Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-06-18
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divins's Sun.
day Sermon.


W Wv tht IItDtC dIHfOT OF
God."-Ephesians vi, IL.
There is in this text a great rattle of
shields and helmets and swords. Soldiers
are getting ready for battle. We have had
recently in this church new enlistments. and
l shall address myself to those in this AMI
other churches who are putting on the arnor
of God, and who may feel themselves to bs
as yet only raw recruits. "Masterlv re-
treat is a term often us3i in military cir
cles, but in religion there is no such thing.
1t is either glorious advance or disgraceful
and lgnominious falling back. 1t would be
a 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 corr and
seen 1t just sprout above ground, should say:
my work IS all done. l have no mora
anxiety for the field No. There is work
for the pillow and the hoe, aud there must
be a careful keeping up of the fences. aud
there must be a frightening away of the
birds that would pillage the field. AndI
say the entrance upon Christian life is only
the implantation of grace in the heart.
There is earnest, hard work yet 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 thefoundation: but after that
there are years of hammering, polishing,
Il fitE, nlblIH, pelOT6 Iuc STRUCTURE Is COM
pleted. 1t takes five years to make a Chris
tian character; it takes twenty years, it
takes forty years, it takes seventy years, if
a man shall live so long. In other words. a
man dying after half a century of Christian
experience feels that he has only learned the
IA B Cs' of the glorious alphabet The
next year will decide a great deal in your
history, young Christian man. 1t will de-
eide whether you are to be a burning and
shining light of the church, or a spark of
grace covered up in a barrel of
ashes. 1t will decide whether you are to be
a strong man in Christ Jesus, with gigantic
blowss striking the iron mail of darkness. or
a bedwarfed, whining, grumbling soldier.
that ought to be drunmed out of the Lords
camp with the ''Rogues March," You nave
only just been launched; the voyage is to be
made. Earth and heaven AMI hell are
watching to see how fast you will sail, how
well you will weather tne TEMPEST and
whether at last, amid the shouting of 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 l adj
dress myself more especially to those who
have just now entered the Christian life.
Ny first word of counsel is, hold before
your soula very high model. Do not say,
II wish | could pray like that man, or speak
like this man, or have tina conservation of
this one" Say; 'dere is the Lord Jesus
Christ, a perfect pattern. By that 1 mean,
with Gods grace, to shape all my life" In
other words, you will never be any more a
Christian than you strive to be. If you
build a foundation twenty by thirty feet you
will only have a small house. Ii you build
a foundation one hundred by one hundred
feet you will have a large house. 1t you re-
solve to be only a middling Christian you
will only be a ~middling Christian. If you
have no high aspiration in a worldly direc-
tIOu Won will rnouars CT, roaol IL, l,.ei,o-. Te
you have no high aspiration in religious
things you will never succeed in religion.
You have a right to aspire to the very
highest style of Christian character.
From your feet there reaches out a path
of Christian attainment which you may
take, and / deliberately say that you may
be a better man than was Paul or David
Or Summerield or Doddridge-a better
woman than Hannah More or Charlotte
Elizabeth. Why not? Did they nave a
monopoly of Christian grace? Did they
have a private key to the storehouse of
Gods mercy? Does God shut you out
from the ~gladness AMI goodness to which
they were introduced? Oh, no. You
have just the same promises, just the
same Christ, just the same Holy Ghost,
just ths same offers of present and ever
lasting love, and ii you fail short of what
they were-aye, if you do not come up to
the point which they reached and go beyond
tit is not because Christ has shut you out
from any point of moral and spiritual eleva-
ton, but because you deliberately refused to
take it. a limit that man cannot become
a Christian like that without a struggle; but
what do you get without fighting for it2
The fortresses of darkness are to be taken by
storm. You may by acute strategy flank
the hosts of temptation, but there are temp
%tations, there are evils in the way that you
will have to meet face to face, and it will be
ebAf fAr rl,Ak aTVrN fAr a-,, -Na@ fAr 1YFfD
slaughter for slaughter. The apostle
Paul over and over again represents the
Christian life as a combat.
When the war vessel of Christ's church
comes inoo glory bringing its crew and its
passengers il will not come in like a North
River yacht, beautifully painted and adorned,
swinging into the boathouse after a pleasure
excursion. Oh, no; it will be like a vessel
coming with a heavy cargo from China or
India, the marks of the wave and the hurrl-
cane upon it-sails rent, rigging sphced,
pumps all working to keep her ahoat, bull.
warks knocked away. | see such a vessel
coming and get out my small boat and push
toward her, and [ shout: "Ahoy, captain!
What are YOU going to do with those Snlv'
cred timbars? That was a beautiful ship
when you went OUT, but you have ruined
ut" oh says the captain, 81 have a fine
cargo on board, and by this round trip !
L have made ten fortunes"
80 L believe 1t Will be when the Christian
soul at las co nes into the haroor of heaven.
1t viii coma be triny upon it the marks of a
great stress of weather. You can see by the
very looks of that soul as it comes into glory
that 1t was driven by a storm and dashed
in the hurricane. but by so much as the vow
age is rough, will the harbor be blessed, III
We suffered with Him on earth, We shall b9
Eloritie | with Him in heaven" Aim high.
Do not be satisfied to be like the Christians
all around Won IA mara than thau h. No a1yar
been for Christ.
My second word of counsel to those who
have recently entered upon Christian life is.
Abstain from all pernicious associations, and
t7ke only those that are useful and benef-
cent. Stay out of all associations that
would damage your Christian character.
laHe only those associations that will help
you. A learned man said. IF stay with
that man Fenelon any longer | shall get to
be a Christian in spite of myself" In other
words there's a mighty power in Christian
associations. Now what kind of assoc.a-
ions shall we, as young Christians, seek
litter? think we on ght to get INTO com
oany better than ourselves, never going
nto company worse than ourselves.
II we get into company a little
better than ourselves and thera
ire ten people in that company, ten chances
Done we will be bettered. If We get int,
:ompany a little worse than ourselves, AMI
huoiS cS Otu peOpl9 III Uuab company, ten
chances to one we will be made worse than
ne ware.befo:a.
l do not preten 10 point ont any evil in
1uences, but are there no. some surround
ing influences that ara pernicious to your
growth in grlce? Stand back from that fur
mace in which SO many young Christians
have besn destroyed. In this church there
Is a large company OF young men and young
women consecrate to Christ. l know of
no better thaD they are.
Young convert, l invite you into their
you. All hail, young followers of Jesus
Christ, my joy and my pride! My heart
thrills at every step of your advancement.
| talked with you in that hour when you
most tried to break from sin, and now l re-
joice as | see you putting on the armoc of a
conflict in which God will give you present
and everlasting victory. STAN off from all
evil associations. A man is no better than
the company he keeps. Go among those
who are better than you are aud you will be
made better. Go among those who are worse
than You are AMI you will be made worse.
My next word of counsel is that you be
actively employed. | see a great many
Christians with doubts and perplexities, an
they seem to be proul of them. Their entire
Christian life is made up of gloom, and they
seem to cultivate that spiritual despondencT,
when | will undertake TO say that in nine
cases out Of ten spiritual dependency is a
judgment of Col upon i1lenesS. Who are
the happy people in the church to-day? The
huSy DaOnla. Show ma the man who nrOfareaS