The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-04-18
STRANGERS in TOWN.
A DISCOURSE OF INTEREST TO THE
TABERNAcLE TtiRoNG.

A DISCOURSE OF INTEREST TO THE
TABERNAcLE TtiRoNG.
Rev. Dr. Talnase Upon Life In a Great City
and the Lessons It Teaches-The Under
current Of Lne-A Plea For the Sabbath.
Brooklyn, April Before no au-
dience in the world could such a SER
mon as Rev. Dr.. Talmage preached to-
day be so appropriate as in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle, where it is estimated that
$50, 600 strangers attend every year. It
was q sermon that had for them a spe-
cial interest. The text selected was Mat
thew XIV, IS, 81 was a stranger, and ye
took me In"
It is a moral disaster that jocosity has
despoi1edso many passages of Scripture,
and my texts one that has suffered from
ureverent and misapplied quotation. 1t
shows great poverty of wit and humor
when people take the sword Of divine
truth for a game at fencing or chip off
from the Kohinoor diamond Of inspira-
ton sparkle TO decorate a FOOLS cap.
My text is the salutation In the last
Judgment to be given to those who have
shown hospitality and kindness and
Christian helpfulness TO strangers. By
railroad and steamboat the population Of
the earth are all the ti1nein motion, and
from ons years end toanother our cities
are crowded with visitors
Every morning on the tracks Of the
Hudson River, the Pennsylvania, che
Erie, the Long Island railroads there
come passenger trains more than I can
number, so that all the depots and the
wharyes are a-rumble and a-elang with
the coming mof 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 so
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 Temporal residence. They
tarry here for three OF 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. / am
conscious that I stand in the presence Of
many this moment. Idesire more esrc-
cially to speak to them May God give
me the right word and help me to utter
it in the right way.
STRANGERS WITH THR GATES.
There. have glided into this house
those unknown toother8Mhose history
IL told would be more thrilling than the
deepest tragedy, more exciting than Pat
i's Song, more bright than a spring
morning, more awful than a wn1tT
midnight II Hey could stand upilere
and tell the story of their escapes, and
their temptations, and their bereayc-
ments, and their disasters, and their VIC
tories and their defeats, there would be
in this house such q commingling Of
groans and ~acchmations as wuuld make
the place uncomfortable
There is q man who, in infancy; lay
IN . cradle satin lined Out yonder is a
who was picked up a founding on
Boston common. Here is q 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 forrI0 years in
an awfulconf3agration Of evil habits, and
he is a mere cinder Of a destroyed n
ture, and he is wondering if there shall
be IN this service any escape on help for
his immortal soul Meeting you only
once perhaps face to face, Istrike hands
witt you in an earnest talk about your
present condition and your eternal well
being St Paul's shipat Melita went to
pieces where two seas meet, but we stand
today at q point where q 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 sny other lana, butthose that
are most celebrated for Milhancy Of tap
estry and mirror cannot give to the
guest anseosayapartnant unless he can
afford a parlor in addition to his lodg-
ing. The stranger, therefore, viii gen
orally find assigned OHM aroom with
ont any pictures and perhaps any rock
ing chair. Hewin find box of matches
ON a bureau and an old newspaper lef:
by the previous occupant, and that will
be about all the ornamentation. At Z
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 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, Il
must join that procession" and in 10
minutes you have joined it Where are
you going? "oh," you say, II haven't
made up my mind yet" Better make