The Portland daily press., 1892-10-15
"HALF A PLANET,
The Subject Of an Eloquent Sermon
by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage.
A Discourse Appropriate to the Columbian
Observances-Graphic Description of
the Trials of the Great Italian
"A Navigator The Discover
@f America Religious
Discovery.

cobJOSO Hall d L lduct, OiiO oS@Ao bOiiS
Deuteronomy iii, 81; Lift up thine
eyes westward" The eloquent divine
spoke as follows:
So God said to Moses in Bible times
and SO He said to Christoforo Columbus,
the son of a wool-com Der of Genoa,
more than four hundred years ago. The
nations had been looking chiefly to-
ward the east. The sculpture of the
world, the architecture of the world,
the laws of the world, the philosophy
of the world, the religion of the world,
came from the east. But, while Column
bus, as his name was called after it was
Latinized, stood studying maps and ex-
aiming globes, and reading cosmo-
graphy, 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 cart with
one wheel, like a scissors with one
blade, like sack on one side of camel,
needing sack on the other side to bal
ance it. Here was a bride of 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 power to go all the way. do not
wonder that Columbus was not salts
fed with 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 a westerly gale,
and two dead human faces, unlike any
thing he had seen before, likewise
foated 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-
done's. That is what keeps individuals
back, and enterprises back, and the
church back and nations back-igno-
minious and disgusting and dishearten-
ing an't-be-dones. Old navigators said
to young Columbus, SIT can't be DONE"
The republic of Genoa said, SIT can't be
done" Alphonso ". said, ut can't be
done" A committee on maritime af-
fairs, to whom the subject was sub
mitted, declared, ''It can't be done.'
Venetians said, SIT can't be done" But
the father of Column bus wife died, leav-
ing his widow large number of sea
charts and maps, and as if to condemn
the slur that different ages put upon
mother-in-law, the mother-in-law OF
Columbus gave him the navigator's ma
terials out of which he ciphereds Amer
lea. After awhile the story of this poor
but ambitious Columbus reaches the
ear of Queen Isabellas and she pays
him 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 ex-
petition. 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 bull
rushes in which Moses foated 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. am
so glad it is Friday, so that the powers
of those three ships shall first of all run
down the superstition that things begun
or voyage started on Friday must nece
essarily prove disastrous. Show. me any
Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or
Thursday or Saturday that ever accom-
plished as much as this expedition that
started on Friday With the idea that
there will be perils connected with the
expedition, the Sacrament of the Lords
Supper is administered. Do not forget
that this voyage was begun under re-
iieious auspices. There is the Santa
Maria. only ninety feet long. with four
masts and eight anchors. The captain
walking the decks is 81 years old, his
hair white, for at 35 he was gray, and
his face is round, his nose aquiline, and
his stature little taller than the aver
age. / know from his decided step and
the set of his jaw that he is a deter
mined man. Thisi 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 doc
tors in this feet of ships, and few
landsmen, Adventures who are ready to
risk their necks in wild expedition
There are enough provisions for a year.
capt. Columbus where are you sailing
for?" 81 do not know" "How 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. 0, it is such de-
lightful sensation for landsmen!
They begin 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
probably 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-
L. sod