The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-19
THE LIGHTNING OF THE SEA.
TaImage Gives Ills Views on the Levi
athal Told Of by Job.


The Beautiful Phosphorescence Of the
Sea-How He Narrowly Avoided
Giving Critics a Chance to Charge
Plagiarism The Phosphorescsnce
Left by the Son of God on the Sea OF
Life.
Brooklyn, Feb. 1S.-In the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon, Rev. DR.. Tai
mage preached an unusually attractive
and eloquent gospel sermon to a crowded
audience, who listened with rapt interest.
The subject was The Lightning of the
Sea-" the text selected being Job Al: 80
'sHe maketh a path to shine after him"
II for the next thousand years minis
tiers of religion should preach from this
Bible there will yet be texts unexpounded
and unexplained, and unappreciated.
What little has been said concerning this
chapter in Job from which my text is
taken, bears on the controversy as to
what was really the leviathan described
as disturbing the sea. What creature it
was know not. Some say it was a
whale Some say it was crocodile. My
own opinion is it was a sea-monster, now
Mediterranean or Atlantic waters CORES
ponds to Jobs description.
What most interests me is that as ii
moved on through the deep it left the
waters flashing and resplendent. In the
words of the text: HE maketh a path
20 shine after him" What was that
illumined pathl 1t was phosphorescence
You find it in the wake of ship in the
night, especially after rough weather.
PhOsphorescence Is the lightning of the
sea. That this figure Of speech is correct
in describing its appearance am certified
by an incident After crossing the At
lantic the first time and writing from
Basic, Switzerland to an American an
account of my voyage, in which nothing
more fascinated me than the phosphor-
essence In the ships wake. l called it the
lightning Of the sea. Returning to my
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 postoffice l hast
ened to get the manuscript, and
with great labor and some expense
got possession of the magazine arti-
Gle and put quotation marks around that
one sentence, although 1t was as original
with me as with John Ruskin. l suppose
that nine-tenths Of you living so near the
seacoast have watched this marine ap-
pearance called phosphorescence, and l
hope that the other nineteenth may some
day be so happy as to witness it, 1t is
the waves of the sea diamonded; it is the
inforescence of the pillows; the waves of
the sea crimsoned, as was the deep after
the sea-fght of Lepanto; the waves Of
the sea on fire. There are times when
from horizon to horizon the entire ocean
seems in con1agration with this strange
splendor, as it changes every moment TO
Aasra
of you. You sit looking over the taffrail
of the yacht or ocean steamer watching
and waiting to see what new thing the
God of beauty will do with the Atlantic
1t is the ocean in TRANSPORTATION; it is
the marine world casting it's garments
of glory in the pathway Of the Almighty
as he walks the deep; it Is an inverted
armament with all its stars gone down
with it. No picture can present it, for
photographers camera cannot be success
fully trained to catch it, and before it the
hand of the painter drops its pencil over
awed and powerless. This phosphores-
cence is the appearance Of myriads of
the animal kingdom rising, falling. play
ing, flashing, living, dying. These lumin-
Gus animalcules for nearly $50 years have
been the study of naturalists and the fas-
cination and solemnization of all who have
brain enough to think. Now, God, who
puts in his Bible nothing trivial or use
less, calls the attention of Job, the great
est scientist of his day, to this phosphor-
essence, and as the leviathan of the deep
sweeps past, points out the fact that "he
maketh path to shine after him"
is that true OF US now, and will IL be
true of us when we have gomez VIII
there be subsequent light or darknessl
VIII there be tale Of gloom or good
sheer2 Can any one between now and
the next 100 years say of US truthfully as
the text says of the leviathan of the deep
HE maketh path to shine after him?"
For we are moving on. While we live in
the same house, and transact business in
the same store, and write on the same
Fable, and chisel in the same studio, and
tnresh IN the same barn, ana worship in
khe same church, we are in motion, and
are In many respects moving on, and we
are not where we were ten years ago. nor
where we will be ten years hence.
Moving on Look at the family record,
or the almanac, or into the mirror, and
see II any one of you is where YOU
were. All in motion. Other feet NAV
trip, and stumble, and halt, but the feet
OF not one moment for the last sixty cen
turtles has tripped, or stumbled, or halted.
Moving on! Society moving on The
world moving onl Heaven moving on
The universe moving on! Time moving
on! Eternity moving on! Therefore, il
is absurd to think that we ourselves can
stop, as we must move with all the rest.
Are we like the creature of the text.
making our path to shine after us} 1t
may be peculiar question, but my text
suggests 1t. What influence viii we
leave In this world after we have gone
through it, None" answer hundreds
OF voices, I'VE are not one of the immor-
tails. Fifty years after we are out
OF the world 1t will be as though
we never inhabited it." You are
wrong in saying that. l pass down
through this audience and up through
these galleries, and l am looking for some
one whom 1 cannot find. am looking for
one who will have no influence 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 by yes or no ne decided some
ones eternity. In time of temptation, he
gave an affirmative or a negative to some
temptation which another, hearing OF,
was induced to decide 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 II you will. viii that ia
Their make a path TO shine after him2
viii that mother make a path to shine
after herr You will be walking along
these streets, or along the country road,
200 years from now in the character of
your descendants. They Will be affected
by your courage or your cowardice, YOUR
nn.aaf a.