Atheism has no right here; infidelity ha
no right here: vagabondism has no RICH
here. And as God is not apt to fail in an
of His undertakings lat any rate have neve
heard Of His having anything to do with
failure, America is going to be Gospelizet
and from the Golden Gate OF Cal
fornia to the Narrows OF New York harbo
and from the top of North America to til
foot of South America, from Bering strai
to Cape Horn, this is going to be Emmanuel
land.
A divine influence will yet sweep the cor
tinent that will make in;quity drop lib
Stacked lime, and make the most blatant il
fidelity declare it was only joking when
said the Bible was not true, and the wor
atheism announce that it always did b
Iieve in the God Of Nations.
It would not do for our world in its 10
end ruined state to have communicate
with other worlds. It would spoil the
morals. But wait until this world is full
redeemed, as it vii! be, and then perhal
, inferstellar correspondence may tie opene
The great italian navigator also impress
me with the idea that when one does
good thing he Cannot appreciate its raml
cations. To the moment OF his death Z
lumbus never knew that he had discovers
America, but thou ht that Cuba was a pa
of Asia. He thought the Island hi
naninIa was the Ophir of Solomon. !