Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

Another Vigorous Ring at the Old Gospel BelL Catlllß* Anew the Sheep Who Have Gone A• tray—The Lard Hath Laid 4s=fa=-r-v~S Upon One the lalqattp .= -- es Us AIL ■ ■ f ; ■ ’ f Rev. T. DeWltt Talmage delivered the following sermon to his Washington congregation, taking for his text: Ail we, like sheep.* have sons astray; we have turned every one to his own wav. and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Once more I ring the old Gospel belL The first half of my next text is an Indictment: All we, like sheep, have gone **tray. Some one aays: “Can’t you drop that first word? Tbat is too general; that sweeps too gyeat a circle.” Some man rises in the audience and lie looks over on the opposite side of the house, and says: “There is a blasphemer; and 1 understand how he has gone astray. And there Jn another part of the house Is a defaulter, and he has gone astray. And there is an impure person, and he has gone astray.” Sit down, my brother, and look at home. My text takes ns all in. It starts behind the pulpit, sweeps the circuit of the roora, v and comes back to the point where it started, when it says: “All we, like sheep, have gone astray.” I can very easily understand why Martin Luther threw up-his bandar after he had found the Bible and cried out: “Oh! my sins, my sins!” and why the publican, according to the custom to this day in the east, When they have any great grief, began to beat and cry, as he smote upon his breast: “God be mercifu-l to me, a sinner.” I was, like many of you, brought up in the country, and I know some of the batata of sheep, and how they get astray, and what my text means when it says: “All we, like sheep, have gone astray.” * Sheep get astray in two ways; either by trying to get into other pasture, or from being scared by the dogs. In tbe former way some of ns got astray. We thought there was better pasturage somewhere else. We thought if we oould only lie down btt the banks of a distant stream, or under great oaks oh tbe ottpjr side of some hill, we might be better‘fed. We wanted other pasturage than that which Ujpd, through Jesus Christ, gave our soul, and we wandered on, and we were lost. We wanted bread, and we found garbage. The farther we wandered, instead of .finding rich pasturage, we found blasted health and sharper rocks and more stinging nettles. No pasture. How was it in the dub house when you lost your, qhild? Did they come around and help yon very much? Did join- worldly associates console, yott' much? Did; not the plain, Christian man who came into your house.and sat up with your darling child give you more comfort than all worldly associates? Did all the convivial songs you ever heard comfort you iu that day of bereavement so much as the song they sang to you—perhaps the very song that was sung by your little -child the last Sabbath afternoon of her life.

There is a happy land Far, far a wav. Where saints Immortal reljtn, ——r Bright, bright as day. Did your business associates in that day of darkness and trouble give you any especial condolence? Business exasperated you, business wore you out, business left you limp as a racr, business made you mad; You got dollars, hut you got no peace. God have mercy on the man who has nothing but business to comfort him! The world afforded you no luxuriant pasturage. A, famous English actor stood on the stage impersonating, and thunders of applause came down from the galleries, and many thought it was the proudest moment of his life: but there was a man asleep just in front of him, and the fact that that man war l’Mtf-" ferent and somnolent Bpoiled the occasion for him, and he cried: “Wake up, wake up!’” So one little annoyance in life has been more pervading to your mind than all the brilliant congratulations and success. Poor pasturage for your soul you find in this world. The world has cheated you, the world has belied you, the world has misinterpreted you, the world has persecuted you. Itr never comforted r&avu Oh! thi«-ecrrdd-< ie a good raefc* from which a horse may piek his food; it is a good trough from whltih "the swine may crunch their mess; but it gives but little food to a soul bloodbought and immortal. What is a soul? It is a hope high as the throne of God. What is a man? You say, “It is only a man.” It is only a mane gone overboard in sin. It is only a than gone overboard in business life. What is a man? The battle-ground of three worlds, with his hands taking hold of destinies ot light or darkness. A man! No line can measure him. No limit can bound him. The archangel before the throne can not outlive him. The Btars shall die, but ho Will watch their extinguishment. The world will burn, but he will gaze at the conflagration. Endless ages will march on; he will watch the procession. A man! The master pieoe of God Almighty. Yet you say: “It is only a man.” Can a nature like that be fed on husks of the wilderness? Substantial comforts will not grow On Nature's barren soil; All we oan boast tiU Christ we know Is vanity and toll v Sinai’s terrible batteries have been unlimbered above your soul, and at times you have heard it thunder: “The wages of sin is death-” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “By one man sin entered the world, and death by Bin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” “The soul thatsinneth, it shall die." When Sebastopol was being bombarded two Russian frigates burned all nlgjuhin the harbor, throwing a glare upon the trembling fortress; and some of yon, from wh&t you have told me’‘yourselves, soma of you are standing in the night of yonr soul’s

trouble, the cannonade, and the conflagration. and the mtaitij>lieatf6», and the multitude of' your sorrows and troubles, I think, must make the wings of God’s hovering angels shiver to the tip. But the last part of my text opens a door wide enorigh to let us all out and to let all Heaven In. Sound It on the organ with all the stops out. Turn it on the harps with all the strings atune. With all the melody possible let the heavens sound it to the earth and let the earth tell it to the heavens. “The Lord hath laid* on him the iniquity of us all.” lam glad that the prophet did not stop to explain whom he meant by “him.” Him of the manger, Him of the bloody sweat, Him of the resurrection throne. Him of the crucifixion agony. “On him tbe Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” “Oh!” says some man, “that' isn’t generous, that isn’t fair; let every man carry his own burden and pay his own debts.” That sounds reasonable. If I have an obligation and I have the means to meet it, and I come to you and ask yon to settle that obligation, you rightly say: “Pay your own debts.” If you and I, walking down the street—both hale, hearty and well—l ask you to carry me, you say, rightly: “Walk on your own feet! But suppose you and I were in a regiment and 1 was wounded in the battle and I fell unconscious at your feet with gunshot fractures and dislocations, what would you do? You would call to your comrades, saying, “Come and help, this man is helpless; bring the ambulance; let us take him to the hospital!” and I would be a dead lift in your arms, and you lift me from the ground where I had fallen, and put me in the ambulance and take me to the hospital and have all kindness shown me. Would there be anything bemeaning in my accepting that kindness? Oh. nol Yon would be mean not to do it. That is what Christ does. If we could pay our debts then it would be betted to go up and pay them, saying, “Here, Lord, here is my obligation; here are the means with which I mean to settle that obligation; now give me a receipt; cross it all out.” The debt is paid, i Bat the fact is we have fallen in the battle; we have gone down under the hot fire of our transgessions; we have been wounded by the eabers of sin; we-* have been Wounded by the sabers of sin; we are helpless; we are undone. Christ comes. The loud cloud heard in the sky On that Christmas night was only the bell, the resounding bell of the ambulance. Clear the way for the Son of God. He comes down to bind up the wounds, and to scatter the darkness and to save the lost. Clear the way for the Son of God. Christ comes down to us, and we are a dead lift. He does not lift us with the tips of His fingers. He does not ! liffc-us with one -arm. 4 .He ooiaw upon His knee, and then, with a dead lift, He raises us to honor and glory and immortality. “The Lord hath laid on Him tbe iniquity of us all.” Why, then, will a man carry his sins?” You can not carry successfully the smallest shj you ever committed. You might as well put the Apennines on one shoulder and the Alps on the other. How much less can you carry all the sins of your lifetime? Christ comes and looks down in your face and says: “I have come through all the lacerations of these days, and through all the tempests of these nights; I have come to bear your burdens, and to pardon your sins, and to pay your debts; put them on my Shoulder; —ptft "them' on my heart.” “On him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Sin has almost pestered the life out of some of you. At times it has made you cross and unreasonable, and it has spoiled the brightness of your days and the peace of your rights. There are men who have been riddled of siu. The world gives them no solace. Gossamery and volatile the world, while eternity, as they 1651 c" forward to it, is black as . midnight.. They . writhe, under, the stings of a conscience which proposes to give no rest here and no rest hereafter, and yet they do not repent, they do not pray, they do not weep. They do not realize that just the position they occupy is the position occupied by scores, hundreds and thousands of men who never found any hope.

If this meeting should be thrown open and the people who are here could give their testimony, what thrilling „ experiences should hear .*>r. , sides! There is a man who would say: •‘I had a brilliant surroundings; I had the bast education that one of the best collegiate institutions of this country could give, and I observed all the moralties of life, and I was self-righteous, and I thought I was all right before God as I am all right before man, but the Holy Spirit came to me one day and said: ‘You are a sinner;’ the Holy Spirit persuaded me of the fact. While I had escaped the sins against the law of the land, 1 had really committed the worst sin a man ever commits, the driving back of the Son of God from my heart’s affections, and I saw that my hands were red with the blood of the Son of God, and I Vegan to pray, and peace came to my heart, and I know by experience that what you say is true.” “On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Yonder is a man who would say: “I was the worst drunkard in the city; I went from bad to worse; I destroyed myself; I destroyed my borne; my children cowered when I entered the house; when they put up their lips to be kissed I struck, them; when my wife protested against the maltreatment I kicked her into the street. I know all the bruises and all the terrors of a drunkard’s woe. I went further and further from God until one day I got a letter, saying; “ ‘My Dkah Husband: I have tried every way, done everything and prayed earnestly and fervently for your reformation, but it seems of no avail. Since our little Henry died, with the exception of those few happy weeks when you remained sober, my life had been one of sorrow. Many of the nights I have sat by the window, with my face bathed in tears, watching for

your coming. I km. broken-hearts*. I am siek. Mother and father have been here freqgMntiy and beTgged to come home; but my love for yon smi my hope for brighter days-have always made me refuse them. Thai hope seems now beyond realization, asd l have returned to them. « It is hard, and I battled long, before doing it. May God bless and> preserve you. and take from that accursed appetite, and hasten the day when we shall be-again living happily together. This will be my daily prayer, knowing that Hollas said, “Come unto me,all ye- that and are heavy laden, and 1 will gives yon rest.’ From your loving wife; “And so I wandered on; and wandered on,” says that man,, “until one night I passed a Methodist meeting house, and. I said to myself, “Fll go in and see what they are dblng;’ and I got to the door, and they were singing. All may come whoever will— This man reoeivee poor sinners still. And I dropped right there w&ere 1 was, and I said: ‘God have mercy !!hnd He had mercy on. me. My home b| restored, my wile sings all day long during work, my children comp out a long way to greet me home, and nriy household is a little heaven. I will tell you what did all this for me. It was the truth that this day you procliaixn: ‘On him the Lord hath laid the* iniquity of us all.’ Yonder is- % woman who would say: ‘I wanderetl off from my tether’s house. I heard the storm that pelts on a lost soul;, my feet werb blistered •on the- Kofi rocks. I went on and on, thinking- that no One cared for my soul, when; one night Jesus met me, and He said: ‘Poor thing, go home; yonr tetheri* waiting for you, your mother is waiting for you. Go home, poor thingl’ And, sir, I was too weak to pray, and I was too weak to repent, but I just cried out—l sobbed out my sins and my sorrows on the shoulders of Him of whom it is said ‘the Lord hath, laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’” Someone comes here to-day and I stand aside. He comes up three steps. He comes to this place. I must stand aside. Taking that place He spreads abroad his hands, and they Were hailed. Yon see His feet; they were bruised. He pulls aside the robe, and shows yon ' his wounded heart. I say: “Act thou weary?’” “Yes,” He says, “Weary with the world’s woe.” j say: “Whence eomest Thou?” Hd says:’ “I came froth - Calvary.” I say: “Who comes with Thee?” He says: “No one; I have, trodden the wine-press alone.” I sdy;: “Why contest thou here? 7 “Oh!” Ha says, “I came here to carry all! the sins and sorrows of the people.” And He kneels. He says: ‘‘■put, on my shoulders all the sorrows and. all the sins.” Aijd, conscious at my own sins first, I take them and put them on the shoulders of the Son pf Gdd. I say: v “danst , ’£hdu bear any - *&e- says:' “Yes/ more. ” And I gather'np thwsins of all those who serve at these altars, the officers of the Church of Jesus Christ— I gather up their sins and I put them on Christ’s shoulders; and I say; “Canst Thou bear any more?” He says: “Yes, more.” Then I gather up all the sips of a hundred people in this house, and I put them on the shoulders of Christ, and I say: “Canst Thou bear more?” He says: “Yes, more.” And I gather , up all the sins of the assembly, and put them on the shoulders of the Son of God, and I say: “Canst Thou bear them?” “Yes,” He says, “more.” But He is departing. Clear the way for Him, the Son of God. Open the door and let Him pass out. He is carrying our sins and bearing them away. We shall never see them again. He throws them down into the abyss, and you hear the long reverberating echo of their fall. “On him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of ns all.” Will you let Him take your sins to-day? Or, did you say: “I will take charge of them myself, I will risk eternity on my own account?” I know not hoiv near some of you have come . fo*. orrtcfiln« .tlx** Vlra^—-:*- •-V ATy-fty-iTr ——i- ■

A clergyman said in his pulpit one Sabbath: “Before next Saturday night one of this audience will have passed out of life.” A gentleman said to another seated next to him: "I don’t believe it; I mean to watch, and if it doesn’t come true by next Saturday night, I shall tell that clergyman his falsehood.” The man seated next to him said: “Perhaps it will be yourself,” “Oh! no,” the other replied, “1 shall live old man. ” That nigkfe&sbreathed his last. To-day the Saviour calls. All may comb. God never pushes a man oft. God never destroys anybody. The man jumps oft, he jumps oft. It is suicide —soul suicide—if the man perishes, for the invitation is, “whosoever will, let him come;" whosoever, whosoever, whosoever! While God Invites, how blest the day. How sweet the Gospel’s charming sound! Como, sinner, haste, O! haste away While yet a pardoning God Is found. In this day of mercifnl visitation, while many are coming into the kipg* dom of God. join the procession Heavenward. Seated in my church was a man who came in who said: “I don’t know that there is any God.” That was on Friday night. I said: “We will kneel down and find ont whether there is any God.'’ And in the second seat from the) pulpit we knelt. He said: “I have found Him. There is a God, a pardoning God. I feel Him here.” He knelt m the darkness of sin. He arose two minutes afterward in the liberty of the Gospel; while another sitting under the gallery on Friday night, said: “My opportunity is gone;last week I might have been saved; not now —the door is shut." “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” “Now is the accepted time. Nqw is the day of salvation.” “It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after that the judgment.!”