The Portland daily press., 1892-06-18
WORDS OF COUNSEL.
Rev. DR.. TaImage breaches a Sermon
to Young Christians.
Previous to His Departure for Europe-A
Few Words of Counsel to Those
Who Have just Entered Upon
Christian Life.


Or. Talmage prefaced his recent SER
mon at the Brooklyn tabernacle with a
statement to the effect that he would
sail June IS for Europe, and might De
able to be present at the distribution in
the famine-stricken districts of Russia
of the Christian Herald relief cargo,
consisting of three million pounds OF
-four and other supplies which have
been sent on the steamship Leo, char
tered for the purpose. He congratulated
the American people on the generous
spirit evinced by this magnificent gift
to the starving people. His sermon was
from the text, Ephesians vi, II: PUT
on the whole armor of God"
There is 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
eulistments, and 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. 'tMasterly retreat
is a term often used in military circles,
but in religion there is no such thing. Tt
Is either glorious advance or disgraceful
and ignominious falling back. 1t would
be strange thing if all our anxiety about
men ceased the moment they were con-
verted. You would almost doubt the
sanity of that farmer who having
planted the corn and seen it 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 a
careful keeping up of the fences, and
there must be a frightening away of the
birds that would pillage the field. And
say the entrance upon Christian life
is only the implantation 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 a Christian is.
only putting down the foundation; but
after that there are years of hammer
ing, polishing, carving, lifting, before
the structure is completed. 1t takes
five years to make Christian char
dCCCly ~ UdhCo OWCAUy yColos Az ec1kASo
forty years; it takes seventy years, if
man shall live so long,. In other words,
a man dying after half century of
Christian experience feels that he has
only learned the ''A. B. Cs' of a glo-
rious alphabet. The next year will de-;
eide 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 spark of grace
covered up in barrel of ashes. 1t will
decide whether you are to be strong
man in Jesus Christ, with gigantic
blows striking the iron mail of dark,
ness, or a bedwarfed, whining, grum-
bling soldier, that ought to be drummed
out of the Lords camp with the
''Rogue's March," You have only just
been launched;t the voyage is to be made.
Earth and heaven and he'll 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. May God help me this
morning to give you three or four words
of Christian counsel, as Iaddress my
self more especially to those who have
just now entered the Christian life.
My first word of counsel is, hold be-
fore your soul very high model. Do
not say: 81 wish could pray like that
man, or speak like this man, or have
tie conservation of this one" Say:
"Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, per-
feet pattern. By that 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. If you
build foundation twenty by thirty feet
you will only have a small house. If
you build foundation one hundred by
one hundred feet, you will have large
house. If you resolve to be only mid
ding Christian, you will only be mid
ding Christian. If you have no high
aspiration in worldly direction you
will never succeed in business. If you
have no high aspiration in religious
things you will never succeed in relig
ion. You have right to aspire to the
very highest style of Christian charac-
ter. From your feet there reaches out;
a path of Christian attainment which,
you may take, and I deliberately say
that you may be better man than was
Paul, or David, or Summerield, or Dod-
dridge-a better woman than Hannah
More or Charlotte Elizabeth. Why not?
Did they have 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?
O, no. You have just the same prom
Uses, just the same Christ, just the same
holy Ghost, just the same offers of
present and everlasting love, and if you
fall 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 refused to
take it. / admit that man cannot be-
come Christian like that without a
struggle; but what do you get without
fighting for it? The fortresses of dark
ness are to be taken by storm. You
may by acute strategy flank the hosts
of temptation; but there are tempa-
lions. there are evils. in the wav that