The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1891-01-15

l!....,,-s-,--.rON =. By REV. DR..
TAlMAGE.

Powers of Light and tho Powers of
Darkness--ChrIstians Need tho Help
That Comes from On High.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 4.-Dr. Talmagc's
New Years sermon is ringing battle
cry to ministers and Christians every
where, calling upon them to join in Il
combined charge on the intrenchments
of sin and Satan. 1t made deep i'm
preston on the vast crowds who heard
it in this city this morning, and at The
Christian Herald service tonight in
New York. The enthusiasm at the
latter service was increased by the eff
fective AID rendered by a large volun-
teer choir which has been organized
from the audiences, who sung with a
volume and fervor seldom equaled.
After the singing of the hymn COM
menclng,
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers,
DIR. TalnIage preached the following
strmon from the text, Luke xiv, 10,
"Iarry ye in the city of Jerusalem un-
TIL ye be endued with power from on
high"
For few months, in the providence
OF God, l have two pulpits, one in
brooklyn and the other in New York,
and through the Kindness of the print.
ing press an ever widening opportuni-
ty. TO all such hearers and readers |
come with an especial message. The
time has arrived for forward move
ment such as the church and the world
have never seen. That there is need
for such a religious movement is owl
dent from the fact that never since our
world was swung out among the
planets has there been such an organ
lZed and determined effort to over
InroW righteousness, and make the
Zen commandments obsolete and the
whole Bible a deriSion. Meanwhile
alcoholism is taking down it's victims
by the hundreds of thousands. and the
political parties get down on their
knees, practically, saying: 90 thou al
mighty rum jug! we bow down before
thee! Give us the oilces-city, state
and national. Oh, give us the Offices,
and we will worship thee for ever and
ever, Amen"
The Christian Sabbath meanwhile,
appointed for physical, mental and
spiritual rest, is being secularIZed and
abolished. AS il the bad publishing
houses OF our own country had cXs
hauSted their literary filth, the French
and Russian sewers have been invited
to pour their scurrility and moral
slush into the trough where our Amer
lean swine are now walowing. Mean
while there are enough houses Of in
fanny in all our cities, open and I'M
molested of the law, to invoke the ON.
nlpOtent wrath which buried Sodom
under dcluge of birthstone. The
pandemoniac world, / think, has
massed its troops, and they are at this
moment plying their batteries upon
family circles, church circles, social
circles, political circles and national
circles. ApollyOn is in the saddle, and
riding at the head Of his myrmidons
would capture this world for darkness
and woe.
That is one side of the conflict now
raging. On the other side we have the
most magnificent gospel machinery
that the world ever saw or heaven ever
invented. In the first place there are
In this country more than eighty thou
sand ministers Of religion and, take
them as a class, more cOnSecrated,
holier. more consistent, more self deny
ing, more faithful men never lived. !
know them by the thousands. / have
met them in every city. I am told
not 10y them, but by people outside our
profession, people engaged in Christian
and reformatory work. that the clergy
OF America are at the head of all good
enterprises, and whoever else fail they
may be depended on. The truth Of
this is demonstrated by the fact that
when minister of religion does fall,
1T Is so exceptional that the newspapers
report 1T as something startling, while
hundred men in other callings may
go down without the matter being con-
sldered as especially worth mention
ing.
In addition to their equipment in
moral character the clergy of this
country have all that the schools can
give. All archaeological, rhetorical,
scientific, scholastic, literary attain
ment. So much for the Christian min
lStry of all denominations. In the
next place on our side of the conflict
we have the grandest churches of all
time and higher style of membership
and more of them, and host without
number of splendid men and women
who are doing their best to have this
worl" purified, elevated, gospelized.
But we all feel that something is want
ing. Enough hearty songs have been
sung and enough earnest sermons
preached within the last six months to
save all the cities of America, and say
Ing the cities you save the world, for
they overflow all the land either with
their religion or their infamy.
Several times III the history of the
church and the world has the power
from on high been demonstrated. In
the Seventeenth century, after a great
season of moral depression, this power
from on high came down upon John
Illlotson and Owen and Flavel and
baxter and Bunyan, and there was a
deluge of mercy higher than the tops
OF the highest mountains of sin. In
the Eighteenth century, in England
and America, religion was at low
water mark. William Cowper, writing
OF the clergy of those days said:
Except few with Ellis spirit blcst,
mophni and Phlneas may describe the rest.
Inc infldel writing of Shaftesbury and
and Chubb had done their
work. But\power from on high came
upon both the Wesleys and Lady
Huntington on the other side the At
lantic, and upon William Tenant and
Gilbert Tenant and David Brainerd
on this side of the Atlantic, and both