The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-05-20
miscellaneous.
Rev. 7. Dewitt TALMAGE,
SERMON PREACHED IN BROOK
LYNTABERNACLE ON SUNDAY,
MAY 9TH.
Fishing for the Souls Of Misunderstanding
Objections Urged Against ReVlVals.

@AN
Rev. DR.. Talmage to-day, The following
is a full report of the sermon;
neutrality-suspicious. To REVEALS,
Text-Luke v, g.: "They inclosed a
great multitude of fishes and the net
broke"
Simon and his comrades hal expert.
enced the night before what fishermen
call poor luck. Christ steps into the
fishing boat and tells them to pull away,
and directs them again to let down the
net. Sure enough, it is very soon full Of
fishes, and the sailors begin to haul in.
But there is such a large school of fish
that the hardy men pull till they are red
in the face, ard, just as they begin to re-
joiCe at their success, snap goes one
thread of the net, snap goes another
thread. 1t seem as if they were going
to lose not only the fish but the net.
Without much reference as to how the
boat tits over, or how much water is
splashed on to the deck, the fl ,hermen
rush around to gather up the broken
meshes of the net and save the day.
They see another boat near by, and hail
it with "Ship ahoyl Bear down this
wayl' The boat comes to the rescue,
and both fishing smaCks are filed with
the laundering treasures. How much
better, says some one, it would have been
to have stayed on the firm shore and
fshed with a hook and line and taken
one sinner at a time rather than to have
all that excitement, almost upsetting the
boat and breaking the net and having to
call assistance and getting sopping wet
with the sea, Now the Church is a ship,
and the Gospel is the sea, and a great
revival is the hauling in of a whole
school with one sweep. We do not de-
spise the work of that man who labors
to draw ashore just one soul. We ad.
mire his skill in unwindiDg the reel and
adjusting the bait and dropping the hook
in some quiet spot Oh on a still after
noon, But we like also a big boat and a
large crew and a net a mile long and a
swift oar and stout sails ant nimble rig
ging and stiff breeze, and a multitude
of anxious souls so great that you have
to get help to haul them ashore, while
the net is strained to the utmost, and
here aud there breaks, letting a few rs.
cape, but landing many thousands in
eternal safety. la other words, | believe
in r~eviyals. The chief work of saving
men began with three thousand joining
the Church in one day and it Will end
in a scene in which, perhaps, forty or a
hundred million will be saved at once.
Nations born in a day.
But there are objections to revivals.
First, it ia said that the candidates taken
at such times are in danger of not hold
ing out. While the gale of influence
lasts they have the sails up; but when
the strong wind ceases they will drop to
a dead calm, VIVA is the fact? The
vast majority Of those useful in all our
churches were brought ia during reviv-
ais. Those foremost in prayer meetings,
in Sabbath schools aud pulpits, who are
they but the product of great awaken
ings? Ny observation has been that
those converted in r~evivals are more de.
termined and more persistent in religion
than those who enter in a low state of
the Church. Perhaps persons born in
an ice house may live, but they will new.
er get over the cold they caught there.
The greater the impulse given to a can
non ball the further and the swifter it {
will go. The greater the revival force (
with which one is started, the more far. s
reaching the execution. Further, it is i
objected that the exCitements of a revi- {
val are great, and people may mistake a
Mysteries for religion. [ suppose that in a
all revivaIs there is really subdued or {
demonstrated excitement. A man who t
can himself pass out of condemnation a
into acceptance, or see others do so and T.
feel no excitement, is in such an IN. {
healthful and abnormal state that he O
would not be more absurd and repulsiye /
II he boasts that he saw a child snatch. !
ed from under a horses hoofs without
any agitation, or a woman brought out a
OF the third story of a house on FIRE with i
out acceleratiou of his pulse! Salvation 0
from sin and death and hell into life and
peace and he ven forever is such a ire. q
mendOus thing that / have no confidence u
in a mans conversion who feels no ex. b
element in regard to it. In certain cir
cumstanCes nothing is more important s
than agitation. In the effort to ~resusCi- O
tate the drowning or the freezing the one
idea is to excite animation. Before con. t.
version we are dead, and the whole work
the Church is to arouse and awaken a
and startle into life. Excitement is good
or bad according to what it drives you to v
do. II to do that which is bad, it is a s
bad excitement; but if it send you to 8
church and to your knees, it is a good o
excitement Some say, at is always the T.
case that in such special times very young y
and inexperienced persons flock to the n
affairs, and they do not know what they "
are doing" 60 you know that it is the c
history Of the Church that the younger tt
the people start, the more useful they ii
are? Robert Hall, the prince of Baptist c.
preachers, was converted at twelve years v
Of age, Matthew Henry at eleven years, a
Isabella Graham at ten years, DR.. Watts I
at nine years, and Jonathan Ed wards at y
years. 1t is generally supposed il
hat they all knew what they were about. b
II at such times there are two Candi b
tates presenting themselves as Candi. G
iates for the Church, and the one 10 ten o
Years of age and the other forty, l have a
more confidence in the one at ten years "
han in the one at forty, for the latter p
1as forty years Of impulse in the wrong o
direction to correct and the other only F
EN-. Four times ten are forty. There is &
our times better religious prosp ct for b
he lad than for the man in mid.life. l q
udge Of the work Of r~evivals by The men 81
Who have been most eminent in foster. p
ng them. Edwards, Whitefeld, Yves y
ey, Fletcher, Griffin, Davies, Osborne, al
Knapp and Nettleton. From the strength B