The Penn's Grove record., 1895-10-11
0EV. DR.. TaLqaGE.
The Brooklyn Divlne's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: "a Point Blank Question:
TExu ais thine heart r~ightY"-II King.

K, Is.
With melted horses at full speed, for he
was celebrated for fast driving. Jehu, the
warrior and king, returns from battle. But
seeing ~JehonadRb. IN acquaintance, by the
wayside, he shouts, "Whoal Whoa!" to the
lathered span. Then leaning over to Jehon-
dab Jehu salutes him in the words of the
~text-words not more appropriate for that
hour and that place than for this hour and
place, ''Is thine heart right"
l hould like to hear of your physical
health. Well myself, 1 like to have every
body else well, and so might ask, Is your
eyesight right. your hearing right, your
nerves right, your lungs right, YOU entire
body right2 But l am busy to-day taking
diagnosis Of the more important spiritual
conditions. 1 should like to hear Of your
financial welfare. l want everybody to have
plenty of money, ample apparel, large store
house and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and ! might
ask. Is your business right. your income
right, your worldly surroundings right? But
what are these financial questions compared
with the inquiry as to whether you have
been able to pay your debts to God; as TO
whether YOU are insured for eternity; as TO
whether you are running yourself blythe long
credit system Of the SOUP have known
men to have no more than one loaf Of bread
at a time, and yet to own a government
bond of heaven worth more than the whole
material universe.
The question 1 ask you to-day is not in re-
gard to your habits. I make NJ inquiry
about your integrity or your chastity or
your sobriety. lido not mean TO stand on
the outside OF the gate and ring the bell, hut
coming up the steps, 1 open the door and
come to the private apartment Of the soul,
and with the earnestness of a man that must
give an account for this days work I cry out,
oh. man, oh, woman immortal, is thine heart
rightp
I will not insult you by an argument TO
prove that W. are by nature all wrong. II
there be a factory explosion and the smoke.
stack be upset, and the wheels be broken in
two, and the engine unjointed. and the
ponderous bars be twisted, and a imam should
look In and say that nothing was the matter,
you would pronounce him a fool. Well. II
needs no acumen to discover that our nature
ts all atwist and askew and unjointed. Tho
thing doesn't work right. The biggest
trouble we have in the world is with our
souls. Men sometimes say that though
their lives may not be Just right, their heart
is all right. Impossible. A farmer never
puts the poorest apples on top of his barrel;
nor does the merchant place the meanest
goods in his show window. The best part Of
us is our outward life. I do not stop to dis
cuss whether we all fell in Adam. for we
have been our W Adam, and have all eaten
OF the forbidden fruit, and have been turned
out of the paradise of holiness and peace,
and though the flaming sword that stood at
the gate to keep us out has changed position
and comes behind to drive US in, we will
not go.
The Bible account of us is not exaggerated
when 1t says that we are poor and wretched
and miserable and blind and naked. Poor!
The wretch that stands shivering on our
doorstep on a cold day is not so much in
need of bread as we are OF spiritual help.
Blind! Why, the man whose eyes persisted
in the powder blast, and who for these ten
years has one feeling his way from street
to street, is not in such utter darkness as
we. Nakedl Why, there is not one rag of
holiness left to hide the shame of our sin.
Sick! Why, the leprosy has eaten into the
head and the heart and the hands and the
feet, and the marasmus Of an everlasting
wasting away has already seized on some
of us.
But the meanest thing for a man TO do is
to discourse about an evil without pointing
a way to have 1t remedied. I speak Of the
thirst Of your hot tongue only that l may
show you the living stream that drops crys-
talline and sparkling from the Rock of Ages
and pours a river Of pladness at your feet.
II | show you h rents in your coat, it is
only because the door of Gods wardrobe
now swings open, and here Is q robe, white
with the fleece Of the Lamb of God, and of a
cut and make that an angel would not be
ashamed to wear. II I snatch from you the
black, moldy bread that you are munching,
1t is only to give you the bread made out OF
hills and baked In the fires Of the cross, and
one crumb Of which would be enough to
make all heaven a banquet. Hear 1t, one and
all, and tell 1t to your friends when you go
home. that the Lord Jesus Christ can make
the heart right.
First We need a r~epeAting heart. If for
the last ten, twenty or forty years Of life we
| have hnnn GOING on In fha rrrrnnn ~ 80
time that we turned around and started in
the opposite direction. II we offend our
friends, we are glad to apologize. God is
our best friend, and yet how many of us
have never apologiEed for the wrongs We
have done Himl
get rid OF as sin. 1t is a horrible black mon
ster. 1t polluted Eden. 1t killed Christ. 1t
has blasted the world, Men keep dogs in
Kennels, and rabbits In a warren, and cattle
In a pen. What a man that would be who
would shut them up in his parlor. But this
foul dog Of sin n these herds of transgres-
sion we have entertsined for many a long
year in our heart, ich should be the
cleanest, brightest room. in all our nature.
Out with the vile herdl Begone, ye befoul-
srs OF an immortal nRturei
Turn out the beasts and let Christ come
tni A heather came to an early Christian
who had the reputation Of curing diseases.
Al bhluy lou must nave All your
idols destroyed" The heather gave to the
Christian the key to his house, that hemight
go In and destroy the idols. He battered to
pieces all he saw, but still the man did not
get well. The Christian said to him, ''There
must be some idol In your house not yet de-
stroyed." The heather confessed that there
was one idol Of beaten gold thas he could
not bear to give up. After awhile, when
that was destroyed, in answer to the prayer
Of the Christian, the sick man got well.
Many a man has awakened in his dying
hour to find his sins all about him. They
clambered up on the right side of the bed,
and on the left side, and over the headboard,
voured the soul.
Repent, the voice celestial cries,
Nor longer dare delay.
The wretch that scorns the mandate dies
And meets a fiery day.
Again, we need a believing heart. A good
many years ago a weary one went up one Of
the hills OF Asia Minor, and with two logs
on his back cried out to all the world, offer
ing to carry their sins and sorrows. They
pursued Him. They slapped Him in the face.
They Knocked Him. When He groaned, they
groaned. They shook their fists at Hin.
They spat on Him. They bounded Hin as
though He were q wild beast. His healing
OF the sick. His sight giving to the blind, His
mercy to the outcast, sileneed not the re-
venge OF the world. His prayers and benedic-
tions were lost in that whirlwind Of execra-
ton; Away with Himl Away with HIM.
All, 1t was not merely the two pieces OF
wood that He carried; it was the transgress-
| ions OF the race, the anguish OF the ages, the
wrath OF God, the sorrows Of hell, the stu.
penduous interests Of an unending e~teInityl
No wonder His back bent. No wonder the
blood started from every pore. No wonder
that He crouched under a torture that made
the sun faint, and the everlasting hills trem.
BILE, and the dead rush up In their winding
sheets as BE cried, "1t it be possible, let this
cup pass from Me-" But the cup did moi
pass. None to comfort,
There He hangs! lat has that hand done
that 1t should be thus crushed In the palmi
1t has been healing the lame and wipint
away tears. What has that foot been doint
that it should be SO lacerated? 1t has beet
going about doing good. OF what has tht
victim been guilty? Guilty OF saving I
world. Tell me, ye heavens and earth, wal
there ever such anotheSeriminal? Was theri
ever such a crime? On that hill Of carnage,
that sunless day. amid tho bowling riotI
ers. may not your sins and me have peri
ehsds lbsliase IL Oh. NNNensom hat