Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-22
TALMAGE'S LAMP A BIBLE.
HOW SINNERS MAY LIGHTED
INTO A BRIGHT ETERNITY.

Rays in the Sepulchre.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 21.-Dr. Talmage ha
just returned from his Southern tour
during which he delivered the openin,
prayer at the New Orleans Exposition
He preached this evening in the Brooklyl
Tabernacle on the subject, ''Illumina
| tiOn." The opening hymn was:
How firm a foundation We saints of the Lor,
| Hath he laid for your faith in his eXcellen
word"
After expOunding appropriate passages
of Scripture DR.. Talmage gave out tn,
text from Psalm cXiX, los: ''Fhy word il
a lamp to my feet and light to my path. ,
DIR. Talmage said:
From O'Clock last evening until 6Oclocl
| TINS morning darkness rested on our part o
the earth, and every few hours there rolls
wave of natural night all over the nations
With lamps and chandeliers and torches anC
lanterns we try to drive out the night from
houses and churches and stores and shops. HI
VINO lnvents new kind of light invents hi
own fortune and the fortune of his children
But there is night of SIN and suffering anC
shame which needs another kind of lllumiua.
ton. Ancient philosophy made Il lamp, but
1t WIZ dead failure ami the people kept
crying out, Give us light! Give us light'
After awhile prophet and evangelist anC
apostle made lamp. A coal from heaven
struck 1t into blaze. and uncOunted multi.
tudes OF people, with an open Bible before
them, cry out in raptures, in love, "Thy
word is a lamp"
When, some years ago. there was a great
accident in Hartley cOlliery, England, and
200 persons lost their lives, the Queen tele-
graphed down to the scene Of disaster: "Can
we give you any help? VIII you be able tC
get the men out? How many are lost? Give my
sympathy to all the bereft." What consola-
ton 1t was to the families who stood amidst
the CONSERVATION and the terror. that the
throne England in -,
their disaster But | have to tell YOU a more
glorious truth, and that is: from the throne OF
God the King of heaven and earth telegraphs
down through this Bible into the dungeons of
our sin ana suffering message of pardon, OF
love, OF sympathy, of comfort, of eternal life
Like some lighthouse on high prOmontOry.
blessed by ships passing through darkness and
storm, so on the heights of Gods love and
grace there flames forth light upon the great
sea OF mans wretchedness and Of Gods pro-
vidence, so that angels on their Way earth
ward, and ransomed spirits on their way
heavenward, and devils on their way hell
ward pass through its Nash, crying, "MY word
is a lamp"
You have four or five Bibles in your house.
perhaps ten, perhaps twenty. They are such
common property you do not appreciate them
III you had only one Bible, and for that YOU
had paid $5O0-the price that was paid in olden
time for copy of the Scrlptures-then you
would more thoroughly appreciate it. l was
once cOlpOrteur for few months in a vaca-
tlon, and | came into a house OF restitution
L saw woman there IS years of age and |
SAID to her: MAY give you Bible?" "Oh,'
she replied, "a Bible would be Of no use to me.
| can't see to read. / used to read, but for 20
years haven't been able to read word" 1
pulled out of my satchel one OF the cOpies of
the Psalms of David and the New Testament
IN great, large, round types, and | said: Now
put on your spectacles and see il you can't
read this" She wiped her spectacles and put
them on. "Oh, yes" she said; "why, | can
see, after all! L am very thankful to you:
/ lOyra ha ord
he halh heard my voice and my Oh yes,
can read it, can read it," wish that God
tonight would make the Bible as new and
fresh to us as it was to her.
l want to show YOU that the Biole Is = lamn
"a parlor lamp, street lamp, a store lamp. a
church lamp, sepulchral lamp. In D ,rfors
all atlash with gaSlght and cleaning mirror
and blazing chandelier and candelabra, there
may be Egyptian darkness; while in some
plain room, which frugal hand has spread
with hospitality and refinement. this one
lamp may cast glow that makes it a fiji place
for heavenly coronatlous. We invoke no
shadow to fall upon the hilarites of life. We
would not have every song q dIrge, and every
picture martyrdom, and every step funer-
al pace. Gods lamp hung in the parlor would
chill no Joy, would rend no harmony wOuld
check no innocent laughter. On the contrary.
1T would bring out brighter cOlOrs in the pic
ture; 1t would expose new gracefulness in the
curtain: it would unrOll new wreaths from the
carpet; it would strike new music from the
harp; it would throw new polish into the
manners; it would kindle with light
borrowed from the throne of God, ali
the refnements of society. Oh that the Christ
who was born in a barn would come to our
parlOr. We need his hand to sift the parlOr
music. We need his taste to assort the parlor
literature. We need his voice to conduct the
parlor conversation, We are apt to think of
religion as being rude, laundering thing
not fit to put its foot upon Administer, or its
clownish hands on beautiful adornmehts or
lift its voice amidst the artistic and refined ::
so, while we have Jesus in the nursery when
we teach our children to pray, and Jesus in
the dining g-hall when we ask his blessing upOn
our food, and Jesus in the sitting room when
we have family prayers. it is a simple fact
that from ten thousand Christian homes in
this country Christ is from one end of the wear
to the other shut out of the parlor. Oh, that
nOusekeepers understood that the grace
OF God is the greatest accomplishment,
and that no seat is too luXurant for religion
to sit in and no arch too grand for religion to
walk under, and no circle too brilliant for re-
ligion to move in II Christianity at last is
to walk up the streets OF heaven with sera-
phim and archangel, it is good enough to go
anywhere where you go or where | shall go.
to purify the heart; to cleanse the life to cul-
ture the taste, to eXpurgate all hypocrisy and
falsehOOd and sham we must have the Bible in
the parlor. When Christian people come to
spend an evening they talk about the weather
and they talk about the scandal and they
talk about the crops and they talk about the
markets; but they do not talk about God and
Christ and heaven. The thing we most want
in all our parlors is the lamp of the Bible.
Still further, the Bible is the street-lamp.
When night comes down on the city, crime
goes forth to its worst ach evements, Not
only to show honest citizens where to walk
but to hinder the burglar, and assassin, and
highwayman and plckpocket we must have
artificial lights all over the city. / remem-
ber what CONSERVATION there was in PhiladeI-
phia when one night the gas works were out
of order and the whole city sat in darkness.
Between eleven O'Clock at night land three
n'anQK n ho a II 4
places OF the town crime5 has its holiday. Ii
the lamplighter ceased his work for one week
the town would rot. But there is a darkness
beyond all power Of gaslight, What is the
use OF police kstatlon, and almshOuse and
watchm ans club If there be no moral and re-
ligious influence to sanction the law and to
purify the executive, and to hang over legal
enactment the fear OF God and an enlightened
public opinion. When in city crime runs
rampant and virtue is at a discount and jails
are full and churches are empty and the nights
are hideOus with the howl and the whoop of
drunkards, and the saloons boil over with
scum, and public officials think more OF q
bribe than they do of their own consciences
and when great tides OF wickedness set down
the streete-the first want Of such a city as
that is the street lamp of the Bible. Did you
ever stand in a church tower and look dewn
upon city at night? 1t is overwhelming.
But you feel that beneath all that brilliancy
OF Easllght there is surglDg sea of want and
suffering and woe. History says that Dyo-
nysius had great cave built for his prison.
ers. He was a cruel man, and he used to 90
to the top OF the cave, put his ear to the open
Ing and listen, and the groans and the sighlngs
of the prisoners came up into his ear and m ade
music for him. God stands at the head Of our
world, but for different purpose and with a
different heart. He puts his ear to the dan
geon, and every sigh comes up stirring his
sympathies and every grOan wounding his
heart; and he listens and listens all night
long. There Is but one lamp that can throw
light into the dungeon where the prisoner
groans, INTO the hovel where the beggar
pines. into the cellar where the drunk
ard wallQws, into the alley where the lib
ertine putrefes, into the madhouse where
the maniac raves. Travellers in Africa tell
us that they have seen serpents-a vast mum =
Der of them-coiled together and piled up in
horrd fold above hOrrid fold; and then they
would hear hundreds Of them Kissing at once,
and the sight and the sound were appalling
and unbearable. But if you should take the
wickedness of our best Of cities and bring it
all together in one place and pile it up, fold
above fold, 1t would be Kissing horror and
ghastliness that no human eye could look at
without being blasted, and no human ear
could hear without being stunned.
Now, how will all these scenes of iniquity In
our cities be overcome2 They will not be
overcome until the church and the school and
a.Christian printing press klndle all around
about us Gods street-lamp of the Bible.
Send the Bible down that filthy alley if you
would have it cleansed. Send it against those
decanters if you would have them smashed.
Send it against those chains if you would have
them broken. Send it through all the igno-
rance of the city if you would have it Illu-
mined as by flash from heavens morning.
The Bible can do it, will do it. Gather all the
ignorance and the wickedness and the vice
OF our cities in one great pile-Alps above
Alps, Pyrenees above Pyrenees, Himalaya
above Himalaya-and then give one little
New Testament full swing against the side OF
that mountain and down it would come, Alps
after Alps, Pyrenees after Pyrenees, Him
alaya after Hlmalaya. What is the
difference between New York and Pc
kH? What is the difference between London
and Madras? What is the difference between
Edinburgh and Canton? No difference save
that which the Bible makes. Oh. city mis-
sionarvl Oh. mill nthrnnistI Oh Christiar,