The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-04-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourses Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: s'Thc Decoration OF
the SouD.o preached at Fort
Scott, kansas,)

Txxr; "Pat a ring on his hand."-Luk,
Nv, %:
will not rehearse the familiar story OF
The fast young man OF the parahlc. You
know what splendid homo he left. You
know what hard time no had. And you
remember how after that season of vaga-
bondage and p,rdigality he resolved to go
and weep out his sorrows on the bosom Of
parental forgiveness. Well, there is great
excitement one day in front of tho door of
the old farm house, The servants come rush.
ing up and say; Whats the matterl What
is the mattersh But before they quite arrive
the old man cries out: "Put ring on his
hand" What a seeming absurdityl What
can such wretched Tendcant as this fellow
that is tramping on toward the house want
with rings Oh, he is the prodigal son. No
more tending of the swine trough, No more
longing for the pods of the carob tree. No
more 6listered feet. OFF with the ragsl On
with the robe! Out with the ringl Even so
does God receive every one of us when we
come back There are gold rings, and pearl
rings, and corneliaa rings, and Diamond
rings; but the richest ring that ever flashed
on the vision is that which our father puts
upon forgiven soul.
knew the impression Is abroad among
some people that religion bemeans and belit-
Ties man; that IL takes all the sparkle out
of his soul; that he has to exchange a roy
stering independence for an ecclesiastical
strait Jacket Not so. When man becomes
a Christian, be does not go down, he starts
upward Religion multiplies one by ten
tb""sani. Nay the multiplier is infinity.
1t is not blotting Quit is a polishing, it is
an arborcscence it is an effloresc ence, it is an
irradiation. When a man comes into the
Kingdom of God he is not sent into q mental
seyvice, but the Lord God Almighty from the
palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger
angels that wait upon the throne to fly and
put a ring ON his hand" In Christ are the
largest liberty, the brightest joy, and highest
honor, and richest adornment. "Put ring
ON his hand"
remark, in the first place, that when
Christ receives soul into His love He puts
upon him the ring of adoption. In my
church in Philadelphia there came the repre-
sentative of a benevolent society in New
York. He brought with him eight or ten
children of the street, that he had picked up,
and he was trying to find for them Christian
homes; and as the little ones stood on the pull
pit and sung, our hearts melted within us.
AT the close of the services a great hearted,
wealthy man came up and said: "Tll take
this little bright eyed girl, and I'll adopt her
MS one of my own children" and he took her
by the hand, lifted her into his carriage and
went away.
The next day, while we were in the church
gathering up garments for the poor Of New
York, this little child came back with bun
die under her arm, anu she said: "There's
my old dress; perhaps some of the poor chill
dren would like to have it," while she herself
was in bright and beautiful array, and those
who more Immediately Examined her said
she had a ring on her hand. 1t was ring Of
adoption.
There are great many persons who pride
themselves on their ancestry, and they glory
over the royal blood that pours through their
arteries. In their line there was a lord, or a
duke, or prime minister, or king. But
when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the
ring of adoption, we become the children of
he ruler of all nations. Behold what man.
Aer of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called the sons Of God u
1t matters not how poor our garments may
Se In this world, or how scant our bread, or
low mean the hut we live in, if we have the
tng OF Carists adoption unon our hand we
Re assured of eternal defenses.
Adopt! Why, then we are brothers and
listers to all the good of earth and heaven.
We have the family name, the family dress,
the family keys, the family wardrobe. The
father looks after us, robes us, defends us,
blesseS us. We have royal blood in our veins,
and there are crowns in our line If we are
his children, then princes and Processes. 1t
Is only question of time when we get our
coronet. Adopted! Then we have the fam
lily secrets. 1.-THE secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him." Adopted! Then we
have the family inheritance, and in the day
when our father shall divide the riches OF
heaven, we shall take our share of the man
sions and palaces and temples. Henceforth
let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry.
The insignia of eternal glory is our coat of
arms This ring of adoption puts upon us
all honor and all privilege. Now we can
take the words of Charles Wesley, that princs
OF Lynn makers. and sing:
Come, letus join our friends above.
Who have obtained the prize,
And on the eagle wings of love
To joy celestial rise.
Let all the saints terrestrial sing
With those to glory gone;
For all the servants of our King,
In Heaven and earth, are one.
l have been told that when any Of the
me- -Jers of any of the great secret societies
i this country are in distant city and are
IN any kind of trouble and are set upon Ly
enemies, they have only to give certain
signal and the members of that organization
will flock around for defense. And wher
any man belongs to this great Christian
brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial
in persecution, in temptation, he has only tt
show the ring of Chrlst's adoption, and all
the armed cohorts of heaven will come to hi,
rescue
- Still further, when Christ taxes a soul into
His love He puts upon it marriage ring
Now that is not within of mine: "And
will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea I
will betroth thee unto Me in Righteousness,
and in augment, and in loving kindness,
anu in mercies." At the wedding altar the
bridegroom puts ring upon the hand of the
bride, slgnifying love and faithfulness.
Trouble may come upon the household, and
the carpets may 60, the pictures may GO the
piano may go, everything else may go-the
last thing that goes is the marriage ring, for
it is considered sacred In the burial hour it
is withdrawn from the hand and kept in O
casket, and sometimes the box is opened on
an anniversary day, and as you look at that
ring you see under its arch long procession
of precious memories. Within the golden
circle of that ring there is room for thou
sand sweet recolections to revolve, and you
think OF the great contrast between the hour
when, at the close of the wedding
March," under the flashing lights
and amid the aroma of orange BIOS
SONS, you set that ring on the round
hnger of the plump hand, and that other
hour when, at the close of the exhaustive,
watching, when you knew that the soul had
fled, you took from the hand, which gave
back no responsive clasp, from that ema-
dated finger, the ring that she had worn 80
long and worn so well
On some anniversary day you take I'D that
ring, and you repolish it until all the cid lus-
ter comes back, and you can see in it the
flush of eyes that long ago ceased to weep.
Oh, it is not an unmsaning thing when I tell
you that when Christ receives a soul into his
keeping he puts on it marriage ring. He
endows you from that moment with all his
wealth. You are one-Christ aad the soul
one in sympathy, one in affection, one in
hope.
There is no power in earth or hell to effect
a enforcement after Christ and the soul are
united. Other kings have turned out their
companions when they got weary of them,
and sent them adrift from the palace gate.
Ahasuerus banished Vashti Napoleon for
sock Josephine; but Christ is the husband
4hat is true forever Having loved you once.
he loves you to the end. Did they not try to
divorce Margaret the Scotch girl, from
Jesuss They said: "You must give up your
religion She said: 81 can't give up my
religion" And so they took her down to the
beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake
at low water mark. and they fastened her to
It, expecting that as the tide came up her
faith would fail. Tho tide beran to rise and