Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-04-22
ACCONAC c. II, VA. SATURDAY. APRIL
EXCUSES FOR DELAY
DR.. TALMAGE ON THOSE INVITED
TO THE WEDDING FEAST.

TO THE WEDDING FEAST.
SHow Very Illogical Men Arc In Their At.
r. tituGc Toward the Claims of Christianlty.
s. Poor Doctors, Poor Farmers, Poor Law.
yers and Poor Christians.
B BROOKLYN. April 16.-Rev. DR.. Tai
image in his sermon in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon spread before
the great audience in eloquent words
1.-THE beauty and attractiveness of the
gospel feast the text chosen being from
Luke xiv, 1S, "And they all with one
|9consent began to make excuse. -
IS. After the invitations to levce are
l5sent out the regrets come in. One man
apologies for nonattendance on one
Isground. another on another ground.
1.-THE most of the regrets are founded on
tsprior engagements So in my text
Esgreat banquet was spread, the invita-
lstions were circulated, and now the re-
ll,sgrets come in. The one gives an agri-
Ecultural reason, the other q stock deal
lser's reason, the other domestic reason
poor reasons. The agricultural rea-
Isson being that the man had bought
farm and wanted to see it. Could he
lsnot see it the next day? The stock deal
Tiers reason being that he had bought five
Evoke of oxen, and he wanted to go and
Eprove them. He had no business to buy
jssthem until he knew what they were.
|EBesides that man who can own five
Evoke of oxen can command his own
Etime. Besides that he might have yoked
+ two of them together and driven them
Ion the way to the banquet, for locomo-
4 ton was not us rapid then as now. The
Imam who gave the domestic reason said
The had got married. He ought to have
/ taken his wife with him. The fact was
they did not want to go. land they all
with one consent began to make ex-
! cuse." So now God spreads a great ban
,quet; it is the gospel feast, and the table
il reaches across the hemispheres, and the
y invitations go out and multitudes come
Il fsand sit down and drink out of the chaices
asof Gods love, while other multitudes de-
4 cline coming-the one giving this apollo
ICY and the other giving that apology.
.tgS....And they all with one consent began to
make excuse" propose this morning,
4 so far as God may help me, to examine
1.-THE apologies which men make for not
the Christian life.
7f Apology the first: am not sure there
= is anything valuable in the Christian re-
ssligion. It is pleaded that there are SO
a many impositions in this day-so many
things that seem to be real are sham. A
ijEgilded outside may have hollow inside.
There is so much quackery in physics, IN
1ethics, in politics, that men come to the
sfhabit of incredulity, and after awhile
sEthey allow that incredulity to collide
shwith our holy religion.
IT HAS MADE A GOOD RECORD.
But, my friends, l think religion has
d made a pretty good record in the world.
Iowsmany wounds it has salved; how
ssrany pillars of fire it has lifted in
8. O. IS midnight wilderness; how many 81
- ~ st.-,c,s Saharas it hath turned into
o-Au are. Wost aaEnAstly. urged to be
the gardens of the Lord; how it hath
stilled the chopped seal What rosy light
it hath sent streaming through the rift
of the storm cloud wrack; what pools of
cool water it hath gathered for thirsty
Hagar and Ishmael; what mamma whittier
than coriander seed it hath dropped all
around the camp of hardly bestead pill
grims; what promises it hath sent out
Ike holy watchers to keep the lamps
burning around deathbeds! Through the
darkness that lowers into the sepulcher,
what flashes of resurrection morn!
Besides that this religion has made so
many heroes 1t brought Summerfeld,
the Methodist, across the Atlantic ocean
with his silver trumpet to blow the &C
ceptable year of the Lord, until it seemed
as if all our American cities would take
the kingdom of heaven by violence. 1t
sent Jehudi Ashman into Africa alone,
in continent of naked barbarians, to
lift the standard of civilization and
Christianity. 1t made John Milton
among poets, Raphael among painters,
Christopher Wren among architects,
Thorwaldsen among sculptors, Handel
among musicians, Dupont among mill
tary commanders; and to give new wings
to the imagination, and better balance
to the Judgment, and more determine
ton to the will, and greater usefulness
to the life, and grander nobility to the
soul. there is nothing in all the earth
like our Christian religion.
Nothing in religion! Why, then, all
those Christians were deceived when IN
their dying moment they thought they
saw the castles of the blessed; and your
child that with unutterable agony you
put away into the grave-you will never
see him again, nor hear his sweet voice,
nor feel the throb of his young heart?
There is nothing in religionl Sickness
will come upon you. Roll and turn on
your pillow. No relief. The medicine
may be bitter, the night may be dark, the
pain may be sharp. No relief. Christ
never comes to the sick room. Let the
pain stab. Let the fever burn. Curse it
and die. There is nothing in religion!
After awhile death will come. You will
hear the paving of the pale horse on the
threshold. The spirit will be breaking
away from the body, and it will take
fght-whither, whittier? There is no
God, no ministering angels to conduct,
no Christ, no heaven, no home. Moth
ing in religionl Oh, you are not willing
to adopt such dismal theory. And yet
the world is full of skeptics. And let
me say there is no class of people for
whom have warmer sympathy than
for skeptics We do not know how to
treat them. We deride them, we carl
cature them. We, instead of taking them
by the soft hand of Christian love, clutch
them with the iron pincers of ecclesias-
ticism. Oh, if you knew how those men
had fallen away from Christianity and