The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-02-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tie Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
subject: "5oy! Joy! Joy!' "A
.BUbilee Scrm

This jubilee s,rmon was preached by the
Rev, I, De Witt Tolmage, DID,, at an es-
pecial communion for the reception Of 2l0
persons, making the present communicate
membership OF the Bro,klyn Tabernacle
ssOS, Tins was also moving day IN that
church. The annual rental OF pews had Just
occurred and many of tho congregation occu'
pied new places, The paws brought higher
premiums this year than ever before, and the
income OF the church this year will Ire $780,
SOL. But both plans are observed in the
church. A vast spaca is keps free from all
expense and only part of the building is
mapped OH Tor rent Or. Talmage took his
text from Luke Nv, Bring hither the
tatted calf aud L Il it."l
Joyl JOY, joy! We banquet to-day over
this accession of mutt tude of souls
In all a.eS OF the world it has been cus-
tomary to celebrate joyful events by festivity
the Sisun2 Of treaties, the proc
OF peace, the Christmas the marriage How
ever much on other days of the year our ia.
DIE may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiv-
sn9 bay there must be something bounteous
AMI all the comfortable hom,s of Christen-
dom have at some time celebrated joyful
events by banquet and festivity.
something la happened in the old home
stead greater than anything that has ever
happ mel tefcre. A favof.to son whom the
world supposed woald become a vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired Of sight
seelag aud HIS returned to his fathers house.
Inc world said he never would come back.
The Old man always said his son would come
He had been looking for him day after day
and year after year He knew he would
come back. Now, having returned to his
ialners house, the father pcoclaims cele-
There is calf in tho paddock that has
teen Kept up and fed to utmost capacity so
as to be ready for some oc aston of Joy that
might come along. All! there never VIII he
a grander day on the old homestead than this
day. Let tho hntchers do their work
and the hods'seepers bring into the table
the smlking meat The musicians will
take their places, and the gay groups
VIII move up and down the floor, All
tne friends and neghbors are gathered in,
and extra supply is sent out to the
table OF the 2ervants. The father preSiles at
table, and says grace and thanks God that
his long absent boy is ham1 again. Oh.
how they missed him; how glad they are to
nave hun back. One brother indeed stands
pouting at the back door and says: "This is
q great ado about nothing; this bad boy
should have been chastened instead
for R EneS'sd gu veal The is f,tt too good
Nothing is too good, nothing is good
enough" There sits the young man, glad at
The hearty reception, but shadow of sor-
row Hitting across his brow at the remem-
brance of the trouble he has seen. All ready
now; Let the covers lift. Music. He was
dead and he is alive again He was lost and
he is foundl BY such bold imagery does the
Bible set forth the merry making when
soul comes home to God.
L. First of all there is the new converts
Joy. 1t is no tame thing to become Chris
tan. The most tremendous moment in
mans lie is when he surrenders himself to
GOD. The grandest time on the fathers
homestead is when the boy comes back
Among the great throng who in the parlors
oil this church professed Christ one night was
a young man who next morning rang my
door he and said: ''Sr, 1 cannot contain
myself with the Joy feel; came here this
morning to express it. 1 have found more
Joy i'll five minutes in serving God than in
all the years of my prodigality, and came
to say So"
You have seen, perhaps, a man running
Tor MS physical liberty and the officers of the
law after him, and you saw him escape or
afterward you heard the Judge had pardened
MIN. and how great was the glee of that res
cued man; but it is very tame thing that
compared with the running for ones ever
lasting llte-the terrors of the law after him,
DNN Soii'h6 ~ W puI uoil dIiu DleSS anu
rescue and save You remember John Bun
yam IN his great story tells how
the Pilgrim put his fingers in
his ears, and ran, crying: "Ii'e, life, eternal
iife!' poor car-dr.ver in this city some
years ago, after having had a struggle to
support his family, suddenly was informed
that large inheritance was his, and there
was Joy amounting to bewilderment; but
thae is small thing compared with the ex-
perience OF one when he has put in his hands
tne ute. deed to the joys the raptures the
splendors of heaven, and he can truly saw:
Its mansions are mine its temples are
mine, it's songs are mine, its God is minel'
On, 1t Is no tame thing to become Chris
glan. It is merry making. 1t is the kill
ing OF the fatted calf. 1t is jubilee You
KNOW me blole never compares it to fu-
neral, Dus always compares it to something
prlght IL is more apt to be compared to
oanquet Than anything else. 1t is compared
IN toa Bible to the whter-bright flashing
w'.ter; to the morning-roseate, fire.
worked. n-transligured morn
ing. l wish l could to-day take
all the Bible expressions about pardon
and peace and life and comfort and hone
and Heaven and twist them into one gar
land, and put it on the brow of the humblest
child of God in this assemblare and CRY:
wear 1t, wear 1t row, wear it forever son
OF God, daughter of the Lord God AL
mighty" Oh, the Joy of the new convert!
Oh, the .gladness Of the Christian service!
1ou have seen sometimes man in a re-
ligious assembly get up and give his expert
ence. Well, Paul gave his experience. He
arose in the presence of two churches. the
church on earth and the church in heaven,
and he said: Now this is my experience:
sorrowfni, yet always re. oicing-poor, yet
making many rich-having nothing, yet pos
possins all things" If the pc pie in this
nous, this morning knew the joys of the
christian religion, they would all pass
over into tie kingdom of God the
next moment When Daniel Sandman vas
dying of cholera his attendant said Have
you mu h p in ~ 'Oh,n he replied, 'since
found the Lord | have never had any pain
except SIN Then they said to him: Would
you like to nd a message to your friends ~
Yes, would ; tell them that only last
night the love of Jesus came rushing into my
soul like the surges OF the sea, and | had to
cry out stop, Lord it is enough stop
Lord, enough ?" Oh, the joys of this Chris
tian religion
just pass over from those tame joys in
which you are indulging-ioys of this world
into the raptures of the Gospel. The word
cannot satisfy you; you have found that out
Alexander longing for other worlds to con-
quer, and yet drowned in his own botte
Byron whipped by disquctudes around
the world Voltaire cnrsng his own
soul while all the streets of Paris were
applauding him; Henry ii. consuming
with hatred against poor Thomas a
Beckett-all illustrations of the fact this
world cannot make man happy. The very
man who poisoned the pommeI OF the saoGA
on which Queen Elizabeth rode, shouted in
the street: God Save the Cueen!" One
moment the world applauds and the next
moment the world mathematics Oh.come
over into this greater joy, this sublime
solace, this magnificent beatitude The night
after the battle of Shiloh and there were
thousands of wounded on the field, and the
ambuances had not come one Christian
soldier lying there dying under the star.
light began to sing:
"There Is land of pure delight"
And when he came to the next line there
were scores of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign"
The song was caught up al through the
fields among the wounded until it was said
there were at least ten thousand wounded
men reuniting their voices as they came to
the verse:
''There everlasting spring abidee
And never-withering flowers:
Death like narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from ours