Connecticut western news., 1900-06-21
CHRIST OUR REFUGE.
REV. DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON A MES
 SAGE OF COMFORT.

SAGE OF COMFORT.
 Conmends the Behavior of the Dis ciples to Those Who Are Bufdenea With sorrow-Illustrates the Power of Divine Sympathy.
 WARRINGTON, June 17.-Dr. Talmage, who has finished his tour in England and Scotland, where thousands throng- ed to hear him wheresoeyer he preach ed, Is now on his way to Norway and Russia, in which countries he Is al ready we'll known through the publica- tion of translations of his sermons. In the following discourse, which he has sent for publication this week, he gives a prescription for all anxiety and wor- riment and illustrates the divine sym pathy for all who are in any kind of struggle. The text is Matthew xiv, IF, And his disciples went and told Je- sus.'
 An outrageous assassination had just taken place. To appease a revengeful woman King Herod ordered the death of that noble, self sacrificing prophet John the Baptist. The group of the disciples were thrown into grief and ,lismay. They felt themselves utterly defenseless. There was no authority to which they could appeal, and yet grief must always find expression. If there be no human ear to hear 1t, then the agonized soul will cry it aloud to the winds and the woods and the wa ters. But there was an ear that was willing to listen. There Is tender pathos and at the same time a most admirable picture in the words of my text, They went and told Jesus." He could understand all their grief, and he Immediately seothed it. Our burdens ry if another shoulder Is put under the other end of them. Here we find Christ, his brow shadowed with grief, standing amid the group of disciples, who, with tears and violent gesticula- tlons and wringing of hands and out cry of bereavement, are expressing their woe. Raphael, with his skillful brush, putting upon the wall of pal ace some scene of sacred story, gave not so skillful stroke as when the plain hand of the evangelist writes, They went and told Jesus"
 The old Goths and Vandals once came down upon Italy from the north of Flu rope, and they upset the gardens, and they broke down the statues and swept away everything that was good and beautiful. So there is ever and anon in the history of all the sons and daugh- ters of our race m incursion of rough handed troubles that come to plunder and ransack and put to the torch all that men highly prize. There is no cave so deeply cleft into the mountains as to afford us shelter, and the foot of fieetest courser cannot bear beyond the quick pursuit. The arrows they put to the string fly with unerring dart until we fall pierced and stunned.
 A Message of Comfort.
 I feel that bring to you most ap- propriate message. I mean to bind up all your griefs into a bundle and set them on fire with a spark from Gods altar. The prescription that cured the sorrow of the disciples will cure all your heartaches. I have read that when Godfrey and his army marched out to capture Jerusalem, as they came over the hills, at the first flash of the pinnacles of that beautiful city,, the. army that had marched in silence lift ed a shout that made the earth trem- ble. Oh, you soldiers of Jesus Christ, marching on toward heaven, I would that today, by some gleam from the palace of Gods mercy and Gods strength, you might be lifted into great rejoicing and that as the prospect of its peace breaks on your enraptured gaze you might raise one glad hosanna to the Lord!
 In the first place, commend the be- havior of these disciples to all burden ed souls who are unpardoned. There comes time in almost every mans history when he feels from some source that he has an erring nature. The thought may not have such heft as to fell him. It may be only like the flash In an evening cloud just after very hot summer day. One man to get rid of that impression will go to prayer, another will stimulate himself by ar dent spirits, and another man will dive deeper in secularities. But sometimes man cannot get rid of these impress sions. The fact is, when a man finds out that his eternity Is poised upon . perfect uncertainty and that the next moment his foot may slip, be must do something violent to make himself for get where he stands or else fly for refuge.
 Some of you crouch under a yoke, and you bite the dust when this mo- ment you might rise up crowned con- queror. Driven and perplexed as you have been by sin, go and tell Jesus. To relax the grip of death from your soul and plant your unshackled feet upon the golden throne Christ let the tortures of the bloody mount transflx him. With the beam of his own cross he will break down the door of your dungeon. From the thorns of his own crown he will pick enough gems to make your brow blaze with eternal vic tory. In every tear on his wet cheek, in every gash of his side, in every long,
 
 shoulder to shoulder, In the grave shat tering. heaven storming death groan I hear him say, "He that cometh unto me l will In nowise cast out"
 "Oh," but you say, instead of cur ing my wound you want to make an- other wound-namely, that of convic- tion" Have you never known a sur geon to come and find chronic dis ease and then with sharp caustic burn it all out? So the grace of God comes to the old sore of sin. It has long been ranking there; but, by divine grace, 1t Is burned out through these fires of conviction. ''the flesh coming again as the flesh of little child;" where sin abounded, grace much more abound eth" With the ten thousand unpardon ed sins of your life % and tell Jesus