The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-10-16
Is Thy HEART RIGHT.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE MAKES A POINT
BLANK QUERY.
Jehu's Question to Jehonadab--It Was Not
More Appropriate for that Hour and
Place Than 1t Is for this Hour and Place.
An Eloquent Discourse.


An Eloquent Discourse.
New YORK, Oct. Elm his sermon
for today Rev. DR. Talmage speaks dl-
rectly to the hearts of all who have
not vet definitely aaccepted the free
offer of salvation IN Christ Jesus. Tae
subject was "A Point Blank Cues
ton" the text being II Kings y, I3,
is thine heart right:
With met,Ied horses al full speed
fol ne was celebrated for fast driving,
Jehu, the warrior and king, returns
from battle But seeing Juhonadab,
an acquaint nee, bv the wayside, he
shouts: Whoa. Whoa" to the heat
ed span Then leaning over 70 Jetao-
nadab, Jehu salutes him IL the words
of the teXt-worGs act more apprnprl-
ate for that hour aud that place than
for this hour and place, Is thine heart
right"
I should like to hear OF your phySl-
cal health. Well myself, / Ike 10
have every body else we'll, AUD so
might ask: Is your eyeSlsht right
vour hearing right: Are your nerves
right, your lungs right! IS your en-
tire body. right. But Iam busy today
taking diagnosis OF the more import
ant spiritual conditions. should like
to hear of your financial welfare. |
want every body to have plenty OF
money, ample apparel, large store
house and comfortable residence, and
might ask: Is your business right,
your income right Are your worldly
surroundings right? But what are
these financial questions compared
with the inquiry as to whether you
have been able to pay your debts to
God; as to whether you are insured
for eternity; as to whether you are
running yourself by the long credit
system of the soul. | have known
men to have no more than one loaf OF
bread at time, and yet to own a gov
ernment bond of heaven worth more
than the whole material universe.
The question I ask you today is not
in regard to habits. I make no inqui-
ry about your integrity, or your chas-
tity, or your sobriety. DO not mean
to stand on the ontside of the gate and
ring the bell. but coming up the steps
open the door and come to the prl-
vate apartment of the soul, and with
the earnestness of a man that must
give an account of this day S work, l
cry out, O man, 0 woman immortal,
is thine heart right2
will not insult you by an argu-
ment to prove that we are by nature
all wrong. If there be a factory ex-
plosion, and the smokestack be upset,
and the wheels be broken in two, and
the engine unjointed, and the ponder
Gus bars be twisted, and a man should
look il and say that nothing was the
matter, you would pronounce HIM
fool. Well, it needs no acumen to
discover that our nature is all atwist
and askew and unjointed. The thing
doesn't work right. The biggest trou-
BILE we have in the world is with our
souls. Men sometimes say that, though
their lives may not be just right, their
heart is all right. Impossible. A
farmer never puts the poorest apples
on top of his barrel, nor does the mer-
chant place the meanest goods IN his
show window. The best part Of US IS
our outward life. I do not stop to dis
cus whether we all fell in Adam, for
we have been our own Adam, and
have all eaten of the forbidden fruit,
and have been turned out OF the para
disc of holiness and peace, and though
the flaming sword that stood at the
gate to keep US out has changed posi-
ion and comes behind to drive US IN
we will not 60.
The Bible account of US is not exag-
gerated when it says that we are poor
and wretched and miserable and blind
and naked. Poor. The wretch that
stands shivering on our doorstep on
cold day is not so much in need of
bread as we are OF spiritaul help.
Blind! Why. the man whose eyes
perished in the powder blast and who
for these ten years has gone feeling
his way from street to street IS not IN
such utter darkness as we. Naked!
Why, there is not one rag of holiness
left to hide the shame of our sin.
Sick. Why, the leprosy has eaten in
to the head and the heart, and the
hands, aud the feet, and the marasmus
of an everlasting wasting away has
already seized on some ofus.
But the meanest thing for man to
dois to discourse about an evil with
out pointing a way to have 1t RENE
died. speak of the thirst of your hot
tongue only that I may show you the
living stream that drops crystalline
and sparkling from the Rock of Ages
and pours a river of gladness at your
feet. If I show you the rents in your
coat, it is only because the door of
Gods wardrobe now swings open, and
here is robe white with the fleece OF
the Lamb of God, and of a cut and
make that an angel would not be
ashamed to wear. If I snatch from
YOU the black, moldy bread that you
are munching, it is only to give you
the bread made out of the finest wheat
that grows on the celestial hills and
baked in the fires Of the cross, and
one crumb of which would be enough
to make all heaven banquet. Hear
it, one and all, and tell it to your
friends when you 60 home, that the
Lord Jesus Christ can make the heart
right. =.
First we need repenting heart. If
for the last 1920 or 40 years of life we
have been going on in the wrong way
it is time that turned around and start
ed in the opposite direction. If we Of
fend our friends, we are glad to apol-
ogize. God is our best friend, and yet
how many ofus have never apologized
for the wrongs we have done him.
There is nothing that we so much
need to get rid Of as sin. It is hor-
rible black monster. It polluted Eden.
It killed Christ. It has blasted the
world. Men keep dogs in kennels,
and rabbits in a warren, and cattle in
pen. What man that would be
who would shut them up in his par