The Penn's Grove record., 1894-04-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject "Strangers Within til
Gates"

ohtcSs
TEXT: ~ scds a stranger and ye took M
Matthew XIV, IS.
1t is a moral disaster that jocosity has de
spoiled SO many passages Of Scripture, ant
my text Is one that has suffered from irrever
ent and ~misapplied quotation. 1t show.
great poverty of wit and humor when people
take the sword of divine truth for a game al
fencing or chip off from the Kohinoor dia
mond of inspiration a sparkle to decorate q
FOOLS cap. My text is the salutation in the
lat judgment to be given to those who have
shown hospitality and kindness and Chris
tian ~helpfulness to strangers. By railroad
and steamboat the population of the artt
are all the time In motion, and from one
years end to another our cities are crowded
| with visitors. M.
Every morning on the tracks of the Hud.
son River, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the
Long Island Railroads there come passenger
trains more than l can number, SO that all
the depots and the wharves are a-rumble
and a-clang with the coming in of q great
immigration of strangers. Some OF them
come for purposes of barter, som for mech
anisln, some for artistic qualification, some
for sightseeing. A great many OF them go
| out on the evening trains, and consequently
the city makes but little impression upon
them, but there are multitudes who In the
hotels and boarding houses make temporary
residence. They tarry here for three or four
days, or as many weeks. They spend the
days in the stores and the evenings in sight
seeing. Their temporary stay will either
make or break them not only financially, but
morally, for this world and the world that is
TO come. Multitudes of them come into our
morning and evening services. I an con-
scious that l stand in the presence of many
this momen 1 desire more especially to
speak to them. May God give me the right
word and help me to utter it in the right
way.
There have glided into this house those
unknown to others whose history il told
would be moro thrilling than the deepest
Tragedy, more exciting than FAITHS song,
more bright than a spring morning. more
awful than q wintry midnight. II they
could stand up here and tell the story of
their escapes, and their temptations, and
their bereavements. and their disasters, and
their victories. and their defeats, there would
DO in this house such o commingling OF
groans and acclamations as would make the
place uncomfortable
There is a man who, in infancy, lay in &
,radle satin lined. Out yonder Is a man
who was picked up a founding on Boston
Common. Here is a man who is coolly OBJ
serving this religious service, expecting no
advantage and caring tor no advantage for
himself, while yonder is a man who has been
for ten years in an awful c~onflagation of evil
habits, and he is a mere cinder of a destroyed
nature, and he is wondering II there shall be
IN this service any escape or help for his i'm.
mortal o Meeting you only once per-
maps face to face, / strike hands with you in
IN earnest talk about you present condition
and your eternal well being. ST. Paul's ship
of Melita went to pieces where two seas
meet. but we stand to-day at q point where
a thousand seas converge, and eternity alone
,an tell the issue OF the hour.
The hotels o + this country, for beauty ana
elegance, are not surpassed by the hotels in
any other land, but those that are most cele-
brated for brilliancy of tapestry and mirror
cannot give to the guest any costly apart
ment unless he can afford q parlor in addi-
ton to his lodging. The stranger, therefore,
will generally find assigned TO him a room
without any pictures and perhaps any rock
ing chair. He will find a box OF matches on
a bureau and an old newspaper left by the
previous occupant, and that will be about all
the ornamentation. AT Z O'Clock In the even
ing, after having taken his repast, he will
look over his memorandum book of heday's
work, he will write a letter to his home, and
then a desperation will seize upon him to get
out. You hear the great city laundering
under your windows, and you say, 81 must
join that procession" and in ten minutes you
have joined it. Where are you going? "Oh,"
you say, II haven't made up my mind yeti
Better make up your mind before you start.
Perhaps the very way you go now you will
always go. Twenty years ago there were two
young men who came down the Aston House
steps and started out in a wrong direction,
where they have been goingeyer since.
"Well. where are you going?' says one
man. II am going to the academy to hear
SOM music" Good. I would like to Join
you at the door. At the tap of the orchestral
baton all the gates of harmony and beauty
will open before my soul. / congratulate
you. Where are you going? SWELL" you
pictures" Good. 1 should like to go along
with you and look over the same catalogue
and study with you Kensett and Bierstadt
and Church and Moran. Nothing more
elevating than good pictures. Where are
you going? ''Well," you say, 81 am going
up TO the Young Mems Christian Association
rooms" Good. You will find there
gymnastics TO strengthen the muscles, and
books TO improve the mind, and Christian
influence 10 save the soul. / wish every city
the United States had as fine a palace for
Its Young Mems Christian Association
as New York has. Where are you going?
We'll" you say, 81 am going to take a long
walk up Broadway and SO turn around into
the Bowery. I am going to study human
Good. A walk through Broadway at
3 o o'clock at night is interesting, educating,
fascinating, appalling, exhilarating to the
last degree. Stop in front OF that theatre
and see who goes in. Stop at that saloon
and see who comes out. See the great tides
of life surging backward and forward and
beating against the marble of the curbstone
and eddylng down into the saloons. What
is that mark on the face of that debauchee?
1t Is the hectic flesh of eternal death. What
IS that romans laughter? It is the Shrek
If a lost sou.
Who is that Christian man going along
Wit a yiaIsof anodyne to the dying paupeI
on Elm street? Who Is tina belated man
On the way to o prayer meqtlng? Who is
that city missionary going to take q box in
which to bury a ehild2 Who are all these
OF bright and beautiful faces? They
are going 10 some interesting placeof amuse.
ment.
Who is that man going into the drug store?
is the man who yesterday lost oil his
fortune on Wall street. He is going in for a
dose OF be~lladonna, and before morning It
will make no difference TO him whether
stocks are up or down.. Itell you that Broad
between 2 and IL O'Clock at night, be-
tween the Battery and Central Park, Is an
Austerlitz. a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, where
kingdoms are lost or won and three worlds
ningle in the strife.
/ met another coming down of the hotel
and l say, "Where are you golng?"
You say 81 am going with a mel chant oil
New York who has promised to show me the
underground life OF the city. l am his Gus.
and he IS going to oblige me very
Stop! A business house that tries
10 get or keep your custom through such a
process as that Is not worthy of you. There
are business establishments in our cities
have for years been sending to de.
hundred and thousands OF mer-
chants. They have u secret drawer in the
counter where money is kept, and tho clerk
goes and gets 1t when he wants take these
to the city through the low slums OF
The place.
Shall l mention the names OF some of these
great commercial establishments / havs
hem on my lips. Shall II Perhaps 1 had
leave it to the young men who in that
process have been destroyed themselves
while they have been destroying others. ]
ARE not how high sounding the name OF q
commercial establishment If 1t proposes TO
eust or TO keen them by such n pra-