Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-05-16
your Acceptance Heraldod In Heaven.


iect of DR.. Talmage's sermon yesterday
was 'Invitation to q wedding" and the
text Luke xiv, II: ''Come:lor all things
are now ready"
HOLY festivities to-day. We gather
other sheaves into the spiritual
garner. Our joy is like the JOY OF
heaven. Spread the banquet, fill all
the chalices. We are not to-day at the
funeral OF a dead Christ: we are cele-
brating the marriage OF the Kings son.
1t was an exciting time in English
history when Queen Elizabeth visited
Lord Leicester at Kenilworth castle.
The clocks in all the towers and
throughout the castle were stopped at
the moment of her arrival so continu-
ing to point to that moment as the one
surprising all others in interest. The
door of the great banqueting hall was
opened. The queen marched in to the
sound OF the trumpets. Four hundred
servants waited upon the guests. 1t
was scene that astonished all nations
when they heard OF it. Five thousand
dollars day did the banquet cost as 1t
went on day after day. She was greet
ed to the palace gates with floating ISL
ands and torches, and the thunders OF
cannon and fireworks that set the night
ablaze. and burst OF music that lifted
the whole scene into enchantment.
Beginning in that way, it went on from
low to ioy, and from excitement TO en-
citement, and from rapture to rapture.
That was the great banquet that Lord
Leicester spread in Kenilworth cas-
tie.
Cardinal Wolsey entertained the
French ambassadors in Hampton court.
The best cooks of all the land provided
for the table. The guests were kept
hunting in the parks all the day, so
that their appetites might be keen. and
then in the evening hour they were
shown into the banqueting hall, with
table aglitter with imperial plate, and
ablush with the very costliest wines,
and the second course Of the feast was
made OF food in all shapes OF men and
birds and beasts, and dancing groups,
and jousting parties riding upon each
other with uplifted lances. Lords and
princes and ambassadors, their cups
cleaning to the brim, drank first to the
health OF the king of England. and then
to the health OF the emperor OF France:
That was the banquet that Cardinal
Wolsey spread in Hampton court.
But to-day, my brothers and sisters,
invite YOU to q grander entertainment.
NT Lord the King is the banqueter.
JINNels Of God are the cupbearers: all
the edeemed are the guests: the halls
of eternal love, frescoed with light and
paved with ioy and curtained with I'M
fading beauty, are the banquetting
place: the harmonies of eternity are the
music: the chalices OF God are the plate:
and am one of the servants come out
with invitations to all the people; and
o, that you might break the seal OF the
invitation and read in ink Of blood and
with the tremulous hand of a dying
Christ: ''Come, come: for all things
are now ready"
Illustrating my text go on and in
the first place say that the Lord Jesus
Christ is ready. Cardinal Wolsey did
not come into the banqueting, hall un-
TIL the second course OF the feast, and
when he entered booted and spurred,
all the guests arose and cheered him,
but / have TO tell you that our banquet
er, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes in at
the beginning of the feast. Aye, he
has been waiting for his guests, waiting
for some OF them 1891 years, waiting
with mangled feet, waiting with hand
on the punctured side, waiting with
hand on the lacerated temples, waiting,
waiting! Wonder 1t is that the ban
queter did not get weary and say:
''Shut the door and let the laggards
stay out" No, he has been waiting. How
much is lie in earnest! Shall show you?
gather up all the tears that flooded his
cheek in sympathy, all the blood that
channelled his brow and back and hand
and foot, to purchase our redemption.
gather up all the groans coming from
midnight chill and mountain hunger
and desert loneliness, and l put them
into one bitter cry-I gather up all the
pangs that shot from cross and spike
and spear. into one groan-I take one
drop OF sweat on his brow, and l put II
under the glass OF the gospel, and it en-
larpes to lakes OF sorrow, to oceans 81
agony. That Christ to-day, emaciated
and worn and weary, comes here, and
with a pathOs in which every word Is q
heartbreak and every sentence martyr
dom, He says to you and He says TO me:
''Come, come, for all things are now
ready"
But / remark again, not only Christ is
waiting, but the Holy Spirit is waiting.
WHY are some sermons q dead failure?
WHY are there songs that do not get
their wing under the people? Why are
there prayers that 60 no higher up than
a hunters halloo? Because there is a
missing link that only the Holy Spirit
can make. II that spirit should come
through this assemblage this morning
there would be q power felt like that
when Saul was endorsed on the road to
Damascus, like as when Lydia's heart
was broken in her fine store, like as
when three thousand souls were lifted
out of midnight into midnoon at the
Pentecost Do you notice that some