Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-09-25
REV. DR.. TaLuAGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: " Five Pictures.s

TEXT. Behold. see the heavens opened"
Acts vii, $500.
Stephen had been preaching a rousing ser
mon, and the people could not stand it.
They resolved to do as men sometimes would
like to do in this day, If they dared, with
some plain preacher of righteousness-kill
him. The only way to silence this man was
to knock the breath out Of him. So they
rushed Stephen out Of the gates of the city,
and. with curses and whoop and below,
they brought him to the cliff. as was the GUS
tom when they wanted to take away life by
stoning. Having brought him to the edge
of the cliff, they pushed him of. After he
had fallen they came and looked down, and
seeing that he was not yet dead thev 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
Tor 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
L want to show YOU to-day five pictures !:
Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen look
ing at CHRIST. Stephen stoned, Stephen
in his dying prayer. Stephen asleep.
First. look at Stephen gazing into heaven.
Before you take "a leap you want to know
where you are going to land. Before you
climb n ladder you want to know to what
point the ladder reaches. And il was right
that stephen. within few moments Of
heaven. should be gazing into it. We would
all do well to be found in the same posture
There is enough in heaven to keep us gaz-
ing. A man of large wealth may have statu-
ary in the hall, and paintings in the sitting
room. and works OF art in all parts
of the house. but he has the chief pictures in
the art gallery. and there hour after hour
you walk with catalogue and glass and ever
increasing admiration. Well, heaven is the
gallery where God has gathered the chief
is His palace. In this lower room where we
stop there ar many adOrnments, tessellated
floor of amethyst. and on the winding cloud
stairs are stretched out canvases on which
comminsle azure and purple and saffron and
gold. But heaven is the gallery in which
Ele chief glories are gathered. There are
the brightest robes. There are the richest
crowns. There are the highest exhilarations
st. John says of it, 1.-The kings of the earth
shall bring their honor and glory into it. :"
And see the procession forming, and in the
line come all empires. and the stars spring
up into an arch for the hosts to march under
lhey keep step to the sound of earthquake
and the pitch of avalanche from the noun
tains, and the flag they bear is the flame of a
consuming world. and all heaven turns out
with harps and trumpets and myriad voiced
acclamation of angelic dominions to well
come them in, and SO the kings of the earth
bring their honor and glory into 1t. Do YOU
wonder that good people often stand, like
stephen. looking into heaven? We havo
many friends there.
There is not a nan here so isolated in life
but there is some one in heaven with whom
he once shook hands. As a man gets older
the number of his celestial acuuaiptances
ran v fiv7I los
one glimpse of them since the night we kissed
them Soodby. and they went away. but still
We stand gazing at heaven. As when some
oil our friends go across the sea. we stand on
the dock, or on the steam tug, and watch
them, and after awhile the hulk of the yes-
sci disappears. and then there is only patch
OF sail on the sky, and soon that is gone, and
they are all out of sight, and yet we stand
looking in the same direction. So when our
friends go away from US into the future
world we keep looking down through the
Narrows and gazing and gazing as though
we expected that they would come out and
stand on some cloud and give US one glimpse
OF their blissful and transfigured faces
While you long to join their companion
ship, and the years and the days go with
such tedium that they break your heart, and
the vipers of pain and sorrow and bereave-
ment keep Snawing 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 face now, so changed has 1t
been with trouble. You wonder If, amid the
myriad delights they have, they care as
gave you helping hand and put their
shoulders under your burdens. You won-
der if they look any older. and sometimes
in the evening tide. when the house Is all
quiet. you wonder if you should call them
by their first name if they would not an
swer. and perhaps sometimes you do make
theeNperiment, and when no one but God
and yourself are there you distinctly call
their names and listen and sit gazing into
heaven.
Pass on now and see Stephen LOOKING
upon Christ. My text says he saw the Son
of Man at the right hand of God. Just how
Christ looked in this world. just how He
looks in heaven: we cannot say. The paint
ers OF the different ages have tried to
imagine the features of Christ and put them
upon canvas, but We will have to wait until
with our own eyes We see Him and with our
own ears we can hear Him. And yet there
Is way of seeing Him and hearing Him
now. 1 have to tell you that unless you see
and hear Christ on earth you will never see
and hear Him in heaven.
Look! There He is. Behold the Lamb of
God! Can you not see Him? Then pray to
God to take the scales of your eyes. Look
that way-try to look that way His voice
comes down to you this day-comes down to
the blindest, to the deafest soul-saying,
Look unto Me, all ye ends Of the earth, and
be ye saved, for am God, ard there is none
else" Proclamation of universal emanci-
patton for all slaves. Tell me. We who know
most OF the worlds history, what other king
ever asked the abandoned, and the forlorn.
and the wretched, and the outcast to come
and sit beside him2 Oh, wonderful invita-
tion. You can take it to-day and stand at
the head of the darkest alley in all this city
and say, Come! Clothes for your rags, salve
for your sores, throne for your eternal
regning. Christ that talks like that and
acts like that and pardons like that-do YOU
wonder that Stephen stood looking at Him?
! hope to spend eternity doing the same
that face once clouded with my sin, but now
radiant with my pardon. I want to touch
that hand that knocked off my shaokles. I
want TO hear the voice that pronounced nv
deliverance. Behold Him, little children.
for if you live to threescore years and ten
you will see none so fair. Behold Him, ye
aged ones, for He only can shine through the
limness of your failing eyesight, Behold
Him, earth. Behold Him. heaven. What a
moment when all the Nations Of the saved
shall gather around Christ! All faces that
way All thrones that way, gazing on Jesus.
His worth if all the Nations knew
Sure the whole earth would love Him too.
pass on now and look at Stephen stoned
The world has always wanted to get rid of
good men. Their very life is an assault
Upon wickedness. Out with Stephen
through the gates of the city. Down with
him over the precipices. Let every man
ONE up and drop stone upon his head.
But these men did not so much kill Stephen
Us they killed themselves. Every stone re-
bounded upon them. While these murderers
ire transfixed by the scorn of all good men
stephen lives in the admiration of all Chris
endom. stephen stoned, but Stephen alive.
So all good men must be pelted. "All who
will live gcdiy in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution" 1t is no eulogy Of man to
ay that everybody likes him. Show me
'ny one who is doing all his duy to state
'r church, and will show you scores Of men
who utterly abhor him.
j. I'll men sneak we'll nf Won It Ia hansrae
rou are either a laggard or q doit. ffA
steamer makes rapid progress through the
waves. the water will boil and foam all
around it. Brave soldiers of Jesus Christ
will hear the c6rhineA click When aaa