The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-11-03
TALMAGE SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THs A8Le 0,
VINE.
Subject Spread the Gospel-Enorts Of
the Churches Should lie Directed
Toward Saving Sinners-They Should
Get in Sympathy With Strangers.

| directed
Toward Saving sinn-rs-They should
Get in Sympathy With Strangers.
Copyright 1901
NAsHINGToS, D. C.-Tn this discourse
Dr. Ialmage points to fields of usefulness
that are not yet thoroughly cultivated
and shows the need of more activity The
teXt is Romans XIV. %. Lest | should
build upon another mans foundation"
IN Iavlng out the plan of his missionary
tour lau seught out towns and cities
which had not vet been preached to- He
| goes to COrlnth. city famous for splen-
dor and vice. and Jerusalem, where the
| priesthood and III. sanhedrin were ready
| to leap with both feet upon the Christian
relqion. lie feels he has especial work
to do. and he means to do it. What was
the result? The srandest life of usefulness
that a man ever lived. We modern Chris
tan Work rkers are not apt to initiate Paul
| We build on other peoples foundations
| II we erect church we prefer to have it
| htied with families all Of whom have beca
| pioIs DO We gatl = a Sabbath school class,
| we want good boys and girls, hair combed
| faccs washed, manners attractive. SO a
| church in this day is apt to be built out
| OF other churches. Some ministers spend
! all their time in fishing in other peoples
| ponds. and they throw the line into that
| and throw the line into another church
pond and bring out Presbyterian. or
| there IS religious row in some neichhov-
ing church. and d whole school of f4h
swim off from that pond and we take
them all in with one sweep CT the net
What is gained? Absolutely nothing for
the canse of Christ. What strengthens an
those coming from other focks, we should
build our churches not out Of other
churches. hut out of the world, lest we
bni}I on another mans foundation.
The fact ia this is big world When
in our schoolhoy days we learned the da-
meter and crcum ference of this planet we
did not learn half It is the latitude aud
longitude and diameter and circumference
OF want and woe and sin that no figures
can ca'cul~te This one sniritual CONT
nent Of wretchedness reaches across all
zones. and if ] were called to give its geo.
graphical boundary | would say it was
bounded on the north and south and east
and west ly the great heart of Gods sym
pathy and love. Oh it is q great world.
Since 6 o'clock this morning G.. 800 persons
have been born. and all these multiplied
populations are to be reached by the gos-
pei In England or in our Eastern An,cri-
can cities we are being much crowded.
and an acre of ground is of great value,
but in Western America 800 acres is 4
small farm, and 10000 acres is no unusual
possess ion. There is a vast field here and
everywhere unoccupied plenty of room
more, not building on another mans feun-
dation.
We need as churches to stop lombard
ing the old iron-clad sinners that have
been proof against thirty years of Chris
tian assault. Alas for that church which
lacks the spirit of evangelism spending
on one chandelier enough to light 800
souls to glory, and in one carved pillar
enough to have made a thousand men
pillars in the house of our God forever"
and doing less good than many a log
cabin meeting house with tallow candles
stuck in, wooden sockets and minister
who has never seen a college and does
not know the difference between Greek
and Choctaw! We need as churches to
get into sympathy with the great outside
world. and let them know that none are
so broken-hearted or hardly bestca,l that
they will not be welcomed. "No." saye
some fastidious Christian: Il don't like to
be crowded in church. Don't put any one
in my pew"
My brother, what will you do in heaven!
When great multitude that no man can |
number assemblies, they will put fifty in !
your pew. What are the select few to-day |
assembled in the Christian churches COM |
pared with the mightier millions outside !
of them? Many of the churches are like
a hospital that should advertise that its
patients must have nothing more than
toothache or "run rounds" but no broken
heads, no crushed ankles, no fractured
thighs. Give us for treatment moderate
sinners, velvet-coated sinners and sinners
with gloss on. 1t is as though man
had farm of 5000 acres and put all his
work on one acre. He may raise ever SO
large ears of corn, ever so big heads OF
wheat - he would remain poor. The
church of God has bestowed its chief care
on one acre, and has raised splendid men
women in that small inclosure, but the
field is the world. That means North
and South America. Europe, Asia and
Africa and all the islands of the sea. 1t
is as though, after a great battle, there
were left 10000 wounded and dying on the
field and three surgeons gave all their
time to three patients under their charge.
The major general comes in and says to
the doctors. Come out here and look at
cal attendance" NO" say the three doc
tors. standing there tanning their patients.
I'VE have three important cases here, and
we are attending to them. and when we
are not positively busy with their wounds
it takes all our time to keep the flies off,
In thus awful battle OF SIN and sorrow.
where millions have fallen on millions. do
lot itt Us SISEI All our tliHe III tdhliiS
care OF few people, and when the com
mand comes. Go into the world say
practically: NO, | cannot. l have here
d few choice cases. and | am busy keeping
Off the fes.' There are mutitudes TO-
day who have never had any Christian
worker look them in the eye and with
! the accentuation say.
'Come." Or tii;% would long ago have
been in The kingdom. My friends. rcl-
clon /; either sham or ii great reality.
If it be a sham let Us d;sband or
churches ard Chr:>tia.: associations. II
it be a reality, then great populations arc
on the way to the bar OF God untitled for
the ordeal. And what are we doing
Ia order to reach the multitude of out
siders we must drop all techncaities out
Of our religion. When We talk to peop.e
about the hypostatic Unjon and French
and Erastnianism and
I'Omp putensianism, VIC are impo,ite and a.
little understood as if physician should
talk to an ordinary patient about the per-
cardium and intercostai muscle and sco1-
butte symptoms. Many of lis come ont OF
he theological se.ainaries SO loaded up
that we taEe the first ten years to show
our people how much we know and the
next ten years t. cc: ou: peop.e to know
ls much as we know, and at the end we
ind that neither OF us knows anything
Is we ought to know. Here are hundreds
Il 1