Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-07-28
OUR POSSESSIONS.
DR.. TALMAeE PoRTRAYs THE AD-
4. vANTAeEs OF THE CHRISTIAN.

OuF FieAsures Less-GOd VIII hlthholu
No Good Thing from Those Who Love
Hlm-The Infinite Father.
LONDON, July I7.-Dr. Talmage's preach
ing tour in England has been a continued
series OF unprecedented successes. The
English people have assembled by thou
sands TO hear the American preacher
wherever he has preached. In Manchester
the great Free Trade hall was engaged for
him. 1t holds 1900 persons, but it would
not contain third of the people who tried
to get in. The streets leading to the hall
were jammed with a dense surging mass
of humanity. After the service DIR. Tai
mage preached in the street to the crowd,
which numbered fully 1900. The sermon
selected for this week is entitled "Our
Possessions" from | Corinthians iii, -,
GAIL are yours"
The impression is abroad that religion
puts man on short allowance; that when
the ship sailing heavenward comes to the
shining wharf it will be found out that all
the passengers had the hardest kind of sea
fare; that the soldiers in Christ's army
march most of the time with an empty
haversack. In word, that only those
people have good time in this world who
take upon themselves no religious obliga-
tion.
want today to find out whether this is
so, and / am going to take account of
stock; am going to show what are the
Christians liabilities, and what is his in
come, and what are his warrantee deeds,
and what are his bonds and mortgages,
and | shall find ont before finish just how
much he is worth and l shall spread be-
fore you the balance sheet in time to warn
you all against the religion Of Jesus Christ
if indeed it be a failure, and in time for
you all to accept it if indeed it be sue
cess. ! turn first to the assets, and find
there what seems to be roll of govern
ment securities-the empire Of heaven
promising all things to the possessor. The
three small words of my text are war
rantee deed to the whole universe when it
says "All are yours"
In making an inventory Of the Chris
tian's possessions remark, in the first
place, that he owns this world. My text
implies it, and the preceding verse asserts
it-"whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
or the world" Now it would be an alb
surd thing to suppose that God would give
to strangers privileges and advantages
which he would deny his own children. If
you have a large park, grand mansion,
beautiful fountains, stalking deer and
statuary, to whom will you give the first
right to all these possessionsS To outsid-
ers? No, to your own children. You will
say, 1T will be very well for outsiders to
come in and walk these paths and enjoy
this landscape, but the first right to my
house, and the first right to my statuary,
the first right to my gardens shall be in
the possession of my own children"
Now, this world is Gods park, and while
he allows those who are not his children
and who refuse his authority the privilege
of walking through the gardens, the posses
sion of all this grandeur of park and man.
sion is in the right of the Christian-the
flowers, the diamonds, the silver, the gold,
the morning brightness and the evening
shadow. The Christian may not have the
title deed to one acre of land as recorded in
the clerks Office, he may never have paid
one dollar of taxes, but he can go up on a
mountain and look off upon fifty miles OF
grain field and say, "All this is mine; my
father gave it me-" 'All are yours"
GODS WORLD IS FOR HIS CHILDREN.
A lawyer is sometimes required to search
titles, and the client who thinks he has a
good right to an estate puts the papers in
his hands, and the lawyer goes into the
public records, and finds everything right
for three or four or five years back; but
after awhile he comes to break in the
title, to deficit, to diversion Of the prop,
erty; SO he finds out that the man who
supposed he owned it owns not an acre of
the ground, while somebody else has the
full right to the entire estate. Now, ex-
anime the title to all earthly possessions.
! go back little way, and | find that men
of the world-bad men, selfish men, wicked
men-think they have a right to all these
possessions; but 60 farther back and
trace the title from year to year, and from
century to century, until find the whole
right vested in God Now, to whom did he
give itS To his own children! "All are
yours"
The simple fact is that in the last days
of the world all the architecture, all the
Cities all the mountains, all the villages
will be in the possession of the church OF
Christ "The meek shall inherit the
earth" Ships of Tarshish shall bring
presents. "The earth is the Lords and the
fullness Thereof" "All are yours" But
you say, what satisfaction is there in that
when haven't possession of them?" These
things will come before the Supreme Judge
of the Universe, and he will regulate the
title, and he will eject these squatters
upon the property that does not belong to
them, and it shall be found that "All arc
yours"
So again, the ref1nements of life are the
Christians right. He has right to as
good apparel, to as beautiful adornments,
to as commodious residence as the world.
ling. Show me any passage in the Bible
that tells the people of the world they
have privileges, they have glitterine
spheres, they have befitting apparel that
are denied the Christian. There is no one
who has SO much right to laugh, none SC
much right to everything that is beauti.
full and grand and sublime in life as the
Christian. "All are yours" Can it be
possible that one who is reckless and sinful,
and has no treasures laid up in heaven, is
to be allowed pleasures which the sons and
daughters of God, the owners of the whole
universe, are denied?
THE SWEETNESS OF SACRED MUSIC.
So l remark that all the sweet sounds of
the world are in the Christians right.
Anere are people WHO nave an luea CnaJ In
struments of music are inappropriate for
the Christians parlor. When did the
house of sin or the bacchanal get the right
to musici They have no right to it. God,
in my text, makes over to Christian peo-
pie all the pianos, all the harps, all the
drums, all the cornets, all the flutes, all
the organs. People of the world may bor-
row them, but they only borrow them;
they have no right or title to them. God
gave them to Christian people in my text
when he said, "All are yours"
David no more certainly owned the harp
with which he thrummed the praises Of
God than the church of Christ owns now
all chants, all anthems, all ivory key
boards, all organ diapasons, and God will