The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-16
FIVE PICTURES OF STEPHEN
EXHIBITED by DIR. TALMAGE II
HIS SERMON YESTERDAY.


stephen Looking at Christ. Ste
phen stoned. stephen in His Dying
Prayer. stephen ASIeep-BarbarftS
of the Mob of Fanatics Who Cast
Him over the CIiH and Hurled
stone After stone Down UPon Him.
New York. Sept 15.-In his sermon for
to-day Rev DR.. Talmage has chosen a
theme as picturesque as it is spiritually
inspiring He groups his discourse into
Five Pictures" The text selected was.
Behold. see the heavens opened Acts
z. 56-69
Stephen had been preaching rousing
sermon. and the people could not stand it.
They resolved to do as men sometimes
would ike to do in this day, if they dared
with same plain preacher of Righteousness
kin him The only way 10 silence this
man was to knock the breath out 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 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
tbs horrible rain of missiles, Stephen clam
bers up on his knee and fold his hands.
while the blood drips from his temples;
and then, looking up, he makes two pray
ers-one for himself and one for his muir
derers 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. ne swooned away and fell asleep
Iwant to show you to-day 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 hea-
ven. Before you take a leap you want
to know where you are going to land
Before you climb a ladder you want TO
know TO what point the ladder reaches.
And il was right that Stephen, within
a few moments of heaven, should be gaz-
ing into it. We would all do well TO be
found in the same posture. There Is
enough in heaven to keep US gazing.
in the han. 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, hea-
ven is the gallery where God has gathered
the chief treasures of his realm. The
whole universe is his palace. In this
lower room where we stop there are many
adornments; tesselated floor of anne thyst,
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 highest exhilara-
tions St John says Of it: 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, ana 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 ava
ianche from the mountains, and the flag
they bear is the flame of a consuming
world, and all heaven turns out with harps
and trumpets and myriad-voiced accla-
nation 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 hea-
ven? We have many friends there.
There is not a man 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
acquaintance 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 then there is
only a patch of sail on the sky, and soon
that is gone, and they are all out of
sight, and 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 ex-
pected that they would come out and
stand on some cloud and give us one
glimpse of their blissful and TRANSPORTED
faces.
While you long to join their compan-
ionship, and the years and the days go
with such tedium that they break your
heart, and the vipers of pain, and sor-
row and bereavement keep gnawing at
your vitals you viii 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 it been
with trouble. You wonder if amid the
myriad delights they have they care as
much for you as they used to when they
gave you a helping hand and put their
shoulder under your burdens. You won
der if they look any older; and some
times 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 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 looking up
on 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 ne
looks in heaven, we cannot say The
painters of the different ages have tried
TO imagine the features of Christ, and put
them upon canvas: but we win have to
wait until with our own eyes we see him
and with our own ears we can hear him
And yet there is a way of seeing him and
hearing him now I 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 Lamt
of Godi Can you not see him? Then pray
to God to take the scales off your eyes