The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-12-13
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
TBE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DIsCoURsE.
Subject A Way over Jordan The Lord
win Send Boat - From the other
Shore It VIII Come to Transport the
Faithful 70 Eternal Life.

VIII Send Boat - From the Other
Shore It VIII Come to Transport the
Faithful 20 Eternal Life.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-From an unnoticed
incident of olden time DIR. Tamage in this
discourse draws some comforting and rap
turous lessons. The text is III Samuel xix,
Is, And there went over ferryboat to
carry over the kings household"
Which OF the crowd is the king! That
short man, sunburnt and in fatigue dress.
1t is David the exiled king. He has de.
feated his enemies and is now going home
to resume his palace. Good always
like to see David come out ahead. But be-
tween him and his home there is the cele-
brated River Jordan, which has to be
passed. The king is accompanied to the
bank of the river by an aristocratic old
gentleman OF eighty years, Barzillai by
name, who owned a fine country seat at
Rogelim. Besides that, David has his fam
lily with him. But how shall they get
across the riverl While they are stand
ing there | see ferryboat coming from
the other side. and as it cuts through the
water | see the faces Of David and his
household brighten up at the thought of
so soon getting home. No sooner had the
ferryboat struck the shore than David and
his family and his old friend Barzillai,
from Rogelim, get on board the boat.
Either with splashing oars at the side or
with one oar sculling at the stern of the
boat they leave the eastern bank of the
Jordan and start for the western bank.
That western bank is black with crowds
OF people, who are waving aud shouting at
the approach of the king and his family
The military are all out Some of those
who have been David's worst enemies now
shout until they are hoaree at his return.
No sooner had the boat struck the shore
on the western side than the earth quakes
and the heavens ring with cheers OF well
come and congratuation. David and his
family and Barzillai from Rogelim step
ashore. King David asks his old friend
to go with him and live at the palace, but
Barzillai apologies and intimates that he
is infirm with age and too deaf to appre-
ciate the music, and has delicate appe.
tte that would soon be cloyed with luxu.
rious living, and so he begs that David
would let him go back to his country scat.
once heard the father of President
of the United States say that he had Just
been to Washington to see his son in the
White House, and he told me of the won
derful things that occurred there, and of
what Daniel Webster said to him. but he
declared: II was glad to get home. There
was too much going on there for me- My
father, an aged man, made his last visit
at my house in Philadelphia, and after the
church service was over and we went
home some one in the house asked the
aged man how he enjoyed the service.
well, | enjoyed the service, but there
were too many people there for me. IL
troubled my head very much" The fact
is that old people do not like excitement
If King David had asked Barzillai thirty
years before to go to the palace, the prob
ability is that Barzilla would have gone
but not now. They kiss each other good
bye, custom among men Oriental, but
in vogue yet where two brothers part or
an aged father and son go away from
each other never to meet again. No Won
der that their lips met as King David and
old BarZillai, at the prov of the ferryboat,
parted forever.
This River Jordan, in all ages and
among all languages, has been the SYM
Dol of the boundary line between earth
and heaven, yet when, ON a former occa-
sion, | preached TO you about the Jordanic
passage | have no doubt that some of you
despondingly said: 'Ihe Lord might have
divided Jordan for Joshua, but not for
poor me- Cheer up! | want to show
| you that there is way over Jordan as
well as through it, My text says, "And
! there went over ferryboat to carry over
| the kings household"
| All our cities are familiar with the ferry.
Doul. IL goes IRON Gdn FRANCISCO 10 YAK
land, and from Liverpool to Birkenhead,
| and twice every secular day of the week
multitudes are on the ferryboats of our
| great cities, so that you will not need to
! hunt up a classical dictionary to find out
| what | mean while | am speaking to you
| about the passage of David and his family
across the River Jordan.
My subject, in the first place, impresses
me with the fact that when we cross over
ft.1Va 4 -, Al l
| have to come from the other side The
/ tribe of Judah, we are Informed sent this
| ferryboat across to get David and his
| household. / stand on the eastern side of
| the River Jordan, and ] find no shipping
| at all, but while / am standing there
| see boat plowing through the river, and
| as | hear the swirl of the waters, and
| the boat comes 20 the eastern side of the
| Jordan, and David and his family and his
! old friend step on board that boat, | am
| nightly impressed with the fact that
when we cross over from this world to the
next the boat will have to come from tile
| opposite shore.
Every day l find people trying to ex-
temporl3e way from earth to heaven.
They gather up their good works and some
sentimental theories, and they make a
raft, and they go down. The fact is that
skepticsm and intidelity never yet helped
ShC ihuu W ulc. L luNlle All Tue snip
carpenters of worldly philosophy to come
and build one boat that can safely cross
| this river. | invite them all to unite their
skill, and Bolingbroke shall lift the stan
chions, and Tyndall shall shape the bow
| spirit, and Spinoza shall make the main
topgallant braces, and Renan shall go to
taeking and wearing and boxing the ship
| An together in 10000 years they will never
be able to make boat that can cross this
Jordan. Why was it that Spinoza and
| Blonnt and Shaftesbury lost their souls?
1t was because they tried to cross the
stream in a boat OF their own construc-
| ton. What miserable work they made of
| dying! Diodorus died of modification be-
cause he could not guess conundrum
which had been proposed to him at a
! public dinner; IeuXis, the philosopher,
died OF mirth, laughing at a caricature
Of an aged woman, a caricature made by
his own hand; while another of their
company and of their kind died saying:
Must | leave all these beautiful pic
! turesW and then asked that he might be
bolstered up in the bed in his last mo-
ments and be shaved and painted and
rouged. OF all the unbelevers of ali ages
not one died well. Some of them sneaked
out of life some blasphemed and raved
! and tore their bed covers to tatters. This
is the way worldly philosophy helps n
man TO die.
A guide at Niagara Falls said to me,
| ''Do you see that rock down in the rap
ids?" l said, Eyes" We'll" he said,