Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-11-15
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVIEE'S
FAREWELL SERMON.
Debating Il Sermon 10 EEis
Many Readers ns sSc Ein"
barI0s fer Ihc EsO5y s.und.

The Rev. I. De Witt Ialmage, D. D.. on
his embarkation at New Nori; for the Holy
Land, by the steamer City OK Paris, adj
dressed his millions OF friends through the
press, taking for his text Acts Xxx, IS: And
the accompanied him unto the Ship" His
sermon is printed below in full;
10 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, l address these words. 1
dictate them TO Q stenographer on the eve OF
my departure for the Holy Land, Palestine.
When you read this sermon | will be mid
Atlantic. l go TO be gone few weeks on
religious journey. [ go because want FOR
myself aud hearers and readers to sec Beth
lehem, and Nazareth, and Jerusalem, and
Calvary, and all the other places connected
with my Saviour life and death, and so re-en-
force myself for sermons. L go because
am writing the Life of Christ" AMI can be
more accurate and graphic when / have been
an eye witness of the sacred places. Pray
for my successful journeying and my safe
return.
wish on the eve of departure 10 pronounce
a loving benediction upon all my friends IL
high places and low, upon congregations to
whom my sermons are read in absence of
pastors upon groups gathered out on the
prairies, and in mining districts, upon all
sick and invalid aud aged ones who cannot
attend churches, but to whom | have long
administered through the printed page My
next sermon will be addressed to you from
Rome Italy, for l feel like Paul when he
said: 80, as much as in me is | am ready
to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome
$3.50 The fact is that Paul was ever NOV
ing about on land or sea. lie was an Old
fr.nn1 4 ian l9tt fro
uuency of travel I think lie could have
taken vessel across the Mediterranean as
well as some of the ship captains. The sail
ors never scoifed at him for being n "Iand
lubber." If Paul's advice had been taken,
the crew would never have gone ashore at
Melita.
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 Il
voice that sounds above the thunder of the
tempest and the wrath Of the sea: 'Be of
good cheer"
The men who now so to sea with maps, and
charts, and modern compass, warned by buoy
and lighthouse. know nothing OF the perlls OF
ancient navigation. Horace said that the
man who first Ventured on the sea must have
had q heart bound with oak and triple brass
People then ventured only from headland to
headand and from island to island, and not
until long after spread their sail for 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;
for the world was not then migratory, as in
our day, when the first desire of man in
one place seems to be to get into another
place. The ship from which Jonah was
thrown overheard, and in which Paul
was carried prisoner, went out chiefly with
the idea Of taking a cargo, As now, 50 then,
vessels were accustomed to carry a flag. In
those times it was inscribed with the name
of 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-thosa
that were dropped into the sea, and those
that were thrown up on TO the rocks to hold
the vessel fast. This last kind was what Paul
alluded to when he said: (Which hope VIC
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
steadfast, and which entereth into that with
in the vail" That was what the sailors
call ''hook anchor" The rocks and SAND
bars shoals and headlands 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, an(
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 wing!
of ships, but at the first wintry blast they
hied themselves to the nearest hNrbor; al
though now the worlds commerce prosper
I'm Janeary as well as in June, and in mid
winter all over the wide and stormy deel
there float palaces of light, trampling th,
pillows under foot and showering the spark
of terrible furnaces on the wild wind; ant
the Christian passenger, tippeted ant
shawled, sits under the shelter of the smoke
stack looking off upon the phosphorescen
deep, on which is written in scrolls of foam
and fire: "Thy way, o God, is in the sea, ant
Thy path in the great watersp
It is in those days Of early navigation tina
see group of men, women and children o.
the beach of the mediterranean. Paul i.
about to leave the congregation to whom h
had preached, and they are come down t
see him off. 1t is a solemn thing to part
There are SO many traps that wait for
mans feet. The solid ground may brea
through, and the sea-hOw many dark my:
teries 1t hides in its bosom! A few counseli
a hasty good-by, a last look, and the rope
rattle, and the sails are hoisted, and tn
planks are hauled in, and Paul is como. lex
pect to sail over some Of the same water
over which Paul sailed, but before going
want to urge you all to embark for HEAVIER
The church is the dry dock where souls ar
to be fitted out for heaven. In making We
sci for this voyage, the first need is SCUM
the timber. The floor timbers ought to
of solid stuff. For the want of it, vessels tina
looked able to run their jibbooms into the ely
of any tempest, when caught in storm hav
been crushed like O wafer. The truths c
Gods Word are what Imean by floor timber!
Away with your lighter materials. Nothn
but oaks, hewn in the forest of divine truth
are stanch enough for this craft.
You must have love for helm, to guild
ana ;yurn Une crarU. Neltner prlde, nor am
bition, nor avarice will do for q ruddeI
Love, not only in the heart, but flashing il
the eye and tingling in the hand-love MAJ
ried to work, which many look upon as S
homely bride-love, not like brooks whic
foam and rattle yet do nothing, but love lill
ariver that runs up the steps of mill whee
and works in the harness of factory bands
love that will not pass by on the other sidt
but visits the man who fell among thievt
near Jericho, not merely saying: 'Poor fe
Low you are dreadfully hurt" but, like til
good Samaritan, pours in oil and wine an
pays his board at the tavern. There mus
also be Prov, arranged to cut and overrid
the billow. That is Christian perseverance,
There are three mountain surges tina
sometimes dash against a soul in minute
the world, the flesh and the devil-and tina
is q well built PROV that can bound owe
them. For lack of this many have put bac
and never started again It is the broadsid
wave that so often sweeps the deck and fill
the matches; but that which strikes in iron
is harmless. Meet troubles courageously an
YOU surmount them. Stand ON the prov
and as you wipe off the spray of the spill
SURGE cry out with the apostle; None c
these things move me-" Let all your fear
stay aft The right must conquer. Kno7
that Moses, In the ark Of bu'rushes, can I'll
down war steamer.
Have a good, strong anchor. (which hop
we have as an anchor" By this strong cabl