Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-06-24
ON THE ,OCEAN BLUE.
| !
rALMAoE SAILINGTOWARD THE
MOTHERLAND
He Dictates n Sermon for Use i~ the
Press-"The Hour Of My Departure
Has Come"-Echoes from til" life of
st. Paul.

BROOKLYN, N Y, June ~ 1SJe.-Rev. Dr.
ralmage is now on the Atlantic, having sailed
rom New York on the 18th inst. for Liverpool,
or y preaching tour in England, Scotland,
ireland, and Sweden. Before visiting Sweden,
Or. Talmage will go TO Russia, there to wit
hess the reception and disposition or the cargo
Of breadstufs on board the Christian Herald
relief steamship Leo. which sailed last week
or St Petersburg. Previous 10 his departure,
ae dictated to his stenographer the following
farewell sermon, TO be read by the vast ana
widely scattered audiences whom IL is his
weekly privilege TO address through the medi-
am OF the newspaper press. He took his text
from IL Timothy 4:6: The time OF my depart
Are is at hand"
Departure That is word used
only twice in all the bible. But it is a
word often used in the courtroom and
means the desertion of one course of
pleading for another. 1t is used in
navigation to describe the distance be-
tween two meridians passing through
the extremities of course. 1t is
word have recently heard applied to
my departure from America TO Europe
for preaching tour to last until Sep
TENDER In a smaller and less significant
sense than that implied in the text L
can say: 1.-The time of my departure is
at hand" Through the printing press
address this sermon to my readers all
the world over, ana when they read 1T
will be mid ocean, and unless some
thing new happens in my marine ex-
periences / will be in no condition 10
preach. But how unimportant the
word departure, when applied to ex-
change of continents as when applied
to exchange of worlds as when Paul
wrote, The time of my departure is
at hand.
Now, departure implies a starting
place and place of destination. When
Paul left this world, what was the
starting-point? 1t was scene ofgreat
physical distress. 1t was the Tulli-
anum, the lower dungeon of the Mann
ertine prison, RoTe, 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 n terri
BILE place, that upper dungeon; but the
l. Ndo NhC lON Nhh ana
that was still more wretched. the only
LIGHT and the only air coming through
the roof, and that ROOD the floor of the
upper dungeon. That was Paurs last
earthly residence. was in that lower
dungeon in November, 1889. 1t is made
of volcanic stone. l measured it, and
from wall TO wall it was fifteen feet.
h. Hsn.l,osN II fnnt
from the floor, and the lowest of the
roof five feet seven inches. The OPEN
ing in the roof through which Paul was
let down was three feet wide. The
dungeon has a seat of rock two and a
half feet high, and shelf of rock four
feet high. 1t was there that Paul spent
his last days on earth, and it is there
that see him now, in the fearful dun
geon, 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, not
withstanding he had written for it.
If some sltillful surgeon should go
into that dungeon where Paul is in
carcerated, we might find out what are
LllG DIOSDtCJS VI dui > living lnIOuR
the rough imprisonment, In the first
place he is an old man, only two years
short of seventy. At that very time
when he most needs the warmth and
the sunlight and the fresh air. he is
shut out from the sun What are those
scars on his ankles? Why, those were
gotten 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 time
getting thirty-nine strokes-oue
hundred and ninety-five bruises on the
back Count themD made by the Jews
with rods of elm-wood, each one of the
one hundred and ninety-fve strokes
bringing the blood. Look at Paul's
face and look at his arms. Where did
he get those bruises? / think it was
when he was struggling ashore amidst
the shivered timbers of the shipwreck
see cash in Paul's side. Where did
he get that? | think he got that in
the tussle with highwaymen, for he
had been in peril of robbers, and he
ldb VI hlo OWus llC Ndo ~ luC-
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? l think a
part of that came from the fact that he
was for twenty-four hours on a plank in
the Mediterranean Sea, suffering terri
bly,, before he was rescued; for he says
positively, ~ was night and day in
the deep" Oh, WORKOUT, emaciated
old man! surely you must be melan-
choly: no constitution could endure
this and be cheerful But press my
way through the prison until l come
up close 10 where he is, and by the
faint light that streams through the
opening ! see on his face a super
natural joy, and / bow before him,
and say, aged man, how can you
keep cheerful amidst all this gloom?"
His voice startles the darkness Of the
place as he cries out, 81 am now ready
to be offered, and the time of my de-
parture is ut hand" Hank! what is
that shutting of feet in the upper dun
geon? Why, Paul has an invitation TO