The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-05-15

SPIRIT, THE CHURCH, YOUR
FRIENDS IN HEAVEN AND THE
ANGELS OF GOD ALL ARE say
ING, "CoNE! GOMEZ"
Your Acceptance Heralded in Heaven.
BROOKLYN. n. Y, May 1.-THE sub
ject of DIR. Talmage's sermon yesterday
was Invitation to wedding" and the
text Luke xiv, Il: 'Come:for all things
are now ready"
Holy festivities to-day. We gather
other sheaves into the spiritual
garner. Our JOY is like the JOY of
heaven. Spread the banquet, fill all
he chalices. We are not to-day at the
uneral of dead Christ: we are cele-
brating the marriage of the Kings son.
1t was an exciting time in English
history when Queen Elizabeth visited
Lord Leicester at Kenilworth castle.
The clocks in all the towers and
throughout the castle were stopped at
the moment of her arrival, so continu-
ing to point to that moment as the one
surprising all others in interest. The
door of the great banqueting hall was
opened. The queen marched in to the
sound of the trumpets. Four hundred
servants waited upon the guests. 1t
was a scene that astonished all nations
when they heard of it. Five thousand
dollars day did the banquet cost as it
went on day after day. She was greet
cd to the palace gates with floating ISL
ands and torches, and the thunders Of
cannon and fireworks that set the night
ablaze, and burst of music that lifted
the whole scene into enchantment.
Beginning in that way, it went on from
joy to Joy, and from excitement to eX-
sitement, and from rapture to rapture
That was the great banquet that Lord
Leicester spread in Kenilworth cas-
tie.
Cardinal Wolsey entertained the
French ambassadors in Hampton court.
The best cooks of all the land provided
for the table. The guests were kept
hunting in the parks all the day, so
that their appetites might be keen, and
then in the evening hour they were
shown into the banqueting hall, with
table aglitter with imperial plate, and
ablush with the very costliest wines,
and the second course ofthe feast was
made of food in all shapes of men and
birds and beasts, and dancing groups,
and iousting parties riding upon each
other with uplifted lances. Lords and
princes and ambassadors. their cups
cleaning to the brim, drank first to the
health OF the king of England, and then
to the health OF the emperor of France.
That was the banquet that Cardinal
Wolsey spread in Hampton court.
But to-day, my brothers and sisters,
| invite you to a grander entertainment.
Nv Lord the King is the banqueter.
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 curtained with I'M
fading beauty, are the banquetting
place: the haImonies of eternity are the
music: the chalices of God are the plate:
and | am one of the servants come out
with invitations to all the people; and
o. 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"
Illustrating my text go on and in
the first place say that the Lord Jesus
Christ is ready Cardinal Wolsey did
not come into the banqueting, hall I'm.
til the second course of the feast, and
when he entered booted and spurred
all the guests arose and cheered him.
but | have 10 tell you that our banquet
err, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes in al
the beginning of the feast. Ave. he
has been waiting for his guests, waiting
FOR some OF them 1891 years, waiting
with mangled feet, waiting with hand
on the punctured side, waiting with
hand on the lacerated temples, waiting
waitingI Wonder it is that the ban
oueter did not get weary and say
"Shut the door and let the laggard:
STAY out" No. he has been waiting. How
much is he in earnest, Shall | show YOU,
gather up all the tears that flooded hi
cheek in sympathy. all the blood tina
channelled his brow and back and hand
and foot, to purchase our redemption
| gather up all the groanS coming from
midnight chill and mountain hunger
and desert loneliness, and | put then
into one bitter cry-I gather up all the
pangs that shot from cross and spik,
and spear. into one groan-I take on,
drop of sweat on his brow, and | put
under the glass of the gospel, and it en-
larges to lakes of sorrow, to oceans q
agony. That Christ to-day, emaciatet
and worn and weary, comes here, ant
with pathos in which every word is
heartbreak and every sentence martyr
dom. He says to you and He says to me
Come. come, for all things are nov
ready"
But l remark again, not only Christ
waiting, but the Holy Spirit is waiting
Why are some sermons a dead failure
Why are there songs that do not gre
their wing under the people? Why ar
there prayers that go no higher up tha
hunters halloo? Because there is
missing link that only the Holy Spiri
can make. II that spirit should com
through this assemblage this mornin
there would be a power felt like tina
when Saul was endorsed on the road t
Damascus, like as when Lydias hear
was broken in her fine store, like a
when three thousand souls were LITE
out of midnight into midnoon at tn
Pentecost. Do you notice that some
times that Spirit takes an insignifcan
agency to save soul? think it is YER
often that at just one passage c
scripture, Just one word of scripture
soul is saved because the Holy Spiri
gives it supernatural power. Do yo
know what it was that saved Marti
Luther? 1t was that one verse: 9TH
Just shall live by faith" Do you kno,
what it was that brought Augustin
from his horrible dissipation? 1t wa
that one verse: Put We on the Lord Je
sus Christ, and make no provision TO
the flesh, TO fulfill the lusts thereof.
Do you know what it was that save
Hedley Wears, the celebrated soldier
1t was the one passage: ''Believe in tn
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt b
saved" Do you know what it was tina
brought Jonathan Edwards to Christ