Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-10-10

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, 81, lift up
thine eyes westward"
So God said to Moses in Bible times,
and so he said to Christoforo Colombo,
the SON of awool comber of Genoa, more
than -four hundred years ago. The ma
lions 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 q 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 a 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 world, ard so
went TO work to find the other half. The
pieces Of carved wood that were fioated
to the shores of Europe by a 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 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, 1T can't be done" The republic
of Genoa said, ''It can't be DONE AL
phonso V said, ''It can't be done" A
committee on maritime affairs, to whom
the subject was submitted, declared,
ut can't be DONE" Venetians said, cit
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
Ia, 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 /
would say, first, Noah's ship, that
wharfed on Mount Ararat: second, the
boat of bulrushes, in,which Moses 1oated
the Nile; third, the Mayfower, that put
out from Plymouth with the Pilgrim
Fathers, and nov these three vessels that
on this the Friday morning, Aug. 3,
1892, are rocking on the ripples. am so
glad ii 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 OF 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-
ment 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 ffty-seven years DID, 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.
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 a few lands
men-adventurers who are ready to risk
their necks in wild expedition. There
are enough provisions for year. cap
tain Columbus, where are you sailing
for?' 81 do not know" ''How long
before you will get there II 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.
L md dOaS no