The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-01-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"Crises in Life" the Subject Of An
Eloquent Discourse,
Delivered at the First Congregational
Church Of Columbus, Ohio - The
Young Man of the Present, Like
Absalom of Old, Not Safe.

Absalom of Old, Not Safe.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage visited Column
bus, o., recently and delivered sermon
in the First Congregational Church of that
city before an audience that completely
filed every available portion of the edi-
fee, and many hundreds were unable to
gain admittance. The subject of the dis
course was "Crises in Life" Mr.. Talmage
taking for his text:
Is the young man Absalom safe?-II. Sam.
uei, xviii, 3d.
DIR. Talmage said two great character
istics of Absalom were worldly ambition
and splendid hair. By the one he was de-
based, by the other hung. He was bad
boy and broke his fathers heart. He
wanted to get his fathers throne before
the decease of the father. He wanted to
get it Immediately. He got an army. He
started out in great iEsurrection. David,
the father, sits at the palace waiting for
the news of the battle to come, not so
anxious about whether Absalom's hosts
won the day, OF whether his own hosts
won the day, as he is anxious about the
safety of his boy. The father in him
mightier than the King.
While he sits there waiting for the COM
ing of the messenger from the battlefield,
he sees the dust rising in the highway, and
long before the messenger comes up,
bringing the swift dispatch, David cries
out to him: as Absalom alive? Is Absa-
lom dead? Is the boy wounded? Tell me
quickly-is the young man Absalom
safe!" But as the messenger had
no very decisive intelligence to give he
stood aside. There David sat waiting for
another messenger, and after a while he
saw the dust rising on the highway, and
long before the messenger had come up,
David shouted to him again-shouts to this
one as he had to the others: "Have you
heard anything from my boy? Is he wound
ed! Is he alive? Is he dead? Is the young
man Absalom safe?n
Alas! He was not safe. Absalom, riding
on mule-the meanest animal in all the
world on which to ride, the hardest at the
bit and the stiffest at the neck-Absalom
riding on mule, had gone under a tree
branch, and his hair had caught on the
tree branch, and the mule, srue to his char
acteristics, had gone on, he not able to stop
it, and Absalom was suspended, and so he
died. With an awful negative the words
of my text were answered: SIS the young
man Absalom safe?" No, he was not safe.
Destroyed for this life; destroyed for the
life to come.
want to utter few words this morning
in regard to- the safety of young men; in
deed, of all men. While men may get
along tolerably well without the religion
OF Christ in some circumstances of life,
there are three or four turning points
where man must have God or perish, OF
If he does not come to such crisis as that,
to such an extreme as that, he must have
God or make mistake that will last for
ever. propose this morning to speak to
you of three or four of these turning points
in life.
The first turning point is the choice of an
occupation or profession. It is a very seri
Gus time when young man comes from
the school or the college, and has com
pleted his education, or has received all
the education from the schools he will re-
ceive, and says: "But what shall it be:
For what occupation, for what profession
am prepared" Mechanism will spread
before him hundred different occupa-
tions. Professional life will spread before
him seven or eight different callings. In
deed, perhaps, in all there may be 800 diff
erent callings and occupations. For. only
one OF those 500 is he fitted and prepared
II he does not have divine direction, 400
chances to one he will get in the wrong
business. In other words, the most tire.
mendous crisis in a mans life, or one OF
the most tremendous, is the time when he
chooses his occupation or profession, and
he needs God to tell him how to choose.
knew man who started in commercial
life with bright prospects. He crossed
over from commercial life into the medical
profession. He went from the genera
medical profession into specific surgery
He went from surgery into the ministry
Then ne passed from the ministry into
surgery, and SO his life has been COM
plete vacillation. How much better il
would have been if that man could have
got the right profession or occupation al
the start. He was particularly qualified
Tor surgery, and l believe if he had gone
before God and asked for his direction he
would have received it, and instead OF
going from one occupation to another
making his life a mistake, he would have
gone on to great usefulness and success.
| meet many young men in this house
this morning who have not perhaps thor.
oughly decided upon the work or occu.
patton for which the Lord fitted him
Before you leave the house to-day ash
Gods direction, that you may make M
mistake. Blunder here and blunder for.
ever.s You know great many men who
have been ruined for two worlds because
they got in the wrong business.
Another important pass in ones life, a
turning point in ones history, is the time
when he establishes his own home. Wher
man builds his home he builds TO,
eternity. Is it not amazing that affiancine
IN life is SO often a matter of merrimenl
and OF joke, when it decides so much TO,
this world and the world to come? 1 de
not put the case too strongly when
say that when a man marries he marries
for Heaven or for helk Oh, build moi
your home on earth upon the sparkle of a
bright eye or the color of fair cheek. The
time win come in your history when YOU
will want IN your home not pet or TOW
but heroine, and you win find that life il