Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-05-04
THE GOSPELS CALL.
"SALvATioN" THE THEME OF REV.
DR.. T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

DR.. T. DE WIT TALMAGE.
sseek We the Lord While He May BE
Found" Supplies the Text For an Eio-
quent Disoourse--A Call to the Uncon-
verified.
New YoRK. April 2s. Rev DR.. Tai
mage today again preached to great
audience in the Academy Of Music. As
usual, many wero sclzlod away for lack
of seats. The seilaoa v-as on SALIVA
ton, the text selected being Isaiah ",
6, Seek ye the Lord while he may BIO
found -
Isaiah stands head and shoulders above
the other Old Testament authors in vivid
descriptiyeness of Christ. Other prophets
give an outline Of CTR Saviour's features.
Some of them present, as it We're, the
side face Of Christ, others Il bust of
Christ, but Isaiah gives us the full
length portrait of Christ. Other Scrip
ture writers excel in some things-Eze-
kiel more weird, David more pathetic,
Solomon more epigrammatic, Habaklluk
more sublime-but when You want to
see Christ coming out from the gates of
prophecy in all his grandeur and glory
you involantarily turn 10 Isaiah, so that
if the prophecies in regard to Christ
might be called the "Oratorio Of the
Messiah" the writing Of Isaiah is the
"Halleluiah Chorus, where all tho
batons wave and all the trumpots como
in. Isaiah was not man picked up out
of insigni.lcance by inspiration. Flo was
known and honored. Josephus and Philo
and Sirach extolled him in their writ
ings. What Paul was among the apostles
Isaiah was among the prophets,
My text finds him standing on a
mountain of inspiration, looking ont
into the future, beholding Christ ad-
vancing and anxious that all men might
know him His voice rings down the
ages, Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. =" "Oh, says some one, that
was for olden times" No, my nearer.
If you have travelled in other lands, you
have taken circular letter of credit
from some banking house in New York
and in st. Petersburg Or Venice Or Rome
OR Melbourne or Calcutta. You present.
ed that letter and got financial help inn
mediately. And want you to under
stand that tho text, instead of being
appropriate for one age or for one land,
is circular letter for all ages and for
all lands, and wherever it is presented
for help the help comes. Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found.
Personal Religion.
come today with no Lair spun the
cries Of religion, with no nice distinc-
tons, with no elaborate disquisition-
but with an urgent call to personal re-
hgion. The gospel Of Christ is power,
full medicine 1t either kills or cures.
There are these who say: 81 would like
TO become Christian. l have been
waiting a good while for the right kind
of influences to come, and still you
are waiting. You ere wiser in worldly
things than you are i'll religious things.
Ii you want to get to Albany, you so to
the Grand Central depot or to the
steamboat wharf, ard having got your
ticket you do not sit down ca 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, waiting, but not with
intelligent waiting or they would get
on board the line of Christian influences
that would bear them into the kingdom
of God.
Now, yen know very well that to seek
thing is to search for it with earnest
endeavor. If you want to see a certain
man III this city, and there is q matter
of $40, 900 connected with your seeing
him, and you cannot at first find him,
you do not give up the search. You
look in the directory, but cannot find
the name. You 90 in circles where you
think perhaps he may mingle, and hay
ing found the part Of the city whore he
lives, but perhaps not knowing 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, 1T is matter Of $40, 600
whether | see him or noe" Oh, that
men were as persistent i'll seeking for
Christ Had you one-half that persist
ence 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 relieve the poor, we
may be public benefactOrS. and yet all
our life disoboy the text, never seek
God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the
Spirit of God would help ne, 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.
Necessity For EGrnestness.
l remark, III the first place, you are
to seek the Lord through earnest and
believing prayer. God is not an autocrat
or despot seated on throne, with his
arms resting on braZen lions and a SEN
tinel pacing up and down at the foot Of
the throne. God is father seated in
bower, waiting fer his children to come
and climb on his knee and get his kiss
and his be1lediction. Prayer is the cup
with which we go to the fountain of
living water" and dip up refreshment
for our thirsty soul Grace does not
come to the heart as we set g cask at
the corner Of the house to catch the rain
in the shower. 1t is a pulley fastened
to the throne of God, which we pull,
bringing the blessing.
| do not care so much what posture
you take in prayer nor how large an
amount Of voice you use You might
get down on yom face before God, il
you did not pray right inwardiy there
would be no response. You might cry
at the top Of your voice, and unless you
had believing spirit within your CRY
would not 20 further up than the shout
of plowboy to his oxen. Prayer must
be believing, earnest. loving. You ala
IN your house some summer day, and
a shower comes up, and a bird, alright
ed, darts into the window aud wheels
about the room. Yoa seize it, Yon
smooth its rufiled plumage- You feol
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