Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1894 — AT THE GOLDEN GATE. [ARTICLE]

AT THE GOLDEN GATE.

An Eloquent Sermon on the Burdens ot Lase. Comfort for the AVT-try and Heavy ~ U——- . ; Dr. TAI-nitge'H Sermon. Dr. Talmage spent last Sunday in i San Francisco, whence he will sail, May 31, on the steamer Alameda for Honolulu. He; preached to a large audience on the subject of “Heavy Weights,” the text being taken from Psalms iv, 22: “Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.” He said: David was here taking his own medicine. If anybody had on him heavy weights, David had them, and yet out of his own experience he advises you and me as to the best Avay’ of getting rid of burdens. This is a world of burden bearing. During the past few days tidings came from across the sea of a mighty and good man fallen. A man full of the Holy Ghost was he. his name the synonym for all that is good and kind land gracious and beneiicen t. Word comes to us-of a scourge sweeping off hundreds and thousands of people, and there is a burden -of sorrow’. Sorrow on the sea and sorrow on the land, Coming into the house of prayer there may be' ; no sign of StHj; ness or sorrow, hut w’here is the man who has not a conflict? Where is the soul that has not a struggle?; And there is not a day of all the year when my text is not gloriously appropriate, and there is never an audience assembled on the planet where the text is not gloriously appropriate. “Cast thy burden upon -the Lord and He shall sustaiEHEhee/”Oh, my friends, what we want is a practical religion. The religion people hiive is so high up you cannot reach it. I had a friend who entered the life of an evangelist. He gave up a lxKa^iw(kJi«sinCss. and he and his wife came to severe want. He told me that in the morning at prayers he said: "O' Loe;!, thou knowest we have not a mouthful of food in the house. Heli>-=»e4 help us!” And he started out on the street, and a gentleman met him and said. “I hate been thinking of-you for a good while. You know lam a flour merchant. If vou wonlt-.be offended, I should lil;e to send you a barrel of flour.T—Recast his burden on the Lord, and the Lord sustained him. Now, that is the kind of religion w 7 e want. There are a great many men who have business burdens. When we see a man worried and perplexed ard annoyed in business life, we are apt to say. “He ought not to have attempted to carry so much.” Ah, that may not“ be to blame at all! When a man plants a business he knows not what will be its outgrowths, what will be lts roots, what will be its branches. There is many a man Avith keen foresight and large business faculty who has been flung into the dust by unforeseen circumstances springing upon him from ambush. When to buy, when to sell, when to trust and to what amount of credit, what will be the effect of this new invention of ma--tfmrery; what will be the effect of that loss of crop and a thousand other questions perplex business men until the hair is silvered and deep wrinkles are plowed m the cheek, and the stocks go down by the mountains and go dowir by the valleys, and they are at ends and stagger like drunken men. You hear that it is avarice which drives these men of business through the street, and that is the commonly accepted idea. Ido not believe a word of it. The vast multitude of these business men are toiling on for Others’. To educate their children, to put a wing of protection over their households, to have something left so when they pass out of this life their wives_and children; will not have to go to the poor house - that is the Avay I translate this energy in the street and store, the vast majority of that energy. Grip, Gouge & Co., do not do all the business. Ah, my friend, do you say that God does not care anything, about your worldly business? I tell you God knows more about it than you do. He knows all the perplexities. He knows what note you cannot pay. He knows what mortgage is about to foreclose. He knows what unsalable goods you have on your shelves. ’ He knows all your trials, from the day you took hold of the first yardstick down to that sale of the last yard of ribbon, and the God who helped David to be king, and who helped Havelock to be a soldier will help you to discharge all your duties. He is going to see you through. Wheh loss comes and you find your property going, just take this book and put it down by your ledger and read of the eternal- possessions that will come to you through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when your business partner betrays you, just take the insulting letter, put it down on- the table, put you bibfo/tbeside the insulting letter and then read of. the friendship of Him who “sticketh closer than a brother.” Oh. yes, God has a sympathy with anybody that is in any kind of toil. He knows how heavy is the hod of bricks that the workman carries up the ladder on the wall, he hears the pickax of the miner down" J ''m the coal shaft, he knows fyow strong the tempest strikes the sailor at the masthead, he sees the factory girl among the spindles and knows how fier arms a<;he, he sees the sewing woman in the fourth story and knows how few pence she gets for making a garment, and louder than all the din and roar of the city comes the voice of a sympathetic

God, -‘Gast- thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.” The world has always had a cross ; bet ween two thieves for the one who comes to save. High and holy enterprise has always been followed by abuse, The most sublime tragedy of self-sacrificing has come to I burigsq i:e. The graceful gait of vu-., , tue is always followed by scoff and I grimace and travesty. The sweeti est strain of poetry ever written has i come to ridiculeus parody, and as l long as there are virtue and right- ' eousness in the world there will be i something for iniquity to grin at. j All along the line of the ages and in all lands the cry has been: “Not t his m an, buUßarabbas. Now Barabbas was robber.” j A clergyman of the universalist church went into a neighborhood for the establishment of a church of his . denomination, and he was anxious to find some one of that denomination, and he was pointed to a certain , house and went there. He said to the man of the house: “I understand you are a universalist.” 1,; "lam a versalist, but I have a peculiar kimi of universalism.” “What is that?” asked the minister. "Well,” replied the other, “I have been out in j the world, and I have been cheated I and slandered and outraged and” - • abused until I believe in universal ■ dainnation!” j Now, if you have come across ill- , treai mmi t. let- me tell you you are in ! excellent company Christ and j Lutliei’ and Galileo and Columbus' ! and John Jay and Josiah Quincy and | thousands of men and women, the I best spirits of earth and heaven. j-Then .there are others who carry : great bur.lens of; physical ailments. I When sudden sickness has come and ifi ere e c holer asfiah <1 malign ant Ye vers ” ; take the castles of life by storm, we i appeal to GoJ. but in these chronic ailments' which wear out the strength day after day and week ; ;ift(>r w?ei< -uJK-l-yi'ar aitea’. year how , little resoriing to God for solace! ; Then people depended upon their | tonics, and their piasters, and their ■ cordials rather than upon heavenly : stimulants. , I Oil, how few people there are com- ‘ pietely well! Some of you, by dint of perseverance and care, have kept I living to this time, but how you * have had to war against physical ailments! Ahtefleluvians, without , medical college and infirmary and-, j RpotlnrcaTy" - sYdpWimittTplied their ■ years by hundreds, but he who has ■ gone through the gauntlet of disease i in our time and has come to seventy i years of age is a hero worthy of a palm. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” Does your head ache? His wore the thorn. Do your feet hurt? His were crushed by the spikes. Is your side painful? His was struck by the i spear. Do you feel like giving away I under the burden? His weakness ' gave way under a cross. While you are in every possible way to try to restore your physical vigor, you are to remember that more soothing i than any anodyne, more vitalizing ! than any stimulant and more strengthening than any tonic is the t prescription of the text. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will ,sus tai ii them-”--.—fe- —1"" A prominent merchant of New I York said to a member of my family, “My mother wants her- case men- ! tioned to Mr. Talmage.” This was the case. He said: “My ‘ mother had :x dreadful abscess, from which she had suffered untold agonies, and all surgery had been ex- , i hausted upon her, and worse she i grew until we called in a few ChrisI tian friends and proceeded to pray ’ about it. Wo recommended her case ter God, and the abscess began immediately to be cured. She is entirely well now and without knife and without any surgery.” So that case has come jto me, and there are a score of other cases coming to our cars from all parts of the earth. Oh, ye who are sick,, go to Christ! Oh T ye who are worn out with agonies of body, “Cast thy burden upon the. Lord, and h e shall sustain thee.” Another burden some lia\’e to carry is the burden of bereavement. Ah, these are the troubles that wear us out! If wo lose our property, by additional industry perhaps we may bring back the estranged fortune; if we lose our good name, perhaps by reformation of morals w.c may achieve again reputation for integrity, but who will bring back the dear departed? Now the grave is brighter than the ancient tomb where the lights were perpetually kept burning. The scarred feet of Him who was “the resurrection and the life” are on the broken grave hillock, while the , voices of angels ring down the sky at the coronation of another soul come home to glory. Oh, to have a mountain of sin on < the soul! Is there no way. to have the burden moved? Oh, yes; “Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” The sinless one came to take the consequences of our sin. And I know He is in earnest. How do I know it? By the streaming temples and the streaming hands as He says: “Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will gjve you rest.” Why’ will prodigals live on swines’ husks when the robe, and the ring,' and the father's welcome are ready? Why go wandering over the great Sahara desert of your sin when you are invited to the gardens of God, the trees of life and the fountains of living water? Why be houseless and homeless forever when you may become the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty? Railroads in Holland are so carefully managed that the accidental deaths on them average only one a year for the entire country.