Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1895 — THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. [ARTICLE]

THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL.

“Politics Will Save Cities When s . Satan Evangelizes Perdition.” Tlw C,rar« oT rod It Only tlnpc nf Salvation—Law Carnot Save che - World—Dr. Tannage's SferiircHi; ” —'■ ?——— ■i— • ' ' The Rev. Dr. Talmage preaehbd at the Academy of Music, New York, last Sunday. He took for his subject. “The Glorious ;Gospel, I! the text chosen being, “According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed, to my trust” (I Timothy i, 11.) He said: There are many people in this and all other large assemblages who have no more idea of what the gospel really is tb'an tljey have of whatiTs contained in the fourteenth chapter of Zend-Avesta, the B’ble of the Hindoo,'the first, copy of which I ever saw 1 purchased in Calcutta last September. Some of the theological seminaries have been hotbeds of infidelity because of religion.” By the time that Li an ya young theological studentgets iTalt through- the preparatory course he is so filled, with doubts Abput plenary 'inspiration, and the fliyinity of Christ andYhe questions of eternal destiny that he is more fit tor the lowest bench in the infant slass of a Sunday-school than to betome a teacher and leader of the people. The ablest theological professor is a Christian mother, who out of per own experience can tell the four-|-car-01.l how beautiful Christ was pn earth, and how beautiful He now js in heaven, and how dearly He loves little folks, and then she kneels town and puts one arm around the poy, and, with her somewhat faded against the roseate cheek of ihe little one, consecrates him for time and eternity to Him who said, {‘Suffer them to come unto me.” There sits the dear old theologian with his table piled up with all the g r eat books on- ins pi ratio n an d -exegesis and apologetics for the Almighty and writing out his own elaborate work on the philosophy of religion, and his little grandchild loming up to him for a good night kiss he accidentally knocks off the biggest book from the table, and it falls on the bead of the child, of whom Christ himself said, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklirigs thou hast perfected praise.” Ah, ny friends, the bible wants no apoltgetics. The throne of the last judg - tnen t wan ts mo apologetics. Eternity wants no apologetics. Here also come, covering up the >ld gospel, some who think they can Dy law and exposure of crime save the world, and from Portland, Me., icross to San Francisco and back igain to New Orleans and Savannah nahy of the ministers have gone into ihe detective business. Worldly, reform by all means, but unless it be also jospel reform it will be dead failure. ,’n New York its chief work has been lOLgiye us a change of bosses. We lad a Democratic boss, and now it is ;o be a Republican boss, but the parrel is, who shall be the Republean? Politics will save the cities •Jie same day that Satan evangelizes ■jerdition.

Here .pomes another class of people who in ])alpit and outside of it •over up the,gospel with the theory :hat it makes no final difference vhat you believe or how you act — rou are bound for heaven anyhow. There they sit. side by side, in leaven—Garfield, and Guiteau who ■hot him; Lincoln, and John Wilkes Sooth who assassinated him; Washngton, and Thomas Faine who slaniered him; Nana Sahib and the missionaries whom he clubbed to death it, Cawnpur, Herod, and the chiliren whom he massacred; Paul, and S’ero, who beheaded him.

* Oh, my text is right when it speaks of the glorious gospel. It is in invitation from the most radiant oeirig that ever trod the earth or asfended the heavens to you and me. to come and In'made happy and then take after that a royal castle for ev'rlasting residence,—the angels of Jod our cupbearers. The price paid 'or ail of this on the cliff of limestone about as high as this bouse, ibout seven minutes’ walk from the Rail, of Jerusalem, where with an »gony that with one hand tore down •he rocks and with the other drew i midnight blackness over the heav»n>s. our Lord set us layover free. Making no apology for any one of tlie million sins of our lives, but con* fessing all of them, we can point to that cliff of limestone and say, ■There was paid our indebtedness, ind God never collects a bill twice.” olad am I that all the Christian poets have exerted their pen in jxtollingthc matchless, one of this gospel. Isaac Watts, how do you feel <‘oncorning Him? And he a rites, “1 am not ashamed to own ny Lord." .Newton, what do you think of this gospel? And he writes, "Amazing grace, bow sweet the sound." Cowper, what doyou think of Him? And the answer comes, •There is a fountain filled with blood." Charles Wesley, what do you think of Him? And heanswers, ‘■Jesus, lover of my soul.” Horatio Bonar. what do youthink of Him? And he responds. “1 lay my sins on Jesus " Ray Palmer, what doyou think of Him? And he writes, “My faith looks up. to thee.” Fannie Crosbv, what do you think of Him? And she writes, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine." But I take higher testimony. Splomon. what do you think,of Him? And the answer is. “Lily of the valley.” Ezekiel, what do you think of Him? And the answer is, “Plant of renown." David,

what do you tfimFoTHimF And the answer is, “My shepherd.” St. John, what do you think of Him? And the answer ■ is, “Bright and morning star.” St. Paul, what do you think of Him? And the answer comes, “Christ is all in all.” Do think weir of Him, 0 mat!, O woman of the blood bought amiri-or- | tai spirit? Yes, Paul was right when he styled j it, “the glorious gospel.” And then as a druggjst, while you are waiting for him to make up the doctor’s prescription, puts into a bottle so many grains of this, and so many grains of that, and so many dropspf this and so many drops of that, and the intermixture taken, though sour or bitter, restores to heal th. so Christ. the di vi r. e physii eiaff, prepares this trouble of our lifetime, and that disappointment, and this persecution, and that hardship, and that year, and We must take the intermixture, yet though it be a bitter draft. Under the divine prescription' it administers to our restoration and spiritual health, “all things working together for good.” Glorious gospel! And then the royal castle into ; which we step out of this life without ; so much as soiling our foot with the T"u pt urned earth of the grave. ‘‘They i shall reign forever j»nd i- not that mean that you are, if saved, ! to beliing-s and queens, and do not i kings and queens have castles? But ■ the one that you are - offered was for 'thirty-three years an abandoned castle, though now gloriously inhabited. There is an abandoned royal : castle at Amber, India. One huni dred and seventy years ago a king ! moved out of it never to return. I But the castle still stands in I indescribable grandeur, and you tgo through brazen doorway after brazen doorway, and under embellished ceiling after embellished ceiling, and through halls precious-stoned into wider haffs precious-stoned, and on that bill are pavilions deeply dyed and tasseled and arched, the fire of colored gardens cooled by the snow of white architecture, birds in arabesque so natural to life that while you.cannot hear their voices you imagine you ■ see the flutter of their wings whileyou are passing, walls pictured with triumphal procession, rooms that were called “alcove light” and “hall of victory,” marble, white and black, like a mixture of morn and night. Standing before it, the eye climbs from step to latticed balcony, and from latticed balcony- to oriel,-and from oriel to arch, and from arch to roof, and then descends on ladder of all colors and stairs of perfect lines to tropical gardens of pomegranate and pineapple. Seven stories of resplendent architecture! But the royal castle provided for you, if you only take it on the prescribed terms, is grander than all that, and, though an abandoned castle while Christ was here achieving your redemption, is again occupied by the “chief among ten thousand,” a home of your own kindred who have gone up and waiting for you are leaning from the balcony. The windows of that castle look on the King's gardens, where immortals walk linked in eternal friendship, and the banqueting hall of thaUcastle has princes and princesses at the table, and the wincis “the new wine of the kingdom,” and the supper is the marriage supper of the Lamb, and there are fountains into which no tear ever fell, and I there is music which trembles with no grief, and the light that falls upon that scene is never beclouded, and there is the kiss of thos'e reunited after long separation. More nerve will we have there than now, or we would swoon away undef the raptures. Stronger vision will we have fthere than now, or our eyesight would be blinded by the brilliance. Stronger ear will we have there than now, or under the roll of that minstrelsy, and the clapping of that acclammation and the boom of that hallelujah we would be deafened. Glorious gospel ! You thought religion was a straightjacket; that it put you on the limits; that hereafter . you must go cowed down. No, no. It is to be castellated. By the cleansing power of the shed blood of Golgotha set your faces toward the shining pinnacles. Oh, it does not matter much what becomes of us here —for at the longest our stay is short —if we can only land there. You see there are so many I, do want to meet there. Joshua, my favorite prophet; John among the evangelists, and Paul among the apostles, and Wyclif among the martyrs, and Bourdaloue among the preachers, and Dante among the poets, ana Havelock among the heroes, and our loved ones whom we have so much missed since they left us, so many darlings of the heart, their absence sometimes almost unbearable, and, mentioned in this sentence last of all because I want the thought climacteric, our blessed Lord without whom we could never peach the old castle at all. He took our place. He purchased our ransom. He wept our woes. He suffered our stripes. He died our death. He assured our resurrection. Blessed be His glorious name forever! Surging to His ear be all the anthems! Facing Him! be all the thrones! " Oh, I want to see it, and I will see it the day of His coronation. On a throne already, methinks the> day will come when in some great hall of eternity all the nations of earth whom lie has conquered byhisgrace will assemble to crowfi Him. Wide and high and immense and upholstered as with the sunrises and sunsets of a thousand years, great audience room of heaven. Like the leaves of an Adirondack forest the linsomed multitudes, and Christ standing on a high place surrounded

t y > - 3 ai-ldswtM rpi_ __ I shall come out of the farthest past, led on by the prophets; they shall come out. of the early gospel days, led on by, the apostles; they shall come out of the centuries still ahead of us, led on by the champions of -to be born. And then from that vastest audi ence ever assembled in all xhe universe there will go up the /‘Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! and the Father who long age promised this, His only begotten Son, “I will give the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,” shall set the crown upon the forehead yet sacred with crucifixion bramble, and all the hosts of heaven,■ down on theJevels and up in the galleries, will drop on their knees, crying: “Hail King of earth! King of heaven! King of saints! „ King of seraphs. Thy kingdom is an lasting kingdom, and to Thy dbmin-, ions there _shall be no end! Amen and amen! Amen and amen!”