Connecticut western news., 1892-07-07
THE GREAT QUESTION
Dh TALMAGE ON THE MANY AN - SMERS THAT MAY BE GIVEN.

RilAte Asked 1t Only as a Timid and
 Hesitating Politician Might, but It
 Comes to Every Man Anew - Christ
 Must Be Taken to the Heart.
 LONDON, July 3.-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 invidious. 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, 22, What shall do with Jesus?"
 Pilate 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 b set free, but Jesus is held. As the hard visaged and cruel eyed Barabbas goes among his sympathizers, receiving their coarse congratulations, Pilate turns to his other distinguished prisoner mild, meek, inoffensive, loving, self sacri6cing-and he is confounded 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 JesusT
 Oh, it Is no dried or withered ques- fion, 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 He is 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 1 do. then, with 1esusY We'll, 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 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- tion. If beggar comes to your door, you recognize him and say, "What do you wantT If you meet stranger faint In the street. you say, What is the matter with youY 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 hurt? who wounded him? whence came he? whither 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. ~I 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 Eists 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 aI, the reason of his impertinence and bid him away We'll, 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 a 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 go 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; or if he will not go in that way, then you can stamp your foot as you would ct dog and cry "Begoner
 Yet know you will not treat Jesus that way. When Pilate could not do that, you could not. Desperadoes and out laws might do so, 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, 8 friend, good friend, helpful companion, 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 or blasts a fig tree, or heaves rock down the mountain side. That will not do you any good-no more save youl soul than the admiration you have fol John Milton or William Shakespeare can think of only one more thing you can do with Jesus, and that is to take him into your hearts That is the best thing you can do with him, that is tht only safe thing you can do with him and may the Lord omnipotent by hi spirit help me to persuade you to dt that. A minister of Christ was speak ing to some children and said, "I vii point you to Christ" A little child ros' In the audience and came up and pu her hand in the hand of the pastor ant said: "Please, sir, take me to Jesus now 1want to go now" Oh, that 1t nigh be now with such simplicity of experi ence that you and join hands and seel after Christ and get an expression of hi benefaction and his mercyl
 You may take Christ into your conf dence. If you cannot trust him, whom can yon trnst2 do not offer you dry theological technicality. l simply ask vou to come and put both feet on the