Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-12-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON
Subject: ..The sIfs' of the Bible. J"


There is in cur English language small
conjunction which; 1 propose; by Gods help;
to haul out Of its present insignifcancy and
set upon the throne where it belongs, and
that is the conjunction ''if" Though made
Of only two letters, it is the pivot on which
everything turns. All time and all eternity
are at lis disposal. We sldr 1t Ill our Utter
ance, We ignota it III orr appreciation, and
none OF US recognize it as the most tfemeh-
dOus word in all the vocabulary outside OF
those words which describe deity.
"lf = Why, that word we take as tramp
among words, now appearing here, now ap-
| pearing therr. but having no value OF Is
own. when it really has milionairedom Of
worlds, and in its train walk ali planetary.
stellar, lunar, solar destinies. # fhe boat Of
leaves made watertight, in which the infant
| Moses sailed the Nile, had sunk who would
| nave lei Israel out OF Egypt II the Red
Sea had not parted for the escape of one
| host and then come together for the sub
mergence of another, would the book of
Exodus ever have been written? If the ship
on which Columbus sailed for America had
gone down in an Atlantic cyclone, how much
longer woald it have taken for the discoY-
| cry Of this continent?
If Grouc5y had come up with reinforce
| mentS in time TO give the French the victory
| at Waterloo, what would have been the fate
! of fEurope2 1.-THE Spanish Armada had not
been wrecked off the coast, how different
| would have been many chapters in English
history If the battle Of Hastings or the
| battle Of Putowa, or the battle of Valmy, or
the battle OF MatauruS, the battle Of Ar
bella or the battle of Chalons, each one of
which turned the worlds destiny, had been
| decided the other way
If shakespeare had never been born for
| the drama, or Handel had never been born
! for music, or Titan had never been born for
| painting, or ThorwaIdsen hal never been
| born for scul pture. or Edmund Burke had
! never been born for elOquence, or Socrates
had never been born for philosophy, or
| Blackstone had never been born for the law.
| or COpernicus lad never been born for as
| trOnOmy. or Luther had never been born for
| the reformation
On, that conjunction ''ifr' How much has
| depended on it The height of it. the depth
| of it, the length of it, the breadth of it. the
| ImmenSitY of it. tho in6nity of it--whO can
| measure? 1t would swamp anything but
| OmnipOtence But must confne myself to-
| day to the ''ifs" of the Bible and in doing SO
L shall speak of the ''if' of Overpowering
| earnc5tneSs, the 'it'' of incfedulty, the ''if
of threat the off of augmentation. the "if'
| OF eternal significance, or so many of these
! "ifS" as | can compass in the time that may
be reasonably allotted to pulpit discourse.
First, the off, of Overpowering earnest
! ness. My text gives il. The Israeiites have
| been worshipng an idol. notwithstanding
all that God hal done for them, and now
! Moses offers the most vehement prayer of all
| history, and it turns upon an eff" eff
| Thou wilt forgive their sins-and if not blot
| me, [ pray Thee, out of Thy book" Oh.
| what an overwhelming ''ifm 1t was as
much as to say ''If Thou wilt not pardon
| them, do not pardon me. If Thou wilt not
| bring them to the promised land, let me
| r"ver see the promised land. If they must
| = rish, let me perish with them. In that
| book where Thou recordest their doom re-
cord my doom. If they shut out of
| heaven, let me be shut out of heaven. If
| they go down into darkness, let me go down
into darkness" What vehemence and holy
recklessness of prayer
Yet there are those here who, l have no
doubt. have, in their all absorbing desire to
have others saved, risked the same prayer,
for it is a risk. You must not makeit unless
yOu are willing TO balance your eternal SAL
VatiOn on such an eff" Yet there have been
cases where a mother has been so anxious
for the recovery of q wayward son that her
prayer has swung and trembIei and poised
on an ''if' like that Of the text. 'If not,
blot me. pray thee, out of thy book. Write
his name in the Lambs Book of Life, or turn
to the page where my name was written ten
or twenty or forty or sixty years ago, and
with the black ink of everlasting midnight
erase my first name, and my last name. and
oil my name II he is to go into shipwreck
let me be tossed amid the same breakers. IT
he cannot be a partner in my bliss. let me be n
partner in his woe. have for many years loved
Thee. 0 God, and it has been my expecta-
ton to sit with Christ and all the redeemed
at the banquet of the skies but l now give
up my promised place at the feast, and my
promised robe, and my promised crown and
my promised throne unless John. unless
George, unless Henry, unless my darling son
can share them with me. Heaven will be no
heaven without him. o God, save my boy,
or count me among the lost :"
That is n terrific prayer, and yet there is n
young man sitting in the pew on the main
floor or in the lower gallery, or in the top
gallery, who has already crushed such
prayer from his mothers heart. He hardly
ever writes home. or. living at home, what
does he care how much trouble he gives her!
Her tears are no more to him than the rain
that drops from the caves on dark night.
The fact that she does not sleep because of
watching for his return late at night does not
choke his laughter or hasten his step forward.
She has tried coaXinG and kindness and
self sacrifice and all the ordinary prayers that
mothers make for their children, and all have
failed. She is coming toward the vivid and
venturesome and terrific prayer of my text.
She is going to lift her own eternity and set
it upon that one ''if'' by which she expects
to decide whether you will go up with her or
she down with you. She may be this mo-
ment looking heavenw ard and saying 80 Lord
reclaim him by thy grace" and then adding
that heart-rendering ''it' Ofmy text ''if not,
blot me, pray Thee, out of Thy book.
After three years of absence a son wrote
his mother i'll one OF the New England
whaling villages that he was coming home
]
watching. and the ship was in the otf1ng, but
a fearful storm struck it and dashed the ship
on the rocks that night. All that night the
mother prayed for the safety of the son, and
Just at dawn there was knock at the cottage
door. and the entered. crying out
''Mother. knew you would pray me home :!
If l would ask all those in this asSemblage
who have been prayed home to God by ptous
mothers to stand up, there would be scores
that would stand. and If | should ask them
-. 1 L -
of that New England son coming ashore
from the split timbers of the whaling ship.
MY mother prayed me home =
Another Bible ''if'' is the ''if' of incredu-
lty. Satan used it when Christ's vitality
was depressed by forty days abstinence from
food, and the tempter pointed to some stones,
in color and shape like loaves of bread, and
said, "If thou De tho Son OF God, COM
mand that these stones be made bread.
That was appropriate, for Satan is the father
of that elf" of Incredibly. Peter used the
same ''it" when, standing on the wet and
slippery deck of fishing smack off Lake
GaIilee, he saw Christ walking on the sea as
though 1t We're as solid a pavement OF
basalt from the adjoining volcanic hills. anC
Peter cried, ''If 1t be Thou, let me come to
Thee on the water"
what a prepOsterOus ''iff' What human
| loot was ever so constructed as to walk on
| water In what part of the earth did law o.
| graVltatlOn make exception to the rule that Il
! man will sink to the elbows when he touches
| the wave of river or lake and will sink still
! farther unless he can swim? But here Peter
| looks out upon the form in the shape of
man defying the mightiest law of the uni
verse, the law of gravitation, and standing
erect on the top of the liquid. Yet the in
| credulous Peter cries out to the Lord. 'If
it be Thou" Alas. for that incredulous "ifr'
| 1t IS working as powerfully in the latter part
of this nineteenth Christian century as it did
! in the early part of the first Christian CEN
tury.
Though small conjunction, it is the big
| gest block to-day in the way of the gospel
| chariot. "f!' eff We have theological
| SeminarieS which cnand most of their time