Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-09-07

BROOKLYN, n. Y, Sept. Rev. DIR.
Talmage, who is still absent in the
South Pacific, has selected as the sub b.
Ject Of to-day's sermon through the
press, The Rescue" the text chosen
being Acts 1881 believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved"
Jals are dark, dull, damp loath.
some places even now; but they were
worse in the apostolic times. l mag
inc, to-day, we are standing in the
Phillipian dungeon. Do you not feel
the chill? DO you not hear the
groans of those incarcerated ones who
for ten years have not seen the
sunlight, and the deep sigh of women
who remember their fathers house,
and mourn over their wasted estates?
Listen again 1t is the cough of a
consumptive, or the struggle Of one in
the nightmare OF a great horror. You
listen again, and hear culprit, his
chains rafting as he rolls over in his
dreams, and you say, God pity the
prisoner But there is another sound
in that prison 1t is the song Of joy
and gladness. What place to sing
in. The music comes winding through
the corridors Of the prison, and in all
the dark wards the whisper is heard,
What's that? What's that?"
1t is the song of Paul and Silas
They can not sleep. They have been
whipped, very badly whipped. The
long gashes on their backs are bleed
ing yet They lie fiat on the cold
ground, their feet fast in wooden
sockets, and of course they can not
sleep. But they can sing Jailer,
what are you doing with these people?
Why have they been put in here? Oh,
they have been trying to make the
world better Is that all? That is
all. a pit for Joseph. A lions cave
for Daniel. A blazing furnace for
Shadrach. Clubs for John Wesley.
An anathema for Philip Melancthon.
A dungeon for Paul and Silas.
But while we are standing in the
gloom of the Philippian dungeon, and
we hear the mingling voices of sob
and groan and blasphemy and halle
lujah, suddenly an earthquake! The
iron bars Ct the prison twist,
the pillars crealS off the solid masonry
begins to heave, and all the doors
swing open. The jailer, feeling him
self responsible for these prisoners.
and believing, in his pagan ignorance,
suicide to be honorable-since Brutus
killed himself and Cato killed himself
and Cassius killed himself-puts his
sword to his own heart, proposing
with one keen thrust to put an end to
his excitement and agitation. But
Paul cries out, stop! stop! no harm
We are all here"
Then see the jailer running through
the dust and amid the ruin of that
prison, and | see him throwing him
selfdown at the feet of these prisoners,
crying out, What shall do? What
shall do?" Did Paul answer, Get out
of this place before there is another
earthquake; put handouts and hop
pies on these other prisoners, lest they
get away?" No word of that kind.
His com pact, thrilling, tremendous
answer, answer memora bic all through
earth and heaven, was, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. "
Well, we have all read of the earth.
quake in Lisbon, in Lima, in Aleppo
and in Caracas; but we live in a lati-
tude where in all our memory there
has no been one severe volcanic dis
turbance. And yet we have seen fifty
earthquakes. Here is man who has
been building up a large fortune
His bid on the money market was felt
in all the cities. lie thinks he has got
beyond all ANNOYING rivalries in trade
and he says TO himself, Now ]
am free and safe from all possible
pertur baton" But in 1857 or in
1879 national panic strikes the foun-
dation of the commercial world. and
crash goes all that magnificent bust
ness establishment. Here is a man
who has built up a very beautiful
home. His daughters have just come
home from the seminary with diplo-
mas of graduation. His sons have
started in life, honest, temperate, and
pure. When the evening lights are
struck, there is a happy and unbrolsen
family circle. But there has been an
accident down at Long Branch. The
young man ventured too far out in
LhC ouiL AhO bOiCBI pa huIlcu the
terror up to the city. An earthquake
struck under the foundation of that
beautiful home.
The piano closed; the curtains
dropped; the laughter hushed. Crash!
GO all those domestic hopes and pros
poets and expectations. So. my
friends, we have all felt the shaking
down of some great trouble, and there
was time when we were as much ex-
cited as this man of the text, and we
cried out as he did, What shall do?
What shall / do?" The same reply
that the apostle made to him is APP
propriate to us, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. -
There are some documents of so lit
tie Importance that you do not care
to put any more than your last name
under them, or even your initials but
there are some documents of so great
Importance that you write out your
full name. So the Saviour in some
parts of the Bible is called Lord, +"
= - The RihIa ho ;o