Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-04-18
DANGER IN DELAY.
DR.. Talmage on the Folly of Postponing
the Acceptance of the Gospel.
Sympathy for the Skeptics - The Time to
Be Religious.

WASHINGTON, D. Gin the following
discourse, prepared by DR.. Talmage before
his illness, the folly and danger OF pos!
poning the acceptance OF the gospei lnvr
tation are exposed on the text, Luke XIV,
Is, "And they all with one consent pegap
to make excuse"
After the invitations to levee are
sent out the regrets come in. One man
apologies for non-attendance on one
ground another on another ground. The
most of the regrets are founded on prior
engagements So in my text great ban.
quet was spread, the invitations were cir.
culated, and now the regrets come in.
The one gives an agricultural reason, the
other a stock dealers reason, the other
domestic reason. All poor reasons. The
fact was, they did not want to CO. "And
they all with one consent began to make
excuse"
So now God spreads great banquet.
1t is the gospel feast and the table reaches
across the hemispheres, and the invita-,
tons go out, and multitudes come and
Gods love, while other multitudes decline
coming, the one giving this apology, and
the other giving that apology, "and they
all with one consent begin to make ex.
cuse" I propose, so far as God may help
me, to examine the apologies which men
make for not entering the Christian life.
Apology the first: | am not sure there
is anything valuable in the Christian re-
ligion 1t is pleaded that there are so
many impositions in this day; so many
things that seem to be real are sham. A
gilded outside may have hollow inside.
There is so much quackery in physics, IN
ethics, in politics, that men come to the
habit of incredulity and after awhile they
allow that incredulity to collide with our
holy religion. But, my friends, l think
religion has made pretty good record in
the world How many wounds it has
salved! How many pillars of fire it has
many simoom struck deserts it hath turned
into the gardens of the Lord How it
hath stilled the chopped seal What rosy
light it hath sent streaming through the
rift of the storm cloud! What pools OF
cool water it hath gathered for thirsty
Hagar and Ishmael! What mamma whittier
than coriander seed it hath dropped all
around the camp of hardy bested pilgrims
What promises it hath sent out like holy
watchers to keep the lamps burning around
deathbeds, through the darkness that
lowers into the sepulcher! What flashes
of resurrection morn!
Besides that, this religion has made SO
many heroes. 1t brought Summerheld, the
Methodist, across the Atlantic ocean with
his silver trumpet to blow the acceptable
year of the Lord until it seemed as if all
our American cities would take the king,
dom of heaven by violence 1t sent Jehudi
Ashman into Africa alone, in continent
of naked barbarians, to lift the standard
of civilization and Christianity. 1t made
John Milton among poets, Raphael among
painters. Christopher Wren among archi'
tects, Thorwaldsen among sculptors, Han
del among musicians, Dupont among mill
tary commanders, and to give new wings
to the imagination and better balance to
the judgment and more determination to
the will and greater usefulness to the life
nothing in all the earth like our Christian
religion. Nothing in religion? Why, then,
all those Christians were deceived when
in their dying moment they thought they
saw the castles of the blessed, and your
child, that with unutterable agony you
put away into the grave, you will never
see him again or hear his sweet voice
nor feel the throb of his young heart.
There is nothing in religion? Sickness
will come upon you. Roll and turn on
your pillow; no relief. The medicine may
may be sharp; no relief. Christ never
comes to the sick-room. Let the pain
stab; let the fever burn; curse it and die.
There is nothing in religion? After awhile
death will come. You will hear the paw
ing of the pale horse on the threshold.
The spirit will be breaking away from the
body, and it will take fight-whither,
whittier? There is no God, nc minister
ing angels to conduct; no Christ, no
Oh, you are not willing to adopt such
dismal theory!
And yet the world is full of skeptics.
And let me say there is no class of peo-
pie for whom [ have a warmer sympathy
than for skeptics. We do not know how
to treat them. We deride them we carica-
ture them. We, instead of taking them
them with the iron pinchers of ecclesias-
ticism. Oh, if you knew how those men
had fallen away from Christianity and be-
come skeptics you would not be so rough
on them! Some were brought up in homes
where religion was overdone. The most
wretched day. in the week was Sunday.
Religion was driven into them with q trip.
hammer. They had surfet of prayer
meetings. They were stuffed and choked
parents that they were the worst children
that ever lived because they liked to ride
down hill better than to read Pilgrims
Progress" They never heard their pa.
rents talk of religion but with the corners
of the mouth drawn down and the eyes
rolled up. Others went into skepticism
through maltreatment on the part of some
who protested religion. There is man
who says: My partner in business was
conspicuous in prayer meeting, and he
was officious in all religious circles, but
he cheated me out of $4,000, and l don't
want any of that religion" Then there
are others who get into skepticism by
natural persistence in asking questions,
why or how? How can God be one being
in three persons? They cannot understand
it. Neither can /. How can God be
complete sovereign and yet man a free
agent! They cannot understand it.
Neither can I: They cannot understand
why a holy God let's sin come into the
world, Neither can I. They say: "Here
is a great mystery; here is a disciple of
fashion, frivolous and goddess all her days;
she lives on to be an octogenarian. Here
is a Christian mother, training her chill.
dren for God and for heaven, self-sacrific.
ing, Christlike, indispensable seemingly to
that household; she gets a cancer and
dies. The skeptic says, II can't explain
that" Neither can |.
can see how men reason themselves
into skepticism. With burning feet l
have trodden that blistering way. l know
poured into one hour. There are men in
the arid desert of doubt who would give
their, thousands. of dollars if they could
get back to the old religion Of their
fathers: Such men are not to be carica.
tured, but helped and not through their
heads, but through their hearts. When |
these men really do come into the king.
dom of God, they will be worth far more !
to the cause of Christ than those who |
never examined the evidences of Chris.
tlanlty. Thomas Chalmers once skeptic,
Pnhn rN VaH l.