Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-09-22
DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYNDI SUNDAY
SERMON
subicct:-"rhc Chain or1naucnccs.n
TEXT: ",uaks Ezekiel vii, IS.

HAtt ullu uue WHEEL bup lul tS-Ne S1tAaS 49, W
study the philosophy of the chain These
links OF metal, one with another, attracted
the old Bible authors, and we hear tho chain
rattle and see its coil all the way through
from Genesis to Revelation, flashing us an
ornament, or restraining us IN captivity, OF
holding as i'll conjunction as III case oil ma
chinery To do him honor Pharaoh hung a
chain of gold about the neck of Joseph, and
BeShaZzar one about the neck OF Daniel.
The high priest had OH his hreast-plate two
chains of gold On the canels' uecks as tho
lshmaeltes drove up to Gideon, JlnSied
chains of gold.
The Bible refers to the Church us having
such glittering adornmentS. saying: lhy
neck is comedy with chains of gold,' On the
other hand, Il chain means captivity DAVID
the psalmist eXults that power had been
given over his enemies, Ito bind their kings
with chains The old missionary apostle
cries out: "for the hope of Israel. am bound
with this chain" In the prison where Peter
is incarcerated, you hear one day great
crash at the falling OIL of his chains st.
John saw an angel come down from Heaven
to manacle the powers OF darkness and nav
ing "a great chain i'll his hand, anu the
fallen angels are represented as ''resorveI III
everlasting chains while in my text, for tie
arrest and limitation of the iniquity OF
his time, Ezekiel thunderS out: Make u
chainI
What wish to impress upon myself and
upon YOU is the strength inright and wrong
directions. of consecutive forces, the superior
power, of chain of influences above one in
iluence, tue great advantage OF conEerles
of links above one link, and in all family
government and i'll all effort to rescue others
and in all attempts to stop inlquty, take the
suggestion Of my text and make 4 chain!
That which contains the greatest import
ance. that which incloseS tue most tremen-
ious opportunities, that which of earthly
,hjnss is most wretched by other worlds,
that which has beating against its two sides
all the eternitieS, is the cradle. The grave
is nothing in Importance compared with it,
for that is only gully that we step across
in n second, but the cradle has within it q
new eternity, just born and never to cease
When three or four Years ago the Ohio River
overflowed its banks and the wild frcshetS
swept down with them harveSts and cities,
one day was found floating on the bottom of
the waters q cradle with Il child in it all un-
hurt wrapped up snug and warm, and its
blue eyes looking into the blue OF the open
heavens 1t was mentioned as something eX-
truordinary But every cradle is, with
its young passenger, floating on the
swift currents of the centuries, deep
calling. to deep. Oios and ST. LawrenceS
and MisslSslpps OF Influence, bearing it on
ward. Now, what shall no done with this
new life recently launched: Teach him an
evening prayer That is important but not
enough. Hear him as soon rs he can recite
some gospel hymn or catechism! That is
important. but not enough. Every Sabbath
afternoon read him Bible story. That is
important. but not enough. Once in a while
n lesson, once in while a prayer. once III a
while q restraining influence: All these are
important, but not enough. Each one of
these influences is Only 4 link, and it will not
hold him in the tremendous emergencies of
life. Let it be constant instruction, constant
prayor. constant application of COOL in;lu
n lOn.r 1Iun n five ioDc
reaching from his first Year to his fifth. and
from his fifth year to his TENTH and from
his tenth to his twentieth. Make chain!n
Spasmodis education, paroxySmal dis
cipline, occasional fidelity, amount TO nothing.
You can as easily hold an anchor by one
link as hold child to the right by isolated
and intermittent faitnfuness. The example
must connect with the instruction. The
conversation must combine with the actions
The week day consistency must con Join with
the Sunday worship. Have family prayers
BY all means; but be petulant aud in
consistent and unreasonable in your house
hold and Your family prayers will he a
blasphemouS farce. So great in our times
are the temptations OF young men to dis
eipation, and young women to social 70 lies,
that it is most important that the first
eighteen years of their life be charged with q
religious power that will hold them when
they get out of the harbor of home into the
stormy ocean of active lie. There is
such thing as impressing children
SO powerfully with good, that sixty
years will have no more power
to efface it than sixty minutes. What a
rough time that young man has in doing
wrong, carefully nurtured as he was! His
father and mother have been dead for years.
or over in Scotland, or England, or Ireland
but they have stood in tho doorway of
every dram.shop that he entered. anil under
the chandelier Of every house of dissipation,
saying: MY son, this is no place for you.
Have yoT forgotten the Old folks. Don't
you recognize these wrinkles and this stoop
in the shoulder, and this tremulous hand?
Go home. my boy, go home By the God TO
whom we consecratel You. by the cradle in
which we rocked you. b. the grass grown
graves in the Old country churchyard, by
the heaven where we hope yct to meet you.
go home! Go home, my boy, 80 home.n And
soma Sunday you will lie surprised to find
that young man suddenly asking for the
prayers of the church. Some Sunday YOU
will see him at the sacrament and perhaps
drinking from the same kim of chaice that
the old folks drank out of years ago when
they commemorated the sutferings of the
Lord. Yes my lad, you do not have such
fun in sin as YOU seem to have. know what
spells Your fun. You cannot shake off the
influence of those prayers long ago offered,
or of those kind admopitions. You cannot
make them go away, and you fec, like say
ing: Father. what are you doing here:
Mother, why do You bother HE with Su1ge'-
tons of those olden times::'' But they will
not go away They will push you back from
your evil paths, though they have to come
from their shining homes in heaven and
stand in the very gates of hell, and their
backs scorched by the fiery blast, and with
their hand on your shoulder, and their
breath on Your brow, and their eyes
looking straight into yours, they will say:
1--WE have come to take you home, O. son Of
many anXietieS" At last that young man
turns through the consecutive influence OF a
p;ous parentage, who ont of prayers and
facilities innumerable. made a chain That
is the chain that pulls nightly this morning
on five hundred of YOU You may be too
proud to shed tear, and You may, to con-
vince others of your imperturbabilty, smile
to your friend beside YOU but there is not so
much power in an Alpine avalanche after it
has slipped for Thousand feet and having
struck q lower cli!f is taking its second
bound for fifteen hundred feet more of
plunge, rs there is pow er in the chain that
pulls out this moment toward God and
Christ and Heaven Oh. the almighty pull
of the long chain of early gracious in
fuences.
But all people between thirty and forty
years of age, yes, between forty and fifty
ave, between fifty and sixty years, and all
septuagenarians as we'll need surrounding
conjunction of good influences. In Sing Sing,
Auburn, Moyamensng, and all the other
great prisons, are meu and women who went
wrong in mid-life and old age. We need
around us Gordon of good influences we
forget to apply the welknown rule that
chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
If the chain be made up of a thousand links
and nine hundred and ninety nine are strong,
but one is weak, the chain will be in danger
of breaking at that one weak link. We may
be strong in thousand excsllence' and yet
-.eye one weakness which endangers u.s. That
ma .,o~--oason that we sometimes see men dis
t Is UrS for whole round OF virtues col
;onse and 90 down. The weak link in the
ntberwise Stout chain gave way under the
pressure.
The first chain bridge was built in Scot
land lYalter. Scott tells how the Erench