Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-29
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArCH.i
ST. PAUL, MINI, July 2S.-The Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage, ID. D., of Brooklyn,
n. Y, preached in this city to-day His
subject was "The Earthquake" and he took
for his text: believe on the Lord Jesus
e Christ and thou shalt be saved" Acts xvi.
81. The sermon was as follows:
Jails are dark, dull, damp, loathsome
places even now; but they were worse in the
apostolic times 1 imagine to-day We are
standing in the Philippian dungeon. Do
YOU not feel the chill? Do you not hear the
groan of those incarcerated ones who for ten
wears have not seen the sunlight, and the
deep sigh OF women who remember their
fathers house and mourn over their wasted
estate? Listen again. 1t is the cough of a
consumptive, or the struggle of one in the
nightmare of a great horror. You listen
again and hear a culprit, his chains rattling
as he rolls over in his dreams, and you say,
"God pity the prisoner" But there is
another sound in that prison. 1t is a song
of JOY and gladness. What place to sing
in! The music comes winding through the
corridors of the prison, and in all the dark
wards the whisper is heard: whats that?
What's thato'
1t is the song of Paul and Silas. They
cannot sleep. They have been whipped,
very badly whipped. The long gashes on
their backs are bleeding vet They lie fat
on the cold ground, their feet fast in wooden
sockets, and of course they cannot sleep.
But they can sing. Jailer, what are you
doing with these people? Why have they
been put in here? Oh, they have been try
ing to
MAKE THE WORLD BETTER.
Is that all? That is all. A pit for Joseph.
A liens cave for Daniel. A blazing furnace
for Shadrach. Clubs for John Wesley. An
anathema for Philip Melancthon. A dun
eeon for Paul and Silas. But while we are
standing in the gloom of the Philippian
dungeon, and we hear the mingling voices of
sob and groan and blasphemy and hallelu-
jah, suddenly an earthquake! The iron bars
of the prison twist, the pillars crack of, the
solid masonry begins to heave, and all the
doors swing open. The jailer, feel
ing himself responsible for these pris-
ioners, and believing, in his pagan
ignorance, suicide to be honorable
since Brutus killed himself and
Cato killed himself, and Cassius killed him
seif-puts his sword to his own heart, pro-
posing with one strong, keen thrust to put
an end to his excitement and agitation. But
Paul cries out: stop! Stop! Do thyself
no harm. We are all here" Then see
the jsiler running through the dust and
amid the ruin of that prison, and see him
throwing himself down at tine feet OF these
prisoners, crying out: "What shall / do?
What shall 1 do?''
Did Paul answer: "Get out of this place
before there is another earthquake; put
handouts and hopples on these other
prisoners, lest they get away?" No word
of that kind. His compact, thrilling, tre-
mendous answer, answer memorable all
through earth and heaven, was: Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved" Well, we have all read of the
earthquake in Lisbon, in Lima, in Aleppo
and in Caracas, but we live in latitude
where severe volcanic disturbances are rare
And yet we have seen 80 earthquakes. Here
is man who has been building up
A LARGE FORTUNE.
His bid on the money market was felt in
all the cities. He thinks he has got beyond
all annoying rivalries in trade, and he says
to himself, "Now l am free and safe from
all possible perturbation. But in 1887, or
in 1857, or in 1873, a national panic strikes
the foundations of the commercial world,
and crash! goes all that magnificent business
establishment. Here is a man who has
built up a very beautiful home. His
daughters have just come from the seminary
with diplomas of graduation. His sons
tave started in life, honest, temperate and
pure. When the evening lights are struck
there is happy and unbroken family cir
Gle. But there has been an accident down
at Long Branch. The young man ventured
too far out in the surf. The telegraph hurled
the terror up to the city. An earthquake
struck under the foundations of that beauti-
full home. The piano closed; the curt aims
dropped; the laughter hushed. Crashl go
all those domestic hopes and prospects and
expectations. So, my friends, we have all
felt the shaking down of some great trouble,
and there was a time when we were as much
excited as this man of the text, and we cried
out as he did, "What shall 1 do? What
shall 1 do?" The same reply that the apos-
tie made to him is appropriate to us: BE
1ieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved"
There are some documents of so little i'm
portance that you do not care to put any
more than your last name under them, or
even your initials; but there are some docu-
ments OF so great importance that you write
out your full name. So the Savior in some
parts of the Bible is called Lord, and in
other parts of the Bible He is called |
"Jesus," and in other parts of the Bible He
is called "Christ;" but that there might be |
no mistake about this passage, all three |
names come together-"The Lord Jesus
Christ"
WHOM DO WE TRUST?
Now, who is this being that YOU want me |
10 trust in and believe in? Men sometimes |
come to me with credentials and certificates
of good character, but cannot trust them.
There is some dishonesty in their looks that |
makes me know shall be cheated if 1 con- |
fde in them. You cannot put your hearts |
confidence in man until you know what |
stuff he is made of, and am I unreasonable |
to-day when I stop to ask you who this is |
that you want me to trust in? No man |
would think of venturing his life on a |
vessel going out to sea that had never been |
inspected. No, you must have the certif- |
cate hung amidships, telling how many |
tons it carries, and how long ago it was
built, and who built it, and all about it.
And you cannot expect me to risk the cargo |
of my immortal interests on board any |
craft till you tell me what it is made Of, and /
where it is made and what it is.
When, then, 1 ask you who this is you
want me to trust in, you tell me He was a
very attractive person. Contemporary
writers describe His whole appearance as |
being resplendent. There was 70 need for
Christ to tell the children to come to Him.
'Suffer little children to come unto me-"
was not spoken to the children; 1t was
spoken to the disciples. The children came
readily enough without any invitation. No
sooner did Jesus appear than the little ones
jumped from their mothers arm, an ava
lanche of beauty and love, into His lap.
Christ did not ask John to put his head
down on His bosom; John could not help
but put his head there. suppose to look
Rt Christ was to love Him. Oh, how at
Iractive His manner Why, when they saw