News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-07-02

and the Hospital for the Sick, So the
Gospel Is for ALI the Sinful, That Is
for All Mankind.
BROOKLYN, June 2S.-Dr. Talmage's
sermon today is of so decidedly evan
gelical a character as to prove conclu-
sively that while SO many eminent
preachers of the day are drifting away
from the old fashioned Gospel he re-
mains firm in the paths of orthodoxy.
His subject is 'Astray, but Recovered"
and his text, Isaiah Lii, g.: "All we like
sheep have gone astray: and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. :"
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 considerations
make this occasion absorbing and mo-
mentous. 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 word2 that is too
general; that sweeps too great circle"
Some man rises in the audience and he
looks over on the opposite side of the
house. and he says: There is bias
phemer, 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 i'm
pure person and he has gone astray."
Sit down, my brother, and look at
home. My text takes us all in. 1t
starts behind the pulpit, sweeps the
circuit of the room and comes back to
thu point where it started, when it says:
''All we like sheep have gone astray."
can very easily understand why Mar
tin Luther threw up his hands after he
had found the Bible and cried out,
"Chl my sins, my SINS" and why the
publican, according 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 merciful to me a sinner"
FOR FRIGHT OR FOR wANToNNEss.
was, like many of you, brought up
in the country, and 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 from 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.
Wewanted 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
finding 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 child2 Did they come around
and console you very much2 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,
perhaps the very song that was sung by
g. |
noon of her Ife9
There is happy land, Ear, far away,
Where saints immortal reign, bright. bright
as day.
Did your business associates in that
day of darkness and trouble give you
any especial condolence2 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 imper-
sonating, 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 man
asleep just in front of him, and the fact
that that man was Indifferent and
soInnolent spoiled all the occasion for
him. and he cried, wake upl wake
upI"
So one little annoyance in life has
been more pervading to your mind
than all the brilliant congratulations
and successes. 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
never conforted you Oil this world is
a good rack from which a horse may
pick his hay; it is a good trough from
which the swine may crunch their mess;
but it gives but little food to soul
blood bought and immortal. What is
a soul2 1t is hope high as the throne
of God What is a MANI You say,
ut is only a man" 1t is only man
gone overheard in sin. 1t is only
man gone overheard in business life.
THE VALUE OF ONE MANS SOUL.
What is a MANI The battle ground
of three worlds, with his hands taking
hold of destinies of light or darkness.
A MANI No line can measure him. No
limit can bound him. The archangel
before the throne cannot outlive him.
The stars shall die but he will watch
their extinguishment. The world will
burn, but he will gaze on the conhagra-
ton. Endless ages will march on; he
will watch the procession. A mani
The masterpiece of God Almighty. Yet
you say, st is only man" Can
nature like that be fed on husks of the
wilderness?
Substantial comfort 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
moments 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 it. There is
nothing so thoroughly lost as a lost
sheep. 1t may have been in 1857, dur
ing the financial panic, or during the
financial stress in the fall of 1873,
when you got astray. You almost be-
came an atheist. You said, "Where
is God, that honest men go down and
I