Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-06-23
ASOUI,S DEPARTURE.
DR.. TALMAeE SENDS FROM THE
OCEAN a SERMON TO HIS READERS.
The Hour of Death and other Lessons
from St. paurs Farewen-There Is Joy
In the Thought Of Death as Well as

from St. paurs Farewen-There Is JOY
In the Thought Of Death as Well as
- sadness-our Friends Gone Before.
BROOKLYN, June 19.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage IS now on the Atlantic, having
as:led 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 ", 6, The time
of my departure is at hand.
Departure! That is a word used only
twice in all the Bible. But it is a 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. II is a word / 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 i'm
piled in the text l can say. The time of
my departure is at hand"
Through the printing press l address
this sermon to my readers all the world
over, and when they read it l 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 a place OF destination. When
Paul leftthis world. what was the start
ing point: 1t was a cen of great phys
ical distress. i, was the Tullianum. the
lower dungeon OF the Mamertine prison.
Rome, Italy. The top dungeon was bad
enough, it having ne deans Of ingress
or egress but through an opening III 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 Pauls
last earthly residence.
l was in that lower dungeon in No
vember, 1889. II 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 fvefeet sever
inches. The opening il 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 a 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, III The fear
full dungeon, shivering, blue with the
cold, waiting foI that Old overcoat which
he had sent for up to Troas and which
they had not yet sent down, notwith-
standing he had written for 1t.
THE DUNGEON OF ST. pACL.
If some skillful surgeon should 20 into
that dungeon where Paul is incarceratcd
we might find out what are the pros
poets of Paul's living through the rough
Imprisonment. In the first place he is
an old man. only two years short Of Sev-
enty. At that Very time when he most
needs the warmth, and the sunlight, and
the fresh ar ne is shut out from the sun.
What are those scars on his ankles?
Why, those We're got when he was fast,
turned the flesh on his ankles started.
What are those scars on his back? You
know he wa whipped five times. each
time getting thirty-nine strokesAoae
hundred and ninety-tive bruises on the
back count Them made by the Jews
with rods Of elnwood, each one of the
one hundred and ninety-fve strokes
bringing the blood.
Look at Pauls face and LOOK at lis
arms. Where did he get those bruises:
I think it was when he was struggling
ashore amid the shivered timbers of the
shipwreck.- l see & cash III Paul's side.
Where did he get that: thin he got
that in TIE tussle with h~ighwaymen. for
he had been in peril of robbers and he
had money OF his own. He was a me-
chanic as well as an apostle, and think
the tents he made We're as good as MS
sermons.
There is a wauness about Paul's looks.
What makes that: | think a part Of
that anne from the fact that he Was for
t%wenty-four hours en- a plank in the
Mediterranean sea, suffering terribly,
before he was rescued, for he says posi-
lively, u was a night and a day IL the
deep" Oh, worn ont, emaciated old
man: surely you must be melancholy;
no constitution could endure this and be
cheerful. But press my way through
the prison until cone up close to wbere
he Is, and by the faint lightthat streams
through the opening l see on his face a
supernatural JOY. and bow before him.
and l say, Aged man, how can you
keep cheerful amid al this gloom" His
voice s~tartles the darkness Of the place
as he cries ont, u am now ready TO be
offered, and the time of my departure Is
at hand"
Hark.. what is that shutfling of feet in
the upper dungeon: Why, Paul has an
invitation TO a banquet, and he is going
10 dine today with the king. Those
shifting feet are the feet Of the execu-
TONERS. They come, and tneycry down
through the hole of the dungeon: "Har-
~ up, CID man. Come now; get your
self ready" Why, Paul was read:y. He
had nothing to pack up. He had 40 bag
gage TO take. He had been ready a good
while. l see himrising up, and straight
ening out his limbs, and pushing back
his white hair from his creviced fore
head, and see him looking up through
the hole in the roof of the dungeon into
the face of his executioners, and hear
him say, Il am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand
Then they lift him ont Of the dungeon,
and they start with him to the place OF
execution. They say: Hurry along, old
man, or you will feel the weight of our
spear. Huliy along" How far is it.
saws Paul."we have to t~rayel:" Three