The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DlvINE's FARE
WELL SERMON.
Debating n sermon to d1s Many
Readers as He Embarks
for the Holy Land.

his embarkation at New York 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.. 3S: "And
they 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, address these words.
dictate them to stenographer on the eve of
my departure for the Holy Land, Palestine
When you read this sermon will be mid
Atlantic. 60 to be gone few weeks on a
religious journey. I 60 because I want for
myself and hearers and readers to see Beth
lehem, and Nazareth, and Jerusalem, and
Calvary, and oil the other places connected
with my Saviour's life and death, and so re-en-
force myself for sermons. I 60 because
am writing the 'sLife 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
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 the
prairies, and in mining districts, upon all
sick and invalid and aged ones who cannot
attend churches but to wlom have long
administered through the printed page. My
next sermon will be addressed to you from
Rome, Italy, for feel like Paul when he
said: $50, 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 I think he could have
taken vessel across the Mediterranean as
well as some Of the ship captains. The sail
lubber.' If Pauls 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 e1claims, In
voice that sounds above the thunder Of the
tempest and the wrath of the sea: "Be Of
good cheer"
The men who now 60 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 a heart bound with oak and triple brass.
People then ventured only from headland to
heafland, 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;
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 flag. In
those times it was inscribed with the name
of heather deity A vessel bound for Syra-
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
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 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 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
pillows 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 smoke
stack, 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 waters"
1t is in those days Of early navigation that
I 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 q
mans feet The solid ground may break
through, and the sea-how many dark mys-
tories it hides in its bosom! A few counsels,
alhasty good-by, last look, and the ropes
,ftttle, and the sails are hoisted, and the
IHanks are hauled in, and Paul Isl gone. lex
lioct to sail over some Of the same waters
owe. which Paul sailed, but before going
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 YES.
sci for this voyage, the first need is sound
the timber. The floor timbers ought to be
of solid stuff. For tine want of it, vessels that
looked able to run their jbbooms into the eye
of any tempest, when caught in storm have
been crushed like a wafer. The truths OF
Gods Word are what Imean by floor tlmberS
Away with your lighter materials. Nothing
but oaks, hewn in the forest Of divine truth,
are stanch enough for this craft,
You must have love for helm, to guld'
and turn the craft. Neither pride, nor a'i-
bition. nor ayarice will do for a rlldder.'
Love not only in the heart, but flashing III
the e ye and tingling in the hand-love mar
ried to work, which many look upon as so
homely a bride-love, not like brooks which
foam and rattle yet do nothing but love ike
river that runs up the steps OF mill wheeis
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 tnleves
near Jericho. not merely saying: "Ioor lei
low! you are dreadfully hurt" but, ike the
good Samaritan, pours in oil and wine and
paws his board at the tavern. There must
also be prov, arranged to cut and override
the billow. That is Christian perseverance,
There are three mountain. surges that
sometimes dash against soul m minute
the world, the flesh and the devil-and that
is a well built prov that con bound over
them. For lack of this, many have put back
and never started again. It is the broadslde
wave that so often sweeps the deck and ILLS
the matches; but that which strikes IN front
Is harmless. Meet troubles courageously and
you surmount them. Stand on the prov;
and, as you wipe off the spray OF the split
these things move me-" Let all your fears
stay aft. The right must conquer. Know
that Moses in the ark of bulrushes, can run