The Penn's Grove record., 1897-05-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Helping TO FIJI the Ships That Are to
Carry Food for h Starving People of
India-An Eloquent Plea for Millions
of Famine Sufferers In a Distant Land.


TEXT: "This is Ahasuerus which reignet
from India even unto Ethiopia ."-Esthel
l., 1.
Among the 77s,s9s words which make ~
the Bible only once occurs the word
India" In this part OF the Scriptures
which the rabbis cali "Megiliah Esther" Of
the volume Of Esther, a book sometime.
complained against because the word
God Is not even once mentioned In It
although one rightly disposed can see God
In 1t from the first chapter to the last, We
have II set forth hat Xerxes, or Ahasuerus
who invaded Greece with 1900. OC0 men,
but returned in a poor fishers boat. had
a vast dominion, among other regions,
India. In my text India takes It's place in
Bible geography, and the interest In that
land has continued to increase until, with
more and more enthusiasm, all around the
world Bishop Heber's hymn about "India's
coral strand" Is being sung. Never will /
forget the thrill of anticipation that went
through my body and mind and soul when
after two weeks tossing on the seas around
Ceylon and India-for the winds did not,
according to the old hymn, blow soft DER
Ceylon's isle"-our ship sailed up one OF
the mouths OF the Ganges, past James and
Mary island, 80 named because a royal
ship of that name was wrecked there. and
L stepped ashore at Calcutta, amid the
shrines and the temples and sculptures of
that City OF Palaces, the strange physiog-
Monies OF the living and cremations Of the
dead. l had never expected to be there,
because the sea and / long ago had a seri-
Gus falling out, but, the facilities of travel
are so increasing that you and your chill
dren will probably visit that land Of bound
less fascination.
Christ during His earthly stay was never
outside OF Asia. When He had sixteen or
eighteen years to spare from His active
work., instead OF spending that time In
| EnrODa 7 think he 0naa farfhar tovpor1 kAa
heart OF A~sia-namely. India. The Bible
says nothing Of Christ from twelve years of
age until thirty, but there are records Ia
India and traditions in India which repre-.
sent a strange, wonderful, most excellent
and supernatural being as staying In India
about that time. I think Christ was there
much of the time between His twelfth and
His thirtieth year; but, however that may
be, Christ was born in Asia, suffered in
Asia, died in Asia, assembled from Asia, and
all that makes me turn my ear more atten-
lively toward that continent as / hear its
cry OF distress.
Besides that I remember that some Of the
most splendid achievements for the cause
OF that Asiatic Christ rave been made in
India. How the heart of every intelligent
Christian beats with admiration at the mere
mention OF the name OF Henry Martyni
Having read the life of our American David
Bralnerd, who gave his life to evangelizing
our American savages, Henry Martyr goes
forward to give his life for the salvation OF
India, dying from exhaustion OF service at
thirty-one years of age. Lord Macaulay,
writing Of him says:
Here Martyr lies. In manhood 5 early
bloom
The Christian hero found a pagan tomb.
Religion, Borrowing DER her favorite son,
Points to the glorious tropics which he won.
Immortal trophiesl Not with slaughter red,
Nor stained with tears by friendless or
Dhans shed
But trophies of the cross. In that dear
name,
Through every scene Of danger, toll and
shame,
Onward he journeyed to that happy shore,
Where danger, toll and shame are known
no more.
Is there In all history, secular or religi-
GUS, a most wondrous character than Will
lam Carey, the converted shoemaker Of Eng
land, daring all things for God in India,
translating the Bible into many dialects,
building chapels and opening mission
houses and laying foundations for the re-
demption Of the country, and although Sid
ney Smith, who sometimes laughed at
things he ought not to have satirized, had
in the learned Edinburgh Review scoffed at
the idea of what he called 'low born, low
bred mechanics" like Carey attempting to
convert the Brahmins, Carey stopped not
until he had started influences that eter-
nifty, no more than time, shall have power
to arrest, 913, 900 Bibles going forth from
his printing presses ut Serampore. His
sublime humility showed itself in the
epitaph he ordered from the old gospel
hymn:
A wretched, poor and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms l fall.
Need 1 tell you OF Alphonse Lacroix, the
Swiss missionary in India, or Of William
Butler, the glorious American Methodist
missionary in India, or of the royal family
of the ~Scudders of the Reformed Church Of
America, my dear mother church, to whom
/ give a kiss of love in passing, or of DR..
Alexander Duff. the Scotch missionary
whose visit to this country some of us will
remember ~forever2 When he stood in the
old Broadway tabernacle, New York, and
pleaded for India until there was no other
depth of religious emotion for him to stir
and no loftier height of Christian eloquence
for him to scale, and closed In q whirlwind
of halleluiahs, / could believe that which
was said of him-that while pleading the
cause of India. in one Of the churches of
Scotland he got so overwrought that he
fell in the pulpit in u swoon and was
carried into the vestry to be resusci-
tated, and when restored to his senses
and preparation was being made
to carry him out to some dwelling where
he could be put to bed he compelled his
friends to take him back to the pulpit to
complete his plea for the salvation OF In
dia, no sooner getting on his feet than he
began where he left of, but with more 81
gantic power than before he tainted. But
just as noble as any i have mentioned are
the men and women who are there now for
Christ's sake and the redemption OF that
people. Far away from their native land,
famine on one side and black plague on the
other side, swamps breathing on them ma
laria, and jungles bowling on them with
wild beasts or Kissing with cobras, the
names OF those missionaries OF all denom-
. - La.N - 1hA- al 81
martyrs that no names of the last 1900
years shall be written above them. You
need to see them at their work in schools
aud churches and lazarettoS to appreciate
them. All honor Upon them and their
households while l smite the dying lips of
their slanderers.
Most interesting are the people of India.
At Calcutta l said to one of their leaders,
who spoke English well:
Have these idols which | see any power
of themselves to help or DESTROY"
He said: No; they only represent God.
There is but one God"
when people die, where do they go tot"
"That depends upon what they have
been doing. II they AVE been doing good,
to heaven, n II they have been doing evil,
to hell"
"But do you not believe in the transmit
grafton Of souls, and that after death we go
into birds or animals of some sort2'
Eyes. The last creature a man is think
ing Of while dying is the one into which ne
will GO. II he is thinking OF a beast, he will
go into u beast,
81 thought you said that at death the
soul goes to heaven or hel?"
HE goes there by a gradual process. IL
may take him years and years" i,
Can any one become a Hindoo? Could
/ become a Hindoo?"
Yes; you could"
Glow could / become q Hindoo?"
"By doing as the Hindoos do"
From hat continent of interesting folk,
from that continent that gave the Christ,
from that continent which has been en-
deared by so many missionary heroies,
there comes a groan Of 100000 0 people IN
hunger. More people are in danger OF
starving to death in India to-day than the
entire population of the United States. In
the famine IN India In the year 1877, about
5000, 900 people starved to death. h Is
more than all the people of Washington, OF
New York, OF Philadelphia, of Chicago, put
together. But that famine was not a tenth
part as awful as the one there now raging