The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-30
\ MEDICINE FOR ALL ILLS.
The Sermon Preached Yesterday Morn
ing BY Rev. DR.. Dewitt Talmage.
The Great and Only Remedy for All Who Are
in Grief and Doubt, and for the
Downtrodden and Oppressed.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Nov. 29-There was a re-
ception at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morn
ing, and the Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage, its pastor,
gave the right hand of fellowship to about fifty
new members The opening hymn was that be-
ginning:
"Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go freea'
DR.. Talmage's sermon on Medicine for All
His" was founded on the text: 'And his dis
ciples came, and took up the body. and buried ii,
and went and told Jesus."-Matthew xiv, IL.
Following is the sermon in full:
An outrageous assassination had just taken
place. To appease a revengeful woman, Herod
had ordered the death of that noble. self -sacri-
icing, Christian man, John the Baptist. The dis
cipies were in great trouble. There was no
court to which they could make appeal. But
grief must have utterance, and If there be no
sympathetic ear to hear it, then it must be cried
aloud to the winds, and the woods, and the waters.
But there was an ear ready to listen. What
beauty of pathos, and what wonderful picture In
the words of my text: They went and told
Jesus!' He was ready to listen. and he was
ready to assuage their grief. We see Christ
standing, his own face Swallowed with his own
sorrow, surrounded by a group of disciples in
violent gesticulation, with many tears and with
great outcry of woe. Raphael, with skillful
hand putting upon the wall of a palace a picture
of Bible story, was not so skillful as the plain
hand of the evangelist, as he puts upon canvas
the sketch of the text: They went and told
Jesus"
The Cloths and the vandals came down from
the north of Europe and upset the gardens, and
broke down the affairs, and swept away every
thing that was good and beautiful; and ever and
anon in the lives of men there are rough handed
despoilers, crusaders who come Town to despoil
and niunHor and fn rancooH thu cn,,l M
Is 30 deeply cleft in the mountain as to allow
you shelter from trouble The foot of the fleet
est courser is not swift enough to bear you be-
yond pursuit. The arrows brought to the string
fly with unerring dart, and often you have fallen
pierced and stunned.
Now, l am this morning to bring a catholicon
for all your troubles. 1 am going to gather all
your griefs-l do not care what they are-I am
going to gather all your griefs into a bundle,
and set them on fire with a spark from Gods
altar. The prescription of the text, which healed
the sorrow of the disciples, is just as successful
a prescription to-day and will heal all your sor-
rows.
Now, in the first place, I commend the be-
havior of the disciples in the text to all those
who feel themselves sinful and unpardoned.
There comes a time in every mans life when he
wakes up to an appreciation of a sinful nature.
The thought may not have enough heft to fell
hint may only be like the fash of a cloud at
at the close of a hot summer day; but the man
must somehow get rid of that feel ng. One man
flies to prayer, another man stimulates himself
with ardent spirits, another man dives deeper
into secularities. 1t is not wonderful when a
man sees his eternity poised On an uncer-
tainty that he is determined to do something
violent and immediate. Now, can it be that
there is in all this house this morning one man
who is unwilling to have the cancer of sin taken
from his soul, when the divine surgeon is ready
to do the work, and do it successfully? I cannot
believe it.
/ think the first thing for you to do. if you are
oppressed, my brother, if you are oppressed with
a sense of your sinfulness, is to 90 and tell Jesus.
Why. my friends, that is the business of Christ.
He does other things, but | think the great bust.
ness of Christ is to pardon. To relax the grip of
death from your soul. and to plant your I'M
shackled foot on a golden throne, Christ allowed
the fortunes of the bloody mount to transfx
Him. With the beam of His own cross He will
this morning crush in the door of your dungeon.
Out of his own thorny crown he will pick enough
gems to make your brow blaze with eternal vic
tory. In every tear of His wet cheek, in every
cash Of His wounded side, in every long and
blackened mark of laceration from shoulder to
shoulder. in the grave shattering, heaven-storm-
ing death cry I hear the words: Him that COM
eth unto Me l will in no wise cast out" 0 what
a glorious gospel! What a gospel to preach!
Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound"
60" says some man, "why, then you propose
to cure the wound of sin by making another
wound the wound of Conviction Why, my
brother, that is what every physician does, of
all schools. The physicians, when they find an
old ranking wound, they come with caustic and
they burn it out. and then health and restora-
ton come. Here is the old sore of sin. and God
comes by His convicting grace, and He burns it
out. and the flesh comes again, as the flesh of a
little child. Well. there is not a man in the
audience but is ready to have that process 90 on
in his soul. He says: That's reasonable, that's
right, that's just what I would suppose. and l
mean to have that process in my soul" When,
my brother, whenl 20" you say, some time"
Wei, cannot afford to have you put off the
subject in that way, and you cannot afford to
put it off in that way. l want to know just
when.
I have heard that Alfred. the King, before the
invention of time-pieces, used to measure the
day by three wax candles. Each wax
candle would burn eight hours, so that
when one candle was consumed, eight
hours were gone; two wax candles. sixteen
hours were gone, and when the third wax
candle had been consumed, then the twenty four
hours. the whole day, was gone. O., my friendsl
l wish, instead of measuring our days. and
nights, and years on earth by a time piece. we
would measure time by mercies and opportuni-
ties, which are burning down and burning out,
never to be relighted. lest we wake up with the
discontinue of the foolish virgins, and cry:
'Our lamps are gone out"
But, in the second place, I commend that be-
havior OF these disciples in the text, to all the
tempted. l have heard people say they were
never tempted-people who have come to mid
life that never have been tempted. Oh, my
friends. it is because they have never tried to do
right. If a man be handcuffed and hobbled, and
he lie quiet, he does not test the power of the
chain or the manacle; but let him once try to
rise up and break off the handouts and the
s~hackles. then he finds out the power of the
chain. If, my dear brother. you do not know
the power of temptation, it is because you are
bound hand and foot of sin, and have never
made the attempt to be emancipated.
Why. it is easy enough to go down stream in a
boat. You can lie upon your oars. You go just
as the tide goes. But suppose you turn around
aud head up stream, then it ia not so easy max
ing progress. AS long as you go down with the
tide of sin and iniquity it is easy enough to go
that way; but when you turn around and head
toward God and heaven, then it is a struggle, an
awful struggle.
Can it be that you have never tested the power
of temptationq You have one kind of tempta-
ton; you. another; you, another. There is not