News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-08-08
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Sub jeCt: "The Earthquake,
preached at st, Paul, Minn.O
TEXT: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
aud thou shalt be sared Acts xvi, 81.

:, I
feel the chill? Do you not hear the groan OF
those incarcerated ones who for ten years
| 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 great horror. You listen again and hear
a culprit, his chains rafting as he rolls over
in his dreams and you says: God pity the
prisoner But there is another sound in
that prison. 1t is song of Joy and gladness
What a place to sing in The music comes
winding through the corridors of the prison,
and in all the dark wards the whisper is
heard: ''What's that? What's that?'
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 yet. They lie fiat on the
cts, 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 trying to make
the world better. Is that all? That is all.
A pit for Joseph. A lions cave for Dan
Clubs for John Wesley An anathema
for Philip Melancthon. A dungeon
for Paul and Silas But while we are stand
ing in the gloom of the Philippian dungeon,
and we hear the mingling voices of sob and
groan and blasphemy and hallelujah, sud
ueuiy an Inc iron DdIS VI buS
prison twist, the pillars crack off, the solid
masonry begins to heave and all the doors
swing open. The jailer, feeling himself re-
SponSible for these prisoners, and believing,
in his pagan ignorance, suicide to be honora-
ble-since Brutus killed himself, and
Cato killed himself, and Cassius killed
himsef-puts his sword to his own heart,
proposing with one strong, keen thrust to
put an end to his excitement and agitation.
But Paul cries out: ''Stopl Stop! Do thy
self no harm. We are all here" Then 1 see
the iailer running through the dust and amid
the ruin of that prison, and l see him throw
ing himself down at the feet of these prison
ers, crying out: "What shall / doP 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 COM
pact, thrilling, tremendous answer, an
swer memorable all through earth and
heaven, was: believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved" Well, we
have all heard of the earthquake in Lisbon,
i'll Lima, in Aloppo, and in Caracas but we
live in latitude where severe volcanic dis
turbances are rare. And yet we have seen
fifty 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:
possible perturbation" But in 1887, or
in 1857, or in 1878 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 very beautiful home. His
daughters have just come from the seminary
with diplomas of graduation. His sons have
started in life honest, temperate and pure.
When the evening lights are struck there is a
happy and unbroken family circle. 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 foundation of that beautiful home
The piano closed; the curtains dropped; tho
laughter hushed. crash go all those domes-
tic hopes and prospects and expectations. So,
my friends, we have all felt the shaking
down of some great trouble, and thcrc was
time when we were as much excited as this
man of the text, and we cried out as he did:
"What shall do? What shall do?" Tho
same reply that the apostle made to him is
appropriate to us: believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved"
There are some documents of SO little inn
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 Saviour n some
parts of the Bible is called Lord" and in
OUleT pdrUS Oh bne DlDIe lie Is Cdlleu
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 to-
gether-"The Lord Jesus Christ"
Now, who is this being that you want me
to trust in and believe in? Men sometimes
come to me with credentials and certificates
of good character, but l cannot trust them.
There is some dishonesty in their looks that
makes me know I shall be cheated if 1 con-
hde in them You cannot put your hearts
s.
stuff he is madc of, and am 1
unreasonable to-day when 1 stop to
ask you who this is that YOU want me
to trust in? Nc man would think of ventur-
ing his life Oh vessel going out to sea that
had never bean inspected No. you must
have the certificate 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 mo
what it is made of, and where it was made
and what it is. When, then, ask you who
this is you want me to trust in, you tell mo
He was very attractive person. Contem-
porary writers describe His whole appear
ance as being Respondent. There was no
need for Christ to tell the children to come
to Him. "Suffer little children to come
unto Me-" was not spoken to the children; it
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 arms, au
avalanche 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 at Christ
was to love Him. Oh, how attractive His
manner. Why, when they saw Christ COM
ing along the street they ran into their houses,
and they wrapped up their invalds as quick
as they could, and brought them out that
10 Iorht nnIy OF thn,,,
thing SO pleasant, so inviting, so cheering in
everything He did, in His very look. When
these sick ones were brought out did He say:
''Do not bring Ne these sores; do not trouble
Me with these leprosies?' No, no; there was
a kind look, there was gentle word, there
vas a healing touch. They could not keep
away from Him.
In addition to this softneSs of character,
there was q fiery momentum. How the kings
of the earth turned pale. Here is plain
man with few sailors at his back, coming
off the sea of Galilee, going up to the palace
of the Caesars making that palace quake to
the foundations, and tutoring a word of
mercy and kindness which throbs through all
the earth, and through all the heavens, and
through all ages oh, He was loving Christ.
But 1t was not effeminacy or insiDidity of
character; it was accompanied with majesty,
Infinite and Omnipotent Lest the world
should not realize His earDestness, this Christ
mounts the cross.
You say: ''If Christ has to die, why not
let him take some deadly potion and lie on a
couch in some bright and beautiful home? If
He must die, let Him expire amid all kindly
intentions" No. the world must hear the
on the heads of the spikes The
world must listen to the death rattle of the
sufferer. The world must feel His warm
blood dropping on each cheek, while it looks
up into the face of His anguish. And so the
cross must be, lifted and hole dug
on the top of Calvary. 1t must be dug three
feet deep, and then the cross is laid on the
ground, and the sufferer is stretched upon it.
and the nails are pounded through nerve and
muscle and bone, through tho right hand
through the left hand, and then they shake
His right hand to see if it is fast and they
under the weight, and they put the end of
5he cross in the mouth of the hole,
md they plunge it in, all the weight
If His body coming down for the
irst time on the spikes; and while
some hold the cross upright, others throw in
-he dirt and trample it down, and trample it
hard Oh, plant that tree well and
for it is to bear fruit such as no
other tree ever bore. Why did Christ
ondure it? He could have taken those rocks
md with them crushed His cruciiers. He
could have reached up and grasped the
sword of the Omnipotent God, and with one
;leau cut have tumbled them into perdition.
But no; He was to die. He must die. His
life for your life. In a European city
. young man died on the scaffold
for the crime of murder. Some
time after the mother of this young
man was dying and the priest came in, and
she made confession to the priest that she was
the murderer and not her son; in moment
If anger she had struck her husband blow
that slew him. The son came suddenly into
the room, and was washing away the wounds
and trying to resuscitate his father when
some one looked through the window and saw
4 to no bo