Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1894 — SALVATION FOR ALL. [ARTICLE]

SALVATION FOR ALL.

Even a Tax Collector May Be Saved. The Conversion of Zaochea* and Ita Leeion Dr. Talmud's sermon for the Frees 7 The Rev. Dr. Talmage, who is now preparing to leave Australia for India on his round-the-world tour, selected as h£s subject for last Sunday’s sermon through the press “The Tax : Collector’s Conversion,” the text being taken from Luke xix, 9, “This day is salvation come to this house.” Zaccheus was a politician and a tax gatherer. He had an honest calling, but the opportunity for “stealings” was so large the tempta- r . tion was too much for him. The Bible says he'“was a shiner’’—that is, in the public sense. How manvfine men have been ruined by official position! It is an awful thing for any man to seek office under government unless his principles of integrity are deeply fixed. Many a man upright in an insignificant position has made shipwreck in a great one. As far as I can tell, in the city of Jericho this Zaccheus belonged to what might be called the “ring.” Notwithstanding his bad reputation, there were streaks of good about him. Gold is found in quartz, and Sometimes in a very small percentage. Jesus was coming to town. The people turned out en masse to see him. Here He comes, the Lord of Glory, on foot, dust-covered and road-weary, limping along the way, carrying the griefs and woes of the world. He looks to be sixty years of age when. He is only about thirty. Zaccheus was a short man and could not see over the people’s heads while standing on the ground, so he goti up into a sycamore tree that hung | its arm clear over the road. Jesus | advanced amid the wild excitement i of the surging crowd. ,The most bon- j orable and popular men of the city | are looking on and trying to gain I His attention. Jesus, instead of re- ' garding them, looks up at the little j man in the tree and says: “Zac- | cheus, come down. I am going ; home with you.” And so many people in this day ; get up into the tree of curiosity or speculation to see Christ. How many spend their time in criticism ! and religious speculation ! They j take the rose of Sharon or the lily of ; the valley, pull out the an then, scat- ' ter the corolla and say, “Is that the I beautiful flower of religion that you ■ are talking about ?” No flower is beautiful after you have torn it all to pieces. The path to heaven is so plain that a fool need not make any mistake about it, and yet men stop and cavil. ■ I notice that this tax-gatherer accompanied his surrender to Christ with the restoration of property that did not‘belong to him. He sayfi : “If I have taken anything by false accusation, I restore fourfold”—that is, if I have taxed any man for $lO,000 when he had only $5,000 worth of pro pe r ty, an d pu t i n mi n e ow n pocket the tax for the last $5,000, I will restore to him fourfold. If I I took from him $lO, I will give him | S4O. If I took from him S4O, I will give him $l6O. You say, “I cannot make restitution. The parties whom I swindled are gone.” Then Isay, “Take the the money up to the American bible society and consecrate it to God.” Zaccheus was wise when he disgorged his unrighteous gains, and it' was fii's firsTstep in the right direc- i tion. l . The way being clear, Christ walked into the house of Zaccheus. He becomes a different man; his wife a different woman; the children are different. Oh, it makes a great change in any house when Christ comes into it! How many beautiful homes are represented among you! There are pictures on the wall, there is music in the drawing room, and luxuries in the wardrobe, and a full supply in the pantry. Even if you were half asleep there is one word with which I could wake you, and thrill you through and through, and that is “home!” There are also houses of suffering represented in which there are neither pictures nor I wardrobe nor adornment—only one j room, and a plain cot, or a bunk in ! a corner. Yet it is the place where your loved ones dwell, and your whole nature tingles with satisfaction when you think of it and call it home. Though the world may scoff at us and pursue us and a.ll the day we 1 be tossed about at eventide, wo sail into the harbor of home. Though there be no rest for us in the busy world and we go trudging about, bearing burdens that well nigh crush us, there is a refuge, and it hath an easy chair in which we may repose, and that refuge is home. Now, suppose Christ should come into your house. First the wife and the mother would feel His presence. Religion almost always begins there. It is easier for women to become Christians than for us men. They do not fight so against God. If woman tempted man originally away from holiness, now she tempts him back. She may not make any fuss ibout it, but somehow everybody in \he house knows that there is a ffiange in the wife and mother. She chides the children more gently. Her face sometimes lights up with m unearthly glow. She goes into iome Unoccupied room for a little while, and the husband goes not after her nor asks her why she wai 4here. He knows without asking that ahxi has beefi lyin'*. The

husband notices that her. face !• brighter than on the day when, years ago,they stood at the marriage altar, and he knoyys that Jesus has been putting upon her brow a wreath sweeter than the orange blossoms.. She puts the children to bed, not z satisfied with the formal prayer that they once offered, but she lingers now and tells them of Jesus who blessed little children and of the good place where they all hope to be at last. And then she kisses them good night with something that the child feels to be a heavenly benediction —a something that shall hold on to the boy after he has become a man of forty or fifty years of age, for there is something in a good, loving, Christian mother’s kiss that—fifty years cannot wipe off the cheek. Now the husband is distressed and | annoyed and almost vexed. He does not like to say anything about it, but he knows that she has a hope,.. that be has not and a peace that hfe has not. fie knows that, dying as he now is, he cannot go to the same place. He cannot stand it any longer.—— ;—_ ~ . Some Sunday night, as they sit in church side by side, the floods of his soul break forth. He wants to pray, but does not know how. He hides his face lest some of his wordly friends see him, but God’s spirit arouses him, melts him, overwhelms him. And they go home —husband and wife—-in silence, until they get to their room, when he cries out, “Oh, pray for me!” And they kneel down. They cannot speak. The f words will not come. But God does not wan t any words. He looks down and answers sob and groan and outgushing tenderness. That night they do not sleep anv for talking of all the years wasted and of that Savior who ceased not to call. Before morning they have laid their plans for a new life. Morning comes. Father and mother descend from the bedroom. The children do not know what is the matter. They never saw father with a Bible in bis hand before. He says: “Come, children. I want you all to sit while we read and pray.” Thw~~ children look at each other and are almost disposed to laugh, but they see their parents are in dead earnest. It is a short chapter that the father reads. He is a good reader at other times, but now he does not get-on much. He sees sd much to linger on. His voice trembles. Everything is so strangely new to him. They kneel; —that is, the father and mother do, but the children come down one by one. They do not know that they must. It is some time before they all get down. The sentences are broken. The phrases are a little ungrammatical. The prayer begins abruptly and ends abruptly; but, as far as I can understand what they mean, it is about this : “Oh, Savior, help us I We do not know how to pray. Teach us. We cannot live any longer in the way we have beem living. We start today for heaven. Help us to take these children along with us. Forgive us for the past. Strengthen us for all the future. And when the journey is over take us where Jesus is and where the little babe is that we lost. Amen !” That night there, is a rap at the bedroom door. “Whb is there?” cries the father. It is the oldest child. “What is the matter? Are you sick?” “No; I want to be < saved.” Only a little while, and all three children are brought into the kingdom. And there is great joy in the house. A whole family saved •» forever ! If the deluge come, they are all in the ark —father, mother, sons, daughter. Together on earth, together in heaven. What makes it so ? Explain it. Zaccheus one day took Jesus home with him. That is all. Salvation came to that house. Up to forty years men work for themselves; after that for their children. Now, what do you propose to leave them? Nothing but dollars? Alas, what an inheritance! It is more likely to be a curse than a blessing. Your own observation and’ commonsense tell yafi~ that money, without the divine blessing, is a curse. You must soon leave z your children. Your shoulders are not strong as they were, and you know that they will soon be hard to carry their own burdens. Your eyesight is not so clear as once. They will soon have to pick out their own way. Your arm is not sc mightv as once. They will soon have to fight their own battles. Oh, let it not be told on judgment day that you let your family start without the only safeguard—the religion of Christ! Give yourself no rest until your children are the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Your son does just as you do. fie 1 tries to walk like you and talk like you. The daughter imitates the mother. Alas, if father and mother miss heaven, the children will I Oh, let Jesus come into your house! Do not bolt the hail door, or the kitchen door, or the bedroom door against Him. Above all, do not bolt your heart. Build your altar tonight. Take the family Bible lying on the parlor table. Call together as many of your family as may be awake. Read a chapter, and then, if you can think of nothing else Ueside the Lord's prater, say that. That will do. Heaven will have begun in your * house. You can put your head on your pillow, feeling that, whether you wake up in this world or ths next, ail is well. In that great, ponderous book of the judgment, where are recorded all the important events of the earth, you will read at last the statement that thii whs the day when salvation cams into your *houseu Oh, Zaccheus, come down, come down! Jesus passing by!