Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-03-01
REV. DR. TALMAGE
The Eminent Brooklyn DiVine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "The Glorious Gospel"

TExr: According to the glorious gospel
Of the blessed God, which was committed to
my trust. II Timothy l., II.
The greatest novelty Of our time is the gos-
pei. 1t is so old that 1t is new. AS potters
and artists are now attempting to fashion
pitchers and cups and curious ware like
those Of 1900 years ago recently brought up
from buried Pompeii, and such cups and
pitchers and curious ware are universally
admired, so anyone who can unshovel the
real gospel from the mountains Of stuff I'M
der which it has been buried will be able to
present something that will attract the gaze
and admiration and adoption Of all the peo-
pie. 1t is amazing what substitutes have
been presented for what my text calls "the
glorious gospel" There has been hemi-
spheric 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-Avesta, the Bible OF the Hindoo, the
first copy of which I ever saw purchased in
Calcutta last September. The old gospel
is fifty feet under, and the work has been
done by the shovels of those who have been
trying to contrive the philosophy Of religion
There is no philosophy about it. 1t is plain
matter OF Bible statement and Of childlike
faith Some Of the theological seminaries
have been hotbeds Of inhdelity because they
have tried to teach the PHILOSOPHY of reli-
gion." BY the time that many young
theological student gets half through his
preparatory course he is so filed with
doubts about plenary inspection. and
| the divinity of Christ, and the questions
of eternal destiny, that he is more tit
for the lowest bench in the infant class
| of a Sunday-school than to become teacher
| and leader of the people. The ablest .theo-
logical professor is 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 and eternity to Him
| who said, "Suffer them to come unto Me"
What an awful work Paul made with the D.
DIS, and the LIDS, and the f. h. SIS,
when he cleared the decks OF the old gospel
ship by saying, mot 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 thoologian with his
| table piled up with all the great books on in
| SEPARATION and exegesis and apologetics Tor
| the Almighty aud writing out his own elab-
orato work on the philosophy OF religion, and
his little grandchild coming up to him for
good night kiss he accidentally knocks off
| the biggest book from the table, and 1t falls
on the head of the child, Of whom Christ Him
! self said, "Out Of the mouths OF babes and
stockings thou hast perfected praise" Alb,
my friends, the Bible wants no apologetics.
The throne of the last judgment wants no
apologetics. Eternity wants no apologctics.
Scientists may tell us that natural light is
| the propagation of fluctuations in an elastic
medium, and thus set in vi5ratory motion by
the action of luminous bodies but
no one knows what gospel light is
until his own blind eyes by the toucn
| of the Divine Spirit have opened to
see the MONDAY of pardon and peace. Scien-
fists may tell us that natural sound is 1.-The
effect of an impression made on the organs
of hearing by an impulse of the air, caused
by collision of bodies, or by other means,
| but those only know what the gospel sound
is 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 a learned discourse showing that the
| garden of Eden was an allegory, 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 ofhighet
criticism!
The night is dark, and the way is rough,
and we have 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 multitudes who are stumbling
on the dark mountains of sin and death.
Twelve hundred dead birds were found one
morning around Bartholdi'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 gospel-how many high soaring thinkers
have beaten all their religious Life out
against it, while 1t 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 immortals are waiting for now
arrivals. Dead skylarks, when they might
have been flying seraphs.
Here also come. covering up the old Cos
pel some who think they can by law and ex-
posure 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
it will be dead failure. In New York its chief
work has been to give us change Of bosses
We had Democratic boss, and now it is to
be a Republican boss, but the quarrel is,
Who shall be the Republican? Politics will
save the cities the same day that satan evan
geizes 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
It will have a momentum and power
mightier than that OF the Atlantic Ocean
when under the force of the September equi|
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 it in our churches,
and over our dry goods counters, and in ou1
factories. and over our threshing machines,
and behind our plows, and on our ships
decks, and in our parlors, our nurseries and
Kitchens, as thought were glorious goodnews,
and not with dismal drawl in our voice,
| and dismal look on our faces, as though re-
ligion was O rheumatic twinge, or dyspep-
tic pang, or O. malarial chill, or an attack oil
nervous prostration. With nine "blesseds"
or "happys," Christ began His sermon on
| 4IA