St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-06-27
TIE DAY WE LIVE In.
Or. Talmage on the Need of Ag-
gressive Christianity.
robust Spiritual Health One of the First
Requirements--Un bounded Faith That
Truth VIII Finally Triumph and
Wickedness BE Overthrow.

Rev. T. De Witt Talmage recently
preached in the Brooklyn Tabernacle on the
subject: "The Day We Live In" The
text was from Esther w., IA: "Who know
eth whether thou art come to the Kingdom
for such a time as this?" DR.. Talmage
said:
ESTHER.
Esther, the beautiful, was the wife of
Ahasuerus, the abominable. The time had
come for her to present petition to her
infamous husband in behalf of the Jewish
Nation, to whom she had once belonged.
She was afraid to undertake the work, lest
she should lose her own life; Ibut her uncle,
Mordecai, who had brought her up, en-
couraged 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 have ours. 1t
is 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 expecting TO hear abs
stractions discussed or dry technicalities
of religion gloriied, you have come to the
wrong church; but if you really would
like to know what this age has a right TO
expect of you as Christian men and WON"
en-, then 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 a philosophical
discussion about the chemical properties of
human blood or the nature of the gunpow-
der; they want some one to man the bat
teries 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 ourselves to the
definitions and formulas and technicalities
and conventionalities of religion. What
we want is practical, earnest, concentrate
ed, enthusiastic and triumphant help.
But, my friends, you need to be aggressive
Christians, and not like those persons who
spend their lives in hugging their Christian
graces and wondering why they do not
make any progress. How much robustness
of health would man have if he hid HIM
self in dark closet? A great deal of the
piety of the day is too exclusive. 1t hides
itself. 1t needs more fresh air, more OUT
door exercise. There are many Christians
who are giving their entire life to self-ex.
animation. They are feeling their pulses
to see what is the condition of their spirit
ual health. How long would man have
robust physical health It he kept all the
days and weeks and m.nths and years of
his life feeling his pulse, instead of going
out into active, earnest, every day work?
AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY NEEDED.
In the first place, in order to meet the
special demand of this age, you need to be
an Enthusiastically 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 obstacle to the
church's advancement. am speaking of
another kind of Christian. All the ap-,
planes for your becoming an earnest
Christian are at your hand, and there is a
straight path for you into the broad day
light of Gods forgiveness. You may have
come into this tabernacle the bondmen of
the world, and yet before You go out of
these doors you may become Princes of the
Lord God Almighty. You remember what
excitement there was in this country years
ago when the Prince of Wales came here,
how the people rushed out by the hundreds
of thousands 20 see him. Why? Because
they expected that some day he would sit
upon the throne of England. But what
was all that honor compared with the
honors to which God calls you-to be sons
and daughters of the Lord Almighty; yea
TO be Queens and Kings unto God. "They
shall reign with Him forever and forever"
MORBID EXPERIMENTATION.
I was once amid the wonderful, bewitch-
ing cactus growths of North Carolina. I
was never more bewiIdered with the beau.
ty of flowers and yet when I would take
up one Of these cactuses and pull these
leaves apart the beauty was all gone. You
could hardly tell that it had ever been a
flower; and there are great many people
in this day just pulling apart their Chris
tian experiences to see what there is in
them and there is nothing left In them.
This style Of self examination is damage
instead of an advantage to their Christian
character. remember when / was boy
used to have small piece in the garden
that called my own. I planted corn
there and every few days would pull il
up to see how fast it was growing. Now,
there are great many Christian people
in this day whose self examination merely
amounts to the pulling up of thatw they
only yesterday or the day before planted
o, my friends, if you want to have a
stalwart Christian character, plant it right
out of doors in the great field of Christian
usefulness, and though storms may come
upon it, and though the hot sun Of trial
may Try to consume it, it will thrive until
it becomes great tree, in which the fowls
lie Heaven may have their habiGation. /
have no patience with these fIower-pot
Christians. They keep themselves under
shelter, and all their Christian experience
in small, exclusive circle, when they
=. .,Ia.t Il 81, AI.r, o.,.,4 90 "a On, 1,f III.