The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1895-02-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE EMINENT DIYTNE'S DISCOURSE
ON LASTSUNDIY.
At the Academy o. Music in New York.
An Eloquent Sermon Attentive
~ Listened 10.

eral thousand persons were turned away
this afternoon from the doors of the Acad-
envy of Music, after the huge building had
been filed to overlooking, the crowds hav-
ing begun to assemble fully two hours be-
fore the time fixed fer opening the SER
vices. Rev. DR.. Talmage took for his sub
ject, 1.-The Glorious Gospel" the text
chosen being, According to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God, which was COM
mitted tC my trust"-I Timothy H.
Tho greatest novelty of our time is the
gospel. 1t is so old that it is new. AS pot
ters and artists are now attempting 10
fashion pitchers and cups, and curious
ware like those of nineteen hundred years
ago recently brought up from buried Pom
peii. and such cups. and pitchers, and curl
Gus ware are universally admired, so any
one who can unshovel the real gospel from
the mountains Of stuff under which it has
been buried, will be able to present some
thing that viii attract the gaze, and ad-
miration, and adoption of all the people.
1t is amazing what substitutes have been
presented for what my text calls, THE
glorious gospel" There has been an hem
ispheric apostacy. There are many people
in this and all other large asscnblaSes
who have no more idea of what the gos-
pei really is than they have of what is
contained in the fourteenth chapter of
Zend-.Avcsta, the Bible of the HinGoo. the
only copy of which | ever saw / purchased
in Calcutta, India, last September. The old
gospel is fifty feet under, and the work
has been done by the shovcls Of those who
have been trying to coutrye the philosophy
of religion There is no philosophy about
IL. 1t is plain matter Of Bible statement,
and of chilJiille faith. Some Of the theo-
logical seminaries have been hotbeds Of
infideGty, because they have tried To teach
the philosophy of religion" I3y the time
that many 2. young theological student
gets half through his preparatory course,
lie is SO filed with doubts about pIen3ry
inspiration. and the divinity of Christ. and
the questions of eternal destiny, that ne
is more mt for the lowest bench in the in
FAINT class of a Sunday school than to be-
come a teacher and leader of the people.
The ablcst theological professor is a
Christian mother. who. out of her own eX-
perence. 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 littio folks, and then she
kneels down and puts one arm around the
boy, and with her somewhat faded cheek
against the roseate check Of the little one,
consecrates him for time and eternity to
him who said: suffer them to come un-
TO me- What an awful wC.k Paul made
with the DDS, and the LIDS, and the
FRS.s, 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 command the mighty"
There sits the dear old theologiau with
his table piled up with all the great books
or inspiration and eNegesis, and apoogetics
for the Almighty, ana writing out his own
elaborate work on the philosophy of re
Hgion, and his little graudChild coming up
to him for a goodnight kiss, he accidentally
knocks of the biggest book from the table
and It falls on the head Of the child, Of
whom Christ himself said: "Out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast
perfected praise" Ah! my friends the
j, &c wants no apologetcs. The throne
O. ,he last Judgment wants no apologetics.
81 .roftv wants no ppDluEetics. Scientists
NAV ten us that natural light is the prop
agatiOns of fluctuations in an elastic me-
dunn, and thus set in vibratory motion by
the action Of luminous bOdics;" 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. Scientists may tell US that nat
ural sound is the effect of an impression
made on the organs Of hearing by an inn
pulse OF the air, caused by collision of
bodies, or by other rNcans;' but those only
know what the gospel sound is who have
heard the voice O: Christ directly, saying
Thy SINS are forgiven thee; go in peace"
The theological dude unrOlls upon the
plush OF the eNquisitely carved pulpit
a learned discourse showing that the Car
den OF Eden was an ailegory, ana Sol
omon's song a rather indicate love dlJty
and the book OF job q drama in which Sa-
tan was the star actor, and that kenu was
three-quarters right about the miracles Of
Jesus, and that the Bible was gradually
evoluted and the best thought of the diff
fecent ages, Moses, and DAVID, and Paul
doing the best they could under the cir
cumstances, ana therefore to be eucour-
aged. Lord of heaven ana earth, get
US out of the London log Of higher crit
icism!
The night is dark and the way is rough,
ana we have Il lantern which God has put
in our hands, but instead Of employing
that lantern to show ourselves and others
the ri4ht way we are discussing lanterns
their shape, their size their material, ami
which is the better ISht-kerOsene, lamp
o.. or CHuotc, ana WnJie we DISCUSS II, we
stand all around the lantern, SO that we
shut out the ulSHL from the multi
tudes who are stumbling on the dark noun
taiuS OF sin and death. Twelve hundred
dead birds were found one morning around
BarthOldiS statue in New FORK har0Or
They had dashed their lie out against the
lighthouse the night before. Poor thinGs!
AMI the great lighthouse Of the gospel
how many htd-sOdrlnS thinkers have beat
en- ali their religious lie out against it,,
vale il was intend. "a for only one thing,
and that to show all nations the way into
the harbOr of Gods mercy, and TO the
crystalline WharyeS OF the heavenly city,
where the immurtals are waiting iur new
arrivals. Dead skylarks, when they might
have been Iyins seraphs.
Here also come, covering up the old COS
pei, some who think they can by law and
exposure OF crime, save the world, and from
Portland, Maine, across to San Francisco,
and back again to New OrlennS and Sa~
Vannah. many of the ministers have gone
into the detective business. Worldly re-
gospel reform, il will be dead failure. In
New York its chief work has been TO give
Us a change of BOSSES. We had q demo
cratic boss, and now it is to be = repub-
lican boss. but the quarrel is, who shall
be the republican? Politics VIII save the
cities the same day that Satan evanseliz-
ed perdition.
Here comes another class of people who
in pulpit and outside OF il cover up the
gospel with the theory that it makes no
final difference what you believe or now you
act; you are bound Tor heaven anyhow.
There they sit side by side in heaVcn-Gar-
field and Guteau, who shot him; Lincoln
and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated
slandered him; Mana Sahib and the mis-
sjonaries, whom he dubbed to death 9t
Cawnpore; Herod and the children whom
he massacred; Paul and Nero, VINO be-
headed him. AS the result of such Il mon
grel and conglomeTate heaven, there are
millions of people in christendom VINO eN-
pcct TO 80 straight to heaven from their
seraglios and their incbriation and their
suicides when among the loudest thundeTs