St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-04-16
STEPHENS MARTYRDOM.
Five Pictures OF the Martyr Pre-.
sented by Rev. DR.. Talmage.
Vivid Description Of the Scene OF Stephens
Death and Rapturous Word Pic
ture OF the Beauties or the
World to Come.

1
Death and Rapturous Word Pic
ture OF the Beauties OF the
World to Come.
Rev. DIR. 7. Dewitt Talmage, in the
following sermon, presents series oi
pictures of the scenes in the martyr
dom of Stephen. The text is:
Behold see the heavens opened, etc.--Act.
vii, IS &C.
Stephen had been preaching a rous
Ing sermon. and the people could not
stand it. They resolved to do as mer
sometimes would like to do in this day
if they dared. with some plain preacher
of righteousness-kil 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 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 off. After he had fallen they
came and looked down, and seeing that
he was not yet dead they began to droI
stones upon him, stone after stone
Amid this horrible rain of missiles
Stephen chambers up on his knees and
folds his hands, while the blood drips
from his temples to his checks, and
from his cheeks to his garments, from
his garments to the ground; and then
looking up, he makes two prayers
one for himself and one for his murder
ers. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit
that was for himself. Lord. lay not
this sin to their charges" that was for
his assailants. Then. from pain and
loss of blood, he swooned away and fell
asleep.
l want to show you to-day five pic
lures. Stephen gazing into Heaven
looking at Christ. Stephen stoned.
Stephen in his dying prayer. Stephen
asleep.
First. look at Stephen getting into
Heaven. Before you take leap you
wait to know where you are going to
land. Before you climb a ladder you
want lc know to what point the ladder
reaches. And it was right that Ste
phea, within a few moments of Heav-
en-. should he gazing into it. We
we uld all 20 well to be found in the
same postuec. There is enough in
Heaven TO keep us gazing. A man of
large wealth ,aay 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 pict-
ures in the art gallery, and there hour
after hour you walk with catalogue
and glass and ever-increasing admira-
tion. Well, Heaven is the gallery where
God had gathered the chief treasures of
His realm. The whole universe is His
palace. In this lower room where we
stop there are many adornTents:
tessellated floor of amethyst, and on
the winding cioud-stairs are stretched
out canvasses 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 eShilarations. 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, and the
stars spring up into an arch for the
hosts to march under. The hosts 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 consuming world, and all
Heaven turns out with harps and trum-
pets and myriad-voiced reclamation of
angelic dominion 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 a man in this house to-
day 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 acquaintances
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 hull
of the vessel 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 vet we stand looking in
the same directions: 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 Oh some cloud, and
give us one glimpse of their blissful
and transtigured faces.
While you long to join their c,Dmpan-
ionship, and the years and the days go
with such tedium that they break your
heart, and the viper of pain and sorrow
and bereavement keeps gnawing at
your vitals, you stand still, like
Stephen, gazing into Heaven. You
saw them last. You wonder if they
would recognize your face now, so
changed has it been with trouble. You
wonder if, among the myriads delights
they have. they care rs much for you
as they used to when they gave you a
helping hand and put their shoulder
under your burdens. You wonder if
they look any older, and sometime in
the eveningtide. when the house is all
quiet. you wonder if you should call
them by their first name if they would
lot answer; and perhaps sometimes
you 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. ana see Stephen looking
upon Christ. My text says he saw the
Son of Man at the right hand of God.
Just how Carist looked in this world,
just how He looks in Heaven, we can
not saw. A writer in the time of Christ
says, describing the Sayiour's personal
appearance, that He had blue eyes and
light complexion, and very graceful
structure: but suppose it was all
guesswork. The painters of the diff
ferent ages have tried to imagine the
features of Christ and put them upon
canvas: but we will have to wait until