The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-01-03
PHILIPPIAN JAILER.
A Sermon Which Appeals to the Un-
controVerted Everywhere.
The Query: "Sirs, Whist Must 1 Do to BE
saved?"-This Was the Cry of an Agi-
tated SOul-Dr. Talmsge Discourses
on Question of Incompara-
BILE Importance.

which appeals to the unconverted
everywhere-viz, The Philippian jail
err" The text selected was, "Sirs, what
must do to be saved?'' Acts xvi, 30
| lncarcerated in a Philippian peni-
Tertiary, a place cold and dark and
damp and loathsome and hideous, unil-
lumined save by the torch of the official
who comes to see if 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 a ru ffian turns over
in his chains, or there is the cough of
dying consumptive amid the damp
ness, but suddenly crash go the walls!
The two clergymen pass out free. The
| Jail keeper. although familiar with the
darkness and horrors lowering around
the dungeon, is startled beyond all
bounds, and, fambe in hand, he
rushes through amid the falling walls,
shouting at the top of his voice, "Sirs,
what must do to be saved?",
l 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 am; there are those
here who can dive into deeper depths
of science, or have larger knowledge;
there are in this audience those before
whom l would willingly bow as the in
ferior to the superior, but yield to no
one in this assent lage in a desire to
have all the people saved by the power
of an omnipotent gospel
l shall proceed to characterize the
question of the agitated Jail keeper.
And, first, 1 characterize the question
as courteous. He might have rushed
in and said paul and Silas, you vag-
abonds, are you tearing down this
|
turbing the peace of the city by your
infamous doctrines? And are you now
going to destroy public propertys
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 a captious spirit tries to find
the way to Heaven, he will miss it. If
man comes out and pronounces all
Christians as hypocrites, and the re-
| ligion of Jesus Christ as 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
", deferential Sirs!
Again, l characterize this question
of the agitated Jail keeper by saying
that it was practical question. He
did not ask why God let sin come into
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-
of a man who should, while dis
cussing the question of the light and
heat of the sun, spend his time down
in a coal cellar when he might come
out and see the one and feel the other?
Yet there are muItitudes of men who,
in discussing the chemistry of the gos-
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
of the sun of righteousness The 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 baptistery is the
better, not whether REORGANIZATION 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
the 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, if 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 II"
what shall 1 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 nv destiny?" What
are my prospects for the future?''
Where am 1 going?' What shall
1 6o?'' The trouble is we shuttle
the responsibility off upon others
We prophesy bad end to that inebri-
ate and terrific exposure to that de-
faultar and awful cataStroDhe To that