Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1891 — NON-CHURCH GOERS. [ARTICLE]

NON-CHURCH GOERS.

STRAY SHEEP WHICH THE BHEPPEROS ARE GATHERING. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached in Brooklyn and New York Sunday as follows: Text, John X., 16. He said: There is no monopoly in religion. The grace of God is not a nice little property fenced off all for ourselves. It is not a king’s park, at which we look through a barred gateway, wishing we might go in qnd pluck the flowers and look at the deer and the statuary. It is a father's orchard, and there are bars to let down, and gates to swing open. Have you any idea that, because you were baptized at 8 months of age, and because you have all your life been surrounded by hallowed influences, you hare a right to one whole side of the Lord’s table, spreading yourself out so nobody else can get there? You will have to haul in your elbows, for there will come a great mujtitude to sit at the table, and on both sides of you. You ore not going to have this monopoly of religion.

McDonald, the Scotchman. ha 9 on the Scotch hills a great flock of sheep. McDonald has 4.000 or 5,000 head of sheep. Some are browsing in the Leather, someaFO on the hills, some are in the valleys, a sow are in the yard. One day Cameron comes over to McDonald and says: “McDonal. you have thirty sheep; I have been counting them.” “Oh. no!" says McDonald, “I have 4,000 or 5,000.” “Ah!” saya Cameron, “you are mistaken; I have just counted them; there are thirty.” “Why," says McDonald, “do you suppose that is all the sheep I have? I have sheep on the distant hills and in the valleys, ranging and roaming everywhere. Other sheep have I which are not of this fold.” So Christ cornea. —- “Here is a group of Christians, and there is a group of Christians; here is a Methodist fold, here is a Presbyterian fold, here is a Baptist fold, here is a Lutheran fold, and we make our annual statistics, and we think we can tell you just how many Christians there are iu the world; how many there are in the church, how many of all these denominations. We aggregate them, and we think we are giving an intelligent and an accurate account; but Christ comes, and He says, :sp u have not counted them right Tlmre are those whom you have never Been, those of whom you have never heard. I have my children in all parts of the earth, on all the islands of the sea, on all the continents, in all the mountains and in all the valleys. Do you think that these few sheep that you have counted are all the sheep I have? There Is a great multitude that no one cau number. Other sheep have I which are not of this fold.” Christ, in my text, talks of the conversion .of the Gentiles as confidently as though they had already been converted. He sets forth the idea that His people will come from all parts of the earth, from all age 9, from all circumstances, from all conditions. In the first place, I remark, the Heavenly Sliephered will find many of his sheep among those who are at present non-church-goers. There are different kinds of churfches. Some - times you will find a church made up only of Christians. Everything seems finished. The church reminds you of those skeleton plants from which by chemical preparation all the greenness and the verdure have been taken, and they are cold and white and delicate and beautiful and finished. All that is wanted is a glass case put over them. The minister on the Sabbath has only to take an ostrich feather and brush off the dust that has accumulated in the last six days of business, and then they are as cold and delicate and beautiful as before. Everything is finished: finished sermons, finished music, finished architecture, finished everything. Another church is like an armory, the sound of drum and life calling more recruits to the Lord’s army. We say to the applicants, “Come in and get your equipment. Here is the bath in which you are to be cleansed, here is the helmet you are to put on your head, here are the sandals you are to put oa your feet, here is the breastplate you are to put Over your heart, here is the sword you are to take in your right hand and fight His battle with. Quit yourselves like men.”

There are those here, perhaps, who say, “It i 9 now ten, fifteen years since I was in the habit, the regular habit, of church-going.” I know all about your case. I am going to tell you something that will be startling at the first, and that is that you are going to become the Lord’s sheep. • ‘Oh,” you say, “that is impossible; you don’t know bow far I am from anything of. that kind.” I know all about your case. I have been up and down the world. I know why some of you do not attend upon Christian services. I go further, and make another announcement in regard to you, and that is, you are not only to become the Lord’s sheep, but you are going to become .the Lard’s sheep this hour. God is going to call you graciously by His Spirit; you are going to come into the fold of Christ. This sermon shall not be so much for those who are Chris? tians. I have preached to thorn hundreds and thousands of times, The sermon that I preach now is going to be chiefly for those who consider themselves outsiders, but who may happen to be in the house; and the chief employment of the Christian people here to-day will be to pray for those who are not accustomed to at- • tend upon Christian sanctuaries. There are men now in the breakers. They have made a shipwreck of life. While we come out to save them some are swept off before we can reach them, and there are others still hang-

lng on. Steady there among Hie slippery places! Leap into the life boat! Now is your chance for heaven! This hour some of you are going to be saved. Far away from God, yon are going to be brought nigh. You are ndw, this hour, in the tide of Christian influences. You are going to be swept .in; your voice is goiqg to be heard in prayer; you are going to be consecrated to God; you are going to live a life of usefulness, and your deathbed is going to be surrounded by Christian sympathizers, and devout men will carry you to your burial when your work is done, and these words be chiseled for your epitaph. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. ” And all that history is going to begin to-day.

Again 1 remark, the heavenly shepherd is going to find many of his sheep among those who are now rejectors of Christianity. Ido not know how you came t,p reject Christianity. Ido not know whether it was through hearing Theodore Parker preach, or whether it was reading “Renan’s Life of Jesus,” or whether it was through some skeptic in the factory or store; or it may be, and probably is the case, that you were disgusted with relieion and disgusted with Christianity because some man who professed to be a Christian defrauded you, and he being a member of the church, and you taking him as a representative of the Christian religion, you said: “Well; if that’-s religion I don’t want any of it.” I do,pot know how you came to reject Christianity, but you frankly tell me you do reject it; you do not think the Blole is the word cf God, although there are many things in. it you admire; you do not think that Christ was a divine being, although you think He was a very good man. You say if the Bible be true, or most of it be true, you nevertheless think the earlier part of the Bible is an allegory. And there are fifty things that I believe that you dohot believe. Nevertheless they tell me in regard to you that are an accommodating, an obliging person. If I should come to you and ask of you a favor you would grant it if it were possible. It would be a joy for you to grant me a favor. Should any of your friends come to you and wanted an accommodation, and you could accommodate them, how glad you would be. Now I am going to ask of you a favor, an’d want you to accommodate me. The accommodation will cost you nothing, and will give great happiness. Of course you will not deny me. I want you as an experiment to try the Christian religion. If it does not stand the test, discard it; if it does, receive it. Now will you not try this solace, this febrifuge, this annbdyne, this gospel medicine? “Oh’ you say, “I haven’t any faith in it.” As a matter of accommodation, let me introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Physician. “Why,” “I ha vent any faith in Him.” Well, now, will you not just let Him try His power on your soul? Just let me introducehim to you. Ido not ask you to take my word for it. Ido not ask you take the advice of clergymen. Perhaps the clergymen may be prejudiced: perhaps we may be speaking piofessionally: perhaps we may give wrong advice, perhaps we are morbid on that subject. So I do not ask you to take tho advice of clergymen. - I ask you to take the advice of very respectable laymen, such as William Shakesphere, the dramatist, as William the statesman; as Isaac Newton, the astronomer: us Robert Boyle, the philosopher; as Locke, the metaphysician, as Morse, the electrician. Those men never preached—but they come out,' and putting down, one his telescope, and another tho electrician’s wire, and another the Parlimentary scroll—they come out. and they commend Christ as a comfort to all the people, a Christ that the world needs. Now, Ido not ask you take the advice of clergymenTake tho advice of the laymen. It does not make any difference tome at this juncturejwhat you have saidjagainstjthe Bible: itdoos not make any difference to me at this juncture how you may have caricatured religion. You believe in love. A father’s love, a mother’s love,a wife’s love, a child's love. Now let me tell you God loves you more than all of them together; and you must come in, you will come in. Chist looks in all tenderness, with the infinite tenderness of the gospel, into your soul, and he says: “This is your time for heaven:” and then He waves His hand to the people of God, and He says: “Other sheep have 1 which are not of this fold.” Again I remark, the Heavenly Shepherd is going to get many of his sheepamong those who have been flung of evil habit.

It outrages me to see how soon Christian people give up the prodical. I hear Christian talk as they thought! the grace of God was a chain of forty or fifty links, and when they had run out then there was nothing to touch the depth of a man’s iniquity. If a man were out hunting for aeer and got off the track of the deer, he would hunt, amid the bushes and the brakes longer for the lost game than he will look lor a lost soul. They say If a man had the delirium tremens twice he can not be be cured. They say if a woman had fallen from integrity she can not be redeemed. All of which is an infinite slander on the Gospel of the Son of God. Men who say that know nothing about practical religion in their own hearts. How many times will God take back a man who has fallenP Well I can not give you the exact figures, but I can tell you at what point He' certainly will take him back. Four hundred •nd ninety times. Why do I say 490 times? because the Bible says seventy limes seven. Now, figure thalj out, you who do not think a man can, fall four times, eight times, ten times, twenty times, 100 times, 400 times and yet be saved. Four hundred and nine-

[tf times! Why, there is a great mul- ; titude before the throne of God who ; plunged into all the depths of iniquity. There were no sins they did not commit; but they were washed of body, and washed of mind, and washed of soul, and they were before the throne of God now forever happy. I say tbat to encourage any man who feels there if no chance for him. Good Templars will save you, although they are a grand institution. Sons of Temperance will not save you, although there is no better society on earth. Signing the temperance pledge will not save you, although it is a grand thing to do. No one but God can save you. Do not put your confidence in bromide of potassium, or any thing that the apothecary can mix. Put your trust in God! After the Church ha 9 cast you off, aqd the bank has cast you off, and social circles have cast you off, and all good society has cast you off, and father has cast you off, and mother has cast you off, at your first cry for help God will bend clean down to that ditch of youriniquiity to help you out. Oh, what a God He is! Long suffering and gracious!

There may be in this house some whose hand trembles so with dissipation they could hardly hold a hymn book. I say to such, if they are here; You will preach the Gospel yet; you will yet, some of you, carry the Holy Communion through the aisles, and you will be acceptable to every body, because every body will know you are saved and purified by the grace of God and a consecrated man. wholly consecrated. Your business has got to come up; your physical health is to be rev built; your family is to be restored: the Church of God on earth „ and in heaven i 9 to rejoice over your coming. “Other sheep have I which are not of this fold.” If this is not the Gospel I do not know what the Gospel is. It can scale any height; it can fathom any depth; it can compass any infinity. I think one reason why there are not more people saved is we do not swing the door wide enough open. Now, there is. only one class of persons in this house about whom I have any despondency, and that is those who have been hearing the GoSpol for perhaps twenty, thirty, forty years, their outward life moral. But they tell you frankly they do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, have not trusted Him. have not been born again by the Spirit of God. They are Gospel hardened. The Gospel has no more effect upon them than the shining of the moon on the city pavement. The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of Godi before them. They went through, some of them, the revival of 1857, when 500,000 souls were brought to God. Some of them went through great revivals in individual churches. Still’ unpardoned, unblessed, unsaved. Theyi were merely spectators. Gospel hardened! After awhile we will hear that, they are sick, and then that they aro< dead, and then that they died without any hope. Gospel hardened. But I turn away from all such with a thrill of hope to those who are not Gospel hardened. Some of you have not heard, perhaps, five Bermona in five years. Th ; s whole subject has been a novelty to you for some time. You are not Gospel hardened; you know, you are not Gospel hardened. The whole subject comes freshly to your mind. I hear some soul saying: “O my wasted life! O the bitter past! O the graves I stumbled over! Whither shall I fly? The future is, so dark, 80 very dark. God help me!” Oh, I am so glad for tbat last utterance! Tbat was a prayer, and as soon as you begin to pray that turns all heaven this way, and God steps in, and He beats back the hounds of temptation to their kennels, and He throws; all around the pursued soul the covert of his pardoning iflercy. I heard, something fall. What was it? It was the bars around the sheopfold—the; bars of the fence around the sheeps fold. Tho Heavenly Shepherd let them fall, and the hunted sheep of the mountain come bounding in, some with fleece torn of tho brambles, and others with feet lame from the dogs, but bounding in. Thank God! “Other sheep have I which are not of this fold.”