Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-01-25
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
vHE EMINENT D1vINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject A Way Over Jordan - The LORD
Will Send Boat - From the other
Shore 1t Will Come to Transport the
Faithful to Eternal Life.

Faithful to Eternal L1fe'
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-From an unnotlced
incident of olden time DR.. Talmage in this
discourse draws some comforting and rap
furious lessons. The text is III Samuel XIX,
is. And there went over tefrypoat te
carry over the kings household" -,
Which of the crowd is the king! That
short man. sunburnt and in fatigue dress.
II is David, the exiled king: He has de-
feated his enemies and is now going home
70 resume his palace. Good! l always
like to see David come out ahead. But be-
tween him and his home there is the cele-
brated River Jordan, which has to De
passed. The king is accompanied TO the
bank of the river by an aristocratlc ola
gentleman of eighty years, Barzlllal py
name. who owned a fine country seat at
Rogelim. Besides that, David has his lam
ilv with him. But how shall they get
across the river? While they are stand
ing there / see 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
ferryboat struck the shore than David and
his family and his old friend Barzillal,
from Rogelim, get on board the boat.
Either with splashing oars at the SIDE or
with one oar scullipg 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 hoarfe at his return.
| No sooner had the boat struck the snore
on the western side than the earth quakes
and the heavens ring with cheers OF wei
come and congratulation. David ana MS
| family and Barzilai from Rogelim step
| ashore. King David asks his old friend
| to 90 with him and live at the palace, but
| Barzilai apologies and intimates that ne
| is in6rm with age and too deaf TO appre-
ciate the music, and has delicate appe-
tite that would soon be cloyed with luxu,
| rious living, and so he begs that DaVld
would let him 60 back to his country seat.
7 once heard the father of President
| of the United States say that he had Just
been to Washington to see his son in the
White House. and he told me Of the won
| derfu things that occurred there, and OF
| what Daniel Webster said to him, but he
| declared: II 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, | 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 Barzillai would have gone,
| but not now. They kiss each other good
| bye, custom among men Oriental, but
| in vogue yet where two brothers part or
an aged father and 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
Dol of the boundary line between earth
and heaven, yet when, on former occa-
sion, | preached to you about the Jordanlc
| passage have no doubt that some OF you
despondingly said: "The Lord might have
divided Jordan for Joshua, but not for
poor me-" Cheer up! | want to show
YOU that there is a 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 Blrkenhead
and twice every secular day of the week
multitudes are on the ferryboats OF our
great cities, so that you will not need to
| al oo1 N
what | mean while | am speaking to you
about the passage of David and his family
across the River Jordan.
NV 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
trloe 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 a boat plowing through the river, and
as I 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, an
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 way from earth to heaven
They gather up their good works and some
sentimental theories, and they make
raft, and they go down. The fact is that
skepticsm and infdelity never yet helped
one man to die. | invite all the ship
carpenters of worldly philosophy to come
and build one boat that can safely cross
this river | invite them all to unite thell
skill, and Bolingbroke shall lift the stan
chions, and Tyndall shall shape the bow
spirit, and Spinoza shall make the main
topgallant braces, and Renan shall go tc
lacking and wearing and boxing the ship
All together in 10000 years they will never
be able to make a boat that can cross thi.
Jordan. Why was it that Spinoza anc
Blount and Shaftesbury lost their souls
1t was because they tried to cross the
stream in boat of their own construc
ton. What miserable work they made O.
dying Diodorus died of modification be
cause he could not guess conundrun
which had been proposed to him at
public dinner; Zeuxis, the philosopher
died of mirth, laughing at caricatur'
of an aged woman, carlcature made by
his own hand; while another Of theil
company and of their kind died saying
"Must 1 leave all these beautiful pic
tures?" and then asked that he might b
bo,stered up in the bed in his last mo
ments and be shaved and painted anc
rouged Of all the unbelievers of all age
not one died we'll Some of them sneaket
out of life, some blasphemed and rayet
and tore their bed covers to tatters. Thu
is the way worldly philosophy helps
man to die.
A guide at Niagara Falls said to me
"Do you see that rock down in the rap
ids?" ] said, Eyes" "Well, he said
''some years ago a man got into the rap
ids and f1oated down until he came tt
that rock, and he clutched that and helc
on. We sent FIVE lifeboats at different