Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE PREACHER DISCUSSES A GREAT LAWSUIT. *> the Indictment, the Testimony, the Summing Up and the Judgment— Graphic Report of a Trial for the T *«fe of a Soul. 4 ' 7' ‘ r * In the Courtroom, The illustrations of this sermon are drawn from the scenes in a court room, with whifh Dr. Talmage became familiar when he was studying law, before he Studied for tjbic ministry. The text is 1. John, ii. f 1, “We have an ndvoente with the Father, Jesus Christ, 1 the righteous.” Standing in a court room you say to yourself, “At this bar grime has often been arraigned; at this witness stand the oath has often been taken; at this jurors’ bench the verdict has been rendered; at this judge’s desk sentence has been pronounced.” But I hare to tell you to-day of a trial higher than any oyer and terminer or circuit or supreme or chancery. It is the trial of every Christian man for the life of his soul. This trinl is different from any other in the fact that it is hath civil and criminal. The issues at stake are tremendous, and I shall in my sermoft show you first what are the grounds of complaint, then who are the witnesses in the cause and lastly Who are the advocates; < When a trial is called on ( the first thing is to have the indictment read. Stand up th<yi, O Christian man, and hear the indictment of the court of high heaven against thy soul. It is an indictment of ten counts, for thou hast-dircctly or iiidirectly broken all the Ten Commandments. You know how it thundered on Sinai, and when God came down 'how fc the mountain rocked, and the smoke ascended as from a smoldering furnace, and the darkness gathered thick, and the loud, deef> trumpet uttered the words, “The soul that einneth. it shall die!” Are you guilty or not guilty ? Do not put in a negative plea too qu’ck, for I have to announce that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There iij. none that doeth good. No, not one. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Do not therefore be too hasty in pronouncing yourself not guilty.

The Lawsuit. This lawsuit before us also charges you with the breaking of a solemn contract. Many a time did we promise to be the 1 xml’s. We got down on our knees and said, “O Lord, I am thitie now and for-" ever.” Did you keep the promise? Have you stood up to the contract? I go back to your first communion. You remember it as well ns if it,were yesterday. You know how the vision pf the cross rose before you. You remember how from the head, and the hands, anil the side, and Hie Tees there ea me “Weeding forth two words, “Remember me.” Yon recall how the cup of communion trembled in your hand when you first took it, and as in a seashell you may hear, dr think you hear, the roaring of the surf even after the shell has been taken from the beach, so you lifted the cup of communion and you, heard in it the surging of the great ocean of a Saviour’s agony, anil you came forth from that communion service with face shining as though j*ou had been on the mount of Transfiguration, and the very" air seemed tremulous With the love of Jesus, and the woods and the leaves and the grass and the birds were brighter and sweeter voiced than ever before, and you said down iu the very depths of your soul, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I loye thee.” Have you kept the bargain, O Christian man? Have you not sometimes faltered when you ought to have been true? Have you not been proud when you ought to have been humble? Have you not played the coward when you ought to have been the hero? I charge it upon you and I charge it upon myself—we have broken the contract. Still further. This lawsuit claims damages at your hands. The grentest slander on the Christian religion is an inconsistent professor. The Bible says religion is one thing. We, by our inconsistency, say religion is some other thing, and what is more deplorable about it is that people can see faults in others while they cannot see any in themselves. If you shall at any time find some miserable old gossip, with imperfections from the crown of her head jo the sole- of her foot, a perfect blotch of sin herself, she will go tattling, tattling, tattling all the years of her life about the inconsistencies of others, having no idea that she is inconsistent herself. God save the world from the gossip, female and male! I think the mabs are the worst. Now the chariot of Christ's salvation goes on through the world, but it is our inconsistencies, my brethren, that clock up the wheels, while all along the line there ought to have been cast nothing but pnlm branches, and the shout shouM have been lifted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Now you have heard the indietmeat read. Are you ready to plead guilty or not guilty? Perhaps you are not ready y«lt to plead. Then the trinl will go on. The witnesses will lie called, and. we shall have the matter decided. In the name of God I now make proclamation: Oyez, oyez, oyez, whosoever hath anything ro offer in this trial, in which God is the plaintiff and the Christian soul the defendant, let him now step forth and give testimony in this solemn trial. The Testimony. The first witness I call-upon the stand in behalf of the prosecution is the world, all critical and observant of Christian character. You know that there are people around you who perpetually banquet on the frailties of God’s children./ You may know, if you hare lived in the country, that a crow cares for nothing so much as carrion. There are those who imagine that out of the faults of Christians they can make a bridge of boats across the stream of death, and they are going to try it; but alas for the mistake! When they get midstream, away will go the bridge, and down will go their souls to perdition. O world of the greedy eye an 1 the hard, heart, come on the stand now and testify in behalf of the prosecution against this Christian soul on trial. Wha; do you know about this Christian man? “Oh,” says the world, “I know a gnat deal about him. He talks about putting '■ hia treasures In heaven, but he is the sharpest man in a trade I over knew. He seems to want us to believe that he is <i Child of God. but he is juat full of imperfections. Ido not know but lam a great deal better than he is now. Oftentimes he is very earthly, and he talks so little about Christ and so much about himself. I am Tory glad to testify that this is bad man.” Stop, O world, with the greedy eye and hard heart. J fear you are too much interested in this trial to give impartial evidence. Let all those who hear the testimony of this witness know that there is an old family quarrel between these two parties. There always has been h variance between the world and the church; afid. White the World on the witness stand to-day has told a great deal of truth about th: i Christian map. rou must take it #ll with much allowance, remembering that they atill keep the old grudge good. O world of the greedy eye and the hard heart, that will do. You may sit down. Tbs second witness I coll in this case is

conscience. Who art thonJO conscience? ■ What is your business’? Whore were you born? 1 What are you.doing here? “Oh,** says eoftseience, “I was born in heaven.' 1 came down to befriend this man. I. have lived with him. I have instructed him. 1 have warned him. I showed him the right and the wrong, advised him to take the one and eschew the other. I hnve kindled 'ft great light in his soul. With a whip of scorpions I scourged his wickedness, and I have tried to cheer him when doing right, and yet I am compelled to testify on thei>stahd to-day that he has sometimes rejected my mission. Oh, how many cups of life have I pressed to his lips that hfe dashed down, and how often has ho stood with his hard heel’ on' the bleeding hgprt of the Son of God. It pains me very much that I have to testify against.this Christian man, nnd yet I must in behalf of him in no wise clear the 'guilty say that this Christian man has done wrong. He has been worldly. He' has been neglectful. He has done a thousand things ho might not to have done, add left undone a thousand things hb ought to have done.” That will do, conscience. You can sit down. The third witness 1 call in the ease is an angel of God. Bright and shining one, what doest thou hero? ‘What hast thou to say against this man on trial? “Oh,” says the angel, “I have been a messenger to him. I have guarded him. I have watched him. With this wing I have defended him, and oftentimes, when he knew it not, I led him into green pastures and beside the still waters. I snatched from him the poisoned chalices. bad spirits came upon him to destroy him, I fought them back with infinite fierceness, and yet I have to testify to-day that ne has rejected my mission. He has not done as he ought to have done. Though I came from the sky, he drove me back. Though with this wing I defended him, and though with this voice I wooed him, 1 have to announce his multiplied imperfections. I dare not keep hack the testimony, for then I should not dare to appear again among the sinless ones before the great white throne.” There is only one more witness to bo called on behalf of the prosecution, and that is the great, the holy, the august, {lie omnipotent Spirit of God. We bow down before him. Holy Spirit, knowest thou this man? “Oh, yes,” says the Holy One, “I know him. I have striven with him ten thousand times, and though sometimes he did seem to repent he fell back again as often from his first estate. Ten thousand times ten.thousand has he grieved me, although the Bible warned him. saying: ‘Grieve not the Holy Ghost. Quench not the Spirit.’ Yes, he has driven mo back. Though I am the Third Person of the Trinity, he has trampled on my mission,and the blood of the atonement that I brought with which to cleanse his soul he sometimes despised. I came from the throne of God to convert and comfort and sanctify', nnd yet look at that man and see what he is compared with what, unresisted, I would have made him.”

The Rcbnttal. The evidence on the part of the prosecution has closed. Now let the defense bring on the rebuttal testimony'. What havb you, O Christian soul, to bring in reply to this evidence of the world, of the conscience, of the angel and of the Holy Ghost? No evidence? Are all these things true? “Yes. Unclean, unclean.” says every Christian soul. What? Do you not begin to tremble at the thought of condemnation? We have come now to the most interest-, ing part of this great trial. The evidence nil in, the advocates speak. The profeV sion of an advocate is full of responsibility. In England and the United States there have arisen men who in this calling have been honored by their race and thrown contempt upon those who'in the profession have been guilty of a great many meannesses. That profession will be honorable as long as it has attached to it such names as Mansfield and Marshall and Story ami Kent nnd Southard and William Wirt.' The court room has sometimes been the scene of very marvelous and thrilling things. Some of you remember the famous Girard will ease, where one of our advocates pleaded the cause of the Bible nnd Christianity in masterly Anglo-Saxon, every paragraph a thunderbolt. Some of you have read of the famous trial in Westminster hall of Warren Hastings, the despoiler of India by splendid talents, by courage, by bribes, by gigantic. dishonesty. The whole world had rung with applause or condemnation. Gathered in Westminster hall, a place in which thirty kings had been inaugurated, was one of the most famous audiences ever gathered. Foreign ministers and princes sat there. Peers marched in, clad in ermine and gold. Mighty men and women from all lands looked down upon the Scerie. Amid all that pomp and splendor, and amid an excitement such as has seldom been seen in any court room, Edmund Burke advanced in a speech which will last as long as the English language, concluding with this burning charge, which made Warren Hastings cringe nnd cower: "I impeach him in' the name of the commons house of parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trampled on and whose country he has turned into a desert. And lastly, in the name of human nature, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age and rank, I impeach him as the common enemy and oppressor of all.” But I turn from the recital of these memorable: occasions to u grander trial, and I hnve to tell you that in this trial of the Christian, for the life of his soul the advocates are mightier, wiser and more eloquent. The evidence all being in, severe and stern justice rises on behalf of the prosecution to make his plea. With the Bilile open in his hand, he reads the law. stern qnd inflexible, and the penalty, ‘•The soul that sinneth. it shall die.” Then he says: “O thou Judge and Lawgiver, this is thine own statute, and all the evidence in earth and heaven agrees that the man has sinned against these enactments! Now let the sword leap from its scabbard.* - Hhnll n man go through the very flames of Sinai unsinged? Let the law be executed. Let judgment be pronounced. Let him me. 1 demand that ho die!”

O Christian, does it not look very dark for thee? Who will plead on thy side in so forlorn a cause? Sometimes a man will be brought into a court of law, and he will have no ft-lends and no money, and the judge will look over the bar and soy, “Is there any one who will volunteer to take this man’s case and defend lpm ?*! And some young m«u rises up and says, “I will be his counsel,” perhaps starting on from that very point to a great and brilliant career. Now, in this matter of the soul, ns you have nothing to pay for counsel, do yoti think that any one will volunteer? Y’cs, j-es; I see one rising. He is a young man, only'33 years of age. I see his countenance suffused with tears ami covered with blood, and all the galleries of heaven arc thrilled with the spectacle. Thanks be unto God, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteons.” O Christian soul, your case begins to look better. I think, perhaps, after nil, you may not have to die. The best advocate in the universe has taken your side. No one was ever so qualified to defend you. He knows all the law, all lta demands, all its penalties. He ia always

ready. No hew ttrmof the ease can snr-> prise him, and he will plead for you for nothing , ar-earnestly as though yon brought a world of. treasure to his feet. Besides that, he has undertaken the case of thousands who were as forlorn as yoti, and he has never lost a ease. Courage, O Christian soul! I think that, after all, there In ay be some chance for you, for the great advocate rises to make his plea. He says: “I admit all that his been proved against my client. I admit- all these sins —aye, more—blit look at that Wounded hand ojf mine ana look at that other wounded hand and at my right foot and at my left fopt. By all these wounds I plead for his pjearance. Count all the drops of my blood. By the humilitftion of Bethleheni, by the sweat of Gethsemane. by the sul|erings of the cross, I demand that he gi»' free. On this arm he hath leaned, to this heart he hath flown, in my tears he hath washed, on my righteousness he hath depended. Let him go*free; I am the ransom. Let him escape the lash; I took the scourgings. Let the cup pass from him; I drank it to the dregs. Put on him the crown of life, for I have worn the crown of thorns. Over against my throne of shame Set his throne of triumph. " ’ . ; Judgment. counsel on both sides have spoken, and there is only one more thing now remaining, and that is the awarding of the judgment. If you hnve ever been in a court room, you know the silence and solemnity when the verdict is about to be rendered or the judgment about to be given. About this sopl on trial—shall it be saved or shall it be lost? Attention, above, around, beneath! All the universe cries, “Hear, hear!” The judge rises nnd gives his decision, never to be changed, never to be revoked, “There Is, therefore, now no* condemna-. tioq to them who are in Christ Jesus.” The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not, I will not. desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never; no, never; no, never, forsake. But, my friends, there is coming a day of trial in which not only the saint, but the sinner must appear. That day of trial will come very suddenly. The farmer will be at the plow, the merchant will be in the counting room, the woodman will be ringing his ax on the hickories, the weaver will have his foot on the treadle, the manufacturer will be walking amid the buzz of looms and the clack of flying machinery, the counsel may be at the bar pleading the law, the minister may be in the pulpit pleading the gospel, the drunkard may be reeling amid his cups, and the blasphemer with the oath caught between his teeth. Lo, the sun hides! Night comes down at midnoon. The stars appear at noon to-, day. The earth shudders and throbs. There an earthquake opens and a city sinks as a crocodile would crunch a child. Mountains roll in their sockets and send down their granite cliffs in avalanche of rock. Rivers pause in their chase for the sea, and ocean uprearing cries to flying Alps and Himalaya. Beasts bellow and moan and snuff up the darkness. Clouds fly like flocks of swift eagles. Great thunders beat and boom and burst. ' Stars shoot and fall. The Almighty, rising on his throne, declares that time shall be no longer, and the archangel’s trump repeats it till all the living hear and the continents of dead spring to their feet, crying, “Time shall be no longer!” Oh, on that day will you be ready? I have shown you how well the Christian will get off in his trial. Will you get off as well in your trial? Will Christ plead on your side or against you ? Oh, what will you do in the last great assize if your conscience is against you, and the world is against you, and the angels of heaven are against you, and the Holy Spirit is against you, and the Lord God Almighty is against yon? Better this day secure an Advocate.