Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1894 — EGYPTIAN SLAVEJAY [ARTICLE]

EGYPTIAN SLAVEJAY

Sin a Taskmaster as Cruel as the Pharaohs. The Psalmist** Beautiful Simile, and the Lessons Brawn Therefrom—Dr. Talmage’s Sermon. There was the customary large audience at the Brooklyn Tabernacle last S,undayg_ Dr. Talmage spoke from the text, Psalms Ixviii, 13— “Though ye have lain among the oots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold.” I suppose you know what the Israelites did down in Egyptian slavery. They made bricks. Amid the utensils of the brickkiln there were also other utensils of cookery —the kettles, the pots, the pans, with which they prepared their daily food, and when these poor slaves, ’ tired of the day’s work, lay down to rest, they lay down among the imj>lem:■ntso flla r. 1 work. When they arose tn the morning, they found their garments covered with ths clay, and the smoke, and the dust, and besmirched and begrimed with the utensils of cookery. But after awhile the Lord broke up that slavery, and he took these poor slaves into a land where they had better garb, bright and clean and beautiful apparel. Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters. Worse than Phoraoh, it keeps us drudging in a most degrading service, but after awhile Christ comes and He says, “Let my people go,” and we pass out from among the brickkilns of sin into the glorious liberty of the gospel. We put on the clean robes of a Christian profession, and when at last we soar away to the warm nest which God has provided for us in heaven we shall go fairer than a dove, its wings covered with silver and its feathers with yellow gold. But how is it if a young man becomes a Christian? All. through the club-rooms where he associates, all through the business circles where be is known, there is commiseration. They say: “What a pity that a young man who had such bright prospects should so have been despoiled by those Christians, giving up all his worldly prospects for something which is of no particular present worth.” Here is a young woman who becomes a Christian: her voice,

her face, her manners the charm of the drawing-room. Now all through the the fashionable circles the whisper goes, “What a pity that such a bright light should haue been extinguished; that such a graceful gait should be crippled, that such worldly prospects should be obliterated.” Ah, my friends, it can be shown that religion’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and that all her paths are peace; that, religion, instead of being dark and doles ul and lachrymose and repulsive, is bright and beautiful, fairer than a dove, its wings covered with silver and its feathers with yellow gold.

See, in the first place, what religion will do for a man’s heart. I care hot how cheerful a man may be naturally before conversion, conversion brings him up to a higher standard of cheerfulness, I. do not say be will laugh any louder; I do not say but he may stand back from some forms of hilarity in which he once.indulged, but there comes into his soul an immense satisfaction. A young man not a Christian depends upon worldly successes to keep his spirits up. Now he is prospered, now he has a large salary, now he has a beautiful wardrobe, now he has -pleasant friends, now he has more money than he knows how to spend— every thing £oes bright and well with him. But trouble domes — there are many young men in this house, this morning, who can testify out of their own experience that sometimes to young men trouble does come—-his friends are gone; his salary is gone; his health is gone; he goes down, down, down. He becomes sour, cross, queer, misanthropic, blames the world, blames society*, blames the church, blames everything, rushes perhaps to the intoxicating cup to drown his trouble, but instead of drowning his trouble he drowns his body and drowns his sclul. But here is a Christian young man. Trouble comes to him. Does he give up? No! He throws himself back on the resources of heaven. He says: “.God is my Father. Out of all these disasters I shall pluck advantage for my soul. All the promises are mine; Christ is mine; Christian companionship is mine; heaven is mine. What though my apparel be worn out? Christ gives me a robe of righteousness. What though my money be gone? I have a title deed to the whole universe in the promise, ‘All are yours.’ What though my worldly friends fall away? Ministering angels are my bodyguard. What though my fare be poor, and my bread be scant? I sit at the king’s banquet!’’ You and I have found out that peo pie who pretend to be happy are not alwayS'happy. Look at that young man earictrtKiring the Christian religion, scoffing at everything good, going into roistering drunkenness,, dashing the champagne bottle to the floor, rolling the glasses from the bar-room counter, laughing, shouting,'stamping the floor. Is he happy. I will go to his midnight pillow. I will see him turn the gas off. I will ask myself if the pillow on which ho sleeps is as soft as the pillow on which that pure young man sleeps, Ah, no! When..he opens his eyes in the, morning? will the world bo as bright to him as to that V ’ ' '• ■' t • *

young man who retired'at night saying his prayers, invoking God’s blessing upon his own soul and the souls I of his comrades and father anc I mother and brothers and sisters fat away? No, no! His laugh will rino I out from the saloon so that you heat it as it is the snapping of heart-1 strings and the rattle of prison gates. Happy! that young man , happy? Oh, do you know of anything, my hearers, that is more beautiful than I to see a young, man start out for Christ? Here is some one falling; he lifts him up. . Here is a vagabond | boy; he introduces him to a mission 1 school. Here is a family freezing to death, he carries them a scuttle ol coal. There are 800.000,000 perishing in midnight, heathen darkness; by all possible means he tries to send them He may be laughed at, and he may be sneered at, and he may be caricatured, but he is not ashamed to go everywhere, saying: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation.” Such a young man can go through- -everything; —There~~is“nu c force on earth or in hell that can resist him. I show you three spectacles; Spectacle the First—Napoleon passes by with the host that went down with him to Egypt, and up with him through Russia and crossed the continent, on the bleeeing heart of which he set his iron heel, ahd across the quivering flesh of which he went grinding the wheels of his gun carriages—in his dying moment asking his attendants to put on his military boots for him. Spectacle the Second—r Voltaire. bright and learned and witty and eloquent, with tongue and voice and stratagem infernal, warring against God and poisonjng whole kingdoms with his infidelity, yet applauded by the clapping hands of thrones and empires and continents —his last’ words, in delirium supposing Christ standing by the bedside—his last words, “Crush that wretch!” Spectacle the Third—Paul —Paul, insignificant in person, thrust out from all refined association,scourged, spaton. hounded like a wild beast from city to city, yet trying to make the world good and heaven full; announcing resurrection of those who mourned at'the barred gates of the dead; speaking consolations which light up the eyes of widowhood and orphanage and want with glow of certain and eternal release, undaunted before those who could take his life, his cheek flushed with transport and his eye on heaven; with oue hand shaking defiance at all the foes of earth and all the principalities of hell, and with the other hand beckoning messenger angels to come and bear him away, as he says; “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me.” Which of the three spectacles do you most admire? Oh, if, religion does so much for a man on earth, what will it do for him in heaven? That is the~thought that comes to me now. If a soldier can affbrdto shout “Huzza!” when ho goes -into battle, how much more-jubilantly he can afford to shout “Huzza!” when he has gained the victory! If religion is so good a thing to have hero, how bright a thing it will be in heaven! I want to see that young man when the glories of heaven have robed and crowned him. I want to hear him sing when all huskiness of 'earthly colds is gone, and he rises up with the great doxology. I want to know what standard he will carry when marching under arches of pearl in the army of banners. I want to know what company he will keep in the land where all Brokings and queens for ever and ever. If I have induced one of you, this morning, to begin a better life, then I want to know it. I may not in this world clasp hands with you in friendship. I may not hear from your own lips the story of temptation and sorrow, but I will clasp hands with you when the sea is passed and the gates are entered. “Oh,” you say, “religion I am going to have. It is only a question of time.” My, brother, lam afraid that you may lose heaven the way Louis Phillippe lost his empire. The Parisian mob came around the Tuileries. The national guard stood in defense of the palace and the commander said to Louis Phillippe: “Shall I fire now? Shall I order the troops to fire? With one volley we can clear the place.” “No,” said Louis Phillippe, “not yet.” A few minutes passed on, and then Louis Phillippe, seeing the case was hopeless, said to the general: “Now is the time to fire.” “jNo,” said the general, “it is too late now. Don’t you see that the soldiers are exchanging arms with the citizens? It is too late.” Down went the throne of Louis Phillippe. Away from the earth went the house of Orleans, and all because the king said, “Not yet!” May God forbid that any of you should adjourn this great subject of religion and should postpone assailing your spiritual foes until it is too late, too late—you losing a throne in heaven the way that Louis Phillippe lost a throne on earth. The old-time plan was to broadcast one year and use hoed crops the next. By this method the weeds were kept down and the crops varied -some, but no system of rotation at the present day is considered correct that does not include one crop to be plowed under, clover being the befit for that purpose. — :