Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-01-02
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK De WITT TALMAGE, DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
terian Church. Chieneo

| terian Church, Chicago
Chicago. Dec. 27.-In this sermon, on
the last Sabbath Of the dying year, the
preacher sounds loud call for re-
pentance Of past sins and resolution
with divine help to begin a new lie
in Christ with the coming year. The
text is Luke xiii. 3. Except ye repent
We shall all likewise perish"
Great accidents generally have their
two classes Of heroes. The one class Is
composed of dying heroes. the other OF
living heroes. When. few weeks ago.
n coal train crashed into the Big -Four
special which was carrying thousand
college students and their friends to
indianapolis to play for the state foot
ball championship the young men VINO
were unhurt pulled and tugscd at the
deralled cars. They lifted up the man
gled bodies of the dying. and they col
lected the mutlated remains OF the
dead. Young girls who IN ordinary llfe
would have screamed ut the sight Of
mouse or tainted at vaccination IN
that awful crisis tore UP their garments
for bandages and bathcd the white
foreheads Of their young friends who
were about to pass away. On the other
hand. those who were being aided were
lust as self sacrificing as those who
were trying to alleviate physical sulfer-
ings and minister to spiritual wants
An acquaintance of mine arrived at
that scene of horror only short time
after the tragedy occurred. lie per-
sonally told me Of the nobility OF some
of those manned and dying heroes
One young man had crawled out OF the
wreck and was seated upon the ground
with his thumb tightly pressed against
an artery. His foot had been complete
ly amputated by the wreck. When the
doctor found him, he turned with a
brave smile and said "Never mind me,
doctor. | am all right for the present.
Go and help those poor fellows down
there. They need you more than L.
Dying athletes thought not of them
selves. While tossing about in mortal
agony they begged their friends not to
let their fathers and mothers and SIS
ters and brothers and sweethearts know
horr bad1v fhav wprp hurt
A Practical Theme.
We shudder at the details OF these
sudden and appalling calamities. 1t
shocks us to think Of strong men and
delicate women, bright and gay and
with apparently many years of happy
life before them, being overwhelmed
and crushed in one short hour by some
terrific disaster Yes, it is horrible.
But, while we deplore and sympathize,
let us not forget the lesson that Christ
would have us learn from such catas-
trophies. To those who told him OF q
great and sudden sacrifice OF life he
said. "Ye. too, shall likewise perish un-
less you repent" He did not mean that
their earthly lives would necessarily
have a similar end, but that without
repenting a doom beyond the grave as
appalling as that they had described
awaited them. The greatest railroad
accident that ever took place, as when
the Edinbursh express went down
through the broken trestles OF the Tay
bridge; the greatest tidal wave tragedy,
as when Galveston was submerged;
the greatest volcanic horror, as when
Vesuvius emptied itself, and the two
fayorite resorts of Rome's aristocracy
in one night were buried in their grave
of ashes; the most awful Of fires, as
when Chicago was burned; the most
bitter Of murderous prosecutions, as
when PLATE slew the followers OF Ju-
das Of Galilee, are not to be compared
to the horror Of that day when sinners
who have not repented Of and turned
from their sins shall hear their doom
pronounced by q righteous God. Listen
to the words Of Jesus: Suppose ye that
these Galileans were sinners above all
Galileans because they suffered those
things? | tell ye nay, but except ye re-
pent We shall all likewise perish" Re-
pentance of sin is our subject Repent
ance Of sin is an imperative command.
Could we have greater and more
practical theme to preach upon for the
last sermon Of the dying year OF 19O3!
Gods Command.
Standing between the open grave OF
the dying year and the new made era
die of the coming year, we hear God
thunder the commands: Repent! Re
pent! Repent ye of sin!' What does
that mean? Not sorrow alone, though
it includes that; not alone regret that
we have sinned against God so good
and so loving, but renunciation. There
Is no real repentance until there Is de-
Termination to abandon sin. 1t means
| that each sinner must first be Willing
to pluck the wriggling, kissing serpent
| Of evil out Of his heart and hurl 1t from
him az though 1t had the poisonous
| fangs of q fatal cobra before Christs
blood will blot out the evil results OF
hideous past. 1t means that heaven il
not an clubhouse Of a Dante's Inferno
The paradise lost which Milton de
scribed can never become paradise re
gained to any sinner who clings to bis
sin. It means that the sinner has nc
I ground for expecting heaven at the
end of his course unless, through thu
power of Christ, he has renounced his
sin. Either the repentant sinner, witt
wide open eyes, is walking directly to
ward the cross or else he Is walking
directly away from 1t.
What says Paul in reference TO thli
renunciation Of sin? To the churcf
of Corinth he wrote practically these
1 Ilr-l o~1 fxryN orNrInq Of non