Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-02-15
THE PLACE TO START.
rev DR.. TALMAoE SAYS IT IsAT TIE
CAPITAL.

REv. DR.. TALMAGE SAYS IT IsAT Tire
/ CAPITAL.
He Says America Is Going TO BE Taken
For God and That the Place TO Begin Is
In washineton--Au win Cry Amen TO
This.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 9.-The audience
of DR.. Talmage is thronged with the
chief men Of the nation and people from
all parts, making this sermon most
| timely. An hour and half before the
doors open the people gather in the
street, and policemen keep the way open
/ for the pewholders. The text chosen for
today's discourse was Luke xiv, AZ,
Beginning at Jerusalem.
There il is, said the driver, and
we all instantly and excitedly rose in
the carriage to catch the first glimpse of
Jerusalem, SO long the Joy of the whole
earth. That city, coroneted with tenn
pie and palace and radiant. whether
/ looked up at from the valley of Jehosh
aphat or gazed at from adjoining hills,
was the capital of great nation. Clouds
! of incense had lowered over it. Chariots
of kings had rolled through it, Batter
| ing rams of enemies had Numbered
against it. There Isaiah prophesied, and
Jeremiah lamented, and David reigned,
and Paul preached. and Christ was mar
tyred. Most interesting city ever built
since masonry rung its first trowel or
plumb line measured its first wall or
royalty swung its first scepter. What
1 Jerusalem was to the Jewish kingdom
/ Washington is TO our own countryside
capital, the place to which all the tribes
come up, the great national heart whose
throb sends life or death through the
body polite, clear out to the geographical
extremities.
Christ viii Reign There.
What the resurrected Christ said in
my text to his disciples when he ordered
them TO start ON the work of gospelza-
ton, beginning at jerusalem" it
seems to me God says now in his provi
| dence TO tens of thousands of Christians
in this city Start for the evangelization
of America, beginning at Washington.
America is going to be taken for God.
! If you do not believe it, take your hat
now and leave and give room to some
nan or woman who does believe it. As
surely as God lives and he is able to do
as be says he will this country will be
evangelical from the mouth of the Po-
tomac to the mouth of the Oregon, from
the Highlands of Navesink to the Gold
Ell Horn, from Baffin's bay to the gulf
of Mexico, and Christ will walk every
| lake, whether bestormed or placid, and
be TRANSPORTED on every mountain. and
the night skies, whether they hover over
groves of magnolia or over Alaskan
glacier, shall be filled with the angelic
overture of "glory to God and good will
to men. F"
Again and again does the old book
announce that all the earth shall zee the
salvation of God, and as the greater in
cludes the lesser that takes America
gloriously in. Can you not see that if
America is not taken for God by his
consecrated people it will be taken for
Apollyon? The forces engaged on both
sides are SO tremendous that it cannot
be a drawn battle. 1t is coming, the
Armageddon. Either the American Sab
bath will perish and this nation be
handed over to Herods and Hildebrands
and Diocletians and Neros of baleful
power, and Alcoholism will reign, seated
upon piled up throne of beer barrels, his
mouth foaming with domestic and ma
tional curse, and crime will lift its I'M
hindered knife of assassination and rat
tie keys Of worst burglary and wave
torch of widest confagration, and our
cities be turned into Sodoms, waiting
for mighty tempest of fire and brim-
stone and one tidal wave of abomina-
ton viii surge across the continent, or
our Sabbaths will take ON more sancti-
ty, and the newspapers will become
apocalyptic wings of benediction, and
penitentiaries will be abandoned for
lack of occupants, and holiness and hap
piness, twin son and daughter of heav-
en-, shall walk through the land and
Christ reign over this nation either in
person or by agency SO glorious that the
whole country will be one clear, re-
sounding echo of heaven. 1t will be one
or the other. By the throne of him who
/ liveth forever and ever / declare it will
be the latter. If the Lord will help me,
as he always does-blessed be his glori-
Gus name--I will show you how a
mighty work Of grace begun at Wash
ington would have tendency to bring
the whole continent to God, and before
this century closes.
William the Conqueror ordered the
curfew, the custom of ringing the bell
at midnight, at which all the fires on
the hearths were to be banked, and all
/ the lights extinguished, and all the peo-
1 pie retire to their pillows pray God
that the curfew of this century may not
be sounded, and the fires be banked, and
the lights extinguished as the clock
strikes the midnight hour that divides
| the nineteenth century from the TWEEN
tieth century until this beloved land,
which was to most of us cradle and
which will be to most of us grave,
shall come into the full possession Of
him who is so glorious that William the
= Conqueror could not be compared to
him, even the One who rideth forth
/ conquerlng and to conquer
A Battle For Souls.
Why would it be especially advanta-
geous if Almighty work of grace started
here, beginning at Washington"
First, because this city is on the border
between the north and the south. 1t is
neither northern nor southern. It COM
mingles the two climates. 1t brings to-
gether the two styles of population. 1t
is not only right, but beautiful, that
/ people should have especial love for the
latitude where they were born and
brought up. With what loving accentu-
alton the Albanian speaks of his orange
groves And the man from Massachusetts
is sure to let you know that he comes
from the land of the Adamses-Samuel
and John and John Quincy. Did you
ever know Virginian or Ohioan whose
face did not brighten when he announc-