Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-10-13
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGE ON THE NEED OF
INCREASED CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY.

Fishermen Were Chosen because They
Were Brave and Hardy-The bound
less Sea of Gods word-Do Not Hug
the Shore. but Sail Out Boldly.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 2-Since his return from
Europe Dr. Talmage has faced audiences
unusually large and enthusiastic, who are
attracted to the Tabernacle no less by the
potent eloquence Of the preacher than
through desire to hear from his own lips
the message of thanks intrusted to him by
the car to the contributors of The Chris
tian Herald famine cargo, which he and
Mr.. Klopsch conveyed to Russia In the
steamer Leo. 1t is understood that DR..
Talmage has in preparation full account
Of the mission to Russia, as we'll of his
own preaching tour to Germany, England,
Scotland and ireland. The text this morn
ing was taken from Luke v, 4, Launch
out into the deep"
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
intellectual faces, and refined tastes in
Rome and in Jerusalem Christ might
have called into the apostleship twelve
bookworms, or twelve rhetoricians, or
twelve artists. Instead he takes a group
of men who had never made speech; never
taken lesson in belles-lettres; never been
sick enough to make them look delicate
their hands broad, clumsy and hard
knuckled. He chose fishermen, among
other reasons, think, because they were
physically hardy. Rowing makes strong
arms and stout chests. Much climbing of
ratltnes makes ones head steady. A Cali
lee tempest wrestled men into gymnasts.
The opening work of the church was
rough work. Christ did not want twelve in
valids hanging about him, complaining all
the time how badly they felt. He leaves
the delicate students at Jerusalem and
Rome for their mothers and aunts to take
care of, and goes down to the seashore and
out of the toughest material makes an
apostleship. The ministry need more cor
poreal 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
uluou DS ChOuSH III Ouc Iulll IGtIc W
turn the one and to grind the other.
THE APOSToLICAL FISHERMAN.
He chose fishermen also because they
were used to hard knocks. The man who
cannot stand assault is not fit for the min
istry. It always has been and always will
be rough work, and the man who at every
censure or caricature, sits down to cry
had better be at some other work. 1t is no
place for ecclesiastical doll babies A man
who cannot preach because he has for.
gotten his manuscript or lost his spec
tacles ought not to preach at all. Heaven
deliver the church from q ministry that
preach in kid gloves and from sermons in
black morocco covers These fishermen
were rough and ready. They had been in
the severest of all colleges.
When they were knocked over by the
main boom of the ship they entered the
Sophom when washed off by great
wave they entered the Junior; when
| floating for two days without food or drink
on plank they came TO the Senior, and
when at last their ship dashed on the beach
in a midnight hurricane they graduated
with the first honor.
My text finds Jesus on shipboard with
one Of these bronzed men-Simon by name.
This fisherman had been sweeping his net
in shoal water. Push out" says Christ.
What is the use of hugging the shore in
this boat? Here is lake twelve miles
long and six wide, and it is all populated
just waiting for the sweep of your net.
Launch out it into the deep"
The advice that my Lord gave to Simon
is as appropriate for us all In q spiritual
sense. The fact is that most of us are just
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 cannot
"clew down the mizzen topsail," and our
cowardice makes us poor fishermen. l
think hear the voice of Christ command
ing us, as he did Simon on that day when
bright Galilee, set in among the green
hills of Palestine, like water flashing in an
emerald cup, Launch out into the deep"
DEEP STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
This divine counsel comes first to all
those who are padding in the margin 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 of our attention as
the Bible. Yet nine-tenths of our Chris
tian men get no more than ankle Deep
They think it is good sign not to venture
too far. They never ask how or why, and
If they see some Christian becoming in
quisitive 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. II you have mere worldly phi
losophy for the hulk and pride for sail
and self conceit 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 COM
mand, Launch out into the deep" Ask
some such question as, "Who is God?"
and go on for ten years asking it. Ask 1t
at the gate of every parable; amid the
excitement of every miracle; by the solita-
riness of every patriarchal thrashing floor;
amid the white faces of Sennacherib's
slain turned up into the moonlight; amid
the flying chariots of the Golden City.
Ask who Jesus is, and keep on asking it
of every Bible lily, of every raven, of every
star, of every crazed brain cured, of every
blind man come to sunlight, Of every coin
in fish's mouth, Of every loaf that got to
ha 6va loo nf p,pI NJ
fed, of every pulseless arm stretched forth
in graduation; ask it of his mother, of
Augustus, of Herod, Of the Syrophenician
woman, of the damsel that woke up from
the death sleep, of Joseph who had him
buried, of the angel posted as sentinel at
his tomb of the dumb earth that shook
and groaned and thundered when he died.
A missionary in France offered a Bible
in an humble dwelling. The man took it,
tore out dozen pages, and with them be-