The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-10-11
A DIRECT QUESTION.
REV. DR., TALMAGE PUTS IT POINT
BLANK TO MEN AND WOMEN.

He Speaks Directly to the Hearts of All
Who Have Not Definitely Accepted the
Free Offer of Salvation In Christ Jesus.
els Thine Heart Right?r
NEW YORK, Oct. EN- his sermon
for today Rev. DR.. Talmage speaks di-
rectly to the hearts of all who have not
yet definitely accepted the free offer of
salvation in Christ Jesus. The subject
was, IA Point Blank Question, the
text being II Kings x, 10, is thine heart
right?"
With mettled horses at full speed, for
he was celebrated for fast driving, Je-
hu, the warrior and king, returns from
battle. But seeing Jehonadab, an ac-
quaintance, by the wayside, he shouts,
whoa! Whoa" to the lathered span.
Then leaning over to Jehonadab Jehu
salutes him in the words of the text
words not more appropriate for that
hour and that place than for this hour
and place, "Is thine heart right?"
should like to hear of your physical
health. Well myself, like to have ev-
erybody else we'll, and so might ask, Is
your eyesight right your hearing right,
your nerves right, your lungs right,
your entire body right? But am busy
today taking diagnosis of the more i'm
portant spiritual conditions. should
like to hear of your financial welfare.
want everybody to have plenty of mon
ey, ample apparel, large storehouse and
comfortable residence, and l 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 wheth
er 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 sys-
tenn of the soul? have known men to
have no more than one loaf of bread at
time, and yet to own a government
bond of heaven worth more than the
whole material universe
Gospel Truth.
The question I ask you today is not
in regard to your habits. I make no in
quiry about your integrity or your chas-
tity Or your sobriety. do not mean to
stand on the outside of the gate and
ring the bell, but coming up the steps,
l open the door and come to the private
apartment of the soul, and with the
earnestness of man that must give an
account for this days work l cry out,
Oh, man, oh, woman immortal, is thine
heart right?
I will not insult you by an argument
to prove that we are by nature all
wrong. If there be factory explosion
and the smokestack be upset, and the
wheels be broken in two, and the engine
unjointed, and the ponderous bars be
twisted, and man should look in and
say that nothing was the matter, you
would pronounce him fool. Well, it
needs no acumen to discover that our
nature is all atwist and askew and un-
jointed. 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. I'm
possible. A farmer never puts the poor
est 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. I do not stop to
discuss whether we all fell in Adam, for
we 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 exag-
gerated when it says that we are poor
and wretched and miserable and blind
and naked. Poor The wretch that stands
shivering on our doorstep on 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 and the heart and the
hands and the feet, and the marasmus
of an everlasting wasting away has al
ready seized on some Of us.
Our Needs.
But the meanest thing for man to
do is to discourse about an evil without
pointing way to have it remedied. I
speak of the thirst Of your hot tongue
only that I may show you the living
stream that drops crystalline and spar
Killing from the Rock Of Ages and pours
river of gladness at your feet. If I
show you the rents in your coat, it is on
ly 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 l snatch from yea 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 banquet.
Hear it, one and all, and tell 1t to your
friends when you go home, that the
Lord Jesus Christ can make the heart
right.
First we need repenting heart. If
for the last 10, 20 or 40 years of life we
have been going on in the wrong way, 1t
is time that we turned around and
starred in the opposite direction. If we
offend our friends, we are glad to apollo
gize God 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 sim 1t is a horri-
BILE black monster. 1t polluted Eden. 1t
killed Christ. 1t has blasted the world.
Men keep dogs in kennels, and rabbits
in warren, and cattle in PEN What
man that would be who would shut
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