The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-13
DIR. TALMAGE'S GOODBYE.
EMsARKATIoN FOR THE HOLY LAND.
Last Words of the Brooklyn Divine-Man-
kind Compared to a ship in Dock Be-
ing Fitted OutsFOr Heaven-A
Loving BenedictiOn.

BrOOkiVn. on his emDarkatlO0 Tor the HOLY
Land by the steamer City of Paris adj
dressed his millions of friends through the
press, taking for his text Acts, Xxx, IS:
"And they accompanied him upon the
ship" His sermon is printed below at
fnll length:
To the more than 100000 people in
many countries to whom my sermons
come week by week in English tongue
and by translation, through the kindness
OF the newspaper press, 1 address these
words. I dictate them TO stenographer
on the eve Of nv departure for the Holy
Land, Palestine. When you read this SER
mon | will be mid-Atantic. | go to be
gone a few weeks on a religious journey.
go because want for myself and hearers
and readers to see Bethlehem, and Naza-
reth and Jerusalem, and Calvary, and all
the other places connected with the Saw
ior's life and death, and so reinforce my
self for sermons I go also because / am
writing the Lille OF Christ, and can be
more accurate and graphic when / have
been an eyewitness of the sacred places.
Pray for my successful journey and my
safe return.
Ill wish on the eve OF departure to pro-
nounce a loving benediction upon all my
friends in high places and low, upon con-
eregations to whom my sermons are read
in absence of pastors, upon groups gath
cred out on prairies and in mining dis
tricts, upon all sick and invalid and aged
ones who cannot attend churches, but TO
whom have long administered through
the printed page. Ny next sermon
will be addressed TO YOU IRON Rome,
Lfaly, for / feel like Paul when he said
so, 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
moving about on land or sea. He was an
old sailor-not from occupation, but from
frequency Of travel. think he could have
taken a vessel across the Mediterranean as
well as some OF the ship captains. The
sailors never scofed at him for being a
''land lubber." II Paups advice had been
taken, the crew would never have gone
ashore at Alelita.
When the vessel went scudding under
bare poles Paul was the only seli-possessed
man on board, and. turning to the excited
passengers, he eXclaims in voice that
sounds above the thunder of the tempest
and the wrath OF the sea: 'Be OF good
cheer"
The men who now 90 to sea with maps,
and charts. and modern compass, warned
by buoy and lighthouse, know nothing OF
the perls OF ancient navigation. Horace
said that the man who first ventured on
the sea must have had n heart bound with
oak and triple brass. People then ven
tured only from headland 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 il off, they at the
last moment leapine into it. Vessels were
then chiefly ships Of burden-the transit
OF passengers being the exceptions 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 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 flag
In those times it was inscribed with the
name Of heather deity. A vessel bound
for Syracuse had on it the inscription
"Castor and Pollux." The ships were pro-
vided with anchors. Anchors were of two
kinds-those that were thrown up onto
the rocks 70 hold the vessel fast This last
kind was what Paul alluded to when he
said: (which hope we have asan anchor
OF the SOUL both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the vail 4"
That was what the sailors call "hook
anchor" The rocks and sand bars, shoals
and headlands not being mapped out, yes
sells carried plumb line. They would drop
II and find the water fifty iathoms, and drop
II again and find il 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 held themselves to the
nearest harbor, although now the worlds
commerce prospers in January as well as
II June, and in mid-winter all over the
wide and stormy deep there floats palaces
OF light, trampling the pillows under foot
and showering the sparks OF terrible fur
naces onthe wild wind, and the Christian
passenger, tippeted and shawled, sits
under the shelter OF the smoke-stack look
ing of upon the phosphorescent deep, on
which Is written in scrolls OF foam and IRE
''Thy way, o God, is in the sea and thy
path in the great waters!"
II is II those days of early navigation
that ! see a group of men. women and
children on the beach OF the Mediter-
Tanesn. Paul is about to leave the con-
eregation TO whom he had preached and
they are come down to see him of. 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 waves it hides
IN its bosom? A few counsels. hastv
goodbye, 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 l want
to urge you all 10 embark for heaven
The church is the dry-dock where souls
arc TO be fitted out for heaven. In max
ing vessel for this voyage the first need
is sound timber. The floor timbers ought
to be of solid stuff For the want Of it,
vessels that looked able to run their lib
booms into the eye of any tempest, when
caught in a storm, have been crushed like
a wafer. The truths OF Gods word are
what | mean by floor timbers. 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 a helm to guide
and turn the craft. Neither pride nor am
hilton nor avarice will do for a rudder.
Love, not only in the heart, but flashing
in the eve and tingling in the hand-love