The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-22
STORM ON GALILEE
LESSON FROM A MEMORABLE INCIDENT
IN THE SAWOURS' LIFE.
DIR. Talmage Describes h Rough
Place In Human Experience and Indi-
Gates the Best Means of Getting Over
Them.

DIR. TaImage, who is now in Europe
preaching to immense congregations
in the great cities, sends this sermon,
in which he describes the rough places
of life and indicates the pest means
of getting over them and shows how
many people fail to understand their
best blessings; text, Mark iv, 80, And
ne arose and rebuked the wind and
said unto the sea, Peace, be still"
Here in Capernaum, the seashors
village, was the temporary home of
that Christ who for the most of his
life was homeless. On the site of this
village, now in ruins, and all around this
lake what genes OF kindness and pow
er n glory and pathos when our
Lord lived here! 1 can understand
the feeling Of h immortal Scotchman,
Robert McCheyne, when, sitting on the
banks OF this lake, he wrote:
1t is not that the wild gazelle
Comes down TO drink thy tide,
But he that was pierced TO save from
hell
Oft wandered by thy side.
Graceful around thee the mountains
meet,
Thou calm, reposing sea-,
But, ali, far more the beautiful fee:
OF Jesus walked Ger thee.
1 can easily understand from the
contour of the country that bounds
this AXE that storms were easily temp
ted to make these waters their play
ground. This Lake, in Christs time,
lay in a scene OF great luxuriance; the
surrounding hills, terraced, sloped,
groved; so many hanging gardens OF
beauty. On the shore were castles,
armed towers, Roman baths, every
oil
styles of vegetation in smaller space
than in almost any other space in the
world, from the palm tree of the forest
to the trees of rigorous climate. 1t
seemed as if the Lord had Launched
one wave of beauty on all the scene
and it hung and swung from rock and
hill and oleander. Roman gentlemen
in pleasure boats sailing this lake and
countrymen in fishing SmackS coming
down to drop their nets pass each 9TH
er with nod and shout and laughter
or swinging idly at their moor1ngs. On,
what a eautif scene!
1t seems as if we shall have a quiet
night. Not a leaf quivered in the air,
not a ripple disturbed the face OF
Gennesaret. But there seems to be a
little excitement up the beach, and we
hasten to see what it is, and we n
it an embarkation. From the western
shore a flotilla pushing out; not a
squadron of deadly armament, nor
clipper with valuable merchandise, nor
pirate vessels ready to destroy every
thing they could SEIZE, but a hotilla,
bearing messengers of light and life
and peace. Christ is in the stern OF
the boat. His disciples are in the bow
and amidships. Jesus, weary with
much speaking to large multitudes, is
put into SomnOlence by the rocking of
the waves. If there was In motion
at all, the ship was easily righted; if
the wind passed from ~arboa TO
larboard, or from larboard to S~tarboard
the boat would rock and, by the gen.
tlenesS of the motion, putting the Mas
ter asleep. And they e~Xtemporized a
pillow made out of a fisherman's coat.
/ hin no sooner is Christ PROSTATE
and his head touched the pillow than
he is sound asleep. The breeZeS of the
lake run their fingers through the
locks of the worn sleeper, n the boat
rises and falls like a sleeping child
on the bosom of a sleeping mother.
COMING OF THE STORM.
Calm night, starry night, beautiful
night! Run up all the sails, ply all
the oars, and let the large boat n the
small boa glide over gentle Gennesa-
ret. But the sailors say there is going
to be a change of weather. And even
the passengers can hear the moaning
of the storm as it comes on with great
stride and all the terrorS of hurricane
and darkness. The large boat trem-
bles like a deer at bay among the
clangor of the hounds; great patches
of foam are flung into the air; the sails
of the vessels loosen and in the strong
wind crack like pistols; the smaller
boats, like petrelS, polSe on the cliffs
of the ave- n then plunge. Over
board go cargo, tackling and masts,and
the drenched disciples rus n the
back part of the boat and lay hold of
Christ and say unto him, Master,
Arrest thou not that We perish?"
That great parsonage lifts his head
from the pillow of the fsherman's coat
walks to the front of the vessel and
looks out into the storm. All around
him are the smaller boats, driven in
the tempest, and through it comes the
cry of drowning men. By the flash of
the lightning l see the calm brow OF
Christ as the spray dropped from his
beard. He has n word for the sky
and another for the waves. Looking
upward, he cries, "Peace!" Looking
downward, he says, B STILL" The
waves fall fiat OIL their faces, the foam
melts, the eXtinguiShed stars rellght
their torches. The tempest falls dead,
n Christ stands with his foot on the
neck of the storm. And while the sail
orS are baling out the boats and while
they are trying to untangle the cord
6 the disciples stand in amaZement,
now looking into the calm sea, then
into h calm sky, then into the calm
Saviour's countenance, and they cry
out, What manner of man is this, that
even the winds and h sea obey him?"
The subject, in the first place, i'm
presses me with the fact that it is,
very Important to have Christ in the
ship; for all those boats would have
gone to the bottom of Gennesaret II
Christ had not been present. Oh, what
a lesson for o n for me TO learn!
Whatever voyage we undertake, into
whatever enterprise we start, let US
always have Christ in the ship. All
you can do with utmost tension OF
body, mind and soul you bound to 10;
but, oh, have Christ in every enter
prise!
SEEKING GODS HELP.
There are men who ask Gods help
at the beginning of great enterprises.
He has been with them in the past;
no trouble a overthrow them; the
storms might come down from the top
of Mount Hermon and lash Gennesaret
into foam and into agony, but it could
not hurt them. But here is another
man who starts out in worldly enter
nriSe and he depends upon the uncer-