News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-04-20
EXCUSES FOR DELAY.
Or. TALMAGE ON THOSE INVITED
TO THE WEDDING FEAST.

yers and Poor Christians.
BROOKLYN, April 16.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage in his sermon in the Brooklyn
tabernacle this forenoon spread before
ne great audience in eloquent words
lhe beauty and attractiveness of the
i'ospel feast, the text chosen being from
Luke xiv, 10, ''And they all with one
consent began to make excuse"
After the invitations to a levee are
sant out the regrets come in. One man
apologies for nonattendance on one
Eround. 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-
lions were circulated, and now the re-
Grets come in. The one gives an agri-
cultural reason, the other a stock deal
er's reason, the other domestic reason
ALL poor reasons. The agricultural rea-
Ton being that the man had bought a
farm and wanted to see it. Could he
hot see it the next day? The stock deal
er'3 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
yoke of oxen can command his own
time. Besides that he might have yoked
two of them together and driven them
on the way to the banquet, for locomo-
tion 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 did not want to go. "And they all
with one consent began to make ex-
cuse." So now God spreads great ban
Duet; 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
by and the other giving that apology.
ir'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: am not sure there
is anything valuable in the Christian re-
hgion. 1t is pleaded that there are so
many impositions in this day-so many
things that seem to be real are sham.
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 that incredulity to collide
with our holy religion.
1T HAS MADE GOOD RECORD.
But. my friends, | think religion has
made a 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 81
moon 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 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 mornl
Besides that, this religion has made so
many heroes. 1t brought Symmetrical,
the Methodist, across the Atlantic ocean
with his silver trumpet to blow the &C
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 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 determina-
tion 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! Sick -e5,
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 nothing 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
hght-whither, whittier? There is no
God, no ministering angels to conduct,
no Christ, no heaven, no home. Moth
ing 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 no class of people for
whom l have a warmer sympathy than
for skeptics. We do not know how to
treat them. We deride them, we carl
cature them. We, instead of taking them
by the soft hand of Christian love, clutch
them with the iron pincers of ecclesias-
Hcism. Oh, if you knew how those men
had fallen away from Christianity and
become skeptics you would not be so
rough on them. Some were brought up
in homes where religion was overdone.
The most wretched day in the week was
Sunday. Religion was driven into them
with triphammer. They had a surfeit
prayer meetings. They were stuffed
and choked with catechisms. They were
told by their parents that they were the
worst children that ever lived because
they liked to ride down hill better than
to read Pilgrims Progress" They
never heard their parents talk of religion
but with the corners of their mouths
drawn down and the eyes rolled up.
THE UNFAITHFUL Is A STUMBLING BLOCK.
Others went into skepticism through
maltreatment ON the part of some who
professed religion. There is a man who
says, my partner in business was vol
uble in prayer meeting, and he was Of
ficious in all religious circles, but he
cheated me out of $4,000, and 1 don't
want any of that religion"
There are others who got into skepti-
cism by a natural persistence in asking
questions-why or how. How can God
be one being in three persons? They can
not understand it. Neither can /, How
can God be complete sovereign and yet
man free agent? They cannot under
stand it. Neither can 1. They cannot
understand why holy God lets sin come
into the world. Neither can I. They say:
'Here is great mystery. Here is disci-
pie of fashion, frivolous and goddess all