Connecticut western news., 1889-10-16
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
THE SAVING LOOK"

Dr. Talmage was prevented from preach ! ing owing to the destruction of the Taberna- cle by fire on Sunday morning. The sermon intended to be delivered that day was handed to our correspondent, which We give in full. The subject of his sermon was .'The Saving Look" and the text Hebrews xii, ,: LOOK - iug unto Jesus" Dr. Tamage said: In the Christian life we must not go slip shod. This world WAS not made for us fo rest in. In time of war you will ind around the streets of some city, far from the scene of conflict, men in soldiers uniform, who have a right to be away. They obtained furloush and they are honestly and right- eously of duty: but have 10 tell you that m this Christian conflict. between the hr>t mo ment when We enlist under Inc banner or Christ, and the last moment in which we shout the victory. there never will be slnr gle instant in which we will have right to be of duty Paul throws all around this Christian life the settlements Of the old Roman and Greeisn gameS-thoSe games that sent man on race. with such a stretch of nerve and muscle, that sometimes when he came up 10 the goal. he dropped down exhausted. Indeed, history tells Us that there were cases where men came dead. Now. says this apostle, making alluzions to those very games. we arc all to run the race. not to crawl 1t. not
 
 looking unto Jesus." and just as in the oden times, man would stand at the end of the road with T beautiful garland that was to be put around the head or brow of the success full racer. so the Lord Jesus Christ stands at the end of the Christian race with the gar land 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 tille1 with very expensive appara- . tus; " /ston ordered his servant To briE,z OF ~~dy few glasses and retort. and he said to the inquirers: "That is all my laboratory. l make all my experiments with those." Now, know that there are great many who take whole library to express their theology. They have so many theories on ten thousand things; but l have to say that aE my theology is compassed in these three words: "Looking unto Jesus, and when we can understand the height and the depth and the length and breadth and the in- inity and the immensity of that passage we can unde-~And sll.
 remark in the first place. we must look to Christ as our personal Saviour. Now, you know as well I, that man is only a blasted ruin of what he once was. There is not so much difference between vessel con- ing out Liverpool harbor, with pennants fly ing and the 1eek crowded with good cheer. and the guns booming. and that same vessel driving against Long Island coast, the drown ing passengers ground to pieces amid1he
 
 between man as he came from the hands of God, equipped for grand and glorious voyage, 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 it is ransaeked of disease. Our mind is wrong. How hard it is to remember. and how easy to forget. The whole nature disordered, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot-wounds, bruises, putre- flying sores. ''All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and SO death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned." There is in Brazil plant they call the murderer for the simple reason that it Is so poisonous it kills almost every thing it touches. It begins to wind around the root of the tree, and coming up to the branches reaches out to the ends of the branches, killing the tree it goes along. When 1t has come to the tip end of the branch the tree is dead. Its seeds fall to tine ground and start other plants just as murder ous.
 And SO it is with sin. It is poisonous plant that was planted in our soul long time ago, and it comes winding about the body and the mind and the soul. poisoning, poi soning, poisoning-killing, killing, killing as it goes. Now, there would be no need of my discourSing upon this if there were no way of plueking out that plant. It is most fn- considerate t--1g for me to come to a man who is in financial trouble and enlarge upon his troubles if have no aleviaton to offer. It is an unfair thing for me to come ro a man who is sick -.cd enlarge upon his disease if have no remedy to offer. But have right to come to 8 man in financial distress or physical distress if l have financial re- enforcement to offer or a sure cure to pro pose. Blessed be God that among the noun tains of our sin there rolls and reverberates cong of salvation. Louder than all the voices of bondage is the trumpet of Gods deliveranee, sounding: ''Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed myself, but in me is thy help" At the barred gates of our dungeon, the conquerer knocks and the hinges creek and grind at the swinging open. The famine struck pick up the mann, that falls in the wilderness and the floods :lap their hands, saying: ''Drink, oh thirsty soul, and live forever" and the feet that were torn and deep cut on the rocky bride path of sin now come into smooth place, and the dry alders crackle as the panting hart breaks through to the water brooks, and the dark night of the yea to purple, yea to flame, from horizon to horison. The batteries of temptation sileneed. Troubles that fought against us captured and made to fight on our side. Not as result of any toll or trouble on our part. but only as a result of Looking unto Jesus." 'sBut what do you mean by Looking unto JesusT" some one inquiries. I mean faith. 'What do you mean by faith?" I mean be- heving. "What do you mean by believingT' Imean this: If you promise to do certain thing for me, and I have confidence in your veracity-if you say you will give me such thing and I need it very much, come in con- fdenee that you are an honest man and will do what you say. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ says: "Y ou are in need of pardon and life and heaven, you can have them if you come and get them." You say: "I can't come and ask first. am afraid you won't give it to me-" Then you are unbelieving. But you say: .'1 will come and ask. know, Lord Jesus, thou art in earnest about this matter. l come asking for pardon. Thou hast promised to give it to me, thou wilt give 1t to me. thou hast given it to me" That is one, ''I can't understand it." No man ever did, without divine help. Faith is the gift of God. You say: 'That throws the responsi- bility of my shoulders" No. Faith is the gift of God, but it comes in answer to prayer.
 All over glorious is my Lord
 He must be loved and yet adored;
 His worth if all the nations knew.
 Sure the whole earth would love Him, too.
 I remark again that we must look to Jesus as an example. Now, a mere copyist, you know, is always a failure. If a painter go to portfolio or a gallery of art, however eX- quisite, 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 the morning just as God built it in the clouds, or poured it upon the mountain, or kindled it upon the sea- People wondered why Turner. the famous English painter, succeeded so well in sketching storm upon the ocean. It re- mained wonder until it was found out that several times he had been lashed to the deck in the midst of tempest and then looked out upon the wrath of the sea, and coming home to his studio, he pictured the tempest. It is not the copyist who succeeds, but the man who confrontS the natural world. So if man in literary composition resolves that he will initiate the smoothness of Addi- son, or the rugged vigor of Carlyle, or the irAn of fhn pnil mn tiT