Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-18
TALMAGE ON STORMS.
His 6rindisi Sermon Deals With Paul
on the Mediterranean,
ILLUSTRATED BY HIS OWN PERILS
In Former Voyage Through an Atlantic
Cyclone of FurieS.
HIS MOST THRILLING WORD PICTURE
ESPECIAL TO THE DIsPArcH.i

ESPECIAL TO THK DIsPArcHI
BRNDIsI, November 1.-THE Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., preached in thi;
Italian port to-day. His subject was "a
Mediterranean Voyage" and he took for hi;
text Acts xvii, A: "And so it came to
pass that they all escaped to land" DR..
Talmage said:
Having visited your historical city, which
we desired to see because it was the ter
minus of the most famous road of the ages,
the Roman Appian Way, and for its mighty
fortress Overshadowing city which even
Hsnnibal's hosts could not thunder down,
we must tomorrow morning leave your har-
Dor, and after touching at Athens and
Corinth, voyage about the Mediterranean to
Alexandria, Egypt. 1 have been reading
this morning in my New Testament of a
Mediterranean voyage in an Alexandrian
ship. 1t was this very month of
November. The vessel was lying
in a port not very far from here.
On board that vessel were two distin-
guished passengers; one, Josephus, the his
tOrisn, as we have strong reasons to believe;
the other, a convict, one Paul by name, who
was going to prison for upsetting things, or,
as they termed it, turning the world up
side down" This convict had gained the
confidence Of the captain. Indeed, think
that Paul knew almost as much about the
sea as did the captain. He had been ship
wrecked three times already; he had dwelt
much of his life amidst capstans, and yard
arms, and cables, and storms; and he knew
what he was talking about. Seeing the
equlnoetial storm was coming, and perhaps
noticing something unSeaworthy in the
vessel, he advised the captain to stay In the
harbor. But 1 hear the captain and the
first mate talking together. They say:
"We cannot afford to take the advice of
this lsndsman, and he minister. He may
be able to preach very well, but don't be-
lieve he knows a msrlinespike from luff
tackle. All aboard! Cast of! Shift the
helm for headway! Who fears the Medi-
terranean?"
PAUL WAS RIGHT.
They had gone only little way out when
q vhirlwind, called Euroclydon, made the
torn sail its Iurbau, shook the mast as you
would brandish spear, and tossed the hulk
into the heavens. Overheard with the
cargol 1t is all washed with salt water and
worthless now; and there are no marine in
surance companies. All hands ahoy, and
out with the anchors!
Great CONSERVATION comes on crew and
passengers. The sea monsters snort in the
foam, ard the billows clap their hands in
glee of destruction. In lull of the storm
I hear chain clank. 1t is the chain of the
great apostle as he walks the deck or holds
fast to the rigging amid the lurching of the
sbip-the spray dripping from his long
beard as he cries out to the crew: "Now,
exhort you to be of good cheer; for there
shall be no loss Of any mans life among
you, but of the ship. For there stood BY
me this night the angel of God, whose am,
and whom l serve, saying, Fear not, Paul,
thou must be brought before Cesar, and 10,
God hath given thee all them that sail with
thee"
Fourteen days have passed, and there is
no abatement of the storm. 1t is midnight
Standing on the lookout, the man peers into
the darkness, and, by fash of lightning,
sees the long white line of the breakers, and
knows they must be coming near to some
country, and feGrs that in a few moments
the vessel will be shivered on the rocks.
The ship flies like chaff in the tornado.
They drop the sounding line, and by the
light of the lantern they see it is 20 fathoms.
Speeding along a little further, they drop
the line again, and by the light of the Ian
tern they see it is Is fathoms. Two hundred
and seventy-six souls within a few feet of
awful shipWreckl
he SAW THEIR SUBTERFUGE.
The managers of the vessel, pretending
they want to look over the side of the ship
and undergrad it, get into the small boat,
expecting in it to escape; but Pail sees
through the sham, and he tells them that if
they go off in the boat 1t will be the death
of them. The vessel strikes; The planks
springl The timbers crack The vessel
parts in the laundering surge! Oh, what
wild struggling for life! Here thew leap
from plank to plank. Here they go under
as if they would never rise, but, catching
hold of a timber, come floating and painting
on it to the beach. Here strong swimmers
spread their arms through the waves until
their chins pillow the sand, and they rise up
and wiring out their wet locks on the beach,
When the roll of the ship is called, 276
people answer to their names "And So"
says my text, sit came to pass that they es-
capped all safe to land"
1 learn from this subject:
LTOUDl6
will not stay to help US out These ship
men got Paul out of Fair Havens into the
storm; but as soon as the tempest dropped
upon them, they wanted to go off in the small
boat, caring nothing for what became of Paul
and the passengers All me! human nature is
the same in all ages. They who get us into
trouble never stop TO help us out They who
tempt that young man into life of dissipation
will be the first to laugh at his imbecility, and
to drop him out of decent society. Gamblers
losses of
They who tempt you into the contest with
lists, saying u will back you, will be the first
TO run. Look over all the predicaments of your
lie, and count the names of those who have got
you into these predicaments, and tell me the
name OF one who ever helped you out.
THEY AID YOU IN A WRONG WAY.
They were glad enough to get you out from
Fair Havens, but when, with damaged rigging,
you tried to get into harbor, did they hold for
you plank or throw you rope? Not one.
Satan has got thousands of men into trouble
but he never got one out He led them into
theft, but he would not hide the goods or bail
out the defendant. The spider shows the fly
web; but it never shows the fly the way out of
the cObweb over the gOsSamer bridge. think
that there were plenty of fast young men to
help the prodigal spend his money; but when
he had wasted his substance in riotOus living
they let him 20 to the swine pastures, while
they betook themselves to some other new
conner. They who take Paul out of Fair Ha-
vens viii be Of no help to him when he gets into
the breakers Of Melita.
remark again, as a lesson learned from the |
text, that it is dangerous to refuse the counsel
of competent advisers. Paul told them not to |
90 out with that ship. They thought he knew |
nothing about it. They said: HE is only a |
ministerr' They went, and the ship was de- |
EtrOyed- There are great many people who |
now say of ministers: They know nothing |
about the world. They cannot talk to usr' An, |
my friends, it is not necessary to have the |
Asiatic cholera before you can give it medical |
treatment in others. 1t is not necessary to |
have your own arm broken before you can |
know how TO splinter fracture. And we who /
stand in the pulpit, and in the Office of a /
Christian teacher, know that there are certain |
styles of belief and certain kinds of behavior /
that will lead to destruction as certainly as /
Paul knew that if that ship went out of Fair /
HaYens it would go to destruction
ONE THING TO BE SURE OF.