The Russellville Democrat., 1889-09-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Divine Breaches to
 the Oregonians.
The PeriIs of the Deep and the PerIls of Life of Sin Compared-Not Alone on tine Sea Are
 There Castaways.

| Lest that by any means myself shoulu pe
 cast away.-t Cor, ix., 27
 In the presence of you who live on the
 Pacific coast l, who live on the Atlantic
 coast. may appropriately speak on this l marine allusion of the text, for all who
 know about the sea know about the east
 away. The text implies that ministers oi
 religion may help others into Heaven
 and yet miss it themselves. The car penters that built Noah's ark did not get | into it themselves. Gown and surplice,
 and diplomas, and canonicals are no se-
 curity. Cardinal Wolsey, after having
 been petted by kings, and having enter | tained foreign ambassadors at Hampton | Court died in darkness. One of the mosl
 eminent ministers of religion that this | country has ever known plunged into sin
 and died; his heart, by post mortem ex-
 animation, found to have been, not fig
 uratively, but literally, broken. We may have ha of ordination on the head, 1 and ada eonseerated assem- blages,
 but that is 4 eason why we shall neces- sarily reach lAe realm celestial. The | clergyman must go through the same | gate of Paradise as the layman. There
 have been cases of shipwreck where all
 on board escaped excepting the captain.
 Alas! if having .'preached to others, myself should be castaway." God for | bid it.
 I have examined some Of :ke con-
 mentaries to see what they thought of
 this word 'tcastaway," and I find they differ in regard to the meaning. So
 take my own selection, and take it in a
 nautical and sea-fariug sense, and sh ow | you that men become spiritual casta-
 ways, and how finally they drift into | that calamity.
 You and live in seaboard cities. You 1 have all Stood on the beach. Many of 1 you have crossed the ocean. Some of l you have managed vessels in great stress
 of weather. There is sea captain, and
 there is another, and there are a goodly | number of you who, though you did not | know the difference between a brig and @ | bark, and between a diamond knot and a | spirit sheet sail knot, and although you | could not point out the weather cross | jack brace, and though you could not
 man the fore clew garnets, now you are as familiar with a ship as you are with
 your right hand, and if it were necessary | you could take vessel clear across to | the mouth of the Mersey without the loss | of single sail.
 | Well, there is dark night in your | | unmanageable. You saw it was scud : l ding toward the shore You heard the | cry: "Breakers ahead! Land on the lee
 bowl" The vessel struck the rock and you felt the deck breaking up under your
 feet, and you were a cast-away, as when | the Hercules drove on the coast of Caf- l traria, and when the Portuguese brig
 went staying, splitting grinding, crash | ing on the Goodwins. But whether you have followed the sea or not, you all un- derstand the figure when 1 tell you that there are men, who by their sins and 1 temptations, are thrown helpless Driven before the gale Wrecked for two worlds Castawaysl Gas tawaysl
 l By talking with some sea captains, 1 have found out that there are three or | four causes for such calamity to a ves- | sel. 1 have been told that it sometimes comes from creating false lights on the | beach. This was often so in olden times. It
 is not many years ago, indeed, that vaga | bonds used to wander up and down the | beach, getting vessels ashore in the night, | throwing up false lights in their presence 1 and deceiving them that they might despoil and ransack them. All kinds of l internal arts were used to accomplish this. And one night, on the Cornish | coast, when the sea was coming in fear l fully, some williams took a lantern and | tied it to horse, and led the horse up | and down the beach, the lantern swing l ing to the motion of the horse, and a sea | captain in the offing saw it, and made up his mind that he was not anywhere near | the shore. for he said:
 "There's vessel-that must be ves- | sel, for it has movable light" and he
 had no apprehension til he heard the | rocks grating on the ships bottom, and | it went to pieces and the villains on the | shore gathered up the packages and | treasures that were washed to the land. | And have to tell you that there are a | multitude of souls ruined by false lights
 on the beach. In the dark night of mans | danger, false religion goes up and down the shore, shaking it's lantern, and men | look off and take that flickering and ex- | piring wick as the signal of safety, and | the cry is: "Heave the maintopsail to | the masti All is well v' when sudden de- | struction cometh upon them, and they | shall not escape. So there are all kinds | of lanterns swung on the beach-philo- | sophical lanterns, educational lanterns, | humanitarian lanterns. Men look at them and are deceived, when there is nothing
 but Gods eternal light-ho of the Cos | pei that can keep them from becoming | castaways.
 Once, on Wolf Graz light house, they tried to build a copper figure of a wolf | with its mouth open, so that the storms beating into it, the wolf would howl | forth the dangers to mariners that might | be coming anywhere near the coast. Of | course it was a failure. And so all new inventions for the saving of mans soul are unavailing. What the human race | wants is light bursting forth from the
 cross standing on the great headlands- | the lightof Heaven. You might better | go tonight and destroy all the great | light houses on the dangerous coasts-the | Barnegat light house. the Fastnet Rock | light house. the Sherryvore light house, | tho Longship's light house, the Holly l head light -house-than to put out Gods | great ocean lamp-the Gospel. Woe to those who swing false lanterns on the l beach till men crash into ruin. Cast awaysI Castaways
 By talking with sea captains I have heard also that sometimes ships come to | this calamity by the sudden swoop of a 1 tempest. For instance, vessel sailing along in the East Indies. and there is not single cloud in the sky; but suddenly | the breeze freshens, and there are swift | feet on the ratlines, and the cry is: "Way! haul away there p but before
 they can square the booms and tarpau- lin the hatchways the vessel is grooming
 and creaking in the grip of tornado, and falls over in the trough of the sea,
 and broadside it rolls on to the beach
 aud keels over, leaving the crew to strug- gle In the merciless surf. CastaWay l Castawayi And so I have to tell you that there are thousands of men de-
 stroyed through the sudden swoop of temptations. Some great inducement to
 worldliness, or to sensuality. or to high l temper, or to some form of dissipation, comes upon them. If they had time to l examine their Bible. if they had time to consult with their friends, if they had ..---- .lalaha-a.- H. ..-...Ia