Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-03-15
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
Subject: "Neyy Ground"

| man 8 foundation. Romans xy 90
| -, After. with the help of others. I had built
three churches in the same city, and mo-
| ie9unS called upon to undertake the super.
! human toll OF building a fourth church
Providence seemed to point to this place as
| the held in which I could enlarge nv work
| ana feel sense of relief amounting to ex.
| ultation. Whereunto this work will grow
cannot prophesy 1t is inviting and promis-
| ing beyond anything | have ever touched
| The churches are the grandest institutions
| TINS world ever saw, and their pastors have
! no superior5 this side of heaven but there is
| q work which must be done outside of the
churches, and to that work join myself for
awhile, Last | build on another mans
| foundation"
Ihe church is fortress divinely built.
NOW, a fortress is for defense and for drill,
! and for storing ammunition, but an army
| must sometimes be on the march far outside
| the fortress. In the campaign of cOnuuerino
| this world for Christ the time has come for
| an advance movement, for general en-
| ga9ement, for massing the troops, for an
INVASION Of the enemies country. ConfiIent
| that the forts are well manned by the able5t
| ministry That ever blessed the church, pro-
| pose, with others, for awhile to ioin the
| cavalry and move out and on for service in
| tho open field.
In laying out the plan for his missionary
tour Paul. with mora brain than any of his
contemporaries or pr9 lecessOrS or success
l
not yet been preached to. He goes to Cor
NTH, city mentioned for splendor and vice.
and Jerusalem where the priesthood and
Sanhedrin were ready to leap with both feet
upon the Christian religion. He feels he has
special work to do. and he means to do it.
What was the result? The grandest life of
usefulness that man ever lived. We modern
Christian workers are not apt to initiate
Paul. We build on other peoples founda-
tiOn5. If we erect q church we prefer TO
have finn OIL
been p1ous. DO we gather a Sunda y-schOol
class, we want good boys and girls hair
comb3d, faces washed. manncr5 attractive
50 church in this city is apt to be built out
OF other churches. Some ministers spend all
their time in fishing in other peoples ponds
and they throw the line into that church
pond and jerk ont a Methodist and throw
the line into another church pond and bring
out Presbyterian, or there is a religious
row in some neighboring church. and the
whole school Of fish swim off from that pond
and we take them all in with one sweep of
the net. What is gained2 Absolutely moth
ing for the general cause of Christ. It is only
rs in an army. when a regiment is traus-
ferrel from One division to another or from
the Fourteenth Regiment to the Sixty-ninth
Regiment. What strengthens the army is
new recruits.
The fact is this is a big world. When in
our schOOlbOy days We learned the diameter
and circumference OF this planet we did not
and diameter and circumference of want and
WOO and SIN that no figures can calculate.
This one spiritual continent of wretchoIness
reaches across all zones, and il l were callod
to give its geOgra phical boundary I would
say 1t is bounded on the north ani south and
east and west by the great heart Of Gods
sympathy and love. Ol, it is great world.
Since O'Clock this morning at least 900
have been born, aud all these multiplied
populations are to be reached OF the gospel.
In yloy, In, A,-1,, ooslso
we are being much crowded. and an
acre of ground is Of great value, but out
West 500 acres is a small farm, and 90
900 acres Is no unusual possession. There is
q vast field here and everywhere unoc-
cupied, plenty Of room more, not building
on another mans foundation. We need
as churches to stop b0mbarding the
Old iron clad sinners that have been proof
against thirty years of Christian assault, and
aim for the salvation OF those who have
mover yet had one warm hearted and point
blank invitation. There are churches whose
buildings might be worth 5000, 900, who are
not averaging five new. converts a year and
doing less good than many log cabin meet
ing house with tallow candle stuck in wooden
socket and minister who has never seen
college or known the difference between
Greek and ChoctaW. We need churches to
get into sympathy with the great outside
world, and let them know that none are so
broken hearted or hardly bestead that they
tidious Christian: 81 don't like to be crowd
ei in church. Don't put any one in my
pew" My brother, what will you do in
heaven? When a great multitude that no
man can number assemblies, they will put
fifty in your pew. What are the select few
to-day assembled in the Christian churches
compared with the mightier millions outside
Of them?
At least 5000, 900 people in this cluster of
seabo&rd cities, and not moro than POO, 900 in
h af,l N Nor Of {f,EA 3ttrI4I y
like a hospital that should advertise that its
patients must have nothing worse than tooth
aohG or run arOunds," D." but no broken heads.
no crushed ankles, no fractured thighs.
Give us for treatment moderate sinners, vel
vet coated sinners and sinners with a gloss
on. 1t is as though a man had a farm of
5000 acres and put all his work on one acre.
He may raise never 50 large ears of corn,
never 50 big heads of wheat, he would re-
main poor. The church Of God has bestowed
its chief care on On3 acre and has raised
splendid men and women in that small in
closure, but the field Is the world. That
means North and South America, Europe,
Asia and Africa and all the islands Of the
sea.
1t is rs though after a great battle there
We're left SO, 900 wounded and dying on the
field and three surgeons gave all their time
to three patients under their charge. The
maior-general comes in and says to the doc
tors, "Come out here and look at the nearly
''No," say the three doctors, standing there
aud tanning their patients; I'VE have three
important cases here, and we are attending
them, and when we are not positively busy
with their wounds it takes all our time to
keen the flies Off" In this awful battle of
sin and sOrr0w, where millions have fallen
on millions, do not let US spend all our time
in taking care OF a few people, and when the
command comes. $50 into the world. say
practically: ''NO; cannot so. have here
Il, I,1-1 boa
the flies" -" Tncra are multitud9s to-day who
have never had any Christian worker look
them in the eye, and with earneStnesS in the
accentuatiOn say, Gomez or they would
long ago have been in the kingdom. My
friends, religion is either a sham or tre-
mendous reality. II it be a sham. let us cease
to have anything to DO with Christian as
s0catiOn. If it be a reality, then great
populations are on their way to the bar OF
God untitled for the ordeal, and what are we
doing?
Iu order to teach the multitude of outsid-
ers we must drop all technicalities out Of our
religion. When we talk to people about the |
hypostatic union and French encyclopedian-
ism and erastianism and cOmplutensianism, |
we are as impolitic and little understood as |
if physician should talk to an ordinary pa
tient about the pericardium and intercostal |
muscle and scorbutic symptoms. Many OF |
us come out of the theological seminarieS so |
loaded up that we take the first ten years to |
show our people how much we know, ana |
the next ten years to get our people to know |
as much as we know, and at the end find |
that neither of US knows anything as we |
ought to know. Here are thousands Of sin |
ming struggling and dying people who need |
TO realize lust one thing-that Jesus Christ |
came to save them, and will save them now.
But we go into a profound and elaborate
definition of what Justification is, and after
all the work there are not outside OF the |
learned professions 5000 people in the United |
States who can tell what justification Is. |
l will read you the definition:
Classification is purely forensic act. the !
act of Judge sitting in the forum, In which !
the Supreme Ruler and Judge, who 3 &C.
oolo RnOEl