The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-24
A SOULS DEPARTURE.
DR.. TALMA6E SENDS FROM THE
OCEAN A SERMON TO HIS READERS.

The Hour of Death and Other Lessons
from st. Paul's FareweIl-There Is Joy
in the Thought of Death as Well as
Sadness-Our Friends Gone Before.
BROOKLYN, June l9.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage is now on the Atlantic, having
sailed from New York on the 18th inst.
for Liverpool, for a preaching tour in
England, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden.
Before visiting Sweden DR.. Talmage
will go to Russia, there to witness the
reception and disposition of the cargo of
breadstuffs on board The Christian Her
aid relief steamship Leo, which sailed
last week for St. Petersburg Previous to
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
Departure! 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 have recent
ly heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe for a preaching tour
to last until September In smaller
and less significant sense than that i'm
piled i'll 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 be
midocean, and unless something new
happens in my marine experiences 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 and place of destination. When
Paul left this world what was the start
ing point? 1t was a 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, 1883 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 a 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 fear
full 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-
he had written for it.
THE DUNGEON OF ST. PAUL.
If some skillful surgeon should go into |
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated
we might find out what are the pros
poets of Paul's living through the rough
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 thirry-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-fve strokes
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 amid the shivered timbers of the
shipwreck. see a cash in Paul's side.
Where did he get that? | 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 a me-
,hanic as well as an apostle, and think
the tents he made were as good as his
sermons.
There is a wanness about Paul's looks
What makes that? | think part of
hat came from the fact that he was for
hours on plank in the
Mediterranean sea, suffering terribly,
before he was rescued, for he says posi-
lively, 81 was a night and day in the
leep." Oh, worn out, emaciated old
nan! surely you must be melancholy;
10 constitution could endure this and be
cheerful. But press my way through |
he prison until come up close to where
lie is, and by the faint light that streams
through the opening see on his face a
joy, and bow before him, {
md | saw {" Qed man how can Won !