The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-13
STRANGERS IN TOWN.
A DISCOURSE OF INTEREST TO THE
/ TABERNACLE THRONG.

- NANc
BROOKLYN, April 8-Before no au.
dience in the world could such ser
mon as Rev. DR.. Talmage preached to-
day be so appropriate as in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle where it is estimated that
$50, 900 strangers attend every year. 1t
was a sermon that had for them spe-
cial interest The text selected was Mat
thew XIV, 35, 81 was a stranger, and We
took me in. "
1t is moral disaster that jocosity has
despoiled so many passages of Scripture,
and my text is one that has suffered from
irreverent and misapplied quotation 1t
shows great poverty of wit and humor
when people take the sword of divine
truth for game at fencing or chip off
from the Kohinoor diamond of inspira-
ton sparkle to decorate FOOLS cap
MY text is the salutation in the last
Judgment to be given to those who have
shown hospitality and kindness md
Christian helpfulness to strangers. By
railroad and steamboat the population of
the earth are all the time in motion, and
from one years end to another our cities
are crowded with visitors.
Every morning on the tracks Of the
Hudson River, the Pennsylvania, the
Erie, the Long Island railroads there
come passenger trains more than | can
number, so that all the depots and the
wharves are a-rumble and a-clang with
the coming in Of a great immigration of
strangers. Some of them come for pur-
poses of barter, some for mechanism,
some for artistic qualification, some for
sightseeing. A great many of them go
out ON the evening trains, and conse-
quently the city makes but little impress
sion upon them, but there are multi
tudes who in the hotels and boarding
houses make temporary residence. They
tarTy here for three or four days or as
many weeks. They spend the days in
the stores and the evenings in sightsee-
ing. Their temporary stay will make or
break them not only financially, but NOR
ally, for this world and the world that is
to come. Multitudes of them come into
our morning and evening services. I am
conscious that I stand i'll the presence of
many this moment desire more espe-
cially to speak to them May God give
me the right word and help me to utter
it in the right way.
= STRANGERS WITHIN THE GATES.
There have glided into this house
those unknown to others whose history
if told would be more thrilling than the
deepest tragedy, more exciting than Pat
tbs song, more bright than a spring
morning, more awful than a wintry
midnight. If they could stand up here
and tell the story of their escapes, and
their temptations, and their bereaye
ments, and their disasters, and their vic
tories, and their defeats, there would be
in this house such commingling of
groans and acclamations as would make
the place uncomfortable.
a. There is man who, in infancy, lay
in cradle satin lined. Out yonder is a
man who was picked up founding on
Boston common. Here is man who is
coolly observing this religious service,
expecting no advantage and caring for
no advantage for himself, while yonder
is a man who has been for 10 years in
an awful confagration of evil habits, and
he is mere cinder of destroyed ma
ture, and he is wondering if there shall
be in this service any escape or help for
his immortal soul. Meeting you only
once perhaps face to face, strike hands
with you in an earnest talk about your
present condition and your eternal well
being st. Paul ship at Melita went to
pieces where two seas meet but we stand
today at point where thousand seas
converge, and eternity alone can tell the
issue of the hour.
The hotels of this country, for beauty
and elegance, are not surpassed by the !
hotels in any other land, but those that |
are most celebrated for brilliancy of tap
estry and mirror cannot give to the |
guest any costly apartment unless he can
afford parlor in addition to his lodg-
ing. The stranger, therefore, will gen
orally find assigned to him room with
ont any pictures and perhaps any rock
ing chair. He will find box of matches |
ON bureau and an old newspaper left |
by the previous occupant, and that will |
be about all the ornamentation At |
O'Clock in the evening, after having TAX |
en- his repast, he will look over his mem
orandum book of the days work, he will |
write 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 10
minutes you have Joined it. Where are
you going? "Oh," you say, 81 haven't
made up my mind yet" Better make
up your mind before you start. Perhaps
the very way you go now you will al
ways go. Twenty years ago there were
two young men who came down the As
tor House steps and started out in
wrong direction, where they have been
going ever since.
! STUDIES OF HUMAN LIFE.
well, where are you going?" says
one man. 81 am going to the academy
to hear some music" Good. 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
your soul l congratulate you Where
are you going? well, " you say, 81 am