The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1895-10-24
VITAL QUESTION.
ons That Must be Satisfactorily An
swered by Every One, \.
ma lie Christian or Sinner, Before He
Gao Expect 70 Enjoy Everlasting Life
is Thine Heart Right f~-ssrnnon by
Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage, ~. u. a"

christ Jesus. The subject was: "A
point.Blank Question:" the text being
n Kings X, 10; rs thine heart right?"
With mettled horses at full speed,
Tor he was celebrated for fast driving.
Jehu, the warrior and king, returns
rom battle. But seeing Jehonadab,
an acquaintance, by the wayside, he
shouts Whoa! whoar to the lathered
span. Then leaning over to Jehon.
adab. .Jehu salutes him Ia the words of
tho text-words not more appropriate
tor that hour and that place than for
,his hour and place: lis thine heart
rlght?"
j should like to hear of your physical
health. Well myself, l like to have
everybody else well; and so might ask,
Is your eyesight right, your hear
ing right, your nerves right,
your lungs right, your entire
BODY rightP But am busy to-day TAX
inc diagnosis of the more important
spiritual conditions. / should like to
hear of your financial welfare want
Everybody to have plenty of money,
ample apparel, large storehouse and
comfortab BILE residence; and | might
ask, is your business right, your In
come right your worldly surroundings
right? But what are these financial
ouestions compared with the inquiry
as 10 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 a time, and yet to
own a government bond Of Heaven
worth more than tho whole material
universe.
The question ! ask you to-day is not
in regard TO your habits. / make no
Inquiry about your integrity, or your
chastity, or your sobriety. ! do not
mean TO stand on the outside of the
gate and ring the bell; but, coming up
the steps ! open the door and come to |
the private apartment of the soul, and |
with the earnestness of a man that |
must give an account fer this days |
work, cry out, o man, 0 woman inn
mortal, is thine heart right?
q will not insult you by an argument |
70 prove that we are by nature all |
wrong. If there be u factory explo-
sion, and the smokestack be upset and
the wheels be broken in two, and the
engine unjointed, and the pOnderous
bars be twisted, and a man should look
In and say that nothing was the mat
ter you would pronounce him a
fool. Well, it needs no acumer TO dis
cover that our nature is all atwist and
askew and unjointed. The thing
doesn't work right. The biggest trou-
bic 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 farm
erneyer 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 out
ward life. l 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
hsming sword that stood at the gate to
keepus out5has changed position and
comes behind to drive us in, we will
notgo. ~.
The Bible account of US is not exag-
gerated when il says that we are poor
and wretched and miserable and blind
and naked. Poor: 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.
Bind: why, the man whose eyes per-
.lshed in the powder blast, and who for
ten years has gone feeling his way
from street TO street, is not in such ut
Ter darkness as we. @Nakedi why
there is not one rag of holiness left to
hide the shame OF our sin. Sick: why,
leprosy has eaten into the head and
heart and the hands and the feet, and
The marasmus of an everlasting vast
ing away has already seized on some {
OF rs
but the meanest thing for man TO (
90 Is TO discourse about an evil with.
ont pointing q way to haveit remedied' {
4 speak of the thirst Of your hot
tongue. Only that may show you
tne living stream that drops crystal I
ilne and sparkling from the y. Rock OF {
Ages and pours river of gladness at
your feet II show you the rents in q
your coat, il is only because the door ]
q Gods wardrobe now swings open,
and here is a robe white with the
neece Of the Lamb OF God and Of a out !
ana make that an angel would not be
ashamed TO wear. IL l snatch from
you the black, moldy bread that You ,
are munching, il is only TO give you
me bread made out OF the finest wheat
snst grows on the celestial hills and !
OaEed in the fires of tho cross and one
Crnnh % ~ ~. .,.,c,,,.rI [