The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-06-14
RAW RECRUITS.
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON AT THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

Darkness Must Be Carried by Assault
BROOKLYN, June 12.-Dr. Talmage
prefaced his sermon this morning with
a statement to the effect that he would /
sail on Wednesday next for Europe and
might be able TO be present at the dis
tribution in the famine stricken districts
of Russia of The Christian Herald relief
cargo, consisting of three million pounds
of -four and other supplies, which goes
out this week on the steamship Leo,
chartered for the purpose. He congratu-
lated the American people on the gener-
GUS 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 a great rattle of
shields and helmets and swords. Sol
diers are getting ready for battle. We
have had recently in this church new en-
listments. and l 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 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. l have no more anxiety for the
field" No There is work for the pillow
and the hoe, and there must be careful
keeping upof the fences, and there must
be a 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 Il Christian Ii only
putting down the foundation; but after
that there are years of hammering, pol
ishing, carving, lifting, before the struc-
t1re is completed. It takes five years to
make a Christian character; it takes
twenty years, it takes forty years, 1t
takes seventy years, if a man shall live
so long. In other words, Il man dying
after half a century of Christian expert
ence 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. II
will decide whether you are to be burn
ing and shining light of the church, or a
spark of grace covered mp in a barrel of
ashes. 1t will decide whether you are
to be a strong man in Christ Jesus, with
gigantic blows striking the iron mail of
darkness, or a bedwarfed, whining,
grumbling soldier, that ought to be
drummed out of the Lords camp with
the 'sRogues' 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 angels, YOU shall come into the right
harbor. May God help me this morning
to give YOU three or four words of Chris
tan counsel, as l address myself more
especially to those who have just now
entered the Christian life.
HOLD CHRIST AS A PATTERN.
Ny first word of counsel Is, hold be
fore your soul very high model. Dc
not say, Il wish l could pray like tina
man, or speak like this man, or have the
conservation of this one" Say: Here
is the Lord Jesus Christ, perfect pat
tern. 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. If you build ;
foundation twenty by thirty feet yo1
will only have a small house. If you
build a foundation one hundred by ont
hundred feet you will have large house
If you resolve to be only a middlinl
Christian you will only be a middhnt
Christian. If you have no high asplra
ton in a worldly direction you will neve
succeed in business If you have NJ
high aspiration in religious things yol
will never succeed in religion.
You have a right to aspire to the yer.
highest style of Christian character
From your feet there reaches out pat
of Christian attainment which you ma
take, and l deliberately say that you ma
be a better man than was Paul or Davi
or Symmetrical or Doddridge-a bette
woman than Hannah More or Charlott
Elizabeth Why not? Did they have
monopoly of Christian grace: Did the
have a private key to the storehouse c
Gods mercy? Does God shut you on
from the gladness and goodness to whlc
they were introduced? Oh, no. 70
have just the same promises, just tn
same Christ, just the same Holy Ghos
Just the same offers of present and ever
lasting love, and if you fall short of wha
they were-aye, if you do not come u
to the point which they reached and 6
beyond tit is not because Christ ha
shut you out from any point of mora
and spiritual elevation, but because yo
deliberately refused to take it. l adm
that man cannot become Chrlstla
like that without struggle; but whi
do you get without fighting for 1t: I'll
fortresses of darkness are to be taken
storm. You may by acute strateg
Anr,lr tho hosts of Termination. but the