The free press., 1895-01-31
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE RROOKLYN DSvINE's SUN
DAY SnnMOM
Subject: "Points of Compass.

TEXT: sTbey shall come from the East
and from the West, and from the North. an
from the South. and shall sit down. LUX
kill. 29.
The man who wrote this was at one time ,
practicing physician. at another time tai
ented painter, at another time powerful
preacher at another time reporter-an In
spired reporter. God bless and help and In
spire all reporters From their pens drop!
the health or poison of Nations. The name
of this reporter was Lucanus. For short ht
was called Luke, and in my text, although
stenography had not yet been born. he re
ports verbatim sermon of Christ which II
one paragraph bowls the round world into
the light of the millennium. "They shall
come from the East. and from the West, and
from the North, and from the South, and
shall sit down"
Nothing more interested me in my recent
journey around the world than to see the
ship captain about noon, whether on the
Pacific or the Indian or Bengal or Medi-
iterranean or Red Sea, looking through n
nautical instrument to find just where we
were sailing, and it is well to know that,
though the captain tells you that there are
thirty-two points of division OF the compass
card in the mariners compass, there are
only four cardinal points, and my text halls
them-the North the South, the East, the
West. So 1 spread out before US the map OF
the world to see the extent OF the gospel
campaign. The hardest part Of the field to
be taken is the North, because our gospel is
an emotional gospel, and the Nations Of the
far North are a cold-blooded race. They
dwell amid icebergs and eternal SHOWS and
everlasting winter. Greenlnnders, Lap
landers, Icelanders, Siberians-their vehicle
is the sledge drawn by reindeer, their ap-
parel the thicsest furs at all seasons, their
existence a lifetime battle with the cold.
The winter charges upon them with swords
of icicle and strikes them with bullets OF hail
and pounds them with battling rams Of gla-
cier.
But already the huts OF the arctic hear
the songs OF divine worship. Already the
SHOWS fall on open New TcStaments Al
ready the warmth of the sun OF righteous
ness begins to be felt through the bodies
and minds and souls of the Hyperboreans.
Down from Nova Zembla, down from Spitz-
bergen seas, down from the land Of the mid
night sun, down from the palaces of crystal,
down over realms of ice and over domin-
ions of snow and through hurricanes of
sleet Chrst's disciples are coming from the
North. The inhabitants of Hudson Bay are
gathering to the cross. The Church Mis-
sonary Society in those polar lclimes has
been grandly successful in establishing
twenty-four gospel stations, and over IL, 900
natives have believed and been baptized.
LuO 4hOIhNlullo DuNO hluuicu tHO llSu VI luS
gospel all up and down Labrador. The Da-
nish mission has gathered disciples from
among the shivering inhabitants of Green
land. William Duncan breaches tho gospel
up III the chill lattudeS of Colu mbia, -deliv-
ering one sermon nine times in the same
day to as many different tribes who listen,
and then go forth to build school houses and
churches.
Alaska, called at its annexation William
III SpUarlsl oil tnr nIff 70 hn fi,r,
H. Stewards triumph, and it is hearing the
voice OF God through the American mission
aries, men and women as defiant of arctic
hardships as the old Scottish chief who,
when camping out in winters night
knocked from under his sons head pillow
OF snow, saying that such indulgence In
luxury would weaken and disgrace the clan.
The Jeanette went down in latitude seven
ty-seven. while DeLong and his freezing
and dying men stood watching 1t from the
crumbling and cracking polar pack, but the
old ship OF the gospel sails::as unhurt in lati-
tude seventy-seven as in our own forty de-
grees and the one starred flag floats above
the topgallants in Baffln's Bay and Hudson's
Strait and Melville Sound. The herolsm OF
polar expedition, which has made the names
OF Sebastian Cabot and Scoresby and
Schwatka and Henry Hudson immortal, is
to be eclipsed by the prowess of the men and
women who amid the frosts Of highest lati-
tudes are this moment taking the upper
shores of Europe, Asia aud America for God.
Scientists have never been able to agree rs
to what is the aurora borealis or northern
lights. can tell them. 1t is the banner of
victory for Christ spread out in the nothern
night heavens Partially fulfilled already
the prophecy of my text, to be completely
fulfilled in the near future, "They shall come
from the North"
But my text takes in the opposite point OF
the compass. The far South has, through
high temperature, temptations to lethargy
and indolence and hot blood which tend
toward multiform evil. We have through
my text got the North in, Notwithstanding
Its frosts, and the same toxt brings In the
South, Notwithstanding its torrdity. Tho
nelds OF cactus, the orange groves and the
thickets of magnolia are to be surrendered
to the Lord Almighty. The South That
means Mexico and all the regions that WILL
lam II. Prescott and Lord Kingsborough
made familiar In literature; Mexico, in
strange dialect OF the Aztecs Mexico con-
quered by Herman Cortes, to be more glor-
iously conquered; Mexico, with its capital
more than 1000 feet above the sea level look
Ing down upon the enhancement OF lake and
valley and plain Mexico, the home Of na-
t1ons yet to be born-all for Christ. The
South! That means Africa, which David
Livingstone consecratedt to God whom he died
on his knees in his tent OF exploration Al
ready about $50, 900 conv ,rts to Christianity
In Africa. Tha South! That means all the
Islands strewn by omnipotent hand through
tropical seas-Malayan, Polynesia, Melane-
sia, Micronesia and other islands more
numerous than you can imagine unless you
have voya2ed around the world. The South +!
That means Java for God. Sumatra for God,
Hbrneo Tor God, Siam for God.
ship was wrecked near ono OF these ISL
ands, and two lifeboats put out for shore,
but those who arrived in the first boat were
cubbed to death by the cannlbals. and the
other boat put back and was somehow saved.
Years passed on, and ono OF that ' .ry crew
was wrecked again with others on the same
rocks. Crawling up on the shore, they pro-
posed to hide from the cannibals in one ol
the caverns, but mounting tho rocks they
saw u church and cried out ''We are
saved A church, a church," The South
That means Venezuela. New Granada
Ecuador and Bolivia. The South! Thai
means the torrid zone, with all its bloom
and all its fruitage, and all its exuberauce
the redolence OF illimitab,e gardens, tn,
music of boundless groves. the lands, the
seas, that night by night look up 10 thu
Southern Gross, which, in stars, transng
uros the midnight heaven us you look up al
it all the way from the Sandwich Islands tC
Australia. "They shall come from tn,
South"