The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-04-06
RELIGION OF CHRIST.
DR.. Talmage Says It Is the Grand
est Possible Adjournment.
Infideiity and Christianity Contrasted-
The Peace of One, the Despair
of the Other-The Dau-
gers of Delay.

In late sermon at Brooklyn Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage discoursed on the
sustaining power of religion to those
who are in daily contact with the
world, its trials and temptations. The
text chosen was Psalms, xviii, 10:
Though you have lain among the
pots, yet shall We be as the wings of
a dove covered with silvec, and her
feathers with yellow gold" DIR. Tai
mage said:
suppose you know what the Israel
ties did down in Egyptian slavery.
The men made bricks. Amid the uten-
sils of the brick-kiln there were also
other utensils of cookery-the kettles,
the pots the pans, with which they
prepared their daily food; and
when these poor slaves, tired of the
days work, lay down to rest, they lay
down among the implements of cook
cry and the implements of hard work
When they arose in the morning they
found their garments covered with the
clay and the smoke and the dust, and
besmirched and begrimed with the
utensils of cookery But after awhile
the Lord broke up that slavery, and he
took these poor slaves into land
where they had better garb, bright and
clean and beautiful apparel When
David, in my text, comes to describe
the transition of these poor Israelites
from bondage amid the brick-kilns into
: the glorious emancipation which God
had prepared them, he says: Though
We have lain among the pots, yet shall
We be as the wings of dove covered
with silver, and her feathers with yell
low gold"
Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters.
Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps us drudg-
! ing in a most degrading service; but af-
ter awhile Christ comes and says: Let
my people CO." and we pass out from
among the brick-kilns of sin into the
glorious liberty of the gospel; we put
! on the clean robes of Christian pro-
| fession, and when, at last, we soar
away to the warm nest which God has
provided for us in Heaven, we shall go
fairer than dove, it's wings covered
with silver and its feathers with yellow
gold.
l am going to preach something
which some of you do not believe, and
that is, that the grandest possible
adornment is the religion of Jesus
Christ There are great many people
who suppose that religion is very diff
ferent thing from what it really is.
The reason men condemn the Bible is
because they do not understand the
Bible; they have not properly examined
/ it. Dr. Johnson said that Hume told a
minister in the bishopric of Durham
that he had never particularly exam
ined the New Testament yet all his
life warning against it. HALEY, the
astronomer, announced his skepticism
to Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir Isaac
Newton said: "Now, sir, have exam
ined the subject and you have not; and
l am ashamed that you. protesting to
be philosopher. consent to condemn
thing you never have examined"
And SO men reject the religion of Jesus
Christ because they really have never
, investigated it
But how is it if young man becomes
Christian? All through the club
rooms, where he associates, all through
the business circles where he is known,
there is commiseration. They say:
"What a pity that young man who
had such bright prospects should SO
have been despoiied by those Christ
ians, giving up all his worldly pros
poets for something which is of no par
ticular present WORTH Here is a
xyhn haporpac Chricf-
ian; her voice, her face, her manners
the charm of the drawing room. Now, all
through the fashionable circles the
whisper goes: what pity that such
bright light should have been extin-
guished, that such graceful gait
should be crippled, that such worldly
prospects should be obliteratedr' All,
my friends, it can be shown that re-
ligion's ways are ways of pleasantness,
and that all her paths are peace; that
religion, instead of being dark and
doleful and lachrymose and repulsive,
is bright and beautiful, fairer than
dove, it's wings covered with silver and
its feathers with yellow gold.
See, in the first place, what religion
will do for q mans heart / care not
how cheerful man may naturally be
before conversion, conversion naturally
brings him up to higher standard of
cheerfulness. 1 do not say he will
laugh any louder; l do not say but he
may stand back from some forms of
hilarity in which he once indulged;
but there comes into his soul an i'm
mense satisfaction. A young man not
Christian depends upon worldly success
to keep his spirits up. Now he is pros
pered, now he has large salary, now
he has a beautiful wardrobe, now he has
pleasant friends, now he has more
money than he knows how to spend;
everything goes bright and well with
him. But trouble comes; his friends
are gone, his salary is gone, his health
is gone; he goes down, down. He be-
comes sour, cross, queer, misanthropic,
blames the world, blames society,
blames the church, blames verything,
rushes perhaps to the Intoxicating cup
to drown his trouble, but, instead of
drowning his trouble, he browns his
body and browns his soul
But there is Christian young man.
Trouble comes to him Does he give
up? No. He throws himself back on
the resources of Heaven. He says:
God is my father. Out of all these
disasters shall pluck advantage for
my soul. All the promises are mine,
Christ is mine, Christian companion
ship is mine, Heaven is mine. What
though my apparel be worn out?
Christ gives me robe of Righteousness.
What though my money be gone? 1
have title deed to the whole universe
in the promise, al are yours What
though my worldly friends fall away?