Democratic messenger., 1894-02-24
A PATH THAT SHINES.
REV. Of. TALMAGE breaches UPON
THE LIGHTNING OF THE SEA.

An Unusually Attractive and Eloquent SER
mon-The Pathway of the Almighty IN
IrradIated Wave of GIadness The Glow
OF Good Deeds.
BRoOKLYN. Feb. is.-In the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. DIR. Tai
mage preached an unusually attractive
and eloquent gospel sermon to a crowd
ed audience. who listened with rapt in
terest The subject was The Lightning
Of the Sea" the text selected being job
xii, -, lie maketh a path to shine after
him"
If for the next thousand years minis
tiers of religion should preach from this
Bible, there will yet he texts unexpound-
ri and unexplained and unapprcciatcd.
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 lcviathan described
as disturbing the sea. What creature it
was know not. Some say it was whale.
Some sav il was crocodile. My own
opinion is il was n sea monster now ex-
{
iterrancan or Atlantic waters CORE
spends Ia Jobs description.
LIGHTNING OF THE SEA.
What most interests mo is that as it
moved on through the deep it left the
waters flashing and rcsplendent In the
words of the text. He makcth path
To shine after him." What was that IL
lnmincd path? 1t was phosphorcscence.
You find il in the wake of a ship in the
night, especially after rough weather
Phosphorescence is the lightning Of the
sea. That this figure of speech is cor
rect in describing its appearance am
certified by an incident. After crossing
the Atlantic the first time and writing
from Baslc. Switzerland. to an Ameri-
can 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.
Returning to my hotel. ! found book
Of John Ruskin. and the first sentence
my eyes fell upon was his description of
phosphorescence in which he called it
''the lightning If the sea.
Down to the postofiice ! hastened to
get the manuscript. and with great labor
lnd some expense got possession of the
magazine article and put quotation
marks around that one sentence. al
though it was as original with me as
with John Ruskin. lsuppose that nine
tenths of you living so near the sea-
coast have watched this marine appear
ance called phosphorescence. and hope
that the other one-tenth may some day
be so happy as to witness il. Ii is the
waves of the sea diamonded: il is the in
fiorescence 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 con-
fiagration with this strange splendor as
IL changes every moment to tanner or
more dazzling color on all sides Of YOU
You sit looking over the taifrail If the
yacht or ocean steamer. watching and
waiting 10 see what new thing the God
of beauty will do with the Atlantic. 1t
is the ocean in TRANSPORTATION: il is the
marine world casting its garments of
glory in the pathway of the Almighty as
he walks the deep; il is an inverted firma-
ment with all its stars gone down with
it. No picture can present it, for pho
tographer's camera cannot be success
fully trained to catch il. and before it
the hand Of the painter drops its pencil.
overawed and powerless.
This phosphorescence is the appear.
ance If myriads of the animal kingdom
rising, falling. playing, flashing. living.
dying. These luminous animalculcs for
nearly 80 years have been the study of
naturalsts and the fascination and sol
emnizaiion of all who have brain enough
10 think. Now. God. who puts in his
Bible nothing trivial or useless. calls the
attention of job. the greatest scientist
of his day. to this phosphorcsccnce, and
as the leviathan Of the deep sweeps past
points out the fact that '.hc makcih a
path TO shine after him."
WAKE MADE BY A Rad MAN.
| Is that true of ms now. and will it be
true of us when we have gone? Will
there be subsequent light or darkness?
Will there be trail If gloom or good
cheer: Can any one between now and
the next 100 years say of us truthfullv
as the text saws of the leviaihan of the
deep. He maketh path to shine after
him" For we are moving on. While
we live in the same housc. and transact
business in the same store. and write on
the same table, and chisel in the same
4. Al.
worship in the same church. we are in
motion aud are i'll many respects NOV
ing on and we are not where we were
10 years ago, nor where we will be 10
years hence Moving on.
Look at the family record. or the al
manac, or into the mirror. and see if anv
one of you is where you were. All in
motion. Other feet may trip and stum-
ble and halt. but the feet of not one mo-
ment for the last 60 centuries has tripped
or stumbled or halted. Moving on. So
ciety moving on, The world moving on.
Heaven moving on, The universe mov-
ing on, Time moving on, ETERNITY inov-
| ing on! Therefore il is absurd To think
that we ourselves can stop. as W. must
/
creature of the text. making our path To
shine after us: II may be peculiar
question. mt my text suggests il.
What influence will we leave in this
world after we have gone through II?
None. answer hundreds Of voices: I'VE
are not one of the ImmorialS. Fifty
years after We are out of the world il
will be as though we never inhabited it. ="
You are wrong in saving that. pass
down through this audience and np
through these galleries. and am look
ing for some one whom cannot find
am looking for one who will have no
influence in this world 100 wears from
now. Bu; ! have found the man who
has the least influence. and inquire
into his history. and | find that 10y "a y"s
a Quarter Century Test
f. ..uarf..r 4 ,s,tfurr Ilr .