Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1890 — ARE YOU A WITNESS. [ARTICLE]

ARE YOU A WITNESS.

TESTIMONY IN BEHALF OF CHRISTIANITY. Faith the Only Resource in the Supreme Moment of Humanity—Arjcnmhnte and Apologies Are Vain— Dr. Talmage's Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at BeatNeb., Sunday. Text, Acts., iii: 15. “We Are Witnesses.” He said.

In the days of George Stephenson, the perfector of the locomotive engine, the scientists proved conclusively that a railway train could never be driven by steam power successfully and without peril; but the rushing express Srom Liverpool to Edinburgh ■ and Edinburgh to London have made all the nations witnesses of the splpn■did achievement. Machinists and navigators proved conclusively that a steamer could never cross the Atlantic Ocean; but no sooner had they successfully proved the impossibility of such nn undertaking than the work was done and the passengers on the Cunard, and the Inman, and (the National, and the White Star Lines are witnesses. There went up a guffaw of wise laughter at Prof. Morse’s proposition to make the lightning of heaven his errand boy, and it was proved conclusively that the thing could never be done; but now all the newsof the wide world, by Associated Press put in your hands morning and night, has made all nations witnesses. So in the time of Christ ft was proved conclusively that it was impossible for Him to rise from the dead. It was shown logically that when a man was dead, he was dead, and the heart and the liver and the lungs having ceased to perform their offices, the limbs would be rigid beyond all power of friction or arousal. They showed it to be an absolute absurdity that the dead Christ should ever get up alive; but no sooner had they proved this than the dead Christ arose, and the disciples beheld Him, heard His voice and talked with Him, and they took the witness-stand to prove that to be true which the wiseacres of the day had proved to be impossible; the record of the experience and of the testimony is in the text: “Him hath God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.”

Now, let me play the skeptic for a moment. “There is no God,” says the skeptic, “for I have never seen him with my physical eyesight Your Bible is a pack of contradictions. There never was a miracle. Lazarus was not raised from the dead, and the water was never turned into wine. Your religion is an imposition on the credulity of the ages.” There is an aged man moving over yonder as though he would like to respond. Here are hundreds of people with faces a little flushed at these announcements, and all through this assembly there is a suppressed feeling which would like to speak out in behalt of the truth of our glorious Christianity, as in the days of the text, crying out: “We are witnesses. ”

The fact is, that if this world is ever brought to God, it will not be through argument, but through testimony. You might cover the whole earth with apologies for Christianity and learned treatises in defense of religion—you would not convert a soul. Lectures on the harmony between science and religion are beautiful mental disciplines, but have never saved a soul, and never will save a soul. Put a man' of the world and a man of the Church against each other, and ,the man of the world will in all probability get the triumph. There are a thousand things in our religion that seem illogical to the world, and always will seem illogical. Our weapon in this conflict is faith not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith, not scholastic exploration. But then, in order to have faith, we must have testimony, and if 500 men, or 5,000 men, or 500,000 men, or 5,000,000 men get up and tell me that they felt the religion of Jesus Christ a joy, a comfort, a hope, an aspiration, I am bound as a fair-minded man to accept their testimony. I want just now to put before you three propositions, the truth of which I think this audience will attest with overwhelming unanimity. The first proposition is: We are witnesses that the religion of Christ is able to convert a soul. The Gospel may have had a hard time to conquer us, we may have fought it back, but we were vanquished. You say conversion is only an imaginary thing. We know better. “We are witnesses.” There never was so great a change in our heart and life on any other subject as on this. People laughed at the missionaries in Madagascar because they -preached ten years withqut one convert; but there are 33,000 converts in Madagascar to-day. People laughed at Dr. Adoniram Judson, the Baptist missionary, because he kopt on preaching in Burmah five years without a single convert; but there are 20,000 Baptists ia Burmah to-day. People laughed at Dr. Morrison, in China, for preaching there seven years without a single conversion; but there are 25,000 Christians in China to-day, People laughed at the misionaries for preaching at Tahiti fifteen years without a single conversion, and at the missionaries for preaching in Bengal seventeen years without a single conversion; yet In all tho«e lands there are multitudes of Christiana to-day. But why go so far to find evidence of the Gospel’s power to save a soul? We ware so proud that no man could have -ambled us; we were so hard tint no wrthly power eould have melted us; angels of God were all around about us; they could not oversome but one day, perhaps at a Methdust anious seat, or at a Prestyteilan catechetical lecture, or at a titridl. or on horseback, a power

seized us. and made us get down, and made ns tremble, and made us kneel, and made us cry for mercy, and we tried to wrench ourselves away from the grasp, but we could not It flung us flat, and when we arose we were as much changed as Gourgis, the heathen, who went into a prayer-meeting with a dagger and a gun, to disturb the meeting and destroy it, but the next day was found crying, “Oh, my great sins! Oh, my great Savior!” and for eleven years preached the gospel of Christ to his fellow-mountaineers, the last words on his dying lips being, “Free grace!” Ob, it was free grace! When a man has trouble the world comes in and says, “Now get your mind off this; go out and breathe the fresh air; plunge deeper into business.” What poor advice! Get your mind off it! When everything is upturned with the bereavement; and everything reminds yon of what you have lost. Get your mind off it! They might as well advise you to stop thinkYou cannot atopthinkLng, and you cannot stop thinking in that direction. Take a walk in the fresh air! Why, along that very street, or that very road, she once accompanied you. Out of that- grass-plat she plucked flowers, or into that showwindow she looked, fascinated, saying: “Come, see thepiotures.” Go deeper into business! Why, she was associated with all your business ambition, and since she has gone you have no ambition loft. Oh, this is a clumsy world when it tries to comfort a broken heart. I can build a Corliss engine, lean paint a Raphael’s “Madonna,” I can play a Beethoven’s “Eroica. Symphony” as easily as this world can comfort a broken heart. And yet you have been comforted. How was it done? Did Christ come to you and say, “Get your mind off this; go out and breathe fresh air; plunge deeper into business?” No. There was a minute when He came to you—perhaps in the watches of the night, perhaps in your place of business, perhaps along the street—and He breathed something into your soul that gave peace, rest, infinite quiet, so that you could take out the photograph of the departed one and look into the eyes and face of the dear one and say: “It is all right; she is better off; I would not call her back. Lord, I thank Thee that Thou hast comforted my poor heart.” Again: I remark that we are witnesses of the fact that religion has power to give composure in the last moment. In our sermons and in our lay exhortations we are very apt, when we want to bring illustrations of dying triumph, to go back to some distinguished personage—to a John Kno* or a Harriet Newell. But I want you for witnesses. I want to know if you have ever seen anything to make you believe that the religion of Christ can give composure in the final hour. Now, in the courts, attorney, jury and judge will never admit mere hearsay. They demand that the witness must have seen with his own eyes, or heard with his own ears, and so I am critical in my examination of you now; and I want to know whether you have seen or heard anything that makes you believe that the religion of Christ gives composure in the final hour. “Oh, yes,” you say, “I saw my father and mother depart. There was a great difference in their death beds. Standing by the one we felt more veneration. By the other more tenderness.” Before the one, you bowed perhaps in awe. In the other case you felt as if you would like to go along with her. How did they feel In that last hour? How did they seem to act? Were they very much frightened? Did they take hold of this world with both hands as though they did not want to give it up? “Ob, n 0,,” you say; “no, I remember as though it were yesterday; she had a kind word for us all and there were a few mementoes distributed among the children, and then she told us how kind we must be to our father in his loneliness, and then she kissed us good-bye and went asleep as calmly as a child in a cradle.”

What made her so composed? Natural courage? “No,” you say. “Mother was very nervous. When the carriage inclined to the side of the road she would cry out. She was always rather weakly.” What, then, gave hen composure? Was it because she did not care much for you, and the pang of parting was not great? • ‘Oh,” you say, “she showered upon us a wealth of affection; no mother ever loved her children more than mother loved us; she showed it by the way she Pursed us when we were sick, and she toiled for us until her strength gave out.” What, then, was it thatgave her composure in the last hoar? Do not hide it? Be frank, and let me know. “Oh,” you say, “it is because she was so good; she made the Lord her portion. and she had faith that she would go straight to glory, and that we should all meet her at last at the foot of the throne.” Here are people who say, “I saw a Christian brother die, and he triumphed.” And some one else) “I saw a Christian sister die, and she triumphed.” Some one else will say, “I saw a Christian daughter die, and she triumphed.” Come, all ye who have seen the last moments of a Christian, and give testimony in this cause on trial. Uncover your heads, put your hand on the old family Bible from which they used to read the promises, and promise in the presence of high heaven that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. With what you have seen with your own eyes, and what you have heard with your own ears, is there power in this Gospel to give calmnes-* and triumph in the last exigency? The response comes from ail sides, from young, and old, and mid-dle-aged: *(We are witnesses! ” You see. my friends, I have not put before you. to-day an abstraction, or chimera, or anything like guess-work. I present you affidavits of the best

men and women, living and dead. Two witnesses in Court will establish a fact. Here are not two witnesses, but thousands of witnesses on earth, millio n of witnesses, and in heaven a great multitude of witnesses that no man can number, testifying that there is power in this religion to convert the soul, to give eemfort in trouble, and to afford composure in the last how. If ten men should come to you when you are sick with appalling sickness, and say, they had the same sickness and took a certain medicine, and it cured them, you would probably take it. Now, suppose ten other men should come up and 9ay. “We don’t believe tnere is anything in that medicine.” “Well,” I say, “Have you ever tried it?” “No. I never tried it, but I don’t believe there is anything in-it.” Of course you discredit their testimony. The skeptic may come and say: “Thereis no power in your religion.” --Have you ever tried it?” “No, No.” “Then avaunt! ” Let me take the testimony -ot -the-mUtioßfr-ef-seuis-that have been

converted to God and comforted in trial and solaced in the last hour. We will take their testimony as they cry: "We are witnesses ! ” Some time ago Prof. Henry, of Washington, discovered a new star, and the tidings sped by submarine telegraph, and all the observatories of Europe were watching for that new star. Oh, hearer, looking out through the darkness of thy soul to-day, canst thou see 1 a bright light beaming on thee? “Where?” you say, “where? How can I find it?” Look along by the line of the cross of the Son of God. Do you not see it trembling with all the tenderness and beaming with all hope? It is the Star of Bethlehem.

Oh, hearer, get your eye on it It is easier for you now to become Christians than it is to stay away from Christ and heaven.