Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-12-12
DIR. TALMAGE'S GOODBY.
HE EsIBARKs FOR THE HOLY
LAND.
Impressive Farewell Sermon.

. The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, ID. D., o.
Brooklyn, on his embarkation for the Hol,
Land by the steamer City of Paris, addressed
his millions OF friends through the press, TAX
} ing for his text Acts Xxx, IS: "And they &C
companied him unto the ship"
To the more than twenty-five million pe0.
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.
my departure for the Holy Land, Palestine.
When you read this sermon will be mid-At-
lantic. go to be gone few weeks on areigi0us
journey. l go because / want for myself
and hearers and readers TO see Bethlehem,
and Nazareth, and Jerusalem, and Calvary,
and all the other places connected with the
Saviour's fife and death, and SO reinforce my
self for sermons. 60 because am writing
the 'Life Of Christ" and can be more accu-
rate and graphic when / have been an eve
witness OF the sacred places. Pray for my
successful journeying and my safe return.
! wish on the eve OF departure to pronounce
a loving benediction upon all my friends In
high places and low, upon congregations TO
whom my sermons are read in absence Of
pastors, upon groups gathered out on prairies
and In mining districts, upon all sick and in
valid and aged ones who cannot attend
churches, but to whom l have long ad-
ministered through the printed page.
|
you from Rome, Italy, for | feel
like Paul when he said: $50, as
much as in me is. am ready to preach the
gospel 10 You that are at Rome also." The
fact is that Paul was ever moving about on
land or sea. He was an old saior-not from
occupation, but from frequency OF travel.
think he could have taken vessel across the
Mediterranean as well as some of the ship
captains. The sailors never scof'ed at him
for being ga land lubber." II Paurs advice
had been taken, the crew would never have
| gone ashore at Meta.
When the vessel went scudding under bare
poles Paul was the only self-possessed man on
board, and, turning to the excited crew aud
despairing passengers, he excaims. In voice
that sounds above the thunder of the tempest
and the wrath Of sea: "Be of good cheer"
The men who now 20 to see 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 a heart bound with oah and triple brass.
People then ventured only from headand 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 1t of, they at the last moment
leaping into IL. Vessels were then chiefly
ships of burden-the transit of passengers
being the exception; for the world was
not then migratory as Is 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 a flag. In
those times 1t was inscribed with the name
Syracuse had on il the inscription 'Castor
and Pollux." The ships were provided with |
anchors. Anchors were OF two kinds; those |
that were dropped into the sea, and those |
that were thrown up onto the rocks TO hold |
the vessel fast. This last kind was what |
Paul alluded to when he said: (Which |
hope we have as an anchor Of the
soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
eatereth into that within the vail"
That wns what the sailors call shook
anchor" The rocks and SAM bars, shoals
and headlands, not being mapped out, YES
sells carried plumb line. They would drop
1t and find the water fifty fathoms, and drop
It again and find ii forty fathoms, and drop
1t again and find il thirty fathoms, thus dis
covering their near approach TO the shore.
In the spring, summer and autumn the Medi-
terranean sea was white with the wings of
ships, but at the first wintry blast they hied
themselves TO the nearest harbor, although
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
pillows under foot and showering the sparks
Of terrible furnaces on the wild
wind; and the Christian passen-
ger ,tippeted and shawled, sits under the shell
ter Of the smokestack, looking off 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 watersw
1t sin those days Of early navigation that
see group Of men, women and children
on the beach of the Mediterranean. Paul
Is about to leave the congregation to whom
be 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 bosom! A few coun-
sells, hasty goodby, last look, and the
ropes rattle, and the sails are
hoisted, and the planks are hauled in,
and Paul is gone. | expect to sail over some
of the same waters over which Paul sailed, /,
but before going want to urge you all to !
embark for heaven. !,
The church is the drydock where souls Il TO
be fitted out for heaven. In markings vessel !
for this voyage, the first need is sound tim
Der. The floor timbers ought to be of solid
stuff. For the want of it, vessels that looked
able to run their jibbooms into the eve of any /,
tempest, when caught in storm have been
crushed like a wafer. The truths of Gods
Word are what 1 mean by floor timbers,
Away with your lighter materials. Nothing s
but oaks, hewen in the forest of divine 7
truth, are stanch enough for this craft, t
You must have love for a helm, to guide I
and turn the craft. Neither Pride nor Am /
bition nor Avarice will do for rudder. Love. 6
not only in the heart, but flashing in the eve |
and tingling in the hand-Love married to u
work, which many look upon as so homely a b
not ike brooks, which foam and I
rattle, yet do nothing, but Love like a river, v
that runs up the steps of mill wheels, and Il
works in the harness of factory hands-LOye
hat will not pass by on the other side. but 4
visits the man who fell among thieves near D
Jericho, not merely saying, "Poor fellowl t
you are dreadfully hurt,n but, like the good Il
samaritan, pours in oil and wine, and paws b
ais board at the tavern. There must also be ]
prov, arranged to cut and override the
pillow. That is Christian perseverance. There
ire three mountain sources that sometimes
lash against soul in a minute-the world. r
he flesh and the devil: and that is a well Ii
quilt PROV that can bound over Them For loci II