Connecticut western news., 1895-04-04

All Modern Steamships-An Eloquent
 Sermon by the Great Divine on the Cos
 pei Invitation.
 NEW YORK, March 31.-Although his oratory is at times magnetic and eloquent, there is one theme with which. whenever he makes it the groundwork of his sermon, Dr. Talmage never fails to communicate to his audi tors the enthusiasm he himself feels. That theme is the gospel invitation, and when this afternoon he took for his subject ''The Gospel Ship" the great audience that crowded the Academy was in full sympathy. Thetext selected was Genesis vi, IS, s'Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee !"
 In this day of the steamships Luoania and Majestic and the Paris will show you ship that in some respects eolipsed them all, and which sailed out, an ocean underneath and another ocean falling upon it. Infidel scientists ask us to be- lieve that in the formation of the earth there have been half dozen deluges, and yet they are not willing to believe the Bible story of one deluge
 In what way the catastrophe oame we know not-whether by the stroke of comet, or by flashes of lightning, chang ing the air into water, or by stroke of the hand of God, like the stroke of the ax between the horns of the OK, the earth staggered. To meet the catas- trophe God ordered great ship built. It was to be without prow, for it was to sail to no shore. It was to be without helm, for no human hand should guide it. It was a vast structure, probably as large as two or three modern steamers. It was the Great Eastern of olden time.
 The ship is done. The door is open. The lizards crawl in. The cattle walk in. The grasshoppers hop in. The birds fly in. The invitation goes forth to Noah, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark" Just one human family embark on the strange voyage, and I hear the door slam shut. A great storm sweeps along the hills and bends the cedars until all the branches snap in the gale. There is moan in the wind like unto the moan of dying world. The blackness of the heavens is shattered by the flare of the lightnings, that look down into the waters and throw ghastliness on the face of the noun tains. How strange it looks! How suf- locating the air 'seems The big drops of rain begin to plash upon the upturned faces of those who are watching the tempest. Crashi go the rocks in con- vulsion. Boom! go the bursting heav- ems. The inhabitants of the earth, in stead of flying to house top and noun tain top, as men have fancied, sit down in dumb, white horror to die. For when God grinds mountains to pieces and let's the ocean slip it's cable there is no place for men to fly to. See the ark pitch and tumble in the surf. while from it's win dows the passengers look out upon the shipwreck of a race and the carcasses of dead world. Woe to the noun tains! Woe to the seal
 A Terrible Storm.
 am no alarmist. When on the 20th of September, after the wind has for three days been blowing from the north east. you prophecy that the equinootial storm is coming, you simply state fact not to be disputed. Neither am an alarmist when say that storm is com ing, compared with which Noah's del- uge was but an April shower, and that it is wisest and safest for you and for me to get safely housed for eternity. The invitation that went forth to Noah sounds in our ears, Come thou and all thy house into the ark"
 We'll, how did. Noah and his family come into the ark? Did they climb in No; they went through the door. And just so, if we get into the ark of Gods mercy, it will be through Christ, the door. The entrance to the ark of old must have been very large entrance. We know that 1t was from the fact that there were monster animals in the earlier ages. and in order to get them into the ark, two and two, according to tho Bible statement, the door must have been very wide and very high" So the door into the mercy of God is large door. We go in, not two and two, but by hundreds, and by thousands and by earth may go in, 10, 900, 900 abreastl
 The door of the ancient ark was in the side. So now it is through the side of Christ-the pierced side, the wide open side, the heart side-that we en- ter. Aha, the Roman soldier, thrusting his spear into the Saviour's side, ex- pected only to let the blood out, but he opened the way to let all the world in 1 Oh, what broad gospel to preach! If . man is about to give an entertain ment, he issues 200 or 800 invitations, carefully put up and directed to the particular persons whom he wishes to entertain. But God, our father, makes a banquet and goes out to the front door of heaven and stretches out his hands over land and sea, and with a voice that penetrates the Hindoo jun gle, and the Greenland ice castle, and Brazilian grove, and English factory, and American home. cries out, Come, for all things are now ready" It is wide doorl The old cross has been taken apart, and it's two pieces are stood up for the doorposts, so far apart that all the world can come in. Kings scatter treasures on days of great rejoicing. So Christ, our king, comes and scatters the jewels of heaven.
 Rowland Hill said that he hoped to get into heaven through the orevices of the door. But he was not obliged thus to goin. After having preached the gospel in Surrey chapel, going up toward heav- en, the gatekeeper cried, Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, and let this man come inP' The dying thief went in. Richard Baxter and Robert Newton went in. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America may yet go through this wide door without crowding. Ho! every one--all conditions, all ranks, all peoplel Luther said that this truth was worth carrying on one's knees from Rome to Jerusalem, but 1 think it an ho r1a