The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-01-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: 1.-The PhiiIippian
Earthquake" preached
La London, EBgIaud.)

Jails are dark, dull, damp, loathsome
places even now; but they were worse in the
apostolic times. l imagine, to-day, we are
standing in the Philippan dungeon. Do you
not feel the chill2 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 estatesg Listen
again, 1t is the cough of a consumptive or
the struggle Of one in nightmare of 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. 1t is song of joy and gladness.
What place to sing in The music comes
winding through the corridors Of the prison,
and in all the dark wards the whisper is
heard: "Whats that What's thatm 1t is
the song of Paul and Silas. They can
rot sleep. They Ii We been whip ed verJ
b1dly whipped, The 10 gsshes on the r
bscss are bleedin yet. They lie fat on the
cold eroun !, their feet fast in wooden sock
ct, and of course tn cannot sleep. But
they can sing Jailer, what are you doing
with these people? Why have they b en- put
in here7 O. they have been trying to make
tho world better. Is that ALP THAI is all.
A pit for Joseph. lions cave for Daniel.
A blazing furnace for Shadrach. G ubs for
John Wes y, An anat ema for Philip Mel
auction. A dungeon for Paul and Silas.
But while we are sta ng in the gloom of
that Philippian du geoa, and we hear the
mingling voices Of sob aud groa and bias.
phemy, and hallelujah suddenly an earth
quake The il n bars of to prison twist,
the pillars crack off, the solid masonry begins
to heave and rock till al the doors Sing
open, and the walls fall wit a t rrific crash,
The jailer, feeling himself respons BILE
for these prisoners, and feeling suicide to be
honorable-since Brutus killed himself, and
Cato killed himself, and Cassus killed hiul-
self--puts his sword TO his own heart, pro-
posing with one strong, keen thrust to put an
end to his excitement and agitation. But
Paul cries out; stop stopl Do myself no
harm, We are all here. Then l see the
the jailer running through tho dust and
amid the ruin of that prison, and see him
throwing himself down at the feet of these
prisoners, crying out: "What shall | dot
What shall l dor Did Paul an
swer; "Get out of this place before
there is another earthquake; put hand
cuffs and hopples on these other prisoners,
lest they get away?n No word of that kind.
Compact, thrilling, tremendous answer an
swer memorable all through earth and
heaven: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved"
Well, we have all read of the earthquakes
in Lisbon, in Lima, in Aleppo and in Carac-
cas- but we live in a latitude where in all
our memory there has not been one severe
volcanic disturbance. 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 aud safe from all possible
perturbation" But a national panic strikes
| the foundations of the commercial world,
and crash goes all that magnificent business
establishment. He is man who has built
| up very beautiful home His daughters
| how met hopta from the cNrni-
nary with diplomas of graduation.
| His sons have started in life, honest, temper
ate and pure. When the evening lights are
struck, there is q happy and an unbroken
family circle But there has been an acci-
dent down at the beach. The young man
ventured too far out in the surf. The tele-
| graph hurled the terror up to the city. An
| earthquake struck under the foundations of
that beautiful home. The piano closed; tho
curtains dropped; the laughter hushod.
| crash go all those domestic hopes, and pros
poets, and expectations. SO, my friends, we
| have all felt the shaking down of some great
! trouble, and there was time when we were
as much excited as this man Of the text,
and we cried out as he did: What
shall | do? What shall l do%'
The same reply that the apostle
made to him is appropriate to us: believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved" There are some documents of so little
!
| more than your last name under Them, or even
your initials; but there are some documents
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 Heis called Jesus"
and in other parts of the Bible de Is called
"Christ:" but that there might be no mistake
about this passage, all three names come i'll to-
gether-"the Lord Jesus Christ" Now, who
is this Being that you want me TO trust Ill
and believe in? Men sometimes come to
me with credentials and certificates of good
character; but ] cannot trust them, There
is some dishonesty in their looks that makes
me know | shall be cheated if | confide i'll
them. You cannot put your hearts conf
dence in a man until you know what stuff he
is made of and am unreasonable tins
morning, when | stop to ask you who this IS
that you want me to trust in? No man would
think of yenturing his life on vessel gong
out to sea that had never been inspected. No,
you must have the certificate hung amdships,
telling how many tons it carries, aud how
long ago 1t was built and who built 1t, and
all about it. And you cannot expect me to
risk the cargo of my immortal interests on
board any craft till you tell me what it is
made of, and where it was made, and what
it is. When, then, l ask you who this is you
want me to trust in you tell me he was a
very attractive person. You tell me that
| VIC WIllels utScIlD5 Hill, anu
they give the color Of his eyes, and the color
of his hair and they describe his whole ap.
pearance as being respondent, Christ did
not tell the children to come to Him. "Suf.
fer little children to come unto Me-" was
not spoken to the children. it was spoken to
the Pharisees The children had come with
out any invitation. No sooner did Jesus APP
pear than the little ones pitched from their
mothers arms an avalanche of beauty and
Low ;,,tn Iny, httIn nhllirpn tn
come unto Me-" That was addressed to the
Pharisees; not to the children. Christ did
not ask John to put his head down on His
BOSOM John could not help but put his head
there. Such eyes, such cheeks, such chin
such hair, such physical condition and ap-
pearance-why, it must have been COM
pletely captivating and winsome l sup
pose a look at Him was just to love
Him O, how attractive His manner
Why, when they saw Christ coming along
the street, they ran into their houses and
they wrapped up their invalids as quick as
they could, and brought them out that lie
might look at them. o. there was something
SO pleasant so inviting, SO cheering in every
thing He did, in His very look. When these
sick ones were brought out did He say:
Take away these sores; do not trouble Me
with these leprosies?' No no; there was a
kind look, there was gentle word, there was
healing touch. They could not keep away
from Him.
In addition to this softness of character,
there was fiery momentum. How the old
hypocrites trembled before Him. How the
Kings of the earth turned pale. Here is a
plain man with few sailors at His back,
coming off the sea of Galilee, going up to the
palace of the Caesars, making that palace
quake to the foundations, and uttering a
word of mercy and I,indness which throbs
through all the earth, and through all the
heavens, and through all the ages. Oh! He
was a loving Christ. But it was not effenl.
macy, or insipidity of character; il
was accompanied with majesty, infinite and
omnipotent. Lest the world should not
realize His earnestness this Christ mounts
the cross "You say: 'If Christ has to die,
why not let Him take some deadly potion
and lie on couch in some bright and
beautiful homer If He must die, let Him
expire amid all kindly attentions" No, the
world must hear the hammers on the heads
of the spikes The world must listen to the
death rattle of the sufferer The world
must feel His warm blood dropping on each
cheek, while it looks up into the face of His
anguish. And so the cross must be lifted,
and the hole is dug on the ton of Calvary,