The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-01-14
TALWATE'S SER NON.
The Closing Sermon of 1885 in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle.
A Review of the Journey of Life, With Its
Obstacles aud Vicissitudes-Sug-
gestIons ofNew Things for
the New Year,

Rev. T. Dc Witt Talmage In preaching
the last sermon OF the old year a the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, chose an appropriate
theme, taking for his text:
Knowing the time that now it Is high time
90 awake out OF sleep - Romans. MI H.
While this morning with glad anthem
we celebrated the Christmas hour, has it
occurred to vou that this IS tn, last Sab
bath night OF grand. and beautiful and
eventful, and joyous, and solemn l'Sj: The
occasion is nightly suggestive.
Starting out on a long journey on horse
back, YOU ride along without stopping for
many a mile, until after a while you come
on top Of high hill. You rein in the
steed The horse -moEes by reason of the
length OF the way. You take your feet out
of the stirrups. YOu turn around i'll the
saddle You look or upon the rayines
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 your feet in tho
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 Sabbatie Mount OF privi
lege. No horSeman ever spurred on
steed faster than we have gone up the
sleeps OF life and down the dangerou'
declivities; but having come here to-day,
we stop and look back upon the way
through which we have com the dark
ness and the sunshine, the accidents and
the successes-aud then look forward and
wonder 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 l feel that ii
beats high and eternal destinies. You and
1 have stared on in life which will con-
tinue to live after the sun has gone out
Col in death and this wrecked and foun-
dered world shall have strewn its timbers
on the coast cf an eternal desolation. o.
it is a mean question for me to ask my
self and YOU today: "Where am |; What
am |: Whence came 1? Aud whittier am
/ bound:" The simple fact is that
each one of us has soul TO save.
Now, when any man in ollon
times had saved the life OF
Roman 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 r.le
in great professions, and when The entered
aroom the other people would rise up TO
greet him AMI do him honor. l would to
God that tonight we might aspire for the
higher honor of saving Il soul-an immOr-
tai soul
There are three or four reasons that |
can think OF why we should Obey the in
Junction OF my text and wake up. The
first ar3usng consideration that occurs 70
my mind is the fact that there are 50 many
obstacles in the way OF our salvation. Now,
ther" is no need Of our hiding this fact. We
sometimes hear people talking to the I'M
converted ana saying: ut is just as easy
for You 10 become u Christian as it is to
turn over your hand" II is not There
are tremendous obstacles i'll the way of
your becoming Christian, and every
man that has tried in thorough earnest
ness to become n child of God has found
that there are obstacles. That is not
wise general who deprecateS 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 bOmbardment. There are
only fow enemies in that opposing hos t.
1t Will only be a few moments assault and
we viii gain the victory No. y wise
general says: Those are strong
bartl,ments; those men who are
coming out TO assault us are armed,
AMI they ara brave men. If YOU ever cap
ture thosa fOrrcsSes, and If YOU ever over
come that host it viii be by mig hty rally
ing OF all your energies" And have 10 tell
you now, that if yoI are ever going to get
to Heaven, it will be by going out in q con-
test as one against q hundred, as enc
against a Thousand, as one against hun
dred thousand, aye, il is an infinite mnpos-
sihility that Won ever succeed by any
strength or resolution of your own, and if
there We're not some supernatural aid to be
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
in the worldincss that surrounds you.
need not tell you, men OF Brooklyn and
New York, that there is tide OF worldli-
ness setting away from God and from
Heaven You have felt it. You hare
waded down in it until the food came to
your knee, until it came TO your girdlc,
until il has come to your hip. You rise in
the morning. You find it is few moments
later than You thought il was. You are in
great haste. You hurry through the morn
ing meal. YOu race down the street You
go to your Office. You open theletter5 and
you answer them. You examine the money
market. YoUrun hithcr and thither. Your
life is q toll and turmoil. The long day,
save the fifteen or twenty minutes in which
you lunch, is given up to the influence of
this world, and it i. very rare, indeed,
that from eight O'Clock in the morn
ing until four or five o'clock in the after
noon that You have a single thought about
the great future. Some thought may,
while you are standing at the counter or in
the banking house, some stray thought of
the future orld may come through your
mind, but i: darts out again, Just like n
swallow that in summer time wheels into
the open window, makes circuit Of few
minutes and then goes out. Oh! 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 in
fernal assault. The air is full of evil spir-
its. They accost you. They meet you at
/ the crossroads. They tell you the wrong
road. They try to unhorse your good res
olutions, to spike your guns, to outhank
you in every Christian movement, and If
you are ever successful at all in gaining
the realm of everlasting Miss, it win be by
rallying all your physical, mental and
! L. L. LII