The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-14

of the frigid zone or darkly tanned by the tropical heats. Because they had no previous intercourse they associated themselves in clans or banded them selves together in nations. When they confronted each other they came not to- gether as friends, but as armed foes.
 The "Sea of Hate"
 Do you suppogse that if Carthage had been situated only few miles from Rome there would have ever been a Hamil- car fighting at Mount Eryx or a Hamil- ears greater son. Hannibal, being de- feated by Scipio the Great at Zama, in 202? The reason Carthage hated Rome and Rome hated Carthage was because they were separated by "sea of hate" called the Mediterranean, two thousand miles long and seven hundred miles wide The 'sea of separation" became, like the Dead sea, sea of blood" Do you suppose that England would ever have treated the American colonies as she did during the eighteenth century had she not been separated from them by an Att lantic ocean three thousand miles wide? Why the American coonists were of the same blood as those who lived on English shores. The children of Virginia planters and of Massachusetts arstocrats were all sent over to the English schools to be educated But mo- England would not treat her American subjects as she did those who were earning their bread on the London Strand. The "sea of sep aration'' became the sea of hate,' and bloody Revolutionary war was merely the echo of the Atlantics moaning waves tapping Plymouth rock and Dover cliffs.
 Do you suppose Rome would have ever placed her iron heel of tyranny upon the neck of the prostrate Hebrew had Jeru- salem not been separated from the capi- tai of the Caesars by the same waves which separated Rome from Carthage? :? Of course certain nations have been and are separated from other nations by the | barriers of mighty mountain ranges The | Pyrenees separate France from Spain | and the mighty Alps form the northern boundary of Italy and the western boun- dary of Austria and the southern boun- dary of Germany, and shut up Switz- erland as with a Chinese wall. But, after all, the greatest separators of nations have always been the mighty seas. Thus when St. John looked off upon the wa | ters, of the Mediterranean and sad And | there was no more sea-" he meant prac- tically this: In heaven there shall be no hate, no bitterness, no fault findings no bleodshed. no Jew hating Roman, no Roman hating Greek. no Japan fighting Russia and no Spain sucking the life blood of a prostrate Cuba. Then love and kindness and sympathy and mutual self sacrifice will bind the human family to- gether. because the sea of hate" shall | forever disappear
 But as the "sea of separation" is some | times the sea of hate" so 1t may be also the impossible barrier which separates friend from friend. Napoleon, fretting 1 life away in St. Helena or Captain Drey- | fus, suffering on Devils island, or Victor Hugo in exile on the island of Guern- sey were no more separated from their | friends than was St John on Patmos, separated from his friends. Legend tells us he was sent to work in the Patmos mines as the Russian exiles are put to work in the Siberian mines. But when the days work was done St. John was allowed to roam freely over the Patmos rocks. No prison walls were more se- cure than this prison of the apostolic ex- He. And now, methinks I can see him, his white hair being tossed by the winds | He strains his eyes as he looks over the Mediterranean waters to Asia Minor where he knows his Christian colaborers are working among the churches of Asia An says the old patriarch, "in heaven | l shall never be separated from those love. I shall never have to part again i from those who have labored by my side in the gospel vineyard I shall never be compelled to have the silver cords of affection snapped at the grave. These waves of separation shall forever and ever be licked up. There shall be no more sea-"
 Is not this reunion vision of the isle Of Patmos to you a transcendent thought? Is 1t not an uplifting hope that those who were once snatched away from us by death shall be given back in all the beauty and love of the redemption? Not long ago the great battleship of the United States navy named after the state or Missouri was threatened with annihi- lation. By certain mishap the powder chargers on the decks were ignlted ana exploded. In an instant a spark might fly into the magazine room. and then the whole ship would be destroyed ana six hundred men might be hurled into eternity At once a gunner's mate who stood near jumped through the open door or the magazine room and slammed shut the iron door. The magazine room was flooded and the ship saved; not howev- er' before that brave gunner's mate was