The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-01-25
SAY SO.
Dr.. Talmage Tells of the Power Of
Prayer.
Every suppIicant should Acknowledge Its
Force-How to Stir Up Christians
and W the Great
Cause.

subject composed of two words, SAY
So" the text being from Psalms 1912:
"Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say
So" DIR. Talmage said:
An overture, an antiphon, q 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 re-
deemed of the Lord say So" There is
a sinful .r%eticence which has been
almost canonized. The people are
quite as outspoken as they ought
to be on all subjects of politics,
and are fluent n voluble on the Ven
ezuelan question, and b~imetallism, the
tariffs, high and low and remodeled,
and female suffrage, and you have to
skillfully watch your chanc if you
want to put into the active conversa-
ton a modest suggestion of your own;
but on the subject of divine goodness,
religious experience. and eternal bless
edness 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? II you
4 udNO III VOuE ECdEb buO pearl VI
great price, worth more than the
Koh-i-noor among Victorian jewels,
why not let others see them?
In these January days thousands of
ministers and private Christians are
wondering about the best way of start
ing a revival of religion. I can
tell you a way of starting a
revival, continental, hemisphere,
and worldwide. You say a revival
starts in 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 q bushel of
wheat or a peck of corn between now
and the end of the world. How,
then, shall a universal revival
start? By all Christian people
telling the story of their own
conversion. Let ten men and women
get up next week in your prayer meet
ing and. not in a conventional or can't
ing or doleful way, but in thu same
tone they employ in b 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 concerning whom 1t was
fo~reordained from all eternity that
they should be there. There are SO
many different ways of being convert
| ed that we want to hear all kinds, so
that our own case may be helped. It
always puts me back to hear only one
kind of experience, such as a man gives
when he tells of his Pauline CONVEX
sion-how he was knocked 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 hat d-iscourages me, for l
was never knocked senseless, and 1
never had such a sudden burst of re-
ligious rapture that / lost my equili-
brium. But after awhile a 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, and
gradually the peace of the gospel came
into his soul like the dawn of the
morning-no perceptible difference be-
tween moment and moment-but after
awhile all perturbation settled down
into a hope that had consoled
and strengthened him during all
the vicissitudes of a lifetime.
/ said: THAT is ex~hilarating
that was my experience" and
SO / was strengthened. In another
prayer meeting u man got mp 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 n
day he was by some religious power
hurled fat. and then got up a Christian,
and had ever since been going around
with a Baxter Bible with largo flaps un-
der 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 says: 81 have nothing extra
ordinary to tell; yet 1 think the cares
of life, the anxieties about my chill
dren, and two graves opened in our
family plot, made me feel the need of
God, and weak and helpless and heart
broken, / flung myself upon His mercy,
and 1 feel what the Bible calls the
peace of God which passeth all under
standing and / ask your prayers that
I NAV 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
tie ice had gone out of the river in a
freshst of salvation. LET
the redeemed of the Lord say So"
/ have but little interest in what
people say about religion as IN abb
but I nave illimitable in,
terest in what people say about what
thew have personally felt of religion.
It was an expression of his w graft
tude 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 a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise.
It was after Abraham Lincoln had
been comforted in the loss of Tad"
the bright boy of the white house.
that he said, II now see as never be-
fore the ~preciousness of Gods love in
Jesus Christ, and how we are brought
hear to God as our Father by Him."
What a record for all time and eter.
nifty was made by Gellacius. the play
actor. in the theater at Heliopolis- A
burlesque of Christianity was put upon
the stage. In derision of h ordinance
of baptism a bathtnb, filled with water,
was put upon the stage, and another
actor, in awful blasphemY, dipped Gel
%lacius, pronouncing over him the words:
81 baptize thee in the Esne of the
Father, of the Son and of the Holy
But coming forth from the
burlesqued baptism, he looked chan ged.
and was changed. and he cried out to
the audience: II am q Christian;
will die as a Christian" Though he
was dragged out and stoned to death.
they could not drown the testimony
made under such awful circumstances.
ST am a Christian; ! will die q Chris
Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so."
What a confirmation would come If
all who had answers to prayers would
speak out If all merchants in tight
places because of hard times would
tell how, in response to supplication. 4
they got the money to pay the note. Ii
all farmers in time of drought would {
h@rV - erv - 1000. ~. -nS- I