The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-07-01
HIS DEPARTURE.
Dr. Talmage Leaves a Message to
His People.
Ue Sails for Europe But Dictates Sermon
to BE Read in the TabernacIe-The
People Advised to Be Ready
for the Final Departure.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage sailed for
Europe on the 25th but previously die
tated sermon to be read in his church
at Brooklyn on the succeeding Sunday.
He took his text from II. Timothy, iv.
6: The Time of My Departure is al
Hand" He said.
Departure That is a word used only
twice in all the Bible. But it is a 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-
dians passing the extremities of a
course. 1t is word l have recently
heard applied to my departure from
America to Europe fof a preaching tour
to last until September. In a small and
less significant sense than that implied
in the text 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 as when
applied to change of worlds as when
Paul wrote: ''The time of my departure
is at hand"
Now, departure implies a starting
place and place of destination. When
Paul left this world, what was the
starting point2 It was scene of great
physical 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 open
ing n the top. Through that the pris-
oncr was lowered, and through that
came all the food and air and light re-
ceived. 1t 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 rocf the floor of the upper dun
geon. That was Pauls last earthly
residence. was in that lower dungeon
in November, 1889. 1t is 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 a 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 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 sl1illful 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 sears 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 |
195 strokes bringing the blood. Look |
at Paul's face and look at his arms.
Where did he get those bruises? l |
l. J.
ashore amidst 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 highway
men, for he had been in peril of robbers
and he had money of his own. He was
a mechanic as well as an apostle and l
think the tents he made were rs good |
as his sermons.
There is a wanness about Paurs
looks What makes that? l think q
part of that came from the fact that he
was twenty-four hours on a plank in
the Mediterranean sea suffering terri
bly, before he was rescued; for he says
positively: Il 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 a supernatural joy, and
bow before him, and l 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"
Harl1, what is that shufiing of feet in
the upper dungeon? Why. Paul has an
invitation 10 banquet, and he is going
to dine to-day with the king. Those
shuffling feet are the feet of the execu-
TONERS. They come, and they cry down
through the hole of the dungeon:
''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
good while. I see him rising up and
Strengthening out his stifened limbs.
and pushing back his white hair
from his creviced forehead, 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 70 the place of
execution. They say: Hurry along.
old man, or you viii feel the weight of
our spear. Hurry along" How far
Is il, says Paul, I'VE have TO travel?"
'.,rhrt,e miles Three miles Is q crnnd