Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-25
CRISIS OF THE SOUL.
Life Is Before, Death Is After, and No
Man Knows When It Comes.
SEEK THE LORD NOW AND BE SAFE.
Search the Scriptures and Come to the
Savior Through Prayer.
TALMAGE'S LATEST SUNDAY SERMON

TALMAGE'S LATEST SUNDAY sERMo,
LONDON, July 4-Dr Talmage's sermon
selected for publication this week is entitled
The Souls Crisis" from Isaiah. w.. G
seek We the Lord while He may be found. >
Isaiah stands head and shoulders above
the other Old Testament authors in vivid
oescrlptlveness OF Christ. Other prophet:
give an outline of our Sayior,s features
Some of them present, as it were. the side
face of Christ; others 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 pathetic. Solomon more epigrammatic
Haoakkuk 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.
lsalah was not man picked up out of in
significance by inspiration. He was known
and honored. Josephus and Philo and ST.
rach extolled him in their writings What
Paul was among the apostles, Isaiah was
among the prophets
My text finds him standing on O. ,oountai in
of insptra ton, looking out into the future,
beholdfng Christ advancing ana anxious
that all men might know Him. his voice
rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord
while He may be found"
The Texts Suits All Times.
'oh," says someone, "that was for olden
times" No. my hearer. If you have trav-
eled in other lands you have taken a circu-
lar letter of credit from some banking house
in London and St. Petersburg, or Venice or
Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris;
you presented that letter and got financial
help Immediately. And 1 want you to un-
derstand that the text, instead of being o.
proprlate for one age, or for one land, is
circular letter for all ages and for all lands
and wherever it is presented for help the
help comes: Seek ye the Lordwhile He may
be found.n
come to-day with no hsir-spun theories
of religion, with no nice distinctions with
no elaborate disquisition, but with a plain
talk on the matters of personal religion.
feel that the sermon preach this morning
VIII be the SAVIOR of life unto life, or of death
unto death. In other words, the Gospel of
Christ is powerful medicine; it either kills
or cures. There are those who say: 81
would like to become Christian. / have
been waiting good while for the right kind
OF influence to come:" and still you are wait
ing. You are wiser in worldly things than
you are In religious things. And yet there
are men who say they are waiting to get to
heaven-waiting, waiting, but not with in
telligent waiting, or they would get on board
the line OF Christian influences that would
bear them into the kingdom of God.
Now, you know very well that to seek a
thing is to search for it with earnest en-
L
tend church, we may relieve the poor, we
may be public benefactors, and vet all our
life disobey the text, never seek God, never
gain heaven.
God Is Not Despot But a Father.
remark, in the first place, you are to seek
the Lord through earnest and believing
prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot
seated on throne with His arms resting on
prazen lions and a sentinel pacing up and
down at the foot of the throne. God is a
father seated in a bower waiting for His
children to come and climb on His knee, and
get His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is
the cup with which we go the fountain OF
living water" and dip up refreshment for
our thirsty soul. Grace does not co,ae to
the rain in the shower. 1t is pulley fast
ened to the throne of God which we pull,
bringing the blessing.
1 do not care so much what posture YOU
take IN prayer nor how large an amount of
pe.ore not pray right in
You might cry at the top OF your voice, and
unless you had a believing spirit within,
your cry would not go farther up than the
shout of a plowboy to his oxen. Prayer must
be believing. earnest loving.
Prayer is warm, ardent. pulsating exer-
cise. 1t is the electric battery which,
touched, thrills to the throne of God! 1t is
the diving bell in which we go down into the
depths of Gods mercy and bring up pearls
Of great price,"
o impenitent soul. have you ever tried the
power of prayer God says: HE is loving
and faithful and patient" Do you believe
that? You are told that Christ came to save
that all you have to do to get the pardon of
the gospel, is to ask for it. Do you believe
that? Then come to Him and say: 30 Lord.
! know thou canst not lie. Thou hast told
me to come for pardon, and could get it,"
Seek the Lord Through Bible Study.
that ,,,iobt box-a q o1tor IN <ba
parlor, in the kitchen. in the store, in the
barn, for Christ will be willing to come again
to the manger to hear prayer. He would
come in your place of business as he con-
1ronted Matthew, the Tax Commissioner.
Iremark, again. you must seek the Lord
through Bible study. The Bible is the new
est book in the world. "Oh," YOU say, cit
was made hundreds of years ago, and the
learned men of King James translated it
hundreds of years ago." / confute that idea
by telling you it is not five minutes old,
when God, by his blessed Spirit retranslates
it into the heart. If you will, in the seeking
OF the way of life through Scripture study,
implore Gods light to fall upon the page,
you will find that these promises are not one
second Ole, and that they drop straight
from the throne of God into your heart
There are many people to whom the Bible
does not amount to much. II they merely
look at the outside beauty, why it will no
more lead them to Christ than Washington's
farewell address or the Koran OF Ma6omet
or the Shaster of the Hindoos. 1t is the in
ward light of Gods Word you must get or
die. Alas, that so many stop at the outside
door of Gods Holy Word, looking at the
rhetorical beauties, instead of going in and
looking at the altars of sacrifice and the
dome of Gods mercy and salvation that
hovers over every penitent and believing
SOUL
o my friends, If you merely want to study
the laws of language, do not go to the Bible
1t was not made for that, Take "Howe's
Elements of Criticism" 1t would be better
than the Bible for that.
The True Scope of the Scriptures
But if you want to know how to have sin
pardoned, and at last to gain the blessed
ness of heaven, search the Scriptures, "for
in them ye have eternal life"
When people are anxious about their
souls-and there are some such here to-day
there are those who recommend good
books. That is all right But want to tell
you that the Bible is the best book under
such circumstances.
remark, again. we must seek God through
church ordinances. "What" say YOU,
"can't a man be saved without going to
church?" reply, there are men, suppose,
the church is the ordained means by which
we are to be brought to God; and if truth
affects us when we are alone, it affects us
more nightly when we are in the assembly
the feelings of others emphasizing our
own feelings. The great law OF sympathy
hold only with the grasp of a sick man,
beats nightly against the soul with q
Thousand heart throbs.
When you come into the religious circle,
come only with one notion, and only for one |
purpose-to find the way to Christ. When l
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