Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-03-02
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subjects "The Lightning of the Sea-"

II for the next thousand years ministers o
| religion should preach from this Bible, Their
Will yet be texts unexpOunde1 and uuex
| planned and unappreciated. What lttl,
has been said concerning this chapter in 10
| from Which my text is taken bears on tn,
controversy as to what was really the levil
than described as disturbing the sea. What
creature it was | know not Somesqy it was
awhale. Some say it was d crocodile. NJ,
own opinion is it was q sea monster now ex
tlnct. No creature now floating in Med;ter
ranean or Atlantic waters corresponds tc
jobs description.
What most interests me is that as It movei
on through the deep il left the waters fash.
jn& and respendent, In the words o. thu
ttXf, "H9 maketh a path to shine after
MN. What was that ilftmined path? 1t
was phosphorescence. You find il in the
wake of ship in the night, especially after
rough fo5 weather. Phosphorescence is the
lightning of the sea. That this figure OF
FDeech is correct in describing its appear
aace | am certified by an incident. After
crossing the Atlantic the first time and
writing from Basic, Switzerland, to an Amer
lean magazine an account of my voyage, in
which nothing more fascinated me than tho
phOsphOrescence in the ships wake, I called
1t the lightning Of the sea. Returning to nay
hotel | found a book of John Ruskin, and
the first sentence my eyes fell upon was his
description of phosphorescence. in which he
called it 1.-THE lightning of the sea-
Down to the postonice I fastened to get
the manuscript, and with great labor and
some expense got possession of the maya.
zine article and put quotation marks around
that one sentence, although it was as orig
inal with mo as with John Ruskin. 1 sup.
pose that nine-tenths Of you living so near
the seacOast have watched this marine ape
pearance called phOsphOrescence, and hops
that the other One-tenth may some day be so
happy as to witness it. It Is the waves of the
sea diamonded it is the innorescence OF the
pillows the waves of the sea crimsoned as
was the deep after the sea fight of Lepanto ;
, the waves Of the sea on fire.
There are times when from horizon to
horizon the entire ocean seems In conf1ag-
ration with this strange spendOr as it
changes every moment to tanner or more
dazzling color on all sides Of you. You sit
looking over the taffrail Of the yacht or
ocean steamer. watching and waiting to see
what new thing the Col of beauty will do
with the Atlantic. 1t is the ocean in trans
figuratiOn il is the marine world casting its
garments of glory in the pathway of the
Almighty as He walks the deep it is an in.
verified armament with all its stars gone
down with it. No picture can present it, for
fully trained to catch it, and before it tho
hand of the painter drops its pencil, over
awed and pOwerless.
This phOsDhorescence is the appearance
OF myriads Of the animal kingdom rising,
falling, playing, flashing living, dying.
These luminous animalcuies for nearly $50
years have been the study OF haturalsts and
the fascination and sOiemnization of all who
have brain enough TO think. Now, Cod
who puts in His Bible nothing trivial or USE
less, calls the attention of Job. the greatest
scientist of his day, to this phosphorescence,
and as the leviathan Of the deep sweeps past
points out the fact that che maketh a path
TO shine after him. d"
Is that true of us now, and will it be true
OF us when we have gone? Will there be
subsequent light or darkness? Will there be
trial ofgloom or good cheer? Can anyone
between now and the next 100 years say of
US truthfully as the text says OF the leviathan
OF the deep, HE maSeth d path to shine
after him?" For we are moving on. While
we live in the same house, and transact BUSH
ness in the same store, and write on the Same
table, and chisel In the same studio, and
thrash in the same barn, and worship in tho
same church, We are in motion and ars in
many respects moving on, and we are not
where we were ten years ago, nor where we
Look at the family record. or the almanac,
or into the mirror, and see if any one of you
is where you were. All in motion. Other
feet may trip and stumble AMI halt, but the
feet of not one moment for the last sixty CEN
turtles has tripped or stumbled or halted.
Moving or Society moving on The world
moving on Heaven moving ont The uni
verse moving on Time moving on Eter-
nifty moving on : Therefore it is absurd to
think that we ourselves can stop. as we must
move wish all the rest. Are we like the crea-
lure of the text, making our path to shine
after use2 1t may be pecuiaraquest
but my text suggests if.
What influence will we leave in this world
after we have gone throu hit2 "NonP," an
swer hundreds of voices Eve are not one Of
the immortals. Fifty years after we are out
OF the world It will be as though we never in
habted it, You are wrong IN saying that.
pass down through this audience and no
through these galleries, and [ am looking for
some oae whom [ cannot find.
l an loo King for one who will have no in
nuence in this world 100 years from now.
But have found the man who has the least
influence, and inquire into his history, and
find that Gy a YES or q no he decided some
ones eternity. In time OF temptation he gave
IN Affirmative or negative 10 some tempta-
ton which another, hearing o., was induced
TO decide in the same way.
Clear on the other side OF the next million
years may be the first you hear OF the long
reaching influence of that yes or no, but
hear OF it you will. viii that father make
path to shine after him? VIII that mother
make path TO shine after herr You will bo
walking along these streets or along that
country road 200 years from now in the
character OF your descendants. They will
be affected by your courage or your cow
ardice, your purity or your depravity, your
holiness or your sin. You will make tho
path to shine after you or blacken alter you.
Why should they point out to US on somo
mountain two rivulets. one OF which passes
down into the rivers waich pour out into the
Pacific Ocean, and the other rvulet flowing
down into the rivers which pass Out into the
Atlantic Ocean? Every man, every woman,
stands at a point where words uttered, or
deeds done, or prayers offered. decide oppo-
site destinies and opposite eternities. We
see man planting a tree, and treading sod
on either side OF it, and watering ii in dry
weather, and taking great care in its GU
ture, and he never plucks any fruits from its
bough. But his children will. We are all
planting trees thai. will yield fruit'hundreds
of years after we are dead-orchards of gol-
den fruit or groves OF deadly upas.
l am SO fascinated with the phosphor-
escenc, in tho TRACK OF ship that have
sometimes watched for q long waiIe and 1yo
seen nothing on the face OF the deep but
b,ackness The mouth o. watery chasms
that looked like gaping jaws OF hell. Not a
spark as big rs u FREELY; not a White scroll
of surf; not a taper to illuminate the mighty
sepulchers of dead ships; darkness 1000 feet
deep. AMI moro thousands OF feet long ana
wide. That is the kind of wake that bad
man leaves behind him as he plows through
the ocean of this life toward the vaster ocean
Of fhll rrrl.n t fl1f11