The free press., 1895-02-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THIS EMINENT DIvINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: "The Glorious Gospel"

OF the blessed God, Wh1cn WIS committed 10
my trust. Il Timothy L., IL.
The greatest novelty of our time is the gos-
pei. 1t is so old that it is new. As potters
and artists are now attempting to fashion
pitchers and cups and curious ware like
those of 1900 years ago recently brought up
from buried Pompeii, and such cups and
pitchers and curious ware are universally
admired, so anyone who can unshovel the
real gospel from the mountains OF stuff un-
der which 1t has been buried will be able to
present something that will attract the gaze
and admiration and adoption of all the peo-
pie. 1t is amazing what substitutes have
been presented for what my text calls, ''the
glorious gospel There has been a hemi-
spheric apostasy.
There are many people in this and all other
large assembleges who have no more idea OF
what the gospel really is than they have OF
whnt is contained in the fourteenth chapter
Of Zend-Avesta, the Bible of the Hindoo, the
first copy of which l ever saw purchased in
Calcutta last September. The old gospel
is fifty feet under, and the work has been
done by the shovels of those who have been
trying to contrive the philosophy OF religion.
There is no philosophy about it. 1t is q plain
matter of Bible statement and of childlike
faith! Some of the theological seminaries
have been hotbeds of in1delity because they
have tried to teach the PHILOSOPHY of reli-
gion.' BY the time that many young
theological student gets half through his
preparatory course he is so filled with
doubts about plenary inspection. and
the divinity of Christ, and the questions
OF eternal destiny, that he is more fit
for the lowest bench in the infant class
of Sunday-school than to become a teacher
and leader of the people. The ablest theo-
logical professor is Christian mother, who
out of her own experience can tell the four
yeariold how beautiful Christ was on earth,
r,,I No, 10 hoo and
how dearly He loves little folks, and then she
kneeis down and puts one arm around the
boy, and with her somewhat faded cheek
against the roSeate cheek of the little one
consecrates him for time and eternity to Him
who said. Suffer them to come unto Me"
What an awful work Paul made with the d.
DIS, and the LIDS, and the I. r. SIS.
when he cleared the decks of the old gospel
ship by saying, mot many wise men, not
many noble are called but God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confOund the
mighty"
There sits the dear old theologian with his
table piled up with all the great books on in
spiration and exegesis and apologetics for
the Almighty aud writing out his own eab-
crate work on the philosophy of religion, and
his little grandchild coming up to him for .
good night kiss he accidentally knocks OF
the biggest book from the table, and it falls
on the head of the child, of whom Christ Him
self said, "Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklngs thou hast perfected praise" All,
my friends. the Bible wants no apologetics.
The throne of the last judgment wants no
apologetics. Eternity wants no apoogctics.
Scientists may tell us that natural light is
the propagation of undulations in an elastic
medium and thus set in vibratory motion by
the action of luminous bodies" but
DO one knows what gospel light is
until his own blind eyes by the touch
of the Divine Spirit have opened to
see the MONDAY of pardon and peace. Scien-
fists may tell us that natural sound is "the
effect of an impression made on the organs
of hearing by an impulse Of the air. caused
by collision of bodies, or by other means,
but those only know what the gospel sound
Is who have heard the voice of Christ direct
ly, saying: ''Thy sins are forgiven thee.
Go in peace The theological dude unrols
upon the plush of the exquisitely carved pull
pit learned discourse showing that the
garden of Eden was an allegory, and Solo
mons Song q rather indelicate love ditty,
and the book of Job q drama in which satan
was the star actor, and that Renan was three
quarters right about miracles of Jesus, and
that the Bible was gradually evoluted and
the best thought of the different ages, Moses
and David and Paul doing the best they
could under the circumstances, and therefore
to be encouraged. Lord OF heaven and
earth. get us out of the London fog of higher
criticism
The night is dark and the way is rough,
and we have lantern which God has put in
our hands, but instead of employing that
lantern to show ourselves and others the
right way we are discussing lanterns, their
shape, their size, their material and which is
the better light-kerosene, lamp oil or can
dle-and while we discuss it we stand all
around the lantern, so that we shut out the
light from the multitudes who are stumbling
on the dark mountains of sin and death.
Twelve hundred dead birds were found one
morning around Bartholdi's statue in New
York Harbor. They had dashed their life
out against the lighthouse the night before.
Poor things And the great lighthouse of
the gospel-how many high soaring thinkers
have beaten all their religious life out
against it, while it was intended for only one
thing and that to show all Nations the way
into the harbor of Gods mercy and to the
crystalline wharves of the heavenly city.
where the immortals are waiting for new
arrivals Dead skylarlls, when they might
have been flying seraphs.
Here also come, covering up the old gos-
pei, some who think they can by law and ex-
posure of crimes save the world and from
Portland Me-, across to San Francisco. and
back again to New Orleans and Savannah
many of the ministers have gone into the de-
tective business. Worldly reform bv all
1t will be dead failure. In New York its CHIEF
work has been to give us q change of bosses
We had Democratic boss, and now il is to
be a Republican boss, but the quarrel is
Who shall be the Republican? Politics will
save the cities the same day that satan evan
gelizes perdition.
The glorious gospel of the blessed God as
spoken OF in my text will have more drawing
power, and when that gospel gets full swing
1t will have momentum and power
mightier than that of the Atlantic Ocean
when under the force of the September eaui-
noX it strikes tho Highlands of the Navesink
The meaning of the word gospel is good
news, aud my text says it is glorious good
news, and We must tell it in our churches,
and over our dry goods counters, and in our
factories. and over our threshing machines,
and behind our plows, and on our ships
decks, and in our parlors, our nurseries and
kitchens, ,as thought were glorious good news,
and not with dismal drawl in our voice,
and dismal look on our faces as though re-
ligion was rheumatic twinge or dyspep-
tic pang, or a malarial chill, or an attack of
nervous prostration. With nine ''blesseds"
or ''happys," Christ began His sermon on
the mount-blessed the poor; blessed the
mourner blessed the meek; blessed the hun
cry; blessed the merciful; blessed the pure;