Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1896 — THE OISE EIGHT ROAD [ARTICLE]

THE OISE EIGHT ROAD

REV. DR. TALMAGE POINT* IT OUT TQ LIFE'S TRAVELERS. \ "" He Shows the Road of Righteousness to Be Safe, Plain, Pleasant, Broad, Smooth, and with a Gloriona Ter* " minus at Last. V- . Sermon at the Capital. ■ Rev. I)r. Talmage’s sermon in Washington last Sunday was a picture of the road that many ha.ve traveled and others are tfymg fd'jge'f o'if and'Ts no more appropriate for the capital Of the nation than for all places. The text chosen was Isaiah xxxv., 8.11, 10: “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those; the Wayfaring men, tfiough fools, shall not • err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, It shall not be found there, but~the re- . deemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return trod come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” There are hundreds of people in this house who want to find the road. You sometimes see a person halting at •cross roads, and you can tell by his looks that lie wishes to ask a question as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence conscious of JJic, sac-t that there are many of you here who Realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one, and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in it. There are a great many expensive tollgates scattered all along that wav. Indeedat every rod you must pay in tears, or pay in genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get through it at all, yon have to pay your own way. and since this differs so much from whatd have heard in regard to the right way, I beliete it is the wrong way. Here is another road. Oil either sideuf it are houses of sinful entertainment and Invitations to come in and* dine and rest, but from the looks of the people who stand •on the piazza I am certain it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses’ hoofs clatter and ring, and they who ride over it spin nlong the highway, until suddenly they find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, and they seize the bit in the month of the fiery steed and cry: “Ho! Ho!” But it is too late, and, crash! they go "over the embankment. We shall turn and see. if we cannot find a different kind of road. Yoii have beard of the Appian way. It was 350 miles long It was 24 feet wide', and on either side of the road was a path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonical shape ami fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of smooth, hard rock, 350 miles long. No wonder that in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time —the old conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it—there is nothing left of that structure but a ruin. But I have to tell you of a road built ’before the Appian way, and yet it is as good as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over u. Miltons more will come. The prophets and apostles, too, Pursued this road while here belo\y. We therefore will, without dismay, Still walk in Christ, the good old way. The King’s Highway. First, this road of the text is the king's highway. In the diligence you dash on over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath, under projecting rock, along by dangerous precipices, through tunnels adrip with the meltings of the glaciers, and perhaps for the first time learn the majesty Of a road built and supported by governmental authority. Weil, my Lord and King decided to build a highway from earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness. It should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty. It should be wide enough and strong enough to hold 50,000,000,000,000 of the human'race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should he blasted out of the “Rock of Ages.” and cemented with the blood of the cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of devils. The King sent his Son to build that road, lie put head and hand and heart to it, and after the road was completed waved liis blistered hand over tke way, crying, “It is finished!” Napoleon paid 15,000, 000 fruffes for the building of the Simplon road that his cannon might go over for the devastation of Italy, but our King at a greater expense has built a road for a different purpose that the banners of Ivta.vepJyjJoiJiinioM might conic down- overit. Being a kiug's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly arched and nbuttressed have given . way and crushed the passengers who attempted to cross them. But Christ the King Would build no such thing ns that. The work done, he mounts the chariot of his love and multitudes mounf with him, and he drives on and up the steep of heaven amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done—well done—gloriously done —magnificently done. - A Clean Road. Still further, this road spoken of is a dean road. Many a fine road lias become miry and foul because it has properly cared for, but iny text says the unclean shall not walk on this one. Room on either side to tliro>\w away your sins. Indeed, if you want to carry them along, you are not on the fight road. That bridge will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night Will come down, leaving you at the merey of the mountain bandits, and at the very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really ou this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop ever nmi anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the eternal rock. Aye, at almost every step of the joufney you will be crying out, “Create within me a dean heart!” If you have no aspirations as that, it proves that you linTc mistaken your way, and if you will only look up and see the finger board above your head you may read upon it the words, “There is a way that aeemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is don|h.” Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and if you have any idea that you can carry albitg your sins, your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get at tha

end of ,the Christian race, yon *re so awfully mistaken that, in th«<name of God, I shatter the delusion. , 1 A Plain Road. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. “The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein”—that is, if a man is three-fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing stock of the street, and followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the gate of heaven, and it swings open, while there has beed many a man who could lecture about pneumatics aqd chemistry and tell the story of P&raday’s theory of electrical polarization and yet has been shut out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory and swept the heavens with his telescoi»e and yet lias not been able to see the morning star. Many a man has Been familiar with all the higher branches of mathematics and yet coilld not do the simple sum, “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems and yet could not “read his title clear to mansions'in the skies.” Many a man has botanized the continent and yet not known the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valley. Blit if one shall come in the right spirit, asking the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain. He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament teaching wilTget oiTbeautifully. He who goes through philosophical discussion will not get on at all. Christ says, “Come to me and I will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away.” Now, .>vbat is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? If you wanted to go to some city, and I pointed you out a highway thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the" human will, or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the road —go on it. It is a plain way. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ .Tesus came into the world to save sinners.” And that is ygu and that is mo. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. “Unless you become as a little child you cannot see the kingdom of God.” If you are saved, it will not be ns a philosopher; it will be as a little child. “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Unless you get the spirit of little children you will never come out at their glorious destiny. A Safe Road. Still further, this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the traveler in those ancient highways would think hiraself perfectly secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under she fearful spring the man’s life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass by the roadside. But, says my text, ;“No lion shall be there.” I wish I could make you feel your entire security. I tell you plainly that one, minute after a man has become a child of Gpd he is as safe as though he had been 10,000 years in heaven. He mdy slip, he may slide, he may stumble, but he cannot be destroyed; kept by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation, everlastingly safe. The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His soul, you cannot hurt it. No fires can consume it; no floods can drown it; no devils can capture it. Firm and unmoved are they Who rest their souls on God • 1 - Fixed ns the ground where David stood, Or where the ark abode. His soul is safe.- His reputation is safe. Everything ft safe. “But,” you say, “suppose his store burns up?” Why, then it will be only a change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. “But,” you say, “suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and contempt?” The name will be so much brighter in glory. “Suppose his physical health fails?” God will pour into him she floods of everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly subtraction is heavenly addition. The tcar| of earth are the crystals of heaven. A.s they take rags and tatters and put them through the paper mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so often the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal emancipation. There wns one passage of Scripture the force of which I never understood until one day at Chamouuix, with Mont Blanc on one side and Montanvort on the other, I opened my Bible and read, “As the mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them that fear him.” The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary. Though troubles assail and dangers affright, Though friends should all fail and foes all unite, Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, The Scripture assures us the Lord will provide. A Pleasant Road. Still further, the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. “All things work together for good to those who love God.” No weapon formed against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed and delivered by tlie president of the whole universe. What is the nse of your fretting, O child ox God, about food? “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your Heavenly. Father feedeth them.” And will he take care of the sparrow, will he take care of the raven, will he take care of the hawk and let you die? What is tho use of your fretting about clothes? “Consider the lilies of the field. - Shall he not much more clothe you, O'* ye of little faith?” What is tho use o{ worrying for fear something will happen to your home? »“He blesseth the habitation of the just.” What ia the use Of your fretting lest you will be overcome of temptations? “God ia faitbfnl, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may bo able to bear R,” Oh, this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over until their branches interlock and drop midway, their fruit and shade. Houses of entertainment pn either side the road for poor pil-

grims. Tables spread with a feast Of good things, gnd walls adorned with apples of gold in pictures of siWer. I start out on this King’s highway, and I fifld a haiper, and I say, “What is yoyr name?” The harper makes no response, but leaves mo to guess, as with his eyes toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes rippling on'the air: “The Lord i 8 my light and my salvation. Whom shall Ifear? The Lord is the strength' of, my life. Of whom shall Ibe afraid?* 1 + I go a little farther on the same road and meet a trumpeter of heaven, and T say, “Haven’t you got some; nm**9 f° r a tired pilgrim?” And. wiping his lips and taking a long breath, he puts his mouth W the and jQpurß forth this strain,; shall hunger no morernelfHer'shair they tliirst any more, neither shall thej sunlight on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the thronq shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tearsj from their eyes.” I go a little distanco farther on the same road, and I meet maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but! she has cymbals. They look as if they; had rusted from sea spray, and I say to the maiden of Israel: “Have you no for a tired pilgrim?” And, like the clang of victors’ shields, the cymbals clap Miriam begins to discourse: “Sing ye Ho the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and she rider hath he thrown into the sea.” And then I see a white robed group. "They come bounding toward me, and I say, “Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest in all heaven—-who are they?” And the answer comes, “These are they who came Out of great tribulations and had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.” The Terminus. I pursue this Bubjeet oaly-ona alep far-_ tlier. What is the terminus? I do not care how fine a road you put me on, I want to know where it comes out. Myj text declares it, “The redeemed of thq Lord come to Zion.” You know what Zion was. That was the king’s palace. It was a mountain fastness, lc was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away. They cannot break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sevastopol was taken, Babylon fell, but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either to human or satanic besiegement. The Ix>rd God AF mighty is the defense of it. Creat capital of the universe! Terminus of the King’s highway! Dr. Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we would study chemistry and geometry and conic sec* tions. Southey thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer and Sliakspeare. Now, Dr. Dick may have his mathematics for ail eternity, and Southey his Sliakspeare. Give me Christ and my old friends—that is all the heaven I want. Christ and his people that I knew on earth —that is heaven enough for me. Oh, garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never fail! Oh} banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste and whose guests are kings forever! Oh, city of light, whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise! Oh', palace of rest, where God is the monarch and everlasting ages the length of his reign! Oh, song louder than the surf beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of cherubim! Oh, glorious heaven! When tlier last wound is healed, when the last heartbreak Is ended, when the lust tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their trumpets, and all across heaven let these be chorus of morning stars, chorus of white robecj victors, chorus of martyrs from under the throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there is hub* one song sung, and but one name spoken, and hut one throne honored—that of Jesus only. .