Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-05-03
THE GOSPELS CALL.
THE THEME OF REV
Or. 7. DE WITT TALMAGE.

"Seek Ye the Lord While He may bo
Found" Supplies the Text For an ElO-
quent Discourse-A Call to the UncOn-
verted.
New YORK, April 28. 8.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today again preached to great
audience in the Academy Of Music. As
usual, many were turned away for lack
of seats. The sermon was on "Salva-
ton, the text selected being Isaiah ",
G, "Seek We the Lord while he may be
found.
Isaiah stands head and shoulders above
the other Old Testament authors in vivid
descriptiveness of Christ Other prophets
give an outline Of our Saviour s features
Some of them present, as 1t were, the
side face of Christ, others a bust of
Christ, but Isaiah gives us the full
length portrait of Christ. Other Scrip
ture writers excel in some things-Eze-
kiel more weird, David more pathetic,
Solomon more epigrammatic, Habakkuk
more sublime-but when you want to
see Christ coming out from the gates OF
prophecy in all his grandeur and glory
YOU involuntarily turn to Isaiah, so that
if the prophecies in regard to Christ
might be called the "OratOrio Of the
Messiah" the writing of Isaiah is the
"Halleluiah Chorus" p" where all the
batons wave and all the trumpets come
in. Isaiah was not man picked up out
of insignifcance by inspiration. He was
known and honored Josephus and Philo
and Sirach extolled him in their writ
ings. What Paul was among the apostles
Isaiah was among the prophets.
My text finds him standing on a
mountain Of inspiration, looking out
into the future, beholding Christ ad-
vancing and anxious that all men might
know him. His voice rings down the
ages, Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. " "Oh, " says some one, THAT
was for olden times" No, my hearer.
If YOU have travelled in other lands, You
have taken a circular letter Of credit
from some banking house in New York
and in St Petersburg or Venice or Rome
or Melbo.-. ne or Calcutta You present
ed that letter and got financial help i'm
mediately. And l want you to under
stand that the text, instead Of being
appropriate for one age or for one land,
is a circular letter for all ages and for
all lands, and wherever it is presented
for help the help comes. "Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found "
Personal Religion.
I come today with no hair spun the
ories of religion, with no nice distinc-
tions, with no elaborate disquisition-
but with an urgent call to personal re-
hgion. The gospel of Christ is a power,
full medicine. 1t either kills or cures.
There are those who say: Il would like
to become a Christian. l have been
waiting a good while for the right kind
Of influences to come, " and still you
are waiting You are wiser in worldly
things than you are in religious things.
If you want to get to Albany, you go to
the Grand Central depot or to the
steamboat wharf, and having got your
ticket You do not sit down on the wharf
or sit in the depot You get aboard the
boat or train And yet there are men
who say they are waiting to get to
heaven, waiting, waiting, but not with
intelligent waiting, or they would get
on board the line Of Christian influences
that would bear them into the kingdom
Of God
Now, you know very well that to seek
a thing is to search for 1t with earnest
endeavor. If you want to see a certain
man in this city, and there is a matter
of $40. 900 connected with your seeing
him. and you cannot at first find him,
you do not give up the search You
look in the directory, but cannot find
the name. You 60 in circles where you
think perhaps he may mingle, and hav-
ing found the part Of the city where he
lives, but perhaps not knowing the
street, you go through street after street
and from block 20 block, and you keep
on searching for weeks and for months
You say, at is a matter Of SIC, 1000
whether l see him or not. " Oh, that
men were as persistent in seeking for
Christ Had you one-half that persist
ence you would long ago have found
him who is the JOY of the forgiven spirit.
We may pay our debts, we may attend
church, we may relieve the poor, we
may be public benefactors, and yet all
our life disobey the text, never seek
God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the
Spirit of God would help me, while i
try to show you, in carrying out the
idea of my text, first how to seek the
Lord and in the next place when to
seek him
Necessity For Earnestness.
remark, in the first place, you are
TO seek the Lord through earnest and
believing prayer God is not an autocrat
or a desDot seated on throne, with his
arms resting on brazen lions and a SEN
tinel pacing up and down at the foot OF
the throne. God is father seated IN
bower, waiting for his children to come
and climb on his knee and get his kiss
and his benediction Prayer is the cup
with which we go to the fountain OF
living water" and dip up refreshmen'
for our thirsty soul Grace does not
come to the heart as we set cask al
the corner Of the house 20 catch the rain
in the shower. 1t is pulley fastened
to the throne Of God, which we pull,
bringing the blessing.
| do not care so much what posture
you take in prayer nor how large az
amount of voice you use. You might
get down on your face before God, Il
you did not pray right inwardly there
would be no response. You might CRY
at the top Of your voice, and unless yor
had a believing spirit within your CRY
would not go further mp than the shoui
of a plowboy to his oxen. Prayer mus
be believing, earnest, loving. You arr
in your house some summer day, anC
a shower comes up, and a bird, alright
ed, darts into the window and wheel
about the room You seize it. YoV
smooth its rpffled plumage You fee