The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-05-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse on 'sA Poi
soned Dinner.''
Strong Drink and Its COmDaniOn Evils
Brought to Bar-The BIighting
Effects of Intemperance on
the Home.

the houes
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage delivered the
following sermon in the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, taking for his text:
So they poured out for the men to eat. And
it came to pass, as they were eating OF the pot
tage, that they cried out and said: o, thou
man Of God, there is death in the pot And
they could not eat thereof.-I Kings, iv., 10.
Elisha had gone down to lecture to the
students in the theological seminary at
GilgaL He found the students very hum
CRY, as students are apt to be. 1t is very
seldom the world makes large provision
for those who give themselves to intel
lectual toll. In order that these students
may be prepared to hear what Ellis ha says,
he first feeds their hunger. He knew
very well it is useless to talk, to preach,
to lecture with hungry men. So Elisha,
recognizing this common-seuse pr1nct-
pie, which every Christian ought to rec
Ognize, sends servants out to get food
for these hungry students. They pick up
some good, healthful herbs, but they
happen to pick up also some coloquin-
tida, bitter, poisonous, deathfuI herb.
They bring all these herbs; they
put them into the boiling pot;
they stir them up, and then a por-
ton of this food is brought to the st1-
the table, one of the hungry students be-
gins Immediately to eat, aud he happens
to get hold of some of the colOquintida.
He knew it by the taste. He cries out:
''POisOn, poison! Oh, thou man of God,
there is death in the pot" COnsterna-
ton is thrown over the whole group.
What a fortunate thing it was that this
student so early found the colOquintida
in the mixture at the table! You will by
- L. 7
have mentioned it. Well, in our day
there are great caldrons of sin and death.
Coloquintida of mighty temptation is
pressed into it. Some dip it out and
caste, and reject it and live. Others dip
it out, taste it, keep On and die. And it is
the business of every minister OF religion
and every man who wishes well to the
human race, and who wants to keep the
world back from its follies and its suffer-
ings, to cry out: Beware poison! poi
soni Look out for this caldron!' Stand
back! Bewarew
Sin has done an awful work in our
world. 1t has gone out through all the
ages, 1t has mixed up great caldron OF
trouble and suffering and pain, and the
whole race is poisoned-pOisoned in body,
poisoned in mind, poisoned in soul. Bat
blessed be God that the Gospel of Jesus
Christ is the antidote, and where there
there was suffering there shall be COM
fort, and where there was death there
shall be life. Some time ago, you will
remember, / persuaded you of the i'm
portance of being charitable in judgment
of others. At the same time 1 said to
you briefly what this morning 1 wish to
say with great emphasis, that while we
sympathize with the sinner, we must de-
noTlnce the sin; that while we pity the
L.
against transgression. Sin is a jagged
thing that needs to be roughly handled.
You have no right to garland it with fine
phrases or lustrous rhetoric. You can
not catch buffalo with a silken lassO.
A group of emigrants settle in a wild
region. The next day a wild beast comes
down from the mountain and carries of
one of the children. The next day a wild
beast comes down from the mountain
and carries off another child. Forthwith
all the neighbors band together, and they
go out with torch in one hand and gun in
the other to hunt these monsters down, to
ind their hiding place, to light up and
ransack the caverns, and to destroy the
invaders Of their houses. So we want
now not merely to talk about the sins and
follies of the world, we want to go behind
them, back of them. Down into the cav
erns where they hide we need to go with
the tOrCh or 6OQ'S WOTu IN one mana anu
the sword of Gods eternal spirit in the
other to hunt out and slay these iniquities
In their hiding places. Or, to come back
to the figure suggested by my text, we
want to find what are the caldrOns of sin
and death from which the iniquities of
society are dipped out.
In the first place, I remark that uu-
happy and undisciplined homes are the
caldrOns of great iniquity. Parents,
harsh and cruel on the one hand, or, on
the other hand, loose in their government
wickedly loose in their government are
raising up q generation of vipers. A
home where scolding and fretfulness are
dominant is blood relation to the gallOws
and the penitentiary! Petulance is a
serpent that crawls up into the family
nursery sometimes and cTushes every
thing. Why, there are parents who even
make religion disgusting to their chill
dren. They scOld them for not loving
Christ. They have an exasperat;ng way
of doing their duty. The house is full OF
the war-whOOp of contention, and from
such a place husband and son go out TO
die.
Oh, is there Hagar leading away Ish-
maeI into the desert to be smitten Of the
thirst and parched of the sands? In the
solemn birth hour a voice fell to thee
from the throne of God, saying: "Take
this child and nurse it for me, and I will
give thee thy wages" At overtime.
when the angels of God hover over that
hone4 do they hear the children lisping
the name Of Jesus? o traveller for eter-
nifty. your little ones gathered under your
robes, are you leading them on the right
road, or are you taking them out on the
dangerous winding bride path, off which
their inexperienced feet may slip, and up
which comes the bowling of the wolf and
the sound of Ioosened ledge and tumbling
avaIancheg Blessed is the family altar
at which the children kneel. Blessed is
the cradle in which the Christian mother
rocks the Christian child. Blessed is the
song the little ones sing at nightfaIl,
when sleep is closing the eyes and loos-
ening the hand from the toy on the pill
low. Blessed is that mother whose every
heart throb is prayer for her children's
welfare.
The world grows old, and the stars will
cease to illuminate it, and the waters TO
refresh it. and the mountains TO guard it,
and the heavens to overspan II, and its
long story Of sin and shame, and glory
and triumph, will soon turn TO ashes; but
influences that started in the early home
roll on and roll up through ali eternity
blooming in all the JOY, waving in all the
triumph, exulting in ali the song, or
shrinking back into all the darkness.
Father, mother, which way are you lead
ing your children? A house took fire and
the owner was very careful TO get all his
furniture out. He got all his books out,
and he got all his pictures out, and he got
all his valuable papers out, but he forgot
to ask, until il was too late: "Are my
children safe?'' Oh, when the earth shall
melt with fervent heat, and the mountains
shall blaze, and the seas shall blaze, and
the earth shall blaze. will your children
be safer VIII your children be safer Un-
happy and undisciplined homes are the
sources Of much of the wretehedness aud
sin OF the world
know there are exceptions to il some