The Brookhaven leader., 1890-07-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Glorious Consolation of Recor-
milton Beyond the Tomb.
The Worlds Expectancy OF 1t Sustained
by an Array Of Scriptural Testi-
mony-we Shall Meet Our
Friends In Heaven.

ering at Waseca, Mimi, by Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage, on the occasion of a
visit to that place on his Western tour.
His text was:
shall go to him.-II. SAM, xii, %.
There is a very sick child in the
abode of David the King. Disease.
which stalks up the dark lane of the
poor and puts its smothering hand on
the nostril of the wan and wasted, also
mounts the palace-stairs, and bending
over the pillow blows into the face of
n young Prince the frosts of pain and
death. Tears are wine to the King of
Terrors Alas! for David tho King lie
can neither sleep no eat and lies pros
trate on his face, weeping and wailing
until the palace rings with the outcry
of woe.
What are courtly attendants, or VIC
torious armies, or conquered provinces,
under such circumstances? What to
any parent are splendid surroundings
when his child is sick? Seven days
nave passed on. Then in that great
house, two eyelids are gently closed,
two little hands folded, two lit
tie feet quiet, one heart still.
The servants come to bear the
tidings to the King, but they can
not make up their minds to toll him,
and they stand at the door whispering
about the matter, and David heard them
and he looks up and says to them: us
the child dead?" Eyes, he is dead"
David rouses himself up, washes him
self, puts on new apparel, and sits
down to food. What power
hushed that tempest? What one
strength was it that lifted up that
King whom grief had dethroned? Oh,
st was the thought that he would come
again into the possession of that dar-
ling child. No grave-digger's spade
could hide him. The wintry blasts of
death could not put out the bright
light. There would be forge some
where that with silver hammer would
weld the broken links, In a city where
tho hoofs of the pale horse never
strike the pavement he would clasp his
lost treasure. He wipes away the tears
from his eyes, and he clears the chok
ing grief from his throat and exclaims:
II shall go to him."
Was David right or wrong? If we
part on earth will we meet again in the
next world? "Well," says some one,
that seems to be an impossibilitY.
Heaven is SO large a place we never
could find our kindred there" Going
into some city, without having APP
pointed q time and place for meeting,
you might wander around for weeks and
for months, and perhaps for years, and
never see each other; and Heaven is
vaster than all earthly cities together,
and how are you going to find your
departed friend in that country?
1t is so vast a realm. John went up on
one mountain OF inspiration, and he
looked off upon the multitude, and Che
said: Thousands of thousands" Then
he came upon greater altitude of in
SEPARATION and looked off upon it again,
and he said: Ten thousand times ten
thousand" And then he came on a
higher mount of inspiration, and
looked off again, and he said:
"a hundred and forty and four
thousand and thousands of thousands"
And he came on still greater height
of inspiration, and he looked off again
and exclaimed: "A great multitude
that no man can number" Now l ask,
how are you going to find your friends
in such throng as that? Is not this
idea we have been entertaining after
all falsity? Is this doctrine of future
recognition of friends in Heaven guess
a myth, a within, or is it a granite
fountain upon which the soul pierced
of all ages may build glorious hope?
Intense question! Every heart in this
audience throbs right into it. There is
in every soul hero the tomb of at least
one dead.
Tremendous question! 1t makes the
lip culver, and the cheek flush, and the
entire nature thrill: Shall we know
each other there? get letters almost
every month asking me to discuss this
subject. l get letter in bold schol-
arly hand, on gilt-edged paper. asking
me to discuss this question, and I say:
"Ah! that is a curious man, and he
wants curious question solved" But
] get another letter. 1t is written with
a trembling hand, and ON what seems
to be torn-out leaf of book, and here
and there is the mark of q tear; and /
say: ''Oh, that is broken heart, and
it wants to be comfort ed"
The object of this sermon is to take
this theory out of the region of surmise
and speculation into the region Of posi-
tive certainty. People say: st would
be very pleasant if that doctrine were
true. hope it may be true. Perhaps
it is true. / wish it were true" But l
believe that can bring an accumula-
ton of argument to bear upon this mat
ter which will prove the doctrine of fut-
ure recognition as plainly as that
there is any in Heaven at all, and that
the kiss of reunion at tho celestial gate
will be as certain as the dying kiss at
the door of the sepulcher.
Now, when you are going to build
ship you must get the right kind of tim
Der. You lay the keel and make the
framework of the very best materials,
the keel on, stsnchions, plank-shear,
counter-t tim ber-knee, transoms, all of
solid oak. You may build a ship of
lighter material, but when the cyclone
comes on, it will go down. Now we
may have great many beautiful
theories about the future world, built
out of our own fancy, and they may do
very well as long as we have smooth
sailing in the world; but when the
storms OF sorrow come upon us, and the
hurricane of death, we will be swamped
WA will ha fouu6 opad Wa want q