The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-10-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Christians Urged to Launch Their
Banks on the Deep
And Cease Padding Along the shore
The Church OF Christ as N F1sh-
erman, and the Fish Do
Not Stay InShore.

Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse on the Brooklyn
tabernacle, taking for his text:
Launch out into thu deep.-Luke ". g.
Christ, starting on the campaign Of
the worlds conquest, was selecting his
staff officers. There were plenty of
students with high foreheads, and
white hands and intelligent faces, and
refined tastes, in Rome and Jerusalem
Christ might have called into the
RpoStleship twelve booz-worms, or
twelve rhetoricians, or twelve artists
Instead he takes group of men who
had never made speech, never taken
lesson in belles-letters, never been sick
enough to make them look delicate
their hands broad, clumsy and hard
lCnuckled- He chose fishermen, among
other reasons, think, because they
were physically hardy. Rowing makes
strong arms and stout chests. Much
climbing of ratlines makes ones head
steady. A Galilee tempest wrestled
men into gymnasts The opening
work of the church was rough work.
Christ did not want twelve invalids
hanging about Him, complaining all
the time how badly they felt He
leaves the delicate students at Jerusa-
lem and Rome for their mothers and
aunts to care for. and goes down to the
sea shore. and out of the toughest ma
terial makes an apostleship. The min
istry need more corporal vigor than
any other class Fine minds and good
intentions are important, but there
must be physical force to back them.
The intellectual mill-wheel may be
well built and the grist good, but
there must be enough blood in the
mill-race to turn the one to grind the
other. ~ rt rTE}sFE Esf
He chose fishermen, also. because
they were use to hard knocks The.
man who can not stand assault Is not
fit for the ministry. 1t always has been
and-afways will be rough work; and
the man who, at every censure or Carl
cature, sits down to cry, had better be
at some other work 1t is no place for
ecclesiastical doll-babies. A man who
can not preach because he has forgot
ten his manuscript or lost his specta-
cles, ought not to preach at all Heaven
deliver the church from a ministry that
preach in kid gloves, and from sermons
in black morocco coversl These fish,
men were rough and ready. They had
been in the severest of all colleges.
When they were knock over by the
main boom of the ship they entered the
'Sophomore;" when washed off by a.
great wave, they entered the Junior"
when floating for two days. without
foor or drink, on plank, they came. TO
the ''Senior;" and when at last their
ship dashed on the beach in midnight
hurricane, they graduated with the first
honor. tgt II
My text finds Jesus on shipboard
with one of these bronzed men-Sinon
by name. This fisherman had been
sweeping his net in -shoal water.
Push out" says Christ. ''what il the
use of hugRinR the shore in this boat?
Here is a lake twelve miles long and
six wide, and At is all populated--just
waiting for the sweep of -yOnr net
Launch out into the deep"
The advice that my Lord gave to
Simon is as appropriate for us all in a
spiritual sense. The fact is that most
of us are padding along the shore. We
are afraid to venture out into the great
deeps of God and Christian experience.
We think that the boat will be upset,
or that we can not "clcw down the
mizzen top SAIL" and our cowardice
makes us poor fishermen. l think I
hear the voice of Christ commanding
rs, as He did Simon, on that day when
bright Galilee set in among the green
hills of Palestin, like water flashing in
an emerald cup: Launch out into the
deep" .rctyF -1-t
This Divine C ounsel comes, first, to
all those who are padding in the mar
gin of Bible research. My father read
the Bible through three times after he
was eighty years of age, and without
spectacles; not for the mere purpose of
saying he had been through it so often,
but for his eternal profit. John Colby,
the brother-in-law of Daniel Webster,
learned to read after he was eighty
four years of age, in order that he
might become acquainted with the
Scriptures. There is no book in the
world that demands so much attention
as the Bible. Yet nine-tenths OF Chris
tian men get no more than ankle-deep
They think il is good sign not to VEN
ture too far. They never ask how or
why; and If they see some Christian be-
coming inquisitive about the deep
things of God they say: "Be careful;
you had better not go out so far from
shore" My answer is: The farther
you go from shore the better, If you
have the right kind of ship. If you
have mere worldly philosophy for the
hulk, and pride for a sail, and self-con-
ceit for the helm, the first squall will
destroy you. But if you take the Bible
for your craft, the farther you go the
better; and after you have gone
ten thousand furlongs, Christ will still
command: Launch out into the
deep" Ask some such question as
"who is God2' and go ON for ten years
asking it. Ask it at the gate of every
parable; amidst the excitement of every
miracle; by the solitariness of every
patriarchal threshing-ioor; amidst the
white faces of Sennacheribs slain
turned up into the moonlight; amidst
the flying chariots of the Golden city.
Ask who Jesus is, and keep on asking il
of every Bible lily, of every raven, of
every star, of every craZed brain cured,
of every coin in fish's mouth, of every
loaf that got to be five loaves, of every
wratful sea paeified, of every pulseless
arm stretched forth in graduation; ask
il of His mother, Of Augustus, of Herod,
of the Syroph9nician woman, of the
damsel that woke up from the death
sleep; of Joseph, who had Him buried;
of the angel posted as sentinel attn is
tomb; of the dumb earth. that shook.
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