Milford chronicle., 1889-11-08

and Bethlehem, Capernaum and Jeru-
salem-GOOd Practical Applications.
New YoRK, ON BOARD THE CITY OF PARIS,
Oct. 29-The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.
D., Of Brooklyn, on his embarkation for the
Holy Land, by the steamer City Of Paris, ad-
dressed his millions of friends through the
press, taking for his text Acts xx, IS; "And
they accompanied him unto the ship His
sermon is printed below at full length
To the more than twenty-five million peO-
pie in. many countries to whom my sermons
come week by week, in English tongue and
by translation, through the kindness Of the
newspaper press, / address these words. l
dictate them TO a stenographer on the eve Of
ay departure for the Holy Land, Palestine.
when you read this sermon i will be mid
Atlantic. 1 go to be gone a few weeks on
religious journey. l 60 because want for
myself and hearers and readers to see Beth
lehem, and Nazareth, and Jerusalem, and Cal
vary, and all the other places connected with
the Saviour's life and death, and so re-en-
force myself for sermons. I go also because
am writing the Life Of Christ, " and can be
more accurate and graphic when have been
an eye witness Of the sacred places. Pray
for my successful journeying and my safe re-
turn
wish on the eve of departure to pro-
nounce a loving benediction upon all my
friends in high places and low, upon congre-
cations to whom my sermons are read in alb
sence Of pastors, upon groups gathered out on
prairies, and In mining districts, upon all
sick and invalid and aged ones who cannot
attend churches, but to whom have long ad-
ministered through the printed page. My
next sermon will be addressed to you from
I VA.T-- Il L.
said; 80 as much as in me is, am ready to
preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also" The fact is that Paul was ever NOV
ing about on land or sea. He was an old
sailor-not from occupation, but from fire.
quency Of travel. l think he could have taken
a vessel across the Mediterranean as well as
some of the ship captains. The sailors never
scoffed at him for being a 'land lubber." If
Paul's advice had been taken, the crew would
never have gone ashore at Melita.
PAUL ON THE OCEAN.
When the vessel went scudding under bare
poles Paul was the only self possessed man on
board, and, turning to the excited crew and
despairing passengers, he exclaims, in a voice
that sounds above the thunder of the tempest
and the wrath Of the sea: BE Of good cheer"
The men who now go to sea with maps, and
charts, and modern compass, warned by buoy
and lighthouse, know nothing of the perils Of
ancient navigation. Horace said that the
man who first ventured on the sea must have
had heart bound with oak and triple brass
People then ventured only from headland to
headland, and from island to island, and not
until long after spread their sail for a voyage
across the sea. Before starting, the weather
was watched, and the vessel having been
hauled up on the shore, the mariners placed
their shoulders against the stern Of the ship
and heaved it off-they, at the last moment
leaping into it.
Vessels were then chiefly ships of burden
the transit Of passengers being the exception;
TO the world was not then migratory, as in
our day, when the first desire of a man in
one place seems to be to get into another
place. The ship from which Jonah was
thrown overheard, and that in which Paul
was carried prisoner, went out chiefly with
the idea of taking cargo. As now, so then,
vessels were accustomed to carry flag. In
those times it was inscribed with the name
of a heather deity. A vessel bound for SYRIA
cuse had on it the inscription, Castor and
Pollux." The ships were provided with an
chors. Anchors were Of two kinds-those
that were dropped into the sea, and those
that were thrown up on to the rocks to hold
4
alluded to when he said (which hope we
have as an anchor Of the soul, both sure and
steadfast, and which entereth into that with
in the vaiLn That was what the sailors call
''hook anchor.n The rocks and sand bars,
shoals and headlsnds not being mapped out,
vessels carried a plumb line. They would
drop it and find the water fifty fathoms, and
drop it again and find it forty fathoms, and
drop it again and find it thirty fathoms, thus
discovering their near approach to the shore
In the spring, summer and autumn the
Mediterranean sea was white with the wings
of ships, but at the first wintry blast they
hied themselves to the nearest harbor; al
though now the worlds commerce prospers
in january as well as in June, and in mid
winter all over the wide and stormy deep
there float palaces Of light, trampling the
billOws under foot and showering the sparks
of terrible furnaces on the wild wind; and
the Christian passenger, tippeted and shawled,
sits under the shelter of the slnokestack, look
ing of upon the phosphorescent deep, on
which is written in scrolls Of foam and fire;
''Thy way, o God, is in the sea, and thy path
in the great watersl"
1t is in those days of early navigation that
l see group Of men, women and children on
the beach of the Mediterranean. Paul is
about to leave the congregation to whom he
had preached, and they are come down to
see him off. 1t is a solemn thing to part
There are so many traps that wait for a
mans feet. The solid ground may break
through, and the sea-how many dark mys-
teries it hides in its bosoml A few counsels,
a hasty good-by, last look, and the ropes
rattle, and the sails are hoisted, and the
planks are hauled in, and Paul is gone l ex-
pect to sail over some of the same waters
over which Paul sailed, but before going l
want to urge you all to embark for heaven.
The church is the dry dock where souls are
to be fitted out for heaven. In making ves-
sci for this voyage, the first need is sound
timber. The floor timbers ought to be Of
solid stuff. For the want of it, vessels that
looked able to run their jibbooms into the eye
of any tempest, when caught in a storm have
been crushed like a wafer The truths Of
Gods Word are what l mean by floor timbers.
Away with your lighter materials Nothing
but oaks, hewn in the forest of divine truth,
are stanch enough for this craft.
STRIKING MARITIME SMILES.
You must have love for a helm, to guide
and turn the craft. Neither pride, nor am
bition, nor avarice will do for a rudder.
! Love, not only in the heart, but flashing in
the eye and tingling in the hand-love mar
ried to work, which many look upon as so
homely bride-love, not like brooks which
foam and rattle yet do nothing, but love like
a river that runs up the steps Of mill wheels
and works in the harness Of factory bands
love that will not pass by on the other side,
but visits the man who fell among thieves
near Jericho, not merely saying; Poor fell
I lowl you are dreadfully hurt but, like the
/ good Samaritan, pours in oil and wine and
paws his board at the tavern. There must
also be a PROV, arranged 70 cut and override
the billow That is Christian perseverance,
There are three mountain surges that some
! times dash against a soul in a minute-the
world the flesh, and the devil; and that Is a
well built prov that can bound over them
For lack Of this, many have put back and
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