Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-03-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
Subject: 'The Glorious Gospcl.o

TEXT: according to the glorious gospel
OF the blessed God, which was committed to
my trust. i Timothy j., II.
The greatest novelty Of our time is the gos-
pei. 1t is so old that it is new AS potters
and artists are now attempting to fashion
pitchers and cups and curious ware like
tnOse OF 1900 years ago recently brought up
from buried POmpaii, and such cups and
pitchers and curious ware are universally
admired, 50 anyone who can unShOvel the
reai gospel from the mountains Of stuff IN
DER which 1t has been buried will be able to
present something that will attract the gaze
aLt admiration and adoption OF all the peo-
PIE. 1t is amazing what substitutes have
been presented for what nay text calls ''the
glorious gospel. ." There has been q herni-
Spheric apOS-asy.
There are many people in this and all other
large aSsembageS who have no more idea of
what the gospel really is than they have Of
what is contained in the fourteenth chapter
OF ZenG-Av.sta. the Bible Of tho Hindoo the
FIRST copy Of which | ever saw purchased in
Calcutta last September. Tho old gospel
is tifty feet under, and the work has been
done by the shOyels of those who have been
trying TO contriVe the philosophy of religion.
There is no philosophy about it, 1t is plain
matter OF Bible statement and of childlfke
faith! Some Of the theological seminaries
have been hotbeds OF infdelity because they
have tried to teach the philosophy of reli-
glon. BY the time that many a young
Theological student gets half through his
preparatory course he is SO filled with
doubts about plenary inspection and
the divinity Of Christ, and the questions
OF eternal destiny, that he is more fit
for The lowest bench in the infant class
of Su1day-schOol than to become teacher
and leader Of the people. The ableSt theO-
logical professor is a Christian mother, who
out of her own experience can tell the four
ycar-Old how beautiful Christ was on earth
and how beautiful He now is in heaven and
how dearly He loves little folks, and then she
kneels down and puts one arm around the
boy, and with her somewhat faded cheek
against the rOSeate cheek of the little one
cOnSecrateS him for time and eternity to Him
VINO said, "S'.ffer them to come unto Me-
What an awfr'l work Paul made with the D.
D. and the LIDS. and the T. r. SIS
when he cleared the decks of the Old gospel
ship by saying, Not many wise men, not
many noble, are called, but God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the
mighty"
There sits the dear old theologian with his
table piled up with all the great books on in
spiratiOn and eyeGesis and apOlOgetics for
the Almighty and writing out his own elab-
crate work on the philosophy Of religion, and
his little graudchild coming up to him for a
good night kiss he accidentally knocks off
tho biggest book from the table, and it falls
on the head of the child, of whom Christ Him
self said, "Out Of the mouths of babes and
sucklings thou hast perfected praise" All,
my friends. the Bible wants no apologetics
The throne Of the last Judgment wants no
apOlOgetics. Eternity wants no apolOgetics
Scientists may tell US that natural light is
the "propagatiOn of undulatiOns in an elastic
medium, and thus set in vibratOry motion by
the action of luminous bodies" but
until his own blind eyes by the touch
Of the Divine Spirit have opened to
see tho monday Of pardon and peace. Scien-
fists may tell US that natural sound is "the
effect OF an impression made on the organs
of hearing by an impulse of the air, caused
by a collision Of bodies, or by other MEANS"
but those only know what the gospel sound
Is who have heard the voice Of Christ direct
ly, saying: "Ihy sins are forgiven thee.
Go in peace" The theological dude unrolls
upon the plush of the exquisitely carved pull
pit q learned discourse showing that the
garden of Eden was an allegOry, and Solo
mons Song q rather indelicate love ditty,
and the book Of Job a drama in which satan
was the star actor, and that Renan was three
quarters right about miracles Of Jesus, and
that the Bible was gradually evOluted and
the best thought of the different ages, Moses
and David and Paul doing the best they
could under the circumstances and therefore
to bo encouraged. Lord Of heaven and
earth. get US out of the London fog of higher
criticism!
and we have d lantern which God has put in
Our hands, but instead Of employing that
lantern to show ourselves and others the
right way we are discussing lanterns, their
shape, their size, their material, and which is
the better liGht-kerOSene, lamp Oil or can
dle-and while we discuss 1t we stand oil
around the lantern, SO that we shut out the
light from the multtudeS who are stumbling
on the dark mountains Of sin and death
Twelve hundred dead birds were found one
or+h STo in law
York Harbor. They had dashed their life
out against the lighthouse the night before.
Poor things And the great lighthouse of
the gospel-hOw many high soaring thinkers
have beaten all their religious life out
against it, while it was intended for only one
thing. and that to show all Nations the way
into the harbOr of Gods mercy and to the
crystalline wharyes Of the heavenly city,
where the immOrtals are waiting for new
arrivals. Dead skylarks, when they might
have been flying seraphs.
Here also come, covering up the old gos-
pei, some who think they can by law and ex-
posture Of crimes save the world, and from
Portland, Me-, across to San Francisco, and
back again to New Orleans and Savannah,
MANY of the ministers have gone into the de-
tectiye business. Worldly reform by all
means. but unless it be also gospel reform
1t will be dead failure. In New York its chief
work has been to give US change OF bosses.
We had a Democratic boss, and now 1t IS to
be a Republican boss, but the quarrel Is,
Who shall be the Republican? Politics will
save the cities the same day that satan evan
gelzeS perditiOn.
Here comes another class of people
who in pulpit and outside Of it cover up the
gospel with the theory that it makes no final
difference what you believe or how you act,
YOU are bound for heaven anyhow. There
thew sit side by side, in heaven: Garfield,
and Guiteau who shot him; Lincoln, and
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated him;
Washington, and Thomas Paine, who SIAN
dered him: Mana Sahib, and the mission
aries whom he dubbed to death at Gavin
pur: Herod, and the children whom he
massacred; Paul, and Nero, who beheaded
him. As result of the PRONUNCIATION OF
such mOngrel and conglOmerate heaven
there are millions of people in Chrls-
tendon who expect to go straight to heaven
from their seragliOs, and their lneprlatlon,
and their suicides, when among the lOudest
thunders that break over the basalt1c Island
to which st. John was expatrlated was the
one in which God announced that 1.-THE
ahominahIe and the murderers and who're
mGngers and sorcerers and 1dolaters ana
all liars, shall have their place III the lake
which burneth with fire and prlmstone,
which is the second death correct Wnat
1 said when declared the gospe1 was p91leu l1n
fifty feet deep. 1t is buried 1000 feet deep.
Had the glorious gospel been given full op-
portunity, I think before this the world
would have Rad no need of pulpit or sermon
or prayer or church, but thanksgiving ana
hosannas would have resoundeCi IN the
tempIe to which the mountains WOuld
have been pillars, and the blue skies the
dome, and the rivers the baptistery, and all
Nations the worshipers in the auditorium OF
the outspread world. But so far from that, I,i ),
as remarked in the opening sentence OF TINS
sermon the greatest novelty OF b our hn5d tlme Is
and thousands of educated and splendid
Young men about to enter the gospel minis
trv from the theological seminaries OF all de.
nominations, on this and the other side go OF
the seas and there is no drawing power like
tbe rl0rious gospel Him hath God lifted
w W. - draw ali men unto Him. Get your