The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-08-05
NO EXCUSE FOR DELAY.
Dr.. Talmage Continues His Dis
courses While Abrocd.
The Gospel Powerful Medicine For the
Disease of Sin-Salvation Free For
All - None Can Escape the
Final Judgment.

DR.. Talmage continues to draw
crowds while abroad. The sermon
selected for publication the past week
was entitled "The Souls Crises, from
Isaiah iv. 6: ''Seek We the Lord while
He may be found" Following is the
sermon:
Isaiah stands head and shoulders
= Eoove the Old Testament authors in
vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other
prophets give an outline of our Saviour's
features. Some of them present, as it
were, the side face of Christ; others a
bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us full
length portrait of Christ Other Scrip
ture writer's excel in some things.
Ezekiel more weird, David more pa
thetic, Solomon more epigramatic, Hab-
allluk more sublime; bat when you
want to see Christ coming out from the
gates of prophecy in all His grandeur
and glory, you involuntarily turn to
Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in re-
gard to Christ might be called the "Or-
atorio of the Messiah" the writing of
Isaiah is the ''Hallelujah Chorus, :"
where all the batons wave and all the
trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a
man picked up out of insignifcance by
inspiration. He was known and hon
Ored Josephus and Philo. and Sirach
eXtollcd him in their writings. What
Paul was among the apostles Isaiah
was among the prophets.
My text finds him standing on a
mountain Of inspiration, looking out
into the future, beholding Christ ad-
vancing and anxious that all men might
know Him; his voice rings down the
ages: Seek We the Lord while He may
be found" 60" says someone, that
was for olden times" No. my hearer.
If you have travelled in other lands you
have taken a circular letter Of credit
from some banking house in London,
and in St Petersburg, or Venice, or
Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or
Paris, you presented that letter and got
financial help Immediately. And l want
you TO understand that the text, in
stead of being appropriate for one age,
or for one land, is a circular letter for
all ages and for all lands, and whenever
1t is presented for help, the help comes:
Seek ye the Lord while He may be
found"
I come to-day with no hair spun
theories of religion, with no nice dis
tinctions, with no elaborate disquisi-
ton, but with plain talk on the mat
ters of personal religion. l feel that
the sermon preach this morning will
be the SAVIOR of life unto life, or of death
unto death. In other words, the gospel
of Christ is a powerful medicine; it
either kills or cures. There are those
vvho say: 81 would like to become
Christian. ] have been waiting a good
while for the right kind of influence to
come" and still you are waiting. You
arc 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 intelligent 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
,endeavor. If You want to sec a certain
man in London, and there is 4 matter
OF much money connected with your
seeing him, and you cannot at first find
him, you do not give up the search.
You look in the directory, bat cannot
find the name; you go in circles where
you think, perhaps, he may mingle,
and, having found the part of the city
where he lives, but perhaps not know
ing the street. you go through street
after street and from block 10 block,
and you keep on searching for weeks
and for months.
You say: 1T is a matter of ten thou
sand pounds whether ! see him or not. :"
o that men were as persistent in seek
ing for Christ. Had you one-half that
persistence you would long ago have
found Him who is the JOY of the for
given spirit. We may pay our debts,
we may attend church, we may relieve
the poor, we may be public benefactors,
and yet all our life disobey the text;
never seek God; never gain Heaven.
o that the spirit of God would help this
morning while I try to show YOU il
carrying out the idea of my text, first,
how to seek the Lord, and in the next
place, when 10 seek him. ''Seekye the
Lord while he may be found"
remark, in the first place. you are to
seek the Lord through earnest and be-
Iieving prayer God is not an autocrat
or despot seated on a throne with his
arms resting on brazen lions and a SEN
ainel pacing up and down at the foot OF
the throne. God is 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 to the fountain oi
living water" and dip up refreshment
for our thirsty soul Grace does not
come to the heart as we set a cask OF
water to catch the rain in the shower.
1t is pulley fastened to the throne OF
God which we pull, bringing the bless
ing.
do not care so much about what pos
ture yop take in prayer, nor how large
an amount of voice you use. You might
get down on your face before God, il
you did not pray right inwardly, and
there would be response. You might
cry at the top of your voice, and unless
YOU have believing spirit within your
cry would go no farther up than the
shout Of q plowboy to his oxen. Prayer
must be believing, earnest, loving. You
are in your house some summer day,
and a shower comes up, and bird
affrighted darts into the window and
wheels around the room You seize it.
You smooth its ruffied plumage You
feel its hutterin9 heart You say
Poor thing, poor thing" Now prayer
goes out of the storm of this world into
the window of GOd'S mercy and HI