Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-01-16
TO NON-CHuRCHGOERs.
OR. TALMAcE PREAcHEsTorHE
SHEEP WITHOUT THE FOLD

OR. TALMACE breaches THE
SHEEP WITHOUT THEFOLD.'
All the Christians DO Not fselong to Con-
gregations. but There Arc Many Reasons
Why All Persons Should BE Christians-
A Word to Unbellovers.
A powerful sermon. preached to nom
churchgoers, was delivered by DIR. Tai
mage last Sunday. DIR. Talmage's text
was John X, Is: ''Other sheep have
which arc not of this fold.''
There is no monopoly in religion. The
grace OF God is not q nice little property
fenced off all for ourselves. 1t is not a
kings park, at which we look through a
barred gateway, wishing we might go in
and pluck the flowers and look at the
deer and the statuary. 1t is fathers
orchard, and there are bars to let down
and gates to swing open.
In my boybood days, next to the coun-
try school-house where went, there was
On apple orchard of great luxuriance,
owned by very lame man who did not
gather the apples, and they went to
waste by scores of bushels. Sometimes
the lads OF the school, in the sinfulncss
OF nature inherited from our first par
ents, who fell through the same tempta-
tiOn, would climb over the fence and
take some OF these apples, and notwith-
standing the fact that there was sur
plus, and all going to waste, the owner
OF that orchard, reckless of making his
lameness worse, would take after these
lads and shouts, ''Boys, drop those apples
or I'll set the dog On your
Now there are Christians who have
severe guard over the Church of God.
They have q rough and unsympathetic
way of treating outsiders. It is a great
orchard 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
they 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 baptized at months of age, and
because you have all your life been sur
\ rounded by hallowed influences, 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. Nc.
Donald has four or five thousand head OF
sheep. Some are browsing in the heather,
some are on the hills, some are in the
valleys, few are in the yard. One day
Cameron comes over to Mcdonald and
says: Mcdonald, you have thirty sheep
, 1have been counting them" ''Oh, nor
says Mcdonald. 81 have four or five
, thousand" 'Ahv' says Cameron, s.yo,
are mistaken. / have just counted them
There are thirty" '.Why," says Nc
Donald, edo you suppose that is all tn,
sheep have? I have sheep on the dis
!. tant hills and in the valleys, ranging ant
roaming everywhere. Other sheep hav,
. I which are not of this fold.''
I So Christ comes. Here is q group o.
: Christians, and there is group of Chris
t tians; here is a Methodist fold, here is
: Presbyterian fold, here is Baptist fold
9 here is Lutheran fold, and we max
! our annual statistics, and we think W
can tell you just how many Christian
r, there are in the world, how many Their
q are in the church, how many in all thes
= = denominations. We aggregate them, an
: we think we are giving an intelligen
= and an accurate account; but Chris
comes and He says: ''You have no
counted them right. There are thos
9 whom you have never seen. those o
q whom you have never heard. have m
| children in all parts of the earth, on al
the islands of the sea, on all the cont
nents, in all the mountains and in all tn
valleys. Do you think that these few
n sheep you have counted are all the shec]
/ have? There is q great multitude tina
! no man can number. Other sheep hav,
Q ] which are not of this fold.''
Q Christ in my text talks of the CONVEX
!. sion of the Gentiles as confidently a.
though they had already been converted
He sets forth the idea that his peopl,
. will come from all parts of the earth
' from all ages, from all circumstances
, from all conditions. ''Other sheep have
! I which are not of this fold.''
: In the first place remark the Heav
: emily Shepherd will find many of hi
> sheep among those who are at present
non-churchgoers. There are different
kinds of churches. Sometimes you viii
3 find a church made up only of Christians
GSCl UAAlfS SCGulo uc CuuICl
| reminds you of those skeleton plant:
J from which by chemical preparation al
J the greenness and the verdure have beer
| 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 on the sabbath has
1 only to take an ostrich feather anC
brush off the dust that has accumulated
in the last six days Of business, and then
they are as cold and beautiful and deli
cate as before. Everything is finished
, finished sermons, finished music, finished
architecture, finished everything.
, There are those here, perhaps, who
/ say, SIT is now ten, fifteen years since
, was in the habit the regular habit OF
church going" know all about youl
case. l am going to tell you something
that viii be startling at the first, and
that is that you arc going to become the
Lords sheep. "Oh,' yol say, ''that is
impossible; you don't know my case; you
don't know how far am from anything
of that kind" l know all about your
case. I have been up and down the world.
know why some of you do not attend
upon Christian services.
go further and make another an