The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1889-04-25
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Gradual Rounding Up Of the
Nineteenth Century.
he Golden Opportunities Of the Present
ase oursi the Future We May Notl
Count Upon Unless We Make
Preparation for It.

Rev. K. DSNIN TAimage sigma llzeu mis-
return from his Western trip by semi
prophetic discourse on the Rounding Up
Of the Century" taking for his text;
Amen: AIlelulia. Revelations xix. 4.
The nineteenth century is departing.
After it has taken few more steps, if
each year be step, 1t will be gone into
the eternities. In a short time we shall
be in the last decade OF this century,
which fact makes the solmnest book ont
side the Bible the almanac, and the most
suggestive and the most tremendous
piece Of machinery in all the earth
the clock. The last decade Of this
century, upon which we shall soon
enter, will be the grandest, might
est and most decisive decade in all
the ShronologIes. / am glad it is not to
come Immediately, for we need by new
baptism Of the Holy Ghost to prepare for
it. That last ten years OF the nineteenth
century-may we all live TO see them
Does any one say that this di-
vision Of time is arbitrary' Oh,
no: in other ages the divisions
Of time may have been arbitrary, but our
years date from Christ. Does any one
say that the groupings of ten together is
an arrangement arbitrary Oh, no; next
to the figure seven, ten is with God a ia
vorite number. Abraham dwelt ten years
in Canaan. Ten righteous men would
have saved Sodom. In the ancient taber-
naele there were ten curtains, their pill
lars ten and their sockets ten. In the
ancient temple were ten LAYERS and ten
candle sticks and ten tables and a molten
sea OF ten cubits. And the command
ments written on the granite of Mount
Sinai were ten, and the Kingdom of God
was hkened to ten virgins, and ten men
should lay hold Of him that was Jew,
and the reward Of the greatly faithful is
that they should reign over ten cities, and
in the effort to take the census of the New
Jerusalem the number ten swings round
the thousands, crying: ten thousand
times ten thousand" So l come TO look
toward the closing ten years of the nine
teenth century with an intensity of inter-
est can hardly describe.
have also noticed that the favorite
time in many OF the centuries for great
events was the closing fragment of the
century. Is America to be discovered, it
must be in the last decade Of the fifteenth
century, namely, 1892. Was free consti-
tutional government to be well estab-
lished in America, the last years of the
eighteenth century must achieve it. Were
three cities to be submerged by one pitch
of scoria, Herculaneum and Strabia and
Pompeii in the latter part of the first cent
nry must go under. The fourth century
closed with the most agitating ecclesias-
teal war of history. Urban the Sixth
against Clement the Seventh. Alfred the
Great closes the ninth century and Ed
ward Ironsides the eleventh century with
their resounding deeds. The six
.eenth century closed with the es
of religious inde-
pendence in the United Netherlands.
Aye. almost every century has had its
peroration Of overtowering achieve
ments. As the closing years Of the cent
lries seem a favorite tins for great
scenes of emancipation or disaster, and
as the number ten seems a favorite num-
Der in the Scriptures, written by Divine
direction, and as we are soon to enter
upon the last ten years of the nineteenth
century, what does the world propose2
What does the Church of God propose?
What do reformers propose? l know
not; but now in the presence of this con-
secrated assembly, | propose that we
make ready. get all our batteries planted
and all our plans well laid in what re-
mains of this decade, and then in the last
decade of the nineteenth century march
1p and take this rough W orld for God.
When / say we, mean the five hundred
million Christians now alive. But, as
many OF them will not have enough heart
Tor the work, let us copy Gideon, and as
ae had thirty-two thousand men in his
army TO fight the Midianites, but many OF
them were not made of the right stuff,
and he promulgated q military order
saying: "Whosoeyer is fearful and
afraid let him return and depart early
from Gilead," and twenty-five thousand
we're afraid of getting hurt and went
home, and only ten thousand were left,
and God told them that even this reduced
humber was too large a number, for they
might think they had triumphed indie
pendent OF Divine help, and so the num-
Der must be still further reduced, and
only those should be kept in the ranks
who in passing the river should be so IN
haste for victory over their enemies that
though very thirsty, they would without
stopping second just scoop up the water
in the palm of their right hand and scoop
up the water in the palm of their left
hand, and only three hundred men did that.
and those three hundred men, with
the battle shout The sword Of
the Lord and of Gideon" scattered
the Mechanics like leaves in an
equinox, SO out Of five hundred million
nominal Christians of to-day let all IN
believers and towards go home and get
out of the way. And suppose we have
four hundred million left, suppose only
two hundred million left suppose one hun
bred million left, yea, suppose We have
Only fifty million left with them we will
undertake the Divine crusade, and each
one just scooping up palm full Of the
river of Gods mercy in one hand and
palm full of Gods strength in the other,
let us with the cry, THE sword of the
Lord and of Gideon" the sword of the
Lord and of John Knox, the sword OF the
Lord and of Matthew Simpson, the sword
Of the Lord and of Bishop McIlyaine, the
sword Of the Lord and OF Adoniram Jud-
son, the sword of the Lord and OF Martin
Luth er, go into the last crusade Of the
uine teenth century.
Is it audacious for me to propose ity
Oh, no; a captive servant in the kitchen
Of Naaman told the commander n-ehief
where he could get rid Of the blotohes of
his awful leprosy, and his complexion be-
came as fair as d babe's. And didn't
Christ, in order 10 take the ophthalmia
out Of the eyes Of the blind man, use a
mixture Of spittle and dustf And who
showed Butcher a short cut for his army,
80 that, instead Of taking the regular
road, by which he would have come up
TOO late, be came up in time save Water
loo and EurOpey Was it not an unknown
lad who perhaps could not write his own
name; And 50 /, who am less than the
least Of oil saints" propose short cut to
victory, and am willing to be the expecto-
ration on some blind eye and tell some
Of the Brigadier Generals Of the
Lord OF Hosts how this leprosied world
may, in the final decade OF the nineteenth
century, have its flesh come again as the
flesh Of a little child. Is there any thing
in prophesy to hinder this speedy con-
No. Some one begins 20
quote from Daniel about "time, times and
a half time, +" and takes from Revelation