The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-29

| terian church, of Binghamton, would
conduct the service and preach.
While DR.. Nichols has always been
heard with a great deal of interest and
pleasure in Scranton, emphasis was
| given this popularity yesterday, the
| large congregation containing many
| Scranton faces with which the rever-
end gentleman must have been famil-
| lar Dr. and Mrs. Nichols and their
son, Harry, are being entertained
| by Mr. and Mrs A. d. Blackinton at
| their handsome home on Elm street,
! Dunmore. DR.. Nichols has just re-
| turned from Denver where he spent
| a part of his vacation.
Interest and beauty were added to
| the service by solos splenddly sung
| by Mrs. G.. Dub. Dimmick. The pulpit
platform was decorated with palms,
| If anything was lacking in DR.. Mich
OILS sermon, there was enough of his
force admirable personality and deli
cate and finished way of presenting his
dicourse, that must have interested his
hearers deeply and have been helpful
| to them. The Topic was mo More
Sea-" His text was Revelations xxi:i,
| And there was no more sea-" He said,
! in part:
DIR. NICHOLS SERMON.
The subject OF the last two chapters of
the Bible is the New Jerusalem. The
| Apostle John describes the future dwell
ing place of the redeemed family of man
on the new trarsigured earth. The first
feature of the picture is "a splendid ar
ray of negatiN es" or abse nee s--no sea, no
night, no tears, no sin, no death. no
mourning, no crying, no pain These
| deep dark shadows of our present state
exist no longer. There is there a mega
tive blessedness of heaven as well as a
positive There is a great blessedness
arising from what is not here.
You knew, at least most of you are
aware where the apostle was when he
saw this glorious vision of the future
eternal and consummated kingdom of
God. He was on the little island of
Patmos in the midst of the Aegean sea.
He was a banished man. The arm OF
persecution had taken him out of his
loved pulpit in Ephesus and shut him up
in this lonely rock of prison home. All
around him ragged the green ocean day
and night. He saw nothing but the nude
waste of waters heard nothing but the
monotonous dash of the water against
the rocks. His was the life of a weary,
solitary heart-sick exile, and the sea was
his keeper.
Moreover St. John was a Jew. and the
Jews, as you know, were not sea-farinB
| men like the Greeks and Carthagenians.
The Jews knew the sea only from looking
at it from a distance. Like all orientals
the Jews had a great dread of the ocean.
OF all the great capitals of the east not
one was located on the seashare. The
camel was 'the ship of the desert" and
all the famous centers of national and
commercial life We're situated like Den
| yer, inland. Throughout the Old Testa-
ment the sea stands for something to be
feared and avoided, And among the
threatened woes against the lsraelites
in punishment of disobedience is this
that they shall be carried back to Egypt
in ships.
AS ST. JOHN MEANT 1T.
Let us take the text as st. John meant
it. 1t is clear enough that here as al
through the book TIE apostle is speaking
in the language Of symbolism. What is
symbolism? Symbolism is visible voCa-
bulary. Symbolism is the expression OF
great truths, powerful principles, ruling
ideas by means of signs, images, EN-
bems. This church, with its walls and
arches, its magnitudes and attitudes, i,s
towers and turretS is not a mere pile OF
stone and brick and mortar. This church
pointing heaVCnWard is symbol OF GER
tain great truths about God, about his
human soul. The mountains are sympols
of eternity, immutability, almightiness
The clouds also and the sky are expires
sions of everlasting truths The same
is true of the sea. The ocean is not mere
ly a vast body of water. The ocean is q
thought, an embodied idea, material eS
preston of moral and truth.
In studying the symbolism of the sef
the first impression | receive from it i!
its terrible power, its instant danger.
know the sea has a great fascination fo
, many minds. Wonderful very wonderful
is the sight of the ocean to one standing
, on the beach and gazing for the first tim
in his life perhaps at the ceaselcss bound
less flight and pursuit of tho pillows ans
drinking in their freedom and energ!
/, their grace and power and eternity
But the fascination of the sea is Il fas
| cination with tCrrCr behind it. It's beau
, ty is like the beauty of a tiger. like tn
|, beauty of Il lightning flash, beaut!
, which hides death underneath it. OF al
I | the sources of calamity and disaster il
| this world the sea has been one of tn
. ! most abundant and terrible Once it wa
the element of the whole worlds destruc
tion and still 1t is the scene of death Il
thousands and thousands. 1t is surprisin
> | how little all the modern improvement
in ship building have really done to resis
{ the attacks of the sea and diminish II
/. | peril. Great vessels, the pride of modelH
! science and skill, go down like stone
: into the mighty waters to be seen n
| more.
! VISIT TO ARLINGTON.
! Who that has visited the national GENE
terry at Arlington can ever forget In
countless rows of green hillocks sun
4 rounding the beholdcrs on every side an
stretching away line on line, course afte
. course, pillows upon pillows, far as tn
q | eye can reach? Who can forget the ViYI
g scene the deepened feeling of the terri
y bleness of war which there took posses
sion of his soul? Yet these innumerabl
a graves are but a handful in comparis ,
/ of the rows of sleepers pillowed on tn
: bottom of the sea The ocean is a might
n cemetery. Every rounded pillows shape
a a grave, Every summit of white foam
o the headstone of life lost in storm 4
p pershed in battle or heaved overheard /
8 death from disease.
Have you ever thought of that fac
mentioned in connection with the fins
Judgment? And the sea shall give Il
u the dead that are in it," What a surrer
i der! What resurrection when III
e mighty sepulcher of the sea shall
II opened and out of the coral caves
: ocean shall come forth the risen an
: beautife saints of God.
l. You tell me, some of you, of your lov
p for the ocean, Well, l suppose one ma
T. love ii If he can forget--forget the live
d 1t has devoured, forget the hearts it Ia
i broker. forget the tears it has wrung GU
& children who have stood on It's shores an
e peered into it's msts and longed and die
= longing for the return of loved ones WI
l. never came back. But for my part
y prefer to trust myself TO the kind she
> tering, protecting arms of the true-hear
I ed mountains rather than to the crue
It treacherous, devouring embrace of II
e sea. "Praise the sea-" says Herber
| lat