Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1891-07-03
ASTRAY BUT RECOVERED
DR.. TALMAeE BREACHES ON THE
NECESSITY OF A REDEEMER.

Beauty. Pathos and Comfort Found IN
the FJ5ty-third Chapter Of Isaiah-HOv
and why Men and Sheep Go Astray.
whatsoever VIII. Let Him Come.
BRooKLYE, June 2s.-Dr. Talmage's ser
mon today is Of so decidedly evangelical a
character as to prove eonclusively that
while so many eminent preachers Of the
day are drifting away from the old fash
1 toned Gospel he remains firm in the paths
Of orthodoxy. His subject is "Astray, but
Recovered" and his text, Isaiah lii, @:
Gan VIC like sheep have gone astray:
and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
Within ninety years at the longest all
who hear or read this sermon will be in
I eternity. During the next fifty years you
( will nearly all be gone. The next ten years
/ will cut awide swath among the people
/ The year 1891 will to some be the tinality.
( Such considerations make this occasion alb
/ sorbing and momentous. The first half of
my text is an Indictment, "All we like
| sheep have gone astray." Some one says;
I Can you not drop the first word? That is
I TOO general; that sweeps too great circle. "
l Some man rises in the audience and he
AuOkh bNNA AtA hi47ie atAN Va tAAN --A-@t
and he says: ''There is blasphemer, and
understand how he has gone astray. And
I there in another part of the house is de
frauder, and he has gone astray. And
there is an impure person, and he has gone
astray."
Sit down, my brother, and look at home.
NV text takes us all in. It starts behind
the pulpit, sweeps the circuit of the room
aud comes back to the point where it
started, when it says: "All we like sheep
have gone astray." can very easily under
stand why Martin Luther threw up his
hands after he had found the Bible and
cried out, "Oh! my sins, my sins, and why
the publican, according to the custom to
this day in the east, when they have any
great grief, began to heat himself and cry
us he smote upon his breast, God be merci-
full to me n sinner"
ILLUSTRATION FROM THE SHEPHERDS LIFE.
was, like many of you, brought upin the
country, and know some of the habits of
sheep ard how they get astray, and what
my text means when it says, "All we like
sheep have gone astray." Sheep get astray
in two ways, either by trying to get into
other pasture, or from being scared by the
dogs In the former way some of us got
astray. We thought the religion of Jesus
Christ short commons. We thought there
was better pasturage somewhere else. We
thought if we could only lie down on the
banks of distant streams or under great
oaks on the other side of some hill we
might be better fed
We wanted other pasturage than that
which God through Jesus Christ gave our
soul, and we wandered on and we wan
dered on, and we were lost. We wanted
bread and we.found garbage. The further
we wandered, instead Of finding rich pas
turage, we found blasted heath and. sharp-
er rocks and more singing nettles No
pasture. How was it III the worldly
groups when you lost your child? Did
they come around and console you very
much? Did not the plain Christian man
who came into your house and sat up with
your darling child give you more comfort
than all worldly associations? Did all the
convivial songs you ever heard comfort
you in that day of bereavement so much
as the song they sang to you, perhaps the
very song that was sung by your little
child the last Sabbath afternoon of her
life?
There is a happy land, far, far away,
Where saints immortal reign, bright, bright
as day.
Did your business associates in that day
of darkness and trouble give you any espe-
cial coincidence? Business eXasperated you,
business wore you out, business left you
limp as a rag, business made you mad.
You got dollars, but you got no peace.
God have mercy on the man who has moth
ing but business to comfort him. The
world afforded you no luXuriant pastur-
age. A famous English actor stood on the
stage impersonating, and thunders of APP
plause came down from the galleries, and
many thought it was the prOudest moment
of all his life; but there was a man asleep
Just in front of him, and the fact that that
man was Indifferent and somnolent spoiled
all the occasion for him, and he cried,
wake up! wake up"
So one little annoyance in life las been
more pervading to your mind than all the
brilliant congratulations and successes.
Poor pasturage for your soul you found in
this world. The world has cheated you,
the world has belied you, the world has
misinterpreted you, the world has perse-
cuted you. 1t never comforted you. OH
this world is a good rack from which
horse may pick his hay; it is good trough
from which the swine may crunch their
mess; but it gives but little food to soul
blood bought and immortal.
What is a soul? 1t is a hope high as the
throne of God. What is a man? You say,
at is only man" 1t is only man gone
overheard in business life. What is MANI
The battle ground of three worlds, with his
hands taking hold Of destinies Of light or
darkness. A mani No line can measure
him. No limit can bound him. The arch
angel before the throne cannot outlive
him. The stars shall die, but he will watch
Al fVha srori1 will
burn, but he will gaze on the conhagra-
ton. Endless ages will march on; he will
watch the procession. A mani The mas
terpiece OF God Almighty. Yet you say,
1T is only man" Can q nature like that
be fed on husks of the wilderness?
Substantial comfort will not grow
On natures barren soil;
All we can boast till Christ we know
Is vanity and toll.
THOSE WHO STRAY IN TROUBLE.
Some Of you got astray by looking for
better pasturage; others by being scared Of
the dogs. The hound gets over into the
pasture field. The poor things fly in every
direction. In few moments they are torn
of the hedges and they are FLASHED OF the
ditch, and the lost sheep never gets home
unless the farmer goes after it, There is
nothing so thoroughly lost as lost sheep |
1t may have been in 1857, during the fnan- |
cial panic, or during the financial stress in
the fall of 1873 when you got astray. You
almost became an atheist. You said, |
''Wbere is God, that honest men 90 down |
and thieves prosper?" You were dOgged |
of creditors, you were logged of the banks |
you were logged Of worldly disaster, and |
some es you went into misanthropy, and |
some Of you took TO strong drink and 9th |
els of you fled out Of Christian association,
and you got astray o manl that was the |
last time when you ought TO have forsaken
God.
Standing amid the laundering of your
earthly fortunes, how could you get along |
without a God to comfort you, and II God /
to deliver you, and God to help you and /
q God to save youf You tell me you have