Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1895 — THE GLORIOUS NOW. [ARTICLE]

THE GLORIOUS NOW.

t “And We ..Must Take the Cur- , rent When It Serves.” , "Opportunity” That Never Come, the Second Time—Dr. Talmage's - Sermon. I . ' _ T ' A vast audience greeted Dr. Talmage at the New York Academy of . Music, fast Sun day, all the corridors “"and entrances being also filled with . people unable to gain, admission. •“ The distinguished divine took for his . subject “Opportunity,” the text sej lected being Galatians vi, 10: “As : we have therefore opportunity, let i us do good.” j At Denver, years ago, an audience , had assembled fop divine worship. , The pastor of the church for whom I was to preach that night, interest ed in the seating of the people, stood in the pulpit looking from side to side, and when no more people could I be crowded within the walls he • turned to me and said with startling • emphasis: “What an opportunity!” Immediately that word began to enj large, and white a hymn was being sung at every stanza the word “opportunity” swiftly and mightily un--1 folded, and while the opening prayer ; was being made the word piled up I into Alpsand Himalayas of meaning and spread out into other latii tudes and longitudes of significance until it became hemispheric, and it still"grew in altitude and circumference until it encircled otherworlds and went out and on and around uni til it was as big as eternity. Never , since have I read or heard that word without being thrilled with its magnitude and momentum. Opportunity! What is an opportunity? The lexicographer would cooily tell you it was a conjunction of favorable circumstances for accomplishing a purpose, but words cannot tell what it > s - ' ' First, it is very swift in its mo- • tions. Sometimes within one minute it starts from the throne of God, sweeps around the earth and re-as-cends tho throne from which it started. Within less .than sixty seconds it fulfilled its mission. In the second place opportunity never comes back. Perhaps an opportunity very much like it may arise, but that one never. Naturalists tell us of insects which are born, fulfill their mission and expire in an hour, but many opportunities die so soon after they are born that their brevity of life is incalculable. What most amazes me is that opportunities do such pvershadowing- sfar-_ reaching and tremendous work in such short earthly allowance. In yonder third gallery you sit, a man of the world,, but you wish everybody well. While the clerks are standing round in your store, or the meiton your factory are taking their noon spoil, some one says, “Have you heard that one of our men has j been converted at the revival meet:. ! ing in the Methodist church?” While it is being talked over you say, “Well, I do not believe in revivals. Those thing do not last. People get excited and join the church and are no better than they were before. I wish our men would keep away from, those meetings.” Do you know, O man, what vo.u did in that mi-nure of depreciation? There were two young men in that group who that night would have gone to those meetings and .been saved for this world and and the next, but you decided them not to go. They are social natures. They already drink more than is good for them and are disposed to be wild. From the time they heard you say that they accelerated their steps on the downward road. In ten years they will be 1 through with their dissipations and i pass into the great beyond. That i little talk of yours decided their destiny for this world and the next. You had an opportunity that you misimproved, and how will you feel , when vou confront those two immortals -in~ thetaast - judgment and they tell you of that unfortunate talk ■ of yours that flung them over the i precipice? The day I left our country home to.look after myself we rode across the country, and my father was driving. Of course I said nothing that implied how I felt. But there are hundreds of men here who, from their own experience, know how L felt. At such a time a young man may be hopeful and even impatient to get into the battle of life for him- : self, but to leave theTomestead" where everything has been done for > you, your father or older brothers taking your part when you are im posed on by larger boys, and your ■ mother, always around, when you got the cold, with mustard applications for the chest, or herb tea to ■ make you sweat off the fever, and ■ sweet mixtures in the cup by the ! bed to stop the cough, taking sometimes too much of it because.it was pleasant to take, and then to go • out, with no one to stand between you and the world, . gives one a choking senation ’ at the throat and a homesick- ! ness before you have got throe miles away from the old folks. There was • on the day I spoke of a silence for a ■ long while, and then my father be- ' gan to tell how good tho Lord had *. been to him in sickness and in health, and when times of hardship came how Providence had always ’ provided the means of livelihood for J J tho large household, and he wound i i up by saying, “DeWitt, I hhve alI ways found it safe to trust the » .Lord." My father has been dead ■ (thirty years, but in all tho crises of i ,my life -ana there have been many ( of tl|em —I have felt the mighty I' boost of 4hat lesson in the farm

; wagon, “DeWitt, I have always (found it safe to trust the Lord.” rThe fact was, my father saw-that it j was his opportunity, and he impro'ved it. . We all. recognize that commercial and literary and political successes depend upon taking advantages of opportunity. The great of England feared to touch the tumor es King George IV. SirAstley Cooper looked at it and said to the King, “I will cut your Majesty as i though you were a plowman.” That ■ was Sir Astley’s opportunity. Lord Clive was his "father’s dismay, climb-ing-church steeples and doing reckless things. His father sent him to Madras, India, as a clerk in the service of an English officer. Clive watched his time and when war broke out came to be the chief of the host that saved India for England. That was Lord Clive’s opportunity. The importance of making the most of opportunities as they present themselves is acknowledged in all I other directions. Why not in the matter of Usefulness? The difference of usefulness of good men and women is not so much the difference in brain or social position or wealth, but in equipment of Christian common sense, to know just the time when to say the right word or do the right thing. There are good people who can always be depended on to say the right thing at the wrong time. , But there are plenty of fit occasions. It is interesting to see the sportsman, gun in hand and pouch at side and accompanied by the hounds yelping down the road, off on hunting expeditions, but the best hunters in this world are those who hunt for opportunities to do good, and the game is something to gladden earth and heaven. I will point out some of the opportunities. When a soul is in bereavement is the best time to talk of gospel consolation and heavenly reunion. When a man has lost his property is the best time to talk to him of heavenly inheritances that can never be levied on. When one is sick is the best time to talk to him about the supernatural latitude inwhich unheal th is an i in—possibility. When the Holy Spirit is moving on a community is the best time to tell a man he ought to be saved. A military officer, very profane in his habits, was going down into a mine at Cornwall, England, with a Christian miner, for many of those miners are Christians. The officer used profane language while in the cage going down. As they were coming up out of the mine the profane officer said, “If it be so far dowm to work, how much farther would it be to the bottomless pit?” The Christian miner responded, “I do not know how far it is down to that place, but if this rope should break you would be there in a minute.” It was the Christian miner’s opportunity. I stand this minute in the presence Of many heads of families. I wonder if they al 1■ realize- that ■' the opportunity of influencing the household for Christ and heaven is very brief and will soon be gone? For awhile the house is full of the voices and footsteps of children. You sometimes feel that you can hardly stand the racket. You say: “Do be quiet! It seems as if my head wOuld Split-with aH this noise!” And things get broken and ruined, and it is: “Where’s-mv- hat?” “Who took my books?” “Who has been busy with my playthings?” And it is a-rushing this way and a-rushing

that until father and mother are well nigh beside themselves. It is astonishing how much noise five or six children can make and not half try. But the years glide swiftly away. After awhile the voices ato not so many, and those which stay are more sedate. First this room gets quiet and then that room. Death takes some and marriage takes others until after awh’le the house is awfully still. That man yonder would give all he is worth to have that boy who is gone away forever rush into the room once more with the shout that was once thought too boisterous. That mother who was once tried because her little daughter, now gone forever, with careless scissors cut up somethihg really valuable would like to have the child come back, willing to put in her hands the most valuable wardrobe to cut as she pleases. Yes! Yes! The house noisy now will soon be quiet enough. But there is one opportunity so much brighter than any other, so much more inviting and so superior to all others that there are innumerable fingers pointing to it, and it is haloed with a glory all its own. It is yours! It is mine! It is the present hour. It isjthe now. We shall never have it again. While I speak and you listen the opportunity is restless as though to be gone. You can not chain it down. You can not imprison it. You can not make it stay. All its pulses are throbbing with a haste that can not be hindered or controlled. It is the opportunity of invitation on my part and acceptance on your part. The door of the palace of God’s mercy is wide open. Go in. Sit down Stnq be kings and queens untn God forever. “Well," you say, “I am not ready." You are ready. “Are you a sinner?” “Yes.' “Do you want to be saved now and forever?” “Yes.” “Do you believe that Christ is able and willing, to do the work?” “Yes.” Then you are saved. You are inside tho palace door of God’s mercy already. You look changed. You are changed. “Hallelujah, *t.is done!” Let the world go. It has abused you enough, and cheated you enough, and slandered you enough, and dam-

aged you enough. qEven those frouj whom you expected better things - turned out your when Napoleon in his last will and testament left 5,000 francs to the man who shot at Wellington in the streera -of Paris Oh, it is* a mean world! Take the glorious* Ix>rd for your I like what the good man said to one who had everything but religion. The affluent man boosted of what he owned and of his splendors of surroundings, putting into insignificance, as lie i thought, the ChriSTiah”^possessions, i “Ah,” said ,the Christian, “man, I j have something you have j “What is that?” said the worldling, i The answer was, “Peace!” i Opportunity! Under the arc of i that splendid word let this multi- ; tude of my hearers pass into the I pardon and hope and triumph of the j gospel. Go by companies of a hundred each. Go by regiments of a thousand each, the aged leaning on the staff, the middle-aged throwing off their burdens as they pass,, and the young to have their present joys augmented ■tjy r Tnsr6glbrious~satls r factions. Forward into the kingdom! As soon as you pass the dividing line there will be shouting all u p and do wn the heavens. The crowned immortals will look down and.cheer. Jesus of the many scars will' rejoice at the result of his earthly sacrifices. Departed saints will be gladdened that their prayers ! are answered. An order will be i given for the spreading of a banj quet at which you will be the honored guest. From the imperial gardens the wreathsjwill be twisted for your brow, and from the halls of eternal music the harpers will bring their harps and the trumpeters.their trumpets, and ’all up and down the amethystine stairwaysqf the castles and in all the rooms of the house of many mansions it will be talked over with holy glee that this day, while one plain man stood on the platform of this vast building giving the gospel call, an assemblage made up from all parts of the earth and piled up in these galleries chose Christ as their portion and started -for heaven-as thci-r everlast 5 - ing home. Ring all the bells of heaven at the tidings! Strike all the cymbals at the joy! Wave all the palm branches at the triumph! Victory! Victory!