Connecticut western news., 1892-06-23
A SOULS DEPARTURE.
OR. TAlMAGE SENDS FROM THE OCEAN A SERMON TO HIS READERS.

The Hour of Death aud Other Lessons
 from St. PauPs Fsrewen-There Is Joy
 in the Thought of Death as We'll as
 Sadness-Our Friends Gone Before.
 BROOKLYN, June 19.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage is now on the Atlantic, having jailed from New York on the 18th inst. for Liverpool, for preaching tour in England, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden. Before visiting Sweden Dr. Talmage will go to 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, "The time of my departure is at hand"
 Departurel That is word used only twice in all the Bible. But it is 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 between two me- ridians passing through the extremities of course. It is word have recent Hheard applied to my departure from America to Europe for preaching tour to last until September. In smaller and less significant sense than that i'm piled in the text can say, "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 l will be midocean, and unless something new happens in my marine experiences l 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? It was a scene of great phys ical distress. It was the Tullianum, the lower dungeon of the Mamertine prison, Rome, Italy. The top dungeon was bad enough, it having no means of ingress 0SICSo UuJ hA OpculuS III Jl0 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 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 Paul's last earthly residence
 Twas in that lower dungeon in No vember, 1889. It is made of volcanic stone. l measured it, and from wall to wall 1t 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 seat of rock two and half feet high and shelf of rock four feet high. It was there that Paul spent his last days on earth, and it is there that see him now, in the fear 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, 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 Paurs living through the rough imprisonment. In the first place he is an old man, only two years short of sev- enty. 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 got when he was fast, his feet in the stocks. Every time he turned the flesh on bis 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-fve bruises on the back Count themD made by the Jews with rods of elmwood, each one of the one hundred and ninety-fve strokes bringing the blood.
 Look at Pauls face and look at his arms. Where did he get those bruises? think it was when he was struggling ashore amid the shivered timbers of the shipwreck. 1 see gash in Paul's side Where did he get thatp 1 think he got that in the tussle with highwaymen, for he had been in peril of robbers and he had money of his own. He was me- chanic 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? 1 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 he says posi- lively, "I was night and day in the deep.' Oh, worn out, emaciated old manl surely you must be melancholy; no constitution could endure this and be cheerful. But press my way through the prison until come up close to where he is, and by The faint light that streams through the opening see on his face a supernatural joy, and bow before him, and 1 say, Aged man, how can you keep cheerful amid all this gloomr' His voice startles the darkness of the place as he cries out, 'l am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand"
 uarkl what is that shufding of feet in the upper dungeon? Why, Paul has an mUs&eloh tO u DduqueC, duu He IS SOAug to dine today with the king Those shufiing feet are the feet of the execu tioners. They come, and they cry down through the hole of the dungeon: "Hur ry up, old man. Come now; get your self ready" Why, Paul was ready. He had nothing to pack up. He had no bag gage to take. He had been ready good while see him rising up, and straight ening out his limbs, and pushing bacl his white hair from his creviced fore head, and see him looking up througi the hole in the roof of the dungeon int the face of his executioners, and hea him say, 1 am now ready to be offered