The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-07-04
DIR. TALMAGE'S. SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

DIVINE.
subject: Christ Our Refuge A Message
of Comfort, Commencing the Behav'
Tor of the Disciples to Those Who Are
Burdened With Sorrow.
[Copyr1ght 1sUUl
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage, in
the following dis: urse, which ne has sc :
for publication this week, gives prescrip.
ton for all anxiety and worriment, and
illustrates the divine sympathy for all who
are in any kind Ct struggle. IT he te-t is
Matthew xiv, II, "And His disciples went
and told Jesus"
An OUTRAGEOUS assassination had Just
taken place. To appease revengeful
woman King Herod ordered the death of
that noble, self:sacritic.ng prophet: John
the Baptist. The group of the disciples
were thrown into grief and dismay. They
felt themselves utterly defenseless. There
was no authority to which they could ap-
peal, and yet grief must always find ex-
preston. If there be no human ear to
hear it, then the agonized soul will cry it
aloud to the winds and the woods and the
waters. But here was an ear that was
willing to listen. There is te1ler pa
thos and at the same time a most admir-.
sThey went; and, to j Jesus" He could
understand all their grief; and He imme-
diately soothed it, Our. burdens are not
more than half 80 heavy to; carry if another
shoulder4is put UNDER the other end of
them. Here we find Christ, His brow
shadowed with grief, standing amid the
group Of disciple !, who, with tears and
violent gesticulatie as and <wringing of
hands and outcry of bereavement, arc ex-
pressing their woe. Raphael, with his
skiliful brush, putting upon the wall OF
mob SO skillfuE stroke as when the plain
hand Of the evangelist writes, "They went
aPT The e'tS old iss Gotls and vandals once care
down upon Italy from the north Eu.
rope, and they upset the gardens, and
they broke down the statues and 81, ut
away everything that was good and beau
tiful.. So there is ever ana anon IN he
history of all the sons and daughters, OF
our race an incursion Of rough handed
troubles that come to plunder and ram
sack and put to- the torch Sall that men
highly prize. There is no cave 80 deerlv
cleft into the mountains as 70 afford us
shelter, and the foot OF heetest :courser
cannot bear.us beyond the quick pursuit.
The arrows they ',ut to the string nv with
unerring dart until we fall pierced and
stunned. %. &
Ffsel that I bring to you most approo:.
pirate message I mean to bind up all
your gr,efs into bundle and set them on
fire with spark from Ged's altar. The
prescription that cured the sorrow of the
disciples will cure all your heartaches.
have read that hen Godfrey and his
army marched out to capture Jerusalem,
as they came over the hills. ut the tirst
flash Of the pinnacles of that beautltul
city, the army that had marched in 81
lence lifted a shout that made the earth
tremBle. Oh, you soldiers of Jesus Christ.
marching N toward, heaven, would that
to-day, by some el-im from the palace of
Cod s mercy and Gods strength, YOU might
be lifted into great rejoicing and that as
the prospect of it's peace breaks - your
enrapturad 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
q time in almost every mans history when
he feels from some source that he has an
erring nature. The thought may not have
like the fash in an evening cloud just after
"a very hot summer day. One man to get
ridfof 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 can
, not get rid of these impressions. The fact
is, when a man finds out that his eternity
is poised upon a perfect uncer salnty, and
that the next moment his foot may. slip,
he must do something violent to make him.
self forget where he stands or else lily for
refuge. - -A.
Some of you crouch under yoke, and
you bite the dust when this moment you
might rise up a crowned conqueror. Driven
and perplexed as you have been by sin, 90
and tell Jesus. To relax the grip Of death
feet upon the golden throne Christ let the
tortures of the bloody mount transfx
Him. With the beam of His own cross
He will break down the door f your dun
geon. From the thorns of HIS own crown
He will pick enough gems to make your
brow blaze with eternal victory. In every
tear on His wet cheek, in every gasn OF
His side, in every long, blackening mark
of laceration from shoulder to shoulder,
in the grave shattering. heaven storning
death groan I hear Him say, "He that
cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast out" :"
"Oh." but you say, INSTEAD of curing
wound-namely. that Of conviction" Have
you never known surgeon TO come and
find 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 dlylne
grace, it is burned out through these fires
Of conviction, "the flesh comina agc'n as
the flesh of little child" "'where sin in
abounded, grace much more aboundeth.
With the ten thousand unpardonable sins
of vour life, 90 and tell Jesus.
You will never get rid OF your SINS IN
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
parts, eight hours each. and then had three
wax candles. By the time the first candle
had burned to the socket eight hours had
zone. 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 and 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
he amid the foolish virgins who cried,
"Our lamps have gone out
Again, I commend the behavior Of the
disciples to all who are tempted. L have
heard men in mid-life say they had never
been led into temptation. If you have
not felt temptation, it is because you have
not lied to do right. A man hoppled and
handcuffed, as long as he lies quietly, does
not test the power of tn chain. but when
he rises up and with determination re-
solves to snap the handcuff or break the
hopDle 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 have never
felt the power of the chain because they
have never tried to break it, It is very
casv to 20 Oh down with the strearn and
with the wind lying on your oars, but just
turn around and try to go against the