Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-03-02
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 1.-The Lightning of the
Sea-

nm. job xii. 80.
II for the next thousand years ministers OF
| religion should preach from this Bible there
Will yet he texts unexpounde1 aud unex-
! plained and unappreciated. 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 Ievia-
| than described as disturbing the sea. What
| creature it was know not. Somesav it was
| whale Some say it was crocodile. NY
own Opini on is If was sea monster now OK
i tinct. No creature now floating in Mediter-
| ranear or Atlantic waters corresponds to
| jobs description
| What most interests me is that as it moved
| on through the deep it left the waters flash
| ing and resplendent. In the words OF the
! text. "He maketh a path to shine after
| him. What was that ilIumined path? 1t
| was phosphOrescence. You find it in the
wake of n ship in the night. especially after
| rough weather PhOsphorescence is the
, lightning of the see. That this figure of
speech is correct in describing its appear
| ance I am certified by an incident After
| crossing the Atlantic the first time and
| writing from Basle, Switzerland. to an Amer
lean magazine an account of my voyage, in
| which nothing more fascinated me than the
| phosphorescepce in the ships wake, called
| 1t the lightning of the sea. Returning to my
/ hotel. I found a book CT John Ruskin, and
| the first sentence my eyes fell upon was his
| description of phosphOrescence, in which he
| ealteU II ''tf6 lignrn1Hg OF the sea.
| Down to the pOstOfftce [ fastened to get
| the manuscript, and with great labor and
| some expense got possession of the maga-
| zine article and put quotation marks around
! that one sentence, although it was as orig
| inal with me as with John Ruskin. I sup
pose that nine-tenths of you living 50 near
| the saacoast have watched this marine ap-
| pearance called phospnorescence. and Ihopa
| that the other One-tenth may some day be so
| happy as TO witness if. 1t is the waves of the
| sea diamOnded it is the infiorescence of the
! biiOws 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 conf1ag-
| ration with this strange spleniOr as it
| changes every moment to tanner or more
| dazzling color 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 in trans
| iguratiOn it is the marine world casting its
| garments Of glory in the pathway of the
| Almighty as He walks the deep it is an in
| verted armament with all its stars gone
! down with it. No picture can present it, for
! photographers camera cannot be success
| fully trained to catch it, and before it the
| hand of the painter drops its pencil, over
| awed and pOwerless.
| This phOsphorescence is the appearance
| OF myriads of the animal kingdom rising,
falling, playing, flashing, living, dying.
| These luminous animalcuies for nearly $50
years nave been the study OF naturalists and
| the fascination and solemniZation of all who
| have brain enough to think. Now, God,
| who puts in His Bible nothing trivial or use
| less, 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 path
| 10 shine after him"
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
| trial 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 leviath han
| OF the deep, He maketh path to shine
| after him. For we are moving on. While
| we live in the same house. and transact bust.
| ness 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 i'll 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 Tere. All in motion. Other
| feet may trip and stumble and halt, but the
| feet Of not one moment for the last sixty CEN
| turies has tripped or stumbled or halted
| Moving on! Society moving on The world
| moving on! Heaven moving on The uni
I
| nifty 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 crea-
| ture OF the text, making our path to shine
after use? 1t may be peculiar question,
| but my text suggests it.
| What influence will We leave in this world
, after we have gone throughit it? 'None," an
| 5wer hundreds of voices eve are not one OF
! the immOrtalS. Fifty years after we are out
| of the world it will be as though we never in
/
| pass down through this audience and up
! through these galleries, and l am looking for
| some one whom / cannot find.
| l am looking for one who will have no in
| fuence in this world 100 years from now.
| But have found the man who has the least
| influence, and I inquire into his history, and
| | find that by a yes no he decided some
| ones eternity. In time of temptation he gave
| an affirmative or negative to some tempta-
| ton which another, hearing of, was induced
| 10 decide in the same way
| Clear on the other side of the next million
| years may be the fl rst you hear of the long
| reaching influence of that yes or no, but
| hear Of it you will. Will that father make a
| path to shine after him? Will that mother
| make path to shine after her2 You will be
| walking along these streets or along that
! country road 200 yeas from now in the
! character of your descendants. They will
| be affected by your courage or your cow
| ardice, your purity OF your depravity, your
| holiness or your sin. You will make the
path to shine after you or blacken after YOU.
Why should they point out to us on some
mountain two rivuletS, ono of which passes
| down into the rivers which pour out into the
| Pacific Ocean, and the other rivulet flowing
| down into the rivers which pass out into the
| Atlantic Ocean? Every man, every woman,
| stands at point where words uttered. or
| deeds done. or prayers offered, decide Oppo-
| site destinies and opposite eternities. We
see man planting tree, and treading sod
on either side of it, and watering it in dry
| weather. and taking a great care in its cul-
! ture, and he never plucks any fruits from its
| bough. But his children WILL We are all
| planting trees that will yield fruit hundreds
| of years after we are dead-orchards of gol-
| den fruit or groves of deadly upas.
l am so fascinated with the phosphor-
escence in the track Of ship that l have
| sometimes watched for a long while and have
seen nothing on the face of the deep but
| blackness. The mouth of watery chasms
that looked like gaping jaws of hell. Not a
spark as big as a fir -j1y not white scroll
of surf not a taper to illuminate the mighty
sepulchers of dead ships darkness 5000 feet
Deep and more thousands of feet long and
wide. That is the kind of wake that a bad
man leaves behind him as he plows through
the ocean of this life toward the vaster ocean
Of the great future.
grocery or business Office among clerks gives
himself to jolly skepticism. He laughs at
the Bible, makes sport Of the miracles,
speaks OF perdition in jokes AMI laughs at
revivals as a froIic, and at the passage of a
funeral procession, which always solemnizes
sensible people, says, "Boys, let's take a
drink There is in that group young
man who is making great struggle against
temptation and prays night and morning and
reads his Bible and is asking God for help
day by day But that guffaw against Chris
tianity makes him lose his grip of sacred
things. and he gives up Sabbath and church
and morals and goes from bad to worse. till
ne falls under dissipations, dies in a lazar
house and is buried in the potter's field.
Another young man who heard that jolly
skepticism made up his mind that sit makes
no difference what we do or say, for we will
all come out at last at the right place" and
began as consequence to purloin. Some
money that came into his hands for others
he applied to his own uses, thinking per-
hans ha zrnnId make IL STRAIGHT some Other