The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-03-18


REV. TALMAGE. 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
off. 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 up on his knees and
folds his hands. while the blood drips
from his temples to his cheeks, 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 muir
derers. Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit;' that was for himself Lord,
lay not this sin to their CHARGE" that
was for his assailants. Then, from
pain and loss of blood, he swooned
away and fell asleep.
| want to show you to-day five pic
lures. Stephen gazing into Heaven.
Stephen looking mt Christ. 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 ladder
reaches. And it. was right that Ste
phen, 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 statuary in the
hail. 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
His realm. The whole universe is His
palace. In this lower room where we
stop there are many adornments; tes-
sellated floor of amethyst, and on the
winding cloud-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
CIVILIZATIONS. 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 mountains, and the
flag they bear is the flame of con-
Stunning world, and all Heaven turns
out with harps and trumpets and
myriad-voiced reclamation of angelic
dominion TO welcome them in, ard so
the kings of the earth bring their
honor and glory into it. Do you won
der that good people often stand, like
Stephen, looking into Heaven? We
have many friends there.
There is not II man in this house to-
day so isolated in life but there is some
one in Heaven with whom he once
shook hands. As 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 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 Il
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 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 transfig-
ured faces.
While you long to join their com
partnership, and the years and the days
go with such tedium that they break
your heart, and the vipor of pain and
sorrow and bereavement keeps gnaw-
ing at your vitals, you stand still, like
Stephen, gazing into Heaven. You
wonder IL 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 il, among 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 wonder II
they look any older; and sometimes in
the eveningtide, when the house is all
quiet, you wonder If you should call
them by their first name If they would
Al
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
upon Christ. My text says he saw the