The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-03-16
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Church Too Exclusive TO
Properly Fulfil It's Mission.
Too Much Time Do 'oted to Caring for
veivet-Coated sim,crs-To Reach
the Multitude TechnicaIi-
ties Must be Dropped.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon in the Academy
Of music, New York city, on the sub
ject: New Ground" basing it en- the
text:
Lest Ishouid build upon another mans foun-
dation.-Romans xv., 20.
After, with the help of others, had
built three churches in the same city,
and not feeling called upon to under
take the superhuman toll of building
o fourth church, Providence seemed
to point to this place as the field in
, which could enlarge my work, and
feel a sense of relief amounting to ex-
ultation. Whereunto this work will
! grow can not prophesy. 1t is invit-
! Ing and promising beyond anything I
ever touched. The churches are the
grandest institutions this world ever
saw, aud their pastors have no superb
ors this side Of Heaven; but there Is a
work which must be done outside of
| the churches, and to that work / join
myself for awhile: Lest build on an
other mans foundation"
The church is a fortress, divinely
built. Now fortress is for defense
and for drill, and for storing ammuni-
ton, but an army must sometimes be
on the march far outside the fortress.
In the campaign of conquering this
world for Christ the time has come for
an advance movement, for n general
engagement" for massing the troops,
for an invasion of the enemies coun-
try. Confident that the forts are we'll
man ned by the ablest ministry that
ever blcst the church, / propose, with
others. for awhile, to join the cavalry.
and move out and on for service in the
open field.
In laying out the plans for his mis-
sionary tour, Paul, with more brains
than any of his contemporaries, or
predecessors, or successors, sought out
towns and cities which had not yet
city mentioned for splendor and vice,
and Jerusalem, where the priesthood
and Sanhedrim were ready to leap
with both feet upon the Christian re-
ligion. lie feels he has a special work
to do, and he means to do it. What
was the result? The grandest life of
usefulness that man ever lived. We
modern Christian workers are not apt
to initiate Paul. We build on other peo-
pies foundations. If we erect church
we prefer to have it filled with fam
lilies all of whom have been pious. Do
we gather Sunday-school class, we
want good boys and girls, hair combed,
faces washed, manners attractive. So
y church in this day is apt to be built
out of other churches. Some minis
tiers spend all their time fishing in
other peoples ponds. and they throw
the line into that church pond and
jerk out Methodist, and throw the
line into another church pond and
bring out a Presbyterian, or there is a
| religious row in some neighboring
| church, and the whole school of fish
swim off from that pond, and we take
them all in with one sweep of the net.
| What is gained? Absolutely nothing
for the general cause of Christ. 1t is
| only as in an army, when regiment is
transferred from one division to an
other, OF from the Fourteenth regi-
ment to the Sixty regiment.
What strengthens the army is new re-
cruits.
The fact is, this is n big world. When
in our schoolboy days we learned the
dipmeter and circumference of this
planet, we did not learn half. 1t is
the latitude and longitude and di-
ameter and circumference of want and
woe and sin that no figures can calcu-
late. This one spiritual continent of
wretchedness reaches across all zones,
and if ] were called to give its geo.
graphical boundary, l would say it is
bounded on the north and south and
east and west by the great heart of
Gods sympathy and love. Oh, it is a
great world. Since six o'clock this
morning at least eighty thousand
have been born, and all these
multiplied populations are to)~be
reached by the Gospel. In
England, or in Eastern American cities,
we are being much crowded, and an
acre of ground is of great value, but
out west five hundred acres is a small
farm, and twenty thousand acres is no
unusual possession. There is a vast
field here and everywhere unoccupied,
plenty of room more, not building on
aHOtheT IfldH IOuuuutlOH we Hccu us
churches to stop bombarding the old
iron-clad sinners that have been proof
against thirty years of Christian as
sault, and aim for the salvation of
those who have never yet had
one warm-hearted and point-blank
invitation. There are churches
whose buildings might be worth two
hundred thousand dollars who are not
averaging five new converts year,
and doing less good than many a log
cabin meeting house with tallow
candle stuck in wooden socket, and u
minister who has never seen a college
OF known the difference between Greek
and Choctaw. We need churches to
get into sympathy with the great out
side world, and let them know that
none are so broken-hearted or hardly
beset that they will not be welcomed.
"Nor' says some fastidious Christian.
~ don't like to be crowded in church.
Don't put any one in my pew" My
brother, what will You do in Heaven"
When great multitude that no
man can number assemblies they will
put fifty in your pew. What are the
select few to-day assembled in the
| Christian churches compared with the
I