The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-05-10
asALYATiOND
Rev. Dr. Talmage Discourses ON
the Needs Of the Soul.
An Urgent Call to Personal ReIigion-The
Gospel of Christ, as Presented
Through the Bible. the
Great PauRces,

of salvation" was delivered Dy Kew.
L. De Witt Talmage in the'Academy OF
music, New York city, being based on
the text:
Seek We the Lord while he may DC found :
Isaiah w.. @
Isaiah stands head and shoulders
above the other Old Testament authors
in vivid descriptiveness of Christ.
Other prophets give an outline of our
Savior's features. Some of them
present, as it were, the side face of
Christ; others a 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
epigramnatic. Habakkuk more sub
lime; but when you want to see Christ
coming out from the gates of prophecy
in all his grandeur and glory, you in
voluntarily turn to Isaiah. So that
IL the prophecies in regard to Christ
might be called the "OratOria of the
Messiah" the writing of Isaiah is the
"IIallelujah Chorus" where all the
batOns wave and all the trumpets come
in. Isaiah was not a man picked up
out of insignificance 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.
My text finds him standing on a
mountain of inspiration, looking out
into the future, beholding Christ adj
vancing and anxious that all men
might know Him; His voice rings
down the ages: Seek We the Lord
while lie may be found" "Oh," says
some one, that was for olden times. -
No, my hearer- III you have travelled
in other lands you have taken a circu-
lar letter of credit from some banking
house in New York, and in st. Peters
burg, or Venice, or Rome, or Mel
bourne, or Calcuttai you pres ented
that letter and get financial help inn
mediately. And / want you to under
stand that the 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. 4"
Seek ye the Lord while He may be
found"
come to-day with no hair-spun
theories of religion, with no nice dis
tinctions, with no elaborate disquisi-
ton; but with an urgent call to per-
sonal religion. The Gospel of Christ
is a powerful medicine; it either kills
or cures. There are those who say:
Il would like to become Christian. /
have been waiting good while for the
right kind of influences to come;" and
still you are waiting. You are wiser
in worldly things than you are in re-
ligious things. If you want to get to
Albany you go to the Grand Central
depot, or to the steamboat 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 ave men who say they are
waiting to get to Heaven-waiting,
waiting, but not with intelligent wait
ing, or they would get on board the
line of Christian influences that would
bear them into the kingdom of God.
Now you know very well that to
seek thing is to search for it with
earnest endeavor. If you want to see
a certain man in this city, and there is
matter of ten thousand dollars connect
ed withyour seeing him, and you can not
at first find him, you do not give up the
search. You look in the directory,
but can not ind 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 knowing the street, you
60 through street after street, and
from block to block, and you keep on
searching for weeks and for months.
You say: ut is a matter of $4,000
whether L see him or not" Oh, that
men were as persistent in seeking for
Christi 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 disObey the text,
never seek God, never gain heaven.
Oh, that the Spirit of God would help
me, while try to shown you, in carry
ing 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
believing prayer. God is not an auto
crat or "A 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 a bower, waiting for His
children to come and climb on His
knee. and get His kiss and His bene-
diction. 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 a 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.
i 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 your face before God-if
you did not pray right inwardly, there
would be no response. You might cry
at the top of your voice, and unless
you had a believing spirit within, your
cry would not 60 further mp than the
shout of plOwboy to his oxen. Prayer
must be believing, earnest, loving.
You are in your house some summer
dav, and shower comes up, and a
bird, affrighted, darts into the win
dow, and wheels about the room. You
seize it, You smooth its ruffled plu-
mage. You feel its futtering heart.
You say: Poor thing, poor thingI"
Now, prayer goes out of the storm of
this world into the window of Gods