The Bossier banner., 1894-03-22
LIGHTNING Of THE SEA-"
Row Dr.. Talmage Goes Down to the
Deep for a Subject.
In the Strange Splendor of the PhosDhor-
escence on the Seas Surface He
Finds Fresh Store of Gods
Handiwork.

The following discourse with "The
Lightning of the Sea" for its subject,
was delivered by Rev. I. Dewitt Tai.
mage in the Brooklyn Ia bernacle, being
based on tn text.
He mal1eth path to shine after Him-Jot
xii, 81.
If fer the next thousand years min
isters 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
lcviathan described as disturbing the
sea. What creature it was | know not.
Some say it was a whale. Some say it
was Gre codile. 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 tlaGhing and resplendent. In
the words pf the text: "He maketh a
path to shine after him. What was
that illuminated path? 1t was phos
phorescencE. You find it in the wake
of ship in the night, especially after
rough we,ther. Phosphorescence is
the lightning of the sea. That this
figure of spe ,ch is correct in distribut-
ing its appearance | am certified by an
incident. Alter crossing the Atlantic
the first time and writing from Basle,
Switzerland, TO an American magazine
IN account of my voyage, in which
nothing more fascinated me than the
phosphorescenc ce in the ships wake,
called it the lightning of the sea. Re-
turning to my hotel found book of
John Ruskin, and the first sentence
my eyes fell upon was description of
phosphorescenoe, 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. l suppose that
nine-tenths of you living so near the
sea coast have watched this marine ap-
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 inflorescence of the pillows; the
waves of the sea crimsol.ed, 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 confia-
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 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 can not be sue
fore it the hand of the painter drops
its 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 solemiza-
tion 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 grea test scientist
OF his day, to this phosphorescence,
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 it be
true of us when we are gone? VIII
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
gears 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 NAV
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
Are we like the creature of the text.
making our path to shine after usp
1t may be peculiar question, but
my text suggests it. What infiu-
ence will we leave in this world
after we haya nopa +bra,o a