Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1895 — THE GOSPEL SHIP. [ARTICLE]

THE GOSPEL SHIP.

The Ark the Prototype of the ChtirciL JXU«_AIL-Embraclng Power of Christ to Sate—l Jr. -Talmag-e's 8«rmo&: ■ .■ - - Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Now York Academy of Music, last Sunday. * Subject — “The Gospel Ship.” Text—Genesis vi, 12: “ThoiF shalt come "into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons’ wives with thee.” He said: Infidel scientists ask us to believe that in the formation of the earth there have been half a-dozen deluges, and,yet they are not. willing to believe the Bible story of .one deluge. In what way the catastrophe came we know not—whether by the stroke of a comete-or by flashes of lightning. changing the air into water, or bv a stroke of the hand of God, like* the stroke of the ax between the horns of the ox, the earth staggered. To meet the catastrophe God ordered a great ship built. It was to be without a prow, for it Was to sail to no shores. It was to be without a helm-, for no human hand should guide it. It was a vast structure, probably as large as two or three modern steamers. It was the Great Eastern of oldenrtimes. The ship was done. ' The door is open. The lizards crawl in-. The cattle walk in. The grasshoppers hop in. The birds fly in. The invitation goes forth to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Just one human family embarks on that strange voyage, and I hear the door slam shut. • A great storm sweeps along the hills and bends the cedars until all the branches snap in the gale. • There is a moan in the wind like unto the moan of a dying world. The blackness of the heavens is shattered by the glare of the light-' nings that look down into the waters and throw a ghastliness on the face of the mountains. How strange it looks! How suffocating the air seems! The big drops of rain begin to plash upon the upturned faces of those who are watching the tempest. Crash go .the rocks in convulsion! Boom go the bursting heavens! The inhabitants of the earth, instead of flying to housetop and mountain top, as men have fancied, sit down in dumb, white horror to die. for when God grinds mountains to pieCe'S. and lets the ocean slip its cable there is no place for men to fly to. See the ark pitch and tumble in the surf, while from its windows the passengers look out upon the shipwreck of a race and th"e carcasses of a dead world. Woe to the mountains! Woe to the sea! ' I am no alarmist. When on the 20th of September, after the wind has for three days been blowing from the northeast, you prophesy that the equinoctial storm is .coming, you simply state a fact not to be disputed. Neither am I an alarmist when I say that a storm is coming compared with which Noah’s deluge was but an -April shower, and that it is wisest and safest for you and for me to get safely housed for eternity. The invitation that went forth to Noah sounds in our ears, “Come thou and and all thv house into the ark.” . *

The door of the ancient ark was in the side. So now it is through the side of Christ—the pierced side, the wide-open side, the heart side—that ■ we enter. Aha, the Roman soldier, thrusting his spear into the Savior’s side, expected only to let the blood out, but he opened the way to let all the world in. Oh, what a broad Gospel to preach! If a man is about to give an entertainment he issues 200 or 300 invitations carefully put j up and directed to the particular j persons whom he wishes to enter- | tain. But God, our Father, makes a banquet, and stretches out Hfs hands over land and sea, and with a voice that penetrates the Hindoo jungle, and the Greenland ice castle, and Brazilian grove, and English factory, and American home, cries out, ‘’ooolo, for all "things are now ready! ” It is a wide door. The old cross has been taken apart, and its two pieces are stood up for the doorposts so far apart that all the world can come in. Further, it is a door that swings both ways. Ido not know whether the door of the ancient ark was lifted or rolled on hinges, but this door of Christ opens both wavs. It swings out toward all our woes. It swings in toward the raptures of heaven. It swings in to let us in. It swings out to let our : ministering ones come out. All are one in Christ—Christians on earth and saints in heaven. But, further, it is a door with fastenings. The Bible says of Noah. “The Lord shut him in.” A vessel without bulwarks or doors would not be a safe vessel to go in. When Noah and his family heard the fastening of the door of ,the ark, they were very glad. Unless those doors were fastened, the first heavy surge of the sea would have whelmed them, and they might as well have perished outside the ark as inside’ the ark. “The Lord shut him in.’ Oh, the perfect safety of the ark ! But he was safely sheltered from the storm. “The Lord shut him in.” A flood of domestic trouble fell on him. Sickness and bereavement came. The rain, pelted. The winds blew. The heavens are aflame. All the gardens of earthly delight are washed away. The, mountains of joy are buried fifteen cubits deep. But standing by the empty crib, and in the desolated nursery, and |in the doleful hall, once a-ring with ! merry voices, now silent forever? he 'cried: “The Lord gave; the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the

name of the Lord.” “The Lord shut fainjin.” . Oh, what a grand old door! So wide, so easily swung both ways and with such sure fastenings. No burglar’s key can pick that lock. Ncr swafthy arm of hell can shove back that bolt. I rejoice that I do not ask you to come aboard a cratV craft, with leaking hulk and broken helm and unfastened door, but an ark fifty cubits long, and a door so 1 large that the round earth without' grazing the poSt might be bowled in. So rrren now put off going into the ark. They say they will wait twenty years first,. They will have a little longer time with“their worldly associates.' They will wait until they tret older. ~Tbey say: “Yott cannot expect a man of my attainments and of jny position to surrender himself just now. Hut before the storm comes I will go in. Yes, I will. I - know vdiat .I—am abouL Trust me.” After awhile, one night about 12 o’clock; going home, he passes a scaffolding just as a gust of wind strikes it, and a plank fails. Dead, and outside the ark! Or, riding in the park, a reckless vehicle crashes into him, and his horse becomes unmanageable, and he shouts:. “Whoa! Whoa!” and takes another twist in the reins, and plants , his feet against the dashboard, and pulls back. But no use. It is not so much down the avenue that he flies as on the way to eternity. Out of the wreck of the crash his body is drawn, but his soul is not picked' up. It fled behind a swifter courser into the great future. Dead, and outside the ark! But do not come alone. The text invites you to bring your family. It says, “Thou and thv sons and thy wife.” You cannot drive them in. If Noah had tried to drive the pigeons and the doves into the ark, ho* would only have scattered them: Some parents are not wise about These things. They make iron rules about Sabbaths, and they force the catechism down the throat as they would hold the child’s nose and force down a dose of rhubarb and calomel. You cannot drive children into the ark. You can draw vour children to Christ, but you cannot coerce them. Come in and bring your wife or your husband with you —not by fretting about religion or dingdonging them about religion, but by a consistent life and by a compelling prayer that shall bring the throne of God down into your room. Go home, and take up the Bible and read it together, and then kneel down and commend your soujjs to Him who has watched you all these years, and before vou rise there will be a fluttering of wings over yourffiead, angel cry-

ing tp-angel, “Behold, they pray!” But this does not include all your family. Bring the children, too. God bless the dear children! What, would our homes be without them? We may have done more for them. They have done much for us. What a salve for a wounded heart there is in a soft palm of a child's hand! Did harp or flute ever have such music, as there is in a child’s “good-night?” From our coarse, rough life the angels of God are often driven back. But who comes into the nursery without feeling that angels are hovering around? Tliey who'die in infancy go straight into glory, but you are expecting your children to grow up in this world. Is it not a question. then, that rings through all the corridors and windings and bights and depths of your soul, what is to become of your sons and daughthers for time and for eternity? How to get them in? Go in yourself. If Noah had stayed out, do vou not suppose that his sons — Shem, Ham and Japheth—would have staid out? Your sons and daughters will be apt to do just as you do. Reject Christ yourself, and the probability is that your children will reject him. Oh, ye who hu've taught your children how to live, have you also taught them how to die? Life hero is not so important as the great hereafter. It is not so much the few furlongs this side of the grave as it is the unending leagues beyond. O eternity, eternity! Thy locks white with the ages! Thy voice announc-

ing stupendous destiny! Thy arms reaching across all the past and all the future. O eternity, eternity! 1 On one of the lake steamers there were a father and two daughters journeying. They seemed extremely poor. A benevolent gentleman, stepped up to the poor man to proffer some form of relief and said, “you seem to be very poor, sir.” “Poor, sir,” replied the man, “If there’s a poorer man than me a troubling the world, God pity both of ys.” “I will take one of vour children and adopt it if you say so. I think it would be a great relief to you.” ‘‘A what?” said the poor man. “A relief! Would it be a relief to have'the hands chopped off from the body or tbe heart torn from the breast? A relief indeed! God be good to us! Whit do you mean, sir?” However many children we have, we have none to give up. Which of our family can we afford to spare out of heaven? Will it be the oldest? Will it be the youngest? Will it be that one that was sick some time ago? Will it be the husband? Will it be the wife? No, no! We must have them all in. Let us take the children’s hands and start them now. Leave not one behind. Come, father! Come, mother) Come, son! Come, daughter! Come, brother! Come, sister! Only one step and we are in. Christ, the door, swings out to admit us, and it is not the hoarseness of a stormv blast that you hear, but the voice oi a loving dnd patient God that addresses you, saying, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” And there inay the Lord shut us in! j