The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-04-14
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Tho Weird Splendor of "The Light
ming of the Sea"
The Phosphorescence that IIlumines the
Wake OF q Ship One of Gods
Life Lessons II One Only
Looks Into 1t.


Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmagc took for the
subject of recent discourse in the
Brooklyn tabernacle: 1.-THE Lightning
of the Sea- basing it on the text:
He makeih path to shine after him.-Jot
| ali. 3.
IL for the next thousand years min
listers of religion should preach from
this Bible there will yet be texts unex-
pounded, and unexplained. and unap-
preciated. 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 twas / know not.
Some say it was whale. Some say it
was crocodile. My own opinion is it
was sea monster now extinct. No
creature now floating in Mediterra-
mean or Atlantic waters corresponds to
Jobs description.
What most interests me is that as it
moved on through the deep it left the
waters flashing and respondent. In
the words of the text .'He maketh a
path to shine after him." What was
that illuminated path? 1t was phos
phoresccnce. You find it in the wake
of a ship in the night, especially after
rough we ither. Phosphorescence is
the lightning of the sea. That this
figure of speech is correct in distribut-
ing its appearance | am certified by an
incident. After crossing the Atlantic
the first time and writing from Basic,
Switzerland. to an American magazine
an account of my voyage. in which
nothing more fascinated me than the
phosphorescence in the ships wake,
called IL the lightning of the sea. Re-
turning to my hotel found book of
John Ruskin, and the first sentence
my eyes fell upon. was a description of
phosphorescence, in which he called it
The lightning of the sea-" Down to
the post Office l fastened to get the
manuscript, and with great labor and
some expense got possession of the
magazine article and put quotation
marks around that one sentence,
although it was as original with me as
with John Ruskin. suppose that
nine-tenths of you living SO near the
sea coast have watched this marine APP
pearance called phosphoresence, and
hope that the other one-tenth may
some day be SO happy as to witness it.
1t is the waves of the sea diamonded; it
is the inforescencc of the pillows; the
waves of the sea crimsoned, as was the
the deep after the sea fight at Lepanto;
the waves of the sea on fire. There
are times when from horizon to hori-
zon the entire ocean seems in confla-
grafton with this strange splendor, 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 God
of beauty will do with the Atlantic. 1t
is the ocean of TRANSPORTATION; it is the
marine world casting its 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. Nopicture can present it. for
photographers camera can not be sue
ccssfully trained to catch it, and be-
fore it the hand of the painter drops
it's pencil overawed and powerless.
This phosphorescence is the appear
ance of myriads of the animal kingdom
rising. falling, playing, flashing, liv-
ing, dying. These luminous animal
cules for nearly one hundred and fifty
years have been the study of natural
lists and the fascination and solemisa-
ton of all who have brain enough to
think. Now God. who puts in His BIZ
BILE nothing trivial or useless, calls the
attention of job, the greatest scientist
of his day, to this phosphorescence,
and as the leviathan of the deep sweeps
past, points ont the fact that ''IIe
maketh path to shine after him."
Is that true of us now, and will it te
true of us when we are gone? Will
there be subsequent light or darkness?
VIII there be trail of gloom or good
cheer? Can anyone between now and
the next one hundred years say of us
truthfully as the text says of the levi
athan of the deep: He maketh path
to shine after him." For we are NOV
ing on. While we live in the same
house, and transact business at the
same store, and write on the. same ta-
BILE, and chisel in the same studio, and
thresh in the same barn, and worship
in the 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 if any one of you is where you
were. All in motion. Other feet may
trip, and stumble, and halt. but the
feet of not one moment for the last
sixty centuries has tripped, or STUN
bled. or halted. Moving on! Society
moving on! The world moving on.
Heaven moving on! The universe
moving on. Time moving on! Eterni-
ty moving on, Therefore it is absurd
to think that we ourselves can stop,
as we must move with all the rest.
Arc we like the creature of the text.
making our path to shine after us?
1t may be peculiar question, but
my text suggests it. What infiu-
ence will we leave in this world
after we have gone through?
None" answers hundreds of voices,
1--WE are not one of the immortals.
Fifty years after we are out of the
world it will be as though we never
- L. w., 49,,