Sharp County record., 1888-09-27
TALMAGES SERMON.
sacramental Day at the Tabernacle
-"Make a Chain"
A Discourse on the Influences that Forge
Chains for Good or Evil-How
the Shackles of Sin May
BE Broken.

v. L
following discourse to congregation
that filled the Brooklyn Tabernacle to over
flowing. His text was:
Make a chain.
At school and in college, in announcing
the mechanical powers we gloritied 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
adOrnment, or restraining as in captivity,
or holding in conjunction, as in the case
of machinery. 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' necks, as the lshmaelltes
drove up to Gideon, jingled chains OF
gold.
The Bible refers to the Church as hav'
ing such glittering adornmentS, saying:
'sThy neck is comely with chains OF
gold.n On the other hand chain means
captivity. David, the psalmist eXuIts
that power had been given over his enc
mics "to bind their Kings with CHAINS" u"
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 off of his chains. ST.
John saw an angel come down from
Heaven to manacle the powers OF dark
ness, and having "a great chain III his
hand" and the fallen angels are repre-
sented as preserved in everlasting
chains" while in my text for the arrest
and limitation of the iniquity OF his time
Ezekiel thunders out:
Make a chain!
What l wish to impress upon myself
and upon you is the strength in right and
wrong directions of consecutive forces,
the superior power of a chain OF lnhu'
ences above one influence; the great adj
vantage of a congeries of links above one
link, and in all family government, ana
in all effort to rescue others, and in all
attempt to stop iniquity, take the sugges-
ton of my text, and make chain.
That which contains the greatest I'M
portance, that which iucloses the most
tremendous opportunities, that which OF
earthly things Is most watched by other
worlds, that which has beating against
its two sides all the eternities, is the cra-
die. The grave is nothing IN Importance
compared with it, for that is only gully
that we step across in second; but the
cradle has within it a new eternity, Just
born and never to cease. When, three or
four years ago. the Ohio river oyerdowed
its banks, and the wild freshets swept
down with them harye5tS and cities, one
dav was found floating on the bosom OF
the waters cradle with child in 1t all
unhurt, wrapped up snug and warm, ana
its blue eyes looking into the blue OF the
open heavens. II was mentioneT as some
thing extraordinary. But evert cradle Is,
WITH its young passenger. 1s'ta.rl
on the swift currents of the cent
uries, deep calling to deep, OhloS
and St Lawrences and MississipplS OF
influence bearing it onward. Now, what
shall be done with this new life recently
launched? Teach him an evening pray
er? That is important, but not enough
Hear him as soon as he can reclte some
Gospel hymn or catechism? That is I'M
portant, but not enough. Every SabDatn
afternoon read him q Bible story? That
is important, but not enough. Once IN a
while lesson, once in while 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 tre-
mendous emergencies Of life. Let it be
constant instruction, constant prayer,
constant application of good influences, a
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 year to his twentieth.
Make a chain!
Spasmodic education, paroXysmal dis
cipline, occasional fidelity, amount to
nothing. You can as easily hold an
anchor by one link as hold a child to the
right by isolated and intermittent faith
fulness. The example must connect with
the instruction. The combination must
combine with the actions. The week day
consistency must cOniOin with the Sum
day worship. Have family prayers by
all means; but be petulant and inconsist-
ent and unreasonable in your household
and your family prayers will be a bias e
phemous farce SO great in our time
are the temptations of young men to dis
sipation, and young women to social
follies, that it is most important
that the first eighteen years of
their life be charged with religious
power that will hold them when they get
out of the harbor of home into the stormy
ocean of active life. There is such a
thing as lmpresslng children so power
fully with good that sixty years will have
no more power to etface it than sixty
minutes. What a rough time that young
man has in doing wrong, carefully nurt-
ured as he was. His father and mother
have been dead for years, or over in Scot
land, or England or Ireland; but they
have stood in the doorway Of every dram
shop he entered, and under the chandelier
of every house of dissipation, saying:
"My son, this is no place for you. Have
you 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 consecrated you, by the
cradle in which we rocked you, by the
grass grown graves in the old country
church yard by the Heaven where we
hope yet to meet you, 90 home, Go home,
my boy go hOmew
And some Sunday you will be surprised
TO find that young man suddenly asking