The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-03-06
GONE ASTRAY.
DR.. Talmege Discoursee on e
Familiar Text.
We Must Take all Our burdens to the Lord
He Alone Is sbIe to Bear
Them and to Give Us
Comfort.

I. Dewitt Talmage at Washington
was from the familiar text found in
Isaiah 5S:vi: IAN we, like sheep. have
gone astray; we have turned every one
to his own way, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all" DIR.
Talmage said:
Once more ring the old gospel bell.
The first half of my text is an indict-
ment: All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. Some one says: Cant you
drop that first word? That is too gen.
eral; that sweeps too great a circle"
Some man rises in the audience and he
looks over on the other side of the
house, and says: There is a bias
phemer; and understand how he has
gone astray. And there in another part
of the house is defaulter, and he has
gone astray. And there is an impure
person, and he has gone astray." Sit
down, my brother, land look at home. My
text takes us all in. 1t starts behind
the pulpit, sweeps the circuit of the
room and comes back to the point
where it started, when it says: "All
we, like sheep, have gone astray." L
can easily understand why Martin
Luther threw up mis- hands after he
had found the Bible and cried out:
"Ohl my sins, my sinsi' and why the
publican, according to the custom to
this day in the east, when they have
any great grief, began to beat himself
and cry, as he smote upon his breasts:
God be merciful to me, sinner" l
was, like many of you, brought up in
the country, and l know some of the
habits of sheep, and how they get
astray, and what my text means when
it says: "All we, like sheep, have
gone astray." Sheep get astray in
two ways: either by trying to get into
other pasture, or from being scared by
the dogs In the former way some of
us got astray. We thought the reli-
gion of Jesus Christ put US on short
commons.
We thought there was better pastur-
age somewhere else. We thought if
we could only lie down on the banks
of distant stream, or under great
oaks on the other side of some hill, we
might be better fed. We wanted other
pasturage than that which God,
through Jesus Christ, gave our soul,
and we wandered on and we were lost.
We wanted bread, and we found gar
bage. The farther we wandered, in
stead of finding rich pasturage, we
found blasted heath and sharper rocks
and more singing nettles. No pasture.
How was it in the club house when
you lost your child? Did they come
around and help you very much? Did
your worldly associates console you
very much? Did not the plain Chris
tian man who came into your house
and sat up with your darling child give
you more comfort than all worldly as
sociates? Did all the convivial songs
you ever heard comfort you in that
day of bereavement so much as the
song they sang to you?-perhaps the
very song that was sung by your little
child the last Sabbath afternoon of
her life:
There is happy land,
Far, far away,
Where saints immortal reign,
Bright, bright as day.
Did your business associates in that
day of darkness and trouble give you
any especial coincidence? Business ex-
asperated you, business wore you out,
business left you limp as rag, bust
ness made you mad. You got dollars,
but you got no peace. God have mercy
on the man who has nothing but bust
ness to comfort him! The world
afforded you no luXuriant pasturage.
A famous English actor stood on the
stage impersonating, and thunders of
applause came down from the gal
leries, and many thought it was the
proudest moment of all his life; but
there was man asleep just in front of
him, and the fact that that man was
Indifferent and somnolent spoiled all
the occasion for him, and he cried:
Wake up, wake up!" So one little
annoyance in life has been more
prevailing to your mind than
all the brilliant congratulations
and success Poor pasturage for your
soul you find in this world. The world
has cheated you, the world has belied
you, the world has misinterpreted you,
the world has prosecuted you. 1t
never comforted you. Oh! this world
is a good rack from which horse may
pick his food; it is good trough from
which the swine may crunch their
mess; but it gives but little food to a
soul blood-bought and immortal
What is a soul? 1t is hope high as
the throne of God. What is a man?
You say, 1T is only a man." 1t is only
a man gone overheard in sin. 1t is only
a man gone overheard in business life.
Some of you go away by looking for
better pasturage; others by being
scared of the dogs. The hound gets
over into the pasture field. The poor
things fly in every direction. In few
minutes they are torn of the hedges
and they are FLASHED of the ditch, and
the lost sheep never gets home unless
the farmer goes after it. There is
nothing so thoroughly lost as lost
sheep. 1t may have been in 1857. dur
ing the financial panic, or during the
financial stress of 1872, when you got
astray. You almost became an atheist
You said: "Where is God that honest
men go down and thieves prosper?'
You were logged of creditors, you
were logged of the banks, you were
logged of worldly disaster, and some
of YOU went into misanthropy, and