Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-04-17
EXCUSES FOR DELAY.
Or. TALMAee ON THOSE INVITED
TO THE WEDDING FEAST.

How Very Illogical Men Are In Their A..
titude Toward the Claims of fChristianity.
Roor Doctors, Poor Farmers, Poor Law.
yers and Pcor Christians.
BROOKLYN, April 16.-Rev. DR.. Tai.
mage in his sermon in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon spread before
the great audience in eloquent words
the beauty and attractiveness Of the
gospel feast, the text chosen being from
Luke xiv, 1S, "And they all with one
consent began to make excuse"
After the invitations to levee are
sent out the regrets come in. One man
apologies for nonattendance 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 were circulated, and now the re-
grets come in. The one gives an agri-
cultural reason, the other stock deal
ers reason, the other domestic reason
all poor reasons. The agricultural rea-
son being that the man had bought
farm and wanted to see it. Could he
not see it the next day? The stock deal
er's reason being that he had bought five
yoke Of oxen, and he wanted 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
unlyn Of h,o
time. Besides that he might have yoked
two Of them together and driven them
on the way to the banquet, for locomo-
ton was not as 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 die not want to go. "And they all
with one consent began to make ex-
cuse." So now God spreads great ban
quet; it is the gospel feast, and the table
reaches across the hemispheres, and the
invitations go out and multitudes come
and sit down and drink out of the chalices
of Gods love, while other multitudes de-
cline coming-the one giving this apollo
gy and the other giving that apology.
"And they all with one consent began to
make excuse" propose this morning,
SO far as God may help me, to examine
the apologies which men make for not
entering the Christian life.
Apology the first: l am not sure there
is anything valuable in the Christian re-
igion. 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 quackery in physics, in
ethics, in politics, that men come to the
habit of incredulity, and after awhile
they allow that incredulity to collide
with our holy religion.
THAs MADE A GOOD RECORD.
But, my friends, think religion has
made 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 ST.
noon struck Saharas it hath turned into
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 winter
than coriander seed it hath dropped all
around the camp of hardly bestead pill
grims; what promises it hath sent out
like 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 ac-
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 a 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 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 1t
and die. There is nothing in relig1onl
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
fight-whither, whittier? There is no
~ - aa<a1a M conduct