The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-05-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Dlsoourses Of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
Subiects Grounding Up the
Century,"

TEXT; amen; Alieluia."-R Revelations.
XIX, 4.
The Nineteenth century is departing. AZ
ger it has taken a few more steps, II each
year be a step 1t win be gone into the eterni.
Ties In short time we shall be In the last
decade OF this century, which fact makes thu
solemnest book outside the Bible the al
manac, and the most suggestive and tho
the earth the clock. The last decade ~ ~ MI;
century upon which we shn,, soon enter viii
DO the grehdest, inightiest and most
decisive decade In all the chronologies. am
glad 1t Is not to come Immediately, for we
need by a new baptism of the Holy Ghost To
prepare for it, That last ten years of the
Nineteenth century, may we all live to see
of time is arbitrary on, no; in other are, ares
the divisions of time may bavs hoeh arbi-
trary, but our years date from Christ. Does
any one say that the grouping Of ten together
Is an arrangement arbitrary Oh, no. next
70 the figure seven, ten is with God iavorite
number Abraham dweit ten years in
Caanan. Ten righteous men would have
saved Sodom. In the ancient tabernacle were
ten curtains, their pillars ten and their sock
cts ten In the ancient temple were ten Law.
ers and ten candlesticks and ten tables and
molten sea of ten cubits, And the command
ments written on tho granite of Mount
Sinai were ten, and the kingdom Of God was
hkened to ten virgins, and ten moi, shrtld Law
hold OF him that was Jew, and The reward
OF the greatly faithful Is that they shall reign
over ten cities, and in the effort to take the
census OF the New Jerusalem the number ten
swings around the thousands, crying stem
thousands times ten thousands So / come
20 look toward the closing ten years of the
Nineteenth century with an intensity of In
terest can hardly describe,
have also noticed that the favorite time
IN many OK 'iie Centuries for great events was
tho closing fragment of the century. Is
America to be discovered, IL must be in the
last decade 9f the Fifteenth century, namely,
l4J& was free constitutional government to
DO well established in America, the last wears
Of the Eighteenth century must achieve It.
Were three cities to be submerged by one
pitch OF scorie, Hcrculaneum and Strarin
and Pompeii In the latter part oc the FIRST
century must go under the Fourth CEN
tury closed with thb most agitating eeclesi-
astical war Ok history, Urban the Sixth
against Clement the Seventh. Alfred the
Great closes the Ninth century and Edward
lronsides the Eleventh century with their re-
sounding deeds. The Sixteenth century closed
with the establishment Of religious in
dependence In the United Netherlands Ave,
almost every century has had its peroraticn
of overtowering achievements AZ inc clos
ing years OF the countries seem favorite
tlme FOR great scenes of emancipation or dis
astef, and as the number ten seems a favor
lite number in the Scriptures, written nv dr.,
vine direction, and as we are sccn TO enter
upon the last ten years Of She Nineteenth cen
fury, what does The world proposef What
does the church OF Christ propose? What do
reformers propose? l know not; but now in
the presence Of this consecrated assembly l
propose that we make ready, get all our bat
teries planted and all our plans well laid in
what remains Of this deeade, and then in the
last decade Of tho Nineteenth century march
up and take this round world for God.
When say we, I mean the eve hundred
million Christians now enve. But, as many
Of them will not have enough heart for the
work let us copy Gideon, and as he had thirty
Two Thousand men in his army to fight tho
Midianites but many of them were rot made
or the right stuff and he promulgated a mill
tary order saying; "Whosoever is fearful
and afraid let him return and depart early
from Gilead," and twenty-five thousand
were afraid of getting hurt and went
nome and only ten thousand were left and
God told them that even this reduced number
was too large number, for they might think
they had triumphed independent 6f divine
help, and SO the number must be still further
reduced and only those should be kept in til.
ranks who in passing the river should be SO
IN haste for victory over their enemies, that
tnough very thirsty, they would without
stopping second Just scoop up tho water
IN the palm Of their right hand and
scoop up the water Ii. she palm of theiI
left nand, and only three hundred men did
thet and those three hundred men with the
battle shout: 1.-THE sword of the Lord and Of
G'dcon," scattered the Midianites like leaves
IN an equinox, so out of the Ave hundred mil
lion nominal Christians of to-day let all un
believers end otwards So home and get ont
Of the way, And suppose we have only fo,.i
hundred million left, suppose eS,ly Two hun
dred million left, sursoas only one hundred
million left, yea, suppose we only have fifty
million left, with them we will undertake thu
divine crusade and each one Just scooping VI
palm full of the river of Gods mercy In on,
hand and palm full Of the river Of God
strength in 'the other let us with the cry
1.-THE sword of the Lord and Gideon,n til,
sword of the Lord and Of Jdhn Knox tn
sword of the Lord and Of Matthew Simpson
the sword Of the Lord and of Bishop Nell
vaine the sword of the Lord and of Adoniran
Judson, the sword of the Lord and Of MART,
Luther, go into the last decade of the Nine
teenth century.
Is it audacious for me 10 propose It? Oh
no; captive servant in the kitchen Q
Naaman told the commander-in-chief whsf
he could get rid of the blotches of mis- awfr
leprosy and his complexsan became as fair q
a oaDes. And DIDN'T Christ in order to tax
the ophthalmia out Of the eyes of the blin
man use mixture of spittle and dust An
who showed Butcher short cut for his army
so that instead Of the regular road by %hic
he would have come up too late he came u
In time to save Waterloo and Europe
Was it not an unknown lad, who perhaI
could not write his own name? And SO
''who am less than the least of all saints,
, propose short cut to victory and am aiiiin
to be the expectoration o., some blind ey
and tell some of the hrigadier generals of tt
Lord of host how this leprosied world may
the final decade of the Nineteenth centur
nave It's flesh come again as the flesh or
little child.
Is there anything in prophecy to hindt
this speedy consummation9 No. Some OF
begins to quote from Daniel about ''tim
times and a half time" and takes from R
velation the seven trtlmpets blowing them a
at once in my ear. But with utmost reve
ence take up all the prophecies and hol
them toward heaven and say God nevt
has and never will stop consecrate
effort and holy determination ar
, the church of God will rise up to /
> full work it can make Daniels tin
twenty years and his half tiine ten wear
Neither Isaiah nor Ezekiel, nor Mica
> nor Malachi, nor Jeremiah, nor al
of the major or minor prophets will hind
US second. suppose the Bible had a.
nounced the millennium to begin the We,
1889, that would be no hindIance.
one sense God never changes His min
being the same yesterday, to-day and 70
q ever. But in another sense He does cham
e His mind mud times without numb
e every dag, and that is when His people prs
Didn't He change His mind about Nineve
By Gods command Jonah, at the top of |
b voice, while standing on the steps of the me
q chants exchange and the palatial residenc
: Of that city, cried out: ''Yet forty days al
Nineveh shall be overthrown.o Was it owe
thrown in forty days? No. The people ga
up their sins and cried for mercy, and thous
Jonah got mad because his whole course
t sermons had been spoiled and went into di
b graceful pouting, we have the record
sublime | cannot read it without feeling
nervous chill running through me. SCI
saw their works that they turned from the
e evil way and God repented of the evil tn
He had said He would do unto them, and
did it not" God is father, and some of
y tnow what that means and some time VIII
e we have promised chastisement and the chi
:, deserved it the little darling has put b
I arms around our neck and expresses SUI
n sorrow and such promises of doing bett
d that her tears landed on the lips of Of
kiss, and we held her half hour after on OF
knee and would as soon think of slapping I