The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-01-21
PULPIT UTTERANCEs.
A Great Awakening the Pressing
Need Of the Church.
Too Little Zeal and Enthusiasm In the
Pulpit-Yet the Great Wave Of
the Divine Blessing Ever
Sweeps Onward.

Scripture, DR.. Talmage preached on the
subject Awakening," taking his text
from Malachi ill.,, 4: "Beholdl l will send
my messenger, and he shall prepare the
way before me; and tho Lord, whom ye all
seek, shall suddenly come to His temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom
ye delight in. Behold! He shall come,
saith the Lord of hosts"
want to show this morning, so far as
God may help me, that the greatest need
Of the Church universal is mighty
awakening. The OK in the pasture-field
looks around, and perhaps comes to tho
conclusion that all the world is clover
field. Some, standing in the midst Of lux
uriant religious advantages, might think,
perhaps, that the earth is covered with the
knowledge of God but so far from that,
II this platform were the world, so much of
II as now cover with my right foot would
represent all that is conquered for Eman-
uel. Or II this whole tabernacle were the
world, then one pew would represent so
much of 1t as the grace of God had already
conquered. Oh, there is need of a radical
change! Something must be done, and
shall show this morning that the greatest
need of the Church is great awakening.
learn this need in the first place from
the GOODNESS in the majority of church
members. If a religious society have
thousand members eight hundred Of them
are sound asleep. If it have five hundred
members, four hundred are lethargic. II
the Christians can rally-that is, the pro-
fessed Christians-for communion day and
succeed in not dropping the wine cup, how
many of them are satisfied? If it be a
choice between Christ and the world, the
world has It. You know il as well as | do.
If religious meeting be on certain night
and on that same night there be an extra
ordinary operatic entertainment, Of a So
cial gathering, or literary club, or a po-
litical meeting, or a Freemason Society, or
an Odd Fellows Association, you know
which they go to, God there fairly demon
strating that while such professed Chris
tians pretend to be on His side they are
really on the other side; for there Is a
point blank issue between Christ and the
world, and the world has 1t. You know
very well whether you are q professed
Christian or not; you know very well that
the dividing line between the Church and
the world to-day is, like the equator or
arctic or antarctic circle, an imaginary
line, and that there are men and women
sworn Of God who sit discussing infinitesi-
NAL question--Shall we dancer Shall we
play cardsi Shall we go to the theater'
Shall we attend tho opera;-while there
are five hundred millions of the race going
a. IL. ah
Christians will go on, occasionally taking
little religion with the tip ends Of their
fingers, sauntering on lazily toward the
bar Of Christ, until they come in front OF
Gods swift-revolying mill, and find them
selves to be "the chaR which the wind
drlveth away"
The day Of judgment will make fearful
thinning out among professed Christians
suppose it will be found on that day that
there are hundreds of thousands Of men
who have their names on the church books
who really made religion a second-rate OF
a third-rate thing, living for themselves
unmindful of God and the salvation Of the
race, and then tumbling over the embank.
ment where Judas went, and Achan went
and where all those shall GO who do moi
make religion the primordial thing-thC
first and the last matter Of the soul.
worldly professor Of religion, vascillatinl
professor, idle professor, tremble before
God to-day. Do you not know that II yoJ
die as you are all the communion tables at
which you have ever sat will lift up hands
Of blood, crying for your condemnation
And your neglected Bible and your prayer.
less pillow will cry: "Go down! Go down
You pretended to have religion, but yor
had none. 0lt Of the seven days of the
week you gave not five hours to Christ
You broke your sacramental oath. &c
down! Go downw Oh, would rather b.
the man in the last day who has nevel
seen church than you, who professed tC
b, so much andto do so much, and yet dit
nothing. "Awake, thou that sleepest
awake, and Christ shall give thee lifep
Still further, l see n need for a great
awakening in the fact that those Of us who
preach the Gospel have so little enthusiasm
and zeal compared with what we ought K
have. Now, you see, the gun kicks. say
we, who preach the Gospel, have so llttl,
zeal and enthusiasm for Christ compared
with what we ought to have. Oh, IL is Z
tremendous thing to stand before an au'
dience on Sabbath days, realizing the fac
that majority Of them will believe wha
you say about God and the soul and thu
great future. Suppose q man asked OF yo,
the road 10 certain place, and you care
lessly and falsely told him, and afterwart
, you heard that through lack OF right direc
tlon that man was lost ON the mountains
fell over the rocks and lost his life
you could not forgive your
self. You would say: ~ wisl
that l had taken more time with tina
man. wish I had given him such specific
directions that he would not have been lost
How sorry feel about ~ But oh, to mis-
direct the eternal interests OF large con
gregationl How cold and stolid we stanC
in our pulpits, actually sometimes pridinl
ourselves on our deliberation, when WI
have no right to be cold, and ought to b.
almost frantic " ith the perils that threater
our hearers. SO much so that some OF III
give no warning at all, and we stand Sab
bath after Sabbath talking about 'hupar
Development" and we pat men on thu
back and we please them, and we sins
them all down through the rapids to thu
last plunge, or, as the poet has IL:
Smooth down the stubborn text 70 ears po