News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-10-13
N THEsNAME OF GOD
DR.. TALMAGE ON THE SUBLIME
MOTIVES OF COLUMBUS.

The Central Fact or This Memorial Day
Is That the Great Achievement Was a
Religious Discovery-The Voyage Was
in Gods Name.
BROOKLYN, Oct 9.-Rev. DR.. Tai
IMAGES discourse today was occasioned
by the Columbus observance now taking
place. In the OVERLOOKING audience
were many who had come to the city to
participate in the patriotic ceremonies.
The subject was, "Half Planet" the
text being Deuteronomy iii, %, Cliff up
thine eyes westward"
! So God said to Moses in Bible times,
and so he said to ChBstoforo Colombo,
the son of wool comber of Genoa, more
than four hundred years ago. The ma
tions had been looking chiefly toward
the east. The sculpture of the world,
the architecture of the world, the laws
of the world, the philosophy of the
world, the civilization of the world, the
religion of the world came from the
east.
But while Columbus, as his name was
called after it was Latinized, stood
studying maps and examining globes
and reading cosmography, 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 on
the other side to balance it. Here was
bride of a world with no bridegroom.
When God makes half of anything he
does not stop there. He makes the other
half We are all obliged sometimes to
leave things only half done. But God
never stops half way, because he has the
time and the power to go all the way.
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 foated
to the shores of Europe by westerly
gale, and two dead human faces, unlike
anything he had seen before, likewise
fioated from the west, were to him the
voice of God saying, cliff up thine
eyes toward the west" But the world
then, as nov, had plenty of Can't-be-
dones. That is what keeps individuals
back, and enterprises back, and the
church back, and nations back-igno-
minious and disgusting and dishearten-
ing Can't be-Dones.
Old navigators said to young Column
bus, sit can't be DONE" The republic
of Genoa said, at can't be done" AL
phonso V said, sit can't be done" A
committee on maritime affairs, to whom
the subject was submitted, declared,
ho
can't be done" But the father of Co.
lumbus' wife died, leaving his widow
large number of sea charts and maps,
and as if to condemn the slur that differ
ent ages put upon mothers-in-law the
mother-in-law of Columbus gave him
the navigator's materials out of which
he ciphered America. After awhile
the story of this poor but ambitious Co
lumbus reaches the ear of Queen Isabel
la, and she pays eighty dollars to buy
him decent suit of clothes, so that he
may be fit to appear before royalty.
The interview in the palace was sue
cessful. 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, l |
would say, first, Noah's ship, that |
wharfed ON Mount Ararat; second, the |
boat of bulrushes, in which Moses fioated |
the Nile; third, the Mayf1ower, that put |
out from Plymouth with the Pilgrim |
Fathers, and now these three vessels that |
on this the Friday morning, Aug. 3,
1892, are rocking ON the ripples. am so
glad it is Friday, so that the prows of
those three ships shall first of all run
down the superstition that things begun
or voyage started on Friday must neces-
sarily prove disastrous.
Show me any Monday or Tuesday or
Wednesday or Thursday or Saturday
that ever accomplished as much as this
expedition that started on Friday. With
the idea that there will be perils con-
nected with the expedition, the sacra-
kpent of the Lords supper is admins
Tered. Do not forget that this voyage
WAS begun under religious auspices
There is the Santa Maria only ninety
feet long, with four masts and eight
anchors. The captain walking the deck
is fifty-seven years old, his hair white,
for at thirty five he was gray, and his
face is round, his nose aquiline and his
stature little taller than the average.
l know from the decided step and the
set of his jaw that he is a determined
man. That is Captain Christopher
Columbus Near by, but far enough off
not to run into each other, are the
smaller ships, the Pinta and the Nina,
about large enough and safe enough to
cross the Hudson river or the Thames in
good weather. There are two doctors
in this feet of ships, and few lands
men-adventurers who are ready to risk
their necks in a wild expedition. There
are enough provisions for a year. "Cap-
tain Columbus, where are you sailing
for?' Il do not know" Glow long
before you will get there?" 81 cannot
say" ''All ashore that are going!'' is
heard. and those who wish to remain go
TO the land. Now the anchors of the
three ships are being weighed, and the
ratlines begin to rattle and the sails to
unfurl
The wind is dead east, and it does not
take long to get out to sea. In a few
hours the adventures wish they had not
started. The ships begin to roll and
pitch. Oh, it is such a delightful sensa-
ton for landsmen! They begin to bother
Captain Columbus with questions. They
want to know what he thinks of the
weather. They want to know when he
thinks he will probably get there. Every
time when he stands taking observa-
tons of the sun with an astrolabe they |
wonder what he sees and ask more ques-
tons. The crew are rather grouty. |
Some of them came on under four |
months advance pay and others were |
impressed into the service For sixteen |
days the wind is dead east and that |
pleases the captain, because it blows |
them farther aud farther away from the |
European coast and farther on toward |
the shore Of another country, if there is |
any.
After awhile there comes a calm day, |
and the attempt is made to fathom the |
ocean, and they cannot touch bottom, |
though the line and lead run down two |
hundred fathoms. More delightful sem
sations for those who are not good sail
ors! A fathom is six feet, and two hun
dred fathoms, one thousand two hundred |
feet, and below that it may be many
hundred feet deeper. To add interest to |
the voyage, on the twentieth day out |
violent storm sweeps the sea, and the |
Atlantic ocean tries what it can do with |
the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the |
Nina. Some of you know something of |
what a sea can do with the Umbria, the
Majestic, the Teutonic and the City of |
Paris, and you must imagine what the
nnuI6 dn writ fhnca oil