Connecticut western news., 1894-11-01
THE LOOKING GLASS.
DR. TALsAAGE's LESSONS FROM THE JEWISH TABERNACLE.


 JEWISH TABERNACLE.
 Tho Doctrine of Mans Need of a Redeemer Is Referred to In Every Part of the old , Testament as We'll as the New.
 BRooKLYN,. Oct. 2S.-Rev.> Dr. Tal- mage, who has left India and is now on his homeward journey, has selected as the subject of his sermon today through the press ''The Looking Glass, his text being Exodus xxxviii, 8, And he made the layer of brass, and the foot of 1t was of brass, of the looking glasses of the women assembling. We often hear about the gospel in John, and the gospel in Luke, and the gospel in Matthew, but there is just as surely gospel of Moses, and gospel of Jeremiah. and a gospel of David In other words, Christ is as certainly to be found in the Old Testament as in the New.
 When the Israelites were marching through the wilderness, they carried their church with them. They called it the tabernacle. It was a pitched tent, very costly, very beautiful. The frame work was made of AS boards of acacia wood set in sockets of silver. The cur tains of tho place were purple and scar let and blue and fine linen and were hung with most artistic loops. The can dlestick of that tabernacle had shaft and branch and bowl of solid gold, and the figures of cherubim that stood there had wings of gold, and there were lamps of gold, and snuffers of gold, and tongs of gold, and rings of gold, so that skepticism has sometimes asked, Where did all that precious material come from? It is not my place to furnish the precious stones. It is only to tell that they were there.
 The LAver of Cleansing.
 wish now more especially to speak of the layer that was built in the midst of that ancient tabernacle. It was 8 great basin from which the priests wash ed their hands and feet. The water came down from the basin in spouts and passed away after the cleansing. This layer or basin was made out of the looking glasses of the women who had frequented the tabernacle, and who had made these their contribution to the furniture These looking glasses were not made of glass, but they were bra zen. The brass was of very superior quality and polished until it reflected easily the features of those who looked into it, so that this layer of looking glasses spoken of in my text did double work. It not only furnished the water in which the priests washed themselves, but it also, on its shining, polished sur face, pointed out the spots of pollution on the face which needed ablution. Now, my Christian friends, as every thing in that ancient tabernacle was suggestive of religious truth and for the most part positively symbolical of truth, shall take that layer of looking glasses spoken of in the text as all sug gestive of the gospel, which first shows us our sins as in mirror and then washes them away by divine ablution.
 Oh, happy day, happy day,
 When Jesus washed my sins awayi
 The Mirror of Truth.
 I have to say thnt this is the only looking glass in which an1an can see himself as he is. There are some mirrors that flatter the features and make you are other mirrors that distort your fea- lures and make you look worse than you are, but want to tell you that this looking glass of the gospel shows man just as he is When the priests entered the ancient tabernacle, one glance at the burnished side of this layer showed them their need of cleansing. So this gospel shows the soul it's need of divine washing. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" That is one showing. "All we, like sheep, have gone astray." That Is another showing ''From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no health in us :" That is another showing. The world calls these defects, imperfections, or eo- cenricities, or cratic behavior, or .'wild oats," or "high living" but the gospel calls them sin, transgression, filth--the abominable thing that God hates. It was just one glance at that mirror that made Paul cry out, 'tOh, wretched man that am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?''' and that made David cry out, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" and that made Martin Luther cry out, "Oh, my sins, my sinsp am not talking about bad habits. You and do not need any Bible to tell us that bad habits are wrong, that blasphemy and evil speaking are wrong But am talking of sinful na- ture. the source of all bad thoughts as we'll as of all bad actions. The Apostle Paul calls their roll in the first chapter of Romans They are a regiment oi death encamping around every heart, holding 1t in tyranny from which nothing but the grace of God can deliv. CT 1t.
 The Deadly Sin.
 Here, for instance, is ingratitude. Who has not been guilty of that sin? Il man hand us glass of water we say, 'sThank you," but for the 10, 900 mer. vcies that we are every day reseivine from the hand of God how little sxpres sion of gratitude-for thirst slaked, fol hunger fed, for shelter, and sunshine, and sound sleep, and clothes to wear how little thanksl suppose there arr men 50 years of age who have never ye' been down on their knees in thanksgiv ing to God for his goodness Besides that ingratitude of our. hearts there i, pride-who has not felt it?-pride tha will not submit to God; that wants it own way--a nature that prefers wrong sometimes instead of right; that prefer' to wallow instead of rise up. do no care what you call that am not going to quarrel with any theologian or an, man who makes any pretensions to the ology. | do not care whether you cal it "total depravity" or something else simply make the announcement O Gods word, affirmed and confirmed by the experience of hundreds of Christian people. The imagination of the heart O man Is evil from youth. 'There Is non that doeth good-no, not one" W