The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-06-24
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAGE breaches ON THE
NEW RECRUITS
Who Have Put on the Armor In his
Fold--Farewell Sermon Before his
Departure for the Land of the Mill
ist and Car.

mage prefaced his sermon this morning with o
statement 10 the effect that he would sail on
| Wednesday next for Europe and might be able
10 be present at the distribution in the famine
stricken districts OF Russia OF the Christian
Herald relief cargo, consisting Of 100000
pounds OF flour and other supplies which goes
out this week on the steamship Leo, chartered
for the purpose. He congratulated the Amer.
lean people on the generous spirit evinced by
this magnificent gift to the starving people.
| His sermon was from the text Ephes. g. IL:
Put on the whole armor OF God"
There is in this text great rattle of
shields, and helmets, and swords.
Soldiers are getting ready for battle.
We have had recently in this church
new enlistments 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. Mas
terly retreat" is term often used in
military circles, but in religion there is
no such thing. 1T is either glorious adj
vance or disgraceful and ignominious
falling back. 1t would be a strange
thing If all our anxiety about
men ceased the moment they
were converted. 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. 1
have no more anxiety for the field. 3"
No. There is work for the pillow and
the hoe, and there must be careful
keeping up of the fences, and there
must be q frightening away OF the
birds that would pillage the field. And
l 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 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
acter; it takes twenty years; it takes
forty years; it takes seventy years, ifa
man shall live SO long. In other
words, man dying after half q CEN
tury 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 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 nail of darkness or q
bedwarfed whining, grumbling SOL
dier, 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 watch
ing to see how fast you will sail, how
we'll 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 address
myself more especially to those who
have Just now entered the Christian
life.
Nv first word of counsel is, hold be-
fore your soul very high model. Dc
not say, ~ 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-
feet pattern. BY that l mean, with
Gods grace, to shape all nay life" In
other words you will never be any more
Christian than you strive to be. Il
you build q foundation twenty by
thirty feet you will only have small
house If you build foundation one
hundred by one hundred feet, you will
have large house. If you resolve tt
be only middling Christian
you will only be middlinG
Christian. II you have no higl
aspiration in worldly direction
YOU will never succeed in business. l
you have no high aspiration in religious
things you will never succeed in relig
ion You have a right to aspire to TIN
very highest style of Christian char
. acter From your feet there reache
, out a path Of Christian attainment
1 which you may take, and deliberatel,
Z say that you may be better man thai
s was Paul, or David, or Summerfeld, o
D Doddridge-a better woman than Han
a nah More or Charlotte Elizabeth. VIII
:. not? Did they have monopoly O
Christian grace2 Did they have
private key of the storehouse of God
mercyP Does God shut you out fror
! the gladness and the goodness to whic
they were introduced? O, no. 70
}" have Just the same promises, just tn
: same Christ, just the same Holy Ghos'
. lust the same offers of present ON
: everlasting love, and If you fall shoI
of what they were-ay, if you do nc
come up to the point which the
reached and SO beyond tit is not b'
cause Christ has shut you out from an
:, point of moral and spiritual elevation
' but because you deliberately refuse
to take 1t. l admit that man cannc
become q Christian like that without
struggle; but what do you get witho,
fighting for it2 The fortresses of darl
ness are to be taken by storm. Yo
may by acute strategy flank the hos
Of tnnnnEnt ton. hut there are tempt