The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-02-15
CALL TO OUTSIDERS.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Freedom of Religion.
There Is No Monopoly In the Grace of God
The Whole worni Is Taken Under
the Protecting Wing of
the Lord.

L nc AdIeSI sermon predcIeu db DTOOh-
lyn by Rev. T. De Witt Talmage was
"A Call to Outsiders" the text being
| from John X. 16: ''0ther sheep have
which are not of this fold" DR. Tai
mage said
There is no monopoly in religion.
| The grace of God is not little proper
ty which we may fence off and have all
to ourselves. 1t is not kings park,
at which we look through a barred
gateway, wishing we might go in and
see the deer and the statuary, and
! pluck the flowers and fruits in the
royal conservatory. No. it is the Faith
er's orchard, and everywhere there are
bars that we may let down and gates
that we may swing open.
In my boyhood. next to the country
school house, there was an orchard of
apples, owned by a very lame man, who,
although there were apples in the place
perpetually decaying, and by scores
and scores of bushels, never would al
low any of us to touch the fruit. One
day. in the sinfulness of nature in
herited from our first parents, who
were ruined by the same temptation,
some of us invaded that orchard: but
we soon retreated. for the man came
after us at speed reckless Of making
his lameness worse, and cried out:
Boys. drop those apples, or I'll set
the dog on you!''
Well, my friends, there are Christian
men who have the church under severe
guard. There is fruit in this orchard
for the whole world; but they have a
rough and unsympathetic way of ac-
costing outsiders as though they had
no business here. though the Lord
wants them all to come and take the
largest and ripest fruit on the premises.
Have you an idea that because you
were baptized at l3 months of age, and
because you have all your life been un-
der hallowed influences. that you have
Il right to one whole side of the Lord 5
table. spreading yourself out and talk
ing up the entire room? | tell you
no. You will have to haul in your ell
bows. fOr7l shall place on either side
of you those whom you never expected
would sit there; for, as Christ said to
His favored people long ago. so He says
to you and to me: ''Other sheep have
which are not of this fold"
Macdonald. the Scotchman, has four
or five dozen head of sheep. Some of
them are browsing on the heather,
some of them are lying down under the
trees, some of them are in his yard;
they are scattered around in eight or
ten different places. Cameron, his
neighbor. comes over and says: Il see
you have thirty sheep; | have counted
them No" says Macdonald, Il
have a great many more sheep than
that. Some are here and some are
elsewhere. They are scattered all
around about. l have four or five
thousand in my fioclls. Other sheep |
have, which are not in this fold"
So Christ says to us. Here is knot
of Christians. and there is a knot of
Christians. but they make up a small
part of the flock. Here is the Episco-
pal fold the Methodist fold, the Luth-
eran fold. the Congregational fold, the
Presbyterian fold, the Baptist and the
Pedo-Baptist fold. the only difference
between the last two being the mode
of sheep washing; and so they are scat
tered all over; and we come with our
statistics, and say there are SO many
thousands of the Lords sheep; but
Christ responds: No, no; you have not
seen more than one out of thousand of
MY flock. They are scattered all over
the earth. other sheep have which
are not of this fold"
Christ, in my text, was prophesying
the conversion of the Gentiles with as
much confidence rs though they were
already converted, and He is now, in
the words of nv text, prophesying the
coming of great multitude of outsid
ers that you never supposed would
come in, saying to you and saying to
me: ''Other sheep l have which are
not of this fold"
In the first place, I remark, that the
Heavenly Shepherd will find many of
His sheep among the non-churchgoers.
There are congregations where they
are all Christians, and they seem to be
completely finished, and they remind
one of the skeleton-leaves, which, by
chemical preparation, have had all the
greenness and verdure taken off them,
and are left cold and white and deli
cate, nothing wanting but a glass
case to put over them. The minister of
Christ has nothing to do with such
Christians but to come once a week,
and with ostrich feather dust off the
accumulation of the last six days,
leaving them bright and crystalline, as
before. But the other kind of
church is an armory, with perpetual
sound of drum and fife, gathering re-
cruits for the Lord of hosts. We say
TO every applicant: do you want to
be on Gods side, the safe side and the
happy side? If so, come in the armory
and get equipped Here is bath in
which 20 be cleansed. Here are sandals
to put upon your feet. Here is helmet
for your brow. Here is a breastplate
for your heart. Here is sword for
your right arm. and yonder is the bat
tlefield. Quit yourselves like men"'
There are some here who say: Il
stopped going to church ten or twenty
years ago" My brother, is it not
strange that you should be the first
man should talk to to-day? l know
ali your case; | know all very well.
You have not been accustomed to come
into religious assemblage, but l have a
surprising announcement to make to
you: you are going to become one of
the Lords sheep. ''Ah,' you say, lit
is impossible. You don't know how
far am from anything of that kind"
l know all about it. have wandered
up and down the world, and l under
stand your case. l have a still more
startling announcement to make in re-
to gard you; you are not only going to
! Z l. IL. L..