The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-27
TALMAGE IN WISCONSIN.
HI breaches AT THE MONoNA
LAKE CBAUTAUQUA.


tion Her God-appointed Work-Each
of Us Has Mission.
| MADISON, WIS, July 2G.-Dr Talmage
preached this morning at Chautauqua as
sembly on the banks of Monona lake, near
this city. 1t is great gathering Of people
| from all parts of the northwest. His text
was Esther iv., IA" Who knoweth whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such
| time as this"
! Esther, the beautiful was the wife Of
| Ahasuerus the abominable. The time had
| come for her to present petition to her in
| famous husband in behalf of the IsrAelitish
| nation, TO which she had once belonged.
She was afraid to undertake the work, lest
she should lose her own life; but her uncle,
Mordecai, who had brought ner up, enoour-
| aged her with the suggestion that probably
| she had been raised up of God for that pecu-
| liar mission. ''Who knoweth whether thou
| art come to the kingdom for such time
| as thsP Esther had her God~ap-
pointed work; you and l have ours. 1t
| IS my business to tell you what style of
! people we ought Co be in order that we may
meet the demand Of the age iu which God
has cast our lot. IL you Rave come expect
ing to hear distractions discussed, or dry
| techlicalities Of religion gloriiied, YOU have
come to the wrong place; but IL you really
| would like TO know what this age has right
| to expect OF you as Christian men aud
women, then am ready in the Lords name
| to look you in the face. When two armies
| have rushed into battle the officers of either
| army do not want philosophical discussion
| about the chemical properties of human
blood or the nature of gunpowder; they
| want some one to man the batteries
| and swab out the guns. And now,
! when all the forces of light and darkness, of
heaven aud hell, have plunged into the fight,
! it Is no time TO give ourselves to the defini-
tions and formulas and technicalities and
conventionalities of religion. What we
| want Is practical, earnest, concentrated, en-.
| thusiastic and triumphant help. What we
need in the east you in Wisconsin need.
In the first place, in order to meet the
| special demand of this age, you need to be
an unmistakably aggressive Christian. OF
half-and-half Christians we do not want
any more. The church Of Jesus Christ will
be better without ten thousand OF them.
They are the chief obstacle to the churchs
advancement. | am speaking Of another
kind OF Christian. All the appliances for
your becoming an earnest Christian are at
your hand, and there is a straight path for
you into the broad daylight of Gods
forgiveness. You may have come
here to-day the bondsmen Of
the world, and yet before you 20 out of
these doors you may become the princes Of
| the Lord God Almighty. You know what
excitement there is in this country, when
foreign prince comes TO our shores. Whyl
Because it is expected that some day he will
sit upon a throne. But what is all that
honor compared to the honor to which God
calls you-to be sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty; yea TO be queens and kings
unto Godl They shall reign with him for
ever and forever
But, my friends, you need TO be aggress-
i've Christians, and not like those persons
who spend their lives in hugging their
Christian gracos and wondering why they
do not make any progress. How much
robustness OF health would man have il
he hid himself in a dark closet? A great
deal Of the piety Of the day is too exclusive.
1t hides itself. Il needs more fresh air,
more outdoor exercise. There are many
Christians who are giving their entire life
to self-examiuation. They are feeling their
pulses to see what is the condition Of their
spiritual health. How long would man
have robust physical health IL he kept all
the days, and weeks, and months and years
Of his life feeling his pulse instead Of going
out into active. earnest, everyday works
was once amid the wonderful, bewitch-
ing cactus growths of North Carolina. I
never was more bewildered with the beauty
Of flowers, and yet when l would take up
enc OF these caoti and pull the leaves
apart the beauty was all gone. You could
hardly tell that IL ever had been a flower.
And there are a great many Christian peo-
|
Christian experiences TO see what there Is
in them, and there is nothing attractive left.
| This style OF self-examiDatIon is q damage
instead Of an advantage to their Christian
character. remember when l was boy
used to have a small piece in the garden
that called my own, and l planted corn
there, and every few days | would pull it
up TO see how fast it was growing. Now,
there are great many Christian people in
this day whose self-examination merely
amounts to the pulling up of that which
they only yesterday or the day before
planted.
o my friends if you want to have a stall
wart Christian character, plant it right out
Of doors in the great field of Christian use
fulness, and though storms may come upon
it. and though the hot sun of trial may try
TO consume It. it will thrive until it becomes
a great tree. in which the fowls of heaven
may have their habItation. / have no pa
tience with these fower-pot Christians.
| They keep themselves under shelter, aud all
their Christian experience in a small, ex-
elusive circle, when they ought to plant it
in the great garden of the Lord, so that the
whole atmosphere could be aromatic with
their Christian usefulness. What we want
in the church of God is more Drawn Of
piety.
The century plant is wonderfully sug.
gestive and wonderfully beautiful, but
never look at it without thinking of its par
| fore 1t puts forth one blossom; so / have
really more heartfelt admiration when see
| the dewy tears in the blue eyes of the vio-
lets, for they come every spring. My ChrI
| tan friends. time is going by SO rapidly that
we cannot afford to be idle. A recent stati-
clan says that human life now has an aver-
age Of only thirty-two years. From
these thirty-two years you must sub
stract all the time you take for
| sleep and the taking of food and
recreation; that will leave you about
sixteen years. From those sixteen years
| you must substract all the time you are
necessarily engaged in the earning of a
| livelihood; that will leave you about eight
years From those eight wears you must
take all the days and weeks and months
| all the length of time that is passed in
| childhood and sickness, leaving you about
| one year in which to work for God. o,
my soul, wake upl How darest thou sleep
| in harvest time and with 50 few hours in
which to reap? So that state it as q
| simple fact that all the time that the vast
majority of you will have for the exclusive
service Of God will be less than one yearl
But" says some man, 81 literally sup
| port the gospel and the church is open and
| the gospel is preached; all the spiritual ad-
vantages are spread before men, and if they
want to be saved, let them come to be saved;
/ I oil -