The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-30
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVJNE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 1.-THE Saving Look"

En.,
In the Christian life we must not 60 slip.
ahod This world was not made for us to rest
in. In time of war you will find around the
streets Of some city, fay from the scene OF
conflict, men in soldiers uniform, who have
a right to be away. They obtained fur.
Tough and they are honestly and righteously
of duty; but I have to tell you that in this
Christian conflict, between the first moment
when we enlist under the banner Of Christ,
and the last moment in which we shout the
rictoTy, there never will be single instant
in which we will have right to be off duty.
Paul throws all around this Christian LIE the
excitements Of the old Roman and Grecian
games-those games that sent man on
and muscle, that sonnet mes when
he came up to the goal, he dropped
down exhausted Indeed, history tells
Us that there were cases where men came up
Ind only had strength just to grasp the
goal and then fall dead. Now, says this
apostle, making allusion to those very games,
we are all to run the race, not to crawl it,
not to walk it-but run the race set before
nus, looking unto Jesus" and just as in the
olden times, a man would stand at the end
of the road with beautiful garland that was
to be put around the head or brow of the
successful racer, so the Lord Jesus Christ
stands at the end of the Christian race with
the garland of eternal life, and may God
grant that by His holy spirit we may so run
as to obtain.
The Distinguished Welliston, the chemist,
was asked where his laboratory was, and the
inquirers expected to be shown some large
apartment filed with very expensive appara-
tus; but Welliston ordered his servant to
bring on a tray few glasses and retort,
and he said to the inquirers: THAT is all my
laboratory. I make all my experiments with
those" Now, know that there are great
manywho take a whole libraryto express their
Thousand things; but have to say that all
kRhy theology is compasSed in these three words:
looking unto Jesus" and when we can
Understand the height and the depth and the
O1ength and the breadth and the in6nity and
the immensity Of that passage we can under
stand all.
remark in the first place. we must look to
Christ as our personal Saviour. Now, you
know as well as I, that man is only blasted
ruin Of what he once was. There IS not SO
much difference between vessel coming out
of Liverpool harbor, with pennants flying
and the deck crowded with good cheer, and
the guns booming, and that same vessel driv-
ing against Long Island coast, the drowning
passengers ground to pieces amid the tinbers
OF the broken up steamer, as there is be-
tween man as he came from the hands of
God, equipped for grand and glori-
Gus yoyage, but afterward, through
: the pilotage of the devil, tossed and driven
and crushed the coast of the near future
strewn with the fragments Of an awful and
eternal shipwreck. Our body is wrong. How
easily 1t is ransacked Of disease Our mind
IS wrong. How hard it is to remember, and
how easily to forget. The whole nature dis
ordered, from the crown of the head to the
sole of the foot-wounds, bruises, putrefying
sores. "Alf have sinned and come short Of the
glory of God.n ''By one man sin entered
into the world and death by sin,
and so death has passed upon all
is in Brazil plant they call the murderer"
for the simple reason that it is so poisonous it
kills almost everything it touches. 1t begins
to wind around the root of the tree, and
coming up to the branches reaches out to the
ends Of Che branches, killing the tree as it
goes along. When it has come to the tip end
Of the branch the tree is dead. Its seed fall
to the ground and start other plants just as
murderous.
And so it is with sin. It is poisonous
plant that was planted in our soul a long
while ago, and it comes winding about the
body and the mind and the soul, poisoning,
poisoning, poisoning killing, killing, killing
as It goes. Now, there would be no need Of
my discoursing upon this if there were no
HMay of plucking out that plant. 1t is most
|inconsiderate thing for me to come to man
who is in financial trouble and enlarge upon
his trouble if have no alleviation to offer.
A4r-is an unfair thing for me to come to man
who is sick and enlarge upon his disease
if have no remedy to offer.
But have right to como
to man in financial distress
or physical distress if have financial re-en.
forcement to offer or sure cure to propose.
Blessed be God that among the mountains of
our sin there rolls and reverbrates song of
salvation. Louder than alT the voices of
bondage is the trumpet of Gods deliverance,
thyself, but in Me is thy help" At the
barred gates of our dungeon, the conqueror
b knocks and the hinges creak and grind at
the swinging open. The famine struck pick
up the mama that falls in the wilderness
and the floods clap their hands, saying:
Drink, oh thirsty soul, and live for
ever" and tho feet that were torn and
deep cut on the rocky bride path of sin
now come into q smooth place, and the
breaks through to the water brooks,
and tho dark night Of the soul begins
to grow gray with the morning, yea to
purple. yea 20 flame, from horizon to
horizon The batteries of temptation sill
cnced. Troubles that fought against us
captured and made to fight on our side. Not
as a result Of any toll or troupe on our
part, but only as a result of Looking unto
Jesus" ''But what do you mean by Look
ing unto Jesus?n some one inquiries. mean
faith. What do You mean by faith?" I
believingT' I mean this: If you promise to
do certain thing for me, and have con-
Adence in your veracity-if you say you will
give me such thing and need It very
much, I come in confidence that you are an
honest man and will do what you say. Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ says: "You are in
need Of pardon and life and heaven, you can
have them if you come and get them" !"
You say: II can't come and ask first
I Jam afraid You won't give it to me-
Then you are unbelieying. But you say: 81
VIII come and ask. know, Lord Jesus,
! Thou art in earnest about this matter. I
) come asking for pardon. Thou hast prom
ised to give it to me, Thou wilt give it to me-
Thou hast given it to me." That is faith.
Do you see it yet? "Oh," says some one, II
csn't understand it." No man ever did,
W.l,,ut divine help. Faith is the gift of
Sdodloxou say: THAT throws the response
biLity of my shoulders" No. Faith is the
gift Of God, but it comes III answer to prayer.
AL over glorious is my Lord
He must be loved ana yet adored;
His worth II all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him, too.
Iremark again, that we must look to Jesus
as an example. Now, a mere copyist, you
know, is always failure. If a painter go to
portfolio or a gallery Of art, however ex-
9uisite, to get his idea Of the natural world
from these pictures, he will not succeed as
well as the artist who starts out and dashes
the dew from the grass and sees themorning
just as God built it in the clouds, or poured il
upon the mountain, or kindled it upon the
sea. People wondered why Turner, the