Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-12-28
The CLOSING YEAR.
TaImage's Sermon On the Last
Sabbath of 1885.
THE BREVITY OF THE TIME WE hAV
To Devote to the Saving of our SOuls---
A Sermon for the Time
and Season.

n tOl VIZ
and Season.
SDeeialt 10 hs Register.
Brooklyn, December q, lsS5.-IhiS
being the last Sabbath night Of the year
1885, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, DID,
preached at the Tabernacle, this city,
sermon appropriate to the occasion. The
hymn sung was:
r.Ny days are gliding swiftly hy'
And l. pilgrim stranger,
Would not det2in them Is they ny
These hours OF toll and danger
- Tho preaeher took histsxt from Romans
en-. l3, V. ii. Knowing the time, that no"
it is high time to awake out of sleep. Fol-
lowing is the discourse in full:
While this morning with glad anthem
we celebrate the Christmas hour, has 1t oc-
Cured to you that this is the last Sabbath
night of grand and beautiful and eVen'fa!
and Joyous and solemn eighteen hundred
and eighty,fve? The occasion is nightly
suggestive.
LOOKING BACK,
Starting out on long journey on horse
back, you ride along without stopping Tor
many a mile until after while, you come
on TOD of a high hill You rein in the
s,eed. The horse smokes by reason OF the
length of the way You take your feet out
of the stirrups. You turn around IN the
saddle. You look off upon the rsvines
through which you have passed and the
hills over which you have come, and make
an estimate of how many miles you have
travelled. Then turning around again IN
The saddle and putting yonr feet IN the
slirrups, you look ahead aud wonder ho"
far it will be before you come to the place
of destination. And so to day we come eupon
the Sabbatic Mount of privilege. Nohorse
nsu ever spurred on steed faster than We
have gone up the sleeps OF life and down
the dangerous decliyities; but having come
here today, we stop and look back upon
the way through which we have come the
darkness and the sunshine. the ascidenta
ana the successes
AND THEN LOOK FORWARD
and wonder how long or how short will yet
be the way. Ard sitting and standing here,
the hour seems to me- as to you 1t must
be momentOus. put my toger on the
pulse of this moment and feel that II
beats high and eternal destinies. You and
| have started on in life which will con-
tinue TO live after the sun has gone out
cold in death and this wrecked and found
cred world shall have strewn It's tmoeEs on
the coast of On eternal desolation. .! 1t
is 8 mean question for me to ask myself
aud YOU 10 day: Where au II What am
/? Whence came |? And whittier am l
boundY' The simple fact IS that each
one of us has 9 soul TO save. Nov,
when sny man in olden times had
saved the life of q Roman citizen
from drowning, for instance, that man
who rescued thu unfortunate, was honor
ed. he was allowed sometimes to slt IN the
senate; he wGs allowed, to ride IN great
processions, and when be entered room
the people would rise upto greet him and
do him honor. would to God that to-
NIGHT we might aspire for the higher hon.
or of saving soul-an immortal soul.
There are three or four reasons that l
can think o! why we should obey the in
iuuction of my text aud wake up. The
first arousing consideration that occurs to
my mind is the fact that there are 30
MANY OBSTACLES IN THE WAY
Of our salvation. Now, there is no need
of our hiding this fact We sometimes
hear people talking to the unconverted
and saving 1T is Just as ePsy for you to
/ become a Christian as it is to turn over
your hand" Itis not There are tre-
mepdous obstacles IN the way Of your be
coming a Christian, aud every man that
has tried in thorough earnestness to be-
come a child of God has found that there
are obstacles. That is not q wise gen
eral who deprecistes the force OF On
enemy-who Gays to his men: My troops
YOU viii have an easy time of it. Those
castles can be captured without any very
serious bombardment. There are only a
few enemies in that opposing host. 1t
will only be lew moments assault aud
we will gain the victory" No. A wise
general saws: Those are strong battle
meuts; these men who are coming out to
assault, us ore armed ard they are brave
men. If you ever capture those tortresses!
and if YOU ever overcome that host 1t will
be BY mighty rallyiag Of all your ener,
gjes" And | have to tell you now, that II
YOU are ever going to get to heaven, 1t Will
be By going out in contest as one against
hundred, as one against thousand, as
one against q hundred thousand, aye, 1t !:
an in6nite impossibility that you ever
succeed By any strength or resolution o.
YOUR own, aud if there were not some super
natural aid 10 be offered and some divine
promise to take hold Of, you would be lost
aud We would all be lost
In the first place there ere the oaats
clss in
TEE wORLDLISEss
, that surrounds you. l need not tell you
, msn Of Brooklyn and New York, that ther
: ia n tide of worldlinsss setting away iron
! God and from heaven. You have felt II
r You have wsded down in it until the hooC
came TO your knee, until it came to you
VirGle. until it has come to your up. 10
t rise in the morning. You fad it is te'
D moments later tEsn Won thought II was
r You are IN great haste. fou hurr
through III, morning meal. You rae
down the street You go to your once
You open the letters snd NnaSer thu
Yan examine The money market. 70
rnn ni,her and thither. Your life is to
and q turmoil. The long day, save II
fifteen or twenty minutes IN which 20
s .cncs, is given up to the influence OF III
!, world, spd :. :; very rare indeed th'
from eight o'clock IN toe Do;piDg III
I'll four or FIVE o'clock in the Afternoon
q that you have single thought about u
K vres: cutnte. Some thought may VIII
I, You are standing st tie counter or 10 u u
i Sort;ng bouse some stray thought os L