Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1895-05-02
SEEKING SALVATION.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches AN EL-
oouENT GOSPEL SERMON.

Isaiahs Full Length Portrait of chrisL
How to Seek the Lord-Secessity For
Seeking Him Now-The Sinner Who Was
Too Late.
NEW YORK, April 2s,-Rev. DR. Tai
mage today again preached to great au-
dience in the Academy of Music. AS usual,
many were turned away for lack Of seats.
The sermon was on Salvation, the text
selected being Isaiah lv, 8, Seek ye 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 it were, the side
face of Christ, others bust of Christ, but
Isaiah gives us the full length portrait Of
Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in
some things-Ezekiel more weird, David
more pathetic Solomon more epigram-
matte, Habakkuk more sublime-but when
you want to see Christ coming out from
the gltes of prophecy in all his grandeur
and glory you involuntarily turn to Isaiah,
so that II the prophecies In regard to
Christ might be called the "Oratorio Of
the Messiah the writing of Isaiah Is the
"Halleluiah Chorus where all the batons
wave and all the trumpets come in Isaiah
was not man picked up out of insignif'
canoe by inspiration. He was known and
honored. Josephus and Philo and Sirach
extolled him In their writings. What Paul
was among the apostles Isaiah was among
the prophets.
Help For All.
My text finds him standing on noun
tain of inspiration, looking out into the
future beholding Christ advancing and
anxious that all men might know him. His
voice rings down the ages, "Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. " ooh, says
some cne, 'that was for olden times"
No, my hearer If you have travelled In
other lands, you have taken q circular let
ter of credit from some banking house In
New York, and in ST. Petersburg or Venice
: or Rome or Melbourne or Calcutta you
presented that letter and got financial help
Immediately, And want you to under
stand that the text, instead of being appro-
PIRATE for one age or for one land, is cir
cular letter for all ages and for all lands,
and wherever 1t is presented for help the
help comes. Seek ye the Lord while he
may be found"
come today with no hairspun theories
Of religion, with no nice distinctions, with
no elaborate disquisition, but with an ur-
gent call to personal religion. The gospel
of Christ is powerful medicine; 1t either
kills or cures. There are those who say:
III would like to become Christian. I
have been waiting a good while for the
right kind of influences to come, and still
you are waiting. You are wiser in world
ly things than you are In religious things.
If you want to get to Albany, you go to
the Grand Central depot or to the steam
boat 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, watt
ing, but not with intelligent waiting, or
they would get on board the line of Chris
tian influences that would bear them into
the kingdom of God.
Persistent Seekers.
Now, you know very we'll that to seek q
thing is to search for it with earnest en-
deavor. If you want to see a certain man
in this city, and there Is matter of $10,-
900 connected with your seeing him, and
you cannot at first find him, you do not
give up the search. You look in the direct
Dry, but cannot find the name; you go in
circles where you think perhaps he may
mingle, and having found the part Of the
city where he lives, but perhaps not know
ing the street. you go through street after
street, and from block to block, and you
keep on searching for weeks and for
months.
You say, sit Is o matter of $4,000
whether I see him or not" Oh, that men
were as persistent in seeking fer Christ
Had you one-half that persistence 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 re-
lieve the poor, we may be public benefac-
tors and yet all our life disobey the text,
never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh,
that the Spirit of God would help me while
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.
remark, In the first place, you are to
seek the Lord through earnest and believ-
ing prayer. God is not an autocrat or 0
despot seated on a throne with his arms
resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel
pacing up and down at the foot Of the
throne. God is father seated in bower,
waiting for his children to come and climl
on his knee and get his kiss and his bene
diction. Prayer is the cup with which We
60 to the fountain of living water ant
din nm refreshment for our thirsty soul
Grace does not come to the heart as we SCI
q cask at the corner of the house to catcl
tho rain In tha shnmnr- II IL nnllnv fas
Ahs1~ssor Nu, e.