The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-25
OFF FOR EUROPE.
DR.. TaInage Leaves for a Preaching
Tour in Foreign Countries.
Z9e Addresses Farewell Sermon to His
Widely Scattered Audisnces-Graphic
Description of the Last Days of
the Apostle Paul and
Ills Execution.

tated to his stenographer the following
farewell sermon to be read by the vast
and widely scattered audiences whom
it is his privilege to address through
the medium of the newspaper press. He
took his text from II. Timothy, w., 6:
'tThe time of my departure is at hand"
Departure! That is 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. It is used in navigation to
describe the distance between two me-
ridians passing through the extremities
OF course. 1t is a word l have recent
ly heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe for a preaching tour
to last until September. In a smaller
and less significant sense than that inn
piled in the text can say ''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 bein mid-ocean,
and unless something new happens in
my marine experience / will be in no
condition to preach. But how unin-
piled to exchange 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 start
ing point? It was a scene of great
physical distress. 1t was the Tullia-
mum, the lower dungeon of the Manner
tine prison, Rome, Italy. The top dun
geon 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 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 dungeon
in November, 's9. 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 frem the floor,
and the lowest of the roof five feet
seven inches. The opening in 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. 1t
was there that Paul spent his last days
on earth, and it is there that see him
now, in the fearful dungeon, 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 skillful surgeon should go
into that dungeon where Paul is incar-
cerated we might find out what are the
prospects of Paurs 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
hisa 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
stroEes-one hundred and ninety-five
bruises on the back count theml) made
by the Jews with rods of elm-wood,
each one of the one hundred and ninety
five 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
amidst the shivered timbers of the ship
wreck. l see a cash in Paul's side
Where did he get that? think he got
that in the tussel with highwaymen, for
he had been in the 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? l 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 day in the
deep" o, WORKOUT, emaciated old
mani surely you must be melancholy;
no constitution could endure this and
be cheerful. But I 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 supernatural joy, and
bow before him, and say: "Aged man,
how came you to 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"
Harkl what is that shutting 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 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" Why, Paul was ready. He
had nothing to pack up He had no
baggage to take He had been ready
good while. 1 see him rising up, and
Strengthening out his stiffened limbs,
and pushing back his white hair
~: o1a~1ioad GorahooJ