Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-07-02
ASTRAY BUT RECOVERED.
THRILLING SERMON AT NEW
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
0r. Talmage breaches from Isaiah
So, 6--AH We Like Sheep Hav~
Como Astray, and the Lord Hath
Laid on Him Our Iniquity.

Talmage's sermon to-day is of so de-
cidedly evangelical character as to
fprove conclusively that while SO many
eminent preachers of the day are drift
Fling away from the oid-fashloned Cos
pei be remains firm in the path of Or
thodoxy. His subject is "Astray, but
Recovered" and his text, Isaiah SO 6
"Al. we 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 o. read this sermon Will
be in eternity. During the next fifty
years you will nearly all be gone. The
next ten years will cut wide swath
among the people. The year 1891 will
10 some be the fnality. Such
considerations make this occasion
absorbing and momentous. The
irst half of nv text i,
IN indictment; "All we like sheep
have gone astray." Some one says:
Can you not drop the first word? that
IS too general; that sweeps too great a
circle" Some man rises in the audi
,nce and he looks over on the opposite
side of the house, and he says; There
S blasphemcr, and understand how
ne has gone astray. And there in
another part of >ha house is q 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 homo. My text takes us
all in. 1t starts behind the pulpit,
sweeps the circuit of the room and
comes back to the point where it start
ed, when it says: "All we like sheep
have gone astray." | can very easily
undarssandwhy Martin Luther threw up
his hands after he had found the Bible
and cried out: 80. 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 beat hi:uself and cry as he snote
upon his breast: God be mcrciful to
me, u sinner
Did your business associates in that
day of darkness and trouble give you
any especial coincidence? Business ex-
asrerated you, business wore you out,
business left you limp as Il rag, bust
ness made you made. You got dollars,
but you got no peace. God have
mercy on the man who has moth
inf, but business to comfort him.
The world afforded you no luXuriant
pasturagc, a famous English actor
stood on the stage impersonating, and
thundcrs of applause came down from
the galleries, ana many thought it was
the proudest moment of his life; but
there was 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 "Walxe up, wake up"
So one little annoyance in life has
been more prevailing in your mind
than all the brilliant congratulations
and successes! Poor pasturage for
your soul you found in this world. The
world has cheated. Some of you got
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 far
mer goes after it. There is nothing so
thoroughly lost as a lost sheep. 1t
may have been in 1857, during the
financial panic, or during the financial
stress in the fall of 1878, when you got
astray. You almost became an atheist.
You said: Where is God, that honest
men go down and thieves prospcr?" You
were logged of creditors, you
We're logged of the banks, you were
logged of worldly disaster, and some
of you went into misanthropy, and some
of you took to strong drink, and others
of you fed out of Christian association,
and you got astray. G, man, that was
the last time when you ought to have.
forsaken God, Stsnding amid the
laundering of your earthly fortunes,
how could you get along without Il God
to comfort you, and a God to
deliver you, and God to help you, and
Il God to save you? You tell me you
have been through enough business
trouble almost to kill you. | know it.
cannot understand how the boat
could live one hour in that chopped
sea. But do not know by what pro-
cess you got astray; some in one way,
and some in another, and if you could
really sec the position some of you oc-
cupy before God this morning, your soul
would burst into an agony of tears and
you would pelt the heavens with the
cry: God have mercy Sinais bat
teries have been unlimbered above
your soul and at times you have
heard it thunder "The wages of sin i
death" ''All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God" by one
man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned." 1.-The
soul that sinneth, it shall die"
But the last part of my text opens q
door wide enough to let us ell out and
to let all heaven in. Sound it on the
organs with all the stops out. Thrum
it on the harps with all the strings
atune. With all the melody possible
let the heavens sound it to the earth
and let the earth tell it to the heavens,
The Lord hath laid on him the ini-
putty of MS all" l am glad that the
prophet did not stop to explain rhom
he meant by him" Him of the man
ger, him of the bloody sweat, him of the
resurrection throne, him of the cruel
tixion agony. Son him the Lord hath
laid the iniquity of MS ALL"
Sin has almost pestered the life out
of some of you. At times it has made
you cross and unreasona Bile, and it has
spoiled the brightness of your
days and the peace of your nights.
There are men who have been
riddled of sin. The world can
give them no SOlacc. GOSSamer
and volatile the world, while eternity,
as they look forward to it, is black as
midnight. They writhe under the
stings of conscience which proposes
to give no rest here and no rest here
after; and yet they do not repent, they
do not pray, they do not weep. They
do not realize that just the position
they occupy is the position occupied by
scores, hundreds, and thousan of
men who never found any hope.
IL this meeting should be thrown
open and the people who are here give
their testimony. what thrilling expert
ences we should hear or all sides. There
is a man in the gallery who
would say: II had brilliant surround
ings, had the best education that one
of the best collegiate institutions of
this country could give, and observed
all the moralities of life, and was self
righteous, and thought was all right
before God as ! am all right before
men; but the Holy Spirit came to me
one day and said, You are a sinner;'
the Holy Spirit persuaded me of
the fact. While had clpcd