Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-04-20
AT THE TABERNACLE.
Or. TALMAcE DRAWS LESSONS FROM
THE WEDDING FEAST.

THE WEDDING FEAST.
How Many and What BaseIess Excuses Sfen
Make For Not Becomlng christlans.
Christianity Is Very Great Help In Ev-
cry Proper Relation In Life.
BROOKLYN, April I6-Rev. DR.. Talmage
in his sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle
this forenoon spread before the great audi
ence in eloquent words the beauty and at
tractiveness Of the gospel feast, the text
chosen being from Luke xiv, Is, And they
all with one consent began to make excuse" I"
After the invitations 20 levee are sent
out the regrets come in. One man apollo
gizes for nonattendance on one ground, an
other on another ground. The most Of the
regrets are founded ON prior engagements
So in my text great banquet was spread,
the invitations were circulated, and now
the regrets come in.
The one gives an agricultural reason, the
other a stock dealers reason, the other a
domestic reason-all poor reasons. The
agricultural reason being that the man had
bought farm and wanted to see it. Could
he not see it the next dayi The stock deal
er's reason being that he had bought five
yoke of oxen and he wanted to 60 and
prove them. He had no business to buy
them until he knew what they were. Be
sides 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 as rapid
then as now. The man who gave the do
nestle reason said he had got married. He
ought to have taken his wife with him.
The fact was, they did not want to go.
"And they all with one consent began to
make excuse" So now God spreads a
great banquet. 1t 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 chal-
ices of Gods love, while other multitudes
decline coming-the one giving this apollo
gy and the other giving that apology. And
they all with ore consent began to make
excuse" propose this morning, SO far as
God may help me, to examine the apollo
gies which men make for not entering the
Christian life
RELIGION HAS MADE A RECORD.
Apology the First-.I am not sure there i,
anything valuable in the Christian reli-
gion. 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 a 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
81. = --re6ulity to collide with our holy
religion.
But, my friends, I think religion ha;
made pretty good record in the world
How many wounds it has salved; how
many pillars of fire it has lifted in the mid
night wilderness; how many simeon struck
Saharas 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 storna cloud wrack
what pools of cool water it hath gathered
for thirsty Hagar and Ishmael; what man
ma whittier than coriander seed it hath
dropped all around the camp of hardly be
stead pilgrims; what promises it hath sent
out like holy watchers to keep the lamp.
burning around deathbeds; through the
darkness that lowers into the sepulcher
what flashes of resurrection morni
Besides that this religion has made Sc
many heroes. 1t brought Summerfield, the
Methodist, across the Atlantic ocean witt
his silver trumpet to blow the acceptabl,
year of the Lord until it seemed as il al
our American cities would take the king
dom of heaven by violence. 1t sent Jehud
/ 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 paint
ers, Christopher Wren among architects
Thorwaldsen among sculptors, Handel
among musicians, Dupont among military
commanders; and to give new wings to the
imagination, and better balance to the judg
ment, and more determination to the will
and greater usefulness to the life, and
grander nobility to the soul, there is moth
ing in all the earth like our Christian reli
gion.
WE'RE THEY ALL DECEIVED?
Nothing in religionl Why, then, all
those Christians were deceived, when u
their dying moment they thought they
saw the castles of the blessed, and youl
child, that with unutterable agony you put
away into the grave, you will never see hin
again nor hear his sweet voice nor feel the
throb of his young heart? There is moth
ing in religionl Sickness will come upor
you. Roll and turn on your pillow. NJ
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 religionl
After awhile death will come. You will
! hear the paving of the pale horse on tn.
threshold The spirit will be breaking
away from the body, and it will take flight
whittier, whithers There is no God, nj
-ministering angels to conduct, no Christ
no heaven, no home. Nothing in religion
Oh, you are not willing to adopt such ,
dismal theory. And yet the world is full
of skeptics. And let me say there is NJ
class of people for whom have a warme
sympathy than for skeptics. We do no
know how to treat them. Wederide them
we caricature them. We, instead of taking
them by the s6ft hand of Christian love
clutch them with the iron pinchers of eccle
| siasticism.
| Oh, IL you knew how those men had fall
en- away from Christianity and becom
| skeptics you would not be so rough Of
| theml Some were brought up in home
where religion was overdone. The mos
! wretched day in the week was Sunday. Re
| ligion was driven into them with tri
| hammer. They had surfeit of praye
4 meetings. They were stuffed and choke
with catechisms. They were told by thei
parents that they were the worst childrel
4 that ave,. lived hecansa thew liked to rid