News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-09-27
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DR.. TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject; 1.-The Chain of Influences"


mechanical powers, we glorifed the lever,
the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, the
axle and the wheel but my text calls us to
study the philosophy of the chain. These
links of metal, one with another, attracted
the old Bible authors, and we hear the chain
rattle and see its coil all the way through
from Genesis to Revelation, flashing as an
ornament, or restraining as in captivity, or
holding as in conjunction as in case of ma
chinery. To do him honor Pharaoh hung a
chain of gold about the neck of Joseph, and
Belshazzar one about the neck Of Daniel.
The high priest had on his breast-plate two
chains of gold. On the camels' Decks, as tho
IshmaehteS drove up to Gideon, Jingled
chains of gold.
The Bible refers to the Church as having
such glttering adornments, saying: Thy
neck is comedy with chains of gold,n On the
other hand, 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. i am bound
with this chain" In the prison where Peter
is incarcerated, you hear one day great
crash at the falling off of his CHAINS. St.
John saw an angel come down from Heaven
to manacle the powers of darkness, and hav-
ing "a great chain in his hand" and the
fallen angels are represented as reserved in
everlasting chains, while in my text for tie
arrest and limitation of the iniquity of
his time, Ezekiel thunders out: make
chainln
What l wish to impress upon myself and
upon you Is the strength IN rlGlG ana wrong
directions of consecutive forces, the superior
power o. a chain of influences above one in
huence, the great advantage of a congeries
of links above one link, and in all family
government and in all effort to rescue others
and III all attempts to stop lnlquity, take the
suggestion of my text and make chain!
That which contains the greatest import
- ance, that which incloses the most trenen-
dous opportunities. that which of earthly
things 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 a gully that we step across
IN second, but the cradle has within it
new eternity, Just born and never to cease
When three or four years ago the Ohio River
overtiOwed its banks and the wild freshets
swept down with them harvests and cities,
one day was found floating on the bottom of
the waters cradle with a 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-
traordinarY. But every cradle is, with
its young passenger, floating on the
swift currents of the centuries deem
calling to deep, Ohios and st. Lawrences
and Mississippis of influence, bearing it on
ward. Now, what shall be done with this
new life recently launched? Teach him an
evening prayer2 That is important, but not
enough. Hear him as soon he can recite
some gospel hymn or catechisms That is
important, but not enough Every Sabbath
afternoon read him a Bible story! That is
important but not enough. Once in a while
a lesson, once in a while a prayer, once in a
while a restraining influence! All these are
important, but not enough. Each one of
these influences is only a link, and it will not
hold him in the tremendous emergencies of
life Let it be constant instruction, constant
prayer, constant application of good influ-
enceS, long line OF consecutive Impressions
reaching from his first year to his fifth, and
from his fifth year to his tenth, and from
his tenth to his twentieth. Make chainln
R.r,r4Te- ,-1Yrr
cipllne, occasional fidelity, amount TO nothing
You can easily hold an anchor bv one
link as hold child to the right by isolated |
ana intermittent faIthfuInesS The examDIa l
must connect with the instruction The !
conversation must combine with the actions
he week day consistency must con Join with |
the Sunday worship. Have family PRAYERS |
by all means; but be petulant and in
and unreasonable in your bousa-
hold and your family prayers viii be a
0lasphemOuS farce. So great in our tirnas |
Ire the temptations OF young men to dis |
ipation, and young women to social TO lies.
hat it is most important that the first
eighteen years of their life be charged with a
-eligious power that will hold them when
hey get out of the harbor of home into the
stormy ocean of active life. There is
'uch thing as impressing children {
70 powerfully with good, that sixty l
years will have no mora mower
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 the doorway OF |
every dram shop that he entered, and under |
the chandelier OF every house of dis sipation, |
saying; My son, this is no place for you.
Have you forgotten the old folksl Don't |
you recognize these wrinkles and this stoop |
in the shoulder and this tremulous handl |
60 home, my boy, go homel By the God to
whom we cousecrated you, by the cradle in
which we rocked you. by the grass grown /
graves III the old country churchyari, by |
the heaven where we hope yet to meet YOU 1
90 home! Go home my boy, go home" And |
some Sunday you viii lie surprised to find |
that young man SUI Ideally asking for ths |
prayers of the church. Soma Sunday you |
will see him at the sacrament and Derhans |
drinking from the same kind of chalice that |
the old folks drank out of years ago when |
they concentrated the SufferingS of the /
Lord Yes, my lad, you do not have such |
fun in sin as YOU seem to have. l know what |
spoils your fun. You cannot shake of the /
influence of those prayers long ago offered, |
or OF those kind admoaltonS. You cannot |
make them go away, and you feel like say
ing: Father, what are you doing here2 |
Mother, why do you bother me with sugges-
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
BIcdbI On your DTOW, and their |
looking straight into yours they will say: |
ave have come to take you o Ie, o. son of |
many anxietiesln AT last ...5 Young man |
turns through the consecutive influence of a
plous parentage, who out of prayers and |
fdelities innumerable. made a chain That |
Is the chain that pulls nightly this morning |
on five hundred of You. You may be too |
proud 4 shed tear, and YOU may, to CON
vince Others of your imperturbabil ty, smile |
to your friend beside you, but there is not so
much power in an Alpine avalanche after it |
has slipped for a thousand feet and having |
struck lower cliff is taking its second
bound for fifteen hundred feet more of
plunge, as there is pow er in the chain that
pulls out this moment toward God and |
Christ and Heavenl Oh, the almighty pull |
of the long chain of early gracious in
fiuencesi
But all people between thirty and forty
years of age, yes, between forty and fifty
aye, between fifty and sixty years, and all |
septuagenarianS as we'll neel surrounding |
conjunction of good influences. In Sing Sing, |
Auburn, MOyamensng, and all the other |
great prisons are men and women who went |
wrong in mid-life and old age. We need |
around us a Gordon of good influences. We |
forget to apply the well-known rule that |
chain IS no stronger than its weakest link. |
If the chain be made up of 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 a thousand excellenceS and vet |
have one weakness which endangers u.s. That |
is the reason that we sometimes see men dis |
tinguished for a whole round of virtues col |
lapse and go down. The weak link in the | {
otherwise stout chain gave way under the |
pressure.
The first chain bridge was built in Scot |
land Walter Scott tells how the French |
i'm: tated = in bridge across the river Seine. |
But there was one weak point in that chain |
bridge. There was a middle bolt that was of |
poor material, but they did not know how
much depended on that middle bolt Of the |
chain bridge. On the opening day a pro- |
cession started, led on by the builder of the |
bridge; and when the mighty weight of the |
procession was fairly it, the bridge broke |
was all right except in that middle bolt Sc |
the bridge of character may be made up OF
mighty links, strong enough to hold a |
mountain: but if there be one weak spot, |
that one point unlocked after may be the de-
struction of everything. And what multi. |
tudeS have gone down for all time 4
and all eternity because in the |
chain bridge of their character there
was lacking a strong middle bolt. He |
had but one fault and that was avarce: 1
hence, forgery. He hal but one fault and |
that was burning desire for intOxicants; |
hence, his fatal debauch. She had out one 1
fault and that an inordinate fondneSs for |
dress. and hence her own AMI her husbands |
bankruptcy. She had but one fault and that |
a quick temper; hence, the diSgraceful out |
burst What we al want is to have put 1
around rs a strong chain of good infusn ces. |
tire is a link. Church membership is n link. |
a link. Put together all these influences.
Mako chant