Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-06-25
HIS DEPARTURE.
DR.. Talmage Leaves a Message to
His People.
10 Sails for Europe but Dictates Sermon
TO he Read In the Tabernacle-Ths
People Advised to Be Resdy
for the Final Departure.

Europe ON the 25th but previously die
tated O sermon to be read in his church
at Brooklyn on the succeeding Sunday.
He took his text from ii. Timothy, iv.
6: 1.-THE Time of My Departure is at
Hand" He said
Departure! That is a word used only
twice in all the Bible. But it is word
often used in the court room and means
the desertion of one course of pleading
for another. 1t is used in navigation to
describe the distance between two meri-
dams passing the extremities of n
course. 1t is word ] have recently
heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe fof n preaching tour
to last until September. In small 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, and
when they read it will be mid-ocean,
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 rs when
applied to change of worlds as when
Paul wrote: 1.-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. twas 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 open
ing In the top. Through that the pris-
oner was lowered, and through that
came all the food and air and light re-
ceived. 1t was a terrible place, that
upper dungeon; but the Tullianun 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 dun
geon. That was Paul's last earthly
residence. I was in that lower dungeon
in November, 1889. 1t 10 made of vol
canic 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 seat of rock two and n
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 cold, waiting
for that old overcoat which he had sent
for up to Troas, and which they had
not yet sent down, Notwithstanding he
had written for it.
If some slSillful surgeon should go in
to that dungeon where Paul is incarcer-
ated, 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 20. 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-195 bruises on the
back count themD made by the Jews
with rods of elmwood, each one of the
1915 strokes bringing the blood. Look
at Paul's face and look at his arms.
Where did he get those bruises? l
think it was when he was struggling
ashore amidst the shivered timbers of
the shipwreck. see cash in Pauls
side. Where did he get that? / think
he got that in;the tussle with highway
men, for he had been in peril of robbers
md 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 q wanness about PauPs
looks What makes that? think
part of that came from the fact that he
was twenty-four hours on plank in
the Mediterranean sea suffering terri
bly, before he was rescued; for he Gays
81 was night and day in
the deep" Oh, worn out, 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 / come up close
to where he is, and by the faint light
that streams through the opening / see
on his face n supernatural JOY, and
bow before him, and I 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 departure is at hand"
Harlk! what is that shutting Of feet in
the upper dungeon? Why, Paul has an
invitation to a banquet, and he is going
A - nm