The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-03

night of the year, the Rev T. Dewitt Talmage,
D. D.. preached at the Tabernacle, in Brooklyn
sermon appropriate to the occasion. The
hymn sung was:
My days are gliding swiftly by,
And l, pilgrim stranger,
Would not detan them they fly,
These hours of toll and danger.
The preacher took as his text the words:
Knowing the time that now it is high time to awake
out of seep.-Romans, xiii, IL.
Following is the discourse in FULL
While this morning with glad anthem we cele-
brate the Christmas hour, has it occurred to you
that this is the last Sabbath night of grand, aud
beautiful, and eventful and Joyous, and solemn
1887 The occasion is nightly suggestive.
Starting out on long journey on horseback,
you ride along without stopping for many mile.
until after while you come on top of high
hill. You rein in the steed. The horse smokes
by reason of the length of the way. You take
your feet out of the stirrups. You turn round in
the saddle. You look off upon the ravines
through which you have passed, and the hills
over which you have come, aud make estimate
OF how many miles you have travelled. Then.
turning around again in the saddle, and putting
your feet In the stirrups, you look ahead and
wonder how far it will be before you come to the
place of destination. And so to-day we come up
on the Sabbattic Mount of privilege Nohorse-
man ever spurred on q steed faster than
we have gone up the sleeps of life and down
come here to-day. we stop and look back
upon the way through which we have come-the
darkness and the sunshine, the accidents and
the successes-and then look forward and won
der how long or how short will yet be the way.
And sitting and standing here, the hour seems to
me, as to you it must be, momentous. / put my
finger on the pulse OF this moment and / feel
that it beats high and eternal destinies. You
and | have started on in a life which will con-
tinue to live after the sun has gone out cold in
death, and this wrecked and foundered world
shall have strewn its timbers on the coast of an
eternal desoation 0 it is q main question for
me to ask myself ard you to-day: "Where am II
What am IL Whence came /? And whittier am
] boundW The simple fact is that each one
of US has a soul to save. Now, when any
man in olden times had saved the life Of Ro-
man citizen from drowning, for instance, that
man who rescued the unfortunate was honored
He was allowed sometimes to sit in the Senate;
he was allowed to ride in great professions, and
when he entered room the other people would
rise up to greet him and do him honor. / would
to God that tonight we might aspire for the
higher honor of saving soul-an immortal soul.
There are three or four reasons that can
think of why should obey the injunction of
my text and wake up. The first arousing con-
sideration that occurs to my mind is the fact
that there are SO many obstacles in the way of
salvation. Now. there is no need of our
hiding this fact. We sometimes hear people
talking to the unconverted and saying: at is
just as easy for you to become Christian
as 1t Is to turn over your hand" 1t is not
There are tremendous obstacles in the way
of Your becoming Christian and every
man that has tried in thorough earnestness
to become a child Of God has found
that there are obstacles. That is nota wise
general who depreciates the force of an enemy
who SAYS to his men: "My troops, you will
have An easy time of it. Those castles can be
captured without any very serious lombard
ment. There are only few enemies in that OPP
posing host. 1t will only be few moments
assault and we will gain the victory" No; a
wise general says: Those are strong battle
ments; those men who are coming out to assault
US are armed and they are brave men. If you
ever capture those fortresSes and If you ever
overcome that host it will be by mighty rally
ing of all your energies" And have to tell
you now, that il you are ever going to get to
heaven, twill be by going out in contest as one
against hundred. against thousand
as one against hundred thousand. aye, it is an
infinite impossibility that you ever succeed by
any strength resolution of your own, and if
there were not some supernatural aid to he
offered and some divine promise to take hold Of
we would be lost, and we would all be lost
In the first place, there are the obstacles of
the worldliness that surrounds you. need not
tell you, men of Brooklyn and New York, that
there is tide of worldiness setting away from
God and from heaven. You have felt it. You
have waded down in it until the food came to
your knee, until it came to your girdle, until it
has come to your lip. You rise in the morning.
You find it is few moments later than you
thought it was. You are in great haste You
hurry through the morning meal You race
down the street You go to your Office You
open the letters and you answer them You
examine the money market. You run hither
and thither. Your life is toll and a turmoil.
The long day, save the fifteen or twenty minutes
in which you lunch is given up to the influence
Of this world, and 1t Is very rare, indeed, that
from o'clock in the morning until or o'clock
in the afternoon that you have single thought
about the great future. Some thought may,
while you are standing at the counter in the
banking house, some stray thought of the future
world may come through your mind, but it
darts out again, inst like a swallow that in
summertime, wheels into the open window,
makes circuit of a few minutes. and then
goes out 0 this tide of worldliness! You have
felt it. 1t sets away from God and away from
heaven. You know it.
Then there are obstacles in the way of YOUR
getting to heaven, in satanic and Internal as
sault. The air is full of evil spirits. They &C
cost you. They meet you at the cross roads
They tell you the wrong road. They try to
unkorse your good resolutions. to spike your
guns, to outhank you in every Christian move
ment and if you are ever successful at all in
gaining the realm of everlasting bliss, it will be
by rallying all your physical, mental and moral
energies aye, it will be by calling upon the
Lord Almighty, by His infinite and omnipotent
grace, to help you. And yet if there were q
single man in all this audience who should sud-
denly have come upon him the impression that
he was going to miss heaven, there would go up
a shrek louder than that which is heard be-
tween coliding rail trains. There is no man
who expects to miss heaven. But how are you
going to get over all these obstacles? / ask you
as reasonable men if the impediments in the
way ought not to arouse you'll
Another awakening consideration is in the
value of the soul Theodore forbade the debas-
ing of the national coin. They say, "We ought
to debase it. We can mix something else in it
and it will be just as good NO" said Theo-
dorc, the Emperor, 81 will not have my face
imprinted on a debased coin" Here we are.
The image of God has been impressed upon our
soul, and yet it has been debased and has be-
come counterfeit. We have all sinned, and
We are all lost unless divine grace rescue
and redeem US. Now, here is the soul. What
is it worth! Is there not something in its value
to arouse us3 / sometimes hear people compare
the soul in value to mine. That is a very poor
comparison, for'the silver and the gold in the
mine will melt after while. and be of no more