Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-05
MODERN ACCELERATI0N.
DIR. TALMAGE breaches WITH
THE NEW YEAR IN MIND.

lyn Tabernacle on the subject: ''Acceler.
ation." The opening hymn was:
MY days are gliding swiftly by,
And l pilgrim stranger,
Would not detaln them as they fly,
Those days of toll aud danger"
Before the sermon DIR. TalmA ge read
passages of Scripture contrasting ancient
longevity with the brevity of modern hu-
man life. The text was Samuel xxi, s.:
''The Kings business required haste" )"
Following is the sermon in full:
The cradle of 1885 rocked on the grave of
1884! All intelligent people, whether Chris
tan or unchrlstlan, thoughtful about the
closing OF one volume of time and opening of
another. The striking of a clock is always sug-
gestIve, but the most tremendous stroke TIE
clock ever gives Is when on the night of The
Slst of December it strikes twelve. l think
all of us who have anything to do feel that we
must sWlften our pace. Acceleration. In
my text David appears before Abimelech
without sword or food or usual attendants.
and gives a his reason for this unseemly ap-
pearance that he was on urgent imperial
business, and had no time to properly accou-
tire or equip himself, 1.-The Kings business
required haste"
My friends, we are all entrusted.with some
part of the Kings business, and our great
need Is to have our speed accelerated, God
seems to be a being of infinite leisure. He
sometimes takes twenty-five hundred years
to do one thing; though IN six days he put on
the world the final touches that made it in
habitable for man. Biologists tell us that
uncOunted ages passed between the laying of
the corner stone of the earth and its final
completion. God took this unimaginable
reach of time for work that he could have
done IN tnree months. He has plenty OF time
for everything. With an eternity behind
Him and an eteruity before Him, there is no
furry, no precipitation, no haste. But so far
as we are concerned, what we do must be
done in brieiest time and in quickest way.
1.-The Kings business requires haste"
Christ is our king-kIng Of glory, king of
Zion, king of saints, king over all the earth,
king over heaven. He is king that shall
never die. Where is Louis XIV? Dead
Where is Richard, HIP Dead. Where is
Ferdinand? Dead Where is Peter the Create
Dead. AT the door of the grave lies a whole
sheaf of sceptres. Death sits in the palace of
the sepulchre, and the potentates of earth are
his cup bearers; and as the old blind monarch
s'aggers around his palace ever and anon he
trips on some new fallen coronet. They sat up
Charlemagne in his grave and put a crown on
his palseless temples and sceptre in his life
less hand, yet that could not bring back his
kingdom. But our Emperor lives. He existed
before the world was made He shall con-
tinue after it is burned up. King immortal
he French government thought itself rich
in having 50 many ,palaees-St.' Cloud
and the Tullerles and the Versatile
and the Palais Royal and the Lux
embourg; but our King has the whole earth
for his palace-the mountains, its picture
gallery; the ocean, its fountain; the sun It's
chandelier; the midnight heavens, its can
delabrA; ilimitable forests, its park; the
gI0rleS OF the sunrise and sunset, the tapestry
about the windows; the storms, the light
ming -ho0ted courSerS dashlng up and down
the heavens; all the glOries of the land and
sea and sky his wardrobe; all the flowers of
the Held, his conservatory; all the fish OF the
sea his aquarium, all the birds of the spring
morning his orchestra. But, better tn n ali
these, the hearts of his people on earth and
OF his saints in heaven, are the palaces in
which he delights TO reigh king uniVersaIi
He md
navy. Fighting ON His side are the hurri-
canes O. the great deep-as in the breaking
up of the Spanish armada; the volcanoes of
the earth-as in the burial of infamous Her
culaneum; the fre-as when Sodom was
deluged with COnfagration; the Iocks-as
when they crashed their terrors about the
crucifiXIOn. The Psalmist counted the fam
ing artillery of heaven as it came rushing
down the sky and cried: "rhe chariots Of
God are twenty tn0usand!' Eiijah's servants
caught glimpse of them among the moun-
tains-a cavalcade of flame! The cherubim
on His side; the seraphlm on His side: the
archangels on His side; King omnipotent!
Our King IS wrapped up in the welfare of
his SUBJECTS. Ihe sultan of Turkey had u rule
that when riding out on horseback any of his
subjects might approach him and state their
wrongs and suherings and the people pressed
SO close up to the stirrups that it was some-
times impossible for the Sultan to proceed
But we have more meTciful King. We do
not have to wait for pubic occasions Any
hodr of the day or night, without introduce
wants and secure his help. Going before
other Kings we must have a court dress
rightly cut and rightly adorned; but beggars
may come before this King in their rags: and
the prOdigal, filthy from the swine's herd is
Immediately ushered in. A pardonIng KingI
A eondescending King! A merciful King! o
Jesus, live fOreVerl
1t is on the business of such a king that we
are all sent. IL is the business of bringing the
world to God. Compared with it all other
business is q holiday and a SNORT If n man
y financial bVrv vvbf
loses 100000, and his house and estate drop
out of his possession, and his failure upset
the next man, ana his the next and the next,
until the whole land quails under the panic,
the disaster is Insignificant compared with
the ruin of that man who despoiled his own
soul and by example takes down another and
another, until all worlds feel the defalcatIon
William the COnqueror pulled down forty-sx
of the churches of God in order that he might
enlarge his park for game. So men sweep
away spiritual things, that thew may advance
their amusements and worldly gains. But the
great day OF eternity viii reveal the fact that
the most important of all business on earth
and IN heaven Is the Kings business.
The Kings business is not only important
but immediate. If we do not attend to it
quickly we will never attend to it at all
Here is a Christian man expecting some day
TO be thoroughly cOnsecrated. After while be
VIII become dlligent IN searching the scrip
lures and IN prayer. Meanwhile the day of
grace Is going. 1t VIII soon be gone. Out
with your Bibles and begin 10 read Down
on your knees and begin to pray. For the
business Of the store and Of the shop and of
the field you are neglecting Gods business
Your soul is losing its best, perhaps its last
chance: Up, man! the Kings business re-
quires haste.
In the day of the worlds doom what will
become OF that man who had thousand Sab
baths and ten thousand opportunities for use
fulness and million chances of being made
better, but comes to the gate of eternity a
pauper in Christian experience, and with but
one sheaf, though all his life he was walking
N HnIn Won harv,
your higher life until God tells me YOU will
not come to 1t if you postpone it any longer.
The Kings business requires haste.
There is great work of comfort to be DONE
II it is not done speedily it will never be done
Yonder is a heart breaking. Now is the time
to say the healing word. Go next week with
your balsam and 1t Will not touch the case. A
man yonder came under your influence, and
you might have captured him for God. You
will never have another chance at him. To-
morrow another man will be under your in
iuence. You will have but one opportunity
Of saving him. 1t may be at 10 O'Clock. at Y
O'Clock, or at O'Clock; miss that and you
miss it forever. Do not say: swat until the
next time" Next time will never come. Be
prompt and immediate. The Kings business
requires haste.
In the city of Basle, Switzerland, it was the
custom to have all the clocks of the city an
hour ahead of time, for the following reason:
Once an enemy was moving upon the city and
their stratagem wa to take the city at Il
O'Clock, noon; but the Cathedral clock by mis-
thought that they were too late TO carry out
the sLratagem, and gave up the assault and
the city was saved; and therefore it was ar
ranged that for many years the clock struck
when it was y and Il when 1t was IL. Oman
and woman of God engaged in Christian
work, set your clocks on if you want to save
the city. Better get to your work too early
than come too late. The Kings business re-
quires haste.
We are exercising a fatal deliberation, We
sit calmly IN church meditating about how to
save the world. Meanwhile six millions of
people will die this year. You might start
the millennium next year, but 1t would do
them no good. What you do for them you
Will have to do within a twelVemonth. What
you do for them you will have to do this
month-aye, this week! Aye, this day! Have
you never heard that neighbor was sick and
SAID to yourself: II must go and talk with
him about his soul, for ! know he is not pre-
pared to leave the world" But that day you
were busy, and the next you were busy, and
the third day you went to see him. You
pulled his door-beIl; a servant came out, and
| you said: "How is he tO-day5" The answer
| was: 'He is deadn You say: ut cannot
| be possible! How long has he been dead?''
| She answers: "Eiye minutes" God have
mercy upon that Christian man who comes to
| do his work five minutes too late. The Kings
| business requires haste.
pray God that my text may be brought
| home with special power to those in this au-
dience who nave never vet sought Christ. AS
many Of the causes that came up in court are
| adjourned, sometimes because the witnesses
| are not ready, and sometimes because the
plalntln Is not ready, and sometimes because
the Judge is not ready, until the bill OF cOStS IS
ruInous and hard to pay-so there men and
| women who have adjourned the cause OF tne
souPs salvation from youth to middle lie and
| adjourned it from health to sickness, ana ad-
| jOurned it from prosperity to adversely, until
there will be an infinite bill OF costs TO pay. u,
| procrastipating, deliberating, hating soul J
| Let me tell you that the Kings business re-