The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-23
LIGHT IN DARKNESS
DR. TALMAGE COMFORTS THE
SICK AND HELPLESS

DR. THE
SICK AND HELPLESS
Like Noah In the Ark, They are Safe
From outside Perals-shus I'm by the
Lord For an All Wise PurP0se-The
~Withouts,, and ~wfthias,
<Copyright, 1898, by American Press
A~ssociation-)
This discourse of DR.. Talmage, which
IA helpful to all who find life a strug-
gle, il especially addressed to a class
OF persons probably v before adj
dressed in a sermon The text Is Cen
esis vii, 16, 1.-THE Lord shut him In"
Cosmogony has no more interesting
chapter thar the one which speaks OF
thai catastrophe of the ages, the sub
mersion Of our world in time Of Noah,
the first ship carpenter. Many Of the
nations who never saw a Bible have
a food story-Egyptian food story,
Grecian food story, of which Dncaiion
was the Noah; Hawaiian Hood story,
New Zealand flood story, Chinese nooo
story. American Indian flood story
all of which accounts agree in the I'M
mersion of the continents under uni
versal rains, and that there was a snip
floating, with a select few or the nu-
man family and with specimens OF
geological and pathological and repi-
liam worlds, although l couid nave
wished that these last had been shut
out of the ark n drowned :.
All of these food stories represent
The ship thus afioat as finally
on a mountain top. Hugh Miller, IN MS
Testimony of the Rocks" thinks tnat
all these flood stories were lnnrm ira
ditions of the Biblical ccou and l
believe him. The worst thing ABOUT
that great freshet was that 1t struck
Noah's Great Eastern from above and
beneath. The seas broke the chain OF
shells and crystal and rolled over the
land, and the heavens opened tnelr
clouds for falling columns OF water
which roared and Numbered on the
roof of the great ship for a month and
ten days. There was one door 10 the
ship. but there were three parts 10
that door. one part for each or three
stories. The Bible account says MOTH
ing about parts of the door
to two Of the stories, n 1 GO not
know on which floor Noah n ms
family voyaged, but my text tells us
IndI lit DdIL VI tlC W
ticular floor on which Noah staid was
closed after he had entered. The
Lord shut him in" So there are many
people now in the world who are as
thoroughly shut in, some by sickness,
some by old age, some by speclal du-
ties that will not allow them TO go
forth. some surrounded by deluges OF
misfortune and trouble, and for them
my sympathies are aroused, and from
them I often receive messages, and
this sermon, which / hope may do
good to others, is more especially In
end for them. Today I address the
shut in. 1.-THE Lord shut him in"
THE DIVINE HAND.
Notice. first Of all, who closed the
door so that they could not get out.
Noah did not DO it, nor his son Shem,
did Ham, nor did Japheth, nor did
either Of the four married women VINO
were on shipboard, nor did desperadoes
who had scoffed at the idea of peril
which Noah had been preaching close
that door. They a turned their backs
the ark and had with disgut gone
away. I will tell you how 1T was done.
A hand was stretched down from heav-
to close that door. 1t was a divine
hand. 1.-THE Lord shut him in"
And the same kind and sympathetic
being has shut you in, my reader or my
nearer. You thought it was an acct
dent, ascribable to the carelessness or
.isdoings of others, or a mere happen
No, no! God had gracious design
for yC ur betterment or the cultivation
Of your patience, for the strengthening
Of your faith, for the advantage you
might gain by seclusion, for your eter-
nal salvation. He put you in a school, |
room where you COULD learn in six
months or q. year more than you could
lave learned anywhere else in a life
time. He turned the lattice or pulled
the blinds of the sickroom, or put
your swollen foot on an ottoman, or
neld you amid the pillows of a couch
which you could not leave, for some
reason that o may not now under
stand, but which he has promised he
will explain to you satisfactorily, if not
n this world, then in the world 70
for he has said, "Wha / do thou
znowest not now, but thou shalt know
lereafter!"
The world has no statistics as to the
of invalids. The physicians
know something about it, and the
and the pastors, but who
IAN tell us the number of blind eyes,
md deaf ears, and diseased lungs, and
livers, n tangled nerves,
md neuralgia temples, and rheumatic
'eet, or how many took no food this
morning because they had no appetite
o eat, or digestive organs to assimilate
n have lungs so delicate they. cannot
70 forth when the wind is in the east.
,r there is a fog rising from the river,
II there is a dampness or the ground
II pavement because Of the frost COM
out? 1t would be easy to count the
who every day go through a
street, or the number of passengers
.arried by a railroad company in a
rear, or the number of those who cross
he ocean in ships, but who can give
Is the statistics Of the great multitudes
Who are shut in? I call the attention OF
III such to their superior opportunities
# doing good.
Those of us who are we'll and can see
dearly, and hear distinctly, and par
AXE of food of all sorts, and questions
# digestion never occur to us, and we
an wade the snowbanks and take ar
.uuinox in our faces, and endure the
Thermometer at zero and every breath
# air is a tonic and a stimulus, and
ound sleep meets us with hve min
ties after our head touches the pill