The Bossier banner., 1892-08-25

Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage to His
Scattered Congregations.
A Sermon Dictated on the Eve of His De-
parture for Europe-The Meaning of
the Word Departure to
the Christian.

by his vast and scattered congregation
reached by the press, on the eve of his
departure for Europe. The text is:
The time of my departure is at hand.-Timo
thy iv., 6.
Departure! That is word used only
dwice 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 eXtrenities of q course. 1t is n
word have recently heard applied to
my departure from America to Europe
for preaching tour to last until Sep
tember. In smaller and less signif-
cant sense than that implied in the
text | can say: THE time of my de-
parture is at hand" Through the
printing press | address this sermon to
my readers all the world over, and
when they read it | will be mid-occan,
and unless something new happens in
my marine experiences | will be in no
condition to preach. But how unim-
portant the word departure when ap-
piled to exchange of continents as when
applied to exchange of worlds, as when
Paul wrote: ''The time of my departure
is at hand"
Now, departure implies starting
place and place of destination. When
Paul left this world, what was the
starting point? 1t was scene of great
physical distress. 1t was the Tulli-
Rnum, the lower dungeon of the Ma
mertine 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. It was a terrible place,
that upper dungeon; but the Tullianum
was the lower dungeon, 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 Pauls last earthly
residence. / was in that lower dun
geon in November, 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 OPEN
ing in the roof through which Paul was
let down was three feet wide The
dungeon has a seat of rock two and
one-half feet high and shelf of rock
four feet high. 1t was there that paul
spent his last days on earth, and it is
4hpra hat T
ful 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, not
withstanding he had written for it.
1t some skillful surgeon should go in
to that dungeon where Paul is incar-
cerated we might find out what are the
prospects of Paul's living through 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 sun
light 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---one 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-five strokes bringing the blood.
Look at Paufs face and look at his
arms. Where did he get those bruises?
i think it was when he was struggling
ashore amidst the shivered timbers of
the shlpwreck. see cash in Paurs
side. Where did he get that? think
he got that in the tussel with highway
men, for he had been in peril of rob-
bers, and he had money of his own. He
was a mechanic as well as an apostle.
and think the tents he made were as
good as his sermons.
There is a wanness about Paul,s
looks What makes that? I think a
part of that came from the fact that he
was for twenty-four hours on a plank
in the Mediterranean sea, suffering
terribly, before he was rescued: for he
says positively: II was night and a
day in the deep" Oh, worn-out, ema-
ciated old man, surely you must be
melancholy. No constitution could en-
dure this and be cheerful. But [ press
my way through the prison until I
come up close to 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 keen
cheerful amidst all this gloom?" His
voice startles the darkness of the nlace
as he cries out: Il am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand" Hark, what is that shuf-
fling of feet in the upper dungeon?
Why, Paul has an invitation to a
banquet and he is going to dine
to-day with the King. Those
shutting feet are the feet of the
executioners. They come, and they
cry down through tl.e hole of the dun
geon: Hurry up, old man. Come. now:
get yourself ready" Why, Paul was
ready. He had nothing to pack up. He
had no baggage to take. He had been
ready for a good while. I see him rising
up, and Strengthening out his stiffened
limbs, and pushing back his white hair
from his rravicad forabaad an1 sao H.,