Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-11
TABERNACLE PULPIT,
Rev, DR.. Talmage breaches 10 an Au-
dience of Seven Thousand.
An INVITATION To A WEDDING.
cEiist Ras Prepared a Banquet and Is
Waiting for the Guests.
INVITATION TO A WEDDING.
THE LESSON BE DREW FROM BIS TEXT

.sFEcIAL TELKeRAM TO THE DIsPAroz.l
BROOKLYN, n. Y, May 1o.-The mail
auditorium of the Tabernacle and the ad
joining rooms were crowded by AN audieno
of 1000 persons. The subject of DIR. Tai
mage's sermon was "Invitation to a Wed
ding" and the text Luke 14:17; Come; fol
all things are now ready
1t was an exciting time in English history
when Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Leicester
at Keniworth Castle. The clocks in all the
towers and throughout the castle were stopped
at the moment of her arrival, continuing to
point to that moment as the one SURPRISING all
Others in interest. The doors of the grea;
banQueting hall were opened. The Queen
marched in TO the sound of the trumpets. -Four
hundred servants waited upon the guests. 1t
was scene that astonisbed all nations when
they heard OF it Five thousand dollars a day
did the banquet cost as it went on day after
day. She was greeted to the palace gates with
floating islands, and torches and the thunders
OF cannon, and fireworks that set the night
ablaze, and burst of music that lifted the
whole scene into enhancement Beginning in
that way, it went on from joy to joy, and from
excitement to excitement, and from rapture to
rapture. That was the great banquet that
Lord Leicester spread in kenilworth Castle.
The Banquet of the Lord.
i
you to q srander entertainment. My Loro, the
King. is the barqueter. Angels of God are the
cupbearers, all the redeemed are the guests:
the halls of eternal love frescoed with light, and
paved with JOY. and curtsined with unfading
beauty, are the bauquetlng places. the har-
monies of eternity are the music, the chalices
of God are the plate. and am one of the SER
wants come out with invitations to all the
people, and oh. that you might break the seal
OF the invitation and read in ink OF blood, and
with the tremulous hand of a dying Christ:
Come, come, for all things are now ready"
meuts at a banquet. The wine has given out.
the servants have been rebellious. or the
lights have failed: but walk all around the
banqueting table OF my Lord to-day, and hnd
everything complete, and l SWING open the
door Of this banQueting house and say: "All
things are now ready"
Ahasuerus made feast that lasted l60 days.
This lasts forever. Lords and princes were in
vited to that You and ! are invited to this.
Yes, He has been waiting, He is waiting now.
Other kings wrap themselves in robes of beauty
and power before they come into a banquet.
So does Christ. Oh, He is the faIrest Of the
fair. In His hand is the omnipotent surgery
that opened blind eyes and srraightened crook
ed limbs, and hoisted the pillars OF heaven,
and swung the twelve gates which are twelve
pearls. Oh, what Christ-a Christ of beauty
Christ Of power. There are not enough cups
on earth to dip up this ocean OF beauty. There
are not ladders to scale these heights of love.
Oh, thou Flower of Eternity Thy breath is the
perfume OF heaven. Oh. thou Daybreak of the
Soul, let all nations clap their hands in Thy
radiance. Chorus! Come men and angels and
cherubim and seraphim and archangel, all
heights, all depths, all immensities. Chorusi
Roll on through the heavens in chariot of uni
Versal acclaim, over bridges OF tosanna under
arches of coronation, by the towers Ginning
with eternal jubilee. Chorusi Unto Him that
loved us and washed US from our sins in His
own blood, and made us kings and priests unto
God, unto Him be glory.
Waiting for the Guests.
Ahi there is one word of five letters that
would like to write; but have no sheet fair
enough to write it on, and no pencil good
enough to inscribe 1t. Give me a sheet from
the heavenly records, and some pencil used by
angel in describing q victory, and then with
hands struck with supernatural energy, and
with pencil dipped in everlasting morning,
will write it out IN capitals of love: Jesusi 1t
is this One that is waiting for you and for me,
Tor we are on the same platform before God. /
How long he waited for mel How long be has /
waited for you'll Waiting a bsnQueter waits |
for his delayed guests, the meats smoking. aud |
the beakers orimmlng, and the minstrel with |
his finger on the stiff string ready to strike at |
the first clash of the hoofs at the gateway.
waiting as mother waits for a boy that 10 |
years ago went on dragging her bleeding heart |
after him. Waiting. oh, can you not give me |
some comparison intense enough, importunate |
enough, high as Heaven, deep as hell and vast |
eternityf Not expecting that you can help |
waiting as only an all-sympathetc Christ |
knows how to walt for a wandering soul.
But remark again. not only Christ Is wait |
Ing. but the Holy Spirit is waiting. Why are /
some sermons dead tailure7 Why are there /
songs that do not get their wing under the peo-
pie? Why are there players that GO no higher
up than hunters halloof Because there is a |
missing link that only the Holy Spirit can
make. If that Spirit should come through this
assemblaRe this morning, there would be q
power felt like that when Saul was unhorsed
n IN traa ubar, Ivds safu
heart was broken in her fine store, like as when
3 600 souls were lifted out of midnight into mid
noon at the PentecosL Do you notice that
sometimes that Spirit takes an insignificant
agency 10 save soul? think 1t is very often
that at Just one passage OF Scripture, Just one
word of Scripture, soul is saved because the
Holy Spirit gives II supernatural power.
What a Passage of Scripture Did.
One Thanksgiving morning in church read
my text 20, give thanks unto the Lord, for He
is good" and young man stood In the gallery
and said TO himself: ~ have never rendered
one acceptable offering Of gratitude to GOD in
all my life. Here. Lord, am thine forever"
BY that one passage OF Scripture he was
brought into the kingdom and II might tell
my own experience, l might tell how one Sab
bath afternoon / was brought TO the peace of
the Gospel by reading Of the Syro-Phepi-
dogs eat Of the crumbs that fall from the mas |
ter's table" Philosophic sermons never saved
anybody. Metaphysical sermons never saved
anybody An earnest plea going right out of
the heart blessed of the Holy Ghost that is
what saves, that is what brings people into the
kingdom Of Christ. Isuppose the world thought
Thomas Chalmers preached great sermons in
his early ministry, but Thomas Chalmers says
be never preached at all until years after he
had occupied pulpit he came out of his sick |
room, and weak and emaciated, he stood and |
told the story OF Christ to the people. And in |
the great day of eternity it will be found that
not so much the eloquent sermons brought men
10 Christ as the story told, perhaps. by those
who were unknown on earth, the simple story |
of the Saviouris love and mercy, sent by the |
power of the Holy Ghost straight to the heart |
Come, Holy Ghost.
Then go on and tell you the church Is ready. |
There are those here who say: mo one cares
Tor my soul" We do care for it, You see
nan boWing his head in prayer and you say:
'Ihat man is indifferent" That man bows his
1ead In prayer that the truth may go to every ,
leart The air is full of prayers. They are go
ng up this morning from this assembly Hun
ireos Of prayers straight to the throne of a lis
ening God. The air is full of prayers-prayers
Iscending noon by noon from Fulton street.
,rayer meeting Friday night by FRIDAY njpht
u over this land, going up from PRAYING cir
les. Yea, there Is not a minute of an hour of
ny day that there are not supplications ascend.
ng to the throne of mercy. The church is
eady. And il you should this morning start
or your Fathers house, there would be hun.
reds and thousands in this assemblage who
iould say IL they knew it: Make room for that
nan, make room for him at the holy sacrament:
ring the silver bowl for his baptism; give him
ull right TO all the privileges of the church Of
esus Christ
The Church of Christ
Oh. know there are those who say the
hurch is a mass of hypocrites, but they do not
eally think so. 1t is glorious Church. Christ
urchased it. Christ built it. Christ swung all
- L