The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-21
TO THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Or. 1ALmAeEs POWERFUL APPEAL
Always Room In the Heavenly Fold-words
to the Outoast, the skeptic, and
the PrOdigal-A Favor That
All May Grant.

church-goers was delivered by DR.. Tai
mage Sunday morning at the Academy OF
music and again in the evening at the
Christian Herald service in the New York
academy of music. At the latter service
the new choir of 200 voices most effectively
led the musical exercises. DR.. Talmage's
text was John K. 10. "O,her sheep have
which are not of this fold"
There is no monopoly in religion. The
grace of God is not nice little property
fenced of all for ourselves. 1t is not a
kings park at which we look through
barred gateway, wishing we might go in
and pluck the flowers and look at the deer
and the statuary. 1t is fathers orchard,
and there are bars to let down and gates
to swing open.
In my boyhood days, next to the cOun-
try school-house where went. there was
an apple orchard of great luxuriance,
owned by a very lame man who did not
gather the apples, and they went to waste
by scores of bushels. Sometimes the lads
of the school, in the sinfulness of nature
inherited from our first parents who fell
through the same temptation, would climb
over the fence and take some of these
apples, and Notwithstanding the TACT that
there was a surplus, and ali going to
waste, the owner of that orchard, reckless
of making his lameness worse, would take
after these lads, and shout: Boys, drop
those apples, or III set the dog on your
Now there are Christians who have severe
guard over the church of God They have
a rough and unsympathetic way OF treat
ing outsiders. 1t is great orchard into
which God would like to have ali the peo-
pie come and take the richest and the
ripest fruit, and the more they take the
better he likes it. But there are those
who stand with a hard and severe nature
guarding the church of God and all the
time afraid that some will get these apples
when they really ought not TO have them.
Have you any idea that, because you
were baptized at eight months OF age, and
because You have all your life been sur
rounded by hallowed Influences. you have
a right to one whole side of the Lords
table, spreading yourself out so nobody
else can sit there? You will have to haul
In YOUR elbows, for there will come a great
multitude to sit at the table, and on both
sides OF you. You are not going to have
this monopoly of religion. "0ther sheep
have which are not of this fold"
Mcdonald, the ScOtchman, has, on the
Scotch hills, great flock of sheep. Nc
Donald has four or five thousand head of
sheep. Some are browsing in the heather,
some are on the hills, some are in the val
leys, few are in the yard. One day Cam
eron comes over to Mcdonald and says:
Mcdonald, you have thirty sheep; |
have been counting them" ooh, now
says Mcdonald, Il have four or five thou
sand" "Ah," SAYS Cameron, ''you are
A.
there are thirty" "'Why," says McDon-
aid, "do you suppose that is all the sheep
/ have? | have sheep on the distant
hills and in the valleys, rangingand roam
ing everywhere. Other sheep have l
which are not OF this fold"
So Christ comes. Here is a group of
Christians, and there is a group of Chris
tians Here is a methodist fold, here is a
presbyterian fold, here is a baptist fold,
here is Lutheran fold, and we make our
annual statistics and we think we can tell
you Just how many Christians there are
in the world how MANY there are in the
church how many OF all these deromina-
tons We aggregate them, and we think
we are giving an intelligent and accurate
account; but Christ comes, and he says:
"You have not counted them right. There
are those whom you have never seen,
those of whom you have never heard. |
have my children in ali parts of the earth,
on ali the islands of the sea, on ali the
continents, in all the mountains, and in
all the valleys. Do you think that these
few sheep you have counted are all the
sheep i have? There is great multitude
that no man can number. Other sheep
have which are not of this fold"
Christ, in my text. talks of the CONVEX
sion of the Gentiles as confidently as
fhnrnh hoH al 6x-h fol
He sets forth the idea that his people will
come from all parts of the earth, from all
ages, from all circumstances from all con-
ditions. "Other sheep have l which are
not of this fold'
In the first place, 1 remark, the Heaven
" Shepherd will find many of his sheep
among those who are at present non
church-goers. There are different kinds
of churches. Sometimes you will find a
church made up only of Christians.
Everything seems finished. The church
reminds you of those skeleton plants from
which, by chemical preparation, all the
greenness and the verdure have been
taken, and they are cold, and white, and
delicate, and beautiful, and finished All
that is wanted is a glass case put over
them. The minister on the Sabbath has
only to take an ostrich feather and brush
off the dust that has accumulated in the
last six days of business, and then they
are as cold and beautiful and delicate as
before. Everything is finished-inished
sermons. finished music, finished archi-
lecture, finished everything.
Another church is like an armory. the
sound of drum and fife calling more re-
cruits to the Lords army Wesay to the
applicants, "Come in and get your equip
ment. Here is the bath in which you are
20 be cleansed, here is the helmet you are
TO put on your head, here are the sandals
you are TO put on your feet, here is the
breastplate you are TO put over your heart,
here is the sword you are 10 take in your
right hand and fight His battle with. Quit
yourselves like men.
There are those here, perhaps, who say,
"It is now ten, fifteen years since was in
the habit, the regular habit, of church
going" know all about your case 1
am going to tell you something that will
be startling at the first, and that is, that
you are going TO become the Lords sheep.
S'Oh," you saw. chat is Impossible; YOU
don't know my case you don't know how
far am from anything of that kind" /
know all about your case. l have been
ND and down the world. / know why
some of you do not attend upon Christian
services.
eo further and maka another an