Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-10-19
THEY CALLED ON GOD
DIR. TALMAGE FINDS MANY LESSONS
IN ONE TEXT OF JONAH.

The Attempt to Get Away From Obedience
| 20 God Always Leads One Into Storm.
Tho Kind Hearted SaiIors-God's Way
of Giving Help.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 14.-Rov. Or. Tai
mage, who is still absent on his round
the world tour, has selected as the sub
ject Of today S sermon through the press
1.-THE Oarsmen Defeated, the text cho-
sen being Jonah i, IS, IA, 1.-THE men
rowed hard TO bring it to the land, but
they could not, wherefore they cried
unto the Lord. "
Navigation in the Mediterranean sea
always was perilous, especially so in
early times Vessels were propelled
partly by sail and partly by oar. When,
by reason of great stress Of weather, it
was necessary to reef the canvas or haul
it in, then the vessel was entirely de-
pendent upon the oars, sometimes 20 or
80 of them ON either side the vessel.
You would not venture outside your
harbor with such o craft as my text
finds Jonah sailing in, but he had not
much choice of vessels. He was running
away from the Lord, and when a man
is running away from the Lord he has
to run very fast.
The DIsobedIent Prophet.
God had told Jonah to go to Nineveh
TO preach about the destruction of that
city. Jonah disobeyed. That always
makes rough water, whether in the Med
iterranean, or the Atlantic, or the Pa
cific, or the Caspian sea- 1t is very
hard thing to scare sailors. l have seen
them, when the brow Of the vessel was
almost under water, and they were
walking the deck knee deep in the surf,
and the small boats by the side Of the
vessel had been crushed as small as kim
ding wood, whistling as though moth
ing had happened, but the Bible says
that these mariners Of whom | speak
were frightened.
That which sailors call "a lump Of a
sea" has become a binding, deafening,
swapping fury. How mad the wind
can get at the water, and tho water can
Get at the wind, you do not know un'
less YOU have been spectators. have III
nv house a piece of the sail of a ship,
no larger than the palm Of my hand.
That piece of canvas was all that was
left of the largest sail Of the ship
Greece. that went into the storm 200
miles off Newfoundland. Oh, what q
night that was! l suppose it was in
some such storm as this that Jonah
was caught.
He knew that the tempest was on his
account and he asked the sailors to
throw him overheard. Sailors are a gen.
erous hearted race, and they resolved to
make their escape, if possible, without
resorting to such extreme measures,
The sails are of no use, and so they lay
hold on their oars. see the long bank
Of shining blades on either side the ves'
sci. Oh, how they did pull, the bronzed
seamen, as they lay back into the oars
But rowing on the sea is very different
from rowing upon river, and as the
vessel hoists the oars skip the wave and
miss the stroke, and the tempest laughs
TO scorn the flying paddles. 1t is of no
use, no use. There comes wave that
crashes the last mast and sweeps the
oarsmen from their places and tumbles
everything in the confusion Of impend'
ing shipwreck, OF, as my text has it,
1.-THE men rowed hard to bring it to
the land, but they could not, wherefore
%bo1, criod ,,ufO tho ord ~
Converted by Reading OF IL.
This scene is very suggestive to me,
and pray God may have grace and
strength enough to represent it intelli-
gently to you. Years ago l preached a
sermon on another phase of this very
subject, and got letter from Houston,
Tex, the writer saying that the read
ing of that sermon in London had led
him to God. And / received another
letter from South Australia, saying that
the reading of that sermon in Australia
had brought several souls to Christ
And then, thought, why not now take
another phase Of the same subject for
perhaps that God who can raise in pow
or that which is sown in weakness may
now, through another phase Of the same
subject, bring salvation to the people
who shall hear and salvation to the
people who shall read. Men and wom-
en- who know how to pray, lay hold Of
the Lord God Almighty, and wrestle
for the blessing.
Bishop Latimer would stop sometimes
in his sermon, in the midst of his argu-
ment, and say. "Now, / will tell you a
fable" and today l would like to bring
the scene of the text as an illustration
Of most important religious truth. AS
those Mediterranean oarsmen trying to
bring Jonah ashore were discounted,
l have to tell you that they were not
the only men who have broken down on
their paddles and have been obliged to
call on the Lord for help. want to say
that the unavailing efforts Of those Med.
iterranean oarsmen have counterpart
in the efforts we are making to bring
souls to the shore of safety aud set
their feet on the Rock of Ages. You
have father or mother or husband or
vito or child or near friend who is not
Christian. There have been times
when you have been in agony about
their salvation.
Agony of Uncertainty.
A minister Of Christ, whose wife was
dying without any hope in Jesus, walk
ed the floor, wrung his hands, cried bit
terly and said, Il believe shall go in
sane, for know she is not prepared to
meet Cod And there may have been
days of sickness in your household, when
you feared it would be fatal sickness,
aud how closely you examined the face
Of the doctor as he came in and scru-
tinized the patient and felt the pulse,
and you followed him into the next
room and said, There isn't any dan
ger, is there, doctor?" And the hesita-
ton and the uncertainty Of the reply
made two eternities flash before your
vision. And then you went and talked
to the sick one about the great future
Oh, there are those here who have tried