Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1894-10-20
THEY CALLED ON GOD
OF. TALMAGE FINDS MANY LESSONS
IN ONE TEXT OF JONAH.

to God Always Lead, One Into Storm.
OF Giving Help.
BROOKLYN. Oct. lI.--Rcv. DR. Tai
Eiage. who i; sill absent on his round
the world tour. has selected as the sub.
jcct of today 5 sermon through the press
THE Oarsmen Defeated, the text cho.
sen being Jonah i, l3, II, The men
rowed hard to bring it to the land but
they could not, wherefore they cried
unto the Lord
Navigation in the Mediterranean sea
always was perilous, especially so in
early times. Vessels were propelled
partly by sail and partly hy oar. When,
by reason of great stress of weather, it
was necessary TO reef the canvas or haul
it i'll, then the vessel was entirely de-
pendent upon the oars, sometimes 20 or
30 of them on either side the vessel
You would not venture outside your
harbor with such . craft as my text
finds Jonah sailing III, but he had not
much choice of vessels. He was running
away from the Lord, and when a man
is running away from the Lord he has
to run very fast.
The Disobcdient Prophet.
God had told Jonah to 20 to Ninevch
to preach about the destruction of that
city. Jonah disobeyed. That always
makes rough water. whether i'll the Med
iterranean, or the Atlantic, or the Pa
cific, or the Caspian sea. 1t is very
harI thipft o., coara cn;ln-- I ha,.. conn
them, when the brow of the vessel was
almost under water, and they were
walking the deck knee deep in the surf,
and the small boats by the side of the
vessel had been crushed as small as kin
ding wood, whistling as though moth
ing had happened, but the Bible says
that these mariners of whom / speak
were frightened.
That which sailors call "a lump of a
sea- has become binding, deafening,
swamping fury. How mad the wind
can get ut the water, and the water can
get Mt the wind. You do not know un-
less you have been spectators. | have III
my house piece of the sail of ship,
no larger than the palm of my hand.
That piece of canvas was all that was
left of tho largest sail of the ship
Greece, that went into the storm 200
miles off Newfoundland Oh, what n
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 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 on their oars. see the long bank
of shining blades on either side the YES
sci. Oh, now they did pull, the bronzed
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 tumbles
everything in the confusion of impend-
ing shipwreck, or, as my text has it,
1.-The men rowed hard to bring it to
tho land, but they could not. wherefore
they cried unto the Lord.
Converted by Reading of 1t.
This scene is very suggestive to me,
and l pray God l may have grace and
strength enough to represent it intelli-
gently to you. Years ago preached y
sermon on another phase Of this very
subject, and / got letter from Houston,
Tex, the writer saying that the read
ing of that sermon i'll London he'd led
him to God. And l received another
letter from South Australia, saying that
the reading of that sermon i'll Australia
had brought several souls to Christ.
And then, l 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 III 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 wom-
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. III the midst of his argu-
ment, and say, Now, will tell You 4
fable" and today would like to bring
the scene of the text rs an illustration
of most important religious truth. As
those Mediterranean oarsmen trying to
bring Jonah ashore We're discounted,
have TO tell you that they were not
| =. L..
their paddles and have been obliged TO
call on the Lord for help. want to say
that the unavailing efforts of those Med
iterranaan oarsmen have 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 a father or mother or husband or
wife or child or near friend who is not
q 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 tho floor, wrung his hands. cried bit
terly and said, II believe shall go in
sane, for know she is not prepared to
meet God And there may have been
days of sickness i'll your household, when
you feared it would be a fatal sickness,
and how closely You examined the face
| Of the doctor as he came i'll and scru
tinized the patient and felt the pulse,
and Won followed him into the next
room and said, There isn't any dan
ger is there doctOr:' And the heSita-
tion 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
Highest of all in Leavening Pow