The Forrest City times., 1891-01-09
BEHIND AND BEFORE.
TALMAGE'S NEW YEARS SERMON AGLANCE IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

Their Armor and Begin Vigor-
 Ous Onslaught Against Sin and
 satan.-Why the World is Not Now
 Christianized.-An Earnest Appeal
 for Prayer.
 BROOKLYN, N. Y., January 4.-Dr Tal- mage's New Years sermon is a ringing battle-cry to ministers and Christians everywhere, calling upon them to join in a combined charge on the entrenchments of of sin and Satan. It made deep impress sion on the vast crowds who heard it in this city this morning and at the service in New York tonight. The enthusiasm at effective aid rendered by a large volunteer choir which has been organized from the audiences, who sung with volume and fervor seldom equalled. After the singing of the hymn commencing,
 Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove
 With all thy quickening powers,
 Dr. Talmage preached the following ser mon from the text Luke 24: 49: ''Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high"
 For few months, in the providence of God, have two pulpits, one ill Brooklyn and the other in New York, and through the kindness of the printing press an ever widening opportunity. To all such hearers and readers I come with an especial mes sage. The time has arrived for q forward movement such as the church and the world have never seen. That there is.need for such religious movement is evident from the fact that never since our world was rolled out among the planets has there been such an organized and determined effort to overthrow righteousness and make the Ten Commandments obsolete and the whole Bible derision. Meanwhile alco- holism is taking down its victims by the hundreds of thousands, 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 for ever and ever, Amen" The Christian Sabbath meanwhile, appointed for physical, 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 sew CTS have been invited to pour their sour. rility and immoral slush into the trough where our Amer ican swine are now wal lowing. Meanwhile, there are enough houses of ipfamy in all our cities, open and unmolested of the law, to invoke the Om- nipotent wrath which buried Sodom under deluge of birthstone. The pandemoniao 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 of his myrmidons would capture this world for darkness and woe.
 That is ono side of the conflict now rag ing. On the other side we have tho most magnificent Gospel machinery that the world ever saw or heaven ever invented. In the first place, in this country moro than eighty thousand ministers of religion and, take them as a class, more consecrated holier, moro consistent, more self-denying more faithful men never lived. I know them by the thousands. have met them in every city. I am told, not by them but by people outside our profession, people
 
 work, that the clergy of America are at the head of all good enterprises and, who- ever else fail, they may be depended on The truth of this is demonstrated by the fact that when minister of religion does fall, it is so exceptional that the news papers report 1t as something startling. while hundred men in other callings may go down without the matter being consid- cred as especially worth mentioning. In addition to their equipment in moral char acter, the clergy of this country have all that the schools can give. All archaolog ical, 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 a host without number of splendid men and women who are doing their best to have this world purified, elevated, gospelized. But we all feel that something is wanting. 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 nfamy.
 But look at some of the startling facts. 1t is nearly nineteen hundred years since Jesus Christ came by the way of Bethlehem carav ansary 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 bleat ing of the Lamb that was to be slain. Out of the eighteen hundred million of the hu- man race fourteen hundred million are without God and without hope in the world. the camel driver of Arabia. Mahomst, with his nine wives, having half as many disci pies as our blessed Christ, and more people are worshipping chunks of painted wood and carved stone than are worshippng the liv- ing and eternal God. Meanwhile, the most of us who are engaged in Christian work Ispeak for myself as well as others--are toiling up to our full capacity of body, mind and soul, harnessed up to the last buckle, not able to draw pound more than we are drawing, or lift an ounce more than we are lifting.
 What is the matter? 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. net 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 hundred years And am going to get it, if in answer to prayer. earnest and long continued. God will grant it me. his unworthy servant. Men and women who know how to pray, when you pray for yourself, pray for mo that may be endued with power from ou high. would rather have 1t than all the