The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-08
SEEKING SALVATION.
REV. DR.. TAlMAGE breaches AN Ell
OOUENT GOSPEL SERMON.

OQUENT GOSPEL SERMON
ISai;lh'S Full Length Portrait OF Christ.
How to Seek the Lord--Ncce>sity For
Seeking Him Now--Thc Sinner Who Was
Too Late.
New YORK, April 2S.-Rev DR.,
Talmage today again preached to
great audience in the Academy OF Mu-
sic. AS usual many were turned away
for lack of seats The sermon was on
salvation, the text selected being
Isaiah iv. E. Seek We the Lord while
he may be found,
Isaiah stands head and shoulders
above the other Old Testament authors
in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. 9th
er prophets give an outline of our Saw
iour's features. Some Of them present
as it were, the side face of Christ, 9TH
ers bust of Christ, but Isaiah gives
us the full length portrait of Christ.
Other Scripture writers excel in some
things-Ezekiel more weird, David
more pathetic. Solomon more epigram-
matte, Habakkuk more sublime-but
when you want to see Christ coming
out from the gates of prophecy in all
his grandeur and glory you involun-
tarily turn to Isaiah, so that If the
prophecies in regard to Christ might
be cal ed the 'Oratorio to the Messl-
ah" the writing of Isaiah is the Hal
leluiah Chorus" where all the batOnS
wave and all the trumpets come In.
Isaiah was not a man picked up out
of insigniicance by inspiration. He
was known and honored. Josephus
and Philo and Sirach extolled him in
their writings. What Paul was
among the apostles Isaiah was among
the prophets.
nv text finds him standing on a
mountain of inspiration, looking out
into the future, beholding Christ ad-
vancing 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
some one, that was for olden times, y
No, my hearer If 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 Melbourne
or Calcutta you presented that letter
and got financial help Immediately.
And I want you to understand that
the text, instead of being appropriate
for one age or for one land, is circu-
lar letter for all ages and for all lands,
and wherever it is presented for help
the help comes. Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found"
| come today with no hairspun the
ories Of religion, with no nice distinc-
tons, with no elaborate disquisition,
but with an urgent call to personal re-
ligion. The gospel of Christ is pow
erful medicine; it either kills or cures.
There are those who say: II would
like to become a Christian. I 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 to get to heaven, waiting,
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 thing is to search for it with ear
nest endeavor If you want
to see a certain man in this
city. and there is matter OF
0,0O0 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 60 in circles where you
think perhaps he may mingle, and hav,
ing found the part of The city where
he lives, but perhaps not knowing the
street, you 60 through street after
street, and from block to block, and
you keep on searching for weeks and
for months
You say, "It is matter of $40, ,00C
whether I see him or not" Oh, that
men We're as persistent in seeking fo1
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 relieve
the poor. we NAV be public benefac.
tors and yet all our life disobey the
text. never seek God, never gain
heaven. Oh, that the Spirit of God
would help me while 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.
| remark, in the first place, you are
to seek the Lord through earnest and
believing prayer. God is not an au,
tocrat or despot seated on throne
with his arms resting on brazen lions,
and sentinel pacing up and down at
the foot of the throne. God is father
seated in bower, waiting for his chill,
dren to come and climb on his knee
and get his kiss and his benediction.
Prayer is the cup with which we go tc
the fountain Of living water" and
dip up refreshment for our thirsty soul.
Grace does not come to our heart as
we set a cask at the cornerof the house
to catch the rain in the shower. It is
pulley fastened to the throne of God,
which we pull, bringing the blessing.
| I 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, if
You did not pray right inwardly there
would be no response. You might cry
at thetop of your voice, and unless you
had believing spirit within your
voice would not 60 farther up than
the shout of plowboy to his oxen.
Prayer must be believing, earnest,
loving. You are in your house some
summer day. and a shower comes up,