Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-02-24
A PATH THAT SHINES
REV. DIR. TALMAeE breaches upon
THE LIGHTNING OF THE SEA.

An Unusually Attractive and Eloquent SeS-
mon-The Pathway of the Aimighty-Ann
Irradiated Wave OF Gladness-The Glow
of Good Deeds. q
BnooKLYN, Feb. 1s.-In the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. DR.. TAT
mage preached an unusually attractive
and eloquent gospel sermon to crowd.
ed audience, who listened with rapt irs-
terest. The subject was 1.-THE Lightning
Of the Sea-" the text selected being Joo
xii, SO, HE maketh path to shine after
him"
If for the next thousand years minis
tiers of religion should preach from this
Bible, there will yet be texts unezpound-
ed and unexplained and unappreclated.
What little has been said concerning this
chapter in Job from which my text 1s
taken bears on the controversy as TO
what was really the leviathan described
as disturbing the sea. What creature u
was know not Some say it was whale.
Some say it was crocodile. My OWL
opinion is it was sea monster now ex-
tinct. No creature now floating in Med
iterranean or Atlantic waters CORE
spends to Jobs description.
LIGHTNING OF THE SEA. IS
What most interests me is that as IL
moved on through the deep it left the
waters flashing and resplendent. In the
words Of the text, HE maketh path
to shine after him." What was that u
lumined path? 1t was phosphoreseence.
You find it in the wake of ship in the
night, especially after rough weather.
Phosphorescence is the lightning OF tho
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 Basic, Switzerland, to an Amerl-
can magazine an account of my voyage,
in which nothing more fascinated me
than the phosphoresccnce in the ships
wake, called it the lightningof the sea.
Returning 10 NY hotel, found book
of John Ruslin. and the first sentence
my eyes fell upon was lis description Of
phosphorescencc, IL which he called 1t
1.-THE lightning of the sea-
Down to the rostoiiice l hastcncl 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, al
though it was rs original with me as
with John Ruskin. suppose 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 it. It is the
waves Of the sea diamonded; it 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 70
horizon the entire ocean seems in con-
flagration with this strange splendor ae
it changes every moment to tameyf o.
more dazzling color on all sides CO you.
You sit looking over the saffraif, OF The
Yacht or ocean Steamer, wgGcnIng 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 its garments of
glory in the pathway of the Almighty as
he walks the deep; it is an inverted frma-
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 it, and before 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, living,
dying. These luminous animalcules for
nearly $50 years have been the study of
naturalists and the fascination and SOL
emnization of all who have brain enough
to 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 phosphorescence, and
as the leviathan of the deep sweeps past
points out the fact that "he maketh a
path to shine after him."
WAKE MADE BY A BAD MAN.
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 trail of gloom or good
cheer? 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 table, and chisel in the same
studio. and thrash in the same barn, and
worship in the same church, we are in
motion and are in 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 any
one of you is where you were. All in
motion. Other feet may trip and STUN
BILE and halt, but the feet of not one mo-
ment for the last go centuries has tripped
or stumbled or halted Moving on! So
ciety moving on! The world moving on!
Heaven moving onl The universe NOV
ing on Time moving onl Eternity NOV
ing 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 ust 1t may be peculiar
question, but my text suggests it.
What influence will we leave in this
world after we have gone through til
None" answer hundreds Of voices; 1--WE
are not one of the immortAls. Fifty
years after We are ont of the world it
will he as though we never inhabited it. "