Connecticut western news., 1892-10-13
IN THE NAME OF GOD.
OR. TALMAGE ON THE SUBLIME
 MOTIVES OF COLUMBUS.

The Central Fact on This Memorial Day
 Is That the Great Achievement Was a
 Religious Discovery-The Voyage Was
 in Gods Name.
 BROOKLYN, Oct. 9.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage's discourse today was occasioned by the Columbus observance now taking place. In the overfowing 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, 27, Lift up thine eyes westward"
 So God said to Moses in Bible times, and so he said to Christoforo Colombo, the son of wool comber of Genoa, more than four hundred years ago. The na- 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 very lopsided world-like cart with one wheel, like a scissors with one blade, like 8 sack on one side of camel, needing sack on the other side to balance it. Here was a l...l -R h,-,I 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 world, and so went to work to find the other half. The pieces of carved wood that were floated to the shores of Europe by a westerly gale, and two dead human faces, unlike anything he had seen before, likewise f1oated from the west, were to him the voice of God saying, Gift up thine eyes toward the vest" 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 Colum- bus, "It can't be done." The republic of Genoa said, "It 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. s'It can't be done." Venetians said, "It can't be done." But the father of Go lumbus' wife died, leaving his widow a 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 a decent suit of clothes, so that he may be fit to appear before royalty.
 The interview in the palace was suc- ceesful. 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, I would say, first, Noah's ship, that wharfed on Mount Ararat; second, the boat of bulrushes, 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, Aug. 8, 1492, are rocking on the nipples. 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- 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-seve years old, his hair white, for at thirty-6ve 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 fleet of ships, and 8 few lands men-adventurers who are ready to risk their necks in wild expedition. Ther are enough provisions for year. Gap tain Columbus, where are you sailing for?" 'I do not know" "How long before you will get thereF' 'tI cannot say" "All ashore that are goingr' 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 few hours the adventurers wish they had not started. The ships begin to roll and pitch. Oh, it is such delightful sensa- tion for landsmeni 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- tions of the sun with an astrolabe they wonder what he sees and ask more ques- tions. 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