The Opelousas courier., 1891-03-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Brooklyn Divinus
SUNDAY Sermon

N~A va q CCbLS.
kew. xxi, II.
Imperial, tender and all persuasive is this
WORD Come" Six hundred and seventy
eIgns tlmes 1t Is found in the Scriptures. It
STANDS az the front gate of the Bible asin nv
Hfsb texr. inviting antsdiluvians into Noahfs
arr, and 1t stands at the other gate of the
EIDE as IN my second text. inviting the
pos5diluvlans into the ark of a Saviour's
mercy. Come is only a word of four
letIers, but it is the queen of words, and
nearly the entire nation of English vocabu-
iary bows to it's scepter. It is an ocean into
wnich empty ten thousand rivers of meaning.
Other words drive. but this beckons.
An moods or feeling hath that word
Come" Sometimes it weeps and sometimes
IL laughs. Sometimes it prays, sometimes it
6empts and sometimes it destroys. It sounds
from the door of church and from the serag-
los of sin, from the gates of heaven and the
gates of hell. It is continent and accrescent
OF all power. 1t is the heiregs of most of the
past and the almoner Of most Of the future.
Conner You may pronounce it so that all
the heavens will be heard in its eaderces. or
pronounce it so that all the woes of time and
eternity shall reverberate in its one syllable.
1t IS the r1ightiest of all solicitants either for
good or bad.
To-day | weigh anchor and haul in the
planks, end set sail on the great word, al
though [ am sure I will not be able to reach
the further shore. Twill let down the faith
omlng line into the sea and try to measure
its depths, and though I tie together all the
cables and cordage | nave on board, I will
not be able to touch bottom. All the power
of the Christian religion is in that word
Come" The dictatorial and ~commandatory
in religion is of no avail. The imperative
mood is not the appropriate mood when we
would have people savingly impressed. They
may be coaxed, but they cannot be driven.
Our hearts are like our homes: at a friend
ly knock the door will be opened, but an at
tempt to force open our door would land the
assailant in prison. Our theological semin-
aries, which keep young men three years in
their curriculum before launching them into
the ministry, will do well if in so short a
time they can teach the candidates for the
holy Office how to say with right emphasis
n information and power that one word
"Comel" That man who has such efficiency
in Christian work, and that woman who has
such power to persuade people to quit the
wrong and begin the right, went through a
series of losses, bereavements, prosecutions
and the trials of twenty OF thirty years be-
fore they could make it a triumph of grace
every time they uttered the word Come
You must remember that in mary cases
our Come has a mightier Come to
conquer before it has any effect at all. Just
give me the accurate census, the statistics,
of how many are down in fraud, in drunken
ness, in gambling, In impurity, or in vice of
any sort, and I will give you the accurate
by the w9rd "Come." 1tCome and
click wine glass. with me at this ivory bar"
sCome and see I hat we can win at this gam
ing table, 'tCome, enter with me this
doubtful speculation" "Come with me and
read those in1del tracts ON Christianity"
Come with me TO a place Of bad amuse-
ment." Come with me in a gay bout
through underground New York. Ii in this
In moral character, then twenty thousand
fell under the power OF the word Come"
was reading OF a wife whose husband had
been overthrown by strong drink, and she
went to the saloon where be was ruined, and
she said: Give me back my husband And
the bartender, pointing TO q maudlin and
battered man browsing in the corner ff the
barroom, said: There he is. Jim, wake up;
here's your wife cone for you.'n And the
woman said: DO you call chat my husband?
What have you been doing with him? Is
chat the manly brow2 Is that the clear eye?
Is that the noble heart I married? What
vile drug have you given him that has turned
him into q fend? Take your tiger claws off
of him. Uncoil those serpent folds of evil
habit that are crushing him. Give me back
my husband, the one with whom l stood at
Tie EiUdT EEn YG3ES dGO. 0lfc LII po%h w
me- Victim was he, as millions of Others
have been, of the word sComsE'
With that word which has done so much
for othersTapproach you to-day. Are you
all right with God? NO. you say, Il
think not: I am sometimes alarmed when |
think of Him; / fear l will not be ready to
meet Him in the last day; my heart is not
right with God Come then and nave 1t
made right. Through the Christ who died
to save YOU, comel What is the use in
waiting? The longer you wait the further
off you are, and the deeper you ale down.
Strike out for heayenl You remember that
a few years ago a steamer called the Princess
Alice. with a crowd Of excursionists aboard,
sank in the Thames, and there was an awful
sacrifice of life. A boatman from the shore
put out for the rescue and he had q big boat
and he got it so full it would not hold an
other person, and as he laid hold of the oars,
to pull for the shore, leaving hundreds help
less and drowning, he cried out, HOh, that |
had bigger boatr' Thank God, I arr not
thus limited, and that I can promise room
for all in this Gospel boat. Get in; get ini
And vet there is room. Room in the heart
of a pardoning God. Room in heaven.
I also apply the word of my text to those
who would like practical comfort. IL any
ever escape the struggle of life, + have not
found them. They are not certainly among
rna prosperous classes. Tn most cases 1t was
a struggle all the way up till they reached
the prosperity, and since they lave reached
these heights there have been perplexities,
anxieties and cries which were almost
enough TO shatter the nerves and turn the
brain. It would be hard to tell which nave
the biggest fight in the ~worid-the prosperi-
ties or the adversities, the conspicuities or the
obscurities. Just as soon as you have enough
success to attract the attention of others the
enyies and iealousies are let loose from their
kennel. The greatest crime that you can
commit in the estimation of others is to get
on better than they Us They think your
addition is their subtraction. Five hundred
persons start for a certain goal of success;
one reaches it and the other four hundred
and ninety-nine are mad. 1t would take
volumes to hold the story of the wrongs out
RACES and determinations that have come upon
you as a result of your success. Ina warm
sun of prosperity brings into life a swamp
full of annoying insects.
have their struggles for maintenance. To
achieve a livelihood by one who had nothing
to start with, and after a while for a family
as rel l.fand carry this on until children are
reared and educated and fairly started in the
world, and to do this amid all the rivalries
of business, and the uncertainty of crops,
and the fickleness of tariff legislation, with
an occasional labor strike, and here and
there q financial panic thrown in, is q mighty
thing to do, and there are hundreds a d
thousands such heroes and heroines who live
unsung and die unhonored. What we all
need, whether up or down in life, or half