The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-07-08
THE GREAT QUESTION
Or. TALMAGs ON THE MANY AN
SWERS THAT MAY BE GIVEN.

sWERS THAT MAY BE GIVEN.
PLATE Asked It Only rs Timid and
Hesitating Politician Might, but 1t
Comes to Every Man Anew Christ
Must lie Taken to tho Heart.
LONDON, July 8,-Dr. Talmage con-
tinues to receive from all classes of the
English people the warmest of welcomes
and the heartiest greetings. The work
of arranging his tour has been ex-
ceedingly difficult. So numerous were
the invitations awaiting him that to ac-
cept some and decline others equally
pressing seemed ilvidious Wherever
he has gone the largest churches in the
cities have been crowded to excess and
could have been filled many times over.
Among the sermons he has preached,
the one selected for publication this
week is from the text, Matthew xvii,
%, what shall l do with Jesus?"
PLATE was an unprincipled politician.
He had sympathies, convictions of right
and desires to be honest; but all these
were submerged by wish to be popular
and to please the people. Two distin-
guished prisoners were in the grasp Of
government and the proposition was
made to free one of them. There stands
Barabbas, the murderer; there stands
Christ, the Saviour of the world. At
the demand of the people the renegade
is set free, but Jesus is held. AS the
hard visaged and cruel eyed Barabbas
goes among his sympathizers, receiving
their coarse congratulations, PLATE turns
to his other distinguished prisoner
mild, meek, inoffensive, loving, self
sacrificing-and he Is COMPOUNDED as to
what course he had better take, so he
impanels the mob as a jury to decide,
saying to them. What shall do, then,
with Jesus?"
Oh, it is no dried or withered ques-
ton, but one that throbs with warm and
quick pulse in the heart of every man
and woman here. We must do some
thing with Jesus. els here. You and
are not SO certainly here as he is, for
he fills all this place-the loving, living,
dying Christ-and each one of us will
have to ask and answer for himself the
question, what shall do, then, with
Jesus?' Well, my friends. there are
three or four things you can do with
him.
WHEN JESUS COMES.
You can, in the first place, let him
stand without a word of recognition;
but do not think your sense of common
courtesy will allow that. He comes
walking on such long journey, you
will certainly give him chair on which
he may sit. He is so weary, you would
not let him stand without some recogni-
ton. If beggar comes to your door,
you recognize him and say, "What do
you want?" If you meet a stranger faint
in the street, you say, "What Is the
matter with your" and your common
humanity, and your common sympathy;
and your common sense of propriety
will not allow you to let him stand
without recognition-the wounded one
of the hills. You will ask, What makes
him weep where was he hurR who
wounded him? whence came hep whittier
goes he? know there have been men
who have with outrageous indifference
hated Christ, but know very well that
that is not what you will do with JESUS
Another thing you can do with him
you can thrust him back from your
heart and tell him to stand aside. If
an inoffensive person comes and per-
bists In standing close up to you, and
you have in various ways given him to
understand that you do not want his
presence or his society, then you ask the
reason of his impertinence and bid him
away. Well, that is what we can do
with Jesus.
He has stood close by us great while
ten, twenty, thirty, forty years. He
has stood close by you three times
day breaking bread for your household,
all night watching by your pillow. He
has been in the nursery among your
children, he has been In the store among
your goods, he has been in the factory
amid the flying wheels, and now if you
do not like his society you can bid him
away; aye, if he will not 60 you can
take him by the throat and tell him you
do not want his interference, that you
do not want his breath on your
cheek, that you do not want his eye on
YOUR behavior. You can bid him away;
pr if he will not go in that way, then
you can stamp your foot as you would
at dog and cry "Begone!"
Yet know you will not treat Jesus
that way. When PLATE could not do
that, you could not. Desperadoes and out
laws might do 80, but know that that
is not the way you will treat him, that
that is not what you will do with Jesus.
| There is another thing you can do with
him-you can look on him merely as an
optician to cure blind eyes, or an aurist
to tune deaf ears, friend, good
| friend, a helpful companion, a cheerful
passenger on shipboard; but that will
amount to nothing.
FEAR NOT SUFFICIENT.
You can look upon him as God and
be abashed while he rouses the storm,
pr blasts fig tree, or heaves rock
down the mountain side. That will not
do you any good-no more save your
soul than the admiration you have for
John Milton or William Shakespeare.
can think of only one more thing you
Ian do with Jesus, and that is to take
him into your hearts. That is the best
thing you can do with him, that is the
only safe thing you can do with him,
and may the Lord omnipotent by his
spirit help me to persuade you to do
that. A minister of Christ was speak
ling to some children and said, II will
point you to Christ A little child rose
'in the audience and came up and put
her hand in the hand of the pastor and
said: PLEASE, sir, take me to Jesus now.
want to go now" Oh, that it might
be now with such simplicity of expert
ence that You and join hands and seek
after Christ and get an expression of his
benefaction and his mercy!