The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-15
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Astray, But Recovered"

Subject: AStray, but hecOVereu.
TEXT "AU we like sheep haue gone
astruu and the Lord hath laid
on Him the iniquity of us aU."-Isaiah liii.,6.
Within ninety years at the longest all who
hear OF read this sermon will be In eternity.
During the next fifty years you will nearly
all be gone. The next ten years will cut q
wide swath among the people. The year
siderations make this occasion absorbing
and momentous. The first half Of my text
is an 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 circle" Some ms-Si
rises in the audience and he looks over ~
the opposite side Of the house, and he ssys:
how he has gone astray. And there in an
other part Of the house is defrauder, and
he has gone astray. And there is an impure
person, and he has gone astray."
Sit down, my brother, and look at home.
My text takes us all in. 1t starts behind the
pulpit, sweeps the circuit Of the room and
comes back to the point from where 1t
have gone astray." I 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 publi-
can, according to the custom to this day in
| the East, when they have any great grief,
began to beat himself and cry as he smote
upon his breast God be merclful to me a
sinner"
Twas, like many Of you, brought up in the
| country, and know some Of the habits Of
sheep and 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 pas
| ture, 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 pas
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 wandered on,
and we were lost. We wanted bread and
we found garbage. The further we wan
dered, instead Of finding rich pasturage we
found blasted heath and sharpened rocks
was it in the worldly groups when you lost
your child? Did the. come around and con-
sole 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 happy land, far, far awar,
| day.
Did your business associates in that day of
darkness and trouble give you any especial
! coincidence? Business exasperated you,
business wore you out business left
you limp as rag, business made
you mad. You got dollars, but you got no
peace. God have mercy on the man who has
nothing but business to comfort him. The
world afforded you no luxuriant pasturage
famous English actor stood on the stage
lmpersonating, and thunders of applause
came down from the galleries, and many
thought 1t was the proudest moment Of his
me; but there was man asleep just in front
OF him, and the fact that that man was in
! different and somnolent spoiled all the occa-
sion for him, and he cried, "Wake up! wake
| upm
So one little annoyance has been more
pervading to your mind than oil thu bril-
liant 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 misin-
! terpreted you, the world has prosecuted you
IL never conferred you. Oh! this world Is
q good rack from which a 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 man? You say,
ut is only man" 1t is only a man gone
overheard in business life. What is q man9
The battle-ground Of thres worlds. with his
hands taking hold OF destinles OF light or
darkness. A man! No line can measure him.
No limit can bound him. The archangel be-
| fore the throne cannot outlive him. The stars
shall die, but he will watch their extinguish-
ment. The world will burn, but he will
gaze on the condagration. Endless ages will
march on; he will watch the procession. A
man! The MASTERPIECES Of God Almighty.
| Yet YOU say, ut is only man." Can ma
ture like that he fed on husks Of the wilder
| ness!
/ Substantial comfort will not grow
| On natures barren so
| All we can boast till Christ we know
| Ie vanity and toll
Some OF you got astray by looking for
better pasturage; others by being scared Of
the dogs. The hound gets over into the pas
ture field. The poor things fly in every di-
rectioa. In few moments they are torn Of
the hedges and they are FLASHED of the ditch,
aud the lost sheep never gets home unless
the farmer goes after 1t. There is nothing
20 thoroughly lost as lost sheep. 1t may
have been in 1857, during the financial panic,
or during the financial stress in the fall OF
1873, when you got astray. You almost be-
came an atheist. You said, where is God,
that honest men go down and thieves pros
per?' You were dogged Of creditors, you
were dogged Of the banks you were dogged
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. O
man that was thelast time when you ought
to have forsaken God.
Standing amid the fouudering Of your
earthly fortunes, how could you get along
without God to comfort you and God to
deliver you, and a God to help you, and
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 ole hour in that
chopped sea. But do not know by what
process you got astray; some in one way, and
! some in another, and if You could really $40
the position some OF you occupy before God
this morning, your soul would burst into an
agony of tears and You would pet the heav-
ems with the cry: God have mercy" Sinais
batteries have been unlimbered above your
SOUL and at times you have heard it thunder:
"The wages OF sin is DEATH" "All have
sinned and come short OF tho glory Of Cod
by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have snned." "The soul
that sinneth it shall die"
When Sebastopol was being bonbardei,
two Russian frigates burned oil night in the
harbor throwing glare upon tue trembling
fortress, and some of you are standing in the
night OF your souls trouble. The cannonade
! and the confederation. tho MULTIPLICATION Of