Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-08-12


unto the Bad Lands OF the Dakotas.
There were walls OF rocks, dismantled
fortrcsses in rocks. crumbling cathe-
drals In rocks. shattered masonry in
rocks. whole fallen Jerichos I'm rocks;
pyramids and palisades were in rocks.
Rocks in column, rocks nslant, i'm
mensitieS and inflnities OF rock. In
yonder cavern Il fish. hermitlike, was
dwelling. We could see his head as he
silently kept vigil. watching the other
fish swim by. Now darted past hun
dreds OF thousands of sardines. chased
by larger fish. In those depths, as on
the land, the survival OF the fittest''
is the law OF life-the big fish eat the
smaller fish.
Now we seem TO be pushing our way
into the marine farmlands. Whole
gardens of vegetables seem to be plant
ed upon the rocks. Many of those
forms OF vegetable life are named after
the table foods we grow In our country
gardens. There are the waving wheat
fields and silken bearded corn just
ready for the husking. and the meadow
lands green and red with clover tops.
Now we seem to be entering the Indian
and African jungles- The seaweeds
are matted and snarled together. They
seem 10 take upon themselves all coll
Orings. Here are the long, clinging
vines, there the broad leaves and the
the long leaves. There are leaves M
the mass and here leaves with reats Va
their curtains. through which we can
see the glistening I'm OF goldfish. red
as gold-aye. red as blood. Fish, like
unto which in color 1 never saw, be-
cause these fish are never caught with
the hook; these goldfish are vegeta-
rians. Now we seem TO be wandering
among the Calaveras groves of the sea-
These weeds lift themselves like
mighty oaks. With their outspreadInR
branches they seem to be Offering sure
anchorages for birds nests. only for
the fact that no feathered orchestras
can dwell in the depths OF the seas.
Now the bare rocks appear again and
seem to be like unto mighty mountains
in their impressiveness. crying: Come.
man, come. and take my goldl Come
and take my silver! My bones are cop
per, my heart Is iron; come and take
my wealth. AS we wandered on,
peering into this strange and unknown
world. say to myself: There are the
revealed mysteries or the sea seventy
feet deep. What must be the mys-
teries Of the sea hundreds OF feet deep,
miles deep. uufathomably deep? What
must be the mysteries OF the sea when
the Jewish. weighing one-half thou
sand pounds. rubs up his side against
the whale. weighing thousands upon
thousands NJ poundsT' Yes. the sea Is
mystery, great unfathomnble mys-
terry.
God ts y Mystery.
What the mysterious sea was TO the
lonely exile looking OF upon the Med
iterranean God always has been and
always will be TO us on earth. lie is
n mystery. We know that he created
the world, but how? We cannot tell
We know that i'm the beginning Christ
was, and yet he was born n helpless
babe. How? We cannot tell We
know that John. as the beloved dis
cple, walked and lived With Christ. :.
Yet. concerning many facts about the
personality Of Jesus. John was as much
in the dark as was Nicodemus when
he said. How can these things be?''
Paul compares our knowledge Of God
TO n little child's knowledge OF n hui
man parent. We know that our babies
cannot fully understand us. Therefore
Paul says: snow we look through n
glass darkly. Now | know only in
part" Do you wonder that when John
began 10 use the mysterious ocean as
the symbol OF mysterious God he
cried out in the words OF my text in
reference TO heaven, "And there was
no more sea?" All the mysteries OF
earth shall receive heavenly solution
when the seas shall vanish away.
The sea or mystery Is TO be scattered.
Yes, but the great "sea OF hate" is also
TO disappear on the millennIal dawn.
That sea OF blood shall forever disap- |
pear. the drinking OF which turns a
human heart into that OF a wild beasts
when he is willing 10 trample upon and
destroy his weaker fellows. That sea
or blood shall be licked up which makes
man fawn at the feet OF man only be-
cause. Ike tigers cub. his claws are
not yet sharp enough and his jaw not !
yet strong enough TO tear limb from
limb the being he now salutes ss mas
ter and king.
But perhaps we had better 6escribe
now the words OF my text may mean
the sea OF hate before we make
our application TO this truth. God made
OF one blood all nations. TO dwell upon
the face OF the earth. He never intend |
n1 Jews an h.a en- tel
or human governments to be arrayed
against human governments. He
never intended the dividing walls OF |
color TO separate the white races from |
the black, or the yellow skins OF the
Asiatics TO be ut war with the combin.
ell forces or the civilized world But
the oceans, perhaps. more than apy
other means. have been the cause
which has produced these much TO DO
deprecated results. Great seas have
flowed in between the continents. For
thousands OF years the navigators were
unable to cross them. The ocean beds |
are so broad and long that though the
Australian continent, with an area OF |
2,o44,62S square miles. was discovered |
by the Dutch explorers In 1G06. IL was |
practically lost for nearly two GEN.
turtles. as pebble might be lost In the |
bottom OF lake. Ii had to be redis- |
covered by Captain Cook in l77l. Thus |
widely separated peoples grew up with |
separate interests. They spoke differ
ent languages. Their countenances /
We're bleached by the SHOWS OF the
frigid zone or darkly tanned by the
tropical heats. Because they had no I
previous Intercourse they associated
themselves in clans or banded them
selves together I'm nations Whep they
confronted each other. they came not
as friends. but as armed foes
The "Sea OF Hate"
Do you suppose that IL Carthage had
been situated only few miles from
Rome there would have ever beeny IA
Hamilcar fighting at Mount Eryx ora
Hamiicars greater son. Hannibal. be-
rnat ah NV Sxg.N -. 1