The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-05-03
SEEK YE THE LORD.
DR.. Talmage Tells How to Obtain
Salvation.
The Way TO Secure Anything Is to Search
for 1t with Earnestness-NOw Is the
Accepted Time-The Power
of Prayer.

In late sermon delivered to large
audience in New York Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage preached upon the subject OF
Salvation" the text selected being
from Isaiah lv. 6: "Seek We the Lord
while He may be found" Following
is the sermon:
Isaiah stands head and shoulders
above the other Old Testament authors
in vivid iddescriptiveness of Christ other
prophets gave an outline of our
Saviour's features. Some of them pre-
sent, 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 writer's excel
in some things. Ezekiel more weird,
David more pathetic, Solomon more cpl
grammatic, Habalkkuk more sublime;
but when you want to see Christ COM
ing out from the gates of prophecy in
all His grandeur and glory. you invol-
untary turn to Isaiah. So that, if the
phophecies in regard to Christ might
be called the ''Oratorio of the Messiah" 8"
the writing of Isaiah is the ''IIallelujah
Chorus" where all the batons wave
and all the trumpets come in. Isaiah
was not man picked up out of insig-
nifcance by inspiration. He was known
and hOnored. Josephus, and Philo,
and Sirach extolled him in their writ
ings What Paul was among the apos-
ties. Isaiah was among the prophets.
My text finds him standing on a
mountain of inspiration. looking out
into the future, beholding Christ ad-
vaneiug and anxious that all men
might know Him: His voice rings
down the ages: Seek We the Lord
while He may be found" ''Oh," says
someone, that was for olden times"
No, my hearer. II 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 Calcutta, you presented
that letter and got financial help i'm
mediately. And want you to under
stand that the text, instead of being
appropriate for one age, or for one
land, is a circular letter for all ages
and for all lands, and wherever it is
presented for help the help comes:
''Seek We the Lord while He may be
found"
/ come to-day with no hairspun
theories of religion, with no nice dis
tinctions, with no elaborate disquisi-
tion; 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 a Christian. l
have been waiting a 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 are men who say they are
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
a thing is to search for it with earnest
endeavor. If you want to see a certain
man in this city, and there is a matter
of 600 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 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 go 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
Christ! Had you one-half that per-
sistence you would long ago have
found Him who is the joy of the for
given spirit. We may pay our debts,
we may attend church, we may re-
lieve the poor, we may be public bene-
factors, and yet all our lives disobey
the text, never seek God, never gain
Heaven. Oh, that the spirit of God
would help me, while l 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.
l remark, in the first place, you are
to seek the Lord through earnest and
believing prayer. God is not an auto
crat or despot seated on 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 chill
dren to come and climb on His knee,
and get His kiss with His benediction.
Prayer is the cup with which we go to
the fountain of living water" and
dip up refreshmenC for our thirsty
soul.
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, but
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 believing spirit with
in, your cry would not go further up
than the shout of plowboy to his
oxen. Prayer must be believing, ear
nest, loving. You are in your house
some summer day, and a shower comes
up, and a bird, affrighted, darts into
the window, and wheels around the
room. You seize it. You smooth its
ruf1ed plumage. You feel its futter-
ing heart. You say: Poor thing,
poor thingl" Nova prayer goes out OF
the storm of this world into the window
oF Gods rnercv and He catches It and