Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-06-20
A SOULS DEPARTURE.
DR.. TALMAGE SENDS FROM TH1
OCEAN A SERMON TO HIS READERS.

i'm the Thought of Death as Well as
Sadnes>-Our Friends Gone Before.
BROOKLYN. June I9.-Ecv. Dr.. Tai
mage is now on the Atlantic, having
sailed from New York on the 10Th inst.
for Liverpool, for preaching tour in
England, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden.
Before visiting Sweden DR.. Talnage
will go 20 Russia, there to witness the
reception and disposition of the cargo of
breadstuffs on board The Christian Her
aid relief steamship Leo, which sailed
last week for St. Petersburg. Previous to
his departure he dictated to his stenog-
rapher the following farewell sermon,
to be read by the vast and widely scat
tered audiences whom it is his weekly
privilege to address through the medium
of the newspaper press. He took his
text from Ii Timothy iv, 6, 1.-The time
of my departure is at hand"
Dep lrture! That is a word used only
twice in all the Bible. But it is word
often used in the courtroom aud means
the desertiOn of one course of pleading
for another. 1t is used in navigation to
describe the distance between two me-
ridians passing through the extremities
of a course. 1t is word have recent
ly heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe for a preaching tour
to last until September. In a smaller
and less significant sense than that i'm
piled in the text | can say, 1.-The time of
my departure is at hand"
Through the printing press L address
this sermon to my readers all the world
over, and when they read it | will be
midocean, and unless something new
happens in my marine experiences will
be in no condition to preach. But how
unimportant the word departure when
applied to exchange of continents as
when applied to exchange Of worlds as
when Paul wrote, 1.-The time Of my de-
parture is at hand
Now departure implies a starting
place and place of destination. When
Paul left this world what was the start
ing point? 1t was a scene of great phys
ical distress. 1t was the Tullianum, the
lower dungeon of the Mamertine prison,
Rome, Italy. The top dungeon was bad
enough, it having no means OF ingress
or egress but through an opening in the
top. Through that the prisoner was
lowered, and through that came all the
food and air and light received. 1t was
a terrible place, that upper dungeon;
but the Tullianum was the lower dun
geon, and that was still more wretched,
the only light and the only air coming
through the roof, and that roof the floor
of the upper dungeon. That was Paurs
last earthly residence.
| was in that lower dungeon in No
vember, 1889. 1t is made of volcanic
stone. measured it, and from wall to
wall it was fifteen feet. The highest of
the roof was seven feet from the floor
and the lowest of the roof five feet seven
inches. The opening in the roof through
which Paul was let down was three feet
wide. The dungeon has q seat of rock
two and a half feet high and a shelf of
rock four feet high 1t was there that
PauI spent his last days on earth, and it
is there that see him now in the fear
full dungeon. shivering, blue with the
cold. waiting for that old overcoat which
he had sent for up TO Troas and which
they had not yet sent down, notwith-
standing he had written for it.
THE DUNGEON OF ST. PAUL.
If some skillful surgeon should go into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated
we might find out what are the pros
poets of Paul'sNiving through the rough
imprisonment. IN the first place he is
III on only Two y ears SuOTI Oh STEW
enty At that very time when be most
needs the warmth. and the sunlight, and
the fresh air he is shut out from the SUM-
What are those scars on his ankles?
Why, those We're got when he was fast,
his feet in the stocks. Every time he
turned the flesh on his ankles started
What are those scars on his back? You
know .he WAS whipped five times, each
hundred and ninety-five bruises on the
back Count theIn0 made 10y the Jews
with roGs OF ,elmwood each one Of the
one hundred and ninety-fve strokes
bringing the blood.
Look at Paurs face and look at his
arms. Where did lie get those bruises?
l think it was wht II he was struggling
ashore amid the shivered timbers of the
shipwreck. see a cash in Pauls side.
Where did he get that? | think he got
that in the tussle with highwaynlen, for
he had been in peril of robbers and he
had money of his own. He was a me-
chanic as well as an apostle, and think
the tents he made were as good as his
sermons.
There is wanness about Pauls looks
What makes that? | think a part of
that came from the fact that he was for
twenty-four hours on plank in the
Mediterranean sea, suffering terribly,
before he was rescued, for lie says posi-
lively, Il was highland day in the
deep" Oh, worn out, emaciated old
mani surely you must be melancholy;
no constitution could endure this and be
cheerful. But press my way through
the prison until I come up close to where
f.I, +c47.
through the opening | see on his face a
ST111e1-rl.3tI1ra1 iOv ou6 I how baf,a1a him