New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-26
TO MAKE A CHAIN.
dr.. Talmage Says The Chain of the
Influences, Made Up of the Good
or Bad Links, Controls the
Courses of Our Lives.
The Chain, for Good or Evil, Forged
by the Parents---One Poor Link
May Ruin ALI.

.sacramental day at the tabernacle, and the
more than a 900 communicate members were
Joined by thousands from all parts of this
country and from other lands in the sacred
commemoration. The Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, d. D., preached from Ezekiel vii, %:
SSMake a Champ He said:
At school and in college in announcing the
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 O
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 adorn-
ment, or restraining as in captivity, or hold.
in conjunction as in 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 breastplate two chains of gold.
On the camePs necks the. Ishmaelites
drove up to Gideon jingled chains of gold
The Bible refers to the church as hayino.
such glittering adornments, saying, sThy
neck is comely with chains of gold'' On the
the psalmist exults thatpower had been given
his enemies ''to 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 incar-
cerated, you hear one day great crash at the
falling offOf his chains ST. ohm saw an angel
come down from heaven to manacle the
powers OF darkness, and having "a great
chain in his hand" and the fallen angels are
represented as reserved in everlasting
chains, while in my text for the arrest and
limitation of the iniquity OF his time, Ezekiel
saunders out: ''Make chain!"
What wish to impress upon myself and
upon you is the strength in right and wrong.
directions, of consecutive forces. the superior
power OF q chain of influences above one in
1uence, the great advantage of congeries of
links above one link, and in all family govern
Inent and in all effort to rescue Others and
IN all attempt to stop iniquity, take the sug-
4geshons OF my text and make a chain!
That which contains the greatest impor-
tance, that which encloses the most tremend-
Gus opportunities, that which of earthly
things is most watched by other worlds, that
which has beating against it's two sides all
che eternltles, is the cradle. The grave is
nothing in Importance compared with it, for
that IS only gully that we step across in a
second, but the cradle has within it a new
eternity, just born and never TO cease. When
three ortour years ago the Ohio river over
flowed it's banks and the wind freshets swept
down with them harvests and cities, one
day was found floating on the
bosom ofthe waters a cradle with a child in it
all unhurt, wrapped up snug and warm, and
its blue eyes looking into the blue ofthe open
heavens. 1t was mentioned as something ex-
6raordinary. But every cradle is with it's
finairin0 no
rents Of the centuries, deep calling to deep,
Ohios and st. LaWrences and Mississippis of
influence, bearing it onward Now what shall
be done with this new life recently launched?
Teach him an evening prayer? That is i'm
portant, but not enough. Hear him as soon
as he can recite some gospel hymn or cate
Shlsm? That'ls Important but not enough.
Every Sabbath afternoon read him Bible
story? That is important but not enough.
Once IN While lesson, once in a while q
prayer, once i'll awhile arestraning influence?
All these are important, but not enough.
Each one Of these influences is only q link
and it will not hold him in the tremendous
emergencies of life Let it be constant in
.structlon, constant prayer, constant applica-
ton OF good influences, q long line of consec-
utiye impressions, reaching from his first
year to his fifth, and from his fifth year to
mis- tenth, and from his tenth year to his
twentieth. ''Make q chain'
Spasmodic education, paroxysmal disci-
pine, occasional fidelity, amounting to moth
dng. You can as easily hold an anchor bv
one link as hold a child to the right by isol-
ated and intermitten faithfulness. The ex-
ample must connect with the instruction.
The conversation must combine with actions
The weekday consistency must conjoin with
the Sunday worship. Have family prayers
by all means; but be petulant and inconsist-
ent and unreasonable in your household and
your family prayers will be blasphemous
farce. So great in our times are the tempta-
lions OF young women to dissipation, and
young women to social foles, that
1T is more Important that the first Is
years of their life be charged with a
religious power that will hold them when they
get out OF the harbOr ofhOmeinto the stormy
ocean of active life. There is such thing as
dmpressing children SO powerfully with good,
chat 90 years will have no more power to eff
face 1t than 80 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
gn Scotland, or England Or Ireland; but
they have stood in the doorway of every
dramshop that he entered, and under the
chandelier OF every house of dissipation say
ing? My son, this is no placefo you Have
you forgotten the old folks? Don't you rec
rognize 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 grass-rrown
graves in the old country churchyard BY the
heaven where we hope yet to meet you go
home! Go home, my boy, go home!" And
some Sunday you will be 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 kind of chalice that
the old folks drank out of years ago when
they. commemorated the sufferings of the
Lord Yes my lad, you do not have such
fun ins sin as you seem to have. know what
spoils your fun. You cannot shake off the
influence of those prayers long ago offered, or
of those kind admonitions. You cannot make
them go away, and you feel like saying:
ssFather, what are you doing here? Mother,
why do you bother me with suggestions Of
those olden times?' But they will not go
away. They. will push you back from your
evil paths, though they have to come down
from their shining homes in heaven and
stand in the very gates of hell, and their
e backs scorched of the fiery blast, and with
their hand on your shoulder and their breath
on your brow, and THERE eyes looking straight
into yours, they will say: "Wehave come to
take You home. 0. son of many anxietiesi,,