Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-09-20
PICTURES EXAMINED.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE PRESENTS A cLUS-
TER OF RAPHAELS.

Brilliant Word Painting Of Scenes In the
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
a 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, $500
Stephen had been preaching a 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
iehteousness-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 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 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 hve 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 a 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, 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 statu-
airy in the hall, and paintings in the sit
ting room, and works Of art in all parts
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 ever increasing admiration.
Well, heav9n is the gallery where God
has gathered the chief treasures Of his
realm. The whole universe is his pal
ace. In this lower room where we stop
there are many adornments, tessellated
floor Of amethyst, and on the winding
cloud stairs are stretched out canvases on
which commingle azure and purple and
saffron and gold. But heaven is the gal
lery in which the chief glories are gath
cred. 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 1t. "
And 1 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 bear is the flame Of a
consuming world, and all heaven turns
ont with harps and trumpets and myriad
voiced acclamation Of angelic dominions
to welcome them in, and so the kings of
the earth bring their honor and glory
into it. Doyou wonder that good people
often stand, like Stephen, 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. AS a
man gets older the number OF his celes-
tial acquaintance very rapidly multi
plies We have not had one glimpse OF
them since the night we kissed them
goodby, 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 patch Of sail on the sky,
hot 20 aud fhnU III
out Of sight, and yet we stand looking
in the same direction. So when our
friends 60 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
transfgured faces.
While you long to join their compan-
ionship. and tho years and the days go
with such tedium that they break your
heart, and the vipers 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 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 helping hand and put their
shoulders 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 IL 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.
Gazing on Christ.
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 painters 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
ewes we SEQ him and with our own ears
we can hear him. And yet there is a
way Of seeing him and hearing him
n Al - loan