The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-03-12
POWER FROM ON HIGH.
A New Years Discourse by Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage.
A Message to Ministers and Christians
Showing the Need of Great Relig-
tOus Awakening and the Weap-
on to Fight With.


from the text:
larry ye in the City Of Jerusalem until ye
be endued with power from on high.-Luke
xiv, 49,
For few months, in the providence
OF God, / have two pulpits, one in
Brooklyn and the other in New York,
and through the kindness of the print
ing press an ever widening opportunity.
To all such hearers and readers come
with an especial message. The time
has arrived for a forward movement
such as the church and the world have
never seen. That there is need for
such a religious movement is evident
from the fact that never since our world
was swung out among the planets has
there been such an organized and de-
termined effort to overthrow righteous
ness and make the Ten Commandments
obsolete and the whole Bible derision.
Meanwhile alcoholism is taking down
its victims by the hundreds of thou
sands, and the political parties get
down on their knees, practically saying:
70 thou almighty Rum jug, we bow
: down before thee. Give us the offices,
city, State and National. Oh, give us the
offices and we will worship thee forever
and ever, Amen The Christian
Sabbath meanwhile, appointed for phys
ical, mental and spiritual rest is being
secularized and abolished. AS if the
bad publishing houses of our own
country had exhausted their literary
filth, the French and Russian sewers
tad 70,
.ty and moral slush in the trough where
our American swine are now wallowing
Meanwhile, there are enough marts of
infamy in our cities open and unmolest-
ed of the law, to invoke the Omnipotent
wrath which buried Sodom under del
uge of birthstone. The pandemoniac
world, think, has massed it's troops,
and they are 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 ofhis
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, in this
country are more than eig hty thousand
ministers of religion and, take them as
class, more consecrated, holier more
consistent, more self-denying, more
faithful men never lived. l know them
by the thousands. / have met them in
every city. l am told, not by 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 depend
ed on. The truth of this is demon
strated by the fact that when a min
lister of religion does fall, it so
exceptional that the newspapers
report it as something startling,
while hundred men in other
callings may go down without the mat
ter being considered as especially worth
mentioning. 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
attainment. So much for the Christian
ministry 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 num-
Der of splendid men and women
who are doing their hest to have this
world 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
saving the cities you save the world;
for they overflow all the land either
with their religion or their infamy.
But look at some of the startling
facts 1t is nearly nineteen hundred
years since Jesus Christ came by the
way OF Bethlehem caravansary to save
this world, yet the most of the world
has been no more touched by this most
stupendous fact of all eternity than if
on the first Christmas night the beasts
of the stall, amid the bleatings of their
own young had not heard the bleating
of the Lamb that was to be slain. Out
of the eighteen hundred million of the
human race fourteen hundred million
are without God and without hope in
the world, the camel-driver of Arabia.
Mohammed, with his nine wives hay
ing half as many disciples as our blessed
Christ, and more people are worshiping
chunks of painted wood and carved
stone than are worshiping the living
and eternal God. Meanwhile, the most
of us who are engaged in Christian
work. speak for myself as well as
others are toiling up to our full capac-
ity of body, mind and soul, harnessed
up to the last buckle, not able to draw
a pound more than we are drawing. or
lift an ounce more than we are lifting,
What is the matter2 My text lets out
the secret We all need more of the
Power from on High. Not muscular
power, not logical power, not scientific
power, not social power, not financial
power, not brain power, but Power from
on High. With it we could accomplish
more in one week than without it in a
hundred years. And am going to get