Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-05-10
THE TALMAGE SERMON.
The Brooklyn Divine breaches on
Marrow Escapes"
The Many Stumbling Blocks I'm the Way
of the Seeker After Religion.
TEXT: y am escaped Nth the skin of my

| tccdt. WV Ala, ~
Job had it hard What with boils and be-
reavements and bankruptcy, and fool of a
wife he wished he was dead, and / do not
blame him His flesh was gone and his
bones weredry. His teeth wasted away until
nothing but the enamel seemed left He
cries out: II am escaped with the skin of
my teeth" There has been some differ
ence of opinion about this passage. st.
Jerome and Schultens, and Drs. Good ana
Poole and Barnes have all tried their for
ceps on Jobs teeth. You deny my inter
about the enamel of the testhY' He
knew everything about it. Dental surgery
| is almost as old as the earth. The num-
mics of Egypt, thousands of years old, are
found to-day with gold filing in their teeth.
Ovid and Horace and Solomon and Moses
wrote about these important factors of the
body. To other provoking complaints, Job,
l think, has added an exasperating tooth
ache, and putting his hand against the in
famed face, he says, 81 am escaped with the
skin of my teeth"
A very narrow escape, you say, for Jobs
body and soul; but there are thousands of
men who make just as narrow escape for
their soul. There was time when the par
tition between them and ruin was no thicker
than tooth's enamel; but as Job finally es-
capped, soshave they. Thank God! thank
1 God!
Paul expresses the same idea by different
| figure when he says that some people are
| saved as by fire" A vessel at sea is in
! flames. You go to the stern of the vessel. The
/ boats have showed off The flames advance;
| you can endure the heat no longer on your
| face. You slide down on the side of the yes.
! sell and hold on with your fingers, until the
4 forked tongue of the fire begins to lick the
back of your hand, and you feel that you
must fall, When one of tue ife-boats comes
back, and the passengers say they thin <
they have room for one more. The boat
swings under you-you drop into it--you are
saved. So some men are pursued by temp
+ tation until they are partially consu ned. but,
after all get oH-"saved as by fire. But |
like the figure of Job little better than that
/ of Paul, because the pulpit has not worn it
out; and want to show you, if God will help,
/ that some men make narrow escapes for
their souls, and are saved as with the skin
of their teeth"
/ 1t is as easy for some people to look to
1 the cross as for you to look to this pulpit
Mild, gentle, tractable, loving you expect
7 them to become Christians. You go over
/ to the store and say: 'Grandon Joined the
! church yesterday" Your business comrades
! tay; That is just what might have been
j expected; he always was of that turn of
mind" In youth tais person whom [ de-
/ scribe was always good. He never broke
things. He never laughed when it was
improper to laugh. At seven, he could sit
an hour IN church, perfectly quiet, looking
/ neither to the right hand nor to the left, but
/ straight into the eyes of the minister, as
I though he understood the whole discussion
about the eternal DEGREES. He never upset
/ things nor lost them. He fioatei into the
/ kingdom of God SO gradually that it is TN
certain just when the matter was decided
! Here is another one, who started in life
with an uncomfortable spirit. He kept the
| nursery in an uproar His mother found
him walkingon the edge of the house roof
TO see if he could balance himself There
was no horse that he dared not ride--no
/ tree he could not climb. His boyhood
was long series of predicaments, his man
| hood was reckless: his midlife very way
ward. But now he is converted, and you
! go over to the store and say, cartwright
! Joined the church yesterday" Your friends
say, ut is not possibel You must be iok-
ing" You say: 'No; tell you the truth
| He Joined the church" Then thew reply.
There is hope for any of us if old Ark
wright has become a Christianm In other
words, we will admit that it is more difficult
for some men to accept the Gospel than for
| others.
may be preaching to some who have cut
| loose from churches and Bibles and Sun
| days, and who have come in here with no
! intention of becoming Christians them
]
and yet you may find yourself escaping, be
/ fore you leave this house, as with the skin
/ of your teeth" | 10 net expect to waste
! this hour. | have seen boats go off from
/ Cape May or Long Branch and drop their
nets, and after awhile come ashore, pulling
in their nets, without having caught siugle
! fish. 1t was not a good day, or they had not
the right kind of a net. But we expect no
such excursion to-day. The water is full of
fish, the wind is in the right direction, the
/ Gospel net is strong. Oh, Thou who didst
help Simon and Andrew to fish, show lis to-
day how TO cast the net on the right side of
the ship.
Some of you, in coming 60 God, will have
I to run against skeptcal notions. 1t is use
less for people to say sharp and cutting
/ things to those who reject the Christian re-
1 hgion. | cannot say such things By what
/ process of temptation or trial or betrayal
you have come to your present state | know
not. There are two gates to your nature
the gate of the head and the gate of the
heart. The gate of your head is locke with
bolts and bars that an archangel could not
break, but the gate of your heart swings
easily on its hinges. Ii ] assaulted
your body with weapons you would
meet me with weapons. and it would be
sword stroke for sword stroke and wound
for wound, and blood for blood; but if
come and knock at the door OF your house
? Abh open IT. anu give iilb L 10 DeSU SoaU III
your parlor. If | should come at you now
with an argument you would answer me
/ with an argument; if with sarcasm, you
would answer me with sarcasm; blow for
/ blow, stroke for stroke: but when | come
and knock at the door of yonr heart YOU
( open it and say, Come in, my brother, aud
/ tell me all you know about Christ and
heaven"
( Listen to two or three questions: Are you
as happy as you used to be When you h.
ieved in the truth of the Christian reiigi on?
Would you like to have your children travel
On in the road in which you are now travel
ipg2 You had a relative who rrofeSse1 to
be a Christian, and was thoroughly con-
sistent, living and dying in the faith of the
Gospel. Would you not like 10 live the
same quiet life, and die the same peaceful
deaths / have letter, sent me by QUE WAC
has rejected the Christian religion. 1t says:
81 am old enough to know that the joys
and pleasures of life are evauesce nt, and to
realize the fact that IL must be comfortable
in old age to believe in something relative
to the future, and to have faitn in some
system that proposes to save. l am free to
confess that | would be happier if I could
exercise the simple and beautiful faith that
is possessed by many whom [ know. l am
not willingly out of the church or out of
the faith. Ny state of uncertainty is one OF
unrest. Sometimes douot my i'm portality
and look upon the death bed as the closing
scene, after which there is nothing, What
shall | do that have not doaeg' All skep-
ticsm is dark and dolefu land. Let me
say that this Bible is either true or false If
it be false we are as well off as youl if it be
true, then which of us is safer.
Let me also ask whether your trouble has
not been that you COMPOUNDED Christianity
with the inconsistent character of soma
who profess it. You are lawyer. In your
profession there are mean aud dishonest
men. Is that anything against the law? You
are doctor There are unskiIeI and con-
temptible men in your profession. Is that
anything against medicine2 You are a mer-
chant There are thieves and defrauders
in your business. Is that anything against
merchandise? Behold, then the unfarness
of charging upon Christianity the wickedness
of its disciples. We admit some of the
charges against those who profess religion.
Some of tue most gigantic swu lies OF the
present day have been carried on by man.
bers of the church. There ara men stand
ing in the front rank in the churches who
would not be trusted for five dollars vita
out good collateral security. They leave
their business dishonesties In tho vestibule
of the church as they go in aud sit at the
communion. Having CONCLUDED the sacra
ment they get up, wipa the wilma from
the lips, go out and take ~ their
sins where they left OF. To serve thu devil
is their regular work, To serve God, a sort
of play spell. With Sunday sponge they
expect to wipe off from their business slate
all the past weeks Inconsistencies You
have no more ri yht to take such a mans life
as specimen of religion than YOU have to
take the twisted irons and spi timbers that
lie on the beach at Co1ey Is's1d as s2eci
men Of an American Snip. 1t is time that we
draw line bstween religion and the fraiIties
of those who profess it.
Doyou not feel that the Bible, take it all
in all ia nhout tf,a hast bool- +F,,t ~, ,-,-,lJ