The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-03
NONE LIKE JESUS"
Sermon BY the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage.
Text: Unto You, Therefore, Which Believe
lie is Precious" 1 Peter, Chapter
2, rseS-An Able Sermon.

Following is the sermon preached by the
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage yesterday:
We had for many years in this country COM
mercial depression. What was the matter
with the stores? With the harvests? With
the people? Lack of faith. Money enough,
goods enough, skillful brains enough, industri-
Gus hands enough, but no faith. Now, what
damages the commercial world damages the
spiritual. Our great lack is faith. That is the
hinge on which eternity turns The Bible
says we are saved by faith. "O,' says some
one in the audience, II have faith. / believe
that Christ came down to save the world" l
reply that in worldly matters when you have
faith you always act upon it. For instance, If
l could show you a business operation by
which you could make five thousand dollars,
you would Immediately go INTO it. You would
prove your faith in what / tell you
by your prompt and immediate action. Now,
if what you call faith in Christ has led you to
surrender your entire nature to Jesus and to
corresponding action III your life it is genuine
faith, and if it has not, it is not faith at all.
the head. Then, there are other things which
then 0t there WIN are VIC other he'r''' things
which believe both with the head and heart
l believe, for instance, that Cromwell lived.
That is a matter of the head Then there are
her things which / believe with the heart
and not with the head That is, have no es-
pecial reason for believing them, and yet
want to believe them, and the wish is the
father to the expectation. But there is
a very great difference between that which we
believe about ourselves, and that which
we believe about others. For instance, you
remember not great while ago there was
disaster in Pennsylvania, amid the mines there
was an explosion amid the damps. and many
lives were lost. In the morning you picked up
your newspaper, and saw that there had been
a great disaster in Pennsylvania. You said;
''Ah, what sad thing this Isl how many lives
iosti y, what SORROW Then you read little
further on. There had been an almost
miraculous effort to get those men OUT and
few had been saved. "O," you said what o
brave thing, what grand thing that was!
How well it was done!" Then you folded the
paper up, and sat down to your morning re-
past. Your appetite had not been interferred
with, and during that day, perhaps, you
thought only two or three times of the disas-
ter. But suppose you and / had been in the
mine, and the dying had been
the pickaxes just above us as
they were trying to work their way down, and
after while we saw the light, and then the
life-bucket let down through the shaft, and
suffocated and half dead, we had just strength
enough to throw ourselves over into it,and had
been hauled out into the light. Then what an
appreciation we would have had of the
agony and the darkness beneath, and the joy
of deliverance. That is the difference
between believing thing about others and
believing it about ourselves.
We take up the Bible and read that Christ
came to save the world. THAT was beaut-
flu" you say "a fine specimen of self-denial
That was very grand indeed" But suppose
it is found that we ourselves We're down in
the mine of sin and in the darkness,
and Christ stretched down His arm of mercy
through the gloom and lifted us out of the pit,
and set our feet on the Rock of Ages, and put
a new song into our mouth o, then it is a
matter of handclapping; it is matter of con-
graduation; it is a matter of deep emotion.
Which kind of faith have you, my brother?
1t is faith that makes Christian, and it is
the proportion of faith that makes the differ
ence between Christians. What was it that
lifted Paul, and Luther, and Payson, and bod
bridge above the ordinary level of Christian
character? 1t was the simplicity, the brill
liancy, the power and the splendor of their
faith. o, that we had more of it God give
us more faith to preach and more faith to hear
''Lord, we believed help Thou our unbelief!"
'To you which believe He is precious"
First / remark Christ is precious to the
believer, as Saviour from sin. A man says:
ITO whom are you talking? / am one of the
most respectable men in this neighborhood do
you call me a sinner2" Yesl "rhe heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wick
ed" You say: How do you know anything
God announces it in His Word and what God
says is always right. When a man becomes q
Christian, people say: THAT man sets him
self above u.s." Oh, mol Instead of setting
ID,
cries out: 81 was lost once, but now / am
found. was blind once, but now / see. pros
trate myself at the foot OF the cross OF the
Savior's mercy"
What grand thing it is to feel that all the
bad words L have ever uttered and all the bad
deeds / have ever done, and all the bad
thoughts that have gone through my mind, are
as though they had never been, for the sake of
what Christ has done. You know there is
difference in stains. Some can be washed out
hy hI1f nj "a n
preparation The sin of the heart Is
so black and indelible q mark that no human
application can cleanse it, while the blood of
Jesus Christ can wash it out forever. o, the
infinite, the omnipotent chemistry of the Cos
pei! Some man says: 81 believe all that.
believe God has forgiven the most of my sins,
but there is one sin cannot forget" What
is it? | do not want to know what it Is. but
take the responsibility of saying that God will
forgive it as willingly as any other sin.
"Oer sins like mountains for their size,
The seas Of sovereign grace expand,
The seas OF sovereign grace arise"
There was a very good man, about seventy
five years of age, that once said: II believe
God has forgiven me- but there was one sin
which committed when l was about twenty
years Of age that never forgave myself for,
and / can't feel happy when / think
Of it." He said that one sin sometimes
came over his heart, and blotted out all his
hope of heaven. Why, he lacked in faith
give larger one. Mighty to save. Mighty to
save Who is the God like unto our God, that
pardoneth iniquity? o, what Jesus is to tho
soul that believeth in Him! The soul looks
up into Christ's face and says:
ITO what extent wilt Thou forgive me?"
And Jesus looks back into his face, and says
"ro the uttermost." The soul says: "Wli it
never be brought up AGAIN." "Never," says
Christ Wont it be brought up again in
Judgment day?" mo" says Christ, "nover in
the Judgment day." What bread is to tho
hungry, what harbor is to the bestormed, what
light is to the blind, what liberty is to the cap
tive, that, and more than that, is Christ to the
man who trusts Him.
just try to get Christ away from that Chris
tian. Put on that man the thumb-screw.
Twist it until the bones crack. Put that foot
into the iron boot of persecution until it is
mashed into pulp. Stretch that man on the
rack of the inquisition, and louder than all tho
uproar Of the prosecutors, you will hear hi,
voice, like the voice Of Alexander lie Croix
above the cracking faggots, as he cried out;
30, Jesusl o, my blessed Jesusl o, divine
Jesusl Who would not die for Thee?"
Again: ] remark that Christ is precious to
the believer, as a friend You have CONNER
cial friends and you have family friends. TO
the commercial friend you 60 when you have
business troubles, You can look back to some