Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1892 — TALMAGE SAYS BYE-BYE. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE SAYS BYE-BYE.

> 1» Ferdinand’B gracious queen had realized that one result of Columbus’ trip across the ocean would be the formation 400 years later of an Isabella Spanish Club in the City of Chicago she' might have hesitated longer than she did about pawning her jewels to raise money for his outfit. < SajutkiTTarwater, of Ray county; aged ninety years, is paid a pension of S2OO a year by tho State of Missouri for wounds received in the Mormon war. was granted by a special actfof the Legislature in 1841 and is just about enough to keep Mr. Tarwater in firewater —though not enough to keep him in hot water as to what use to make of it. Edward Pardridoe, the Chicago / wheat operator, who has more than once made a fortune in wheat speculation in a single day, says the happiest moments of his~iife~was when ■he used to run in bareheaded from the river with a big string of suckers and lay them down before his father, fils appetite for suckers has continued to the present time, but he no longer lays the string before his father. A new broom sweeps clean. The recently appointed Superintendent of Police ip New York is closing up the dives with precision and dispatch. The Incredulous advise, however, that the public wait a bit before con. eluding that vice has been exterminated from the metropolis. They declare that there have been spasms of virtue before, but they were only spasms. Let us hope that the present exhibition as something more. A* effort is to be made .to estab{ish a powerful labor party in* Pariament. In justification for this proposed action it is urged that “despite all the promises made at Newcastle and elsewhere, every politician of note had taken a negative position on matters affecting the de—ive and had snubbed the Labor party. Mr. Morley had insulted it,Lord Salisbury twitted at it, Mr. Balfour had been .cynical, and Lord Randolph Churchill had been hysterical. There was not a representative man in either party who was not opposed to the Labor programme. The ruling classes cared nothing that the millions were weltering in ignorance and poverty so long as their ~cwb "pockets were flllear* *~ ~~ John Adlock, a bachelor farmer, near McFall Station, Mo., recently became enamored of a neighbor, s buxom daughter. He persuaded her to elope with him to St. Joseph, where they were married. Next day they returned to their home, and later decided to move to Rocky Ford, Col. Adlock chartered a freight car, in which he loaded such of his effects as had escaped the sale, •including his wife. He boxed up his wife and loaded her figthe car with the other plunder to save paying her fare. He went along with the train, and at ocs of the stations he unboxed his better half. She jrode very comfortably until = neftring their destination, when she was put back into the box and was unloaded, none the* worse for the 'pSP * journey, at Rocky Ford, where Adlock will go into the bee business. The Chinese exclusion bill seems to have within its folds the possibility of international complications *' without end. The act provides that the Chinaman who claims to be a citizen of some other country than China shall, when found here, r be sent to his adopted country, unless that country demands a tax as a condition of his return, in which case he shall be sent to China. The courts arc now wrestling with the question Xrhat shall be done with the China- '’** man naturalized in Mexico and entitled. as a citizen of that country, to the same, treatment as any other Mexican citizen. Our treat with Mexico guarantees the citizens of / that country the same protection accorded to our own citizens. To refuse it is to ignore the treaty; and while this, in the case of a picayune country like Mexico, might not involve any very serious consequences, what is to be done when the same question arises—as it may any day—concerning our treatment of British - or French, dr possibly German aubV "J»cts who were born in China? The celestial problem was not wholly disposed by the exclusion act.—N. Y. Sun.

His Last Sermon Before Sailing for Europe. , Raw lUrrnit* Crged to Fnt on the Armor of God and With Gifontlc Blow* Strike at Darkness. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn Sunday; and prefaced his sermon with h statement to the effect that he would sail on Wednesday next for Europe, and might- be able to be present at the distribution in the famine stricken districts of Russia of the Christian Herald relief cargo, consisting of 3,000,000 pounds of floiir and other supplies which go out this week on the steamship Leo. chartered for the purpose. His sermon was from the text, Ephes. vi., 11: “Put on the whole armor of God. ” There is in this text a great rattle of shields and hemlets and swords. Soldiers are getting ready for battle. We have had recently in this church - hew enlistments and I shall address myself to those in this and other churches who are putting on the armor of God and who may' feel themselves to be as yet only raw recruits. ‘‘Masterly retreat'’ is a term often used in mflttaFy circles, but in religion there is up such thing. It is either gloriousadvance or disgraceful and ignominious falling back. It would be a strange thing if all our anxiety about men ceased the moment they were converted. You wohld almost doubt the sanity of that farmer who, having planted the corn and seen it just sprout above ground, should say: “My work is all done. I have no anxiety for the field. There is work for the plow and the hoe, and there must be a carefiil keeping up of the fences, and there must be a frightening away of the birds that would pillage the field. And I say the entrance upon Christian life is only the implantation of grace in the heart. There is earnest, hard work yet to be done, and perhaps many years of anxiety before there shall be heard the glorious shout of “Harvesthome,’ - The beginning to be a Christian is only putting down the foundation, but after that there are years of hammering, polishing, carving, lifting, before the, structure is completed.* It takes five years to make a Christian character; it takes twenty years; it takes forty yeark; it takes seventy years, if a mau shall live so long. In other words, a man dying after a half century feels he has only learned the “A B C’s” of a glorious alphabet. The next year will decide a great deal in your history, young Christian man. It will decide whether you are tp be a burning and shining light in the church, or a spark of grace covered up in a barrel of ashe§. It will decide whether you are to be a strong man in Christ Jesus, wfth gigantic blows striking the iron mailpLfiarkness, or a bedwarfed, whiuifig,gruhabling soldier, that ought to be drummed out pf the Lord’s camp to the “Rogue’s .March. - ’ You have only just beendaunched; the voyage is to be made, V; __ My first word of counsel is, hold ■ - befeW-yoor-soalTrTSry high model. Do not say, ‘T wish I could pray like Jthat man, or speak like that man, or have the consecration of this one.” Say: “Here isth& Lord Jesus Christ, a perfect patten. By that I mean, with God’s grace, to shape my life. ” In other words, you will never be any more a Christian than you strive to be. If you build a foundation twenty by thirty feet you will only have a small house. If you build a foundation one hundred by one hundred feet, yon will have a large house. If you resolve to be onl\ r a middling Christian, you will only be a middling Christian. If you have no high aspirations in a worldly direction you wilt never succeed in business. If you have no high aspiration in religious things you will never succeed in religion. You have a right to aspire to the very highest style of Christian character. From your feet there reaches-oat a path of " Christian attainments which you may take, and I deliberately say that you may be a better man than was Paul, or David, or Summerfield, or Doddridge—a better woman than Hannah More or Charlotte Elizabeth.

Why not? Did they have a monopoly of Christian grace? Did they have a private key of the store house of God’s mercy? Does God shut you out from the gladness and goodness to which they were introduced? Oh. no. You have just the samjb promises, just the same Christ, just the fsame Holy Ghost, just the same offers of present and everlasting love, and if you fall short of what they were—ay, if you do not come up to the point which they reached apd go beyond it—it is not because Christ has you out from any point of moral or spiritual elevation, but because you deliberately refused to .take it. I admit that man can not become a Christian like that without a struggle, but what do you get without fighting for it? , My second counsel is: Abstain from all pernicious associations, and take only those that are useful and .beneficial. Stay out of all associations that would damage your Christianjcharacter. Take only those associations that will help you. A learned man I stay with that man Fenelon ahy longer I shall get to be a Cbristiandn spite of myself.” In other words, there is a mighty power iu Christian associations. Now 1 , what kind of associations shall we, as young Christians, seek after? I think we ought to get in company better than ourselves, never going into company worse than ourselves. If we get into com-

papy a little better than ourselves, and tnere are teh pedplean that company ten cbanccs to one we will be bettered. If we get into cotnpany a little worses than ourselves,and there be ten people in that company, ten 3 chances to one wfe will be made worse than we were before. Now, when a young Christian enters the church. God does not ask him to retire from the world. The anchorite that lives on acorns is no nearer heaven than the man who lives oh partridge and wild duck. Isolation is not demanded by tbe Bible A man may use the world with the restriction of not abusing it. Eut just as soon as you find any "surroundings" pernicious to your spiritual interest, quit those associations. This remark is more especially appropriate to the young. Now it is impossible that the young and untroubled should seek their associations with those who are aged and worn out. As God intended the aged to associate with the aged, talking over the past, and walking staff in hand along the same paths 'they trod, thirty, forty, and fifty years ago, so, I suppose, he intended the young chiefly to osspeiate, with the young. The grace of God does not demand that we be unnatural. I do not want you to take this caution I have given you as that of a growling misanthrope, hating hilarity. For you

must have a spring bow if you want to make the arrow fly. But while this is so, I want you to be especially on guard in this matter, and let the religion of Jesus Christ control you in all your associations. I know young people who have meant well enough, but they have into evil influences, and they, have associated day by day with those who hated God and despised his commandments, and their characters are all depleted. I can see they changed for the worse, but they are not aware of it. O young man,come out of that bad association. I do'not know what it is. Ido not know to what place you may have, a private key. / \ I do not know to what place you go without the sanction of those who love you very much. I do not pretend to point out any evil influences, but are there not some surrounding influences that arepernicious to voutgrowth in grace? Stand back from' that furnace in which so many young Christians have been destroyed. In this church there is a large company of young men aud young women consecrated to Christ. I know of no better people than they are. Young convert, I invite you intotheir friendship. Contact with them will elevate you. All hail, young followers of Jesus Christ, my joy aud my pride! My heart thrills at at every step of your advancement. My next word of counsel is that you may be actively employed. I see a great many Christians with doubts aud perplexities, and they seem to be proud of them. Their entire Christian life is made up of gloom, and they seem to cultivate that spiritual despondency, when I will undertake to say that in nine cases out of ten spiritual despondency is a judgment of God upon idleness. Who are the happy people in the church to day ?

who professes* the religion Qf Jesus Christ and is idle, and I will show you an unhappy man. The very first prescription that I give to a man when I find him full of doubts and fears about his eternal interest is to go to work for God. Ten thousand Voices are lifted up asking for your help. Go and help. I have another word of counsel to give those who have just entered Christian life, and that is. be faithful in prayer. You might as well, business men, start out in the morning without food and expect strong all that day—you might as well abstain from, food all the week and expect to bp strong physically as to be strong Without prayer. The only way to get any strength into tbe soul is by prayer, and the only difference between that Christian that is worth every riling and that one who is worth nothing is the fact that the la§J does not pray aDd the othef doe£ And the only difference between this. Christian who is getting along fast in the holy life, and this ojjre who is getting along tolerably,' is that the first one prays more than the last. You can graduate a man’s progress in religion by the amount of prayer, not by the number of hours, perhaps, vbut by tne earnest supplication that he puts up to God. There is no exception to the rule.

Read the Bible and it brings you into the association of the best people that lived. You stand beside Moses and learn his meekness, beside Job and learn his patience, beside Paul catch something of his enthusiasm, beside Christ and j'ou feel his love. And yet how strange it is that a great many men have given their whole lives to the assaulting of that book. I can not understand it. Tom Paine worked against that book as though he received large wages and was inspired by the very powers of darkness. confessing that all the time he was writing he did not have the Bible any,where near him. . How many powerful intellects have endeavored to destroy it. Hume, Bollngbroke, Voltaire, "have been after it. Ten thousand men now are waning against the truths. of God’s \ford. Cling to your Bible! If this Bible should be destroyed,, if all the Bibles that have ever been printed should be destroyed, we could make 09 a Bible right out of this audlftncp. From that Christian man’s ence I taka one cluster of promises, and from that old Obristlaa mas’s another. I pnt them all together Sad I think I would havfc a Bible. ~'V' - ' A-i r ■ :•