The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-09-20
PICTURES EXAMINED.
REV, DR., TAlMAes PRESENTS A clus.
reR OF RAPHAELS.

Life of stephen The Discourse Grouped
Into Five Pictures A Remarkably Elo-
quent sermon.
NEW YORK, Sept 15.--In his sermon
for today Rev, DR., Talmage has chosen
theme as picturesque as it is spiritu-
ally inspiring. He groups his discourse
into Five Pictures. +" The text selected
was, Behold, see the heavens
opened, Acts vii, 5000
Stephen had been preaching rousing
sermon, and the people could not stand
it, They resolved to do as men some-
times would like to do in this day, if
they dared, with some plain preacher of
ighteousness-kill him. The only way
to silence this man was to knock the
breath ont Of him. SO they rushed
Stephen out Of the gates of the city,
and, with curse and whoop and below,
they brought him to the cliff, as was
the custom when they wanted to take
away life by stoning, Having brought
him to the edge Of the cliff, they pushed
him off, After he had fallen they came
and looked down, and seeing that he
was not yet dead they began to drop
stones upon him, stone after stone.
Amid this horrible rain of missiles
Stephen chambers upon his knees and
folds his hands, while The blood drips
from his temples, and then, looking up,
he makes two prayers--one for himself
and one for his murderers. Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. That was for
himself. lord, lay not this sin to their
CHARGE That was for his murderers.
Then, from pain and loss of blood, he
swooned away and fell asleep,
Five Pictures.
Iwant TO show you today five pictures
Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen
looking at Christ, Stephen stoned, Ste
phen in his dying prayer, Stephen asleep.
First, look at Stephen gazing into
heaven Before you take leap you
want to know where you are going to
land. Before you climb ladder you
want to know to what point the ladder
reaches. And it was right that Stephen,
within few moments Of heaven, should
be gazing into it, Wewould all do we'll
to be found in the same posture. There
is enough in heaven to keep us gazing,
A man of large wealth may have statu-
airy i'll the hall, and paintings in the sit
ting roon and works If art in al narts
Of the house, but he has the-chief pic
lures in the art gallery, and there hour
after hour You walk with catalogue and
GLASS and eyo, increasino ad,nira+ion
We'll bnoron is tba oollerr ,rboro Ca
has ootbered tbe chief troasnres Of bis
realm Tho whole rriverSo Is his mol
noe IN tbis lower room where yyo Ston
tbo,o o,o ,,,opv odo,,,,,,or+s +osso11,+od
foor of amatbyst and ON tbe windipg
cIond stairs ore stro+cbod on = co,,osos ~,
which co,n,,iro1o oy,,ro and ,,,r,,1o ord
saffron and Gold Rnt heaven is the oal-
lerv in which ,bo chief o1orioS oro oo+b
orod Tboro oro tho l,iah+ost -
There are the richest crowns There arc
the highest oxbilarotions e. 1obn sors
Of II esTba lings Of tho oarth shaii
br;no +boi, bo,or o,,d IL, 80 !. ),
And coo +I,o ,,rocossio,' for,,,inc a,a
in tbo lima COMO al on,niros .ana A.,
s+ore snriro mn into On orol, fo, +bo
hosts ~ ,norcI, ,,ndor Tho toor sto,,
to tbe sound Of eortbor.1ro and tho
,,itcb of nva1arc,n,
and the flag thew bear is the flame Of "A
consuming world, and all heaven turns
out with harps and trumpets and myriad
voiced reclamation of angelic dominions
the earth bring their honor and glory
into If. Do Won wonder that good peonle
often stand. like Stephep. looking into
heaven? We have MANY friends there
There is not man here so isolated
in life but there is some one in heaven
with whom he once shook hands, Asa
man gets older the number of his celes-
tial acouaiDtances very raDidly multi-
plies. We have not had one gjimDse Of
them since the night we kissed them
goodby. and they went away. Init still
we stand gazing at heaven. AS when
some of our friends 90 across the sea,
we stand on the dock. or on the steam ting,
and watch them. and after awhile the
bulk Of the vessel disanpears. and then
there is only a patch of sail on the sky.
and soon that il gone. and thew are ali
out of sight. and vet we stand looking
in the same direction So when onr
friends 90 away from MS into the fpture
world we keen looking down throuob
the Narrows and gazing and gazing as
though we eynecfed that thew would
come ont and stand on some cloud and
give ms one plimDse of their bljssful and
TRANSPORTED faces.
While you long to join their colnpan-
ionship, and the years and the days go
with such tedium that they break your
heart, and tbe yipers of pain and sorrow
and bereavement keep gnawing at your
vitals, you will stand, like Stephen,
gazing into heaven. You wonder if they
have changed since you saw them last.
You wonder if they would recognize
your lace now, SO changed has 1t been
with trouble. You wonder II, amid the
myriad dellshts theS nave they care as
much 1of you as they USED TO When they
gave you helplng hand ana put their
shoulders under your burdens You won