Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1896 — TALMAGE'S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE'S SERMON.

THE THEORIES OF RUIN AND RESTORATION ARE PRESENTED. A Dramatic Bible Fcene— The Diaabled Unman Soul Humbled and Restored—The Important Port of Every Prayer—Glories of the Gospel. For Another's Sake. Dr. Talmage's sermon of last Sunday is a vivid nud novel presentation of the theories of ruin and restoration. The Bible scene described is dramatic. His text was 11. bainuel ix„ 1 and 13: “Is there yet any that is left of the bonse of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake? * * • So Mcphibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat, continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet." Was there evpr anything more romantic and chivalrous than the love of David and Jonathan? At one time Jonathan Was up and David was down. Now David is up and Jonathan g family is down. As you have often hoard of two soldiers before going into battle making a covenant that if one is shot the survivor will take charge of the body, the watch, the mementos and perhaps of tbe bereft family of the one that dies,' so David and Jonathnn have made a covenant, and now that Jonathan is dead David is inquiring about his family, that he may show kindness unto them for their father Jonathan?** sakec Careful search is madfj and a son of Jonathan of the drendfully homely i)flgie of Mephibosheth is found. His in his infancy, had let him fall, and the fall had put both his ankles out'of place) and they had never been set. This decrepit, poor man is brought into the palace of King David. David looks upon him Svith melting tenderness, no doubt ■seeing in bis face a resemblance to his old friend, the deceased Jonathan. The whole bearing of King David toward, him seems to say: “How glad 1 am to see you, Mephibo6heth! How you remind me of your father, my old friend and benefactor! I made a bargain with your father a good many years ago. and I tmi going to keep it with you. What 1 can I dofor you, Mephibosheth? I am resolved what to do— I will make you a rich man. *1 will restore to you the coniiseated property of your grandfather Saul, and you shall be a guest of mine ns long as you live, and you shall be seated at my table among the princes.” It was too much for Mephibosheth, and he cried out agaiust it. calling himself a dead dog. “Be still,” says David. “I don’t do this on your own account. Ido this for your father Jonathan’s sake. I can never forget his kindness. I femewtier when I was hounded from p!ace to place how he befriended me. Can I ever forget how ho stripped himself of his courtier apparel and gave it to me instead of my shepherd’s coat, and how he took off his own sword and bolt and gave them to me instead of my sling? Oh, 1 can never forget him! I feel as if 1 couldn’t do enough for you. his son. 1 don’t do it for your sake: I do it for your father Jonathan's sake.” “So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for ho did eat continually at the king’s table and was lame on both his feet.”

A Disabled Foul. There is so much gospel in this quaint incident that I am embarrassed to know where to begin;. : Whom do*Mephibosheth nnd David and Jonathan make you think Of ! , -,* • Mephibosheth: in tbcv<firat-place, stands for the disabled lunniui soyl. Lord Byron describes sin as a charming recklessness, as a gallantry, as a Don Juan. George Sand describes sin as triumphant in many intricate plots. Gavnrui, with his engraver’s knife,, always shows sin as a great jocularity. But the Bible presents it as a Mephibosheth, lame on both feet. Sin, like the unrso in the context, attempted to .carry us and let us fall, and we have been disabled, and in our whole moral nature we are decrepit Sometimes theologians, haggle about a technicality. They use the Words “total depravity/’ and some people believe in the doctrine, and some reject it. What do you mean by total depravity? Do you mean that every mhnris'as bad as he can be? Then I do not believe it either. But do you meairthat sin has let us fall; that,it has sacrificed and disabled and crippled our entire moral nature until we cannot walk straight and are lame in both feet? Then I admit your proposition. There is not so much difference in an African jungle, with barking, howling, hissing, fighting quadruped and reptile, and paradise, with its animals coming before Adam, when he patted them and stroked them and gave them names, so that the panther was as tame as the row. and the eondor as tame as the dove, as there is between the human soul disabled and that soul as God originally constructed it. I do not care what the sentimentalists or the poets say in regard to sin. In the name of God. I declare to you to-day that sin is disorganization. disintegration, ghastly disfiguration, hobbling deformity. Your modern theologian tells yon that man is a little out of sorts. lie sometimes thinks wrong. He sometimes does wrong—indeed, his nature needs a little moral surgery, an outside splint, a Slight compress, a little rectification. Religion is a good thing to have, it might smile day coiue into use. Man is partially wrong, not ail wrong, lie is lameflin one foot. Bring the salve of divine grace, and the ointment, and the pain extractor, and we will have his one fqpt cured. Man is only half wrong, not altogether wrong. In what is man's nature right? In his will, his affections,«his judgment? No. There is an old book that says. “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint.” Mephibosheth lame in both feet! Our belief of the fact that sin has sacrificed and deformed our souls increases as wo go on in years. When y,ou started life, } on thought that man was a little marred by sin, and be was about one-tenth wrong. By tnc time yon had gone through the early experience of your triple or occupation or profession you believeil*’that man was about half wrong. By tbeiime you came to midlife yon believed that man was three-fourths wrong. But within these [last few years, since you have been so lied about and swindled and cheated, you have come to the conclusion that man is altogether wrong, and now you can say with the prayer hook and with the Bible, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Whatever you may have believed before, now you believe taut Mephibosheth is lame on both feet. Hnmblet, but Restored. Again, Mephibosheth in the text stands for the disabled human soul huttibled and restored. When this invalid of my text got a command to come to King David's palace, he trembled. The fact was that the grandfather of Mephibosheth had treated David most shockingly, and now Mephibosheth says to himself: “What does the king want of 1 me? Isn't it enough that lam lame? Is he going to destroy my life? Is he going to wreak ou me the vengeance which lie holds toward my grandfather Saul? It’s too bad.” But go to the palace Mephiboshetli musty since the king nas commanded it. With staff and crutches and helped by his friends, I see.Mephibosheth going up tbe stairs of tin palace. I hear his stuff and crutches rattling on the tessellated floor of the throne room. No sooner have these two persons confronted each othei 1 , Mephibosheth and David, the king, than

Mephlbosheft! threw* himself flat on his face before the king and styles.tumself a dead dog. In the east when a fiau styles himself a dog he utters the utmost term of self abuegation. It is not,a term so strong in this eountjy, where, ft a dog has a fair chance, he sometimes shows more nobility of character than some human specimens that we wot V»T, but the mangy curs of the oriental cities, as I kuow by my own observation, are utterly detestable. Mephibosheth gives the utmost term of self loathing when he compares himself to a dog, and dead at that. Consider the analogy. When the command is given from the palace of heaven to the human soul to come, the soul begins to tremble. It says: “What is God going to do with me now? Is he going to destroy me? Is he going to wreak his vengeance upon me?” There is more than one Mephibosheth trembling now beeahse God has summoned him to the palace of divine grace. What are you trembling about? God lias po pleasure in the death of a sinner. He does not send for you to hurt you. He sends for you to do yon good. A Scotch preacher had the following circumstances brought under his observation: There was a poor woman in the parish who was about to be turned out because she cou’,s not pay her rent. One night she heard a loud knocking at the door, and she made no answer and hid herself. Tile rapping continued louder, louder, louder but she made no answer and continued to hide herself. She was ajinpst unto death. She said, “That's the officer of the law come to throw me out of my. home.” A few days after a Christian philanthropist met her’in the street and said: “My poor'woman, where were you the other night? I came round to your house to pay your rent. Why didn’t you let me in? Were you at home?” “Why,” she replied, “was-that you?” “Yes. that was me. I came to pay your rent.” “Why,” she said, “if l had, jiad any idea it was you, I would have Jet ypu in. I thought it was an officer come to east me out of my homo.” O soul, that loud knocking at thy gate is hot ihe sheriff conic to' Rut you in jail. If is the best friend ytiu ever had come to lie your security. You shiver with terror because you think it is wrath. It is mercy. Why, fhen, tremble before the King of heaven nnd earth calls you to his palace? Stop trembling and start right away. "Ob;” you say, “I can’t start. I hav’e beeii so lamed by sin and so lamed by evil habit I can’t start. I am lame in both feet.” My friend, we come out with our prayers and sympathies to help you up to the palace. If you want to get to the palace, you may get there. Start now. The Holy Spirit will help you. All you have to do is just to throw yourself on your face at the feet of the King, as Mephiboshetft did. The Sinner’* Cry,

Mephiboslieth’s eaninnl comparison seems extravagant to the world, but when a'man has seen himself as he really is and seen how he' has been treating the Lord there is no term vehement enough to express his self condemnation. The dead dog of Mephibosheth's comparison fails to describe tbe man's utter loathing of himself. Mephiboslieth’s posturing docs not seem too prostrate. When a soul is convicted, first he prays upright. Then the muscles o? his neck relax, and he is able to bow his bead. After awhile, by an almost superhuman effort, he kneels down to pray. After awhile, when he lias seen God and seen himself, he throws himself flat on his face at the feet of the King, just like Mephibosheth. The fact is if we could see ourselves ns God sees ns we would perish at tbe spectacle. You would have no time to overhaul other people. Your cry would be, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

And, again, Mephibosheth in my text stands for the sake of another. Mephibosheth would never have got into the palace on his own account. Why did David ransack the realm to find that poor man and then bestow upon him a great fortune and command a farmer of the name of Ziba to culture the estate and give to this invalid Mephiboshoth half the proceeds every year? Why did King L)nvid make such a mighty stir about a poor fellow who would never be dt any use to the throne of Israel? It was for Jonathan's sake. It was what Itobert Burns calls for “auld lung syne.” David could not forget what Jonathan had done for him in other days. Three times this chapter has it that all this kindness on the part of David to Mephibosheth was for his fattier Jonathan’s sake. The daughter of Peter Martyr, through the vice of her husband, came down to penury, and the senate of Zurich took care of her for her father's sake. Sometimes a person has applied to you for help, and you hare refused him, but when you found he was the son or brother of some one who had been your benefactor in former days and by a glance you saw the resemblance of your old friend in the face of the applicant you relented and you said, “Oh, I will do this for your father’s sake.” You know by your experience what my text means. Now, my friends, it is on thut principle thut you and 1 are to get into the King's palace. , In His Name. The most important part of every prayer is the last three or foitr words of it—" For Christ’s sake.’ Do not rattle off those words ns though they were merely the finishing stroke of the prayer. They are the most important part of the prayef. When in earnestness yon go before God and say "for Christ's sake” it rolls in, ns it were, upon God’s mind all the memories of Bethlehem and Gennesaret and Golgotha. When yon city before God “for Christ’s sake” you hold before God's mind every groan, every tear, every crimson drop of his only begotten Son. If there is ‘anything in all the universe that will nvdve God to an act of royal benefaction, it is t* say “Fcir Christ’s sake.” God is omnipotent, but he is not strong enough to resist that cry, “For Christ’s sake.” If a little child should kneel behind God’s throne and should say “For Christ’s sake,” the great Jehovah would turn aiymnd on his throue to look at her and listen. No prayer ever gets to lieu von but for Christ's sake. No soul is ever comforted but for Christ's sake. Xjie, world will never be redeemed but fo.ii.rpbrist's Our name, however illustrious it* may bis among men, before God staAflii only inconsistency and sin. But there is u' name, a potent name, a blessed name, a glorious name, an everlasting name, that we may put upon our lii>» as a sacrament and upon our forehead as a crown, and that is the name’of Jesus, our divine Jonathan, who stripped himself of his robe and put on our rage and gave us his sword and took our broken reed: so that now, whether we lire well or sick, whether we are living or dying, if we speak that name it moves heaven to the center, and God says: “Let the poor soul come in. Curry him up into the throne room of the palace. Though he may have been in exile, though sin may have crippled him on this side, and sorrow may have crippled him on the other side, and he is lame in both his feet, bring him up into the palace, for 1 want to show him everlasting kindness for Jonathan’s sake.” Again. Mephibosheth in my text stands for the disabled human soul lifted to the King’s table. It was more difficult in those times even than it is now for common men to get into a royal dining room. The subjects might have come around the rail of the paluce and might have seen the lights kindled, and might have heard the clash of the.kniv.es and the rattle of tfie golden goblets, but not get in. Stoat men with stout feet could not get in once in

all their Uvea to one banquet, yet poo# Mephibosheth goes in. lives there and U every day "at the table. Oh, what a getting up in the world it was for poor Mephibosheth! Well, though you and I may be woefully lamed with sin, for our divine Jonathan’s sake I hope we will all get in to dine with the King. Before dining we must be introduced. If you are invited to a company of persons where there are distinguished people present, you are introduced: “This is the Senator." “This is the Governor.” “This is the Fresident.” Before we sit down at the King's table in heaven I think we will want to be introduced. Oh, what a time that will be when you and I, by the grace of God. get into heaven and are introduced to the mighty spirits there, and some one will say, "This is Joshua,” “This is Paul,” “This is Moses,” “This is John Knox,” “This is John Milton,” “This is Martin Luther,” “This is George Whitefield.” Oh, shall we have any strength left after srn-h a round of celestial introductions? Yea, we shall be potentates ourselves. Then we shall sit down at the King’s table with the sons nnd daughters of God. and one will whisper across the table to us and say, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God!” And some one at the table will say: “How long will it last? All other banquets at' which I sat ended. How long will this lust?” And Puul will answer, “Forever!” nnd Joshua will say, “Forever!” and John Knox will say, “Forever!” and George Whitefield will say, "Forever!" A Glorious Gospel,

And the wine at that banquet will be old wine; it will be very it will be the oldest wine of heaven; It will be the wine that wns trodden out from the red clusters on the day when Jesus trod the wine press aloqe. Wine already more thnn eighteen centuries old. All our earthly imperfections .completely covered up and hidden. Mephjbosbetji's feet under the tnbie. Kingly fare. Kingly vesture. Ivingiy companionship. We shall reign for ever nnd ever. 1 think that banquet will mean more to those who hod it hard in this world than to those who had it easy. That banquet in David’s palace meant more to Mephibosheth than to any one else, because he bail been poor anil crippled and despised and rejected. And that man who in this world is blind will better appreciate the light of heaven than we who in this world had good eyesight. And that man who in this world was deaf will better appreciate the mmfic of heaven than we who in this world bad good hearing. Ami those will have a higher appreciation of the easy locomotion of thnt land who in tuia world were Mcphibosheths. O my soul, what a magnificent gospel! It takes a man so low down and raises him so high ! What a gospel! Come now, who wants to be banqueted nud impalneed? As when Wilberforce was trying to get the emancipation bill through tbe British Parliament and nil the British Isles were anxious to hear of the passage of that emancipation bill, when a vessel was coming into port and the captain of the vessel knew that the people were so anxious to get the tidings, lie stepped out on the prow of the ship and shouted to the people long before ho got up to the dock, “Free!” and they cried it, nnd they shouted it, nnd they sang it all through the land, “Free, free!” So to-day I would like to sound the news of your present and your eternal emancipation until the angels of God hovering in the air and watchmen on the battlements and bellmen in the town cry it, shout it, sing it, ring it, “Free, free!” I come out now as tbe messenger of the palace to invite Mephibosheth to come up lam here to-dn.v to tell you that God has n wealth of kindness to bestow upon you for his Son's sake. Tbe doors of the palace are open to receive you. The cupbearers liny-e already put the chalices oil the table, and tbe great. loving,, tender, sympathetic heart of God bend's over you this moment, saying, “Is there any that is yet loft of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?”