Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-03-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS SERMON ~ THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY Oh MUSIC.
Subject, "The Glorious Gospel"

Suhlectt "Ihe biortous Hospei.
TE1r. Ascending 20 the glorious gospel
Of the blessed God. which was committed 10
nv trust."-I Timothy l., II.
The greatest novelty Of our time is the Cos
pei. II L. 50 old that IL is new. As pottens
and artists are now attempting 20 fashion
pitchers and cups and curious ware like
those Of 1900 years ago recently brought up
from buried Pompeii, aud such cups and
pitchers and curious ware ara universally
admired, 50 anyone who can unshOvel the
real gospel from the mountains Of stuff I'M
der which IL has been buried will he able To
present something that will attract the gaze
and admiration and adoption of all the peo-
pie. IL i amazing what substitutes have
been presented for what my text calls ''the
glorious gospel" There has been a hemi-
Spheic apostasy.
There are many people in this and all other
large assemblages who have no more idea of
what the gospel really is than they have of
what is contained in the fourteenth chapter
of Zend-Ayesta, the Bible Of the HindOo. the
first copy Of which | ever saw purchased in
Calcutta last September The old GOSPEL
Is fifty feet under, and the work has been
done by the shoyels OF those who have been
trying TO contriye the philosophy of religion.
There is no philosophy aboutit. 1t is plain
matter OF Bible statement and of childlike
| faithl Some of the theological seminaries
have been hOtbeds Of inideity because they
have tried 10 teach the philosophy of reli-
gion." BY the time that many young
| theological student gets half through his
preparatory course he so filed with
doubts about plenary inspection. and
the divinity OF Christ. anl the questions
| )t eternal destiny, that he is more fit
for the lowest bench in the infant class
| CT Sunday-school than TO become a teacher
and leader of the people. The abest theo-
logical professor is a Christian mother, who
| out Of her own experience can tell the four
| year-old how beautiful Christ was on earth,
| and how beautiful He now is in heaven. and
| how dearly He loves little folks and then she
| Kneels down and puts one arm around the
| boy, and with her somewhat faded cheek
| against the roseate cheek of the little one
| consecrates him for time AMI eternity to Him
/ who said, "Sutfer them to come unto Me-"
| What an awful work Paul made with the d.
! DIS, and the LIDS, and the F. r. SIS.
| when he cleared the decks of the old gospel
| ship by saying, Not many wise men. not
| many noble, are called. but God hath chosen
the weak things OF the world to confound the
! mighty"
There sits the dear old theologlan with his
table piled up with all the great books on in
| SEPARATION and eXegesis and apologetics for
| the Almighty and writing out his own elab-
crate work on the philosophy OF religion. and
his little grandchild coming up to him for a
| good night kiss he accidentally knocks off
the biggest book from the table, and it falls
on the head OF the child. OF whom Christ Him
self said, "Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklingS thou hast perfected praise" All,
my friends. the Bible wants no apologetics.
The throne of the last judgment wants no
apologetics. Eternity wants no apolog.tics.
Scientists may tell us that natural light is
the propagation of undulations in an elastic
medium. and thus set in yibratory motion by
the action OF luminous bodies" but
| no one knows what gospel light is
until his own blind eyes by the touch
Of the Divine Spirit have opened to
see the MONDAY of pardon and peace Scien-
lists may tell us that natural sound is ''the
effect OF an impression made on the organs
OF hearing by an impulse of the air, caused
! by a collision OF bodies, or by other means"
but those only know what the gospel sound
IL who have heard the voice of Christ direct
ly, saying: THY sins are forgiven thee.
Go in peace The theological dude unrols
upon the plush of the exQuisitely carved pull
pit II learned discourse showing that the
garden OF Eden was an alegory, and Solo
mons Song a rather indelicate love ditty,
and the book OF Job drama in which satan
was the star actor. and that Renan was three.
quarters right about MIRACLES Of Jesus, and
that the Bible was gradually evoluted and
the best thought of the different ages Moses
and David and Paul doing the best they
could under the circumstances and therefore
to be encouraged. Lord Of heaven and
earth, get us out OF the London fog of higher
criticism.
The night is dark, and the way Ia rough,
and We have a lantern which God has put in
our hands, but instead of employing that
lantern to show ourselves and Others the
right way we are discussing lanterns, their
shape, their size, their material, and which is
the better light-kerosene. lamp oil or can
dle-and while we discuss it we stand all
around the lantern, so that we shut out the
light from the multtudes who are stumbling
on the dark mountains of sin and death
Twelve hundred dead birds were found one
morning around Barthodi's statue in New
York Harbor. They had dashed their life
out against the lighthouse the night before.
Poor things And the great lighthouse OF
the gosp el-how many high soaring thinkers
have beaten all their religious life out
against it, while it was intended for only one
thing, and that to show all Nations the way
into the harbOr of Gods mercy and to the
crystalline wharveS of the heavenly city,
where the immortas are waiting for new
arrivals. Dead skylarks, when they might
have been flying seraphs.
Here also come, covering up the old gos- |
pei, some who think they can by law and ex-
posture of crimes save the world, and from
Portland, Me-, across to San Francisco, and |
back again to New Orleans and Savannah.
many OF the ministers have gone into the de- |
tective business. Worldly reform by all |
means, but unless it be also gospel reform |
1t will be dead failure. In New York its chief /
work has been to give us a change Of bosses, |
We had a Democratic boss, and now it is to |
be Republican boss, but the quarrel is, |
Who shall be the Republican, Politics will |
save the cities the same day that satan evan |
gelzes perdition.
The glorious gospel Of the blessed God as
spoken of in my text will have more drawing
power, and when that gospel gets full swing
1t will have momentum and a power
mightier than that of the Atlantic Ocean
when under the force of the September euui-
nox it strikes the Highlands of the Navesink.
The meaning of the word gospel" is "good
news, and my text says it is glorious good
news, and We must tell 1t in our churches,
and over our dry goods counters, and in our
factories. and over our threshing machines.
and behind our plowS, and on our ships
decks, and in our parors, our nurseries and
Kitchens as though it were glorious good news,
and not with dismal drawl in our voice,
and dismal look on our faces, as though re-
ligion was a rheumatic twinge, or dyspep-
tic pang, or Inalarial chill, or an attack of
nervous prostration. With nine "blesseds"
or "happys," Christ began His sermon on
the mount-blessed the poor; blessed the
mourner; blessed the meek; blessed the hun
cry; blessed the merciful; blessed the pure:
blessed the peacemakers; blessed the perse-
cuted; blessed the reviled blessed. blessed.
blessed; happy, happy, happy. Glorious
good news for the young as through Christ
fhaV haVn mo-