Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-01-23
4 APRACTICAL SERMON
sssaY so" THE SUBJECT or Or. TAI
MAeE's DISCOURSE.

Prayer-Lst the Redeemed Show Their
CoIors-Personal Testimony.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mago never produced a more practical and
buggestive sermon than this Of today. We
believe 1t will stir -Christendom. His sub
ject was "Say So,' and the text selected
was Psalms evil, Q, "Let the redeemed of
the Lord say so."
An overture, an antiphon, 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 TO
/ recite them, publish them and, as far as
possible, let all the world know about It,
Let the redeemed Of the Lord say so. :"
There is a sinful reticenoe 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 vol
uble on the Venezuelan question and BIZ
metallism and tariffs, high and low and
remodeled, and female suffrage, and you
have to skillfully watch your chance IL
you want to put into the active conversa-
tion modest suggestion of your own, but
on the subject of divine goodness, Religious
experience and eternal blessedness they
are not only silent, but boastful of their
reticence. Now II you have been redeemed
of the Lord why do you not say SOP II
you have in your heart the pearl of great
price, worth more than the Kohinoor
among Victorian jewels, why not let 9TH
ers see itS If you got off the wreck In the
breakers, why not tell of the crew and tho
stout lifeboat that safely landed your If
from the fourth story you are rescued in
time Of conhagration, why not tell of the
fireman and the ladder down which he
carried you. II you have a mansion in
heaven awaiting you, why not show the
decd to those who may by the same proc
ess get an emerald castle on the same
boulevarda BY the last two words of my
text avoid calls upon all of us who have
received any mercy at the hand of God to
stop impersonating the asylums for the
dumb, apd In the presence of men, wom-
en-, angels, dovils and all worlds, "say So. !"
A Universal Revival.
In these January days thousands of
ministers and private Christians are won
dering about the best ways of starting a
revival of religion. I can tell you way
Of starting revival, continental, hemi-
spheric and worldwide. You say revival
starts In heaven. Well, 1t starts in heaven
just as prosperous harvest starts in heav-
en-. The sun must shine, and the rains
must descend, but unless you plow and
sow and cultivate the earth you will not
raise bushel of wheat or peck of corn
between now and the end of the world.
How, then, shall q universal revival startp
By all Christian people telling the story of
their own conversion. Let ten men and
women get up next week in your prayer
meeting, and, not in a conventional or
canting or doleful way, but in the same
tone they employ in the family or place
of business, tell how they crossed the
line, and the revival will begin then and
there II the prayer meeting has not been
so dull as to drive out all except those con-
cerning whom 1t was foreordained from
all eternity that they should be there
There are SO many different ways of being
conyerted 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, suoh as a man gives when
he tells of his Pauline conversion-how he
was knocked senseless, and then had a
vision and heard voices, and after GER
tain number of days of horror got up and
shouted for joy. All that discourages me-
for 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 devout parentage and had
always been thoughtful about religious
things and gradually the peace of the gos-
pei came into his soul like the dawn of tho
perceptible difference be-
tween moment and moment-but after
awhile all perturbation settled down into
a hope that had oonsoled and strengthened
him during all the yicissitudes of life
time. I said, "That is exhilarating; that
was my experience" And SO was
In another prayer meeting man got up
and told uH 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
day he was by some religious power hurled
fiat, and then got up Christian, and had
ever since been going around with Bax-
ter Bible with large flaps under his arm,
a floating evangelist. WE'LL under this
story many ars not helped at all, for they
know they nsver hated God and they
were never dissolute. But after awhile
some Christian woman arises and says:
81 have nothing extraordinary to tell. Yet
think the cares of life, the anxieties
about my children, 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 feel what the Bible calls the peace
of God which passeth all understanding,
and ask your prayers that may live
nearer to the Christ who has done SO much
for me.' declare that before that woman
got through we wero all crying, not bitter
tears, but tears of joyful emotion and in
three days in that neighborhood all the
Ice had gone out of the river in spring
time freshet of salvation. ''Leb the No.
deemed Of the Lord say so."
Personal Salvation.
I have but little interest in what people
say about religion rs an abstraction, but
have illimitable interest in what people
say about what they have personally felt
of religion. 1t was an expression of his
own gratitude for personal salvation
which led Charles Wesley, after season
Of great depondency about his soul and
Christ had spoken pardon, 10 write thai
immortal hymn:
Oh, for thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeener's praisc
1t was after Abraham Lincoln had been
comforted in the loss of Tad, the bright
boy of tho White House, that he said, II
now see as never before the preciousness
of Gods S love in Jesus Christ and how we
are brought near to God as our Father by
him. "
What thrill went through the meeting
in Portland, Or, when an ex-attorney
general of the United States arose and
said: Last night I got up and asked the