The Monitor-register., 1896-01-24
a SINFUL RETICENCE.
Rev. DR.. TALMAGE breaches A PRAc-
! TlcAL AND SUGGESTIVE SERMON.

: llCAL AMI oOGGES I'VE SEHMON.
Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So.
Public Profession of Christ An Elo-
quent acknowledgements of Rev. DIR.
Talmage.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10. - Rev. DR..
Talmage never produced more prac-
tical and suggestive sermon than this of
today. We believe it will stir Christen-
dom. His subject was "Say &c." and
the text selected was Psalms evil, 2,
"Let the redeemed Of the Lord say so. "
An overture, an antiphon, doxology
is this chapter, and in my text David
calls for an outspoken religion and re-
quests all who have been rescued and
blessed no longer to hide the splendid
facts, but to recite them, publish them
and as far as possible let all the world
know about it. LET the redeemed of
the Lord say So" There is a sinful reti-
cence which has been almost canonized.
The people are quite as outspoken as
they ought to be on all subjects of poll
tics and are fluent and voluble on the
Venezuelan question and bimetallism
and tariffs high and low and remodeled
and female suffrage, and you have to
skillfully watch your chance if you
want to put into the active conversation
modest suggestion of your own, but
on the subject of divine goodness, reli-
gious experience and eternal blessedness
they are not only silent, but boastful of
their reticence. Now, if you have been
redeemed of the Lord. why do you not
say SO? If you have in your heart the
pearl of great price, worth more than
the Kohinoor among Victorian jewels,
why not let other see it? If you got off
the wreck in the breakers, why not tell
of the crew and the stout lifeboat that
safely landed you? If from the fourth
story you are rescued in time of confla-
grafton, why not tell of the fireman and
the ladder down which he carried you?
II you have a mansion in heaven await
ing you, why not show the deed to those
who may by the same process get an
emerald castle Oh the same boulevard?
By the last two words of my text David
calls upon all of us who have received
any mercy at the hand of God to stop
ilnpersonating the asylums for the dumb
and in the presence of men, women,
angels, devils and all worlds "say So. ]"
Experience.
In these January days, thousands of
ministers and private Christians are
wondering about the best ways of start
ing revival of religion. l can tell you
q vav of starting a revival, continental,
hemisphere and worldwide. You say
revival starts i'll heaven. Well, it starts
in heaven just as a prosperous harvest
starts in heaven. The sun must shine
and the rains must descend but unless
you plow and sow and cultivate the earth
you will not raise bushel of wheat or
peck of com between now and the end
of the world. How, then, shall uni
versal revival start? By all Christian
people telling the story of their own con-
version. Let ten men and women get mp
Lex; week in your prayer meeting and,
Hot in a conventional or canting or dole
full way, but in the same tone they en-
ploy in the family or place of business,
tell how they crossed the line, and
the revival will begin then and there, if
the prayer meeting has not been SO dull
as to drive out all except those concern
ing whom it was foreordained from all
eternity that they should be there. There
are SO many different ways of being con-
yerted that we want to hear all kinds,
80 that our own case may be helped. 1t
always puts me back to hear only one
kind of experience, such as a man gives
when he tells of his Pauline conversion
how he was knocked senseless, and
then had vision and heard voices, and
after certain number of days of horror
got up and shouted for joy. All that dis
courages me, for I was never knocked
senseless, and never had such sudden
Ek4f religious rapture that lost my
equilibrium. But after awhile Chris
tian man got up in some meeting and
told us how he was brought up by de-
vout parentage, and had always been
thoughtful about religious things, and
gradually the peace of the gospel came
into his soul like the dawn of the morn
ing-no perceptible difference between
moment and moment-but after awhile
all perturbation settled down into a
hope that had consoled and strengthened
him during all the vicissitudes of life
time I said, "That is exhilarating !;
that was my experience. And so / was
strengthened.
In another prayer meeting a man got
up and told us how he once hated God
and went through all the round of in
iquity until we were all on nettles lest
he should go too much into the particu-
lars, but one day he was by some reli-
gious power hurled fiat and then got up
a Christian and had ever since been 60
ing around with Z Baxter Bible with
large flaps under his arm, floating
evangelist. Well, under this story many
are not helped at all, for they know
they never hated God. and they wers
never dissolute. But after awhile some
Christian woman arises and says, Il
have nothing extraordinary to tell, yet
think the cares of life, the anxieties
about my children and two graves
opened in our family plot made me feel
the need of God, and weak and helpless
and heartbroken I flung myself upon
his mercy, and l feel what the Bible
calls the peace of God which passeth all
understanding, and l ask your prayers
that may live nearer to the Christ who
has done so much for me. - | declare
that before that woman got through we
were all crying, not bitter tears, but
tears Of joyful emotion, and in three
days in that neighborhood all the ice
had gone out of the river in a spring
time freshet of salvation. ''Let the re-
deemed Of the Lord say So.
/ have but little interest in what peo-
pie say about religion as an abstraction,
but have illimitable interest in what
people say about what they have person
ally felG of religion. 1t was au express
sion of his own gratitude for personal
salvation which led Charles Wesley, aft
OF season of great dependency about
his soul and Christ had spoken pardon,
to write that immortal hymn:
Oh, for q thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praisel
Open Confession.
It was after Abraham Lincoln had
been comforted in the loss of Tad, the
bright boy Of the White House, that he
said, 81 now see as never before the
preciousness of Gods love in Jesus
f1br;rf apd how xva oro bro1,ohf npar fo