News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-06-23
A SOULS DEPARTURE.
Dr.. TALMAaE SENDS FROM THE
OCEAN A SERMON TO HIS READERS.

OCEAN A SERMON TO HIS READERS.
The Hour of Death and Other Lessons
from st. Paul's FarcweII-There Is 10!
In the Thought of Death as Well a
Sadness-Our Friends Gone Before.
BROOKLYN, June 19.--Rev. DR.. Tai
mage is now OH the Atlantic, having
sailed from New York on the 10Th inst
for Liverpool, for preaching tour IL
England, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden
Before visiting Sweden DIR. Talmage
will go to Russia, there to witness the
reception and disposition of the cargo OF
breadstuffs on board TIL Christian Her
aid relief steamship Leo, which sailed
last week for st. Petersburg. Previous tt
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 a course. 1t is word l have recent
ly heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe for preaching tour
to last until September. In smaller
and less significant senserhan 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, "The time of my de-
parture is at hand"
Now departure implies a starting
place aud place of destination. When
Paul left this world, what was the start
ing point? 1t was 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 Paul's
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 a seat of rock
two and 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 l 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.
Ii some skillful surgeon should go into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated
we might find out what are the pros
poets of PauIs living through the rough
imprisonment. In the first place he is
an old man, only two years short of sew
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 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-fve bruises ON the
back Count themD made by the Jews
with RODS of elmwood, 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?
think it was when he was struggling
ashore amid the shivered timbers of the
shipwreck. see cash in Paul's side.
Where did he get that9 | 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 wanness about Paul's 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 he says posi-
lively, 81 was night and a day in the
deep" Oh, worn out, emaciated old
mani surely you must be melancholy;
no constitution could endure this and be
cheerful. But l press my way through
the prison until | come up close to where
he is, and by the faint light that streams
through the opening l see on his face a
supernatural joy, and bow before him,
and say, Gagged man, how can you
keep cheerful amid 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 departure is
at hand"
Harki what is that shutting of feet in
the upper dungeon? Why, Paul has an
invitation to banquet, and he is going
TO dine today with the king. Those
feet are the feet of the execu-
TONERS. They come, and they cry down
through the hole of the dungeon: ''Hur-
ry up. old man. Come now; get your
self ready" W~hv PauI 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 hrs limbs, and pushing baaic
his white hair from his creviced fore
head, and see him looking up through
the hole in the roof of the dungeon into
the face OF his executioners, and hear
him say, Il am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand"
Then they lift him out of the dungeon.
and they start with him to the place of
execution. They say: Hurry along, old
man, or You will feel the weight of our
spear. Hurry along" GLOW far is it,"
says Paul, 1--WE have to travel?'' 'Three
miles" Three miles is good way for
IN old man to travel after he has been
and crippled with maltreat-
ment. But they soon get to the place of
execution-Acqu8 Saliva = and he is {
fastened to the pillar of martyrdom 1t
Toes not take any strength to tie him
last. He makes no resistance
o Paul! why not now strike for your
life? You have a great many friends
lere. With that withered hand Just |
|