Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-07-04
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "Astray, But Recovered"

0otfuht ttHQ Tue lSOf0 NUN tUt9
on Him the iniquity o us all Isaiah lii, g.
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
1881 will to come be the finality. Such con-
alterations make this occasion absorbing
and momentous. The first half of my text
is an Indictment. "All we like sheep have
gone astray.n Some one says; Can you
not drop the first wordf That is too generaIi
that sweeps too great a CIRCLE" Some man
rises in the audience and he looks over on
the opposite side of the house; and his saws:
There is a b'asphemer, and I understand
how he has gone astray: And thers In an
other part OF the house is a 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
pulpit, sweeps the circuit of the room and
comes lack 10 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
/ 'Oh my sins, my sins" and why the publi-
can, according to the custom to this day in
the East. when they have any great grief,
began to beat himself aud cry as he sInote
1 upon his breast, God be merclful to me a
/ sinner"
I was, like many of you, brought I'D in the
country, and know some of the habits of
\ sheep and how they get astray. and what nv
/ 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
4 thought the religion of Jesus Christ short
commons. We thought there was better pas
turage somewhere else. We thought if we
I could only lie down on the banks OF distant
streams or under great oaks on the other side
OF some al we might be better fed.
we wanted other pasturage than that
whlch 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 pasturage we
found blasted heath and sharpened rocks
and more stlnglng nettles. No pasture. How
was 1t IN the worldly groups when you lost
your child? Did they come around and con-
sole you very much? Did not the plain
shrlstlan mar WHO came into your house
and sat up TS'th your darling child give you
more comfort than all worldly associations.
DID all tho convivial songs you ever heard
comfort you in that day Of bereavement so
much as the song they sang to You, perhaps
the very son., that was sung by your little
child the last Sabbath afternoon of her
HfcS
There IS happy land, far, far awar,
"nete SAINTS immortal reign, bright, bright as
Did your business associates in that dav Of
Garkness and trouble give you any especial
condolences business exasperate1 YOU,
business wore you out business left
you limp as a rag, business mad
you mad. You got dollars, but you got no
peace tod 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
lmpersonatiDg, and thunders of applause
esune down from the galleries, and many
thought 1t was the proudest moment of his
lie; but there was man asleep lust in front
Oh MN, and the fact that that man was in
uiiIerent and Somnolent spoiled all the occa-
upm
90 one little annoyance has been more
perVaalng to your mind than all the brill
MANI 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 misn-
terpreted you, the world has prosecuted you.
IL never comforted you. Oh this world is
good rack from which a horse NAV pick
his hay; 1t is good trough from which the
swine may crunch their mess; but it gives
Dub AoeAS ANOA " 6 oOul DtDOu DOuLnb anu
immortal.
What is q soul? 1t is hope high as tn
throne of God. What is q man? You saw.
at is only man" 1t is only man gone
overheard in business life What is mani
The battle-ground of three worlds, with his
hands taking hold of destinies OF light or
darkness. A man No line can measure him
No limit can bound him. The archangel be-
fore the throne cannot outlive him The stars
shall die. but he will watch their extiaguisa-
lnent. The world will burn, but he will
gaze on the contiagration. Endless ages will
march on; he will watch the procession. A
mani Tho masterpiece of Col Almighty.
Yet You say, ut is only man." Can ma
ture like that be fed on hus.zs Of the wilder
nesss
Substantial comfort will not grow
On natures barren soil;
All We can boast till Christ we know
Is vanity aud toll.
Some of you got astray by looking for
better pasturage; others by being scared of
the dogs. The hound gets over into the pas
ture field. The poor things fly in every di.
rection. In 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 lost sheep 1t ma,
have been in 1857, during the financial panic
or during the financial stress in the fall o.
1913, when you got astray. You almost be
came an atheist. You said "Where is God
that honest men go down and thieves pros
perY You were logged of creditors, you
We're logged of the banks you were dogge,
OF worldly disaster, and some of you wen
into misanthrepy, and some of you took t,
strong drink and others of you fed out o.
Christian association, and you got astray.
man! that was the last time when you ought
TO have forsaken God.
STANDING amid tho foriudari,11 NJ xa,r
earthly fortunes, how could you get along
without God to comfort YOU and Col to
deliver you, and a God to help YOU and a
God to save you; You tell me you have been
through enough business trouble almost to
kill you. know it. l cannot understand
how the boat could live one hour in that
chopped sea. But do not know by what
process you got astray; some in one way, and
some in another, AMI if you could really sss
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 mercyr p Sinai's
batteries have been unlimbered ABOVE your
SOU, and at times you have heard it thunder
"Ihe wages of sin is DEATH "All have
sinned and come short OF the glory Of God. >
by one man sin entered into the world, an |
death by sin; and so death passed. upon all
men, for that all have siIlne1." "Fne soul
that sinneth it shall die.'
When Sebastopol was being bombarde /,
two Russian frigates burned all night in the
harbor tnrowing a glare upon the trembling
4 fortress, ana some or you are standing in the
night OF your souls trouble The cannonade
and the conlagration, the multiplication OF
your sorrows and troubles | think must
make the wings Of Gods lowering angels
SILVER to the tip
But the last part OF my text opens a door
wide enough to let US all out aud to let all
rVrad Nl. III
the stops out. Thrum it on the harps with
all the strings atune. With all the melody
possible let the heavens sound it to the earth
ana let the earth tell it to the heavens.
The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of
US al. am glad that the prophet did not
stop TO explain whom he meant by Him.
him of the manger. Him of the bloody
sweat Him OF the resurrection throne, Him
OF the crueifxion agony. "Oa Him the
Aord hath laid the inlquity OF US ALL
oh" says some man, shat is not ganer-
Gus, that is not fair; let every man carry his
own burden and pay his own debts" That
( sounds reasonable. If l have an obligation
/ and have the means to meet it. and come
I to you and ask you to settle that obligation,
you rightly say, Pay your own debts" II
you and / walking down the street. both
hale, hearty aud well, ask you to carry me-
you say, and say rightly, walk on your
own feet" But suppose you and were in
regiment and L was wounded in the battle
and fell unconscious at your feet with gun
shot fractures and disloc ltons. what wouli
4 you dos You would call to your comrades
/ saying, Come AMI help, this man is help
less; bring the ambulance let us take him
to the hospital" and woa d be deal lift
/ IN your arms, and you would lift mo from
the ground where had fallen and put me in
I the ambulance and take me to the hospital
and have all kindness shown me. Would
there be anything mean in your doing that
thor h.,o