The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-08
THE DEMANDS bF THE AGE.
DR.. Talmage Points lOut the Methods
by Which They Are TO Be Net.
Half-and-llalf Christians Are Not Wanted,
but There Is Call for Aggressive
Believers in Gods Word.
Special to the indianapolis Journal.

/ tHio morning IN the brooklyn IaDernaAe Oh Tue
subject 'The Day We Live In" Before the ser
mon he read in the Old Testament concerning
scene in the Persian palaces. He also read the
names of many new members who, during the
past few weeks, have united with the church.
The opening hymn was
Salvation. oh Che joyful sound
lis pleasure to our ears!'
The text was from Esther iv, xiv: "Who
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom
for such a time as thisgr DIR. Talmage said:
Esther the beautiful, was the wife of Alias
uerus the abominable. The time had come for
her to present petition to her infamous hus-
band in behalf of the Jewish nation to which
she had once belonged She was afraid to I'M
| dertake the work lest she should lose her own
! life but her uncle Mordecai, who had brought
her up encouraged her with the suggestion that
| probably she had been raised up of God for that
peculiar mission. ''Who knoweth whether thou
| art come to the kingdom for such time as
| this"
Esther had her God appointed work; you and I
have ours. tits my business to tell you what style
of men and women you ought to be, in order that
| you may meet the demand of the age in which
| God has cast your lot. If you have come ex-
pecting to hear distractions discussed or dry
technicaities of religion gorifed, you have come
to the wrong church; but if you really would like
to know what this age has right to expect of you
| as Christian men and women, than / am ready,
| in the Lords name, to look you in the face.
When two armies have rushed into battle, the
officers of either army do not want philosoph-
ical discussion about the chemical properties OF
human blood, or the nature of gunpowder; they
| want some one to man the batteries and swab
out the guns. And now, when all the forces of
| light and darkness, of heaven and hell, have
plunged into the fight, it is no time to give our
selves to the definitions and formulas, and tech
nicalities, and conventionalties of religion.
What we want is practical. earnest, concentrated,
enthusiastic and triumphant help.
| In the first place. in order to meet the special
demand of this age, you need to be an unmis-
takeable, aggressive Christian. OF half-and
half Christians we do not want any more. The
church of Jesus Christ will be better without
ten thousand of them. They are the chief OBJ
stacle to the church's advancement l am
speaking of another kind of Christian. All the
appliances for your becoming an earnest Chris
tian are at your hand, and there is astraght path
for you into the broad daylight of Gods forgive
ness. You may have come into this Tabernacle
the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you
go out Of these doors you may have become
princes of the Lord God Almighty. You re-
member what excitement there was in this
country, years ago, when the Prince of Wales
came here-how the people rushed out by hun
dreds of thousands to see him. Why? Because
they expected that some day he would sit upon
1 no 81 ,,oT D,.kx hat cn< 81
honor, compared with the honor to which God
| calls you-to be sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty. Yea, to be kings and queens unto
| God. They shall reign with Him forever and
! ever.
AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS WANTED.
| But, my friends, you need to be aggressive
Christians, and not like those persons who
spend their lives in huggng their Christian
graces, and wondering why they do not make
any progress How much robustness of health
/ would a man have if he hid himself in dark
closet2 A great deal of the piety of today is
| too exclusive. 1t hides itself 1t needs more
| fresh air, more outdoor exercise. There are
many Christians who are giving their entire life
to determination. They are feeling their
pulses to what is the condition of their spir-
itual health. How long would man have ro-
bust physical health if he kept all the days. and
weeks, and months. and years of his life feeling
his pulse instead of going out into active, earn
| est, everyday work?
was once among the wonderful and bewitch-
ing cactus growths of North Carolina never was
more bewildered with the beauty of flowers; and
| yet when would take up one of those cactuses,
and pull the leaves apart, the beauty was all
gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever
been flower. But there are great many
Christian people in this day just pulling apart
their own Christian experiences to see what there
| is In them, and there is nothing left OF
| them. This style of determination is DAM
age instead Of an advantage to their Christian
character remember when was boy used
to have a small piece in the garden that called
my own, and planted corn there and every
few days would pull it up to see how fasti was
growing. Now there are great many Christian
people in this day whose sef-examinaton mere
ly amounts to the pulling up of that which they
! only yesterday or the day before planted O.
my friends if you want to have stalwart Chris
tian character, plant it right out of doors in ths
| great field of Christian usefulness, and, though
storms may come upon 1T, and though the hot
sun of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive
until it becomes great tree, in which the fowls
of heaven may have their habitation. have no
| patience with these fiower-pot Christians They
keep themselves under shelter, and all their
| Christian experience is in small and exclusive
circle, when they ought to plant it in the great
garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere
could be aromatic with their Christian useful
ness. What we want in the church
of God is more Drawn of piety.
The century plant is wonderfully
suggestive and wonderfully beautiful but
never think of it without thinking of its parsi-
mony. 1t let's whole generations go by before IL
puts forth one blossom; SO have really moro