Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-01-22
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor of Jefferson Park Preeby-
terrain Church, Chicago

are passing through period of trouble
mcnt from the doctrine Rev. T.. De
Witt Talmage teaches in the following
sermon on the text Matthew xiv, 90,
Jesus constrained his disciples to get
into 4 ship.
There it Is! See. Yondcr is the disci.
pies boat. tossed about on the waves
of Lake Galilec. Those men seem to
he in as critical a situation as was the
captain oc an Atlantic coal barge some
time ago. The barge had been caught
in storm and was sinking under his
feet The captain signalcd to the tug.
Then. as it drew near. he picked up
first one and then another of his little
children. He raised them above bis
head and hurled them through the air
into the arms of the rescuers. Then he
turned and fastened rope. thrown to
him from the tug. around the waist OF
his wife and another around his own
waist. and both leaped into the sea.
Two minutes after he and his wife had
been dra eyed into the rescuing boat
his own coal barge made Il plunge and
disappeared. Every moment tho diSci.
pies, like that captain. expected their
boat TO founder. Some Of them were
veteran fishermen. vet they had given
up all hope of ever reaching land again
The danger of drowning in Lake Gal
flee was not the only danger, nor Indeed
the greatest danger. which threatened
the disciples. They were in spiritual
da niger Having seen Jesus only Il few
hours before feed n multitude of 1000
iorsonS with five loaves and few fish
es. they had los sight Of his spiritual
mission and were about to- hail him as
temporal leader Like the multi,udcs
which had been fed. they began to
whisper among themselves: 'Why not
make Christ our king? Such u miracle
working leader as this could not only
feed us and clothe us without any work
upon our part, hut he also could lihCr
ate us from Roman tyranny and he to
us another Moses, another Joshua or
another David" In order To counter
act this design of making him merely
a temporal king. which would have
brought him into collision with the
Roman power and have degraded his
mission into mere iusurrcction. he
determined to teach the disciples their
weakness and hclplessncss lTo com
PEELED them to launch their boat aud
enter into a fearful combat Of at least
ten long hours with the Galilean tenn
pest. So in order To compel YOU and
Inc to look away from our worldly in
terests. which arc absorbing our
thoughts and desires. and lead us to
sock from him the higher spiritual
blessings he has 10 bestow God clouds
our skies and brings upon us a tidal
wave of crushing disaster. that We may
be driven to climb into his loving pro
tecting arms.
The dark. tcmpestuouS nights Of re-
ligious persecution have often been, ii
Gods sight. the brightest and the most
blessed OF sunshiny days for III"
church. 1t was by having his eyes tenn
porarily blinded that Paul gained spir-
itual sight, 1t was by being lowered
in basket by n few friends over tho
Damascus wall in order to escape the
murderers dagger that Paul was set
free TO embark on his missionary ca
rcer. 1t was by exile to a lonely island
of the Mediterranean that John was
enabled to see his marvellous apocnlyp-
tic visions. 1t was not until Rome had
been burned by the bloody Nero, who
laughed and fddled while the confia-
grafton ragged: not until the Christians
had suffered under the false charge Of
being the inceudiaries, that the church
was purified and fully launched on its
great eyangelistc work. II was when
Martin Luther had to face the diet of
Worms and had been imprisoned for
months in the Wartburg that the refor-
nation was started. When The pilgrim
fathers on account of religious persc-
cution had to leave England, then the
first foundation stone of Christian
America was laid. And in no time of
church history can you find that great
religious awakening has occurred or a
great religious leader has come forth
without the previous roar of the Cali
lean tempest as it yawued TO destroy
Purity Through Pcrsccution
Some time ago heard great minis
ter of our country developing this
thought. Ia part, he said, The reason
We do not have Savonarolas and john
KnoXes and John Uusses in the present
day is because we do not have the an
Client prosecutions which purified and
onnobled the ancient church" Some
people are foolish enough to suppose
that the best and greatest day of the
early Christian church was when the
Emperor Constantine joined the church
with the state and had thousands upon
thousands of his subjects baptized by
the priests in the different rivers But
i want to tell you that when Constan,
tine Joined the church with the state
IL was sad day for the history of
the Christian church, With the regal
power Of the church it became a
corrupt church. With the regal power
Of the church there came the sins
oe lcontious and mercenary mind
ed church. Then came the sins OF
the dark ages 1t is by persecution that
the Christian church is purified not by
the commentator Of sinful kings and
fawning mobiles. The church by il
past history ought 10 know that Gods
loving and saving voice can be heard
In the growing thunder as well as il