Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-07
PERILS OF LIFE'S PATH.
TALMAGE POINTS OUT THE
PRINCIPAL TURNING POINTS.


tablishlng q HOme-Man's First Great
Success and It's EfIects-The First Great
sOrrOw-Tha Need of God in the Crisis
of the Last Hour.
COLUMBUS, o., Dec. 6.-Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., arrived in this city yes
terday afternoon. The news that the Gel
ebrated Brooklyn preacher would deliver
a sermon in the FIRST Congregational
church, Rev. Washington GLADDEN. pastor,
drew crowd numbering several thou
sands to the doors this morning. Many
We're turned away unable to find seats.
DR.. Talmage read and expounded the
parable of the prodigal son, aud then an
nounced the subject of his discourse
"Crlsis in Life" and the text III. Samuel
xviii. 82: SIS the young man AbsalOm
safe" DR.. Talmage said:
Two great characteristics of Absalom
were worldly ambition and splendid hair.
! BY the one he was debased by the other
| hung. He was bad boy and broke his
fathers heart. He wanted to get his
fathers throne before the decease of the
father. He wanted to get it Immediately.
| He got an army. He started out in a
| great insurrection. David, the father,
|
| the battle to come, not so anxious about
whether Absalom's hosts won the day, or
whether his own hosts won the day, as he
is anxious about the safety of his boy
| The father in him mightier than the king.
While he sits there watching and wait
| ing for the coming of a messenger from
the battlefield be sees the dust rising In
the highway, and long before the messen-
ger comes up. bringing the swift dispatch,
David cries out to him: sis AbsalOm
alivel Is Absalom dead? Is the boy
woundedI Tell me quickly, is the young
man AbsalOm safe? ?' But as the messen-
ger had no very decisive intelligence to
give, he stood aside. There David sat
| waiting for another messenger, and after
| awhile he saw the dust rising on the
| highway, and long before the messenger
had come up David shouted to him again
shouts to this one as he had to the
other: "Have you heard anything from
my boyl Is he wounded? Is he alives
Is be dead? Is the young man Absalom
safeP'
Alasl He was not safe. AbsalOm rid
ing on mule-the meanest animal in all
the world on which to ride, the hardest at
the bit and the stlfest at the neck-Absa.
lom riding on mule had gone under a
tree branch and his hair had caught on
the tree branch; and the mule, true to its
characteristics, had gone on, he not able
TO stop it, and Absalom was suspended,
and so he died. With an awful negative
the words of my text were answered: sis
the young man AbsalOm safeY No, he
was not safe. Destroyed for this life, de-
| stroyed for the life to come.
want to utter a few words this morn
| ing in regard to the safety of young men,
indeed Of all men. While men may get
along tolerably well without the religion
Of Christ in some circumstances Of life.
there are three or four turning points
where man must have God or perish, or
| If he does not come to such a crisis as
that, to such an extreme as that, he must
have God or make mistake that will last
forever. propose this morning to speak
to you Of three or four OF these turning
points In life.
The first turning point Is the choice of
an occupation or profession. 1t Is very
serious time when a young man comes
from the school or the college, and has
completed his education, or has received
| all the education from the schools he will
receive, and says: "But what shall bet
For what occupation, Tor what profession.
am prepared 2" Mechanism will spread
before him a hundred different occupa-
tions. Professional life will spread be-
fore him seven or eight callings. Indeed,
l
| callings and occupations. For only one
of those 500 is be fitted and prepared. II
be does not have Divine direction, 400
chances to one he will get in the wrong
| business. In other words, the most tre-
mendOus crisis perhaps In mans life, or
one OF the most tremendous, is the time
when he chooses his occupation or pro-
fessiOn, and he needs God TO tell him how
to choose.
knew a man who started in CONNER
cia life with bright prospects. He crossed
over from commercial life into the medi-
cal profession, He went from the general
medical profession into specific surgery.
| He went from surgery into the ministry.
Then he passed from the ministry into
surgery, and so his life has been a COM
plete vacillatiOn. How much better it
would have been If that man could have
got the right profession or occupation at
the start. He was particularly qualified
/ tor surgery, and ! believe if he had gone
before God and asked for His direction
be would have received it, and instead Of
going from one occupation to another,
making his life mistake, he would have
gone on TO great usefulness and success.
| You ask your father what you had
better do. He will give one kind Of ad-
vice, he will advise you one style OF Oc-
\ cupatiOn or profession. Your mother will
| give you other advice, your sister other
! advice, while you will be in DOUBT as 10
whether you have physical endurance for
! this, or mental acumen for that, or tact
/ for some other business. AT such time
one needs TO go 20 God. God built your
| body, and he knows what Is your physical
/ endurance. God constructed your mind
/ and he knows for what occupation you
| have particular adaptation. Go 20 Him
and ask the question: Lord, what wilt
thou have me TO doW
meet many young men in this house
| this morning, who have not perhaps
| thoroughly decided upon the work OF oc-
cupatiOn for which the Lord has fitted
them. Before you leave the house to-day
ask Gods direction, that you may make
no mistake. Bunder here and you blum
der forever. You know y great many
men who have been ruined for two worlds
because they got In the wrong business.
Another important pass IN ones life, a
turning point In ones history, IL the time
when be establishes his own home. When
a man builds his nome he builds for eter-
nifty. Is IL not amazing. that af1ancing
| In life Is so often matter OF merriment,
and OF Joke, when Il decides 90 much for
this world and the world 20 come. do
not nut the case too strongly when / say,
that when q man marries, he marries for
heaven or for helli Oh, build not your
home on earth. upon the sparkle OF n
bright eve, or the color Of n far cheek
| The time will come In your history, when
YOU will want IN your home, not pet or
4 toy. but heroine, and you will find
| tbat life is not "a gay romance, but a tre-
mendous reality; and coming home from