The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-06-24
TALMAGES SERMON.
Counsel for the Young and Unex-
perienced Among Gods People.
The Essentials to Christian Character and
the Associations to he Avoided-Ac-
tivity the lTnlnsprIng OF
Christian Life.

Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
following discourse in the Brooklyn
tabernacle, taking for his text:
Put ON the whole armor OF God.-Epheainns
vi. IL
There il in this text great rattle of
shields and helmets and swords. Sol
diers are getting ready for battle. We
have had recently in this church new
enlistments, and shall address myself
20 those in this and other churches who
are putting on the armor of God, and
who may feel themselves to be as vet
only raw recruits. MASTERY retreat"
Is a term often used in military circles,
but in religion there is no such thing
IL is either glorious advance or dis
graceful and ignominious falling back
1t would be strange thing if all our
anxiety about men ceased the moment
they were converted. You would al
most doubt the sanity of that farmer
who, having planted the corn and seen
1t just sprout above ground, should
say: my work is all done. / have no
more anxiety for the field" No. There
is work for the pillow and the hoe, and
there must be careful keeping mp of
the fences, and there must be fright
ening away of the bird that would pill
lage the field. And / say the entrance
upon Christian life Is only the explain
tation 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 Christian In only putting down the
l.,
years of hammering, polishing, carving,
lifting, before the structure is com
pleted- 1t takes five years to make
Christian character; it takes twenty
years; II takes forty years; it takes
seventy years, il a man shall live SO long
In other words, a man dying after halfa
century of Christian experience feels
that he has only learned the "a b Cs'
of a glorious alphabet The next year
will decide great deal in your history,
young Christian man. 1t will decide
whether you are to be burning and
shining light of the church or a spark
of grace covered mp in a barrel of
ashes 1t will decide whether you are
to he a strong man in Christ Jesus,
with gigantic blows striking the iron
mail of darkness, or a bedwarfed,
whining, grumbling soldier, that ought
to be drummed out of the Lords camp
with the '-Rogues' March, You have
only just been (aunched; the voyage is
TO be made. Earth and Heaven and
hell are watching to see how fast you
will sail, how well you weather the
tempest, and whether at last amid the
shouting of the angels, you shall come
into the harbor May God help me
this morning to give you three or four
words of Christian counsel, as i adj
dress myself more especially to those
who have just now entered the Chris
tian life. aT-ErTf
My first word of counsel is, hold be-
fore your soul a very high model. Do
not say: II wish could pray like that
man, or speak like this man, or have
the conservation of this one" Say:
Here is the Lord Jesus Christ. perfect
pattern BY that i mean, with Gods
grace, to shape all my life" In other
words, you win never be any more a
Christian than you strive to be. If you
build foundation twenty by thirty
feet you will only have a small house.
IL you build foundation one hundred
by one hundred feet you will have
large house. If you resolve to be only
n middling Christian you viii only be
middling Christian. II you have no
high aspiration in a worldly direction
you will never succeed in business. If
you have no high aspiration in religious
things you will never succeed in reli-
gion. You have a right to aspire to the
very highest style of Christian charac-
ter. From your feet there reaches out
n path of Christian attainment which
you may take, and / deliberately say
that You may be better man than was
Paul, or David, or Summerfeld, or Dod-
dridge-a better woman than Hannah
More or Charlotte Elizabeth. Why not?
Did they have a monopoly of Christian
grace? Did they have private key of
the store-house of Gods mercy? Does
God shut you out from the gladness to
which they were introduced. Oh, no.
You have just the same promises, just
the same Christ, just the same Holy
Ghost, just the same offers of present
and everlasting love, and if you fan
short of what they were-aye, If you
do not come up to the point which they
reached and go beyond tit is not be-
cause Christ has shut you out from any
point of moral and spiritual elevation,
but because you deliberately refuse to
take il. l admit that man can not be
come n Christian like that without
struggle; but what do you get without
fighting for it? The fortresses of dark
ness are 10 be taken by storm. You
may by acute strategy flank the hosts
of temptation; but there are tempta-
tions, there are evils, in the way that
you will have to meet face to face, and
il will be shot for shot, gun for gun,
grip for grip, slaughter for slaughter.
The APOSTLE Paul over and over again
represents the Christian life as COM
bat.
When the war vessel of Christ's
church comes into glory bringing its
crew and it's passengers, it will not
come in like North river yacht, beau
tifully painted and adorned, swinging
into the penthouse after an excursion.
Oh, no. 1t will be like a vessel coming
with heavy cargo from China or In
dia, the marks of the wave and the
hurricane upon it-sails rent, rigging
spliced, pumps all working to keep her
afoat, bulwarks knocked away. / see
such vessel coming and get out my
small boat and push towards her, and
shout: "Ahoy, captainl What are you
going to do with those shivered tim
bers? That was beautiful ship when
YOU went out, but you have ruined it."
''Oh,'' says the captain, ''I have a fine
cargo on board, and by this round trip
ha,ra made ten forf,rras Go b.