The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-03-24
CROSSING THE. JORDAN.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks on Over
coming Obstacles.
MANY OF the Seeming Obstacles I'm the Path
of the Christian Vanish when
Met with Faith In DI-
vine Assistance.


The following discourse was deliv-
cred by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in the
Fort Street Presbyterian church at De-
troit, Mich, during a recent visit to
that city. 1t was based on the text:
And the priests that bare the ark of the Cove
nant Of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in
the midst Of the Jordan, and all the IsraeIites
passed over on dry ground until all the people
were passed clean over JOrdan.-Joshua ill.,, IL.
Washington crossed the Delaware
when crossing was pronounced impos-
sible, but he did it by boat Xerxes
crossed the Hellespont with two mil
lions of men, but he did il by bridge
The Israelites crossed the Red sea; but
the same orchestra that celebrated the
deliverance of the one army sounded
the strangulation of the other. This
Jordanic passage differs from all
There was no sacrifice of human life
not so much as the loss of linch-pin.
The vanguard of the host, made up of
priests, advanced until they put their
foot at the brim of the river, when inn
mediately the streets of Jerusalem
were no more dry than the bed of that
river. It was as if all the water had
been drawn off, and then the damp
ness had been soaked up with sponge,
and then by towel the road had been
wiped dry. Yonder goes great army
of Israelites, the hosts in uniform; fol-
lowing them the wives, the children,
the focks, the herds. The people look
up at the crystalline wall of the Jor-
dan as they pass. and think what an
awful disaster would come to them if.
before they got to the opposite bank of
that Ajalon wall, that wall should fall
on them; and the thought makes the
mothers hug their children close to their
hearts as they swiften their pace.
Quick, now; get them all up on the
banks, the armed warriors, the wives
and children, flocks and herds, and let
this wonderful Jordanic passage be
completed forever
Sitting on the shelved limestone, /
look off upon that Jordan where Joshua
crossed under the triumphal arch of
the rainbow woven out of the spray;
the river which afterward became the
baptistry where Christ was splinlxled or
plunged; the river where the ax-the
borrowed ax-miraculously swan at
the prophets order; the river illustri-
Gus in the history of the world for he
roic faith and Omnipotent deliverance
and typical scenes yet tn trcz5i:e a.
your life and mino-scenes enough to
make us, from the sole of the foot to
the crown of the head, tingle with in
finite gladness.
Standing on the scene of that af-
frighted, fugitive River Jordan, learn
for myself and you, first, that obsta-
cles, when they are touched, vanish.
The text says that when these priests
came down and touched the water
the edge of the water with their feet
the water parted. They did not wade
deep, or ankle deep, but as soon as
their feet touched the water it van
ished. And it makes me think that al
most all the obstacles of life need only
be approached in order to be con-
quered. Difficulties but touched van
ish. 1t is the trouble, the difficulty,
the obstacle far in the distance that
seems so huge and tremendous.
always Sigh before 1 begin to preach
at the greatness of the undertaking,
but as soon as / start it becomes to me
an exhilaration. And any duty under
taken with a confident spirit becomes
a pleasure, and the higher the
duty the higher the pleasure. Diff
culties touched are conquered.
There are a great many people
who are afraid of death in the future.
Good John Livingston once, on board
a sloop coming from Elizabethport
to New York, was dreadfully frightened
because he thought he was going to be
drowned as sudden gust came up. Peo-
pie were surprised at him. If any man
in all the world was ready to die it was
good John Livingston. So there are now
a great many good people who shud
der in passing a graveyard, and they
hardly dare think of Canaan because
of the Jordan that intervenes; but once
they are down on a sick bed, then all
their fears are gone; the waters of death
on the beach are like the mel
low voice of ocean shells-they smell
of the blossoms of the tree of life; the
music of the heavenly choirs comes
stealing over the waters, and to cross
now is only pleasant sail. How long
come quickly. Christ the priest ad-
vances ahead, and the dying Christian
goes over dry-shod on coral beds, and
flowers Of Heaven. and paths of pearl
Oh, could we make our doubts remove
Those gloomy doubts that rise.
And view the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyesi
Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape DER,
Not Jordan's stream, nor deaths cold food,
Could fright us from the shore.
Again, this Jordanic passage teaches
me the completeness of everything that
God does When God put an invisible
dam across Jordan, and it was halted,
il would have been natural, you would
have supposed, for the water to have
overaowed the region all about, and
that great devastation would have
taken place. But when God put the
dam in front of the river He put a dam
on the other side of the river. SO that,
according to the text, the water halted
and reared and stood there, and not
overhowing the surrounding country,
oh, the completeness of everything that
God does!
One would have thought that, if the
waters of Jordan had dropped until
they were only two or three feet deep,
the Israelites might have marched
through it, and have come up on the
other bank with their clothes saturated
and tlEeir garments like those of men
coming ashore from shipwreck, and
that would have been as wonderful a
deliverance; but God does something