The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-01-14
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
NEW YEARS SERMON BY REV. DR.
TAlMAGE.

Powers of Light and the Powers OF
Observation-Disclosures Need the Help
That Comes from On High.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 4.-Dr. Ialmages
New Years sermon is ringing battle
cry to ministers and Christians every
where, calling upon them to join in a
combined charge on the intrenchments
of sin and Satan. 1t made deep I'M
preston on the vast crowds who heard
it in this city this morning, and at The
Christian Herald service tonight IN
New York. The enthusiasm at the
latter service was increased by the ef-
fectiye aid rendered by large volun-
teer choir which has been organized
from the audiences, who sung with a
volume and tervor seldom equaled
After the singing Of the hymn COM
me1cing,
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy Quickenlng powers,
DR.. Talmage preached the following
sermon from the text, Luke XIV, ~,
"Iarry ye III the city of Jerusalem un-
til We be endued with power from on
high"
For few months, in the providence
of GOD, l have two pulplts, one ID
Brooklyn and the other IN New York,
and through the kindness Of the print
ing press an ever widening opportunl-
ty 70 all such hearers and readers l
come with an especial message. The
time has arrived for forward move
ment such as the church and TIE wor d
have never seen. That there is a need
for such religious movement is evl-
dent from the tact that never Since our
world was swung out among the
planets has there been such an organ
lied and determined effort to over
throw righteo ISL eSs, and make the
Ten Commandments obsolete and the
whole Bible derlsion. Meanwhile
alcoholism is taking down It's victims
by the hundreds of thousands. and the
political parties get down on their
knees, practically, saying: 20 thou al
mighty 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 for ever and
ever, Amen
The Christian Sabbath meanwhile,
appointed for physical, mental and
spiritual rest, is being secularlZed and
abolished. AS ii the bad publishing
houses of our own country had eG-
hausted their literary filth, the French
and Russian sewers have been invited
to pour their scurrility and moral
slush into the trough where our Amer
ican swine are now wallowIng. Mean
while there are enough houses of IN
fanny in all our cities, open and un-
molested Of the law, to invoke the ON
nipotent wrath which buried Sooom
under a deluge Of birthstone. The
pandemoniac world, I think, he's
maSsed its troops, and they are at this
moment plying their batteries uEon
family circles, church circles, social
circles, political circles aid national
circles. Apollyon is in the saddle, and
riding at the head of his myrmldons
would capture this world for darkness
and woe.
Inat 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 there are
in this country more than eighty thou
sand ministers of religion and, take
them as a class, more consecrated,
holier, more consistent. more self deny
ing; mole faithful men never lived. l
know them by the thousands. l have
met them in every city. l am told,
not by ttem, but by people outside our
profession. people engaged in Christian
and refol mato-y work, that the clergy
of Anne ic.. are at tie head of all good
enterprises, and whoever else fail they
may be depended on. The truth Of
I this is demonstrated by the fact that
when minister of religion does fall,
it is so exceptional that the newspapers
report it as something startling, while
a hundred men in ether calllngs may
go ISSss~aa SSss-~aa ~w55tehout the n after being con-
sidered as especially worth mention
Ing.
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 attain
ment. So much for the Christian min
istry of all denominations. In the
next place on our side of the conflict
we have the grandest churches Of all
time ard higher style of membership
and more of them, and hort without
number 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 saw
ing the cities yol save the world, for
they overflow all the land either with
their religion or their infamy.
Several times in the history of the
church and the world has the power
from on high been demonstrated. In
the Seventeenth century, after a great
season Of moral depression, this powe-
from on high came down upon John
Tillotson and Owen and FIavel and
Baxter and Bunyan, and there was
deluge of mercy higher than the tops
Of the highest mountains of sin. In
the Eighteenth century, in England
and America, religion was at low
water mark. William Cowper, writing
of the clergy of those days said:
Except few with Eli's spirit blest,
Sophni and Phineas nay describe the rest.
The in6del writing of Shaftesbury and
Hobbies and Chubb had done their
work. But power from on high came
upon both the Wesleys and Lady
Huntington on the other side the At
lantic, and upon William Tenant and
Gilbert Tenant and David Brainerd
IN this side of the Altar tic, and both
hemispheres felt the tread Of a par
5onIng God. Coming to later date,
here may be here and there in this al
Ience an aged man or woman who .
an remember New York in 1881 when
this power from on high descended :
most wondrously. 1t came upon pas (
;ors and congregations and theatres ,,
and commercial establishments. Chat
lam Street theatre, New York, was the
,cene of most tremendous religious :