The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1905-04-07
PEACE EVERLASTING
Rev. DR.. Talmage Draws a Les
son From the River.
snail Our Lives He Rivers Of Life or
Rivers of Death to Our Fellow
Ment-1he Conditions
of Peace.

shows in this sermon the benefits that
accrue TO men who serve and obey
God. The text is Isaiah Xviii. Is,
Then had thy peace been as a river"
What art thou doing. O prophet Of
Israeli Art thou tauntng thy people
with the blessing they had missed
through forsaking God and disregard
ing thy teaching? When trouble
swoops art thou one Of those who say:
Il told you 50? If YOU had only taken
my advice you would not be i'm the diff
tculty you are in today If you will
make your bed out of thorns and
thistles instead Of rose leaves, then
upon the thornS and thistles you must
lie" Are you like an eXecutioner who
upbraids and derides the trembling
murderer whose life he is soon 10
strangle with the ropef I'm drawing
your enchanting picture Of peace flow
Ing like river before a people harass-
ed by powerful foreign enemies and
disturbed 10y internal dissensOns are
you not merely adding to their distress.
as the mirage OF the desert aggravates
the thirst Of the dying traveller Are
YOU saying TO your miserable people:
Look at those beautiful banks water
ed bv the river. rich i'm fora and tune
full with singing birds They would
have been all yours II you had not
wandered into the desert of sin, but
now they are lost TO you forever
"Ah. no." says the prophet Isaiah, "it
is not to aggravate their thirst that l
tell them Of this river, but to invite
them TO return TO the way from which
they have wandered; not 10 exult over
their misfortunes, but 70 warn them Of
the consequences Of sin. l am not
here glorying in the suffering Of Gods
fallen ones. My river is not composed
Of the black waters Of the river Styx,
but from the flowing crystal waters Of
the river Of life. am like a loving
father whose wayward son has disre-
garded warnings and has sinned and
brought himself into trouble. and the
father sorrows with him and pleads
with him TO repent ana assures him
that If he will fOrsake his sin his wick
edness shall be forgiven and his peace
shall be like river. as though he had
never sinned." May God help us as
we use the banks of the Jordan or the
Rhine or the Tiber or the upper
Thames or the banks OF our own po-
etic Hudson for a sacred pulpit Such
river bank today may become as
sacred a pulpit as that in the chancel
Of Westminster abbey or st. Pauls or
Canterbury cathedral, even though
bishops hand has not consecrated it
or ecclesiastical convOcation dedicated
IT.
The pleading river, in the first place
teaches us that the divine peace which
comes to man must come as the result
Of natural law i'm the spiritual life. 1t
is not the result of haphazard 1t is
not a miracle az we in the broad sense
term a miracle. 1t does not come as a
miraculous wind which might dig up
seed I'm some Italian garden and in its
teeth lift It above Alpine crag and
carry il over land and sea and without
human aid plant II as an exotic upon
the banks OF the Ohio or the M0nOn-
gahela river. But the divine peace
comes 10 man as the resuh Of a ration
al cause. II has a rational source, as
a river has natural source; it has
natural fow, a. the Jordan has a nat
ural flow, and II has a rational outlet,
as the Amazon empties Itself into the
Atlantic or the Ganges finds a resting
place in the huge reservoir Of the Ren-
gal gulf.
A river cannot disobey natural law.
A river cannot become a free lance
among rivers. A river cannot do any
thing that specific gravity says thou
shalt not do" This fact is demonstrate
ed everywhere. ] climb one OF the tail
pyramids OF the Rocky mountains
There upon the highest peak find
what is called a watershed. Then as
/ stand upon this watershed ! repeat
TO myself the beautiful words Of the
poet:
God sent his messenger. the rain.
And said unto the mountain brook
Rise up and from thy caverns look
And leap with naked. snow white feet
From the cool hills into the heart
OF the broad arid plain
But. though the mountain brooks may
leap from the cool hills into the heat Of
the broad. arid plain, It makes great
deal Of difference into what plain that
falling raindrop shall go, whether IL
falls one inch TO the right or one inch
10 the left Of the Rocky mountain wa
tershed. One inch TO the right It flows
into the gulf Of Mexico; one TO the left
II flows into the waters Of the Pacific.
The waters of a river must obey
natural law. Now. il Gods laws are
inexorable in regulating the source
aud the course Of a river. are they not
equally inexorable I'm reference to the
source and the course of his divine
peace. which IS like a riverY
You must obey Gods laws before You
can enjoy Gods peace TO resist them,
10 disobey him. is TO set yWrself
against omnlpotent power and infinite
wisdom. II is not necessary that God
should punish you Tor it; you bring the
on yourself in failure and
disappointment and eternal wreck.
Your whole nature is given over to
anarchy and lawleSsness. Only as you
FIELD to his will do you put yourself
IN line with the eternal order and enter
ntO peace / do not care how much
rou may think your way is better than
Gods Wsvs one fact Won must under