Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-10-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn DiVine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: launch Out Into the Deep.

/ bAi. AstNHIf ONt fNtB fNt UffUs -
Luke v, 4.
Christ, starting on tho campaign of the
worlds conquest, was selecting His stat
officers. There were plenty of students
with high foreheads. and white hands, and
Intellectual faces, and refne1 tastes in Rome
and in Jerusalem. Christ might have callei
into the apostleship twelve bookworms, or
twelve rhetoricians, or twelve artists. In
stead He takes a group of men who had
never made speech; never taken q lesson
in belleslettres; never been sick enough to
make them look delicate-their hands broad,
clumsy and hard knucke1. He chose fisher
men, among other reasons, I think, because
they we're physically hardy. Rowing makes
strong arms and stout chests Much climb
| ing 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 irValids
hanging about Him, complaining all the
time how badly they felt. Ho leavoT the
delicate students at Jerusalem and Roms
for their mothers and aunts 10 take care OF,
and goes down 10 the seashore, and out OF
the toughest material makes an apostleship.
The ministry neel 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 DO enough blood in
the mill race to turn the ono and to grind
the other.
He chose fishermen also because they werc
used to hard knocks The man who cannot
stand assault is not ft for the ministry. 1t
always has been and always will be rough
work, and tho man who, at every censure or
caricature sits down to cry had better be at
some other work II is no place for ecclesi-
astical doll babies. A man who cannot
preach because he has forgotten his manu-
script or lost his spectacles ought not to
preach at all. Heaven deliver the church
4 from ministry that preach in kid gloves
and from sermons in black morocco covers!
! These fishermen were rough and ready.
/ They had been in tho sternest of all colleges
When they were knocked over by the mall,
boom of the ship they entered the Sophomore,
when washed OF by great wave, TREY en-
tered the Junior. when floating for two days
without food or drink on n 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.
Ny text finds Jesus cine aboard with one
! Of these brouzed men, Simon by name. This
fisherman had been sweeping his net in shoal
/ water. "Push OUT says Christ: What is
! the use If hugglng tho shore in this boat!
| Here is a lake twelve miles long and six wide,
aud it is all populated just waiting for the
sweep Of your net. Launch out into the
deep"
The advice that my Lord gave to Simon
/ is as appropriate for us all in spiritual
! sense. The fact is that most OF us are just
padding along the shore. We are afraid to
venture out into the great desps Of God and
/ Christian experience We think that the
] boat will be upset or that wo cannot 'c,ew
down the mizzen topsail, and our cowardice
makes us poor fishermen. ! thiuk l hear the
voice Of Christ commanding us as He di |
/ Simon on that day when bright Gllllee set
in among the green hills OF Palestine, like
water flashing in an emerald cup, Launch
out into the deep"
This divine counsel comes first to all thoss
who ore padding in tho margin OF Bible re-
search. My father read the Bible through
thrco times after he was eighty years OF ags
and without spectac.eS-not Tor the nero
purpose of saying he bad been through It s.
often. but for his eternal profit. John NolOy,
the brother-in.law Of Daniel Webster,
learned to read after he was eighty-four
wears 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 NM
tenths of Christian men get no more than
ankle deep. They think it is a good sign not
to venture too far. Tney never ask how or
why, and if they see some Christian becom-
ing inquisitive about the deep things oil Go1
they say "8e careful; you had better no.
20 out so far from shore
Nv answer is The farther you 60 from
shore the better if YOU have the right KIND
of ship. II you have worldly philosophy for
the hulk, and pride for a sail. and self con
ceit for the helm. the first squall will destroy
d. - 8 tatya thn RfDln for NOilr
craft. the farther you 90 the better, ana
after you have gone ten thousand furlongs
Christ will still command, Launch out into
the deep" Ask some such question as who
is God:' and 20 on for ten years asking IL;
Ask il at the gate Of every parable, anna
the excitement of every miracle by the soil
tariness Of every patriarchal thrashlng moor
amid the white faces of Ssnnacherib's slain
turned up into the moonlight, amid the ny
ing chariots of tho Golden City. o..
Ask who Jesus is, aud keep on asking IL
of every Bible lily, OF every raven OF every
star. of every craze1 brain cured, oil every
blind man come to sunlight OF every CON
in fishs mouth of every loaf that got u
Ia five loaves of every wrathful sea
pacided, Of every pulseoss arm stretched
forth in graduation ask it OF His mother,
of Augustus. OF Herod, OF the Syro
phnnician woman, OF the damsel that "oAe
up from the death sssp, OF Joseph, who mad
Him buried. of tue angel posted as sentlhe
Mt His tomb, of the dumb earth that snooi
and grolned and thun ierc when Hc died
A missionary in France offered a Bible in
on humble dwelling. The man took it, tors
out a dozen pages AMI with .hem began to
light his pipe Some years after the mission
B airy happened in the same house The family
had Just lost their son in the Crimean war,
U L. l. l. I...f- h., H..
missionary took il no and saw that il was
the very same Bible that he had left in the
house and from which the leaves had been
J torn. The dying soldier had written on one
Of the leaves Of the BiDle Rejected and
scoffed at, but finally believed in and saved"
The Bible may be used to light the pipe OF
witticism by some. but for Us it is staff in
life pillow in death and our JOY for eter-
nitv.
Walk all up and down this Bible domainl
Try every path. Plunge In at the prophe-
cies and come out at the eDistles. Go with
tho patriarchs until you meet the evange-
lists Rummage and ranslck, rs children
who are not satisfied when they come to a
new house until they know what IS in every
room aud into what every door opens. Open
every jewel casket Examine the skylignts.
Forever be asking questions. Put to a
higher use than was intended the oriental
proverb, Hold all the skirts of thy mantle
extended when heaven is raining gold"
Passing from Bonn 10 Coblentz on the
Rhine, the scenery is comparatively tame.
But from Coblentz to Mayence IL is enchant-
ing. You sit on deck and feel as If this last
fash Of beauty must exhaust the scene; but
in a moment there is turn Of the river,
which covers up tho former view with mora
luxuriant vinegar Dis, and more defiant
castles. aud bolder bluffs vino wrea thed.
and grapal 50 ripe tlat if tine hills DO
touched they would bleed their rich lite
away into the bowls of Bingen and Hook
heimer. Here and there there are streams
Of water melting into the river, like smaller
lows swallowed in the bosom OF great
gladuess.
4 And when night begins to throw It's black
mantle over the shoulder OF tho hills, ana
you are approaching Decentralization nc
Mayence. the lights along tho shore larry
bewitch the scene with their beauty, giving
one a thrill that he feels but once, yet that
tdst, him forever. SO this river Il = ID
worl is not straight stream, but winnln ,
sp!endor-at evory turn new wonders 70 at
tract, still ripper vintage pressing TO inc orlaN
and crowded with lstles OF strength-Stoz y
erlels AMI JohannisberEer ms nothing COM
pared with the strong tower into which the
righteous run and are save1-and our dlseii-
barkation at last in the evening AMID the
LIGHTS that glenn from the shors OF heaven
The trouble is that the vast majority OF Bible
VOYAGES stop at Coblentz, where the CHIEF
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