Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-01-03
OR. TALMAGES SERMON
sundays DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: A Way Over Jordan - The Lord
Will Send II Boat - From the Other
Shore It VIII Come to Transport tho
Faithful to Eternal Life.

SUBJECT: Way Over Jordan - The LORD
| Will Send Boat - From the other
| Shore It VIII Come to Transport tho
Faithful to Eternal Life.
tCopyright lsuu.I
WASHINGTON, d. C.-From an unnoticed
Incident of oiden time DR.. Ialmage IN this
discourse draws some comforting and rap
turous lessons. The text is ii Samuel xix,
Is, And there went over ferryboat to
carry over the kings household"
/ Which of the crowd is the king? That
short man, sunburnt and in fatigue dress
1t is David, the exiled king. He has de-
feated his enemies and is now going home
like to see David come out ahead. But be-
tween him and his home there is the cee-
I krated River Jordan, which has to be
| ussed. The king is accompanied to the
, bank of the river by an aristocratic old
gentleman of eighty years, Barzillai by
4 Rogelim. Besides that, David has his fam
.ly with him. But how shall they get
across the river? While they are stand
ing there L see a ferryboat coming from
the other side, and as it cuts through the
water | see the faces of David and his
household brighten up at the thought of
so soon getting home. No sooner had the
his family and his old friend Barzillai,
: from Rogelm, get on board the boat.
! Either with splashing oars at the side or
! with one oar sculing at the stern of the
boat they leave the eastern bank of the
Jordan and start for the western bank.
That western bank is black with crowds
! OF people, who are waving and shouting at
the approach of the king and his family.
The military are all out. Some of those
who have been David's worst enemies now
shout until they are hoarEe at his return.
No sooner had the boat struck the shore
on the western side than the earth quakes
and the heavens ring with cheers of well
come and congratulation. David and his
family and Barzllai from Rogelim step
shore. King David asks h;1 old friend
20 go with him and live at the palace but
Barzllai apologies and intimates that he
! Is infirm with age and too deaf to appre
eiate the music, and has a delicate appe-
tite that would soon be cloyed with luxu-
r.ous living, and SO he begs that David
would let him go back to his country seat.
l once heard the father of President
of the United States say that he had just
/ b en- to Washington to see his son in the
White House, and he told me of the Won
derful things that occurred there, and of
what Daniel Webster said to him, but he
declared Il was glad to get home. There
was too much going on there for me-" My
father, an aged man, made his last visit
at my house in Philadelphia, and after the
church service was over and we went
home some one in the house asked the
aged man how he enjoyed the service.
well, l enjoyed the service, but there
were too many people there for me. 1t
troubled my head very much" The fact
is that old people do not like excitement
If King David had asked Barzillai thirty
years before to 90 to the palace the prob
ability is that Barzilai would have gone,
but not now They kiss each other good
bye, a custom among men Oriental, but
in vogue yet where two brothers part or
an aged father and a son go away from
each other never to meet again. No won
der that their lips met as King David and
old Barzillai, at the PROV of the ferryboat,
parted forever.
This River Jordan, in all ages and
among all languages, has been the SYM
boil of the boundary line between earth
and heaven, yet when, on a former occa-
sion, preached to you about the Jordanic
passage L have no doubt that some of you
despondingly said: "The Lord might have
divided Jordan for Joshua, but not for
poor me- Cheer up! l want to show
you that there is way over Jordan as
well as through it. My text says, "And
there went over ferryboat to carry over
the kings household"
All our cities are familiar with the ferry
boat. 1t goes from San Francisco to Oak
land, and from Liverpool to Birkenhead
and twice every secular day of the week
multitudes are on the ferryboats of our
great cities, so that you will not need to
hunt up a classical dictionary to find out
what | mean while | am speaking to you
about the passage of David and his family
across the River Jordan.
My subject, in the first place, impresses
me with the fact that when we cross over
from this world to the next the boat will
have to come from the other side. The
tribe of Judah, we are Informed, sent this
ferryboat across to get David and his
! household. | stand on the eastern side OF
the River Jordan, and | find no shipping
| at all, but while | am standing there !
see boat plowing through the river and
as l hear the swirl OF the waters, and
the boat comes 20 the eastern side OF the
Jordan, and David and his family and his
old friend step on board that boat, | am
nightly impressed with the fact that
when we cross over from this world to the
next the boat will have TO come from the
opposite shore.
Every day l find people trying to ex-
temporize u way from earth to heaven.
They gather up their good works and some
| sentimental theories, and they make a
! raft, and they go down. The fact is that
skepticism and intidelity never yet helped
one man to die. | invite all the ship
carpenters of worldly philosophy to come
I and build one boat that can safely cross
this river. | invite them all to unite their
skill, and Boingbroke shall lift the stan
ehions, and Tyndall shall shape the bow
spirit, and Spinoza shall make the main
topgallant braces, and Renan shall go to
taeking and wearing and boxing the ship.
All together in 10000 years they will never
be able to make boat that can cross this
Jordan. Why was IL that Splnoza and
/ Bount and Shaitesbury lost their souls.
1t was because they tried to cross the
stream IN boat OF their own eonstruc-
tion. What miserable work they made of
dying, Dodorus died OF modification be-
cause he could not guess a conundrum
which had been proposed to him at a
public dinner; Zeuxis. the philosopher.
died of ninth. laughing at a carieature
of an aged woman, carieature made by
his own hand; while another of their
company and OF their kind died saying;
"Aiust | leave all these beautiful pie
lures" and then asked that he might be
holstered up in the bed in his last mo.
ments and be shaved and painted and
/ rouged 0f all the unhelieVers of all ages