The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-11-24
THEIFS OF THE BIBLE
REV. Or. TALMAGE breaches FROM A
TEXT NEVER BEFORE USED.

/ Gle this morning Rev. DIR. Talmage de-
livered one of his most unique and useful
sermons from text never before preach
ed from. Subject, 1.-THE IFS of the BIZ
ble." The text was Exodus xxi, 80, "If
thou wilt forgive their sin-and If not,
blot me, pray thee, out of thy book"
There is in our English language
small conjunction, which propose by
Gods help to haul out of its present in
significancy and set upon the throne
where it belongs, and that is the conjunc-
ton eff" Though made of only two let
tiers, it is the pivot on which everything
turns. All time and all eternity are at
its disposal. We slur it in our utterance,
we ignore it in our appreciation, and
none of us recognizes it as the most ire
mendous word in all the vocabulary out
side of those words which describe deity.
"Ifr Why, that word we take as a
tramp among other words, now appear
ing here, now appearing there, but hav-
ing no value of its own, when it really
has millionairedom of worlds, and in
its train walk all planetary, stellar, lunar,
solar destipies. If the boat of leaves made
! watertight. in which the infant Moses
sailed the Nile, had sunk. who would
have led Israel out of Egypt? If the Red
sea had not parted for the escape of one
host and then come together for the sub
mergence of another host, would the
book of Exodus ever have been writteni
If the ship on which Columbus sailed
for America had gone down in an Allan
tic cyclone, how much longer would it
have taken for the discovery of this con-
tinent? If Grouchy had come mp with
re-enforcements in time to give the
French the victory at Waterloo, what
would have been the fate of Europe? If
| the Spanish armada had not been
wrecked off the coast, how different
would have been many chapters in Eng
lish history! If the battle of Hastings,
or the battle of Pultowa, or the battle of
valma, or the battle of Mataurus, or the
battle of Arbela, or the battle of Cha
Ions, each one of which turned the
worlds destiny, had been decided the
other way!
If Shakespeare had never been born
for the drama, or Handel had never been
born for music, or Titan had never been
born for painting OF Thorwaldsen had
never been born for sculpture, or Ed
mund Burke had never been born for elo-
quence or Socrates had never been born
for philosophy, or Blackstone had never
been born for the law, or Copernicus had
never been born for astronomy, or Luther
| had never been born for the reformation!
Oh, that conjunction 'ifr' How much
has depended on it! The height of it,
the depth of it, the length of it, the
breadth of it, the immensely of it, the
infnity of it--who can measure? Itwould
swamp anything but omnipotence. But
| must confne myself today to the ''ifs'
of the Bible, and in doing SO / shall
speak of the if of overpowering ear
nestness, the ''if" of incredulity, the eff"
of threat, the if of augmentation, the
"if' of eternal significance, Or SO many
of these ifs as l can compass in the
time that may be reasonably allotted TO
pulpit discourse.
| THE EARNEST "IF."
First, the ''if' of overpowering ear
nestness. My text gives it. The Israel
ties have been worshiping an idol, NOT
withstanding all that God had done for
them, and now Moses offers the most
vehement prayer of all history, and it
turns upon an eff" "If thou wilt for
give their sins-and if not, blot me, |
pray thee, out of thy book" Oh, what
an overwhelming ''if?" 1t was as much
as to say: eff thou wilt not pardon them,
do not pardon me. If thou wilt not
bring them to the promised land, let me
never see the promised land. If they
must perish, let me perish with them. In
that book where thou recordest their
doom, record my doom. If they are shut
out of heaven, let me be shut out of
heaven. If they go down into darkness,
let me go down into darkness"
What vehemence and holy reckless
ness of prayer! Yet there are those here
who, have no doubt, have, In their all
absorbing desire to have others saved,
risked the same prayer, for it is risk.
You must not make it unless you are
willing to balance your eternal salvation
on such an eff" Yet there have been
1ases where mother has been so anxious
FOR the recovery of a hayward son that
her prayer has swung and trembled and
poised on an ''if'' like that of the text, eff
not, blot me, pray thee, out of thy book.
Write his name in the Lambs Book of
Life, or turn to the pages where my
name was written 10 or 20 or 40 or 90
nd ryi+h tha Ilool, ,,,1, x,f
everlasting midnight erase my first
name, and my last name, and all my
name. If he is to go into shipwreck, let
me be tossed amid the same breakers If
he cannot be partner in my bliss, let
me be a partner in his woe. | have for
many years loved thee, 0 God, and it
has been my expectation to sit with
Christ and all the redeemed at the BAN
quet of the skies. but now give up my
promised place at the feast, and my prom
ised robe, and my promised crown, and
my promised throne unless John, unless
George, unless Henry, unless my darling
son can share them with me. Heaven
will be no heaven without him. OGod,
save my boy or count me among the
lost!'
That is terrific prayer, and yet there
is young man sitting in the pew on the
main floor, or in the lower gallery, or in
the top gallery, VINO has already crushed
such PRAYER from his mothers heart.
He hardly ever writes home, or, living
at home, what does he care how much
trouble he gives her? Her tears are NO
more to him than the rain that drops
from the caves of the house on a dark
night. The fact that she does not sleep
because Of watching for his return late at
night does not choke his laughter OF
hasten his step forward.
She has tried coaxing and kindness and
self sacrificing and all the ordinary pray.
ers that mothers make for their children
and all have failed. She is coming to
ward the vivid and venturesome and ter
{ rife prayer of my text. She is going tC
lift her own ct, nifty and set it upon that
: one If" by which she expects 10 decide
whether you will go up with her or she
], L Al