The Opelousas courier., 1900-08-11
TALMAGE SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE az THE Az;
VINE.

VINE.
sohJects Christ Our Refuge - A Message
OF CofnforR Co~mineDdinS tho BahaI.
LOT OF the Disciples I'd Those who Arc
burdened With Sorrow.
Copyright is0ol
W~AsHIEaToN, ID. CDR. Talmaee. in
shs Following disc ;urse, which he has se-;
1or publication this week, gives q prescrip.
ion Tor all anxiety and worriment, and
are in any kind Of, struggle. The text Is
and teld Jesus" ~
An OUTRAGEOUS assassination had just
taken place. To appease a ~reyeneefui
Woman King Herod ordered the death of
thas noble, self,sacriiclng prophet, John
tne Baptist. The group Of the disciples
We thrown int grief and dismay. They
felt themselves utterly defenseless. There
was no authority to which they could ap-
peal, n yet grief must always find ex.
preston. 1t there be no human ear I'd
hear it, then the, agonized soul will cry it
aloud to the winds and the woods and the
Watefs. But here was an ear that was
willing to listen. There 10 a tender pa
mos and at the same time a most admir-
ape saPeoIp picture in the words Of ny text,
understand all their grief; and He imme-
dlatelyy soothed it. Our burdens are not
more than half So heavy to carry if another
shouldef Is put under the other end of
them. Here we find Christ, His brow
Swallowed with grief, standing amid the
group OF disciple, who, with tears ana
SSiolens gestlculatieas and %wringing of
pressing their woe. Raphael, with his
sklllful brush, putting upon the wall of a
palace some scene of sacred story, gave
not so skillful a stroke as when the plain
hand Of the evangelist writes, They went
The old Goths and Vandals once came
down upon Italy from the north Eu-
rope, and they upset the gardens. and
they broke down the statues and swept
away everything that was good and beau
tlful. So there is ever ana anon in The
history of all the sons and daughters Of
our race an incursion of rough handed
troubles that come to plumber and ran
sack and put to the torch all that men
highly. prize. There is no cave so deeply
shelter, and the foot of heetest courser
cannot bear us beyond the quick pursuit.
The arrows they nut to the string i1y with
unerring dart until we fall pierced and
stunned.
feel that I bring to you a most appro-
pirate message. l mean to bind up all
your grlefs into a bundle and set them on
fire with a spark from Gods altar. The
prescription that cured the sorrow of the
have read that hen Godfrey and his
army marched out to capture Jerusalem,
as they came over the hills, at the first
fash of the pinnacles of that beautiful
city, the army that had marched in 81
lenee lifted a shout that made the earth
tremble. Oh, you soldiers of Jesus Christ,
marching On toward heaven, I would that
Gods mercy and Gods strength, you might
be lifted into great rejoicing and that as
the prospect of it's peace breaks on your
enraptured gaze you might raise one glad
hosanna to the Lord!
In the first place I commend the beha.
vior Of those disciples to all burdened
souls who are unpardoned: There comes
be feels from some source that he has an
erring nature. The thought may not have
such heft as to fell him. 1t may be only
like the flash In IN evening cloud just after
o very hot summer day. One man to get
rid OF that impression will 60 to prayer,
another will stimulate himself by ardent
spirits, and another man will dive deeper
in secularities. But sometimes a man cam
not get rid of these impressions. The fact
is, when a man finds out that his eternity
is poised upon q perfect. uncertainty, and
that the next moment his foot may slip,
he must do something violent TO make him.
self forget where he stands or else fly for
refuge.
Some of you crouch under q yoke, and
you bite the dust when this moment you
might rise up a, crowned %eonqueror. Driven
and perplexed as you nave been by sin, go
and tell Jesus. To relax the grip of death
from your soul and plant your un~shackled
feet upon the golden throne Christ let the
fortunes of the bloody mount transfx
Him. With the beam of His own cross
He will break down the door ct your dun
He win pick enough gems to make your
brow blaze with eternal victory. In every
tear on His wet cheek, in every cash OF
His side, in every long, blackening mark
of laceration from shoulder to shoulder,
in the grave SCATTERING, heaven stormine
death groan I hear Him say, He that
cometh unto Me / will in nowise cast out"
ooh" but you say, instead OF curing
my wound You want to make another
wound-namely, that Of conviction!" Have
you never known a surgeon to come and
And a chronic disease 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, it is burned out through these fises
Of conviction, "the flesh coming again as
the flesh of a little child" where SIN
abounded, grace much more aboundeth."
With the ten thousand objectionable SINS
of your life, go and tell Jesus.
You will never get rid of your sins 10
any other way, and remember that the
broad invitation which / extend to you
will not always be extended. King Al
fred. before modern timepieces were In
vented, used to divide the day into three
. : Il 4lnwn had &h7.on
wax candles. By the time the first candle
had burned to the socket eight hours had
gone, and when the second candle had
burned to the socket another eight hours
had gone, and when all the three candles
were gone out then the day had passed.
Oh. that some of US, instead of calculating
our days and nights n years by any
earthly timepiece, might calculate them
by the numbers Of opportunities and mer-
cies which are burning down and burning
out, never to be relighted, lest at last we
be amid the foolish virgins who cried,
faOur lamps have one out!
Again, / commend the behavior of the
disciples to all who are tempted. / have
heard men in mid-Iife say they had never
been led into temptation. Ii you have
not felt temptation, it is because you nave
not tiled to do right. A man hoppled and
~handcufed. as long as he lies quietly, does
not test the power OF the chain, but when
he rises up and with determination re-
solves to snap the handcuff or break the
hopple then he finds the power of the iron.
And there are men who have been for ten
and twenty and thirty years bound hand
and foot BY evil habits who nave never
felt the owe of the chain because they
have never tried to break it. 1t is very,
easy to go on down with the stream n
with the wind lying ON your oars, but Just
furn around and try TO go against the
wind and the tide, and you will find it is