The Brookhaven leader., 1891-07-09
ASTRAY, YET RECOVERED.
An Appeal to the Stray Sheep by
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage.
Drifting from the Old-Fashioned Gospel
May Afford Temporary Diversion,
But the Old Fold and the Old
Shepherd are the Best.


lyn tabernacle from the text:
All we, like sheep, have gone astray;
and the Lord hath laid on Him the in
iquity of us all.-Isiaah ILL.,, 6.
Within ninety years at the longest all
who hear or read this sermon will be
in eternity. During the next fifty
years you will nearly all be gone. The
next ten years will cut wide swath
among the people. The year 1891 will
to some be the finality. Such consider
ations make this occasion absorbing
and moInentous. The first half of my
text is an Indictment: 'All we like
sheep have gone astray." Some one
says: Can you not drop the first
word? That is too general; that
sweeps too great a circle" Some man
rises in the audience and he looks over
on the opposite side of the house and
he says: There is blasphemer, and
understand how he has gone astray.
And there in another part of the house
is defrauder, and he has gone astray.
And there is an impure person, and
he has gone astray.' Sit down, my
brother, and look at home. My text
takes us all in. 1t starts behind the
pul pit, sweeps the circuit OF the room
and comes back to the point where it
started, when it says: "All we like
sheep have gone astray." can very
easily understand why Martin Luther
threw up his hands after he had found
the Bible, and cried out: 80! my sins,
my sins!" and why the publican, ac-
cording to the custom to this day in the
east, when they have any great grief,
began to beat himself and cry as he
smote upon his breast: God be merci-
full to me sinner"
/ was, like many of you, brought up
in the country, and l know some of the
habits of sheep, and how they get
astray, and what my text means when
it says: "All we like sheep have gone
astray." Sheep get astray in two ways:
either by trying to get into other pas
| ture, or by being scared by the dogs. In
| the former way some of us got astray.
We thought the religion of Jesus Christ
short commons. We thought there was
better pasturage somewhere else. We
thought if we could only lie down on
the banks of distant streams, or under
great oaks on the other side of some
hill, we might be better fed. We want
ed other pasturage than that which
| God through Jesus Christ gave our soul,
and we wandered on, and we wandered
on, and we were lost We wanted
bread and we found garbage. The
further we wandered, instead of find
ing rich pasturage, we found blasted
heath and sharper rocks and more
singing nettles. No pasture. How
was it in the worldly groups when you
lost your child? Did they come around
and console you very much? Did not
the plain Christian man who came into
your house and sat up with your dar-
ling child, give you more comfort than
all worldly associations? Did all the
convivial songs you ever heard comfort
you in that day of bereavement so
much as the song they sang to you, per-
haps the very song that was sung by
your little child the last Sabbath after
noon of her life?
There is a happy land far, far away,
Where saints immortal reigf. bright, bright
as day.
Did your business associates in that
day of darkness and trouble give you
any especial coincidence? Business eX-
asperated you, business wore you out,
business left you limp as rag, business
made you mad. You got dollars, but
you got no peace. God have mercy on
the man who has nothing but business
to comfort him. The world afforded
you no luxuriant pasturage. A famous
English actor stood on the stage i'm
personating, and thunders of applause
came down from the galleries, and
many thought it was the proudest mo-
ment of all his life; but there was a man
asleep just in front of him, and the fact
that that man was indifferent and SOM
nolent spoiled all the occasion for him,
and, he cried, 'Wake up, wake up!'' So
one little annoyance in life has been
more pervading to your mind than all
the brilliant congratulations and sue
cess. Poor pasturage for your soul you
found in this world. The world has
cheated you, the world has belied you,
the world has misinterpreted you, the
world has prosecuted you. 1t nevercom-
forted you. CT this world is good rack
from which morse may pick his hay; it is
good trough from which the swine may
crunch their mess; but it gives but little
food to the soul od-bought and inn
mortal What is soul? 1t is hope
high as the throne of God. What is a
man? You say: 1T is only man." 1t
is only a man gone overheard in sin. 1t
is only a man gone overheard in busi-
ness life. What is man? The battle
ground of three worlds, with his hands
taking hold of destinies of light or dark
ness A man! No line can measure
him. No limit can bound him. The
archangel before the throne can not
outlive him. The stars shall die, but
he will watch their extinguishment.
The world will burn, but he will gaze
on the conhagration. Endless ages
win march on; he will watch. the pro-
cession. A man! The masterpiece of
God Almighty. Yet you say: ut is
only a man." Can a nature like that
be fed on husks of the wilderness?
Substantial comforts will not grow
On natures barren soil;
All we can boast till Christ We know
Is vanity and toll
Some of you got astray by looking
for better pasturage; others by being
scared of the dogs. The hound gets over
into the pasture field. The poor things
fly in every direction. In a few mo-
ments they are torn of the hedges and
they are FLASHED of the ditch, and the
lost sheep never gets home unless the
. farmer goes after il. There is nothing
SO thoroughly lost as a lost sheep, II
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