Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-03-08
'.IIGHTNING OF THE SEA- .
It is the Subject of a Sermon by
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, ID.
The InhuPnee People Leave After They
Have Passed from Earth All Are
Following 5 melody, Either
in the Right or Wrong
Direction.

sermon. l. ne SUBJECT was 4 ne Light
ming of the sea. the text selected be-
ing job xii ~: Gle mal1eth a path
70 shine after him
If for the next thousand years minis
tiers 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 describes as disturbing
the sea. What creature it was know
not Some say il was whale. Some
say it was crocodile. Ny own opinion
is il was IA sea-monster now extinct.
No creature now floating in Mediter-
ranean 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 resplendent. In
the words of the text: 'He maketh a
path to shine after him What was
that illuminated path? II was phos-
phorescence. You find it in the wake
of ship in the hight, especially after
rough weather Phosphorescence is the
lightning Of the sea. That this figure
of speech is correct in describing its
appearance l am certified by an incl
dent After crossing the Atlantic for
the first time and writing from Basic,
Switzerland, to an American an ac-
count of my voyage, in which nothing
more fascinated me than the phos-
phorescence in the ships wake, |
called it "the lightning of the sea. F"
Returning to my hotel, found a book
of John RuslIin, AID the first sentence
my eyes fell upon was his description of
phosphorescence, in which he called il
"the lightning OF the sea" Down TO
the post Office l hastened 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, though
it was as original with me as with
John Ruskin. | suppose that nine
tenths of you, living so near the seacoast,
have watched this marine appearance
called phosphoreseence, 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
inhorescence of the pillows; the waves
Of the sea crimsoned, as was the deep
after the sea-hght of Lepauto; the
waves of the sea on fire. There are
times when from horizon to horizon
the entire ocean seems in conhagration
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 tatfrail of the
yacht OF ocean steamer watching and
waiting to see what new thing the God
OF beauty viii do with the Atlantic. 1t
is the ocean in transiguration; it is the
marine world casting its garme ats of
Of glory in the pathway of the AL
mighty 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 successfully trained to catch
it, and before it the hand of the painter
drops its pencil overawed and power
less. This phosphorescence is the APP
pearance of myriads of the animal
kingdom rising, falling, playing, flash
AAA~F NV my W rug LAAtoN luminous
animalcules for nearly one hundred
and fifty years have been the study of
naturalists and the fascination and
solemnization Of all who have brains
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 phosphor
eScence, and as the leviathan of the
deep sweeps past, points out that he
maketh path to shine after him"
Is that true of us now, and will it be
true OF us when we have gone? win
there I've subsequent light or darkness?
Will there be a trail of light or good
cheer? Can anyone between now and
the next hundred years say of us truth
fully as the text says of the leviathan
Of the deep, "He maketh a 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 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 win 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
We're. 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
Had b,14 Mnrrfnrf sn1f SnplnfW
moving on! The world moving on.
Heaven moving on! The universe
moving on. Time moving on Eternity
moving on. Therefore, it is absurd to
think that we ourselves can stop, as we
must move with al 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 sug-
gests it. What influence will we
leave in this world after we