The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-06-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
subject; "Our Need Orleans.
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TEXT: VI cash myself spith smoso
tpatsr, and should cleanse my hands IN |
dlkalI yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch |
and mine o,on clothes shall aohor me."-
Job tx, so, 81.
Albert Barnes-honored be his name on |
earth andin heaven-went straight back to the |
original writing Of my text and translated
1t as have now quoted It, giving substantial
reasons for SO doing. Although we know
better, the ancents had an idea that In snow
water there was special power 20 cleanse,
and that garment washed and rinsed In II
would be as clean as clean could be; but II
the plain snow water failed to do its work,
then they would take lye or alkali and
mixed Il with OIL and under that
preparation they felt that the last impurity
would certainly be gone. Job, In my text
In most forceful figure sets forth the
idea that all his attempts TO make himself
pure before God were a dead failure, aud
that unless we are abluted by something
better than earthly liquids and chemical
preparations, we are loathsome and In the
ditch. "lf wash myself with snow water,
and should cleanse my hands in alkali, yet
shalt thou plunge me In the ditch, and mine
own clothes shall abhor mo-"
You are now sitting for your picture.
turn the camera obscura of Gods
the sunshine falling through the skylight
may enable me to take you just as you
are. Shall IL be hattering picture or
shall II be true onef You say; Let 1t be
a true one." The first profile that was ever
taken was taken three hundred and thirty
years before Christ, Of Ambiguous; He had
a blind eye and he compelled the art
list to take his profile so as to hide the
defect in his vision. But since that inven-
ton, three hundred and thirty years before
Christ, there have been u great many pro.
files. Shall l to-day give you one-sded
view of yourselves, profile, or shall 1t be
full-length portrait, showing you just what
you are? If God will help me by His al
mighty grace, shall give you that last kind
of a picture.
When first entered the ministry used to
write my sermons all out and read them, and
run my hand along the line lest | should lose
my place. have hundreds of those manu-.
scripts. Shall ever preach them? Never;
for in those days was somewhat over-mas-
tered with the idea heard talked all around
about, of the dignity of human nature, and
adopted the idea, and j evolved it. and Illus
trated it, and argued it; but coming on in
| life, and having seen more of the world, and
studied better my Bible, find that that early
| teaching was faulty, and that there is no dig
nifty in human nature, until tits reconstructed
by the grace Of God. Talk about vessels going
| to pieces on the Skerries, off Irelandl There
never was such u shipwreck as In the Gihon
and the Hiddekel rivers of Eden, where
our first parents foundered Talk of a
steamer going down with five hundred
shipwreck of fourteen hundred million souls?
| We are by nature mass of uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which 1t takes all the om-
Impotence and ininitude of Gods grace to
extricate us. If | wash myself with snow
water, and should cleanse my hands in al
kali, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch,
and my own clothes shall abhor me-"
remark, in the first place, that some peo-
pie try to cleanse their soul of sin in the snow
water of fine apologies. Here is one man who
says: II am sinner; / confess that; but
inherited this. My father was sinner, my
grandfather, my great-great-grandfather,
couldn't help myself" My brother, have
you not every day in your life, add.
ed something to the original estate of
sin that was bequeathed to your Are
you not brave enough to confess
that you have sometimes surrendered to sin,
which you ought to have conquered? ] ask
you whether it is fair play to put upon our
ancestry things for which we ourselve, are
personally responsible? If your nature was
askew when you got it, have you not some
times given 1t an additional twist? Will all
the tombstones of those who have preceded
us make barricade high enough
for eternal defenses? l know devout
man who had blasphemous parentage
know an honest man whose father was a
thief. know a pure man whose mother was
waif of the street. The hereditary tide
may be very strong, but there is such thing
as stemming 1t. The fact that / have cor
rupt nature Is no reason why / should yield
to it. The deep stains of our soul CAN never
be washed out by the snow water Of such in
sufficient apology.
u,tb hor
gone into SIM it has been through my coru-
panions, my comrades and nay associates;
s..oy rufIivd mrs. rpoy taught me to drink.
They took me to the gambling hell. They
plunged me into the house of sin. They
ruined my soul" do not believe it. God
gave to no one the power to destroy you or
me. If a man is destroyed hei self destroyed,
and that is always so. Why did you not break
away from them? If they had tried to steal
your purse, you would have knocked them
down; if they had tried to purloin your gold
watch, you would have riddled them
with shot; but when they tried to steal your
immortal soul, you placdly submitted to it.
Those bad fellows have a cup of fire to drink;
do not pour your cup into it. In this matter
of the soul, every man for himself That
those persons are not fully responsible for
your On, Iprove by the fact that you still
consoEt with them. You cannot get off by
blaming them. Though you gather up all
these apologies; though there were great
flood Of them; though they should come down
with the force of the melting SHOWS from
Lebanon, they could not wash out one stain
OF your immortal soul.
Still further, some persons apologize for
their sins by saying: 1--WE are great deal
better than some people. You see people all
around about us that are great deal worse
integrity, and look down upon those who are
PROSTATE in their habits and crimes. What
Of that, my brothere If l failed through reck-
lessness and wicked iMrlndence for ten thou-
sand dollars, is the 7aatter alleviated at all
BY the fact that somebody else has
failed for one hundred thousand dollars
and somebody else for two hundred
the neuralgia, shall refuse medical attend
ance because my neighbor has virulent
typhoid fever? The fact that his disease
is worse than mine-does that cure mine
If |, through my foolhardiness, leap off into
ruin, does it break the fall to know
that Others leap off higher cliff into
deeper darkness? When the Hudson pivel
rail train went through the bridge at Spuyter
Duyvil, did it alleviate the matter at all that
instead of two or three people being hurt
there were seventy-five mangied and crushed
Because others are depraved is that any ex
cuse for my depravity9 Am l better
than theyi Perhaps they had worse
haps their surroundings in life were
more overpowering. Perhaps, o man.
II you had been under the same stress OF
temptation instead Of sittire here TODAY.
you would have been looking through the
bars Of penitentiary. Perhaps o woman
II you had been under the same power Of
temptation, instead of sitting here to-day
you would be tramping the street the laugh
ing stock of men and the grief of the angeli
Of God, dungeoned, body, mind and soul, II
the blackness of despair. All, do not lei
ussolace ourselves with the thought that othel
people are worse than we. Perhaps in the
future, when our fortunes may change un
less God prevents 1t, we may be worse thar
they are. Many man after thirty years
after forty years, after fifty years, after sixty
years, has gone to pieces on the sane
bars. OH instead of wasting oul
time in hypercriticism about others
let us ask ourselves the questions, Where d.
we standf What are our sins What are oul
deicitsi What are our perilsi What oul
} hopes Let each one say to himself: 'sWher'
win bel Shall range in summary fields
or grind In the mills of a great night? Where
Where?"
Some wintermorning you go out and see ,