The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-19
THE GOSPEL LOOKING.GLASS.
DR.. Talmage Traces the Teachings OF
Christ in the Old Testament.
The LAYER in the Tabernacle, in Which All
May Wash and BE Clean-The Need
Of Earnest Preaching.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.

Special to the indianapolis Journal.
BROOKLYN. JAM 1S.-A few days ago DIR.
Talmage received, on his ffty-third birthday,
testimonial, through the Brooklyn Magazine,
containing over hundred congratulatory letters
from distinguished people, such as Secretary
Frelinghuysen, from the Department of State,
DR.. Prime, of New York, DR.. Storrs, Henry
Ward Beecher John G. Whittier, Generals
Hancock and W. T. Sherman, Senators Sherman
and Colluitt, Lord Butler of Dublin Martin
Farquhar Upper, Emma Abbott and others.
DIR. Talmage has asked the press to 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 a
large bookstore, in Auckland, was, Dr. Tai
images Sermons, penny EACH Even In the
nethermost land, Australia, the Southern Cross
and other leading papers of the colonies are tell
ing of salvation as delivered in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle" John K. Porter, the great jurist,
writes: mo one else can send through an audience
like him the magnetic thrill which peuetrates
the heart like lightning He reaches with every
sentence the popular intelligence, heart and
conscience. Fully as | appreciate the more
boundless field Dr. Talmage commands In
his own grander profession, cannot
refrain from thinking what mastery
ne would have over courts and juries, If it had
happened to him to belong to ours An English
correspondent in the same collection SAYS:
Seven papers in London here produce Dr. Tai
IMAGES sermons each week, and through these
alono does he obtain an audience of more than
100000 readers, one of these papers alone having
O10 ox1I
or four papers publish his sermons regularly.
and in Ireland, throughout which country he is
universally beloved and respected, even larger
number Of periodicals produce his discourses to
their readers. It must also be remembered that
these periodicals., while they circulate, of course,
more extensively throughout Great Britain,
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 in
forming me that he sold more than &c, 900 copies
of Dr. Talmages bound sermons annually. In
Ireland his sermons are read more extensively
than those of any living preacher. and the jour
nails having the largest circulation are in every
case those that give space to the pSblication of
his discourses."
The subject of Dr. Talmage's sermon to-day
was: ''The Looking glass Of the Gospel The
ope ming hymn was:
There is a fountain filed with blood
Drawn from Immanuels VEINS
The text was: Exodus xxxviii, 8. "And He
made the laver of brass and the foot of it of BRASS
of the looking glasses of the women assembling"
We often hear, said DR. Talmage, about the
gospel in John, and te gospel in Luke, and the
Gospel in Matthew, but there is just as sure
gospel of Moses, and 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 Israelites were march
ing through the wilderness they carried their
church with them They called it the tabor
nace. 1t was pitched tent very costly, very
beautiful The frame work was made of forty
eight boards of acacia wood set in sockets of
silver. The curtains of the place were purple,
and scarlet and blue and fine linen, and were
hung with most artistic loops The candle
stick of that tabernacle had shaft, and branch,
and bowl of solid gold and the figures of the
cherubim that stood there had wings of gold;
and there were lamps OF gold, and snutfers OF
gold, and tongs of gold. and rings of gold so
that skepticism has sometimes asked: Where
did all that precious material come froms 1t
is not my place to furnish the precious stones,
it is only to tell that they were there.
THE LAYER IN THE TABERNACLE.
wish now moro especially to speak of the
LAYER that was built in the midst of that ancient
tabernacle 1t was 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 freouented the tabernacle, and who
had made these their contribution to the furni
ture. These looking glasses We're not made of
glass, but they were brazen. The brass was of
very superior quality, and polished until it re-
flected easily the features of those who looked
into it, So that this LAYER of looking glasses
spoken of in my text, did double work; it not
only furnished the water III which the priests
washed themselves, but it Also on its shining,
polished surface, pointed out the'spots of poliu-
ton 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 symbol
cal of truth, shall take that LAYER of looking
glass, spoken of in the text, as ai-suggestive of
the gospel, which first shows us our sins, as in a
mirror and then washes them away by divine
ablutlon.
''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 fiatter the features and
make you look better than you are. Then there
are other mirrors, that distort your features and
make you look worse than you are l want to
tell you that this looking glass of the gospel
shows a man just as he is When the priests
tered the ancient tabernacle, one glance at the
FURNISHED side of this laver showed them their
need Of cleansing; SO this gospel shows the soul
its need of divine washing. "All have snned and
come short of the glory of God" That is one
showing. "All 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 u.s. That is another showing The world
calls these defects imperfections or eccentrcities
or erratic behavior, or wild oats" or thigh
liv ing" but the gospel calls them sin,I transgres
sion-the abominable thing that God hates. 1t
was just one glance at that mirror that made
Paul cry out: ''Oh, wretched man that / am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this
deathl" and that made David cry out:
purge with hyssop and l shall be
clean and that made Martin Luther cry
out: "Oh my sins, my sins!' l am