Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-04-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divines Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "strangsrs Within the Gates,


my ,-&t is one that has suffered from irrever
ent and misapplied quotation. It show
| great poverty of wit and bumor when peopl.
take the sword of divine truth for a game al
fencing or chip off from the Kohinoor dia
mond OF inspiration sparkle 10 decorate {
Iools cap. My text is the salutation in the
last Judgment to be given to those who have
SHOWN hospitality and Kindness and Chris
tian helpfnlhess to strangers By railroad
ana steamboat the population of the earth
are all the time in motion, and from one
year S end to another our cities are crowded
with visitors
Every morning on the tracks of the Hud-
son River the Pennsylvania, the Erie the
Long Island Railroads there come passenger
trains more than 1 can number. so that all
the depots and the wharves are a-rumble
and a-clang with the coming in of n great
immigration of strangers. Some Of them
come for purposes of barter, some for mech
anism, some for artistic qualification, some
for sightseeing. A great many of them go
out on the evening trains, and consequently
the city makes but little impression upon
them, but there are multitudes who in the
hotels and boarding houses make temporary
residence. They tarfy here for three or four
days or as many weeke. They spend the
days in the stores and the evenings in sight
seeing. Their temporary stay will either
make or break them not only financially but
morally, for this world and the world that is
to come. Multitudes of them come into our
morning and evening services. | am con-.
scous that | stand in the presence of many
this moment. l desire more especially to
speak to them. Nay God give me the right
word and help me to utter it in the right
way.
There have glided into this house those
unknown to others whose history if told
would re more thrilling than the deepest
tragedy, more exciting than PATHS song.
more bright than spring morning. moro
awful than wintry midnight. If they
could stand up here and tell the story of
their escapes, aud their temptations, an
their bereavements. and their disasters. and
their victories. and the<-- defeats, there would
be in this house such comminglng of
groans and acclamations as would make the
place uncomfortable.
There is man who, in infancy. lay in a
cradle satin lined Out yonder Is a man
who was picked up founding on Boston
Common. Hero is a man who is coolly OBJ
serving this religious service, expecting no
advantage and caring for no advantage for
himself, while yonder is man who has been
for ten years in an awful coniagation of evil
habits, and he is mere cinder of a destroyed
nature, and he is wondering il there shall be
In this service any escape or help for his i'm
mortal soul. Meeting you only once per-
haps face to face, strike hands with you in
an earnest talk about your present condition
and yonreternal we'll being. ST. Pau's ship
at Melita went TO pieces where two seas
meet, but we stand to-day at point where
thousand seas converge, and eternity alone
can tell the issue of the hour.
The hotels this country. for beauty and
6IApanNn htyf ha In
any other land but those that are most cele-
brated for brilliancy of tapestry and mirror
cannot give to the guest any costly apart
ment unless he can afford parlor in addi-
ton to his lodging The stranger, therefore,
will generally find assigned 10 him room
without any pictures and perhaps any rock
ing chair. He will find a box of matches on
a bureau and an old newspaper left by the
previous occupant, and that will De about all
the ornamentation. AT 7 o'clock in the even
ing, after having taken his repast, he will
look over his memorandum book of the days
work, he will write letter 10 his home. and
then 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 ten minutes YOU
have joined it. Where are YOU going? "Oh,"
you say, II haven't made up my mind yet"
Better make up your mind before you start
Perhaps the very way you go now you will
always go. Twenty years ago there were two
young men who came down the Astor HOUSE
steps and started out in a wrong direction
where they have been going ever since.
"Well, where are you going?" says one
man. II 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 my soul. l congratulate
you. Where are you going? "Well," you
say, II am going up to see some advertised
pictures" Good [ should like to go along
with you and look over the same catalogue
and study with you Kensett and Bierstadt
and Church and Moran. Nothing more
elevating than good pictures Where are
you going? "Well," you say, 81 am going
rooms" Good. You will find there
gymnastics TO strengthen the muscles, and
books to improve the mind, and Christian
influence 10 save the soul. l wish every city
in the United States had as fine a paiace for
its Young Mems Christian Association.
as New York has. Where are you goinS2
well" you say, II am going to take long
walk up Broadway and so turn around into
the Bowery. l am going to study human
life" Good. A walk through Broadway at
o'clock at night is interesting. educating,
fascinating appalling, exhilurating TO the
last degree Stop in front of that thea;.e
and see who goes in. Stop at that saloon
and see who comes out. See the great titles
of life surging backward and forward and
beating against the marble of the curbston9
an eddying down into the saloons. WHAT
is that mark on the face OF that debauchee?
II is the hectic flesh of eternal death. What
is that woman's laughter? 1t is the shrek
of lost soul.
Who is that Christian man going along
with vial of anodyne 10 the dying pauper
on Elm street? Who is that belated man
on the way to prayer meeting? Who is
that city missionary going to take box in
which to bury child2 Who are all-these
clusters of bright and beautiful faces? They
are going 10 some interesting place Of amuse-
nent.
Who is that man going into the drug store?
That is the man who yesterday lost all his
fortune on Wall street He is going in for
dose OF belladonna, and before morning 1t
will make no difference to him whether
stocks are up or down. tell you that Broad
way, between and - o'clock at night, be-
tween the Battery and Central Park, is an
Austerlitz, Gettysburg a Waterloo, where
kingdoms are lost or won and three worlds
mingle in the strife.
met another coming down off the hotel |
steps. and say, "Where are you goingY |
You say; 81 am going with a mel chant of
New York who has promised to show me the
life of the city. I am his Gus
toner, and ne IS going to oblige me verI |
much.'' Stop! A business house that trie'
to get or keep your custom through such |
process as that is not worthy of you. There |
are business establishments in our cities |
which have for years been sending TO de-
struction hundra and thousands OF mer- |
chants. They have u secret drawer in the |