Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-04-02
TALMAGE.
The Characteristics Of a Live
Church.
A Church That Has Not the Peace Of God is
an Ornament Of Death, the Garland
Of Cofia, the Piumes
of a hearse.
Or. TALaAGES HTH ANNIVERSARY.

BROOKLYN, April This being the four
teenth anniversary OF DR.. Talmages pas
torate, be preached on the characteristics
of a live Church.
OPENING hymn:
"Ho, my comrades, see the signal,
wavingin the sky!
Relpforcements now appearing,
Victory u nigh"
Rev. DR.. Tslmsge expounded appropriate
verses Of Scripture, and announced re-
ligious services for every night for The fol.
lowing two weeks.
Subject of the sermon:
Live Churches"
TEXT: Revelations Ill; s:-"Unto the angel
Of the Church OF Smyrna, write: These
things saith the First and the Last"
Smyrna was great city OF the ancients,
bounded on three sides by mountains 1t
was the central emporium of the Levantine
trade. In that prosperous and brilliant city
there was a Christian church established.
knocked down by AN earthquake. 1t was
rebuilt. Then is was consumed by con1a-
grafton that swept over the entire city.
That church went through fire and trouble
and disaster but kept on to great spiritual
prosperity. The fact was, that church had
the peace of God, an ever active principle
Had it been otherwise all the grandeur of
architecture and all the pomp Of surround
ings would only have been the ornament of
death, the garland of a coffin, the plumes
OF hearse.
To-day preaching my 1ith anniversary
sermon, as your pastor, it may be profitable
to consider what are the elements of live
church.
remark in the first place that one char
acteristic of such church is punctuality
in meeting its financial engagements. All
ecclesiastical institutions have financial
relations and they ought to meet their OBJ
legations Just as certainly as men meet
their Obligations at the bank. When a
church Of God is not as faithful in Its
promises as the bank OF England 1t ceases
to be a church Of Ged. 1t ought to be nm
derstOod that prayers cannot paint church
and prayers cannot pay the winters coal
bill and prayers cannot meet the insur-
ance, and while prayers can do a thousand
things, there are
thousand Things
that prayers cannot do. Prayer for any
particular church will never reach heaven
high unless it goes down pocket deep. In
my church at the West there was man OF
comfortable means who used to pray for
pastor in such elongated style that he be-
came nuisance to the prayer meeting,
asking God IN q prayer that was almost
without ceasing that the pastor might be
blessed in his basket and in his store
while the fact was he never paid anything.
If we pray for the advancement of the
church and do not out Of our own means
contribute for its advancement, our PRAYER
is only mOckery. Let the church of God
then meet its obligations on the outside,
and let the members of the congregation
meet the obligations inside, and the church
will be financially prospered.
Let me say also that there must be pune.
tuaity in the attendance on the house of
the Lord. II the services begin at half
past ten in the morning the regular con-
gregation of live church will not come at
a quarter to eleven. If the service is to
begin at half past seven in the evening.
the regular congregation OF live church
will not come at a quarter TO eight. In
some churches | have noticed the people
are always tardy. There are some people
who are always late. Tney we're born too
late and the probability is they will die too
late The rustling OF dresses on the aisle
and the slamming OF doors and the tread
ing of heavy feet is poor inspiration for
minister. IL requires great abstraction in
q pastors mind 10 proceed with the pre-
liminary exercises of the church when one
half of the audience seated are looking
around TO see the other half come i'll. Such
a difference OF attendance upon the house
of God may be a difference of time pieces,
but the live church of which am speaking
10 ~, hv railroad time and that i
pretty we'll understood in all communities.
There is one hymn that ought TO be sung
in q great many Christian families IN Sab
bath morning:
Early. my God, without delay
haste TO sees Thy place.
Another characteristic OF a
Live Church
is the fact that all the people participate in
the exercises. y stranger can tell by the
way the first tune starts whether there Is
any life there. \ church that does not
sing is dead church. IL is awful to hear
a cold dTizzle of music coming down from
the organ loft, while all the people beneath
sit in silence. when tune wanderS
around lonely and unbefriended aud is
finally lost amid the arches because the
people do not join III IL there IS not much
melody made unto the Lord. In Heaven
they all sing, though some there cannot
church has sung all around the world, and
gone from conquest TO conquest. Among
other things because il is a singing church,
and any Christian church organization that,
with enthusiasm performs this part OF It's
duty, will 20 from triumph to triumph.
A church OF God that can sing can do any
thing that ought to be done. We go forth
into this holy war with the Bible in one
hand and hymn book in the other. Oye
10 All he n the lord
and have got out of the habit, take your
harps down from the willows. ! am glad
10 know that as a church we are every year
making mighty advancement, and If there
is any church on earth that more spirited
ly and grandly and unanimously dis
charges this duty / DO not know where 1t
is, We have four male voices to render
three chants at each service, but when the
regular hymns are given out there are 5,OOO
people who feel they belong to tue choir,
and led oy cornet precentor and organ the
song comes up like the voice Of many
waters and like the voice Of mighty thun-
derings:
Who never heard our God,
Buf children OF the heavenly king
should speak their Joys abroad
On the way to triumph that never ends
and pleasures that never die-sing.
Another Characteristic of live church
is fourishing Sabbath School. 1t is too
late in the history OF the church to argue
the benefit OF such an.institution.
The Sabbath school
is not supplement to the churches, It is
the right arm. But you say there are dead
churches that have Sabbath schools. les;
ont the Sabbath Schools are dead too. 1t is
a dead mother, holding in her arms, a dead
child. But when superintendent and teach
ers and scholars come on Sabbath after
Doons together, their faces glowing with in
terest and enthusiasm, and their songs are
heard all through the exercises, and at the
close they 90 away feeling they have been
on the mount OF transhgurauon-thati IS
live school. and it is characteristic OF live
church. We gather into our schools the
children of the refined, aud the cultured
and the educated; but alas, for the great
multitude OF the children OF the abandon
ed and the lost. A few of them are gath