Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-06-16
A FAREWELL SERMON
"PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMoR or
GOD"


Departure for EurOpe-He Advises His
Congregation to Hold Very High
Model-Take Jesus Christ for Pattern.
BROOKLYN, June l2.-Dr. Talmage pref.
aced his sermon this morning with state
inent to the effect that he would sail on
Wednesday next for Europe, and might be
able to be present at the distribution in
the famine districts Of Russia of The Chris
lian Herald relief cargo consisting of
three million pounds OF -four and other
supplies which goes out this week on the
steamship Leo, chartered for the purpose
He congratulated the American people on
the generous spirit evinced by this mag
nifieent gift to the starving people His
sermon was from the text, Ephesians vi.
II. Put on the whole armor of God"
There is in this text great rattle of
shields and helmets and swords Soldiers
are getting ready for battle. we have
had recently in this church new enlist
ments and shall address myself to those
in this and other churches who are put
ting on the armor Of God, and who may
feel themselves to be as yet only raw re-
cruits Mastery retreat" is a term often
used ia military circles, but in religion
Lltie Is no Sutu bHlHS. IL - either 8lOfl-
Gus advance or disgraceful and ignomi-
nious falling back. 1t would be strange
thing If all our anxiety about men ceased
the moment they were converted.
You would almost doubt the sanity of
that farmer who, having planted the corn
and seen it Just sprout above ground,
should say MY work is all done. have
no more anxiety for the field" No There
~ e.. al a ~ 4
there must be a careful keeping up Of the
fences, and there must be frightening
away of the birds that would pillage the
field. And say the entrance upon Chris
tian life is only the implantation of grace
in the heart There is earnest, hard work
vet to be done, and perhaps many years Of
anxiety before there shall be heard the
glorious shout Of Harvest home"
The beginning TO be a Christian is only
putting down a foundations but after that
there are years of hammering, polishing
carving, lifting, before the structure is
completed It takes five years to make a
Christian character, IL takes twenty years,
il takes forty years, it takes seventy years
If man shall live so long In other words,
a man dying after half a century Of Chris
tian experience feels that he has only
ltdlutA the - y y > Al u EauEIDnS dlIDilH-
bet. The next year will decide a great
deal in your history, young Christian man;
it viii decide whether you are to be burn
ing and shining light Of the church, or
spark of grace covered up in a barrel of
ashes.
II viii decide whether you are to be
strong man in Christ Jesus, with gigantic
blows striking the iron mail of darkness,
or a bedwarfed, whining, grumbling sol
der that ought to be drummed out of the
Lords camp with the "Rogues' March"
You have only just been launched The
voyage is to be made. Earth and heaven
and hell are watching to see how fast you
will sail, how well you will weather the
tempest and whether at last, amid the
shouting Of the angels, you shall come into
the right harbor. May God help me this
morning to give you three or four words Of
Christian counsel, as | address myself
more especially to those who have just
now entered the Christian life.
HIGH MODEL.
Ny first word of counsel is, Hold before
your soul a very high model Do not say,
Il wish ! could pray like that man, or
speak like this man, or have the consecra-
tion Of this one" Say; Here is the Lord
Jesus Christ, perfect pattern. BY that |
mean, with Gods grace, to shape all my
life" In other words you will never be
any more Christian than you strive to
be- Ii you build foundation twenty by
thirty feet you will only have a small
house. If you build foundation one hun
bred by one hundred feet, you will have a
large house II you resolve to be only
middling Christian. you will only be
II J..
aspiration in a worldly direction you will
never succeed in business.
Ii you have no high aspiration in reli-
gious things you will never succeed in re-
hgion. You have a right to aspire to the |
very highest style of Christian character. |
From your feet there reaches out path of |
Christian attainment which you may take, |
and | deliberately say that you may be |
better man than was Paul or David or
Summerfield or Doddridge-a better WON
an than Hannah More or Charlotte Eliza
beth Why not? Did they have monop- |
oily of Christian grace' Did they have a
private key of the storehouse of Gods |
mercy3 Does God shut you out from the
gladness and goodness to which they were
introducedf
Oh, no. You have just the same prom
Aetcf Juob tue SAINT AuflStf JUST Shc
Holy Ghost. just the same offers of present
and everlasting love, and if you fall short
Of what they were-aye, if You do not come
up to the point which they reached and 90
beyond tit is not because Christ has
shut you out from any point of moral and
spiritual elevation, but because you delib-
erateiy refused to take it.
admit that man cannot become Chris
tian ike that without a struggle, but
what do you get without fighting for it?
The fortresses of darkness are to be taken
By storm. You may by acute strategy
dank the hosts of temptation, but there
are temptations, there are evils, in the way
that you will have to meet face TO face, and
1t viii be shot for shot, gun for gun, grip
for grip. slaughter for slaughter. The
Apostle Paul over and over again repre-
sents the Christian life as a combat.
When the war vessel of Christ's church
comes into glory, bringing its crew and its
Passengers, it will not come in like a
l. III .f~.e4. Il an 4