St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-30
sermon.

Special to the Globe.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Nov. 29.-There was
a reception at the Brooklyn tabernacle this
morning, and the Rev. t. De Witt Talmage,
its pastor, gave the right hand OF fellowship
to about fifty new members. Dr. Talmage's
sermon on Medicine for Ills was founded
on the text: ''And his disciples came, and
took up the body and buried it, and went
and told sus."-Matthew xiv, 10. Fol
lowing is the sermon: An outrageous
assassination had Just taken place. To
appease revengeful woman, Herod had
ordered the death of that noble, self
sacrificing, Christian man, John the Baptist.
The disciples were in 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 stand
| ing, his own face shadowed with his
| own sorrow, surrounded by a group Of dis
ciples in violent gesticulation, with many
| tears and with great outcry of woe.
Raphael with skillful hand putting upon the
wall of palace apicture of Bible story, was
NOT so sKLLFUL
| as the plain hand of the evangelist, as he
puts upon canvas the sketch of the text:
They ''went and told Jesus" Now, am
this morning to bring a catholicon for all
your troubles. I am going to gather all
your griefs-I do not care what they are
l am going to gather all your griefs into a
bundle and set them on fire with spark
from Gods altar. The prescription of the
text, which healed the sorrow of the disci-
| pies, is just as successful a prescription to-
day and will heal all your sorrows. Now.
in the first place, commend the behavior
of the disciples in the text to all those who
feel themselves sinful and unpardoned.
| There comes 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 onlysbe like
the flash of cloud at the close of a hot
summer day; but the man must some how
get rid of that feeling. One man flies to
| prayer, another man stimulates himself
with ardent spirits, another man dives
deeper into secularities, 1t is not wonder
| full, when man sees his eternity poised on
an uncertainty, 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 success
| fully? l cannot believe it. I think the
first thing for you to do if you are op-
| pressed, my brother, if you are oppressed
with sense of your sinfulness, is to go and
tell Jesus. Why, my friends, that is the
business of Christ He does other things,
but think the great business of Christ is
to pardon. To relax the grip of Death
from your souls and to plant your un-
| shakeled foot ON a golden throne, Christ al
| lowed the tortures of the bloody mount to
transfix 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 w eternal victory. 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 rave-shattering, heaven
storming death cry, hear the words: Him
| that cometh to me will in no wise cast
out" o, what glorious gospel! What a
gospel to preach! What gospel to hear!
''Where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound.'' sO," 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 restoration come. Here is the
OLD SORE OF SIN,
and God comes by his convincing grace, and
He burns it out, and the flesh comes again
as the flesh of little child Well, there
Is not man in the audience but is ready to
have that process go on in his soul. He
says: That's reasonable. that's right.
that's just what 1 would suppose, and l
mean to have that process in my SOUL ~
When, my brother, when? ''Oh," you say,
''some time" Well, cannot afford to have
you put off the subject in that way, and you
cannot afford to put it off in that way. I
want to know just when. But, in the sec
ond place. commend that behavior of these
disciples in the text to all the tempted ]
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 shackles, 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 boat.
You can lie upon your oar. You go just as
the tide goes. But suppose you turn around
and
| HEAD UP STREAM,
then it is not so easy making 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 strug-
gle, an awful struggle. Can it be that you
have never tested the power of temptation?
You have one kind of temptation; you an
other: you another. There is not person
in the house but has been tempted, whether
you realize it or not. never like to hear
man say: 80. / couldn't be tempted the
way that man is" He could not be tempted
the way you are. A lion cannot understand
why fish should be caught with hook,
and the fish cannot understand why the
| lion should be caught with trap. You
may be free from certain kinds of tempta-
ton, but there are 0ther kinds after you.
| Well, now you say: 'sAll persons being
tempted, what are we to do when we are
assaiIed of temptation? When the wave
dashes against us is there nothing to hold
| on to? Is man to go into this war with
the world, the flesh and the devil with no
help?" will tell you, my friends: The
| wisest thing for you to do in the day of
temptation is, like these disciples of my
| text to 90 and tell Jesus. In the eyes that
| wept with the Bethany sisters l see shining
hope. In that voice that broke the silence
of the tomb nntil the widow of Main got
| back her son and
sTUPENDoUs SORROW