The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-12-31
PULPIT UTTERANCES.
The Cry Of the People Is: "Give
Us Light Give Us Lightr'
A Message OF Pardon, of Love, OF Sympa'
thy, OF Comfort, of Eternal Life-A
Sermon by Rev. De witt
Talmage, ID. ID.

'sThy word is lamp to my feet and light
TO my path" Psalm cbtr.: lO5
From six o'clock last evening until six
O'Clock this morning darkness rested over
our part of the earth, and every few hours
there rolls wave of natural night all over
the Nations. With lamps and chandeliers,
and torches, and lanterns, we try to drive
out the night from our houses, and
churches, and stores and shops. He who
invents new kind of light invents his own
fortune and the fortune of his children.
But there is night Of sin, and suffering
and shame, which needs another kind Of
illumination. Ancient philosophy made a
lamp, but it was a dead failure, and the
people kept crying out: "Give us light!
Give us lightw After awhile prophet, and
evangelist and apostle made lamp. A
coal from Heaven struck it into blaze,
and uncounded multitudes of people, with
an open Bible before them, cry out in rap
ture and in love: "Thy Word is lampY"
When, some years ago, there was great
accident in Hartley colliery, England, and
two hundred persons lost their lives, the
Queen telegraphed down to the scene Of the
disaster: "Can we give you any help2
Will you be able to get the men outY How
many are lost? Give my sympathy to all
bereft" What consolation it was to the
families who stood amid the CONSERVATION
and terror that the throne of England
throbbed in sympathy with their disaster !!
But l have to tell you a more glorious
truth, and that Isl From the throne of God
the King of Heaven and earth telegraphed
down through this Bible into the dungeons
of our sin and suffering message of par
don, of love, of sympathy, of comfort, of
eternal life. Like some lighthouse on
high promonotory, 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 provi-
dence, 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 flash, crying: "Thy
Word is lamp"
You have four or five Bibles in your
house-perhaps two, perhaps stwenty-they
are such common property you do not APP
preciate them. If you had only one Bible,
and for that you had paid $500, the price
that was paid in oiden times for copy of
the Scriptures, then you would more thor
oughly appreciate it, was once colpor-
teur for few months in a vacation, and /
came into home of destitution. saw a
, woman there eighty-flve years of age, and
said to her; "May give you Biblep'
=" Oh" she replied, "a Bible would be OF
= no use to me; can't see to read. used to
read but for twenty years haven't been
able to read a word" pulled out Of my
sachel one Of the copies Of the Psalms of
David and the New Testament in great
large round type, and l said: snow put
on your spectacles and see II you can't
read this" She wiped her spectacles and
put them on. "Oh, yes" she said "why,
i can see after all, am very thankful to
you. Why, yes, see it; / love the Lord
because he hath heard my voice and MY
oh, yes, can read i'll can read it" /
wish that God tonight would make the
Bible as new and fresh TO us as it was to
her.
Iwant to show that the Bible Is lamp
n parlor-lamp, q store-lamp, a church,
lamp, a sepulchral-laihp. In parlors all
aHash with gaslight 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 refine
ment, this one lamp may cast glow that
makes IL a fit place for heavenly corona
tions. We invoke no shadow TO fall upon
the hilarities Of life. We would not have
every song a dirge and every picture a
martyrdom and every step funeral pace.
Gods lamp hung in the parlor would chill
no joy, would rend no harmony, would
check no innocent laughter. On the con-
trary 1t would bring out brighter colors in
the picture; 1t would expose new graceful
ness in the curtain; IL would unroll new
wreaths from the carpet; 1t would strike
new music from the harp; IL would throw
new polish into the manners; it would
kndle with light borrowed from the throne
of God all the rehnements of society.
Oh, that the Christ who was born in
a barn would come to our parlor
We need His hand to lift the
parlor music. We need His taste
to assort the parlor literature. Weneed His
voice to conduct the parlor conversation.
We are apt TO think of religion as being a
rude, blundering thing, not At to put its
foot upon Administer or its clownish hands
on beautiful adornments, or lift its voice
amid the artistic and refined; so, while
we have Jesus in the nursery when we
teach our children TO pray, and Jesus in
the dining hall when we ask His blessing
upon our food, and Jesus in the sitting
room when we have family prayers, IL is a
simple fact that from ten thousand Chris
tian homes In this country Chritis from one
end OF the year TO the other shut out of the
parlor. Oh, that housekeepers understood
that the grace OF God Is the greatest ac-
oomplishment, and that no seat is too
luxuriant for religion to sit In, and no arch
too grand for religion TO walk under, and
no circle too brilliant for rel gion to move
in II Christianity at last is TO walk up
up the streets Of Heaven with seraphim
and archangel, 1t is good enough to 20
anywhere where you go or where shall
20. To purify the heart, to cleanse the
life, to culture the taste, TO expurgate all
hypocrisy and falsehood and sham, we must
have the Bible in the parlor. When Chris
tian people come to spend an evening they
taiL ahout tha waather and thav taIk