The Red Cloud chief., 1892-07-01
HIS DEPARTURE.
Dr.. Talmage Leaves a Message to
Ills People.
IIe Sails for Europe hut Dictates q Sermon
10 Be Read In the Tabernacle Tho
People Advised to lie Ready
for the Final Departure.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage sailed for
Europe on the 25th but previously die
tated n sermon to be read in his church
Mt Brooklyn on the succeeding Sunday.
He took his text from II. Timothy, iv.
9: "The Time of My Departure is at
Hand" lie said.
Departure! That Is a word used only
twice in all the Bible. But IL is a word
often used In the court room and means
the descrtion of one course of pleading
for another. IL is used in navigation to
describe the distance between two meri.
dams passing the e~xtremities of a
course. II is a word / have recently
heard applied TO my departure from
America to Europe fof n preaching tour
to last until September. In a small and
less significant sense than that implied
In the text I can say: 1.-The time of my
departure Is at hand" Through the
printing press I address this sermon TO
my readers all the world over, and
when they read II l will be mid-ocean,
and unless something new happens In
my marine experiences I will be in no
condition to preach. But how unim-
portant the word departure when APP
piled to exchange of continents as when
applied to change Of worlds as when
Paul wrote: 1.-THE time of my departure
Ia at hand"
Now, departure implies a starting
place ard n place Of destination. When
Paul left this world, what was the
starting point? It was q scene of great
physical 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 or egress but through an G
Ing In the top. Though that the pris-
oncr was lowered, and through that
cane all the food and air and light re-
ccived. 1t was q terrible place, that
upper dungeon; but the Tullianum was
the lower dungeon, and that was still
more w%retched, 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 is made of vol
canic stone. I measured il, 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 q seat of rock two and a
half feet high, and n 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 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.
II some skillful 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 backP You know he was
whipped five times, each time getting
thirty-nine strokes-l05 bruises on the
back Count themD made by the Jews
with rods of elmwood, each one Of the
l05 strokes bringing the blood. Look
Mt Paul's face and look at his arms.
Where did he get those bruises? !
think 1t was when he was struggling
ashore amidst the shivered timbers of
NE shipwreck. l see a cash in Paul's
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. lie was
q mechanic rs we'll as an apostle, and I
think the tents he made were as good
rs his sermons.
There Ii q wanness about Pauls
looks. What makes that? l think q
part Of that came from the fact that he
vas twenty-four hours on a plank in
the Mediterranean sea suffering terri
bly, before he WIS rescued; for he says
positively: ~ was a night and a day in
the deep" Oh, worn out, emaciated
old man! surely you must be melan-
cholyj 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 n supernatural joy, and l
bow before him, and / 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"
Hark! what is that shufling 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 dungeons:
"Hurry up, old man. Come, now, get
yourself ready" Why, Paul was ready.
He had nothing to pack up. He had no
baggage to take. He had been ready n
good while. ! see him rising up and
STRENGTHENING out his stiffeued limbs,
and n hack his vhife hair