The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-09-27

ROv. DR.. TaImage DiscourseB on
Saint Stephen.
And Draws word Pictures or the Last
Hours OF the Mmrtyr-A Theme
Both Picturesque and splr-
ifuaIIy Inspiring.


The following discourse on Five
Pictures" depicting the last hours OF
Saint stephen. Is chosen by Rev. IT.
Dewitt Talmage for publication this
week il is based ON the text:
Behold / SEQ the heavens opened-Anta
vi. 81.
Stephen had been preaching n rous-
ing sermon, and the people could not
stand IL. They resolved to do as men
sometimes would like to doin this day,
II they dared. with some plain preach.
er Of righteousness-kil him. The only
way 20 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, aud whoop. and bel.
low. 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 of. 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 mp
on his knees and folds his hands,
while the blood drips from his tenn
pies, and then, looking up, he makes
two prayers-one for himself and one
for his murderers. Lord Jesus, re-
ceive nav spirit" that was for himself
lord. lay not this sin TO their charge"
that was for his inurderers. Then,
from pain and loss Of blood, he swooned
away and fell asleep.
want to show you to-day five pict-
ures-
stephen gazing into Heaven. Stephen
looking at Chsist. Stephen stoned.
Stephen 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 lad
der reaches. And it was right that
Stephen, within a 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 gazing. A man of
large wealth may have statuary 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 treasures of
Ills realm. The whole universe Is His
palace. In the lower room where
we stop there are many Rdornmrnts;
tessellated floor of amethyst, and on
the winding cloud-stairs are stretched
out canvas on which commingle azure,
and purple, and saffron, and gold. But
Heaven Is the gallery in which the
chief glories are gathered. There are
the brightest robes There are the
richest crowns. There are the high
est exhilarations. ST. John says of It:
1.-THE kings OF the earth shall bring
their honor and glory into it." And l
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. They keep step TO the
sound of earthquake and the pitch of
avalanche from the mountains, and
the flag they beGr Is the flame of n
consuming world, and all Heaven
turns out with harps and trumpets
and myriad-voice1 acclamations Of
angelic dominiOns to welcome them in,
and so the kings of the earth bring
their honor and glory into it. Do You
wonder that good people often stand,
like Stephen, looking into Heaven?
We have many friends there.
There is not man SO isolated in life
l. IN
whom he once shook hands. AS man
gets older, the number of his celestial
RcquRintances very rapidly multiplies
We have not had one glimpse Of them
since the night we kissed them good
by. and they went away; but still we
stand gazing at Heaven. As when
some of 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 vessel disappears, and
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 directions; so when our
friends 20 away from us into the flu
ture 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 TRANSPORTED faces.
While Won long TO join their COM
partnership, and the years and the days
90 with such tedium that they break
your heart, and the vipers obtain, and
sorrow, and bereavement keep gnaw-
ing at your vitals, you will stand, like
stephen. gazing into Heaven. You
wonder If they have changed since
you saw them last. You wonder IL
they would recognize your face now,
SO changed has it been with trouble.
You wonder If, amid the myriad de-
lights they have. they care as much
for you as they used to when they
gave you helping hand and put their
shoulder under your burdens You
woHder if they look any older; and
sometimes in the evening tide, when
the house is all quiet, you wonder IL
you should call them by their first
name IL they would not answer; and
perhaps sometimes you do make the
experiment, 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 look
ing 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 can not say. The painters of the
different ages have tried to imagine
the features of Christ, and put them
upou canvas: but we will have To wait