The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-03-28
REVEALS A BENEFIT.
DR.. Tcimage Draws Lessons From Famous
Religious Awakcnings.
The iiost usefu Christiaus Are Those Con.
vertcd ia early Liic.- Brlugirg the
Multitude Into Safety.
Copyright 1qOI.1

Wuilthuc tniO SuIetf.
tcopyrigh, 1901
:, WAsmNGToN, d. C.-This discourse of
Dr. Talmage is most pertinent at This
time. when, widespread effort foi. re.
nglous awakening is being made: text.
Luke v, g., They inclosed great multi.
'u9e OF hshes, and their net brake"
Simon, and his comrades had expert
enoed the night before what fishermen
call poor luck" Christ steps on board
the hshing smack and tells the sailors
TO pull away from the beach and di.
rects them again to sink the net. Sure
enough, very soon the net is full OF
SO large a school of fishes was taken
that the hardy men begin to look red
IN the face as they pull, and hardly
have they begun to rejoice at their sue.
cess when snap goes a thread of the
net, and snap goes another thread, so
there. is danger not only of losing the
fish, but of losing the net.
Without much care as to how much
the boat tilts or how much water is
splashed on deck the fishermen rush
about gathering up the broken meshes
OF the net. Out yonder there is a ship
ddsspne?lng dsn?g on the waves, and they hail il;
ship ahoy! Bear down this wayl" The
ship comes, and both boats both fishing
smacks, are filed with The hounderins
! treasures.
"Ah, says some one. chow much better
| 1t would have been if they had staid on
| shore and fshed with a hook and line
and taken one at a time instead of hav.
| ing this great excitement and the boat
almost upset and the net broken and
having to call for help and getting sopping
| wet with the seal"
| The church is the boat, the gospel is
the net. society is the sea. and a great
revival is a whole school brought in at
one sweep of the net. have admiration
| Tor that man who goes out with a hook
and line to fish. I admire the way he
| unwinds the reel and adjusts the bait and
| drops the hook in a quiet place on a
still afternoon and here catches one and
there one, but | like also big boat and
swift oars. and stout sails and a stiff
| breeze and a great multitude of souls
| brought-so great a multitude that you
| have to get help to draw it ashore, strain
| ing the net to the utmost until it breaks
here and there, letting a few escape. but
bringing the great multitude into eternal
safety.
In other words, I believe in revivals.
The great work of saving men began
| with 1000 people joining the church in
one day, and it will close with forty or
hundred million people saved in twenty
| tour hours when nations shall be born in
| a day. But there are objections to re-
vivals. People are opposed to them be-
cause the net might get broken, and if
| by the pressure of souls it does not get
broken, then they take their own pen
| knives and slit the net "They inclosed
great multitude of fishes, and the net
brake"
It is sometimes opposed to revivals of
! religion that those who come into the
, church at such times do not hold out.
AS long as there Is a gale of blessing they
m hair Ia k,,N
winds stop blowing then they drop into
q, dead calm But what are the facts in
the case? In all our churches the vast
majority of the useful people are those
who are brought in under great awaken
ings, and they hold out. Who are the
prominent men in the United States in
churches, IN prayer meetings, in Sabbath
schools? For the most part they are
the product of great awakenings.
L have noticed that those who are
brought into the kingdom of God through
revlvals have more persistence and more
determination in the Christian life than
those who come in under low state of
religion. People born in an icehouse may
live, but they will never get over the
cold they caught in the icehouse.
A cannon ball depends upon the i'm
pulse with which it starts for. how far it
shall go and how swiftly, and the great,
er the revival force with which soul
is started the more far-reaching and far.
resounding will be the execution.
But it is sometimes objected to re-
vivals that there is so much excitement
that people mistake hysteria for religion.
We admit that in every revival of re-
ligion there is either a suppressed or
demonstrated excitement. Indeed, if
man can go out of a state of condemna-
tion into state of acceptance with God
or see Others &C without any agitation OF
soul he is IN an unhealthy, morbid state
and is as repulsive and absurd as a man
who should boast he saw child snatched
out from under horses hoofs and felt
no agitation, or saw man rescued from
the fourth story of house on fire and
felt no acceleration of the pulses.
Salvation flom sin and death and hell
into life and peace and heaven forever
is such tremendous thing that if a man
tells me he can look on it without any
agitation | doubt his Christianity.
The fact is that sometimes excitement
is the most important possible thing. In
case of resuscitation from drowning or
freezing, the one idea is to excite anima-
ton, Before conversion we are dead. 1t
is the business of the church to revive,
arouse, awaken, resuscitate, startle into
life.
Excitement is bad or good, according
to what it makes us do. If it makes us do
that which is bad, it is bad excitement,
but it it makes us agitated about our
"
make. us attend upon Christian service, if
it make us cry unto God for mercy, then it
is good excitement
1t is sometimes said that during re-
vlyals OF religion great multitudes of chill
dren and young people are brought into
the church, and they do not know what
they are about. 1t has been my obser-
walton that the earlier people come into
the kingdom OF God the mere useful they
are. Robert Hal, the prince of preachers,
was converted at twelve years of age. 1t
is likely he knew what he was about.
Matthew Henry, the commentator, who
did more than any man OF his century for
increasing the interest in the study OF the
Scriptures, was converted at eleven years
of age; Isabella Graham, immortal in the
Christian church, was converted at ten
years OF age; DIR. Watts, whose hymns
will be sung all down the ages, was con
yyerted at nine years of age; Jonathan
Edwards, perhaps the mightiest intellect
that the American pulpit ever produced,
was converted at seven years OF age. and
that father and mother take an awful re-
sponsibility when they tell their child at
seven years of age, you are too young to
be Christian" or, "You are too young
to connect yourself with the church.
That is mistake as long as eternity.
1t during a revival two persons pre-.
sent Themselves as candidates for. the
church, and the one is ten years of age
and the other is forty years of age,
will have more confidence in the profes.
sion OF religion OF the one ten years OF age
than the one forty years OF age. Why?
The one who processes at forty years of
age has forty years of impulse in the
wrong direction to correct; the child has
only ten years in the wrong direction to
correct, Four times ten are forty. Four
IL e. Il A