The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-12-13
DR.TALnAGE's sERnON
The Eminent Dlvlne's Sunday
Discourse.
Subjects The Power 81 Hope-No Better
Medicine Did a Man Ever Tako-For-
give the Repentant-The Perfect Life
TO Come-Cuitivate Hope.


- WAsHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage would lift people out of dc.
spondency and bring something of future
10Y into earthly depression. The text is
Hebrews Vi, 10, (Which hope"
There Is an Atlantic Ocean Of depth
and tullness in the verse from which
my text is taken, and 1 only wade into
the wave at the beach and take two
words, We have all favorite words ex.
pressiye of delight OF adherence. words
that easily find their way from brain
to lip, words that have in them mornings
and midnights, laughter and tears, thun-
derbolts and dewdrops. In all the lexi-
cons and vocabularies there are few words
that have for me the attractions Of the
last word. OF my text, (Which hope"
There have in the course Of our life
been many good angels of God that have
looked over our shoulders, or met us on
the road, or chanted the darkness away,
or lifted the curtains of the great future,
or pulled MS back from the precipices,
or rolled down upon US the rapturous
music of the heavens but there is one Of
these angels that has done so much for Us
that we wish throughout all time and
aternity to celebrate 1.-THE angel Of Hope.
st. Paul makes it the center of a group
of three, saying, Now abideth faith,
hope, charity" And, though he says that
charity Is the greatest Of the three, he
does not take one plume from the wing, or
one ray of luster from the brow, or one
aurora from the cheek, or one melody
from from the voice Of the angel of my
text, (Which hope"
That was a great night for our world
when IN a Bethlehem caravansary the
Infant Royal was born, and that will
be a great night in the darkness of your
soul when Christian hope is born. There
will be chanting in the skies and a star
pointing to the Nativity I will not
bother you with the husk Of a definition
and tell you what hope is. When we sit
down hungry at a table, we do not want
an analytical discourse as to what bread
is. Hand it on; pass it round; give us
slice of it. John speaks Of hope as a
pure hope;" Peter calls it a "lively
hope" Paul styles it a good hope"
Sure hope" rejoicing hope" And all
up and down the Bible it is spoken of as
an anchor, as harbor, as a helmet, as a
door.
When we draw a check on a bank, we
must have reference to the amount of
money we have deposited, but Hope
makes a draft on a bank in which for her
benefit all heaven has been deposited.
4ANPIs A4uy ~ AAEnb up EfElY uuAkCOug
stand by every sickbed, lend a helping
hand to every orphanage, loosen every
chain, caress every forlorn soul and
turn the unpictured room of the aims
house into the vestibule of heaven! How
suggestive that mythology declares that
when all other deities fled the goddess
of Hope remained!
1t was hope that revived John Knox
when on shipboard near the coast of
Scotland he was fearfully i'll, and he was
requested to look shoreward and asked If
he knew the village near the coast, and he
answered: Il know it well, for see the
steeple of that place where God first
opened my mouth in public to His glory,
and | am fully persuaded how weak that
ever | now appear ] shall not depart this
the same place" His hope was rewarded,
and for twenty-five years more he
preached. That is the hope which sus-
tanned Mr.. Morrell of Norwich when de-
parting this life at twenty-four years of
age he declared, ~ should like to under.
stand the secrets OF eternity before to-
morrow morning" That was the kind of
hope that the corporal had in the battle
when, after several standard bearers had
fallen, and turned to lieutenant-colonel
and said, eff fall, tell my dear wife that
I die with good hope in Christ and
that l am glad to give my life for my
country" That was the good hope that
DR.. Goodwin had in his last hour when
he said: "Ah, is this death? How have
| dreaded as an enemy this smiling
friend"
No better medicine did man ever take
than hope. 1t is stimulant, febrifuge,
a tonic, catholicon. Thousands of peo
,D1o Love
have been living to-day but for the reason
they let hope slip their grasp. I have
known people to hive on hope after one
lung was gone and disease had seemed to
lay hold Of every nerve and muscle and
artery and bone.
Alexander the Great, starting for the
wars in Persia, divided his property among
the Macedonians. He gave a village to
one, port to another, a field to another
and all his estate to his friends. Then
Perdiccas asked, "What have you kept for
yourself" He answered triumphantly,
Hope"
And, whatever else you and I give away,
we must keep for ourselves hope-all com.
forting, all cheering hope. In the heart
of every man. woman and child THAT hears
or reads this. sermon may God implant this
principle right now
right with the soul. They are as sure of
heaven as if they had passed the nearly
panels of the gate, as though they were al.
ready seated in the temple of God unroll-
ing the hbretto of the heavenly chorister.
/ congratulate all such. wish had it,
too-full assurance-but with me it is
hope (Which hope" Sinful, it expects
forgiveness; troubled, it expects relief;
bereft, it expects reunion; clear down, it
poets lifeboat; bankrupt, it expects eter-
nal riches; a prodigal. it expects the wide
open door Of the fathers farmhouse. 1t
does not wear itself out by looking back
ward; it always looks forward. What is
the use of giving so much time to the re-
hearsal of the past? Your mistakes are
not corrected by a review. Your losses
cannot, by brooding over them, be turned
into gains 1t is the future that has the
vo0sk for nc and houn ohnarc uu nm Wa