Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-04-27

WHAT more IS IN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
rtgibiiityof Temper-lnconsiste
clos Of Protested Christians
--Those Who Lack Time
Tho Procrastina:ors.
Brooklyn, n. T., Special.-Rev. DR..
Talmage in his sermon in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle recently, spread before the
great audience in eloquent words the
beauty and attractiveness Of the gospel
| feast; the text chosen being from Luke
xiv, IS: And they all with one con-
sent began to make excuse"
After the invitations to levee are
sent out, the regrets come in. One man
apologies for non-atlendance on one
ground, another on another ground
The most of the regrets are founded on
prior engagements. So in my text a
great banquet was spread. the invita-
tions We're circulated. and now the re.
SretS come in. The one gives an agri-
cultural reason. the other Il stock deal
er's reason, the other domestic re:-
son. All poor reasons. The agricult-
ural reason being that the man had
bought farm and wanted to see it.
Could he not see it the next day? The
stock dealers reason being that he had
bought five yoke of oxen, and he want
ed to go and prove them. He had no
business to buy them until he knew
what they were. besides that, man
who can own five yoke of oxen can
command his own time. Besides that,
he might have yoked two of them to-
gether and driven them on the way
to the banquet, for locomotion was not
rs rapid then as now. The man who
gave the domestic reason said he had
got married. He ought to have taken
his wife with him. The fact was they
did not want to 60 and they all with
one consent began to make excuse"
So now God spreads Il banquet; it is
the Gospel feast. and the table reaches
across the hemiSphercS; and the invita-
tons go out and multitudes come and
sit down and drink out of the chalices
of Gods love. while other multitudes
decline coming-the one giving this
apology and the other giving that apol-
ogy; and they all with one consent be-
gin to make excuse" l propose this
morning, so far us God will help me,
to examine the apologies which men
make for not entering the Christian
life.
Apology the first: I am not sure
there is anything valuable in the Chris
tian religion. 1t is pleaded that there
are so many impoSitions in this day
so many things that seem to be real
are sham. A gilded outside may have
hollow inside; there is so much quack-
cry in physics, in ethics, in politics,
that men come to the habit of incredul-
ity. and after a while they allow that
incredulity to collide with our holy
religion.
But, my friends. 1 think religion has
made 4 pretty good record in the world.
How many wounds it has salved, how
many pillars of fire it has lifted in the
midnight wilderness, how many simeon
struck Snharas it hath turned into the
gardens of the Lord; how it hath stilled
the chopped sea; what rosy light it hath
sent streaming through the rift of the
storm-cloud wrack; what pools of cool
water 1t hath gathered for thirsty Ha-
gar and Ishmael; what mama whittier
than corianda seed it hath dropped
all around the camp of hardly-bestead
pilgrims; what promises it hath sent
out like holy watchers to keep the
lamps burning around death-beds;
through the darkness that lowers into
the sepulcher what flashes of resus-
rec!ion morn!
Besides that, this religion has made so
many heroes. 1t brought Summer
field, the Methodist, across the Atlantic
ocean with his silver trumpet to blow
the acceptable 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 RAJ
phael among painters, Christopher
Wren among architects, Thorwaldsen
among sculptors, Handel among must
clans, Dupont among military COM
manders, and to give new wings to the
imagination, and better balance to the
Judgment, and more determination 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 moments they thought they
saw the castles of the blessed; and
your child, that with unutterable agony
you put away into the grave, you will
In Wa ''NS AiAA et-tllll. Alul lcitI Ills SWccL
voice. nor feel the throb of his young
heart? There is nothing in religion!
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 moth
ing 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 fiight-whither
whittier! There is no God, no minister
ing angels to conduct, no Christ, no
heaven, no home. Nothing in religion!
Oh. you are not willing to adopt such
a dismal theory. And yet the world is
full of skeptics. And let me say there
is no class Of people for whom I have
a warmer sympathy than for skeptics.
We do not know how to treat them.
We deride them. We caricature them.
We. instead of taking them by the soft
hand Of Christian love, clutch them
| with the iron pinchers of ecclesiasti-
ciSm OH If yO,l know how thoSo ,,,op