Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-07-28
THE SOULS CRISIS.
A NOTABLE SERMON BY THE
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
seek We the Lord While He May BE
Found"-Isaiah's Pictures of Bible
History-The Divine of for Benny
Scotland.

LONDON, July 2L--The attendancss at the
/ services conducted by the Rev. DIR. Talmage
! continue as great as ever. At every stopping
/ point during his preaching tour, he is greeted
! by phenomenal audiences. Unless some change
| in the program becomes necessary, he will,
during the next ten days preach In the leading
| Scottish cities. as already announced. He has
| just returned from Russia, whittier he went
/ with Mr.. KlOpsch to supervise the distribution
| of the cargo of The Christian Herald relief
| steamer, Leo. The reception accorded DR..
| Talmage in the Cars capital city by mobiles,
| officials and the populace shows that the hold
| he has upon the hearts of christians is world
wide. The arrival of the Leo was made the
occasion of general rejoicing. The ST. Peters
burg offirials conferred the freedom OF the city
| on their American guests. The Leo's cargo
was fOrwa dcd to the famine district without
| delay The sermon selected for this week is
entitled THE Souls Crisis" from Isaiah s. IS.
| Seek he the Lord while he may b, foun5."
Isaiah stands head and shoulders
above the other Old Testament authors
in vivid descriptiveuess of Christ. Other
prophets give an outline of our Savior's
! features Some of them present, as it
were, the side face of Christ; others a
| bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the
full length portrait of Christ. Other
scripture writers excel in some things.
! Ezekiel more weird, David more pa
! thetic, Solomon more epigrammatic,
: Habakkuk more sublime; but when
| you want to see Christ coming out
/ from the gates of prophecy in all his
grandeur and glory, you involuntarily
turn to Isaiah So that if the proph-
ecics in regard to Christ might be called
! the "Oratorio of the Messiah" the
writing of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah
| Chorus" where all the batons wave
and all the trumpets come in. Isaiah
was not man pick up out of insignih-
canoe by inspiration He was known
and honored. Josephus, and Philo,
and Sirach eXtollcd him in their writ
ings. What Paul was among the apos-
ties, Isaiah was among the prophets.
My text finds him standing on a
mountain of inspiration, looking out
into the future, beholding Christ adj
vancing and anxious that all men might
know him; his voice rings down the
ages: Seek We the Lord while he
may be found" &c." says some one:
that was for olden times" No my
nearer. If you have travelled in
other lands you have taken n
circular letter of credit from
some banking house in London, and in
st. Peters burg, or Venice or Rome, or
Antwerp or Brussels, or Paris, you
presented that letter and got financial
help Immediately. And want you to
understand that the text, instead of
being appropriate for one age, or for
/ one land, is a circular letter for all
ages and for all lands, and wherever il
is presented for help, the help comes:
Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found"
| come to-day with no hair-spun the
cries of religion, with no nice destinc.
tionS, with no elaborate dlsquisition;
but with plain talk on the matters OF
personal religion. | feel that the ser.
mon that preach this morning will be
the SAVIOR of life unto life, or of death
unto death. In other words, the Cos.
pei of Christ is a powerful med
icinc; it either kills or cures
There are those who say: 81
would ike to become Christian.
have been waiting a good while for the
right kind of influence to Gomez" ant
still you are waiting. You are wiser in
worldly things than you are in religion:
things, And yet there are men who
say they are waiting to get to heaven
waiting, waiting, but not with intelli
gent waiting, or they would get OF
board the line of Christian influences
that would bear them into the king
dom of God.
Now you know very well that to seel
thing is to search for it with earnes
endeavor If you want to see certain
man in London, and there is matter
of much money connected with you,
seeing him, and you cannot at first fine
him. you do not give up the search
You look in the directory, but canno
find the name, you go in circles where
you think, perhaps, he may mingle
and, having found the part of the city
where he lives, but perhaps not know
ing the street, You go through stree
after street, and from block to block
and you keep on searching for week.
and for months.
You say: 1T is matter Of e1O, OOt
whether see him or not" o that mel
were as persistent in seeking for Christ
Had you one-half that persistence yor
would long ago have found him who II
the joy of the forgiven spirit. We maV
pay our debts, we may attend church
we may relieve the poor we may be
public benefactors, and yet all our life
disobey the text, never seek God never
gain heaven. o that the spirit of God
would help this morning while try t.
show you in carrying out the idea o
my text, first, how to seek the Lord
and in the next place, when to seel
him. Seek we the Lord while he may
be found"
do not care so much what posture
you take in prayer, nor how large al
amount or voice you use. You nigh
get down on your face before God, i
you did not pray right inwardly, ant
there would be no response. You
might cry at the top of your voice, anC
unless you had believing spirit within
your cry would not go farther up thai
the shout of plough boy to his oxen
Prayer must be believing, earnest, Low
ing. You are in your house some sum
mer day, and shower comes up, and
bird affrighted darts into the window
and wheels around the room. You
seize it. You smooth its ruffied plum
age. You feel it's futtering heart
You say, Poor thing, poor thing!
Now prayer goes out of the storm o
this world into the window of God
mercy, and he catches it and he feel
its fiuttering puse, and he puts it il
his own bosom of affection and safety
Prayer is warm, ardent, pulsatin,
exercise. 1t is the electric batter,
which, touched, thrills to the thron
of God! 1t is the diving bell in whicl
we go down into the depths of God
mercy and bring up pearls of grea
price" There is an instance wher
prayer made the waves of Gennesare
solid as granite nayemant n bor