The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-01-11

| ,tated Soul -Dr. Talmnge Discoursoe
ON . Question of Incompara-
BILE Importance.
For tho closing discourse Of the yea
Rev. DIR. Talmage chose subjec
which appeals to the unconvertee
every where-viz, The Philippian Jail
or" The text selected was, "Sirs, wha-
must do to be savedY' Acts xvi, so
Incarcerated in Philippian peni
Tertiary, place cold and dark and
| lamp and loathsome and hideous, unil'
| luLained save by the torch of the official
who comes to see II they are alive yet
are two ministers of Christ, their feet
fast in instruments of torture, their
shoulders dripping from the stroke OF
leathern thongs, their mouths hot
with Inflammation of thirst their
heads faint because they may not lie
down. In comforta BILE room of that
same building and amid pleasant sur
roundings is paid officer of the gov
eminent whose business it is TO super
wise the prison. 1t is night, and all is
still in the corridors of the dungeon
save as some murderer struggles with
horrid dream, or ruffian turns over
in his chains, or there is the cough of
a dying consumptive amid the damp
ness, but suddenly crash go the walls!
The two clergymen pass out free. The
fail keeper, although familiar with the
darkness and horrors lowering around
the dungeon, is startled beyond all
bounds, and, fambeau in hand, he
rushes through amid the falling walls,
shouting ut the top OF his voice, "Sirs,
what must do to be saved?"'
/ stand now among those who are
asking the same question with more or
less earnestness, and l accost you in
this crisis of your soul with a message
from Heaven. There are those in this
audience who might be more skillful
in argument than l am; there are those
here who can dive into deeper depths
of science, or nave larger knowledge;
there are in this audience those before
whom would willingly bow as the in
ferior to the superior, but yield 10 no
one in this assemblage in desire to
have all the people saved by the power
of an oTnnipotent gospel
l shall proceed to characterize the
question of the agitated Jail keeper.
And, first, characterize the question
as courteous He might have rushed
in and said Paul and Silas, you vag-
abonds, are you tearing down this
prison? Aren't you satisfied with dis
turbing the peace of the city by your
infamous doctrines? And are you now
going to destroy public property?
Back with you to your places, you vaga-
bonds" He said no such thing. The
word of four letters, "sirs," equivalent
to lords" recognized the majesty and
the honor of their mission. Sirs! If a
man with captious spirit tries to find
the way to Heaven, he will miss it If
a man comes out and pronounces all
Christians as hypocrites, and the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ as a fraud, and
asks irritating questions about the
mysteries and inscrutable, saying:
Come, my wise man, explain this and
explain that; if this be true, how can
that be truce? no such man finds the
way to Heaven. The question of the
text was decent, courteous, gentleman
ly, deferential Sirs!
Again, l characterize this question
of the agitated Jail keeper by saying
that it was practical question. He
the world, he did not ask how Christ
could be God and man in the same per-
son, he did not ask the doctrine of the
DEGREES explained or want to know
whom Cain married, or what was the
cause of the earthquake. His present
and everlasting welfare was involved
IN the question, and was not that prac-
teal? But know multitudes Of peo-
pie who are bothering themselves
about the non-essentials of re-
ligion. What would you think
of a man who should, while dis
cussing the question of the light and
heat of the sun, spend his time down
in coal cellar when he might come
out and see the one and feel the other?
Yet there are multitudes of men who,
in discussing the chemistry of the Cos
pei, spend their time down in the dun
geon of their unbelief when God all
the while stands telling them to come
out into the MONDAY light and warmth
VI ZIG suu VI TlButeousneSS- ne QueS-
ton for you, my brother, to discuss is
not whether Calvin or Arminius was
right, not whether handful of water
in holy baptism or a baptistery is the
better, not whether foreordination and
free agency can be harmonized. The
practical question for you to discuss
and for me to discuss is, where will
spend eternity?"
Again characterize this question of
che agitated Jail keeper as one personal
to himself / have no doubt he had
many friends, and he was interested in
their welfare. l have no doubt he
found that there were persons in that
prison who, il the earthquake had de-
stroyed them, would have found their
case desperate. He is not questioning
about them. The whole weight of his
question turns on the pronoun 81"
what shall do?" OF course, when
a man becomes a Christian, he imme-
diately becomes anxious for the saliva
ton of other people, but until that
point is reached the most important
question is about your own salvation.
What is to be my destiny?" what