The Penn's Grove record., 1891-08-07
XIV DR.. TALMAGR
me BrookIyn DivIns1s Sunday
oermoa.


Text: WHO knopsth tohethsr thou art
come 10 The kingdom for such a time as thisg'
Esther w., IA.
Esther the Beautiful was the wife of
Ahasuerus the Accountable. The time had
come for her to present a petition to her in
famous husband in behalf of the Israelitish
nation, to which she had once belonged. She
wasairaid to undertake the work lest she
should lose her own life; but her uncle, Nor
decai, who had brought her up, encouraged
her with the suggestion that probably she
had been raised up of God for that peculiar
mission. ''Who knoweth whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as
fhisy' Esther had her God-appointed work:
you and | have ours. 1t is my business to
tell you what style of people We ought to be
in order that we may meet the demand of
the age in which God has cast our lot. If you
have come expecting to hear distractions
discussed or dry technicalities of religion
gloritied, you have come to the wrong place;
but if you really would like to know what
this age has a right TO expect OF you as
Christian men and women, then l am ready
in the Lords name to look you in the face.
When two armies have rushed into battle
the officers of either army do not want phil
osophical discussions about the chemical
properties OF human blood or the nature of
gunpowder. They want some one to man
the batteries and swab out the guns. And
nov, when all the forces of light and dark
ness, OF heaven and hell, hav plunged into
the fight, 1t Is no time to give ourselves to
the definitions and formulas and technicali-
ties and conventionalities of religion. What
we want is practical, earnest, concentrated,
enthusiastic and triumphant help. What we
need in the East you in Wisconsin need.
In the first place. in order to meet the
special demand OF this age, you need to be
an Enthusiastically aggressive Christian. Or
half and half Christians we do not want any
more. The church of Jesus Christ will be
better without ten thousand of them. They
are the chief obstacle to the church's adj
vancement. / am speaking of another kind
of Christian. All the appliances for your
becoming an earnest Christian are at your
hand, ami there is a straight path for you in-
to the broad daylight OF Gods forgiveness.
You may nave come here to-day the bonds
men of the world, and yet before you go out
of these doors you may become the princes
of the Lord God Almighty. You know what
excitement there is in this country when a
foreign prince comes to our shores. Why?
Because it is expected that some day he will
sit upon a throne. But what is all that
honor compared with the honor to which
God calls you-to be sons and daughters of
kings unto Godi 'They shall reign with
Him forever and forever"
Blu, my friends, you need not he agrees
siye Christians, and not like those persons
who spend their lives in hugging their Chris
tian graces and wondering why they do not
make any progress. How much Robustness
Of health would a maj have If he hid him
self in a dark closet? A great deal of piety
of the day is too exclusive. 1t hides itself.
1t needs more fresh air, more outdoor exer
else. There are many Christians who are
giving their entire life to self examination.
They are feeling their pulses to see what is
the condition of their spiritual health. How
long would a man have robust physical health
il he kept all the days and weeks and months
and years of his life feeling his pulse instead
OF going out into active, earnest, everyday
work.
was once amid the wonderful, bewitch-
ing cactus growths of North Carolina. 1
never was more bewildered with the beauty
| of flowers, and yet when | would take up
one OF these cactuses and pull the leaves
| apart, the beauty was all gone. You could
| hardly tell that it hal ever been a flower.
And there are a great many Christian peo-
| pie in this day just pulling apart their
Christian experiences to see what there is
in them, and there is nothing attractive
| left. This style of self examination is a
| damage instead of an advantage to their
Christian character. 1 remember when |
was a boy | used to have a small piece in
the garden that l called my own, and l
planted corn there, and every few days
would pull it up to see how fast it was
growing. Now, there are a great many
| Christian people in this day whose self ex-
animation merely amounts to the pulling
up of that which they only yesterday or
the day before planted.
oh, my friendsl if you want to have a
stalwart Christian character, plant it right
ont OF doors in the great field of Christian
usefulness, and though storms may come
upon il, and though the hot sun of trial may
try to consume it, it will thrive until it be-
comes a great tree. in which the fowls of
heaven may have their habitation. l have
no patience with these fiowerpot Christians.
They keep themselves under shelter, and all
their Christian experience in small, exclu-
sive circle, when they ought to plant it in
the great garden of the Lord, SO that the
whole atmosphere could be aromatic with
their Christian usefulness. What We want
in the church of God is more Drawn of piety.
The century plant is wonderfully sugges-
tive and wonderfully beautiful. but | never
look st it without thinking OF its parsimony.
1t lets whole generations go by before 1t puts
forth one blossom; so lave really
more heartfelt admiration when 1 sea
the dewy tears in the blue eyes of
the violets, for they come every spring, NY
Christian friends, time is going by SO rap
idly that we cannot afford to bs idle.
A recent statistician says hat human life
now has an average of only thirty-two years.
From these thirty-two years you must sub
tract all the time you take for sleep and the
taking of food and recreation; that will leave
you about sixteen years. From those sixteen
years you must subtract all the time you are
necessarily engaged in the earning of a liveli-
hood; that will leave you about eight years.
From those eight years you musttake all the
days and weeks and months-all the length
OF time that is passed in childhood and sick
ness, leaving you about one year in which to
work for God. Oh, my soul, wake upl How
darest thou sleep in harvest time and with so
few hours in which to reap, So that l state
it as a simple fact hat all the time that the
vast majority of you will have for the ex-
elusive service Of God will be less than one
year,
"But,n says some man, 81 literally support
the Gospel, andthe church is open and the
Gospel preached, all the spiritual advan-
tages are spread before men, AMI if they
want to be saved let them come aud ba
saved: l have discharged all my RESPONSE
biiity," Ali is that the Masters spirit? Is
there not an old Book somewhere that COM
msnds us to go out into the highways and
hedges and compel the people to come ius
What would ave become OF you and me if
Christ had not come down off the hills of
heaven, and il He had not come throur IN the
door of the Bethlehem and if
He had not with the crushed hand Of the
c~rucifixion knocked at tbs iron gate of the
sepulcher of our spiritual death, crying,
LAZARUS come fofthp'
Oh, my Christian friends, this is no time
for inertia, when all the forces of darkness
seem to be in full blast; when steam printing
presses are publishing infidel tracts; when
express railroad trains are carrying mes
sengers of sin; when fast clippers are laden
with opium and rum, when the night air of
our cities is polluted with the laughter that
breaks up from the ten thousand saloons of
dissipation and abandonment; when the fires
of the second death already are kindle1 in
the cheeks of some who only a little while
ago were incorrupt. Never since the curse
fell upon the earth has there been a time
| when it was such an unwise, such a cruel,
such an awful thing for the church to sleepl
/ The great audiences are not gathered in tue
Christian churches; the great au licences are
gathered in temples of sin-tears of unutter-
| able woe their baptism, the blood OF crushed
hearts the awful wine of their sacrament,
blasphemies their litany, and the groaus OF
the lost world the organ dirge of their
worship.
Again, if you want to be qualified to meet
| the duties which this age demands of you,
| you must on the one and avoid reckless
iconocIasrn, and on the other hand not stick
| too much to things because they are old The
air is full OF new plans new projects, new
] theories Of government new theologies. and