Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-13
THE RAW RECRUITS.
Hard Work Before the New Beginner
in the Christian Religion.
AIM AT THE VERY HIGHEST MARK,
Choose Your Company Well and Re Busy
if You Would Be Happy.
TALMAGES REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.1
BROOKLYN, June 12.-Dr. Talmage pre-
faced his sermon this morning with a state
ment that he would sail, Wednesday, fo
Europe, and might be able to be present a
the distribution in the famine-stricker
districts of Russia of the Christian Herdlc
relief cargo consisting of 5000, 900 pounds
Ot flour and other supplies, which goes out thi
week on the steamship Leo, chartered fol
he-purpose. His sermon was from tn,
text, Ephes. Gil: 'Put on the whole armol
of God"
There is in this text a great rattle o.
Shields and helmets and swords. Soldiers
are getting ready for battle. We have had re
Gently in this Church new enlistments, and
i shall address myself to those in this and
other Churches who are putting on the
armor of God. and who may feel themselves
to be as yet only raw recruits.
Mastery retreat is a term often used in
military circles but in religion there is no
such thing. 1t is either glorious advance or
dlS-raceful and ignominious falling back.
Il would be a strange thing ii all our anxiety
about u5en ceased the moment they were
converted. You would almost doubt the
sanity of that farmer, who having planted
the corn ana seen it just sprout above the
ground, should say: my work is all done;
have no more anxiety for the field" No;
there is work for the plow and the hoe, and
there must be a careful keeping up of the
fences, and there must be a frightening
away of the birds that would pillage the
field.
Hard Work Before the Beginner.
And 1 say the entrance upon Christian life
is only the implantation of grace in the
s. 1,a,~
be done, and perhaps many years of anxiety
before there shall be heard the glorious
shout OF harvest home" The beginning to
be Christian is only putting down the
foundation; but after that there are years of
hammeTing, polishing, carving, lifting, be-
fore the structure is completed. 1t takes
five years to make Christian character; it
takes 20 years; it takes 40 years; it takes 20
years, il a man shall live so long. In other
words, man dying after half a century Of
Christian experience feels that he has only
learned the "a b C's" of glorious alphabet.
The next year will decide a great deal in
your history, young Christian man. 1t will
decide whether you are to be a burning and
shining light OF the Church, or a spark of
grace covered up in a barrel of ashes. 1t
will decide whether you are to be strong
man in Christ Jesus, with gigantic blows
striking the iron mail of darkness, or a be-
dwarfed, whining, grumbling soldier, that
ought to be drummed out of the Lords
camp with the "Rogues' March" You have
only just been launched; the voyage is to be
made. Earth and heaven and hell are
watching to see how fast you Will SAIL how
well YOU will weather the tempest, and
whether at last amid the shouting of the
angels YOU shall come into the right harbor
My first word of counsel is, hold before
your soul a very high model. Do not say, Il
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, a per ect pattern. By that 1 mean,
with Gods grace, to shape all my life" In
other words you will never be any more a
Christian than you strive to be.
You Won't Be Better Than Your Aim
If you resolve to be only a middling
Christian, you will only be a middling
Christian. II you have no high aspiration
in a worldly direction you will never sue
coed in business. If you have no high as
piration in religious things you will never
succeed in religion. You have a right to
aspire to the very highest style of Christian
character. From your feet there reaches
out a path of Christian attainment which
you may take, and L deliberately say that
YOU may be better man than was Paul, or
David, or Summerfield, or DoddriGge-a
better woman than Hannah More or Char
lOtte Elizabeth.
Why not? Did thew have a monopoly of
Christian grace? Did they have a
private key of the storehouse of Gods
mercy? Does God shut you out from
the gladness and goodness 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 ana everlasting
love. and il you fall short of what they were
-av, if you do not come up to the point
which they reach ed and go beyond it-it is
not because Christ has shut you out from
any point of moral and spiritual elevation,
but because you deliberately refused to
Jake it,
! admit that man cannot become Chris
tian like that without struggle: but what
do you get without fighting for if? The
1ortresses of darkness are to 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
viii have to meet face to face, and it will be
shot for shot, gun for gun, grip for grip.
slaughter for slaughter. The Apostle Paul
over snd over again represents the Christian
life as a combat.
Keep Yourself in Good Company.
Ny second word of counsel to those who
have recently entered upon Christian life is
abstain from all pernicious associations;
ana take only those that are useful and be-
nefcent- Stay out of all associations that
would damage your Christian character
Take only those associations that will help |
YOU.
Now, what kind of associations shall We
as young Christians, seek after? / think we |
ought to get in company better than our
selves never going into company worse |
than ourselves. If we get into company a
little better than ourselves and there are |
ten people in that company, ten chances to |
one will be bettered. If we get into |
company little worse than ourselves and |
there be ten people in that company ten |
chances to one We Will be made worse than |
We were before.
Now, when young Christian enters the |
church, God does not ask him to retire from |
the world. The anchorite that lives on |
Rcorns is no nearer heaven than the man :
who lives on partridge and wild duck. 1sola-
tiOn Is not demanded by the Bible. A man
may use the world with the restriction of |
not abusing it. But just as soon as you find |
any surroundings pernicious to your spirit |
ual interest, quit those associations This
remark is more especially appropriate to
the young. Now it is impossible that the |
young and untroubled should seek their as |
soclations with those who are aged and |
worn out. As God intended the aged to as
s0ciate with the aged, talking over the past |
and walking staff in hand along the sane |
paths they trOd, 30 40 and so years ago so |
suppose he intended the young chic fly to |
associate with the young. The grace of God |
does not demand that we be unnatural.
Only Busy People Are Happy
Ny next word of counsel is that you
actively employed. L see a great many
Christians with doubts and perplexities. and |
they seem to be proud of them. Their en-
tire Christian life is made uD of gloom, and |
they seem to cultivate that spiritual |
desponuency, when / will undertake to say |
that in nine cases out of ten spiritual |
dependency is Judgment of God upon |
idlenesS.
Who are the happy people in the church
to-2ay? The busy people. Show me a man
Y no processes the religion of Jesus Christ
ana IS lGie, and viii sh ow you unhappy /
man. 1he very nrst prescription that L
give to man when find him full of doubts
and fears about his eternal interest is to go |
to work for God. Ten thousand voices are
lifted up asking Tor your help. Go and help. |
The first thing, then, you have to do o
Christian young man, Christian young
woman, is to go to work i'll the service OF |
the Lord II you want to be a happy