The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-02-21
A STIRRING APPEAL.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Pleads for Re-
ligious Revival
Mhlch, Beginning at the National Capital
shall Sweep the Country Before
she Close of the Nine
teenth Century.

TRSlSl0D was mdtlc Wy hON' - Nv W ~
sgalmage before his Washington con
xregation, in which was included many
ssf the principal men of the nation. HI
took for his text:
Beginning at Jerusalem.-Luke XIV, az.
There it 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, coronetted
with temple and palace, and radiant,
uhether looked up at from the valley
of Jehoshaphat or gazed at from ad-
joining hills, was the capital of a great
nation. Clouds of incense had lowered
over it. Chariot of kings had rolled
through it. Gathering rams of enc
snies had Numbered against it. There
isaiah prophesied, and jeremiah la
m,ented, and David reigned, and Paul
preached, and Christ was martyred.
Most interesting city ever built
since masonry rung its first
Srowel, or plum line measured its first
xpau or royalty swung its first scepter.
What Jerusalem was to the Jewish
kingdom, Washington is to our own
Countrywide capital the place to which
all the tribes come up, the great
national heart whose throb sends life
cr death through the body polite,
clear out to the geographical extremi-
ties
What the resurrected Christ said in
my text to His disciples, when He Or
dered them to start on the work of Cos
uelization, ''begiuning at Jerusalem"
st seems to me God says now, in His
providence, to tens of thousands of
Christians in this city. Start for the
evangelization of America, "begin-
ning 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 man or woman who does believe
1t AS surely as God lives, and He is
able to do as He says He will, this
country will be evangelical from the
mouth of the Potomac to the mouth of
the Oregon, from the highlands of the
Meversink to the Golden Horn, from
Baffin's bay to the gulf of Mexico, and
Christ will walk every lake, whether
bestormed or placid, and be transfig- |
e1red on every mountain, and the night |
skies, whether they hover over groves
s1f magnolia or over Alaskan glacier
shall be filed with angelic overture of
GLORY to God and good will to men,"
Again and again does the Old Book |
announce that all the earth shall see |
Che salvation of God, and as the great
er includes the lesser, that takes
America gloriously in. Can you not
see that if America is not taken for
Sod by His consecrated people, it will
he taken for ApoC.yon! The forces en-
gagged on both sides are so tremend-
Gus that it can not be drawn battle.
1t is coming, the Armageddon! Either
che American Sabbath will perish and
this nation be handed over to Herods,
and Hildebrands, and Dioc letians, and
Neros of baleful power, and alcohol
ism will reign, seated upon piled-up
throne of beer barrels, his mouth foam
ing with domestic and national curse,
and crime will lift it's unhindered knife
of assassination, and rattle keys of
worst burglary, and wave forth the
widest confagration, and our cities be
turned into Sodoms, waiting for AL
mighty tempests of fire and birthstone,
and one tidal wave of abomination will
surge across the continent, or our Sab
baths will take on more sanctity. and
che newspapers will become apoca-
lyptic wings of benediction, and
penitentiaries will be abandoned
for lack of occupants, and holiness
and happiness, twin son and daughter
of Heaven, shall walk through the
land, and Christ reign over this nation,
either in person or by agency so glo-
rious that the whole country will be
one clear, resounding echo of Heaven.
It 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 glorious name!-I
will show you how mighty work of
grace begun at Washington would have
a tendency to bring the whole CONT
aent to God, and before this century
closes.
William the Conquerer ordered the
curfew, the custom of ringing the bell
zt midnight, at which all the fires on
the hearths were to be banked, and all
the lights extinguished. and all the
people retire to their pillows pray /,
God that the curfew of this century
nay no be sounded, and the fires be
banked, and the lights extinguished,
Is the clock strikes the midnight hour
hat divides the nineteenth century
from the twentieth century, until this
1cloved land, which was to most of US ,
! cradle, and which will be to most of
~ a grave, shall come into the full ,
,o<zeesion of Him vvho is so Olorioua ,