Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1891 — NEW YEAR SERMON. [ARTICLE]

NEW YEAR SERMON.

FORWARD IS THE RINGING BATTLE CRY. #ftnlst«rs and Christiana Called Upon to j Bailey In aGi and Charge Against Sin —Dr. Talmage's Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached in Brooklyn and New York, Sunday and Sunday night, the following sermon. Text: ILuke xxiv, 49. He said: i for a few months, in the providence !©f God. I have two pulpits, one in Brooklyn and the other in New York, and through the kindness of the press an ever-widening opportunity. To all such hearers and readers I come with ‘an especial message. The time has Arrived for a forward movement, such as the church and the world has never seen. That there is a need for such a religious movement is evident from the ifact that never since world wa3 swung out among the planets lias there been such ah organized and determined es fort to overthrew righteousness and make the ten commandments obsolete aad the whole Bible a derision. Meanwhile alcoholism is taking down its victims by the hundreds of thousands, • and the political parties get dowhjm their knees, practically saying: ‘*o ithou almighty Hum Jug, we bow down Jbefore theeT " Give us the offices, city, State and National, Oh, give us the Offices, and we will enshrine thee for. ever and ever, Amen.” The Christian Sabbath, meanwhile, appointed for physical, mental and spiritual rest, is being secularized and abolished. As if the bad publishing houses of our own country had exhausted their literary filth, the French and Russian sewers have been invited to pour their scurrility and immoral slush into the trough where our American swine are now wallowing. At the same time' there are enough houses of infamy in all our cities, open and unmolested of the law, to invoke the omnipotent wrath which buried Sodom under a deluge of brimstone. The panuemoniac world, 1 think, has massed its troops, , and they are at this moment plying their batteries upon family circles, church circles, social circles, political circles and Natioual circles. Apollyon is ip the saddle and riding at the head of his myrmidons, and would capture this world for darkness and woe. That is one side of the conflict now raging. On the other side we have the most magnificent gospel machinery that the world ever saw or heaven ever Invented, In the first place, in this country more than 80,000 ministers of religion, and, take them as -a class, more consecrated, holier, mere consistent, more self-denying', more faithful men never lived. I know them by the thousands. I have met, them ,in every city. lam told, not by them, but by people outside our profession,, people engaged in Christian and re-j formatory work, that the clergy of America are at the head of all good enterprises, and whoever else faii they may be depended on, The truth of this is demonstrated by the fact that when a minuter does fall it is so exceptional that the newspapers report It as something startling, while a hundred men in other callings may go down without the matter being considered as especially worth mentioning. In addition to their equipment In moral character, the clergy of this; country have ali that the schools can give. All archaeological, rhetorical, scientific, scholastic, literary attainment. So much for the Christian ministry of all denominations. In the next place on our side of the conflict, wo have the grandest churches of all time, and higher style of membership, and more of them, and a host without number of splendid men and women,; who are doing their best to have .this world purified, , elevated, gospelized. But we all feel that something is wanting. Enough hearty songs have been sung, and enough sermons preached within the last six months, to save all the cities of America, and in saving the cities you save the world, for they overfloW all the land, either with iheir religion or their Infamy. But look at some of the startling facts. It is nearly 1,900 years 6ince Jesus Christ came by the way of Bethlehem cax-avansary to save this world, yet the most of the world has been no more touched by this most stupendous fact of all eternity than if on the first Christmas night the beasts of the stall amid the bleatings of their own young, had not hoard the bleatings of the lamb that, was to be slain. Out of the 1,800,000,000 of the human race, 1,400,000,060 are without God and without hope in the world, the camel driver of Arabia, Mohammed, with his nine wives, having half as many disciples as our blessed Christ, and more people are worshipping chunks of painted wood and carved Btone than are worshipping the living and eternal God. Meanwhile, the most of us who are engaged in Christian work —I speak for myself as well ns others —are toiling up to our full capacity of body, mind and soul, harnesqed up to the last buckle, not able td draw a {>ound more than we a|*e drawing, or I t an ounce more than we are lifting. What is the matter? My text lets out the secret. We all need more of the power from on high. Not muscular power, not logical power, not scientific powor. not social power, trot financial power, not brain power, but power from on high. With it we could accomplish more in one week than without it in a hundred years. And I am going to get it, if, in answer to prayer, earnest and long continued, God will grant it to mo, his unworthy servant. Men and women who know how to pray, when you pray for yourself pray for mo, that I may bq endowed with power from on high. I would rather have it than all the diamond fields of Golconda. and all the pearls of the sea, and all the gold of the mountains. Many of the mightiest intellects never ‘ had a touch of it, and many of the less

than ordinary Intellects have been surcharged with it. And every man and woman on earth has a right to aspire to it, a right to pray for it, and, property' persistent, will obtain it. Power from on the level is a good thing, such power as I may give you, or yon may give me, by encouraging words and actions .Tower from on the level when other pulpits are in accord with ours. Power from on the level when the religious .and s’ecular press forward our Christian undertakings. But power from oh the level is not sufficient. Power from on high is what we need to take possesion of us. Power straight from God. Supernatural power. Omnipotent power, all-conquering power. Not more than one out of l,oooof the ministers have it continuously. Not more than one out of 10,000 Christians have it all the time. Given in abundance these last ten years of the nineteenth century would accomplish more for God and the church and the world than the previous ninety years of this century. A few men and women in each age of the world have possessed it. Caroline Fry, the,immortal Quakeress, had it, and 600 of the depraved and suffering of Newgate Prison under her exhortation repented and believed. Jonathan Edwards had it, and Northampton meeting-house heard the outburst of religious emotion as he spoke of righteousness and judgmentto come. Samuel Budgett, the Christian merchant, had it, and his benefactions showered the world. John Newton had it. Bishop Latimer had it. Isabella, Graham had it. Andrew Fuller had it. The great evanglists, Dr. Baker and Dr. Nettleton and Truman Osborn and Charles G. Finney had it. In my boyhood I saw Truman Osborn rise to preach in the village church at Somerville, New Jersey, and before he had given oqt his text or uttered a word, people in the audience sobbed aloud with religious emotion. It was the power from on high. All in greater or less degree may have it. Once get it and nothing can stand before you, Satan goes down. Caricature goes down. Infidelity goes down. Worldliness goes down. All opposition goes down. Several times in the history of the church and the world has this power from on high been demonstrated. In the seventeenth century, after' a great season of moral depression, this power from on high came down upon John Tillotson and Owen and Flavel and Baxter and Bunyan, and there was a deluge of mercy higher than the tops of the highest mountains of sin. Corning to later date, there may be here in this audience am aged man or woman who can remember New York in 1861 when this power from on high descended most wonderously. It came upon pastors and congregations and theaters and commercial establishments. Chatham Street Theater, New York, was the scene of a, most tremendous a wkening. A committee of Christian gentlemen called upon the lessee ■of the theater and said they would like to buy the lease <jf the theater. Ho said. “What do you want it for?” They replied, “for a church.” “For wh-a-a-t?” said the owner. “For a church,” was the reply. The owner said:, “You may have it and I will give you SI,OOO to help you on with the work. 1 ’ Arthur Tappan, a man mightly persecuted in his time, but a man. as l saw him lira his last days, as honest and pure and good, as any man I ever knew, stepped on the stage of old Chatham Theater, as the actors were closing their ramming rehearsal and said’ “There will be preaching here to-night on this stage,” and then gave out and sang, with such people as were there, an old hymn.

The bar-room of the theater was turned into a prayer-room, and 800 persons were present at the first meeting. For seventy successive nights religious services were held in that theater, and such scenes of mercy and salvation as will be subjects of conversation and congratulation among the ransomed glory as long as heaven lasts. But I come to a latter time—--1867 remembered by many who are here. I remembered it especially as I had just entered the office of the ministry. It was a year of hard times. A great panic had flung hundreds of people penniless. Starvations entered habitations that had never before known a want. Domestic life, in garroting.burglary, assassination were rampant. What an awful day that was when the banks went down. There has been nothing like it in thirty years, and I pray God there may not be anything like it in the next thirty centuries. Talk about your Black Fridays! It was Black Saturday, Black Monday. Black Tuesday, Black Wednesday, Black Thursday, as well as Black Friday. This nation in its extremity fell helpless before the Lord and cried for pardon and peace, and upon ministers and laymen the power from on high decended. Engine-houses, warehouses hotel parlors, museums, factories from 12 to 1 o’clock, while the operatives were resting, were opened for prayers and sermons, and inquiry rooms, and Burton's old theater on Chambers street, where our ancestors used to assemble to laugh at the comedies,and all up and down the streets, and out on the docks and on the deck of Bhips lying at the wars people sang. "All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” while others cried for mercy. In those dp,ys, what songs, what sprmans what turnings to God, what recital of thrilling experiences, what prodigal brought homo, what burning tidings of souls saved. What serfdom of sin emancipated, what wild rout of forces of .darkness, what victories for the truth! What millions on earth and in heaven, are now thinking Gqsl for 1857. its spiritual triumphs on the heels of its worldly misfortune'' 1 It was what my text calls the power from on high, That was thirty years ago, and

though there have been in various parts of the land many stirring of the Holy Ghost, there has been no general awakening. Docs it not seem to you that w® ought to have and may. have the scenes of power in 1817 eclipsed by the scenes of in 1891? The circumstances are somewhat similar. While wo have not had national panic and universal prostration as in 1857, there has been a stringency in the money market that has put many of our families of the earth to their wit's end. Large commercial interests collapsing have loft multitudes of employe, without means of support. The racked brains of business men have almost or entirely given way. New illustrations all over the land of the fact that riches have not only feet, on which they walk slowly as they come, but wings on which they speed when they go. Eternal God! Thou knowest how cramped, and severe, and solemn aQtime it is with many. And, as the business,ruin of 1858 was followed by the glorious triumphs of grace. Let the awful struggles of 1890 bo followed ,by the hallelujahs of a nation saved in 1891. Brethren in the Gospel ministry? if we spent half as much time in prayer as we do in the preparation of our sersertnons nothing could stand before us. We would have the pjwer from on high as we never hav hid it. Private membership Of all Christendom if we spent half as much time in positive prayer for this influence as we do in thinking about it and talking about it, there would not be secretaries enough to take down the names of those who would want to give in their names for enlistment. We would have hundreds of cases like those recently reported when a man said to an evangelist: * T aril a lost sinner. Pray for me. My wife has been a professor of religion for years,but I knew she did not enjoy religion, and I said if that was all ! here was in religion I did not want it. But for the last few days sho looked and acted in such an elevated spirit that I can not stand it away from God. T want the same religion that inspires her.” Come! Come! all through the United States, 4 and all through Christendom, and all around the world let us join hands of holy pledge that we will call upon God for the power. Oh. for the power from on high, the power that came on Pentecost, yea, for ten thousand Pontecosts. Such times will come, and they will comeinour day if we have the faith and the prayer and the consecration.

Many of my hearers to-day are what the world calls, and I would call splen- ] did fellows, and they seem happy j enough, and are jolly, and obliging, and if I were in trouble I would go to them with as much confidence as I would to my father, if he were alive. Hut whenjhey go into their rooms at aight, or when the excitements of social and business life are off, they are not content, and they want something better than this world can offer. I understand them so well, I would, without any fear of being thought rough, put my right hand on their one shoulder and my left hand on their other shoulder, and push them into the Kingdom of God. But 1 cannot. Power from high, lay hold of them! At the first communion aftiy tho dedication of our former church 328 souls stood up in the aisles and publicly espoused the cause of Christ. At another time time 400 souls; at another time 500; and our 4,500 membership was but a mall part of those who within those sacred walls took upon themselves the vows of the Christian. What turned them? What saved them? Power from the level? No. Power from on high. But greater things are to be seen, if ever these cities and ever this world is to be taken for God. There is one class of men and women in all these assemblages in whom I have especial interest, and that is those who had good fathers and mothers once, but they are dead. What multitudes of us are orphans! Wo may be 40, 50, 80 years old, but wo never get used to having father and mother gone. Oh! how often wo have had troubles that we would like to have told them, and we always felt as long as father and mother were alive we had some one to whom we could go. Now I would like to ask you if you think that all their prayers in our behalf have been answered. you say, “but it is too late, the old folks are gone now.” I must courteously contradict you. It is not too late. I have a friend in the ministry who was attending the last hours of an aged Christian, and my friend said to tho old Christian: “Is there no trouble on your mind?” The old man turned his face to the wall for a few moments and then 6aid; “Only one thing; I hope for the salvation of my ten children, but not one of them is yet saved; yet I am sure they will be. God means to wait until I am gone.” And so he died. When my friend told of the circumstances eight of tho ten had found the Lord, and I have no doubt the other two ere this have found him Oh. that the long postponed answers to prayer for you, my brother, for you. my Bister, might this hoifr descend in power from on high.