The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-04-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A LESSON DRAWN FROM JONAHs
DISOBEDIENCE. 49, r

a LESSON DRAWN FROM JONAh'S
DIsOBEDIENCE. 5 j
| To-Day, a. Then, There are Those
Who VIII not Listen to Divine In
in Sim.
Brooklyn, N. Y, Specia1-Rev. DR..
| Talmage who still absent on his round
the-world tour, has selected as the sub
ject Of to-day's sermon, through the
press, 1.-THE Oarsmen Defeated" the
text chosen being Jonah l., Is, IA: ''The
men rowed hard to bring it to land,
but they could not; wherefore they
cried unto the Lord"
Navigation in the Mediterranean Sea
always was perilOus, especially SO in
early times. Vessels were propelled
partly by sail and partly by oar.
| When, by reason of great stress OF
| weather, it was necessary to reef the
canvas or haul it in, then the vessel
was entirely dependent upon the oars,
sometimes twenty or thirty of them
| on either side Of the vessel. You would
not venture outside your harbor with
such a craft as my text finds Jonah
sailing in; but he had not much choice
Of vessels He was running away from
the Lord; and when man is running
| away from the Lord, he has to run very
fast.
God told Jonah to 60 to Nineveh, to
preach about the destruction Of that
city. Jonah disobeyed. That always
make rough water, whether in the
Mediterranean, or the Atlantic, or the
Pacific or the Caspian Sea. 1t is very
hard thing to scare sailors. l have seen
them when the brow Of the vessel was
almost under water, and they were
walking the deck knee-deep in the surf
and the small boats by the side of the
vessel had been crushed as small as
lkindling wood, whistling as though
nothing had happened; but the Bible
says these mariners Of whom I speak
were frightened. That which sailors
call "a lump of a sea" had become a
binding. deafening swamping fury.
How mad the wind can get at the wat
er, and the water can get at the wind,
you do not know unless you have been
Spectators I have in my house piece
Of sail of a ship, no larger than the
palm of my hand; that piece Of canvas
was all that was left of the largest
sail Of the ship Greece, that went into
the storm 200 miles from Newfound-
land. Oh, what a night that was!
I suppose it was in some such storm
as this that Jonah was caught
| He knew that the tempest was on his
account, and he asked the sailors to
throw him overheard. Sailors. are a
generous hearted race, and they resolv-
ed to make their escape Of possible,
without resorting to such extreme
measures. The sails are of no use, and
so they lay hold on their oars. I see
the long blank of shining blades On Ell
ther side the vessel Oh. how they did
pull, the bronzed seamen, as they lay
back into the oars. But rowing on the
sea is very different from rowing upon
a river; and as the vessel hoists, the
oars skip the wave and miss the stroke,
and the tempest laughs to scorn the
flying paddles. It is of no use, no use.
There comes wave that crashes the
last mast, and sweeps the oarsmen
from their places, and tumbles every
thing into confusion of impending ship
wreck, or, as my text has it, 'The men
rowed hard to bring it to the land, but
they could not; wherefore they cried
unto the Lord"
Suggestive and Illustrative.
This scene is very suggestive to me,
and pray God I may have grace and
strength enough to present 1t intelli-
gently to you. Years ago preached a
sermon on another phase Of this very
subject, and I got letter from Hous-
ton. Tex, the writer saying that the
reading of that sermon in London had
led him to God. And I received an
other letter from South Australia, say
ing that the reading Of that sermon
in Australia had brought several souls
to Christ And then, I thought, why
not now take another phase Of the same
subject, for perhaps that God who can
raise in power that which is sown in
weakness may now, through another
phase of the same subject, bring sal
vation to the people who shall hear,
and salvation to the people who shall
read. Men and women who know how
to pray, lay hold Of the Lord, God Al
mighty, and wrestle for the blessing
Bishop IIatimer. would stop some
times in his sermon, in the midst of his
argument, and say: "Now. will tell
you a fable" and to-day 1 would like
to bring the scene of the text as an IL
lustration of most important religious
truth. AS these Mediterranean oars
men trying to bring Jonah ashore were
discounted, have to tell you that they
were not the only men who have brok-
en- down on their paddles and have
been obliged to call ON the Lord for
help. I want to say that the unavail-
ing efforts of those Mediterranean oars
men have a counterpart in the efforts
we are making to bring souls to the
shore Of safety and set their feet on
the Rock Of Ages: You have a father,
or mother. or husband, or wife. or child,
or near friend. who is not Christian.
There have been times when you have
been in agony about their salvation.
A minister of Christ whose wife was
dying without any hope in Jesus. walk
ed the floor. wrung his hands. cried bit
terly, and said, II believe I shall 90
insane, for l know she is not prepared
i to meet Cod" And there may have
been days of sickness in your house
hold. when you feared it would be a
! fatal sickness; and how closely you OK
amined the face Of the doctor as he
came in and scrntinized the patient. and
felt the pulse, and you followed him
t into the next room and said svI~horc