The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-14
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sv THE REV. FRANK DE WITT rALMAoE. D. Q.

I shown the world that there are different sea currents flowing over one another In different directions as the different cur 1 rents of the air allow the freanaut to Journey In one direction or another. By | deep sea dredging they have brought up from the lowest ocean depths the prime val ooze, the deposit perhaps of millions
 of years. They have captured strange
 creatures which have never been seen
 before by eyes of men. The results l of their investigations have been collect
 ed into one of the greatest of all seien-
 tifie volumes entitled the Book of Oce- enography." But, after all although
 some of the oceans mysteries have been
 investigated, the most of those mysteries
 are as yet unraveled. They will always
 remain as mysteries until suitable appar- atus has been invented by means of which
 divers can descend and pass at leisure through the paths of the sea now un- l trodden by the foot of man. In all prob- | ability that time will never come before
 the day when the seas have been licked up by the long red tongues of the flames which shall warp themselves about this old earth when the archangel shall stand with one foot upon the land and the
 other foot upon the sea and swear that time shall be no longer.
 Oh, the mysteries of.the seal Who has
 ever been able to describe them? 1t was my privilege some weeks ago, to see some
 of the wonders of the mighty deep. l took ship and went to the famous Ata- 1 Ina islands, off the southern coast of California. I went there for the fishing
 had heard away back in the east of the wonderful sea sport at that place.
 l heard 1t was no unusual sight to see
 there three and four or five jewfish broueh in each weighing upward of S00 , pounds; that some fish had been caught there weighing over 800 pounds. These | fishermen had told me that there swan
 the tuna, the gamest fish of all the seas. There are the yellowtales and the harraeudas and the rock bass and the whitefish and scores of other fish. But though l saw fish caught at Catalina weighing 360 pounds, the most marvellous sight by far that I ever witnessed there
 was what was revealed to me in the
 depths of the sea by the glass bottomed l boats.
 Survival of Fittest.
 | strong muscled oarsman who knew | every nook and corner of that coast, row ed us out. The center of the boat had no
 keel, but, instead, a glass flooring. As we rowed on we could see down and down
 fifty, sixty, seventy and eighty feet
 Here were the rocks piled up in incon- grous forms, like unto the Bad Lands of the Dakotas. There were walls of rocks i dismantled fortresses in rocks, crumbling
 cathedrals in rocks, shattered masony in rocks, whole fallen Jerichos in rocks; pyramids and palisades were in rocks. Rocks In column rocks asant. immensi- f ties and lnfinities of rock. In wonder cavern fish, hermit like, was dwelling. We could see his head as he silently kept vigil, watching the other fish swim by Now darted past hundreds of thousands
 of sardines chased by a larger fish.
 In those depths as on the land, the | ssas44 al ,,F (. q life the big fish eat the smaller fish
 Now We seem to be pushing our way
 into the marine farmlands. Whole gar
 dens of vegetables seem to be planted upon the rocks. Many of those farms 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 sea weeds are matted and snarled together They seem to take upon themselves all colorings. Here are the long, cinging vines, there the broad leaves and the narrow leaves the short leaves and the long leaves. There are leaves in the mass and here leaves with rents in their curtains, through which we can see the glistening fin ol a gold fish, red as gold-aye, red as blood. Fish l like unto which in color I never saw
 because these fish are never caus..- with
 the hook these gold fish are vegetarians
 Now we seem to be wandering among
 the Calaveras groves of the sea These
 weeds lift themselves like mighty oaks. l With their outspreading branches they
 seem to be offering sure anchorage for
 birds nests, only for the fact that no l feathered orchestras can dwell in the
 depths of the seas. Now the bear rocks 1 appear again and seem to be like unto
 mighty mountains in their impressive ness, crying: Come. man, come. and
 take my goldl Come and take my silverl ] My bones are copper, my heart is iron;
 come and take my wealth." As we wan | dered on, peering into this strange and unlSonwn world. I say ,o myself 'There
 are the revealed mysteries of the sea
 seventy feet deep. What must be the
 mysteries of the ..sea hundreds of feet
 deep miles deep, unfathomly deep? What must be the mysteries of the sea when
 the iewfish, weighing one-half thousand pounds. rubs up his side against the | whale, weighing thousands upon thous-
 ands of pounds?" Yes, the sea is a mys-
 tery, a great unfathomable mystery.
 God Is Mystery.
 What the mysterious sea was to the
 lonely exile looking off upon the Medi- 1 terranean God always has been and al-
 ways will be to us on earth He is a mystery. We know that he created the
 world, but how? We cannot tell. We
 know that in the beginning Christ was, | and yet he was born a helpless babe | How? We cannot tell. We know that
 John. as the beloved disciple, walked
 and lived wfth Christ Yet concerning
 many facts about the personality of Je-
 sus. John was as much in the dark as
 was Ncodemus when he said: How can |
 knowledge of God to little chlld's know ledge of a human parent We know that
 our babies cannot fully understand us 1 Therefore Paul says: Now we look | through a glass darlsly. Now I know only l in part" Do you wonder that when John | began to use the mysterious ocean as l the symbol of a mysterious God he cried
 out in the words of my text In reference
 to heaven, "AndNhere was no more sea?" | All the mysteries of earth shall receive heavenly solution when the seas shall
 vanish away
 | The sea of mystery Is to be scattered. | Yes but the great sea of hate" is also
 to disappear on the millenial dawn The
 sea of blood shall forever disappear. the l drinking of which turns a human heart
 willing to trample upon ana destroy his 1 weaker fellows. That sea of blood shall | be licked up which makes man fawn at | the feet of man only because like ti- gers cub his claws are not yet sharp
 enough and his jaw not yet strong enough
 to tear limb from limb the being he now