Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-10-18
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent New York Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: ga Point Blank Question
TExx Ills thine heart right?"-II Kings

adab Jehu salutes him in the words Of tho
text-words not more appropriate for that
hour and that place than for this hour and
place, "Is thine heart right?"
I should like to hear of your physical
health. Well myself, like TO have every
body else well, and so might ask, Is your
eyesight right, your hearing right, your
nerves right, your lungs right. your entire
body right? But I am busy to-day taking
diagnosis OF the more important spiritual
conditions 1 should like to hear of your
financial welfare. I want everybody to have
plenty of money, ample apparel, large store
house and comfortable residence, 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 by the long
credit system of the soul? have known
men to have no more than one loaf of bread
at time, and yet to own government
bond of heaven worth more than the whole
material universe.
The question ask you to-day Is not in re-
gard to your habits. / make no inquiry
about your integrity or y0ur chastity or
your sobriety. do not mean to stand on
the outside of the gate and ring the bell, but
coming MP the steps, I open the door and
come to the private apartment OF the soul,
and with the earnestness of n man that must
give an account for this day s work l cry out,
Oh. man, oh, woman immortal is thine heart
right?
l will not insult you by an argument to
prove that we are by nature all wrong. II
there be factory explosion and the smoke
stack be upset, and the wheels be broken in
two, and the engine unjointed. AMI the
ponderOus bars be twisted, and q man should
look in and say that nothing was the matter,
you would pronounce him a fool Well, it
needs no acumen to discover that our nature
is all atwist and askew and unjointed. The
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. do not stop to dis
cuss whether we all fell in Adam, for wa
have been our own 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 it says that we are poor and Wretched
and miserable and blind and naked. Poorl
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 gone feeling his way from street
to street, is not in such utter darkness as
we. Naked! 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 aud 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 it remedied. 1 speak of the
thirst of your hot tongue only that 1 may
show you the living stream that drops crys-
talline and sparkling from the Rock of Ages
and pours river OF oladness at your feet
If show you the rents in your coat it is
only because the door of Gods wardrobe
now swings open. and here is a robe, white
with the fleece of the Lamb Of God, and OF
cut and make that an angel would not be
ashamed to wear If / snatch from you the
black, moldy bread that you are munching.
it is only to give you the bread made out OF
the finest wheat that grows on the celestial
hills and baked in the fires of the cross, and
one crumb of which would be enough to
make all heaven a banquet. Hear it, one and
all, and tell it to your friends when you go
home, that the Lord Jesus Christ can make
the heart right
First we need a repenting heart. If for
the last ten, twenty or forty years of life we
have been going on in the wrong way, it is
time that we turned around and started in
the opposite direction. If we offend our
friends, we are glad TO apologize. Col is
our best friend, and yet how many OF us
have never apologized for the wrongs we
have done Him!
There is nothing that we so much need to
get rid of as sin. 1t is a horrible black mon
ster 1t polluted len. 1t killed Christ. 1t
has blasted the world Men keep dogs in
kennels, and rabbits in a warren, and cattle
in pen. What man that would be who
would shut them up in his parlor. But this
foul dog of sin and these herds Of transgres-
sion we have entertained for many a long
year in our heart, which should be the
cleanest. brightest room in all our nature.
Out with the vile herd! Begone, we befoul-
ers of an immortal nature!
Turn out the beasts and let Christ come
in A heather came to an early Christian
who had the reputation of curing diseases.
The Christian said, "YOu must have all your
idols destroyed" The heather gave to the
Christian the key to his house, that he might
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
Ia - hn
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 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,
and over the footboard. and horribly de-
voured the soul.
Repent, the voice celestial cries,
Nor longer dare delay.
The wretch that scorns the mandate dies
And meets fiery day.
Again, we need 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 Him.
They spat on Him. They bounded Him as
though He were wild beast. His healing
of the sick. His sight giving to the blind His
mercy to the outcast, sile1ced not the re-
venge of the world. His prayers and benedtc-
lions z3ere iost in that whirlwind OF execra-
ton: "Away With Him! Away with Him"
Alb, 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 amending eternity!
No wonder His back bent. No wonder the
blood started from every pore. No wOndec
4h of Hn nronnhad under q tnrtnrn that made