Connecticut western news., 1889-11-06
DR. TALMAGE'S GOODBY.
HE EMBARKS FOR THE HOLY
 LAND.
Impressive Farewell Sermon.

Impressive Farewell Sermon.
 The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., of Brooklyn, on his authorization for the Holy his millions of friends through the press, talk ing for his text Acts XIX, 3S: "And they ac- companied him unto the ship"
 l To the more than twenty-five million peo- pie in many countries to whom my sermons come week by week, in English tongue and fby translation, through the kindness of the | newspaper press, l 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 md-At- 1 lantic. l go to be gone fewweeks on religious l journey. l go because l want for myself and hearers and readers to see Bethlehem and Nazareth, and Jerusalem, ard Calvary, | and all the other places connected with the Saviours life and death, and so reinforce my | self for sermons. l go because am writing | the 'Life of Christi" and can be more accu- rate 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 | loving benedictlon 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 I have long ad- My next sermon will be addressed to you from Rome, Italy, for I feel | like Paul when he said: "So, as much as in me is. I am ready to preach the gospel to 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. l think he could have taken vessel across the Mediterranean as well as some of the ship captains. The sailors never scotfed at him for being ''a land lubber." If Pauls advice l 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 voice that sounds above the thunder of the tempest and the wrath of sea: "Be of good cheer."
 The men who now go 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 heart bound with oak and triple brass. People then ventured only from headland to heatland and from island to island, and not 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. is in our day, when the first desire of man in one place seems to be to get into another place. overheard. and that in which Paul was carried prisoner, went out chiefly win the l idea of taking a cargo. AS now, SO then, vessels were accustomed to carry a flag. In those times it was inscribed with the name of a heather deity. A vessel bound for Syracuse had on 1t the inscription ssCastor 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 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 within the vail.' That was what the sailors call a "hook anchor" The rocks and sand bars, shoals and hcadlands, not being mapped out. ves- sells 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 dis 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, al 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. ter of the smokestack, looking 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 waters"
 It 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 arc come down to see him Off. It isa solemn thing to part. mans feet. The solid ground may break through. and the sea-how many dark mys- teries it hides in its bosom! A few colin- sels, nasty .goodby, . last look, and the ropes rattle, and the sails are and Paul is gone. I 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 is to 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 eye of any tempest, when caught in storm have been crushed like wafer. The truths of Gods Word are what I mean by floor timbcrs. Away with your lighter materials. Nothing but oaks, hewen in the forest of divine truth, are stanch enough for this craft.
 You must have love for helm, to guide and turn the craft. Neither Pride nor Am bition nor Avarice will do for rudder. Love, not only in the heart, but flashing in the eye and tingling in the hand-Love married to work, which many look upon as so homey a pride-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 fellow you are dreadfully hurt," but, like the good Samaritan, pOurs in oil and wine, and pays his board at the tavern. There must also be a prov, arranged to cut and override the pillow. That is Christian perseverance. There are three mountain sources that sometimes dash against n soul in minute-thc world, the flesh and the devil; and that is well built prov that can bound over them. For lack of this, many have put back and never have started again: It is the hroadside wave that so often sweeps the deck and fills the hatches hut that which strikes In front ia harmless. Meet troubles eourageously and you surmount them. Stand on the prow, and as you wipe of the spray of the split surge. cry out with the apostle: "NOne of these things move me- '' Let ali your fears stay aft. The right must conquer. Know that Moses, in an nrk of bulrushes, can run down war steamer.
 Have good, strong anchor. "Which hope we have as an anchor" By this strong cable and windlass hold on to your anchor. | ''f any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father" Do not use the anchor wrong fully. Do not always stay in the same ati- tude and longitude. You will never ride up the harbor of eternal rest if you all the way drag your anchor.
 But you must have sails. Vessels are not