The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-01-22
OUTSIDE THE PALE,
DR.. Talmage Takes a Turn at the Peo-
pie Who Do Not Attend
Church.
lie Also Pays Attention to Nominal
Christians and Their
Pastors.


lowing sermon to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS was
delivered by DR.. Talmage. His text
was John X, 16: "Other sheep have
which are not of this fold"
There is no monopoly in religion.
The grace of God is not nice little
property fenced off all for ourselves.
1t is not a kings park, which we look at
through barred gateway, wishing we
might go in and pluck the flowers and
look at the deer and statuary. It is
fathers orchard, and there are bars to
let down and gates to swing open. q.
In my boyhood days, next to the
country schoolhouse where I 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 BUSH
els. Sometimes thelads of the school,
IN their sinfulness of a nature inherit
ed from our first parents who fell
through the same temptation, would
climb over the fence and take some of
these apples, and otwithstandingth the
fact that there was surplus, and all
going to waste, the owner OF the Or
chard, reckless of making his lameness
worse, would take after these lads,
and shout, "Boys, drop those apples,
or I'll set the dog on you'll" Now there
are Christians who have severe guard
over the church of God. They have a
rough and unsympathetic way of
treating outsiders. 1t is a great Or
chard into which God would like to
have all the people 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 baptised at eight months Of
age, and because you have all your
life been surrounded by hallowed in
f1uences, you have q 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 great
multitude to sit at the table, and on
both sides OF you. You are not going
to have this monopoly of religion:
"Other sheep have which are not OF
this fold"
Mcdonald the Scotchman has on
the Scotch hills a great flock of sheep.
Mcdonald has four or five thousand
head of sheep. Some are browsing in
the heather, some are on the hills,
some are in the valleys, a few are in
the yard. One day Cameron comes
over to Mcdonald and says, "McDon-
aid, you have 80 sheep; 1 have been
counting them" "Oh, mol" says Nc
Donald, ~ have four or five thou
sand" "Ah!" says Cameron, "you
are mistaken; have Just counted
them; there are 80" *Why," says
Mcdonald, edo you suppose that is
all the sheep I have? I have sheep on
the valleys, ranging and roaming
everywhere Other Sheep have I
which are not of this fold"
So Christ comes. Here is a group of
Christians, and there is a. group of
Christians; here is q Methodist fold,
here is a Presbyterian fold, here is a
Baptist fold, here is a 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 denominations
We aggregate them and we think we
are giving all intelligent and an accu-
rate 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. I have my
children i'll all parts of the earth, on
all the islands of the sea, on all 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 l 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 con-
version Of the Gentiles as confidently
as though they had already been con-
verified. He sets forth the idea that
his people will come from all parts of
the earth, from all ages, from all cir
cumstances, from all conditions
"0ther sheep have I which are not Of
this fold"
In the first place, I remark, the
Heavenly Shepherd will find many of
his sheep among those who are at
present non-church goers.
There are different kinds ofchurches,
Sometimes you will find church
made up only of Christians. Every
thing seems finished. The church re-
minds you of those skeleton plants,
from which by chemical preparations
all the greenness and verdure have
been taken, and they are cold, and
white, and delicate and beautiful, and
finished. All that is wanted is glass
case put over them. The minister of
the Sabbath has only to take an os-
trich feather and brush off the dust that
has accumulated in the last six days
Of hnsinnss and then thew ara aS cold