News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-05-14
SERMON BY DIR. TALMAGE.
SUBJECT OF THE DISCOURSE, "INVI-
TATION TO A WEDDING"

All Things Are Ready-win You Come?
Jesus Asks You, the Holy Spirit Asks
Ready?-Then Come.
BROOKLYN, May 10.--An interesting
ceremony was performed this morning
in the Brooklyn tabernacle before the
sermon was preached. A number OF
infants who had been brought there by
their parents were baptized. The water
used was some of that which was
brought by DR.. Talmage from the river
Jordan. The main auditorium of the
tabernacle and the adjoining rooms
were crowded by an audience of seven
thousand persons. The subject of Dr.
Talmage's sermon was, Invitation to
a Wedding" and the text Luke xiv, IL,
''Come, for all things are now ready"
HOLY FESTIVITIES.
Holy festivities today. We gather
other sheaves into the spiritual garner.
Our joy is like the joy of heaven.
Spread the banquet, fill all the chalices.
We are not today at the funeral of a
dead Christ; we are celebrating 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 through
out the castle were stopped at the mo-
ment of her arrival, so continuing to
point to that moment as the one sur
passing all others in interest.
The doors 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 greeted to the palace gates with
floating islands, 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 excitement, and from
rapture to rapture. That was the great
IlldL LOTO 14CECCSlcI SkJTGobd
Kenilworth castle.
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
a-glitter with imperial plate, and
a-blush with the very costliest wines, and
the second course of the 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.
\ GRAND ENTERTAINMENT
But today, my brothers and sisters,
invite you to a grander entertainment
My Lord the King is the banqueter,
aH8GIS Vi OOu ltlS CoDDSdtCIc,
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 banqueting place,
the harmonies of eternity are the music,
the chaIices of God are the plate, and /
am one of the servants come out with
invitations to all the people, and oh,
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"
Sometimes there have been great dis
appointments at a banquet. The wine
has given out, or the servants have been
rebellious, or the lights have failed,
but walk all around the banqueting
table of my Lord today, and I find
everything complete, and I swing open
the door of this banqueting house and
say, ''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 un-
til the second course of the feast, and
when he entered booted and spurred,
all the guests arose and cheered him,
but / have to tell you that our ban
queter, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes in
at the beginning of the feast. Ay, 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
waitingl
Wonder it is that the banqueter did
not get weary and say, "Shut the door
and let the laggards stay out" No, he
has been waiting. How much he is in
earnest! Shall show you? gather
up all the tears that flooded his cheek
in sympathy, all the blood that chan
neled 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 I put them into one
bitter cry gather up all the pangs that
shot from cross and pike and spear into
one groan-I take one drop of sweat on
his brow, and put it under the glass
OF the gospel, and it enlarges to lakes
of sorrow, to oceans of agony. That
Christ today, emaciated and worn and
weary, comes here, and with pathos
in which every word is a heartbreak
and every sentence a martyrdom, he
says to you and he says to me, Come
come; for all things are now ready"
Ahasuerus made feast that lasted
one hundred and eighty days. This
lasts forever. Lords and princes were
invited to that. You and I are invited
to this Yes, be has been waiting. He
is waiting now. Other kings wrap
themselves in robes of beauty and
power before they come into a banquet.
So does Christ. Oh, he is the fairest
of the fairl In his hand is the omnipo-
tent surgery that opened blind eyes,
and Strengthened crooked limbs, and
hoisted the pillars of heaven, and swung
the twelve gates which are twelve
pearls. Oh what Christ-a Christ of
beauty, Christ of powerl
There are not enough cups on earth
to dip up this ocean of beauty There
are not ladders to scale those heights of
love- Oh, thou flower of eternity, thy
breath is the perfume of heaven. Oh,
thou daybreak of the soul. let all ma
tons clap their hands in thy radiance.
Chorusl Come men and angels and
cherubin and seraphim and archangel, |