Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-04-26
WORLD TO BE SAVED.
DIR. TALMAGE SAYS 1T CAN BE DONE
IN TEN YEARS. .

A Fitting Close to One Of the Grandcs
Centuries in the History of the World
Soul-Saving Has Got to Be Done al
Short Range.
At the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sun
day, after eNpounding the passages de-
scriptive of the world as it shall be
when gospelized, Dr. Talmage gaye-e
the hymn
People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on his love with swee test song.
Text. Revelations xix, 4: Amen;
Allcluia."
The nineteenth century is departing.
After it has taken few more steps;i if
each year he step, it will be gone into
the eternitieS. In short time we shall
be in the last decayed of this century,
which fact makes the solen,nest book
outside the Bible the almanac, and the
most suggestive and the most tremend-
Gus piece of machinery in all the earth
the clock. The last decade of this CEN
tuly upon which We shall soon enter
will be the grandest, mightiest. and
most decisive decade i'll all the chrono-
loeies. | am slaI it is not to come i'm
mediately. for we need by new bap-
That last ten years of the nineteenth
century. may we all live to see them!
Does any one say that this division of
time is arbitrary? Oh, no; in other ages
the division of time may have been arbi-
trary, but our years date from Christ.
Does any one say that the grouping of
ten together is an arrangement arbl-
trary? oh. no; next to the figure seven.
ten is with God favorite number. Abra-
ham dwelt ten years in Caanan. Ten
righteous men would have saved Sodom.
In the ancient tabernacle were ten cur
tains, their pillars ten and their sockets
ten. In the ancient temple We're ten
LAYERS and ten candlesticks and ten ia
bles aud a molten sea of ten cubits.
And the commandments written OH the
granite of Mount Sinai were ten, and
the kingdom of God was lillened to ten
him that Was Jew, and the reward of
the greatly faithful is that they shall
reign over ten cities, and in the effort
to take the census of the New Jerusalem
the number ten swings around the thou
sands. crying ten thousand times ten
thousand. So come to look toward
the closing ten years of the nineteenth
century with an intensity Of interest
can hardly describe.
1 have also noticed that the favorite
time in many of the centuries for great
events was the closing fragment of the
century. Is America to be discovered, it
must be in the last decade of the fifteenth
century, namely, 1892. Was free con-
stitutional government to be we'll es-
tablished in America, the last years of
the eighteenth century must achieve it.
We're three cities to be submerged by
,t,r &c
Strahi@ and Pompeii in the latter part
fourth century closed with the most
agitating ecclesiastical war of history,
Urban the Sixth against Clement the
Seventh. Alfred the Great closes the
ninth century and Edward Ironsides the
eleventh century with their resounding
deeds. The. sixteenth century closed
with the establishment of religious in
dependence in the United Netherlands.
Aye, almost every century has had its
peroration of overtowering achieve
ments. AS the closing years of the CEN
turtles seem favorite time for great
scenes of emancipation OF disaster, and
as the number ten seems a favorite
number in the Scriptures, written by
divine direction, and we are soon to
enter upon the last ten years of the
nineteenth century, what does the world
propose? What does the church of
propose? l know not; but now in the
presence of this consecrated assembly /
propose that we make ready, get all our
batteries planted and all our plans we'll
laid i'll what remains of this decade, and
then in the last decade Of the ineteenth
century march up and take this round
world for God.
When l say we, mean the fve hcn-
dred million Christians now alive. But,
as many of them will not have enough
heart for the work let US copy Gideon,
and as he had thirty two thousand men
in his army to fight the Midianites but
many of them were not made of the right
stuff and he promulgated military Or
der saying: "Whosoever is fearful and
afraid let him return and depart early
from Gilead, and twenty-five thousand
were afraid of getting hurt and went
and God told them that even this re-
duced number was too large a number.
for they might think they had triumphed
independent of divine help, and so the
number must be still further reduced
and only those should be kept in the
ranks who in passing the river should
be SO in haste for victory over their
enemies that, though very thirsty, they
would without stopping a second Just
scoop up the water in the palm of their
right hand and scoop up the water in
the palm of their left hand and only
three hundred men did that and those
three hundred men with the battle shout,
THE sword of the Lord and of Gideon,
scattered the Midianites like leaves in
an equinox, SO out of the five hundred
million nominal Christians of to-day
let all unbelievers and towards go home
and get out of the way. And suppose
we have only four hundred million left,
suppose only two hundred million left,
suppose only one hundred million left,
yea, suppose we only have fifty million
lett, with them We will undertake the
divine crusade, and each one just scoop
ing up palm full of the river of Gods
mercy in one hand and a palm full OF
the river of Gods strength in the other
let us with the cry, The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon" the sword of the
Lord and of John Knox. the sword of
the Lord and of Matthew Simpson, the
sword of the Lord and of Bishop Nc
lvaine, the sword of the Lord and of
Adoniram Judson, the sword of the Lord
and of Martin Luther, go into the last
decade of the Nineteenth century
Is it audacious for me to propose it:
Oh. no: captive servant in the kitchen