The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-10-21
COLUMBUS DAY.
DR.. Talmage Speaks Of Columbus
and His Discoveries.
The Great Navigator Was Directed BY GOO
to Lift Up His Eyes Westward-In-
cidents of the Voyage Graph
ically Described.

The voyage of Columbus was the sub
ject OF a late discourse by Rev. I. Dc
Witt Talmage at Brooklyn. The text
being Deuteronomy iii %: Lift up
thine eyes westward" DR.. Talmage
| said:
So God said to Moses in Bible times,
and so he said to Christoforo Colombo,
the son of woolcomber of Genoa, more
than 400 years ago. The nations had
been looking chiefly toward the east.
! The sculpture of the world, the
architecture of the world, the
laws of the world, the philo-
sophy of the world, the civilization of
the world, the religion of the world
came from the east. But while Colum-
bus, as his name was called after it was
Latinized, stood studying maps and ex-
amining globes and reading cosmogra-
ply, God said to him: Lift up
thine eyes toward the west" The
| fact was it must have seemed
to Columbus very lop-sided
world. Like a cart with one wheel,
| like scissor with one blade, like a
sack on one side of camel, needing a
sack on the other side to balance it
Here was bride of world with no
bridegroom. When God makes a half
of anything, He does not stop there.
| He makes the other half We are all
| obliged sometimes to leave things half
| done. But God never stops half way,
because He has the time and the power
! to go all the way. l do not wonder
that Columbus was not satisfied with a
| half 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 hoated from
the west, were to him the voice of God,
saying: Lift up thine eyes toward the
west" But the world then as now had
plenty of cant be dones." That is
what keeps individuals back and enter
prises back and the church back and ua-
tions back-ignominious andtisgusting
and disheartening cant be dones."
Old navigators said to young Columbus,
sit can't be done" The republic of
Genoa said: st can't be done" AL
phonso V. said: st can't be done" A
committee on maritime affairs, to whom
the subject was submitted, declared:
at can't be done" Venetiaus said: 1T
can't be done" But the father of Co
lumbus' wife died, leaving his widow a
large number of sea charts and maps,
and as if to condemn the slur that diff
ferent 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 a
while the story of this poor but am
bilious Columbus reaches the ear of
Queen Isabella, 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 successful 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, 1 would say. first, Noah's
ship, that wharfed ON Mount Ararat;
second, the boat of bulrushes in which
Moses hoated the Nile; third, the May
flower, that put out from Plymouth
with the Pilgrim fathers; and now
these three vessels that on this,
the Friday morning, August 3,
1892. are rocking on the ripples. l
am so glad tits 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 necessarily 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 that there will be perils
connected with the expedition the sac
rament of the Lords supper is ad-
ministered. 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 81 years old,
his hair white, for when 35 he
was gray, and his face Is round, his
nose aquiline and his stature a little
taller than the average. l know from
his decided step and the set of his jaw
that he is determined man That is
Capt 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 fleet and few lands
men, Adventures ready to risk their
nechs in q wild expedition. There are
enough provisions for year. Capt.
Columbus, where are you sailing for?'
81 do not know" How long before
you will get there?" Il 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 rat
lines 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 adventu: ers wish they
had not started. The ships begin to
roll and pitch. o, it is such delight
ful sensation for landsmen! They be-
gin to bother Capt. Columbus with
questions They want to know what
he thinks of the weather. They want
to know when he thinks he will proba-
bly, get there. Every time when he
stands taking observations of the sun
with an astrolabe they wonder what
he sees and ask more questions. The
crew are rather grouty- Some of
them came on under four months ad-
vance 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 further
and further away from the European