Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-03-17
KILLING OF STEPHEN.
One of the SubIimest Deaths of All
History.
Like the Martyr stoned by the Roman
Mob, Al OF Us MAY See the tsIorIcs of
Heaven n We Rut Embrace PIs
Gaith-Tsimage's Sermon

Mob, Al OF Us May See the t.iorIcs of
Heaven h We sat Embrace Pis
fsith-Tsinage's Sermon
The discourse of DIR. Talmagc which
we send out is a vivid story of martyr
dom, and rapturous view of the
world To come. Text. Acts vii. 5000:
sehold, l see the heavens opened, q"
etc
stephen hal been preaching a rous-
ing sermon. and the people could not
stand it. They resolved 10 do as men
sometimes would like 10 do i'm this day.
AZ they dared, with some plain preacher
of righteousness skill him The only
way tn silence this man was to knock
the breath ont of him. 10 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 Gus
tom when they wanted to take away
life by stoning Having brought him
Ia the edge of the fl they pushed him
over. After he had fallen they came
and looked down, and seeing that he
WAS not yet dead. they began to drop
stones uTon him. stone after stone.
Amid this horrible rain of missiles
Stephen chambers M on his knees and
folds his hands. whIlc the blood drips
from his temples Ia his checks, from
his checks To his garments. from his
garments To the ground; and then,
looking up. hc makes two prayers
one for himself and one for his muir
dcrerS
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" that
was for himself. Lord, lay not this
sin 1" their charge that Was for his
a>sailaniS. Then, from pain and loss
uf blood, lac swooncd away and fell
asleep
want To show YOU to-day five pict-
nr.s stephen gazing into Heaven.
1(leeNneh lSSNng at Christ stephen
stoned. stephen in rs 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 il was right that stephen. within
n few moments OF Heaven, should To-
gazing into it, We would all do well
10 be found in the same posture.
There is enough in Heaven tn keep rs
gazing. man of large wealth may
have statuary in the hail, and paint
ings in the sitting room. and works Of
art in all parts of the house, but hc has
the chief pictures in the art gallery and
there hour after hour you walk with cat
alogue and glass and adj
miration. Well Heaven 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; tcssellated floor of amc-
thyst and on the winding cloud-stairs
are stretched out canvascs ON which
comminClc azure, and pur, lc, and SAT-
from, aud gold. But Heaven is the
gallery in which the chief Slorics are
gathered There are the brightest
robes There are the richest crowns.
John SAYS of il: THE kings of the
earth shall bring their honor and glory
into it," And I 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
The hosts keep step to the sound of
~Prrrnqus<e 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 accla-
nation of angelic dominion TO well
come 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 a man in this house to-
day 80 isolated in life but there is
some one in Heaven with whom he
once shook hands As a man gets
o der, the number of his celestial ac-
auaintances very rapidly multiplses.
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
ting, and watch them, and after
awhile the hulk of the YES.
sci 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 yet we stand looking in the same
direction; so when our friends go away
from us into the future world we leeT
looking down through the Narrows
and gazing aud gazing, as though W,
expected that they would come oul
and stand on some cloud, and give n,
one glimpse Of their blissful and trans
figured faces.
kSI-.l<---S., - A., ;os,, ,l,,;r .o,,nan
ionship. and the years and the days &,
with such tcdium that they break you
heart, and the viper of pain and sor
row aud b. reavement keeps gnawinl
at our vitals, you stand still, lik'
Stephen gazing into Heaven. Yol
wonder IL they would recognize you
face now. so changed has j
been with trouble. You wonde
II, amid the myriad delights they have
they care as much for you as the,
used 10 when they gave you a helpin,
hand and put their shoulder unde
YOUR burdens. You wonder il the,
lo,k any older; and sometimes in tn
when the house is al
quiet You wonder IL you should cal
them by Weir first name if they woul'
not answea: and perhaps sometime
you do make the experiment, and whel
no one but Yourself and God are Their
YOU distinctly call their names an
listen, and 81 gazing into Heaven.
fass on NOE, and see stephen look
ing upon Chrht. My text says lac saw
the Son of Man at the right hand o
God. just how Christ looked in TIL
world, just hoo be looks in Heaven
We can not say A writer in the tim
of Christ says, describing the Saviour
personal appearance, that he bad blu
eyes and light complexion, and a yer.
graceful'structure: but suppose it wa
all guessworl- The painters of tn
different ages have tried TO imagine tn
features OF Christ and put them nj
on canvas; but we will have 10 wal
untiiw our own eyes we see Hir
and with our own ears we can hea
Him. And yet there Is way of seein