Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-07-17
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE's
STERLING DIsCoURsEs.
TEXT: I'VE are witnesses Acts iii, Is


entists proved conclusively that a railwa,
train could never be driven by steam power
successfully and without peril; but TIN
rushing express trains from Liverpool Z,
Edinburgh and from Edinburgh to London,
have made all the nations witnesses of thu
splendid achievement. Machinists anc
navigators proved concluslvely that 4
steamer could never cross the Atlantic
Ocean; but no sooner had they successfully
proved the impossibility of such an under
taking than the work was done, and the pas
sengers on the Cunard and the Inman and
the National and the White Star lines are
witnesses. There went up guffaw of wise
laughter at Professor Morse's proposition To
make the lightning of heaven his errand
boy, and it was proved conclusively that the
thing could never be done; but now all the
news of the wide world, by Associated Press
put in your hands every morning and night,
has made all nations witnesses.
So in the time of Christ it was proved
conclusively that it was impossiblefor Him TO
rise from the dead. 1t was shown logically
that when a man was dead he was dead, and
the heart and the liver and the lungs having
ceased to perform their offices the limbs
would be rigid beyond all power OF friction
or arousal They showed it to be an absolute
absurdity that the dead Christ should ever
get up alive; but no sooner had they proved
this than the dead Christ arose, and the dis
ciples beheld Him, heard His voice and
talked with Him, and they took the witness
stand to prove that to be true which the
wiseacres of the day had proved to be i'm
possible the record of the experience and OF
the testimony is in the text: Him hath God
raised from the dead, whereof we are wit
uesses."
Now let me play the skeptic for moment.
sSThere is no God" says the skeptic, ''for
i have never seen Him with my physical
eyesight. Your Bible is a pack of contra
dictions, There never was a miracle. Laz-
arus was not raised from the dead, and wa
ter was never turned into wine Your re-
hgion is an imposition on the credulity of thu
ages" There is an aged man moving over
yonder as though he would like to respond.
Here are hundreds of people with faces
little flushed at these announcements, and
all through this assembly there is sup
pressed feeling which would like 10 speak
out in behalf of the truth of our glorious
Christianity, as in the days of the text, cry
ing out, "Weare Witnesses
The fact is that if this world is ever
brought to God it will not be through argu-
ment, but through testimony. You might
cover the whole earth with apologies for
Christianity and learned treatises in defense
of religion-you would not convert soul.
Lectures on the harmony between science
aud religion are beautiful mental discipline,
but have never saved soul and never will
save soul. Put a man of the world and a
OF the church against each other and the
man of the world viii in all probability get
the triumph. There are a thousand
things in our religion that seem llogi.
cal to the world and always Will
seem illogical. Our weapon in this conflict
is faith, not logic; faith, not metaphysics,
faith. not profundity, faith. not scholastic
exploration. But then in order to have faith
we must have testimony, and II five hundred
men, or one thousand men, or five hundred
thousand men, or five million men get up and
tell me that they have felt the religion Of
Jesus Christ Joy, comfort. help, an as
piration, am bound as fair minded man to
accept their testimony. | want just now to
put before you three propositions, the truth
OF which think this audience will attest
with overwhelming unanimity.
The first proposition is: We are witnesses
that the religion of Christ is able to con-
vert a soul. The Gospel may have had a
hard time TO conquer us, we may have
fought it back, but we were vanquished.
You say conversion is only an imaginary
thing. We know better. 1--WE are wit
nesses." There never was so great change
In our heart and life on any other subject
as on this. People laughed at the mission
aries in Madagascar because they preached
ten years without one convert; but there
are 80, 900 converts in Madagascar to-day.
People laughed at DIR. Adomram Judson,
the Baptist missionary, because he kept on
preaching in Burmah five years without
single convert; but there are 20, 900 Baptists
IN Burmah to-day People laughed at DIR.
Morrison, in China, for preaching there
seven years without single conversion; but
there are %, 600 Christians in China to-day.
People laughed at the missionaries for
preaching at Tahiti fifteen years without
single conversion, and at the missionaries for
preaching in Bengal seventeen years without
single conversions; yet in all those lands
there are multitudes of Christians to-day.
But why go so far to find evidence of the
Gospels power to save soul? I'VE are
witnesses" We were SO proud that no
man could have humbled us; we were so
hard that no earthly power could have
melted us; angels of God were all around
about us; they could not overcome us. But
one day, perhaps at Methodist anxious
seat or at a Presbyterian catechetical lee
ture, or at a burial, or on horseback,
power seized us, and made us get down, and
made us tremble and made us l1neel and
made us cry for mercy, and we tried to
wrench ourselves away from the grasp but
we could not. 1t flung US fat, and when we
arose we were as much changed as Gourgls,
the heather, who went into a prayer meeting
witha dagger and gun to disturb the meet
ing and destroy it, but the next day was
found crying: "Oh my great sins Oh, my
great Saviourr" and for eleven years
preached the Gospel Of Christ to his fellow
mountaineers, the last words on his dying
lips being Free Gracep oh, it was free
grace
There is man who for ten years was
hard drinker. The dreadful appetite had
sent down its roots around the palate and
the tongue and on down until they were
interlinkec with the vitals of the body,
mind and soul; but he has not taken any
stimulants for ten years. What did thatg
Not temperance societies. Not prohibition
laws Not moral suasion. Conversion did
it. ''Whyn said one upon whom the great
change had come ''sir, l feel just as
though / were somebody elsew There IS
sea captain who swore all the way from New
York to Havana, and from Havana to San
Francisco, and when he was in port he was
worse than when he was on the sea. What
power was it that washed his tongue clean of
profanities and made him a psalm singer
Conversion by the Holy Spirit. There are
thousands of people in this assemblage to-day
who are no more what they once were than
a waterlily is a nightshade, or a morning
lark is vulture. or day is night.
Now, if / should demand that all those
people here present who have felt the con-
verting power of religion should rise so far
from being ashamed tn y would spring to
their feet with more alacrity than they ever
-