Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1889-08-02
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED.
OF SERMON BY REV. DR..
TALMAeE, SUNDAY, JULY %.

Tho Noted Brooklyn Divine PreHches in
Sc. Paul, Mimi. Before an Immense and
Appreciative COngregatiOn-FuIl Text Of
ST. PAUL, Mimi, July aE-@iTs R5JSeolG I! Sc
Witt Talmage, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y,
preached in this city today. His subject was
1.-THE Earthquake" and he took for his text;
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. Acts xvi, 81. The sermon
was as follows;
Jails are dark. dull, damp, loathsome places
even now; but they we're worse in the apos-
tolio times. imagine today we are standing
in the Philippian dungeon Do you not feel
the chilli Do you not hear the groan Of those
incarcerated ones who for ten years have not
seen the sunlight and the deep sigh Of women
who remember their fathers house, and
mourn over their wasted estatel Listen again.
1t is the cough Of consumptive, or the
struggle Of one in the nightmare of a great
horror You listen again and hear culprit,
his chains rafting as he rolls over in his
dreams, and you say; God pity the pris-
oner." But there is another sound in that
prison. It Is a song of joy and gladness
What place to sing inl The music comes
winding through the corridors Of the prison,
and in all the dark wards the whisper is
heard; whats thatl What's thatP
THE SONG OF PAUL AND sILAs.
It is the song of Paul and Silas They can
not sleep. They have been whipped, very
badly whipped. The long gashes on their
backs are bleeding yet They lie fiat on the
cold ground, their feet fast in wooden sock
cts, and Of course they cannot sleep. But
they can sing Jailer, what are you doing
with these peopiel Why have they been put
in herel Oh, they have been trying to make
the world BETTER Is that alll That is all.
A pit for Joseph. A lions cave for Daniel
A blazing furnace for Shadrach. Clubs for
John Wesley An anathema for Philip Ne
lancthon. A dungeon for Paul and Silas.
But while we are standing in the gloom OF
the Philippian dungeon, and we hear the
mingling voices of sob and groan and bias
phemy and hallelujah, suddenly an earth
quakei The iron bars of the prison twist,
the pillars crack off, the solid masonry begins
to heave and all the doors swing open. The
taller, feeling himself responsible for
these prisoners, and believing, in his pagan
ignorance, suicide to be honorable-since
Brutus killed himself, and Cato killed him
self, and Cassius killed himself-puts his
sword to his own heart, proposing with one
strong, keen thrust to put an end to his ex-
"Stopl stopl Do thyself no harm We are
all here" Then ! see the jailer running
through the dust and amid the ruin Of that
prison, and I see him throwing himself down
at the feet of these prisoners, crying out:
"What shall l dol What shall I do2" Did
Paul answer; "Get out of this place before
there is another earthquake; put handouts
and hopples on these other prisoners, lest
they get awayf' No word Of that kind.
His compact, thrilling, tremendous an
swer, answer memorable all through
earth and heaven, was: "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Well, we have all read of the earthquake in
Lisbon, in Lima, in Aleppc and in Caracas;
but we live in a latitude where severe vol
canic disturbances are rare. And yet we
have seen fifty earthquakes. Here is man
who has been building up large fortune.
His bid on the money market was felt in all
the cities. He thinks he has got beyond all
annoying rivalries in trade, and he says to
himself: "Now am free and safe from all
possible perturbation But In 1887 or in
1857 or In 1873 a national panic strikes the
foundations Of the commercial world, and
crash goes all that magnificent business es-
tablishment. Here is a man who has built
up a very beautiful home. His daughters
have just come from the seminary with
diplomas of graduation. His sons have
started in life, honest, temperate and
pure When the evening lights are
struck. there is a happy and unbroken family
circle. But there has been an accident down
at Long Branch. The young man ventured
too far out in the surf The telegraph hurled
the terror up to the city. An earthquake
struck under the foundations of that beauti-
full home. The piano closed, the curtains
dropped, the laughter hushed. crash go all
those domestic hopes and prospects and ex-
pectations. So, my friends we have all felt
the shaking down Of some great trouble, and
there was a time when we were as much ex-
cited as this man Of the text, and we cried
out, as he did, ''What shall / dol What shall
dor The same reply that the apostle made
to him is appropriate to US; believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. p"
There are some documents Of so little i'm
portance that you do not care to put any
more than your last name under them, or
even your initials; but there are some docu-
ments of so great Importance that you write
out your full name. So the Saviour in some
parts of the Bible is called 'Lord, and in
other parts Of the Bible he is called Jesus, P"
and in other parts of the Bible he is called
"Christs' but that there might be no mis-
take about this passage, all three names come
together-'The Lord Jesus Christi
you CAN TRUST HIN.