The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-03-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on Songs and the Time
and Place to Sing Them
The Heavenly Choir and Everlasting
SOng-Jesus and His Love a Per-
petuaI Theme-''NOt Unto Usa
But Unto Thy Name 70


Now will I sing to my wel1-beloved q song Of
my belOved--[Isaiah, 5, i.
DIR. Talmage said:
The most fas scinating theme for a heart
properly attuned is the Saviour. Thers is
something in the morning light to sug-
gest Him, and something in the evening
shadow to speak His praise. The flower
breathes Him, the star shines Him, the
cascade proclaims Him, all the voices of
nature chant Him. Whatever is grand,
bright and beautiful, if you will only
listen to it, will speak His praise. When
come in the summer time and pluck a
flower think of Him who Is ''the rose of
Sharon and the lily of the valley" When
] see in the fields lamb / say:
Behold the Lamb of lGod, that talzeth away
the sin of the world.
When, in very hot weather, I come
under projecting cliff I say:
Rock OF ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
Over the old-fashioned pulpit there was
a sounding board. The voice of the min
lister rose o the sounding-board, and then
was struck back again upon the ears of
the people. And so the ten thousand
voices of earth, rising up, find the heavens
q sounding board which strikes back to
the ear of all the nations the praises of
Christ. The heavens tell His story, and
the earth shows His handiwork. The
Bible thrills with one great story Of re-
demption. Upon a blasted and faded
paradise it poured the light of a glorious
restoration. 1t looked upon Abraham
from the ram caught in the thicket. 1t
spoke in the bl eating of the herds driven
down to Jerusalm for sacrifice. 1t put
infinite pathos into the speech of uncouth
fishermen. It lifted Paul into the seventh
Heaven, and broke upon the ear of st.
John with the brazen trumpets and the
doxology of the elders, and the rushing
wings of the seraphim.
Instead of waiting until you get sick
and worn out before you speak the praise
of Christ, while your heart is happiest,
and your step is Iightest, and your fort
unes smile, and your pathway blossoms,
and the over-arching heavens drop upon
you their benedictions, speak the praises
of Jesus.
The old Greek orators, when they saw
their audiences inatteEtive and slumber-
ing, had one word with which they would
rouse them up to the greatest enthusiasm.
In the midst of their Grafton they would
stop and cry out "MarathonW and the
peoples enthusiasm would be unbounded.
My hearers, though you may not have
been borne down with sin, and though
trouble and trials and temptation may
have come upon you, and you feel hardly
like looking up, methinks there is one
grand, royal, imperial word that ought
to rouse your soul to infinite rejoicing,
and that word is 'tJesusV
Taking the suggestion of the text,
shall speak to you of Christ, our song. ]
remark, in the first place, that Christ
ought to be the cradle song. What our
mothers sang to US when they put US to
sleep is singing yet. We may have for
gotten the words, but they went into the
fiber of our SOUL and will forever be 9
part of it. 1t is not much what you
formally teach your children as what you
sing to them. A hymn has wings and
can fly every whittier. One hundred and
fifty years after you are dead, and "Old
Mortality" has worn out his chisel in re-
cutting your name on the tombstone,
your great grand children will be singing
the song which this afternoon you sing to
your little ones gathered about your knee.
There is a place in Switzerland where il
you distinctly utter your voice there come
back ten or fifteen distinct echoes, and
every Christian song sung by a mother in
the ear of her child shall have ten thou
sand echoes coming back from all the
| gates of Heaven. Oh, if mothers only knew
the power of this sacred spell, how much
oftener the little ones would be gathered,
and all oar homes would chime with the
songs OF Jesusl
We want some counteracting influence
| upon our children. The very moment
| your child steps into the street he steps
| into the path of temptation. There are
foul mouthed children who would like to
| besoil your little ones. 1t will not do to
keep your little boys and girls in the
| house and make them house plants; they
must have fresh air and recreation. God
| save your children from the scathing,
| blasting, damnng influence of the
streets ] know of no counteracting in
| fiuence but the power of Christian cult
| ure and example. Hold before your lit
tie ones the pure life of Jesus; let that
| name be the word that shall exercise evi
| from their hearts. Give to your instruc-
| tion all the fascination of music, mornin e
| noon and night; let it be Jesus, the era
/ die song. This is important if your chill
| dren grow up, but perhaps they may not
| Their pathway may be short. Jesus may
1 be wanting that child. Then there will
/ be a soundless step in the dwelling,
and the youthful pulse viii begin tC
/ Hutter, and little hands will be
4 lifted for help. You can not Eei p
/ And a great agony will pinch at
| your heart, and the cradle will be empty,
and the world will be empty, and your
| soul will be empty. No little feet stand
ing on the stairs. No toys scattered on
the carpet. No quick following from room
to room. No strange and wondering g
/ questions. No upturned face, with laug h
ing blue eyes, come for kiss; but only a
| grave, and a wreath Of white blossoms
on the top of it, and bitter desolation, and
| a signing at nightfall with no one to put
| to bed, and a wet pillow, and graV q
| and a wreath of white blossoms on the
| top of It. The Heavenly Shepherd w i'll
take that lamb safely anyhow. whether
| you have been faithful or unfaithful; but
would it not have been pieasanter il you
could have heard from those lips the
praises of Christ? 1 never read any thing
more beautiful than this about a child;
departure. The account said; "She folded
her hands, kissed her mother goodbye
sang her hymn, tur led her face to the
wall, said her little prayer, and ther
| died"
Oh, if l could gather up in one para
| graph the last words of the little one
who have gone out from these Christla
circles, and / could picture the calm looks
and the folded hands, and sweet depart
ure, methinks il would be grand ant
beautiful as one Of Heavens great doxol
! ogiesi
Inext speak of Christ as the old mani
song. Quick music loses its charm fol
the aged ear. The schoolgirl asks for
schottisch or a glee; but her grandmothe
I asks for @Balerma" or the "Portugues
| Hymn.0 Fifty years Of trouble bavt
tanned the spirit, aud the keys of tn
music-board must have q solemn tread
Though the voice may be tremul GUS, 81
that grandfather viii not trust it il
church, still he has the psalE-book opei
before him, and he sings in his soul H
huns his grandchiid asleep with the sam
tune be sang forty years ago in the oil
Westinghouse Some day the choir sing
tune 30 old that the young people d
not kD3w it; bat il taTts the tears dow
the cheek Of the aged man. for IL remind
him Of the revival scene Ia which be par
tfcipated, and Of the rad ant faces tha
long since went 70 dust. and Of the graz