The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-20
A CALL TO ALL CHRISTIANS.
TALNAGE WANTS THEM TO TELL
HOW THEY WERE CONVERTED.

s.Let the Redeemed Of the Lord say
SO.- the Text Of His SermOn-A Way
to start "A Worldwide Revival
Through RecitaIs of Experiences.
some Notable Instances Of Con-
version.
Washington. Jan. 19-Rev DR.. Talmage
never produced a more practical and sug-
gestive sermon than this Of to-day. We
believe # viii stir Christendom- His sub
5ect was say So and the text selected
was Psalms lO7: ?, Let the redeemed OF
the Lord say so"
An overture, an antiphon, a doxology
IS this chapter, and in my text David calls
for an outspoken religion, and requests
all who have been rescued and blessed,
no longer to hide the splendid facts, but 10
recite them, publish them. and as far as
possible, let all the world know about il.
Let the redeemed Of the Lord say So"
There is a sinful retcence which has been
almost canonized. The people are quite
as outspoken as they ought to be on all
subjects Of politics. 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 CONVEX
sation a modest suggestion of your own;
but on the subject of divine goodness, re-
ligious experience, and eternal blessed
ness they are not only silent, but boast
ful 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 kOh-i-nOor among Victorian jewels,
why not let others see IL! If you get OF
the wreck in the breakers, why not tell
of the crew and the stout lfe-boat that
safely landed you? II from the fourth
story you are rescued in time of cOnflagra-
ton, why not tell of the fireman and the
ladder down which he carried you2 If
you have a mansion in heaven awaiting
you, why not show the deed TO those VINO
may by the same process get an emerald
castle on the same boulevard2 BY the
last two words of my text David calls up
on all of us who have received any mercy
at the hand OF God TO stop impersOnating
the asylums for the dumb, and in the
presence of men, women, angels, devils
and all worlds, SAY So"
In these January days, thousands of
ministers and private Christians are Won
dering about the best ways of starting a
revival of religion. l can tell you way
of starting revival, continental, hemis-
pheFic, and world wide. You say revi-
Nal starts IN heaven. Wen II starts IN
heaven Just as prosperous harvest starts
in heaven. The sun must shine and the
rains must descend, but unless you pbw
and sow and cultivate the earth you will
not raise a bushel of wheat or a peck of
corn between now and the end CT the
world. How, then, shall universal re-
ViVal StartY By all Christian people tell
ing the story of their own conversion.
Let ten men and women get up next week
in your prayer meeting and, not in con-
VenuOnal or Canting or dOleful way, but
in the same tone they employ in the fam
fly or place of business, and tell how they
crossed the line, and the revival will be-
gin then and there, if the prayer meeting
has not been so dun as to drive out all
except those concerning whom II was
1oreOrdained from all eternity that they
should be there. There are so many diff
ferent ways of being converted that we
want to hear all kinds, so 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 knock
ed senseless, and then had a vision and
heard voices and after a certain number
of days of horror got up and shouted for
joy. All that discourages me, for l was
never Knocked senseless, and never had
such a sudden burst of religious rapture
that lost my equilibrium. But after
awhile Christian man got up in some
meeting and told US how he was brought
up by a devout parentage and had always
been thoughtful about religious things,
came into INTO his s soul like s he
dawn of the morning-no percep-
tible difference between moment and mo-
ment-but after awhile all perturbation
settled down into hope that had con-
soled and strengthened him during all the
vicissitudes of a lifetime. l said: THAT is
and so l was strengthened. In another
prayer meeting man got up and told us
how he once hated God, and went
through all the round of iniQuity, until we
were all on nettles lest he should go too
much into the particulars, but one dav
he was by some religious power hurled fiat
and then got up a Christian, and had
ever since been going around with a Bax-
ter Bible with large flaps under his arm
a floating evangelist. Well under this
story many are not helped at all, for they
know they never hated God, and they
were never dissolute. But after awhile
some Christian woman arises and saws
Il have nothing extraordinary to tell; vet
think the cares of life, the anxieties
about my children, and two graves open
IN our family plot, made me feel the need
OF COD, and weak, and helpless, and
heart-broken, / flung myself upon his
mercy, and feel what the Bible calls the
peace OF God which passeth all under
standing, and I ask your PRAYERS that I
may live nearer to the Christ who has
done so much for me-" declare that be-
fore that woman got through we were an
crying, not bitter tears, but tears of low
full emotion, and in three DAYS. in that
neighborhood, all the ice had gone out of
the river in a spring-time freshet Of sal
walton. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say So"
have but little interest in what peonle
say ABOUT religion as an abstraction but
/ nave lllimltable interest in what peopIe
say about what they have personally felt
OF rellglon. II was an expression of his
own gratitude for personal salvation which
led Charles Wesley, after a season of great
dependency about his soul. and Christ
had spoken pardon, to write that immortal
hymn: -
oh, for thousand tongues. to sing
My great Redeemer's praise.
1t was after Abraham Lincoln had been
comforted in the loss of Tad, f" the bright
boy of the white house. that he said, II
now see as never before the preciousness
of Gods love in Jesus Christ, and how we
are brought near to God as our Father
by him"
What a thrill went through the meeting
IN Portland, Oregon. when an ex-Attor-
ney. general of the United States arose and
said: Last night I got up and asked the
prayers of Gods people. 1 feel now per-
tectly satisfied. The burden is rolled off
and all gone, and l feel that / could run
or fly into the arms of Jesus Christ"
What a record for all time and eternity
was made by Gellacius the play-actor, in
the theater at Heliopolis. A burlesque of
Christianity was put upon the stage In
derision of the ordinance of baptism a
bath-tub, filled with water was put upon
the stage, and another actor, in awful
blasphemy, dipped Gellacius, pronouncing
over him the words, Il baptize thee in the
of the Father Of the Son and Of Z a