The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-02-06
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
Subject: "Points of Compass"


and from the West, and from the North, and
from the South, and shall sit Gown. Luke
xiii, 20.
The man who wrote this was at one time q
practicing physician. ut another time tai
ented painter, at another time a powerful
preacher, at another time reporte'.-an in
Spired reporter. God bless and help and In
spire all reporters! From their pens drops
the health or poison Of Nations. The name
ofthis reporter was Lucanus. For short he
was called Luke, and in my text, although
lstenography had not yet been born. he re-
ports verbatim sermon of Christ which in
lone paragraph bowls the round world into
the light Of the millennium. "They shall
come from the East, and from the West, and
from the North, and from the South, and
shall sit down"
Nothing more interested me In my recent
Tourney around the world than to see the
ship captain about noon, whether on the
Pacific or the Indian or Bengal or Medi-
aterranean or Red Sea. looking through a
nautical instrument to find just where we
were sailing, and 1t is we'll to know that.
though the captain tells you that there are
thirty-two points Of division of the compass
card In the mariners compass, there are
only four cardinal points, and my text halls
them-the North, the South, the East, the
West. So spread out before US the map OF
the world to see the extent OF the gospel
campaign. The hardest part OF the field to
be taken Is the North, because our gospel Is
an emotional gospel, and the Nations OF the
lar North are a co!d-blooded race. They
dwell amid icebergs and eternal SHOWS and
handlers, Icslanders, Siber1ans-their vehicle
as the sledge drawn by reindeer, their ap-
parel the thic est furs at all seasons, their
Existence q lifetime battle with the cold.
Ehe winter charges upon them with SWORDS
bf icicle and strikes them with bullets OF hail
fand pounds them with battling rams OF gla-
cier. ...
J. But already the huts OF the arctic hear
the songs Of divine worship. Already the
SHOWS fall on open New Testaments. Al
ready the warmth OF the sun OF righteous
mess begins to be felt through the bodies
hnd minds and souls of the Hyperboreans.
Down from Nova Zembla, down from Spltz-
bergen seas, down from the land OF the mid
might sun, down from the palaces OF crystal,
down over realms Of ice and over domin-
Hons OF snow and through hurricanes Of
sleet Chrlst's disciples are coming from the
North. The Inhabitants OF Hudson Bay are
gathering to the cross. The Church Mis-
Sionary Society in those polar climes has
Z. been grandly successful In establishing
twenty-four gospel stations, and over II, 900
natives have believed and been baptized.
The Moravlans have kindled the light OF the
kospel all up and down Labrador. The Da-
hish mission has gathered disciples from
among the shivering inhabitants OF Green
Hand. William Duncan breaches the gospel
mp in the chill latitudes OF Columbia, deliv-
bring one sermon nine times In the same
nay to as many different tribes who listen,
and then go forth to build school houses and
churches.
Alaska, called at it's annexation William
H. Stewards folly, turns out to be William
q. Stewards triumph, and 1t Is hearing the
voice Of God through the American mission
hries, men and women as defiant OF arctia
hardships as the old Scottish chief who,
when camping out In winters night
Knocked from under his sons head pillow
pf snow, saying that such Indulgence In
luxury would weaken and disgrace the clan.
The Jeannette went down In latitude seven
ey.seyen. while DeLong and his freezing
knd dying men stood watching It from the
brumbliEg aud cracking polar pack, but the
old ship Of the gospel sails::as unhurt In lati-
hude seventy-seven as In our own forty de-
Rrees, and the one starred flag floats above
The topgallants in Bafin's Bay and Hudson's
etrait and Melville Sound The heroism OF
bolar expedition, which has made the names
Pf Sebastian Cabot and Scoresby and
\ Hchwatka and Henry Hudson immortal, is
10 be eclipsed by the prowess OF the men and
women who amid the frosts Of highest lati-
fudes are this moment taking the upper
bhores of Europe, Asia and America for God.
Bcientists have never been able to agree as
10 what Is the aurora borealis, or northern
lights. can tell them. It Is the banner OF
Victory for Christ spread cut In the nothern
hight heavens. Partially fulfilled already
the prophecy OF my text, to be completely
fulfilled In thenear future, "They shall come
from the North"
IS But my text takes in the opposite point Of
The compass. The far South has, through
high temperature, temptations to lethargy
Toward multiform evil. We have through
ey text got the North In, Notwithstanding
ITS frosts, and the same text brings In the
Houth, Notwithstanding It's torrldity. The
@elds OF cactus, the orange groves and the
Shickets Of magnolia are to be surrendered
10 the Lord Almighty. The South! That
means Mexico and all the regions that Will
lam II. Prescott and Lord Kingsborough
made familiar In literature; Mexico, In
btrange dialect of the Aztecs; Mexico con-
huered by Herman Cortes, to be more 9lor-
Hously conquered Mexico, with its capital
more than 1000 feet above the sea level look
Ing down upon the enhancement OF lake and
valley and plain Mexico, the home of ma
Hons yet to be horn-all for Christ. The
South! That means Africa. which David
Livingstone consecratedto to God when he died
on his knees In his tent of exploration. Al
eeady about $50 900 conv ,rts to Christianity
in Africa. The South That means all the
Islands strewn by omnipotent hand through
tropical seas-Malayan, Polynesia, Melane-
sia, Micronesia and other islands more
numerous than you can imagine unless you
have yoyaged around the world The South !
That means Java for God, Sumatra for God,
Borneo tor God, Slam for God.
A ship was wrecked nesr one Of these ISL
ends, and two lifeooats put out for shore,
but those who arrived in the first boat were
other boat put back and was somehow saved.
Years passed on, and one OF that very crew
was wrecked again With others on the same
rocks. Crawling up on the shore, they pro-
posed to hide from the cannibals in one OF
the caverns, but mounting the rocks they
saw church and cried out: "We are
saved! A church, a church, The South
That means Venezuela, New Granada,
Ecuador and Bolivia. The South! That
means the torrid zone, with all it's bloom,
and all Its fruitage, and all It's exuberauce,
the redolsncs Of 'illimltable gardens, the
music Of boundless groves, the lands, the
seas, that night by night look up to the
Southern Gross, which, in stars, transfg-
nres the midnight heaven as you look up at
II oil the way from the Sandwich Islands to
Australia. "TheY shall come from the
South."
But must not forget that my text takes
In another cardinal point Of the compass.
1T takes in the East. I have to report that
IN journey around the world theirs is MOTH
Ing 80 much impresses one as the fact that
the missionaries divinely blessed are taking
the world for God. The horrible war be.
tween Japan and China will leave the last
wall of opposition fiat in the dust. War Is
barbarism always and everywhere. We hold
mp our hands in amazement at the massacre
at Port Arthur rs though Christian Nations