The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-09-01
SUNDAYS SERMON.
All We Like Sheep Have Gone
Astray
And Wandered Far From the Fold Away
Preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage
At Brooklyn Tabernacle.

At Brooklyn Tabernacle.
Subject: "The Bleat of the Lost Sheep"
Text: Isaiah ill.,, 9. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity OF us all.
In ninety years at the longest all this
audience will be gone out of this world.
This service will decide the eternity for
some who are present. This will be the
last sermon that some of you will ever
hear. | have a nature somewhat poetic,
and 1 might try to please you WIN
tTODe, and metaphor, and simlle; put l
dare not under such circumstances. l
do not think that God ever gave to man
greater fOndness for mirth than l have,
and vet dare not indulge 1T amid 1t
amid these considerations. This Is a
life struggle, and death grapple, and
woe be to the man who shall try to dl-
vert this august assemblage from the
one issue. The first part OF my text Is
an incident. "All we like sheep have
gone astTay." Says some one, Cant
YOU drop the first wOrdp" And some one
rises and looks off and says: There is
a man who is blasphemer, he Is astray,
and wonder is a man who Is impure, and
he is astray." Sit down, my brother,
and look at home, for the first word of
the text takes you and me as we'll as
the rest: "All we like sheep have gone
astray."
have studied the habits of sheep and
know they lose their way sometimes by
irving to get other pasture, and some
times by being scared with the dogs.
There are many of you who have been
looking for better pasture. You have
wandered on and wandered on. You
have tried business successes, you tried
worldly associations, you tried the club
house. You said that the church was a
short commons and you wanted to ina
the rank grass on the bank of distant
streams, aud TO lie down under the
great oaks on the other side of the hills.
Have you found the anticipated pasture
that was to be so SUPERIOR How are
you getting on now in the club -hOusep
What did they do for you in the way Of
comfort when the baby diedp Did they
make up for the flaXen hair and the blue
eyes and the dimpled cheeksP We're not
the plain Christian man and the plain
Christian woman who came in and sat
up nights with your darling of more so
lace than all worldly associations? Did
all the cOnvival songs you ever heard
give you such peace as the song those
people sang in your bereayed homer The
very words that your little child had
learned to sing in the Sabbath-school:
There Is a happy land
Far far away,
Where saints in glory stand
Bright bright as day"
Did you find comfort in your business
asJociatiOnsP Did the grass grow very
thick around about your insurance
Office, or your brokers' shop, or your re-
tail store, or your importing establish
mentP God help the man that has moth
ing but business to comfort him! Your
business, instead of soothing you, exas-
perated you and wore you out and left
YOU limp as a rag and made you mad.
You got money, but you got no peace;
and so faI from getting ht pasture for
a starving nature, you found none or IL
in the world, and the further you went
the more blasted the heath and the
sharper the rocks and the thicker the
nettles. They insultedlyOu with garbage
when you wanted bread. Their batteries
were like the lick of a lions tongue,
which takes off the flesh that it licks. A
great English actor stood on the stage
and thunders of applause from the gal
leries greeted his impersOnatiOns, and
vet he was utterly chagTined because
one man sat asleep before him, and with
Indignation he cried out, Wake up,
sirp SO, in your life there has been
some little annoyance that has more
than OveTpOwered all your brilliant con-
pFatulatiOns. You went away from God
and peace with the idea of finding better
pastures, and your adventure has been
a failure. You found yourself browsing
amid sharp and stinging misfOrtunes.
Oh, the world is good rack from which
horse map pick his forage, and 1t is a
good trough from which the swine may
crunch their mess; but 1t affords nc
satisfactory food for a soul blood bought
and immortal.
have notice also that the sheep get
astray by being frightened with the
dogs, The hound gets in the field. The
moor things are frenZied. They forget
their path and dart away and are torn
of the hedges and splashed of the ditch
They do not get home that night. They
never get home unless the farmer goes
after them and brings them back. oh,
man, that Is the way you get astray. In
almost an atheist. You said: "Where is
God, that he allows an honest man to &c
down, and thieves to prOsperp" And
YOU were dOgged for the rent, and dog
ged by the banks, and you were dOgged
by creditors, and some of you went into
misanthrOpy, and some of you took tC
strong drink, and some of you fled from
all Christian associations, and In thai
way the sheep got astray. o, man, thai
ONN
How could you stand amid your found
ering fortunes and all your scattering
hopes with no God to comfort, no God tC
explain, no God to deltVerp L wonder
you are not dead, for / cannot under
stand how boat can live an hour in sucl
a chopped sea.
L do not know by just what process
you got astray; but the Bible announces
1t, and your partial consciousness on thl
subject reaffiTms it, that you, like sheep
have gone astray; and If you could SCI
yourself as God sees you, your sou
would burst into tempest of agony
and you would throw up your arms a
though you were sinking, and you would
melt the heavens with one loud and aw
full cry of "GOd, have mereyp But tn,
sad thing about your case is, you do no
realize you are fully astray. All thI
batteries of Mount Sinai are unlimberet
above you and are aimed at your soul
As, when SebastOpOl was assaulted
there were two Russian frigates burn
ing in the harbor all night. throwing
lurid glare on the trembling fortress, 81