The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-23
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
MEDICINE FOR ALL ILLS.

Au Outrageous AcN wv
place to appease the wrath of a r%evengeful
woman. l1erod had ordered the death of
that noble, self-sacriicing Christian man,
John the Baptist. They were in consterna-
ton and great trouble. There was no one
to whom they could appeal. But sorrow
if it find no human sympathy, will cry aloud
to the winds, and the woods and the waters.
Yet there was an ear thas could hear. What
beauty of pathos. What simplicity of power
in the words Of my text: They went and
told Jusus!" There He stands. His face
Swallowed with His own SORROWS, sur
rounded by a group Of people IN
CONSERVATION and with violent
resticulations and ~outcrics of woe. Here
was one ready to help them, ready to COM
fort them, ready to sympathlze with them.
Raphael, the master painter, never put Oh
wall of palace picture Of Bible story so
thrilling and so graphic as this picture, made
BY the pain hand of the evangelist, when he
saws: .'They went and told Jesus!" The
Clothes and the VandaIs came down from the
north Of Europe, and they upset the gardens
and they broke down the affairs, and they
swept the country with the bosom OF destruc-
ton. And so in every mans life there are
times when trouble comes as a despoiler, as a
crusader, and blasts and plucks up,and plum
ders and de ,trovs. If 1 should ask all those
people in this audience who have never had
trial, or misfortune, or bereavement, or dis
order, to give signal, there would be no sig
nal. If | should ask those who are sitting
to rise up, or those who are standing to lit
the hanl as a signal of the fact that they
nave never had any misfortune, any heart.
break, any trouble. not ore would rise and
not one hand would be lifted. There is not
any cavern so CLEFT in the mountains that it
can hide one from worldly misfortune.
Swiftest coarser has not fleet foot enough to
take us out of the swift pursuit. Those arrows
brought to the string fly with unerring dart,
and we fell pierced and stunned. SO that
while l speak en- one subject I feel it is
only appropriate for one class, and speak
on another subject 1t IS appropriate for anoth-
err class. This morning | speak upon a sub
iect that addresses itself to every woman and
Child in this assemblage, and l AM going to
give a catholicon for all ills, for all mis-
fortunes and for all trials l am going to
take all your troubles-l do not care what
they have bertrand put them in one bundle,
and with a spark from Gods altar set them
ablaze, and they shall be destroyed under the
power OF Christ's consolation. The same
Soothing power that came to the disciples in
the text will come this morning to all your
hearts, God helping us.
In the first place, I commend the behavior
OF TIL SO disciples in the text to all those who
realize they are sinful and unpardoned.
There comes a time in the life of every sensi-
BILE man, every thoughtful mani do not
refer now to imbeciles-there m O time in
the life of every honest, thoughtful, sensible
man. a time when he realizes he is a sinner
and he ought TO have pardon. That thought
may not have heft enough to fell him, but
to get rid Of it ono man will fly to PRAYER,
another will stimulate himself with ardent
spirits, another will plunge into greater secu-
l~aritles, and you cannot wonder that when a
man finds out that his eternal destiny is swing
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wonder that that man does something violent
or something INN .diate to get rid of the i'm
preston. 1t AM lie, for instance, that a
MAI this morning, should by the power of
the Hoy Ghost realize that he has a cancer
Gus sin III his soul, and that Christ, the d.
vine surgeon stands right by him ready to
take the cancer out and it shall never return,
anu he shall De cured for time ana cured for
eternity-itc cannot be possible that a man
shall realize that and not take some action?
So that hour probably has come to a great
many Eere, and the question is what to do.
Go and tell Jesus. "Why," you say, ''then
to me you propose to cure one sorrow
by making another; you propose to
cure the wound Of sin by the wound of con-
v~iction." You are right. In all styles of
medicine that is the process. The physician
comes. He finds your ranking wound. 1t
has been there formonths, perhaps for years.
What does he do? He cauterizes it. By
caustic he burns it out, AMI there comes
health again to those parts O: the body. And
here is the Old sore of sin. We all have it.
1t may have been there for ten years, for
twenty years, for forty years, for sixty wears.
God C, mes by lis Almighty grace and He
burns it out by the power Of conviction, and
the flesh comes again as the flesh of a little
child. "Well," says every man in this audi
ence, that is right, that IS reasonable, that is
according toall schools of medicine. | mean to
have my soul cured of sin some day." When!
ooh" you say, "iti only a matter of time.n
But, my brother, when? SWELL" you saw,
"some time l will attend to it." That is not
satisfactory to your own soul; it is not salts
factory TO me. Let me fix some time. Alfred,
the king, before time-pieces were invented,
usei to measure the day by three wax
candles, and each wax candle burned eight
hours. Wnen one wax candle was burned
down eight hours had passed, when two wax
candles sixteen hours, when the three wax
candles had burned down the whole day was
.departed-twenty-f hours. Oh, nv
friend, / wish YOU and I, instead
of measuring our days and nights and
years by earthly time.pieces, would measure
them by the mercies and the opportunities
that are burning down and burning out,
never again to be relighted, lest at last we
awake 10 tie discontinue Of the foolish vir-
gins, saying: 'Our lamps nave gone out.n
Again: I commend the behavior of the dis.
.ciples in the text to all the tempted. have
heard people say, II am never tempted. l
go right on and attend to my work in life.
1don't feel these temptations you talk about"
When a man says that to me | know he has
never tried to get free from the mower Of sin
and temptation and the devil. If a man be
bound hand and foot. lying down in a prison
and lie have handouts on and hopp!es on and
he makes nc struggle, he is not aware OF
the power Of the chain, but just let him try
to get up and get loose. then he feels the
owe of the iron, then he feels the strength
Of the manacle, and if, my brother, you have
never felt temptation it is because you have
not struggled to break from these tempta-
tionS. to be free In the liberty OF the SONS and
daughters Of the Lord God Almighty. 1t IS
easy enough to float down stream. We just
lie upon the oars and just as fast rs the river
goes lust so fast we sail on. float on down.
No trouble about that. But suppose we want
Then we have to use the oars and pull and pull,
and perhaps make no Roadway. Wei,
just as long as we go down with the current
of evil inclinations; just as long as we 60
along with the temptations Of sin and the
devil, We get on quite fast, quite rapidly;
but suppose we turn to 60 the other way, ana
head up toward God and Christ and heaven.
Oh, what a struggle it is, awful struggle, ON
nipotent struggle, because God comes in on
our side. And if you do not know, my
brother; if you do not know the power OF
temptation, it is because you have not tried
to resist it, and you have not tried to be Tree
from it, free in the glorious emancipation or
the gospel. Well, now when the tempta-
tions of life come upon you, what are you
going to do' How are you going to receive
them? When the wave dashes clear
over the SOIL, the wave Of temptation,
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