The Penn's Grove record., 1891-07-03
REV. DR.. TALNAGE'S SERMON.
The brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject. "Astray, but Recovered"

Subject: "Asfray, but Recovered
1ExT "AH zoe like sheep hare aont
osfrdy and the Lord hath laid
on Him the iniqnity Of us au."-Isaiah lii. q.
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 a
wide swath among the people. The year
1891 will to some be the finality. Such CON
siderations max this occasion absorbing
and momentous. The first half Of my text
is an indictment. "An We like sheep have
gone astray.n Some one sayss Can you
not drop the first wordf That Is too general;
that sweeps too great a CIRCLE Some man
rises in the audience and he looks owe on
the opposite side of the house, and he says.
There isa blasphemer, and l understand
how he has gone lastray. And there in an
other part OF the house Is q defrauder, and
he has gone astray. And there IL an impure
person, and he has gone astray.'
Sit down, ,my brother, n look at home.
My text takes us all in. It starts behind the
pulpit, sweeps the circuit of the room and
omes back to the point from where it
started, when it says: "All we like sheep
have gone astray." can very easily under
stand why Martin Luther threw up his hands
after he had found the Bible and cried out,
'Ohi my sins, my sins, !" and why the publi-
can, according to the custom to this day in
the East, when they lave any great grief,
began to beat himself and cry as he smote
upon bis breast, God be merciful to me O
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, "Afl 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 pas
turage somewhere else. We thought il 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 wanted other ~pasturage than that
which God through Jesus Christ gave our
soul, and we wandered on and wandered on,
and we were lost. We wanted bread and
We found garbage. The further we wan
dered, instead OF finding rich pastnrage, we
found blasted heath and sharpened rocks
was it in the worldly groups when you lost
your childf Did they come around and con-
sole you very much2 Did not the plain
Christian man who came into your house
and sat up with your darling child give you
more comfort than all worldly a~ssociationss
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 your little
child the last Sabbath afternoon of her
lifef
There is a Happy land, far, far awar, I
Where saints immortal reign. bright, bright Is
day.
Did your business associates in that day Of
and trouble give you any especial
condolences BUSINESS exasperated you,
business wore you out, business left
You limp as q 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-mpersonating, n thunders of applause
down from the galleries. and many
thought it was the proudest moment Of his
life; but there was a man asleep just in front
of him, and the fact hat that man was in
different and somnolent spoiled all the occa-
sion for him, and he cried, wake upl wake
upP
So n little annoyance has been more
pervading to your MINI than all the bril-
liant congratulations and successes. Poor
pasturage for your soul you found in this
world. The world has cheated o the
world has belied you, the world has misiu-
terprsted you, the world has p~ersecuted you.
1t never comforted you. OH this world Is
a good rack from which q horse may pick
his hay; it is q good trough from which the
swine may crunch their mess; but 1t gives
Init little food to a soul blood bought and
immortal.
what is a soule 1t is hope high as the
OF God. What Is a mani You say,
ait ia only a man" 1t is only q man gone
in business life. What Is a mann
=, {. -.,.,na IF thraa worlAa with hia
hands taking hold Of destinies OF light or
A man No line can measure him.
limit can bound him. The archangel be-
sora tha throne cannot outlive him. The stars
sbail die hut he will watch their extinguish-
ment. The world will burn, but he will
gaze on the confagration. Endless ages will
march on; he will watch the procession. A
mani The masterpiece OF God Almighty.
Wat vo,, cav, alt is only a man." Can a ma
tnre ike that be fed on husks Of the wilder
n' subatsntisl comfort will mot grow
On natures barren soil;
An we can boast till Christ We know
IL yanlIy and ioi.
Some of YOU got astray by looking for
batter nasturage: others by being scared of
the dogs. The hound gets over into the pas
field. The poor things fly in every d.
~re.tion. In a few moments they are torn OF
tba hedges and they are FLASHED Of the ditch,
and the lost sheep never gets home unless
fine farmer goes after 1t. There IL nothing
so thoroughly lost as a lost sheep. 1t may
have been in 1857. during the financial panic,
or during the financial stress IN the 1al Oh
1se9 when Won got astray. You almost be-
came an atheist. You said, Where Is God,
that honest men go down and thieves pros
narsn You were logged OF creditors, you
we're dogged of the banks, you were logged
Of worldly disaster, and some Of you went
into misanthropy, and some OF you TOOK ID
strong drink, and others OF you He'd out OF
Christian association, and you got astray. .
mani that was the last time when you ougnb
to ave forsaken God
STANDING amid the laundering OF your
earthly fortunes, how could you get along
without a God to comfort you, and a God to
Sai;ver Won and a God to help you, and a
God to save youf You tell me you have been
through enough business trouble almost to
Kin YOU, know it l cannot understand
the boat could live one hour IN that
chopped sea. But l do not know by what
process you got astray, some IN one way, and
some IN another, andif you could really see
the position some Of you occupy before God
this morning. your soul would burst into an
AGONY Of tears and you would pelt the heav-
ems with the cry. ''God have mercyp Sinafs
batteries AVE been numbered above your
soul, and at times you have heard It thunder
1.-THE WAGES OF Sill N hcatA- haho
sinnsd and come short of the glory of God
BY one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men for that all rave sinned-" THE soul
that sinneth it shall die
When Sebastopol was being bombarded,
two Russian frigates burned all night in the
harbor throwing q glare upon the trembling
f~ortress. and some Of you are standing in the
nirht of your souls trouble. The ~cannonade
and the co~nfagration, the multiplication of
YOUR sorrows and troubles I think must
make the wings of Gods lowering angels
shiver to the tip
But the last part Of my text opens a door
wide enough to let us all out n to let all
heaven in. Sound it IN the organ with all
the stops out. Thrum w i On the he hsrp @s with
nossible let the heavens sound 1t to the earth
Ind let the earth tall It to the heavens.
ssThe Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity Of
ma al1 am glad hat the prophet did not
stop to explain whom he meant by Him"
Him Of the manager. Him OF the bloody
sweat. Him Of the resurrection throne. Him
Of the cr~ucifixion agony. Him tn
Lord hath laid the iniquity 81 as ALL
y. a., :, a.xa xuon tsfhak q. uAf nan--