Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

a r . A M, . ° THEORIES of ruin and restoration ARE PRESENTED. A Dramatic Bible Scene— The Disabled Human Soul Humbled and Restored—The Important Part of Every Prayer—Glories of the Gospel. ■ . . ~ \ For Another’s Sake. 1 Dr. Talmage’s sermon of< last Sunday is a viviii arid .novel presentation of the theories Of riiin and ffetongion. Ttfe Bible scene described is dramatic. His text was 11. Samuel ix.. 1 and 1.3; “Is there yet any that is left of the house of .Saul, that 1 may show him kindness for Jriaathnu's sake?' * * * So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for'he did eat continually nt the king’s table and was lame on both his feet/’ Was there ever anything more romantic and chivalrous than the love of David and Jonathan? At one time Jonathan was up and*David whs down. Now David is up ami.'Jonathan s family is down. As you 1 l»#Ve- often heard of two soldiers before going into battle makifig a covenant that if one is shot the survivor will take charge of the body, the watch, the mementos and ' perhaps of the bereft family »f the one that dies, so David and Jppathnn have made covenant, and now that Jonathan is delta David Tis inquiring about liis family, that he ma.v show kindness unto them for their father Jonathan’s sake. Careful search is made; and a son of Jonathan of the dreadfully homely name of Mephibosheth is found. His nurse, in his infancy, had lejt him fall, and the fall had put bbth his ankles out of place, and they had never been set. This decrepit, poor man is brought into the palace of King David. David looks upon him with melting tenderness, no doubt Seeing in his face a resemblance to his old friend, the deceased Jonathan. Th<; whole bearing of King David toward him seems to say: “Hou glad I am to sec yon, Mtphibosheth! How you remind me of your father, my old friend and benefactor! I made a bargain with your father a good many years ago, and I am going to keep it with you. What can Ido for you, Mephibosheth? I am resolved what to do — I will make you a rich man. I will restore to you the confiscated property of your grandfather Saul, and you shall be a guest of mine as long as you live, and you shall be seated at my table among the princM.” I* <r:ts too mtirt hr Mqwibosheth, and he cried out against it. calling himself a dead dog. “Be still,” says David. “I.don’t do this on your own account. I do this for your father, Jonathan’s sake. I can never forget his kindness. I remember when I was hounded from place to place how he befriended me. Can I ever forget how ho stripped himself of his courtier apparcl and gave it to me instead of my shepherd's coat, and how ho took off his.own sword and;belt and gave them to me instead of myrslipg? Oh, I can never forget him! I fVel as it I couldn’t do enough for you, his son. I don’t do it for your sake: I dp it for your father Jonathan’s sake/’ “So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for ho did eat continually at the king’s table and wa,s lame on both his feet.” A Disabled Soul. There is so much gospel in this quaint incident that I am embarrassed to know where to begin. Whom do Mephibosheth and David and Jonathan make you think Mephibosheth, in the first place, stands for the disabled human soul. Lord Byron describes sin as a charming recklessness, as a gallantry, as a Don Juan. George Sand describes sin as triumphant in many intricate plots. Gavarni, with his engraver’s knife, always shows sin as a great jocularity. But the Bible presents it as a Mephibosheth. lame on both feet. Sin, like the nurse in the context, attempt,r etl to carry ns and let us fall, and we have been disabled, nnd in our whole moral nature we are decrepit. Sometimes theologians baggie about a technicality. They use the words “total depravity.’’ and some people l>e!ieve in the doctrine, and some reject it. What do you mean b.v total depravity? Do you’mean that every man is ns bad as he can be? Then I do not believe it either. But do you mean that sin has let us tall; that it has sacrificed and disabled and crippled our entire moral nature until we cannot walk straight and are lame in both feet? Then I admit your proposition. There is not so much difference in an African jungle, with barking, howling, hissing, fighting quadruiKKl and and paradise, with its animals coming before Adam, when he patted them and stroked them and gave tl]£m mimes, so that the panther was as tame as the cow. and the condor as tame as the dove, as there -is between the human soiil disabled and that soul as G.od original!;,- constructed it. I do not c;ire what the sentimentalists or the poefs say in regard to Kin. In the name of God, I declare to yon to-day that siu is disorganization. disintegration, ghastly disfiguration, hobbling deformity. Your modern theologian tolls you that man is a little out of sorts. He sometimes thinks wrong. He sometimes does wrong—indeed, his nature needs a little moral surgery, an outside splint, n slight compress, a little rectification. Religion is a good thing to have, it might’some day come into use. Man is partially wrong, not all wrong. He is lame in one foot. Bring the salve of divitie grace, and the ointment, and the pain extractor, and we will have his one foot cured. Man is only half wrong, not altogether wrong. In what is man’s nature right? In bis will, his affections, his judgment? No. There is an old book that says. “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint.” Mephibosheth lame in both feet! Our belief of the fact that sin has sacrificed and deformed our souls increases qs we go on in’ years. When you started life, you thought that man was a little marred by sin, and he was about one-tenth wrong. By tn.? time you had gone through the early experience of your trade or occupation or profession you believed that man was about half wrong. By the time you came to midlife you believed that man was three-fourths wrong. But within these past few' years, since you have been so lied about and swindled and cheated, you have come to the conclusion that man is altogether wrong, and now you can say with the prayer book and with,-the Bible, “The heart is deceitful above all things nnd desperately Wicked.” Whatever you may have believed before, now you believe that Mephibosheth ,is lame on both feet. Htvmbled, but Restored. Again, Mephibosheth in the text stapils for the disabled human soul humbled and restored. When this invalid of n>y text got a command to come to King David's palace, he trembled. The fact was that the grandfather of Mephibosheth had treated David most shockingly, ami now Mephibosheth says to himself: “What does the king want of me? Isn't it enough that 1 am iame,? Is he going jo' destroy my life? Is he going to wreak on me- the vengeance which he holds toward my grandfather Saul? It's too bad.” , But go to the palape Mephibosheth must, since the king nas commanded it. With staff and crutches and, helpbd by bis friends, I see Mephibosheth, going up the stairs of th? palace. I hear his staff and crutches rattling on rhe ieqsellaied floor of the throne room. No sooner have these two persons confronted eatl\ other, Mephlboaheth and David, the king, than

Mephibosbeth throws himsblf flat on his face b-fore the king and St/les himself a dead dog. In the east when n man styles himself a dog he utters the .utmost feri'n of self abnegation. I¥ is-not a' term so strong in this country, where,' if -H' dog has -a fair Chante. lie sometimes -Shows mor> 'nobility of character than some huwiati- Specimens that we’ wot of. blit the mangy-curs 'of 't he oriental cities, as I ktiow by my own- biiservdtton. tire utterly detestable. Mophiboshothi gives -the Ut-most-term of self loathing when hc-com-pares himself to a dog, and dead at-.t-hat. -Consider the analogy. ■ When the. command is. given from the-palace of hen von to the human soul tocomq, the.Etoul begins ■ to tremble,; It says: “What id Gbd going to.do.with ,me now-? - Is he going -to destroy me? Is ho going to wreak hi-s-ven-geance upon me?" There is more than one Mephibosheth trembling now because God has summoned him to the palace of divine grace? What are you trembling about? God has no.pleasure in the death of s a sinner; He doos not send .for.you to hurt you. He sends for you to -do yon good. A Scotch preacher .had. the following Circumstances-brought under his observation: There-was a poor woman in the parish who was about to be turned out because she could not pay her rent. One night she heard a loud knocking at the door, and she made no answer and hid herself. The rapping continued louder, louder, louder but she made no answer and continued to hide herself. She was almost frightened unto death. She said, “That’s the officer of the law come’to throw me out of my home.” A few days after a Christian philanthropist met her in the street and said: “My' poor woman, whpre were yon the other night? 1 came round to your house to pay your rent. Why didn’t you let me in? Were you at home?” Why,” she replied, “was that you?” “Yes. that was me. I came to pay your' rent.” “Why,” she said, “if I had had any idea it was - you, I Would have let you in. I thought it was an officer come to cast me out. of my home.” D soul, that loud knocking at thy gate is not the sheriff come to put you in jail. It is the best fEiend_you ever had come to be your security. You shiver with terror because you think it'is ‘wrath. It is merey. Why, then, tremble before the King of heaven nnd earth calls you to his palace? Stop trembling and start right away. "Oh,” you say, “I can’t start. I have been so lamed by sin and so lamed by evil habit I can’t start. I am lame in both feet.” My friend, we come out with'our prayers and sympathies to help you up to the palace. It you want -to get to tbe palaee. you may get there. Start now» The Holy Spirit will help you. All you have to do is just to throw yourself on your face at the feet of the King, as Mephiboshetn did. The Sinner’s Cry. Mepbibosheth’s caninal comparison seems extravagant to the world, but when a man has seen himself as he really is and seen how he has been treating the Lord there is no term vehement enough to express his self condemnation.. The dead dog of Mepbibosheth’s comparison fails to describe the man’s utter loathing of himself. Mephibosheth’s pos(urirfg'does not seem too prostrate. When a soul is convicted, first he prays upright. Then

the muscles of his neck relax, and he is able to bow his head. After awhile, by an almost superhuman effort, he kneels down to pray. After awhile, when he has seen. and seen himself,", he throws- himself flat on his face at the feet of the King, just like Mephibosheth. The fact is if we could see ourselves as God sees us we would perish at the spectacle. You would have no time to overhaul other people. Your ery would be, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And, again, Mephibosheth in my text stands for the sake of another. Mephibosheth would never have got into the palace on his own account. Why did David ransack the realm to find that poor man and then bestow upon him a great fortune land edtmnand a farmer of the name of Ziba to culture the estate and give to this invalid - Mephibosheth half the proceeds .every year? l Why did King David make is-neh a mighty stir about a poor fellow who would never be of any use to the throne of Israel? It was for Jonathan’s sake. It was what Robert Burns calls fpr "anld lang syne,” David eould not forget what Jonathan .bad done for him in other days. Three times this chapter has it that all this kindness on the part of David to Mephibosheth was for his father Jonathan’s sake. The daughter of Peter Martyr, through the vice of her husband, came down to penury, and the senate of Zurich took care of her foroher father’s sake. Sometimes a. person has applied (o you for help, and you have refused him. but .when you found lie -wus the son or brother of some one who had; been your former days and by a glance you saw the resemblance otyour old friend in the face of the applicant you relented and yoq said, “Oh. I will do this for your father's sake.” You know by yoiir experiir.ee what my text means. Nov.-, my friends, it is on that principle that you and 1 are to get into the King’s palace. In His Name. The most important every prayer is the last three or four words of It—“ For Christ’s Sake.' Do not rattle off those words ns though they were merely the finishing stroke of the prayer. They are the most important part of the prayer. When in earnestness you go-before God and say "for Christ's sake” it rolls in, as it were, upon God's, mind all the memories of Bethlehem and Gennesaret and Golgotha. When you ray before God “for Christ's sake” you hold before God's mind every groan, every tear, every crimson drop of his only begotten Son. If there is anything in nil tpo universe that will move, God to an act of royal benefaction, it is to say “For Christ’s sake.” God is omnipotent, but he is not strong enough to resist that cry, “For Christ's sake.” It a little, child should kneel behind God's throne and should say “For Christ’s sake,” Die great Jehovah would turn anoiind on his throne to look at her and listen. No prayer ever gets to heaven but for Christ’s sake. No soul is ever comforted but for Christ’s sake. The world will never be redeemed but tow Christ’s sake. Our name, however illustrious it may be nmong men, before God stands only for inconsistency and sin. But there is a name, a potent name, a blessed name, a glorious name, an everlasting name, that we may put upon our lips as a sacrament and upon our forehead as a crown, and that is the name of Jesus, our divine Jonathan, Who stripped himself of his robe nnd pift tin our rage and gave us h!s sword and took our broken reed; so that now. whether we are well or sick, whether we are living or dying, if we speak that napie it moves heaven to the center, and God says: "Let the poor soul come iriT’X"arry him up into the throne room of the palace. Though he mny have been in exile, though sin may have crippled him on this side, nnd sorrow may have crippled him on the other side, and he is lame in both his feet, bring him up itito the palacd. for 1 want to show him everlasting.kindness for Jonathan’s sake." Again. Mephibosheth in' my'text stands for the disabled human soul lifted to thY King's table. It was more difficult rn. those times even than it is now for cofflimon men to get into a royal dining rootn. The subjects might have come around the rail of the palace and might have seen the lights kindled, and might have heard the clash of the knives and the rattle of the golden goblets, but not get in. Stout men with stout feet could not get in once in

all their Ilves to one banquet, yet poo» Mophi'boshetli goes in, lives there'and is every day at the table, Oh. what a get ting up in the-world if was for poor Mepbibosheth! Well, though you and I may be woefully lamed with sin, for our divine .Jonathan’s sake I hope we will all get in Ip dine with the King. A Before dining we miist be introduced. It you are to a company of persons whore there are distinguished people present, you’are introduced: “This is the Senator." “This' is the Governor?” “This is thi»’President.” . Before sit down at the King’s table in heaven I will want so be introduced. Oh. what a time that win.be when you apd I, by the grace of God, get into heaven and nfelntroduced to the mighty spirits there, and some one wilT say. “This is Joshua,” “This is Pqul," “Thik is Moses,” “This is John Jynpx,” “This is John Milton,” “This is Martin Luther," .“This is George Whitefield." Oh, shglt we. have any afrength jef| ii,Jte r stfch a round of celestial introductions? Yea; we shall be poourselves.. Then we .shall sit down, at the King’s table with the sons and daughters of God, and one will whisper acr'ess the table to us and say, “Be-, hold what manner of love the Father hath, bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God!” And some one at the tabld-Will say: “How- long will it last? All other-banquets at which I sat ended. How long will this last?” And Paul will answer, “Forever!” and Joshua will say, “Forever!" and- John Knox will say, “Forever!” and George Whitefield will say, “Forever!” A Glorious Gospel. And the wine at that banquet will be Skfwine; it will be very old wine; it will be the oldest wine of heaven;' it will be the wine that was trodden out from the red clusters on the day when Jesus trod the wine press alone. Wine already more than eighteen centuries old. All our earthly imperfections completely covered up and hidden. Mephibosheth’s feet under the table. Kingly fare. Kingly vesture. Kingly companionship. We shall reign for ever and ever. I think that banquet will mean=more tw those- who-had it hard in this world than to those who had it easy. That banquet in David’s palace' meant more to Mephibosheth than to any one else, because he had been poor and crippled and despised and rejected. And that man who in this world is blind will better appreciate the light of heaven than' we who in this world had good eyesight. And that man who in this world was deaf, will better appreciate the music pf heaven than we who in this world had good hearing. And those will have a higher appro-. oiation of the easy loco,motion of that land who in thia world were Mephibosheths. O my soul, what a magnificent gospel! It takes a man so low down and raises him so high ! What a gospel! Come now, who wants to be banqueted and irnpalaced? As when Wilberforce was trying to get the emancipation bill through the British Parliament and all the British Isles were anxious to hear of the passage of that emancipation bill, when a vessel was coming into port and the captain of the vessel knew that the people were so anxious to get the tidings, he stepped out. on the prow of the ship and shouted to the

people long before he got up to the dock, “Free!” and they. cried it, nnd they shouted it. and they sang it all through the land, “Free, free!” So to-day I would like to sound the news -of your present and your eternal emancipation until the angels of God hovering in the air and watchmen on the battlements and bellmen in the town cry it. shout it, sing it, ring it. “Free, free!” 1 come out now as the messenger of the palace to invite Mephibosheth to come up lam here to-day to tell you that God has a wealth of kindness to bestow upon you for his Son’s sake. The doors of tho palace are open to receive you. The cupbearers have ttl(rea<ly put the chalices on the table, and the great, loving, tender, sympathetic heart of God bends over you this moment, saving. “Is there any, that is yet left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”