The Russellville Democrat., 1891-01-15
TOWER FROM ON Hs
~Surse by Rev. A New Year,srrF Talmage.
-~-S5sssage to Ministers and Christians Showing the Need of Great Reiig- ious Awakening and the Weap-
 on to Fight With.

on to Fight With,
 The following New Years discourse was delivered Uy Rev T. Dewitt Tal- mage in Brooklyn and New York City from the text:
 Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be eEdued with power from on hlgh.--Luke Ixv., 49
 For few months. in the providence of God, have two pulpits, one in Brooklyn and the other in New York, and through the kindness of the print ing press an ever widening opportunity. To all such hearers and readers ! come with an especial message. The. time has arrived for a forward movement such as the church and the world have never seen That there is a need for such a religious movement is evident from the fact that never since our world was swung out among the planets has there been such an organized and de- termined effort to overthrow righteous ness and make the Ten Commandments obsolete and the whole Bible a derision- Meanwhile alcoholism is taking down it's victims by the hundreds of thou sands, and the political parties get down on their knees, practically saying; 70 thou almighty Rum Jug, we bow down before thee. Give us the offices, city, State and National. Oh, give us the offices and we will worship thee forever md ever Amen The Christian Sabbath meanwhile, appointed for phys teal, mental and spiritual rest, is being secularized and abolished. As if the bad publishing houses of our own country had exhausted their literary filth, the French and Russian sewers have been invited to pour their scurrili- ty and moral slush in the trough where our American swine are now wallowing. Meanwhile there are enough marts of infamy in our cities open and unmolest- ed of the law, to invoke the Omnipotent wrath which buried Sodom under del age of birthstone. The pandemoniae world, l think, has massed its troops, and they are this moment plying their batteries upon family circles, church circles, social circles, political circles and National circles. Apollyon is in the saddle, and riding at the head ofhis
 
 for darkness and woe.
 That is one side of the conflict now raging On the other side we have the most magnificent Gospel machinery that the world ever saw or Heaven ever invented In the first place, in this country are more than eighty thousand ministers of religion and, take them as class, more conseerated, holier, more consistent, more self-dcnying, more faithful men never lived. I know them by the thousands. l have met them in every city. am told, not by them but by people outside our profession, people engaged in Christian and reformatory work, that the clergy of America are at the head of all good enterprises and, whoever else fail, they may be depend ed on. The truth of this is demon strated by the fact that when a. min ister of religion does fall, it so exceptional that the newspapers report it as something startling, while a hundred men in other eallings may go down without the mat ter being considered as especially worth mentioning. In addition to their equipment in moral character, the clergy of this country have all that the schools can give. All archaeological. rhetorical, scientific, scholastic, literary attainment So much for the Christian ministry of all denominations. In the next place on our side of the conflict we have the grandest churches of all time, and higher style of membership, and | more of them, and a host without num- Der of splendid men and women who are doing their best to have this world purified, elevated, gospelized. But we all feel that something is want | ing. Enough hearty songs have been sung, and enough earnest sermons preached within the last six months | to save all the cities of America, and saving the cities you save the world; | for they overflow all the land either with their religion or their infamy. | But look at some of the startling facts. It is nearly nineteen hundred years since Jesus Christ came by the | way of Bethlehem caravansary to save this world, yet the most of the world has been no more touched by this most | stupendous fact of all eternity than if on the first Christmas night the beasts of the stall, amid the bleatings of their own young had not heard the bleating | of the Lamb that was to be slain. Out of the eighteen hundred million of the | human race fourteen hundred million are without God and without hope in | the world, the camel-driver of Arabia, Mohammed, with his nine wives, hay ing half as many disciples as our blessed Christ and more people are worshiping chunks of painted wood and carved stone than are worshiping the living [ and eternal God. Meanwhile, the most | of us who are engaged in Christian work--I speak for myself as well as others-are toiling mp to our full capac- | ity of body, mind and soul haTpessed sdTss dT s 5iSe t,sie. not able to draw | a pound more than we are drawing, or | lift an ounce more than we are lifting. What is the matter? My text lets out the secret We all need more of the Power from on High. Not muscular power, not logical power, not scientific power. not social power, not financial power, not brain power, but Power from on High With it we could accomplish more in one week than without it in a hundred years. And am going to get it, if in answer to prayer, earnest and long God will grant it me, His un worthy servant. Men and wom- en who know how to pray when you pray for yourself, pray for me that ] may be endued with Power from on | High. I would rather have it than all the diamond fields of Golconda, and all the pearls of the sea. and all the gold of the mountains. Many of the might fest intelleets never had a touch of it, and many of the less than ordinary intellects have been surcharged with it. And every man and woman on earth has right to aspire to it,