Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-07-10
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "AsrRAY, Bur RECOVERED "

on HIM the iniq,ity o + tt, all" Isaiah llii o.
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 make this occasion absorbing
and momentous. The first half Of my text
! IS an indictment, "All we like sheep have
| gone astraY." Some one says: "Cau you
not drop the first wordi 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 hS SAYS:
There is ia blasphemer, and | understand
how he has gone astray Aud there 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 back to tho point from where 1t
started, when it says: "Ail 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 and cry as he smote
| upon his breast, God be merclful to me a
! sinner
was, like many Of you, brought up in the
country, and know some of the habits OF
sheep and how they get astray, and whatmy
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 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 hiu we might be better fed
we wanted other pasturagc than that
| which Tod 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 sharpeped rocks
and more singing nettles No pasture. How
was 1t in the worldly groups when you lost
! your childt Did they come around and con-
sole you very muchi Did not tho plain
christian man who came into your house
and sat up with your darling child give YOU
more comfort than all worldly associations,
Dld all the convivial songs you ever heard
comfort you in that day OF bereavement so
!huch !huch as the song they sang TO you, perhaps
! the very song that was sung by your little
child the last Sabbath afternoon of her
| lfe' -''
There happy land, far, far awar,
hhete saints Immortal reign. bright bright as
| day.
Did your business associates in that dav of
darkness and trouble give you any especial
condolence' business exasperatel YOU,
pusiheSs wore you out business left
you hmp 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 anorded you no luxuriant pasturage
! - lalhous English actor stood on the stare
lmperSonating, and thunders Of applause
came down from the galleries, and many
thought 1t was tho proudest moment OF his
me- out there was man asleep Just in front
OF him, and the fact that that man was in
ullereht anu somnoleut spoiled all the occa-
SION Tor him, and he cried, "Wake upl wake
up"
% ono little annoyance has been moro
perVallng to your mlul than all tho bril-
hant congratulations and SUCCESSES. Poor
paSturaSe for yoar soul you found in this
world The world has cheated you, the
world has beIied you, the world has misin.
terprctcd YOU the world has prosecuted YOU
IL never comtorted you. Oh this world is
a6ood rack from which horse may pick
his hay, 1t is good trough from which the
swine may crunch their mess: but it gives
but little food to a soul blood bought and
| immortal.
What is n soul? 1t is hope high rs the
throne OF God. What is maul You say,
at is only "A man 1t is only a man gone
overheard in business life. What is a man,
The battle-ground of three worlds, with his
hands taking hold OF destlnles of light or
darkness A man! No line can measure him,
| No limit Cun bound him. The archangel be-
fore the throne cannot outlveh him. The stars
shall die. but he will watch their extinguish-
lnent. The world will burn, but he will
gaze on the conhag grafton. Endless ages will
march on; he will watch the procession A
mani The masterpiece OF Col Almighty.
Yet you say, "lt is only a man" Can a ma.
ture like that be fed ON husks OF tho wilder
neasl
Substantial comfort will not grow
On natures barren soil:
All we can boast till Chris. we know
lie 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-
rectou. 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
20 thoroughly lost as lost sheep. It may
have been in 1857 during the financial panic
VI AK tlt SItSb III LUb Iali O
1873, when you got astray. You almost be
came an atheist. You said, "Where is God
that honest men go down and thieves pros
perp You were dogged of creditors, yol
were dogged OF the banks, you were doggec
OF worldly disaster, and some Of you went
into misanthropy, and some of you took K
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 the laundering of your
earthly fortunes how could you get along
without a God to comfort you, and God to
deliver you, and God to help you, and q
God to save you' You toll me you have been
through enough business trouble almost to
kill you. know 1t. | cannot understant
how the boat could live one hour In thai
chopped sea. But | do not know by what
process you got astray; some in one way, anC
some in another, and if you could really SEQ
the position some of you occupy before God
this morning, your soul would burst into au
agony of tears and you would pelt the heav.
ems with the cry: God have mercy p Sinari
batteries have been unlimberod above your
soul, and at times you have heard it thunder
The wages OF sin Is death" "All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God" -"
by one man sin entered into tho world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." "The soul
that sinneth 1t shall die.n
: When Sebastopol was being bombarded
two Russian frigates burned all night In the
harbor throwing glare upon the trembling
fortress and some Of you are standing in th
night of your souls trouble The cannonad
and the conhagration, the multiplication o
your sorrows and troubles I think mus
make tho wings of Gods lowering angel
shiver to the tip.
But the last part of my text opens dooi
q wide enough to let us all out and to let al
heaven in. Sound 1t on the organ with al
the stops out Thrum it on tho harps witt
all the strings atune. With all the melod,
possible let the heavens sound 1t to the eartt
and let the earth tell 1t to the heavens
THE Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity o.
: us ALL" am glad that the prophet did no