Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-19
GOSPEL LOOKING GLASS.
DIR. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT IS
TO BE SEEN IN 1T.

0APAb 1CslCEQAY Reproduced II
Print.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 1S.-.A few DAYS age
DIR. Talmage received on his fifty-third
birthday testimonial through the Brook.
Ign Magazine containing over a hundred
congratulatory letters from distinguished
people, such as Secretary Frelinghuyseu
from the Department of State. DR.. Prime
Of New York, DR.. StOrrs, Henry Ward
Beecher, John G. whittier, Gems. Han.
cock and w. T. Sherman. Senators Sher.
man and COlquitt, Lord Butler of Dublin.
Martin Farquar Upper, Emma Abbott
and others. DR.. Talmage has asked the
press 20 convey his hearty thanks for
their kindness. Philip Phillips says in
his letter: Arriving at New Zealand the
first literature that met my eyes as
entered large book store il Auckland
was: DIR. Talmage's. sermons a penny
each" Even in. the nethermOst land,
Australia, the Southern Cross and other
leading papers of the colonies are telling
of salvation as delivered in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle" John X. Porter, the great jur-
ist, writes: ''No one else can send through
an audience like him the magnetic thrill
which penetrates the heart like lightning.
He reaches with every sentence the pOpu-
| lar intelligence, heart and conscience.
| Fully as | appreciate the more bOundlesS
| field DR.. Talmage commands in his own
| grander profession, l cannot refrain from
| thinking what mastery he would have
| over courts and juries il it had happened
| to him to belong to ours" An English
| correspondent in the same collection
says: "Seven papers in London here pro-
! duce DR.. Talmage's sermons each week,
| and through these alone does he obtain an
| audience of more than 100000 readers,
! one OF these papers alone having a circu-
latiOn of over 100000. In Scotland three
or four papers publish his sermons
| regularly, and III ireland, through
out which country he is universally be-
| loved and respected, even larger number
| of periodicals produce his discOurses
| to their readers. 1t must also be remem-
| bered that these periodicals, while they
| circulate, of course, more extensively
| throughout Great Britain, they have
| thousands of regular readers in all the
| British provinces, such as British
| Guiana, New Zealand and Australia. At
| all the bookstores in London, Liverpool
and the large cities of Great Britain his
| sermons are always for sale. and find
| many purchasers, one publisher in
! London informing me that he sold more
| than 10000 copies of Dr.. Talmage's bound
| sermons annually. In Ireland his SER
| mons are read more extensively than those
| of any living preacher, and the journals
| having the largest calculations are in
| every case those that give space to the
publication of his discOuTses."
| The subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon
| to-day was: "The LOOking-glass of the
| Gospel" The opening hymn was:
| There il a fountain filed with blood,
Drawn from Immanuels veins"
| The text was: Exodus XXXYiii.. s: "And
| he made the laver of brass and the foot of
| it OF brass, of the lOOking-glasses of the
| women assembling" DR.. Talmage said:
| We often hear about the gospel i'm John
| and the gospel in Luke, and the gospel in
| Matthew; bus there is Just rs surely a gospel
| of Moses, and a gospel Of Jeremiah, and
| gospel OF David. In other words, Christ is as
| certainly to be found in the old Testament as
| in the new. When the lsraelites were march
| ing through the wilderness they carried their
| church with them. They called it the taber-
| nacle. 1t was a pitched tent; very costly.
/ very beautiful. The frame work was made
| OF IS boards Of acacia wood set in sockets of
/ silver. The curtains Of the place were pur-
| pie and scarlet and blue ana fine linen, and
| were hung with most artistic loops. The
| candlesIick OF that tabernacle had shaft and
| branch and bowl of solid gold, and the fig
| ures OF cherubm that stood there had wings
| of gold: and there were lamps of gold and
shutters of gold, and tOngs of gold and rings of
| gold; so that skepucism has sometimes asked:
| Where did all that precious material come
| from? 1t is not my place to furnish the
4
| precious stones, 1t Is only to tell that they
| were there.
| | wish now more especially to speak of the
| LAYER that was built in the midst Of that an
| cient tabernacle. 1t was a great basin from
| which the priests washed their hands and feet.
| The water came down from the basin in spOuts
| and passed away after cleansing. This laver
| or basin was made out of the looking glasses
| OF the women who had frequented the taber-
| nacle and who had made these their cOntribu
| ton to the furniture. These looking glasses
| were not made of glass, but they were brazen.
| the brass was of very superior quality and
| polished until it reflected easily the features
| Of those who looked INTO it. So that this laver
| of looking glasses spoken of in my text did
| double work; it not only furnished the water
| in which the priests washed themselves, but it
| also on its shining polished surface pointed
| out the spots of pollution on the face which
| needed ablutiOn. Now, my Christian friends
| as everything in that ancient tabernacle was
| suggestive of religious truth and for the most
| part positively symbOllcal of TRUTH shall take
| thatlaver of lOOking-glasses spoken of in the
| text as all-suggesLlve of the gospel, which
| first shows us our sins as in mirror, and then
| washes them away by divine ablutiOn.
"Oh, happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away"
| have to say that this Is the only looking
| glass in which man can see himself as he is
| There are some mirrors that 1atter the fea-
| lures and make you look better than YOU are
| Then there are other mirrors that dist0rt your
| features and make You look worse than you
| are But want TO tell you that this looking
| glass of the gospel shows a man just as he is
| When the priests entered the ancient taber-
| nacle one glance at the FURNISHED side of this
| LAYER showed them their need of cleansing; so
| this gospel shows the soul Its need of divine
| washing. "All have sinned and come short of
| the glory Of God" That is one showing. "AH
| we like sheep, have gone astray." That is
| another showing. From the crown of the
| head to the sole of the foot there is no health
| in us" That is another showing. The
| world calls these defects imperfections or
| eccentrcties, or erratic behavior or 'wild
1 oats" or "high living" but the gospel calls
| them sin, transgresslOn, flth-the abOmina-
| BILE thing that God hates. 1t was Just one
| glance at that mirror that made Paul cry out +:
| "Oh wretched man that am. who shall de-
| liver me from the body of this death?" and
| that made David cry out: purge me with
| hyssop, and shall be clean,' and that made
| Martin Luther cry out: Oh, my sins nv
| sins" am not talking about bad habits
| You and do not need any Bible to tell us that
| bad habits are wrong, that Dlasphemy and
| evil speak ing are wrong. But L am talking
/ Of a sinful nature, the source of all bad
| thoughts as well as of all bad actions The
| Apostle Paul calls their roll in the first chap
| ter of Romans They are regiment of death
tSncamping around every heart, holding it in
| a tyranny from which nothing but the grace
| of God can deliver 1t.
| Here, for instance, is ingratitude. Who has
| not been guilty of that sin? If a man hand us
| glass of water, we say, Thank you" But
! for the ten thousand mercies that we are
/ every day receiving from the hand of God
| how little expression Of gratitude-for thirst
! slaked, for hunger fed, for shelter. and sun
| shine, and sound sleep and clothes to wear
| how little thanks! | suppose there are men
| fifty years of age who have never vet been
| down on their knees in thanksgiving to God
| for His goodness. Beside that ingratitude of
| our hearts, there is pride. Who has not felt
| it, Pride that viii not submit to GOD, that
/ wants its own way-a nature that prefers
| wrong sometimes instead of right, that pre-
| fers to wallOw instead of to rise up. |
/ do not care what you call that
| am not going to quarrel with any theOlo-
| Logan or any man who makes pretensions
| to theology. J. do not care whether you call it
| total depraVity' or something else. simply
/ make the announcement of Gods word,
| affirmed and confirmed by the experience of
| hundreds of people in this house. The i'm
| agination of the heart of man is evil from
! youth. There is none that doeth good; no,
| not one" We have bad nature. We were
! born with it. We got it from our parents;
| they got it from their parents. Our thoughts
! are wrong. Our action is wrong. Our whole
| life Is obnoxious to God before conversion
! and after conversion not one good thing in us
! but that which the grace Of God has planted
lieve that to be So" All, my dear brother.
| that Is because you have never looked into
| this LAYER of looking glasses.
| II you could catch glimpse Of your natu-
| raj heart before God you would cry out in
| amazement and alarm. The very first thing
| this gospel does is to cut down our pride and
| self-sufficlency. If a man does not feel his
| lost and ruined condition before God he does
| not want any gospel. l think the reason that
| there are so few conversions in this day is be-
| cause the tendency Of the preachngis to make
| men believe that they are pretty good any,
how-qulte clever, only wanting a little fitting
| up-a few touches of divine grace and then
| you will be all right instead Of proclaiming
the broad. deep truth that PavsOn and Baxter
| and Whitfield Numbered to a race trembling
| on the verge OF Infinite and eternal disaster.
'NOW, says some one, ''can this really be true?
| Have we all gone astray? Is there no good
| in us?' In Hampton Court saw a room where