Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-10-20
THEY CALLED ON GOD
On. TALMAGE FINDS Many LESSONS
* osss TEXT CT JONAH.

Or. TALMAGE FINDS MANY LESSONS
* o~S TEXT CT JONAH.
Tho Attempt to Get Away From Obedience
/ to God Always Leads One Into a storm
I'll, Kind Hearted sailorS--God' Way
of Giving Help.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 14.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage, who is still absent ON his round
the world tour, has selected as the sub
joct of today sermon through the press
THE Oarsmcn Defeated, tho text cho-
sen being Jonah j, 10, IA, THE men
rowed hard TO bring it to tho land, but
they could not, wherefore they cried
unto the Lord y
Navigation in the Mediterranean sea
always was perilous, especially so IN
early times Vessels were propelled
partly by sail and partly by car. When,
/ by reason of great stress of weather, it
was necessary to reef the canvas or haul
/ it in, then the vessel was entirely de-
| pendent upon tho oars, sometimes 90 or
80 of them ON either side the vessel
You would not venture outside your
harbor with such craft as my text
finds Jonah sailing in, but he had not
much choice of vessels. lie was running
away from the Lord, and when man
is running away from the Lord he has
to run very fast.
The Disobcdicnt Prophet.
God had told Jonah to 20 to Nineveh
| to preach about the destruction of that
city. Jonah disobeyed That always
makes rough water whether in the Med
iterranean. on the Atlantic, or the Pa
cific, or the Caspian sea. II is very
hard thing to scare sailors. | have seen
them, when tho brow of the vessel was
almost under water, and they were
walking the deck Knee deep in tho surf,
and the small boats by the sido Of the
vessel had been crushed as small as kim
| ding wood, wbistling as though moth
ing had happened, hut the Billie says
that these mariners of WHOM | speak
were frightened.
That which sailors call "a lump of a
sea" has become a binding, deafcning,
swapping fury. How mad the wind
can get at the water, and the water can
get at the wind, You do not know un-
less you have been spectators. have III
my house piece Of the sail Of a ship
no larger than the palm of my hand
That piece of canvas was all that was
left of the largest sail of the ship
Greece, that went into the storm 200
miles off Newfoundland Oh, what a
night that was l suppose it was in
some such storm as this that Jonah
was caught.
He knew that the tempest was On his
account, and he asked the sailors to
throw him overheard. Sailors are a gen
| erous hearted race, and they resolved to
make their escape, If possible, without
resorting to such extreme measures.
The sails are of no use and SO they lay
hold OH their oars | see the long bank
of shining blades on either side the vos-
sell Oh, how they did pull, the brouzed
seamen, as they lay back into the oars!
But rowing On the sea is very different
from rowing upon river, and as the
vessel hoists the oars skip the wave and
miss the stroke, and the tempest laughs
to scorn the flying paddles 1t is of no
use, no use. There comes q wave that
crashes tho last mast and sweeps the
oarsmen from their places and tamblcs
everything in the confusion Of iinpend-
ing shipwreck, or, as my text has it,
'Tho men roved hard to bring it to
the land, but they conld not, wherefore
| they cried unto Tie Lord
Converted hy ceading Of 1t.
This scene is very suggestive to me,
and | pray God | may have grace and
strength enough to represent ii in.elli-
gently to you. Years ago preached q
sermon On another phase OF this very
subject, and got a letter from Houston,
Tex, the writer saying that the read
ing of that sermon in London had led
him to God. AID | received another
| letter from South Australia, saying that
| the reading of that sermon in Australia
had brought several souls to Christ.
| And then, / thought, why not now take
another phase Of the same subject, for
perhaps that God who can raise in pow
er that which is sown in weakness may
now, through another phase of the same
subject, bring salvation to the people
who shall hear and salvation to the
people who shall read Men and WON.
en- who know how to pray, lay hold of
the Lord God Almighty, and wrestle
for the blessing
Bishop Latimer would stop sometimes
in his sermon, in the midst Of his argu-
ment, and say, Now, will tell you
fable" and today would like to bring
the scene OF the text as an illustration
of a most important religious truth. AS
those Mediterranean oarsmen trying to
bring Jonah ashore were discounted,
have to tell you that they were not
the only men who have broken down on
their paddles and have boon obliged TO
call Oh the Lord for help. | want to say
that the unavailing efforts of those Med
iterranean oarsmen have a counterpart
in the efforts we are making to bring
souls to the shore of safety and set
their feet on the Rock of Ages. You
| have q father or mother or husband or
wife or child or near friend who is not
y Christian. There have been times
when you have been in agony about
| their salvation.
| Agony of Uncertainty.
a minister of Christ, whose wife was
| dying without any hope in Jesus, walk
ed the floor, wrung his hands, cried bit.
tcrly and said, 81 believe shall so in
sane, for ! know she is not prepared to
meet God. = And there may have been
days of sickness III your household, when
you feared it would be fatal sickness
and how closely You examined the face
Of the doctor as he came in and soru.
tinized tho patient and felt the pulse,
and you followed him into the next
room and said, There isn't any dan.
ger, is there, doctor?" And the hesita-
ton and the uncertainty of the reply
made two eternities flash before your
vision. And then you went and talked
to the sick one about the great future.
oh, there are those here who have tried
to bring their friends to God! They