The Yale expositor., 1894-12-07
BIG REVIVAL is NEAR.
ALL MANKIND is TURNING TO-
WARD ISRAEL.
DIR. Talmage Reads the Signs of the
Times In "a Notable Sermon-f:sal
Meaning of Electricity, Steam and
Other Impro ,nents.

mage chose for the subject of his SER
mon through the press to-day, the
COLLECTIONS to Religious Revivals,"
from the text: Luke VIC, "They in
closed n great multitude of fishes, and
their net broke"
SIMON and his comrades had expert
enced the night before what fishermen
call poor luck" Christ steps on board
the fishing smack and tells the sailors
to pull away from the beach, and di-
reefs them to sink the net. Sure enough,
very soon the net is full of fishes, and
the sailors begin TO haul in. So large
a school of fish was taken, that the
hardy men begin to look red in the
face as they pull, and hardly have they
begun 10 rejoice at their success when
snap goes a thread of the net, and snap
goes another thread, so there is danger
not only of losing the fish, but of los
ing the net.
Without much care as to how much
the boat tits, or how much water is
splashed on deck, the fishermen rush
about, gathering up the broken meshes
Of the net. Out yonder is ship dane
ing on the wave, and they hail it:
"Ship alloy! bear down this way" The
ship comes, and both boats, and fish
ing smacl5s arc filled with the floun-
dering treasures.
ALI" says some one, chow much
better it would have been if they had
stayed on shore, and fished with a
hook and line, and taken one at n
time, instead of having this great eX-
element, and the boat almost upset,
and the net broken, and having TO call
for help, and getting sopping wet with
the seal" The church is the boat, the
gospel is the net, society is the sea,
and a great revival is whole school
brought in at one sweep of the net.
l have admiration for that man who
goes out with a hook and line to
fish. admire the way he unwinds
the reel, and adjusts the bait, and
drops the hook in quiet place on
still afternoon, and here catches one
and there one; but like also a big
boat, and large crew, and n net
mile long, and swift oars, and stout
sails. and stiff breeze, and great
multitude of souls brought-so great a
multitude that you have to get help to
draw it ashore, straining the net to the
utmost until it breaks here and there,
letting few escape, but bringing the
great multitude into eternal safety.
In other words, believe in revivals.
The great work of saving men began
with 5000 people joining the church in
one day, and it will close with forty or
a hundred million people saved in
twenly-four hours, when nations shall
be born in day. But there arc OBJ
iections to revivals. People are OPP
posed to them because the net might
get broken, and if by the pressure of
souls it does not get broker, then they
take their own penknives and slit the
net. They inclosed great multitude
of fishes and the net broke.
1t is sometimes opposed to revivals
of religion that those who come into
the church at such times do not hold
out; as long as there is a gale of bless
ing, they have their sails up; but as
soon as strong winds stop blowing,
! then they drop into dead calm. But
what are the facts in the case? In all
our churches, the vast majority of the
useful people are those who are
| brought in under great awakenings,
ind they hold out. Who are the prom
inent men in the United States in
churches, in prayer meetings, in Sab
bath schools? For the most part they
are the product of great awakenings
/ have noticed that those who are
brought into the Kingdom of God
through revivals have more persistence
and more determination in the Chris
tian life than those who come in under
a low state of religion. People born
in an ice house may live, but they will
never get over the cold they caught in
the ice house. A cannon ball depends
upon the impulse with which it starts
for how far it shall go and how swiftly;
and the greater the revival force with
which soul is started, the more far
reaching and far-resounding will be
the execution.
But it is sometimes objected TO re-
vivals that there is SO much excitement
that people mistake hysteria for re-
ligion.
We must admit that in every revival
of religion there is either suppressed
or a demonstrated excitement. In
deed, if man can go out of state of
condemnation into state of accept
ance with God, or see others go, with
out any agitation of soul, he is in an
unhealthy, morbid state, and is as re-
pulsive and absured as as man who
should boast he saw child snatched
out from under horses hoofs, and
felt no agitation, or saw n man rescued
from the fourth story of a house on
fire, and felt no acccleration of the
pulse.
Salvation from sin and death and
hell into life and peace and heaven
forever, is such tremendous thing
that if man tells me he can look ON
it without any agitation j doubt his
Christianity. The fact is, that some.
times excitement is the most impor-
tant possible thing. In case Of resusic.
tation from drowning or freezing the
one idea is to excite animation. Be
| fore conversion we are dead. IL is the