News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-09-08
TALMAGE IN EUROPE.
EXTRAORDINARY CROWDS GATHER
TO HEAR THE AMERICAN DIVINE.

The witnesses to st. PauPs Combat nj
Ephesus and the Witnesses to Every
Mans Combat with Sin-The Welcome
waiting in Heaven for the Victor.
LONDON, Sept. 4.-The great outpour-
fngs to hear DR.. Talmage preach con-
tinue. Probably the greatest demon
stration during the past month was that
at the town hall, Birmingham, where
he delivered three addresses the same
evening to audiences aggregating $4,000
persons. At Sheffield, Derby, Leicester,
Exeter and Bristol also phenomenal au-
diences assembled, the most cordial well
come being everywhere accorded him.
The sermon selected for publication this
week is entitled Celestial Sympathi2
ers," the text being taken from CORN
thians XIV, 80, Il have fought with beasts
at Ephesus," and Hebrews xii, 1, 'See-
ing we also are comprised about with
so great a cloud of witnesses"
Crossing the Alps by the Mount Gents
pass or through the Mount Gents tup.
mel, you are in few hours set down at
Verona, Italy, and in few minutes be-
gin examining one of the grandest ruins
of the world-the amphitheater. The
whole building sweeps around you in a
circle. You stand in the arena where
the combat was once fought or the race
run, and on all sides the seats rise, tier
above tier, until you count forty eleva-
lions or galleries, as | shall see fit to
call them, in which sat the senators,
the kings and the twenty-five thousand
excited spectators.
At the sides of the arena and under
the galleries are the cages in which the
Hons and tigers are kept without food
until, frenzied with hunger and thirst,
they are let out upon some victim who,
with his sword and alone, is condemned
10 meet them. 1 think that Paul him
self once stood in such place, and that
it was not only figuratively but literal
ly that he had ''fought with beasts at
Ephesus."
The gala day has come. From all the
world the people are pouring into We
roma. Men, women and children, ora
tors and senators, great men and small,
thousands upon thousands, come, until
ahe first gallery is full, and the second,
the third, the fourth, the fifth-all the
way up to the twentieth, all the way
Up to the thirtieth, all the way up to
the fortieth. Every place is filed.
immensely of audience sweeping the
great circle. Silencel The time for
the contest has come. A Roman official
leads forth the victim into the arena.
Let him get his sword with firm grip
into his right hand. The twenty-five
Thousand sit breathlessly watching. l
hear the door at the side of the arena
creak open. Out plunges the half starved
llion, his tongue athirst for blood, and
with roar that brings all the galleries
Ito their feet he rushes against the sword
of the combatant.
! Do you know how strong a stroke
man will strike when his life depends
lupon the first thrust of his blade? The
wild beast, lame and bleeding, sinks
back toward the side of the arena; then,
rallying his wasted strength, he comes
up with fercer eye and more terrible
roar than ever, only to be driven back
with a fatal wound, while the combat
ant comes in with stroke after stroke.
until the monster is dead at his feet, and
the twenty-five thousand people clap
their hands and utter shout that makes
the city tremble
THERE ARE LIONS IN THE WAY.
Sometimes the audience came to see a
race; sometimes to see gladiators fight
each other, until the people, compassion
ate for the fallen, turned their thumbs
down as an appeal that the vanquished
aOe spared, and sometimes the combat
Arzrnc.- rzzitln ,nrild .lanaafzl