Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-05-08
SPOILS OF VICTORY.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches A SER
MON FULL OF HOPE.

he Iaoks For the Final Capture OF the
World For Christ and Says the Glorious
Event Is Comparatively Near at Hand.
The Spoils.
WASHINGTON, May 3.-This sermon
Of DIR. Talmage IS radiant with coming
rewards for all welldoers. Many Of the
disheartened will rally after reading it.
He chose for his subject 1.-THE Division
Of Spoils, " the text selected being Isaiah
lii, IL, "He shall divide the spoil with
the strong"
In the Coliseum at Rome, where per-
secutors used to let out the half starved
lions to eat up Christians, there is now
planted the figure Of a cross. And re-
joice to know that the upright piece Of
wood nailed to a transverse piece has
become the symbol not more Of suffering
than Of victory. 1t is Of Christ the con-
queror that my text speaks. As a kingly
warrior, having subdued an empire,
might divide the palaces and mansions
and cities and valleys and mountains
among his officers, so Christ is going to
divide up all the earth and all the heav-
ems among his people, and you and ]
will have to take our share if we are
strong in faith and strong in our Chris
tian loyalty, for my text declares it,
He shall divide the spoil with the
strong" "
Modest Spoils.
The capture of this round planet for
Christ is not SO much Of a job as you
might imagine, when the church takes
off its coat and rolls up its sleeves for
the work, as it will There are 1000,
900, 900 Of people now in the world, and
450, 900, 900 are Christians. Subtract
45O, 900, 900 who are Christians from the
1, 800, 900, 900, and there are 1, $50, 000,-
900 left. Divide the 1, $50, O00 600 who
are not Christians by the $50, 900, 600
who are Christians, and you will find
that We shall have TO average less than
three souls each, brought by rs into the
kingdom of God, to have the whole
world redeemed. Certainly with the
church rising up TO its full duty, no
Christian will be willing to bring less
than three souls into the kingdom Of
God.
hope and pray Almighty God that !
may bring more than three. I know
evangelists who have already brought
80, 600 each for the kingdom Of God.
There are 200, OOOpeople whose one and
only and absorbing business in the
world is to save souls. When you take
these things into consideration, and
that the Christians win have to average
the bringing Of only three souls each
into the kingdom Of our Lord, all i'm
possibility vanishes from this omnip-
potent crusade. Why, 1 know Sab
bath school teacher who for many years
has been engaged in training the young
and she has had five different classes
and they averaged seven TO class, and
they were all converted, and > times
are 35, as near az can calculate So
that she brought her three into the
kingdom Of God and had 30 to spare.
Mygrandmother prayed her erchlldren into
the kingdom Of Christ, and her grand
children, and l hope all her great grand
children, for God remembers a prayer
rs years old as though it were only a
minute old, and so she brought her
three into the kingdom Of God and had
more than 100 to spare. Besides that
through the telephone and the telegraph
this whole world, within a few years,
will be brought within compass OF ten
minutes. Besides that, omnlpotence,
omnipresence and Omniscience are pre-
siding in this matter Of the world s
betterment, and that takes the question
of the worlds salvation out Of the i'm
possibilities into the possibilities, and
then out Of the possibilities into the
probabilities, and then out Of the prob
abilities into the certainties. The build
ing of the Union Pacific railroad from
ocean TO ocean was a greater under
taking than the girdling Of the earth
with the gospel for one enterprise de-
perded upon the human arm, while the
other depends upon almightiness.
A Full Surrender.
Do really mean all the earth will
surrender to Christ? Yes. How about the
uninviting portions? Will Greenland be
eyangelized? The possibility is that aft
er a few more hundred brave lives are
dashed out among the icebargs that
great refrigerator, the Polar region, will
be given up to the walrus and bear, and
that the inhabitants will come down by
invitation into tolerable climates, or
thoss climates may soften, and, as 1t has
been positively demonstrated that the
arctic region was once q blooming gar
den and fruitful field, those regions
may change climate and again be
blooming garden and a fruitful field 1t
is proved beyond controversy, by Ger
man and American scientists, that the
arctic regions were the first portions OF
| this world inhabitable; the world hot
bevond human endurance, those regions
were. Of course, the first to be cool
enough for human foot and human lung.
1t was positively proved that the arctic
region was a tropical climate. Professor
Heer Of Zurich says the remains Of flow
ers have been found in the arctic region,
showing it was like Mexico for climate,
and it is found that the arctic was the
mother region from which all the flow
ers descended Professor Wallace says
the remains Of all styles Of animal life
are found in the arctic regions, including
those animals that can live only in warm
climates. Now that arctic region, which
has been demonstrated by fora and
fauna and geological argument to have
been as full Of vegetation and life as our
Florida, may be turned back 70 its orig
inal bloom and glory, or it will be shut
up as a museum Of crystals for curiosity
seekers once in awhile to visit But
arctic and antarctic in some shape Will
belong to the Redeemer's realm.
What about other unproductive or re
pulsive regions? All the deserts will be
irrigated. the waters will be forced up
TO the great American desert between
here and the Pacific by machinery now
known or yet TO be invented, and as
Great Salt Lake City has no rain and