The Yale expositor., 1898-07-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"A GLORIOUS REST" LAST
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From the Text of Micah, Chapter II,
Verse 10, AS Follows; "Arise Ne and
Depart, for This Is Not Your Rest
Drumbeat of the Prophet.

This was the drum-beat of a prophet
who wanted to arouse his people from
their oppressed and sinful condition;
but 1t may just as properly be uttered
now as then. Bells, by long exposure
and much ringing, lose their clearness
Of tone; but this rousing bell of the
gospel strikes in as clear a tone as
when 1t first rang on the air.
AS far as can see, your great want
and mine is rest. From the time we
enter life, great many yexations and
annoyances take after us. We have our
holidays and our seasons of recreation
and quiet, but where is the man in this
world who has found entire rest? The
fact is that God did not make this
world to rest in. A ship might as well
go down off Cape Hatteras to find
smooth water as a man in this world to
IND quiet. From the way that God
has strewn the thorns, and hung the
clouds, and sharpened the tusks; from
the colds that distress us and the heats
that smite us, and the pleurisies that
stab us, and the fevers that consume
us, know that he did not make this
world as place to loiter in. God does
everything successfully; and this world
would be a very different world If it
were intended for us to lounge in. 1t
does right well for a few years. In
deed, it is magnificent! Nothing but
infinite wisdom and goodness could
have mixed this beverage of water, or
hung up these brackets of stars, or
trained these voices of rill, and bird,
and ocean-so that God has but to lift
his hand, and the whole world breaks
| forth into orchestra. But after all, it
is only the splendors of kings high
way, over which we are to march on to
eternal conquests.
You and / have seen men who tried
to rest here. They buided themselves
great stores. They gathered around
them patronage of merchant princes.
! The voice of their bid shook the
money markets. They had stock in the
most successful railroads, and in safe
deposit vaults great rolls of govern
ment securities. They had emblazoned
carriages, high-mettled steeds, foot
men, plate that COMPOUNDED lords and
senators who sat at their table, tapestry
on which floated the richest designs of
! foreign looms, splendor of canvas on
the wall, exquisiteness of music rising
among pedestals of bronze and drop
| ping, soft as light, on snow of sculp-
ture. Here let them rest. Put back
the embroidered curtain, and shake up
he - kho
| lights. 1t is IL o'clock at night. Let
slumber drop upon the eyelids, and the
air float through the half-opened lat
! tice, drowsy with midsummer perfume.
Stand back, all care, anxiety, and trou
BILE! But no! they will not stand back.
They rattle the lattice. They look un
der the canopy. With rough touch
they startle his pulses. They cry out
at II o'clock at night, Awake, man;
how can you sleep when things are so
uncertain? What about those stocks?
Hark to the tap of that fre-bell; it is
your district. How, If you should die
soon? Awake, man! Think of It!
Who will get your property when you
are gone? What will they do with it?
Wake up! Riches sometimes take
wings. How If you should get poor?
Wake up!" Rising on one elbow, the
man of fortune looks out into the dark
ness of the room, and wipes the damp
ness from his forehead and says, Alas!
For all this scene of wealth and mag
nificence-no rest!"
The very world that now applauds
will soon hiss. That world said of the
great Webster, What a statesman!
What wonderful exposition OF the con-
stitution! A man fit for any position!"
That same world said, after while,
Down with him. He is an ofice-seek-
err. He is a sot He is a libertine
Away with him!" And there is no
t4ace for the man until he lays down
his broken heart in the grave at Marsh
field. While Charles Matthews was
performing in London, before immense
audiences, one day a WORKOUT and
gloomy man came into doctors shop
saying, Doctor, what can you do for
me?" The doctor examined his case
and said. my advice is that you go and
see Charles Matthews" ALAS! Alas!"
said the man, 81 myself am Charles
Matthews" Jeffrey thought that If he
could only be judge, that would be the
making of him; got to be Judge, and
cursed the day in which he was born.
Alexander wanted to submerge the
world with his greatness; submerged
t. and then drank himself to death be-
cause he could not stand the trouble
Burns thought he would give every
thing II he could win the favor of courts
and princes; won it, and amid the
shouts of a great entertainment when
poets, orators and duchesses were ador-
ing his genius. wished that he could
creep back into the obscurity in which
he dwelt on the day when he wrote of
the
Daisy, wee modest. crimson-tipped
flower"
Napoleon wanted to make all Europe
tremble at his power; made 1t tremble,
then died, his entire military achieve
ments dwindling down to a pair of