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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:47 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:47 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14139-0.txt b/14139-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f8b1c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/14139-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9148 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14139 *** + +NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS +BY +T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. + +AUTHOR OF +"_CRUMBS SWEPT UP_," "_THE ABOMINATIONS OF MODERN SOCIETY_," etc. + +Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. + +VOL. I + +NEW YORK: +GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER, +17 TO 27 VANDEWATER STREET. +1886. + + + + +[Illustration: T. De Witt Talmage] + + + _Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by_ + GEORGE MUNRO, _in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, + Washington, D.C._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + BRAWN AND MUSCLE 7 + THE PLEIADES AND ORION 21 + THE QUEEN'S VISIT 34 + VICARIOUS SUFFERING 45 + POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY 59 + THE LORD'S RAZOR 72 + WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM 83 + STORMED AND TAKEN 95 + ALL THE WORLD AKIN 108 + A MOMENTOUS QUEST 119 + THE GREAT ASSIZE 134 + THE ROAD TO THE CITY 147 + THE RANSOMLESS 158 + THE THREE GROUPS 171 + THE INSIGNIFICANT 184 + THE THREE RINGS 197 + HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT 209 + CASTLE JESUS 221 + STRIPPING THE SLAIN 233 + SOLD OUT 246 + SUMMER TEMPTATIONS 259 + THE BANISHED QUEEN 274 + THE DAY WE LIVE IN 285 + CAPITAL AND LABOR 297 + DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE 311 + TOBACCO AND OPIUM 325 + WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? 339 + + + + +BRAWN AND MUSCLE. + + "And Samson went down to Timnath."--JUDGES xiv: 1. + + +There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his +life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the +grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character +fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver +lessons we devote our morning sermon. + +This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. +It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons--the boy Napoleon and +the man Napoleon--but both alike; two Howards--the boy Howard and the +man Howard--but both alike; two Samsons--the boy Samson and the man +Samson--but both alike. This giant was no doubt the hero of the +playground, and nothing could stand before his exhibitions of youthful +prowess. At eighteen years of age he was betrothed to the daughter of +a Philistine. Going down toward Timnath, a lion came out upon him, +and, although this young giant was weaponless, he seized the monster +by the long mane and shook him as a hungry hound shakes a March hare, +and made his bones crack, and left him by the wayside bleeding under +the smiting of his fist and the grinding heft of his heel. + +There he stands, looming up above other men, a mountain of flesh, his +arms bunched with muscle that can lift the gate of a city, taking an +attitude defiant of everything. His hair had never been cut, and it +rolled down in seven great plaits over his shoulders, adding to his +bulk, fierceness, and terror. The Philistines want to conquer him, and +therefore they must find out where the secret of his strength lies. + +There is a dissolute woman living in the valley of Sorek by the name +of Delilah. They appoint her the agent in the case. The Philistines +are secreted in the same building, and then Delilah goes to work and +coaxes Samson to tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well," he +says, "if you should take seven green withes such as they fasten wild +beasts with and put them around me I should be perfectly powerless." +So she binds him with the seven green withes. Then she claps her hands +and says: "They come--the Philistines!" and he walks out as though +they were no impediment. She coaxes him again, and says: "Now tell me +the secret of this great strength?" and he replies: "If you should +take some ropes that have never been used and tie me with them I +should be just like other men." She ties him with the ropes, claps her +hands, and shouts: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out as +easily as he did before--not a single obstruction. She coaxes him +again, and he says: "Now, if you should take these seven long plaits +of hair, and by this house-loom weave them into a web, I could not get +away." So the house-loom is rolled up, and the shuttle flies backward +and forward and the long plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then she +claps her hands, and says: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out +as easily as he did before, dragging a part of the loom with him. + +But after awhile she persuades him to tell the truth. He says: "If you +should take a razor or shears and cut off this long hair, I should be +powerless and in the hands of my enemies." Samson sleeps, and that she +may not wake him up during the process of shearing, help is called in. +You know that the barbers of the East have such a skillful way of +manipulating the head to this very day that, instead of waking up a +sleeping man, they will put a man wide awake sound asleep. I hear the +blades of the shears grinding against each other, and I see the long +locks falling off. The shears or razor accomplishes what green withes +and new ropes and house-loom could not do. Suddenly she claps her +hands, and says: "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" He rouses up +with a struggle, but his strength is all gone. He is in the hands of +his enemies. + +I hear the groan of the giant as they take his eyes out, and then I +see him staggering on in his blindness, feeling his way as he goes on +toward Gaza. The prison door is open, and the giant is thrust in. He +sits down and puts his hands on the mill-crank, which, with exhausting +horizontal motion, goes day after day, week after week, month after +month--work, work, work! The consternation of the world in captivity, +his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding corn in Gaza! + +I. First of all, behold in this giant of the text that physical power +is not always an index of moral power. He was a huge man--the lion +found it out, and the three thousand men whom he slew found it out; +yet he was the subject of petty revenges and out-gianted by low +passion. I am far from throwing any discredit upon physical stamina. +There are those who seem to have great admiration for delicacy and +sickliness of constitution. I never could see any glory in weak nerves +or sick headache. Whatever effort in our day is made to make the men +and women more robust should have the favor of every good citizen as +well as of every Christian. Gymnastics may be positively religious. + +Good people sometimes ascribe to a wicked heart what they ought to +ascribe to a slow liver. The body and the soul are such near neighbors +that they often catch each other's diseases. Those who never saw a +sick day, and who, like Hercules, show the giant in the cradle, have +more to answer for than those who are the subjects of life-long +infirmities. He who can lift twice as much as you can, and walk twice +as far, and work twice as long, will have a double account to meet in +the judgment. + +How often it is that you do not find physical energy indicative of +spiritual power! If a clear head is worth more than one dizzy with +perpetual vertigo--if muscles with the play of health in them are +worth more than those drawn up in chronic "rheumatics"--if an eye +quick to catch passing objects is better than one with vision dim and +uncertain--then God will require of us efficiency just in proportion +to what he has given us. Physical energy ought to be a type of moral +power. We ought to have as good digestion of truth as we have capacity +to assimilate food. Our spiritual hearing ought to be as good as our +physical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as our +tongue. Samsons in body, we ought to be giants in moral power. + +But while you find a great many men who realize that they ought to use +their money aright, and use their intelligence aright, how few men you +find aware of the fact that they ought to use their physical organism +aright! With every thump of the heart there is something saying, +"Work! work!" and, lest we should complain that we have no tools to +work with, God gives us our hands and feet, with every knuckle, and +with every joint, and with every muscle saying to us, "Lay hold and do +something." + +But how often it is that men with physical strength do not serve +Christ! They are like a ship full manned and full rigged, capable of +vast tonnage, able to endure all stress of weather, yet swinging idly +at the docks, when these men ought to be crossing and recrossing the +great ocean of human suffering and sin with God's supplies of mercy. +How often it is that physical strength is used in doing positive +damage, or in luxurious ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed +bosom, fearless of the shafts of opposition, it ought to be laying +hold with all its might, and tugging away to lift up this sunken wreck +of a world. + +It is a most shameful fact that much of the business of the Church and +of the world must be done by those comparatively invalid. Richard +Baxter, by reason of his diseases, all his days sitting in the door of +the tomb, yet writing more than a hundred volumes, and sending out an +influence for God that will endure as long as the "Saints' Everlasting +Rest." Edward Payson, never knowing a well day, yet how he preached, +and how he wrote, helping thousands of dying souls like himself to +swim in a sea of glory! And Robert M'Cheyne, a walking skeleton, yet +you know what he did in Dundee, and how he shook Scotland with zeal +for God. Philip Doddridge, advised by his friends, because of his +illness, not to enter the ministry, yet you know what he did for the +"rise and progress of religion" in the Church and in the world. + +Wilberforce was told by his doctors that he could not live a +fortnight, yet at that very time entering upon philanthropic +enterprises that demanded the greatest endurance and persistence. +Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so that often in his pulpit +while preaching he would stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting up +again to preach about heaven until the glories of the celestial city +dropped on the multitude, doing more work, perhaps, than almost any +well man in his day. + +Oh, how often it is that men with great physical endurance are not as +great in moral and spiritual stature! While there are achievements for +those who are bent all their days with sickness--achievements of +patience, achievements of Christian endurance--I call upon men of +health to-day, men of muscle, men of nerve, men of physical power, to +devote themselves to the Lord. Giants in body, you ought to be giants +in soul. + +II. Behold also, in the story of my text, illustration of the fact of +the damage that strength can do if it be misguided. It seems to me +that this man spent a great deal of his time in doing evil--this +Samson of my text. To pay a bet which he had lost by guessing of his +riddle he robs and kills thirty people. He was not only gigantic in +strength, but gigantic in mischief, and a type of those men in all +ages of the world who, powerful in body or mind, or any faculty of +social position or wealth, have used their strength for iniquitous +purposes. + +It is not the small, weak men of the day who do the damage. These +small men who go swearing and loafing about your stores and shops and +banking-houses, assailing Christ and the Bible and the Church--they do +not do the damage. They have no influence. They are vermin that you +crush with your foot. But it is the giants of the day, the misguided +giants, giants in physical power, or giants in mental acumen, or +giants in social position, or giants in wealth, who do the damage. + +The men with sharp pens that stab religion and throw their poison all +through our literature; the men who use the power of wealth to +sanction iniquity, and bribe justice, and make truth and honor bow to +their golden scepter. + +Misguided giants--look out for them! In the middle and the latter part +of the last century no doubt there were thousands of men in Paris and +Edinburgh and London who hated God and blasphemed the name of the +Almighty; but they did but little mischief--they were small men, +insignificant men. Yet there were giants in those days. + +Who can calculate the soul-havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a very +enthusiasm of iniquity, with fiery imagination seizing upon all the +impulsive natures of his day? or David Hume, who employed his life as +a spider employs its summer, in spinning out silken webs to trap the +unwary? or Voltaire, the most learned man of his day, marshaling a +great host of skeptics, and leading them out in the dark land of +infidelity? or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrollable grudge against +religion in his history of one of the most fascinating periods of the +world's existence--the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--a book in +which, with all the splendors of his genius, he magnified the errors +of Christian disciples, while, with a sparseness of notice that never +can be forgiven, he treated of the Christian heroes of whom the world +was not worthy? + +Oh, men of stout physical health, men of great mental stature, men of +high social position, men of great power of any sort, I want you to +understand your power, and I want you to know that that power devoted +to God will be a crown on earth, to you typical of a crown in heaven; +but misguided, bedraggled in sin, administrative of evil, God will +thunder against you with His condemnation in the day when millionaire +and pauper, master and slave, king and subject, shall stand side by +side in the judgment, and money-bags, and judicial ermine, and royal +robe shall be riven with the lightnings. + +Behold also, how a giant may be slain of a woman. Delilah started the +train of circumstances that pulled down the temple of Dagon about +Samson's ears. And tens of thousands of giants have gone down to death +and hell through the same impure fascinations. It seems to me that it +is high time that pulpit and platform and printing-press speak out +against the impurities of modern society. Fastidiousness and Prudery +say: "Better not speak--you will rouse up adverse criticism; you will +make worse what you want to make better; better deal in glittering +generalities; the subject is too delicate for polite ears." But there +comes a voice from heaven overpowering the mincing sentimentalities of +the day, saying: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a +trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of +Jacob their sins." + +The trouble is that when people write or speak upon this theme they +are apt to cover it up with the graces of belles-lettres, so that the +crime is made attractive instead of repulsive. Lord Byron in "Don +Juan" adorns this crime until it smiles like a May queen. Michelet, +the great French writer, covers it up with bewitching rhetoric until +it glows like the rising sun, when it ought to be made loathsome as a +small-pox hospital. There are to-day influences abroad which, if +unresisted by the pulpit and the printing-press, will turn New York +and Brooklyn into Sodom and Gomorrah, fit only for the storm of fire +and brimstone that whelmed the cities of the plain. + +You who are seated in your Christian homes, compassed by moral and +religious restraints, do not realize the gulf of iniquity that bounds +you on the north and the south and the east and the west. While I +speak there are tens of thousands of men and women going over the +awful plunge of an impure life; and while I cry to God for mercy upon +their souls, I call upon you to marshal in the defense of your homes, +your Church and your nation. There is a banqueting hall that you have +never heard described. You know all about the feast of Ahasuerus, +where a thousand lords sat. You know all about Belshazzar's carousal, +where the blood of the murdered king spurted into the faces of the +banqueters. You may know of the scene of riot and wassail, when there +was set before Esopus one dish of food that cost $400,000. But I speak +now of a different banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its +floor is tesselated with fire. Its chalices are chased with fire. Its +song is a song of fire. Its walls are buttresses of fire. Solomon +refers to it when he says: "Her guests are in the depths of hell." + +Our American communities are suffering from the gospel of Free +Loveism, which, fifteen or twenty years ago, was preached on the +platform and in some of the churches of this country. I charge upon +Free Loveism that it has blighted innumerable homes, and that it has +sent innumerable souls to ruin. Free Loveism is bestial; it is +worse--it is infernal! It has furnished this land with about one +thousand divorces annually. In one county in the State of Indiana it +furnished eleven divorces in one day before dinner. It has roused up +elopements, North, South, East, and West. You can hardly take up a +paper but you read of an elopement. As far as I can understand the +doctrine of Free Loveism it is this: That every man ought to have +somebody else's wife, and every wife somebody else's husband. They do +not like our Christian organization of society, and I wish they would +all elope, the wretches of one sex taking the wretches of the other, +and start to-morrow morning for the great Sahara Desert, until the +simoom shall sweep seven feet of sand all over them, and not one +passing caravan for the next five hundred years bring back one +miserable bone of their carcasses! Free Loveism! It is the +double-distilled extract of nux vomica, ratsbane, and adder's tongue. +Never until society goes back to the old Bible, and hears its eulogy +of purity and its anathema of uncleanness--never until then will this +evil be extirpated. + +IV. Behold also in this giant of the text and in the giant of our own +century that great physical power must crumble and expire. The Samson +of the text long ago went away. He fought the lion. He fought the +Philistines. He could fight anything, but death was too much for him. +He may have required a longer grave and a broader grave; but the tomb +nevertheless was his terminus. + +If, then, we are to be compelled to go out of this world, where are we +to go to? This body and soul must soon part. What shall be the destiny +of the former I know--dust to dust. But what shall be the destiny of +the latter? Shall it rise into the companionship of the white-robed, +whose sins Christ has slain? or will it go down among the unbelieving, +who tried to gain the world and save their souls, but were swindled +out of both? Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in +the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is +ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is +this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to +save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power +and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his +dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined. + +V. In the light of this subject I want to call your attention to a +fact which may not have been rightly considered by five men in this +house, and that is the fact that we must be brought into judgment for +the employment of our physical organism. Shoulder, brain, hand, +foot--we must answer in judgment for the use we have made of them. +Have they been used for the elevation of society or for its +depression? In proportion as our arm is strong and our step elastic +will our account at last be intensified. Thousands of sermons are +preached to invalids. I preach this sermon this morning to stout men +and healthful women. We must give to God an account for the right use +of this physical organism. + +These invalids have comparatively little to account for, perhaps. They +could not lift twenty pounds. They could not walk half a mile without +sitting down to rest. In the preparation of this subject I have said +to myself, how shall I account to God in judgment for the use of a +body which never knew one moment of real sickness? Rising up in +judgment, standing beside the men and women who had only little +physical energy, and yet consumed that energy in a conflagration of +religious enthusiasm, how will we feel abashed! + +Oh, men of the strong arm and the stout heart, what use are you making +of your physical forces? Will you be able to stand the test of that +day when we must answer for the use of every talent, whether it were a +physical energy, or a mental acumen, or a spiritual power? + +The day approaches, and I see one who in this world was an invalid, +and as she stands before the throne of God to answer she says, "I was +sick all my days. I had but very little strength, but I did as well as +I could in being kind to those who were more sick and more +suffering." And Christ will say, "Well done, faithful servant." + +And then a little child will stand before the throne, and she will +say, "On earth I had a curvature of the spine, and I was very weak, +and I was very sick; but I used to gather flowers out of the wild-wood +and bring them to my sick mother, and she was comforted when she saw +the sweet flowers out of the wild-wood. I didn't do much, but I did +something." And Christ shall say, as He takes her up in His arm and +kisses her, "Well done, well done, faithful servant; enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord." + +What, then, will be said to us--we to whom the Lord gave physical +strength and continuous health? Hark! it thunders again. The judgment! +the judgment! + +I said to an old Scotch minister, who was one of the best friends I +ever had, "Doctor, did you ever know Robert Pollock, the Scotch poet, +who wrote 'The Course of Time'?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew him +well; I was his classmate." And then the doctor went on to tell me how +that the writing of "The Course of Time" exhausted the health of +Robert Pollock, and he expired. It seems as if no man could have such +a glimpse of the day for which all other days were made as Robert +Pollock had, and long survive that glimpse. In the description of that +day he says, among other things: + + "Begin the woe, ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds + And doleful winds wail to the howling hills, + And howling hills mourn to the dismal vales, + And dismal vales sigh to the sorrowing brooks, + And sorrowing brooks weep to the weeping stream, + And weeping stream awake the groaning deep; + Ye heavens, great archway of the universe, put sack-cloth on; + And ocean, robe thyself in garb of widowhood, + And gather all thy waves into a groan, and utter it. + Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense. + The occasion asks it, Nature dies, and angels come to lay + her in her grave." + +What Robert Pollock saw in poetic dream, you and I will see in +positive reality--the judgment! the judgment! + + + + +THE PLEIADES AND ORION. + + "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."--AMOS. v. 8 + + +A country farmer wrote this text--Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth +and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as +formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the +sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was +getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take +from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and +stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and +Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, +and Israelites trembled. + +Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and +David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as +might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his +prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, +and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts +devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He +watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of +bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all +night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight +roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the +tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year +when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open +field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the +night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of +lunar light. + +What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at +twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, +and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's +hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the +thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the +map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out +before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He +associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He +had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, +and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. +But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while +seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of +the midnight heavens--the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The +former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it +rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the +winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven +Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald of the +tempest. The ancients were the more apt to study the physiognomy and +juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies, because they thought they had a +special influence upon the earth; and perhaps they were right. If the +moon every few hours lifts and lets down the tides of the Atlantic +Ocean, and the electric storms of last year in the sun, by all +scientific admission, affected the earth, why not the stars have +proportionate effect? + +And there are some things which make me think that it may not have +been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of +the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Did not a meteor +run on evangelistic errand on the first Christmas night, and designate +the rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars in their courses fight +against Sisera? Was it merely coincidental that before the destruction +of Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights? Did +it merely happen so that a new star appeared in constellation +Cassiopeia, and then disappeared just before King Charles IX. of +France, who was responsible for St. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it +without significance that in the days of the Roman Emperor Justinian +war and famine were preceded by the dimness of the sun, which for +nearly a year gave no more light than the moon, although there were no +clouds to obscure it? + +Astrology, after all, may have been something more than a brilliant +heathenism. No wonder that Amos of the text, having heard these two +anthems of the stars, put down the stout rough staff of the herdsman +and took into his brown hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen of a +prophet, and advised the recreant people of his time to return to God, +saying: "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." This +command, which Amos gave 785 years B.C., is just as appropriate for +us, 1885 A.D. + +In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made +the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a +star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but +seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night +after night and season after season and decade after decade they had +kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never +clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called +the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his +Æneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order +established for their coming and going; order written not in +manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty +on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. +Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order. + +What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations +sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at +hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps +seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly +keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in +adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of +the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the +Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care +of the one world we inhabit. + +So I feel very much as my father felt one day when we were going to +the country mill to get a grist ground, and I, a boy of seven years, +sat in the back part of the wagon, and our yoke of oxen ran away with +us and along a labyrinthine road through the woods, so that I thought +every moment we would be dashed to pieces, and I made a terrible +outcry of fright, and my father turned to me with a face perfectly +calm, and said: "De Witt, what are you crying about? I guess we can +ride as fast as the oxen can run." And, my hearers, why should we be +affrighted and lose our equilibrium in the swift movement of worldly +events, especially when we are assured that it is not a yoke of +unbroken steers that are drawing us on, but that order and wise +government are in the yoke? + +In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, +and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, +and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with +you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better +than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see +further than Amos with the naked eye could--namely, two hundred stars +in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there +is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions +of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made +all that and controls all that--the wheel of the constellations +turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the +breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. +For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge +you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +groups of the text was the God of light. Amos saw that God was not +satisfied with making one star, or two or three stars, but He makes +seven; and having finished that group of worlds, makes another +group--group after group. To the Pleiades He adds Orion. It seems that +God likes light so well that He keeps making it. Only one being in the +universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, meteoric +creations, and that is the--Creator Himself. And they have all been +lovingly christened, each one a name as distinct as the names of your +children. "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by +their names." The seven Pleiades had names given to them, and they are +Alcyone, Merope, Celæno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. + +But think of the billions and trillions of daughters of starry light +that God calls by name as they sweep by Him with beaming brow and +lustrous robe! So fond is God of light--natural light, moral light, +spiritual light. Again and again is light harnessed for +symbolization--Christ, the bright and morning star; evangelization, +the daybreak; the redemption of nations, Sun of Righteousness rising +with healing in His wings. Oh, men and women, with so many sorrows and +sins and perplexities, if you want light of comfort, light of pardon, +light of goodness, in earnest, pray through Christ, "Seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +archipelagoes of stars must be an unchanging God. There had been no +change in the stellar appearance in this herdsman's life-time, and his +father, a shepherd, reported to him that there had been no change in +his life-time. And these two clusters hang over the celestial arbor +now just as they were the first night that they shone on the Edenic +bowers, the same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top +of which to watch them, the same as when the Chaldeans calculated the +eclipses, the same as when Elihu, according to the Book of Job, went +out to study the aurora borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and +Copernican system, the same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras, and from +Pythagoras to Herschel. Surely, a changeless God must have fashioned +the Pleiades and Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups and downs of +life, and the flux and reflux of the tides of prosperity, to know that +we have a changeless God, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. + +Xerxes garlanded and knighted the steersman of his boat in the +morning, and hanged him in the evening of the same day. Fifty thousand +people stood around the columns of the national capitol, shouting +themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural, and in four months so +great were the antipathies that a ruffian's pistol in Washington depot +expressed the sentiment of a great multitude. The world sits in its +chariot and drives tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the horse +behind is Anathema. Lord Cobham, in King James' time, was applauded, +and had thirty-five thousand dollars a year, but was afterward +execrated, and lived on scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. +Alexander the Great after death remained unburied for thirty days, +because no one would do the honor of shoveling him under. The Duke of +Wellington refused to have his iron fence mended, because it had been +broken by an infuriated populace in some hour of political +excitement, and he left it in ruins that men might learn what a fickle +thing is human favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting +to everlasting to them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto the +children's children of such as keep His covenant, and to those who +remember His commandments to do them." This moment "seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +beacons of the Oriental night sky must be a God of love and kindly +warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to all the herdsmen and +shepherds and husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and +cultivate your gardens and fields." Orion, coming in winter, warned +them to prepare for tempest. All navigation was regulated by these two +constellations. The one said to shipmaster and crew: "Hoist sail for +the sea, and gather merchandise from other lands." But Orion was the +storm-signal, and said: "Reef sail, make things snug, or put into +harbor, for the hurricanes are getting their wings out." As the +Pleiades were the sweet evangels of the spring, Orion was the warning +prophet of the winter. + +Oh, now I get the best view of God I ever had! There are two kinds of +sermons I never want to preach--the one that presents God so kind, so +indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will +against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their +impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are +spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in +His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven." The other kind of sermon I never want to +preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and +thundercloud, and with red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into +paroxysms of infinite agony. The sermon that I am now preaching +believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and +winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion. + +You must remember that the winter is just as important as the spring. +Let one winter pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to bind +the rivers and snow to enrich our fields, and then you will have to +enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries. "A green Christmas makes a +fat grave-yard," was the old proverb. Storms to purify the air. +Thermometer at ten degrees above zero to tone up the system. December +and January just as important as May and June. I tell you we need the +storms of life as much as we do the sunshine. There are more men +ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, +before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and +worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been +like Julius Cæsar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was +divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the +firmament. + +One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages made last summer by the +"Etruria" was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from +New York to Liverpool. But to those going in the opposite direction +the storm was a buffeting and a hinderance. It is a bad thing to have +a storm ahead, pushing us back; but if we be God's children and +aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner +into the harbor. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and +typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of the land and sea are not +unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but are under divine +supervision! I am so glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also the +God of Orion! It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina +Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," +and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in +favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of +consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility +of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your +persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal +heaven. + +Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible +God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in +Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and +minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! +worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we +stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling +off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric +iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve +around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around +the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make +about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time +between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos +into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition. + +And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, +many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there," +says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says +St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says +Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says +Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the +herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about +those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let +us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop +or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the +heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this +shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already +occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their +gates to let us in. + +When I read, "In my Father's house are many mansions," I do not know +but that each world is a room, and as many rooms as there are worlds, +stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hallways, stellar windows, +stellar domes. How our departed friends must pity us shut up in these +cramped apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles, when they some +morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar +system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling +constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve +luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep +of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic, +archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their +windows illuminated for festivity. + +Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How +little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future! +How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed +up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are +worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which +there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion, +how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must +obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call +to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable, +but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all +the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills +of Tekoa. + +I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never +impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest +Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two +or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building. +All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with +precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes +with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and +eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich +colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues +above statues, until sculpture can do no more, but faints and falls +back against carved stalls and down on pavements over which the kings +and queens of the earth have walked to confession. Nave and aisles and +transept and portals combining the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced, +interfoliated, intercolumned grandeur. As I stood outside, looking at +the double range of flying buttresses and the forest of pinnacles, +higher and higher and higher, until I almost reeled from dizziness, I +exclaimed; "Great doxology in stone! Frozen prayer of many nations!" + +But while standing there I saw a poor man enter and put down his pack +and kneel beside his burden on the hard floor of that cathedral. And +tears of deep emotion came into my eyes, as I said to myself: "There +is a soul worth more than all the material surroundings. That man will +live after the last pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all that +cathedral glory shall remain uncrumbled. He is now a Lazarus in rags +and poverty and weariness, but immortal, and a son of the Lord God +Almighty; and the prayer he now offers, though amid many +superstitions, I believe God will hear; and among the Apostles whose +sculptured forms stand in the surrounding niches he will at last be +lifted, and into the presence of that Christ whose sufferings are +represented by the crucifix before which he bows; and be raised in due +time out of all his poverties into the glorious home built for him and +built for us by 'Him who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion.'" + + + + +THE QUEEN'S VISIT. + + "Behold, the half was not told me."--I KINGS x: 7. + + +Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all +sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, +and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. +He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the +East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were +obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the +hands of Solomon's merchants. He manned the fortress Thapsacus at the +chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that +passed there. The three great products of Palestine--wine pressed from +the richest clusters and celebrated all the world over; oil which in +that hot country is the entire substitute for butter and lard, and was +pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country became +an oil well; and honey which was the entire substitute for +sugar--these three great products of the country Solomon exported, and +received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every +clime. + +He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered a fleet of ships to be +constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the +flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage, to bring +home the wealth of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian +horses were large and swift, and long-maned and round-limbed, and he +resolved to purchase them, giving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, +putting the best of these horses in his own stall, and selling the +surplus to foreign potentates at great profit. + +He heard that there was the best of timber on Mount Lebanon, and he +sent out one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest +and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into +rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thence to be drawn by ox-teams +twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there +were beautiful flowers in other lands. He sent for them, planted them +in his own gardens, and to this very day there are flowers found in +the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of +Palestine, the lineal descendants of the very flowers that Solomon +planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest +voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and +bring them there, and he put them into his cages. + +Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming up to the +king's gate, and the ox-trains from Egypt, gold and silver and +precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, +and fish of every scale! See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and +the horsemen run, and the chariots wheel! Hark to the orchestra! Gaze +upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, +step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace! + +Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the +king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the +architect, and of the other artists is here seen in the long line of +corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. +Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting +into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network +of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging +baskets. Three branches--so Josephus tells us--three branches +sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves +seemed to quiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of +water on six hundred brazen ox-heads, which gushed with water and +filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and +musical plash. Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and +cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seating place of +the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen lion. Why, my friends, +in that place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and +they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces +in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of +gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold +reflected in the water! Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing +in the crown! Gold, gold, gold! + +Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere +by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of +Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long +procession approaching Jerusalem? I think from the pomp of it there +must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of the spices which +are brought as presents, and I hear the shout of the drivers, and I +see the dust-covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry +the news up to the palace. The Queen of Sheba advances. Let all the +people come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the +palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace +before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and the +saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense, and pass it into the +treasure house. Take up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun. + +The Queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the +bath. She sits down at the banquet. The cup-bearers bow. The meat +smokes. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten +sea. Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the +conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Solomon +many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the +Hebrews, and she then and there becomes a servant of the Lord God. + +She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices she +brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned +into harps and psalteries and into railings for the causeway between +the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand +dollars in money--she begins to think that all these presents amount +to nothing in such a place, and she is almost ashamed that she has +brought them, and she says within herself: "I heard a great deal +about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, +but I find it far beyond my highest anticipations. I must add more +than fifty per cent. to what has been related. It exceeds everything +that I could have expected. The half--the half was not told me." + +Learn from this subject what a beautiful thing it is when social +position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes +to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say +it is because they are weak-minded. I say it is because they have +quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and +capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the +Gospel then all the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who +have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all come the people of +affluence and high social position. Alas, that it is so! + +If there are those here to-day who have been favored of fortune, or, +as I might better put it, favored of God, surrender all you have and +all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba. +Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I +am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all +ages--Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen +of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of +Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in +Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen +Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors +to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove +to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; +Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen +Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper. + +I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its +thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures, +and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and +conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line +of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with +gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and +the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this +greater than Solomon. + +Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of +truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say +in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great +way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to +cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering +deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a +committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates +report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She +wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this +by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand +kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by +Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of +eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the +jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time +to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan, +dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and +among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an +earnest seeker after the truth." + +But there are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that +way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come +to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their +arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am +to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost." +A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem +will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the +Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. +Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures +of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the +waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne. +Sit down at the banquet--the wine pressed from the grapes of the +heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the +camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. +The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"--that is, this very +woman I am speaking of--"the Queen of the South shall rise up in +judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the +uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, +behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the +infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting +to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it +shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the +camels! + +Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a +surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in +Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of +Christ--that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler +coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship +and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, +and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia +Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. +And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so +much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half--the half was +not told her. + +So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of +grace--an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; +martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with +visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through +the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It +has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with +pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great +congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of +God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this +banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of +His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with +tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea +you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian +with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a +Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that +you never in the days of your spiritual bondage had any appreciation +of what was to come. You are ready to-day to answer, and if I gave you +an opportunity in the midst of this assemblage, you would speak out +and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and +the grace and the goodness of God: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +Well, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this +world, when it is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells +of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of +Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren, +winter-bleached, storm-scarred, thunder-split rock breaking into +floods of bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their +nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoom--deserts blooming +into carnation roses and silver-tipped lilies. + +It is the old story. Everybody tells it. Isaiah told it, John told it, +Paul told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John +Milton told it--everybody tells it; and yet--and yet when the midnight +shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal His great army, and +China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of God +and wheel into line; and India, destroying her Juggernaut and +snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the +voice of God and wheel into line; and vine-covered Italy, and +wheat-crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the +voice of God and fall into line; then the Church, which has been +toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded like +a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up +into the face of her Lord the King, and say: "The half--the half was +not told me." + +Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian--a greater +surprise than anything I have depicted. Heaven is an old story. +Everybody talks about it. There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book that +does not refer to it. Children read about it in their Sabbath-school +book. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a +harbor from the storm. We call it our home. We say it is the house of +many mansions. We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, +exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out +in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a +surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the Queen of Sheba, +the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have +started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though +our feet be blistered with the way? We are hastening to the palace. We +take all our loves and hopes and Christian ambitions, as frankincense +and myrrh and cassia, to the great King. We must not rest. We must not +halt. The night is coming on, and it is not safe out here in the +desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the +houses of Lebanon, and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains +dance in the sun, and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor +pilgrims. + +Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are +weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: +"Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters, recline on these banks. +Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censer +and swing it before the altar." And yet, my friends, when heaven +bursts upon us it will be a greater surprise than that--Jesus on the +throne, and we made like Him! All our Christian friends surrounding us +in glory! All our sorrows and tears and sins gone by forever! The +thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, +the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without +end: "The half--the half was not told us!" + + + + +VICARIOUS SUFFERING. + + "Without shedding of blood is no remission."--HEB. ix: 22. + + +John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that +made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White +Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out +Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you +really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ +to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The +Bible statement agrees with all physicians, and all physiologists, and +all scientists, in saying that the blood is the life, and in the +Christian religion it means simply that Christ's life was given for +our life. Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible story of blood +is disgusting, and that they don't want what they call a +"slaughter-house religion," only shows their incapacity or +unwillingness to look through the figure of speech toward the thing +signified. The blood that, on the darkest Friday the world ever saw, +oozed, or trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side, and the +hands, and the feet of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in +a few hours coagulated and dried up, and forever disappeared; and if +man had depended on the application of the literal blood of Christ, +there would not have been a soul saved for the last eighteen +centuries. + +In order to understand this red word of my text, we only have to +exercise as much common sense in religion as we do in everything else. +Pang for pang, hunger for hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear, +blood for blood, life for life, we see every day illustrated. The act +of substitution is no novelty, although I hear men talk as though the +idea of Christ's suffering substituted for our suffering were +something abnormal, something distressingly odd, something wildly +eccentric, a solitary episode in the world's history; when I could +take you out into this city, and before sundown point you to five +hundred cases of substitution and voluntary suffering of one in behalf +of another. + +At two o'clock to-morrow afternoon go among the places of business or +toil. It will be no difficult thing for you to find men who, by their +looks, show you that they are overworked. They are prematurely old. +They are hastening rapidly toward their decease. They have gone +through crises in business that shattered their nervous system, and +pulled on the brain. They have a shortness of breath, and a pain in +the back of the head, and at night an insomnia that alarms them. Why +are they drudging at business early and late? For fun? No; it would be +difficult to extract any amusement out of that exhaustion. Because +they are avaricious? In many cases no. Because their own personal +expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars would meet all their +wants. The simple fact is, the man is enduring all that fatigue and +exasperation, and wear and tear, to keep his home prosperous. There +is an invisible line reaching from that store, from that bank, from +that shop, from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few blocks, a few +miles away, and there is the secret of that business endurance. He is +simply the champion of a homestead, for which he wins bread, and +wardrobe, and education, and prosperity, and in such battle ten +thousand men fall. Of ten business men whom I bury, nine die of +overwork for others. Some sudden disease finds them with no power of +resistance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood. +Substitution! + +At one o'clock to-morrow morning, the hour when slumber is most +uninterrupted and most profound, walk amid the dwelling-houses of the +city. Here and there you will find a dim light, because it is the +household custom to keep a subdued light burning: but most of the +houses from base to top are as dark as though uninhabited. A merciful +God has sent forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over +the city. But yonder is a clear light burning, and outside on the +window casement a glass or pitcher containing food for a sick child; +the food is set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that mother +has sat up with that sufferer. She has to the last point obeyed the +physician's prescription, not giving a drop too much or too little, or +a moment too soon or too late. She is very anxious, for she has buried +three children with the same disease, and she prays and weeps, each +prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. By dint of +kindness she gets the little one through the ordeal. After it is all +over, the mother is taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in, and +one day she leaves the convalescent child with a mother's blessing, +and goes up to join the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for life. +Substitution! The fact is that there are an uncounted number of +mothers who, after they have navigated a large family of children +through all the diseases of infancy, and got them fairly started up +the flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only strength enough +left to die. They fade away. Some call it consumption; some call it +nervous prostration; some call it intermittent or malarial +disposition; but I call it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +Or perhaps the mother lingers long enough to see a son get on the +wrong road, and his former kindness becomes rough reply when she +expresses anxiety about him. But she goes right on, looking carefully +after his apparel, remembering his every birthday with some memento, +and when he is brought home worn out with dissipation, nurses him till +he gets well and starts him again, and hopes, and expects, and prays, +and counsels, and suffers, until her strength gives out and she fails. +She is going, and attendants, bending over her pillow, ask her if she +has any message to leave, and she makes great effort to say something, +but out of three or four minutes of indistinct utterance they can +catch but three words: "My poor boy!" The simple fact is she died for +him. Life for life. Substitution! + +About twenty-four years ago there went forth from our homes hundreds +of thousands of men to do battle for their country. All the poetry of +war soon vanished, and left them nothing but the terrible prose. They +waded knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow-banks. They marched till +their cut feet tracked the earth. They were swindled out of their +honest rations, and lived on meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all +fractured, and eyes extinguished, and limbs shot away. Thousands of +them cried for water as they lay dying on the field the night after +the battle, and got it not. They were homesick, and received no +message from their loved ones. They died in barns, in bushes, in +ditches, the buzzards of the summer heat the only attendants on their +obsequies. No one but the infinite God who knows everything, knows the +ten thousandth part of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height +of anguish of the Northern and Southern battlefields. Why did these +fathers leave their children and go to the front, and why did these +young men, postponing the marriage-day, start out into the +probabilities of never coming back? For the country they died. Life +for life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +But we need not go so far. What is that monument in Greenwood? It is +to the doctors who fell in the Southern epidemics. Why go? Were there +not enough sick to be attended in these Northern latitudes? Oh, yes; +but the doctor puts a few medical books in his valise, and some vials +of medicine, and leaves his patients here in the hands of other +physicians, and takes the rail-train. Before he gets to the infected +regions he passes crowded rail-trains, regular and extra, taking the +flying and affrighted populations. He arrives in a city over which a +great horror is brooding. He goes from couch to couch, feeling of +pulse and studying symptoms, and prescribing day after day, night +after night, until a fellow-physician says: "Doctor, you had better go +home and rest; you look miserable." But he can not rest while so many +are suffering. On and on, until some morning finds him in a delirium, +in which he talks of home, and then rises and says he must go and look +after those patients. He is told to lie down; but he fights his +attendants until he falls back, and is weaker and weaker, and dies for +people with whom he had no kinship, and far away from his own family, +and is hastily put away in a stranger's tomb, and only the fifth part +of a newspaper line tells us of his sacrifice--his name just mentioned +among five. Yet he has touched the furthest height of sublimity in +that three weeks of humanitarian service. He goes straight as an arrow +to the bosom of Him who said: "I was sick and ye visited Me." Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +In the legal profession I see the same principle of self-sacrifice. In +1846, William Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic negro, was at Auburn, +N.Y., on trial for murder. He had slain the entire Van Nest family. +The foaming wrath of the community could be kept off him only by armed +constables. Who would volunteer to be his counsel? No attorney wanted +to sacrifice his popularity by such an ungrateful task. All were +silent save one, a young lawyer with feeble voice, that could hardly +be heard outside the bar, pale and thin and awkward. It was William H. +Seward, who saw that the prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible, and +ought to be put in an asylum rather than put to death, the heroic +counsel uttering these beautiful words: + +"I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged prisoner +and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a +pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child with +an affectionate smile disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever +I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give +because he says, 'God bless you!' as I pass. My dog caresses me with +fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse recognizes me when I +fill his manger. What reward, what gratitude, what sympathy and +affection can I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look at him. +Look at the assemblage around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed +censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors +or my fellow-men, where, even in his heart, I can expect to find a +sentiment, a thought, not to say of reward or of acknowledgment, or +even of recognition? Gentlemen, you may think of this evidence what +you please, bring in what verdict you can, but I asseverate before +Heaven and you, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the +prisoner at the bar does not at this moment know why it is that my +shadow falls on you instead of his own." + +The gallows got its victim, but the post-mortem examination of the +poor creature showed to all the surgeons and to all the world that the +public were wrong, and William H. Seward was right, and that hard, +stony step of obloquy in the Auburn court-room was the first step of +the stairs of fame up which he went to the top, or to within one step +of the top, that last denied him through the treachery of American +politics. Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an American court-room +than William H. Seward, without reward, standing between the fury of +the populace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution! + +In the realm of the fine arts there was as remarkable an instance. A +brilliant but hypercriticised painter, Joseph William Turner, was met +by a volley of abuse from all the art galleries of Europe. His +paintings, which have since won the applause of all civilized nations, +"The Fifth Plague of Egypt," "Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally +Weather," "Calais Pier," "The Sun Rising Through Mist," and "Dido +Building Carthage," were then targets for critics to shoot at. In +defense of this outrageously abused man, a young author of twenty-four +years, just one year out of college, came forth with his pen, and +wrote the ablest and most famous essays on art that the world ever +saw, or ever will see--John Ruskin's "Modern Painters." For seventeen +years this author fought the battles of the maltreated artist, and +after, in poverty and broken-heartedness, the painter had died, and +the public tried to undo their cruelties toward him by giving him a +big funeral and burial at St. Paul's Cathedral, his old-time friend +took out of a tin box nineteen thousand pieces of paper containing +drawings by the old painter, and through many weary and uncompensated +months assorted and arranged them for public observation. People say +John Ruskin in his old days is cross, misanthropic, and morbid. +Whatever he may do that he ought not to do, and whatever he may say +that he ought not to say between now and his death, he will leave this +world insolvent as far as it has any capacity to pay this author's pen +for its chivalric and Christian defense of a poor painter's pencil. +John Ruskin for William Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +What an exalting principle this which leads one to suffer for another! +Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic +canto, or moves nations. The principle is the dominant one in our +religion--Christ the Martyr, Christ the celestial Hero, Christ the +Defender, Christ the Substitute. No new principle, for it was as old +as human nature; but now on a grander, wider, higher, deeper, and more +world-resounding scale! The shepherd boy as a champion for Israel with +a sling toppled the giant of Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but +here is another David who, for all the armies of churches militant and +triumphant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the crash of +his brazen armor like an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had at God's +command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same God just in +time had provided a ram of the thicket as a substitute; but here is +another Isaac bound to the altar, and no hand arrests the sharp edges +of laceration and death, and the universe shivers and quakes and +recoils and groans at the horror. + +All good men have for centuries been trying to tell whom this +Substitute was like, and every comparison, inspired and uninspired, +evangelistic, prophetic, apostolic, and human, falls short, for Christ +was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of Christ, because he came directly +from God; Noah a type of Christ, because he delivered his own family +from deluge; Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he had no +predecessor or successor; Joseph a type of Christ, because he was cast +out by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ, because he was a +deliverer from bondage; Joshua a type of Christ, because he was a +conqueror; Samson a type of Christ, because of his strength to slay +the lions and carry off the iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a +type of Christ, in the affluence of his dominion; Jonah a type of +Christ, because of the stormy sea in which he threw himself for the +rescue of others; but put together Adam and Noah and Melchisedec and +Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they +would not make a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half +of a Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ. + +He forsook a throne and sat down on His own footstool. He came from +the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and changed a +circumference seraphic for a circumference diabolic. Once waited on by +angels, now hissed at by brigands. From afar and high up He came down; +past meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones, Himself more +lustrous; past larger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs of +firmaments, and from cloud to cloud, and through tree-tops and into +the earners stall, to thrust His shoulder under our burdens and take +the lances of pain through His vitals, and wrapped himself in all the +agonies which we deserve for our misdoings, and stood on the splitting +decks of a foundering vessel, amid the drenching surf of the sea, and +passed midnights on the mountains amid wild beasts of prey, and stood +at the point where all earthly and infernal hostilities charged on Him +at once with their keen sabers--our Substitute! + +When did attorney ever endure so much for a pauper client, or +physician for the patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the child in +membranous croup, as Christ for us, and Christ for you, and Christ for +me? Shall any man or woman or child in this audience who has ever +suffered for another find it hard to understand this Christly +suffering for us? Shall those whose sympathies have been wrung in +behalf of the unfortunate have no appreciation of that one moment +which was lifted out of all the ages of eternity as most conspicuous, +when Christ gathered up all the sins of those to be redeemed under His +one arm, and all their sorrows under His other arm, and said: "I will +atone for these under my right arm, and will heal all those under my +left arm. Strike me with all thy glittering shafts, O Eternal Justice! +Roll over me with all thy surges, ye oceans of sorrow"? And the +thunderbolts struck Him from above, and the seas of trouble rolled up +from beneath, hurricane after hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone, +and then and there in presence of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all +worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter price, the transcendent +price, the awful price, the glorious price, the infinite price, the +eternal price, was paid that sets us free. + +That is what Paul means, that is what I mean, that is what all those +who have ever had their heart changed mean by "blood." I glory in this +religion of blood! I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color in +sacramental cup, whether it be of burnished silver set on cloth +immaculately white, or rough-hewn from wood set on table in log-hut +meeting-house of the wilderness. Now I am thrilled as I see the altars +of ancient sacrifice crimson with the blood of the slain lamb, and +Leviticus is to me not so much the Old Testament as the New. Now I see +why the destroying angel passing over Egypt in the night spared all +those houses that had blood sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I know +what Isaiah means when he speaks of "one in red apparel coming with +dyed garments from Bozrah;" and whom the Apocalypse means when it +describes a heavenly chieftain whose "vesture was dipped in blood;" +and what Peter, the apostle, means when he speaks of the "precious +blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and what the old, worn-out, +decrepit missionary Paul means when, in my text, he cries, "Without +shedding of blood is no remission." By that blood you and I will be +saved--or never saved at all. In all the ages of the world God has not +once pardoned a single sin except through the Saviour's expiation, and +He never will. Glory be to God that the hill back of Jerusalem was the +battle-field on which Christ achieved our liberty! + +The most exciting and overpowering day of last summer was the day I +spent on the battle-field of Waterloo. Starting out with the morning +train from Brussels, Belgium, we arrived in about an hour on that +famous spot. A son of one who was in the battle, and who had heard +from his father a thousand times the whole scene recited, accompanied +us over the field. There stood the old Hougomont Château, the walls +dented, and scratched, and broken, and shattered by grape-shot and +cannon-ball. There is the well in which three hundred dying and dead +were pitched. There is the chapel with the head of the infant Christ +shot off. There are the gates at which, for many hours, English and +French armies wrestled. Yonder were the one hundred and sixty guns of +the English, and the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. Yonder +the Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods. Yonder was the ravine of +Ohain, where the French cavalry, not knowing there was a hollow in the +ground, rolled over and down, troop after troop, tumbling into one +awful mass of suffering, hoof of kicking horses against brow and +breast of captains and colonels and private soldiers, the human and +the beastly groan kept up until, the day after, all was shoveled under +because of the malodor arising in that hot month of June. + +"There," said our guide, "the Highland regiments lay down on their +faces waiting for the moment to spring upon the foe. In that orchard +twenty-five hundred men were cut to pieces. Here stood Wellington with +white lips, and up that knoll rode Marshal Ney on his sixth horse, +five having been shot under him. Here the ranks of the French broke, +and Marshal Ney, with his boot slashed of a sword, and his hat off, +and his face covered with powder and blood, tried to rally his troops +as he cried: 'Come and see how a marshal of French dies on the +battle-field.' From yonder direction Grouchy was expected for the +French re-enforcement, but he came not. Around those woods Blucher was +looked for to re-enforce the English, and just in time he came up. +Yonder is the field where Napoleon stood, his arm through the reins of +the horse's bridle, dazed and insane, trying to go back." Scene of a +battle that went on from twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock, on the +eighteenth of June, until four o'clock, when the English seemed +defeated, and their commander cried out; "Boys, can you think of +giving way? Remember old England!" and the tides turned, and at eight +o'clock in the evening the man of destiny, who was called by his +troops Old Two Hundred Thousand, turned away with broken heart, and +the fate of centuries was decided. + +No wonder a great mound has been reared there, hundreds of feet +high--a mound at the expense of millions of dollars and many years in +rising, and on the top is the great Belgian lion of bronze, and a +grand old lion it is. But our great Waterloo was in Palestine. There +came a day when all hell rode up, led by Apollyon, and the Captain of +our salvation confronted them alone. The Rider on the white horse of +the Apocalypse going out against the black horse cavalry of death, and +the battalions of the demoniac, and the myrmidons of darkness. From +twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock in the afternoon the greatest +battle of the universe went on. Eternal destinies were being decided. +All the arrows of hell pierced our Chieftain, and the battle-axes +struck Him, until brow and cheek and shoulder and hand and foot were +incarnadined with oozing life; but He fought on until He gave a final +stroke with sword from Jehovah's buckler, and the commander-in-chief +of hell and all his forces fell back in everlasting ruin, and the +victory is ours. And on the mound that celebrates the triumph we plant +this day two figures, not in bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but +two figures of living light, the Lion of Judah's tribe and the Lamb +that was slain. + + + + +POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY. + + "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the + place where the tree falleth there it shall be."--ECCLES. xi: 3. + + +There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there +will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of +this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it +will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a +defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to +the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment +in his behalf, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, +if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of +eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs +remitted, and we may be victorious defendants forever. + +My object in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my +text, declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that +the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the +disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause +of his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this +world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. +Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on. + +That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking," said +the doctor, "and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will +destroy you.". The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm; but, under +skillful medical treatment, he begins to sit up, begins to walk about +the room, begins to go to business. And, lo! he goes back to the same +grog-shops for his morning dram, and his even dram, and the drams +between. Flat down again! Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same +medical warning. + +Now, the illness is more protracted; the liver is more stubborn, the +stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious. +But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shops, +and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health. + +He sees that his downward course is ruining his household, that his +life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow, that that +broken-hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he +married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons +are to be taunted for a life-time by the father's drunkenness, that +the daughters are to pass into life under the scarification of a +disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their +prospects for this life, and, perhaps, for the life to come. Sometimes +an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system +is all a tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, +rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. +Does it reform him? + +After awhile he has delirium tremens, with a whole jungle of hissing +reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors +as he dashes out of his bed, crying: "Take these things off me!" As he +sits, pale and convalescent, the doctor says: "Now I want to have a +plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you +will have you will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die." He +gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time +medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying +there is no hope. Death ends the scene. + +That process of inebriation, warning, and dissolution is going on +within stone's throw of this church, going on in all the neighborhoods +of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What +is true in one sense is true in all senses, and will forever be so, +and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. +Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and +you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been +there before, some of them four, five, six times. With a million +illustrations all working the other way in this world, people are +expecting that distress in the next state will be salvatory. You can +not imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some +men have suffered here, and without any salutary consequence. + +Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more +improbable than a reformation here. In this world the life started +with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will +open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. +Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out +of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with +innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what +prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there +would be a seraph evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of +making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than +out of an old black rock seamed and cracked with the storms of a half +century. Surely upon a clean, white sheet of paper it is easier to +write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and +blotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, +though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out +badly, the next life will succeed, though it starts with a dead +failure. + +"But," says some one, "I think we ought to have a chance in the next +life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. +We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood +of the one almost touching the marble of the other." But do you know +what made the ancient deluge a necessity? It was the longevity of the +antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their +life-time than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the +third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eight, and +nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed, and scrubbed, and +soaked, and anchored, clear out of sight for more than a month before +it could be made fit for decent people to live in. Longevity never +cures impenitency. All the pictures of Time represent him with a +scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of +medicines to heal. Seneca says that Nero for the first five years of +his public life was set up for an example of clemency and kindness, +but his path all the way descended until at sixty-eight he became a +suicide. If eight hundred years did not make antediluvians any better, +but only made them worse, the ages of eternity could have no effect +except prolongation of depravity. + +"But," says some one, "in the future state evil surroundings will be +withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation, +and sublimation, and glorification." But the righteous, all their sins +forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the +unsaved will be left alone. It can not be expected that Doctor Duff, +who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and +Doctor Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and +Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be +sent down by some celestial missionary society to educate those who +wasted all their earthly existence. Evangelistic and missionary +efforts are ended. The entire kingdom of the morally bankrupt by +themselves, where are the salvatory influences to come from? Can one +speckled and bad apple in a barrel of diseased apples turn the other +apples good? Can those who are themselves down help others up? Can +those who have themselves failed in the business of the soul pay the +debts of their spiritual insolvents? Can a million wrongs make one +right? + +Poneropolis was a city where King Philip of Thracia put all the bad +people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at +Poneropolis I do not think the parents from other cities would have +sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the other world, +all the associations, now that the good are evolved, will be +degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera +or yellow fever hospital for his health; and the great lazaretto of +the next world, containing the diseased and plague-struck, will be a +poor place for moral recovery. If the surroundings in this world were +crowded of temptation, the surroundings of the next world, after the +righteous have passed up and on, will be a thousand per cent. more +crowded of temptation. + +The Count of Chateaubriand made his little son sleep at night at the +top of a castle turret, where the winds howled and where specters were +said to haunt the place; and while the mother and sisters almost died +with fright, the son tells us that the process gave him nerves that +could not tremble and a courage that never faltered. But I don't think +that towers of darkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco and +Euroclydon will ever fit one for the land of eternal sunshine. I +wonder what is the curriculum of that college of Inferno, where, after +proper preparation by the sins of this life, the candidate enters, +passing on from freshman class of depravity to sophomore of +abandonment, and from sophomore to junior, and from junior to senior, +and day of graduation comes, and with diploma signed by Satan, the +president, and other professorial demoniacs, attesting that the +candidate has been long enough under their drill, he passes up to +enter heaven! Pandemonium a preparative course for heavenly admission! +Ah, my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted +multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness. + +Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another +chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a +man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, +society would be terribly demoralized, and the human race demolished +in a few years. The fear that, if we are bad and unforgiven here, it +will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence +that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and +semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight +savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all +nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for +those who have wasted this. + +Multitudes of men who are kept within bounds would say, "Go to, now! +Let me get all out of this life there is in it. Come, gluttony, and +inebriation, and uncleanness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and +wait upon me! My life may be somewhat shortened in this world by +dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger +scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and +will enter the Heavenly Temple only a little later than those who +behaved themselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little +wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to +heaven _via_ Gehenna and _via_ Sheol." Another chance in the next +world means free license and wild abandonment in this. + +Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew +from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried +twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, but that the +second would decide everything; for which trial would you make the +most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be +most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the +stress upon the second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, +saying, "The first is nothing, the last is everything." Give the race +assurance of a second and more important trial in the subsequent life, +and all the preparation for eternity would be _post-mortem_, +post-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched +off into impiety and godlessness. + +Furthermore, let me ask why a chance should be given in the next world +if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a +banquet, and you invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines +to come, or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the +course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is +invited to them all, and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. +After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you +again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who +declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he +a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done +you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. +He invited us by His Providence and His Spirit three hundred and +sixty-five days of every year since we knew our right hand from our +left. If we declined it every time, or treated the invitation with +indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on +our part toward the Banqueter, and at last He spreads the banquet in a +more luxurious and kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a +right to expect Him to invite us again, and have we a right to blame +Him if He does not invite us? + +If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years +for our admission, and at the end of that time they are closed, can we +complain of it and say, "These gates ought to be open again. Give us +another chance"? If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and we want to +get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every +morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we +have that advertisement before our eyes, and then we go down to the +docks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into the stream and say: +"Come back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this +way. Swing up to the dock again, and throw out planks, and let me come +on board." Such behavior would invite arrest as a madman. + +And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for +years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have +urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any moment, and +after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to +come back? You might as well go out on the Highlands at Neversink and +call to the "Aurania" after she has been three days out, and expect +her to return, as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it once +has sped away. All heaven offered us as a gratuity, and for a +life-time we refuse to take it, and then rush on the bosses of +Jehovah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to be, there +can be, there will be no such thing as posthumous opportunity. Thus, +our common sense agrees with my text--"If the tree fall toward the +south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there +it shall be." + +You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant +way-station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity +whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation +must be made in this world, or never made at all. That piles up all +the emphases and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life +here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the +importance of this chance! + +Alexander with his army used to surround a city, and then would lift a +great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before +that light went out, all would be well; but if once the light went +out, then the battering-rams would swing against the wall, and +demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our +present and everlasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the +King and Conqueror--surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, +surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of +Gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross and +flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender +while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there +will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance! + +In the time of Edward the Sixth, at the battle of Musselburgh, a +private soldier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley had lost his helmet, +took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of the earl; and the +head of the private soldier uncovered, he was soon slain, while his +commander rode safely out of the battle. But in our case, instead of a +private soldier offering helmet to an earl, it is a King putting His +crown upon an unworthy subject, the King dying that we might live. +Tell it to all points of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell +it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all +millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that +we need no other chance in the next. + +I am in the burnished Judgment Hall of the Last Day. A great white +throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are +waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. "What +are you waiting here for?" says a soul that went up from Madagascar to +a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: "I came from +America, where forty years I heard the Gospel preached, and Bible +read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother's +knee until my last hour I had Gospel advantage, but, for some reason, +I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the +Judge to give me a new trial and another chance." "Strange!" says the +other; "I had but one Gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted it, +and I do not need another chance." + +"Why are you here?" says one who on earth had feeblest intellect to +one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of +influence. The latter responds: "Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I +mastered libraries, and had learned titles from colleges, and my name +was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, +and I am here waiting for a new trial." "Strange," says the one of the +feeble earthly capacity; "I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but +I knew Christ, and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another +chance." + +Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great +folding-doors of the Hall swing open. "Stand back!" cry the celestial +ushers. "Stand back, and let the Judge of quick and dead pass +through!" He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of +nations, He says: "Come to judgment, the last judgment, the only +judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each one +flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. "Divide!" says +the Judge to the assembly. "Divide!" echo the walls. "Divide!" cry the +guards angelic. + +And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after +awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum +widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one +side, says: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he +that is holy, let him be holy still;" and then, turning toward the +throng on the opposite side, He says: "He that is unjust, let him be +unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still;" and +then, lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: "If the tree +fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the +tree falleth, there it shall be." And then I hear something jar with a +great sound. It is the closing of the Book of Judgment. The Judge +ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is +cleared and shut. The high court of eternity is adjourned forever. + + + + +THE LORD'S RAZOR. + + "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is + hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of + Assyria."--ISAIAH vii: 20. + + +The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes +in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes +seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is +that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame +and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While +there are times when He employs in the Bible the gentle dew and the +morning cloud and the dove and the daybreak in the presentation of +truth, we often find the iron chariot, the lightning, the earthquake, +the spray, the sword, and, in my text, the razor. + +This keen-bladed instrument has advanced in usefulness with the ages. +In Bible times and lands the beard remained uncut save in the seasons +of mourning and humiliation, but the razor was always a suggestive +symbol. David says of Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp +razor working deceitfully;" that is, it pretends to clear the face, +but is really used for deadly incision. In this morning's text the +weapon of the toilet appears under the following circumstances: Judea +needed to have some of its prosperities cut off, and God sends +against it three Assyrian kings--first Sennacherib, then Esrahaddon, +and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. Those three sharp invasions, that cut +down the glory of Judea, are compared to so many sweeps of the razor +across the face of the land. And these circumstances were called a +hired razor because God took the kings of Assyria, with whom He had no +sympathy, to do the work, and paid them in palaces and spoils and +annexations. These kings were hired to execute the divine behests. And +now the text, which on its first reading may have seemed trivial or +inapt, is charged with momentous import: "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired--namely, by them beyond the +river, by the King of Assyria." + +Well, if God's judgments are razors, we had better be careful how we +use them on other people. In careful sheath these domestic weapons are +put away, where no one by accident may touch them, and where the hands +of children may not reach them. Such instruments must be carefully +handled or not handled at all. But how recklessly some people wield +the judgments of God! If a man meet with business misfortune, how many +there are ready to cry out: "That is a judgment of God upon him +because he was unscrupulous, or arrogant, or overreaching, or miserly. +I thought he would get cut down! What a clean sweep of everything! His +city house and country house gone! His stables emptied of all the fine +bays and sorrels and grays that used to prance by his door! All his +resources overthrown, and all that he prided himself on tumbled into +demolition! Good for him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling around too +freely the judgments of God, for they are razors. + +Some of the most wicked business men succeed, and they live and die in +prosperity, and some of the most honest and conscientious are driven +into bankruptcy. Perhaps his manner was unfortunate, and he was not +really as proud as he looked to be. Some of those who carry their head +erect and look imperial are humble as a child, while many a man in +seedy coat and slouch hat and unblacked shoes is as proud as Lucifer. +You can not tell by a man's look. Perhaps he was not unscrupulous in +business, for there are two sides to every story, and everybody that +accomplishes anything for himself or others gets industriously lied +about. Perhaps his business misfortune was not a punishment, but the +fatherly discipline to prepare him for heaven, and God may love him +far more than He loves you, who can pay dollar for dollar, and are put +down in the commercial catalogues as A1. Whom the Lord loveth He gives +four hundred thousand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillows? No: +whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Better keep your hand off the +Lord's razors, lest they cut and wound people that do not deserve it. +If you want to shave off some of the bristling pride of your own heart +do so; but be very careful how you put the sharp edge on others. + +How I do dislike the behavior of those persons who, when people are +unfortunate, say: "I told you so--getting punished--served him right." +If those I-told-you-so's got their desert they would long ago have +been pitched over the battlements. The mote in their neighbor's +eyes--so small that it takes a microscope to find it--gives them more +trouble than the beam which obscures their own optics. With air +sometimes supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical, and always +blasphemous, they take the razor of the divine judgment and sharpen it +on the hone of their own hard hearts, and then go to work on men +sprawled out at full length under disaster, cutting mercilessly. They +begin by soft expressions of sympathy and pity and half praise, and, +lather the victim all over before they put on the sharp edge. + +Let us be careful how we shoot at others lest we take down the wrong +one, remembering the servant of King William Rufus who shot at a deer, +but the arrow glanced against a tree and killed the king. Instead of +going out with shafts to pierce, and razors to cut, we had better +imitate the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, in the war of the +Crusades, was captured and imprisoned, but none of his friends knew +where. So his loyal friend went around the land from stronghold to +stronghold, and sung at each window a snatch of song that Richard +Coeur de Lion had taught him in other days. And one day, coming before +a jail where he suspected his king might be incarcerated, he sung two +lines of song, and immediately King Richard responded from his cell +with the other two lines, and so his whereabouts were discovered, and +immediately a successful movement was made for his liberation. So let +us go up and down the world with the music of kind words and +sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate, and trying to get out +of trouble men who had noble natures, but, by unforeseen +circumstances, have been incarcerated, thus liberating kings. More +hymn-book and less razor. + +Especially ought we to be apologetic and merciful toward those who, +while they have great faults, have also great virtues. Some people are +barren of virtues. No weeds verily, but no flowers. I must not be too +much enraged at a nettle along the fence if it be in a field +containing forty acres of ripe Michigan wheat. At the present time, +naturalists tell us, there is on the sun a spot twenty thousand miles +long, but from the brightness and warmth I conclude it is a good deal +of a sun yet. + +Again, when I read in my text that the Lord shaves with the hired +razor of Assyria the land of Judea, I bethink myself of the precision +of God's providence. A razor swung the tenth part of an inch out of +the right line means either failure or laceration, but God's dealings +never slip, and they do not miss by the thousandth part of an inch the +right direction. People talk as though things in this world were at +loose ends. Cholera sweeps across Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo, +and we watch anxiously. Will the epidemic sweep Europe and America? +People say, "That will entirely depend on whether inoculation is a +successful experiment; that will depend entirely on quarantine +regulations; that will depend on the early or late appearance of +frost; that epidemic is pitched into the world, and it goes blundering +across the continents, and it is all guess-work and an appalling +perhaps." + +My friends, I think, perhaps, that God had something to do with it, +and that His mercy may have in some way protected us--that He may have +done as much for us as the quarantine and the health officers. It was +right and a necessity that all caution should be used, but there has +come enough macaroni from Italy, and enough grapes from the south of +France, and enough rags from tatterdemalions, and hidden in these +articles of transportation enough choleraic germs to have left by this +time all Brooklyn mourning at Greenwood, and all Philadelphia at +Laurel Hill, and all Boston at Mount Auburn. I thank all the doctors +and quarantines; but, more than all, and first of all, and last of +all, and all the time, I thank God. In all the six thousand years of +the world's existence there has not one thing merely "happened so." +God is not an anarchist, but a King, a Father. + +When little Tod, the son of President Lincoln, died, all the land +sympathized with the sorrow in the White House. He used to rush into +the room where the cabinet was in session, and while the most eminent +men of the land were discussing the questions of national existence. +But the child had no care about those questions. Now God the Father, +and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session in +regard to this world and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child, rush in +to criticise or arraign or condemn the divine government? No; the +Cabinet of the Eternal Three can govern and will govern in the wisest +and best way, and there never will be a mistake, and like razor +skillfully swung, shall cut that which ought to be cut, and avoid that +which ought to be avoided. Precision to the very hair-breadth. Earthly +time-pieces may get out of order and strike wrong, saying that it is +one o'clock when it is two, or two when it is three. God's clock is +always right, and when it is one it strikes one, and when it is twelve +it strikes twelve, and the second hand is as accurate as the minute +hand. + +Further, my text tells us that God sometimes shaves nations: "In the +same day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired." With one +sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its +power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath +desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity, +and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its +sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned +again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to +Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the +heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword +of war was the Lord's razor. + +In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again. +Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the +history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during +those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit +some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take +us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics, +droughts, deluges, plagues--grasshopper and locust; or our +overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands +that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may +combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north +and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more +hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power. + +We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our +fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being +hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated +China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her +resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern +warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans +must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come +upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I +hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to +show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the +hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the +Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because +of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870, +Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is +the razor with which very shortly the Lord will shave Russia. But +nations are to repent in a day. May a speedy and world-wide coming to +God hinder, on both sides the sea, all national calamity. But do not +let us, as a nation, either by unrighteous law at Washington, or bad +lives among ourselves, defy the Almighty. + +One would think that our national symbol of the eagle might sometimes +suggest another eagle, that which ancient Rome carried. In the talons +of that eagle were clutched at one time Britain, France, Spain, Italy, +Dalmatia, Rhactia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, +Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and +all Northern Africa, and all the islands of the Mediterranean, indeed, +all the world that was worth having, an hundred and twenty millions of +people under the wings of that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask +Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem, the "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire." Ask her gigantic ruins straggling their sadness through +the ages, the screech owl at windows out of which world-wide +conquerors looked. Ask the day of judgment when her crowned +debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax, and Caligula and Diocletian, shall +answer for their infamy? As men and as nations let us repent, and have +our trust in a pardoning God, rather than depend on former successes +for immunity! Out of thirteen greatest battles of the world, Napoleon +had lost but one before Waterloo. Pride and destruction often ride in +the same saddle. + +But notice once more, and more than all in my text, that God is so +kind and loving, that when it is necessary for Him to cut, He has to +go to others for the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired." God is love. God is pity. God +is help. God is shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp edges about +Him, no thrusting points, no instruments of laceration. If you want +balm for wounds, He has that. If you want salve for divine eyesight, +He has that. But if there is sharp and cutting work to do which +requires a razor, that He hires. God has nothing about Him that hurts, +save when dire necessity demands, and then He has to go clear off to +some one else to get the instrument. + +This divine geniality will be no novelty to those who have pondered +the Calvarean massacre, where God submerged Himself in human tears, +and crimsoned Himself from punctured arteries, and let the terrestrial +and infernal worlds maul Him until the chandeliers of the sky had to +be turned out, because the universe could not endure the indecency. +Illustrious for love He must have been to take all that as our +substitute, paying out of His own heart the price of our admission at +the gates of heaven. + +King Henry II., of England, crowned his son as king, and on the day of +coronation put on a servant's garb and waited, he, the king, at the +son's table, to the astonishment of all the princes. But we know of a +more wondrous scene, the King of heaven and earth offering to put on +you, His child, the crown of life, and in the form of a servant +waiting on you with blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all +sculpture, all music, all architecture, all worship! In Dresdenian +gallery let Raphael hold Him up as a child, and in Antwerp Cathedral +let Rubens hand Him down from the cross as a martyr, and Handel make +all his oratorio vibrate around that one chord--"He was wounded for +our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." But not until all the +redeemed get home, and from the countenances of all the piled-up +galleries of the ransomed shall be revealed the wonders of redemption, +shall either man or seraph or archangel know the height, and depth, +and length, and breadth of the love of God. + +At our national capital, a monument in honor of him who did more than +any one to achieve our American Independence, was for scores of years +in building, and most of us were discouraged and said it never would +be completed. And how glad we all were when in the presence of the +highest officials of the nation, the work was done! But will the +monument to Him who died for the eternal liberation of the human race +ever be completed? For ages the work has been going up; evangelists +and apostles and martyrs have been adding to the heavenly pile, and +every one of the millions of the redeemed going up from earth, has +made to it contribution of gladness, and weight of glory is swung to +the top of other weight of glory, higher and higher as the centuries +go by, higher and higher as the whole millenniums roll, sapphire on +the top of jasper, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony, and chrysoprasus +above topaz, until, far beneath shall be the walls and towers and +domes of the great capitol, a monument forever and forever rising, and +yet never done. "Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our +sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests forever." + +Allelujah, amen. + + + + +WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM. + + "His windows being open and his chamber toward + Jerusalem."--DAN. vi: 10. + + +The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy +against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever +prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who +are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, +or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth +trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of +Daniel, the Coeur-de-Lion of the ages. His enemies might as well have +a law that the sun should not draw water or that the south wind should +not sweep across a garden of magnolias or that God should be +abolished. They could not scare him with the red-hot furnaces, and +they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of +this enactment he leaves his office of Secretary of State, with its +upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps +and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters +back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred +city of Jerusalem, and then prays. + +I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his +window, and said: "Just see that man defying the law; he ought to be +arrested." And the constabulary of the city rush to the police +head-quarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide-open +window. "You are my prisoner," says the officer of the law, dropping a +heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Daniel. As the constables +open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner, they see the +glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion-tamer, +and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps +with the shaggy mane of a wild beast for his pillow, while the king +that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him the paw and teeth of a +lion he can not tame--the lion of a remorseful conscience. + +What a picture it would be for some artist; Darius, in the early dusk +of morning, not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, +all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and looking through the +crevices of the cage to see what had become of his prime-minister! +"What, no sound!" he says: "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions +are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man +scattered across the floor of the cavern." With trembling voice Darius +calls out, "Daniel!" No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound +slumber. But a lion, more easily awakened, advances, and, with hot +breath blown through the crevice, seems angrily to demand the cause of +this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from +under Daniel's head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report +himself all unhurt and well. + +But our text stands us at Daniel's window, open toward Jerusalem. Why +in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the +pomp of his Babylonish successes could not make him forget it. He +came there from Jerusalem at eighteen years of age, and he never +visited it, though he lived to be eighty-five years. Yet, when he +wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grandest aspirations of his +heart, he had his window open toward his native Jerusalem. There are +many of you to-day who understand that without any exposition. This is +getting to be a nation of foreigners. They have come into all +occupations and professions. They sit in all churches. It may be +twenty years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may +be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your +birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are +open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may +have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory +often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it--the +hill, the tree, the brook, the house, the place so sacred, the door +from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way +in the world; and God only knows how sometimes you have longed to see +the familiar places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life +you would like to have caught a glimpse of the old, wrinkled face that +bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap twenty or forty or fifty +years ago. You may have on this side of the sea risen in fortune, and, +like Daniel, have become great, and may have come into prosperities +which you never could have reached if you had stayed there, and you +may have many windows to your house--bay-windows, and +sky-light-windows, and windows of conservatory, and windows on all +sides--but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem. + +When the foreign steamer comes to the wharf, you see the long line of +sailors, with shouldered mail-bags, coming down the planks, carrying +as many letters as you might suppose would be enough for a year's +correspondence, and this repeated again and again during the week. +Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the post-offices +of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, +hundreds of thousands of persons finding that window of foreign mails +the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say: "When are you +coming home to see us? Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. +Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having a great +struggle to get on here. Would you advise us to come to you, or will +you come to us? All join in love, and hope to meet you, if not in this +world, then in a better. Good-bye." + +Yes, yes; in all these cities, and amid the flowering western +prairies, and on the slopes of the Pacific, and amid the Sierras, and +on the banks of the lagoon, and on the ranches of Texas there is an +uncounted multitude who, this hour, stand and sit and kneel with their +windows open toward Jerusalem. Some of them played on the heather of +the Scottish hills. Some of them were driven out by Irish famine. Some +of them, in early life, drilled in the German army. Some of them were +accustomed at Lyons or Marseilles or Paris to see on the street Victor +Hugo and Gambetta. Some chased the chamois among the Alpine +precipices. Some plucked the ripe clusters from Italian vineyard. +Some lifted their faces under the midnight sun of Norway. It is no +dishonor to our land that they remember the place of their nativity. +Miscreants would they be if, while they have some of their windows +open to take in the free air of America and the sunlight of an +atmosphere which no kingly despot has ever breathed, they forgot +sometime to open the window toward Jerusalem. + +No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing +the national air of his country sung, the malady of home-sickness +comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example +of the heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. +Forget not the old folks at home. Write often; and, if you have +surplus of means and they are poor, make practical contribution, and +rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity +as is no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the +evangelization of other lands? What a stirring, melting, gospelizing +theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while +our windows are open toward them! + +But Daniel, in the text, kept this port-hole of his domestic fortress +unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There +had smoked the sacrifice. There was the Holy of Holies. There was the +Ark of the Covenant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to +keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we +may see and hear and appropriate its advantages. What does the world +say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of +the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Babylon. +Windows open toward Corinth. Windows open toward Athens. Windows open +toward Sodom. Windows open toward the flats, instead of windows open +toward the hills. Sad mistake, for this world as a god is like +something I saw the other day in the museum of Strasburg, Germany--the +figure of a virgin in wood and iron. The victim in olden time was +brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, +and, once infolded, the figure closed with a hundred knives and lances +upon him, and then let him drop one hundred and eighty feet sheer +down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them +with many tortures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest +honor the world could confer was to make a man Roman emperor; but, out +of sixty-three emperors, it allowed only six to die peacefully in +their beds. + +The dominion of this world over multitudes is illustrated by the names +of coins of many countries. They have their pieces of money which they +call sovereigns and half sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons +and half Napoleons, Fredericks and double Fredericks, and ducats, and +Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as +dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the +salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the +length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King +Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and +by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. +We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion. + +But, mark you, that good lion-tamer is not standing at the window, but +kneeling, while he looks out. Most photographs are taken of those in +standing or sitting posture. I now remember but one picture of a man +kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who in the cause of God and +civilization sacrificed himself; and in the heart of Africa his +servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of a candle, +stuck on the top of a box, his head in his hands upon the pillow, and +dead on his knees. But here is a great lion-tamer, living under the +dash of the light, and his hair disheveled of the breeze, praying. The +fact is, that a man can see further on his knees than standing on +tiptoe. Jerusalem was about five hundred and fifty statute miles from +Babylon, and the vast Arabian Desert shifted its sands between them. +Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between it, +saw beyond, saw time, saw eternity, saw earth, and saw heaven. Would +you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your +troubles to comfort, through temptation to rescue, through dire +sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things +terrestrial to things celestial, you will not see them till you take +Daniel's posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap +of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made +so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and especial +provision for those who want to pray, and physiological structure +joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray, and pray, and pray. + +In olden time the Earl of Westmoreland said he had no need to pray, +because he had enough pious tenants on his estate to pray for him; +but all the prayers of the church universal amount to nothing unless, +like Daniel, we pray for ourselves. Oh, men and women, bounded on one +side by Shadrach's red-hot furnace, and the other side by devouring +lions, learn the secret of courage and deliverance by looking at that +Babylonish window open toward the south-west! "Oh," you say, "that is +the direction of the Arabian Desert!" Yes; but on the other side of +the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven. + +The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so +multiform, so expensive--four hundred francs a pound. All the world +seeks it. Do you know how it is made? The spinning is done in a dark +room, the only light admitted through a small aperture, and that light +falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian +character I have ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found +in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and +misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the +interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a +throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved. + +But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our +windows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus saw it one day as the surf +of the Icarian sea foamed and splashed over the bowlders at his feet, +and his vision reminded me of a wedding-day when the bride by sister +and maid was having garlands twisted for her hair and jewels strung +for her neck just before she puts her betrothed hand into the hand of +her affianced: "I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming +down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her +husband." Toward that bridal Jerusalem are our windows opened? + +We would do well to think more of heaven. It is not a mere annex of +earth. It is not a desolate outpost. As Jerusalem was the capital of +Judae, and Babylon the capital of the Babylonian monarchy, and London +is the capital of Great Britain, and Washington is the capital of our +own republic, the New Jerusalem is the capital of the universe. The +king lives there, and the royal family of the redeemed have their +palaces there, and there is a congress of many nations and the +parliament of all the worlds. Yea, as Daniel had kindred in Jerusalem +of whom he often thought, though he had left home when a very young +man, perhaps father and mother and brothers and sisters still living, +and was homesick to see them, and they belonged to the high circles of +royalty, Daniel himself having royal blood in his veins, so we have in +the New Jerusalem a great many kindred, and we are sometimes homesick +to see them, and they are all princes and princesses, in them the +blood imperial, and we do well to keep our windows open toward their +eternal residence. + +It is a joy for us to believe that while we are interested in them +they are interested in us. Much thought of heaven makes one heavenly. +The airs that blow through that open window are charged with life, and +sweep up to us aromas from gardens that never wither, under skies that +never cloud, in a spring-tide that never terminates. Compared with it +all other heavens are dead failures. + +Homer's heaven was an elysium which he describes as a plain at the +end of the earth or beneath, with no snow nor rainfall, and the sun +never goes down, and Rhadamanthus, the justest of men, rules. Hesiod's +heaven is what he calls the islands of the blessed, in the midst of +the ocean, three times a year blooming with most exquisite flowers, +and the air is tinted with purple, while games and music and +horse-races occupy the time. The Scandinavian's heaven was the hall of +Walhalla, where the god Odin gave unending wine-suppers to earthly +heroes and heroines. The Mohammedan's heaven passes its disciples in +over the bridge Al-Sirat, which is finer than a hair and sharper than +a sword, and then they are let loose into a riot of everlasting +sensuality. + +The American aborigines look forward to a heaven of illimitable +hunting-ground, partridge and deer and wild duck more than plentiful, +and the hounds never off the scent, and the guns never missing fire. +But the geographer has followed the earth round, and found no Homer's +elysium. Voyagers have traversed the deep in all directions, and found +no Hesiod's islands of the blessed. The Mohammedan's celestial +debauchery and the Indian's eternal hunting-ground for vast multitudes +have no charm. But here rolls in the Bible heaven. No more sea--that +is, no wide separation. No more night--that is, no insomnia. No more +tears--that is, no heart-break. No more pain--that is, dismissal of +lancet and bitter draught and miasma, and banishment of neuralgias and +catalepsies and consumptions. All colors in the wall except gloomy +black; all the music in the major-key, because celebrative and +jubilant. River crystalline, gate crystalline, and skies crystalline, +because everything is clear and without doubt. White robes, and that +means sinlessness. Vials full of odors, and that means pure regalement +of the senses. Rainbow, and that means the storm is over. Marriage +supper, and that means gladdest festivity. Twelve manner of fruits, +and that means luscious and unending variety. Harp, trumpet, grand +march, anthem, amen, and hallelujah in the same orchestra. Choral +meeting solo, and overture meeting antiphon, and strophe joining +dithyramb, as they roll into the ocean of doxologies. And you and I +may have all that, and have it forever through Christ, if we will let +Him with the blood of one wounded hand rub out our sin, and with the +other wounded hand swing open the shining portals. + +Day and night keep your window open toward that Jerusalem. Sing about +it. Pray about it. Think about it. Talk about it. Dream about it. Do +not be inconsolable about your friends who have gone into it. Do not +worry if something in your heart indicates that you are not far off +from its ecstasies. Do not think that when a Christian dies he stops, +for he goes on. + +An ingenious man has taken the heavenly furlongs as mentioned in +Revelation, and has calculated that there will be in heaven one +hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each ascending soul, though this +world should lose a hundred millions yearly. But all the rooms of +heaven will be ours, for they are family rooms; and as no room in your +house is too good for your children, so all the rooms of all the +palaces of the heavenly Jerusalem will be free to God's children and +even the throne-room will not be denied, and you may run up the steps +of the throne, and put your hand on the side of the throne, and sit +down beside the king according to the promise: "To him that overcometh +will I grant to sit with me in my throne." + +But you can not go in except as conquerors. Many years ago the Turks +and Christians were in battle, and the Christians were defeated, and +with their commander Stephen fled toward a fortress where the mother +of this commander was staying. When she saw her son and his army in +disgraceful retreat, she had the gates of the fortress rolled shut, +and then from the top of the battlement cried out to her son, "You can +not enter here except as conqueror!" Then Stephen rallied his forces +and resumed the battle and gained the day, twenty thousand driving +back two hundred thousand. For those who are defeated in the battle +with sin and death and hell nothing but shame and contempt; but for +those who gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of +the New Jerusalem will hoist, and there shall be an abundant entrance +into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, toward which you do well to +keep your windows open. + + + + +STORMED AND TAKEN. + + "And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the + people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his + hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and + laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut + down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them + to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all + the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand + men and women."--JUDGES ix: 48, 49. + + +Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible history, and yet full of +profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell +where the rocks are. The snake's rattle is hideous, but it gives +timely warning. From the piazza of my summer home, night by night I +saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed there for adornment, +but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all +the iron-bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul, and Herod, +and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Abimelech. These bad people are +mentioned in the Bible, not only as warnings, but because there were +sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of imitation. +God sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very poor hammer. + +The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to +do it. I see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the +shouting of the captains and the yell of the besiegers. The swords +clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two +armies in death-grapple is horrible to hear. The battle goes on all +day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry "Surrender!" +to the beaten foe. And, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem +falls; and there are pools of blood, and dissevered limbs, and glazed +eyes looking up beggingly for mercy that war never shows, and dying +soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, who +have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection: and a +groan rolls across the city, stopping not, because there is no spot +for it to rest, so full is the place of other groans. A city wounded! +A city dying! A city dead! Wail for Shechem, all ye who know the +horrors of a sacked town! + +As I look over the city I can find only one building standing, and +that is the temple of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the +city, in a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now +begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this +temple of Berith. They get within the door, shut it, and they say, +"Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he can not +take this temple of Berith. Here we shall be under the protection of +the gods." Oh, Berith, the god! do your best now for these refugees. +If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have +thunderbolts, strike for them. + +But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berith and +the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with sword? Nay. +Will they do it with spear? Nay. With battering-ram, rolled up by +hundred-armed strength, crashing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech +marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off a limb of +a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to +his men, "You do the same." They are obedient to their commander. + +Oh, what a strange army, with what strange equipment! They come to the +foot of the temple of Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree +and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they +throw down their branches; and the second platoon, and the third, +until all around about the temple of Berith there is a pile of +tree-branches. The Shechemites look out from the windows of the temple +upon what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies. +But soon the flints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the +brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red +elements leap to the casement, and the woodwork begins to blaze, and +one arm of flame is thrown up on the right side of the temple, and +another arm of flame is thrown up on the left side of the temple, +until they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the +cry of "Fire!" within, and "Fire!" without announces the terror, and +the strangulation, and the doom of the Shechemites, and the complete +overthrow of the temple of the god Berith. Then there went up a shout, +long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech +and his men, as they stood amid the ashes and the dust, crying: +"Victory! Victory!" + +Now, I learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any +one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for +God. Look over the weaponry of olden times--javelins, battle-axes, +habergeons--and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his +men could have gained such complete victory. It is no easy thing to +take a temple thus armed. I saw a house where, during revolutionary +times, a man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, +because they were inside the house, and the assaulting soldiers were +outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they +surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single +man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old +Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: "You are only going up there to be +cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other +mode--certainly not by ordinary modes--could that temple so easily, so +thoroughly have been taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters +in Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to learn this day is that +any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the +temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to +stick to the old modes of attack. + +We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, +glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the +castle, but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the +castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world +for God by any keen saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of +rhetoric, by any sapping and mining of profound disquisition, by any +gunpowdery explosions of indignation, by sharp shootings of wit, by +howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell five miles, by +cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain all the +attempts on the part of these ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light +horsemen, and grenadiers. + +My friends, I propose this morning a different style of tactics. Let +each one go to the forest of God's promise and invitation, and hew +down a branch and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around +these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the +fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will +burn them out. What steel can not do, fire may. And I, this morning, +announce myself in favor of any plan of religious attack that +succeeds--any plan of religious attack, however radical, however odd, +however unpopular, however hostile to all the conventionalities of +Church and State. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our +alms-giving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. +Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword, and more of Abimelech's +conflagration! I have often heard + + "There is a fountain filled with blood" + +sung artistically by four birds perched on their Sunday roost in the +gallery, until I thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and Sontag, and +all the other warblers; but there came not one tear to my eye, nor one +master emotion to my heart. But one night I went down to the African +Methodist meeting-house in Philadelphia, and at the close of the +service a black woman, in the midst of the audience, began to sing +that hymn, and all the audience joined in, and we were floated some +three or four miles nearer heaven than I have ever been since. I saw +with my own eyes that "fountain filled with blood"--red, agonizing, +sacrificial, redemptive--and I heard the crimson plash of the wave as +we all went down under it: + + "For sinners plunged beneath that flood + Lose all their guilty stains." + +Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a syllogism; It is not casuistry, it +is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it +is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; +it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all glow; it +is arborescent with all sweet shade. I have seen the sun rise on Mount +Washington, and from the Tip-top House; but there was no beauty in +that compared with the day-spring from on high when Christ gives light +to a soul. I have heard Parepa sing; but there was no music in that +compared with the voice of Christ when He said: "Thy sins are forgiven +thee; go in peace." Good news! Let every one cut down a branch of this +tree of life and wave it. Let him throw it down and kindle it. Let all +the way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled with the tossing joy. +Good news! This bonfire of the Gospel shall consume the last temple of +sin, and will illumine the sky with apocalyptic joy that Jesus Christ +came into the world to save sinners. Any new plan that makes a man +quit his sin, and that prostrates a wrong, I am as much in favor of as +though all the doctors, and the bishops, and the archbishops, and the +synods, and the academical gownsmen of Christianity sanctioned it. The +temple of Berith must come down, and I do not care how it comes. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If +Abimelech had sat down on the grass and told his men to go and get the +boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, +or, if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective +result; but when Abimelech goes with his own ax and hews down a +branch, and with Abimelech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and +marches on--then, my text says, all the people did the same. How +natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most +magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the +overcoming power of example! Here is a father on the wrong road; all +his boys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlists for +Christ; his children enlist. + +I saw, in some of the picture-galleries of Europe, that before many of +the great works of the masters--the old masters--there would be +sometimes four or five artists taking copies of the pictures. These +copies they were going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; +and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and +it is being copied, and long after you are gone it will bloom or blast +in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look +out what you say. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. +The best sermon ever preached is a holy life. The best music ever +chanted is a consistent walk. + +I saw, near the beach, a wrecker's machine. It was a cylinder with +some holes at the side, made for the thrusting in of some long poles +with strong leverage; and when there is a vessel in trouble or going +to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers shoot a rope out to the +suffering men. They grasp it, and the wreckers turn the cylinder, and +the rope winds around the cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked are +saved. So at your feet to-day there is an influence with a tremendous +leverage. The rope attached to it swings far out into the billowy +future. Your children, your children's children, and all the +generations that are to follow, will grip that influence and feel the +long-reaching pull long after the figures on your tombstone are so +near worn out that the visitor can not tell whether it was in 1885, or +1775, or 1675 that you died. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the advantages of concerted +action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work +would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had +gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, +and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about +the temple, the victory is gained--the temple falls. My friends, where +there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his +whole duty there are a great many who never lift an ax or swing a +blow. + +Oh, we all want our boat to get over to the golden sands, but the most +of us are seated either in the prow or in the stern, wrapped in our +striped shawl, holding a big-handled sunshade, while others are +blistered in the heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan, and the +blades bend till they snap. Oh, religious sleepy-heads, wake up! While +we have in our church a great many who are toiling for God, there are +some too lazy to brush the flies off their heavy eyelids. + +Suppose, in military circles, on the morning of battle the roll is +called, and out of a thousand men only a hundred men in the regiment +answered. What excitement there would be in the camp! What would the +colonel say? What high talking there would be among the captains, and +majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that +these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had +overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were +afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking +rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's +battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of +heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on +the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to +what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what +Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to +what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do +you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you +ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman +sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then +hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book +of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it +out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not +let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the +throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your +betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died. + +May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I +would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished +something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to +join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing +new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are +you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that +there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing +as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted +action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It +has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human +enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of +Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life, +and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on +and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and +worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of +ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would +fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over +demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours! + +Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. +As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they +were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may +batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where +we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and +they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I +are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may +have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends +may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have +told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, +if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to +measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know +it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a +sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it." + +I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into +some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You +say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are +adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the +suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have +established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that +tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your +unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are +kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the +suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the +deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." + +"Well," you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I +go?" Step into this tower of indifference. You say: "If this tower is +attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken." You feel at +ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assaults, coming on. +Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you +surrender everything, and they clamor for your immortal overthrow, and +they throw their skeleton arms in the windows, and with their iron +fists they beat against the door; and while you are trying to keep +them out you see the torches of judgment kindling, and every forest is +a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch; and while +the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into a live coal, blown +redder and redder by the whirlwind breath of a God omnipotent, what +will become of your refuge of lies? + +"But," says some one, "you are engaged in a very mean business, +driving us from tower to tower." Oh, no. I want to tell you of a +Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a wall that +no satanic assault can scale; of a bulwark that the judgment +earthquakes can not budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: "In +God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, +fling yourself into it! Tread down unceremoniously everything that +intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death +and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished just +outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the +latch. Oh, get inside! Not one surplus second have you to spare. +Quick, quick, quick! + +Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too +hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the +grave? Is this world, which swings at the speed of thousands of miles +an hour around the sun, going with tenfold more speed toward the +judgment-day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought; and in the +conclusion I cry to one and I cry to the other: "Oh, time! Oh, +eternity! Oh, the dead! Oh, the judgment-day! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!" +But, catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to +hold on to: for "in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the +everlasting arms." And, exhausted with my failure to save myself, I +throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this divine promise, +as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a +wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued +man throws himself into the refuge; for "in God is thy refuge, and +underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, for a flood of tears +with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue! + + + + +ALL THE WORLD AKIN. + + "And hath made of one blood all nations of men."--ACTS xvii: 26. + + +Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a +European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that +theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations +are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A +difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper. + +An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his +pulse moderating and his temper becoming more calm. The air on this +side the ocean is more tonic than on the other side. An American +breathes more oxygen than a European. A European coming to America +finds a great change taking place in himself. He walks with more rapid +strides, and finds his voice becoming keener and shriller. The +Englishman who walks in London Strand at the rate of three miles the +hour, coming to America and residing for a long while here, walks +Broadway at the rate of four miles the hour. Much of the difference +between an American and a European, between an Asiatic and an African, +is atmospheric. The lack of the warm sunlight pales the Greenlander. +The full dash of the sunlight darkens the African. + +Then, ignorance or intelligence makes its impression on the physical +organism--in the one case ignorance flattening the skull, as with the +Egyptian; in the other case intelligence building up the great dome of +the forehead, as with the German. Then the style of god that the +nation worships decides how much it shall be elevated or debased, so +that those nations that worship reptiles are themselves only a +superior form of reptile, while those nations that worship the natural +sun in the heavens are the noblest style of barbaric people. But +whatever be the difference of physiognomy, and whatever the difference +of temperament, the physiologist tells us that after careful analysis +he finds out that the plasma and the disk in the human blood have the +same characteristics: so that if you should put twenty men from twenty +nationalities abreast in line of battle, and a bullet should fly +through the hearts of the twenty men, the blood flowing forth would, +through analysis, prove itself to be the same blood in every instance. +In other words, the science of the day confirming the truth of my text +that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men." + +I have thought, my friends, it might be profitable this morning if I +gave you some of the moral and religious impressions which I received +when, through your indulgence, I had transatlantic absence. First, I +observe that the majority of people in all lands are in a mighty +struggle for bread. While in nearly all lands there are only a few +cases of actual starvation reported, there is a vast population in +every country I visited who have a limited supply of food, or such +food as is incompetent to sustain physical vigor. This struggle in +some lands is becoming more agonizing, while here and there it is +lightened. I have joy in reporting that Ireland, about the sufferings +of which we have heard so much, has far better prospects than I have +seen there in previous visits. In 1879, coming home from that land, I +prophesied the famine that must come upon, and did come upon, the +deluged fields of that country. This year the crops are large, and +both parties--those who like the English Government and those who +don't like it--are expecting relief. I said to one of the intelligent +men of Ireland: "Tell me in a few words what are the sufferings of +Ireland, and what is the Land Relief enactment?" He replied: "I will +tell you. Suppose I am a landlord and you a tenant. You rent from me a +place for ten pounds a year. You improve it. You turn it from a bog +into a garden. You put a house upon it. After a while I, the landlord, +come around, and I say to my agent: 'How much rent is this man +paying;' He answers, 'Ten pounds.' 'Is that all? Put his rent up to +twenty pounds.' The tenant goes on improving his property, and after +awhile I come around and I say to my agent, 'How much rent is this man +paying?' He says, 'Twenty pounds.' 'Put his rent up to twenty-five +pounds.' The tenant protests and says, 'I can't pay it.' Then I, the +landlord, say, 'Pay it or get out;' and the tenant is helpless, and, +leaving the place, the property in its improved condition turns over +to the landlord. Now, to stop that outrage the Relief Enactment comes +in and appoints commissioners who shall see that if the tenant is +turned out, he shall receive the difference of value between the farm +as he got it and the farm as he surrenders it. Moreover, the +government loans money to the tenant, so that he may buy the property +out and out if the landlord will sell." Mighty advancement toward the +righting of a great wrong! But there and in all lands, not excepting +our own, there is a far-reaching distress. And let those who broke +their fast this morning, and those who shall dine to-day, remember +those who are in want, and by prayer and practical beneficence do all +they can to alleviate the hunger swoon of nations. + +Another impression was--indeed the impression carried with me all the +summer--the thought already suggested, the brotherhood of man. The +fact is that the differences are so small between nations that they +may be said to be all alike. Though I spent the most of the summer in +silence, I spoke a few times and to people of different nations, and +how soon I noticed that they were very much alike! If a man knows how +to play the piano, it does not make any difference whether he finds it +in New Orleans or San Francisco or Boston or St. Petersburg or Moscow +or Madras; it has so many keys, and he puts his fingers right on them. +And the human heart is a divine instrument, with just so many keys in +all cases, and you strike some of them and there is joy, and you +strike some of them and there is sorrow. Plied by the same motives, +lifted up by the same success, depressed by the same griefs. The +cab-men of London have the same characteristics as the cab-men of New +York, and are just as modest and retiring. The gold and silver drive +Piccadilly and the Boulevards just as they drive Wall Street. If there +be a great political excitement in Europe, the Bourse in Paris howls +just as loudly as ever did the American gold-room. + +The same grief that we saw in our country in 1864 you may find now in +the military hospitals of England containing the wounded and sick from +the Egyptian wars. The same widowhood and orphanage that sat down in +despair after the battles of Shiloh and South Mountain poured their +grief in the Shannon and the Clyde and the Dee and the Thames. Oh, ye +men and women who know how to pray, never get up from your knees until +you have implored God in behalf of the fourteen hundred millions of +the race just like yourselves, finding life a tremendous struggle! For +who knows but that as the sun to-day draws up drops of water from the +Caspian and the Black seas and from the Amazon and the Mississippi, +after a while to distill the rain, these very drops on the fields--who +knows but that the sun of righteousness may draw up the tears of your +sympathy, and then rain them down in distillation of comfort o'er all +the world? + +Who is that poor man, carried on a stretcher to the Afghan ambulance? +He is your brother. If in the Pantheon at Paris you smite your hand +against the wall among the tombs of the dead, you will hear a very +strange echo coming from all parts of the Pantheon just as soon as you +smite the wall. And I suppose it is so arranged that every stroke of +sorrow among the tombs of bereavement ought to have loud, long, and +oft-repeated echoes of sympathy all around the world. Oh, what a +beautiful theory it is--and it is a Christian theory--that Englishman, +Scotchman, Irishman, Norwegian, Frenchman, Italian, Russian, are all +akin. Of one blood all nations. That is a very beautiful inscription +that I saw a few days ago over the door in Edinburgh, the door of the +house where John Knox used to live. It is getting somewhat dim now, +but there is the inscription, fit for the door of any household--"Love +God above all, and your neighbor as yourself." + +I was also impressed in journeying on the other side the sea with the +difference the Bible makes in countries. The two nations of Europe +that are the most moral to-day and that have the least crime are +Scotland and Wales. They have by statistics, as you might find, fewer +thefts, fewer arsons, fewer murders. What is the reason? A bad book +can hardly live in Wales. The Bible crowds it out. I was told by one +of the first literary men in Wales: "There is not a bad book in the +Welsh language." He said: "Bad books come down from London, but they +can not live here." It is the Bible that is dominant in Wales. And +then in Scotland just open your Bible to give out your text, and there +is a rustling all over the house almost startling to an American. What +is it? The people opening their Bibles to find the text, looking at +the context, picking out the referenced passages, seeing whether you +make right quotation. Scotland and Wales Bible-reading people. That +accounts for it. A man, a city, a nation that reads God's Word must be +virtuous. That Book is the foe of all wrong-doing. What makes +Edinburgh better than Constantinople? The Bible. + +Oh, I am afraid in America we are allowing the good book to be covered +up with other good books! We have our ever-welcome morning and evening +newspapers, and we have our good books on all subjects--geological +subjects, botanical subjects, physiological subjects, theological +subjects--good books, beautiful books, and so many good books that we +have not time to read the Bible. Oh, my friends, it is not a matter of +very great importance that you have a family Bible on the center-table +in your parlor! Better have one pocket New Testament, the passages +marked, the leaves turned down, the binding worn smooth with much +usage, than fifty pictorial family Bibles too handsome to read! Oh, +let us take a whisk-broom and brush the dust off our Bibles! Do you +want poetry? Go and hear Job describe the war-horse, or David tell how +the mountains skipped like lambs. Do you want logic? Go and hear Paul +reason until your brain aches under the spell of his mighty intellect. +Do you want history? Go and see Moses put into a few pages stupendous +information which Herodotus, Thucydides, and Prescott never preached +after. And, above all, if you want to find how a nation struck down by +sin can rise to happiness and to heaven, read of that blood which can +wash away the pollution of a world. There is one passage in the Bible +of vast tonnage: "God so loved the world that He gave His only +begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." Oh, may God fill this country with Bibles and +help the people to read them! + +I was also impressed in my transatlantic journeys with the wonderful +power that Christ holds among the nations. The great name in Europe +to-day is not Victoria, not Marquis of Salisbury, not William the +Emperor, not Bismarck; the great name in Europe to-day is Christ. You +find the crucifix on the gate-post, you find it in the hay field, you +find it at the entrance of the manor, you find it by the side of the +road. + +The greatest pictures in all the galleries of Italy, Germany, France, +England, and Scotland are Bible pictures. What were the subjects of +Raphael's great paintings? "The Transfiguration," "The Miraculous +Draught of Fishes," "The Charge to Peter," "The Holy Family," "The +Massacre of the Innocents," "Moses at the Burning Bush," "The +Nativity," "Michael the Archangel," and the four or five exquisite +"Madonnas." What are Tintoretto's great pictures? "Fall of Adam," +"Cain and Abel," "The Plague of the Fiery Serpent," "Paradise," "Agony +in the Garden," "The Temptation," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The +Communication," "Baptism," "Massacre of the Innocents," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Crucifixion," "The Madonna." What are Titian's great +pictures? "The Flagellation of Christ," "The Supper at Emmaus," "The +Death of Abel," "The Assumption," "The Entombment," "Faith," "The +Madonna." What are Michael Angelo's great pictures? "The +Annunciation," "The Spirits in Prison," "At the feet of Christ," "The +Infant Christ," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment." What are Paul +Veronese's great pictures? "Queen of Sheba," "The Marriage in Cana," +"Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," "The Holy Family." Who has not +heard of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"? Who has not heard of Turner's +"Pools of Solomon"? Who has not heard of Claude's "Marriage of Isaac +and Rebecca"? Who has not heard of Dürer's "Dragon of the +Apocalypse"? The mightiest picture on this planet is Rubens' +"Scourging of Christ." Painter's pencil loves to sketch the face of +Christ. Sculptor's chisel loves to present the form of Christ. Organs +love to roll forth the sorrows of Christ. + +The first time you go to London go into the Doré picture gallery. As I +went and sat down before "Christ Descending the Steps of the +Prætorium," at the first I was disappointed. I said: "There isn't +enough majesty in that countenance, not enough tenderness in that +eye;" but as I sat and looked at the picture it grew upon me until I +was overwhelmed with its power, and I staggered with emotion as I went +out into the fresh air, and said; "Oh, for that Christ I must live, +and for that Christ I must be willing to die!" Make that Christ your +personal friend, my sister, my brother. You may never go to Milan to +see Da Vinci's "Last Supper;" but, better than that, you can have +Christ come and sup with you. You may never get to Antwerp to see +Rubens' "Descent of Christ from the Cross," but you can have Christ +come down from the mountain of His suffering into your heart and abide +there forever. Oh, you must have Him! We are all so diseased with sin +that we want that which hurts us, and we won't have that which cures +us. The best thing for you and for me to do to-day is to get down on +our bended knees before God and say: "Oh, Almighty Son of God, I am +blind! I want to see. My arms are palsied. I want to take hold of thy +cross. Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus!" Why will you live on husks +when you may sit down to this white bread of heaven? Oh, with such a +God, and with such a Christ, and with such a Holy Spirit, and with +such an immortal nature, wake up! + +Once more, I was impressed greatly on the other side the sea with the +wonderful triumphs of the Christian religion. The tide is rising, the +tide of moral and spiritual prosperity in the world. I think that any +man who keeps his eyes open, traveling in foreign lands, will come to +that conclusion. More Bibles than ever before, more churches, more +consecrated men and women, more people ready to be martyrs now than +ever before, if need be; so that instead of there being, as people +sometimes say, less spirit of martyrdom now than ever before, I +believe where there was once one martyr there would be a thousand +martyrs if the fires were kindled--men ready to go through flood and +fire for Christ's sake. Oh, the signs are promising! The world is on +the way to millennial brightness. All art, all invention, all +literature, all commerce will be the Lord's. + +These ships that you see going up and down New York harbor are to be +brought into the service of God. All those ships I saw at Liverpool, +at Southampton, at Glasgow, are to be brought into the service of +Christ. What is that passage, "Ships of Tarshish shall bring +presents"? That is what it means. Oh, what a goodly fleet when the +vessels of the sea come into the service of God! No guns frowning +through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from +cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity. Those ships will come from +all parts of the seas. Great flocks of ships that never met on the +high sea but in wrath, will cry, "Ship ahoy!" and drop down beside +each other in calmness, the flags of Emmanuel streaming from the +top-gallants. The old slaver, with decks scrubbed and washed and +glistened and burnished--the old slaver will wheel into line; and the +Chinese junk and the Venetian gondola, and the miners' and the +pirates' corvette, will fall into line, equipped, readorned, +beautified, only the small craft of this grand flotilla which shall +float out for the truth--a flotilla mightier than the armada of Xerxes +moving in the pomp and pride of Persian insolence; mightier than the +Carthaginian navy rushing with forty thousand oarsmen upon the Roman +galleys, the life of nations dashed out against the gunwales. + +Rise, O sea! and shine, O heavens! to greet this squadron of light and +victory! On the glistening decks are the feet of them that bring good +tidings, and songs of heaven float among the rigging. Crowd on all the +canvas. Line-of-battle ship and merchantmen wheel into the way. It is +noon. Strike eight bells. From all the squadron the sailors' songs +arise. "Surely the isles shall wait for thee, and the ships of +Tarshish to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with +them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel." + + + + +A MOMENTOUS QUEST. + + "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."--ISA. lv: 6. + + +Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors +in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of +our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side +face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the +full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some +things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more +epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime; but when you want to see Christ +coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, +you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard +to Christ might be called the "Oratorio of the Messiah," the writing +of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah Chorus," where all the batons wave and +all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of +insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus, and +Philo, and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among +the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets. + +My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out +into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men +might know Him; his voice rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord while +He may be found." "Oh," says some one: "that was for olden times." +No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a +circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in +St. Petersburg, or Venice, or Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris; +you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I +want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for +one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for +all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: +"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." + +I come, to-day, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice +distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on +the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this +morning will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. +In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine: it either +kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a +Christian, I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of +influences to come;" and still you are waiting. You are wiser in +worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to +Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, or to the steam-boat wharf, +and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit +in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men +who say they are waiting to get to heaven--waiting, waiting, but not +with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of +Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God. + +Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with +earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and +there is a matter of $10,000 connected with your seeing him, and you +can not at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in +the directory, but can not find the name; you go in circles where you +think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city +where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through +street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on +searching for weeks and for months. + +You say: "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, +that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one half +that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of +the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we +may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our +life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the +Spirit of God would help this morning while I try to show you, in +carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in +the next place, when to seek Him. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be +found." + +I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest +and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a +throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing +up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a +bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on His knee, and get +His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to +the "fountain of living water," and dip up refreshment for our +thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the +corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley +fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. + +I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large +an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before +God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no +response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a +believing spirit within, your cry would not go further up than the +shout of a plow-boy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, +loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, +and a bird, affrighted, darts into the window, and wheels about the +room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its +fluttering heart. You say, "Poor thing, poor thing!" Now, a prayer +goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, +and He catches it, and He feels its fluttering pulse, and He puts it +in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, +pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills +to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into +the depths of God's mercy and bring up "pearls of great price." There +was an instance where prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret solid as +Russ pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! +Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were +persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men +among the Covenanters prayed: "Oh, Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou +shalt help us! Oh, Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor +things!" And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted +from their persecutors--the promise literally fulfilled: "While they +are yet speaking I will hear." + +Oh, impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God +says: "He is loving, and faithful, and patient." Do you believe that? +You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? +You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel +is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: "Oh, +Lord! I know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, +and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep Thy promise, and liberate my +captive soul." + +Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the +store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the +manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as He +confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come +before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would +send in petitions and remonstrances! And yet there has been enough sin +in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or +petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the +means, you would go and spend the summer in Germany, and the winter in +Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all +round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any +effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual +health? No, you have not taken one step. + +O that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some +of you have been working for years and years for the support of your +families. Have you given one half day to the working out of your +salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an +earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest +purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if +you want to find the Lord, you must pray, and pray, and pray. + +I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible +is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds +of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds +of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five +minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the +heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through +Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will +find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop +straight from the throne of God into your heart. + +There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If +they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them +to Christ than Washington's farewell address or the Koran of Mohammed +or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's Word +you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Madeleine, in +Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully +constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole +week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the +wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant +altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the +outside door of God's Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, +instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the +dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over penitent and +believing souls! + +O my friends! if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not +go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take "Howe's Elements of +Criticism"--it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to +study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of +William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, +and at last to gain the blessedness of Heaven, search the Scriptures, +"for in them ye have eternal life." + +When people are anxious about their souls--and there are some such +here to-day--there are those who recommend good books. That is all +right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under +such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the +Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The +Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best +rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious +Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer. + +O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A +dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade +shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the +canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel +in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and +read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: +"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a +dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live! +Blessed book when we die! + +I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," +say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply, +there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but +the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; +and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily +when we are in the assembly--the feelings of others emphasizing our +own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth +that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily +against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs. + +When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, +and only for one purpose--to find the way to Christ. When I see people +critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and +critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in +prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government +brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and +says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me +to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such +an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise +my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It +is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this +morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to our souls, +should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it +is a matter of heaven or hell? + +But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to +seek the Lord. "While He may be found." When is that? Old age? You may +not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You +may not see to-night. Now! O if I could only write on every heart in +three capital letters, that word N-O-W--Now! + +Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and +with a trivial manner: "Oh, yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful +disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all +moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. +Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes +the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: +"That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had +called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. +It is too late now; the crisis has passed." Just so it is in the +spiritual treatment of the soul--there is a crisis. Before that, life! +After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let +the crisis pass unattended to! + +There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if they +had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few +acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. +They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprung up on +those acres of ground, and they see what a mistake they made in not +buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never +came back again. And so it is in regard to a man's spiritual and +eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it +never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back. + +A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a +height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the +most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and +now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he +knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the +emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time to-day with +you, O impenitent soul!--the forces of light on the one side, and the +siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter +will be settled for eternity. + +There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on +board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not +on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is +sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year till the +bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are +adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to +year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to +pay for it. + +Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin +will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? +that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost +pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by +the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. +The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this +matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are +before me this morning, whether, in the ten or fifteen years they have +passed in the postponement of these matters, they have come any nearer +God or heaven? + +I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they +may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to the matter. +Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder +and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an +undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, fly for +refuge! The avenger of blood is on the track! The throne of judgment +will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal +salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul +is precious, and it ceaseth forever! + +Oh, if men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they +would love Him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or +sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises +behind Calvary, and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed +Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, +and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty, and English beauty; but I care +not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him "chief +among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." O my blessed +Jesus! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of +Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men can not +love Thee! + +The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does +not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of +Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures +for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, +harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God +too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a +fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour +the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you +to attend to this matter--to attend to it now? Time is flying, +flying--the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to +you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off! + +Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your +immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that +must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for +heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are +open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? +Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it +will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for +all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The +Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more +convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this +very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say +this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I +show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward +beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be +launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ +shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost--would I +not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand +before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now +is the day of your redemption. + +It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in +judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see +Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the +earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will +come up for our glory or for our discomfiture--every prayer, every +sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; +and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is +being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas! +alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these matters. +We may throw them off now. We can not then. We will all be in earnest +then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation then. No rescue then. +Driven away in our wickedness--banished, exiled, forever! + +Have you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that +day unpardoned, as it looks back upon its past life? "Oh," says the +soul, "I had glorious Sabbaths! There was one Sabbath in autumn when +I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood +and spread out His arm and invited me to His holy heart. I refused +Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin +complete! Darkness unpitying, deep, eternal! I am lost! +Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am +lost! O Thou long-suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! O day of +judgment, I am lost! O father, mother, brother, sister, child in +glory, I am lost!" And then as the tide goes out, your soul goes out +with it--further from God, further from happiness, and I hear your +voice fainter, and fainter, and fainter: "Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! +Lost!" O ye dying, yet immortal men, "seek the Lord while He may be +found." + +But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to +dwell on--the hint that there is a time when He can not be found. +There is a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a +clergyman who came in, "Do you think that a man at eighty years of age +can get pardoned?" "Oh, yes," said the clergyman. The old man said: "I +can't; when I was twenty years of age--I am now eighty years--the +Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending +to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I +have had no feeling." "Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to +have me pray with you?" "Yes," replied the old man, "but it will do no +good. You can pray with me if you like to." The minister knelt down +and prayed, and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no +effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, +and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and +with his last breath he said; "I shall never be forgiven!" "O seek the +Lord while He may be found." + + + + +THE GREAT ASSIZE. + +DOCTOR TALMAGE'S SERMON, PREACHED AT CORK, IRELAND, +SUNDAY MORNING, SEPT 6th, 1885. + + "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy + angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His + glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He + shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth + his sheep from the goats."--MATTHEW xxv: 31, 32. + + +Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the +horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful +natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my +companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last +judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat. +These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels. +This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the +audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point +out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an +audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics, +and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience +to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day. + +A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there +shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now +inexplicable shall be explained. + +Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I +don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying +of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits +wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I +must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were +not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there +would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never +recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try +Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The +world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on +earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being +healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could +have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around +about him would have been the slain under that overpowering +effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe. +Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to +mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise. + +But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory. +No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of +grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the +most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim +as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ +rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will +be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to +horizon aflame with His splendor. + +Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire +and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of +fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the +law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will +be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy +arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of +spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory +of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An +unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an +interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which +shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and +be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with +setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers +takes off the top of a burned wick. + +It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on +hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and +with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses +and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are +uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the +judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of +the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt +shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea +into silence. + +Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment +day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars +about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not +always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else +fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar, +and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His +left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every +mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful +gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in +behalf of the human race. + +But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro +above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of +heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene, +and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a +hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all +heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the +scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a +circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher +up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of +cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to +watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were +made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is +Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy +sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those +who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near +the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and +his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke +the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing +brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing, +turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into +corpses. + +Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly +turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the +Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other +group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial +bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered +to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His +sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now +appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides +by angelic radiance. + +But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The +entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that +time the American Republic, the English Government, the French +Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for +something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be +brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece +and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never +slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South +America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the +twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century--all centuries +present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be +in that assembly. + +No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a +millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of +albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A +congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent, +because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the +Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the +world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent +is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of +the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and +underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty +God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up +worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars +strong enough to hold up any auditorium. + +But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on +earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an +audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this +audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will +separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But +the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this +world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical +institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican +institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities +of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high +circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles +go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together, +the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the +king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and +the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without +his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the +beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad +orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly +inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the +mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward +deciding the questions of that very great day. + +"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of +those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming +mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of +those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any +divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character +outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of +choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character +inside as well as character outside. + +In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all +earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will +take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace +will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and +some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh, +what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social +rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a +thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all +ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the +figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2. + +Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two +eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and +everlasting two! + +I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened +allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the +book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names +of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of +such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred +years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes +between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of +judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every +human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they +were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or +three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their +past life flashed before them--all they had ever thought, all they had +ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The +memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a +closed book. + +Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the +thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall +them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes, +although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of +them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the +drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly +unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened, +so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix. + +You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many +revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the +manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find +just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been +accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and +it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that +all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of +judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can +easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen. +And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that +not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be +revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will +read not only your own character and your own history, but the +character and history of others. + +In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing, +and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in +one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another +way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have +to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the +trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet +on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give +significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having +marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun +and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the +trumpet! + +Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead, +the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the +mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys +never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of +the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with +those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages--from +Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and +from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the +bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the +garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east +and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies +of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and +thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The +trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The +leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned +sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with +rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet! +the trumpet! + +Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The +high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their +two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue +tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the +auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded +wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery +throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The +conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and +off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the +world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel +flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the +dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!" + +That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for +cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a +large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to +the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that +margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage +demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to +tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of +judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for +cancellation. + +There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin. +That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever. +It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were +cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made +in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it +will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and +sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and +glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned +prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh, +no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf. + +I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and +testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask +you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that +you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for +something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in +my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our +condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been +swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so +long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems +a ripple on the Atlantic. + +When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death, +and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move +up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high +pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the +Shepherd's crook! "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and +all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His +glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall +separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart! +That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last, +"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a +great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and +swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the +great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they +boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in +simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor. +Your unalterable destiny the quotient. + + + + +THE ROAD TO THE CITY. + + "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be + called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over + it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though + fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any + ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found + there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of + the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and + everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and + gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."--ISAIAH + xxxv: 8-10. + + +There are hundreds of people in this house this morning who want to +find the right road. You sometimes see a person halting at cross +roads, and you can tell by his looks that he wishes to ask a question +as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence +this morning conscious of the fact that there are many of you here who +realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one; +and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it +is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in +it. There are a great many expensive toll-gates scattered all along +that way. Indeed at every road you must pay in tears, or pay in +genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get +through it at all, you have to pay your own way; and since this +differs so much from what I have heard in regard to the right way, I +believe it is the wrong way. + +Here is another road. On either side of it are houses of sinful +entertainment, and invitations to come in, and dine and rest; but, +from the looks of the people who stand on the piazza I am very certain +that it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It +is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses' hoofs clatter and ring, +and they who ride over it spin along the highway, until suddenly they +find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, +and they saw the bit in the mouth of the fiery steed, and cry "Ho! +ho!" But it is too late, and--crash!--they go over the embankment. We +shall turn, this morning, and see if we can not find a different kind +of a road. + +You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty miles +long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was a +path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal +shape and fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of +smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that +in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were +exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time--the old +conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it--there is nothing +left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to +tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good +as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. +Millions more will come. + + "The prophets and apostles, too, + Pursued this road while here below; + We therefore will, without dismay + Still walk in Christ, the good old way." + +"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way +of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall +not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the +ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!" + +I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the +diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, +and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over +bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under +projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip +with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time, +learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government +authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from +earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness; +it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be +wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the +human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be +blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the +Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of +devils. + +The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and +heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered +hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen +million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon +might go over for the devastation of Italy; but our King, at a greater +expense, has built a road for a different purpose, that the banners of +heavenly dominion might come down over it, and all the redeemed of +earth travel up over it. + +Being a King's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly +arched and buttressed have given way and crushed the passengers who +attempted to cross them. But Christ, the King, would build no such +thing as that. The work done, He mounts the chariot of His love, and +multitudes mount with Him, and He drives on and up the steep of heaven +amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done--well +done--gloriously done--magnificently done. + +II. Still further: this road spoken of is a clean road. + +Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it has not been +properly cared for; but my text says the unclean shall not walk on +this one. Room on either side to throw away your sins. Indeed, if you +want to carry them along, you are not on the right road. That bridge +will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night will come +down, leaving you at the mercy of the mountain bandits, and at the +very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really on +this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop +ever and anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the +eternal rock. Ay, at almost every step of the journey you will be +crying out: "Create within me a clean heart!" If you have no such +aspirations as that, it proves that you have mistaken your way; and if +you will only look up and see the finger-board above your head, you +may read upon it the words: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a +man, but the end thereof is death." Without holiness no man shall see +the Lord; and if you have any idea that you can carry along your sins, +your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to the end of the Christian +race, you are so awfully mistaken that, in the name of God, this +morning I shatter the delusion. + +III. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. "The wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein." That is, if a man is three +fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a +philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing-stock of the street, and +followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the +gate of heaven, and it swings open: while there has been many a man +who can lecture about pneumatics, and chemistry, and tell the story of +Farraday's theory of electrical polarization, and yet has been shut +out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory +and swept the heavens with his telescope, and yet has not been able to +see the Morning Star. Many a man has been familiar with all the higher +branches of mathematics, and yet could not do the simple sum, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems, and +yet could not "read his title clear to mansions in the skies." Many a +man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." But if one shall come in the right +spirit, crying the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The +pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain. + +He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament +teaching will get on beautifully. He who goes through philosophical +discussion will not get on at all. Christ says: "Come to Me, and I +will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away." +Now what is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? +If you wanted to go to Albany, and I pointed you out a highway +thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological +discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological +discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. +After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me +to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the human will, +or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the +road--go on it. It is a plain way. + +"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ +Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And that is you and that +is me. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. +"Unless you become as a little child, you can not see the kingdom of +God." If you are saved, it will not be as a philosopher, it will be as +a little child. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Unless you get +the spirit of little children, you will never come out at their +glorious destiny. + +IV. Still further: this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the +traveler in those ancient highways would think himself perfectly +secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep +between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under the +fearful spring the man's life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass +by the roadside. But, says my text, "No lion shall be there." I wish I +could make you feel, this morning, your entire security. I tell you +plainly that one minute after a man has become a child of God, he is +as safe as though he had been ten thousand years in heaven. He may +slip, he may slide, he may stumble; but he can not be destroyed. Kept +by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation. +Everlastingly safe. + +The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill +him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can +happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers +that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His +soul, you can not hurt it. No fires can consume it. No floods can +drown it. No devils can capture it. + + "Firm and unmoved are they + Who rest their souls on God; + Fixed as the ground where David stood, + Or where the ark abode." + +His soul is safe. His reputation is safe. Everything is safe. "But," +you say, "suppose his store burns up?" Why, then, it will be only a +change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. "But," you +say, "suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and +contempt?" The name will be so much brighter in glory. "Suppose his +physical health fails?" God will pour into him the floods of +everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly +subtraction is heavenly addition. The tears of earth are the crystals +of heaven. As they take rags and tatters and put them through the +paper-mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so, +often, the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, +come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal +emancipation. + +There was one passage of Scripture, the force of which I never +understood until one day at Chamounix, with Mont Blanc on one side, +and Montanvent on the other, I opened my Bible and read: "As the +mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them +that fear Him." The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary. + + "Though troubles assail, and dangers affright; + Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite; + Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, + The Scriptures assure us the Lord will provide." + +V. Still further: the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a +bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. "All +things work together for good to those who love God." No weapon formed +against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed, and +delivered by the President of the whole universe. What is the use of +your fretting, O child of God, about food? "Behold the fowls of the +air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; +yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." And will He take care of the +sparrow, will He take care of the hawk, and let you die? What is the +use of your fretting about clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field. +Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What is the +use worrying for fear something will happen to your home? "He blesseth +the habitation of the just." What is the use of your fretting lest you +will be overcome of temptations? "God is faithful, who will not suffer +you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation +also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." + +O this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over +until their branches interlock and drop midway their fruit and shade. +Houses of entertainment on either side the road for poor pilgrims. +Tables spread with a feast of good things, and walls adorned with +apples of gold in pictures of silver. I start out on this King's +highway, and I find a harper, and I say: "What is your name?" The +harper makes no response, but leaves me to guess, as, with his eyes +toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes +rippling on the air: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom +shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be +afraid?" I go a little further on the same road and meet a trumpeter +of heaven, and I say: "Haven't you got some music for a tired +pilgrim?" And wiping his lip and taking a long breath, he puts his +mouth to the trumpet and pours forth this strain: "They shall hunger +no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes." I go a little distance further +on the same road, and I meet a maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but +she has cymbals. They look as if they had rusted from sea-spray; and I +say to the maiden of Israel: "Have you no song for a tired pilgrim?" +And like the clang of victors' shields the cymbals clap as Miriam +begins to discourse: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed +gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea." And +then I see a white-robed group. They come bounding toward me, and I +say: "Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest +in all heaven--who are they?" And the answer comes: "These are they +who came out of great tribulations, and had their robes washed and +made white with the blood of the Lamb." + +I pursue this subject only one step further. What is the terminus? I +do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where it +comes out. My text declares it: "The redeemed of the Lord come to +Zion." You know what Zion was. That was the King's palace. It was a +mountain fastness. It was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness +of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those +towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away; they can +not break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sebastopol was taken, +Babylon fell; but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either +to human or Satanic besiegement. The Lord God Almighty is the defense +of it. Great capital of the universe! Terminus of the King's highway! + +Doctor Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we +should study chemistry, and geometry, and conic sections. Southey +thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer +and Shakespeare. Now, Doctor Dick may have his mathematics for all +eternity, and Southey his Shakespeare. Give me Christ and my old +friends--that is all the heaven I want, that is heaven enough for me. +O garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never +fail! O banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste, and +whose guests are kings forever! O city of light, whose walls are +salvation, and whose gates are praise! O palace of rest, where God is +the monarch and everlasting ages the length of His reign! O song +louder than the surf-beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of +cherubim! + +O my heaven! When my last wound is healed, when the last heart-break +is ended, when the last tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when +the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers +take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their +trumpets, and all across heaven there be chorus of morning stars, +chorus of white-robed victors, chorus of martyrs from under the +throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song +sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored--that of +Jesus only. + + + + +THE RANSOMLESS. + + "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great + ransom can not deliver thee."--JOB xxxvi: 18. + + +Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his +property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear +children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any +spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are +now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have +begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow +cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and +happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with +many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the +condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him: +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can +not deliver thee." + +I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our +gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is +ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a +great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect. + +"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to +adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the +hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the +accidental discharge of a gun--and your mind is gone. If you have ever +been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you +know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our +eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so +easily destroyed? + +"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I +reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the +best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten +years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had +their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it +went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible +for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will +be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well; +and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was demented, and +I had no responsibility," God will say: "Yes, you were demented; but +there were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance +for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a +little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like +poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just +appeared in England--a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus +Christ by scores and scores--giving an account of his own conversion, +when he said: "The mob got after me, and I lost my hat, and climbed +up by a meat-stand, in order that I might not be trampled under foot, +and while I was there, my heart got on fire with love toward those who +were chasing me, and, springing to my feet, I began to exhort and to +pray." Oh, my God, let me be in the last, last day the Cornish fool, +rather than have the best intellect God ever created unillumined by +the Gospel of Jesus Christ! + +Consider what an uncertain possession you have in your intellect, when +there are so many things around to destroy it; and beware, lest before +you use it in making the religious choice, God takes it away with a +stroke. I know a good many of my friends who are putting off religion +until the last hour. They say when they get sick they will attend to +it, but generally the intellect is beclouded; and oh; what a doleful +thing it is to stand by a dying bed, and talk to a man about his soul, +and feel, from what you see of the motion of his head, and the glare +of his eye, and from what you hear of the jargon of his lips, that he +does not understand what you are saying to him. I have stood beside +the death-bed of a man who had lived a sinful life, and was as +unprepared for eternity as it is possible for a man to be, and I tried +to make him understand my pastoral errand; but all in vain. He could +not understand it, and so he died. + +Oh! ye who are putting off until the sick hour preparation for +eternity, let me tell you that in all probability, you will not be +able in your last hour to attend to it at all. There are a great many +people who say they will repent on the death-bed. + +I have no doubt there are many who have repented on the death-bed, but +I think it is the exception. Albert Barnes, who was one of the coolest +of men, and gave no rash statistics, said thus: that in a ministry of +nearly half a century--he was over seventy when he went up to +glory--he had known a great many people who said they repented on the +dying bed, but, unexpectedly to themselves, got well; and he says, How +many of those, do you suppose, who thought it was their dying bed, and +who, after they repented on that dying bed, having got well, lived +consistently, showing that it was real repentance, and not mock +repentance--how many? not one! not one! + +II. Again: this stroke may come to you in the withdrawal of God's +spirit. + +I see people before me who were, twenty years ago, serious about their +souls. They are not now. They have no interest in what I am saying. +They will never have any anxiety in what any minister of the Gospel +says about their souls. Their time seems to have passed. I know a man, +seventy-five years of age, who, in early life, became almost a +Christian, but grieved away the spirit of God, and he has never +thought earnestly since, and he can not be roused. I do not believe he +will be roused until eternity flashes on his astonished vision. + +It does seem as if sometimes, in quite early life, the Holy Spirit +moves upon a heart, and being grieved away and rejected, never comes +back. You say that is all imaginary? A letter, the address of which I +will not give, dated last Monday morning, came to me on Tuesday, +saying this: "Your sermon last night (that is, last Sabbath night) +did not fit my case, although I believe it did all others in the +Academy; but your sermon of a week ago did fit my case, for I am 'past +feeling.' I am not ashamed to be a Christian. I would as soon be known +to be a Christian as anything else. Indeed, I wish I was, but I have +not the least power to become one. Don't you know that with some +persons there is a tide in their spiritual natures which, if taken at +the flood, leads on to salvation? Such a tide I felt two years ago. I +want you to pray for me, not that I may be led to Christ--for that +prayer would not be answered--but that I may be kept from the +temptation to suicide!" + +What I had to say to the author of that I said in a private letter; +but what I have to say to this audience is: Beware lest you grieve the +Holy Ghost, and He be gone, and never return. Next Wednesday, at two +or three o'clock, a Cunard steamer will put out from Jersey City wharf +for Liverpool. After it has gone one hour, and the vessel is down by +the Narrows, or beyond, go out on the Jersey City wharf, and wave your +hand, and shout, and ask that steamer to come back to the wharf. Will +it? Yes, sooner than the Holy Ghost will come back when once He has +taken his final flight from thy soul. With that Holy Spirit some of +you have been in treaty, my dear friends. + +The Holy Spirit said: "Come, come to Christ." You said: "No, I won't." +The Spirit said, more importunately: "Come to Christ." You said: +"Well, I will after awhile, when I get my business fixed up; when my +friends consent to my coming; when they won't laugh at me--then I'll +come." But the Holy Spirit more emphatically said: "Come now." You +said: "No, I can't. I can't come now." And that Holy Spirit stands in +your heart to-night, with His hand on the door of your soul, ready to +come out. Will you let Him depart? If so, then, with a pen of light, +dipped in ink of eternal blackness, the sentence may be now writing: +"Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone! Let him alone!" When +that fatal record is made, you might as well brace yourselves up +against the sorrows of the last day, against the anguish of an +unforgiven death-bed, against the flame and the overthrow of an undone +eternity; for though you might live thirty years after that in the +world, your fate would be as certain as though you had already entered +the gates of darkness. That is the dead line. Look out how you cross +it! + + "'There is a line by us unseen, + That crosses every path; + The hidden boundary between + God's patience and His wrath.'" + +And some of you, to-night, have come up to that line. Ay, you have +lifted your foot, and when you put it down, it will be on the other +side! Look out how you cross it! Oh, grieve not the Spirit of God, +lest He never come back! + +III. This fatal stroke spoken of in the text may be our exit from this +world. I hear aged people sometimes saying: "I can't live much +longer." But do you know the fact that there are a hundred young +people and middle-aged people who go out of this life to one aged +person, for the simple reason that there are not many aged people to +leave life? The aged seem to stand around like stalks--separate stalks +of wheat at the corner of the field; but when death goes a-mowing, he +likes to go down amid the thick of the harvest. What is more to the +point: a man's going out of this world is never in the way he +expects--it is never at the time he expects. The moment of leaving +this world is always a surprise. If you expect to go in the winter, it +may be in the summer; if in the summer, it may be in the winter; if in +the night, it maybe in the day-time; if you think to go in the +day-time, it may be in the night. Suddenly the event will rush upon +you, and you will be gone. Where? If a Christian--into joy. If not a +Christian--into suffering. + +The Gospel call stops outside of the door of the sepulcher. The +sleeper within can not hear it. If that call should be sounded out +with clarion voice louder than ever rang through the air, that sleeper +could not hear it. I suppose every hour of the day, and now, while I +am speaking, there are souls rushing into eternity unprepared. They +slide from the pillow, or they slip from the pavement, and in an +eye-twinkling they are gone. Elegant and eloquent funeral oration will +not do them any good. Epitaph, cut on polished Scotch granite, will +not do them any good. Wailing of beloved kindred can not call them +back. + +But, says some one: "I'll keep out of peril; I will not go on the sea, +I will not go into battle--I'll keep out of all danger." That is no +defense. Thousands of people, last night, on their couches, with the +front door locked, and no armed assassin anywhere around, surrounded +by all defended circumstances, slipped out of this life into the +next. If time had been on one side of the shuttle and eternity on the +other side of the shuttle, they could not have shot quicker across it. +A man was saying: "My father was lost at sea, and my grandfather, and +my great-grandfather. Wasn't it strange?" A man, talking to him, said: +"You ought never to venture on the sea, lest you, yourself, be lost at +sea." The man turned to the other, and said: "Where did your father +die?" He replied: "In his bed." "Where did your grandfather die?" "In +his bed." "Where did your great-grandfather die?" "In his bed." +"Then," he said, "be careful, lest some night, while you are asleep on +your couch, your time may come!" + +Death alone is sure. Suddenly, you and I will go out of life. I am not +saying anything to your soul that I am not going to say to my own +soul. We have got to go suddenly out of this life. If I am prepared +for that change, I do not care where my body is taken from--at what +point I am taken out of this life. If I am ready, all is well. If I am +not ready, though I might be at home, and though my loved ones might +be standing around me, and though there might be the best surgical and +medical ability in the room, I tell you, if I were not prepared, I +would be frightened more than tongue can tell. It may seem like +cowardice, but I am not ashamed to say that I should have the most +indescribable horror about going out of this world if I thought I was +unprepared for the next--if I had no Christ in my soul; for it would +be a plunge compared with which a leap from the top of Mont Blanc +would be nothing. + +But this brings me to the most tremendous thought of my text. The text +supposes that a man goes into ruin, and that an effort is made +afterward for his rescue, and then says the thing can not be done. Is +that so? After death seizes upon that soul, is there no resurrection? +If a man topples off the edge of life, is there nothing to break his +fall? If an impenitent man goes overboard, are there no +grappling-hooks to hoist him into safety? The text says distinctly: +"Then a great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I know there are people who call themselves "Restorationists," and +they say a sinful man may go down into the world of the lost; he stays +there until he gets reformed, and then comes up into the world of +light and blessedness. It seems to me to be a most unreasonable +doctrine--as though the world of darkness were a place where a man +could get reformed. Is there anything in the society of the lost +world--the abandoned and the wretched of God's universe--to elevate a +man's character and lift him at last to heaven? Can we go into +companionship of the Neroes and the Herods, and the Jim Fisks, and +spend a certain number of years in that lost world, and then by that +society be purified and lifted up? Is that the kind of society that +reforms a man and prepares him for heaven? Would you go to Shreveport +or Memphis, with the yellow fever there, to get your physical health +restored? Can it be that a man may go down into the diseased world--a +world overwhelmed by an epidemic of transgressions--and by that +process, and in that atmosphere, be lifted up to health and glory? +Your common sense says: "No! no!" In such society as that, instead of +being restored, you would go down worse and worse, plunging every hour +into deeper depths of suffering and darkness. What your common sense +says the Bible reaffirms, when it says: "These shall go away into +three months of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These shall go +away into ten years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These +shall go into a thousand years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. +"These shall go into _everlasting_ punishment." And now I have quoted +it right; or, if you prefer, in the words of my text: "Then a great +ransom can not deliver thee." + +Now just suppose that a spirit should come down from heaven and knock +at the gates of woe and say: "Let that man out! Let me come in and +suffer in his stead. I will be the sacrifice. Let him come out." The +grim jailer would reply: "No, you don't know what a place this is, or +you would not ask to come in; besides that, this man had full warning +and full opportunity of escape. He did not take the warning, and now a +great ransom shall not deliver him." + +Sometimes men are sentenced to imprisonment for life. There comes +another judge on the bench, there comes another governor in the chair, +and in three or four years you find the man who was sentenced for life +in the street. You say: "I thought you were sentenced for life." "Oh!" +he says, "politics are changed, and I am now a free man." But it will +not be so for a soul at the last. There will be no new judge or new +governor. If at the end of a century a soul might come out, it would +not be so bad. If at the end of a thousand years it might come out, +it would not be so bad. If there were any time in all the future, in +quadrillions and quadrillions of years, that the soul might come out, +it would not be so bad; but if the Bible be true, it is a state of +unending duration. + +Far on in the ages one lost soul shall cry out to another lost soul: +"How long have you been here?" and the soul will reply: "The years of +my ruin are countless. I estimated the time for thousands of years; +but what is the use of estimating when all these rolling cycles bring +us no nearer the terminus." Ages! Ages! Ages! Eternity! Eternity! +Eternity! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! No +medicine to cure that marasmus of the soul. No hammer to strike off +the handcuff of that incarceration. No burglar's key to pick the locks +which the Lord hath fastened. Sir Francis Newport, in his last moment, +caught just one glimpse of that world. He had lived a sinful life. +Before he went into the eternal world he looked into it. The last +words he ever uttered were, as he gathered himself up on his elbows in +the bed: "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" The lost soul will cry +out: "I can not stand this! I can not stand this! Is there no way +out?" and the echo will answer: "No way out." And the soul will cry: +"Is this forever?" and the echo will answer: "Forever!" + +Is it all true? "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, +while the righteous go into life eternal." Are there two destinies? +and must all this audience share one or the other? Shall I give an +account for what I have told you to-night? Have I held back any truth, +though it were plain, though it were unpalatable? Must I meet you +there, oh, you dying but immortal auditory? I wish that my text, with +all its uplifted hands of warning, could come upon your souls: "Beware +lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not +deliver thee." + +Glory be to God, there is a ransom that can now deliver you, braver +than Grace Darling putting out in a life-boat from Eddystone +Light-house for the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire +steamer--Christ the Lord launched from heaven, amid the shouting of +the angels. Thirty-three years afterward, Christ the Lord launched +from earth to heaven, amid human and infernal execration; yet staying +here long enough to save all who will believe in Him. Do you hear +that? To save all who will believe in Him. Oh, that pierced side! Oh, +that bleeding brow! Oh, that crushed foot! Oh, that broken heart! That +is your hope, sinner. That is your ransom from sin, and death, and +hell. + +Why have I told you all these things to-night, plainly and frankly? It +is because I know there is redemption for you, and I would have you +now come and get it. Oh, men and women long prayed for, and striven +with, and coaxed of the mercy of God--have you concentrated all your +physical, mental, and spiritual energies in one awful determination to +be lost? Is there nothing in the value of your soul, in the +graciousness of Christ, in the thunders of the last day, in the +blazing glories of heaven, and the surging wrath of an undone eternity +to start you out of your indifference, and make you pray? Oh, must God +come upon you in some other way? Must He take another darling child +from your household? Must He take another installment from your +worldly estate? Must life come upon you with sorrow after sorrow, and +smite you down with sickness before you will be moved, and before you +will feel? + +Oh, weep now, while Jesus will count the tears! Sigh, now in +repentance, while Jesus will hear the grief. Now clutch the cross of +the Son of God before it be swept away. Beware, lest the Holy Spirit +leave thy heart. Beware, lest this night thy soul be required of thee. +"Beware, lest he take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom +can not deliver thee." Oh, Lord God of Israel, see these impenitent +souls on the verge of death ready to topple over! See them! Is there +no help? Is this plea all in vain? I can not believe it, blessed God. +Oh, thou mighty One, whose garments are red with the wine-press of +Thine own sufferings, in the greatness of Thy strength ride through +this audience, and may all this people fall into line, the willing +captives of Thy grace. Men and women immortal! I lay hold of you +to-night with both hands of entreaty and of prayer, and I beg of you, +prepare for death, judgment, and eternity. + + + + +THE THREE GROUPS. + + "And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties."--MARK + vi: 40. + + +The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were +five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how +Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and +freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel +while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His +great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand +hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppose there were ten thousand there, +for the Bible says there were five thousand men, besides women and +children. The case is put in that way, not because the women and +children were of less importance than the men, but because they would +eat less; and the whole force of the miracle turns on the amount of +food required. + +How shall this great multitude be supplied? I see a selfish man in +that crowd pulling a luncheon out of his own pocket, and saying: "Let +the people starve. They had no business to come out here in the desert +without any provisions. They are improvident, and the improvident +ought to suffer." There is another man, not quite so heartless, who +says: "Go up into the village and buy bread." What a foolish +proposition! There is not enough food in all the village for this +crowd; besides that, who has the money to pay for it? Xerxes' army, +one million strong, was fed by a private individual of great wealth +for only one day, but it broke him. Who, then, shall feed this +multitude? + +I see a man rising in that great crowd and asking: "Is there any one +here who has bread or meat?" A kind of moan goes through the whole +throng. "No bread--no meat." But just at that time a lad steps up. You +know when a great crowd goes off upon an excursion, there are always +men and boys to go along for the purpose of merchandise and to strike +a bargain: and so, I suppose, this boy had gone along for the purpose +of merchandise; but he was nearly all sold out, having only five +loaves and two fishes left. He is a generous boy, and he turns them +over to Christ. + +But these loaves would not feed twenty people, how much less ten +thousand! Though the action was so generous on the part of the boy, so +far as satisfying the multitude, it was a dead failure. Then Jesus +comes to the rescue. He is apt to come when there is a dead lift. He +commands the people that they sit down "in ranks, by hundreds and by +fifties," as much as to say: "Order! order! so that none be missed." +It was fortunate that that arrangement was made; otherwise, at the +very first appearance of bread, the strong ones would have clutched +it, while the feeble and the modest would have gone unsupplied. + +I suppose it was no easy work to get that crowd seated, for they all +wanted to be in the front row, lest the bread give out before their +turn come. No sooner are they seated than there comes a great hush +over all the people. Jesus stands there, His light complexion and +auburn locks illumined by the setting sun. Every eye is on Him. They +wonder what He will do next. He takes one of the loaves that the boy +furnished and breaks off it a piece, which immediately grows to as +large a size as the original loaf, the original loaf staying as large +as it was before the piece was broken off. And they leaned forward +with intense scrutiny, saying: "Look! look!" When some one, anxious to +see more minutely what is going on, rises in front, they cry: "Sit +down in front! Let us look for ourselves." + +And then, when the bread is passed around, they taste of it +skeptically and inquiringly, as much as to say: "Is it bread? Really, +is it bread?" Yes, the best bread that was ever made, for Christ made +it. Bread for the first fifty and second fifty. Bread for the first +hundred and the second hundred. Bread for the first thousand and the +second thousand. Pass it all around the circle: there, where that aged +man sits leaning on his staff, and where that woman sits with the +child in her arms. Pass it all around. Are you all fed? "Ay! ay!" +respond the ten thousand voices; "all fed." One basket would have held +the loaves before the miracle; it takes twelve baskets now. Sound it +through all the ages of earth and heaven, that Christ the Lord comes +to our suffering race with the bread of this life in one hand, and the +bread of eternal life in the other hand. + +You have all immediately run out the analogy between that scene and +this. There were thousands there; there are thousands here. They were +in the desert; many of you are in the desert of trouble and sin. No +human power could feed them; no human power can feed you. Christ +appeared to them; Christ appears to you. Bread enough for all in the +desert; bread enough for all who are here. And, as on that occasion, +so in this: we have the people "sit down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties;" for the fact that many of you stand is no fault of ours, for +we have tried to give you seats. As Christ divided that company into +groups, so I divide this audience into three groups: the pardoned, the +seeking, the careless. + +I. And, first, I speak to the pardoned. + +It is with some of you half past five in the morning, and some faint +streaks of light. With others it is seven o'clock, and thus full dawn. +With others it is twelve o'clock at noon, and you sit in full blaze of +Gospel pardon. I bring you congratulation. Joseph delivered from +Potiphar's dungeon; Daniel lifted from the lion's den; Saul arrested +and unhorsed on the road to Damascus. Oh, you delivered captives, how +your eyes should gleam, and your souls should bound, and your lips +should sing in this pardon! From what land did you come? A land of +darkness. What is to be your destiny? A land of light. Who got you +out? Christ, the Lord. Can you sit so placidly and unmoved while all +heaven comes to your soul with congratulation, and harps are strung, +and crowns are lifted, and a great joy swings round the heavens at the +news of your disinthrallment? If you could realize out of what a pit +you have been dug, to what height you are to be raised, and to what +glory you are destined, you would spring to your feet with "Hosanna!" + +In 1808 there was a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia at +Erfurt. There were distinguished men there also from other lands. It +was so arranged that when any of the emperors arrived at the door of +the reception-room, the drum should beat three times; but when a +lesser dignitary should come, then the drum would sound but twice. +After awhile the people in the audience-chamber heard two taps of the +drum. They said: "A prince is coming." But after awhile there were +three taps, and they cried: "The emperor!" Oh, there is a more +glorious arrival at your soul to-night! The drum beats twice at the +coming in of the lesser joys and congratulations of your soul; but it +beats once, twice, thrice at the coming in of a glorious King--Jesus +the Saviour, Jesus the God! I congratulate you. All are yours--things +present and things to come. + +II. I come now to speak of the second division--those who are seeking; +some of you with more earnestness, some of you with less earnestness. +But I believe that to-night, if I should ask all those who wish to +find the way to heaven to rise, and the world did not scoff at you, +and your own proud heart did not keep you down, there would be a +thousand souls who would cry out as they rose up: "Show me the way to +heaven!" That young man who smiled to the one next to him, as though +he cared for none of these things, would be on his knees crying for +mercy. Why this anxious look? Why this deep disquietude in the soul? +Why, at the beginning of this service, did you do what you have not +done for years--bow your head in prayer? You are seeking. + +"I am a gambler," says one man. There is mercy for you. "I am a +libertine," says another. There is mercy for you. "I have plunged into +every abomination." Mercy for you. The door of grace does not stand +ajar to-night, nor half swung around on the hinges. It is wide, wide +open; and there is nothing in the Bible, or in Christ, or God, or +earth, or heaven, or hell, to keep you out of the door of safety, if +you want to go in. Christ has borne your burdens, fought your battles, +suffered for your sins. The debt is paid, and the receipt is handed to +you, written in the blood of the Son of God--will you have it? Oh, +decide the matter now! Decide it here! Fling your exhausted soul down +at the feet of an all-compassionate, all-sympathizing, all-pitying, +all-pardoning Jesus. The laceration on His brow, the gash in His side, +the torn muscles and nerves of His feet beg you to come. + +But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in +as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a +shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. +There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very near being +saved--perhaps as near as you are to-night--but were not saved. + +On the eastern coast of England, a few weeks ago, in a +fishing-village, there was a good deal of excitement. While people +were in church, the sailors and fishermen hearing the Gospel on the +Sabbath, there was a cry: "To the beach!" and the minister closed the +Bible, and with his congregation went out to help, and they saw in the +offing a ship in trouble; but there was some disorder amid the +fishing-smacks, and amid all the boats, and it was almost impossible +to get anything launched. But after awhile they did, and they pulled +away for the wreck, and came almost up, when suddenly the distressed +bark in the offing capsized, and they all went down. Oh, if the +lifeboats had only been ten minutes quicker! And how many a life-boat +has been launched from the Gospel shore! It has come almost up to the +drowning, and yet, after all, they were not rescued. Somehow they did +not get into it! + +I suppose there are people who have asked for our prayers, and I +suppose there were some in the side room, last Sabbath night, talking +about their souls, who will miss heaven. They do not take the last +step, and all the other steps go for nothing until you have taken the +last step, for I have here, in the presence of God and this people, to +announce the solemn truth, that to be almost saved is to be lost +forever. That is all I have to say to the second division. + +III. I come now to speak to the careless. You look indifferent, and I +suppose you are indifferent. You say: "I came in here because a friend +invited me to see what is going on, but with no serious intentions +about my soul. I have so much work, and so much pleasure on hand, +don't bother me about religion." And yet you are gentlemanly, and you +are lady-like, in your behavior, and, therefore, I know that you will +listen respectfully if I talk courteously. Christian people are +sometimes afraid to talk to men and women of the world lest they be +insulted. If they talk courteously to people of the world, they will +listen courteously. So now I try to come in that way, and in that +spirit, and talk to those of you who tell me that you are careless +about your soul. + +Then you have a soul, have you? Yes, precious, with infinite capacity +for joy or suffering, winged for flight somewhere. Beckoned upward, +beckoned downward. Fought after by angels and by fiends. Immortal! + + "The sun is but a spark of fire, + A transient meteor in the sky: + The soul, immortal as its Sire, + Can never die." + +Your body will soon be taken down, the castle will be destroyed, the +tower will be in the dust, the windows will be broken out, and the +place where your body sleeps will be forgotten; but your soul, after +that, will be living, acting, feeling, thinking--where? where? Oh, +there must be something of incomputable worth in that for which heaven +gave up its best inhabitant, and Christ went into martyrdom, and at +the coming of which angels chant an eternal litany and devils rush to +the gate. When everything above you, and beneath you, and around you, +is intent upon that soul, you can not afford to be careless, +especially when I think, this moment while I speak, there are +thousands of souls in heaven rejoicing that they attended to this +matter in time, while at this very instant there are souls in the lost +world mourning that they did not attend to it in time. Hark to the +howling of the damned! + +Oh, if this room could be vacated of this audience, and you were all +gone, and the wan spirits of the lost could come up and occupy this +place, and I could stand before them with offers of pardon through +Jesus Christ, and then ask them if they would accept it, there would +come up an instantaneous, multitudinous, overwhelming cry: "Yes! yes! +yes! yes!" No such fortune for them. They had their day of grace, and +sacrificed it. You have yours; will you sacrifice it? I wish that I +could have you see these things as you will one day see them. + +Suppose, on your way home, a runaway horse should dash across the +street, or between the dock and the boat you should accidentally slip, +where would you be at twelve o'clock to-night or seven o'clock +to-morrow morning? Or for all eternity where would you be? I do not +answer the question. I just leave it to you to answer. + +But suppose you escape fatal accident. Suppose you go out by the +ordinary process of sickness. I will just suppose now that your last +hour has come. The doctor says, as he goes out of the room: "Can't get +well." There is something in the faces of those who stand around you +that prophesies that you can not get well. You say within yourself: "I +can't get well." Where are your comrades now? Oh, they are off to the +gay party that very night! They dance as well as they ever did. They +drink as much wine. They laugh as loud as though you were not dying. +They destroyed your soul, but do not come to help you die. + +Well, there are father and mother in the room. They are very quiet, +but occasionally they go out into the next room and weep bitterly. The +bed is very much disheveled. They have not been able to make it up +for two or three days. There are four or five pillows lying around, +because they have been trying to make you as easy as they could. On +the one side of your bed are all the past years of your life--the +Bibles, the sermons, the communion-tables, the offers of mercy. You +say: "Take them away." Your mother thinks you are delirious. She says: +"There is nothing there, my dear, nothing there." There is something +there! It is your wasted opportunities. It is your procrastinations. +It is those years you gave to the world that you ought to have given +to Christ. They are there; and some of them put their fingers on your +aching temples, and some of them feel for the strings of your heart, +and some put more thorns in your tumbled pillow, and you say: "Turn me +over." And they turn you over, but, alas! there is a more appalling +vision. You say: "Take that away!" They say: "There is nothing there, +nothing there." There is--an open grave there! the judgment is there! +a lost eternity is there! Take it away! They can not take it away. + +You say: "How dark it is getting in the room!" Why, the burners are +all lighted. Your family come up one by one, and tenderly kiss you +good-bye. Your feet are cold, and the hands are cold, and the lips are +cold, and they take a small mirror and they put it over your mouth to +see if there is any breathing, and that mirror is taken away without a +single blur upon it; and they whisper through the room: "She is gone." +And then the door of the body opens and the soul flashes out. Make +room for the destroyed spirit. + +Push back that door! Lost! Let it come into its eternal residence. +Woe! woe! No cup of merriment now, but cup of the wrath of Almighty +God. The last chance for heaven gone. The door of mercy shut. The doom +sealed. The blackness of darkness forever! + +Voltaire is there. Herod is there. Robespierre is there. The +debauchees are there. The murderers are there. All the rejectors of +Jesus Christ are there. And you will be there unless you repent. You +can not say, my dear brother, that you were not warned. This sermon +would be a witness against you. You can not say that God's Holy Spirit +never strove with your heart. He is striving now. You can not say that +you had no chance for heaven, for the Omnipotent Son of God offers you +His rescue. You can not say: "I had no warning about that world; I +didn't know there was any such place," for the Bible distinctly rings +in your ears to-day, saying: "At the end of the world the angels shall +separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a +furnace of fire." And again that book says: "The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And again it +says: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever." + +You can not say that you did not hear about heaven, the other +alternative, for you hear of it now: "The Lamb which is in the midst +of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God +shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No sorrow, no suffering, +no death. Oh, will you be careless any longer, when I tell you that +Christ, the Conqueror of earth and hell, offers you now escape from +all peril, and offers to introduce you this very hour into the peace +and pardon of the Gospel, preparing you for that good land? The sides +of Calvary run blood for you. Jesus, who had not where to lay His +head, offers you His heart as a pillow of rest. Christ offers with His +own body to bridge over the chasm of death, saying: "Walk over Me; I +am the way." + +O suffering Jesus! the thief scoffed at Thee, and the malefactor spat +on Thee, and the soldiers stabbed Thee; but these who sit before Thee +to-day have no heart to do that. O Jesus! tell them of Thy love, tell +them of Thy sympathy, tell them of the rewards Thou wilt give them in +the better land. Groan again, O blessed Jesus! groan again, and +perhaps when the rocks fall, their hard hearts may break. + + "Nothing brought Him from above, + Nothing but redeeming love." + +The promise is all free, the path all clear. Come, Mary, and sit +to-night at the feet of Jesus. Come, Bartimeus, and have your eyes +opened. Come, O prodigal! and sit at thy father's table. Come, O you +suffering, sinning, dying the soul! and find rest on the heart of +Jesus. The Spirit and Bride say "Come," and Churches militant and +triumphant say "Come," and all the voices of the past, mingling with +all the voices of the future, in one great thunder of emphasis, bid +you "Come now!" Are not those of you who are in the third class ready +to pass over into the second division, and become seekers after +Christ? Ay, are you not ready to pass over into the first division, +and become the pardoned sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? I +can do no more than offer you, through Jesus Christ, peace on earth +and everlasting residence in His presence. + + "When God makes up His last account + Of natives in His holy mount, + 'Twill be an honor to appear + As one new-born and nourished there." + +Good-night! The Lord bless you! Go to your homes seeking after Christ. +Sleep not until you have made your peace with God. Good-night--a deep, +hearty, loving, Christian good-night! + + + + +THE INSIGNIFICANT. + + "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the + reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field + belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of + Elimelech."--RUTH ii: 3. + + +The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It +was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for +the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the +poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls +of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest had been +reaped, instead of raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by the custom +of the land, left in its place, so that the poor, coming along that +way, might glean it and get their bread. But, you say, "What is the +use of all these harvest-fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old +and feeble to go out and toil in the sun; and can you expect that +Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister +her hands in the harvest-field?" + +Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in +the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned +reapers, he beholds a beautiful woman gleaning--a woman more fit to +bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. +Ah, that was an eventful day! + +It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly +gleaner--an attachment full of undying interest to the Church of God +in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, +goes home to Naomi to tell her the successes and adventures of the +day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and +traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the +harvest-field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in +Judah, and becomes in after-time the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the +Lord of glory! Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a +morning? + +I. I learn, in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops +character. It was bereavement, poverty, and exile that developed, +illustrated, and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's +character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was +sorrow that made John Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the +better poet, and O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the +better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better +encyclopædist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-law. + +I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very +brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems +to have so little heart and tenderness in his sermons?" "Well," he +replied, "the reason is, our pastor has never had any trouble. When +misfortune comes upon him, his style will be different." After awhile +the Lord took a child out of that pastor's house; and though the +preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the +tenderness of his discourses! The fact is, that trouble is a great +educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and +his execution is cold and formal and unfeeling. The reason is that all +his life he has been prospered. But let misfortune or bereavement come +to that man, and he sits down at the instrument, and you discover the +pathos in the first sweep of the keys. + +Misfortune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a +sick-room where there is a dying child. Perhaps he is very rough in +his prescription, and very rough in his manner, and rough in the +feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious +question; but years roll on, and there has been one dead in his own +house; and now he comes into the sick-room, and with tearful eye he +looks at the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how this reminds me of my +Charlie!" Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow--I see its touch in the +grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its +power in the mightiest argument. + +Grecian mythology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out +by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life +that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort +and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of +disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage best by the flash of +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on +the foundering ship under the glare of the lightning in the breakers +of Melita. God crowns His children amid the howling of wild beasts and +the chopping of blood-splashed guillotine and the crackling fires of +martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop +Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took the pope's bull and the cardinal's +curse and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all +the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord +Claverhouse to develop James Renwick, and Andrew Melville, and Hugh +McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy +sea, and the December blast, and the desolate New England coast, and +the war-whoop of savages, to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim +Fathers-- + + "When amid the storms they sung, + And the stars heard, and the sea, + And the sounding aisles of the dim wood + Rang to the anthems of the free." + +It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present +national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it +will march along after the foreign aristocracies that have mocked and +the tyrannies that have jeered, shall be swept down under the +omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism, and who, by the strength +of His own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is +individually, and in the family, and in the Church, and in the world, +that through darkness and storm and trouble men, women, churches, +nations, are developed. + +II. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I +suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in +prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to +trudge off with her toward Judah, when she had to make that lonely +journey? One--the heroine of my text. One--absolutely one. I suppose +when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all +things went well, they had a great many callers; but I suppose that +after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and +poor, she was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that +sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now +the night has fallen. + +Oh, these beautiful sun-flowers that spread out their color in the +morning hour! but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! +Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when +his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much +that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and +Zophar the Naamathite. + +Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls +down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a +man's character, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the +imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which +in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are +reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down +under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch +of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant. + +In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling +it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days +of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a +friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a +friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in +the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in +Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from +following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God +my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." + +III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in +hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth +started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her +mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature +to go away from her father's house, to go off with a poor old woman +toward the land of Judah! They won't live to get across the desert. +They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will +destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with +Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be +affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the +grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is +that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly. + +When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of +conviction--how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the +darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it +was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. +After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God's mercy; you +began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more +sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, +saying: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and +whose sins are covered." A very dark starting in conviction, a very +bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the +Gospel! + +So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we +start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back, +but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must +go;" and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, +and we have to traverse the desert and we are pounded and flailed of +misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten +thousand obstacles that have been slain by our own right arm. We have +to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the +castle; but, blessed be God, the day of rest and reward will come. On +the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if +not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, +no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it? Know it! I +know it because God says so: "They shall hunger no more, neither +thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, +for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to +living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their +eyes." + +It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his +day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morning +quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use; +but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared +like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, +clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark +rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked +out on the wreck of a ruined earth. + +Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than +the thieves on either side of the cross, human hate smacking its lips +in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the +sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifixion. Tell me, +O Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever darker times than those? +Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of +Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back +by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day +of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world +are to be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on +whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come +up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of +the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising +on their thrones, beat time with their scepters: "Hallelujah, for the +Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world +have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!" + + "That song of love, now low and far, + Ere long shall swell from star to star; + That light, the breaking day which tips + The golden-spired Apocalypse." + +IV. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most +insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more +unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can +you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just +happened to alight--as they say--just happened to alight on that field +of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact +that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all +nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a +thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your +history and in mine: events that you thought of no importance at all +have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that +accidental meeting--you did not think of it again for a long while; +but how it changed all the phase of your life! + +It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments +of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction +of all the world's minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a +stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from +it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the +long-continued strains of Jubal's harp and Jubal's organ. It seemed to +be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses +of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo +in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of +factories on the Merrimac. + +It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in +a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids +fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest +convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the +sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation. It seemed to be a +matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, +dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard +Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of +his salvation. + +In after-days that man wrote a book called "The Call to the +Unconverted," that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among +others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a book called "The +Rise and Progress of Religion," which has brought thousands and tens +of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great +Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book called "A Practical View of +Christianity," which was the means of bringing a great multitude to +Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called +"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation +of unconverted multitudes. And that tide of influence started from the +fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of +Richard Baxter--the tide of influence rolling on through Richard +Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, +through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the +insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most +momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed +to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of +some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to +you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history. + +V. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female +industry. + +Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field under the hot sun, or at noon +taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which +Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course, have changed, +and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, +every intelligent woman will find something to do. + +I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some +families there are persons of no practical service to the household or +community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in +the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pattern, or +bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot +himself! They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley +on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness +may seem to do very well while they are under the shelter of their +father's house; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of +these butterflies? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon +themselves habits of indolence; but when they come out into practical +life their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel +in their hearts what the poet so severely satirized when he said: + + "Folks are so awkward, things so impolite, + They're elegantly pained from morning until night." + +Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, +useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity! Spinola said to Sir Horace +Vere: "Of what did your brother die?" "Of having nothing to do," was +the answer. "Ah!" said Spinola, "that's enough to kill any general of +us." Oh! can it be possible in this world, where there is so much +suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so +many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find +anything to do? + +Madame de Staël did a world of work in her time; and one day, while +she was seated amid instruments of music, all of which she had +mastered, and amid manuscript books which she had written, some one +said to her: "How do you find time to attend to all these things?" +"Oh," she replied, "these are not the things I am proud of. My chief +boast is in the fact that I have seventeen trades, by any one of which +I could make a livelihood if necessary." And if in secular spheres +there is so much to be done, in spiritual work how vast the field! How +many dying all around about us without one word of comfort! We want +more Abigails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more Deborahs +consecrated--body, mind, soul--to the Lord who bought them. + +VI. Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning. + +Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw, +and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for +myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said +beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together, +and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that +down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf, +and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all +together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, +nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners! + +Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's +shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher +in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, +while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to +open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they +have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of +life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours, +and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth +gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and +busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which, +gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It +is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up +and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much +joy. + +There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the +field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you +gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one +or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in +this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of +gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, +shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever! + + + + +THE THREE RINGS. + + "Put a ring on his hand."--LUKE xv: 22. + + +I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the +parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard +time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and +prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of +parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front +of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and +say: "What's the matter? What _is_ the matter?" But before they quite +arrive, the old man cries out: "Put a ring on his hand." What a +seeming absurdity! What can such a wretched mendicant as this fellow +that is tramping on toward the house want with a ring? Oh, he is the +prodigal son. No more tending of the swine-trough. No more longing for +the pods of the carob-tree. No more blistered feet. Off with the rags! +On with the robe! Out with the ring! Even so does God receive every +one of us when we come back. There are gold rings, and pearl rings, +and carnelian rings, and diamond rings; but the richest ring that ever +flashed on the vision is that which our Father puts upon a forgiven +soul. + +I know that the impression is abroad among some people that religion +bemeans and belittles a man; that it takes all the sparkle out of his +soul; that he has to exchange a roistering independence for an +ecclesiastical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian, +he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten +thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting +out--it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence, +it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is +not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the +palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the +throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest +liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment. +"Put a ring on his hand." + +I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into +His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years +ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of +the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten +children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to +find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the +pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the +services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this +little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own +children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage, +and went away. + +The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for +the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under +her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the +poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright +and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said +that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption. + +There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry, +and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries. +In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a +king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His +adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold +what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should +be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may +be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live +in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are +assured of eternal defenses. + +Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of +earth and heaven. We have the family name, the family dress, the +family keys, the family wardrobe. The Father looks after us, robes us, +defends us, blesses us. We have royal blood in our veins, and there +are crowns in our line. If we are His children, then princes and +princesses. It is only a question of time when we get our coronet. +Adopted! Then we have the family secrets. "The secret of the Lord is +with them that fear Him." Adopted! Then we have the family +inheritance, and in the day when our Father shall divide the riches of +heaven we shall take our share of the mansions and palaces and +temples. Henceforth let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry. The +insignia of eternal glory is our coat of arms. This ring of adoption +puts upon us all honor and all privilege. Now we can take the words of +Charles Wesley, that prince of hymn-makers, and sing: + + "Come, let us join our friends above, + Who have obtained the prize, + And on the eagle wings of love + To joy celestial rise. + + "Let all the saints terrestrial sing + With those to glory gone; + For all the servants of our King, + In heaven and earth, are one." + +I have been told that when any of the members of any of the great +secret societies of this country are in a distant city and are in any +kind of trouble, and are set upon by enemies, they have only to give a +certain signal and the members of that organization will flock around +for defense. And when any man belongs to this great Christian +brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial, in persecution, in +temptation, he has only to show this ring of Christ's adoption, and +all the armed cohorts of heaven will come to his rescue. + +Still further, when Christ takes a soul into His love He puts upon it +a marriage-ring. Now, that is not a whim of mine: "And I will betroth +thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in +righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in +mercies." (Hosea ii: 19.) At the wedding altar the bridegroom puts a +ring upon the hand of the bride, signifying love and faithfulness. +Trouble may come upon the household, and the carpets may go, the +pictures may go, the piano may go, everything else may go--the last +thing that goes is that marriage-ring, for it is considered sacred. In +the burial hour it is withdrawn from the hand and kept in a casket, +and sometimes the box is opened on an anniversary day, and as you look +at that ring you see under its arch a long procession of precious +memories. Within the golden circle of that ring there is room for a +thousand sweet recollections to revolve, and you think of the great +contrast between the hour when, at the close of the "Wedding March," +under the flashing lights and amid the aroma of orange-blossoms, you +set that ring on the round finger of the plump hand, and that other +hour when, at the close of the exhaustive watching, when you knew that +the soul had fled, you took from the hand, which gave back no +responsive clasp, from that emaciated finger, the ring that she had +worn so long and worn so well. + +On some anniversary day you take up that ring, and you repolish it +until all the old luster comes back, and you can see in it the flash +of eyes that long ago ceased to weep. Oh, it is not an unmeaning thing +when I tell you that when Christ receives a soul into His keeping He +puts on it a marriage-ring. He endows you from that moment with all +His wealth. You are one--Christ and the soul--one in sympathy, one in +affection, one in hope. + +There is no power in earth or hell to effect a divorcement after +Christ and the soul are united. Other kings have turned out their +companions when they got weary of them, and sent them adrift from the +palace gate. Ahasuerus banished Vashti; Napoleon forsook Josephine; +but Christ is the husband that is true forever. Having loved you once, +He loves you to the end. Did they not try to divorce Margaret, the +Scotch girl, from Jesus? They said: "You must give up your religion." +She said: "I can't give up my religion." And so they took her down to +the beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake at low-water mark, and +they fastened her to it, expecting that as the tide came up her faith +would fail. The tide began to rise, and came up higher and higher, and +to the girdle, and to the lip, and in the last moment, just as the +wave was washing her soul into glory, she shouted the praises of +Jesus. + +Oh, no, you can not separate a soul from Christ! It is an everlasting +marriage. Battle and storm and darkness can not do it. Is it too much +exultation for a man, who is but dust and ashes like myself, to cry +out this morning: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor any other creature shall separate me from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus my Lord"? Glory be to God that when Christ and the +soul are married they are bound by a chain, a golden chain--if I might +say so--a chain with one link, and that one link the golden ring of +God's everlasting love. + +I go a step further, and tell you that when Christ receives a soul +into His love He puts on him the ring of festivity. You know that it +has been the custom in all ages to bestow rings on very happy +occasions. There is nothing more appropriate for a birthday gift than +a ring. You delight to bestow such a gift upon your children at such +a time. It means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well, when this old man of +the text wanted to tell how glad he was that his boy had got back, he +expressed it in this way. Actually, before he ordered sandals to be +put on his bare feet; before he ordered the fatted calf to be killed +to appease the boy's hunger, he commanded: "Put a ring on his hand." + +Oh, it is a merry time when Christ and the soul are united! Joy of +forgiveness! What a splendid thing it is to feel that all is right +between me and God. What a glorious thing it is to have God just take +up all the sins of my life and put them in one bundle, and then fling +them into the depths of the sea, never to rise again, never to be +talked of again. Pollution all gone. Darkness all illumined. God +reconciled. The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his hand." + +Every day I find happy Christian people. I find some of them with no +second coat, some of them in huts and tenement houses, not one earthly +comfort afforded them; and yet they are as happy as happy can be. They +sing "Rock of Ages" as no other people in the world sing it. They +never wore any jewelry in their life but one gold ring, and that was +the ring of God's undying affection. Oh, how happy religion makes us! +Did it make you gloomy and sad? Did you go with your head cast down? I +do not think you got religion, my brother. That is not the effect of +religion. True religion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, +and all her paths are peace." + +Why, religion lightens all our burdens. It smooths all our way. It +interprets all our sorrows. It changes the jar of earthly discord for +the peal of festal bells. In front of the flaming furnace of trial it +sets the forge on which scepters are hammered out. Would you not like +to-day to come up from the swine-feeding and try this religion? All +the joys of heaven would come out and meet you, and God would cry from +the throne: "Put a ring on his hand." + +You are not happy. I see it. There is no peace, and sometimes you +laugh when you feel a great deal more like crying. The world is a +cheat. It first wears you down with its follies, then it kicks you out +into darkness. It comes back from the massacre of a million souls to +attempt the destruction of your soul to-day. No peace out of God, but +here is the fountain that can slake the thirst. Here is the harbor +where you can drop safe anchorage. + +Would you not like, I ask you--not perfunctorily, but as one brother +might talk to another--would you not like to have a pillow of rest to +put your head on? And would you not like, when you retire at night, to +feel that all is well, whether you wake up to-morrow morning at six +o'clock, or sleep the sleep that knows no waking? Would you not like +to exchange this awful uncertainty about the future for a glorious +assurance of heaven? Accept of the Lord Jesus to-day, and all is well. +If on your way home some peril should cross the street and dash your +life out, it would not hurt you. You would rise up immediately. You +would stand in the celestial streets. You would be amid the great +throng that forever worship and are forever happy. If this day some +sudden disease should come upon you, it would not frighten you. If you +knew you were going you could give a calm farewell to your beautiful +home on earth, and know that you are going right into the +companionship of those who have already got beyond the toiling and the +weeping. + +You feel on Saturday night different from the way you feel any other +night of the week. You come home from the bank, or the store, or the +shop, and you say: "Well, now my week's work is done, and to-morrow is +Sunday." It is a pleasant thought. There is refreshment and +reconstruction in the very idea. Oh, how pleasant it will be, if, when +we get through the day of our life, and we go and lie down in our bed +of dust, we can realize: "Well, now the work is all done, and +to-morrow is Sunday--an everlasting Sunday." + + "Oh, when, thou city of my God, + Shall I thy courts ascend? + Where congregations ne'er break up, + And Sabbaths have no end." + +There are people in this house to-day who are very near the eternal +world. If you are Christians, I bid you be of good cheer. Bear with +you our congratulations to the bright city. Aged men, who will soon be +gone, take with you our love for our kindred in the better land, and +when you see them, tell them that we are soon coming. Only a few more +sermons to preach and hear. Only a few more heart-aches. Only a few +more toils. Only a few more tears. And then--what an entrancing +spectacle will open before us! + + "Beautiful heaven, where all is light, + Beautiful angels clothed in white, + Beautiful strains that never tire, + Beautiful harps through all the choir; + There shall I join the chorus sweet, + Worshiping at the Saviour's feet." + +I stand before you on this Sabbath, the last Sabbath preceding the +great feast-day in this Church. On the next Lord's-day the door of +communion will be open, and you will all be invited to come in. And so +I approach you now with a general invitation, not picking out here and +there a man, or here and there a woman, or here and there a child; but +giving you an unlimited invitation, saying: "Come, for all things are +now ready." We invite you to the warm heart of Christ, and the +inclosure of the Christian Church. I know a great many think that the +Church does not amount to much--that it is obsolete; that it did its +work and is gone now, so far as all usefulness is concerned. It is the +happiest place I have ever been in except my own home. + +I know there are some people who say they are Christians who seem to +get along without any help from others, and who culture solitary +piety. They do not want any ordinances. I do not belong to that class. +I can not get along without them. There are so many things in this +world that take my attention from God, and Christ, and heaven, that I +want all the helps of all the symbols and of all the Christian +associations; and I want around about me a solid phalanx of men who +love God and keep His commandments. Are there any here who would like +to enter into that association? Then by a simple, child-like faith, +apply for admission into the visible Church, and you will be received. +No questions asked about your past history or present surroundings. +Only one test--do you love Jesus? + +Baptism does not amount to anything, say a great many people; but the +Lord Jesus declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be +saved," putting baptism and faith side by side. And an apostle +declares, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." I do not stickle +for any particular mode of baptism, but I put great emphasis on the +fact that you ought to be baptized. Yet no more emphasis than the Lord +Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church, puts upon it. + +The world is going to lose a great many of its votaries next Sabbath. +We give you warning. There is a great host coming in to stand under +the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is +going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered +sheaves? + +Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You +have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be +Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there +you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be +saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of +mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you +have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will +not be because you did not have a good offer. + + "God's spirit will not always strive + With hardened, self-destroying man; + Ye who persist His love to grieve + May never hear his voice again." + +May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from +the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the +banquet, and "put a ring on your hand." + + + + +HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT. + + "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be + Anathema Maranatha."--I COR. xvi: 22. + + +The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words +except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. +Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." +Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him +with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement +about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into +this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had +he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the +world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no. +It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by +what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I +close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised +at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the +same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should +have had the facial proportions of Christ--the front face, the side +face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing--provided He had submitted to that +art; but since the sun did not become a portrait painter until +eighteen centuries after Christ, our idea about the Saviour's personal +appearance is all guess work. Still, tradition tells us that He was +the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth. +If His features had been rugged, and His gait had been ungainly, that +would not have hindered Him from being attractive. Many men you have +known and loved have had few charms of physiognomy. Wilberforce was +not attractive in face. Socrates was repulsive. Suwarrow, the great +Russian hero, looked almost an imbecile. And some whom you have known, +and honored, and loved, have not had very great attractiveness of +personal appearance. The shape of the mouth, and the nose, and the +eyebrow, did not hinder the soul from shining through the cuticle of +the face in all-powerful irradiation. + +But to a lovely exterior Christ joined all loveliness of disposition. +Run through the galleries of heaven, and find out that He is _a +non-such_. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His +sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the +crimson flowing forth of His blood, make a picture worthy of being +called the masterpiece of the eternities. Hung on the wall of heaven, +the celestial population would be enchanted but for the fact that they +have the grand and magnificent original, and they want no picture. But +Christ having gone away from earth, we are dependent upon four +indistinct pictures. Matthew took one, Mark another, Luke another, +and John another. I care not which picture you take, it is lovely. +Lovely? He was altogether lovely. + +He had a way of taking up a dropsical limb without hurting it, and of +removing the cataract from the eye without the knife, and of starting +the circulation through the shrunken arteries without the shock of the +electric battery, and of putting intelligence into the dull stare of +lunacy, and of restringing the auditory nerve of the deaf ear, and of +striking articulation into the stiff tongue, and of making the +stark-naked madman dress himself and exchange tombstone for ottoman, +and of unlocking from the skeleton grip of death the daughter of +Jairus to embosom her in her glad father's arms. Oh, He was +lovely--sitting, standing, kneeling, lying down--always lovely. + +Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us. Home, +celestial companionship, music of seraphic harps, balmy breath of +eternal summer, all joy, all light, all music, and heard the gates +slam shut behind Him as He came out to fight for our freedom, and with +bare feet plunged on the sharp javelins of human and satanic hate, +until His blood spurted into the faces of those who slew Him. You want +the soft, low, minor key of sweetest music to describe the pathos; but +it needs an orchestra, under swinging of an archangel's baton, +reaching from throne to manger, to drum and trumpet the doxologies of +His praise. He took everybody's trouble--the leper's sickness, the +widow's dead boy, the harlot's shame, the Galilean fisherman's poor +luck, the invalidism of Simon's mother-in-law, the sting of Malchus' +amputated ear. + +Some people cry very easily, and for some it is very difficult to cry. +A great many tears on some cheeks do not mean so much as one tear on +another cheek. What is it that I see glittering in the mild eye of +Jesus? It was all the sorrows of earth, and the woes of hell, from +which He had plucked our souls, accreted into one transparent drop, +lingering on the lower eyelash until it fell on a cheek red with the +slap of human hands--just one salt, bitter, burning tear of Jesus. No +wonder the rock, the sky, and the cemetery were in consternation when +He died! No wonder the universe was convulsed! It was the Lord God +Almighty bursting into tears. Now, suppose that, notwithstanding all +this, a man can not have any affection for Him. What ought to be done +with such hard behavior? + +It seems to me that there ought to be some chastisement for a man who +will not love such a Christ. Does it not make your blood tingle to +think of Jesus coming over the tens of thousands of miles that seem to +separate God from us, and then to see a man jostle Him out, and push +Him back, and shut the door in His face, and trample upon His +entreaties? While you may not be able to rise up to the towering +excitement of the Apostle in my text, you can at any rate somewhat +understand his feelings when he cried out: "After all this, 'if a man +love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. Now, there is nothing +that excites a man like injustice. You go along the street, and you +see your little child buffeted, or a ruffian comes and takes a boy's +hat and throws it into the ditch. You say: "What great meanness, what +injustice that is!" You can not stand injustice. I remember, in my +boyhood days, attending a large meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. +Thousands of people were huzzaing, and the same kind of audiences were +assembled at the same time in Boston, Edinburgh, and London. Why? +Because the Madaii family, in Italy, had been robbed of their Bible. +"A little thing," you say. Ah, that injustice was enough to arouse the +indignation of a world. But while we are so sensitive about injustice +as between man and man, how little sensitive we are about injustice +between man and God. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of +anything, then Christ purchased us. He paid for us, not in shekels, +not in ancient coins inscribed with effigies of Hercules, or Ægina's +tortoise, or lyre of Mitylene, but in two kinds of coin--one red, the +other glittering--blood and tears! If anything is purchased and paid +for, ought not the goods to be delivered? If you have bought property +and given the money, do you not want to come into possession of it? +"Yes," you say, "I will have it. I bought and paid for it." And you +will go to law for it, and you will denounce the man as a defrauder. +Ay, if need be, you will hurl him into jail. You will say: "I am bound +to get that property. I bought it. I paid for it!" + +Now, transpose the case. Suppose Jesus Christ to be the wronged +purchaser on the one side, and the impenitent soul on the other, +trying to defraud Him of that which He bought at such an exorbitant +price, how do you feel about that injustice? How do you feel toward +that spiritual fraud, turpitude and perfidy? A man with an ardent +temperament rises and he says that such injustice as between man and +man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and +intolerable, and he brings his fist down on the pew, and he says: "I +can stand this injustice no longer. After all this purchase, 'if any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha'!" + +I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to +love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have +only one feeling toward him--sympathy and a desire to help him. If he +has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten +cents on a dollar--ay, if he can not pay anything--though his +creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with +him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But +suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into +his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come +to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your +perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for +the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten +thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then +everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't +take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for +offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You +would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to +fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all +this house who would have any sympathy for that man. + +But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual +embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal +defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay +me what thou owest." + +We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of +all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here +is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My +red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through +anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't +meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I +want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would +say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he +would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants; +he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of +choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who +understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can +say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and +rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love +Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to +hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind +look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may +overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that +you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to +make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of +delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you +have broken His heart! + +Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage: +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did +this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at +the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees +below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go +up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You +knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are +freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist +you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless +or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure. +You go away. + +The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with +very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing +in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in. +I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from +Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the +cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My +head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of +foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been +here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with +hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch--shove back the +bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and +knock!'" + +But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be +another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be +on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the +sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me +in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick +and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head. +The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both +fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in. +Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified +kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall +say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and +now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of +your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the +arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and +throne, and cry with loud voice, that makes the eternal city quake +from capstone to foundation, saying: "If any man love not the Lord +Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +Sabbath audience in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all to whom these +words shall come on both sides the sea, notice here the tremendous +alternative: it is not whether you live in Pierrepont Street or +Carlton Avenue, walk Trafalgar Square or the "Canongate;" nor whether +your dress shall be black or brown; nor whether you shall be robust +or an invalid; nor whether you shall live on the banks of the Hudson, +the Shannon, the Seine, the Thames, the Tiber; but it is a question +whether you will love Christ or suffer banishment; whether you will +give yourselves to Him who owns you or fall under the millstone; +whether you will rise to glories that have no terminus or plunge to a +depth which has no bottom. I do not see how you can take the +ten-thousandth part of a second to decide it, when there are two +worlds fastened at opposite ends of a swivel, and the swivel turns on +one point, and that point is now, now. Is it not fair that you love +Him? Is it not right that you love Him? Is it not imperative that you +love Him? What is it that keeps you from rushing up and throwing the +arms of your affection about His neck? + +My text pronounces Anathema Maranatha upon all those who refuse to +love Christ. Anathema--cut off. Cut off from light, from hope, from +peace, from heaven. Oh, sharp, keen, sword-like words! Cut off! +Everlastingly cut off! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of +God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou +continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. +Maranatha--that is the other word. "When he comes" is the meaning of +it. + +Will He come? I see no signs of it. I looked into the sky as I rode +down to church. I saw no signs of the coming. No signal of God's +appearance. The earth stands solid on its foundation. No cry of +welcome or of woe. Will He come! He will. Maranatha! Hear it ye +mountains, and prepare to fall. Ye cities, and prepare to burn. Ye +righteous, and prepare to reign. Ye wicked, and prepare to die. +Maranatha! Maranatha! + +But, oh, my brother, I am not so aroused by that coming as I am by a +previous coming, and that is the coming of our death hour, which will +fix everything for us. I can not help now, while preaching, asking +myself the question--Am I ready for that? If I am ready for the first +I will be ready for the next. Are you ready for the emergency? Shall I +tell you when your death hour will come? "Oh, no," says some one, "I +don't want to know. I would rather not know." Some one says: "I would +rather know, if you can tell me." I will tell you. It will be at the +most unexpected moment, when you are most busy, and when you think you +can be least spared. I can not exactly say whether it will be in the +noon, or at the sundown when people are coming home, or in the morning +when the world is waking up, or while the clock is striking twelve at +night. But I tell you what I think, that with some of you it will be +before next Saturday night. + +A minister of the Gospel said to an audience: "Before next Sabbath +some of you will be gone." And a man said during the week: "I shall +watch now, and if no one dies in our congregation during this week I +shall go and tell the minister his falsehood." A man standing next to +him said: "Why, it may be yourself." "Oh, no," he replied; "I shall +live on to be an old man." That night he breathed his last. + +Standing before some who shall be launched into the great eternity, +what are your equipments? About to jump, where will you land? Oh, the +subject is overwhelming to me; and when I say these things to you, I +say them to myself. "Lord, is it I? Is it I?" Some of us part to-night +never to meet again. If never before, I now here commit my soul into +the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. I throw my sinful heart upon His +infinite mercy. But some of you will not do that. You will go over to +the store to-morrow, and your comrades will say: "Where were you +yesterday?" You will say: "I heard Talmage preach, and I don't believe +what he preaches." And you will go on and die in your sins. + +Feeling that you are bound unto death eternal I solemnly take leave of +you. Be careful of your health, for when your respiration gives out +all your good times will have ended. Be careful in walking near a +scaffold, for one falling brick or stone might usher you into the +great eternity for which you have no preparation. A few months, or +weeks, or days, or hours will pass on, and then you will see the last +light, and hear the last music, and have the last pleasant emotion, +and a destroyed eternity will rush upon you. Farewell, oh, doomed +spirit! As you shove off from hope, I wave you this last salutation. +Oh, it is hard to part forever and forever! I bid you one long, last, +bitter, eternal adieu! + + + + +CASTLE JESUS. + + "Who have fled for refuge."--HEB. vi: 18. + + +Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles +them these "who have fled for refuge." + +Moses established six cities of refuge--three on the east side of the +river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one +accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them +were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge +nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there +might be any mistake about the way, there were signs put up pointing +in the right way, with the word "Refuge." Having gained the limits of +one of these cities the man was safe, and the mothers of the priests +provided for him. + +Some of us have seen our peril, and have fled to Christ, and feel that +we shall never be captured. We are among those "who have fled for +refuge." Christ is represented in the Bible as a Tower, a High Rock, a +Fortress, and a Shelter. If you have seen any of the ancient castles +of Europe, you know that they are surrounded by trenches, across which +there is a draw-bridge. If an enemy approach, the people, for defense, +would get into the castle, have the trenches filled with water, and +lift up the draw-bridge. Whether to a city of safety, or a tower, +Paul refers, I know not, and care not, for in any case he means +Christ, the safety of the soul. + +But why talk of refuge? Who needs it, if the refuge spoken of be a +city or a castle, into which men fly for safety? It is all sunlight +here. No sound of war in our streets. We do not hear the rush of armed +men against the doors of our dwellings. We do not come with weapons to +church. Our lives are not at the mercy of an assassin. Why, then, talk +of refuge? + +Alas! I stand before a company of imperiled men. No flock of sheep was +ever so threatened or endangered of a pack of wolves; no ship was ever +so beaten of a storm; no company of men were ever so environed of a +band of savages. A refuge you must have, or fall before an +all-devouring destruction. There are not so many serpents in Africa; +there are not so many hyenas in Asia; there are not so many panthers +in the forest, as there are transgressions attacking my soul. I will +take the best unregenerated man anywhere, and say to him, You are +utterly corrupt. If all the sins of your past life were marshaled in +single file, they would reach from here to hell. If you have escaped +all other sins, the fact that you have rejected the mission of the Son +of God is enough to condemn you forever, pushing you off into +bottomless darkness, struck by ten thousand hissing thunder-bolts of +Omnipotent wrath. + +You are a sinner. The Bible says it, and your conscience affirms it. +Not a small sinner, or a moderate sinner, or a tolerable sinner, but a +great sinner, a protracted sinner, a vile sinner, an outrageous +sinner, a condemned sinner. As God, with His all-scrutinizing gaze, +looks upon you to-day, He can not find one sound spot in your soul. +Sin has put scales on your eyes, and deadened your ear with an awful +deafness, and palsied your right arm, and stunned your sensibilities, +and blasted you with an infinite blasting. The Bible, which you admit +to be true, affirms that you are diseased from the crown of your head +to the sole of your foot. You are unclean; you are a leper. Believe +not me, but believe God's Word, that over and over again announces, in +language that a fool might understand, the total and complete +depravity of the unchanged heart: "The heart is deceitful above all +things, and desperately wicked." + +In addition to the sins of your life there are uncounted troubles in +pursuit of you. Bereavements, losses, disappointments are a flock of +vultures ever on the wing. Did you get your house built, and +furnished, and made comfortable any sooner than misfortune came in +without knocking, and sat beside you--a skeleton apparition? Have not +pains shot their poisoned arrows, and fevers kindled their fire in +your brain? Many of you, for years, have walked on burning marl. You +stepped out of one disaster into another. You may, like Job, have +cursed the day in which you were born. This world boils over with +trouble for you, and you are wondering where the next grave will gape, +and where the next storm will burst. Oh, ye pursued, sinning, dying, +troubled, exhausted souls, are you not ready now to hear me while I +tell you of Christ, the Refuge? + +A soldier, during the war, heard of the sickness of his wife and +asked for a furlough. It was denied him, and he ran away. He was +caught, brought back, and sentenced to be shot as a deserter. The +officer took from his pocket a document that announced his death on +the following morning. As the document was read, the man flinched not +and showed no sorrow or anxiety. But the officer then took from his +pocket another document that contained the prisoner's pardon. Then he +broke down with deep emotion at the thought of the leniency that had +been extended. Though you may not appear moved while I tell you of the +law that thundered its condemnation, while I tell you of the pardon +and the peace of the Gospel I wonder if they will not overcome you. + +Jesus is a safe refuge. Fort Hudson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Moultrie, Fort +Sumter, Gibraltar, Sebastopol were taken. But Jesus is a castle into +which the righteous runneth and is safe. No battering-ram can demolish +its wall. No sappers or miners can explode its ramparts, no storm-bolt +of perdition leap upon its towers. The weapons that guard this fort +are omnipotent. Hell shall unlimber its great guns as death only to +have them dismantled. In Christ our sins are pardoned, discomforted, +blotted out, forgiven. An ocean can not so easily drown a fly as the +ocean of God's forgiveness swallow up, utterly and forever, our +transgressions. He is able to save unto the uttermost. + +You who have been so often overcome in a hand-to-hand fight with the +world, the flesh, and devil, try this fortress. Once here, you are +safe forever. Satan may charge up the steep, and shout amid the uproar +of the fight, Forward, to his battalions of darkness; but you will +stand in the might of the great God, your Redeemer, safe in the +refuge. The troubles of life, that once overwhelmed you, may come on +with their long wagon-trains laden with care and worryment; and you +may hear in their tramp the bereavements that once broke your heart; +but Christ is your friend, Christ your sympathizer, Christ your +reward. Safe in the refuge! + +Death at last may lay the siege to your spirit, and the shadows of the +sepulcher may shake their horrors in the breeze, and the hoarse howl +of the night wind may be mingled with the cry of despair, yet you will +shout in triumph from the ramparts, and the pale horse shall be hurled +back on his haunches. Safe in the refuge! To this castle I fly. This +last fire shall but illumine its towers; and the rolling thunders of +the judgment will be the salvo of its victory. + +Just after Queen Victoria had been crowned--she being only nineteen or +twenty years of age--Wellington handed her a death-warrant for her +signature. It was to take the life of a soldier in the army. She said +to Wellington: "Can there nothing good be said of this man?" He said: +"No; he is a bad soldier, and deserves to die." She took up the +death-warrant, and it trembled in her hand as she again asked: "Does +no one know anything good of this man?" Wellington said: "I have heard +that at his trial a man said that he had been a good son to his old +mother." "Then let his life be spared," said the queen, and she +ordered his sentence commuted. + +Christ is on a throne of grace. Our case is brought before him. The +question is asked: "Is there any good about this man?" The law says: +"None." Justice says: "None." Our own conscience says: "None." +Nevertheless, Christ hands over our pardon, and asks us to take it. +Oh, the height and depth, the length and breadth of his mercy! + +Again, Christ is a near refuge. When we are attacked, what advantage +is there in having a fortress on the other side of the mountain? Many +an army has had an intrenchment, but could not get to it before the +battle opened. Blessed be God, it is no long march to our castle. We +may get off, with all our troops, from the worst earthly defeat in +this stronghold. In a moment we may step from the battle into the +tower. I sing of a Saviour near. + +During the late war the forts of the North were named after the +Northern generals, and the forts of the South were named after the +Southern generals. This fortress of our soul I shall call Castle +Jesus. I have seen men pursued of sins that chased them with feet of +lightning, and yet with one glad leap they bounded into the tower. I +have seen troubles, with more than the speed and terror of a cavalry +troop, dash after a retreating soul, yet were hurled back in defeat +from the bulwarks. Jesus near! A child's cry, a prisoner's prayer, a +sailor's death-shriek, a pauper's moan reaches him. No pilgrimages on +spikes. No journeying with a huge pack on your back. No kneeling in +penance in cold vestibule of mercy. But an open door! A compassionate +Saviour! A present salvation! A near refuge! Castle Jesus! + +Oh, why do you not put out your arm and reach it? Why do you not fly +to it? Why be riddled, and shelled, and consumed under the rattling +bombardment of perdition, when one moment's faith would plant you in +the glorious refuge? I preach a Jesus here; a Jesus now; a fountain +close to your feet; a fiery pillar right over your head; bread already +broken for your hunger; a crown already gleaming for your brow. Hark +to the castle gates rattling back for your entrance! Hear you not the +welcome of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope +set before us? + +Again, it is a universal refuge. A fortress is seldom large enough to +hold a whole army. I look out upon fourteen hundred millions of the +race; and then I look at this fortress, and I say that there is room +enough for all. If it had been possible, this salvation would have +been monopolized. Men would have said: "Let us have all this to +ourselves--no publicans, no plebeians, no lazzaroni, no converted +pickpockets. We will ride toward heaven on fierce chargers, our feet +in golden stirrups. Grace for lords, and dukes, and duchesses, and +counts. Let Napoleon and his marshals come in, but not the common +soldier that fought under him. Let the Girards and the Barings come +in, but not the stevedores that unloaded their cargoes, or the men who +kept their books." Heaven would have been a glorified Windsor Castle, +or Tuileries, or Vatican; and exclusive aristocrats would have +strutted through the golden streets to all eternity. + +Thank God, there is mercy for the poor! The great Doctor John Mason +preached over a hundred times the same sermon; and the text was: "To +the poor the Gospel is preached." Lazarus went up, while Dives went +down; and there are candidates for Imperial splendors in the back +alley, and by the peat-fire of the Irish shanty. King Jesus set up His +throne in a manger, and made a resurrection day for the poor widow of +Nain, and sprung the gate of heaven wide open, so that all the +beggars, and thieves, and scoundrels of the universe may come in if +they will only repent. I can snatch the knife from the murderer's hand +while it is yet dripping with the blood of his victim, and tell him of +the grace that is sufficient to pardon his soul. Do you say that I +swing open the gate of heaven too far? I swing it open no wider than +Christ, when He says: "Whosoever will, let him come." Don't you want +to go in with such a rabble? Then you can stay out. + +The whole world will yet come into this refuge. The windows of heaven +will be opened; God's trumpet of salvation will sound, and China will +come from its tea-fields and rice-harvests, and lift itself up into +the light. India will come forth, the chariots of salvation jostling +to pieces her Juggernauts. Freezing Greenland, and sweltering +Abyssinia, will, side by side, press into the kingdom; and transformed +Bornesian cannibal preach of the resurrection of the missionary he has +slain. The glory of Calvary will tinge the tip of the Pyrenees; and +Lebanon cedars shall clap their hands; and by one swing of the sickle +Christ shall harvest nations for the skies. + +I sing a world redeemed. In the rush of the winds that set the forest +in motion, like giants wrestling on the hills, I see the tossing up of +the triumphal branches that shall wave all along the line of our King +as He comes to take empire. In the stormy diapason of the ocean's +organ, and the more gentle strains that in the calm come sounding up +from the crystal and jasper keys at the beach, I hear the prophecy: +"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters +fill the sea." + +The gospel morning will come like the natural morning. At first it +seems only like another hue of the night. Then a pallor strikes +through the sky, as though a company of ministering spirits, pale with +tedious watching through the night, had turned in their flight upward +to look back upon the earth. Then a faint glow of fire, as though on a +barren beach a wrecked mariner was kindling a flickering flame. Then +chariots and horses of fire racing up and down the heavens; then +perfect day: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning?" + +Come in, black Hottentot and snow-white Caucasian, come in, mitered +official and diseased beggar; let all the world come in. Room in +Castle Jesus! Sound it through all lands; sound it by all tongues. Let +sermons preach it, and bells chime it, and pencils sketch it, and +processions celebrate it, and bells ring it: Room in Castle Jesus! + +Again, Christ is the only refuge. If you were very sick, and there was +only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get +that medicine. If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the +ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious +you would be to get into that harbor. Oh, sin-sick soul, Christ is the +only medicine; oh, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor. Need +I tell a cultured audience like this that there is no other name given +among men by which ye can be saved? That if you want the handcuffs +knocked from your wrists, and the hopples from your feet, and the icy +bands from your heart, there is just one Almighty arm in all the +universe to do everything? There are other fortresses to which you +might fly, and other ramparts behind which you might hide, but God +will cut to pieces, with the hail of His vengeance, all these refuges +of lies. + +Some of you are foundering in terrible Euroclydon. Hark to the howling +of the gale, and the splintering of the spars, and the starting of the +timbers, and the breaking of the billow, clear across the hurricane +deck. Down she goes! Into the life-boat! Quick! One boat! One shore! +One oarsman! One salvation! You are polluted; there is but one well at +which you can wash clean. You are enslaved; there is but one +proclamation that can emancipate. You are blind; there is but one +salve that can kindle your vision. You are dead; there is but one +trumpet that can burst the grave. + +I have seen men come near the refuge but not make entrance. They came +up, and fronted the gate, and looked in, but passed on, and passed +down; and they will curse their folly through all eternity, that they +despised the only refuge. Oh! forget everything else I have said, if +you will but remember that there is but one atonement, one sacrifice, +one justification, one faith, one hope, one Jesus, one refuge. There +is that old Christian. Many a scar on his face tells where trouble +lacerated him. He has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He has had +enough misfortune to shadow his countenance with perpetual despair. +Yet he is full of hope. Has he found any new elixir? "No," he says; "I +have found Jesus the refuge." + +Christ is our only defense at the last. John Holland, in his +concluding moment, swept his hand over the Bible, and said: "Come, let +us gather a few flowers from this garden." As it was even-time he said +to his wife: "Have you lighted the candles?" "No," she said; "we have +not lighted the candles." "Then," said he, "it must be the brightness +of the face of Jesus that I see." + +Ask that dying Christian woman the source of her comfort. Why that +supernatural glow on the curtains of the death-chamber; and the +tossing out of one hand, as if to wave the triumph, and the reaching +up of the other, as if to take a crown? Hosanna on the tongue. Glory +beaming from the forehead. Heaven in the eyes. Spirit departing. Wings +to bear it. Anthems to charm it. Open the gates to receive it. +Hallelujah! Speak, dying Christian--what light do you see? What sounds +do you hear? The thin lips part. The pale hand is lifted. She says: +"Jesus the refuge!" Let all in the death-chamber stop weeping now. +Celebrate the triumph. Take up a song. Clap your hands. Shout it. +Hallelujah! Hallelujah! + +But this refuge will be of no worth to you unless you lay hold of it. +The time will come when you will wish that you had done so. It will +come soon. At an unexpected moment it will come. The castle bridge +will be drawn up and the fortress closed. When you see this +discomfiture, and look back, and look up at the storm gathering, and +the billowy darkness of death has rolled upon the sheeted flash of +the storm, you will discover the utter desolation of those who are +outside of the refuge. + +What you propose to do in this matter you had better do right away. A +mistake this morning may never be corrected. Jesus, the Great Captain +of salvation, puts forth his wounded hand to-day to cheer you on the +race to heaven. If you despise it, the ghastliest vision that will +haunt the eternal darkness of your soul will be the gaping, bleeding +wounds of the dying Redeemer. + +Jesus is to be crucified to-day. Think not of it as a day that is +past. He comes before you to-day weary and worn. Here is the cross, +and here is the victim. But there are no nails, and there are no +thorns, and there are no hammers. Who will furnish these? A man out +yonder says: "I will furnish with my sins the nails!" Now we have the +cross, and the victim, and the nails. But we have no thorns. Who will +furnish the thorns? A man in the audience says: "With my sins I will +furnish the thorns!" Now we have the cross, the victim, the nails, and +the thorns. But we have no hammers. Who will furnish the hammers? A +voice in the audience says: "My hard heart shall be the hammer!" +Everything is ready now. The crucifixion goes out! See Jesus dying! +"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." + + + + +STRIPPING THE SLAIN. + + "And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came + to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons + fallen in Mount Gilboa."--I. SAM. xxxi: 8. + + +Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or +Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a +battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the +field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening +I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken from the +bodies of the dead, for there are always vultures hovering over and +around about an army, and they pick up the watches, and the memorandum +books, and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and the hats, and the +coats, applying them to their own uses. The dead make no resistance. +So there are always camp followers going on and after an army, as when +Scott went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon marched up toward +Moscow, as when Von Moltke went to Sedan. There is a similar scene in +my text. + +Saul and his army had been horribly cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was +ghastly with the dead. On the morrow the stragglers came on to the +field, and they lifted the latchet of the helmet from under the chin +of the dead, and they picked up the swords and bent them on their +knee to test the temper of the metal, and they opened the wallets and +counted the coin. Saul lay dead along the ground, eight or nine feet +in length, and I suppose the cowardly Philistines, to show their +bravery, leaped upon the trunk of his carcass, and jeered at the +fallen slain, and whistled through the mouth of the helmet. Before +night those cormorants had taken everything valuable from the field: +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip +the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount +Gilboa." + +Before I get through to-day I will show you that the same process is +going on all the world over, and every day, and that when men have +fallen, Satan and the world, so far from pitying them or helping them, +go to work remorselessly to take what little is left, thus stripping +the slain. + +There are tens of thousands of young men every year coming from the +country to our great cities. They come with brave hearts and grand +expectations. They think they will be Rufus Choates in the law, or +Drapers in chemistry, or A.T. Stewarts in merchandise. The country +lads sit down in the village grocery, with their feet on the iron rod +around the red-hot stove, in the evening, talking over the prospects +of the young man who has gone off to the city. Two or three of them +think that perhaps he may get along very well and succeed, but the +most of them prophesy failure; for it is very hard to think that those +whom we knew in boyhood will ever make any stir in the world. + +But our young man has a fine position in a dry-goods store. The month +is over. He gets his wages. He is not accustomed to have so much money +belonging to himself. He is a little excited, and does not know +exactly what to do with it, and he spends it in some places where he +ought not. Soon there come up new companions and acquaintances from +the bar-rooms and the saloons of the city. Soon that young man begins +to waver in the battle of temptation, and soon his soul goes down. In +a few months, or few years, he has fallen. He is morally dead. He is a +mere corpse of what he once was. The harpies of sin snuff up the taint +and come on the field. His garments gradually give out. He has pawned +his watch. His health is failing him. His credit perishes. He is too +poor to stay in the city, and he is too poor to pay his way home to +the country. Down! down! Why do the low fellows of the city now stick +to him so closely? Is it to help him back to a moral and spiritual +life? Oh, no! I will tell you why they stay; they are the Philistines +stripping the slain. + +Do not look where I point, but yonder stands a man who once had a +beautiful home in this city. His house had elegant furniture, his +children were beautifully clad, his name was synonymous with honor and +usefulness; but evil habit knocked at his front door, knocked at his +back door, knocked at his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom door. +Where is the piano? Sold to pay the rent. Where is the hat-rack? Sold +to meet the butcher's bill. Where are the carpets? Sold to get bread. +Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters? +Working their fingers off in trying to keep the family together. +Worse and worse, until everything is gone. Who is that going up the +front steps of that house? That is a creditor, hoping to find some +chair or bed that has not been levied upon. Who are those two +gentlemen now going up the front steps? The one is a constable, the +other is the sheriff. Why do they go there? The unfortunate is morally +dead, socially dead, financially dead. Why do they go there? I will +tell you why the creditors, and the constables, and the sheriffs go +there. They are, some on their own account, and some on account of the +law, stripping the slain. + +An ex-member of Congress, one of the most eloquent men that ever stood +in the House of Representatives, said in his last moments: "This is +the end. I am dying--dying on a borrowed bed, covered by a borrowed +sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in +the middle of the field, where I shall not be crowded, for I have been +crowded all my life." Where were the jolly politicians and the +dissipating comrades who had been with him, laughing at his jokes, +applauding his eloquence, and plunging him into sin? They have left. +Why? His money is gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is gone, his +clothes are gone, everything is gone. Why should they stay any longer? +They have completed their work. They have stripped the slain. + +There is another way, however, of doing that same work. Here is a man +who, through his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that he has done +wrong. Now is the time for you to go to that man and say: "Thousands +of people have been as far astray as you are, and got back." Now is +the time for you to go to that man and tell him of the omnipotent +grace of God, that is sufficient for any poor soul. Now is the time to +go to tell him how swearing John Bunyan, through the grace of God, +afterward came to the celestial city. Now is the time to go to that +man and tell him how profligate Newton came, through conversion, to be +a world-renowned preacher of righteousness. Now is the time to tell +that man that multitudes who have been pounded with all the flails of +sin and dragged through all the sewers of pollution at last have risen +to positive dominion of moral power. + +You do not tell him that, do you? No. You say to him: "Loan you money? +No. You are down. You will have to go to the dogs. Lend you a +shilling? I would not lend you five cents to keep you from the +gallows. You are debauched! Get out of my sight, now! Down; you will +have to stay down!" And thus those bruised and battered men are +sometimes accosted by those who ought to lift them up. Thus the last +vestige of hope is taken from them. Thus those who ought to go and +lift and save them are guilty of stripping the slain. + +The point I want to make is this: sin is hard, cruel, and merciless. +Instead of helping a man up it helps him down; and when, like Saul and +his comrades, you lie on the field, it will come and steal your sword +and helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal and the crow. + +But the world and Satan do not do all their work with the outcast and +abandoned. A respectable, impenitent man comes to die. He is flat on +his back. He could not get up if the house were on fire. Adroitest +medical skill and gentlest nursing have been a failure. He has come to +his last hour. What does Satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches up +all the inapt, disagreeable, and harrowing things in his life. He +says: "Do you remember those chances you had for heaven, and missed +them? Do you remember all those lapses in conduct? Do you remember all +those opprobrious words and thoughts and actions? Don't remember them, +eh? I'll make you remember them." And then he takes all the past and +empties it on that death-bed, as the mail-bags are emptied on the +post-office floor. The man is sick. He can not get away from them. + +Then the man says to Satan: "You have deceived me. You told me that +all would be well. You said there would be no trouble at the last. You +told me if I did so and so, you would do so and so. Now you corner me, +and hedge me up, and submerge me in everything evil." "Ha! ha!" says +Satan, "I was only fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer. +I have been for thirty years plotting to get you just where you are. +It is hard for you now--it will be worse for you after awhile. It +pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't flinch or shudder. Come now, I will +tear off from you the last rag of expectation. I will rend away from +your soul the last hope. I will leave you bare for the beating of the +storm. It is my business to strip the slain." + +While men are in robust health, and their digestion is good, and their +nerves are strong, they think their physical strength will get them +safely through the last exigency. They say it is only cowardly women +who are afraid at the last, and cry out for God. "Wait till I come to +die. I will show you. You won't hear me pray, nor call for a minister, +nor want a chapter read me from the Bible." But after the man has been +three weeks in a sick-room his nerves are not so steady, and his +worldly companions are not anywhere near to cheer him up, and he is +persuaded that he must quit life: his physical courage is all gone. + +He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a saucer. He shivers at the idea +of going away. He says: "Wife, I don't think my infidelity is going to +take me through. For God's sake don't bring up the children to do as I +have done. If you feel like it, I wish you would read a verse or two +out of Fannie's Sabbath-school hymn-book or New Testament." But Satan +breaks in, and says: "You have always thought religion trash and a +lie; don't give up at the last. Besides that, you can not, in the hour +you have to live, get off on that track. Die as you lived. With my +great black wings I shut out that light. Die in darkness. I rend away +from you that last vestige of hope. It is my business to strip the +slain." + +A man who had rejected Christianity and thought it all trash, came to +die. He was in the sweat of a great agony, and his wife said: "We had +better have some prayer." "Mary, not a breath of that," he said. "The +lightest word of prayer would roll back on me like rocks on a drowning +man. I have come to the hour of test. I had a chance, and I forfeited +it. I believed in a liar, and he has left me in the lurch. Mary, bring +me Tom Paine, that book that I swore by and lived by, and pitch it in +the fire, and let it burn and burn as I myself shall soon burn." And +then, with the foam on his lip and his hands tossing wildly in the +air, he cried out: "Blackness of darkness! Oh, my God, too late!" And +the spirits of darkness whistled up from the depth, and wheeled around +and around him, stripping the slain. + +Sin is a luxury now; it is exhilaration now; it is victory now. But +after awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is +jackalism; it is robbing the dead; it is stripping the slain. Give it +up to-day--give it up! Oh, how you have been cheated on, my brother, +from one thing to another! All these years you have been under an evil +mastery that you understood not. What have your companions done for +you? What have they done for your health? Nearly ruined it by +carousal. What have they done for your fortune? Almost scattered it by +spendthrift behavior. What have they done for your reputation? Almost +ruined it with good men. What have they done for your immortal soul? +Almost insured its overthrow. + +You are hastening on toward the consummation of all that is sad. +To-day you stop and think, but it is only for a moment, and then you +will tramp on, and at the close of this service you will go out, and +the question will be: "How did you like the sermon?" And one man will +say: "I liked it very well," and another man will say: "I didn't like +it at all;" but neither of the answers will touch the tremendous fact +that, if impenitent, you are going at eighteen knots an hour toward +shipwreck! Yea, you are in a battle where you will fall; and while +your surviving relatives will take your remaining estate, and the +cemetery will take your body, the messengers of darkness will take +your soul, and come and go about you for the next ten million years, +stripping the slain. + +Many are crying out: "I admit I am slain, I admit it!" On what +battle-field, my brothers? By what weapon? "Polluted imagination," +says one man; "Intoxicating liquor," says another man; "My own hard +heart," says another man. Do you realize this? Then I come to tell you +that the omnipotent Christ is ready to walk across this battle-field, +and revive, and resuscitate, and resurrect your dead soul. Let Him +take your hand and rub away the numbness; your head, and bathe off the +aching; your heart, and stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to +life; He brought Jairus' daughter to life; He brought the young man of +Nain to life, and these are three proofs anyhow that he can bring you +to life. + +When the Philistines came down on the field, they stepped between the +corpses, and they rolled over the dead, and they took away everything +that was valuable; and so it was with the people that followed after +our army at Chancellorsville, and at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone +River, and at Atlanta, stripping the slain; but the Northern and +Southern women--God bless them!--came on the field with basins, and +pads, and towels, and lint, and cordials, and Christian encouragement; +and the poor fellows that lay there lifted up their arms and said: +"Oh, how good that does feel since you dressed it!" and others looked +up and said: "Oh, how you make me think of my mother!" and others +said: "Tell the folks at home I died thinking about them;" and another +looked up and said: "Miss, won't you sing me a verse of 'Home, Sweet +Home,' before I die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and the hats +were off, and the service was read: "I am the resurrection and the +life;" and in honor of the departed the muskets were loaded, and the +command given: "Take aim--fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the +head of the grave, with the epitaph of "Lieutenant ---- in the +Fourteenth Massachusetts Regulars," or "Captain ---- in the Fifteenth +Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers." And so to-night, across this +great field of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of God come +walking among the slain, and there are voices of comfort, and voices +of hope, and voices of resurrection, and voices of heaven. + +Christ is ready to give life to the dead. He will make the deaf ear to +hear, the blind eye to see, the pulseless heart to beat, and the damp +walls of your spiritual charnel-house will crash into ruin at His cry: +"Come forth!" I verily believe there are souls in this house who are +now dead in sin, who in half an hour will be alive forever. There was +a thrilling dream, a glorious dream--you may have heard of it. Ezekiel +closed his eyes, and he saw two mountains, and a valley between the +mountains. That valley looked as though there had been a great battle +there, and a whole army had been slain, and they had been unburied; +and the heat of the land, and the vultures coming there, soon the +bones were exposed to the sun, and they looked like thousands of +snow-drifts all through the valley. Frightful spectacle! The bleaching +skeletons of a host! + +But Ezekiel still kept his eyes shut; and lo! there were four +currents of wind that struck the battle-field, and when those four +currents of wind met, the bones began to rattle; and the foot came to +the ankle, and the hand came to the wrist, and the jaws clashed +together, and the spinal column gathered up the ganglions and the +nervous fiber, and all the valley wriggled and writhed, and throbbed, +and rocked, and rose up. There, a man coming to life. There, a hundred +men. There, a thousand; and all falling into line, waiting for the +shout of their commander. Ten thousand bleached skeletons springing up +into ten thousand warriors, panting for the fray. I hope that instead +of being a dream it may be a prophecy of what we shall see here +to-day. Let this north wall be one of the mountains, and the south +wall be taken for another of the mountains, and let all the aisles and +the pews be the valley between, for there are thousands here to-day +without one pulsation of spiritual life. + +I look off in one direction, and they are dead. I look off in another +direction, and they are dead. Who will bring them to life? Who shall +rouse them up? If I should halloo at the top of my voice I could not +wake them. Wait a moment! Listen! There is a rustling. There is a gale +from heaven. It comes from the north, and from the south, and from the +east, and from the west. It shuts us in. It blows upon the slain. +There a soul begins to move in spiritual life; there, ten souls; +there, a score of souls; there, a hundred souls. The nostrils +throbbing in divine respiration, the hands lifted as though to take +hold of heaven, the tongue moving as in prayer and adoration. Life! +immortal life coming into the slain. Ten men for God--fifty--a +hundred--a regiment--an army for God! Oh, that we might have such a +scene here to-day! In Ezekiel's words, and in almost a frenzy of +prayer, I cry: "Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon +the slain." + +You will have to surrender your heart to-day to God. You can not take +the responsibility of fighting against the Spirit in this crisis which +will decide whether you are to go to heaven or to hell--to join the +hallelujahs of the saved, or the lamentations of the lost. You must +pray. You must repent. You must this day fling your sinful soul on the +pardoning mercy of God. You must! I see your resolution against God +giving way, your determination wavering. I break through the breach in +the wall and follow up the advantage gained, hoping to rout your last +opposition to Christ, and to make you "ground arms" at the feet of the +Divine Conqueror. Oh, you must! You must! + +The moon does not ask the tides of the Atlantic Ocean to rise. It only +stoops down with two great hands of light, the one at the European +beach, and the other at the American beach, and then lifts the great +layer of molten silver. And God, it seems to me, is now going to lift +this audience to newness of life. Do you not feel the swellings of the +great oceanic tides of Divine mercy? My heart is in anguish to have +you saved. For this I pray, and preach, and long, glad to be called a +fool for Christ's sake, and your salvation. + +Some one replies: "Dear me, I do wish I could have these matters +arranged with my God. I want to be saved. God knows I want to be +saved; but you stand there talking about this matter, and you don't +show me how." My dear brother, the work has all been done. Christ did +it with His own torn hand, and lacerated foot, and bleeding side. He +took your place, and died your death, if you will only believe +it--only accept Him as your substitute. + +What an amazing pity that any man should go from this house unblessed, +when such a large blessing is offered him at less cost than you would +pay for a pin--"without money and without price." I have driven down +to-day with the Lord's ambulance to the battle-field where your soul +lies exposed to the darkness and the storm, and I want to lift you in, +and drive off with you toward heaven. Oh, Christians, by your prayers +help to lift these wounded souls into the ambulance! God forbid that +any should be left on the field, and that at last eternal sorrow, and +remorse, and despair should come up around their soul like the bandit +Philistines to the field of Gilboa, stripping the slain. + + + + +SOLD OUT. + + "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed + without money."--ISA. lii: 3. + + +The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been +carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. +Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews +that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, +literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; +and ye shall be redeemed without money." + +There is enough Gospel in this text for fifty sermons; though I never +heard of its being preached on. There are persons in this house who +have, like the Jews of the text, sold out. You do not seem to belong +either to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over +to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never +paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some +adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world +does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a +summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his +physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts +with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary +culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire +nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the +first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down +the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays +down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone; +and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment, +and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and +says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed +over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to +collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well," +you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now +to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "_I have +failed. I am bankrupt._ I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not +for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me +back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can +not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of +eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the +consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought." + +I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a +cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a +bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays +the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted, +it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little +while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash +and get for it worthless scrip--so the world passes over to you the +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in that shape which will not be +worth a farthing to you a thousandth part of a second after you are +dead. "Oh," you say, "it will help to bury me, anyhow." Oh, my +brother! you need not worry about that. The world will bury you soon +enough, from sanitary considerations. After you have been deceased for +three or four days you will compel the world to bury you. + +Post-mortem emoluments are of no use to you. The treasures of this +world will not pass current in the future world; and if all the wealth +of the Bank of England were put in the pocket of your shroud, and you +in the midst of the Jordan of death were asked to pay three cents for +your ferriage, you could not do it. There comes a moment in your +existence beyond which all earthly values fail; and many a man has +wakened up in such a time to find that he has sold out for eternity, +and has nothing to show for it. I should as soon think of going to +Chatham Street to buy silk pocket-handkerchiefs with no cotton in +them, as to go to this world expecting to find any permanent +happiness. It has deceived and deluded every man that has ever put his +trust in it. + +History tells us of one who resolved that he would have all his senses +gratified at one and the same time, and he expended thousands of +dollars on each sense. He entered a room, and there were the first +musicians of the land pleasing his ear, and there were fine pictures +fascinating his eye, and there were costly aromatics regaling his +nostril, and there were the richest meats, and wines, and fruits, and +confections pleasing the appetite, and there was a soft couch of +sinful indulgence on which he reclined; and the man declared afterward +that he would give ten times what he had given if he could have one +week of such enjoyment, even though he lost his soul by it. Ah! that +was the rub. He did lose his soul by it! Cyrus the Conqueror thought +for a little while that he was making a fine thing out of this world, +and yet before he came to his grave he wrote out this pitiful epitaph +for his monument: "I am Cyrus. I occupied the Persian Empire. I was +king over Asia. Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in after +years plowed up his sepulcher. + +The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in honor of Charles +Lamb; but what does he say? "I walk up and down, thinking I am happy, +but feeling I am not." Call the roll, and be quick about it. Samuel +Johnson, the learned! Happy? "No. I am afraid I shall some day get +crazy." William Hazlitt, the great essayist! Happy? "No. I have been +for two hours and a half going up and down Paternoster Row with a +volcano in my breast." Smollett, the witty author! Happy? "No. I am +sick of praise and blame, and I wish to God that I had such +circumstances around me that I could throw my pen into oblivion." +Buchanan, the world-renowned writer, exiled from his own country, +appealing to Henry VIII. for protection! Happy? "No. Over mountains +covered with snow, and through valleys flooded with rain, I come a +fugitive." Molière, the popular dramatic author! Happy? "No. That +wretch of an actor just now recited four of my lines without the +proper accent and gesture. To have the children of my brain so hung, +drawn, and quartered, tortures me like a condemned spirit." + +I went to see a worldling die. As I went into the hall I saw its floor +was tessellated, and its wall was a picture-gallery. I found his +death-chamber adorned with tapestry until it seemed as if the clouds +of the setting sun had settled in the room. The man had given forty +years to the world--his wit, his time, his genius, his talent, his +soul. Did the world come in to stand by his death-bed, and clearing +off the vials of bitter medicine, put down any compensation? Oh, no! +The world does not like sick and dying people, and leaves them in the +lurch. It ruined this man, and then left him. He had a magnificent +funeral. All the ministers wore scarfs, and there were forty-three +carriages in a row; but the departed man appreciated not the +obsequies. + +I want to persuade my audience that this world is a poor investment; +that it does not pay ninety per cent. of satisfaction, nor eighty per +cent., nor twenty per cent., nor two per cent., nor one; that it gives +no solace when a dead babe lies on your lap; that it gives no peace +when conscience rings its alarm; that it gives no explanation in the +day of dire trouble; and at the time of your decease it takes hold of +the pillow-case, and shakes out the feathers, and then jolts down in +the place thereof sighs, and groans, and execrations, and then makes +you put your head on it. Oh, ye who have tried this world, is it a +satisfactory portion? Would you advise your friends to make the +investment? No. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Your conscience +went. Your hope went. Your Bible went. Your heaven went. Your God +went. When a sheriff under a writ from the courts sells a man out, the +officer generally leaves a few chairs and a bed, and a few cups and +knives; but in this awful vendue in which you have been engaged the +auctioneer's mallet has come down upon body, mind, and soul: Going! +Gone! "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +How could you do so? Did you think that your soul was a mere trinket +which for a few pennies you could buy in a toy shop? Did you think +that your soul, if once lost, might be found again if you went out +with torches and lanterns? Did you think that your soul was +short-lived, and that, panting, it would soon lie down for extinction? +Or had you no idea what your soul was worth? Did you ever put your +forefingers on its eternal pulses? Have you never felt the quiver of +its peerless wing? Have you not known that, after leaving the body, +the first step of your soul reaches to the stars, and the next step to +the furthest outposts of God's universe, and that it will not die +until the day when the everlasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my brother, +what possessed you that you should part with your soul so cheap? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought." + +But I have some good news to tell you. I want to engage in a +litigation for the recovery of that soul of yours. I want to show that +you have been cheated out of it. I want to prove, as I will, that you +were crazy on that subject, and that the world, under such +circumstances, has no right to take the title-deed from you; and if +you will join me I shall get a decree from the High Chancery Court of +Heaven reinstating you into the possession of your soul. "Oh," you +say, "I am afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive, and I can not +pay the cost." Then have you forgotten the last half of my text? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money." + +Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in +this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and +pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy +your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of +Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us +to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is? +I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, +no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king's blood. It must +be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent. But where +is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, +yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue. But after awhile the +clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of +a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, +and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to +cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and +then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the +sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we +who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and +imperial blood. + +We have in this day professed Christians who are so rarefied and +etherealized that they do not want a religion of blood. What do you +want? You seem to want a religion of brains. The Bible says: "In the +blood is the life." No atonement without blood. Ought not the apostle +to know? What did he say? "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible +things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ." +You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the +blood, and you leave it a mere corpse, fit only for the grave. Why did +God command the priests of old to strike the knife into the kid, and +the goat, and the pigeon, and the bullock, and the lamb? It was so +that when the blood rushed out from these animals on the floor of the +ancient tabernacle the people should be compelled to think of the +coming carnage of the Son of God. No blood, no atonement. + +I think that God intended to impress us with the vividness of that +color. The green of the grass, the blue of the sky, would not have +startled and aroused us like this deep crimson. It is as if God had +said: "Now, sinner, wake up and see what the Saviour endured for you. +This is not water. This is not wine. It is blood. It is the blood of +my own Son. It is the blood of the Immaculate. It is the blood of +God." Without the shedding of blood is no remission. There has been +many a man who in courts of law has pleaded "not guilty," who +nevertheless has been condemned because there was blood found on his +hands, or blood found in his room; and what shall we do in the last +day if it be found that we have recrucified the Lord of Glory and have +never repented of it? You must believe in the blood or die. No +escape. Unless you let the sacrifice of Jesus go in your stead you +yourself must suffer. It is either Christ's blood or your blood. + +"Oh," says some one, "the thought of blood sickens me." Good. God +intended it to sicken you with your sin. Do not act as though you had +nothing to do with that Calvarian massacre. You had. Your sins were +the implements of torture. Those implements were not made of steel, +and iron, and wood, so much as out of your sins. Guilty of this +homicide, and this regicide, and this deicide, confess your guilt +to-day. Ten thousand voices of heaven bring in the verdict against you +of guilty, guilty. Prepare to die, or believe in that blood. Stretch +yourself out for the sacrifice, or accept the Saviour's sacrifice. Do +not fling away your one chance. + +It seems to me as if all heaven were trying to bid in your soul. The +first bid it makes is the tears of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus; but +that is not a high enough price. The next bid heaven makes is the +sweat of Gethsemane; but it is too cheap a price. The next bid heaven +makes seems to be the whipped back of Pilate's hall; but it is not a +high enough price. Can it be possible that heaven can not buy you in? +Heaven tries once more. It says: "I bid this time for that man's soul +the tortures of Christ's martyrdom, the blood on His temple, the blood +on His cheek, the blood on His chin, the blood on His hand, the blood +on His side, the blood on His knee, the blood on His foot--the blood +in drops, the blood in rills, the blood in pools coagulated beneath +the cross; the blood that wet the tips of the soldiers' spears, the +blood that plashed warm in the faces of His enemies." Glory to God, +that bid wins it! The highest price that was ever paid for anything +was paid for your soul. Nothing could buy it but blood! The estranged +property is bought back. Take it. "You have sold yourselves for +nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." O atoning blood, +cleansing blood, life-giving blood, sanctifying blood, glorifying +blood of Jesus! Why not burst into tears at the thought that for thee +He shed it--for thee the hard-hearted, for thee the lost? + +"No," says some one; "I will have nothing to do with it except that, +like the Jews, I put both my hands into that carnage and scoop up both +palms full, and throw it on my head and cry: 'His blood be on us and +on our children!'" Can you do such a shocking thing as that? Just rub +your handkerchief across your brow and look at it. It is the blood of +the Son of God whom you have despised and driven back all these years. +Oh, do not do that any longer! Come out frankly and boldly and +honestly, and tell Christ you are sorry. You can not afford to so +roughly treat Him upon whom everything depends. + +I do not know how you will get away from this subject. You see that +you are sold out, and that Christ wants to buy you back. There are +three persons who come after you to-night: God the Father, God the +Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They unite their three omnipotences in +one movement for your salvation. You will not take up arms against the +Triune God, will you? Is there enough muscle in your arm for such a +combat? By the highest throne in heaven, and by the deepest chasm in +hell, I beg you look out. Unless you allow Christ to carry away your +sins, they will carry you away. Unless you allow Christ to lift you +up, they will drag you down. There is only one hope for you, and that +is the blood. Christ, the sin-offering, bearing your transgressions. +Christ, the surety, paying your debts. Christ, the divine Cyrus, +loosening your Babylonish captivity. + +Would you not like to be free? Here is the price of your +liberation--not money, but blood. I tremble from head to foot, not +because I fear your presence, for I am used to that, but because I +fear that you will miss your chance for immortal rescue, and die. This +is the alternative divinely put: "He that believeth on the Son shall +have everlasting life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not +see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." In the last day, if +you now reject Christ, every drop of that sacrificial blood, instead +of pleading for your release as it would have pleaded if you had +repented, will plead against you. It will seem to say: "They refused +the ransom; they chose to die; let them die; they must die. Down with +them to the weeping and the wailing. Depart! go away from me. You +would not have me, now I will not have you. Sold out for eternity." + +O Lord God of the judgment day! avert that calamity! Let us see the +quick flash of the cimeter that slays the sin but saves the sinner. +Strike, omnipotent God, for the soul's deliverance! Beat, O eternal +sea! with all thy waves against the barren beach of that rocky soul, +and make it tremble. Oh! the oppressiveness of the hour, the minute, +the second, on which the soul's destiny quivers, and this is that +hour, that minute, that second! + +I wonder what proportion of this audience will be saved? What +proportion will be lost? When the "Schiller" went down, out of three +hundred and eighty people only forty were saved. When the "Ville du +Havre" went down, out of three hundred and forty about fifty were +saved. Out of this audience to-day, how many will get to the shore of +heaven? It is no idle question for me to ask, for many of you I shall +never see again until the day when the books are open. + +Some years ago there came down a fierce storm on the sea-coast, and a +vessel got in the breakers and was going to pieces. They threw up some +signal of distress, and the people on the shore saw them. They put out +in a life-boat. They came on, and they saw the poor sailors, almost +exhausted, clinging to a raft; and so afraid were the boatmen that the +men would give up before they got to them, they gave them three rounds +of cheers, and cried: "Hold on, there! Hold on! We'll save you!" After +awhile the boat came up. One man was saved by having the boat-hook put +in the collar of his coat; and some in one way, and some in another; +but they all got into the boat. "Now," says the captain, "for the +shore. Pull away now, pull!" The people on the land were afraid the +life-boat had gone down. They said: "How long the boat stays. Why, it +must have been swamped, and they have all perished together." + +And there were men and women on the pier-heads and on the beach +wringing their hands; and while they waited and watched, they saw +something looming up through the mist, and it turned out to be the +life-boat. As soon as it came within speaking distance the people on +the shore cried out: "Did you save any of them? Did you save any of +them?" And as the boat swept through the boiling surf and came to the +pier-head, the captain waved his hand over the exhausted sailors that +lay flat on the bottom of the boat, and cried: "All saved! Thank God! +All saved!" So may it be to-day. The waves of your sin run high, the +storm is on you, the danger is appalling. Oh! shipwrecked soul, I have +come for you. I cheer you with this Gospel hope. God grant that within +the next ten minutes we may row with you into the harbor of God's +mercy. And when these Christian men gather around to see the result of +this service, and the glorified gathering on the pier-heads of heaven +to watch and to listen, may we be able to report all saved! Young and +old, good and bad! All saved! Saved from sin, and death, and hell. +Saved for time. Saved for eternity. "And so it came to pass that they +all escaped safe to land." + + + + +SUMMER TEMPTATIONS. + + "Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest + awhile."--MARK vi: 31. + + +Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been +living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they +get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, +I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday +afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that +release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people +will have opportunity of recreation this summer than in any previous +summer. Others will have whole weeks and months of rest. The railway +trains are being laden with passengers and baggage on their way to the +mountains and the lakes and the sea-shore. Multitudes of our citizens +are packing their trunks for a restorative absence. + +The city heats are pursuing the people with torch and fear of +sunstroke. The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz +with excited arrivals. The crystalline surface of Winnipiseogee is +shattered with the stroke of steamer, laden with excursionists. The +antlers of Adirondack deer rattle under the shot of city sportsmen. +The trout make fatal snaps at the hook of adroit sportsmen and toss +their spotted brilliance into the game-basket. Already the baton of +the orchestral leader taps the music-stand on the hotel green, and +American life puts on festal array, and the rumbling of the tenpin +alley, and the crack of the ivory balls on the green-baized billiard +tables, and the jolting of the bar-room goblets, and the explosive +uncorking of champagne bottles, and the whirl and the rustle of the +ball-room dance, and the clattering hoofs of the race-courses, attest +that the season for the great American watering-places is fairly +inaugurated. Music--flute and drum and cornet-à -piston and clapping +cymbals--will wake the echoes of the mountains. + +Glad I am that fagged-out American life for the most part will have an +opportunity to rest, and that nerves racked and destroyed will find a +Bethesda. I believe in watering-places. Let not the commercial firm +begrudge the clerk, or the employer the journeyman, or the patient the +physician, or the church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. Luther +used to sport with his children; Edmund Burke used to caress his +favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the dark hours of the church's +disruption, played kite for recreation--as I was told by his own +daughter--and the busy Christ said to the busy apostles: "Come ye +apart awhile into the desert and rest yourselves." And I have observed +that they who do not know how to rest do not know how to work. + +But I have to declare this truth to-day, that some of our fashionable +watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of "a +multitude that no man can number," and amid the congratulations of +this season and the prospect of the departure of many of you for the +country I must utter a note of warning--plain, earnest, and +unmistakable. + +I. The first temptation that is apt to hover in this direction is to +leave your piety all at home. You will send the dog and cat and canary +bird to be well cared for somewhere else; but the temptation will be +to leave your religion in the room with the blinds down and the door +bolted, and then you will come back in the autumn to find that it is +starved and suffocated, lying stretched on the rug stark dead. There +is no surplus of piety at the watering-places. I never knew any one to +grow very rapidly in grace at the Catskill Mountain House, or Sharon +Springs, or the Falls of Montmorency. It is generally the case that +the Sabbath is more of a carousal than any other day, and there are +Sunday walks and Sunday rides and Sunday excursions. + +Elders and deacons and ministers of religion who are entirely +consistent at home, sometimes when the Sabbath dawns on them at +Niagara Falls or the White Mountains take the day to themselves. If +they go to the church, it is apt to be a sacred parade, and the +discourse, instead of being a plain talk about the soul, is apt to be +what is called _a crack sermon_--that is, some discourse picked out of +the effusions of the year as the one most adapted to excite +admiration; and in those churches, from the way the ladies hold their +fans, you know that they are not so much impressed with the heat as +with the picturesqueness of half-disclosed features. Four puny souls +stand in the organ-loft and squall a tune that nobody knows, and +worshipers, with two thousand dollars' worth of diamonds on the right +hand, drop a cent into the poor-box, and then the benediction is +pronounced and the farce is ended. + +The toughest thing I ever tried to do was to be good at a +watering-place. The air is bewitched with "the world, the flesh, and +the devil." There are Christians who in three or four weeks in such a +place have had such terrible rents made in their Christian robe that +they had to keep darning it until Christmas to get it mended! The +health of a great many people makes an annual visit to some mineral +spring an absolute necessity; but, my dear people, take your Bible +along with you, and take an hour for secret prayer every day, though +you be surrounded by guffaw and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sabbath, +though they denounce you as a bigoted Puritan. Stand off from those +institutions which propose to imitate on this side the water the +iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let your moral and your immortal health +keep pace with your physical recuperation, and remember that all the +waters of Hathorne and sulphur and chalybeate springs can not do you +so much good as the mineral, healing, perennial flood that breaks +forth from the "Rock of Ages." This may be your last summer. If so, +make it a fit vestibule of heaven. + +II. Another temptation around nearly all our watering-places is the +horse-racing business. We all admire the horse. There needs to be a +redistribution of coronets among the brute creation. For ages the lion +has been called the king of beasts. I knock off its coronet and put +the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether in shape or +spirit or sagacity or intelligence or affection or usefulness. He is +semi-human, and knows how to reason on a small scale. The centaur of +olden times, part horse and part man, seems to be a suggestion of the +fact that the horse is something more than a beast. + +Job sets forth his strength, his beauty, his majesty, the panting of +his nostril, the pawing of his hoof, and his enthusiasm for the +battle. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and what Landseer did +for the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does for the horse. +Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak of him. He comes into every +kingly procession and into every great occasion and into every +triumph. It is very evident that Job and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel +and Jeremiah and John were fond of the horse. He came into much of +their imagery. A red horse--that meant war; a black horse--that meant +famine; a pale horse--that meant death; a white horse--that meant +victory. + +As the Bible makes a favorite of the horse, the patriarch and the +prophet and the evangelist and the apostle, stroking his sleek hide, +and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his exquisitely +formed hoof, and listening with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so +all great natures in all ages have spoken of him in encomiastic terms. +Virgil in his Georgics almost seems to plagiarize from the description +of Job. The Duke of Wellington would not allow any one irreverently to +touch his old war-horse, Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen +hours without dismounting at Waterloo; and when old Copenhagen died, +his master ordered a military salute fired over his grave. John +Howard showed that he did not exhaust all his sympathies in pitying +the human race, for when sick he writes home: "Has my old chaise-horse +become sick or spoiled?" + +But we do not think that the speed of the horse should be cultured at +the expense of human degradation. Horse-races, in olden times, were +under the ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution +has come up under fictitious names, and it is called a "Summer +Meeting," almost suggestive of positive religious exercises. And it is +called an "Agricultural Fair," suggestive of everything that is +improving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are +the same cheating and the same betting, the same drunkenness and the +same vagabondage and the same abominations that were to be found under +the old horse-racing system. + +I never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the +turf for a long reach of time, and not be battered in morals. They +hook up their spanking team, and put on their sporting-cap, and light +their cigar, and take the reins, and dash down the road to perdition. +The great day at Saratoga, and Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly +all the other watering-places, is the day of the races. The hotels are +thronged, nearly every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost +fabulous price, and there are many respectable people mingling with +jockeys, and gamblers, and libertines, and foul-mouthed men and flashy +women. The bar-tender stirs up the brandy-smash. The bets run high. +The greenhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough +to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is +decided, and the men in the secret know on which steed to bet their +money. The two men on the horses riding around long before arranged +who shall beat. + +Leaning from the stand or from the carriage are men and women so +absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle and mettle that they make +a grand harvest for the pickpockets, who carry off the pocket-books +and portemonnaies. Men looking on see only two horses with two riders +flying around the ring; but there is many a man on that stand whose +honor and domestic happiness and fortune--white mane, white foot, +white flank--are in the ring, racing with inebriety, and with fraud, +and with profanity, and with ruin--black neck, black foot, black +flank. Neck and neck they go in that moral Epsom. + +Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse-racing dissipations this +summer. Long ago the English government got through looking to the +turf for the dragoon and light-cavalry horse. They found the turf +depreciates the stock, and it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes, the +member of parliament and the author, known all the world over, hearing +that a new turf enterprise was being started in this country, wrote a +letter, in which he said: "Heaven help you, then; for of all the +cankers of our old civilization there is nothing in this country +approaching in unblushing meanness, in rascality holding its head +high, to this belauded institution of the British turf." Another +famous sportsman writes: "How many fine domains have been shared among +these hosts of rapacious sharks during the last two hundred years; and +unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into +the same gulf!" The Duke of Hamilton, through his horse-racing +proclivities, in three years got through his entire fortune of +£70,000, and I will say that some of you are being undermined by it. +With the bull-fights of Spain and the bear-baitings of the pit may the +Lord God annihilate the infamous and accursed horse-racing of England +and America. + +III. I go further, and speak of another temptation that hovers over +the watering-places; and this is the temptation to sacrifice physical +strength. The modern Bethesda was intended to recuperate the physical +health; and yet how many come from the watering-places, their health +absolutely destroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots boasting of having +imbibed twenty glasses of Congress water before breakfast. Families +accustomed to going to bed at ten o'clock at night gossiping until one +or two o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about +their health, mingling ice-creams, and lemons, and lobster-salads, and +cocoa-nuts, until the gastric juices lift up all their voices of +lamentation and protest. Delicate women and brainless young men +chassezing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and +women coming back from our watering-places in the autumn with the +foundations laid for ailments that will last them all their life long. +You know as well as I do that this is the simple truth. + +In the summer you say to your good health: "Good-bye, I am going to +have a good time for a little while. I will be very glad to see you +again in the autumn." Then in the autumn, when you are hard at work in +your office, or store, or shop, or counting-room, Good Health will +come and say: "Good-bye, I am going." You say: "Where are you going?" +"Oh," says Good Health, "I am going to take a vacation!" It is a poor +rule that will not work both ways, and your good health will leave you +choleric and splenetic and exhausted. You coquetted with your good +health in the summer-time, and your good health is coquetting with you +in the winter-time. A fragment of Paul's charge to the jailer would be +an appropriate inscription for the hotel-register in every +watering-place: "Do thyself no harm." + +IV. Another temptation hovering around the watering-place is to the +formation of hasty and life-long alliances. The watering-places are +responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than +all the other things combined. Society is so artificial there that no +sure judgment of character can be formed. Those who form +companionships amid such circumstances go into a lottery where there +are twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe tug of life you want +more than glitter and splash. Life is not a ball-room where the music +decides the step, and bow and prance and graceful swing of long trail +can make up for strong common sense. You might as well go among the +gayly painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels as to go +among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character +that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah, in +the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a +croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it, +you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper +and a feminine butterfly. + +If there is any man in the community that excites my contempt, and +that ought to excite the contempt of every man and woman, it is the +soft-handed, soft-headed fop, who, perfumed until the air is actually +sick, spends his summer in taking killing attitudes, and waving +sentimental adieus, and talking infinitesimal nothings, and finding +his heaven in the set of a lavender kid-glove. Boots as tight as an +Inquisition, two hours of consummate skill exhibited in the tie of a +flaming cravat, his conversation made up of "Ah's" and "Oh's" and +"He-hee's." It would take five hundred of them stewed down to make a +teaspoonful of calves-foot jelly. There is only one counterpart to +such a man as that, and that is the frothy young woman at the +watering-place, her conversation made up of French moonshine; what she +has on her head only equaled by what she has on her back; useless ever +since she was born, and to be useless until she is dead: and what they +will do with her in the next world I do not know, except to set her +upon the banks of the River Life for eternity to look sweet! God +intends us to admire music and fair faces and graceful step, but amid +the heartlessness and the inflation and the fantastic influences of +our modern watering-places, beware how you make life-long covenants! + +V. Another temptation that will hover over the watering-place is that +of baneful literature. Almost every one starting off for the summer +takes some reading matter. It is a book out of the library or off the +bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking books through the cars. I +really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the +intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten +months of the year. Men and women who at home would not be satisfied +with a book that was not really sensible, I found sitting on +hotel-piazzas or under the trees reading books the index of which +would make them blush if they knew that you knew what the book was. + +"Oh," they say, "you must have intellectual recreation!" Yes. There is +no need that you take along into a watering-place "Hamilton's +Metaphysics" or some thunderous discourse on the eternal decrees, or +"Faraday's Philosophy." There are many easy books that are good. You +might as well say: "I propose now to give a little rest to my +digestive organs; and, instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I +will for a little while take lighter food--a little strychnine and a +few grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in August is as bad as +literary poison in December. Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the +lice of a corrupt printing-press jump and crawl into your Saratoga +trunk or White Mountain valise. + +Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning +some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered +romances--the hero a Parisian _roué_, the heroine an unprincipled +flirt--chapters in the book that you would not read to your children +at the rate of $100 a line? Throw out all that stuff from your summer +baggage. Are there not good books that are easy to read--books of +entertaining travel, books of congenial history, books of pure fun, +books of poetry ringing with merry canto, books of fine engravings, +books that will rest the mind as well as purify the heart and elevate +the whole life? My hearers, there will not be an hour between this +and the day of your death when you can afford to read a book lacking +in moral principle. + +VI. Another temptation hovering all around our watering-places is the +intoxicating beverage. I am told that it is becoming more and more +fashionable for woman to drink. I care not how well a woman may dress, +if she has taken enough of wine to flush her cheek and put glassiness +on her eyes, she is intoxicated. She may be handed into a $2500 +carriage, and have diamonds enough to confound the Tiffanys--she is +intoxicated. She may be a graduate of Packer Institute, and the +daughter of some man in danger of being nominated for the +Presidency--she is drunk. You may have a larger vocabulary than I +have, and you may say in regard to her that she is "convivial," or she +is "merry," or she is "festive," or she is "exhilarated," but you can +not with all your garlands of verbiage cover up the plain fact that it +is an old-fashioned case of drunk. + +Now, the watering-places are full of temptations to men and women to +tipple. At the close of the tenpin or billiard-game they tipple. At +the close of the cotillon they tipple. Seated on the piazza cooling +themselves off they tipple. The tinged glasses come around with bright +straws, and they tipple. First they take "light wines," as they call +them; but "light wines" are heavy enough to debase the appetite. There +is not a very long road between champagne at $5 a bottle and whiskey +at five cents a glass. + +Satan has three or four grades down which he takes men to destruction. +One man he takes up, and through one spree pitches him into eternal +darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom, indeed, can you find a man +who will be such a fool as that. + +When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to a plane. It is +almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly see +it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade, and +it tips only a little toward darkness--just a little. And the first +mile it is claret, and the second mile it is sherry, and the third +mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it +is porter, and the sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets steeper +and steeper and steeper, and the man gets frightened and says, "Oh, +let me get off!" "No," says the conductor, "this is an express train, +and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at +Smashupton." Ah, "look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last +it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." And if any young +man in my congregation should get astray this summer in this direction +it will not be because I have not given him fair warning. + +My friends, whether you tarry at home--which will be quite as safe and +perhaps quite as comfortable--or go into the country, arm yourself +against temptation. The grace of God is the only safe shelter, whether +in town or country. There are watering-places accessible to all of us. +You can not open a book of the Bible without finding out some such +watering-place. Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness; wells of +salvation; streams from Lebanon; a flood struck out of the rock by +Moses; fountains in the wilderness discovered by Hagar; water to +drink and water to bathe in; the river of God, which is full of water; +water of which if a man drink he shall never thirst; wells of water in +the Valley of Baca; living fountains of water; a pure river of water +as clear as crystal from under the throne of God. + +These are watering-places accessible to all of us. We do not have a +laborious packing up before we start--only the throwing away of our +transgressions. No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is "without money +and without price." No long and dirty travel before we get there; it +is only one step away. California in five minutes. I walked around and +saw ten fountains, all bubbling up, and they were all different. And +in five minutes I can get through this Bible _parterre_ and find you +fifty bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up into eternal life. + +A chemist will go to one of these summer watering-places and take the +water and analyze it and tell you that it contains so much of iron, +and so much of soda, and so much of lime, and so much of magnesia. I +come to this Gospel well, this living fountain and analyze the water, +and I find that its ingredients are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hope, +comfort, life, heaven. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye" to this +watering-place! + +Crowd around this Bethesda this morning! Oh, you sick, you lame, you +troubled, you dying--crowd around this Bethesda! Step in it! Oh, step +in it! The angel of the covenant this morning stirs the water. Why do +you not step in it? Some of you are too weak to take a step in that +direction. Then we take you up in the arms of our closing prayer and +plunge you clean under the wave, hoping that the cure may be as sudden +and as radical as with Captain Naaman, who, blotched and carbuncled, +stepped into the Jordan, and after the seventh dive came up, his skin +roseate-complexioned as the flesh of a little child. + + + + +THE BANISHED QUEEN. + + "Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal + house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day + when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded + Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and + Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of + Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king + with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her + beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti + refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains; + therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in + him."--ESTHER i: 9-12. + + +We stand amid the palaces of Shushan. The pinnacles are aflame with +the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth +of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with images +of bird and beast, and scenes of prowess and conquest. The walls are +hung with shields, and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round +of splendors is exhausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural +achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings +of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the +greenness of the grass, and the whiteness of the sea-foam. Tapestries +hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. +Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled +with luxuriant couches, in which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is +submerged. Those for carousal, where kings drink down a kingdom at one +swallow. + +Amazing spectacle! + +Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. +Floors of stained marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with +gleaming pearl. + +In connection with this palace there is a garden, where the mighty men +of foreign lands are seated at a banquet. Under the spread of oak and +linden and acacia the tables are arranged. The breath of honeysuckle +and frankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the +spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon +flowering shrubs--then rolling down through channels of marble, and +widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes +of foreign aquariums, bordered with scarlet anemones, hypericums, and +many-colored ranunculi. + +Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics. +The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with +apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully +twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eulæus filling the +urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the +traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz, in bottles +of tinged shell, and lily-shaped cups of silver, and flagons and +tankards of solid gold. The music rises higher, and the revelry breaks +out into wilder transport, and the wine has flushed the cheek and +touched the brain, and louder than all other voices are the hiccough +of the inebriates, the gabble of fools, and the song of the drunkards. + +In another part of the palace, Queen Vashti is entertaining the +princesses of Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his +servants, "You go out and fetch Vashti from, that banquet with the +women, and bring her to this banquet with the men, and let me display +her beauty." The servants immediately start to obey the king's +command; but there was a rule in Oriental society that no woman might +appear in public without having her face veiled. Yet here was a +mandate that no one dare dispute, demanding that Vashti come in +unveiled before the multitude. However, there was in Vashti's soul a +principle more regal than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than the gold of +Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her +to disobey this order of the king; and so all the righteousness and +holiness and modesty of her nature rise up into one sublime refusal. +She says, "I will not go into the banquet unveiled." Ahasuerus was +infuriate; and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is +driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation, and +yet to receive the applause of after generations, who shall rise up to +admire this martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the last vestige of that +feast is gone; the last garland has faded; the last arch has fallen; +the last tankard has been destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but as +long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, +familiar with the Bible, who will come into this picture-gallery of +God and admire the divine portrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti the +veiled, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent. + +I. In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti the queen. A +blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated +her queenly position. It was no small honor to be queen in such a +realm as that. Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her +jewels! And yet, my friends, it is not necessary to have place and +regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with stout faith +in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and godless +display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by a grand +and a glorious service, I say: "That woman is a queen," and the ranks +of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation; and whether +she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the +fashionable square, I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen +Vashti!" + +What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of +England, or Margaret of France, or Catherine of Russia, compared with +the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into +glory?--or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all +into the Lord's treasury?--or of Jephtha's daughter, who made a +demonstration of unselfish patriotism?--or of Abigail, who rescued the +herds and flocks of her husband?--or of Ruth, who toiled under a +tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi?--or of Florence +Nightingale, who went at midnight to stanch the battle wounds of the +Crimea?--or of Mrs. Adoniram Judson, who kindled the lights of +salvation amid the darkness of Burmah?--or of Mrs. Hemans, who poured +out her holy soul in words which will forever be associated with +hunter's horn, and captive's chain, and bridal hour, and lute's throb, +and curfew's knell at the dying day?--and scores and hundreds of +women, unknown on earth, who have given water to the thirsty, and +bread to the hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles to the +discouraged--their footsteps heard along dark lane and in government +hospital, and in almshouse corridor, and by prison gate? There may be +no royal robe--there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not +need them; for all charitable men will unite with the crackling lips +of fever-struck hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in greeting her +as she passes: "Hail! Hail! Queen Vashti!" + +II. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared +before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she +would have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the +very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come, in their +sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive +best in the dark lane and in the shadow, and where the sun does not +seem to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures a retiring +and unobtrusive spirit. + +God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to +strike the timbrel at the front of a host, or a Marie Antoinette to +quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at the front of an armed +battalion, crying out, "Up! Up! This is the day in which the Lord will +deliver Sisera into thy hands." And when the women are called to such +out-door work and to such heroic positions, God prepares them for it; +and they have iron in their soul, and lightnings in their eye, and +whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord +Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though +they were hedges of wild-flowers, and cross seas as though they were +shimmering sapphire; and all the harpies of hell down to their dungeon +at the stamp of womanly indignation. + +But these are the exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather make a +garment for the poor boy; Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the +camels; Hannah would rather make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid +would rather give a prescription for Naaman's leprosy; the woman of +Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks to cook a meal for famished +Elijah; Phebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle; +Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures. When I see +a woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity presiding at +the table, with kind and gentle, but firm discipline presiding in the +nursery, going out into the world without any blast of trumpets, +following in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good--I say: +"This is Vashti with a veil on." + +But when I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a +tongue of infinite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing +through the streets with the step of a walking-beam, gayly arrayed in +a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out: "Vashti has lost her veil!" +When I see a woman struggling for political preferment--trying to +force her way on up to the ballot-box, amid the masculine demagogues +who stand, with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and pestiferous +breath, to guard the polls--wanting to go through the loaferism and +the defilement of popular sovereigns, who crawl up from the saloons +greasy and foul and vermin-covered, to decide questions of justice and +order and civilization--when I see a woman, I say, who wants to press +through all that horrible scum to get to the ballot-box, I say: "Ah, +what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil!" + +When I see a woman of comely features, and of adroitness of intellect, +and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high +social position, yet moving in society with superciliousness and +_hauteur_, as though she would have people know their place, and with +an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed +with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic +infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and railroad +conductors, discoverers of significant meanings in plain conversation, +prodigies of badinage and innuendo--I say: "Vashti has lost her veil." + +III. Again, I want you this morning to consider Vashti the sacrifice. +Who is this that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It +seems to me that I have seen her before. She comes homeless, +houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? +It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh! what a change it was from regal +position to a wayfarer's crust! A little while ago, approved and +sought for; now, none so poor as to acknowledge her acquaintanceship. +Vashti the sacrifice! + +Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home empalaced with +beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home +has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking +hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will +flounder and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter's net--further +away from God, further away from the right. Soon the bright apparel of +the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become +the sobbing of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal +Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapithæ. The house full of +outrage and cruelty and abomination, while trudging forth from the +palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes represented +in this house this morning that are in danger of such breaking-up. Oh, +Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a home, by a dissipated life +destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your +children should ever have to wring their hands, and have people point +their finger at them as they pass down the street, and say, "There +goes a drunkard's child." God forbid that the little feet should ever +have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness! God forbid that +any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or the brandy-glass should come +forth and uproot that garden, and with a lasting, blistering, +all-consuming curse, shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and +the children. + +One night during the war I went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and +I stood on a hill-top and looked down upon them. I saw the camp-fires +all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird +spectacle, those camp-fires, and I stood and watched them; and the +soldiers who were gathered around them were, no doubt, talking of +their homes, and of the long march they had taken, and of the battles +they were to fight; but after awhile I saw these camp-fires begin to +lower; and they continued to lower, until they were all gone out, and +the army slept. It was imposing when I saw the camp-fires; it was +imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep. +Well, God looks down from heaven, and He sees the fireside of +Christendom and the loved ones gathered around these firesides. These +are the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at the close of day, and +talk over the battles of life we have fought and the battles that are +yet to come. God grant that when at last these fires begin to go out, +and continue to lower until finally they are extinguished, and the +ashes of consumed hopes strew the hearth of the old homestead, it may +be because we have + + "Gone to sleep that last long sleep, + From which none ever wake to weep." + +Now we are an army on the march of life. Then we shall be an army +bivouacked in the tent of the grave. + +IV. Once more: I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not +hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace +gate. From the very dignity of her nature, you know there will be no +vociferation. Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; +sometimes in life it is necessary to resist; but there are crises when +the most triumphant thing to do is to keep silence. The philosopher, +confident in his newly discovered principle, waited for the coming of +more intelligent generations, willing that men should laugh at the +lightning-rod and cotton-gin and steam-boat--waiting for long years +through the scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand and +magnificent silence. + +Galileo, condemned by mathematicians and monks and cardinals, +caricatured everywhere, yet waiting and watching with his telescope to +see the coming up of stellar reenforcements, when the stars in their +courses would fight for the Copernican system; then sitting down in +complete blindness and deafness to wait for the coming on of the +generations who would build his monument and bow at his grave. The +reformer, execrated by his contemporaries, fastened in a pillory, the +slow fires of public contempt burning under him, ground under the +cylinders of the printing-press, yet calmly waiting for the day when +purity of soul and heroism of character will get the sanction of earth +and the plaudits of heaven. + +Affliction enduring without any complaint the sharpness of the pang, +and the violence of the storm, and the heft of the chain, and the +darkness of the night--waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth +to soothe the pang, and hush the storm, and release the captive. A +wife abused, persecuted, and a perpetual exile from every earthly +comfort--waiting, waiting, until the Lord shall gather up His dear +children in a heavenly home, and no poor Vashti will ever be thrust +out from the palace gate. + +Jesus, in silence and answering not a word, drinking the gall, bearing +the cross, in prospect of the rapturous consummation when + + "Angels thronged their chariot wheel, + And bore Him to His throne, + Then swept their golden harps and sung, + 'The glorious work is done!'" + +Oh, woman! does not this story of Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled, +Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your soul? My sermon +converges into the one absorbing hope that none of you may be shut out +of the palace gate of heaven. You can endure the hardships, and the +privations, and the cruelties, and the misfortunes of this life if you +can only gain admission there. Through the blood of the everlasting +covenant you go through those gates, or never go at all. God forbid +that you should at last be banished from the society of angels, and +banished from the companionship of your glorified kindred, and +banished forever. Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may +you be enabled to imitate the example of Rachel, and Hannah, and +Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Esther, and Vashti. + + + + +THE DAY WE LIVE IN. + + "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a + time as this?"--ESTHER iv. 14. + + +Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The +time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in +behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was +afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but +her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the +suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that +peculiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work; you and I +have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women +you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the age in which +God has cast your lot. If you have come expecting to hear abstractions +discussed, or dry technicalities of religion glorified, you have come +to the wrong church; but if you really would like to know what this +age has a right to expect of you as Christian men and women, then I am +ready in the Lord's name to look you in the face. When two armies have +rushed into battle the officers of either army do not want a +philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood +or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the batteries +and swab out the guns. And now, when all the forces of light and +darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged into the fight, it is no +time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and +technicalities and conventionalities of religion. + +What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic, and +triumphant help. + +I. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this +age, you need to be an unmistakably aggressive Christian. Of +half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The Church of Jesus +Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief +obstacle to the Church's advancement. I am speaking of another kind of +Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian +are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad +daylight of God's forgiveness. You may have come into this Tabernacle +the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you go out of these doors +you may become princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what +excitement there was in this country, years ago, when the Prince of +Wales came here--how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to +see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon +the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the +honor to which God calls you--to be sons and daughters of the Lord +Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings unto God? "They shall reign with +Him forever and forever." + +But, my friends, you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like +those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces +and wondering why they do not make any progress. How much robustness +of health would a man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great +deal of the piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It +needs more fresh air, more out-door exercise. There are many +Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They +are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their +spiritual health. How long would a man have robust physical health if +he kept all the days and weeks and months and years of his life +feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, every-day +work? + +I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North +Carolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and +yet when I would take up one of these cactuses and pull the leaves +apart, the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever +been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day +just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in +them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of +self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their +Christian character. I remember when I was a boy I used to have a +small piece in the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn +there, and every few days I would pull it up to see how fast it was +growing. Now, there are a great many Christian people in this day +whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which +they only yesterday or the day before planted. + +O my friends! if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, +plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian +usefulness, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun +of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a +great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. I +have no patience with these flower-pot Christians. They keep +themselves under shelter, and all their Christian experience in a +small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great +garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic +with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the Church of God is +more brawn of piety. + +The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, +but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets +whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom; so I have +really more heartfelt admiration when I see the dewy tears in the blue +eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christian friends, +time is going by so rapidly that we can not afford to be idle. + +A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only +thirty-two years. From these thirty-two years you must subtract all +the time you take for sleep and the taking of food and recreation; +that will leave you about sixteen years. From those sixteen years you +must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the +earning of a livelihood; that will leave you about eight years. From +those eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months--all +the length of time that is passed in childhood and sickness, leaving +you about one year in which to work for God. Oh, my soul, wake up! +How darest thou sleep in harvest-time and with so few hours in which +to reap? So that I state it as a simple fact that all the time that +the vast majority of you will have for the exclusive service of God +will be less than one year! + +"But," says some man, "I liberally support the Gospel, and the church +is open and the Gospel is preached: all the spiritual advantages are +spread before men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be +saved; I have discharged all my responsibility." Ah! is that the +Master's spirit? Is there not an old Book somewhere that commands us +to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to +come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come +down off the hills of heaven, and if He had not come through the door +of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if He had not with the crushed hand +of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our +spiritual death, crying, "Lazarus, come forth"? Oh, my Christian +friends, this is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness +seem to be in full blast; when steam printing-presses are publishing +infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers +of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the +night-air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up +from the ten thousand saloons of dissipation and abandonment; when the +fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some +who, only a little while ago, were incorrupt. Oh, never since the +curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an +unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the Church to sleep! +The great audiences are not gathered in the Christian churches; the +great audiences are gathered in temples of sin--tears of unutterable +woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their +sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world +the organ dirge of their worship. + +II. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this +age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless +iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick too much to things because +they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories +of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many +Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their +confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are +useless, and they are unhappy. New plans--secular, ethical, +philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic--long enough to +make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake +City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is +new. Try it by the realities of a Judgment Day. + +But, on the other hand, do not adhere to any thing merely because it +is old. There is not a single enterprise of the Church or the world +but has sometimes been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided +even Bible societies; and when a few young men met near a hay-stack in +Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever +organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around +the Christian Church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And +so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who +ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever +noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of +mysterious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and +Gennesaret, and he drew his illustration from the lakes, from the +sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the corn-stalks. How the +Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! How Caiaphas hissed! And this +Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they spat in his face, and they +called him "this fellow!" All the great enterprises in and out of the +Church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great +multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall +to pieces if it once got out of the old rut. + +And so there are those who have no patience with anything like +improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, +hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious +discussion which goes down walking among every-day men rather than +that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the +Church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! We must admit +the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not +reach the great masses. There are fifty thousand people in Edinburgh +who never hear the Gospel. There are one million people in London who +never hear the Gospel. There are at least three hundred thousand souls +in the city of Brooklyn who come not under the immediate ministrations +of Christ's truth; and the Church of God in this day, instead of being +a place full of living epistles, read and known of all men, is more +like a "dead-letter" post-office. + +"But," say the people, "the world is going to be converted; you must +be patient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of +Christ," Never, unless the Church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed +and energy. Instead of the Church converting the world, the world is +converting the Church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it be +taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off the supplies, +and says: "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation +they will have to give up." Weeks and months, and perhaps a year, pass +along, and finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and +exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be +taken in that way. If they are taken for God it will be by storm; you +will have to bring up the great siege guns of the Gospel to the very +wall and wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed +infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to +give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!" + +Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order +to this grand accomplishment! Here is my pulpit, and I preach in it. +Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit is the +editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house +scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanic's shop. I may stand in this +place and, through cowardice or through self-seeking, may keep back +the word I ought to utter; while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow +besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations +of heaven with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that this morning +this whole audience might feel that the Lord Almighty was putting upon +them the hands of ordination. I tell you, every one, go forth and +preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as +any man has. Only find out the pulpit where God will have you preach, +and there preach. + +Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God +came to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed +at him, and said: "You are a hypocrite; you are as bad as ever you +were." Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding +that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they +said to him: "Oh, you are nothing but a Methodist." That did not +disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had +formed all his troop into a Bible-class, and the whole encampment was +shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen +temple in India while the English army was there, and put a candle +into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the +heathen temple, and by the light of those candles, held up by the +idols, General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance, and +judgment to come. And who will say, on earth or in Heaven, that +Havelock had not the right to preach? + +In the minister's house where I prepared for college, there was a man +who worked, by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor +write, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the +house--grave theologians--and at family prayers Peter Croy would be +called upon to lead; and all those wise men sat around, wonder-struck +at his religious efficiency. When he prayed he reached up and seemed +to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with +God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting-room. Oh, +if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my +bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatest +archbishop, arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach this Gospel. You +say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, this +morning, I license you. Go preach this Gospel--preach it in the +Sabbath-schools, in the prayer-meetings, in the highways, in the +hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not. + +III. I remark, again, that in order to be qualified to meet your duty +in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the +truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian Church +ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How +long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom or +shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when He once arises in +His strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity? Between this +time and that there may be long seasons of darkness--the +chariot-wheels of God's Gospel may seem to drag heavily; but here is +the promise, and yonder is the throne; and when Omniscience has lost +its eyesight, and Omnipotence falls back impotent, and Jehovah is +driven from His throne, then the Church of Jesus Christ can afford to +be despondent, but never until then. Despots may plan and armies may +march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are +adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the +earth are only the dust of the chariot-wheels of God's providence. + +I think that before the sun of this century shall set the last tyranny +will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the +astonishment of the universe God will set forth the brightness and +pomp and glory and perpetuity of His eternal government. Out of the +starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a +path for His own triumph, and, returning from universal conquest, He +will sit down, the grandest, strongest, highest throne of earth His +footstool. + + "Then shall all nations' song ascend + To Thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend, + Till heaven's high arch resounds again + With 'Peace on earth, good will to men.'" + +I preach this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers +in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on! march +on! His Spirit will bless you. His shield will defend you. His sword +will strike for you. March on! march on! The despotism will fall, and +paganism will burn its idols, and Mohammedanism will give up its false +prophet, and Judaism will confess the true Messiah, and the great +walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at the long, +loud blast of the Gospel trumpet. March on! march on! The besiegement +will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few +more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries, then God will put the +laurel upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will +bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March +on! march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid +the outflashings of the judgment throne, and the trumpeting of +resurrection angels, and the upheaving of a world of graves, and the +hosanna and the groaning of the saved and the lost, we shall be +rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our stupidity. Blessed +be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the +whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. + + + + +CAPITAL AND LABOR. + + "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so + to them."--MATT. vii: 12. + + +The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. +The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty +Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five +continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this +country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of +power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are +diminishing; and if things go on at the same ratio as they are now +going, it will not be very long before there will be no middle class +in this country, but all will be very rich or very poor, princes or +paupers, and the country will be given up to palaces and hovels. + +The antagonistic forces are closing in upon each other. The +telegraphic operators' strikes, the railroad employés' strikes, the +Pennsylvania miners' strikes, the movements of the Boycotters and the +dynamiters are only skirmishes before a general engagement, or, if you +prefer it, escapes through the safety-valves of an imprisoned force +which promises the explosion of society. You may pooh-pooh it; you may +say that this trouble, like an angry child, will cry itself to sleep; +you may belittle it by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. +Simonism, or Nihilism, or Communism; but that will not hinder the fact +that it is the mightiest, the darkest, the most terrific threat of +this century. All attempts at pacification have been dead failures, +and monopoly is more arrogant, and the trades unions more bitter. +"Give us more wages," cry the employés. "You shall have less," say the +capitalists. "Compel us to do fewer hours of toil in a day." "You +shall toil more hours," say the others. "Then, under certain +conditions, we will not work at all," say these. "Then you shall +starve," say those, and the workmen gradually using up that which they +accumulated in better times, unless there be some radical change, we +shall have soon in this country three million hungry men and women. +Now, three million hungry people can not be kept quiet. All the +enactments of legislatures and all the constabularies of the cities, +and all the army and navy of the United States can not keep three +million hungry people quiet. What then? Will this war between capital +and labor be settled by human wisdom? Never. The brow of the one +becomes more rigid, the fist of the other more clinched. + +But that which human wisdom can not achieve will be accomplished by +Christianity if it be given full sway. You have heard of medicines so +powerful that one drop would stop a disease and restore a patient; and +I have to tell you that one drop of my text properly administered will +stop all those woes of society and give convalescence and complete +health to all classes. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them." + +I shall first show you this morning how this quarrel between monopoly +and hard work can not be stopped, and then I will show you how this +controversy will be settled. + +Futile remedies. In the first place, there will come no pacification +to this trouble through an outcry against rich men merely because they +are rich. There is no member of a trades-union on earth that would not +be rich if he could be. Sometimes through a fortunate invention, or +through some accident of prosperity, a man who had nothing comes to +large estate, and we see him arrogant and supercilious, and taking +people by the throat just as other people took him by the throat. +There is something very mean about human nature when it comes to the +top. But it is no more a sin to be rich than it is a sin to be poor. +There are those who have gathered a great estate through fraud, and +then there are millionaires who have gathered their fortune through +foresight in regard to changes in the markets, and through brilliant +business faculty, and every dollar of their estate is as honest as the +dollar which the plumber gets for mending a pipe, or the mason gets +for building a wall. There are those who keep in poverty because of +their own fault. They might have been well-off, but they smoked or +chewed up their earnings, or they lived beyond their means, while +others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to +competency. I know a man who is all the time complaining of his +poverty and crying out against rich men, while he himself keeps two +dogs, and chews and smokes, and is filled to the chin with whisky and +beer! + +Micawber said to David Copperfield: "Copperfield, my boy, one pound +income, twenty shillings and sixpence expenses: result misery. But, +Copperfield, my boy, one pound income, expenses nineteen shillings and +sixpence; result, happiness." And there are vast multitudes of people +who are kept poor because they are the victims of their own +improvidence. It is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin to be poor. I +protest against this outcry which I hear against those who, through +economy and self-denial and assiduity, have come to large fortune. +This bombardment of commercial success will never stop this quarrel +between capital and labor. + +Neither will the contest be settled by cynical and unsympathetic +treatment of the laboring classes. There are those who speak of them +as though they were only cattle or draught horses. Their nerves are +nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing, their happiness is +nothing. They have no more sympathy for them than a hound has for a +hare, or a hawk for a hen, or a tiger for a calf. When Jean Valjean, +the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after a life of suffering +and brave endurance, goes into incarceration and death, they clap the +book shut and say, "Good for him!" They stamp their feet with +indignation and say just the opposite of "Save the working-classes." +They have all their sympathies with Shylock, and not with Antonio and +Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feelings are infernal. They are +filled with irritation and irascibility on this subject. To stop this +awful imbroglio between capital and labor they will lift not so much +as the tip end of the little finger. + +Neither will there be any pacification of this angry controversy +through violence. God never blessed murder. + +The poorest use you can put a man to is to kill him. Blow up to-morrow +all the country-seats on the banks of the Hudson, and all the fine +houses on Madison Square, and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill, and +Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon Street, and all the bricks and timber +and stone will just fall back on the bare head of American labor. The +worst enemies of the working-classes in the United States and Ireland +are their demented coadjutors. Assassination--the assassination of +Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, +Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned +away from that afflicted people millions of sympathizers. The recent +attempt to blow up the House of Commons, in London, had only this +effect: to throw out of employment tens of thousands of innocent Irish +people in England. + +In this country the torch put to the factories that have discharged +hands for good or bad reason; obstructions on the rail-track in front +of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the +president of the company; strikes on shipboard the hour they were +going to sail, or in printing-offices the hour the paper was to go to +press, or in mines the day the coal was to be delivered, or on house +scaffoldings so the builder fails in keeping his contract--all these +are only a hard blow on the head of American labor, and cripple its +arms, and lame its feet, and pierce its heart. Take the last great +strike in America--the telegraph operators' strike--and you have to +find that the operators lost four hundred thousand dollars' worth of +wages, and have had poorer wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly +upon employers, and violence, never took one knot out of the knuckle +of toil, or put one farthing of wages into a callous palm. Barbarism +will never cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark that! + +Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and +he resolved to get it. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller +three times the value of the property. The miller would not take it, +because it was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt +about his vineyard when Ahab wanted it. Frederick the Great was a +rough and terrible man, and he ordered the miller into his presence; +and the king, with a stick, in his hand--a stick with which he +sometimes struck his officers of state--said to this miller: "Now, I +have offered you three times the value of that property, and if you +won't sell it I'll take it anyhow." The miller said, "Your majesty, +you won't." "Yes," said the king, "I will take it." "Then," said the +miller, "if your majesty does take it, I will sue you in the Chancery +Court." At that threat Frederick the Great yielded his infamous +demand. And the most imperious outrage against the working-classes +will yet cower before the law. Violence and contrary to the law will +never accomplish anything, but righteousness and according to law will +accomplish it. + +Well, if this controversy between Capital and Labor can not be settled +by human wisdom, if to-day Capital and Labor stand with their thumbs +on each other's throat--as they do--it is time for us to look +somewhere else for relief, and it points from my text roseate and +jubilant, and puts one hand on the broadcloth shoulder of Capital, and +puts the other hand on the homespun-covered shoulder of Toil, and +says, with a voice that will grandly and gloriously settle this, and +settle everything, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do +ye even so to them." That is, the lady of the household will say: "I +must treat the maid in the kitchen just as I would like to be treated +if I were down-stairs, and it were my work to wash, and cook, and +sweep, and it were the duty of the maid in the kitchen to preside in +this parlor." The maid in the kitchen must say: "If my employer seems +to be more prosperous than I, that is no fault of hers; I shall not +treat her as an enemy. I will have the same industry and fidelity +down-stairs as I would expect from my subordinates, if I happened to +be the wife of a silk importer." + +The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before +leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing +into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there +stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and +the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in +here. You look very much exhausted. I hear your child is sick with +scarlet fever. If you want your wages a little earlier this week, so +as to pay the nurse and get the medicines, just come into my office +any time." + +After awhile, crash goes the money market, and there is no more demand +for the articles manufactured in that iron mill, and the owner does +not know what to do. He says, "Shall I stop the mill, or shall I run +it on half time, or shall I cut down the men's wages?" He walks the +floor of his counting-room all day, hardly knowing what to do. Toward +evening he calls all the laborers together. They stand all around, +some with arms akimbo, some with folded arms, wondering what the boss +is going to do now. The manufacturer says: "Men, times are very hard; +I don't make twenty dollars where I used to make one hundred. Somehow, +there is no demand now for what we manufacture, or but very little +demand. You see I am at vast expense, and I have called you together +this afternoon to see what you would advise. I don't want to shut up +the mill, because that would force you out of work, and you have +always been very faithful, and I like you, and you seem to like me, +and the bairns must be looked after, and your wife will after awhile +want a new dress. I don't know what to do." + +There is a dead halt for a minute or two, and then one of the workmen +steps out from the ranks of his fellows, and says: "Boss, you have +been very good to us, and when you prospered we prospered, and now you +are in a tight place and I am sorry, and we have got to sympathize +with you. I don't know how the others feel, but I propose that we take +off twenty per cent. from our wages, and that when the times get good +you will remember us and raise them again." The workman looks around +to his comrades, and says: "Boys, what do you say to this? all in +favor of my proposition will say ay." "Ay! ay! ay!" shout two hundred +voices. + +But the mill-owner, getting in some new machinery, exposes himself +very much, and takes cold, and it settles into pneumonia, and he dies. +In the procession to the tomb are all the workmen, tears rolling down +their cheeks, and off upon the ground; but an hour before the +procession gets to the cemetery the wives and the children of those +workmen are at the grave waiting for the arrival of the funeral +pageant. The minister of religion may have delivered an eloquent +eulogium before they started from the house, but the most impressive +things are said that day by the working-classes standing around the +tomb. + +That night in all the cabins of the working-people where they have +family prayers the widowhood and the orphanage in the mansion are +remembered. No glaring populations look over the iron fence of the +cemetery; but, hovering over the scene, the benediction of God and man +is coming for the fulfillment of the Christlike injunction, +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them." + +"Oh," says some man here, "that is all Utopian, that is apocryphal, +that is impossible." No. Yesterday, I cut out of a paper this: "One of +the pleasantest incidents recorded in a long time is reported from +Sheffield, England. The wages of the men in the iron works at +Sheffield are regulated by a board of arbitration, by whose decision +both masters and men are bound. For some time past the iron and steel +trade has been extremely unprofitable, and the employers can not, +without much loss, pay the wages fixed by the board, which neither +employers nor employed have the power to change. To avoid this +difficulty, the workmen in one of the largest steel works in Sheffield +hit upon a device as rare as it was generous. They offered to work for +their employers one week without any pay whatever. How much better +that plan is than a strike would be." + +But you go with me and I will show you--not so far off as Sheffield, +England--factories, banking-houses, storehouses, and costly +enterprises where this Christ-like injunction of my text is fully +kept, and you could no more get the employer to practice an injustice +upon his men, or the men to conspire against the employer, than you +could get your right hand and your left hand, your right eye and your +left eye, your right ear and your left ear, into physiological +antagonism. Now, where is this to begin? In our homes, in our stores, +on our farms--not waiting for other people to do their duty. Is there +a divergence now between the parlor and the kitchen? Then there is +something wrong, either in the parlor or the kitchen, perhaps in both. +Are the clerks in your store irate against the firm? Then there is +something wrong, either behind the counter, or in the private office, +or perhaps in both. + +The great want of the world to-day is the fulfillment of this +Christ-like injunction, that which He promulgated in His sermon +Olivetic. All the political economists under the arch or vault of the +heavens in convention for a thousand years can not settle this +controversy between monopoly and hard work, between capital and labor. +During the Revolutionary War there was a heavy piece of timber to be +lifted, perhaps for some fortress, and a corporal was overseeing the +work, and he was giving commands to some soldiers as they lifted: +"Heave away, there! yo heave!" Well, the timber was too heavy; they +could not get it up. There was a gentleman riding by on a horse, and +he stopped and said to this corporal, "Why don't you help them lift? +That timber is too heavy for them to lift." "No," he said, "I won't; +I am a corporal." The gentleman got off his horse and came up to the +place. "Now," he said to the soldiers, "all together--yo heave!" and +the timber went to its place. "Now," said the gentleman to the +corporal, "when you have a piece of timber too heavy for the men to +lift, and you want help, you send to your commander-in-chief." It was +Washington. Now, that is about all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of +giving somebody a lift, a lift out of darkness, a lift out of earth +into heaven. That is all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of helping +somebody else to lift. + +"Oh," says some wiseacre, "talk as you will, the law of demand and +supply will regulate these things until the end of time." No, they +will not, unless God dies and the batteries of the Judgment Day are +spiked, and Pluto and Proserpine, king and queen of the infernal +regions, take full possession of this world. Do you know who Supply +and Demand are? They have gone into partnership, and they propose to +swindle this earth and are swindling it. You are drowning. Supply and +Demand stand on the shore, one on one side, the other on the other +side, of the life-boat, and they cry out to you, "Now, you pay us what +we ask you for getting you to shore, or go to the bottom!" If you can +borrow $5000 you can keep from failing in business. Supply and Demand +say, "Now, you pay us exorbitant usury, or you go into bankruptcy." +This robber firm of Supply and Demand say to you: "The crops are +short. We bought up all the wheat and it is in our bin. Now, you pay +our price or starve." That is your magnificent law of supply and +demand. + +Supply and Demand own the largest mill on earth, and all the rivers +roll over their wheel, and into their hopper they put all the men, +women, and children they can shovel out of the centuries, and the +blood and the bones redden the valley while the mill grinds. That +diabolic law of supply and demand will yet have to stand aside, and +instead thereof will come the law of love, the law of cooperation, the +law of kindness, the law of sympathy, the law of Christ. + +Have you no idea of the coming of such a time? Then you do not believe +the Bible. All the Bible is full of promises on this subject, and as +the ages roll on the time will come when men or fortune will be giving +larger sums to humanitarian and evangelistic purposes, and there will +be more James Lenoxes and Peter Coopers and William E. Dodges and +George Peabodys. As that time comes there will be more parks, more +picture-galleries, more gardens thrown open for the holiday people and +the working-classes. + +I was reading only this morning in regard to a charge that had been +made in England against Lambeth Palace, that it was exclusive; and +that charge demonstrated the sublime fact that to the grounds of that +wealthy estate eight hundred poor families have free passes, and forty +croquet companies, and on the hall-day holidays four thousand poor +people recline on the grass, walk through the paths, and sit under the +trees. That is Gospel--Gospel on the wing, Gospel out-of-doors worth +just as much as in-doors. That time is going to come. + +That is only a hint of what is going to be. The time is going to come +when, if you have anything in your house worth looking at--pictures, +pieces of sculpture--you are going to invite me to come and see it, +you are going to invite my friends to come and see it, and you will +say, "See what I have been blessed with. God has given me this, and so +far as enjoying it, it is yours also." That is Gospel. + +In crossing the Alleghany Mountains, many years ago, the stage halted, +and Henry Clay dismounted from the stage, and went out on a rock at +the very verge of the cliff, and he stood there with his cloak wrapped +about him, and he seemed to be listening for something. Some one said +to him, "What are you listening for?" Standing there, on the top of +the mountain, he said: "I am listening to the tramp of the footsteps +of the coming millions of this continent." A sublime posture for an +American statesman! You and I to-day stand on the mountain-top of +privilege, and on the Rock of Ages, and we look off, and we hear +coming from the future the happy industries, and smiling populations, +and the consecrated fortunes, and the innumerable prosperities of the +closing nineteenth and the opening twentieth century. + +While I speak this morning, there lies in state the dead author and +patriot of France, Victor Hugo. The ten thousand dollars in his will +he has given to the poor of the city are only a hint of the work he +has done for all nations and for all times. I wonder not that they +allow eleven days to pass between his death and his burial, his body +meantime kept under triumphal arch, for the world can hardly afford to +let go this man who for more than eight decades has by his +unparalleled genius blessed it. His name shall be a terror to all +despots, and an encouragement to all the struggling. He has made the +world's burden lighter, and its darkness less dense, and its chain +less galling, and its thrones of iniquity less secure. Farewell, +patriot, genius of the century, Victor Hugo! But he was not the +overtowering friend of mankind. + +The greatest friend of capitalist and toiler, and the one who will yet +bring them together in complete accord, was born one Christmas night +while the curtains of heaven swung, stirred by the wings angelic. +Owner of all things--all the continents, all worlds, and all the +islands of light. Capitalist of immensity, crossing over to our +condition. Coming into our world, not by gate of palace, but by door +of barn. Spending His first night amid the shepherds. Gathering after +around Him the fishermen to be His chief attendants. With adze, and +saw, and chisel, and ax, and in a carpenter-shop showing himself +brother with the tradesmen. Owner of all things, and yet on a hillock +back of Jerusalem one day resigning everything for others, keeping not +so much as a shekel to pay for His obsequies, by charity buried in the +suburbs of a city that had cast Him out. Before the cross of such a +capitalist, and such a carpenter, all men can afford to shake hands +and worship. Here is the every man's Christ. None so high, but He was +higher. None so poor, but He was poorer. At His feet the hostile +extremes will yet renounce their animosities, and countenances which +have glowered with the prejudices and revenge of centuries shall +brighten with the smile of heaven as He commands: "Whatsoever ye would +that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." + + + + +DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE. + + "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are + done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power; but they had no + comforter."--ECCLES. iv: 1. + + +Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for +women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace +showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at +Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the +Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned +by some member of his royal family. So let the toiler everywhere be +respected! + +The needle has slain more than the sword. When the sewing-machine was +invented some thought that invention would alleviate woman's toil and +put an end to the despotism of the needle. But no; while the +sewing-machine has been a great blessing to well-to-do families in +many cases, it has added to the stab of the needle the crush of the +wheel; and multitudes of women, notwithstanding the re-enforcement of +the sewing-machines, can only make, work hard as they will, between +two dollars and three dollars per week. + +The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents +was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, +in their perfect state, might have got along without work, or only +such slight employment as a perfect garden with no weeds in it +demanded. But as soon as they had sinned, the best thing for them was +to be turned out where they would have to work. We know what a +withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to do. Old Ashbel +Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: "I +do so to keep out of mischief." We see that a man who has a large +amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand +prosperous and honorable men that you know, nine hundred and +ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to +tell you that industry is just as important for a woman's safety and +happiness. The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are those +who have no engagements to call them up in the morning; who, once +having risen and breakfasted, lounge through the dull forenoon in +slippers down at the heel and with disheveled hair, reading Ouida's +last novel, and who, having dragged through a wretched forenoon and +taken their afternoon sleep, and having passed an hour and a half at +their toilet, pick up their card-case and go out to make calls, and +who pass their evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break up +the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in so dark a +dungeon as that. + +There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may be with hand, it may be +with brain, it may be with foot; but work she must, or be wretched +forever. The little girls of our families must be started with that +idea. + +The curse of American society is that our young women are taught that +the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, +fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take +care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under +God they may take care of themselves. The simple fact is that a +majority of them do have to take care of themselves, and that, too, +after having, through the false notions of their parents, wasted the +years in which they ought to have learned how successfully to maintain +themselves. We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and +outrage of that father and mother who pass their daughters into +womanhood, having given them no facility for earning their livelihood. +Madame de Staël said: "It is not these writings that I am proud of, +but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of +which I could make a livelihood." You say you have a fortune to leave +them. Oh, man and woman, have you not learned that like vultures, like +hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and fly away? Though you should +be successful in leaving a competency behind you, the trickery of +executors may swamp it in a night? or some officials in our churches +may get up a mining company and induce your orphans to put their money +into a hole in Colorado, and if by the most skillful machinery the +sunken money can not be brought up again, prove to them, that it was +eternally decreed that that was the way they were to lose it, and that +it went in the most orthodox and heavenly style. Oh, the damnable +schemes that professed Christians will engage in until God puts His +fingers into the collar of the hypocrite's robe and strips it clear +down to the bottom! You have no right, because you are well off, to +conclude that your children are going to be as well off. A man died +leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead in a Philadelphia +grog-shop. His old comrades came in and said as they bent over his +corpse: "What is the matter with you, Boggsey?" The surgeon standing +over him said: "Hush ye! He is dead!" "Oh, he is dead," they said. +"Come, boys; let us go and take a drink in memory of poor Boggsey!" +Have you nothing better than money to leave your children? If you have +not, but send your daughters into the world with empty brain and +unskilled hand, you are guilty of assassination, homicide, regicide, +infanticide. + +There are women toiling in our cities for two and three dollars per +week who were the daughters of merchant princes. These suffering ones +now would be glad to have the crumbs that once fell from their +fathers' table. That worn-out, broken shoe that she wears is the +lineal descendant of the twelve-dollar gaiters in which her mother +walked; and that torn and faded calico had ancestry of magnificent +brocade that swept Broadway clean without any expense to the street +commissioners. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare +sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to +them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society +that, though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and +make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing +anything for a livelihood is dishonorable. It is a shame for a young +woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father +toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to +be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It is as honorable to +sweep the house, make beds or trim hats as it is to twist a +watch-chain. + +As far as I can understand, the line of respectability lies between +that which is useful and that which is useless. If women do that which +is of no value, their work is honorable. If they do practical work, it +is dishonorable. That our young women may escape the censure of doing +dishonorable work, I shall particularize. You may knit a tidy for the +back of an arm-chair, but by no means make the money wherewith to buy +the chair. You may with a delicate brush beautify a mantel ornament, +but die rather than earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You may learn +artistic music until you can squall Italian, but never sing +"Ortonville" or "Old Hundred." Do nothing practical if you would in +the eyes of refined society preserve your respectability. I scout +these fine notions. I tell you a woman, no more than a man, has a +right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it. + +In the course of a life-time you consume whole harvests and droves of +cattle, and every day you live, breathe forty hogsheads of good, pure +air. You must by some kind of usefulness pay for all this. Our race +was the last thing created--the birds and fishes on the fourth day, +the cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. If +geologists are right, the earth was a million of years in the +possession of the insects, beasts, and birds before our race came upon +it. In one sense we were innovators. The cattle, the lizards, and the +hawks had pre-emption right. The question is not what we are to do +with the lizards and summer insects, but what the lizards and summer +insects are to do with us. If we want a place in this world, we must +earn it. The partridge makes its own nest before it occupies it. The +lark by its morning song earns its breakfast before it eats it, and +the Bible gives an intimation that the first duty of an idler is to +starve when it says: "If he will not work, neither shall he eat." +Idleness ruins the health; and very soon nature says: "This man has +refused to pay his rent, out with him!" Society is to be reconstructed +on the subject of woman's toil. A vast majority of those who would +have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment +in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything that she can +do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, +or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for +sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for +delineating animals, let her make "The Horse Fair." If Miss Mitchell +will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will +be a merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will preach the +Gospel, let her thrill with her womanly eloquence the Quaker +meeting-house. + +It is said, If woman is given such opportunities she will occupy +places that might be taken by men. I say, If she have more skill and +adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have it! She has +as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home, as men +have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is +unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history +what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than +that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? The +battering-ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle-ax, have made no +such havoc as the needle. I would that these living sepulchers in +which women have for ages been buried might be opened, and that some +resurrection trumpet might bring up these living corpses to the fresh +air and sunlight. + +Go with me and I will show you a woman who by hardest toil supports +her children, her drunken husband, her old father and mother, pays her +house rent, always has wholesome food on her table, and when she can +get some neighbor on the Sabbath to come in and take care of her +family, appears in church with hat and cloak that are far from +indicating the toil to which she is subjected. Such a woman as that +has body and soul enough to fit her for any position. She could stand +beside the majority of your salesmen and dispose of more goods. She +could go into your wheelwright shops and beat one half of your workmen +at making carriages. We talk about woman as though we had resigned to +her all the light work, and ourselves had shouldered the heavier. But +the day of judgment, which will reveal the sufferings of the stake and +Inquisition, will marshal before the throne of God and the hierarchs +of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub and needle. Now, I say if there be +any preference in occupation, let women have it. God knows her trials +are the severest. By her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by her +hour of anguish, I demand that no one hedge up her pathway to a +livelihood. Oh! the meanness, the despicability of men who begrudge a +woman the right to work anywhere in any honorable calling! + +I go still further and say that woman should have equal compensation +with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our +cities get only two thirds as much pay as men, and in many cases only +half? Here is the gigantic injustice--that for work equally well, if +not better, done, woman receives far less compensation than man. Start +with the National Government. Women clerks in Washington get nine +hundred dollars for doing that for which men receive eighteen hundred +dollars. The wheel of oppression is rolling over the necks of +thousands of women who are at this moment in despair about what they +are to do. Many of the largest mercantile establishments of our cities +are accessory to these abominations, and from their large +establishments there are scores of souls being pitched off into death, +and their employers know it. Is there a God? Will there be a judgment? +I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs, many of our +large establishments will be swallowed up quicker than a South +American earthquake ever took down a city. God will catch these +oppressors between the two millstones of his wrath and grind them to +powder. + +Why is it that a female principal in a school gets only eight hundred +and twenty-five dollars for doing work for which a male principal gets +sixteen hundred and fifty dollars? I hear from all this land the wail +of womanhood. Man has nothing to answer to that wail but flatteries. +He says she is an angel. She is not. She knows she is not. She is a +human being who gets hungry when she has no food, and cold when she +has no fire. Give her no more flatteries; give her justice! There are +sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the +sunlight comes their death groan. It is not such a cry as comes from +those who are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding, +horrible wasting-away. Gather them before you and look into their +faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger-struck! Look at their fingers, +needle-pricked and blood-tipped! See that premature stoop in the +shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough! At a large meeting +of these women held in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were +delivered, but a needle-woman took the stand, threw aside her faded +shawl, and with her shriveled arm hurled a very thunder-bolt of +eloquence, speaking out the horrors of her own experience. + +Stand at the corner of a street in New York at six or seven o'clock in +the morning as the women go to work. Many of them had no breakfast +except the crumbs that were left over from the night before, or the +crumbs they chew on their way through the street. Here they come! The +working-girls of New York and Brooklyn. These engaged in head work, +these in flower-making, in millinery, in paper-box making; but, most +overworked of all and least compensated, the sewing-women. Why do they +not take the city cars on their way up? They can not afford the five +cents. If, concluding to deny herself something else, she gets into +the car, give her a seat. You want to see how Latimer and Ridley +appeared in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a more horrible +martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more agonizing death. Ask that woman how +much she gets for her work, and she will tell you six cents for making +coarse shirts and find her own thread. + +Years ago, one Sabbath night in the vestibule of this church, after +service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed +medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in +her delirium she said, gaspingly: "Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get +some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents!" We found afterward that she was making garments for eight +cents apiece, and that she could make but three of them in a day. Hear +it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have +comfortable homes! Some of the worst villains of our cities are the +employers of these women. They beat them down to the last penny and +try to cheat them out of that. The woman must deposit a dollar or two +before she gets the garments to work on. When the work is done it is +sharply inspected, the most insignificant flaws picked out, and the +wages refused and sometimes the dollar deposited not given back. The +Women's Protective Union reports a case where one of the poor souls, +finding a place where she could get more wages, resolved to change +employers, and went to get her pay for work done. The employer says: +"I hear you are going to leave me?" "Yes," she said, "and I have come +to get what you owe me." He made no answer. She said: "Are you not +going to pay me?" "Yes," he said, "I will pay you," and he kicked her +down-stairs. + +Oh, that Women's Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York! The +blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is +doing in the defense of toiling womanhood! What tragedies of suffering +are presented to them day by day! A paragraph from their report: "'Can +you make Mr. Jones pay me? He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, +and I can't get anything, and my child is very sick!' The speaker, a +young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke. +She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story +to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions. +Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50." + +Another paragraph from their report: "A fortnight had passed, when she +modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth. +'Oh, my dear,' he replied, 'you are getting to be one of the most +valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price. +Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.' And the +girl's fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate. The picture +of $10 a week had almost turned her head. A few nights later, while +crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the +conversation of girls who stood near: 'What, John Snipes? Why, he +don't pay! Look out for him every time. He'll keep you on trial, as he +calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let you go, and get some other +fool!' And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler. +But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth +of each of those days of 'trial.'" + +Another paragraph: "Her mortification may be imagined when told that +one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her +work was counterfeit. But her mortification was swallowed up in +indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and +insultingly asked her to prove it. When the Protective Union had +placed this matter in the courts, the judge said: 'You will pay +Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the +court.'" + +How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: "Give woman the +ballot." What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am +not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage +on women's wages? I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by +woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not +women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who +sews for them? Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and +milliners and mantua-makers? If a woman asks a dollar for her work, +does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety +cents? You say, "Only ten cents difference." But that is sometimes the +difference between heaven and hell. Women often have less +commiseration for women than men. If a woman steps aside from the path +of rectitude, man may forgive--woman never! Woman will never get +justice done her from woman's ballot. Neither will she get it from +man's ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more +resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate +when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her +oppressors. + +But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to +excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after awhile to get +larger wages. Unskilled and incompetent labor must take what is given: +skilled and competent labor will eventually make its own standard. +Admitting that the law of supply and demand regulates these things, I +contend that the demand for skilled labor is very great and the supply +very small. Start with the idea that work is honorable, and that you +can do some one thing better than anybody else. Resolve that, God +helping, you will take care of yourself. If you are after awhile +called into another relation you will all the better be qualified for +it by your spirit of self-reliance, or if you are called to stay as +you are, you can be happy and self-supporting. + +Poets are fond of talking about man as an oak and woman the vine that +climbs it; but I have seen many a tree fall that not only went down +itself, but took all the vines with it. I can tell you of something +stronger than an oak for an ivy to climb on, and that is the throne of +the great Jehovah. Single or affianced, that woman is strong who leans +on God and does her best. Many of you will go single-handed through +life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman, +I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling, +irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be +a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian. +What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more +thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she +will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her +sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The +dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene +closes--draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the +farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless +life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity. + +Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian +aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that +she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single, +that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the +sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went +with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick +pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she +was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam--just +the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to +fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody +who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from +her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she +ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well--auntie always +dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet +spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died +you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to +rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with +japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with +their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world +said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto +the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!" + + + + +TOBACCO AND OPIUM. + + "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding + seed."--GEN. i: 11. + + +The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. +They preceded the brute creation and the human family--the grass for +the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and +took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and +took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for +food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for +anodyne as in case of paroxysm, for stimulant as when the pulses flag +under the weight of disease. The caterer comes and takes the herb and +presents it in all styles of delicacy. The physician comes and takes +the herb and compounds it for physical recuperation. Millions of +people come and take the herb for ruinous physical and intellectual +delectation. The herb, which was divinely created, and for good +purposes, has often been degraded for bad results. There is a useful +and a baneful employment of the herbaceous kingdom. + +There sprung up in Yucatan of this continent an herb that has +bewitched the world. In the fifteenth century it crossed the Atlantic +Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the +French embassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French +Empire. Then Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great +Britain. Nicotiana, ascribed to that genus by the botanists, but we +all know it is the exhilarating, elevating, emparadising, +nerve-shattering, dyspepsia-breeding, health-destroying tobacco. I +shall not in my remarks be offensively personal, because you all use +it, or nearly all! I know by experience how it soothes and roseates +the world, and kindles sociality, and I also know some of its baleful +results. I was its slave, and by the grace of God I have become its +conqueror. Tens of thousands of people have been asking the question +during the past two months, asking it with great pathos and great +earnestness: "Does the use of tobacco produce cancerous and other +troubles?" I shall not answer the question in regard to any particular +case, but shall deal with the subject in a more general way. + +You say to me, "Did God not create tobacco?" Yes. You say to me, "Is +not God good?" Yes. Well, then, you say, "If God is good and he +created tobacco, He must have created it for some good purpose." Yes, +your logic is complete. But God created the common sense at the same +time, by which we are to know how to use a poison and how not to use +it. God created that just as He created henbane and nux vomica and +copperas and belladonna and all other poisons, whether directly +created by Himself or extracted by man. + +That it is a poison no man of common sense will deny. A case was +reported where a little child lay upon its mother's lap and one drop +fell from a pipe to the child's lip, and it went into convulsions and +into death. But you say, "Haven't people lived on in complete use of +it to old age?" Oh, yes; just as I have seen inebriates seventy years +old. In Boston, years ago, there was a meeting in which there were +several centenarians, and they were giving their experience, and one +centenarian said that he had lived over a hundred years, and that he +ascribed it to the fact that he had refrained from the use of +intoxicating liquors. Right after him another centenarian said he had +lived over a hundred years, and he ascribed it to the fact that for +the last fifty years he had hardly seen a sober moment. It is an +amazing thing how many outrages men may commit upon their physical +system and yet live on. In the case of the man of the jug he lived on +because his body was pickled. In the case of the man of the pipe, he +lived on because his body turned into smoked liver! + +But are there no truths to be uttered in regard to this great evil? +What is the advice to be given to the multitude of young people who +hear me this day? What is the advice you are going to give to your +children? + +First of all, we must advise them to abstain from the use of tobacco +because all the medical fraternity of the United States and Great +Britain agree in ascribing to this habit terrific unhealth. The men +whose life-time work is the study of the science of health say so, and +shall I set up my opinion against theirs? Dr. Agnew, Dr. Olcott, Dr. +Barnes, Dr. Rush, Dr. Mott, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hosack--all the doctors, +allopathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, eclectic, denounce the habit as +a matter of unhealth. A distinguished physician declared he considered +the use of tobacco caused seventy different styles of disease, and he +says: "Of all the cases of cancer in the mouth that have come under my +observation, almost in every case it has been ascribed to tobacco." + +The united testimony of all physicians is that it depresses the +nervous system, that it takes away twenty-five per cent. of the +physical vigor of this generation, and that it goes on as the years +multiply and, damaging this generation with accumulated curse, it +strikes other centuries. And if it is so deleterious to the body, how +much more destructive to the mind. An eminent physician, who was the +superintendent of the insane asylum at Northampton, Massachusetts, +says: "Fully one half the patients we get in our asylum have lost +their intellect through the use of tobacco." If it is such a bad thing +to injure the body, what a bad thing, what a worse thing it is to +injure the mind, and any man of common sense knows that tobacco +attacks the nervous system, and everybody knows that the nervous +system attacks the mind. + +Besides that, all reformers will tell you that the use of tobacco +creates an unnatural thirst, and it is the cause of drunkenness in +America to-day more than anything else. In all cases where you find +men taking strong drink you find they use tobacco. There are men who +use tobacco who do not take strong drink, but all who use strong drink +use tobacco, and that shows beyond controversy there is an affinity +between the two products. There are reformers here to-day who will +testify to you it is impossible for a man to reform from taking strong +drink until he quits tobacco. In many of the cases where men have been +reformed from strong drink and have gone back to their cups, they +have testified that they first touched tobacco and then they +surrendered to intoxicants. + +I say in the presence of this assemblage to-day, in which there are +many physicians--and they know that what I say is true on the +subject--that the pathway to the drunkard's grave and the drunkard's +hell is strewn thick with tobacco-leaves. What has been the testimony +on this subject? Is this a mere statement of a preacher whose business +it is to talk morals, or is the testimony of the world just as +emphatic? What did Benjamin Franklin say? "I never saw a well man in +the exercise of common sense who would say that tobacco did him any +good." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Certainly he is good authority. +He says in regard to the culture of tobacco, "It is a culture +productive of infinite wretchdness." What did Horace Greeley say of +it? "It is a profane stench." What did Daniel Webster say of it? "If +those men must smoke, let them take the horse-shed!" One reason why +the habit goes on from destruction to destruction is that so many +ministers of the gospel take it. They smoke themselves into +bronchitis, and then the dear people have to send them to Europe to +get them restored from exhausting religious services! They smoke until +the nervous system is shattered. They smoke themselves to death. I +could mention the names of five distinguished clergymen who died of +cancer of the mouth, and the doctor said, in every case, it was the +result of tobacco. The tombstone of many a minister of religion has +been covered all over with handsome eulogy, when, if the true epitaph +had been written, it would have said: "Here lies a man killed by too +much cavendish!" They smoke until the world is blue, and their +theology is blue, and everything is blue. How can a man stand in the +pulpit and preach on the subject of temperance when he is indulging +such a habit as that? I have seen a cuspadore in a pulpit into which +the holy man dropped his cud before he got up to read about "blessed +are the pure in heart," and to read about the rolling of sin as a +sweet morsel under the tongue, and to read about the unclean animals +in Leviticus that chewed the cud. + +About sixty-five years ago a student at Andover Theological Seminary +graduated into the ministry. He had an eloquence and a magnetism which +sent him to the front. Nothing could stand before him. But in a few +months he was put in an insane asylum, and the physician said tobacco +was the cause of the disaster. It was the custom in those days to give +a portion of tobacco to every patient in the asylum. Nearly twenty +years passed along, and that man was walking the floor of his cell in +the asylum, when his reason returned, and he saw the situation, and he +took the tobacco from his mouth and threw it against the iron gate of +the place in which he was confined, and he said: "What brought me +here? What keeps me here? Tobacco! tobacco! God forgive me, God help +me, and I will never use it again." He was fully restored to reason, +came forth, preached the Gospel of Christ for some ten years, and then +went into everlasting blessedness. + +There are ministers of religion now in this country who are dying by +inches, and they do not know what is the matter with them. They are +being killed by tobacco. They are despoiling their influence through +tobacco. They are malodorous with tobacco. I could give one paragraph +of history, and that would be my own experience. It took ten cigars to +make one sermon, and I got very nervous, and I awakened one day to see +what an outrage I was committing upon my health by the use of tobacco. +I was about to change settlement, and a generous tobacconist of +Philadelphia told me if I would come to Philadelphia and be his pastor +he would give me all the cigars I wanted for nothing all the rest of +my life. I halted. I said to myself, "If I smoke more than I ought to +now in these war times, and when my salary is small, what would I do +if I had gratuitous and unlimited supply?" Then and there, twenty-four +years ago, I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me. Much of +the time the world looked blue before that, because I was looking +through tobacco smoke. Ever since the world has been full of sunshine, +and though I have done as much work as any one of my age, God has +blessed me, it seems to me, with the best health that a man ever had. + +I say that no minister of religion can afford to smoke. Put in my hand +all the money expended by Christian men in Brooklyn for tobacco, and I +will support three orphan asylums as well and as grandly as the three +great orphan asylums already established. Put into my hand the money +spent by the Christians of America for tobacco, and I will clothe, +shelter, and feed all the suffering poor of the continent. The +American Church gives a million dollars a year for the salvation of +the heathen, and American Christians smoke five million dollars' worth +of tobacco. + +I stand here to-day in the presence of a vast multitude of young +people who are forming their habits. Between seventeen and twenty-five +years of age a great many young men get on them habits in the use of +tobacco that they never get over. Let me say to all my young friends, +you can not afford to smoke, you can not afford to chew. You either +take very good tobacco, or you take very cheap tobacco. If it is +cheap, I will tell you why it is cheap. It is made of burdock, and +lampblack, and sawdust, and colt's-foot, and plantain leaves, and +fuller's earth, and salt, and alum, and lime, and a little tobacco, +and you can not afford to put such a mess as that in your mouth. But +if you use expensive tobacco, do you not think it would be better for +you to take that amount of money which you are now expending for this +herb, and which you will expend during the course of your life if you +keep the habit up, and with it buy a splendid farm and make the +afternoon and the evening of your life comfortable? + +There are young men whose life is going out inch by inch from +cigarettes. Now, do you not think it would be well for you to listen +to the testimony of a merchant of New York, who said this: "In early +life I smoked six cigars a day at six and a half cents each. They +averaged that. I thought to myself one day, I'll just put aside all I +consume in cigars and all I would consume if I keep on in the habit, +and I'll see what it will come to by compound interest." And he gives +this tremendous statistic: "Last July completed thirty-nine years +since, by the grace of God, I was emancipated from the filthy habit, +and the saving amounted to the enormous sum of $29,102.03 by compound +interest. We lived in the city, but the children, who had learned +something of the enjoyment of country life from their annual visits to +their grandparents, longed for a home among the green fields. I found +a very pleasant place in the country for sale. The cigar money came +into requisition, and I found it amounted to a sufficient sum to +purchase the place, and it is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice. +Smoking without a home, or a home without smoking." This is common +sense as well as religion. + +I must say a word to my friends who smoke the best tobacco, and who +could stop at any time. What is your Christian influence in this +respect? What is your influence upon young men? Do you not think it +would be better for you to exercise a little self-denial! People +wondered why George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts, wore a cravat +but no collar. "Oh," they said, "it is an absurd eccentricity." This +was the history of the cravat without any collar: For many years +before he had been talking with an inebriate, trying to persuade him +to give up the habit of drinking and he said to the inebriate, "Your +habit is entirely unnecessary." "Ah!" replied the inebriate, "we do a +great many things that are not necessary. It isn't necessary that you +should have that collar." "Well," said Mr. Briggs, "I'll never wear a +collar again if you will stop drinking." "Agreed," said the other. +They joined hands in a pledge that they kept for twenty years--kept +until death. That is magnificent. That is Gospel, practical Gospel, +worthy of George Briggs, worthy of you. Self-denial for others. +Subtraction from our advantage that there may be an addition to +somebody else's advantage. + +But what I have said has been chiefly appropriate for men. Now my +subject widens and shall be appropriate for both sexes. In all ages of +the world there has been a search for some herb or flower that would +stimulate lethargy and compose grief. Among the ancient Greeks and +Egyptians they found something they called nepenthe, and the Theban +women knew how to compound it. If a person should chew a few of those +leaves his grief would be immediately whelmed with hilarity. Nepenthe +passed out from the consideration of the world and then came hasheesh, +which is from the Indian hemp. It is manufactured from the flowers at +the top. The workman with leathern apparel walks through the field and +the exudation of the plants adheres to the leathern garments, and then +the man comes out and scrapes off this exudation, and it is mixed with +aromatics and becomes an intoxicant that has brutalized whole nations. +Its first effect is sight, spectacle glorious and grand beyond all +description, but afterward it pulls down body, mind, and soul into +anguish. + +I knew one of the most brilliant men of our time. His appearance in a +newspaper column, or a book, or a magazine was an enchantment. In the +course of a half hour he could produce more wit and more valuable +information than any man I ever heard talk. But he chewed hasheesh. He +first took it out of curiosity to see whether the power said to be +attached really existed. He took it. He got under the power of it. He +tried to break loose. He put his hand in the cockatrice's den to see +whether it would bite, and he found out to his own undoing. His +friends gathered around and tried to save him, but he could not be +saved. The father, a minister of the Gospel, prayed with him and +counseled him, and out of a comparatively small salary employed the +first medical advice of New York, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Paris, +London, and Berlin, for he was his only son. No help came. First his +body gave way in pangs and convulsions of suffering. Then his mind +gave way and he became a raving maniac. Then his soul went out +blaspheming God into a starless eternity. He died at thirty years of +age. Behold the work of accursed hasheesh. + +But I must put my emphasis upon the use of opium. It is made from the +white poppy. It is not a new discovery. Three hundred years before +Christ we read of it; but it was not until the seventh century that it +took up its march of death, and, passing out of the curative and the +medicinal, through smoking and mastication it has become the curse of +nations. In 1861 there were imported into this country one hundred and +seven thousand pounds of opium. In 1880, nineteen years after, there +were imported five hundred and thirty thousand pounds of opium. In +1876 there were in this country two hundred and twenty-five thousand +opium-consumers. Now, it is estimated there are in the United States +to-day six hundred thousand victims of opium. It is appalling. + +We do not know why some families do not get on. There is something +mysterious about them. The opium habit is so stealthy, it is so +deceitful, and it is so deathful, you can cure a hundred men of +strong drink where you can cure one opium-eater. + +I have knelt down in this very church by those who were elegant in +apparel, and elegant in appearance, and from the depths of their souls +and from the depths of my soul, we cried out for God's rescue. Somehow +it did not come. In many a household only the physician and pastor +know it--the physician called in for physical relief, the pastor +called in for spiritual relief, and they both fail. The physician +confesses his defeat, the minister of religion confesses his defeat, +for somehow God does not seem to hear a prayer offered for an +opium-eater. His grace is infinite, and I have been told there are +cases of reformation. I never saw one. I say this not to wound the +feelings of any who may feel this awful grip, but to utter a potent +warning that you stand back from that gate of hell. Oh, man, oh, +woman, tampering with this great evil, have you fallen back on this as +a permanent resource because of some physical distress or mental +anguish? Better stop. The ecstasies do not pay for the horrors. The +Paradise is followed too soon by the Pandemonium. Morphia, a blessing +of God for the relief of sudden pang and of acute dementia, +misappropriated and never intended for permanent use. + +It is not merely the barbaric fanatics that are taken down by it. Did +you ever read De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-Eater?" He says +that during the first ten years the habit handed to him all the keys +of Paradise, but it would take something as mighty as De Quincey's pen +to describe the consequent horrors. There is nothing that I have ever +read about the tortures of the damned that seemed more horrible than +those which De Quincey says he suffered. Samuel Taylor Coleridge first +conquered the world with his exquisite pen, and then was conquered by +opium. The most brilliant, the most eloquent lawyer of the nineteenth +century went down under its power, and there is a vast multitude of +men and women--but more women than men--who are going into the dungeon +of that awful incarceration. + +The worst thing about it is, it takes advantage of one's weakness. De +Quincey says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of my +rheumatism." Coleridge says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of +my sleeplessness." For what are you taking it? For God's sake do not +take it long. The wealthiest, the grandest families going down under +its power. Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in Chicago. +Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in St. Louis, and, according to +that average, seventy-five thousand victims of opium in New York and +Brooklyn. + +The clerk of a drug store says: "I can tell them when they come in; +there is something about their complexion, something about their +manner, something about the look of their eyes that shows they are +victims." Some in the struggle to get away from it try chloral. Whole +tons of chloral manufactured in Germany every year. Baron Liebig says +he knows one chemist in Germany who manufactures a half ton of chloral +every week. Beware of hydrate of chloral. It is coming on with mighty +tread to curse these cities. But I am chiefly under this head speaking +of the morphine. The devil of morphia is going to be in this country, +in my opinion, mightier than the devil of alcohol. By the power of the +Christian pulpit, by the power of the Christianized printing-press, by +the power of the Lord God Almighty, all these evils are going to be +extirpated--all, all, and you have a work in regard to that, and I +have a work. But what we do we had better do right away. The clock +ticks now, and we hear it; after awhile the clock will tick and we +will not hear it. + +I sat at a country fireside, and I saw the fire kindle and blaze, and +go out. I sat long enough at that fireside to get a good many +practical reflections, and I said: "That is like human life, that fire +on the hearth." We put on the fagots and they blaze up, and out, and +on, and the whole room is filled with the light, gay of sparkle, gay +of flash, gay of crackle. Emblem of boyhood. Now the fire intensifies. +Now the flame reddens into coals. Now the heat is becoming more and +more intense, and the more it is stirred the redder is the coal. Now +with one sweep of flame it cleaves the way, and all the hearth glows +with the intensity. Emblem of full manhood. Now the coals begin to +whiten. Now the heat lessens. Now the flickering shadows die along the +wall. Now the fagots fall apart. Now the household hover over the +expiring embers. Now the last breath of smoke is lost in the chimney. +The fire is out. Shovel up the white remains. Ashes! Ashes! + + + + +WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? + + "Wherefore do the wicked live?"--JOB xxi: 7, + + +Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the +misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, +bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that +he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware +to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his +complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better +if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swear a little. +For each boil a plaster of objurgation. + +Probably no man was ever more tempted to take the bad advice than +when, at last, Job's three exasperating friends came in, Eliphaz, +Zophar, and Bildad, practically saying to him, "You old sinner, serves +you right; you are a hypocrite; what a sight you are! God has sent +these chastisements for your wickedness." + +The disfigured invalid, putting down the pieces of broken saucer with +which he had been rubbing his arms, with swollen eyelids looks up and +says to his garrulous friends in substance, "The most wicked people +sometimes have the best health and are the most prospered," and then +in that connection hurls the question which every man and woman has +asked in some juncture of affairs, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +They build up fortunes that overshadow the earth. They confound all +the life-insurance tables on the subject of longevity, dying +octogenarians, perhaps nonagenarians, possibly centenarians. Ahab in +the palace, Naboth in the cabinet. Unclean Herod on the throne, +consecrated Paul twisting ropes for tent-making. Manasseh, the worst +of all the kings of Juda, living longer than any of them. While the +general rule is the wicked do not live out half their days, there are +exceptions where they live on to great age and in a Paradise of beauty +and luxuriance, and die with a whole college of physicians expending +its skill in trying further prolongation of life, and have a funeral +with casket under mountain of calla-lilies, the finest equipages of +the city jingling and flashing into line, the poor, angle-worm of the +dust carried out to its hole in the ground with the pomp that might +make a spirit from some other world suppose that the Archangel Michael +was dead. + +Go up among the finest residences of the city, and on some of the +door-plates you will find the names of those mightiest for commercial +and social iniquity. They are the vampires of society--they are the +gorgons of the century. Some of these men have each wheel of their +carriage a juggernaut wet with the blood of those sacrificed to their +avarice. Some of them are like Caligula, who wished that all the +people had only one neck that he might strike it off at one blow. Oh, +the slain, the slain! A long procession of usurers and libertines and +infamous quacks and legal charlatans and world-grabbing monsters. What +apostleship of despoliation! Demons incarnate. Hundreds of men +concentering all their energies of body, mind, and soul in one +prolonged, ever-intensifying, and unrelenting effort to scald and +scarify and blast and consume the world. I do not blame you for asking +me the quivering, throbbing, burning, resounding, appalling question +of my text, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +In the first place, they live to demonstrate beyond all controversy +the long-suffering patience of God. You sometimes say, under some +great affront, "I will not stand it;" but perhaps you are compelled to +stand it. God, with all the batteries of omnipotence loaded with +thunderbolts, stands it century after century. I have no doubt +sometimes an angel comes to Him and suggests, "Now is the time to +strike." "No," says God; "wait a year, wait twenty years, wait a +century, wait five centuries." What God does is not so wonderful as +what He does not do. He has the reserve corps with which He could +strike Mormonism and Mohammedanism and Paganism from the earth in a +day. He could take all the fraud in New York on the west side of +Broadway and hurl it into the Hudson, and all the fraud on the east +side of Broadway and hurl it into the East River in an hour. He +understands the combination lock of every dishonest money-safe, and +could blow it up quicker than by any earthly explosive. Written all +over the earth, written all over history are the words, "Divine +forbearance, divine leniency, divine long-suffering." + +I wonder that God did not burn this world up two thousand years ago, +scattering its ashes into immensity, its aerolites dropping into +other worlds to be kept in their museums as specimens of a defunct +planet. People sometimes talk of God as though He were hasty in His +judgments and as though He snapped men up quick. Oh, no! He waited one +hundred and twenty years for the people to get into the ark, and +warned them all the time--one hundred and twenty years, then the flood +came. The Anchor Line gives only a month's announcement of the sailing +of the "Circassia," the White Star Line gives only a month's +announcement of the sailing of the "Britannic," the Cunard Line gives +only a month's announcement of the sailing of the "Oregon;" but of the +sailing of that ship that Noah commanded God gave one hundred and +twenty years' announcement and warning. Patience antediluvian, +patience postdiluvian, patience in times Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, +Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Whitefieldian. Patience with men and +nations. Patience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six thousand +years of patience! Overtopping attribute of God, all of whose +attributes are immeasurable. Why do the wicked live? That their +overthrow may be the more impressive and climacteric. They must pile +up their mischief until all the community shall see it, until the +nation shall see it, until all the world shall see it. The higher it +goes up the harder it will come down and the grander will be the +divine vindication. + +God will not allow sin to sneak out of the world. God will not allow +it merely to resign and quit. This shall not be a case that goes by +default because no one appears against it. God will arraign it, +handcuff it, try it, bring against it the verdict of all the good, and +then gibbet it so high up that if one half of the gibbet stood on +Mount Washington and the other on the Himalaya, it would not be any +more conspicuous. + +About fifteen years ago we had in this country a most illustrious +instance of how God lets a man go on in iniquity, so that at the close +of the career his overthrow may be the more impressive, full of +warning and climacteric. First, an honest chairmaker, then an +alderman, then a member of congress, then a supervisor of a city, then +school commissioner, then state senator, then commissioner of public +works--on and up, stealing thousands of dollars here and thousands of +dollars there, until the malfeasance in office overtopped anything the +world had ever seen--making the new Court House in New York a monument +of municipal crime, and rushing the debt of the city from thirty-six +million dollars to ninety-seven millions. Now, he is at the top of +millionairedom. + +Country-seat terraced and arbored and parterred clear to the water's +brink. Horses enough to stock a king's equerry. Grooms and postilions +in full rig. Wine cellars enough to make a whole legislature drunk. +New York finances and New York politics in his vest pocket. He winked, +and men in high place fell. He lifted his little finger, and +ignoramuses took important office. He whispered, and in Albany and +Washington they said it thundered. Wider and mightier and more baleful +his influence, until it seemed as if Pandemonium was to be adjourned +to this world, and in the Satanic realm there was to be a change of +administration, and Apollyon, who had held dominion so long, should +have a successful competitor. + +To bring all to a climax, a wedding came in the house of that man. +Diamonds as large as hickory nuts. A pin of sixty diamonds +representing sheaves of wheat. Musicians in a semicircle, half-hidden +by a great harp of flowers. Ships of flowers. Forty silver sets, one +of them with two hundred and forty pieces. One wedding-dress that cost +five thousand dollars. A famous libertine, who owned several Long +Island Sound steamboats, and not long before he was shot for his +crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house a frosted silver +iceberg, with representations of arctic bears walking on +icicle-handles and ascending the spoons. Was there ever such a +convocation of pictures, bronzes, of bric-à -brac, of grandeurs, social +grandeurs? The highest wave of New York splendor rolled into that +house and recoiled perhaps never again to rise so high. But just at +that time, when all earthly and infernal observation was concentered +on that man, eternal justice, impersonated by that wonder of the +American bar, Charles O'Connor, got on the track of the offender. +First arraignment, then sentence to twelve years' imprisonment under +twelve indictments, then penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, then a +lawsuit against him for six million dollars, then incarceration in +Ludlow Street jail, then escape to foreign land, to be brought back +under the stout grip of the constabulary, then dying of broken heart +in a prison cell. God allowed him to go on in iniquity until all the +world saw as never before that "the way of the transgressor is hard," +and that dishonesty will not declare permanent dividends, and that you +had better be an honest chairmaker with a day's wages at a time than +a brilliant commissioner of public works, all your pockets crammed +with plunder. + +What a brilliant figure in history is William the Conqueror, the +intimidator of France, of Anjou, of Brittany, victor at Hastings, +snatching the crown of England and setting it on his own brow, +destroying homesteads that he might have a larger game forest, making +a Doomsday Book by which he could keep the whole land under despotic +espionage, proclaiming war in revenge for a joke uttered in regard to +his obesity. Harvest fields and vineyards going down under the cavalry +hoof. Nations horror-struck. But one day while at the apex of all +observation he is riding out and the horse put his hoof on a hot +cinder, throwing the king so violently against the pommel of the +saddle that he dies, his son hastening to England to get the crown +before the breath has left his father's body. + +The imperial corpse drawn by a cart, most of the attendants leaving it +in the street because of a fire alarm that they might go off and see +the conflagration. And just as they are going to put his body down in +the church which he had built, a man stepping up and saying, "Bishop, +the man you praise is a robber. This church stands on my father's +homestead. The property on which this church is built is mine. I +reclaim my right. In the name of Almighty God I forbid you to bury the +king here, or to cover him with my glebe." "Go up," said the ambition +of William the Conqueror. "Go up by conquest, go up by throne, go up +in the sight of all nations, go up by cruelties." But one day God +said, "Come down, come down by the way of a miserable death, come down +by the way of an ignominious obsequies, come down in the sight of all +nations, come clear down, come down forever." And you and I see the +same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time--illustrations of +the fact that God lets the wicked live that He may make their +overthrow the more climacteric. + +What is true in regard to sin is true in regard to its author, Satan, +called Abaddon, called the Prince of the Power of the Air, called the +serpent, called the dragon. It seems to me any intelligent man must +admit that there is a commander-in-chief of all evil. + +The Persians called him Ahriman, the Hindus called him Siva. He was +represented on canvas as a mythological combination of Thor and +Cerberus and Pan and Vulcan and other horrible addenda. I do not care +what you call him, that monster of evil is abroad, and his one work is +destruction. John Milton almost glorified him by witchery of +description, but he is the concentration of all meanness and of all +despicability. My little child, seven years of age, said to her mother +one day, "Why don't God kill the devil at once, and have done with +it?" In less terse phrase we have all asked the same question. The +Bible says he is to be imprisoned and he is to be chained down. Why +not heave the old miscreant into his dungeon now? Does it not seem as +if his volume of infamy were complete? Does it not seem as if the last +fifty years would make an appropriate peroration? No; God will let him +go on to the top of all bad endeavor, and then when all the earth and +all constellations and galaxies and all the universe are watching, God +will hurl him down with a violence and ghastliness enough to persuade +five hundred eternities that a rebellion against God must perish. God +will not do it by piecemeal, God will not do it by small skirmish. He +will wait until all the troops are massed, and then some day when in +defiant and confident mood, at the head of his army, this Goliath of +hell stalks forth, our champion, the son of David, will strike him +down, not with smooth stones from the brook, but with fragments from +the Rock of Ages. But it will not be done until this giant of evil and +his holy antagonist come out within full sight of the two great +armies. The tragedy is only postponed to make the overthrow more +impressive and climacteric. Do not fret. If God can afford to wait you +can afford to wait. God's clock of destiny strikes only once in a +thousand years. Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on +your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow +may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more +resounding, the more climacteric. + +Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for +righteousness to capture. Have you not noticed that God harnesses men, +bad men, and accomplishes good through them? Witness Cyrus, witness +Nebuchadnezzar, witness the fact that the Bastile of oppression was +pried open by the bayonets of a bad man. Recently there came to me the +fact that a college had been built at the Far West for infidel +purposes. There was to be no nonsense of chapel prayers, no Bible +reading there. All the professors there were pronounced infidels. The +college was opened, and the work went on, but, of course, failed. Not +long ago a Presbyterian minister was in a bank in that village on +purposes of business, and he heard in an adjoining room the board of +trustees of that college discussing what they had better do with the +institution, as it did not get on successfully, and one of the +trustees proposed that it be handed over to the Presbyterians, +prefacing the word Presbyterians with a very unhappy expletive. The +resolutions were passed, and that fortress of infidelity has become a +fortress of old-fashioned, orthodox religion, the only religion that +will be worth a snap of your finger when you come to die or appear in +the Day of Judgment. The devil built the college. Righteousness +captured it. + +In some city there goes up a great club-house--the architecture, the +furniture, all the equipment a bedazzlement of wealth. That particular +club-house is designed to make gambling and dissipation respectable. + +Do not fret. That splendid building will after a while be a free +library, or it will be a hospital, or it will be a gallery of pure +art. Again and again observatories have been built by infidelity, and +the first thing you know they go into the hand of Christian science. +God said in the Bible that He would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose +and pull him down by a way he knew not. And God has a hook to-day in +the nose of every Sennacherib of infidelity and sin, and will drag him +about as He will. Marble halls deserted to sinful amusements will yet +be dedicated for religious assemblage. All these castles of sin are to +be captured for God as we go forth with the battle-shout that Oliver +Cromwell rang out at the head of his troops as he rode in on the field +of Naseby: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!" After a +great fire in London, amid the ruins there was nothing left but an +arch with the name of the architect upon it; and, my friends, whatever +else goes down, God stays up. + +Why do the wicked live? That some of them may be monuments of mercy. + +So it was with John Newton, so it was with Augustine, perhaps so it +was with you. Chieftains of sin to become chieftains of grace. Paul, +the apostle, made out of Saul, the persecutor. Baxter, the flaming +evangel, made out of Baxter, the blasphemer. Whole squadrons, with +streamers of Emmanuel floating from the masthead, though once they +were launched from the dry-docks of diabolism. God lets these wicked +men live that He may make jewels out of them for coronets, that He may +make tongues of fire out of them for Pentecosts, that He may make +warriors out of them for Armageddons, that he may make conquerors out +of them for the day when they shall ride at the head of the +white-horse host in the grand review of the resurrection. + +Why do the wicked live? To make it plain beyond all controversy that +there is another place of adjustment. So many of the bad up, so many +of the good down. It seems to me that no man can look abroad without +saying--no man of common sense, religious or irreligious, can look +abroad without saying, "There must be some place where brilliant +scoundrelism shall be arrested, where innocence shall get out from +under the heel of despotism." Common fairness as well as eternal +justice demands it. + +We adjourn to the great assizes, the stupendous injustices of this +life. They are not righted here. There must be some place where they +will be righted. God can not afford to omit the judgment day or the +reconstruction of conditions. For you can not make me believe that +that man stuffed with all abomination, having devoured widows' houses +and digested them, looking with basilisk or tigerish eyes upon his +fellows, no music so sweet to him as the sound of breaking hearts, is, +at death, to get out of the landau at the front door of the sepulcher +and pass right on through to the back door of the sepulcher, and find +a celestial turnout waiting for him, so that he can drive tandem right +up primrosed hills, one glory riding as lackey ahead, and another +glory riding as postilion behind, while that poor woman who supported +her invalid husband and her helpless children by taking in washing and +ironing, often putting her hand to her side where the cancerous +trouble had already begun, and dropping dead late on Saturday night +while she was preparing the garments for the Sabbath day, coming afoot +to the front door of the sepulcher, shall pass through to the back +door of the sepulcher and find nothing waiting, no one to welcome, no +one to tell her the way to the King's gate. I will not believe it. +Solomon was confounded in his day by what he represents as princes +afoot and beggars a-horseback, but I tell you there must be a place +and a time when the right foot will get into the stirrup. To +demonstrate beyond all controversy that there is another place for +adjustment, God lets the wicked live. + +Why do the wicked live? For the same reason that He lets us live--to +have time for repentance. + +Where would you and I have been if sin had been followed by immediate +catastrophe? While the foot of Christ is fleet as that of a roebuck +when He comes to save, it does seem as if he were hoppled with great +languors and infinite lethargies when He comes to punish. Oh, I +celebrate God's slowness, God's retardation, God's putting off the +retribution! Do you not think, my brother, it would be a great deal +better for us to exchange our impatient hypercriticism of Providence +because this man, by watering of stock, makes a million dollars in one +day, and another man rides on in one bloated iniquity year after +year--would it not be better for us to exchange that impatient +hypercriticism for gratitude everlasting that God let us who were +wicked live, though we deserved nothing but capsize and demolition? +Oh, I celebrate God's slowness! The slower the rail-train comes the +better, if the drawbridge is off. + +How long have you, my brother, lived unforgiven? Fifteen, twenty, +forty, sixty years? Lived through great awakenings, lived through +domestic sorrow, lived through commercial calamity, lived through +providential crises that startled nations, and you are living yet, +strangers to God, and with no hope for a great future into which you +may be precipitated. Oh, would it not be better for us to get our +nature through the Grace of Christ revolutionized and transfigured? +For I want you to know that God sometimes changes His gait, and +instead of the deliberate tread He is the swift witness, and sometimes +the enemies of God are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. + +Make God your ally. What an offer that is! Do not fight against Him. +Do not contend against your best interests. Yield this morning to the +best impulse of your heart, and that is toward Christ and heaven. Do +not fight the Lord that made you and offers to redeem you. + +Philip of France went out with his army, with bows and arrows, to +fight King Edward III. of England; but just as they got into the +critical moment of the battle, a shower of rain came and relaxed the +bow-strings so that they were of no effect, and Philip and his army +were worsted. And all your weaponry against God will be as nothing +when he rains upon you discomfiture from the heavens. Do not fight the +Lord any longer. Change allegiance. Take down the old flag of sin, run +up the new flag of grace. It does not take the Lord Jesus Christ the +thousandth part of a second to convert you if you will only surrender, +be willing to be saved. The American Congress was in anxiety during +the Revolutionary War while awaiting to hear news from the conflict +between Washington and Cornwallis, and the anxiety became intense and +almost unbearable as the days went by. When the news came at last that +Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over, so great +was the excitement that the doorkeeper of the House of Congress +dropped dead from joyful excitement. And if this long war between your +soul and God should come to an end this morning by your entire +surrender, the war forever over, the news would very soon reach the +heavens, and nothing but the supernatural health of your loved ones +before the throne would keep them from being prostrated with overjoy +at the cessation of all spiritual hostilities. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14139 *** diff --git a/14139-h/14139-h.htm b/14139-h/14139-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0851920 --- /dev/null +++ b/14139-h/14139-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9423 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title> + New Tabernacle Sermons, by T. De Witt Talmage, D.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond; /* all headings centered */ + } + H2 { + text-align: center; font-size: 145%; color: maroon; font-family: garamond; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H3 { + text-align: center; font-size: 125%; color: maroon; font-family: garamond; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H4 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond; font-weight: normal; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a.noline {text-decoration: none} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 6em; margin-right: 6em;} /* block indent */ + .center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} + .tble {text-align: center;} /* centering tables */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .tdright {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdcenter {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */ + .tdleft {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 85%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14139 ***</div> + +<h2>NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS</h2> +<h3>by</h3> +<h2>T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.</h2> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;">Author Of +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 105%">"<i>Crumbs Swept Up</i>," "<i>The Abominations Of Modern Society</i>,"</span> etc.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">VOL. I</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">New York:<br /> +George Munro, Publisher,<br /> +17 To 27 Vandewater Street.<br /> +1886. +</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<br /> + +<p class="center"> +<img border="0" src="images/image-01.jpg" height="400" width="415" alt="T. De Witt Talmage" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">T. De Witt Talmage</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<br /> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;"><i>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by</i><br /> + <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">George Munro</span>,<br /> + <i>in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><h3>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<div class='tble'> + <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" width="75%" summary="Table of Contents" style="align: left"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdright" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Page</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#brawn_and_muscle">Brawn And Muscle</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">7</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_pleiades_and_orion">The Pleiades And Orion</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">21</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_queens_visit">The Queen's Visit</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">34</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#vicarious_suffering">Vicarious Suffering</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">45</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#posthumous_opportunity">Posthumous Opportunity</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">59</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_lords_razor">The Lord's Razor</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">72</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#windows_toward_jerusalem">Windows Toward Jerusalem</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">83</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#stormed_and_taken">Stormed And Taken</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">95</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#all_the_world_akin">All The World Akin</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">108</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#a_momentous_quest">A Momentous Quest</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">119</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_great_assize">The Great Assize</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">134</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_road_to_the_city">The Road To The City</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">147</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_ransomless">The Ransomless</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">158</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_three_groups">The Three Groups</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">171</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_insignificant">The Insignificant</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">184</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_three_rings">The Three Rings</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">197</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#how_he_came_to_say_it">How He Came To Say It</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">209</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#castle_jesus">Castle Jesus</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">221</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#stripping_the_slain">Stripping The Slain</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">233</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#sold_out">Sold Out</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">246</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#summer_temptations">Summer Temptations</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">259</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_banished_queen">The Banished Queen</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">274</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_day_we_live_in">The Day We Live In</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">285</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#capital_and_labor">Capital And Labor</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">297</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#despotism_of_the_needle">Despotism Of The Needle</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">311</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#tobacco_and_opium">Tobacco And Opium</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">325</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#why_are_satan">Why Are Satan And Sin Permitted?</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">339</td> + </tr> + </table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="brawn_and_muscle" id="brawn_and_muscle"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>BRAWN AND MUSCLE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And Samson went down to Timnath."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Judges</span> xiv: 1.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his +life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the +grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character +fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver +lessons we devote our morning sermon.</p> + +<p>This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. +It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons—the boy Napoleon and +the man Napoleon—but both alike; two Howards—the boy Howard and the +man Howard—but both alike; two Samsons—the boy Samson and the man +Samson—but both alike. This giant was no doubt the hero of the +playground, and nothing could stand before his exhibitions of youthful +prowess. At eighteen years of age he was betrothed to the daughter of +a Philistine. Going down toward Timnath, a lion came out upon him, +and, although this young giant was weaponless, he seized the monster +by the long mane and shook him as a hungry hound shakes a March hare, +and made his bones crack, and left him by the wayside bleeding under +the smiting of his fist and the grinding heft of his heel.</p> + +<p>There he stands, looming up above other men, a mountain of flesh, his +arms bunched with muscle that can lift the gate of a city, taking an +attitude defiant of everything. His hair had never been cut, and it +rolled down in seven great plaits over his shoulders, adding to his +bulk, fierceness, and terror. The Philistines want to conquer him, and +therefore they must find out where the secret of his strength lies.</p> + +<p>There is a dissolute woman living in the valley of Sorek by the name +of Delilah. They appoint her the agent in the case. The Philistines +are secreted in the same building, and then Delilah goes to work and +coaxes Samson to tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well," he +says, "if you should take seven green withes such as they fasten wild +beasts with and put them around me I should be perfectly powerless." +So she binds him with the seven green withes. Then she claps her hands +and says: "They come—the Philistines!" and he walks out as though +they were no impediment. She coaxes him again, and says: "Now tell me +the secret of this great strength?" and he replies: "If you should +take some ropes that have never been used and tie me with them I +should be just like other men." She ties him with the ropes, claps her +hands, and shouts: "They come—the Philistines!" He walks out as +easily as he did before—not a single obstruction. She coaxes him +again, and he says: "Now, if you should take these seven long plaits +of hair, and by this house-loom weave them into a web, I could not get +away." So the house-loom is rolled up, and the shuttle flies backward +and forward and the long plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then she +claps her hands, and says: "They come—the Philistines!" He walks out +as easily as he did before, dragging a part of the loom with him.</p> + +<p>But after awhile she persuades him to tell the truth. He says: "If you +should take a razor or shears and cut off this long hair, I should be +powerless and in the hands of my enemies." Samson sleeps, and that she +may not wake him up during the process of shearing, help is called in. +You know that the barbers of the East have such a skillful way of +manipulating the head to this very day that, instead of waking up a +sleeping man, they will put a man wide awake sound asleep. I hear the +blades of the shears grinding against each other, and I see the long +locks falling off. The shears or razor accomplishes what green withes +and new ropes and house-loom could not do. Suddenly she claps her +hands, and says: "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" He rouses up +with a struggle, but his strength is all gone. He is in the hands of +his enemies.</p> + +<p>I hear the groan of the giant as they take his eyes out, and then I +see him staggering on in his blindness, feeling his way as he goes on +toward Gaza. The prison door is open, and the giant is thrust in. He +sits down and puts his hands on the mill-crank, which, with exhausting +horizontal motion, goes day after day, week after week, month after +month—work, work, work! The consternation of the world in captivity, +his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding corn in Gaza!</p> + +<p>I. First of all, behold in this giant of the text that physical power +is not always an index of moral power. He was a huge man—the lion +found it out, and the three thousand men whom he slew found it out; +yet he was the subject of petty revenges and out-gianted by low +passion. I am far from throwing any discredit upon physical stamina. +There are those who seem to have great admiration for delicacy and +sickliness of constitution. I never could see any glory in weak nerves +or sick headache. Whatever effort in our day is made to make the men +and women more robust should have the favor of every good citizen as +well as of every Christian. Gymnastics may be positively religious.</p> + +<p>Good people sometimes ascribe to a wicked heart what they ought to +ascribe to a slow liver. The body and the soul are such near neighbors +that they often catch each other's diseases. Those who never saw a +sick day, and who, like Hercules, show the giant in the cradle, have +more to answer for than those who are the subjects of life-long +infirmities. He who can lift twice as much as you can, and walk twice +as far, and work twice as long, will have a double account to meet in +the judgment.</p> + +<p>How often it is that you do not find physical energy indicative of +spiritual power! If a clear head is worth more than one dizzy with +perpetual vertigo—if muscles with the play of health in them are +worth more than those drawn up in chronic "rheumatics"—if an eye +quick to catch passing objects is better than one with vision dim and +uncertain—then God will require of us efficiency just in proportion +to what he has given us. Physical energy ought to be a type of moral +power. We ought to have as good digestion of truth as we have capacity +to assimilate food. Our spiritual hearing ought to be as good as our +physical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as our +tongue. Samsons in body, we ought to be giants in moral power.</p> + +<p>But while you find a great many men who realize that they ought to use +their money aright, and use their intelligence aright, how few men you +find aware of the fact that they ought to use their physical organism +aright! With every thump of the heart there is something saying, +"Work! work!" and, lest we should complain that we have no tools to +work with, God gives us our hands and feet, with every knuckle, and +with every joint, and with every muscle saying to us, "Lay hold and do +something."</p> + +<p>But how often it is that men with physical strength do not serve +Christ! They are like a ship full manned and full rigged, capable of +vast tonnage, able to endure all stress of weather, yet swinging idly +at the docks, when these men ought to be crossing and recrossing the +great ocean of human suffering and sin with God's supplies of mercy. +How often it is that physical strength is used in doing positive +damage, or in luxurious ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed +bosom, fearless of the shafts of opposition, it ought to be laying +hold with all its might, and tugging away to lift up this sunken wreck +of a world.</p> + +<p>It is a most shameful fact that much of the business of the Church and +of the world must be done by those comparatively invalid. Richard +Baxter, by reason of his diseases, all his days sitting in the door of +the tomb, yet writing more than a hundred volumes, and sending out an +influence for God that will endure as long as the "Saints' Everlasting +Rest." Edward Payson, never knowing a well day, yet how he preached, +and how he wrote, helping thousands of dying souls like himself to +swim in a sea of glory! And Robert M'Cheyne, a walking skeleton, yet +you know what he did in Dundee, and how he shook Scotland with zeal +for God. Philip Doddridge, advised by his friends, because of his +illness, not to enter the ministry, yet you know what he did for the +"rise and progress of religion" in the Church and in the world.</p> + +<p>Wilberforce was told by his doctors that he could not live a +fortnight, yet at that very time entering upon philanthropic +enterprises that demanded the greatest endurance and persistence. +Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so that often in his pulpit +while preaching he would stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting up +again to preach about heaven until the glories of the celestial city +dropped on the multitude, doing more work, perhaps, than almost any +well man in his day.</p> + +<p>Oh, how often it is that men with great physical endurance are not as +great in moral and spiritual stature! While there are achievements for +those who are bent all their days with sickness—achievements of +patience, achievements of Christian endurance—I call upon men of +health to-day, men of muscle, men of nerve, men of physical power, to +devote themselves to the Lord. Giants in body, you ought to be giants +in soul.</p> + +<p>II. Behold also, in the story of my text, illustration of the fact of +the damage that strength can do if it be misguided. It seems to me +that this man spent a great deal of his time in doing evil—this +Samson of my text. To pay a bet which he had lost by guessing of his +riddle he robs and kills thirty people. He was not only gigantic in +strength, but gigantic in mischief, and a type of those men in all +ages of the world who, powerful in body or mind, or any faculty of +social position or wealth, have used their strength for iniquitous +purposes.</p> + +<p>It is not the small, weak men of the day who do the damage. These +small men who go swearing and loafing about your stores and shops and +banking-houses, assailing Christ and the Bible and the Church—they do +not do the damage. They have no influence. They are vermin that you +crush with your foot. But it is the giants of the day, the misguided +giants, giants in physical power, or giants in mental acumen, or +giants in social position, or giants in wealth, who do the damage.</p> + +<p>The men with sharp pens that stab religion and throw their poison all +through our literature; the men who use the power of wealth to +sanction iniquity, and bribe justice, and make truth and honor bow to +their golden scepter.</p> + +<p>Misguided giants—look out for them! In the middle and the latter part +of the last century no doubt there were thousands of men in Paris and +Edinburgh and London who hated God and blasphemed the name of the +Almighty; but they did but little mischief—they were small men, +insignificant men. Yet there were giants in those days.</p> + +<p>Who can calculate the soul-havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a very +enthusiasm of iniquity, with fiery imagination seizing upon all the +impulsive natures of his day? or David Hume, who employed his life as +a spider employs its summer, in spinning out silken webs to trap the +unwary? or Voltaire, the most learned man of his day, marshaling a +great host of skeptics, and leading them out in the dark land of +infidelity? or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrollable grudge against +religion in his history of one of the most fascinating periods of the +world's existence—the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire—a book in +which, with all the splendors of his genius, he magnified the errors +of Christian disciples, while, with a sparseness of notice that never +can be forgiven, he treated of the Christian heroes of whom the world +was not worthy?</p> + +<p>Oh, men of stout physical health, men of great mental stature, men of +high social position, men of great power of any sort, I want you to +understand your power, and I want you to know that that power devoted +to God will be a crown on earth, to you typical of a crown in heaven; +but misguided, bedraggled in sin, administrative of evil, God will +thunder against you with His condemnation in the day when millionaire +and pauper, master and slave, king and subject, shall stand side by +side in the judgment, and money-bags, and judicial ermine, and royal +robe shall be riven with the lightnings.</p> + +<p>Behold also, how a giant may be slain of a woman. Delilah started the +train of circumstances that pulled down the temple of Dagon about +Samson's ears. And tens of thousands of giants have gone down to death +and hell through the same impure fascinations. It seems to me that it +is high time that pulpit and platform and printing-press speak out +against the impurities of modern society. Fastidiousness and Prudery +say: "Better not speak—you will rouse up adverse criticism; you will +make worse what you want to make better; better deal in glittering +generalities; the subject is too delicate for polite ears." But there +comes a voice from heaven overpowering the mincing sentimentalities of +the day, saying: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a +trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of +Jacob their sins."</p> + +<p>The trouble is that when people write or speak upon this theme they +are apt to cover it up with the graces of belles-lettres, so that the +crime is made attractive instead of repulsive. Lord Byron in "Don +Juan" adorns this crime until it smiles like a May queen. Michelet, +the great French writer, covers it up with bewitching rhetoric until +it glows like the rising sun, when it ought to be made loathsome as a +small-pox hospital. There are to-day influences abroad which, if +unresisted by the pulpit and the printing-press, will turn New York +and Brooklyn into Sodom and Gomorrah, fit only for the storm of fire +and brimstone that whelmed the cities of the plain.</p> + +<p>You who are seated in your Christian homes, compassed by moral and +religious restraints, do not realize the gulf of iniquity that bounds +you on the north and the south and the east and the west. While I +speak there are tens of thousands of men and women going over the +awful plunge of an impure life; and while I cry to God for mercy upon +their souls, I call upon you to marshal in the defense of your homes, +your Church and your nation. There is a banqueting hall that you have +never heard described. You know all about the feast of Ahasuerus, +where a thousand lords sat. You know all about Belshazzar's carousal, +where the blood of the murdered king spurted into the faces of the +banqueters. You may know of the scene of riot and wassail, when there +was set before Esopus one dish of food that cost $400,000. But I speak +now of a different banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its +floor is tesselated with fire. Its chalices are chased with fire. Its +song is a song of fire. Its walls are buttresses of fire. Solomon +refers to it when he says: "Her guests are in the depths of hell."</p> + +<p>Our American communities are suffering from the gospel of Free +Loveism, which, fifteen or twenty years ago, was preached on the +platform and in some of the churches of this country. I charge upon +Free Loveism that it has blighted innumerable homes, and that it has +sent innumerable souls to ruin. Free Loveism is bestial; it is +worse—it is infernal! It has furnished this land with about one +thousand divorces annually. In one county in the State of Indiana it +furnished eleven divorces in one day before dinner. It has roused up +elopements, North, South, East, and West. You can hardly take up a +paper but you read of an elopement. As far as I can understand the +doctrine of Free Loveism it is this: That every man ought to have +somebody else's wife, and every wife somebody else's husband. They do +not like our Christian organization of society, and I wish they would +all elope, the wretches of one sex taking the wretches of the other, +and start to-morrow morning for the great Sahara Desert, until the +simoom shall sweep seven feet of sand all over them, and not one +passing caravan for the next five hundred years bring back one +miserable bone of their carcasses! Free Loveism! It is the +double-distilled extract of nux vomica, ratsbane, and adder's tongue. +Never until society goes back to the old Bible, and hears its eulogy +of purity and its anathema of uncleanness—never until then will this +evil be extirpated.</p> + +<p>IV. Behold also in this giant of the text and in the giant of our own +century that great physical power must crumble and expire. The Samson +of the text long ago went away. He fought the lion. He fought the +Philistines. He could fight anything, but death was too much for him. +He may have required a longer grave and a broader grave; but the tomb +nevertheless was his terminus.</p> + +<p>If, then, we are to be compelled to go out of this world, where are we +to go to? This body and soul must soon part. What shall be the destiny +of the former I know—dust to dust. But what shall be the destiny of +the latter? Shall it rise into the companionship of the white-robed, +whose sins Christ has slain? or will it go down among the unbelieving, +who tried to gain the world and save their souls, but were swindled +out of both? Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in +the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is +ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is +this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to +save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power +and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his +dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined.</p> + +<p>V. In the light of this subject I want to call your attention to a +fact which may not have been rightly considered by five men in this +house, and that is the fact that we must be brought into judgment for +the employment of our physical organism. Shoulder, brain, hand, +foot—we must answer in judgment for the use we have made of them. +Have they been used for the elevation of society or for its +depression? In proportion as our arm is strong and our step elastic +will our account at last be intensified. Thousands of sermons are +preached to invalids. I preach this sermon this morning to stout men +and healthful women. We must give to God an account for the right use +of this physical organism.</p> + +<p>These invalids have comparatively little to account for, perhaps. They +could not lift twenty pounds. They could not walk half a mile without +sitting down to rest. In the preparation of this subject I have said +to myself, how shall I account to God in judgment for the use of a +body which never knew one moment of real sickness? Rising up in +judgment, standing beside the men and women who had only little +physical energy, and yet consumed that energy in a conflagration of +religious enthusiasm, how will we feel abashed!</p> + +<p>Oh, men of the strong arm and the stout heart, what use are you making +of your physical forces? Will you be able to stand the test of that +day when we must answer for the use of every talent, whether it were a +physical energy, or a mental acumen, or a spiritual power?</p> + +<p>The day approaches, and I see one who in this world was an invalid, +and as she stands before the throne of God to answer she says, "I was +sick all my days. I had but very little strength, but I did as well as +I could in being kind to those who were more sick and more +suffering." And Christ will say, "Well done, faithful servant."</p> + +<p>And then a little child will stand before the throne, and she will +say, "On earth I had a curvature of the spine, and I was very weak, +and I was very sick; but I used to gather flowers out of the wild-wood +and bring them to my sick mother, and she was comforted when she saw +the sweet flowers out of the wild-wood. I didn't do much, but I did +something." And Christ shall say, as He takes her up in His arm and +kisses her, "Well done, well done, faithful servant; enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord."</p> + +<p>What, then, will be said to us—we to whom the Lord gave physical +strength and continuous health? Hark! it thunders again. The judgment! +the judgment!</p> + +<p>I said to an old Scotch minister, who was one of the best friends I +ever had, "Doctor, did you ever know Robert Pollock, the Scotch poet, +who wrote 'The Course of Time'?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew him +well; I was his classmate." And then the doctor went on to tell me how +that the writing of "The Course of Time" exhausted the health of +Robert Pollock, and he expired. It seems as if no man could have such +a glimpse of the day for which all other days were made as Robert +Pollock had, and long survive that glimpse. In the description of that +day he says, among other things:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Begin the woe, ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds<br /></span> +<span>And doleful winds wail to the howling hills,<br /></span> +<span>And howling hills mourn to the dismal vales,<br /></span> +<span>And dismal vales sigh to the sorrowing brooks,<br /></span> +<span>And sorrowing brooks weep to the weeping stream,<br /></span> +<span>And weeping stream awake the groaning deep;<br /></span> +<span>Ye heavens, great archway of the universe, put sack-cloth on;<br /></span> +<span>And ocean, robe thyself in garb of widowhood,<br /></span> +<span>And gather all thy waves into a groan, and utter it.<br /></span> +<span>Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense.<br /></span> +<span>The occasion asks it, Nature dies, and angels come to lay<br /></span> +<span class="i4">her in her grave."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>What Robert Pollock saw in poetic dream, you and I will see in +positive reality—the judgment! the judgment!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_pleiades_and_orion" id="the_pleiades_and_orion"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3>THE PLEIADES AND ORION.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Amos</span>. v. 8</p> +<br /> + +<p>A country farmer wrote this text—Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth +and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as +formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the +sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was +getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take +from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and +stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and +Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, +and Israelites trembled.</p> + +<p>Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and +David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as +might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his +prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, +and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts +devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He +watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of +bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all +night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight +roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the +tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year +when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open +field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the +night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of +lunar light.</p> + +<p>What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at +twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, +and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's +hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the +thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the +map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out +before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He +associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He +had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, +and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. +But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while +seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of +the midnight heavens—the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The +former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it +rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the +winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven +Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald of the +tempest. The ancients were the more apt to study the physiognomy and +juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies, because they thought they had a +special influence upon the earth; and perhaps they were right. If the +moon every few hours lifts and lets down the tides of the Atlantic +Ocean, and the electric storms of last year in the sun, by all +scientific admission, affected the earth, why not the stars have +proportionate effect?</p> + +<p>And there are some things which make me think that it may not have +been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of +the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Did not a meteor +run on evangelistic errand on the first Christmas night, and designate +the rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars in their courses fight +against Sisera? Was it merely coincidental that before the destruction +of Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights? Did +it merely happen so that a new star appeared in constellation +Cassiopeia, and then disappeared just before King Charles IX. of +France, who was responsible for St. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it +without significance that in the days of the Roman Emperor Justinian +war and famine were preceded by the dimness of the sun, which for +nearly a year gave no more light than the moon, although there were no +clouds to obscure it?</p> + +<p>Astrology, after all, may have been something more than a brilliant +heathenism. No wonder that Amos of the text, having heard these two +anthems of the stars, put down the stout rough staff of the herdsman +and took into his brown hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen of a +prophet, and advised the recreant people of his time to return to God, +saying: "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." This +command, which Amos gave 785 years B.C., is just as appropriate for +us, 1885 A.D.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made +the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a +star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but +seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night +after night and season after season and decade after decade they had +kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never +clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called +the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his +Æneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order +established for their coming and going; order written not in +manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty +on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. +Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order.</p> + +<p>What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations +sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at +hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps +seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly +keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in +adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of +the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the +Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care +of the one world we inhabit.</p> + +<p>So I feel very much as my father felt one day when we were going to +the country mill to get a grist ground, and I, a boy of seven years, +sat in the back part of the wagon, and our yoke of oxen ran away with +us and along a labyrinthine road through the woods, so that I thought +every moment we would be dashed to pieces, and I made a terrible +outcry of fright, and my father turned to me with a face perfectly +calm, and said: "De Witt, what are you crying about? I guess we can +ride as fast as the oxen can run." And, my hearers, why should we be +affrighted and lose our equilibrium in the swift movement of worldly +events, especially when we are assured that it is not a yoke of +unbroken steers that are drawing us on, but that order and wise +government are in the yoke?</p> + +<p>In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, +and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, +and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with +you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better +than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see +further than Amos with the naked eye could—namely, two hundred stars +in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there +is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions +of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made +all that and controls all that—the wheel of the constellations +turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the +breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. +For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge +you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +groups of the text was the God of light. Amos saw that God was not +satisfied with making one star, or two or three stars, but He makes +seven; and having finished that group of worlds, makes another +group—group after group. To the Pleiades He adds Orion. It seems that +God likes light so well that He keeps making it. Only one being in the +universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, meteoric +creations, and that is the—Creator Himself. And they have all been +lovingly christened, each one a name as distinct as the names of your +children. "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by +their names." The seven Pleiades had names given to them, and they are +Alcyone, Merope, Celæno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia.</p> + +<p>But think of the billions and trillions of daughters of starry light +that God calls by name as they sweep by Him with beaming brow and +lustrous robe! So fond is God of light—natural light, moral light, +spiritual light. Again and again is light harnessed for +symbolization—Christ, the bright and morning star; evangelization, +the daybreak; the redemption of nations, Sun of Righteousness rising +with healing in His wings. Oh, men and women, with so many sorrows and +sins and perplexities, if you want light of comfort, light of pardon, +light of goodness, in earnest, pray through Christ, "Seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +archipelagoes of stars must be an unchanging God. There had been no +change in the stellar appearance in this herdsman's life-time, and his +father, a shepherd, reported to him that there had been no change in +his life-time. And these two clusters hang over the celestial arbor +now just as they were the first night that they shone on the Edenic +bowers, the same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top +of which to watch them, the same as when the Chaldeans calculated the +eclipses, the same as when Elihu, according to the Book of Job, went +out to study the aurora borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and +Copernican system, the same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras, and from +Pythagoras to Herschel. Surely, a changeless God must have fashioned +the Pleiades and Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups and downs of +life, and the flux and reflux of the tides of prosperity, to know that +we have a changeless God, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.</p> + +<p>Xerxes garlanded and knighted the steersman of his boat in the +morning, and hanged him in the evening of the same day. Fifty thousand +people stood around the columns of the national capitol, shouting +themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural, and in four months so +great were the antipathies that a ruffian's pistol in Washington depot +expressed the sentiment of a great multitude. The world sits in its +chariot and drives tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the horse +behind is Anathema. Lord Cobham, in King James' time, was applauded, +and had thirty-five thousand dollars a year, but was afterward +execrated, and lived on scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. +Alexander the Great after death remained unburied for thirty days, +because no one would do the honor of shoveling him under. The Duke of +Wellington refused to have his iron fence mended, because it had been +broken by an infuriated populace in some hour of political +excitement, and he left it in ruins that men might learn what a fickle +thing is human favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting +to everlasting to them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto the +children's children of such as keep His covenant, and to those who +remember His commandments to do them." This moment "seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +beacons of the Oriental night sky must be a God of love and kindly +warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to all the herdsmen and +shepherds and husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and +cultivate your gardens and fields." Orion, coming in winter, warned +them to prepare for tempest. All navigation was regulated by these two +constellations. The one said to shipmaster and crew: "Hoist sail for +the sea, and gather merchandise from other lands." But Orion was the +storm-signal, and said: "Reef sail, make things snug, or put into +harbor, for the hurricanes are getting their wings out." As the +Pleiades were the sweet evangels of the spring, Orion was the warning +prophet of the winter.</p> + +<p>Oh, now I get the best view of God I ever had! There are two kinds of +sermons I never want to preach—the one that presents God so kind, so +indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will +against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their +impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are +spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in +His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven." The other kind of sermon I never want to +preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and +thundercloud, and with red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into +paroxysms of infinite agony. The sermon that I am now preaching +believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and +winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion.</p> + +<p>You must remember that the winter is just as important as the spring. +Let one winter pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to bind +the rivers and snow to enrich our fields, and then you will have to +enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries. "A green Christmas makes a +fat grave-yard," was the old proverb. Storms to purify the air. +Thermometer at ten degrees above zero to tone up the system. December +and January just as important as May and June. I tell you we need the +storms of life as much as we do the sunshine. There are more men +ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, +before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and +worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been +like Julius Cæsar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was +divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the +firmament.</p> + +<p>One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages made last summer by the +"Etruria" was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from +New York to Liverpool. But to those going in the opposite direction +the storm was a buffeting and a hinderance. It is a bad thing to have +a storm ahead, pushing us back; but if we be God's children and +aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner +into the harbor. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and +typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of the land and sea are not +unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but are under divine +supervision! I am so glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also the +God of Orion! It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina +Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," +and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in +favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of +consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility +of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your +persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal +heaven.</p> + +<p>Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible +God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in +Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and +minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! +worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we +stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling +off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric +iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve +around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around +the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make +about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time +between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos +into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition.</p> + +<p>And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, +many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there," +says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says +St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says +Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says +Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the +herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about +those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let +us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop +or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the +heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this +shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already +occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their +gates to let us in.</p> + +<p>When I read, "In my Father's house are many mansions," I do not know +but that each world is a room, and as many rooms as there are worlds, +stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hallways, stellar windows, +stellar domes. How our departed friends must pity us shut up in these +cramped apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles, when they some +morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar +system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling +constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve +luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep +of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic, +archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their +windows illuminated for festivity.</p> + +<p>Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How +little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future! +How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed +up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are +worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which +there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion, +how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must +obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call +to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable, +but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all +the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills +of Tekoa.</p> + +<p>I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never +impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest +Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two +or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building. +All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with +precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes +with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and +eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich +colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues +above statues, until sculpture can do no more, but faints and falls +back against carved stalls and down on pavements over which the kings +and queens of the earth have walked to confession. Nave and aisles and +transept and portals combining the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced, +interfoliated, intercolumned grandeur. As I stood outside, looking at +the double range of flying buttresses and the forest of pinnacles, +higher and higher and higher, until I almost reeled from dizziness, I +exclaimed; "Great doxology in stone! Frozen prayer of many nations!"</p> + +<p>But while standing there I saw a poor man enter and put down his pack +and kneel beside his burden on the hard floor of that cathedral. And +tears of deep emotion came into my eyes, as I said to myself: "There +is a soul worth more than all the material surroundings. That man will +live after the last pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all that +cathedral glory shall remain uncrumbled. He is now a Lazarus in rags +and poverty and weariness, but immortal, and a son of the Lord God +Almighty; and the prayer he now offers, though amid many +superstitions, I believe God will hear; and among the Apostles whose +sculptured forms stand in the surrounding niches he will at last be +lifted, and into the presence of that Christ whose sufferings are +represented by the crucifix before which he bows; and be raised in due +time out of all his poverties into the glorious home built for him and +built for us by 'Him who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion.'"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_queens_visit" id="the_queens_visit"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>THE QUEEN'S VISIT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Behold, the half was not told me."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I Kings</span> x: 7.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all +sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, +and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. +He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the +East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were +obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the +hands of Solomon's merchants. He manned the fortress Thapsacus at the +chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that +passed there. The three great products of Palestine—wine pressed from +the richest clusters and celebrated all the world over; oil which in +that hot country is the entire substitute for butter and lard, and was +pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country became +an oil well; and honey which was the entire substitute for +sugar—these three great products of the country Solomon exported, and +received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every +clime.</p> + +<p>He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered a fleet of ships to be +constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the +flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage, to bring +home the wealth of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian +horses were large and swift, and long-maned and round-limbed, and he +resolved to purchase them, giving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, +putting the best of these horses in his own stall, and selling the +surplus to foreign potentates at great profit.</p> + +<p>He heard that there was the best of timber on Mount Lebanon, and he +sent out one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest +and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into +rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thence to be drawn by ox-teams +twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there +were beautiful flowers in other lands. He sent for them, planted them +in his own gardens, and to this very day there are flowers found in +the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of +Palestine, the lineal descendants of the very flowers that Solomon +planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest +voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and +bring them there, and he put them into his cages.</p> + +<p>Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming up to the +king's gate, and the ox-trains from Egypt, gold and silver and +precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, +and fish of every scale! See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and +the horsemen run, and the chariots wheel! Hark to the orchestra! Gaze +upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, +step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace!</p> + +<p>Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the +king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the +architect, and of the other artists is here seen in the long line of +corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. +Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting +into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network +of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging +baskets. Three branches—so Josephus tells us—three branches +sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves +seemed to quiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of +water on six hundred brazen ox-heads, which gushed with water and +filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and +musical plash. Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and +cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seating place of +the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen lion. Why, my friends, +in that place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and +they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces +in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of +gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold +reflected in the water! Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing +in the crown! Gold, gold, gold!</p> + +<p>Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere +by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of +Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long +procession approaching Jerusalem? I think from the pomp of it there +must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of the spices which +are brought as presents, and I hear the shout of the drivers, and I +see the dust-covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry +the news up to the palace. The Queen of Sheba advances. Let all the +people come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the +palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace +before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and the +saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense, and pass it into the +treasure house. Take up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun.</p> + +<p>The Queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the +bath. She sits down at the banquet. The cup-bearers bow. The meat +smokes. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten +sea. Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the +conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Solomon +many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the +Hebrews, and she then and there becomes a servant of the Lord God.</p> + +<p>She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices she +brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned +into harps and psalteries and into railings for the causeway between +the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand +dollars in money—she begins to think that all these presents amount +to nothing in such a place, and she is almost ashamed that she has +brought them, and she says within herself: "I heard a great deal +about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, +but I find it far beyond my highest anticipations. I must add more +than fifty per cent. to what has been related. It exceeds everything +that I could have expected. The half—the half was not told me."</p> + +<p>Learn from this subject what a beautiful thing it is when social +position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes +to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say +it is because they are weak-minded. I say it is because they have +quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and +capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the +Gospel then all the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who +have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all come the people of +affluence and high social position. Alas, that it is so!</p> + +<p>If there are those here to-day who have been favored of fortune, or, +as I might better put it, favored of God, surrender all you have and +all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba. +Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I +am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all +ages—Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen +of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of +Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in +Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen +Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors +to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove +to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; +Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen +Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper.</p> + +<p>I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its +thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures, +and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and +conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line +of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with +gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and +the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this +greater than Solomon.</p> + +<p>Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of +truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say +in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great +way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to +cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering +deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a +committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates +report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She +wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this +by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand +kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by +Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of +eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the +jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time +to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan, +dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and +among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an +earnest seeker after the truth."</p> + +<p>But there are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that +way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come +to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their +arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am +to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost." +A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem +will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the +Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. +Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures +of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the +waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne. +Sit down at the banquet—the wine pressed from the grapes of the +heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the +camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. +The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"—that is, this very +woman I am speaking of—"the Queen of the South shall rise up in +judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the +uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, +behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the +infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting +to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it +shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the +camels!</p> + +<p>Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a +surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in +Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of +Christ—that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler +coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship +and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, +and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia +Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. +And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so +much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half—the half was +not told her.</p> + +<p>So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of +grace—an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; +martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with +visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through +the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It +has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with +pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great +congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of +God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this +banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of +His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with +tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half—the half was not told +me!"</p> + +<p>I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea +you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian +with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a +Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that +you never in the days of your spiritual bondage had any appreciation +of what was to come. You are ready to-day to answer, and if I gave you +an opportunity in the midst of this assemblage, you would speak out +and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and +the grace and the goodness of God: "The half—the half was not told +me!"</p> + +<p>Well, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this +world, when it is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells +of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of +Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren, +winter-bleached, storm-scarred, thunder-split rock breaking into +floods of bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their +nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoom—deserts blooming +into carnation roses and silver-tipped lilies.</p> + +<p>It is the old story. Everybody tells it. Isaiah told it, John told it, +Paul told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John +Milton told it—everybody tells it; and yet—and yet when the midnight +shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal His great army, and +China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of God +and wheel into line; and India, destroying her Juggernaut and +snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the +voice of God and wheel into line; and vine-covered Italy, and +wheat-crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the +voice of God and fall into line; then the Church, which has been +toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded like +a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up +into the face of her Lord the King, and say: "The half—the half was +not told me."</p> + +<p>Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian—a greater +surprise than anything I have depicted. Heaven is an old story. +Everybody talks about it. There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book that +does not refer to it. Children read about it in their Sabbath-school +book. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a +harbor from the storm. We call it our home. We say it is the house of +many mansions. We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, +exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out +in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a +surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the Queen of Sheba, +the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have +started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though +our feet be blistered with the way? We are hastening to the palace. We +take all our loves and hopes and Christian ambitions, as frankincense +and myrrh and cassia, to the great King. We must not rest. We must not +halt. The night is coming on, and it is not safe out here in the +desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the +houses of Lebanon, and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains +dance in the sun, and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor +pilgrims.</p> + +<p>Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are +weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: +"Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters, recline on these banks. +Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censer +and swing it before the altar." And yet, my friends, when heaven +bursts upon us it will be a greater surprise than that—Jesus on the +throne, and we made like Him! All our Christian friends surrounding us +in glory! All our sorrows and tears and sins gone by forever! The +thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, +the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without +end: "The half—the half was not told us!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="vicarious_suffering" id="vicarious_suffering"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>VICARIOUS SUFFERING.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Without shedding of blood is no remission."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Heb.</span> ix: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that +made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White +Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out +Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you +really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ +to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The +Bible statement agrees with all physicians, and all physiologists, and +all scientists, in saying that the blood is the life, and in the +Christian religion it means simply that Christ's life was given for +our life. Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible story of blood +is disgusting, and that they don't want what they call a +"slaughter-house religion," only shows their incapacity or +unwillingness to look through the figure of speech toward the thing +signified. The blood that, on the darkest Friday the world ever saw, +oozed, or trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side, and the +hands, and the feet of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in +a few hours coagulated and dried up, and forever disappeared; and if +man had depended on the application of the literal blood of Christ, +there would not have been a soul saved for the last eighteen +centuries.</p> + +<p>In order to understand this red word of my text, we only have to +exercise as much common sense in religion as we do in everything else. +Pang for pang, hunger for hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear, +blood for blood, life for life, we see every day illustrated. The act +of substitution is no novelty, although I hear men talk as though the +idea of Christ's suffering substituted for our suffering were +something abnormal, something distressingly odd, something wildly +eccentric, a solitary episode in the world's history; when I could +take you out into this city, and before sundown point you to five +hundred cases of substitution and voluntary suffering of one in behalf +of another.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock to-morrow afternoon go among the places of business or +toil. It will be no difficult thing for you to find men who, by their +looks, show you that they are overworked. They are prematurely old. +They are hastening rapidly toward their decease. They have gone +through crises in business that shattered their nervous system, and +pulled on the brain. They have a shortness of breath, and a pain in +the back of the head, and at night an insomnia that alarms them. Why +are they drudging at business early and late? For fun? No; it would be +difficult to extract any amusement out of that exhaustion. Because +they are avaricious? In many cases no. Because their own personal +expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars would meet all their +wants. The simple fact is, the man is enduring all that fatigue and +exasperation, and wear and tear, to keep his home prosperous. There +is an invisible line reaching from that store, from that bank, from +that shop, from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few blocks, a few +miles away, and there is the secret of that business endurance. He is +simply the champion of a homestead, for which he wins bread, and +wardrobe, and education, and prosperity, and in such battle ten +thousand men fall. Of ten business men whom I bury, nine die of +overwork for others. Some sudden disease finds them with no power of +resistance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood. +Substitution!</p> + +<p>At one o'clock to-morrow morning, the hour when slumber is most +uninterrupted and most profound, walk amid the dwelling-houses of the +city. Here and there you will find a dim light, because it is the +household custom to keep a subdued light burning: but most of the +houses from base to top are as dark as though uninhabited. A merciful +God has sent forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over +the city. But yonder is a clear light burning, and outside on the +window casement a glass or pitcher containing food for a sick child; +the food is set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that mother +has sat up with that sufferer. She has to the last point obeyed the +physician's prescription, not giving a drop too much or too little, or +a moment too soon or too late. She is very anxious, for she has buried +three children with the same disease, and she prays and weeps, each +prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. By dint of +kindness she gets the little one through the ordeal. After it is all +over, the mother is taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in, and +one day she leaves the convalescent child with a mother's blessing, +and goes up to join the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for life. +Substitution! The fact is that there are an uncounted number of +mothers who, after they have navigated a large family of children +through all the diseases of infancy, and got them fairly started up +the flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only strength enough +left to die. They fade away. Some call it consumption; some call it +nervous prostration; some call it intermittent or malarial +disposition; but I call it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>Or perhaps the mother lingers long enough to see a son get on the +wrong road, and his former kindness becomes rough reply when she +expresses anxiety about him. But she goes right on, looking carefully +after his apparel, remembering his every birthday with some memento, +and when he is brought home worn out with dissipation, nurses him till +he gets well and starts him again, and hopes, and expects, and prays, +and counsels, and suffers, until her strength gives out and she fails. +She is going, and attendants, bending over her pillow, ask her if she +has any message to leave, and she makes great effort to say something, +but out of three or four minutes of indistinct utterance they can +catch but three words: "My poor boy!" The simple fact is she died for +him. Life for life. Substitution!</p> + +<p>About twenty-four years ago there went forth from our homes hundreds +of thousands of men to do battle for their country. All the poetry of +war soon vanished, and left them nothing but the terrible prose. They +waded knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow-banks. They marched till +their cut feet tracked the earth. They were swindled out of their +honest rations, and lived on meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all +fractured, and eyes extinguished, and limbs shot away. Thousands of +them cried for water as they lay dying on the field the night after +the battle, and got it not. They were homesick, and received no +message from their loved ones. They died in barns, in bushes, in +ditches, the buzzards of the summer heat the only attendants on their +obsequies. No one but the infinite God who knows everything, knows the +ten thousandth part of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height +of anguish of the Northern and Southern battlefields. Why did these +fathers leave their children and go to the front, and why did these +young men, postponing the marriage-day, start out into the +probabilities of never coming back? For the country they died. Life +for life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>But we need not go so far. What is that monument in Greenwood? It is +to the doctors who fell in the Southern epidemics. Why go? Were there +not enough sick to be attended in these Northern latitudes? Oh, yes; +but the doctor puts a few medical books in his valise, and some vials +of medicine, and leaves his patients here in the hands of other +physicians, and takes the rail-train. Before he gets to the infected +regions he passes crowded rail-trains, regular and extra, taking the +flying and affrighted populations. He arrives in a city over which a +great horror is brooding. He goes from couch to couch, feeling of +pulse and studying symptoms, and prescribing day after day, night +after night, until a fellow-physician says: "Doctor, you had better go +home and rest; you look miserable." But he can not rest while so many +are suffering. On and on, until some morning finds him in a delirium, +in which he talks of home, and then rises and says he must go and look +after those patients. He is told to lie down; but he fights his +attendants until he falls back, and is weaker and weaker, and dies for +people with whom he had no kinship, and far away from his own family, +and is hastily put away in a stranger's tomb, and only the fifth part +of a newspaper line tells us of his sacrifice—his name just mentioned +among five. Yet he has touched the furthest height of sublimity in +that three weeks of humanitarian service. He goes straight as an arrow +to the bosom of Him who said: "I was sick and ye visited Me." Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>In the legal profession I see the same principle of self-sacrifice. In +1846, William Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic negro, was at Auburn, +N.Y., on trial for murder. He had slain the entire Van Nest family. +The foaming wrath of the community could be kept off him only by armed +constables. Who would volunteer to be his counsel? No attorney wanted +to sacrifice his popularity by such an ungrateful task. All were +silent save one, a young lawyer with feeble voice, that could hardly +be heard outside the bar, pale and thin and awkward. It was William H. +Seward, who saw that the prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible, and +ought to be put in an asylum rather than put to death, the heroic +counsel uttering these beautiful words:</p> + +<p>"I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged prisoner +and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a +pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child with +an affectionate smile disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever +I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give +because he says, 'God bless you!' as I pass. My dog caresses me with +fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse recognizes me when I +fill his manger. What reward, what gratitude, what sympathy and +affection can I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look at him. +Look at the assemblage around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed +censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors +or my fellow-men, where, even in his heart, I can expect to find a +sentiment, a thought, not to say of reward or of acknowledgment, or +even of recognition? Gentlemen, you may think of this evidence what +you please, bring in what verdict you can, but I asseverate before +Heaven and you, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the +prisoner at the bar does not at this moment know why it is that my +shadow falls on you instead of his own."</p> + +<p>The gallows got its victim, but the post-mortem examination of the +poor creature showed to all the surgeons and to all the world that the +public were wrong, and William H. Seward was right, and that hard, +stony step of obloquy in the Auburn court-room was the first step of +the stairs of fame up which he went to the top, or to within one step +of the top, that last denied him through the treachery of American +politics. Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an American court-room +than William H. Seward, without reward, standing between the fury of +the populace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution!</p> + +<p>In the realm of the fine arts there was as remarkable an instance. A +brilliant but hypercriticised painter, Joseph William Turner, was met +by a volley of abuse from all the art galleries of Europe. His +paintings, which have since won the applause of all civilized nations, +"The Fifth Plague of Egypt," "Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally +Weather," "Calais Pier," "The Sun Rising Through Mist," and "Dido +Building Carthage," were then targets for critics to shoot at. In +defense of this outrageously abused man, a young author of twenty-four +years, just one year out of college, came forth with his pen, and +wrote the ablest and most famous essays on art that the world ever +saw, or ever will see—John Ruskin's "Modern Painters." For seventeen +years this author fought the battles of the maltreated artist, and +after, in poverty and broken-heartedness, the painter had died, and +the public tried to undo their cruelties toward him by giving him a +big funeral and burial at St. Paul's Cathedral, his old-time friend +took out of a tin box nineteen thousand pieces of paper containing +drawings by the old painter, and through many weary and uncompensated +months assorted and arranged them for public observation. People say +John Ruskin in his old days is cross, misanthropic, and morbid. +Whatever he may do that he ought not to do, and whatever he may say +that he ought not to say between now and his death, he will leave this +world insolvent as far as it has any capacity to pay this author's pen +for its chivalric and Christian defense of a poor painter's pencil. +John Ruskin for William Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>What an exalting principle this which leads one to suffer for another! +Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic +canto, or moves nations. The principle is the dominant one in our +religion—Christ the Martyr, Christ the celestial Hero, Christ the +Defender, Christ the Substitute. No new principle, for it was as old +as human nature; but now on a grander, wider, higher, deeper, and more +world-resounding scale! The shepherd boy as a champion for Israel with +a sling toppled the giant of Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but +here is another David who, for all the armies of churches militant and +triumphant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the crash of +his brazen armor like an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had at God's +command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same God just in +time had provided a ram of the thicket as a substitute; but here is +another Isaac bound to the altar, and no hand arrests the sharp edges +of laceration and death, and the universe shivers and quakes and +recoils and groans at the horror.</p> + +<p>All good men have for centuries been trying to tell whom this +Substitute was like, and every comparison, inspired and uninspired, +evangelistic, prophetic, apostolic, and human, falls short, for Christ +was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of Christ, because he came directly +from God; Noah a type of Christ, because he delivered his own family +from deluge; Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he had no +predecessor or successor; Joseph a type of Christ, because he was cast +out by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ, because he was a +deliverer from bondage; Joshua a type of Christ, because he was a +conqueror; Samson a type of Christ, because of his strength to slay +the lions and carry off the iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a +type of Christ, in the affluence of his dominion; Jonah a type of +Christ, because of the stormy sea in which he threw himself for the +rescue of others; but put together Adam and Noah and Melchisedec and +Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they +would not make a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half +of a Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ.</p> + +<p>He forsook a throne and sat down on His own footstool. He came from +the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and changed a +circumference seraphic for a circumference diabolic. Once waited on by +angels, now hissed at by brigands. From afar and high up He came down; +past meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones, Himself more +lustrous; past larger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs of +firmaments, and from cloud to cloud, and through tree-tops and into +the earners stall, to thrust His shoulder under our burdens and take +the lances of pain through His vitals, and wrapped himself in all the +agonies which we deserve for our misdoings, and stood on the splitting +decks of a foundering vessel, amid the drenching surf of the sea, and +passed midnights on the mountains amid wild beasts of prey, and stood +at the point where all earthly and infernal hostilities charged on Him +at once with their keen sabers—our Substitute!</p> + +<p>When did attorney ever endure so much for a pauper client, or +physician for the patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the child in +membranous croup, as Christ for us, and Christ for you, and Christ for +me? Shall any man or woman or child in this audience who has ever +suffered for another find it hard to understand this Christly +suffering for us? Shall those whose sympathies have been wrung in +behalf of the unfortunate have no appreciation of that one moment +which was lifted out of all the ages of eternity as most conspicuous, +when Christ gathered up all the sins of those to be redeemed under His +one arm, and all their sorrows under His other arm, and said: "I will +atone for these under my right arm, and will heal all those under my +left arm. Strike me with all thy glittering shafts, O Eternal Justice! +Roll over me with all thy surges, ye oceans of sorrow"? And the +thunderbolts struck Him from above, and the seas of trouble rolled up +from beneath, hurricane after hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone, +and then and there in presence of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all +worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter price, the transcendent +price, the awful price, the glorious price, the infinite price, the +eternal price, was paid that sets us free.</p> + +<p>That is what Paul means, that is what I mean, that is what all those +who have ever had their heart changed mean by "blood." I glory in this +religion of blood! I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color in +sacramental cup, whether it be of burnished silver set on cloth +immaculately white, or rough-hewn from wood set on table in log-hut +meeting-house of the wilderness. Now I am thrilled as I see the altars +of ancient sacrifice crimson with the blood of the slain lamb, and +Leviticus is to me not so much the Old Testament as the New. Now I see +why the destroying angel passing over Egypt in the night spared all +those houses that had blood sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I know +what Isaiah means when he speaks of "one in red apparel coming with +dyed garments from Bozrah;" and whom the Apocalypse means when it +describes a heavenly chieftain whose "vesture was dipped in blood;" +and what Peter, the apostle, means when he speaks of the "precious +blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and what the old, worn-out, +decrepit missionary Paul means when, in my text, he cries, "Without +shedding of blood is no remission." By that blood you and I will be +saved—or never saved at all. In all the ages of the world God has not +once pardoned a single sin except through the Saviour's expiation, and +He never will. Glory be to God that the hill back of Jerusalem was the +battle-field on which Christ achieved our liberty!</p> + +<p>The most exciting and overpowering day of last summer was the day I +spent on the battle-field of Waterloo. Starting out with the morning +train from Brussels, Belgium, we arrived in about an hour on that +famous spot. A son of one who was in the battle, and who had heard +from his father a thousand times the whole scene recited, accompanied +us over the field. There stood the old Hougomont Château, the walls +dented, and scratched, and broken, and shattered by grape-shot and +cannon-ball. There is the well in which three hundred dying and dead +were pitched. There is the chapel with the head of the infant Christ +shot off. There are the gates at which, for many hours, English and +French armies wrestled. Yonder were the one hundred and sixty guns of +the English, and the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. Yonder +the Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods. Yonder was the ravine of +Ohain, where the French cavalry, not knowing there was a hollow in the +ground, rolled over and down, troop after troop, tumbling into one +awful mass of suffering, hoof of kicking horses against brow and +breast of captains and colonels and private soldiers, the human and +the beastly groan kept up until, the day after, all was shoveled under +because of the malodor arising in that hot month of June.</p> + +<p>"There," said our guide, "the Highland regiments lay down on their +faces waiting for the moment to spring upon the foe. In that orchard +twenty-five hundred men were cut to pieces. Here stood Wellington with +white lips, and up that knoll rode Marshal Ney on his sixth horse, +five having been shot under him. Here the ranks of the French broke, +and Marshal Ney, with his boot slashed of a sword, and his hat off, +and his face covered with powder and blood, tried to rally his troops +as he cried: 'Come and see how a marshal of French dies on the +battle-field.' From yonder direction Grouchy was expected for the +French re-enforcement, but he came not. Around those woods Blucher was +looked for to re-enforce the English, and just in time he came up. +Yonder is the field where Napoleon stood, his arm through the reins of +the horse's bridle, dazed and insane, trying to go back." Scene of a +battle that went on from twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock, on the +eighteenth of June, until four o'clock, when the English seemed +defeated, and their commander cried out; "Boys, can you think of +giving way? Remember old England!" and the tides turned, and at eight +o'clock in the evening the man of destiny, who was called by his +troops Old Two Hundred Thousand, turned away with broken heart, and +the fate of centuries was decided.</p> + +<p>No wonder a great mound has been reared there, hundreds of feet +high—a mound at the expense of millions of dollars and many years in +rising, and on the top is the great Belgian lion of bronze, and a +grand old lion it is. But our great Waterloo was in Palestine. There +came a day when all hell rode up, led by Apollyon, and the Captain of +our salvation confronted them alone. The Rider on the white horse of +the Apocalypse going out against the black horse cavalry of death, and +the battalions of the demoniac, and the myrmidons of darkness. From +twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock in the afternoon the greatest +battle of the universe went on. Eternal destinies were being decided. +All the arrows of hell pierced our Chieftain, and the battle-axes +struck Him, until brow and cheek and shoulder and hand and foot were +incarnadined with oozing life; but He fought on until He gave a final +stroke with sword from Jehovah's buckler, and the commander-in-chief +of hell and all his forces fell back in everlasting ruin, and the +victory is ours. And on the mound that celebrates the triumph we plant +this day two figures, not in bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but +two figures of living light, the Lion of Judah's tribe and the Lamb +that was slain.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="posthumous_opportunity" id="posthumous_opportunity"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"If the tree fall toward the south or toward +the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall +be."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Eccles.</span> xi: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there +will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of +this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it +will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a +defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to +the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment +in his behalf, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, +if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of +eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs +remitted, and we may be victorious defendants forever.</p> + +<p>My object in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my +text, declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that +the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the +disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause +of his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this +world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. +Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on.</p> + +<p>That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking," said +the doctor, "and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will +destroy you.". The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm; but, under +skillful medical treatment, he begins to sit up, begins to walk about +the room, begins to go to business. And, lo! he goes back to the same +grog-shops for his morning dram, and his even dram, and the drams +between. Flat down again! Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same +medical warning.</p> + +<p>Now, the illness is more protracted; the liver is more stubborn, the +stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious. +But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shops, +and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health.</p> + +<p>He sees that his downward course is ruining his household, that his +life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow, that that +broken-hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he +married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons +are to be taunted for a life-time by the father's drunkenness, that +the daughters are to pass into life under the scarification of a +disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their +prospects for this life, and, perhaps, for the life to come. Sometimes +an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system +is all a tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, +rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. +Does it reform him?</p> + +<p>After awhile he has delirium tremens, with a whole jungle of hissing +reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors +as he dashes out of his bed, crying: "Take these things off me!" As he +sits, pale and convalescent, the doctor says: "Now I want to have a +plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you +will have you will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die." He +gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time +medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying +there is no hope. Death ends the scene.</p> + +<p>That process of inebriation, warning, and dissolution is going on +within stone's throw of this church, going on in all the neighborhoods +of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What +is true in one sense is true in all senses, and will forever be so, +and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. +Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and +you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been +there before, some of them four, five, six times. With a million +illustrations all working the other way in this world, people are +expecting that distress in the next state will be salvatory. You can +not imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some +men have suffered here, and without any salutary consequence.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more +improbable than a reformation here. In this world the life started +with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will +open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. +Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out +of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with +innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what +prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there +would be a seraph evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of +making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than +out of an old black rock seamed and cracked with the storms of a half +century. Surely upon a clean, white sheet of paper it is easier to +write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and +blotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, +though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out +badly, the next life will succeed, though it starts with a dead +failure.</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "I think we ought to have a chance in the next +life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. +We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood +of the one almost touching the marble of the other." But do you know +what made the ancient deluge a necessity? It was the longevity of the +antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their +life-time than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the +third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eight, and +nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed, and scrubbed, and +soaked, and anchored, clear out of sight for more than a month before +it could be made fit for decent people to live in. Longevity never +cures impenitency. All the pictures of Time represent him with a +scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of +medicines to heal. Seneca says that Nero for the first five years of +his public life was set up for an example of clemency and kindness, +but his path all the way descended until at sixty-eight he became a +suicide. If eight hundred years did not make antediluvians any better, +but only made them worse, the ages of eternity could have no effect +except prolongation of depravity.</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "in the future state evil surroundings will be +withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation, +and sublimation, and glorification." But the righteous, all their sins +forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the +unsaved will be left alone. It can not be expected that Doctor Duff, +who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and +Doctor Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and +Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be +sent down by some celestial missionary society to educate those who +wasted all their earthly existence. Evangelistic and missionary +efforts are ended. The entire kingdom of the morally bankrupt by +themselves, where are the salvatory influences to come from? Can one +speckled and bad apple in a barrel of diseased apples turn the other +apples good? Can those who are themselves down help others up? Can +those who have themselves failed in the business of the soul pay the +debts of their spiritual insolvents? Can a million wrongs make one +right?</p> + +<p>Poneropolis was a city where King Philip of Thracia put all the bad +people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at +Poneropolis I do not think the parents from other cities would have +sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the other world, +all the associations, now that the good are evolved, will be +degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera +or yellow fever hospital for his health; and the great lazaretto of +the next world, containing the diseased and plague-struck, will be a +poor place for moral recovery. If the surroundings in this world were +crowded of temptation, the surroundings of the next world, after the +righteous have passed up and on, will be a thousand per cent. more +crowded of temptation.</p> + +<p>The Count of Chateaubriand made his little son sleep at night at the +top of a castle turret, where the winds howled and where specters were +said to haunt the place; and while the mother and sisters almost died +with fright, the son tells us that the process gave him nerves that +could not tremble and a courage that never faltered. But I don't think +that towers of darkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco and +Euroclydon will ever fit one for the land of eternal sunshine. I +wonder what is the curriculum of that college of Inferno, where, after +proper preparation by the sins of this life, the candidate enters, +passing on from freshman class of depravity to sophomore of +abandonment, and from sophomore to junior, and from junior to senior, +and day of graduation comes, and with diploma signed by Satan, the +president, and other professorial demoniacs, attesting that the +candidate has been long enough under their drill, he passes up to +enter heaven! Pandemonium a preparative course for heavenly admission! +Ah, my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted +multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another +chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a +man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, +society would be terribly demoralized, and the human race demolished +in a few years. The fear that, if we are bad and unforgiven here, it +will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence +that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and +semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight +savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all +nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for +those who have wasted this.</p> + +<p>Multitudes of men who are kept within bounds would say, "Go to, now! +Let me get all out of this life there is in it. Come, gluttony, and +inebriation, and uncleanness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and +wait upon me! My life may be somewhat shortened in this world by +dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger +scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and +will enter the Heavenly Temple only a little later than those who +behaved themselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little +wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to +heaven <i>via</i> Gehenna and <i>via</i> Sheol." Another chance in the next +world means free license and wild abandonment in this.</p> + +<p>Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew +from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried +twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, but that the +second would decide everything; for which trial would you make the +most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be +most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the +stress upon the second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, +saying, "The first is nothing, the last is everything." Give the race +assurance of a second and more important trial in the subsequent life, +and all the preparation for eternity would be <i>post-mortem</i>, +post-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched +off into impiety and godlessness.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, let me ask why a chance should be given in the next world +if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a +banquet, and you invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines +to come, or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the +course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is +invited to them all, and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. +After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you +again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who +declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he +a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done +you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. +He invited us by His Providence and His Spirit three hundred and +sixty-five days of every year since we knew our right hand from our +left. If we declined it every time, or treated the invitation with +indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on +our part toward the Banqueter, and at last He spreads the banquet in a +more luxurious and kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a +right to expect Him to invite us again, and have we a right to blame +Him if He does not invite us?</p> + +<p>If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years +for our admission, and at the end of that time they are closed, can we +complain of it and say, "These gates ought to be open again. Give us +another chance"? If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and we want to +get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every +morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we +have that advertisement before our eyes, and then we go down to the +docks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into the stream and say: +"Come back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this +way. Swing up to the dock again, and throw out planks, and let me come +on board." Such behavior would invite arrest as a madman.</p> + +<p>And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for +years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have +urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any moment, and +after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to +come back? You might as well go out on the Highlands at Neversink and +call to the "Aurania" after she has been three days out, and expect +her to return, as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it once +has sped away. All heaven offered us as a gratuity, and for a +life-time we refuse to take it, and then rush on the bosses of +Jehovah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to be, there +can be, there will be no such thing as posthumous opportunity. Thus, +our common sense agrees with my text—"If the tree fall toward the +south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there +it shall be."</p> + +<p>You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant +way-station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity +whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation +must be made in this world, or never made at all. That piles up all +the emphases and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life +here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the +importance of this chance!</p> + +<p>Alexander with his army used to surround a city, and then would lift a +great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before +that light went out, all would be well; but if once the light went +out, then the battering-rams would swing against the wall, and +demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our +present and everlasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the +King and Conqueror—surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, +surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of +Gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross and +flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender +while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there +will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance!</p> + +<p>In the time of Edward the Sixth, at the battle of Musselburgh, a +private soldier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley had lost his helmet, +took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of the earl; and the +head of the private soldier uncovered, he was soon slain, while his +commander rode safely out of the battle. But in our case, instead of a +private soldier offering helmet to an earl, it is a King putting His +crown upon an unworthy subject, the King dying that we might live. +Tell it to all points of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell +it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all +millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that +we need no other chance in the next.</p> + +<p>I am in the burnished Judgment Hall of the Last Day. A great white +throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are +waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. "What +are you waiting here for?" says a soul that went up from Madagascar to +a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: "I came from +America, where forty years I heard the Gospel preached, and Bible +read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother's +knee until my last hour I had Gospel advantage, but, for some reason, +I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the +Judge to give me a new trial and another chance." "Strange!" says the +other; "I had but one Gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted it, +and I do not need another chance."</p> + +<p>"Why are you here?" says one who on earth had feeblest intellect to +one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of +influence. The latter responds: "Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I +mastered libraries, and had learned titles from colleges, and my name +was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, +and I am here waiting for a new trial." "Strange," says the one of the +feeble earthly capacity; "I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but +I knew Christ, and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another +chance."</p> + +<p>Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great +folding-doors of the Hall swing open. "Stand back!" cry the celestial +ushers. "Stand back, and let the Judge of quick and dead pass +through!" He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of +nations, He says: "Come to judgment, the last judgment, the only +judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each one +flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. "Divide!" says +the Judge to the assembly. "Divide!" echo the walls. "Divide!" cry the +guards angelic.</p> + +<p>And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after +awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum +widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one +side, says: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he +that is holy, let him be holy still;" and then, turning toward the +throng on the opposite side, He says: "He that is unjust, let him be +unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still;" and +then, lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: "If the tree +fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the +tree falleth, there it shall be." And then I hear something jar with a +great sound. It is the closing of the Book of Judgment. The Judge +ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is +cleared and shut. The high court of eternity is adjourned forever.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_lords_razor" id="the_lords_razor"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE LORD'S RAZOR.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is + hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of + Assyria."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isaiah</span> vii: 20.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes +in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes +seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is +that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame +and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While +there are times when He employs in the Bible the gentle dew and the +morning cloud and the dove and the daybreak in the presentation of +truth, we often find the iron chariot, the lightning, the earthquake, +the spray, the sword, and, in my text, the razor.</p> + +<p>This keen-bladed instrument has advanced in usefulness with the ages. +In Bible times and lands the beard remained uncut save in the seasons +of mourning and humiliation, but the razor was always a suggestive +symbol. David says of Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp +razor working deceitfully;" that is, it pretends to clear the face, +but is really used for deadly incision. In this morning's text the +weapon of the toilet appears under the following circumstances: Judea +needed to have some of its prosperities cut off, and God sends +against it three Assyrian kings—first Sennacherib, then Esrahaddon, +and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. Those three sharp invasions, that cut +down the glory of Judea, are compared to so many sweeps of the razor +across the face of the land. And these circumstances were called a +hired razor because God took the kings of Assyria, with whom He had no +sympathy, to do the work, and paid them in palaces and spoils and +annexations. These kings were hired to execute the divine behests. And +now the text, which on its first reading may have seemed trivial or +inapt, is charged with momentous import: "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired—namely, by them beyond the +river, by the King of Assyria."</p> + +<p>Well, if God's judgments are razors, we had better be careful how we +use them on other people. In careful sheath these domestic weapons are +put away, where no one by accident may touch them, and where the hands +of children may not reach them. Such instruments must be carefully +handled or not handled at all. But how recklessly some people wield +the judgments of God! If a man meet with business misfortune, how many +there are ready to cry out: "That is a judgment of God upon him +because he was unscrupulous, or arrogant, or overreaching, or miserly. +I thought he would get cut down! What a clean sweep of everything! His +city house and country house gone! His stables emptied of all the fine +bays and sorrels and grays that used to prance by his door! All his +resources overthrown, and all that he prided himself on tumbled into +demolition! Good for him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling around too +freely the judgments of God, for they are razors.</p> + +<p>Some of the most wicked business men succeed, and they live and die in +prosperity, and some of the most honest and conscientious are driven +into bankruptcy. Perhaps his manner was unfortunate, and he was not +really as proud as he looked to be. Some of those who carry their head +erect and look imperial are humble as a child, while many a man in +seedy coat and slouch hat and unblacked shoes is as proud as Lucifer. +You can not tell by a man's look. Perhaps he was not unscrupulous in +business, for there are two sides to every story, and everybody that +accomplishes anything for himself or others gets industriously lied +about. Perhaps his business misfortune was not a punishment, but the +fatherly discipline to prepare him for heaven, and God may love him +far more than He loves you, who can pay dollar for dollar, and are put +down in the commercial catalogues as A1. Whom the Lord loveth He gives +four hundred thousand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillows? No: +whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Better keep your hand off the +Lord's razors, lest they cut and wound people that do not deserve it. +If you want to shave off some of the bristling pride of your own heart +do so; but be very careful how you put the sharp edge on others.</p> + +<p>How I do dislike the behavior of those persons who, when people are +unfortunate, say: "I told you so—getting punished—served him right." +If those I-told-you-so's got their desert they would long ago have +been pitched over the battlements. The mote in their neighbor's +eyes—so small that it takes a microscope to find it—gives them more +trouble than the beam which obscures their own optics. With air +sometimes supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical, and always +blasphemous, they take the razor of the divine judgment and sharpen it +on the hone of their own hard hearts, and then go to work on men +sprawled out at full length under disaster, cutting mercilessly. They +begin by soft expressions of sympathy and pity and half praise, and, +lather the victim all over before they put on the sharp edge.</p> + +<p>Let us be careful how we shoot at others lest we take down the wrong +one, remembering the servant of King William Rufus who shot at a deer, +but the arrow glanced against a tree and killed the king. Instead of +going out with shafts to pierce, and razors to cut, we had better +imitate the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, in the war of the +Crusades, was captured and imprisoned, but none of his friends knew +where. So his loyal friend went around the land from stronghold to +stronghold, and sung at each window a snatch of song that Richard +Coeur de Lion had taught him in other days. And one day, coming before +a jail where he suspected his king might be incarcerated, he sung two +lines of song, and immediately King Richard responded from his cell +with the other two lines, and so his whereabouts were discovered, and +immediately a successful movement was made for his liberation. So let +us go up and down the world with the music of kind words and +sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate, and trying to get out +of trouble men who had noble natures, but, by unforeseen +circumstances, have been incarcerated, thus liberating kings. More +hymn-book and less razor.</p> + +<p>Especially ought we to be apologetic and merciful toward those who, +while they have great faults, have also great virtues. Some people are +barren of virtues. No weeds verily, but no flowers. I must not be too +much enraged at a nettle along the fence if it be in a field +containing forty acres of ripe Michigan wheat. At the present time, +naturalists tell us, there is on the sun a spot twenty thousand miles +long, but from the brightness and warmth I conclude it is a good deal +of a sun yet.</p> + +<p>Again, when I read in my text that the Lord shaves with the hired +razor of Assyria the land of Judea, I bethink myself of the precision +of God's providence. A razor swung the tenth part of an inch out of +the right line means either failure or laceration, but God's dealings +never slip, and they do not miss by the thousandth part of an inch the +right direction. People talk as though things in this world were at +loose ends. Cholera sweeps across Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo, +and we watch anxiously. Will the epidemic sweep Europe and America? +People say, "That will entirely depend on whether inoculation is a +successful experiment; that will depend entirely on quarantine +regulations; that will depend on the early or late appearance of +frost; that epidemic is pitched into the world, and it goes blundering +across the continents, and it is all guess-work and an appalling +perhaps."</p> + +<p>My friends, I think, perhaps, that God had something to do with it, +and that His mercy may have in some way protected us—that He may have +done as much for us as the quarantine and the health officers. It was +right and a necessity that all caution should be used, but there has +come enough macaroni from Italy, and enough grapes from the south of +France, and enough rags from tatterdemalions, and hidden in these +articles of transportation enough choleraic germs to have left by this +time all Brooklyn mourning at Greenwood, and all Philadelphia at +Laurel Hill, and all Boston at Mount Auburn. I thank all the doctors +and quarantines; but, more than all, and first of all, and last of +all, and all the time, I thank God. In all the six thousand years of +the world's existence there has not one thing merely "happened so." +God is not an anarchist, but a King, a Father.</p> + +<p>When little Tod, the son of President Lincoln, died, all the land +sympathized with the sorrow in the White House. He used to rush into +the room where the cabinet was in session, and while the most eminent +men of the land were discussing the questions of national existence. +But the child had no care about those questions. Now God the Father, +and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session in +regard to this world and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child, rush in +to criticise or arraign or condemn the divine government? No; the +Cabinet of the Eternal Three can govern and will govern in the wisest +and best way, and there never will be a mistake, and like razor +skillfully swung, shall cut that which ought to be cut, and avoid that +which ought to be avoided. Precision to the very hair-breadth. Earthly +time-pieces may get out of order and strike wrong, saying that it is +one o'clock when it is two, or two when it is three. God's clock is +always right, and when it is one it strikes one, and when it is twelve +it strikes twelve, and the second hand is as accurate as the minute +hand.</p> + +<p>Further, my text tells us that God sometimes shaves nations: "In the +same day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired." With one +sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its +power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath +desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity, +and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its +sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned +again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to +Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the +heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword +of war was the Lord's razor.</p> + +<p>In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again. +Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the +history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during +those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit +some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take +us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics, +droughts, deluges, plagues—grasshopper and locust; or our +overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands +that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may +combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north +and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more +hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power.</p> + +<p>We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our +fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being +hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated +China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her +resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern +warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans +must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come +upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I +hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to +show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the +hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the +Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because +of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870, +Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is +the razor with which very shortly the Lord will shave Russia. But +nations are to repent in a day. May a speedy and world-wide coming to +God hinder, on both sides the sea, all national calamity. But do not +let us, as a nation, either by unrighteous law at Washington, or bad +lives among ourselves, defy the Almighty.</p> + +<p>One would think that our national symbol of the eagle might sometimes +suggest another eagle, that which ancient Rome carried. In the talons +of that eagle were clutched at one time Britain, France, Spain, Italy, +Dalmatia, Rhactia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, +Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and +all Northern Africa, and all the islands of the Mediterranean, indeed, +all the world that was worth having, an hundred and twenty millions of +people under the wings of that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask +Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem, the "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire." Ask her gigantic ruins straggling their sadness through +the ages, the screech owl at windows out of which world-wide +conquerors looked. Ask the day of judgment when her crowned +debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax, and Caligula and Diocletian, shall +answer for their infamy? As men and as nations let us repent, and have +our trust in a pardoning God, rather than depend on former successes +for immunity! Out of thirteen greatest battles of the world, Napoleon +had lost but one before Waterloo. Pride and destruction often ride in +the same saddle.</p> + +<p>But notice once more, and more than all in my text, that God is so +kind and loving, that when it is necessary for Him to cut, He has to +go to others for the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired." God is love. God is pity. God +is help. God is shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp edges about +Him, no thrusting points, no instruments of laceration. If you want +balm for wounds, He has that. If you want salve for divine eyesight, +He has that. But if there is sharp and cutting work to do which +requires a razor, that He hires. God has nothing about Him that hurts, +save when dire necessity demands, and then He has to go clear off to +some one else to get the instrument.</p> + +<p>This divine geniality will be no novelty to those who have pondered +the Calvarean massacre, where God submerged Himself in human tears, +and crimsoned Himself from punctured arteries, and let the terrestrial +and infernal worlds maul Him until the chandeliers of the sky had to +be turned out, because the universe could not endure the indecency. +Illustrious for love He must have been to take all that as our +substitute, paying out of His own heart the price of our admission at +the gates of heaven.</p> + +<p>King Henry II., of England, crowned his son as king, and on the day of +coronation put on a servant's garb and waited, he, the king, at the +son's table, to the astonishment of all the princes. But we know of a +more wondrous scene, the King of heaven and earth offering to put on +you, His child, the crown of life, and in the form of a servant +waiting on you with blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all +sculpture, all music, all architecture, all worship! In Dresdenian +gallery let Raphael hold Him up as a child, and in Antwerp Cathedral +let Rubens hand Him down from the cross as a martyr, and Handel make +all his oratorio vibrate around that one chord—"He was wounded for +our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." But not until all the +redeemed get home, and from the countenances of all the piled-up +galleries of the ransomed shall be revealed the wonders of redemption, +shall either man or seraph or archangel know the height, and depth, +and length, and breadth of the love of God.</p> + +<p>At our national capital, a monument in honor of him who did more than +any one to achieve our American Independence, was for scores of years +in building, and most of us were discouraged and said it never would +be completed. And how glad we all were when in the presence of the +highest officials of the nation, the work was done! But will the +monument to Him who died for the eternal liberation of the human race +ever be completed? For ages the work has been going up; evangelists +and apostles and martyrs have been adding to the heavenly pile, and +every one of the millions of the redeemed going up from earth, has +made to it contribution of gladness, and weight of glory is swung to +the top of other weight of glory, higher and higher as the centuries +go by, higher and higher as the whole millenniums roll, sapphire on +the top of jasper, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony, and chrysoprasus +above topaz, until, far beneath shall be the walls and towers and +domes of the great capitol, a monument forever and forever rising, and +yet never done. "Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our +sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests forever."</p> + +<p>Allelujah, amen.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="windows_toward_jerusalem" id="windows_toward_jerusalem"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"His windows being open and his chamber toward + Jerusalem."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Dan.</span> vi: 10.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy +against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever +prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who +are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, +or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth +trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of +Daniel, the Coeur-de-Lion of the ages. His enemies might as well have +a law that the sun should not draw water or that the south wind should +not sweep across a garden of magnolias or that God should be +abolished. They could not scare him with the red-hot furnaces, and +they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of +this enactment he leaves his office of Secretary of State, with its +upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps +and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters +back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred +city of Jerusalem, and then prays.</p> + +<p>I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his +window, and said: "Just see that man defying the law; he ought to be +arrested." And the constabulary of the city rush to the police +head-quarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide-open +window. "You are my prisoner," says the officer of the law, dropping a +heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Daniel. As the constables +open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner, they see the +glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion-tamer, +and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps +with the shaggy mane of a wild beast for his pillow, while the king +that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him the paw and teeth of a +lion he can not tame—the lion of a remorseful conscience.</p> + +<p>What a picture it would be for some artist; Darius, in the early dusk +of morning, not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, +all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and looking through the +crevices of the cage to see what had become of his prime-minister! +"What, no sound!" he says: "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions +are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man +scattered across the floor of the cavern." With trembling voice Darius +calls out, "Daniel!" No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound +slumber. But a lion, more easily awakened, advances, and, with hot +breath blown through the crevice, seems angrily to demand the cause of +this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from +under Daniel's head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report +himself all unhurt and well.</p> + +<p>But our text stands us at Daniel's window, open toward Jerusalem. Why +in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the +pomp of his Babylonish successes could not make him forget it. He +came there from Jerusalem at eighteen years of age, and he never +visited it, though he lived to be eighty-five years. Yet, when he +wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grandest aspirations of his +heart, he had his window open toward his native Jerusalem. There are +many of you to-day who understand that without any exposition. This is +getting to be a nation of foreigners. They have come into all +occupations and professions. They sit in all churches. It may be +twenty years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may +be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your +birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are +open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may +have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory +often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it—the +hill, the tree, the brook, the house, the place so sacred, the door +from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way +in the world; and God only knows how sometimes you have longed to see +the familiar places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life +you would like to have caught a glimpse of the old, wrinkled face that +bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap twenty or forty or fifty +years ago. You may have on this side of the sea risen in fortune, and, +like Daniel, have become great, and may have come into prosperities +which you never could have reached if you had stayed there, and you +may have many windows to your house—bay-windows, and +sky-light-windows, and windows of conservatory, and windows on all +sides—but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>When the foreign steamer comes to the wharf, you see the long line of +sailors, with shouldered mail-bags, coming down the planks, carrying +as many letters as you might suppose would be enough for a year's +correspondence, and this repeated again and again during the week. +Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the post-offices +of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, +hundreds of thousands of persons finding that window of foreign mails +the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say: "When are you +coming home to see us? Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. +Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having a great +struggle to get on here. Would you advise us to come to you, or will +you come to us? All join in love, and hope to meet you, if not in this +world, then in a better. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>Yes, yes; in all these cities, and amid the flowering western +prairies, and on the slopes of the Pacific, and amid the Sierras, and +on the banks of the lagoon, and on the ranches of Texas there is an +uncounted multitude who, this hour, stand and sit and kneel with their +windows open toward Jerusalem. Some of them played on the heather of +the Scottish hills. Some of them were driven out by Irish famine. Some +of them, in early life, drilled in the German army. Some of them were +accustomed at Lyons or Marseilles or Paris to see on the street Victor +Hugo and Gambetta. Some chased the chamois among the Alpine +precipices. Some plucked the ripe clusters from Italian vineyard. +Some lifted their faces under the midnight sun of Norway. It is no +dishonor to our land that they remember the place of their nativity. +Miscreants would they be if, while they have some of their windows +open to take in the free air of America and the sunlight of an +atmosphere which no kingly despot has ever breathed, they forgot +sometime to open the window toward Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing +the national air of his country sung, the malady of home-sickness +comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example +of the heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. +Forget not the old folks at home. Write often; and, if you have +surplus of means and they are poor, make practical contribution, and +rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity +as is no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the +evangelization of other lands? What a stirring, melting, gospelizing +theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while +our windows are open toward them!</p> + +<p>But Daniel, in the text, kept this port-hole of his domestic fortress +unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There +had smoked the sacrifice. There was the Holy of Holies. There was the +Ark of the Covenant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to +keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we +may see and hear and appropriate its advantages. What does the world +say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of +the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Babylon. +Windows open toward Corinth. Windows open toward Athens. Windows open +toward Sodom. Windows open toward the flats, instead of windows open +toward the hills. Sad mistake, for this world as a god is like +something I saw the other day in the museum of Strasburg, Germany—the +figure of a virgin in wood and iron. The victim in olden time was +brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, +and, once infolded, the figure closed with a hundred knives and lances +upon him, and then let him drop one hundred and eighty feet sheer +down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them +with many tortures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest +honor the world could confer was to make a man Roman emperor; but, out +of sixty-three emperors, it allowed only six to die peacefully in +their beds.</p> + +<p>The dominion of this world over multitudes is illustrated by the names +of coins of many countries. They have their pieces of money which they +call sovereigns and half sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons +and half Napoleons, Fredericks and double Fredericks, and ducats, and +Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as +dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the +salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the +length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King +Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and +by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. +We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion.</p> + +<p>But, mark you, that good lion-tamer is not standing at the window, but +kneeling, while he looks out. Most photographs are taken of those in +standing or sitting posture. I now remember but one picture of a man +kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who in the cause of God and +civilization sacrificed himself; and in the heart of Africa his +servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of a candle, +stuck on the top of a box, his head in his hands upon the pillow, and +dead on his knees. But here is a great lion-tamer, living under the +dash of the light, and his hair disheveled of the breeze, praying. The +fact is, that a man can see further on his knees than standing on +tiptoe. Jerusalem was about five hundred and fifty statute miles from +Babylon, and the vast Arabian Desert shifted its sands between them. +Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between it, +saw beyond, saw time, saw eternity, saw earth, and saw heaven. Would +you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your +troubles to comfort, through temptation to rescue, through dire +sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things +terrestrial to things celestial, you will not see them till you take +Daniel's posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap +of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made +so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and especial +provision for those who want to pray, and physiological structure +joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray, and pray, and pray.</p> + +<p>In olden time the Earl of Westmoreland said he had no need to pray, +because he had enough pious tenants on his estate to pray for him; +but all the prayers of the church universal amount to nothing unless, +like Daniel, we pray for ourselves. Oh, men and women, bounded on one +side by Shadrach's red-hot furnace, and the other side by devouring +lions, learn the secret of courage and deliverance by looking at that +Babylonish window open toward the south-west! "Oh," you say, "that is +the direction of the Arabian Desert!" Yes; but on the other side of +the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven.</p> + +<p>The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so +multiform, so expensive—four hundred francs a pound. All the world +seeks it. Do you know how it is made? The spinning is done in a dark +room, the only light admitted through a small aperture, and that light +falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian +character I have ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found +in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and +misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the +interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a +throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved.</p> + +<p>But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our +windows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus saw it one day as the surf +of the Icarian sea foamed and splashed over the bowlders at his feet, +and his vision reminded me of a wedding-day when the bride by sister +and maid was having garlands twisted for her hair and jewels strung +for her neck just before she puts her betrothed hand into the hand of +her affianced: "I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming +down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her +husband." Toward that bridal Jerusalem are our windows opened?</p> + +<p>We would do well to think more of heaven. It is not a mere annex of +earth. It is not a desolate outpost. As Jerusalem was the capital of +Judae, and Babylon the capital of the Babylonian monarchy, and London +is the capital of Great Britain, and Washington is the capital of our +own republic, the New Jerusalem is the capital of the universe. The +king lives there, and the royal family of the redeemed have their +palaces there, and there is a congress of many nations and the +parliament of all the worlds. Yea, as Daniel had kindred in Jerusalem +of whom he often thought, though he had left home when a very young +man, perhaps father and mother and brothers and sisters still living, +and was homesick to see them, and they belonged to the high circles of +royalty, Daniel himself having royal blood in his veins, so we have in +the New Jerusalem a great many kindred, and we are sometimes homesick +to see them, and they are all princes and princesses, in them the +blood imperial, and we do well to keep our windows open toward their +eternal residence.</p> + +<p>It is a joy for us to believe that while we are interested in them +they are interested in us. Much thought of heaven makes one heavenly. +The airs that blow through that open window are charged with life, and +sweep up to us aromas from gardens that never wither, under skies that +never cloud, in a spring-tide that never terminates. Compared with it +all other heavens are dead failures.</p> + +<p>Homer's heaven was an elysium which he describes as a plain at the +end of the earth or beneath, with no snow nor rainfall, and the sun +never goes down, and Rhadamanthus, the justest of men, rules. Hesiod's +heaven is what he calls the islands of the blessed, in the midst of +the ocean, three times a year blooming with most exquisite flowers, +and the air is tinted with purple, while games and music and +horse-races occupy the time. The Scandinavian's heaven was the hall of +Walhalla, where the god Odin gave unending wine-suppers to earthly +heroes and heroines. The Mohammedan's heaven passes its disciples in +over the bridge Al-Sirat, which is finer than a hair and sharper than +a sword, and then they are let loose into a riot of everlasting +sensuality.</p> + +<p>The American aborigines look forward to a heaven of illimitable +hunting-ground, partridge and deer and wild duck more than plentiful, +and the hounds never off the scent, and the guns never missing fire. +But the geographer has followed the earth round, and found no Homer's +elysium. Voyagers have traversed the deep in all directions, and found +no Hesiod's islands of the blessed. The Mohammedan's celestial +debauchery and the Indian's eternal hunting-ground for vast multitudes +have no charm. But here rolls in the Bible heaven. No more sea—that +is, no wide separation. No more night—that is, no insomnia. No more +tears—that is, no heart-break. No more pain—that is, dismissal of +lancet and bitter draught and miasma, and banishment of neuralgias and +catalepsies and consumptions. All colors in the wall except gloomy +black; all the music in the major-key, because celebrative and +jubilant. River crystalline, gate crystalline, and skies crystalline, +because everything is clear and without doubt. White robes, and that +means sinlessness. Vials full of odors, and that means pure regalement +of the senses. Rainbow, and that means the storm is over. Marriage +supper, and that means gladdest festivity. Twelve manner of fruits, +and that means luscious and unending variety. Harp, trumpet, grand +march, anthem, amen, and hallelujah in the same orchestra. Choral +meeting solo, and overture meeting antiphon, and strophe joining +dithyramb, as they roll into the ocean of doxologies. And you and I +may have all that, and have it forever through Christ, if we will let +Him with the blood of one wounded hand rub out our sin, and with the +other wounded hand swing open the shining portals.</p> + +<p>Day and night keep your window open toward that Jerusalem. Sing about +it. Pray about it. Think about it. Talk about it. Dream about it. Do +not be inconsolable about your friends who have gone into it. Do not +worry if something in your heart indicates that you are not far off +from its ecstasies. Do not think that when a Christian dies he stops, +for he goes on.</p> + +<p>An ingenious man has taken the heavenly furlongs as mentioned in +Revelation, and has calculated that there will be in heaven one +hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each ascending soul, though this +world should lose a hundred millions yearly. But all the rooms of +heaven will be ours, for they are family rooms; and as no room in your +house is too good for your children, so all the rooms of all the +palaces of the heavenly Jerusalem will be free to God's children and +even the throne-room will not be denied, and you may run up the steps +of the throne, and put your hand on the side of the throne, and sit +down beside the king according to the promise: "To him that overcometh +will I grant to sit with me in my throne."</p> + +<p>But you can not go in except as conquerors. Many years ago the Turks +and Christians were in battle, and the Christians were defeated, and +with their commander Stephen fled toward a fortress where the mother +of this commander was staying. When she saw her son and his army in +disgraceful retreat, she had the gates of the fortress rolled shut, +and then from the top of the battlement cried out to her son, "You can +not enter here except as conqueror!" Then Stephen rallied his forces +and resumed the battle and gained the day, twenty thousand driving +back two hundred thousand. For those who are defeated in the battle +with sin and death and hell nothing but shame and contempt; but for +those who gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of +the New Jerusalem will hoist, and there shall be an abundant entrance +into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, toward which you do well to +keep your windows open.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="stormed_and_taken" id="stormed_and_taken"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>STORMED AND TAKEN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the + people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his + hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and + laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut + down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them + to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all + the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand + men and women."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Judges</span> ix: 48, 49.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible history, and yet full of +profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell +where the rocks are. The snake's rattle is hideous, but it gives +timely warning. From the piazza of my summer home, night by night I +saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed there for adornment, +but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all +the iron-bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul, and Herod, +and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Abimelech. These bad people are +mentioned in the Bible, not only as warnings, but because there were +sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of imitation. +God sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very poor hammer.</p> + +<p>The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to +do it. I see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the +shouting of the captains and the yell of the besiegers. The swords +clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two +armies in death-grapple is horrible to hear. The battle goes on all +day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry "Surrender!" +to the beaten foe. And, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem +falls; and there are pools of blood, and dissevered limbs, and glazed +eyes looking up beggingly for mercy that war never shows, and dying +soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, who +have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection: and a +groan rolls across the city, stopping not, because there is no spot +for it to rest, so full is the place of other groans. A city wounded! +A city dying! A city dead! Wail for Shechem, all ye who know the +horrors of a sacked town!</p> + +<p>As I look over the city I can find only one building standing, and +that is the temple of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the +city, in a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now +begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this +temple of Berith. They get within the door, shut it, and they say, +"Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he can not +take this temple of Berith. Here we shall be under the protection of +the gods." Oh, Berith, the god! do your best now for these refugees. +If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have +thunderbolts, strike for them.</p> + +<p>But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berith and +the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with sword? Nay. +Will they do it with spear? Nay. With battering-ram, rolled up by +hundred-armed strength, crashing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech +marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off a limb of +a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to +his men, "You do the same." They are obedient to their commander.</p> + +<p>Oh, what a strange army, with what strange equipment! They come to the +foot of the temple of Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree +and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they +throw down their branches; and the second platoon, and the third, +until all around about the temple of Berith there is a pile of +tree-branches. The Shechemites look out from the windows of the temple +upon what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies. +But soon the flints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the +brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red +elements leap to the casement, and the woodwork begins to blaze, and +one arm of flame is thrown up on the right side of the temple, and +another arm of flame is thrown up on the left side of the temple, +until they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the +cry of "Fire!" within, and "Fire!" without announces the terror, and +the strangulation, and the doom of the Shechemites, and the complete +overthrow of the temple of the god Berith. Then there went up a shout, +long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech +and his men, as they stood amid the ashes and the dust, crying: +"Victory! Victory!"</p> + +<p>Now, I learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any +one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for +God. Look over the weaponry of olden times—javelins, battle-axes, +habergeons—and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his +men could have gained such complete victory. It is no easy thing to +take a temple thus armed. I saw a house where, during revolutionary +times, a man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, +because they were inside the house, and the assaulting soldiers were +outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they +surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single +man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old +Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: "You are only going up there to be +cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other +mode—certainly not by ordinary modes—could that temple so easily, so +thoroughly have been taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters +in Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to learn this day is that +any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the +temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to +stick to the old modes of attack.</p> + +<p>We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, +glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the +castle, but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the +castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world +for God by any keen saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of +rhetoric, by any sapping and mining of profound disquisition, by any +gunpowdery explosions of indignation, by sharp shootings of wit, by +howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell five miles, by +cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain all the +attempts on the part of these ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light +horsemen, and grenadiers.</p> + +<p>My friends, I propose this morning a different style of tactics. Let +each one go to the forest of God's promise and invitation, and hew +down a branch and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around +these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the +fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will +burn them out. What steel can not do, fire may. And I, this morning, +announce myself in favor of any plan of religious attack that +succeeds—any plan of religious attack, however radical, however odd, +however unpopular, however hostile to all the conventionalities of +Church and State. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our +alms-giving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. +Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword, and more of Abimelech's +conflagration! I have often heard</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"There is a fountain filled with blood"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>sung artistically by four birds perched on their Sunday roost in the +gallery, until I thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and Sontag, and +all the other warblers; but there came not one tear to my eye, nor one +master emotion to my heart. But one night I went down to the African +Methodist meeting-house in Philadelphia, and at the close of the +service a black woman, in the midst of the audience, began to sing +that hymn, and all the audience joined in, and we were floated some +three or four miles nearer heaven than I have ever been since. I saw +with my own eyes that "fountain filled with blood"—red, agonizing, +sacrificial, redemptive—and I heard the crimson plash of the wave as +we all went down under it:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"For sinners plunged beneath that flood<br /></span> +<span>Lose all their guilty stains."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a syllogism; It is not casuistry, it +is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it +is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; +it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all glow; it +is arborescent with all sweet shade. I have seen the sun rise on Mount +Washington, and from the Tip-top House; but there was no beauty in +that compared with the day-spring from on high when Christ gives light +to a soul. I have heard Parepa sing; but there was no music in that +compared with the voice of Christ when He said: "Thy sins are forgiven +thee; go in peace." Good news! Let every one cut down a branch of this +tree of life and wave it. Let him throw it down and kindle it. Let all +the way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled with the tossing joy. +Good news! This bonfire of the Gospel shall consume the last temple of +sin, and will illumine the sky with apocalyptic joy that Jesus Christ +came into the world to save sinners. Any new plan that makes a man +quit his sin, and that prostrates a wrong, I am as much in favor of as +though all the doctors, and the bishops, and the archbishops, and the +synods, and the academical gownsmen of Christianity sanctioned it. The +temple of Berith must come down, and I do not care how it comes.</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If +Abimelech had sat down on the grass and told his men to go and get the +boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, +or, if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective +result; but when Abimelech goes with his own ax and hews down a +branch, and with Abimelech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and +marches on—then, my text says, all the people did the same. How +natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most +magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the +overcoming power of example! Here is a father on the wrong road; all +his boys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlists for +Christ; his children enlist.</p> + +<p>I saw, in some of the picture-galleries of Europe, that before many of +the great works of the masters—the old masters—there would be +sometimes four or five artists taking copies of the pictures. These +copies they were going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; +and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and +it is being copied, and long after you are gone it will bloom or blast +in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look +out what you say. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. +The best sermon ever preached is a holy life. The best music ever +chanted is a consistent walk.</p> + +<p>I saw, near the beach, a wrecker's machine. It was a cylinder with +some holes at the side, made for the thrusting in of some long poles +with strong leverage; and when there is a vessel in trouble or going +to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers shoot a rope out to the +suffering men. They grasp it, and the wreckers turn the cylinder, and +the rope winds around the cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked are +saved. So at your feet to-day there is an influence with a tremendous +leverage. The rope attached to it swings far out into the billowy +future. Your children, your children's children, and all the +generations that are to follow, will grip that influence and feel the +long-reaching pull long after the figures on your tombstone are so +near worn out that the visitor can not tell whether it was in 1885, or +1775, or 1675 that you died.</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the advantages of concerted +action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work +would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had +gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, +and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about +the temple, the victory is gained—the temple falls. My friends, where +there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his +whole duty there are a great many who never lift an ax or swing a +blow.</p> + +<p>Oh, we all want our boat to get over to the golden sands, but the most +of us are seated either in the prow or in the stern, wrapped in our +striped shawl, holding a big-handled sunshade, while others are +blistered in the heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan, and the +blades bend till they snap. Oh, religious sleepy-heads, wake up! While +we have in our church a great many who are toiling for God, there are +some too lazy to brush the flies off their heavy eyelids.</p> + +<p>Suppose, in military circles, on the morning of battle the roll is +called, and out of a thousand men only a hundred men in the regiment +answered. What excitement there would be in the camp! What would the +colonel say? What high talking there would be among the captains, and +majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that +these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had +overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were +afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking +rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's +battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of +heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on +the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to +what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what +Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to +what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do +you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you +ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman +sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then +hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book +of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it +out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not +let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the +throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your +betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died.</p> + +<p>May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I +would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished +something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to +join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing +new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are +you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that +there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing +as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted +action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It +has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human +enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of +Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life, +and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on +and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and +worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of +ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would +fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over +demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours!</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. +As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they +were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may +batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where +we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and +they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I +are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may +have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends +may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have +told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, +if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to +measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know +it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a +sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it."</p> + +<p>I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into +some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You +say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are +adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the +suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have +established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that +tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your +unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are +kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the +suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the +deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified."</p> + +<p>"Well," you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I +go?" Step into this tower of indifference. You say: "If this tower is +attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken." You feel at +ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assaults, coming on. +Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you +surrender everything, and they clamor for your immortal overthrow, and +they throw their skeleton arms in the windows, and with their iron +fists they beat against the door; and while you are trying to keep +them out you see the torches of judgment kindling, and every forest is +a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch; and while +the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into a live coal, blown +redder and redder by the whirlwind breath of a God omnipotent, what +will become of your refuge of lies?</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "you are engaged in a very mean business, +driving us from tower to tower." Oh, no. I want to tell you of a +Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a wall that +no satanic assault can scale; of a bulwark that the judgment +earthquakes can not budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: "In +God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, +fling yourself into it! Tread down unceremoniously everything that +intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death +and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished just +outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the +latch. Oh, get inside! Not one surplus second have you to spare. +Quick, quick, quick!</p> + +<p>Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too +hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the +grave? Is this world, which swings at the speed of thousands of miles +an hour around the sun, going with tenfold more speed toward the +judgment-day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought; and in the +conclusion I cry to one and I cry to the other: "Oh, time! Oh, +eternity! Oh, the dead! Oh, the judgment-day! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!" +But, catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to +hold on to: for "in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the +everlasting arms." And, exhausted with my failure to save myself, I +throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this divine promise, +as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a +wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued +man throws himself into the refuge; for "in God is thy refuge, and +underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, for a flood of tears +with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="all_the_world_akin" id="all_the_world_akin"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ALL THE WORLD AKIN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And hath made of one blood all nations of men."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Acts</span> xvii: 26.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a +European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that +theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations +are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A +difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper.</p> + +<p>An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his +pulse moderating and his temper becoming more calm. The air on this +side the ocean is more tonic than on the other side. An American +breathes more oxygen than a European. A European coming to America +finds a great change taking place in himself. He walks with more rapid +strides, and finds his voice becoming keener and shriller. The +Englishman who walks in London Strand at the rate of three miles the +hour, coming to America and residing for a long while here, walks +Broadway at the rate of four miles the hour. Much of the difference +between an American and a European, between an Asiatic and an African, +is atmospheric. The lack of the warm sunlight pales the Greenlander. +The full dash of the sunlight darkens the African.</p> + +<p>Then, ignorance or intelligence makes its impression on the physical +organism—in the one case ignorance flattening the skull, as with the +Egyptian; in the other case intelligence building up the great dome of +the forehead, as with the German. Then the style of god that the +nation worships decides how much it shall be elevated or debased, so +that those nations that worship reptiles are themselves only a +superior form of reptile, while those nations that worship the natural +sun in the heavens are the noblest style of barbaric people. But +whatever be the difference of physiognomy, and whatever the difference +of temperament, the physiologist tells us that after careful analysis +he finds out that the plasma and the disk in the human blood have the +same characteristics: so that if you should put twenty men from twenty +nationalities abreast in line of battle, and a bullet should fly +through the hearts of the twenty men, the blood flowing forth would, +through analysis, prove itself to be the same blood in every instance. +In other words, the science of the day confirming the truth of my text +that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men."</p> + +<p>I have thought, my friends, it might be profitable this morning if I +gave you some of the moral and religious impressions which I received +when, through your indulgence, I had transatlantic absence. First, I +observe that the majority of people in all lands are in a mighty +struggle for bread. While in nearly all lands there are only a few +cases of actual starvation reported, there is a vast population in +every country I visited who have a limited supply of food, or such +food as is incompetent to sustain physical vigor. This struggle in +some lands is becoming more agonizing, while here and there it is +lightened. I have joy in reporting that Ireland, about the sufferings +of which we have heard so much, has far better prospects than I have +seen there in previous visits. In 1879, coming home from that land, I +prophesied the famine that must come upon, and did come upon, the +deluged fields of that country. This year the crops are large, and +both parties—those who like the English Government and those who +don't like it—are expecting relief. I said to one of the intelligent +men of Ireland: "Tell me in a few words what are the sufferings of +Ireland, and what is the Land Relief enactment?" He replied: "I will +tell you. Suppose I am a landlord and you a tenant. You rent from me a +place for ten pounds a year. You improve it. You turn it from a bog +into a garden. You put a house upon it. After a while I, the landlord, +come around, and I say to my agent: 'How much rent is this man +paying;' He answers, 'Ten pounds.' 'Is that all? Put his rent up to +twenty pounds.' The tenant goes on improving his property, and after +awhile I come around and I say to my agent, 'How much rent is this man +paying?' He says, 'Twenty pounds.' 'Put his rent up to twenty-five +pounds.' The tenant protests and says, 'I can't pay it.' Then I, the +landlord, say, 'Pay it or get out;' and the tenant is helpless, and, +leaving the place, the property in its improved condition turns over +to the landlord. Now, to stop that outrage the Relief Enactment comes +in and appoints commissioners who shall see that if the tenant is +turned out, he shall receive the difference of value between the farm +as he got it and the farm as he surrenders it. Moreover, the +government loans money to the tenant, so that he may buy the property +out and out if the landlord will sell." Mighty advancement toward the +righting of a great wrong! But there and in all lands, not excepting +our own, there is a far-reaching distress. And let those who broke +their fast this morning, and those who shall dine to-day, remember +those who are in want, and by prayer and practical beneficence do all +they can to alleviate the hunger swoon of nations.</p> + +<p>Another impression was—indeed the impression carried with me all the +summer—the thought already suggested, the brotherhood of man. The +fact is that the differences are so small between nations that they +may be said to be all alike. Though I spent the most of the summer in +silence, I spoke a few times and to people of different nations, and +how soon I noticed that they were very much alike! If a man knows how +to play the piano, it does not make any difference whether he finds it +in New Orleans or San Francisco or Boston or St. Petersburg or Moscow +or Madras; it has so many keys, and he puts his fingers right on them. +And the human heart is a divine instrument, with just so many keys in +all cases, and you strike some of them and there is joy, and you +strike some of them and there is sorrow. Plied by the same motives, +lifted up by the same success, depressed by the same griefs. The +cab-men of London have the same characteristics as the cab-men of New +York, and are just as modest and retiring. The gold and silver drive +Piccadilly and the Boulevards just as they drive Wall Street. If there +be a great political excitement in Europe, the Bourse in Paris howls +just as loudly as ever did the American gold-room.</p> + +<p>The same grief that we saw in our country in 1864 you may find now in +the military hospitals of England containing the wounded and sick from +the Egyptian wars. The same widowhood and orphanage that sat down in +despair after the battles of Shiloh and South Mountain poured their +grief in the Shannon and the Clyde and the Dee and the Thames. Oh, ye +men and women who know how to pray, never get up from your knees until +you have implored God in behalf of the fourteen hundred millions of +the race just like yourselves, finding life a tremendous struggle! For +who knows but that as the sun to-day draws up drops of water from the +Caspian and the Black seas and from the Amazon and the Mississippi, +after a while to distill the rain, these very drops on the fields—who +knows but that the sun of righteousness may draw up the tears of your +sympathy, and then rain them down in distillation of comfort o'er all +the world?</p> + +<p>Who is that poor man, carried on a stretcher to the Afghan ambulance? +He is your brother. If in the Pantheon at Paris you smite your hand +against the wall among the tombs of the dead, you will hear a very +strange echo coming from all parts of the Pantheon just as soon as you +smite the wall. And I suppose it is so arranged that every stroke of +sorrow among the tombs of bereavement ought to have loud, long, and +oft-repeated echoes of sympathy all around the world. Oh, what a +beautiful theory it is—and it is a Christian theory—that Englishman, +Scotchman, Irishman, Norwegian, Frenchman, Italian, Russian, are all +akin. Of one blood all nations. That is a very beautiful inscription +that I saw a few days ago over the door in Edinburgh, the door of the +house where John Knox used to live. It is getting somewhat dim now, +but there is the inscription, fit for the door of any household—"Love +God above all, and your neighbor as yourself."</p> + +<p>I was also impressed in journeying on the other side the sea with the +difference the Bible makes in countries. The two nations of Europe +that are the most moral to-day and that have the least crime are +Scotland and Wales. They have by statistics, as you might find, fewer +thefts, fewer arsons, fewer murders. What is the reason? A bad book +can hardly live in Wales. The Bible crowds it out. I was told by one +of the first literary men in Wales: "There is not a bad book in the +Welsh language." He said: "Bad books come down from London, but they +can not live here." It is the Bible that is dominant in Wales. And +then in Scotland just open your Bible to give out your text, and there +is a rustling all over the house almost startling to an American. What +is it? The people opening their Bibles to find the text, looking at +the context, picking out the referenced passages, seeing whether you +make right quotation. Scotland and Wales Bible-reading people. That +accounts for it. A man, a city, a nation that reads God's Word must be +virtuous. That Book is the foe of all wrong-doing. What makes +Edinburgh better than Constantinople? The Bible.</p> + +<p>Oh, I am afraid in America we are allowing the good book to be covered +up with other good books! We have our ever-welcome morning and evening +newspapers, and we have our good books on all subjects—geological +subjects, botanical subjects, physiological subjects, theological +subjects—good books, beautiful books, and so many good books that we +have not time to read the Bible. Oh, my friends, it is not a matter of +very great importance that you have a family Bible on the center-table +in your parlor! Better have one pocket New Testament, the passages +marked, the leaves turned down, the binding worn smooth with much +usage, than fifty pictorial family Bibles too handsome to read! Oh, +let us take a whisk-broom and brush the dust off our Bibles! Do you +want poetry? Go and hear Job describe the war-horse, or David tell how +the mountains skipped like lambs. Do you want logic? Go and hear Paul +reason until your brain aches under the spell of his mighty intellect. +Do you want history? Go and see Moses put into a few pages stupendous +information which Herodotus, Thucydides, and Prescott never preached +after. And, above all, if you want to find how a nation struck down by +sin can rise to happiness and to heaven, read of that blood which can +wash away the pollution of a world. There is one passage in the Bible +of vast tonnage: "God so loved the world that He gave His only +begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." Oh, may God fill this country with Bibles and +help the people to read them!</p> + +<p>I was also impressed in my transatlantic journeys with the wonderful +power that Christ holds among the nations. The great name in Europe +to-day is not Victoria, not Marquis of Salisbury, not William the +Emperor, not Bismarck; the great name in Europe to-day is Christ. You +find the crucifix on the gate-post, you find it in the hay field, you +find it at the entrance of the manor, you find it by the side of the +road.</p> + +<p>The greatest pictures in all the galleries of Italy, Germany, France, +England, and Scotland are Bible pictures. What were the subjects of +Raphael's great paintings? "The Transfiguration," "The Miraculous +Draught of Fishes," "The Charge to Peter," "The Holy Family," "The +Massacre of the Innocents," "Moses at the Burning Bush," "The +Nativity," "Michael the Archangel," and the four or five exquisite +"Madonnas." What are Tintoretto's great pictures? "Fall of Adam," +"Cain and Abel," "The Plague of the Fiery Serpent," "Paradise," "Agony +in the Garden," "The Temptation," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The +Communication," "Baptism," "Massacre of the Innocents," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Crucifixion," "The Madonna." What are Titian's great +pictures? "The Flagellation of Christ," "The Supper at Emmaus," "The +Death of Abel," "The Assumption," "The Entombment," "Faith," "The +Madonna." What are Michael Angelo's great pictures? "The +Annunciation," "The Spirits in Prison," "At the feet of Christ," "The +Infant Christ," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment." What are Paul +Veronese's great pictures? "Queen of Sheba," "The Marriage in Cana," +"Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," "The Holy Family." Who has not +heard of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"? Who has not heard of Turner's +"Pools of Solomon"? Who has not heard of Claude's "Marriage of Isaac +and Rebecca"? Who has not heard of Dürer's "Dragon of the +Apocalypse"? The mightiest picture on this planet is Rubens' +"Scourging of Christ." Painter's pencil loves to sketch the face of +Christ. Sculptor's chisel loves to present the form of Christ. Organs +love to roll forth the sorrows of Christ.</p> + +<p>The first time you go to London go into the Doré picture gallery. As I +went and sat down before "Christ Descending the Steps of the +Prætorium," at the first I was disappointed. I said: "There isn't +enough majesty in that countenance, not enough tenderness in that +eye;" but as I sat and looked at the picture it grew upon me until I +was overwhelmed with its power, and I staggered with emotion as I went +out into the fresh air, and said; "Oh, for that Christ I must live, +and for that Christ I must be willing to die!" Make that Christ your +personal friend, my sister, my brother. You may never go to Milan to +see Da Vinci's "Last Supper;" but, better than that, you can have +Christ come and sup with you. You may never get to Antwerp to see +Rubens' "Descent of Christ from the Cross," but you can have Christ +come down from the mountain of His suffering into your heart and abide +there forever. Oh, you must have Him! We are all so diseased with sin +that we want that which hurts us, and we won't have that which cures +us. The best thing for you and for me to do to-day is to get down on +our bended knees before God and say: "Oh, Almighty Son of God, I am +blind! I want to see. My arms are palsied. I want to take hold of thy +cross. Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus!" Why will you live on husks +when you may sit down to this white bread of heaven? Oh, with such a +God, and with such a Christ, and with such a Holy Spirit, and with +such an immortal nature, wake up!</p> + +<p>Once more, I was impressed greatly on the other side the sea with the +wonderful triumphs of the Christian religion. The tide is rising, the +tide of moral and spiritual prosperity in the world. I think that any +man who keeps his eyes open, traveling in foreign lands, will come to +that conclusion. More Bibles than ever before, more churches, more +consecrated men and women, more people ready to be martyrs now than +ever before, if need be; so that instead of there being, as people +sometimes say, less spirit of martyrdom now than ever before, I +believe where there was once one martyr there would be a thousand +martyrs if the fires were kindled—men ready to go through flood and +fire for Christ's sake. Oh, the signs are promising! The world is on +the way to millennial brightness. All art, all invention, all +literature, all commerce will be the Lord's.</p> + +<p>These ships that you see going up and down New York harbor are to be +brought into the service of God. All those ships I saw at Liverpool, +at Southampton, at Glasgow, are to be brought into the service of +Christ. What is that passage, "Ships of Tarshish shall bring +presents"? That is what it means. Oh, what a goodly fleet when the +vessels of the sea come into the service of God! No guns frowning +through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from +cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity. Those ships will come from +all parts of the seas. Great flocks of ships that never met on the +high sea but in wrath, will cry, "Ship ahoy!" and drop down beside +each other in calmness, the flags of Emmanuel streaming from the +top-gallants. The old slaver, with decks scrubbed and washed and +glistened and burnished—the old slaver will wheel into line; and the +Chinese junk and the Venetian gondola, and the miners' and the +pirates' corvette, will fall into line, equipped, readorned, +beautified, only the small craft of this grand flotilla which shall +float out for the truth—a flotilla mightier than the armada of Xerxes +moving in the pomp and pride of Persian insolence; mightier than the +Carthaginian navy rushing with forty thousand oarsmen upon the Roman +galleys, the life of nations dashed out against the gunwales.</p> + +<p>Rise, O sea! and shine, O heavens! to greet this squadron of light and +victory! On the glistening decks are the feet of them that bring good +tidings, and songs of heaven float among the rigging. Crowd on all the +canvas. Line-of-battle ship and merchantmen wheel into the way. It is +noon. Strike eight bells. From all the squadron the sailors' songs +arise. "Surely the isles shall wait for thee, and the ships of +Tarshish to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with +them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="a_momentous_quest" id="a_momentous_quest"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>A MOMENTOUS QUEST.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isa.</span> lv: 6.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors +in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of +our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side +face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the +full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some +things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more +epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime; but when you want to see Christ +coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, +you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard +to Christ might be called the "Oratorio of the Messiah," the writing +of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah Chorus," where all the batons wave and +all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of +insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus, and +Philo, and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among +the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets.</p> + +<p>My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out +into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men +might know Him; his voice rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord while +He may be found." "Oh," says some one: "that was for olden times." +No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a +circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in +St. Petersburg, or Venice, or Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris; +you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I +want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for +one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for +all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: +"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found."</p> + +<p>I come, to-day, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice +distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on +the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this +morning will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. +In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine: it either +kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a +Christian, I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of +influences to come;" and still you are waiting. You are wiser in +worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to +Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, or to the steam-boat wharf, +and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit +in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men +who say they are waiting to get to heaven—waiting, waiting, but not +with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of +Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with +earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and +there is a matter of $10,000 connected with your seeing him, and you +can not at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in +the directory, but can not find the name; you go in circles where you +think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city +where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through +street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on +searching for weeks and for months.</p> + +<p>You say: "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, +that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one half +that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of +the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we +may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our +life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the +Spirit of God would help this morning while I try to show you, in +carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in +the next place, when to seek Him. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be +found."</p> + +<p>I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest +and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a +throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing +up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a +bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on His knee, and get +His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to +the "fountain of living water," and dip up refreshment for our +thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the +corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley +fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing.</p> + +<p>I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large +an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before +God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no +response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a +believing spirit within, your cry would not go further up than the +shout of a plow-boy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, +loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, +and a bird, affrighted, darts into the window, and wheels about the +room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its +fluttering heart. You say, "Poor thing, poor thing!" Now, a prayer +goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, +and He catches it, and He feels its fluttering pulse, and He puts it +in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, +pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills +to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into +the depths of God's mercy and bring up "pearls of great price." There +was an instance where prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret solid as +Russ pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! +Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were +persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men +among the Covenanters prayed: "Oh, Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou +shalt help us! Oh, Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor +things!" And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted +from their persecutors—the promise literally fulfilled: "While they +are yet speaking I will hear."</p> + +<p>Oh, impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God +says: "He is loving, and faithful, and patient." Do you believe that? +You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? +You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel +is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: "Oh, +Lord! I know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, +and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep Thy promise, and liberate my +captive soul."</p> + +<p>Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the +store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the +manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as He +confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come +before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would +send in petitions and remonstrances! And yet there has been enough sin +in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or +petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the +means, you would go and spend the summer in Germany, and the winter in +Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all +round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any +effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual +health? No, you have not taken one step.</p> + +<p>O that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some +of you have been working for years and years for the support of your +families. Have you given one half day to the working out of your +salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an +earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest +purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if +you want to find the Lord, you must pray, and pray, and pray.</p> + +<p>I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible +is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds +of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds +of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five +minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the +heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through +Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will +find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop +straight from the throne of God into your heart.</p> + +<p>There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If +they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them +to Christ than Washington's farewell address or the Koran of Mohammed +or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's Word +you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Madeleine, in +Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully +constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole +week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the +wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant +altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the +outside door of God's Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, +instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the +dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over penitent and +believing souls!</p> + +<p>O my friends! if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not +go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take "Howe's Elements of +Criticism"—it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to +study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of +William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, +and at last to gain the blessedness of Heaven, search the Scriptures, +"for in them ye have eternal life."</p> + +<p>When people are anxious about their souls—and there are some such +here to-day—there are those who recommend good books. That is all +right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under +such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the +Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The +Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best +rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious +Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer.</p> + +<p>O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A +dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade +shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the +canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel +in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and +read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: +"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a +dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live! +Blessed book when we die!</p> + +<p>I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," +say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply, +there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but +the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; +and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily +when we are in the assembly—the feelings of others emphasizing our +own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth +that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily +against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs.</p> + +<p>When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, +and only for one purpose—to find the way to Christ. When I see people +critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and +critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in +prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government +brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and +says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me +to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such +an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise +my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It +is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this +morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to our souls, +should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it +is a matter of heaven or hell?</p> + +<p>But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to +seek the Lord. "While He may be found." When is that? Old age? You may +not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You +may not see to-night. Now! O if I could only write on every heart in +three capital letters, that word N-O-W—Now!</p> + +<p>Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and +with a trivial manner: "Oh, yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful +disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all +moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. +Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes +the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: +"That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had +called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. +It is too late now; the crisis has passed." Just so it is in the +spiritual treatment of the soul—there is a crisis. Before that, life! +After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let +the crisis pass unattended to!</p> + +<p>There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if they +had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few +acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. +They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprung up on +those acres of ground, and they see what a mistake they made in not +buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never +came back again. And so it is in regard to a man's spiritual and +eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it +never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back.</p> + +<p>A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a +height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the +most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and +now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he +knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the +emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time to-day with +you, O impenitent soul!—the forces of light on the one side, and the +siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter +will be settled for eternity.</p> + +<p>There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on +board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not +on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is +sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year till the +bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are +adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to +year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to +pay for it.</p> + +<p>Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin +will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? +that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost +pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by +the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. +The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this +matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are +before me this morning, whether, in the ten or fifteen years they have +passed in the postponement of these matters, they have come any nearer +God or heaven?</p> + +<p>I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they +may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to the matter. +Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder +and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an +undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, fly for +refuge! The avenger of blood is on the track! The throne of judgment +will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal +salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul +is precious, and it ceaseth forever!</p> + +<p>Oh, if men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they +would love Him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or +sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises +behind Calvary, and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed +Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, +and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty, and English beauty; but I care +not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him "chief +among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." O my blessed +Jesus! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of +Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men can not +love Thee!</p> + +<p>The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does +not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of +Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures +for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, +harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God +too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a +fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour +the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you +to attend to this matter—to attend to it now? Time is flying, +flying—the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to +you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off!</p> + +<p>Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your +immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that +must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for +heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are +open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? +Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it +will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for +all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The +Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more +convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this +very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say +this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I +show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward +beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be +launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ +shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost—would I +not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand +before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now +is the day of your redemption.</p> + +<p>It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in +judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see +Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the +earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will +come up for our glory or for our discomfiture—every prayer, every +sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; +and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is +being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas! +alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these matters. +We may throw them off now. We can not then. We will all be in earnest +then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation then. No rescue then. +Driven away in our wickedness—banished, exiled, forever!</p> + +<p>Have you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that +day unpardoned, as it looks back upon its past life? "Oh," says the +soul, "I had glorious Sabbaths! There was one Sabbath in autumn when +I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood +and spread out His arm and invited me to His holy heart. I refused +Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin +complete! Darkness unpitying, deep, eternal! I am lost! +Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am +lost! O Thou long-suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! O day of +judgment, I am lost! O father, mother, brother, sister, child in +glory, I am lost!" And then as the tide goes out, your soul goes out +with it—further from God, further from happiness, and I hear your +voice fainter, and fainter, and fainter: "Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! +Lost!" O ye dying, yet immortal men, "seek the Lord while He may be +found."</p> + +<p>But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to +dwell on—the hint that there is a time when He can not be found. +There is a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a +clergyman who came in, "Do you think that a man at eighty years of age +can get pardoned?" "Oh, yes," said the clergyman. The old man said: "I +can't; when I was twenty years of age—I am now eighty years—the +Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending +to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I +have had no feeling." "Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to +have me pray with you?" "Yes," replied the old man, "but it will do no +good. You can pray with me if you like to." The minister knelt down +and prayed, and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no +effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, +and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and +with his last breath he said; "I shall never be forgiven!" "O seek the +Lord while He may be found."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_great_assize" id="the_great_assize"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE GREAT ASSIZE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Doctor Talmage's Sermon, Preached At Cork, Ireland,<br /> +Sunday Morning, Sept 6th, 1885.</p> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy + angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His + glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He + shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth + his sheep from the goats."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Matthew</span> xxv: 31, 32.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the +horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful +natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my +companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last +judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat. +These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels. +This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the +audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point +out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an +audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics, +and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience +to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day.</p> + +<p>A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there +shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now +inexplicable shall be explained.</p> + +<p>Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I +don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying +of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits +wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I +must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were +not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there +would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never +recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try +Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The +world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on +earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being +healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could +have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around +about him would have been the slain under that overpowering +effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe. +Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to +mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise.</p> + +<p>But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory. +No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of +grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the +most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim +as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ +rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will +be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to +horizon aflame with His splendor.</p> + +<p>Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire +and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of +fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the +law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will +be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy +arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of +spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory +of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An +unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an +interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which +shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and +be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with +setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers +takes off the top of a burned wick.</p> + +<p>It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on +hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and +with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses +and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are +uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the +judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of +the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt +shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea +into silence.</p> + +<p>Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment +day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars +about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not +always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else +fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar, +and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His +left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every +mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful +gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in +behalf of the human race.</p> + +<p>But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro +above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of +heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene, +and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a +hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all +heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the +scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a +circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher +up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of +cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to +watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were +made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is +Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy +sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those +who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near +the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and +his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke +the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing +brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing, +turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into +corpses.</p> + +<p>Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly +turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the +Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other +group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial +bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered +to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His +sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now +appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides +by angelic radiance.</p> + +<p>But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The +entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that +time the American Republic, the English Government, the French +Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for +something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be +brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece +and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never +slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South +America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the +twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century—all centuries +present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be +in that assembly.</p> + +<p>No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a +millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of +albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A +congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent, +because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the +Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the +world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent +is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of +the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and +underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty +God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up +worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars +strong enough to hold up any auditorium.</p> + +<p>But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on +earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an +audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this +audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will +separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats."</p> + +<p>"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But +the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this +world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical +institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican +institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities +of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high +circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles +go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together, +the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the +king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and +the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without +his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the +beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad +orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly +inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the +mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward +deciding the questions of that very great day.</p> + +<p>"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of +those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming +mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of +those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any +divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character +outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of +choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character +inside as well as character outside.</p> + +<p>In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all +earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will +take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace +will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and +some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh, +what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social +rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a +thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all +ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the +figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2.</p> + +<p>Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two +eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and +everlasting two!</p> + +<p>I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened +allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the +book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names +of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of +such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred +years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes +between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of +judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every +human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they +were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or +three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their +past life flashed before them—all they had ever thought, all they had +ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The +memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a +closed book.</p> + +<p>Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the +thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall +them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes, +although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of +them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the +drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly +unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened, +so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix.</p> + +<p>You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many +revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the +manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find +just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been +accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and +it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that +all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of +judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can +easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen. +And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that +not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be +revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will +read not only your own character and your own history, but the +character and history of others.</p> + +<p>In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing, +and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in +one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another +way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have +to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the +trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet +on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give +significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having +marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun +and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the +trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead, +the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the +mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys +never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of +the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with +those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages—from +Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and +from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the +bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the +garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east +and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies +of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and +thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The +trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The +leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned +sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with +rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet! +the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The +high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their +two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue +tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the +auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded +wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery +throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The +conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and +off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the +world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel +flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the +dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!"</p> + +<p>That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for +cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a +large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to +the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that +margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage +demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to +tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of +judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for +cancellation.</p> + +<p>There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin. +That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever. +It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were +cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made +in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it +will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and +sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and +glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned +prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh, +no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf.</p> + +<p>I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and +testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask +you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that +you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for +something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in +my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our +condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been +swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so +long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems +a ripple on the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death, +and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move +up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high +pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the +Shepherd's crook! "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and +all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His +glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall +separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats."</p> + +<p>Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart! +That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last, +"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a +great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and +swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the +great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they +boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in +simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor. +Your unalterable destiny the quotient.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_road_to_the_city" id="the_road_to_the_city"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE ROAD TO THE CITY.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be + called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over + it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though + fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any + ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found + there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of + the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and + everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and + gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isaiah</span> + xxxv: 8-10.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There are hundreds of people in this house this morning who want to +find the right road. You sometimes see a person halting at cross +roads, and you can tell by his looks that he wishes to ask a question +as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence +this morning conscious of the fact that there are many of you here who +realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one; +and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it +is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in +it. There are a great many expensive toll-gates scattered all along +that way. Indeed at every road you must pay in tears, or pay in +genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get +through it at all, you have to pay your own way; and since this +differs so much from what I have heard in regard to the right way, I +believe it is the wrong way.</p> + +<p>Here is another road. On either side of it are houses of sinful +entertainment, and invitations to come in, and dine and rest; but, +from the looks of the people who stand on the piazza I am very certain +that it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It +is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses' hoofs clatter and ring, +and they who ride over it spin along the highway, until suddenly they +find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, +and they saw the bit in the mouth of the fiery steed, and cry "Ho! +ho!" But it is too late, and—crash!—they go over the embankment. We +shall turn, this morning, and see if we can not find a different kind +of a road.</p> + +<p>You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty miles +long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was a +path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal +shape and fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of +smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that +in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were +exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time—the old +conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it—there is nothing +left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to +tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good +as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. +Millions more will come.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"The prophets and apostles, too,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pursued this road while here below;<br /></span> +<span>We therefore will, without dismay<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Still walk in Christ, the good old way."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way +of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall +not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the +ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!"</p> + +<p>I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the +diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, +and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over +bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under +projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip +with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time, +learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government +authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from +earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness; +it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be +wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the +human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be +blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the +Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of +devils.</p> + +<p>The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and +heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered +hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen +million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon +might go over for the devastation of Italy; but our King, at a greater +expense, has built a road for a different purpose, that the banners of +heavenly dominion might come down over it, and all the redeemed of +earth travel up over it.</p> + +<p>Being a King's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly +arched and buttressed have given way and crushed the passengers who +attempted to cross them. But Christ, the King, would build no such +thing as that. The work done, He mounts the chariot of His love, and +multitudes mount with Him, and He drives on and up the steep of heaven +amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done—well +done—gloriously done—magnificently done.</p> + +<p>II. Still further: this road spoken of is a clean road.</p> + +<p>Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it has not been +properly cared for; but my text says the unclean shall not walk on +this one. Room on either side to throw away your sins. Indeed, if you +want to carry them along, you are not on the right road. That bridge +will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night will come +down, leaving you at the mercy of the mountain bandits, and at the +very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really on +this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop +ever and anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the +eternal rock. Ay, at almost every step of the journey you will be +crying out: "Create within me a clean heart!" If you have no such +aspirations as that, it proves that you have mistaken your way; and if +you will only look up and see the finger-board above your head, you +may read upon it the words: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a +man, but the end thereof is death." Without holiness no man shall see +the Lord; and if you have any idea that you can carry along your sins, +your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to the end of the Christian +race, you are so awfully mistaken that, in the name of God, this +morning I shatter the delusion.</p> + +<p>III. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. "The wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein." That is, if a man is three +fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a +philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing-stock of the street, and +followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the +gate of heaven, and it swings open: while there has been many a man +who can lecture about pneumatics, and chemistry, and tell the story of +Farraday's theory of electrical polarization, and yet has been shut +out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory +and swept the heavens with his telescope, and yet has not been able to +see the Morning Star. Many a man has been familiar with all the higher +branches of mathematics, and yet could not do the simple sum, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems, and +yet could not "read his title clear to mansions in the skies." Many a +man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." But if one shall come in the right +spirit, crying the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The +pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain.</p> + +<p>He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament +teaching will get on beautifully. He who goes through philosophical +discussion will not get on at all. Christ says: "Come to Me, and I +will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away." +Now what is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? +If you wanted to go to Albany, and I pointed you out a highway +thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological +discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological +discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. +After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me +to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the human will, +or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the +road—go on it. It is a plain way.</p> + +<p>"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ +Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And that is you and that +is me. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. +"Unless you become as a little child, you can not see the kingdom of +God." If you are saved, it will not be as a philosopher, it will be as +a little child. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Unless you get +the spirit of little children, you will never come out at their +glorious destiny.</p> + +<p>IV. Still further: this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the +traveler in those ancient highways would think himself perfectly +secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep +between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under the +fearful spring the man's life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass +by the roadside. But, says my text, "No lion shall be there." I wish I +could make you feel, this morning, your entire security. I tell you +plainly that one minute after a man has become a child of God, he is +as safe as though he had been ten thousand years in heaven. He may +slip, he may slide, he may stumble; but he can not be destroyed. Kept +by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation. +Everlastingly safe.</p> + +<p>The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill +him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can +happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers +that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His +soul, you can not hurt it. No fires can consume it. No floods can +drown it. No devils can capture it.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Firm and unmoved are they<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who rest their souls on God;<br /></span> +<span>Fixed as the ground where David stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or where the ark abode."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His soul is safe. His reputation is safe. Everything is safe. "But," +you say, "suppose his store burns up?" Why, then, it will be only a +change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. "But," you +say, "suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and +contempt?" The name will be so much brighter in glory. "Suppose his +physical health fails?" God will pour into him the floods of +everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly +subtraction is heavenly addition. The tears of earth are the crystals +of heaven. As they take rags and tatters and put them through the +paper-mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so, +often, the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, +come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal +emancipation.</p> + +<p>There was one passage of Scripture, the force of which I never +understood until one day at Chamounix, with Mont Blanc on one side, +and Montanvent on the other, I opened my Bible and read: "As the +mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them +that fear Him." The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Though troubles assail, and dangers affright;<br /></span> +<span>Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite;<br /></span> +<span>Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,<br /></span> +<span>The Scriptures assure us the Lord will provide."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>V. Still further: the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a +bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. "All +things work together for good to those who love God." No weapon formed +against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed, and +delivered by the President of the whole universe. What is the use of +your fretting, O child of God, about food? "Behold the fowls of the +air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; +yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." And will He take care of the +sparrow, will He take care of the hawk, and let you die? What is the +use of your fretting about clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field. +Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What is the +use worrying for fear something will happen to your home? "He blesseth +the habitation of the just." What is the use of your fretting lest you +will be overcome of temptations? "God is faithful, who will not suffer +you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation +also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."</p> + +<p>O this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over +until their branches interlock and drop midway their fruit and shade. +Houses of entertainment on either side the road for poor pilgrims. +Tables spread with a feast of good things, and walls adorned with +apples of gold in pictures of silver. I start out on this King's +highway, and I find a harper, and I say: "What is your name?" The +harper makes no response, but leaves me to guess, as, with his eyes +toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes +rippling on the air: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom +shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be +afraid?" I go a little further on the same road and meet a trumpeter +of heaven, and I say: "Haven't you got some music for a tired +pilgrim?" And wiping his lip and taking a long breath, he puts his +mouth to the trumpet and pours forth this strain: "They shall hunger +no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes." I go a little distance further +on the same road, and I meet a maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but +she has cymbals. They look as if they had rusted from sea-spray; and I +say to the maiden of Israel: "Have you no song for a tired pilgrim?" +And like the clang of victors' shields the cymbals clap as Miriam +begins to discourse: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed +gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea." And +then I see a white-robed group. They come bounding toward me, and I +say: "Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest +in all heaven—who are they?" And the answer comes: "These are they +who came out of great tribulations, and had their robes washed and +made white with the blood of the Lamb."</p> + +<p>I pursue this subject only one step further. What is the terminus? I +do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where it +comes out. My text declares it: "The redeemed of the Lord come to +Zion." You know what Zion was. That was the King's palace. It was a +mountain fastness. It was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness +of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those +towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away; they can +not break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sebastopol was taken, +Babylon fell; but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either +to human or Satanic besiegement. The Lord God Almighty is the defense +of it. Great capital of the universe! Terminus of the King's highway!</p> + +<p>Doctor Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we +should study chemistry, and geometry, and conic sections. Southey +thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer +and Shakespeare. Now, Doctor Dick may have his mathematics for all +eternity, and Southey his Shakespeare. Give me Christ and my old +friends—that is all the heaven I want, that is heaven enough for me. +O garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never +fail! O banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste, and +whose guests are kings forever! O city of light, whose walls are +salvation, and whose gates are praise! O palace of rest, where God is +the monarch and everlasting ages the length of His reign! O song +louder than the surf-beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of +cherubim!</p> + +<p>O my heaven! When my last wound is healed, when the last heart-break +is ended, when the last tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when +the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers +take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their +trumpets, and all across heaven there be chorus of morning stars, +chorus of white-robed victors, chorus of martyrs from under the +throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song +sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored—that of +Jesus only.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_ransomless" id="the_ransomless"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE RANSOMLESS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great +ransom can not deliver thee."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Job</span> xxxvi: 18.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his +property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear +children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any +spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are +now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have +begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow +cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and +happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with +many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the +condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him: +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can +not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our +gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is +ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a +great ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to +adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the +hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the +accidental discharge of a gun—and your mind is gone. If you have ever +been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you +know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our +eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so +easily destroyed?</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I +reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the +best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten +years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had +their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it +went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible +for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will +be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well; +and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was demented, and +I had no responsibility," God will say: "Yes, you were demented; but +there were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance +for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a +little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like +poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just +appeared in England—a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus +Christ by scores and scores—giving an account of his own conversion, +when he said: "The mob got after me, and I lost my hat, and climbed +up by a meat-stand, in order that I might not be trampled under foot, +and while I was there, my heart got on fire with love toward those who +were chasing me, and, springing to my feet, I began to exhort and to +pray." Oh, my God, let me be in the last, last day the Cornish fool, +rather than have the best intellect God ever created unillumined by +the Gospel of Jesus Christ!</p> + +<p>Consider what an uncertain possession you have in your intellect, when +there are so many things around to destroy it; and beware, lest before +you use it in making the religious choice, God takes it away with a +stroke. I know a good many of my friends who are putting off religion +until the last hour. They say when they get sick they will attend to +it, but generally the intellect is beclouded; and oh; what a doleful +thing it is to stand by a dying bed, and talk to a man about his soul, +and feel, from what you see of the motion of his head, and the glare +of his eye, and from what you hear of the jargon of his lips, that he +does not understand what you are saying to him. I have stood beside +the death-bed of a man who had lived a sinful life, and was as +unprepared for eternity as it is possible for a man to be, and I tried +to make him understand my pastoral errand; but all in vain. He could +not understand it, and so he died.</p> + +<p>Oh! ye who are putting off until the sick hour preparation for +eternity, let me tell you that in all probability, you will not be +able in your last hour to attend to it at all. There are a great many +people who say they will repent on the death-bed.</p> + +<p>I have no doubt there are many who have repented on the death-bed, but +I think it is the exception. Albert Barnes, who was one of the coolest +of men, and gave no rash statistics, said thus: that in a ministry of +nearly half a century—he was over seventy when he went up to +glory—he had known a great many people who said they repented on the +dying bed, but, unexpectedly to themselves, got well; and he says, How +many of those, do you suppose, who thought it was their dying bed, and +who, after they repented on that dying bed, having got well, lived +consistently, showing that it was real repentance, and not mock +repentance—how many? not one! not one!</p> + +<p>II. Again: this stroke may come to you in the withdrawal of God's +spirit.</p> + +<p>I see people before me who were, twenty years ago, serious about their +souls. They are not now. They have no interest in what I am saying. +They will never have any anxiety in what any minister of the Gospel +says about their souls. Their time seems to have passed. I know a man, +seventy-five years of age, who, in early life, became almost a +Christian, but grieved away the spirit of God, and he has never +thought earnestly since, and he can not be roused. I do not believe he +will be roused until eternity flashes on his astonished vision.</p> + +<p>It does seem as if sometimes, in quite early life, the Holy Spirit +moves upon a heart, and being grieved away and rejected, never comes +back. You say that is all imaginary? A letter, the address of which I +will not give, dated last Monday morning, came to me on Tuesday, +saying this: "Your sermon last night (that is, last Sabbath night) +did not fit my case, although I believe it did all others in the +Academy; but your sermon of a week ago did fit my case, for I am 'past +feeling.' I am not ashamed to be a Christian. I would as soon be known +to be a Christian as anything else. Indeed, I wish I was, but I have +not the least power to become one. Don't you know that with some +persons there is a tide in their spiritual natures which, if taken at +the flood, leads on to salvation? Such a tide I felt two years ago. I +want you to pray for me, not that I may be led to Christ—for that +prayer would not be answered—but that I may be kept from the +temptation to suicide!"</p> + +<p>What I had to say to the author of that I said in a private letter; +but what I have to say to this audience is: Beware lest you grieve the +Holy Ghost, and He be gone, and never return. Next Wednesday, at two +or three o'clock, a Cunard steamer will put out from Jersey City wharf +for Liverpool. After it has gone one hour, and the vessel is down by +the Narrows, or beyond, go out on the Jersey City wharf, and wave your +hand, and shout, and ask that steamer to come back to the wharf. Will +it? Yes, sooner than the Holy Ghost will come back when once He has +taken his final flight from thy soul. With that Holy Spirit some of +you have been in treaty, my dear friends.</p> + +<p>The Holy Spirit said: "Come, come to Christ." You said: "No, I won't." +The Spirit said, more importunately: "Come to Christ." You said: +"Well, I will after awhile, when I get my business fixed up; when my +friends consent to my coming; when they won't laugh at me—then I'll +come." But the Holy Spirit more emphatically said: "Come now." You +said: "No, I can't. I can't come now." And that Holy Spirit stands in +your heart to-night, with His hand on the door of your soul, ready to +come out. Will you let Him depart? If so, then, with a pen of light, +dipped in ink of eternal blackness, the sentence may be now writing: +"Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone! Let him alone!" When +that fatal record is made, you might as well brace yourselves up +against the sorrows of the last day, against the anguish of an +unforgiven death-bed, against the flame and the overthrow of an undone +eternity; for though you might live thirty years after that in the +world, your fate would be as certain as though you had already entered +the gates of darkness. That is the dead line. Look out how you cross +it!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"'There is a line by us unseen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That crosses every path;<br /></span> +<span>The hidden boundary between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God's patience and His wrath.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And some of you, to-night, have come up to that line. Ay, you have +lifted your foot, and when you put it down, it will be on the other +side! Look out how you cross it! Oh, grieve not the Spirit of God, +lest He never come back!</p> + +<p>III. This fatal stroke spoken of in the text may be our exit from this +world. I hear aged people sometimes saying: "I can't live much +longer." But do you know the fact that there are a hundred young +people and middle-aged people who go out of this life to one aged +person, for the simple reason that there are not many aged people to +leave life? The aged seem to stand around like stalks—separate stalks +of wheat at the corner of the field; but when death goes a-mowing, he +likes to go down amid the thick of the harvest. What is more to the +point: a man's going out of this world is never in the way he +expects—it is never at the time he expects. The moment of leaving +this world is always a surprise. If you expect to go in the winter, it +may be in the summer; if in the summer, it may be in the winter; if in +the night, it maybe in the day-time; if you think to go in the +day-time, it may be in the night. Suddenly the event will rush upon +you, and you will be gone. Where? If a Christian—into joy. If not a +Christian—into suffering.</p> + +<p>The Gospel call stops outside of the door of the sepulcher. The +sleeper within can not hear it. If that call should be sounded out +with clarion voice louder than ever rang through the air, that sleeper +could not hear it. I suppose every hour of the day, and now, while I +am speaking, there are souls rushing into eternity unprepared. They +slide from the pillow, or they slip from the pavement, and in an +eye-twinkling they are gone. Elegant and eloquent funeral oration will +not do them any good. Epitaph, cut on polished Scotch granite, will +not do them any good. Wailing of beloved kindred can not call them +back.</p> + +<p>But, says some one: "I'll keep out of peril; I will not go on the sea, +I will not go into battle—I'll keep out of all danger." That is no +defense. Thousands of people, last night, on their couches, with the +front door locked, and no armed assassin anywhere around, surrounded +by all defended circumstances, slipped out of this life into the +next. If time had been on one side of the shuttle and eternity on the +other side of the shuttle, they could not have shot quicker across it. +A man was saying: "My father was lost at sea, and my grandfather, and +my great-grandfather. Wasn't it strange?" A man, talking to him, said: +"You ought never to venture on the sea, lest you, yourself, be lost at +sea." The man turned to the other, and said: "Where did your father +die?" He replied: "In his bed." "Where did your grandfather die?" "In +his bed." "Where did your great-grandfather die?" "In his bed." +"Then," he said, "be careful, lest some night, while you are asleep on +your couch, your time may come!"</p> + +<p>Death alone is sure. Suddenly, you and I will go out of life. I am not +saying anything to your soul that I am not going to say to my own +soul. We have got to go suddenly out of this life. If I am prepared +for that change, I do not care where my body is taken from—at what +point I am taken out of this life. If I am ready, all is well. If I am +not ready, though I might be at home, and though my loved ones might +be standing around me, and though there might be the best surgical and +medical ability in the room, I tell you, if I were not prepared, I +would be frightened more than tongue can tell. It may seem like +cowardice, but I am not ashamed to say that I should have the most +indescribable horror about going out of this world if I thought I was +unprepared for the next—if I had no Christ in my soul; for it would +be a plunge compared with which a leap from the top of Mont Blanc +would be nothing.</p> + +<p>But this brings me to the most tremendous thought of my text. The text +supposes that a man goes into ruin, and that an effort is made +afterward for his rescue, and then says the thing can not be done. Is +that so? After death seizes upon that soul, is there no resurrection? +If a man topples off the edge of life, is there nothing to break his +fall? If an impenitent man goes overboard, are there no +grappling-hooks to hoist him into safety? The text says distinctly: +"Then a great ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I know there are people who call themselves "Restorationists," and +they say a sinful man may go down into the world of the lost; he stays +there until he gets reformed, and then comes up into the world of +light and blessedness. It seems to me to be a most unreasonable +doctrine—as though the world of darkness were a place where a man +could get reformed. Is there anything in the society of the lost +world—the abandoned and the wretched of God's universe—to elevate a +man's character and lift him at last to heaven? Can we go into +companionship of the Neroes and the Herods, and the Jim Fisks, and +spend a certain number of years in that lost world, and then by that +society be purified and lifted up? Is that the kind of society that +reforms a man and prepares him for heaven? Would you go to Shreveport +or Memphis, with the yellow fever there, to get your physical health +restored? Can it be that a man may go down into the diseased world—a +world overwhelmed by an epidemic of transgressions—and by that +process, and in that atmosphere, be lifted up to health and glory? +Your common sense says: "No! no!" In such society as that, instead of +being restored, you would go down worse and worse, plunging every hour +into deeper depths of suffering and darkness. What your common sense +says the Bible reaffirms, when it says: "These shall go away into +three months of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These shall go +away into ten years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These +shall go into a thousand years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. +"These shall go into <i>everlasting</i> punishment." And now I have quoted +it right; or, if you prefer, in the words of my text: "Then a great +ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>Now just suppose that a spirit should come down from heaven and knock +at the gates of woe and say: "Let that man out! Let me come in and +suffer in his stead. I will be the sacrifice. Let him come out." The +grim jailer would reply: "No, you don't know what a place this is, or +you would not ask to come in; besides that, this man had full warning +and full opportunity of escape. He did not take the warning, and now a +great ransom shall not deliver him."</p> + +<p>Sometimes men are sentenced to imprisonment for life. There comes +another judge on the bench, there comes another governor in the chair, +and in three or four years you find the man who was sentenced for life +in the street. You say: "I thought you were sentenced for life." "Oh!" +he says, "politics are changed, and I am now a free man." But it will +not be so for a soul at the last. There will be no new judge or new +governor. If at the end of a century a soul might come out, it would +not be so bad. If at the end of a thousand years it might come out, +it would not be so bad. If there were any time in all the future, in +quadrillions and quadrillions of years, that the soul might come out, +it would not be so bad; but if the Bible be true, it is a state of +unending duration.</p> + +<p>Far on in the ages one lost soul shall cry out to another lost soul: +"How long have you been here?" and the soul will reply: "The years of +my ruin are countless. I estimated the time for thousands of years; +but what is the use of estimating when all these rolling cycles bring +us no nearer the terminus." Ages! Ages! Ages! Eternity! Eternity! +Eternity! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! No +medicine to cure that marasmus of the soul. No hammer to strike off +the handcuff of that incarceration. No burglar's key to pick the locks +which the Lord hath fastened. Sir Francis Newport, in his last moment, +caught just one glimpse of that world. He had lived a sinful life. +Before he went into the eternal world he looked into it. The last +words he ever uttered were, as he gathered himself up on his elbows in +the bed: "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" The lost soul will cry +out: "I can not stand this! I can not stand this! Is there no way +out?" and the echo will answer: "No way out." And the soul will cry: +"Is this forever?" and the echo will answer: "Forever!"</p> + +<p>Is it all true? "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, +while the righteous go into life eternal." Are there two destinies? +and must all this audience share one or the other? Shall I give an +account for what I have told you to-night? Have I held back any truth, +though it were plain, though it were unpalatable? Must I meet you +there, oh, you dying but immortal auditory? I wish that my text, with +all its uplifted hands of warning, could come upon your souls: "Beware +lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not +deliver thee."</p> + +<p>Glory be to God, there is a ransom that can now deliver you, braver +than Grace Darling putting out in a life-boat from Eddystone +Light-house for the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire +steamer—Christ the Lord launched from heaven, amid the shouting of +the angels. Thirty-three years afterward, Christ the Lord launched +from earth to heaven, amid human and infernal execration; yet staying +here long enough to save all who will believe in Him. Do you hear +that? To save all who will believe in Him. Oh, that pierced side! Oh, +that bleeding brow! Oh, that crushed foot! Oh, that broken heart! That +is your hope, sinner. That is your ransom from sin, and death, and +hell.</p> + +<p>Why have I told you all these things to-night, plainly and frankly? It +is because I know there is redemption for you, and I would have you +now come and get it. Oh, men and women long prayed for, and striven +with, and coaxed of the mercy of God—have you concentrated all your +physical, mental, and spiritual energies in one awful determination to +be lost? Is there nothing in the value of your soul, in the +graciousness of Christ, in the thunders of the last day, in the +blazing glories of heaven, and the surging wrath of an undone eternity +to start you out of your indifference, and make you pray? Oh, must God +come upon you in some other way? Must He take another darling child +from your household? Must He take another installment from your +worldly estate? Must life come upon you with sorrow after sorrow, and +smite you down with sickness before you will be moved, and before you +will feel?</p> + +<p>Oh, weep now, while Jesus will count the tears! Sigh, now in +repentance, while Jesus will hear the grief. Now clutch the cross of +the Son of God before it be swept away. Beware, lest the Holy Spirit +leave thy heart. Beware, lest this night thy soul be required of thee. +"Beware, lest he take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom +can not deliver thee." Oh, Lord God of Israel, see these impenitent +souls on the verge of death ready to topple over! See them! Is there +no help? Is this plea all in vain? I can not believe it, blessed God. +Oh, thou mighty One, whose garments are red with the wine-press of +Thine own sufferings, in the greatness of Thy strength ride through +this audience, and may all this people fall into line, the willing +captives of Thy grace. Men and women immortal! I lay hold of you +to-night with both hands of entreaty and of prayer, and I beg of you, +prepare for death, judgment, and eternity.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_three_groups" id="the_three_groups"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE THREE GROUPS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Mark</span> + vi: 40.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were +five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how +Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and +freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel +while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His +great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand +hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppose there were ten thousand there, +for the Bible says there were five thousand men, besides women and +children. The case is put in that way, not because the women and +children were of less importance than the men, but because they would +eat less; and the whole force of the miracle turns on the amount of +food required.</p> + +<p>How shall this great multitude be supplied? I see a selfish man in +that crowd pulling a luncheon out of his own pocket, and saying: "Let +the people starve. They had no business to come out here in the desert +without any provisions. They are improvident, and the improvident +ought to suffer." There is another man, not quite so heartless, who +says: "Go up into the village and buy bread." What a foolish +proposition! There is not enough food in all the village for this +crowd; besides that, who has the money to pay for it? Xerxes' army, +one million strong, was fed by a private individual of great wealth +for only one day, but it broke him. Who, then, shall feed this +multitude?</p> + +<p>I see a man rising in that great crowd and asking: "Is there any one +here who has bread or meat?" A kind of moan goes through the whole +throng. "No bread—no meat." But just at that time a lad steps up. You +know when a great crowd goes off upon an excursion, there are always +men and boys to go along for the purpose of merchandise and to strike +a bargain: and so, I suppose, this boy had gone along for the purpose +of merchandise; but he was nearly all sold out, having only five +loaves and two fishes left. He is a generous boy, and he turns them +over to Christ.</p> + +<p>But these loaves would not feed twenty people, how much less ten +thousand! Though the action was so generous on the part of the boy, so +far as satisfying the multitude, it was a dead failure. Then Jesus +comes to the rescue. He is apt to come when there is a dead lift. He +commands the people that they sit down "in ranks, by hundreds and by +fifties," as much as to say: "Order! order! so that none be missed." +It was fortunate that that arrangement was made; otherwise, at the +very first appearance of bread, the strong ones would have clutched +it, while the feeble and the modest would have gone unsupplied.</p> + +<p>I suppose it was no easy work to get that crowd seated, for they all +wanted to be in the front row, lest the bread give out before their +turn come. No sooner are they seated than there comes a great hush +over all the people. Jesus stands there, His light complexion and +auburn locks illumined by the setting sun. Every eye is on Him. They +wonder what He will do next. He takes one of the loaves that the boy +furnished and breaks off it a piece, which immediately grows to as +large a size as the original loaf, the original loaf staying as large +as it was before the piece was broken off. And they leaned forward +with intense scrutiny, saying: "Look! look!" When some one, anxious to +see more minutely what is going on, rises in front, they cry: "Sit +down in front! Let us look for ourselves."</p> + +<p>And then, when the bread is passed around, they taste of it +skeptically and inquiringly, as much as to say: "Is it bread? Really, +is it bread?" Yes, the best bread that was ever made, for Christ made +it. Bread for the first fifty and second fifty. Bread for the first +hundred and the second hundred. Bread for the first thousand and the +second thousand. Pass it all around the circle: there, where that aged +man sits leaning on his staff, and where that woman sits with the +child in her arms. Pass it all around. Are you all fed? "Ay! ay!" +respond the ten thousand voices; "all fed." One basket would have held +the loaves before the miracle; it takes twelve baskets now. Sound it +through all the ages of earth and heaven, that Christ the Lord comes +to our suffering race with the bread of this life in one hand, and the +bread of eternal life in the other hand.</p> + +<p>You have all immediately run out the analogy between that scene and +this. There were thousands there; there are thousands here. They were +in the desert; many of you are in the desert of trouble and sin. No +human power could feed them; no human power can feed you. Christ +appeared to them; Christ appears to you. Bread enough for all in the +desert; bread enough for all who are here. And, as on that occasion, +so in this: we have the people "sit down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties;" for the fact that many of you stand is no fault of ours, for +we have tried to give you seats. As Christ divided that company into +groups, so I divide this audience into three groups: the pardoned, the +seeking, the careless.</p> + +<p>I. And, first, I speak to the pardoned.</p> + +<p>It is with some of you half past five in the morning, and some faint +streaks of light. With others it is seven o'clock, and thus full dawn. +With others it is twelve o'clock at noon, and you sit in full blaze of +Gospel pardon. I bring you congratulation. Joseph delivered from +Potiphar's dungeon; Daniel lifted from the lion's den; Saul arrested +and unhorsed on the road to Damascus. Oh, you delivered captives, how +your eyes should gleam, and your souls should bound, and your lips +should sing in this pardon! From what land did you come? A land of +darkness. What is to be your destiny? A land of light. Who got you +out? Christ, the Lord. Can you sit so placidly and unmoved while all +heaven comes to your soul with congratulation, and harps are strung, +and crowns are lifted, and a great joy swings round the heavens at the +news of your disinthrallment? If you could realize out of what a pit +you have been dug, to what height you are to be raised, and to what +glory you are destined, you would spring to your feet with "Hosanna!"</p> + +<p>In 1808 there was a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia at +Erfurt. There were distinguished men there also from other lands. It +was so arranged that when any of the emperors arrived at the door of +the reception-room, the drum should beat three times; but when a +lesser dignitary should come, then the drum would sound but twice. +After awhile the people in the audience-chamber heard two taps of the +drum. They said: "A prince is coming." But after awhile there were +three taps, and they cried: "The emperor!" Oh, there is a more +glorious arrival at your soul to-night! The drum beats twice at the +coming in of the lesser joys and congratulations of your soul; but it +beats once, twice, thrice at the coming in of a glorious King—Jesus +the Saviour, Jesus the God! I congratulate you. All are yours—things +present and things to come.</p> + +<p>II. I come now to speak of the second division—those who are seeking; +some of you with more earnestness, some of you with less earnestness. +But I believe that to-night, if I should ask all those who wish to +find the way to heaven to rise, and the world did not scoff at you, +and your own proud heart did not keep you down, there would be a +thousand souls who would cry out as they rose up: "Show me the way to +heaven!" That young man who smiled to the one next to him, as though +he cared for none of these things, would be on his knees crying for +mercy. Why this anxious look? Why this deep disquietude in the soul? +Why, at the beginning of this service, did you do what you have not +done for years—bow your head in prayer? You are seeking.</p> + +<p>"I am a gambler," says one man. There is mercy for you. "I am a +libertine," says another. There is mercy for you. "I have plunged into +every abomination." Mercy for you. The door of grace does not stand +ajar to-night, nor half swung around on the hinges. It is wide, wide +open; and there is nothing in the Bible, or in Christ, or God, or +earth, or heaven, or hell, to keep you out of the door of safety, if +you want to go in. Christ has borne your burdens, fought your battles, +suffered for your sins. The debt is paid, and the receipt is handed to +you, written in the blood of the Son of God—will you have it? Oh, +decide the matter now! Decide it here! Fling your exhausted soul down +at the feet of an all-compassionate, all-sympathizing, all-pitying, +all-pardoning Jesus. The laceration on His brow, the gash in His side, +the torn muscles and nerves of His feet beg you to come.</p> + +<p>But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in +as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a +shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. +There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very near being +saved—perhaps as near as you are to-night—but were not saved.</p> + +<p>On the eastern coast of England, a few weeks ago, in a +fishing-village, there was a good deal of excitement. While people +were in church, the sailors and fishermen hearing the Gospel on the +Sabbath, there was a cry: "To the beach!" and the minister closed the +Bible, and with his congregation went out to help, and they saw in the +offing a ship in trouble; but there was some disorder amid the +fishing-smacks, and amid all the boats, and it was almost impossible +to get anything launched. But after awhile they did, and they pulled +away for the wreck, and came almost up, when suddenly the distressed +bark in the offing capsized, and they all went down. Oh, if the +lifeboats had only been ten minutes quicker! And how many a life-boat +has been launched from the Gospel shore! It has come almost up to the +drowning, and yet, after all, they were not rescued. Somehow they did +not get into it!</p> + +<p>I suppose there are people who have asked for our prayers, and I +suppose there were some in the side room, last Sabbath night, talking +about their souls, who will miss heaven. They do not take the last +step, and all the other steps go for nothing until you have taken the +last step, for I have here, in the presence of God and this people, to +announce the solemn truth, that to be almost saved is to be lost +forever. That is all I have to say to the second division.</p> + +<p>III. I come now to speak to the careless. You look indifferent, and I +suppose you are indifferent. You say: "I came in here because a friend +invited me to see what is going on, but with no serious intentions +about my soul. I have so much work, and so much pleasure on hand, +don't bother me about religion." And yet you are gentlemanly, and you +are lady-like, in your behavior, and, therefore, I know that you will +listen respectfully if I talk courteously. Christian people are +sometimes afraid to talk to men and women of the world lest they be +insulted. If they talk courteously to people of the world, they will +listen courteously. So now I try to come in that way, and in that +spirit, and talk to those of you who tell me that you are careless +about your soul.</p> + +<p>Then you have a soul, have you? Yes, precious, with infinite capacity +for joy or suffering, winged for flight somewhere. Beckoned upward, +beckoned downward. Fought after by angels and by fiends. Immortal!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"The sun is but a spark of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A transient meteor in the sky:<br /></span> +<span>The soul, immortal as its Sire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can never die."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Your body will soon be taken down, the castle will be destroyed, the +tower will be in the dust, the windows will be broken out, and the +place where your body sleeps will be forgotten; but your soul, after +that, will be living, acting, feeling, thinking—where? where? Oh, +there must be something of incomputable worth in that for which heaven +gave up its best inhabitant, and Christ went into martyrdom, and at +the coming of which angels chant an eternal litany and devils rush to +the gate. When everything above you, and beneath you, and around you, +is intent upon that soul, you can not afford to be careless, +especially when I think, this moment while I speak, there are +thousands of souls in heaven rejoicing that they attended to this +matter in time, while at this very instant there are souls in the lost +world mourning that they did not attend to it in time. Hark to the +howling of the damned!</p> + +<p>Oh, if this room could be vacated of this audience, and you were all +gone, and the wan spirits of the lost could come up and occupy this +place, and I could stand before them with offers of pardon through +Jesus Christ, and then ask them if they would accept it, there would +come up an instantaneous, multitudinous, overwhelming cry: "Yes! yes! +yes! yes!" No such fortune for them. They had their day of grace, and +sacrificed it. You have yours; will you sacrifice it? I wish that I +could have you see these things as you will one day see them.</p> + +<p>Suppose, on your way home, a runaway horse should dash across the +street, or between the dock and the boat you should accidentally slip, +where would you be at twelve o'clock to-night or seven o'clock +to-morrow morning? Or for all eternity where would you be? I do not +answer the question. I just leave it to you to answer.</p> + +<p>But suppose you escape fatal accident. Suppose you go out by the +ordinary process of sickness. I will just suppose now that your last +hour has come. The doctor says, as he goes out of the room: "Can't get +well." There is something in the faces of those who stand around you +that prophesies that you can not get well. You say within yourself: "I +can't get well." Where are your comrades now? Oh, they are off to the +gay party that very night! They dance as well as they ever did. They +drink as much wine. They laugh as loud as though you were not dying. +They destroyed your soul, but do not come to help you die.</p> + +<p>Well, there are father and mother in the room. They are very quiet, +but occasionally they go out into the next room and weep bitterly. The +bed is very much disheveled. They have not been able to make it up +for two or three days. There are four or five pillows lying around, +because they have been trying to make you as easy as they could. On +the one side of your bed are all the past years of your life—the +Bibles, the sermons, the communion-tables, the offers of mercy. You +say: "Take them away." Your mother thinks you are delirious. She says: +"There is nothing there, my dear, nothing there." There is something +there! It is your wasted opportunities. It is your procrastinations. +It is those years you gave to the world that you ought to have given +to Christ. They are there; and some of them put their fingers on your +aching temples, and some of them feel for the strings of your heart, +and some put more thorns in your tumbled pillow, and you say: "Turn me +over." And they turn you over, but, alas! there is a more appalling +vision. You say: "Take that away!" They say: "There is nothing there, +nothing there." There is—an open grave there! the judgment is there! +a lost eternity is there! Take it away! They can not take it away.</p> + +<p>You say: "How dark it is getting in the room!" Why, the burners are +all lighted. Your family come up one by one, and tenderly kiss you +good-bye. Your feet are cold, and the hands are cold, and the lips are +cold, and they take a small mirror and they put it over your mouth to +see if there is any breathing, and that mirror is taken away without a +single blur upon it; and they whisper through the room: "She is gone." +And then the door of the body opens and the soul flashes out. Make +room for the destroyed spirit.</p> + +<p>Push back that door! Lost! Let it come into its eternal residence. +Woe! woe! No cup of merriment now, but cup of the wrath of Almighty +God. The last chance for heaven gone. The door of mercy shut. The doom +sealed. The blackness of darkness forever!</p> + +<p>Voltaire is there. Herod is there. Robespierre is there. The +debauchees are there. The murderers are there. All the rejectors of +Jesus Christ are there. And you will be there unless you repent. You +can not say, my dear brother, that you were not warned. This sermon +would be a witness against you. You can not say that God's Holy Spirit +never strove with your heart. He is striving now. You can not say that +you had no chance for heaven, for the Omnipotent Son of God offers you +His rescue. You can not say: "I had no warning about that world; I +didn't know there was any such place," for the Bible distinctly rings +in your ears to-day, saying: "At the end of the world the angels shall +separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a +furnace of fire." And again that book says: "The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And again it +says: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever."</p> + +<p>You can not say that you did not hear about heaven, the other +alternative, for you hear of it now: "The Lamb which is in the midst +of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God +shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No sorrow, no suffering, +no death. Oh, will you be careless any longer, when I tell you that +Christ, the Conqueror of earth and hell, offers you now escape from +all peril, and offers to introduce you this very hour into the peace +and pardon of the Gospel, preparing you for that good land? The sides +of Calvary run blood for you. Jesus, who had not where to lay His +head, offers you His heart as a pillow of rest. Christ offers with His +own body to bridge over the chasm of death, saying: "Walk over Me; I +am the way."</p> + +<p>O suffering Jesus! the thief scoffed at Thee, and the malefactor spat +on Thee, and the soldiers stabbed Thee; but these who sit before Thee +to-day have no heart to do that. O Jesus! tell them of Thy love, tell +them of Thy sympathy, tell them of the rewards Thou wilt give them in +the better land. Groan again, O blessed Jesus! groan again, and +perhaps when the rocks fall, their hard hearts may break.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Nothing brought Him from above,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nothing but redeeming love."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The promise is all free, the path all clear. Come, Mary, and sit +to-night at the feet of Jesus. Come, Bartimeus, and have your eyes +opened. Come, O prodigal! and sit at thy father's table. Come, O you +suffering, sinning, dying the soul! and find rest on the heart of +Jesus. The Spirit and Bride say "Come," and Churches militant and +triumphant say "Come," and all the voices of the past, mingling with +all the voices of the future, in one great thunder of emphasis, bid +you "Come now!" Are not those of you who are in the third class ready +to pass over into the second division, and become seekers after +Christ? Ay, are you not ready to pass over into the first division, +and become the pardoned sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? I +can do no more than offer you, through Jesus Christ, peace on earth +and everlasting residence in His presence.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"When God makes up His last account<br /></span> +<span>Of natives in His holy mount,<br /></span> +<span>'Twill be an honor to appear<br /></span> +<span>As one new-born and nourished there."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Good-night! The Lord bless you! Go to your homes seeking after Christ. +Sleep not until you have made your peace with God. Good-night—a deep, +hearty, loving, Christian good-night!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_insignificant" id="the_insignificant"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE INSIGNIFICANT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the + reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field + belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of + Elimelech."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Ruth</span> ii: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It +was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for +the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the +poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls +of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest had been +reaped, instead of raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by the custom +of the land, left in its place, so that the poor, coming along that +way, might glean it and get their bread. But, you say, "What is the +use of all these harvest-fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old +and feeble to go out and toil in the sun; and can you expect that +Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister +her hands in the harvest-field?"</p> + +<p>Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in +the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned +reapers, he beholds a beautiful woman gleaning—a woman more fit to +bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. +Ah, that was an eventful day!</p> + +<p>It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly +gleaner—an attachment full of undying interest to the Church of God +in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, +goes home to Naomi to tell her the successes and adventures of the +day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and +traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the +harvest-field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in +Judah, and becomes in after-time the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the +Lord of glory! Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a +morning?</p> + +<p>I. I learn, in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops +character. It was bereavement, poverty, and exile that developed, +illustrated, and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's +character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was +sorrow that made John Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the +better poet, and O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the +better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better +encyclopædist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very +brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems +to have so little heart and tenderness in his sermons?" "Well," he +replied, "the reason is, our pastor has never had any trouble. When +misfortune comes upon him, his style will be different." After awhile +the Lord took a child out of that pastor's house; and though the +preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the +tenderness of his discourses! The fact is, that trouble is a great +educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and +his execution is cold and formal and unfeeling. The reason is that all +his life he has been prospered. But let misfortune or bereavement come +to that man, and he sits down at the instrument, and you discover the +pathos in the first sweep of the keys.</p> + +<p>Misfortune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a +sick-room where there is a dying child. Perhaps he is very rough in +his prescription, and very rough in his manner, and rough in the +feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious +question; but years roll on, and there has been one dead in his own +house; and now he comes into the sick-room, and with tearful eye he +looks at the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how this reminds me of my +Charlie!" Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow—I see its touch in the +grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its +power in the mightiest argument.</p> + +<p>Grecian mythology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out +by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life +that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort +and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of +disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage best by the flash of +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on +the foundering ship under the glare of the lightning in the breakers +of Melita. God crowns His children amid the howling of wild beasts and +the chopping of blood-splashed guillotine and the crackling fires of +martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop +Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took the pope's bull and the cardinal's +curse and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all +the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord +Claverhouse to develop James Renwick, and Andrew Melville, and Hugh +McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy +sea, and the December blast, and the desolate New England coast, and +the war-whoop of savages, to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim +Fathers—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"When amid the storms they sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the stars heard, and the sea,<br /></span> +<span>And the sounding aisles of the dim wood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rang to the anthems of the free."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present +national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it +will march along after the foreign aristocracies that have mocked and +the tyrannies that have jeered, shall be swept down under the +omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism, and who, by the strength +of His own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is +individually, and in the family, and in the Church, and in the world, +that through darkness and storm and trouble men, women, churches, +nations, are developed.</p> + +<p>II. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I +suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in +prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to +trudge off with her toward Judah, when she had to make that lonely +journey? One—the heroine of my text. One—absolutely one. I suppose +when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all +things went well, they had a great many callers; but I suppose that +after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and +poor, she was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that +sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now +the night has fallen.</p> + +<p>Oh, these beautiful sun-flowers that spread out their color in the +morning hour! but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! +Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when +his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much +that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and +Zophar the Naamathite.</p> + +<p>Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls +down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a +man's character, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the +imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which +in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are +reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down +under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch +of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant.</p> + +<p>In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling +it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days +of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a +friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a +friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in +the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in +Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from +following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God +my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."</p> + +<p>III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in +hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth +started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her +mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature +to go away from her father's house, to go off with a poor old woman +toward the land of Judah! They won't live to get across the desert. +They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will +destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with +Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be +affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the +grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is +that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly.</p> + +<p>When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of +conviction—how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the +darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it +was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. +After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God's mercy; you +began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more +sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, +saying: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and +whose sins are covered." A very dark starting in conviction, a very +bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the +Gospel!</p> + +<p>So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we +start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back, +but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must +go;" and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, +and we have to traverse the desert and we are pounded and flailed of +misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten +thousand obstacles that have been slain by our own right arm. We have +to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the +castle; but, blessed be God, the day of rest and reward will come. On +the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if +not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, +no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it? Know it! I +know it because God says so: "They shall hunger no more, neither +thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, +for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to +living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their +eyes."</p> + +<p>It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his +day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morning +quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use; +but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared +like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, +clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark +rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked +out on the wreck of a ruined earth.</p> + +<p>Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than +the thieves on either side of the cross, human hate smacking its lips +in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the +sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifixion. Tell me, +O Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever darker times than those? +Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of +Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back +by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day +of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world +are to be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on +whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come +up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of +the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising +on their thrones, beat time with their scepters: "Hallelujah, for the +Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world +have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"That song of love, now low and far,<br /></span> +<span>Ere long shall swell from star to star;<br /></span> +<span>That light, the breaking day which tips<br /></span> +<span>The golden-spired Apocalypse."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>IV. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most +insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more +unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can +you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just +happened to alight—as they say—just happened to alight on that field +of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact +that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all +nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a +thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your +history and in mine: events that you thought of no importance at all +have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that +accidental meeting—you did not think of it again for a long while; +but how it changed all the phase of your life!</p> + +<p>It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments +of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction +of all the world's minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a +stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from +it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the +long-continued strains of Jubal's harp and Jubal's organ. It seemed to +be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses +of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo +in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of +factories on the Merrimac.</p> + +<p>It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in +a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids +fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest +convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the +sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation. It seemed to be a +matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, +dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard +Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of +his salvation.</p> + +<p>In after-days that man wrote a book called "The Call to the +Unconverted," that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among +others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a book called "The +Rise and Progress of Religion," which has brought thousands and tens +of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great +Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book called "A Practical View of +Christianity," which was the means of bringing a great multitude to +Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called +"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation +of unconverted multitudes. And that tide of influence started from the +fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of +Richard Baxter—the tide of influence rolling on through Richard +Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, +through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the +insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most +momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed +to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of +some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to +you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history.</p> + +<p>V. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female +industry.</p> + +<p>Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field under the hot sun, or at noon +taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which +Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course, have changed, +and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, +every intelligent woman will find something to do.</p> + +<p>I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some +families there are persons of no practical service to the household or +community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in +the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pattern, or +bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot +himself! They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley +on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness +may seem to do very well while they are under the shelter of their +father's house; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of +these butterflies? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon +themselves habits of indolence; but when they come out into practical +life their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel +in their hearts what the poet so severely satirized when he said:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Folks are so awkward, things so impolite,<br /></span> +<span>They're elegantly pained from morning until night."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, +useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity! Spinola said to Sir Horace +Vere: "Of what did your brother die?" "Of having nothing to do," was +the answer. "Ah!" said Spinola, "that's enough to kill any general of +us." Oh! can it be possible in this world, where there is so much +suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so +many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find +anything to do?</p> + +<p>Madame de Staël did a world of work in her time; and one day, while +she was seated amid instruments of music, all of which she had +mastered, and amid manuscript books which she had written, some one +said to her: "How do you find time to attend to all these things?" +"Oh," she replied, "these are not the things I am proud of. My chief +boast is in the fact that I have seventeen trades, by any one of which +I could make a livelihood if necessary." And if in secular spheres +there is so much to be done, in spiritual work how vast the field! How +many dying all around about us without one word of comfort! We want +more Abigails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more Deborahs +consecrated—body, mind, soul—to the Lord who bought them.</p> + +<p>VI. Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning.</p> + +<p>Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw, +and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for +myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said +beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together, +and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that +down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf, +and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all +together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, +nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners!</p> + +<p>Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's +shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher +in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, +while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to +open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they +have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of +life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours, +and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth +gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and +busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which, +gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It +is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up +and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much +joy.</p> + +<p>There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the +field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you +gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one +or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in +this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of +gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, +shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_three_rings" id="the_three_rings"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE THREE RINGS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Put a ring on his hand."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Luke</span> xv: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the +parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard +time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and +prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of +parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front +of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and +say: "What's the matter? What <i>is</i> the matter?" But before they quite +arrive, the old man cries out: "Put a ring on his hand." What a +seeming absurdity! What can such a wretched mendicant as this fellow +that is tramping on toward the house want with a ring? Oh, he is the +prodigal son. No more tending of the swine-trough. No more longing for +the pods of the carob-tree. No more blistered feet. Off with the rags! +On with the robe! Out with the ring! Even so does God receive every +one of us when we come back. There are gold rings, and pearl rings, +and carnelian rings, and diamond rings; but the richest ring that ever +flashed on the vision is that which our Father puts upon a forgiven +soul.</p> + +<p>I know that the impression is abroad among some people that religion +bemeans and belittles a man; that it takes all the sparkle out of his +soul; that he has to exchange a roistering independence for an +ecclesiastical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian, +he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten +thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting +out—it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence, +it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is +not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the +palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the +throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest +liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment. +"Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into +His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years +ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of +the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten +children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to +find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the +pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the +services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this +little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own +children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage, +and went away.</p> + +<p>The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for +the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under +her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the +poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright +and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said +that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption.</p> + +<p>There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry, +and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries. +In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a +king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His +adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold +what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should +be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may +be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live +in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are +assured of eternal defenses.</p> + +<p>Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of +earth and heaven. We have the family name, the family dress, the +family keys, the family wardrobe. The Father looks after us, robes us, +defends us, blesses us. We have royal blood in our veins, and there +are crowns in our line. If we are His children, then princes and +princesses. It is only a question of time when we get our coronet. +Adopted! Then we have the family secrets. "The secret of the Lord is +with them that fear Him." Adopted! Then we have the family +inheritance, and in the day when our Father shall divide the riches of +heaven we shall take our share of the mansions and palaces and +temples. Henceforth let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry. The +insignia of eternal glory is our coat of arms. This ring of adoption +puts upon us all honor and all privilege. Now we can take the words of +Charles Wesley, that prince of hymn-makers, and sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Come, let us join our friends above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who have obtained the prize,<br /></span> +<span>And on the eagle wings of love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To joy celestial rise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Let all the saints terrestrial sing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With those to glory gone;<br /></span> +<span>For all the servants of our King,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In heaven and earth, are one."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have been told that when any of the members of any of the great +secret societies of this country are in a distant city and are in any +kind of trouble, and are set upon by enemies, they have only to give a +certain signal and the members of that organization will flock around +for defense. And when any man belongs to this great Christian +brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial, in persecution, in +temptation, he has only to show this ring of Christ's adoption, and +all the armed cohorts of heaven will come to his rescue.</p> + +<p>Still further, when Christ takes a soul into His love He puts upon it +a marriage-ring. Now, that is not a whim of mine: "And I will betroth +thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in +righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in +mercies." (Hosea ii: 19.) At the wedding altar the bridegroom puts a +ring upon the hand of the bride, signifying love and faithfulness. +Trouble may come upon the household, and the carpets may go, the +pictures may go, the piano may go, everything else may go—the last +thing that goes is that marriage-ring, for it is considered sacred. In +the burial hour it is withdrawn from the hand and kept in a casket, +and sometimes the box is opened on an anniversary day, and as you look +at that ring you see under its arch a long procession of precious +memories. Within the golden circle of that ring there is room for a +thousand sweet recollections to revolve, and you think of the great +contrast between the hour when, at the close of the "Wedding March," +under the flashing lights and amid the aroma of orange-blossoms, you +set that ring on the round finger of the plump hand, and that other +hour when, at the close of the exhaustive watching, when you knew that +the soul had fled, you took from the hand, which gave back no +responsive clasp, from that emaciated finger, the ring that she had +worn so long and worn so well.</p> + +<p>On some anniversary day you take up that ring, and you repolish it +until all the old luster comes back, and you can see in it the flash +of eyes that long ago ceased to weep. Oh, it is not an unmeaning thing +when I tell you that when Christ receives a soul into His keeping He +puts on it a marriage-ring. He endows you from that moment with all +His wealth. You are one—Christ and the soul—one in sympathy, one in +affection, one in hope.</p> + +<p>There is no power in earth or hell to effect a divorcement after +Christ and the soul are united. Other kings have turned out their +companions when they got weary of them, and sent them adrift from the +palace gate. Ahasuerus banished Vashti; Napoleon forsook Josephine; +but Christ is the husband that is true forever. Having loved you once, +He loves you to the end. Did they not try to divorce Margaret, the +Scotch girl, from Jesus? They said: "You must give up your religion." +She said: "I can't give up my religion." And so they took her down to +the beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake at low-water mark, and +they fastened her to it, expecting that as the tide came up her faith +would fail. The tide began to rise, and came up higher and higher, and +to the girdle, and to the lip, and in the last moment, just as the +wave was washing her soul into glory, she shouted the praises of +Jesus.</p> + +<p>Oh, no, you can not separate a soul from Christ! It is an everlasting +marriage. Battle and storm and darkness can not do it. Is it too much +exultation for a man, who is but dust and ashes like myself, to cry +out this morning: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor any other creature shall separate me from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus my Lord"? Glory be to God that when Christ and the +soul are married they are bound by a chain, a golden chain—if I might +say so—a chain with one link, and that one link the golden ring of +God's everlasting love.</p> + +<p>I go a step further, and tell you that when Christ receives a soul +into His love He puts on him the ring of festivity. You know that it +has been the custom in all ages to bestow rings on very happy +occasions. There is nothing more appropriate for a birthday gift than +a ring. You delight to bestow such a gift upon your children at such +a time. It means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well, when this old man of +the text wanted to tell how glad he was that his boy had got back, he +expressed it in this way. Actually, before he ordered sandals to be +put on his bare feet; before he ordered the fatted calf to be killed +to appease the boy's hunger, he commanded: "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>Oh, it is a merry time when Christ and the soul are united! Joy of +forgiveness! What a splendid thing it is to feel that all is right +between me and God. What a glorious thing it is to have God just take +up all the sins of my life and put them in one bundle, and then fling +them into the depths of the sea, never to rise again, never to be +talked of again. Pollution all gone. Darkness all illumined. God +reconciled. The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>Every day I find happy Christian people. I find some of them with no +second coat, some of them in huts and tenement houses, not one earthly +comfort afforded them; and yet they are as happy as happy can be. They +sing "Rock of Ages" as no other people in the world sing it. They +never wore any jewelry in their life but one gold ring, and that was +the ring of God's undying affection. Oh, how happy religion makes us! +Did it make you gloomy and sad? Did you go with your head cast down? I +do not think you got religion, my brother. That is not the effect of +religion. True religion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, +and all her paths are peace."</p> + +<p>Why, religion lightens all our burdens. It smooths all our way. It +interprets all our sorrows. It changes the jar of earthly discord for +the peal of festal bells. In front of the flaming furnace of trial it +sets the forge on which scepters are hammered out. Would you not like +to-day to come up from the swine-feeding and try this religion? All +the joys of heaven would come out and meet you, and God would cry from +the throne: "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>You are not happy. I see it. There is no peace, and sometimes you +laugh when you feel a great deal more like crying. The world is a +cheat. It first wears you down with its follies, then it kicks you out +into darkness. It comes back from the massacre of a million souls to +attempt the destruction of your soul to-day. No peace out of God, but +here is the fountain that can slake the thirst. Here is the harbor +where you can drop safe anchorage.</p> + +<p>Would you not like, I ask you—not perfunctorily, but as one brother +might talk to another—would you not like to have a pillow of rest to +put your head on? And would you not like, when you retire at night, to +feel that all is well, whether you wake up to-morrow morning at six +o'clock, or sleep the sleep that knows no waking? Would you not like +to exchange this awful uncertainty about the future for a glorious +assurance of heaven? Accept of the Lord Jesus to-day, and all is well. +If on your way home some peril should cross the street and dash your +life out, it would not hurt you. You would rise up immediately. You +would stand in the celestial streets. You would be amid the great +throng that forever worship and are forever happy. If this day some +sudden disease should come upon you, it would not frighten you. If you +knew you were going you could give a calm farewell to your beautiful +home on earth, and know that you are going right into the +companionship of those who have already got beyond the toiling and the +weeping.</p> + +<p>You feel on Saturday night different from the way you feel any other +night of the week. You come home from the bank, or the store, or the +shop, and you say: "Well, now my week's work is done, and to-morrow is +Sunday." It is a pleasant thought. There is refreshment and +reconstruction in the very idea. Oh, how pleasant it will be, if, when +we get through the day of our life, and we go and lie down in our bed +of dust, we can realize: "Well, now the work is all done, and +to-morrow is Sunday—an everlasting Sunday."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Oh, when, thou city of my God,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall I thy courts ascend?<br /></span> +<span>Where congregations ne'er break up,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Sabbaths have no end."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There are people in this house to-day who are very near the eternal +world. If you are Christians, I bid you be of good cheer. Bear with +you our congratulations to the bright city. Aged men, who will soon be +gone, take with you our love for our kindred in the better land, and +when you see them, tell them that we are soon coming. Only a few more +sermons to preach and hear. Only a few more heart-aches. Only a few +more toils. Only a few more tears. And then—what an entrancing +spectacle will open before us!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Beautiful heaven, where all is light,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful angels clothed in white,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful strains that never tire,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful harps through all the choir;<br /></span> +<span>There shall I join the chorus sweet,<br /></span> +<span>Worshiping at the Saviour's feet."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I stand before you on this Sabbath, the last Sabbath preceding the +great feast-day in this Church. On the next Lord's-day the door of +communion will be open, and you will all be invited to come in. And so +I approach you now with a general invitation, not picking out here and +there a man, or here and there a woman, or here and there a child; but +giving you an unlimited invitation, saying: "Come, for all things are +now ready." We invite you to the warm heart of Christ, and the +inclosure of the Christian Church. I know a great many think that the +Church does not amount to much—that it is obsolete; that it did its +work and is gone now, so far as all usefulness is concerned. It is the +happiest place I have ever been in except my own home.</p> + +<p>I know there are some people who say they are Christians who seem to +get along without any help from others, and who culture solitary +piety. They do not want any ordinances. I do not belong to that class. +I can not get along without them. There are so many things in this +world that take my attention from God, and Christ, and heaven, that I +want all the helps of all the symbols and of all the Christian +associations; and I want around about me a solid phalanx of men who +love God and keep His commandments. Are there any here who would like +to enter into that association? Then by a simple, child-like faith, +apply for admission into the visible Church, and you will be received. +No questions asked about your past history or present surroundings. +Only one test—do you love Jesus?</p> + +<p>Baptism does not amount to anything, say a great many people; but the +Lord Jesus declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be +saved," putting baptism and faith side by side. And an apostle +declares, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." I do not stickle +for any particular mode of baptism, but I put great emphasis on the +fact that you ought to be baptized. Yet no more emphasis than the Lord +Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church, puts upon it.</p> + +<p>The world is going to lose a great many of its votaries next Sabbath. +We give you warning. There is a great host coming in to stand under +the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is +going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered +sheaves?</p> + +<p>Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You +have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be +Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there +you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be +saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of +mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you +have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will +not be because you did not have a good offer.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"God's spirit will not always strive<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With hardened, self-destroying man;<br /></span> +<span>Ye who persist His love to grieve<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May never hear his voice again."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from +the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the +banquet, and "put a ring on your hand."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="how_he_came_to_say_it" id="how_he_came_to_say_it"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be + Anathema Maranatha."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I Cor.</span> xvi: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words +except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. +Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." +Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him +with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement +about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into +this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had +he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the +world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no. +It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by +what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I +close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised +at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the +same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha."</p> + +<p>If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should +have had the facial proportions of Christ—the front face, the side +face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing—provided He had submitted to that +art; but since the sun did not become a portrait painter until +eighteen centuries after Christ, our idea about the Saviour's personal +appearance is all guess work. Still, tradition tells us that He was +the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth. +If His features had been rugged, and His gait had been ungainly, that +would not have hindered Him from being attractive. Many men you have +known and loved have had few charms of physiognomy. Wilberforce was +not attractive in face. Socrates was repulsive. Suwarrow, the great +Russian hero, looked almost an imbecile. And some whom you have known, +and honored, and loved, have not had very great attractiveness of +personal appearance. The shape of the mouth, and the nose, and the +eyebrow, did not hinder the soul from shining through the cuticle of +the face in all-powerful irradiation.</p> + +<p>But to a lovely exterior Christ joined all loveliness of disposition. +Run through the galleries of heaven, and find out that He is <i>a +non-such</i>. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His +sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the +crimson flowing forth of His blood, make a picture worthy of being +called the masterpiece of the eternities. Hung on the wall of heaven, +the celestial population would be enchanted but for the fact that they +have the grand and magnificent original, and they want no picture. But +Christ having gone away from earth, we are dependent upon four +indistinct pictures. Matthew took one, Mark another, Luke another, +and John another. I care not which picture you take, it is lovely. +Lovely? He was altogether lovely.</p> + +<p>He had a way of taking up a dropsical limb without hurting it, and of +removing the cataract from the eye without the knife, and of starting +the circulation through the shrunken arteries without the shock of the +electric battery, and of putting intelligence into the dull stare of +lunacy, and of restringing the auditory nerve of the deaf ear, and of +striking articulation into the stiff tongue, and of making the +stark-naked madman dress himself and exchange tombstone for ottoman, +and of unlocking from the skeleton grip of death the daughter of +Jairus to embosom her in her glad father's arms. Oh, He was +lovely—sitting, standing, kneeling, lying down—always lovely.</p> + +<p>Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us. Home, +celestial companionship, music of seraphic harps, balmy breath of +eternal summer, all joy, all light, all music, and heard the gates +slam shut behind Him as He came out to fight for our freedom, and with +bare feet plunged on the sharp javelins of human and satanic hate, +until His blood spurted into the faces of those who slew Him. You want +the soft, low, minor key of sweetest music to describe the pathos; but +it needs an orchestra, under swinging of an archangel's baton, +reaching from throne to manger, to drum and trumpet the doxologies of +His praise. He took everybody's trouble—the leper's sickness, the +widow's dead boy, the harlot's shame, the Galilean fisherman's poor +luck, the invalidism of Simon's mother-in-law, the sting of Malchus' +amputated ear.</p> + +<p>Some people cry very easily, and for some it is very difficult to cry. +A great many tears on some cheeks do not mean so much as one tear on +another cheek. What is it that I see glittering in the mild eye of +Jesus? It was all the sorrows of earth, and the woes of hell, from +which He had plucked our souls, accreted into one transparent drop, +lingering on the lower eyelash until it fell on a cheek red with the +slap of human hands—just one salt, bitter, burning tear of Jesus. No +wonder the rock, the sky, and the cemetery were in consternation when +He died! No wonder the universe was convulsed! It was the Lord God +Almighty bursting into tears. Now, suppose that, notwithstanding all +this, a man can not have any affection for Him. What ought to be done +with such hard behavior?</p> + +<p>It seems to me that there ought to be some chastisement for a man who +will not love such a Christ. Does it not make your blood tingle to +think of Jesus coming over the tens of thousands of miles that seem to +separate God from us, and then to see a man jostle Him out, and push +Him back, and shut the door in His face, and trample upon His +entreaties? While you may not be able to rise up to the towering +excitement of the Apostle in my text, you can at any rate somewhat +understand his feelings when he cried out: "After all this, 'if a man +love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"</p> + +<p>Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. Now, there is nothing +that excites a man like injustice. You go along the street, and you +see your little child buffeted, or a ruffian comes and takes a boy's +hat and throws it into the ditch. You say: "What great meanness, what +injustice that is!" You can not stand injustice. I remember, in my +boyhood days, attending a large meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. +Thousands of people were huzzaing, and the same kind of audiences were +assembled at the same time in Boston, Edinburgh, and London. Why? +Because the Madaii family, in Italy, had been robbed of their Bible. +"A little thing," you say. Ah, that injustice was enough to arouse the +indignation of a world. But while we are so sensitive about injustice +as between man and man, how little sensitive we are about injustice +between man and God. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of +anything, then Christ purchased us. He paid for us, not in shekels, +not in ancient coins inscribed with effigies of Hercules, or Ægina's +tortoise, or lyre of Mitylene, but in two kinds of coin—one red, the +other glittering—blood and tears! If anything is purchased and paid +for, ought not the goods to be delivered? If you have bought property +and given the money, do you not want to come into possession of it? +"Yes," you say, "I will have it. I bought and paid for it." And you +will go to law for it, and you will denounce the man as a defrauder. +Ay, if need be, you will hurl him into jail. You will say: "I am bound +to get that property. I bought it. I paid for it!"</p> + +<p>Now, transpose the case. Suppose Jesus Christ to be the wronged +purchaser on the one side, and the impenitent soul on the other, +trying to defraud Him of that which He bought at such an exorbitant +price, how do you feel about that injustice? How do you feel toward +that spiritual fraud, turpitude and perfidy? A man with an ardent +temperament rises and he says that such injustice as between man and +man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and +intolerable, and he brings his fist down on the pew, and he says: "I +can stand this injustice no longer. After all this purchase, 'if any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha'!"</p> + +<p>I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to +love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have +only one feeling toward him—sympathy and a desire to help him. If he +has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten +cents on a dollar—ay, if he can not pay anything—though his +creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with +him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But +suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into +his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come +to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your +perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for +the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten +thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then +everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't +take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for +offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You +would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to +fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all +this house who would have any sympathy for that man.</p> + +<p>But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual +embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal +defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay +me what thou owest."</p> + +<p>We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of +all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here +is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My +red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through +anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't +meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I +want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would +say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he +would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants; +he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of +choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who +understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can +say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and +rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"</p> + +<p>I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love +Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to +hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind +look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may +overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that +you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to +make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of +delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you +have broken His heart!</p> + +<p>Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage: +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did +this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at +the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees +below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go +up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You +knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are +freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist +you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless +or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure. +You go away.</p> + +<p>The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with +very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing +in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in. +I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from +Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the +cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My +head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of +foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been +here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with +hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch—shove back the +bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and +knock!'"</p> + +<p>But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be +another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be +on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the +sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me +in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick +and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head. +The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both +fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in. +Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified +kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall +say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and +now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of +your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the +arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and +throne, and cry with loud voice, that makes the eternal city quake +from capstone to foundation, saying: "If any man love not the Lord +Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."</p> + +<p>Sabbath audience in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all to whom these +words shall come on both sides the sea, notice here the tremendous +alternative: it is not whether you live in Pierrepont Street or +Carlton Avenue, walk Trafalgar Square or the "Canongate;" nor whether +your dress shall be black or brown; nor whether you shall be robust +or an invalid; nor whether you shall live on the banks of the Hudson, +the Shannon, the Seine, the Thames, the Tiber; but it is a question +whether you will love Christ or suffer banishment; whether you will +give yourselves to Him who owns you or fall under the millstone; +whether you will rise to glories that have no terminus or plunge to a +depth which has no bottom. I do not see how you can take the +ten-thousandth part of a second to decide it, when there are two +worlds fastened at opposite ends of a swivel, and the swivel turns on +one point, and that point is now, now. Is it not fair that you love +Him? Is it not right that you love Him? Is it not imperative that you +love Him? What is it that keeps you from rushing up and throwing the +arms of your affection about His neck?</p> + +<p>My text pronounces Anathema Maranatha upon all those who refuse to +love Christ. Anathema—cut off. Cut off from light, from hope, from +peace, from heaven. Oh, sharp, keen, sword-like words! Cut off! +Everlastingly cut off! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of +God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou +continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. +Maranatha—that is the other word. "When he comes" is the meaning of +it.</p> + +<p>Will He come? I see no signs of it. I looked into the sky as I rode +down to church. I saw no signs of the coming. No signal of God's +appearance. The earth stands solid on its foundation. No cry of +welcome or of woe. Will He come! He will. Maranatha! Hear it ye +mountains, and prepare to fall. Ye cities, and prepare to burn. Ye +righteous, and prepare to reign. Ye wicked, and prepare to die. +Maranatha! Maranatha!</p> + +<p>But, oh, my brother, I am not so aroused by that coming as I am by a +previous coming, and that is the coming of our death hour, which will +fix everything for us. I can not help now, while preaching, asking +myself the question—Am I ready for that? If I am ready for the first +I will be ready for the next. Are you ready for the emergency? Shall I +tell you when your death hour will come? "Oh, no," says some one, "I +don't want to know. I would rather not know." Some one says: "I would +rather know, if you can tell me." I will tell you. It will be at the +most unexpected moment, when you are most busy, and when you think you +can be least spared. I can not exactly say whether it will be in the +noon, or at the sundown when people are coming home, or in the morning +when the world is waking up, or while the clock is striking twelve at +night. But I tell you what I think, that with some of you it will be +before next Saturday night.</p> + +<p>A minister of the Gospel said to an audience: "Before next Sabbath +some of you will be gone." And a man said during the week: "I shall +watch now, and if no one dies in our congregation during this week I +shall go and tell the minister his falsehood." A man standing next to +him said: "Why, it may be yourself." "Oh, no," he replied; "I shall +live on to be an old man." That night he breathed his last.</p> + +<p>Standing before some who shall be launched into the great eternity, +what are your equipments? About to jump, where will you land? Oh, the +subject is overwhelming to me; and when I say these things to you, I +say them to myself. "Lord, is it I? Is it I?" Some of us part to-night +never to meet again. If never before, I now here commit my soul into +the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. I throw my sinful heart upon His +infinite mercy. But some of you will not do that. You will go over to +the store to-morrow, and your comrades will say: "Where were you +yesterday?" You will say: "I heard Talmage preach, and I don't believe +what he preaches." And you will go on and die in your sins.</p> + +<p>Feeling that you are bound unto death eternal I solemnly take leave of +you. Be careful of your health, for when your respiration gives out +all your good times will have ended. Be careful in walking near a +scaffold, for one falling brick or stone might usher you into the +great eternity for which you have no preparation. A few months, or +weeks, or days, or hours will pass on, and then you will see the last +light, and hear the last music, and have the last pleasant emotion, +and a destroyed eternity will rush upon you. Farewell, oh, doomed +spirit! As you shove off from hope, I wave you this last salutation. +Oh, it is hard to part forever and forever! I bid you one long, last, +bitter, eternal adieu!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="castle_jesus" id="castle_jesus"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CASTLE JESUS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Who have fled for refuge."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Heb.</span> vi: 18.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles +them these "who have fled for refuge."</p> + +<p>Moses established six cities of refuge—three on the east side of the +river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one +accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them +were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge +nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there +might be any mistake about the way, there were signs put up pointing +in the right way, with the word "Refuge." Having gained the limits of +one of these cities the man was safe, and the mothers of the priests +provided for him.</p> + +<p>Some of us have seen our peril, and have fled to Christ, and feel that +we shall never be captured. We are among those "who have fled for +refuge." Christ is represented in the Bible as a Tower, a High Rock, a +Fortress, and a Shelter. If you have seen any of the ancient castles +of Europe, you know that they are surrounded by trenches, across which +there is a draw-bridge. If an enemy approach, the people, for defense, +would get into the castle, have the trenches filled with water, and +lift up the draw-bridge. Whether to a city of safety, or a tower, +Paul refers, I know not, and care not, for in any case he means +Christ, the safety of the soul.</p> + +<p>But why talk of refuge? Who needs it, if the refuge spoken of be a +city or a castle, into which men fly for safety? It is all sunlight +here. No sound of war in our streets. We do not hear the rush of armed +men against the doors of our dwellings. We do not come with weapons to +church. Our lives are not at the mercy of an assassin. Why, then, talk +of refuge?</p> + +<p>Alas! I stand before a company of imperiled men. No flock of sheep was +ever so threatened or endangered of a pack of wolves; no ship was ever +so beaten of a storm; no company of men were ever so environed of a +band of savages. A refuge you must have, or fall before an +all-devouring destruction. There are not so many serpents in Africa; +there are not so many hyenas in Asia; there are not so many panthers +in the forest, as there are transgressions attacking my soul. I will +take the best unregenerated man anywhere, and say to him, You are +utterly corrupt. If all the sins of your past life were marshaled in +single file, they would reach from here to hell. If you have escaped +all other sins, the fact that you have rejected the mission of the Son +of God is enough to condemn you forever, pushing you off into +bottomless darkness, struck by ten thousand hissing thunder-bolts of +Omnipotent wrath.</p> + +<p>You are a sinner. The Bible says it, and your conscience affirms it. +Not a small sinner, or a moderate sinner, or a tolerable sinner, but a +great sinner, a protracted sinner, a vile sinner, an outrageous +sinner, a condemned sinner. As God, with His all-scrutinizing gaze, +looks upon you to-day, He can not find one sound spot in your soul. +Sin has put scales on your eyes, and deadened your ear with an awful +deafness, and palsied your right arm, and stunned your sensibilities, +and blasted you with an infinite blasting. The Bible, which you admit +to be true, affirms that you are diseased from the crown of your head +to the sole of your foot. You are unclean; you are a leper. Believe +not me, but believe God's Word, that over and over again announces, in +language that a fool might understand, the total and complete +depravity of the unchanged heart: "The heart is deceitful above all +things, and desperately wicked."</p> + +<p>In addition to the sins of your life there are uncounted troubles in +pursuit of you. Bereavements, losses, disappointments are a flock of +vultures ever on the wing. Did you get your house built, and +furnished, and made comfortable any sooner than misfortune came in +without knocking, and sat beside you—a skeleton apparition? Have not +pains shot their poisoned arrows, and fevers kindled their fire in +your brain? Many of you, for years, have walked on burning marl. You +stepped out of one disaster into another. You may, like Job, have +cursed the day in which you were born. This world boils over with +trouble for you, and you are wondering where the next grave will gape, +and where the next storm will burst. Oh, ye pursued, sinning, dying, +troubled, exhausted souls, are you not ready now to hear me while I +tell you of Christ, the Refuge?</p> + +<p>A soldier, during the war, heard of the sickness of his wife and +asked for a furlough. It was denied him, and he ran away. He was +caught, brought back, and sentenced to be shot as a deserter. The +officer took from his pocket a document that announced his death on +the following morning. As the document was read, the man flinched not +and showed no sorrow or anxiety. But the officer then took from his +pocket another document that contained the prisoner's pardon. Then he +broke down with deep emotion at the thought of the leniency that had +been extended. Though you may not appear moved while I tell you of the +law that thundered its condemnation, while I tell you of the pardon +and the peace of the Gospel I wonder if they will not overcome you.</p> + +<p>Jesus is a safe refuge. Fort Hudson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Moultrie, Fort +Sumter, Gibraltar, Sebastopol were taken. But Jesus is a castle into +which the righteous runneth and is safe. No battering-ram can demolish +its wall. No sappers or miners can explode its ramparts, no storm-bolt +of perdition leap upon its towers. The weapons that guard this fort +are omnipotent. Hell shall unlimber its great guns as death only to +have them dismantled. In Christ our sins are pardoned, discomforted, +blotted out, forgiven. An ocean can not so easily drown a fly as the +ocean of God's forgiveness swallow up, utterly and forever, our +transgressions. He is able to save unto the uttermost.</p> + +<p>You who have been so often overcome in a hand-to-hand fight with the +world, the flesh, and devil, try this fortress. Once here, you are +safe forever. Satan may charge up the steep, and shout amid the uproar +of the fight, Forward, to his battalions of darkness; but you will +stand in the might of the great God, your Redeemer, safe in the +refuge. The troubles of life, that once overwhelmed you, may come on +with their long wagon-trains laden with care and worryment; and you +may hear in their tramp the bereavements that once broke your heart; +but Christ is your friend, Christ your sympathizer, Christ your +reward. Safe in the refuge!</p> + +<p>Death at last may lay the siege to your spirit, and the shadows of the +sepulcher may shake their horrors in the breeze, and the hoarse howl +of the night wind may be mingled with the cry of despair, yet you will +shout in triumph from the ramparts, and the pale horse shall be hurled +back on his haunches. Safe in the refuge! To this castle I fly. This +last fire shall but illumine its towers; and the rolling thunders of +the judgment will be the salvo of its victory.</p> + +<p>Just after Queen Victoria had been crowned—she being only nineteen or +twenty years of age—Wellington handed her a death-warrant for her +signature. It was to take the life of a soldier in the army. She said +to Wellington: "Can there nothing good be said of this man?" He said: +"No; he is a bad soldier, and deserves to die." She took up the +death-warrant, and it trembled in her hand as she again asked: "Does +no one know anything good of this man?" Wellington said: "I have heard +that at his trial a man said that he had been a good son to his old +mother." "Then let his life be spared," said the queen, and she +ordered his sentence commuted.</p> + +<p>Christ is on a throne of grace. Our case is brought before him. The +question is asked: "Is there any good about this man?" The law says: +"None." Justice says: "None." Our own conscience says: "None." +Nevertheless, Christ hands over our pardon, and asks us to take it. +Oh, the height and depth, the length and breadth of his mercy!</p> + +<p>Again, Christ is a near refuge. When we are attacked, what advantage +is there in having a fortress on the other side of the mountain? Many +an army has had an intrenchment, but could not get to it before the +battle opened. Blessed be God, it is no long march to our castle. We +may get off, with all our troops, from the worst earthly defeat in +this stronghold. In a moment we may step from the battle into the +tower. I sing of a Saviour near.</p> + +<p>During the late war the forts of the North were named after the +Northern generals, and the forts of the South were named after the +Southern generals. This fortress of our soul I shall call Castle +Jesus. I have seen men pursued of sins that chased them with feet of +lightning, and yet with one glad leap they bounded into the tower. I +have seen troubles, with more than the speed and terror of a cavalry +troop, dash after a retreating soul, yet were hurled back in defeat +from the bulwarks. Jesus near! A child's cry, a prisoner's prayer, a +sailor's death-shriek, a pauper's moan reaches him. No pilgrimages on +spikes. No journeying with a huge pack on your back. No kneeling in +penance in cold vestibule of mercy. But an open door! A compassionate +Saviour! A present salvation! A near refuge! Castle Jesus!</p> + +<p>Oh, why do you not put out your arm and reach it? Why do you not fly +to it? Why be riddled, and shelled, and consumed under the rattling +bombardment of perdition, when one moment's faith would plant you in +the glorious refuge? I preach a Jesus here; a Jesus now; a fountain +close to your feet; a fiery pillar right over your head; bread already +broken for your hunger; a crown already gleaming for your brow. Hark +to the castle gates rattling back for your entrance! Hear you not the +welcome of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope +set before us?</p> + +<p>Again, it is a universal refuge. A fortress is seldom large enough to +hold a whole army. I look out upon fourteen hundred millions of the +race; and then I look at this fortress, and I say that there is room +enough for all. If it had been possible, this salvation would have +been monopolized. Men would have said: "Let us have all this to +ourselves—no publicans, no plebeians, no lazzaroni, no converted +pickpockets. We will ride toward heaven on fierce chargers, our feet +in golden stirrups. Grace for lords, and dukes, and duchesses, and +counts. Let Napoleon and his marshals come in, but not the common +soldier that fought under him. Let the Girards and the Barings come +in, but not the stevedores that unloaded their cargoes, or the men who +kept their books." Heaven would have been a glorified Windsor Castle, +or Tuileries, or Vatican; and exclusive aristocrats would have +strutted through the golden streets to all eternity.</p> + +<p>Thank God, there is mercy for the poor! The great Doctor John Mason +preached over a hundred times the same sermon; and the text was: "To +the poor the Gospel is preached." Lazarus went up, while Dives went +down; and there are candidates for Imperial splendors in the back +alley, and by the peat-fire of the Irish shanty. King Jesus set up His +throne in a manger, and made a resurrection day for the poor widow of +Nain, and sprung the gate of heaven wide open, so that all the +beggars, and thieves, and scoundrels of the universe may come in if +they will only repent. I can snatch the knife from the murderer's hand +while it is yet dripping with the blood of his victim, and tell him of +the grace that is sufficient to pardon his soul. Do you say that I +swing open the gate of heaven too far? I swing it open no wider than +Christ, when He says: "Whosoever will, let him come." Don't you want +to go in with such a rabble? Then you can stay out.</p> + +<p>The whole world will yet come into this refuge. The windows of heaven +will be opened; God's trumpet of salvation will sound, and China will +come from its tea-fields and rice-harvests, and lift itself up into +the light. India will come forth, the chariots of salvation jostling +to pieces her Juggernauts. Freezing Greenland, and sweltering +Abyssinia, will, side by side, press into the kingdom; and transformed +Bornesian cannibal preach of the resurrection of the missionary he has +slain. The glory of Calvary will tinge the tip of the Pyrenees; and +Lebanon cedars shall clap their hands; and by one swing of the sickle +Christ shall harvest nations for the skies.</p> + +<p>I sing a world redeemed. In the rush of the winds that set the forest +in motion, like giants wrestling on the hills, I see the tossing up of +the triumphal branches that shall wave all along the line of our King +as He comes to take empire. In the stormy diapason of the ocean's +organ, and the more gentle strains that in the calm come sounding up +from the crystal and jasper keys at the beach, I hear the prophecy: +"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters +fill the sea."</p> + +<p>The gospel morning will come like the natural morning. At first it +seems only like another hue of the night. Then a pallor strikes +through the sky, as though a company of ministering spirits, pale with +tedious watching through the night, had turned in their flight upward +to look back upon the earth. Then a faint glow of fire, as though on a +barren beach a wrecked mariner was kindling a flickering flame. Then +chariots and horses of fire racing up and down the heavens; then +perfect day: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning?"</p> + +<p>Come in, black Hottentot and snow-white Caucasian, come in, mitered +official and diseased beggar; let all the world come in. Room in +Castle Jesus! Sound it through all lands; sound it by all tongues. Let +sermons preach it, and bells chime it, and pencils sketch it, and +processions celebrate it, and bells ring it: Room in Castle Jesus!</p> + +<p>Again, Christ is the only refuge. If you were very sick, and there was +only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get +that medicine. If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the +ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious +you would be to get into that harbor. Oh, sin-sick soul, Christ is the +only medicine; oh, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor. Need +I tell a cultured audience like this that there is no other name given +among men by which ye can be saved? That if you want the handcuffs +knocked from your wrists, and the hopples from your feet, and the icy +bands from your heart, there is just one Almighty arm in all the +universe to do everything? There are other fortresses to which you +might fly, and other ramparts behind which you might hide, but God +will cut to pieces, with the hail of His vengeance, all these refuges +of lies.</p> + +<p>Some of you are foundering in terrible Euroclydon. Hark to the howling +of the gale, and the splintering of the spars, and the starting of the +timbers, and the breaking of the billow, clear across the hurricane +deck. Down she goes! Into the life-boat! Quick! One boat! One shore! +One oarsman! One salvation! You are polluted; there is but one well at +which you can wash clean. You are enslaved; there is but one +proclamation that can emancipate. You are blind; there is but one +salve that can kindle your vision. You are dead; there is but one +trumpet that can burst the grave.</p> + +<p>I have seen men come near the refuge but not make entrance. They came +up, and fronted the gate, and looked in, but passed on, and passed +down; and they will curse their folly through all eternity, that they +despised the only refuge. Oh! forget everything else I have said, if +you will but remember that there is but one atonement, one sacrifice, +one justification, one faith, one hope, one Jesus, one refuge. There +is that old Christian. Many a scar on his face tells where trouble +lacerated him. He has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He has had +enough misfortune to shadow his countenance with perpetual despair. +Yet he is full of hope. Has he found any new elixir? "No," he says; "I +have found Jesus the refuge."</p> + +<p>Christ is our only defense at the last. John Holland, in his +concluding moment, swept his hand over the Bible, and said: "Come, let +us gather a few flowers from this garden." As it was even-time he said +to his wife: "Have you lighted the candles?" "No," she said; "we have +not lighted the candles." "Then," said he, "it must be the brightness +of the face of Jesus that I see."</p> + +<p>Ask that dying Christian woman the source of her comfort. Why that +supernatural glow on the curtains of the death-chamber; and the +tossing out of one hand, as if to wave the triumph, and the reaching +up of the other, as if to take a crown? Hosanna on the tongue. Glory +beaming from the forehead. Heaven in the eyes. Spirit departing. Wings +to bear it. Anthems to charm it. Open the gates to receive it. +Hallelujah! Speak, dying Christian—what light do you see? What sounds +do you hear? The thin lips part. The pale hand is lifted. She says: +"Jesus the refuge!" Let all in the death-chamber stop weeping now. +Celebrate the triumph. Take up a song. Clap your hands. Shout it. +Hallelujah! Hallelujah!</p> + +<p>But this refuge will be of no worth to you unless you lay hold of it. +The time will come when you will wish that you had done so. It will +come soon. At an unexpected moment it will come. The castle bridge +will be drawn up and the fortress closed. When you see this +discomfiture, and look back, and look up at the storm gathering, and +the billowy darkness of death has rolled upon the sheeted flash of +the storm, you will discover the utter desolation of those who are +outside of the refuge.</p> + +<p>What you propose to do in this matter you had better do right away. A +mistake this morning may never be corrected. Jesus, the Great Captain +of salvation, puts forth his wounded hand to-day to cheer you on the +race to heaven. If you despise it, the ghastliest vision that will +haunt the eternal darkness of your soul will be the gaping, bleeding +wounds of the dying Redeemer.</p> + +<p>Jesus is to be crucified to-day. Think not of it as a day that is +past. He comes before you to-day weary and worn. Here is the cross, +and here is the victim. But there are no nails, and there are no +thorns, and there are no hammers. Who will furnish these? A man out +yonder says: "I will furnish with my sins the nails!" Now we have the +cross, and the victim, and the nails. But we have no thorns. Who will +furnish the thorns? A man in the audience says: "With my sins I will +furnish the thorns!" Now we have the cross, the victim, the nails, and +the thorns. But we have no hammers. Who will furnish the hammers? A +voice in the audience says: "My hard heart shall be the hammer!" +Everything is ready now. The crucifixion goes out! See Jesus dying! +"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="stripping_the_slain" id="stripping_the_slain"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>STRIPPING THE SLAIN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came + to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons + fallen in Mount Gilboa."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I. Sam.</span> xxxi: 8.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or +Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a +battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the +field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening +I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken from the +bodies of the dead, for there are always vultures hovering over and +around about an army, and they pick up the watches, and the memorandum +books, and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and the hats, and the +coats, applying them to their own uses. The dead make no resistance. +So there are always camp followers going on and after an army, as when +Scott went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon marched up toward +Moscow, as when Von Moltke went to Sedan. There is a similar scene in +my text.</p> + +<p>Saul and his army had been horribly cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was +ghastly with the dead. On the morrow the stragglers came on to the +field, and they lifted the latchet of the helmet from under the chin +of the dead, and they picked up the swords and bent them on their +knee to test the temper of the metal, and they opened the wallets and +counted the coin. Saul lay dead along the ground, eight or nine feet +in length, and I suppose the cowardly Philistines, to show their +bravery, leaped upon the trunk of his carcass, and jeered at the +fallen slain, and whistled through the mouth of the helmet. Before +night those cormorants had taken everything valuable from the field: +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip +the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount +Gilboa."</p> + +<p>Before I get through to-day I will show you that the same process is +going on all the world over, and every day, and that when men have +fallen, Satan and the world, so far from pitying them or helping them, +go to work remorselessly to take what little is left, thus stripping +the slain.</p> + +<p>There are tens of thousands of young men every year coming from the +country to our great cities. They come with brave hearts and grand +expectations. They think they will be Rufus Choates in the law, or +Drapers in chemistry, or A.T. Stewarts in merchandise. The country +lads sit down in the village grocery, with their feet on the iron rod +around the red-hot stove, in the evening, talking over the prospects +of the young man who has gone off to the city. Two or three of them +think that perhaps he may get along very well and succeed, but the +most of them prophesy failure; for it is very hard to think that those +whom we knew in boyhood will ever make any stir in the world.</p> + +<p>But our young man has a fine position in a dry-goods store. The month +is over. He gets his wages. He is not accustomed to have so much money +belonging to himself. He is a little excited, and does not know +exactly what to do with it, and he spends it in some places where he +ought not. Soon there come up new companions and acquaintances from +the bar-rooms and the saloons of the city. Soon that young man begins +to waver in the battle of temptation, and soon his soul goes down. In +a few months, or few years, he has fallen. He is morally dead. He is a +mere corpse of what he once was. The harpies of sin snuff up the taint +and come on the field. His garments gradually give out. He has pawned +his watch. His health is failing him. His credit perishes. He is too +poor to stay in the city, and he is too poor to pay his way home to +the country. Down! down! Why do the low fellows of the city now stick +to him so closely? Is it to help him back to a moral and spiritual +life? Oh, no! I will tell you why they stay; they are the Philistines +stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Do not look where I point, but yonder stands a man who once had a +beautiful home in this city. His house had elegant furniture, his +children were beautifully clad, his name was synonymous with honor and +usefulness; but evil habit knocked at his front door, knocked at his +back door, knocked at his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom door. +Where is the piano? Sold to pay the rent. Where is the hat-rack? Sold +to meet the butcher's bill. Where are the carpets? Sold to get bread. +Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters? +Working their fingers off in trying to keep the family together. +Worse and worse, until everything is gone. Who is that going up the +front steps of that house? That is a creditor, hoping to find some +chair or bed that has not been levied upon. Who are those two +gentlemen now going up the front steps? The one is a constable, the +other is the sheriff. Why do they go there? The unfortunate is morally +dead, socially dead, financially dead. Why do they go there? I will +tell you why the creditors, and the constables, and the sheriffs go +there. They are, some on their own account, and some on account of the +law, stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>An ex-member of Congress, one of the most eloquent men that ever stood +in the House of Representatives, said in his last moments: "This is +the end. I am dying—dying on a borrowed bed, covered by a borrowed +sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in +the middle of the field, where I shall not be crowded, for I have been +crowded all my life." Where were the jolly politicians and the +dissipating comrades who had been with him, laughing at his jokes, +applauding his eloquence, and plunging him into sin? They have left. +Why? His money is gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is gone, his +clothes are gone, everything is gone. Why should they stay any longer? +They have completed their work. They have stripped the slain.</p> + +<p>There is another way, however, of doing that same work. Here is a man +who, through his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that he has done +wrong. Now is the time for you to go to that man and say: "Thousands +of people have been as far astray as you are, and got back." Now is +the time for you to go to that man and tell him of the omnipotent +grace of God, that is sufficient for any poor soul. Now is the time to +go to tell him how swearing John Bunyan, through the grace of God, +afterward came to the celestial city. Now is the time to go to that +man and tell him how profligate Newton came, through conversion, to be +a world-renowned preacher of righteousness. Now is the time to tell +that man that multitudes who have been pounded with all the flails of +sin and dragged through all the sewers of pollution at last have risen +to positive dominion of moral power.</p> + +<p>You do not tell him that, do you? No. You say to him: "Loan you money? +No. You are down. You will have to go to the dogs. Lend you a +shilling? I would not lend you five cents to keep you from the +gallows. You are debauched! Get out of my sight, now! Down; you will +have to stay down!" And thus those bruised and battered men are +sometimes accosted by those who ought to lift them up. Thus the last +vestige of hope is taken from them. Thus those who ought to go and +lift and save them are guilty of stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>The point I want to make is this: sin is hard, cruel, and merciless. +Instead of helping a man up it helps him down; and when, like Saul and +his comrades, you lie on the field, it will come and steal your sword +and helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal and the crow.</p> + +<p>But the world and Satan do not do all their work with the outcast and +abandoned. A respectable, impenitent man comes to die. He is flat on +his back. He could not get up if the house were on fire. Adroitest +medical skill and gentlest nursing have been a failure. He has come to +his last hour. What does Satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches up +all the inapt, disagreeable, and harrowing things in his life. He +says: "Do you remember those chances you had for heaven, and missed +them? Do you remember all those lapses in conduct? Do you remember all +those opprobrious words and thoughts and actions? Don't remember them, +eh? I'll make you remember them." And then he takes all the past and +empties it on that death-bed, as the mail-bags are emptied on the +post-office floor. The man is sick. He can not get away from them.</p> + +<p>Then the man says to Satan: "You have deceived me. You told me that +all would be well. You said there would be no trouble at the last. You +told me if I did so and so, you would do so and so. Now you corner me, +and hedge me up, and submerge me in everything evil." "Ha! ha!" says +Satan, "I was only fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer. +I have been for thirty years plotting to get you just where you are. +It is hard for you now—it will be worse for you after awhile. It +pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't flinch or shudder. Come now, I will +tear off from you the last rag of expectation. I will rend away from +your soul the last hope. I will leave you bare for the beating of the +storm. It is my business to strip the slain."</p> + +<p>While men are in robust health, and their digestion is good, and their +nerves are strong, they think their physical strength will get them +safely through the last exigency. They say it is only cowardly women +who are afraid at the last, and cry out for God. "Wait till I come to +die. I will show you. You won't hear me pray, nor call for a minister, +nor want a chapter read me from the Bible." But after the man has been +three weeks in a sick-room his nerves are not so steady, and his +worldly companions are not anywhere near to cheer him up, and he is +persuaded that he must quit life: his physical courage is all gone.</p> + +<p>He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a saucer. He shivers at the idea +of going away. He says: "Wife, I don't think my infidelity is going to +take me through. For God's sake don't bring up the children to do as I +have done. If you feel like it, I wish you would read a verse or two +out of Fannie's Sabbath-school hymn-book or New Testament." But Satan +breaks in, and says: "You have always thought religion trash and a +lie; don't give up at the last. Besides that, you can not, in the hour +you have to live, get off on that track. Die as you lived. With my +great black wings I shut out that light. Die in darkness. I rend away +from you that last vestige of hope. It is my business to strip the +slain."</p> + +<p>A man who had rejected Christianity and thought it all trash, came to +die. He was in the sweat of a great agony, and his wife said: "We had +better have some prayer." "Mary, not a breath of that," he said. "The +lightest word of prayer would roll back on me like rocks on a drowning +man. I have come to the hour of test. I had a chance, and I forfeited +it. I believed in a liar, and he has left me in the lurch. Mary, bring +me Tom Paine, that book that I swore by and lived by, and pitch it in +the fire, and let it burn and burn as I myself shall soon burn." And +then, with the foam on his lip and his hands tossing wildly in the +air, he cried out: "Blackness of darkness! Oh, my God, too late!" And +the spirits of darkness whistled up from the depth, and wheeled around +and around him, stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Sin is a luxury now; it is exhilaration now; it is victory now. But +after awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is +jackalism; it is robbing the dead; it is stripping the slain. Give it +up to-day—give it up! Oh, how you have been cheated on, my brother, +from one thing to another! All these years you have been under an evil +mastery that you understood not. What have your companions done for +you? What have they done for your health? Nearly ruined it by +carousal. What have they done for your fortune? Almost scattered it by +spendthrift behavior. What have they done for your reputation? Almost +ruined it with good men. What have they done for your immortal soul? +Almost insured its overthrow.</p> + +<p>You are hastening on toward the consummation of all that is sad. +To-day you stop and think, but it is only for a moment, and then you +will tramp on, and at the close of this service you will go out, and +the question will be: "How did you like the sermon?" And one man will +say: "I liked it very well," and another man will say: "I didn't like +it at all;" but neither of the answers will touch the tremendous fact +that, if impenitent, you are going at eighteen knots an hour toward +shipwreck! Yea, you are in a battle where you will fall; and while +your surviving relatives will take your remaining estate, and the +cemetery will take your body, the messengers of darkness will take +your soul, and come and go about you for the next ten million years, +stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Many are crying out: "I admit I am slain, I admit it!" On what +battle-field, my brothers? By what weapon? "Polluted imagination," +says one man; "Intoxicating liquor," says another man; "My own hard +heart," says another man. Do you realize this? Then I come to tell you +that the omnipotent Christ is ready to walk across this battle-field, +and revive, and resuscitate, and resurrect your dead soul. Let Him +take your hand and rub away the numbness; your head, and bathe off the +aching; your heart, and stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to +life; He brought Jairus' daughter to life; He brought the young man of +Nain to life, and these are three proofs anyhow that he can bring you +to life.</p> + +<p>When the Philistines came down on the field, they stepped between the +corpses, and they rolled over the dead, and they took away everything +that was valuable; and so it was with the people that followed after +our army at Chancellorsville, and at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone +River, and at Atlanta, stripping the slain; but the Northern and +Southern women—God bless them!—came on the field with basins, and +pads, and towels, and lint, and cordials, and Christian encouragement; +and the poor fellows that lay there lifted up their arms and said: +"Oh, how good that does feel since you dressed it!" and others looked +up and said: "Oh, how you make me think of my mother!" and others +said: "Tell the folks at home I died thinking about them;" and another +looked up and said: "Miss, won't you sing me a verse of 'Home, Sweet +Home,' before I die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and the hats +were off, and the service was read: "I am the resurrection and the +life;" and in honor of the departed the muskets were loaded, and the +command given: "Take aim—fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the +head of the grave, with the epitaph of "Lieutenant —— in the +Fourteenth Massachusetts Regulars," or "Captain —— in the Fifteenth +Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers." And so to-night, across this +great field of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of God come +walking among the slain, and there are voices of comfort, and voices +of hope, and voices of resurrection, and voices of heaven.</p> + +<p>Christ is ready to give life to the dead. He will make the deaf ear to +hear, the blind eye to see, the pulseless heart to beat, and the damp +walls of your spiritual charnel-house will crash into ruin at His cry: +"Come forth!" I verily believe there are souls in this house who are +now dead in sin, who in half an hour will be alive forever. There was +a thrilling dream, a glorious dream—you may have heard of it. Ezekiel +closed his eyes, and he saw two mountains, and a valley between the +mountains. That valley looked as though there had been a great battle +there, and a whole army had been slain, and they had been unburied; +and the heat of the land, and the vultures coming there, soon the +bones were exposed to the sun, and they looked like thousands of +snow-drifts all through the valley. Frightful spectacle! The bleaching +skeletons of a host!</p> + +<p>But Ezekiel still kept his eyes shut; and lo! there were four +currents of wind that struck the battle-field, and when those four +currents of wind met, the bones began to rattle; and the foot came to +the ankle, and the hand came to the wrist, and the jaws clashed +together, and the spinal column gathered up the ganglions and the +nervous fiber, and all the valley wriggled and writhed, and throbbed, +and rocked, and rose up. There, a man coming to life. There, a hundred +men. There, a thousand; and all falling into line, waiting for the +shout of their commander. Ten thousand bleached skeletons springing up +into ten thousand warriors, panting for the fray. I hope that instead +of being a dream it may be a prophecy of what we shall see here +to-day. Let this north wall be one of the mountains, and the south +wall be taken for another of the mountains, and let all the aisles and +the pews be the valley between, for there are thousands here to-day +without one pulsation of spiritual life.</p> + +<p>I look off in one direction, and they are dead. I look off in another +direction, and they are dead. Who will bring them to life? Who shall +rouse them up? If I should halloo at the top of my voice I could not +wake them. Wait a moment! Listen! There is a rustling. There is a gale +from heaven. It comes from the north, and from the south, and from the +east, and from the west. It shuts us in. It blows upon the slain. +There a soul begins to move in spiritual life; there, ten souls; +there, a score of souls; there, a hundred souls. The nostrils +throbbing in divine respiration, the hands lifted as though to take +hold of heaven, the tongue moving as in prayer and adoration. Life! +immortal life coming into the slain. Ten men for God—fifty—a +hundred—a regiment—an army for God! Oh, that we might have such a +scene here to-day! In Ezekiel's words, and in almost a frenzy of +prayer, I cry: "Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon +the slain."</p> + +<p>You will have to surrender your heart to-day to God. You can not take +the responsibility of fighting against the Spirit in this crisis which +will decide whether you are to go to heaven or to hell—to join the +hallelujahs of the saved, or the lamentations of the lost. You must +pray. You must repent. You must this day fling your sinful soul on the +pardoning mercy of God. You must! I see your resolution against God +giving way, your determination wavering. I break through the breach in +the wall and follow up the advantage gained, hoping to rout your last +opposition to Christ, and to make you "ground arms" at the feet of the +Divine Conqueror. Oh, you must! You must!</p> + +<p>The moon does not ask the tides of the Atlantic Ocean to rise. It only +stoops down with two great hands of light, the one at the European +beach, and the other at the American beach, and then lifts the great +layer of molten silver. And God, it seems to me, is now going to lift +this audience to newness of life. Do you not feel the swellings of the +great oceanic tides of Divine mercy? My heart is in anguish to have +you saved. For this I pray, and preach, and long, glad to be called a +fool for Christ's sake, and your salvation.</p> + +<p>Some one replies: "Dear me, I do wish I could have these matters +arranged with my God. I want to be saved. God knows I want to be +saved; but you stand there talking about this matter, and you don't +show me how." My dear brother, the work has all been done. Christ did +it with His own torn hand, and lacerated foot, and bleeding side. He +took your place, and died your death, if you will only believe +it—only accept Him as your substitute.</p> + +<p>What an amazing pity that any man should go from this house unblessed, +when such a large blessing is offered him at less cost than you would +pay for a pin—"without money and without price." I have driven down +to-day with the Lord's ambulance to the battle-field where your soul +lies exposed to the darkness and the storm, and I want to lift you in, +and drive off with you toward heaven. Oh, Christians, by your prayers +help to lift these wounded souls into the ambulance! God forbid that +any should be left on the field, and that at last eternal sorrow, and +remorse, and despair should come up around their soul like the bandit +Philistines to the field of Gilboa, stripping the slain.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="sold_out" id="sold_out"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SOLD OUT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed + without money."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isa.</span> lii: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been +carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. +Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews +that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, +literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; +and ye shall be redeemed without money."</p> + +<p>There is enough Gospel in this text for fifty sermons; though I never +heard of its being preached on. There are persons in this house who +have, like the Jews of the text, sold out. You do not seem to belong +either to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over +to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never +paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some +adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world +does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a +summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his +physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts +with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary +culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire +nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the +first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down +the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays +down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone; +and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment, +and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and +says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed +over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to +collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well," +you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now +to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "<i>I have +failed. I am bankrupt.</i> I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not +for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me +back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can +not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of +eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the +consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought."</p> + +<p>I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a +cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a +bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays +the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted, +it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little +while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash +and get for it worthless scrip—so the world passes over to you the +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in that shape which will not be +worth a farthing to you a thousandth part of a second after you are +dead. "Oh," you say, "it will help to bury me, anyhow." Oh, my +brother! you need not worry about that. The world will bury you soon +enough, from sanitary considerations. After you have been deceased for +three or four days you will compel the world to bury you.</p> + +<p>Post-mortem emoluments are of no use to you. The treasures of this +world will not pass current in the future world; and if all the wealth +of the Bank of England were put in the pocket of your shroud, and you +in the midst of the Jordan of death were asked to pay three cents for +your ferriage, you could not do it. There comes a moment in your +existence beyond which all earthly values fail; and many a man has +wakened up in such a time to find that he has sold out for eternity, +and has nothing to show for it. I should as soon think of going to +Chatham Street to buy silk pocket-handkerchiefs with no cotton in +them, as to go to this world expecting to find any permanent +happiness. It has deceived and deluded every man that has ever put his +trust in it.</p> + +<p>History tells us of one who resolved that he would have all his senses +gratified at one and the same time, and he expended thousands of +dollars on each sense. He entered a room, and there were the first +musicians of the land pleasing his ear, and there were fine pictures +fascinating his eye, and there were costly aromatics regaling his +nostril, and there were the richest meats, and wines, and fruits, and +confections pleasing the appetite, and there was a soft couch of +sinful indulgence on which he reclined; and the man declared afterward +that he would give ten times what he had given if he could have one +week of such enjoyment, even though he lost his soul by it. Ah! that +was the rub. He did lose his soul by it! Cyrus the Conqueror thought +for a little while that he was making a fine thing out of this world, +and yet before he came to his grave he wrote out this pitiful epitaph +for his monument: "I am Cyrus. I occupied the Persian Empire. I was +king over Asia. Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in after +years plowed up his sepulcher.</p> + +<p>The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in honor of Charles +Lamb; but what does he say? "I walk up and down, thinking I am happy, +but feeling I am not." Call the roll, and be quick about it. Samuel +Johnson, the learned! Happy? "No. I am afraid I shall some day get +crazy." William Hazlitt, the great essayist! Happy? "No. I have been +for two hours and a half going up and down Paternoster Row with a +volcano in my breast." Smollett, the witty author! Happy? "No. I am +sick of praise and blame, and I wish to God that I had such +circumstances around me that I could throw my pen into oblivion." +Buchanan, the world-renowned writer, exiled from his own country, +appealing to Henry VIII. for protection! Happy? "No. Over mountains +covered with snow, and through valleys flooded with rain, I come a +fugitive." Molière, the popular dramatic author! Happy? "No. That +wretch of an actor just now recited four of my lines without the +proper accent and gesture. To have the children of my brain so hung, +drawn, and quartered, tortures me like a condemned spirit."</p> + +<p>I went to see a worldling die. As I went into the hall I saw its floor +was tessellated, and its wall was a picture-gallery. I found his +death-chamber adorned with tapestry until it seemed as if the clouds +of the setting sun had settled in the room. The man had given forty +years to the world—his wit, his time, his genius, his talent, his +soul. Did the world come in to stand by his death-bed, and clearing +off the vials of bitter medicine, put down any compensation? Oh, no! +The world does not like sick and dying people, and leaves them in the +lurch. It ruined this man, and then left him. He had a magnificent +funeral. All the ministers wore scarfs, and there were forty-three +carriages in a row; but the departed man appreciated not the +obsequies.</p> + +<p>I want to persuade my audience that this world is a poor investment; +that it does not pay ninety per cent. of satisfaction, nor eighty per +cent., nor twenty per cent., nor two per cent., nor one; that it gives +no solace when a dead babe lies on your lap; that it gives no peace +when conscience rings its alarm; that it gives no explanation in the +day of dire trouble; and at the time of your decease it takes hold of +the pillow-case, and shakes out the feathers, and then jolts down in +the place thereof sighs, and groans, and execrations, and then makes +you put your head on it. Oh, ye who have tried this world, is it a +satisfactory portion? Would you advise your friends to make the +investment? No. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Your conscience +went. Your hope went. Your Bible went. Your heaven went. Your God +went. When a sheriff under a writ from the courts sells a man out, the +officer generally leaves a few chairs and a bed, and a few cups and +knives; but in this awful vendue in which you have been engaged the +auctioneer's mallet has come down upon body, mind, and soul: Going! +Gone! "Ye have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>How could you do so? Did you think that your soul was a mere trinket +which for a few pennies you could buy in a toy shop? Did you think +that your soul, if once lost, might be found again if you went out +with torches and lanterns? Did you think that your soul was +short-lived, and that, panting, it would soon lie down for extinction? +Or had you no idea what your soul was worth? Did you ever put your +forefingers on its eternal pulses? Have you never felt the quiver of +its peerless wing? Have you not known that, after leaving the body, +the first step of your soul reaches to the stars, and the next step to +the furthest outposts of God's universe, and that it will not die +until the day when the everlasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my brother, +what possessed you that you should part with your soul so cheap? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>But I have some good news to tell you. I want to engage in a +litigation for the recovery of that soul of yours. I want to show that +you have been cheated out of it. I want to prove, as I will, that you +were crazy on that subject, and that the world, under such +circumstances, has no right to take the title-deed from you; and if +you will join me I shall get a decree from the High Chancery Court of +Heaven reinstating you into the possession of your soul. "Oh," you +say, "I am afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive, and I can not +pay the cost." Then have you forgotten the last half of my text? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money."</p> + +<p>Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in +this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and +pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy +your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of +Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us +to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is? +I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, +no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king's blood. It must +be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent. But where +is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, +yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue. But after awhile the +clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of +a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, +and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to +cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and +then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the +sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we +who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and +imperial blood.</p> + +<p>We have in this day professed Christians who are so rarefied and +etherealized that they do not want a religion of blood. What do you +want? You seem to want a religion of brains. The Bible says: "In the +blood is the life." No atonement without blood. Ought not the apostle +to know? What did he say? "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible +things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ." +You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the +blood, and you leave it a mere corpse, fit only for the grave. Why did +God command the priests of old to strike the knife into the kid, and +the goat, and the pigeon, and the bullock, and the lamb? It was so +that when the blood rushed out from these animals on the floor of the +ancient tabernacle the people should be compelled to think of the +coming carnage of the Son of God. No blood, no atonement.</p> + +<p>I think that God intended to impress us with the vividness of that +color. The green of the grass, the blue of the sky, would not have +startled and aroused us like this deep crimson. It is as if God had +said: "Now, sinner, wake up and see what the Saviour endured for you. +This is not water. This is not wine. It is blood. It is the blood of +my own Son. It is the blood of the Immaculate. It is the blood of +God." Without the shedding of blood is no remission. There has been +many a man who in courts of law has pleaded "not guilty," who +nevertheless has been condemned because there was blood found on his +hands, or blood found in his room; and what shall we do in the last +day if it be found that we have recrucified the Lord of Glory and have +never repented of it? You must believe in the blood or die. No +escape. Unless you let the sacrifice of Jesus go in your stead you +yourself must suffer. It is either Christ's blood or your blood.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some one, "the thought of blood sickens me." Good. God +intended it to sicken you with your sin. Do not act as though you had +nothing to do with that Calvarian massacre. You had. Your sins were +the implements of torture. Those implements were not made of steel, +and iron, and wood, so much as out of your sins. Guilty of this +homicide, and this regicide, and this deicide, confess your guilt +to-day. Ten thousand voices of heaven bring in the verdict against you +of guilty, guilty. Prepare to die, or believe in that blood. Stretch +yourself out for the sacrifice, or accept the Saviour's sacrifice. Do +not fling away your one chance.</p> + +<p>It seems to me as if all heaven were trying to bid in your soul. The +first bid it makes is the tears of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus; but +that is not a high enough price. The next bid heaven makes is the +sweat of Gethsemane; but it is too cheap a price. The next bid heaven +makes seems to be the whipped back of Pilate's hall; but it is not a +high enough price. Can it be possible that heaven can not buy you in? +Heaven tries once more. It says: "I bid this time for that man's soul +the tortures of Christ's martyrdom, the blood on His temple, the blood +on His cheek, the blood on His chin, the blood on His hand, the blood +on His side, the blood on His knee, the blood on His foot—the blood +in drops, the blood in rills, the blood in pools coagulated beneath +the cross; the blood that wet the tips of the soldiers' spears, the +blood that plashed warm in the faces of His enemies." Glory to God, +that bid wins it! The highest price that was ever paid for anything +was paid for your soul. Nothing could buy it but blood! The estranged +property is bought back. Take it. "You have sold yourselves for +nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." O atoning blood, +cleansing blood, life-giving blood, sanctifying blood, glorifying +blood of Jesus! Why not burst into tears at the thought that for thee +He shed it—for thee the hard-hearted, for thee the lost?</p> + +<p>"No," says some one; "I will have nothing to do with it except that, +like the Jews, I put both my hands into that carnage and scoop up both +palms full, and throw it on my head and cry: 'His blood be on us and +on our children!'" Can you do such a shocking thing as that? Just rub +your handkerchief across your brow and look at it. It is the blood of +the Son of God whom you have despised and driven back all these years. +Oh, do not do that any longer! Come out frankly and boldly and +honestly, and tell Christ you are sorry. You can not afford to so +roughly treat Him upon whom everything depends.</p> + +<p>I do not know how you will get away from this subject. You see that +you are sold out, and that Christ wants to buy you back. There are +three persons who come after you to-night: God the Father, God the +Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They unite their three omnipotences in +one movement for your salvation. You will not take up arms against the +Triune God, will you? Is there enough muscle in your arm for such a +combat? By the highest throne in heaven, and by the deepest chasm in +hell, I beg you look out. Unless you allow Christ to carry away your +sins, they will carry you away. Unless you allow Christ to lift you +up, they will drag you down. There is only one hope for you, and that +is the blood. Christ, the sin-offering, bearing your transgressions. +Christ, the surety, paying your debts. Christ, the divine Cyrus, +loosening your Babylonish captivity.</p> + +<p>Would you not like to be free? Here is the price of your +liberation—not money, but blood. I tremble from head to foot, not +because I fear your presence, for I am used to that, but because I +fear that you will miss your chance for immortal rescue, and die. This +is the alternative divinely put: "He that believeth on the Son shall +have everlasting life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not +see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." In the last day, if +you now reject Christ, every drop of that sacrificial blood, instead +of pleading for your release as it would have pleaded if you had +repented, will plead against you. It will seem to say: "They refused +the ransom; they chose to die; let them die; they must die. Down with +them to the weeping and the wailing. Depart! go away from me. You +would not have me, now I will not have you. Sold out for eternity."</p> + +<p>O Lord God of the judgment day! avert that calamity! Let us see the +quick flash of the cimeter that slays the sin but saves the sinner. +Strike, omnipotent God, for the soul's deliverance! Beat, O eternal +sea! with all thy waves against the barren beach of that rocky soul, +and make it tremble. Oh! the oppressiveness of the hour, the minute, +the second, on which the soul's destiny quivers, and this is that +hour, that minute, that second!</p> + +<p>I wonder what proportion of this audience will be saved? What +proportion will be lost? When the "Schiller" went down, out of three +hundred and eighty people only forty were saved. When the "Ville du +Havre" went down, out of three hundred and forty about fifty were +saved. Out of this audience to-day, how many will get to the shore of +heaven? It is no idle question for me to ask, for many of you I shall +never see again until the day when the books are open.</p> + +<p>Some years ago there came down a fierce storm on the sea-coast, and a +vessel got in the breakers and was going to pieces. They threw up some +signal of distress, and the people on the shore saw them. They put out +in a life-boat. They came on, and they saw the poor sailors, almost +exhausted, clinging to a raft; and so afraid were the boatmen that the +men would give up before they got to them, they gave them three rounds +of cheers, and cried: "Hold on, there! Hold on! We'll save you!" After +awhile the boat came up. One man was saved by having the boat-hook put +in the collar of his coat; and some in one way, and some in another; +but they all got into the boat. "Now," says the captain, "for the +shore. Pull away now, pull!" The people on the land were afraid the +life-boat had gone down. They said: "How long the boat stays. Why, it +must have been swamped, and they have all perished together."</p> + +<p>And there were men and women on the pier-heads and on the beach +wringing their hands; and while they waited and watched, they saw +something looming up through the mist, and it turned out to be the +life-boat. As soon as it came within speaking distance the people on +the shore cried out: "Did you save any of them? Did you save any of +them?" And as the boat swept through the boiling surf and came to the +pier-head, the captain waved his hand over the exhausted sailors that +lay flat on the bottom of the boat, and cried: "All saved! Thank God! +All saved!" So may it be to-day. The waves of your sin run high, the +storm is on you, the danger is appalling. Oh! shipwrecked soul, I have +come for you. I cheer you with this Gospel hope. God grant that within +the next ten minutes we may row with you into the harbor of God's +mercy. And when these Christian men gather around to see the result of +this service, and the glorified gathering on the pier-heads of heaven +to watch and to listen, may we be able to report all saved! Young and +old, good and bad! All saved! Saved from sin, and death, and hell. +Saved for time. Saved for eternity. "And so it came to pass that they +all escaped safe to land."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="summer_temptations" id="summer_temptations"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SUMMER TEMPTATIONS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest + awhile."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Mark</span> vi: 31.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been +living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they +get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, +I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday +afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that +release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people +will have opportunity of recreation this summer than in any previous +summer. Others will have whole weeks and months of rest. The railway +trains are being laden with passengers and baggage on their way to the +mountains and the lakes and the sea-shore. Multitudes of our citizens +are packing their trunks for a restorative absence.</p> + +<p>The city heats are pursuing the people with torch and fear of +sunstroke. The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz +with excited arrivals. The crystalline surface of Winnipiseogee is +shattered with the stroke of steamer, laden with excursionists. The +antlers of Adirondack deer rattle under the shot of city sportsmen. +The trout make fatal snaps at the hook of adroit sportsmen and toss +their spotted brilliance into the game-basket. Already the baton of +the orchestral leader taps the music-stand on the hotel green, and +American life puts on festal array, and the rumbling of the tenpin +alley, and the crack of the ivory balls on the green-baized billiard +tables, and the jolting of the bar-room goblets, and the explosive +uncorking of champagne bottles, and the whirl and the rustle of the +ball-room dance, and the clattering hoofs of the race-courses, attest +that the season for the great American watering-places is fairly +inaugurated. Music—flute and drum and cornet-à-piston and clapping +cymbals—will wake the echoes of the mountains.</p> + +<p>Glad I am that fagged-out American life for the most part will have an +opportunity to rest, and that nerves racked and destroyed will find a +Bethesda. I believe in watering-places. Let not the commercial firm +begrudge the clerk, or the employer the journeyman, or the patient the +physician, or the church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. Luther +used to sport with his children; Edmund Burke used to caress his +favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the dark hours of the church's +disruption, played kite for recreation—as I was told by his own +daughter—and the busy Christ said to the busy apostles: "Come ye +apart awhile into the desert and rest yourselves." And I have observed +that they who do not know how to rest do not know how to work.</p> + +<p>But I have to declare this truth to-day, that some of our fashionable +watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of "a +multitude that no man can number," and amid the congratulations of +this season and the prospect of the departure of many of you for the +country I must utter a note of warning—plain, earnest, and +unmistakable.</p> + +<p>I. The first temptation that is apt to hover in this direction is to +leave your piety all at home. You will send the dog and cat and canary +bird to be well cared for somewhere else; but the temptation will be +to leave your religion in the room with the blinds down and the door +bolted, and then you will come back in the autumn to find that it is +starved and suffocated, lying stretched on the rug stark dead. There +is no surplus of piety at the watering-places. I never knew any one to +grow very rapidly in grace at the Catskill Mountain House, or Sharon +Springs, or the Falls of Montmorency. It is generally the case that +the Sabbath is more of a carousal than any other day, and there are +Sunday walks and Sunday rides and Sunday excursions.</p> + +<p>Elders and deacons and ministers of religion who are entirely +consistent at home, sometimes when the Sabbath dawns on them at +Niagara Falls or the White Mountains take the day to themselves. If +they go to the church, it is apt to be a sacred parade, and the +discourse, instead of being a plain talk about the soul, is apt to be +what is called <i>a crack sermon</i>—that is, some discourse picked out of +the effusions of the year as the one most adapted to excite +admiration; and in those churches, from the way the ladies hold their +fans, you know that they are not so much impressed with the heat as +with the picturesqueness of half-disclosed features. Four puny souls +stand in the organ-loft and squall a tune that nobody knows, and +worshipers, with two thousand dollars' worth of diamonds on the right +hand, drop a cent into the poor-box, and then the benediction is +pronounced and the farce is ended.</p> + +<p>The toughest thing I ever tried to do was to be good at a +watering-place. The air is bewitched with "the world, the flesh, and +the devil." There are Christians who in three or four weeks in such a +place have had such terrible rents made in their Christian robe that +they had to keep darning it until Christmas to get it mended! The +health of a great many people makes an annual visit to some mineral +spring an absolute necessity; but, my dear people, take your Bible +along with you, and take an hour for secret prayer every day, though +you be surrounded by guffaw and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sabbath, +though they denounce you as a bigoted Puritan. Stand off from those +institutions which propose to imitate on this side the water the +iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let your moral and your immortal health +keep pace with your physical recuperation, and remember that all the +waters of Hathorne and sulphur and chalybeate springs can not do you +so much good as the mineral, healing, perennial flood that breaks +forth from the "Rock of Ages." This may be your last summer. If so, +make it a fit vestibule of heaven.</p> + +<p>II. Another temptation around nearly all our watering-places is the +horse-racing business. We all admire the horse. There needs to be a +redistribution of coronets among the brute creation. For ages the lion +has been called the king of beasts. I knock off its coronet and put +the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether in shape or +spirit or sagacity or intelligence or affection or usefulness. He is +semi-human, and knows how to reason on a small scale. The centaur of +olden times, part horse and part man, seems to be a suggestion of the +fact that the horse is something more than a beast.</p> + +<p>Job sets forth his strength, his beauty, his majesty, the panting of +his nostril, the pawing of his hoof, and his enthusiasm for the +battle. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and what Landseer did +for the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does for the horse. +Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak of him. He comes into every +kingly procession and into every great occasion and into every +triumph. It is very evident that Job and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel +and Jeremiah and John were fond of the horse. He came into much of +their imagery. A red horse—that meant war; a black horse—that meant +famine; a pale horse—that meant death; a white horse—that meant +victory.</p> + +<p>As the Bible makes a favorite of the horse, the patriarch and the +prophet and the evangelist and the apostle, stroking his sleek hide, +and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his exquisitely +formed hoof, and listening with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so +all great natures in all ages have spoken of him in encomiastic terms. +Virgil in his Georgics almost seems to plagiarize from the description +of Job. The Duke of Wellington would not allow any one irreverently to +touch his old war-horse, Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen +hours without dismounting at Waterloo; and when old Copenhagen died, +his master ordered a military salute fired over his grave. John +Howard showed that he did not exhaust all his sympathies in pitying +the human race, for when sick he writes home: "Has my old chaise-horse +become sick or spoiled?"</p> + +<p>But we do not think that the speed of the horse should be cultured at +the expense of human degradation. Horse-races, in olden times, were +under the ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution +has come up under fictitious names, and it is called a "Summer +Meeting," almost suggestive of positive religious exercises. And it is +called an "Agricultural Fair," suggestive of everything that is +improving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are +the same cheating and the same betting, the same drunkenness and the +same vagabondage and the same abominations that were to be found under +the old horse-racing system.</p> + +<p>I never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the +turf for a long reach of time, and not be battered in morals. They +hook up their spanking team, and put on their sporting-cap, and light +their cigar, and take the reins, and dash down the road to perdition. +The great day at Saratoga, and Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly +all the other watering-places, is the day of the races. The hotels are +thronged, nearly every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost +fabulous price, and there are many respectable people mingling with +jockeys, and gamblers, and libertines, and foul-mouthed men and flashy +women. The bar-tender stirs up the brandy-smash. The bets run high. +The greenhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough +to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is +decided, and the men in the secret know on which steed to bet their +money. The two men on the horses riding around long before arranged +who shall beat.</p> + +<p>Leaning from the stand or from the carriage are men and women so +absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle and mettle that they make +a grand harvest for the pickpockets, who carry off the pocket-books +and portemonnaies. Men looking on see only two horses with two riders +flying around the ring; but there is many a man on that stand whose +honor and domestic happiness and fortune—white mane, white foot, +white flank—are in the ring, racing with inebriety, and with fraud, +and with profanity, and with ruin—black neck, black foot, black +flank. Neck and neck they go in that moral Epsom.</p> + +<p>Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse-racing dissipations this +summer. Long ago the English government got through looking to the +turf for the dragoon and light-cavalry horse. They found the turf +depreciates the stock, and it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes, the +member of parliament and the author, known all the world over, hearing +that a new turf enterprise was being started in this country, wrote a +letter, in which he said: "Heaven help you, then; for of all the +cankers of our old civilization there is nothing in this country +approaching in unblushing meanness, in rascality holding its head +high, to this belauded institution of the British turf." Another +famous sportsman writes: "How many fine domains have been shared among +these hosts of rapacious sharks during the last two hundred years; and +unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into +the same gulf!" The Duke of Hamilton, through his horse-racing +proclivities, in three years got through his entire fortune of +£70,000, and I will say that some of you are being undermined by it. +With the bull-fights of Spain and the bear-baitings of the pit may the +Lord God annihilate the infamous and accursed horse-racing of England +and America.</p> + +<p>III. I go further, and speak of another temptation that hovers over +the watering-places; and this is the temptation to sacrifice physical +strength. The modern Bethesda was intended to recuperate the physical +health; and yet how many come from the watering-places, their health +absolutely destroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots boasting of having +imbibed twenty glasses of Congress water before breakfast. Families +accustomed to going to bed at ten o'clock at night gossiping until one +or two o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about +their health, mingling ice-creams, and lemons, and lobster-salads, and +cocoa-nuts, until the gastric juices lift up all their voices of +lamentation and protest. Delicate women and brainless young men +chassezing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and +women coming back from our watering-places in the autumn with the +foundations laid for ailments that will last them all their life long. +You know as well as I do that this is the simple truth.</p> + +<p>In the summer you say to your good health: "Good-bye, I am going to +have a good time for a little while. I will be very glad to see you +again in the autumn." Then in the autumn, when you are hard at work in +your office, or store, or shop, or counting-room, Good Health will +come and say: "Good-bye, I am going." You say: "Where are you going?" +"Oh," says Good Health, "I am going to take a vacation!" It is a poor +rule that will not work both ways, and your good health will leave you +choleric and splenetic and exhausted. You coquetted with your good +health in the summer-time, and your good health is coquetting with you +in the winter-time. A fragment of Paul's charge to the jailer would be +an appropriate inscription for the hotel-register in every +watering-place: "Do thyself no harm."</p> + +<p>IV. Another temptation hovering around the watering-place is to the +formation of hasty and life-long alliances. The watering-places are +responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than +all the other things combined. Society is so artificial there that no +sure judgment of character can be formed. Those who form +companionships amid such circumstances go into a lottery where there +are twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe tug of life you want +more than glitter and splash. Life is not a ball-room where the music +decides the step, and bow and prance and graceful swing of long trail +can make up for strong common sense. You might as well go among the +gayly painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels as to go +among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character +that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah, in +the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a +croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it, +you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper +and a feminine butterfly.</p> + +<p>If there is any man in the community that excites my contempt, and +that ought to excite the contempt of every man and woman, it is the +soft-handed, soft-headed fop, who, perfumed until the air is actually +sick, spends his summer in taking killing attitudes, and waving +sentimental adieus, and talking infinitesimal nothings, and finding +his heaven in the set of a lavender kid-glove. Boots as tight as an +Inquisition, two hours of consummate skill exhibited in the tie of a +flaming cravat, his conversation made up of "Ah's" and "Oh's" and +"He-hee's." It would take five hundred of them stewed down to make a +teaspoonful of calves-foot jelly. There is only one counterpart to +such a man as that, and that is the frothy young woman at the +watering-place, her conversation made up of French moonshine; what she +has on her head only equaled by what she has on her back; useless ever +since she was born, and to be useless until she is dead: and what they +will do with her in the next world I do not know, except to set her +upon the banks of the River Life for eternity to look sweet! God +intends us to admire music and fair faces and graceful step, but amid +the heartlessness and the inflation and the fantastic influences of +our modern watering-places, beware how you make life-long covenants!</p> + +<p>V. Another temptation that will hover over the watering-place is that +of baneful literature. Almost every one starting off for the summer +takes some reading matter. It is a book out of the library or off the +bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking books through the cars. I +really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the +intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten +months of the year. Men and women who at home would not be satisfied +with a book that was not really sensible, I found sitting on +hotel-piazzas or under the trees reading books the index of which +would make them blush if they knew that you knew what the book was.</p> + +<p>"Oh," they say, "you must have intellectual recreation!" Yes. There is +no need that you take along into a watering-place "Hamilton's +Metaphysics" or some thunderous discourse on the eternal decrees, or +"Faraday's Philosophy." There are many easy books that are good. You +might as well say: "I propose now to give a little rest to my +digestive organs; and, instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I +will for a little while take lighter food—a little strychnine and a +few grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in August is as bad as +literary poison in December. Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the +lice of a corrupt printing-press jump and crawl into your Saratoga +trunk or White Mountain valise.</p> + +<p>Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning +some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered +romances—the hero a Parisian <i>roué</i>, the heroine an unprincipled +flirt—chapters in the book that you would not read to your children +at the rate of $100 a line? Throw out all that stuff from your summer +baggage. Are there not good books that are easy to read—books of +entertaining travel, books of congenial history, books of pure fun, +books of poetry ringing with merry canto, books of fine engravings, +books that will rest the mind as well as purify the heart and elevate +the whole life? My hearers, there will not be an hour between this +and the day of your death when you can afford to read a book lacking +in moral principle.</p> + +<p>VI. Another temptation hovering all around our watering-places is the +intoxicating beverage. I am told that it is becoming more and more +fashionable for woman to drink. I care not how well a woman may dress, +if she has taken enough of wine to flush her cheek and put glassiness +on her eyes, she is intoxicated. She may be handed into a $2500 +carriage, and have diamonds enough to confound the Tiffanys—she is +intoxicated. She may be a graduate of Packer Institute, and the +daughter of some man in danger of being nominated for the +Presidency—she is drunk. You may have a larger vocabulary than I +have, and you may say in regard to her that she is "convivial," or she +is "merry," or she is "festive," or she is "exhilarated," but you can +not with all your garlands of verbiage cover up the plain fact that it +is an old-fashioned case of drunk.</p> + +<p>Now, the watering-places are full of temptations to men and women to +tipple. At the close of the tenpin or billiard-game they tipple. At +the close of the cotillon they tipple. Seated on the piazza cooling +themselves off they tipple. The tinged glasses come around with bright +straws, and they tipple. First they take "light wines," as they call +them; but "light wines" are heavy enough to debase the appetite. There +is not a very long road between champagne at $5 a bottle and whiskey +at five cents a glass.</p> + +<p>Satan has three or four grades down which he takes men to destruction. +One man he takes up, and through one spree pitches him into eternal +darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom, indeed, can you find a man +who will be such a fool as that.</p> + +<p>When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to a plane. It is +almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly see +it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade, and +it tips only a little toward darkness—just a little. And the first +mile it is claret, and the second mile it is sherry, and the third +mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it +is porter, and the sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets steeper +and steeper and steeper, and the man gets frightened and says, "Oh, +let me get off!" "No," says the conductor, "this is an express train, +and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at +Smashupton." Ah, "look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last +it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." And if any young +man in my congregation should get astray this summer in this direction +it will not be because I have not given him fair warning.</p> + +<p>My friends, whether you tarry at home—which will be quite as safe and +perhaps quite as comfortable—or go into the country, arm yourself +against temptation. The grace of God is the only safe shelter, whether +in town or country. There are watering-places accessible to all of us. +You can not open a book of the Bible without finding out some such +watering-place. Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness; wells of +salvation; streams from Lebanon; a flood struck out of the rock by +Moses; fountains in the wilderness discovered by Hagar; water to +drink and water to bathe in; the river of God, which is full of water; +water of which if a man drink he shall never thirst; wells of water in +the Valley of Baca; living fountains of water; a pure river of water +as clear as crystal from under the throne of God.</p> + +<p>These are watering-places accessible to all of us. We do not have a +laborious packing up before we start—only the throwing away of our +transgressions. No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is "without money +and without price." No long and dirty travel before we get there; it +is only one step away. California in five minutes. I walked around and +saw ten fountains, all bubbling up, and they were all different. And +in five minutes I can get through this Bible <i>parterre</i> and find you +fifty bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up into eternal life.</p> + +<p>A chemist will go to one of these summer watering-places and take the +water and analyze it and tell you that it contains so much of iron, +and so much of soda, and so much of lime, and so much of magnesia. I +come to this Gospel well, this living fountain and analyze the water, +and I find that its ingredients are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hope, +comfort, life, heaven. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye" to this +watering-place!</p> + +<p>Crowd around this Bethesda this morning! Oh, you sick, you lame, you +troubled, you dying—crowd around this Bethesda! Step in it! Oh, step +in it! The angel of the covenant this morning stirs the water. Why do +you not step in it? Some of you are too weak to take a step in that +direction. Then we take you up in the arms of our closing prayer and +plunge you clean under the wave, hoping that the cure may be as sudden +and as radical as with Captain Naaman, who, blotched and carbuncled, +stepped into the Jordan, and after the seventh dive came up, his skin +roseate-complexioned as the flesh of a little child.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="the_banished_queen" id="the_banished_queen"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE BANISHED QUEEN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal + house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day + when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded + Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and + Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of + Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king + with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her + beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti + refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains; + therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in + him."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Esther</span> i: 9-12.</p> +<br /> + +<p>We stand amid the palaces of Shushan. The pinnacles are aflame with +the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth +of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with images +of bird and beast, and scenes of prowess and conquest. The walls are +hung with shields, and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round +of splendors is exhausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural +achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings +of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the +greenness of the grass, and the whiteness of the sea-foam. Tapestries +hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. +Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled +with luxuriant couches, in which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is +submerged. Those for carousal, where kings drink down a kingdom at one +swallow.</p> + +<p>Amazing spectacle!</p> + +<p>Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. +Floors of stained marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with +gleaming pearl.</p> + +<p>In connection with this palace there is a garden, where the mighty men +of foreign lands are seated at a banquet. Under the spread of oak and +linden and acacia the tables are arranged. The breath of honeysuckle +and frankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the +spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon +flowering shrubs—then rolling down through channels of marble, and +widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes +of foreign aquariums, bordered with scarlet anemones, hypericums, and +many-colored ranunculi.</p> + +<p>Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics. +The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with +apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully +twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eulæus filling the +urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the +traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz, in bottles +of tinged shell, and lily-shaped cups of silver, and flagons and +tankards of solid gold. The music rises higher, and the revelry breaks +out into wilder transport, and the wine has flushed the cheek and +touched the brain, and louder than all other voices are the hiccough +of the inebriates, the gabble of fools, and the song of the drunkards.</p> + +<p>In another part of the palace, Queen Vashti is entertaining the +princesses of Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his +servants, "You go out and fetch Vashti from, that banquet with the +women, and bring her to this banquet with the men, and let me display +her beauty." The servants immediately start to obey the king's +command; but there was a rule in Oriental society that no woman might +appear in public without having her face veiled. Yet here was a +mandate that no one dare dispute, demanding that Vashti come in +unveiled before the multitude. However, there was in Vashti's soul a +principle more regal than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than the gold of +Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her +to disobey this order of the king; and so all the righteousness and +holiness and modesty of her nature rise up into one sublime refusal. +She says, "I will not go into the banquet unveiled." Ahasuerus was +infuriate; and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is +driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation, and +yet to receive the applause of after generations, who shall rise up to +admire this martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the last vestige of that +feast is gone; the last garland has faded; the last arch has fallen; +the last tankard has been destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but as +long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, +familiar with the Bible, who will come into this picture-gallery of +God and admire the divine portrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti the +veiled, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti the queen. A +blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated +her queenly position. It was no small honor to be queen in such a +realm as that. Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her +jewels! And yet, my friends, it is not necessary to have place and +regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with stout faith +in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and godless +display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by a grand +and a glorious service, I say: "That woman is a queen," and the ranks +of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation; and whether +she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the +fashionable square, I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen +Vashti!"</p> + +<p>What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of +England, or Margaret of France, or Catherine of Russia, compared with +the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into +glory?—or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all +into the Lord's treasury?—or of Jephtha's daughter, who made a +demonstration of unselfish patriotism?—or of Abigail, who rescued the +herds and flocks of her husband? —or of Ruth, who toiled under a +tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi?—or of Florence +Nightingale, who went at midnight to stanch the battle wounds of the +Crimea?—or of Mrs. Adoniram Judson, who kindled the lights of +salvation amid the darkness of Burmah?—or of Mrs. Hemans, who poured +out her holy soul in words which will forever be associated with +hunter's horn, and captive's chain, and bridal hour, and lute's throb, +and curfew's knell at the dying day?—and scores and hundreds of +women, unknown on earth, who have given water to the thirsty, and +bread to the hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles to the +discouraged—their footsteps heard along dark lane and in government +hospital, and in almshouse corridor, and by prison gate? There may be +no royal robe—there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not +need them; for all charitable men will unite with the crackling lips +of fever-struck hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in greeting her +as she passes: "Hail! Hail! Queen Vashti!"</p> + +<p>II. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared +before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she +would have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the +very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come, in their +sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive +best in the dark lane and in the shadow, and where the sun does not +seem to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures a retiring +and unobtrusive spirit.</p> + +<p>God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to +strike the timbrel at the front of a host, or a Marie Antoinette to +quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at the front of an armed +battalion, crying out, "Up! Up! This is the day in which the Lord will +deliver Sisera into thy hands." And when the women are called to such +out-door work and to such heroic positions, God prepares them for it; +and they have iron in their soul, and lightnings in their eye, and +whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord +Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though +they were hedges of wild-flowers, and cross seas as though they were +shimmering sapphire; and all the harpies of hell down to their dungeon +at the stamp of womanly indignation.</p> + +<p>But these are the exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather make a +garment for the poor boy; Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the +camels; Hannah would rather make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid +would rather give a prescription for Naaman's leprosy; the woman of +Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks to cook a meal for famished +Elijah; Phebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle; +Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures. When I see +a woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity presiding at +the table, with kind and gentle, but firm discipline presiding in the +nursery, going out into the world without any blast of trumpets, +following in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good—I say: +"This is Vashti with a veil on."</p> + +<p>But when I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a +tongue of infinite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing +through the streets with the step of a walking-beam, gayly arrayed in +a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out: "Vashti has lost her veil!" +When I see a woman struggling for political preferment—trying to +force her way on up to the ballot-box, amid the masculine demagogues +who stand, with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and pestiferous +breath, to guard the polls—wanting to go through the loaferism and +the defilement of popular sovereigns, who crawl up from the saloons +greasy and foul and vermin-covered, to decide questions of justice and +order and civilization—when I see a woman, I say, who wants to press +through all that horrible scum to get to the ballot-box, I say: "Ah, +what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil!"</p> + +<p>When I see a woman of comely features, and of adroitness of intellect, +and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high +social position, yet moving in society with superciliousness and +<i>hauteur</i>, as though she would have people know their place, and with +an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed +with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic +infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and railroad +conductors, discoverers of significant meanings in plain conversation, +prodigies of badinage and innuendo—I say: "Vashti has lost her veil."</p> + +<p>III. Again, I want you this morning to consider Vashti the sacrifice. +Who is this that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It +seems to me that I have seen her before. She comes homeless, +houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? +It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh! what a change it was from regal +position to a wayfarer's crust! A little while ago, approved and +sought for; now, none so poor as to acknowledge her acquaintanceship. +Vashti the sacrifice!</p> + +<p>Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home empalaced with +beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home +has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking +hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will +flounder and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter's net—further +away from God, further away from the right. Soon the bright apparel of +the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become +the sobbing of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal +Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapithæ. The house full of +outrage and cruelty and abomination, while trudging forth from the +palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes represented +in this house this morning that are in danger of such breaking-up. Oh, +Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a home, by a dissipated life +destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your +children should ever have to wring their hands, and have people point +their finger at them as they pass down the street, and say, "There +goes a drunkard's child." God forbid that the little feet should ever +have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness! God forbid that +any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or the brandy-glass should come +forth and uproot that garden, and with a lasting, blistering, +all-consuming curse, shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and +the children.</p> + +<p>One night during the war I went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and +I stood on a hill-top and looked down upon them. I saw the camp-fires +all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird +spectacle, those camp-fires, and I stood and watched them; and the +soldiers who were gathered around them were, no doubt, talking of +their homes, and of the long march they had taken, and of the battles +they were to fight; but after awhile I saw these camp-fires begin to +lower; and they continued to lower, until they were all gone out, and +the army slept. It was imposing when I saw the camp-fires; it was +imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep. +Well, God looks down from heaven, and He sees the fireside of +Christendom and the loved ones gathered around these firesides. These +are the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at the close of day, and +talk over the battles of life we have fought and the battles that are +yet to come. God grant that when at last these fires begin to go out, +and continue to lower until finally they are extinguished, and the +ashes of consumed hopes strew the hearth of the old homestead, it may +be because we have</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Gone to sleep that last long sleep,<br /></span> +<span>From which none ever wake to weep."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now we are an army on the march of life. Then we shall be an army +bivouacked in the tent of the grave.</p> + +<p>IV. Once more: I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not +hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace +gate. From the very dignity of her nature, you know there will be no +vociferation. Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; +sometimes in life it is necessary to resist; but there are crises when +the most triumphant thing to do is to keep silence. The philosopher, +confident in his newly discovered principle, waited for the coming of +more intelligent generations, willing that men should laugh at the +lightning-rod and cotton-gin and steam-boat—waiting for long years +through the scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand and +magnificent silence.</p> + +<p>Galileo, condemned by mathematicians and monks and cardinals, +caricatured everywhere, yet waiting and watching with his telescope to +see the coming up of stellar reenforcements, when the stars in their +courses would fight for the Copernican system; then sitting down in +complete blindness and deafness to wait for the coming on of the +generations who would build his monument and bow at his grave. The +reformer, execrated by his contemporaries, fastened in a pillory, the +slow fires of public contempt burning under him, ground under the +cylinders of the printing-press, yet calmly waiting for the day when +purity of soul and heroism of character will get the sanction of earth +and the plaudits of heaven.</p> + +<p>Affliction enduring without any complaint the sharpness of the pang, +and the violence of the storm, and the heft of the chain, and the +darkness of the night—waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth +to soothe the pang, and hush the storm, and release the captive. A +wife abused, persecuted, and a perpetual exile from every earthly +comfort—waiting, waiting, until the Lord shall gather up His dear +children in a heavenly home, and no poor Vashti will ever be thrust +out from the palace gate.</p> + +<p>Jesus, in silence and answering not a word, drinking the gall, bearing +the cross, in prospect of the rapturous consummation when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Angels thronged their chariot wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bore Him to His throne,<br /></span> +<span>Then swept their golden harps and sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'The glorious work is done!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oh, woman! does not this story of Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled, +Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your soul? My sermon +converges into the one absorbing hope that none of you may be shut out +of the palace gate of heaven. You can endure the hardships, and the +privations, and the cruelties, and the misfortunes of this life if you +can only gain admission there. Through the blood of the everlasting +covenant you go through those gates, or never go at all. God forbid +that you should at last be banished from the society of angels, and +banished from the companionship of your glorified kindred, and +banished forever. Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may +you be enabled to imitate the example of Rachel, and Hannah, and +Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Esther, and Vashti.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_day_we_live_in" id="the_day_we_live_in"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE DAY WE LIVE IN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a + time as this?"— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Esther</span> iv. 14.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The +time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in +behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was +afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but +her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the +suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that +peculiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work; you and I +have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women +you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the age in which +God has cast your lot. If you have come expecting to hear abstractions +discussed, or dry technicalities of religion glorified, you have come +to the wrong church; but if you really would like to know what this +age has a right to expect of you as Christian men and women, then I am +ready in the Lord's name to look you in the face. When two armies have +rushed into battle the officers of either army do not want a +philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood +or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the batteries +and swab out the guns. And now, when all the forces of light and +darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged into the fight, it is no +time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and +technicalities and conventionalities of religion.</p> + +<p>What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic, and +triumphant help.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this +age, you need to be an unmistakably aggressive Christian. Of +half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The Church of Jesus +Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief +obstacle to the Church's advancement. I am speaking of another kind of +Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian +are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad +daylight of God's forgiveness. You may have come into this Tabernacle +the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you go out of these doors +you may become princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what +excitement there was in this country, years ago, when the Prince of +Wales came here—how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to +see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon +the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the +honor to which God calls you—to be sons and daughters of the Lord +Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings unto God? "They shall reign with +Him forever and forever."</p> + +<p>But, my friends, you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like +those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces +and wondering why they do not make any progress. How much robustness +of health would a man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great +deal of the piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It +needs more fresh air, more out-door exercise. There are many +Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They +are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their +spiritual health. How long would a man have robust physical health if +he kept all the days and weeks and months and years of his life +feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, every-day +work?</p> + +<p>I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North +Carolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and +yet when I would take up one of these cactuses and pull the leaves +apart, the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever +been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day +just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in +them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of +self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their +Christian character. I remember when I was a boy I used to have a +small piece in the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn +there, and every few days I would pull it up to see how fast it was +growing. Now, there are a great many Christian people in this day +whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which +they only yesterday or the day before planted.</p> + +<p>O my friends! if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, +plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian +usefulness, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun +of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a +great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. I +have no patience with these flower-pot Christians. They keep +themselves under shelter, and all their Christian experience in a +small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great +garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic +with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the Church of God is +more brawn of piety.</p> + +<p>The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, +but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets +whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom; so I have +really more heartfelt admiration when I see the dewy tears in the blue +eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christian friends, +time is going by so rapidly that we can not afford to be idle.</p> + +<p>A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only +thirty-two years. From these thirty-two years you must subtract all +the time you take for sleep and the taking of food and recreation; +that will leave you about sixteen years. From those sixteen years you +must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the +earning of a livelihood; that will leave you about eight years. From +those eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months—all +the length of time that is passed in childhood and sickness, leaving +you about one year in which to work for God. Oh, my soul, wake up! +How darest thou sleep in harvest-time and with so few hours in which +to reap? So that I state it as a simple fact that all the time that +the vast majority of you will have for the exclusive service of God +will be less than one year!</p> + +<p>"But," says some man, "I liberally support the Gospel, and the church +is open and the Gospel is preached: all the spiritual advantages are +spread before men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be +saved; I have discharged all my responsibility." Ah! is that the +Master's spirit? Is there not an old Book somewhere that commands us +to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to +come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come +down off the hills of heaven, and if He had not come through the door +of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if He had not with the crushed hand +of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our +spiritual death, crying, "Lazarus, come forth"? Oh, my Christian +friends, this is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness +seem to be in full blast; when steam printing-presses are publishing +infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers +of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the +night-air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up +from the ten thousand saloons of dissipation and abandonment; when the +fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some +who, only a little while ago, were incorrupt. Oh, never since the +curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an +unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the Church to sleep! +The great audiences are not gathered in the Christian churches; the +great audiences are gathered in temples of sin—tears of unutterable +woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their +sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world +the organ dirge of their worship.</p> + +<p>II. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this +age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless +iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick too much to things because +they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories +of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many +Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their +confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are +useless, and they are unhappy. New plans—secular, ethical, +philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic—long enough to +make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake +City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is +new. Try it by the realities of a Judgment Day.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, do not adhere to any thing merely because it +is old. There is not a single enterprise of the Church or the world +but has sometimes been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided +even Bible societies; and when a few young men met near a hay-stack in +Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever +organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around +the Christian Church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And +so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who +ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever +noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of +mysterious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and +Gennesaret, and he drew his illustration from the lakes, from the +sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the corn-stalks. How the +Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! How Caiaphas hissed! And this +Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they spat in his face, and they +called him "this fellow!" All the great enterprises in and out of the +Church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great +multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall +to pieces if it once got out of the old rut.</p> + +<p>And so there are those who have no patience with anything like +improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, +hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious +discussion which goes down walking among every-day men rather than +that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the +Church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! We must admit +the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not +reach the great masses. There are fifty thousand people in Edinburgh +who never hear the Gospel. There are one million people in London who +never hear the Gospel. There are at least three hundred thousand souls +in the city of Brooklyn who come not under the immediate ministrations +of Christ's truth; and the Church of God in this day, instead of being +a place full of living epistles, read and known of all men, is more +like a "dead-letter" post-office.</p> + +<p>"But," say the people, "the world is going to be converted; you must +be patient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of +Christ," Never, unless the Church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed +and energy. Instead of the Church converting the world, the world is +converting the Church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it be +taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off the supplies, +and says: "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation +they will have to give up." Weeks and months, and perhaps a year, pass +along, and finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and +exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be +taken in that way. If they are taken for God it will be by storm; you +will have to bring up the great siege guns of the Gospel to the very +wall and wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed +infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to +give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!"</p> + +<p>Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order +to this grand accomplishment! Here is my pulpit, and I preach in it. +Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit is the +editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house +scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanic's shop. I may stand in this +place and, through cowardice or through self-seeking, may keep back +the word I ought to utter; while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow +besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations +of heaven with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that this morning +this whole audience might feel that the Lord Almighty was putting upon +them the hands of ordination. I tell you, every one, go forth and +preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as +any man has. Only find out the pulpit where God will have you preach, +and there preach.</p> + +<p>Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God +came to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed +at him, and said: "You are a hypocrite; you are as bad as ever you +were." Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding +that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they +said to him: "Oh, you are nothing but a Methodist." That did not +disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had +formed all his troop into a Bible-class, and the whole encampment was +shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen +temple in India while the English army was there, and put a candle +into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the +heathen temple, and by the light of those candles, held up by the +idols, General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance, and +judgment to come. And who will say, on earth or in Heaven, that +Havelock had not the right to preach?</p> + +<p>In the minister's house where I prepared for college, there was a man +who worked, by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor +write, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the +house—grave theologians—and at family prayers Peter Croy would be +called upon to lead; and all those wise men sat around, wonder-struck +at his religious efficiency. When he prayed he reached up and seemed +to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with +God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting-room. Oh, +if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my +bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatest +archbishop, arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach this Gospel. You +say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, this +morning, I license you. Go preach this Gospel—preach it in the +Sabbath-schools, in the prayer-meetings, in the highways, in the +hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not.</p> + +<p>III. I remark, again, that in order to be qualified to meet your duty +in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the +truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian Church +ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How +long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom or +shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when He once arises in +His strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity? Between this +time and that there may be long seasons of darkness—the +chariot-wheels of God's Gospel may seem to drag heavily; but here is +the promise, and yonder is the throne; and when Omniscience has lost +its eyesight, and Omnipotence falls back impotent, and Jehovah is +driven from His throne, then the Church of Jesus Christ can afford to +be despondent, but never until then. Despots may plan and armies may +march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are +adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the +earth are only the dust of the chariot-wheels of God's providence.</p> + +<p>I think that before the sun of this century shall set the last tyranny +will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the +astonishment of the universe God will set forth the brightness and +pomp and glory and perpetuity of His eternal government. Out of the +starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a +path for His own triumph, and, returning from universal conquest, He +will sit down, the grandest, strongest, highest throne of earth His +footstool.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Then shall all nations' song ascend<br /></span> +<span>To Thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend,<br /></span> +<span>Till heaven's high arch resounds again<br /></span> +<span>With 'Peace on earth, good will to men.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I preach this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers +in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on! march +on! His Spirit will bless you. His shield will defend you. His sword +will strike for you. March on! march on! The despotism will fall, and +paganism will burn its idols, and Mohammedanism will give up its false +prophet, and Judaism will confess the true Messiah, and the great +walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at the long, +loud blast of the Gospel trumpet. March on! march on! The besiegement +will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few +more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries, then God will put the +laurel upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will +bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March +on! march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid +the outflashings of the judgment throne, and the trumpeting of +resurrection angels, and the upheaving of a world of graves, and the +hosanna and the groaning of the saved and the lost, we shall be +rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our stupidity. Blessed +be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the +whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="capital_and_labor" id="capital_and_labor"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CAPITAL AND LABOR.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so + to them."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Matt.</span> vii: 12.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. +The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty +Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five +continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this +country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of +power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are +diminishing; and if things go on at the same ratio as they are now +going, it will not be very long before there will be no middle class +in this country, but all will be very rich or very poor, princes or +paupers, and the country will be given up to palaces and hovels.</p> + +<p>The antagonistic forces are closing in upon each other. The +telegraphic operators' strikes, the railroad employés' strikes, the +Pennsylvania miners' strikes, the movements of the Boycotters and the +dynamiters are only skirmishes before a general engagement, or, if you +prefer it, escapes through the safety-valves of an imprisoned force +which promises the explosion of society. You may pooh-pooh it; you may +say that this trouble, like an angry child, will cry itself to sleep; +you may belittle it by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. +Simonism, or Nihilism, or Communism; but that will not hinder the fact +that it is the mightiest, the darkest, the most terrific threat of +this century. All attempts at pacification have been dead failures, +and monopoly is more arrogant, and the trades unions more bitter. +"Give us more wages," cry the employés. "You shall have less," say the +capitalists. "Compel us to do fewer hours of toil in a day." "You +shall toil more hours," say the others. "Then, under certain +conditions, we will not work at all," say these. "Then you shall +starve," say those, and the workmen gradually using up that which they +accumulated in better times, unless there be some radical change, we +shall have soon in this country three million hungry men and women. +Now, three million hungry people can not be kept quiet. All the +enactments of legislatures and all the constabularies of the cities, +and all the army and navy of the United States can not keep three +million hungry people quiet. What then? Will this war between capital +and labor be settled by human wisdom? Never. The brow of the one +becomes more rigid, the fist of the other more clinched.</p> + +<p>But that which human wisdom can not achieve will be accomplished by +Christianity if it be given full sway. You have heard of medicines so +powerful that one drop would stop a disease and restore a patient; and +I have to tell you that one drop of my text properly administered will +stop all those woes of society and give convalescence and complete +health to all classes. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them."</p> + +<p>I shall first show you this morning how this quarrel between monopoly +and hard work can not be stopped, and then I will show you how this +controversy will be settled.</p> + +<p>Futile remedies. In the first place, there will come no pacification +to this trouble through an outcry against rich men merely because they +are rich. There is no member of a trades-union on earth that would not +be rich if he could be. Sometimes through a fortunate invention, or +through some accident of prosperity, a man who had nothing comes to +large estate, and we see him arrogant and supercilious, and taking +people by the throat just as other people took him by the throat. +There is something very mean about human nature when it comes to the +top. But it is no more a sin to be rich than it is a sin to be poor. +There are those who have gathered a great estate through fraud, and +then there are millionaires who have gathered their fortune through +foresight in regard to changes in the markets, and through brilliant +business faculty, and every dollar of their estate is as honest as the +dollar which the plumber gets for mending a pipe, or the mason gets +for building a wall. There are those who keep in poverty because of +their own fault. They might have been well-off, but they smoked or +chewed up their earnings, or they lived beyond their means, while +others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to +competency. I know a man who is all the time complaining of his +poverty and crying out against rich men, while he himself keeps two +dogs, and chews and smokes, and is filled to the chin with whisky and +beer!</p> + +<p>Micawber said to David Copperfield: "Copperfield, my boy, one pound +income, twenty shillings and sixpence expenses: result misery. But, +Copperfield, my boy, one pound income, expenses nineteen shillings and +sixpence; result, happiness." And there are vast multitudes of people +who are kept poor because they are the victims of their own +improvidence. It is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin to be poor. I +protest against this outcry which I hear against those who, through +economy and self-denial and assiduity, have come to large fortune. +This bombardment of commercial success will never stop this quarrel +between capital and labor.</p> + +<p>Neither will the contest be settled by cynical and unsympathetic +treatment of the laboring classes. There are those who speak of them +as though they were only cattle or draught horses. Their nerves are +nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing, their happiness is +nothing. They have no more sympathy for them than a hound has for a +hare, or a hawk for a hen, or a tiger for a calf. When Jean Valjean, +the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after a life of suffering +and brave endurance, goes into incarceration and death, they clap the +book shut and say, "Good for him!" They stamp their feet with +indignation and say just the opposite of "Save the working-classes." +They have all their sympathies with Shylock, and not with Antonio and +Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feelings are infernal. They are +filled with irritation and irascibility on this subject. To stop this +awful imbroglio between capital and labor they will lift not so much +as the tip end of the little finger.</p> + +<p>Neither will there be any pacification of this angry controversy +through violence. God never blessed murder.</p> + +<p>The poorest use you can put a man to is to kill him. Blow up to-morrow +all the country-seats on the banks of the Hudson, and all the fine +houses on Madison Square, and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill, and +Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon Street, and all the bricks and timber +and stone will just fall back on the bare head of American labor. The +worst enemies of the working-classes in the United States and Ireland +are their demented coadjutors. Assassination—the assassination of +Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, +Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned +away from that afflicted people millions of sympathizers. The recent +attempt to blow up the House of Commons, in London, had only this +effect: to throw out of employment tens of thousands of innocent Irish +people in England.</p> + +<p>In this country the torch put to the factories that have discharged +hands for good or bad reason; obstructions on the rail-track in front +of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the +president of the company; strikes on shipboard the hour they were +going to sail, or in printing-offices the hour the paper was to go to +press, or in mines the day the coal was to be delivered, or on house +scaffoldings so the builder fails in keeping his contract—all these +are only a hard blow on the head of American labor, and cripple its +arms, and lame its feet, and pierce its heart. Take the last great +strike in America—the telegraph operators' strike—and you have to +find that the operators lost four hundred thousand dollars' worth of +wages, and have had poorer wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly +upon employers, and violence, never took one knot out of the knuckle +of toil, or put one farthing of wages into a callous palm. Barbarism +will never cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark that!</p> + +<p>Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and +he resolved to get it. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller +three times the value of the property. The miller would not take it, +because it was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt +about his vineyard when Ahab wanted it. Frederick the Great was a +rough and terrible man, and he ordered the miller into his presence; +and the king, with a stick, in his hand—a stick with which he +sometimes struck his officers of state—said to this miller: "Now, I +have offered you three times the value of that property, and if you +won't sell it I'll take it anyhow." The miller said, "Your majesty, +you won't." "Yes," said the king, "I will take it." "Then," said the +miller, "if your majesty does take it, I will sue you in the Chancery +Court." At that threat Frederick the Great yielded his infamous +demand. And the most imperious outrage against the working-classes +will yet cower before the law. Violence and contrary to the law will +never accomplish anything, but righteousness and according to law will +accomplish it.</p> + +<p>Well, if this controversy between Capital and Labor can not be settled +by human wisdom, if to-day Capital and Labor stand with their thumbs +on each other's throat—as they do—it is time for us to look +somewhere else for relief, and it points from my text roseate and +jubilant, and puts one hand on the broadcloth shoulder of Capital, and +puts the other hand on the homespun-covered shoulder of Toil, and +says, with a voice that will grandly and gloriously settle this, and +settle everything, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do +ye even so to them." That is, the lady of the household will say: "I +must treat the maid in the kitchen just as I would like to be treated +if I were down-stairs, and it were my work to wash, and cook, and +sweep, and it were the duty of the maid in the kitchen to preside in +this parlor." The maid in the kitchen must say: "If my employer seems +to be more prosperous than I, that is no fault of hers; I shall not +treat her as an enemy. I will have the same industry and fidelity +down-stairs as I would expect from my subordinates, if I happened to +be the wife of a silk importer."</p> + +<p>The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before +leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing +into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there +stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and +the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in +here. You look very much exhausted. I hear your child is sick with +scarlet fever. If you want your wages a little earlier this week, so +as to pay the nurse and get the medicines, just come into my office +any time."</p> + +<p>After awhile, crash goes the money market, and there is no more demand +for the articles manufactured in that iron mill, and the owner does +not know what to do. He says, "Shall I stop the mill, or shall I run +it on half time, or shall I cut down the men's wages?" He walks the +floor of his counting-room all day, hardly knowing what to do. Toward +evening he calls all the laborers together. They stand all around, +some with arms akimbo, some with folded arms, wondering what the boss +is going to do now. The manufacturer says: "Men, times are very hard; +I don't make twenty dollars where I used to make one hundred. Somehow, +there is no demand now for what we manufacture, or but very little +demand. You see I am at vast expense, and I have called you together +this afternoon to see what you would advise. I don't want to shut up +the mill, because that would force you out of work, and you have +always been very faithful, and I like you, and you seem to like me, +and the bairns must be looked after, and your wife will after awhile +want a new dress. I don't know what to do."</p> + +<p>There is a dead halt for a minute or two, and then one of the workmen +steps out from the ranks of his fellows, and says: "Boss, you have +been very good to us, and when you prospered we prospered, and now you +are in a tight place and I am sorry, and we have got to sympathize +with you. I don't know how the others feel, but I propose that we take +off twenty per cent. from our wages, and that when the times get good +you will remember us and raise them again." The workman looks around +to his comrades, and says: "Boys, what do you say to this? all in +favor of my proposition will say ay." "Ay! ay! ay!" shout two hundred +voices.</p> + +<p>But the mill-owner, getting in some new machinery, exposes himself +very much, and takes cold, and it settles into pneumonia, and he dies. +In the procession to the tomb are all the workmen, tears rolling down +their cheeks, and off upon the ground; but an hour before the +procession gets to the cemetery the wives and the children of those +workmen are at the grave waiting for the arrival of the funeral +pageant. The minister of religion may have delivered an eloquent +eulogium before they started from the house, but the most impressive +things are said that day by the working-classes standing around the +tomb.</p> + +<p>That night in all the cabins of the working-people where they have +family prayers the widowhood and the orphanage in the mansion are +remembered. No glaring populations look over the iron fence of the +cemetery; but, hovering over the scene, the benediction of God and man +is coming for the fulfillment of the Christlike injunction, +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them."</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some man here, "that is all Utopian, that is apocryphal, +that is impossible." No. Yesterday, I cut out of a paper this: "One of +the pleasantest incidents recorded in a long time is reported from +Sheffield, England. The wages of the men in the iron works at +Sheffield are regulated by a board of arbitration, by whose decision +both masters and men are bound. For some time past the iron and steel +trade has been extremely unprofitable, and the employers can not, +without much loss, pay the wages fixed by the board, which neither +employers nor employed have the power to change. To avoid this +difficulty, the workmen in one of the largest steel works in Sheffield +hit upon a device as rare as it was generous. They offered to work for +their employers one week without any pay whatever. How much better +that plan is than a strike would be."</p> + +<p>But you go with me and I will show you—not so far off as Sheffield, +England—factories, banking-houses, storehouses, and costly +enterprises where this Christ-like injunction of my text is fully +kept, and you could no more get the employer to practice an injustice +upon his men, or the men to conspire against the employer, than you +could get your right hand and your left hand, your right eye and your +left eye, your right ear and your left ear, into physiological +antagonism. Now, where is this to begin? In our homes, in our stores, +on our farms—not waiting for other people to do their duty. Is there +a divergence now between the parlor and the kitchen? Then there is +something wrong, either in the parlor or the kitchen, perhaps in both. +Are the clerks in your store irate against the firm? Then there is +something wrong, either behind the counter, or in the private office, +or perhaps in both.</p> + +<p>The great want of the world to-day is the fulfillment of this +Christ-like injunction, that which He promulgated in His sermon +Olivetic. All the political economists under the arch or vault of the +heavens in convention for a thousand years can not settle this +controversy between monopoly and hard work, between capital and labor. +During the Revolutionary War there was a heavy piece of timber to be +lifted, perhaps for some fortress, and a corporal was overseeing the +work, and he was giving commands to some soldiers as they lifted: +"Heave away, there! yo heave!" Well, the timber was too heavy; they +could not get it up. There was a gentleman riding by on a horse, and +he stopped and said to this corporal, "Why don't you help them lift? +That timber is too heavy for them to lift." "No," he said, "I won't; +I am a corporal." The gentleman got off his horse and came up to the +place. "Now," he said to the soldiers, "all together—yo heave!" and +the timber went to its place. "Now," said the gentleman to the +corporal, "when you have a piece of timber too heavy for the men to +lift, and you want help, you send to your commander-in-chief." It was +Washington. Now, that is about all the Gospel I know—the Gospel of +giving somebody a lift, a lift out of darkness, a lift out of earth +into heaven. That is all the Gospel I know—the Gospel of helping +somebody else to lift.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some wiseacre, "talk as you will, the law of demand and +supply will regulate these things until the end of time." No, they +will not, unless God dies and the batteries of the Judgment Day are +spiked, and Pluto and Proserpine, king and queen of the infernal +regions, take full possession of this world. Do you know who Supply +and Demand are? They have gone into partnership, and they propose to +swindle this earth and are swindling it. You are drowning. Supply and +Demand stand on the shore, one on one side, the other on the other +side, of the life-boat, and they cry out to you, "Now, you pay us what +we ask you for getting you to shore, or go to the bottom!" If you can +borrow $5000 you can keep from failing in business. Supply and Demand +say, "Now, you pay us exorbitant usury, or you go into bankruptcy." +This robber firm of Supply and Demand say to you: "The crops are +short. We bought up all the wheat and it is in our bin. Now, you pay +our price or starve." That is your magnificent law of supply and +demand.</p> + +<p>Supply and Demand own the largest mill on earth, and all the rivers +roll over their wheel, and into their hopper they put all the men, +women, and children they can shovel out of the centuries, and the +blood and the bones redden the valley while the mill grinds. That +diabolic law of supply and demand will yet have to stand aside, and +instead thereof will come the law of love, the law of cooperation, the +law of kindness, the law of sympathy, the law of Christ.</p> + +<p>Have you no idea of the coming of such a time? Then you do not believe +the Bible. All the Bible is full of promises on this subject, and as +the ages roll on the time will come when men or fortune will be giving +larger sums to humanitarian and evangelistic purposes, and there will +be more James Lenoxes and Peter Coopers and William E. Dodges and +George Peabodys. As that time comes there will be more parks, more +picture-galleries, more gardens thrown open for the holiday people and +the working-classes.</p> + +<p>I was reading only this morning in regard to a charge that had been +made in England against Lambeth Palace, that it was exclusive; and +that charge demonstrated the sublime fact that to the grounds of that +wealthy estate eight hundred poor families have free passes, and forty +croquet companies, and on the hall-day holidays four thousand poor +people recline on the grass, walk through the paths, and sit under the +trees. That is Gospel—Gospel on the wing, Gospel out-of-doors worth +just as much as in-doors. That time is going to come.</p> + +<p>That is only a hint of what is going to be. The time is going to come +when, if you have anything in your house worth looking at—pictures, +pieces of sculpture—you are going to invite me to come and see it, +you are going to invite my friends to come and see it, and you will +say, "See what I have been blessed with. God has given me this, and so +far as enjoying it, it is yours also." That is Gospel.</p> + +<p>In crossing the Alleghany Mountains, many years ago, the stage halted, +and Henry Clay dismounted from the stage, and went out on a rock at +the very verge of the cliff, and he stood there with his cloak wrapped +about him, and he seemed to be listening for something. Some one said +to him, "What are you listening for?" Standing there, on the top of +the mountain, he said: "I am listening to the tramp of the footsteps +of the coming millions of this continent." A sublime posture for an +American statesman! You and I to-day stand on the mountain-top of +privilege, and on the Rock of Ages, and we look off, and we hear +coming from the future the happy industries, and smiling populations, +and the consecrated fortunes, and the innumerable prosperities of the +closing nineteenth and the opening twentieth century.</p> + +<p>While I speak this morning, there lies in state the dead author and +patriot of France, Victor Hugo. The ten thousand dollars in his will +he has given to the poor of the city are only a hint of the work he +has done for all nations and for all times. I wonder not that they +allow eleven days to pass between his death and his burial, his body +meantime kept under triumphal arch, for the world can hardly afford to +let go this man who for more than eight decades has by his +unparalleled genius blessed it. His name shall be a terror to all +despots, and an encouragement to all the struggling. He has made the +world's burden lighter, and its darkness less dense, and its chain +less galling, and its thrones of iniquity less secure. Farewell, +patriot, genius of the century, Victor Hugo! But he was not the +overtowering friend of mankind.</p> + +<p>The greatest friend of capitalist and toiler, and the one who will yet +bring them together in complete accord, was born one Christmas night +while the curtains of heaven swung, stirred by the wings angelic. +Owner of all things—all the continents, all worlds, and all the +islands of light. Capitalist of immensity, crossing over to our +condition. Coming into our world, not by gate of palace, but by door +of barn. Spending His first night amid the shepherds. Gathering after +around Him the fishermen to be His chief attendants. With adze, and +saw, and chisel, and ax, and in a carpenter-shop showing himself +brother with the tradesmen. Owner of all things, and yet on a hillock +back of Jerusalem one day resigning everything for others, keeping not +so much as a shekel to pay for His obsequies, by charity buried in the +suburbs of a city that had cast Him out. Before the cross of such a +capitalist, and such a carpenter, all men can afford to shake hands +and worship. Here is the every man's Christ. None so high, but He was +higher. None so poor, but He was poorer. At His feet the hostile +extremes will yet renounce their animosities, and countenances which +have glowered with the prejudices and revenge of centuries shall +brighten with the smile of heaven as He commands: "Whatsoever ye would +that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="despotism_of_the_needle" id="despotism_of_the_needle"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are + done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power; but they had no + comforter."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Eccles.</span> iv: 1.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for +women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace +showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at +Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the +Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned +by some member of his royal family. So let the toiler everywhere be +respected!</p> + +<p>The needle has slain more than the sword. When the sewing-machine was +invented some thought that invention would alleviate woman's toil and +put an end to the despotism of the needle. But no; while the +sewing-machine has been a great blessing to well-to-do families in +many cases, it has added to the stab of the needle the crush of the +wheel; and multitudes of women, notwithstanding the re-enforcement of +the sewing-machines, can only make, work hard as they will, between +two dollars and three dollars per week.</p> + +<p>The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents +was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, +in their perfect state, might have got along without work, or only +such slight employment as a perfect garden with no weeds in it +demanded. But as soon as they had sinned, the best thing for them was +to be turned out where they would have to work. We know what a +withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to do. Old Ashbel +Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: "I +do so to keep out of mischief." We see that a man who has a large +amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand +prosperous and honorable men that you know, nine hundred and +ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to +tell you that industry is just as important for a woman's safety and +happiness. The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are those +who have no engagements to call them up in the morning; who, once +having risen and breakfasted, lounge through the dull forenoon in +slippers down at the heel and with disheveled hair, reading Ouida's +last novel, and who, having dragged through a wretched forenoon and +taken their afternoon sleep, and having passed an hour and a half at +their toilet, pick up their card-case and go out to make calls, and +who pass their evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break up +the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in so dark a +dungeon as that.</p> + +<p>There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may be with hand, it may be +with brain, it may be with foot; but work she must, or be wretched +forever. The little girls of our families must be started with that +idea.</p> + +<p>The curse of American society is that our young women are taught that +the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, +fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take +care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under +God they may take care of themselves. The simple fact is that a +majority of them do have to take care of themselves, and that, too, +after having, through the false notions of their parents, wasted the +years in which they ought to have learned how successfully to maintain +themselves. We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and +outrage of that father and mother who pass their daughters into +womanhood, having given them no facility for earning their livelihood. +Madame de Staël said: "It is not these writings that I am proud of, +but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of +which I could make a livelihood." You say you have a fortune to leave +them. Oh, man and woman, have you not learned that like vultures, like +hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and fly away? Though you should +be successful in leaving a competency behind you, the trickery of +executors may swamp it in a night? or some officials in our churches +may get up a mining company and induce your orphans to put their money +into a hole in Colorado, and if by the most skillful machinery the +sunken money can not be brought up again, prove to them, that it was +eternally decreed that that was the way they were to lose it, and that +it went in the most orthodox and heavenly style. Oh, the damnable +schemes that professed Christians will engage in until God puts His +fingers into the collar of the hypocrite's robe and strips it clear +down to the bottom! You have no right, because you are well off, to +conclude that your children are going to be as well off. A man died +leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead in a Philadelphia +grog-shop. His old comrades came in and said as they bent over his +corpse: "What is the matter with you, Boggsey?" The surgeon standing +over him said: "Hush ye! He is dead!" "Oh, he is dead," they said. +"Come, boys; let us go and take a drink in memory of poor Boggsey!" +Have you nothing better than money to leave your children? If you have +not, but send your daughters into the world with empty brain and +unskilled hand, you are guilty of assassination, homicide, regicide, +infanticide.</p> + +<p>There are women toiling in our cities for two and three dollars per +week who were the daughters of merchant princes. These suffering ones +now would be glad to have the crumbs that once fell from their +fathers' table. That worn-out, broken shoe that she wears is the +lineal descendant of the twelve-dollar gaiters in which her mother +walked; and that torn and faded calico had ancestry of magnificent +brocade that swept Broadway clean without any expense to the street +commissioners. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare +sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to +them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society +that, though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and +make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing +anything for a livelihood is dishonorable. It is a shame for a young +woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father +toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to +be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It is as honorable to +sweep the house, make beds or trim hats as it is to twist a +watch-chain.</p> + +<p>As far as I can understand, the line of respectability lies between +that which is useful and that which is useless. If women do that which +is of no value, their work is honorable. If they do practical work, it +is dishonorable. That our young women may escape the censure of doing +dishonorable work, I shall particularize. You may knit a tidy for the +back of an arm-chair, but by no means make the money wherewith to buy +the chair. You may with a delicate brush beautify a mantel ornament, +but die rather than earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You may learn +artistic music until you can squall Italian, but never sing +"Ortonville" or "Old Hundred." Do nothing practical if you would in +the eyes of refined society preserve your respectability. I scout +these fine notions. I tell you a woman, no more than a man, has a +right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it.</p> + +<p>In the course of a life-time you consume whole harvests and droves of +cattle, and every day you live, breathe forty hogsheads of good, pure +air. You must by some kind of usefulness pay for all this. Our race +was the last thing created—the birds and fishes on the fourth day, +the cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. If +geologists are right, the earth was a million of years in the +possession of the insects, beasts, and birds before our race came upon +it. In one sense we were innovators. The cattle, the lizards, and the +hawks had pre-emption right. The question is not what we are to do +with the lizards and summer insects, but what the lizards and summer +insects are to do with us. If we want a place in this world, we must +earn it. The partridge makes its own nest before it occupies it. The +lark by its morning song earns its breakfast before it eats it, and +the Bible gives an intimation that the first duty of an idler is to +starve when it says: "If he will not work, neither shall he eat." +Idleness ruins the health; and very soon nature says: "This man has +refused to pay his rent, out with him!" Society is to be reconstructed +on the subject of woman's toil. A vast majority of those who would +have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment +in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything that she can +do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, +or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for +sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for +delineating animals, let her make "The Horse Fair." If Miss Mitchell +will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will +be a merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will preach the +Gospel, let her thrill with her womanly eloquence the Quaker +meeting-house.</p> + +<p>It is said, If woman is given such opportunities she will occupy +places that might be taken by men. I say, If she have more skill and +adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have it! She has +as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home, as men +have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is +unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history +what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than +that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? The +battering-ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle-ax, have made no +such havoc as the needle. I would that these living sepulchers in +which women have for ages been buried might be opened, and that some +resurrection trumpet might bring up these living corpses to the fresh +air and sunlight.</p> + +<p>Go with me and I will show you a woman who by hardest toil supports +her children, her drunken husband, her old father and mother, pays her +house rent, always has wholesome food on her table, and when she can +get some neighbor on the Sabbath to come in and take care of her +family, appears in church with hat and cloak that are far from +indicating the toil to which she is subjected. Such a woman as that +has body and soul enough to fit her for any position. She could stand +beside the majority of your salesmen and dispose of more goods. She +could go into your wheelwright shops and beat one half of your workmen +at making carriages. We talk about woman as though we had resigned to +her all the light work, and ourselves had shouldered the heavier. But +the day of judgment, which will reveal the sufferings of the stake and +Inquisition, will marshal before the throne of God and the hierarchs +of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub and needle. Now, I say if there be +any preference in occupation, let women have it. God knows her trials +are the severest. By her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by her +hour of anguish, I demand that no one hedge up her pathway to a +livelihood. Oh! the meanness, the despicability of men who begrudge a +woman the right to work anywhere in any honorable calling!</p> + +<p>I go still further and say that woman should have equal compensation +with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our +cities get only two thirds as much pay as men, and in many cases only +half? Here is the gigantic injustice—that for work equally well, if +not better, done, woman receives far less compensation than man. Start +with the National Government. Women clerks in Washington get nine +hundred dollars for doing that for which men receive eighteen hundred +dollars. The wheel of oppression is rolling over the necks of +thousands of women who are at this moment in despair about what they +are to do. Many of the largest mercantile establishments of our cities +are accessory to these abominations, and from their large +establishments there are scores of souls being pitched off into death, +and their employers know it. Is there a God? Will there be a judgment? +I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs, many of our +large establishments will be swallowed up quicker than a South +American earthquake ever took down a city. God will catch these +oppressors between the two millstones of his wrath and grind them to +powder.</p> + +<p>Why is it that a female principal in a school gets only eight hundred +and twenty-five dollars for doing work for which a male principal gets +sixteen hundred and fifty dollars? I hear from all this land the wail +of womanhood. Man has nothing to answer to that wail but flatteries. +He says she is an angel. She is not. She knows she is not. She is a +human being who gets hungry when she has no food, and cold when she +has no fire. Give her no more flatteries; give her justice! There are +sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the +sunlight comes their death groan. It is not such a cry as comes from +those who are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding, +horrible wasting-away. Gather them before you and look into their +faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger-struck! Look at their fingers, +needle-pricked and blood-tipped! See that premature stoop in the +shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough! At a large meeting +of these women held in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were +delivered, but a needle-woman took the stand, threw aside her faded +shawl, and with her shriveled arm hurled a very thunder-bolt of +eloquence, speaking out the horrors of her own experience.</p> + +<p>Stand at the corner of a street in New York at six or seven o'clock in +the morning as the women go to work. Many of them had no breakfast +except the crumbs that were left over from the night before, or the +crumbs they chew on their way through the street. Here they come! The +working-girls of New York and Brooklyn. These engaged in head work, +these in flower-making, in millinery, in paper-box making; but, most +overworked of all and least compensated, the sewing-women. Why do they +not take the city cars on their way up? They can not afford the five +cents. If, concluding to deny herself something else, she gets into +the car, give her a seat. You want to see how Latimer and Ridley +appeared in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a more horrible +martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more agonizing death. Ask that woman how +much she gets for her work, and she will tell you six cents for making +coarse shirts and find her own thread.</p> + +<p>Years ago, one Sabbath night in the vestibule of this church, after +service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed +medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in +her delirium she said, gaspingly: "Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get +some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents!" We found afterward that she was making garments for eight +cents apiece, and that she could make but three of them in a day. Hear +it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have +comfortable homes! Some of the worst villains of our cities are the +employers of these women. They beat them down to the last penny and +try to cheat them out of that. The woman must deposit a dollar or two +before she gets the garments to work on. When the work is done it is +sharply inspected, the most insignificant flaws picked out, and the +wages refused and sometimes the dollar deposited not given back. The +Women's Protective Union reports a case where one of the poor souls, +finding a place where she could get more wages, resolved to change +employers, and went to get her pay for work done. The employer says: +"I hear you are going to leave me?" "Yes," she said, "and I have come +to get what you owe me." He made no answer. She said: "Are you not +going to pay me?" "Yes," he said, "I will pay you," and he kicked her +down-stairs.</p> + +<p>Oh, that Women's Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York! The +blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is +doing in the defense of toiling womanhood! What tragedies of suffering +are presented to them day by day! A paragraph from their report: "'Can +you make Mr. Jones pay me? He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, +and I can't get anything, and my child is very sick!' The speaker, a +young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke. +She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story +to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions. +Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50."</p> + +<p>Another paragraph from their report: "A fortnight had passed, when she +modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth. +'Oh, my dear,' he replied, 'you are getting to be one of the most +valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price. +Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.' And the +girl's fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate. The picture +of $10 a week had almost turned her head. A few nights later, while +crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the +conversation of girls who stood near: 'What, John Snipes? Why, he +don't pay! Look out for him every time. He'll keep you on trial, as he +calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let you go, and get some other +fool!' And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler. +But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth +of each of those days of 'trial.'"</p> + +<p>Another paragraph: "Her mortification may be imagined when told that +one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her +work was counterfeit. But her mortification was swallowed up in +indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and +insultingly asked her to prove it. When the Protective Union had +placed this matter in the courts, the judge said: 'You will pay +Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the +court.'"</p> + +<p>How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: "Give woman the +ballot." What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am +not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage +on women's wages? I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by +woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not +women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who +sews for them? Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and +milliners and mantua-makers? If a woman asks a dollar for her work, +does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety +cents? You say, "Only ten cents difference." But that is sometimes the +difference between heaven and hell. Women often have less +commiseration for women than men. If a woman steps aside from the path +of rectitude, man may forgive—woman never! Woman will never get +justice done her from woman's ballot. Neither will she get it from +man's ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more +resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate +when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her +oppressors.</p> + +<p>But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to +excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after awhile to get +larger wages. Unskilled and incompetent labor must take what is given: +skilled and competent labor will eventually make its own standard. +Admitting that the law of supply and demand regulates these things, I +contend that the demand for skilled labor is very great and the supply +very small. Start with the idea that work is honorable, and that you +can do some one thing better than anybody else. Resolve that, God +helping, you will take care of yourself. If you are after awhile +called into another relation you will all the better be qualified for +it by your spirit of self-reliance, or if you are called to stay as +you are, you can be happy and self-supporting.</p> + +<p>Poets are fond of talking about man as an oak and woman the vine that +climbs it; but I have seen many a tree fall that not only went down +itself, but took all the vines with it. I can tell you of something +stronger than an oak for an ivy to climb on, and that is the throne of +the great Jehovah. Single or affianced, that woman is strong who leans +on God and does her best. Many of you will go single-handed through +life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman, +I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling, +irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be +a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian. +What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more +thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she +will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her +sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The +dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene +closes—draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the +farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless +life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity.</p> + +<p>Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian +aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that +she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single, +that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the +sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went +with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick +pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she +was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam—just +the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to +fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody +who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from +her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she +ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well—auntie always +dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet +spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died +you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to +rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with +japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with +their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world +said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto +the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!"</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="tobacco_and_opium" id="tobacco_and_opium"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TOBACCO AND OPIUM.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding + seed."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Gen.</span> i: 11.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. +They preceded the brute creation and the human family—the grass for +the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and +took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and +took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for +food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for +anodyne as in case of paroxysm, for stimulant as when the pulses flag +under the weight of disease. The caterer comes and takes the herb and +presents it in all styles of delicacy. The physician comes and takes +the herb and compounds it for physical recuperation. Millions of +people come and take the herb for ruinous physical and intellectual +delectation. The herb, which was divinely created, and for good +purposes, has often been degraded for bad results. There is a useful +and a baneful employment of the herbaceous kingdom.</p> + +<p>There sprung up in Yucatan of this continent an herb that has +bewitched the world. In the fifteenth century it crossed the Atlantic +Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the +French embassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French +Empire. Then Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great +Britain. Nicotiana, ascribed to that genus by the botanists, but we +all know it is the exhilarating, elevating, emparadising, +nerve-shattering, dyspepsia-breeding, health-destroying tobacco. I +shall not in my remarks be offensively personal, because you all use +it, or nearly all! I know by experience how it soothes and roseates +the world, and kindles sociality, and I also know some of its baleful +results. I was its slave, and by the grace of God I have become its +conqueror. Tens of thousands of people have been asking the question +during the past two months, asking it with great pathos and great +earnestness: "Does the use of tobacco produce cancerous and other +troubles?" I shall not answer the question in regard to any particular +case, but shall deal with the subject in a more general way.</p> + +<p>You say to me, "Did God not create tobacco?" Yes. You say to me, "Is +not God good?" Yes. Well, then, you say, "If God is good and he +created tobacco, He must have created it for some good purpose." Yes, +your logic is complete. But God created the common sense at the same +time, by which we are to know how to use a poison and how not to use +it. God created that just as He created henbane and nux vomica and +copperas and belladonna and all other poisons, whether directly +created by Himself or extracted by man.</p> + +<p>That it is a poison no man of common sense will deny. A case was +reported where a little child lay upon its mother's lap and one drop +fell from a pipe to the child's lip, and it went into convulsions and +into death. But you say, "Haven't people lived on in complete use of +it to old age?" Oh, yes; just as I have seen inebriates seventy years +old. In Boston, years ago, there was a meeting in which there were +several centenarians, and they were giving their experience, and one +centenarian said that he had lived over a hundred years, and that he +ascribed it to the fact that he had refrained from the use of +intoxicating liquors. Right after him another centenarian said he had +lived over a hundred years, and he ascribed it to the fact that for +the last fifty years he had hardly seen a sober moment. It is an +amazing thing how many outrages men may commit upon their physical +system and yet live on. In the case of the man of the jug he lived on +because his body was pickled. In the case of the man of the pipe, he +lived on because his body turned into smoked liver!</p> + +<p>But are there no truths to be uttered in regard to this great evil? +What is the advice to be given to the multitude of young people who +hear me this day? What is the advice you are going to give to your +children?</p> + +<p>First of all, we must advise them to abstain from the use of tobacco +because all the medical fraternity of the United States and Great +Britain agree in ascribing to this habit terrific unhealth. The men +whose life-time work is the study of the science of health say so, and +shall I set up my opinion against theirs? Dr. Agnew, Dr. Olcott, Dr. +Barnes, Dr. Rush, Dr. Mott, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hosack—all the doctors, +allopathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, eclectic, denounce the habit as +a matter of unhealth. A distinguished physician declared he considered +the use of tobacco caused seventy different styles of disease, and he +says: "Of all the cases of cancer in the mouth that have come under my +observation, almost in every case it has been ascribed to tobacco."</p> + +<p>The united testimony of all physicians is that it depresses the +nervous system, that it takes away twenty-five per cent. of the +physical vigor of this generation, and that it goes on as the years +multiply and, damaging this generation with accumulated curse, it +strikes other centuries. And if it is so deleterious to the body, how +much more destructive to the mind. An eminent physician, who was the +superintendent of the insane asylum at Northampton, Massachusetts, +says: "Fully one half the patients we get in our asylum have lost +their intellect through the use of tobacco." If it is such a bad thing +to injure the body, what a bad thing, what a worse thing it is to +injure the mind, and any man of common sense knows that tobacco +attacks the nervous system, and everybody knows that the nervous +system attacks the mind.</p> + +<p>Besides that, all reformers will tell you that the use of tobacco +creates an unnatural thirst, and it is the cause of drunkenness in +America to-day more than anything else. In all cases where you find +men taking strong drink you find they use tobacco. There are men who +use tobacco who do not take strong drink, but all who use strong drink +use tobacco, and that shows beyond controversy there is an affinity +between the two products. There are reformers here to-day who will +testify to you it is impossible for a man to reform from taking strong +drink until he quits tobacco. In many of the cases where men have been +reformed from strong drink and have gone back to their cups, they +have testified that they first touched tobacco and then they +surrendered to intoxicants.</p> + +<p>I say in the presence of this assemblage to-day, in which there are +many physicians—and they know that what I say is true on the +subject—that the pathway to the drunkard's grave and the drunkard's +hell is strewn thick with tobacco-leaves. What has been the testimony +on this subject? Is this a mere statement of a preacher whose business +it is to talk morals, or is the testimony of the world just as +emphatic? What did Benjamin Franklin say? "I never saw a well man in +the exercise of common sense who would say that tobacco did him any +good." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Certainly he is good authority. +He says in regard to the culture of tobacco, "It is a culture +productive of infinite wretchdness." What did Horace Greeley say of +it? "It is a profane stench." What did Daniel Webster say of it? "If +those men must smoke, let them take the horse-shed!" One reason why +the habit goes on from destruction to destruction is that so many +ministers of the gospel take it. They smoke themselves into +bronchitis, and then the dear people have to send them to Europe to +get them restored from exhausting religious services! They smoke until +the nervous system is shattered. They smoke themselves to death. I +could mention the names of five distinguished clergymen who died of +cancer of the mouth, and the doctor said, in every case, it was the +result of tobacco. The tombstone of many a minister of religion has +been covered all over with handsome eulogy, when, if the true epitaph +had been written, it would have said: "Here lies a man killed by too +much cavendish!" They smoke until the world is blue, and their +theology is blue, and everything is blue. How can a man stand in the +pulpit and preach on the subject of temperance when he is indulging +such a habit as that? I have seen a cuspadore in a pulpit into which +the holy man dropped his cud before he got up to read about "blessed +are the pure in heart," and to read about the rolling of sin as a +sweet morsel under the tongue, and to read about the unclean animals +in Leviticus that chewed the cud.</p> + +<p>About sixty-five years ago a student at Andover Theological Seminary +graduated into the ministry. He had an eloquence and a magnetism which +sent him to the front. Nothing could stand before him. But in a few +months he was put in an insane asylum, and the physician said tobacco +was the cause of the disaster. It was the custom in those days to give +a portion of tobacco to every patient in the asylum. Nearly twenty +years passed along, and that man was walking the floor of his cell in +the asylum, when his reason returned, and he saw the situation, and he +took the tobacco from his mouth and threw it against the iron gate of +the place in which he was confined, and he said: "What brought me +here? What keeps me here? Tobacco! tobacco! God forgive me, God help +me, and I will never use it again." He was fully restored to reason, +came forth, preached the Gospel of Christ for some ten years, and then +went into everlasting blessedness.</p> + +<p>There are ministers of religion now in this country who are dying by +inches, and they do not know what is the matter with them. They are +being killed by tobacco. They are despoiling their influence through +tobacco. They are malodorous with tobacco. I could give one paragraph +of history, and that would be my own experience. It took ten cigars to +make one sermon, and I got very nervous, and I awakened one day to see +what an outrage I was committing upon my health by the use of tobacco. +I was about to change settlement, and a generous tobacconist of +Philadelphia told me if I would come to Philadelphia and be his pastor +he would give me all the cigars I wanted for nothing all the rest of +my life. I halted. I said to myself, "If I smoke more than I ought to +now in these war times, and when my salary is small, what would I do +if I had gratuitous and unlimited supply?" Then and there, twenty-four +years ago, I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me. Much of +the time the world looked blue before that, because I was looking +through tobacco smoke. Ever since the world has been full of sunshine, +and though I have done as much work as any one of my age, God has +blessed me, it seems to me, with the best health that a man ever had.</p> + +<p>I say that no minister of religion can afford to smoke. Put in my hand +all the money expended by Christian men in Brooklyn for tobacco, and I +will support three orphan asylums as well and as grandly as the three +great orphan asylums already established. Put into my hand the money +spent by the Christians of America for tobacco, and I will clothe, +shelter, and feed all the suffering poor of the continent. The +American Church gives a million dollars a year for the salvation of +the heathen, and American Christians smoke five million dollars' worth +of tobacco.</p> + +<p>I stand here to-day in the presence of a vast multitude of young +people who are forming their habits. Between seventeen and twenty-five +years of age a great many young men get on them habits in the use of +tobacco that they never get over. Let me say to all my young friends, +you can not afford to smoke, you can not afford to chew. You either +take very good tobacco, or you take very cheap tobacco. If it is +cheap, I will tell you why it is cheap. It is made of burdock, and +lampblack, and sawdust, and colt's-foot, and plantain leaves, and +fuller's earth, and salt, and alum, and lime, and a little tobacco, +and you can not afford to put such a mess as that in your mouth. But +if you use expensive tobacco, do you not think it would be better for +you to take that amount of money which you are now expending for this +herb, and which you will expend during the course of your life if you +keep the habit up, and with it buy a splendid farm and make the +afternoon and the evening of your life comfortable?</p> + +<p>There are young men whose life is going out inch by inch from +cigarettes. Now, do you not think it would be well for you to listen +to the testimony of a merchant of New York, who said this: "In early +life I smoked six cigars a day at six and a half cents each. They +averaged that. I thought to myself one day, I'll just put aside all I +consume in cigars and all I would consume if I keep on in the habit, +and I'll see what it will come to by compound interest." And he gives +this tremendous statistic: "Last July completed thirty-nine years +since, by the grace of God, I was emancipated from the filthy habit, +and the saving amounted to the enormous sum of $29,102.03 by compound +interest. We lived in the city, but the children, who had learned +something of the enjoyment of country life from their annual visits to +their grandparents, longed for a home among the green fields. I found +a very pleasant place in the country for sale. The cigar money came +into requisition, and I found it amounted to a sufficient sum to +purchase the place, and it is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice. +Smoking without a home, or a home without smoking." This is common +sense as well as religion.</p> + +<p>I must say a word to my friends who smoke the best tobacco, and who +could stop at any time. What is your Christian influence in this +respect? What is your influence upon young men? Do you not think it +would be better for you to exercise a little self-denial! People +wondered why George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts, wore a cravat +but no collar. "Oh," they said, "it is an absurd eccentricity." This +was the history of the cravat without any collar: For many years +before he had been talking with an inebriate, trying to persuade him +to give up the habit of drinking and he said to the inebriate, "Your +habit is entirely unnecessary." "Ah!" replied the inebriate, "we do a +great many things that are not necessary. It isn't necessary that you +should have that collar." "Well," said Mr. Briggs, "I'll never wear a +collar again if you will stop drinking." "Agreed," said the other. +They joined hands in a pledge that they kept for twenty years—kept +until death. That is magnificent. That is Gospel, practical Gospel, +worthy of George Briggs, worthy of you. Self-denial for others. +Subtraction from our advantage that there may be an addition to +somebody else's advantage.</p> + +<p>But what I have said has been chiefly appropriate for men. Now my +subject widens and shall be appropriate for both sexes. In all ages of +the world there has been a search for some herb or flower that would +stimulate lethargy and compose grief. Among the ancient Greeks and +Egyptians they found something they called nepenthe, and the Theban +women knew how to compound it. If a person should chew a few of those +leaves his grief would be immediately whelmed with hilarity. Nepenthe +passed out from the consideration of the world and then came hasheesh, +which is from the Indian hemp. It is manufactured from the flowers at +the top. The workman with leathern apparel walks through the field and +the exudation of the plants adheres to the leathern garments, and then +the man comes out and scrapes off this exudation, and it is mixed with +aromatics and becomes an intoxicant that has brutalized whole nations. +Its first effect is sight, spectacle glorious and grand beyond all +description, but afterward it pulls down body, mind, and soul into +anguish.</p> + +<p>I knew one of the most brilliant men of our time. His appearance in a +newspaper column, or a book, or a magazine was an enchantment. In the +course of a half hour he could produce more wit and more valuable +information than any man I ever heard talk. But he chewed hasheesh. He +first took it out of curiosity to see whether the power said to be +attached really existed. He took it. He got under the power of it. He +tried to break loose. He put his hand in the cockatrice's den to see +whether it would bite, and he found out to his own undoing. His +friends gathered around and tried to save him, but he could not be +saved. The father, a minister of the Gospel, prayed with him and +counseled him, and out of a comparatively small salary employed the +first medical advice of New York, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Paris, +London, and Berlin, for he was his only son. No help came. First his +body gave way in pangs and convulsions of suffering. Then his mind +gave way and he became a raving maniac. Then his soul went out +blaspheming God into a starless eternity. He died at thirty years of +age. Behold the work of accursed hasheesh.</p> + +<p>But I must put my emphasis upon the use of opium. It is made from the +white poppy. It is not a new discovery. Three hundred years before +Christ we read of it; but it was not until the seventh century that it +took up its march of death, and, passing out of the curative and the +medicinal, through smoking and mastication it has become the curse of +nations. In 1861 there were imported into this country one hundred and +seven thousand pounds of opium. In 1880, nineteen years after, there +were imported five hundred and thirty thousand pounds of opium. In +1876 there were in this country two hundred and twenty-five thousand +opium-consumers. Now, it is estimated there are in the United States +to-day six hundred thousand victims of opium. It is appalling.</p> + +<p>We do not know why some families do not get on. There is something +mysterious about them. The opium habit is so stealthy, it is so +deceitful, and it is so deathful, you can cure a hundred men of +strong drink where you can cure one opium-eater.</p> + +<p>I have knelt down in this very church by those who were elegant in +apparel, and elegant in appearance, and from the depths of their souls +and from the depths of my soul, we cried out for God's rescue. Somehow +it did not come. In many a household only the physician and pastor +know it—the physician called in for physical relief, the pastor +called in for spiritual relief, and they both fail. The physician +confesses his defeat, the minister of religion confesses his defeat, +for somehow God does not seem to hear a prayer offered for an +opium-eater. His grace is infinite, and I have been told there are +cases of reformation. I never saw one. I say this not to wound the +feelings of any who may feel this awful grip, but to utter a potent +warning that you stand back from that gate of hell. Oh, man, oh, +woman, tampering with this great evil, have you fallen back on this as +a permanent resource because of some physical distress or mental +anguish? Better stop. The ecstasies do not pay for the horrors. The +Paradise is followed too soon by the Pandemonium. Morphia, a blessing +of God for the relief of sudden pang and of acute dementia, +misappropriated and never intended for permanent use.</p> + +<p>It is not merely the barbaric fanatics that are taken down by it. Did +you ever read De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-Eater?" He says +that during the first ten years the habit handed to him all the keys +of Paradise, but it would take something as mighty as De Quincey's pen +to describe the consequent horrors. There is nothing that I have ever +read about the tortures of the damned that seemed more horrible than +those which De Quincey says he suffered. Samuel Taylor Coleridge first +conquered the world with his exquisite pen, and then was conquered by +opium. The most brilliant, the most eloquent lawyer of the nineteenth +century went down under its power, and there is a vast multitude of +men and women—but more women than men—who are going into the dungeon +of that awful incarceration.</p> + +<p>The worst thing about it is, it takes advantage of one's weakness. De +Quincey says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of my +rheumatism." Coleridge says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of +my sleeplessness." For what are you taking it? For God's sake do not +take it long. The wealthiest, the grandest families going down under +its power. Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in Chicago. +Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in St. Louis, and, according to +that average, seventy-five thousand victims of opium in New York and +Brooklyn.</p> + +<p>The clerk of a drug store says: "I can tell them when they come in; +there is something about their complexion, something about their +manner, something about the look of their eyes that shows they are +victims." Some in the struggle to get away from it try chloral. Whole +tons of chloral manufactured in Germany every year. Baron Liebig says +he knows one chemist in Germany who manufactures a half ton of chloral +every week. Beware of hydrate of chloral. It is coming on with mighty +tread to curse these cities. But I am chiefly under this head speaking +of the morphine. The devil of morphia is going to be in this country, +in my opinion, mightier than the devil of alcohol. By the power of the +Christian pulpit, by the power of the Christianized printing-press, by +the power of the Lord God Almighty, all these evils are going to be +extirpated—all, all, and you have a work in regard to that, and I +have a work. But what we do we had better do right away. The clock +ticks now, and we hear it; after awhile the clock will tick and we +will not hear it.</p> + +<p>I sat at a country fireside, and I saw the fire kindle and blaze, and +go out. I sat long enough at that fireside to get a good many +practical reflections, and I said: "That is like human life, that fire +on the hearth." We put on the fagots and they blaze up, and out, and +on, and the whole room is filled with the light, gay of sparkle, gay +of flash, gay of crackle. Emblem of boyhood. Now the fire intensifies. +Now the flame reddens into coals. Now the heat is becoming more and +more intense, and the more it is stirred the redder is the coal. Now +with one sweep of flame it cleaves the way, and all the hearth glows +with the intensity. Emblem of full manhood. Now the coals begin to +whiten. Now the heat lessens. Now the flickering shadows die along the +wall. Now the fagots fall apart. Now the household hover over the +expiring embers. Now the last breath of smoke is lost in the chimney. +The fire is out. Shovel up the white remains. Ashes! Ashes!</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="why_are_satan" id="why_are_satan"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED?</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Wherefore do the wicked live?"— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Job</span> xxi: 7,</p> +<br /> + +<p>Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the +misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, +bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that +he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware +to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his +complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better +if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swear a little. +For each boil a plaster of objurgation.</p> + +<p>Probably no man was ever more tempted to take the bad advice than +when, at last, Job's three exasperating friends came in, Eliphaz, +Zophar, and Bildad, practically saying to him, "You old sinner, serves +you right; you are a hypocrite; what a sight you are! God has sent +these chastisements for your wickedness."</p> + +<p>The disfigured invalid, putting down the pieces of broken saucer with +which he had been rubbing his arms, with swollen eyelids looks up and +says to his garrulous friends in substance, "The most wicked people +sometimes have the best health and are the most prospered," and then +in that connection hurls the question which every man and woman has +asked in some juncture of affairs, "Wherefore do the wicked live?"</p> + +<p>They build up fortunes that overshadow the earth. They confound all +the life-insurance tables on the subject of longevity, dying +octogenarians, perhaps nonagenarians, possibly centenarians. Ahab in +the palace, Naboth in the cabinet. Unclean Herod on the throne, +consecrated Paul twisting ropes for tent-making. Manasseh, the worst +of all the kings of Juda, living longer than any of them. While the +general rule is the wicked do not live out half their days, there are +exceptions where they live on to great age and in a Paradise of beauty +and luxuriance, and die with a whole college of physicians expending +its skill in trying further prolongation of life, and have a funeral +with casket under mountain of calla-lilies, the finest equipages of +the city jingling and flashing into line, the poor, angle-worm of the +dust carried out to its hole in the ground with the pomp that might +make a spirit from some other world suppose that the Archangel Michael +was dead.</p> + +<p>Go up among the finest residences of the city, and on some of the +door-plates you will find the names of those mightiest for commercial +and social iniquity. They are the vampires of society—they are the +gorgons of the century. Some of these men have each wheel of their +carriage a juggernaut wet with the blood of those sacrificed to their +avarice. Some of them are like Caligula, who wished that all the +people had only one neck that he might strike it off at one blow. Oh, +the slain, the slain! A long procession of usurers and libertines and +infamous quacks and legal charlatans and world-grabbing monsters. What +apostleship of despoliation! Demons incarnate. Hundreds of men +concentering all their energies of body, mind, and soul in one +prolonged, ever-intensifying, and unrelenting effort to scald and +scarify and blast and consume the world. I do not blame you for asking +me the quivering, throbbing, burning, resounding, appalling question +of my text, "Wherefore do the wicked live?"</p> + +<p>In the first place, they live to demonstrate beyond all controversy +the long-suffering patience of God. You sometimes say, under some +great affront, "I will not stand it;" but perhaps you are compelled to +stand it. God, with all the batteries of omnipotence loaded with +thunderbolts, stands it century after century. I have no doubt +sometimes an angel comes to Him and suggests, "Now is the time to +strike." "No," says God; "wait a year, wait twenty years, wait a +century, wait five centuries." What God does is not so wonderful as +what He does not do. He has the reserve corps with which He could +strike Mormonism and Mohammedanism and Paganism from the earth in a +day. He could take all the fraud in New York on the west side of +Broadway and hurl it into the Hudson, and all the fraud on the east +side of Broadway and hurl it into the East River in an hour. He +understands the combination lock of every dishonest money-safe, and +could blow it up quicker than by any earthly explosive. Written all +over the earth, written all over history are the words, "Divine +forbearance, divine leniency, divine long-suffering."</p> + +<p>I wonder that God did not burn this world up two thousand years ago, +scattering its ashes into immensity, its aerolites dropping into +other worlds to be kept in their museums as specimens of a defunct +planet. People sometimes talk of God as though He were hasty in His +judgments and as though He snapped men up quick. Oh, no! He waited one +hundred and twenty years for the people to get into the ark, and +warned them all the time—one hundred and twenty years, then the flood +came. The Anchor Line gives only a month's announcement of the sailing +of the "Circassia," the White Star Line gives only a month's +announcement of the sailing of the "Britannic," the Cunard Line gives +only a month's announcement of the sailing of the "Oregon;" but of the +sailing of that ship that Noah commanded God gave one hundred and +twenty years' announcement and warning. Patience antediluvian, +patience postdiluvian, patience in times Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, +Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Whitefieldian. Patience with men and +nations. Patience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six thousand +years of patience! Overtopping attribute of God, all of whose +attributes are immeasurable. Why do the wicked live? That their +overthrow may be the more impressive and climacteric. They must pile +up their mischief until all the community shall see it, until the +nation shall see it, until all the world shall see it. The higher it +goes up the harder it will come down and the grander will be the +divine vindication.</p> + +<p>God will not allow sin to sneak out of the world. God will not allow +it merely to resign and quit. This shall not be a case that goes by +default because no one appears against it. God will arraign it, +handcuff it, try it, bring against it the verdict of all the good, and +then gibbet it so high up that if one half of the gibbet stood on +Mount Washington and the other on the Himalaya, it would not be any +more conspicuous.</p> + +<p>About fifteen years ago we had in this country a most illustrious +instance of how God lets a man go on in iniquity, so that at the close +of the career his overthrow may be the more impressive, full of +warning and climacteric. First, an honest chairmaker, then an +alderman, then a member of congress, then a supervisor of a city, then +school commissioner, then state senator, then commissioner of public +works—on and up, stealing thousands of dollars here and thousands of +dollars there, until the malfeasance in office overtopped anything the +world had ever seen—making the new Court House in New York a monument +of municipal crime, and rushing the debt of the city from thirty-six +million dollars to ninety-seven millions. Now, he is at the top of +millionairedom.</p> + +<p>Country-seat terraced and arbored and parterred clear to the water's +brink. Horses enough to stock a king's equerry. Grooms and postilions +in full rig. Wine cellars enough to make a whole legislature drunk. +New York finances and New York politics in his vest pocket. He winked, +and men in high place fell. He lifted his little finger, and +ignoramuses took important office. He whispered, and in Albany and +Washington they said it thundered. Wider and mightier and more baleful +his influence, until it seemed as if Pandemonium was to be adjourned +to this world, and in the Satanic realm there was to be a change of +administration, and Apollyon, who had held dominion so long, should +have a successful competitor.</p> + +<p>To bring all to a climax, a wedding came in the house of that man. +Diamonds as large as hickory nuts. A pin of sixty diamonds +representing sheaves of wheat. Musicians in a semicircle, half-hidden +by a great harp of flowers. Ships of flowers. Forty silver sets, one +of them with two hundred and forty pieces. One wedding-dress that cost +five thousand dollars. A famous libertine, who owned several Long +Island Sound steamboats, and not long before he was shot for his +crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house a frosted silver +iceberg, with representations of arctic bears walking on +icicle-handles and ascending the spoons. Was there ever such a +convocation of pictures, bronzes, of bric-à-brac, of grandeurs, social +grandeurs? The highest wave of New York splendor rolled into that +house and recoiled perhaps never again to rise so high. But just at +that time, when all earthly and infernal observation was concentered +on that man, eternal justice, impersonated by that wonder of the +American bar, Charles O'Connor, got on the track of the offender. +First arraignment, then sentence to twelve years' imprisonment under +twelve indictments, then penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, then a +lawsuit against him for six million dollars, then incarceration in +Ludlow Street jail, then escape to foreign land, to be brought back +under the stout grip of the constabulary, then dying of broken heart +in a prison cell. God allowed him to go on in iniquity until all the +world saw as never before that "the way of the transgressor is hard," +and that dishonesty will not declare permanent dividends, and that you +had better be an honest chairmaker with a day's wages at a time than +a brilliant commissioner of public works, all your pockets crammed +with plunder.</p> + +<p>What a brilliant figure in history is William the Conqueror, the +intimidator of France, of Anjou, of Brittany, victor at Hastings, +snatching the crown of England and setting it on his own brow, +destroying homesteads that he might have a larger game forest, making +a Doomsday Book by which he could keep the whole land under despotic +espionage, proclaiming war in revenge for a joke uttered in regard to +his obesity. Harvest fields and vineyards going down under the cavalry +hoof. Nations horror-struck. But one day while at the apex of all +observation he is riding out and the horse put his hoof on a hot +cinder, throwing the king so violently against the pommel of the +saddle that he dies, his son hastening to England to get the crown +before the breath has left his father's body.</p> + +<p>The imperial corpse drawn by a cart, most of the attendants leaving it +in the street because of a fire alarm that they might go off and see +the conflagration. And just as they are going to put his body down in +the church which he had built, a man stepping up and saying, "Bishop, +the man you praise is a robber. This church stands on my father's +homestead. The property on which this church is built is mine. I +reclaim my right. In the name of Almighty God I forbid you to bury the +king here, or to cover him with my glebe." "Go up," said the ambition +of William the Conqueror. "Go up by conquest, go up by throne, go up +in the sight of all nations, go up by cruelties." But one day God +said, "Come down, come down by the way of a miserable death, come down +by the way of an ignominious obsequies, come down in the sight of all +nations, come clear down, come down forever." And you and I see the +same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time—illustrations of +the fact that God lets the wicked live that He may make their +overthrow the more climacteric.</p> + +<p>What is true in regard to sin is true in regard to its author, Satan, +called Abaddon, called the Prince of the Power of the Air, called the +serpent, called the dragon. It seems to me any intelligent man must +admit that there is a commander-in-chief of all evil.</p> + +<p>The Persians called him Ahriman, the Hindus called him Siva. He was +represented on canvas as a mythological combination of Thor and +Cerberus and Pan and Vulcan and other horrible addenda. I do not care +what you call him, that monster of evil is abroad, and his one work is +destruction. John Milton almost glorified him by witchery of +description, but he is the concentration of all meanness and of all +despicability. My little child, seven years of age, said to her mother +one day, "Why don't God kill the devil at once, and have done with +it?" In less terse phrase we have all asked the same question. The +Bible says he is to be imprisoned and he is to be chained down. Why +not heave the old miscreant into his dungeon now? Does it not seem as +if his volume of infamy were complete? Does it not seem as if the last +fifty years would make an appropriate peroration? No; God will let him +go on to the top of all bad endeavor, and then when all the earth and +all constellations and galaxies and all the universe are watching, God +will hurl him down with a violence and ghastliness enough to persuade +five hundred eternities that a rebellion against God must perish. God +will not do it by piecemeal, God will not do it by small skirmish. He +will wait until all the troops are massed, and then some day when in +defiant and confident mood, at the head of his army, this Goliath of +hell stalks forth, our champion, the son of David, will strike him +down, not with smooth stones from the brook, but with fragments from +the Rock of Ages. But it will not be done until this giant of evil and +his holy antagonist come out within full sight of the two great +armies. The tragedy is only postponed to make the overthrow more +impressive and climacteric. Do not fret. If God can afford to wait you +can afford to wait. God's clock of destiny strikes only once in a +thousand years. Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on +your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow +may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more +resounding, the more climacteric.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for +righteousness to capture. Have you not noticed that God harnesses men, +bad men, and accomplishes good through them? Witness Cyrus, witness +Nebuchadnezzar, witness the fact that the Bastile of oppression was +pried open by the bayonets of a bad man. Recently there came to me the +fact that a college had been built at the Far West for infidel +purposes. There was to be no nonsense of chapel prayers, no Bible +reading there. All the professors there were pronounced infidels. The +college was opened, and the work went on, but, of course, failed. Not +long ago a Presbyterian minister was in a bank in that village on +purposes of business, and he heard in an adjoining room the board of +trustees of that college discussing what they had better do with the +institution, as it did not get on successfully, and one of the +trustees proposed that it be handed over to the Presbyterians, +prefacing the word Presbyterians with a very unhappy expletive. The +resolutions were passed, and that fortress of infidelity has become a +fortress of old-fashioned, orthodox religion, the only religion that +will be worth a snap of your finger when you come to die or appear in +the Day of Judgment. The devil built the college. Righteousness +captured it.</p> + +<p>In some city there goes up a great club-house—the architecture, the +furniture, all the equipment a bedazzlement of wealth. That particular +club-house is designed to make gambling and dissipation respectable.</p> + +<p>Do not fret. That splendid building will after a while be a free +library, or it will be a hospital, or it will be a gallery of pure +art. Again and again observatories have been built by infidelity, and +the first thing you know they go into the hand of Christian science. +God said in the Bible that He would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose +and pull him down by a way he knew not. And God has a hook to-day in +the nose of every Sennacherib of infidelity and sin, and will drag him +about as He will. Marble halls deserted to sinful amusements will yet +be dedicated for religious assemblage. All these castles of sin are to +be captured for God as we go forth with the battle-shout that Oliver +Cromwell rang out at the head of his troops as he rode in on the field +of Naseby: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!" After a +great fire in London, amid the ruins there was nothing left but an +arch with the name of the architect upon it; and, my friends, whatever +else goes down, God stays up.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? That some of them may be monuments of mercy.</p> + +<p>So it was with John Newton, so it was with Augustine, perhaps so it +was with you. Chieftains of sin to become chieftains of grace. Paul, +the apostle, made out of Saul, the persecutor. Baxter, the flaming +evangel, made out of Baxter, the blasphemer. Whole squadrons, with +streamers of Emmanuel floating from the masthead, though once they +were launched from the dry-docks of diabolism. God lets these wicked +men live that He may make jewels out of them for coronets, that He may +make tongues of fire out of them for Pentecosts, that He may make +warriors out of them for Armageddons, that he may make conquerors out +of them for the day when they shall ride at the head of the +white-horse host in the grand review of the resurrection.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? To make it plain beyond all controversy that +there is another place of adjustment. So many of the bad up, so many +of the good down. It seems to me that no man can look abroad without +saying—no man of common sense, religious or irreligious, can look +abroad without saying, "There must be some place where brilliant +scoundrelism shall be arrested, where innocence shall get out from +under the heel of despotism." Common fairness as well as eternal +justice demands it.</p> + +<p>We adjourn to the great assizes, the stupendous injustices of this +life. They are not righted here. There must be some place where they +will be righted. God can not afford to omit the judgment day or the +reconstruction of conditions. For you can not make me believe that +that man stuffed with all abomination, having devoured widows' houses +and digested them, looking with basilisk or tigerish eyes upon his +fellows, no music so sweet to him as the sound of breaking hearts, is, +at death, to get out of the landau at the front door of the sepulcher +and pass right on through to the back door of the sepulcher, and find +a celestial turnout waiting for him, so that he can drive tandem right +up primrosed hills, one glory riding as lackey ahead, and another +glory riding as postilion behind, while that poor woman who supported +her invalid husband and her helpless children by taking in washing and +ironing, often putting her hand to her side where the cancerous +trouble had already begun, and dropping dead late on Saturday night +while she was preparing the garments for the Sabbath day, coming afoot +to the front door of the sepulcher, shall pass through to the back +door of the sepulcher and find nothing waiting, no one to welcome, no +one to tell her the way to the King's gate. I will not believe it. +Solomon was confounded in his day by what he represents as princes +afoot and beggars a-horseback, but I tell you there must be a place +and a time when the right foot will get into the stirrup. To +demonstrate beyond all controversy that there is another place for +adjustment, God lets the wicked live.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? For the same reason that He lets us live—to +have time for repentance.</p> + +<p>Where would you and I have been if sin had been followed by immediate +catastrophe? While the foot of Christ is fleet as that of a roebuck +when He comes to save, it does seem as if he were hoppled with great +languors and infinite lethargies when He comes to punish. Oh, I +celebrate God's slowness, God's retardation, God's putting off the +retribution! Do you not think, my brother, it would be a great deal +better for us to exchange our impatient hypercriticism of Providence +because this man, by watering of stock, makes a million dollars in one +day, and another man rides on in one bloated iniquity year after +year—would it not be better for us to exchange that impatient +hypercriticism for gratitude everlasting that God let us who were +wicked live, though we deserved nothing but capsize and demolition? +Oh, I celebrate God's slowness! The slower the rail-train comes the +better, if the drawbridge is off.</p> + +<p>How long have you, my brother, lived unforgiven? Fifteen, twenty, +forty, sixty years? Lived through great awakenings, lived through +domestic sorrow, lived through commercial calamity, lived through +providential crises that startled nations, and you are living yet, +strangers to God, and with no hope for a great future into which you +may be precipitated. Oh, would it not be better for us to get our +nature through the Grace of Christ revolutionized and transfigured? +For I want you to know that God sometimes changes His gait, and +instead of the deliberate tread He is the swift witness, and sometimes +the enemies of God are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy.</p> + +<p>Make God your ally. What an offer that is! Do not fight against Him. +Do not contend against your best interests. Yield this morning to the +best impulse of your heart, and that is toward Christ and heaven. Do +not fight the Lord that made you and offers to redeem you.</p> + +<p>Philip of France went out with his army, with bows and arrows, to +fight King Edward III. of England; but just as they got into the +critical moment of the battle, a shower of rain came and relaxed the +bow-strings so that they were of no effect, and Philip and his army +were worsted. And all your weaponry against God will be as nothing +when he rains upon you discomfiture from the heavens. Do not fight the +Lord any longer. Change allegiance. Take down the old flag of sin, run +up the new flag of grace. It does not take the Lord Jesus Christ the +thousandth part of a second to convert you if you will only surrender, +be willing to be saved. The American Congress was in anxiety during +the Revolutionary War while awaiting to hear news from the conflict +between Washington and Cornwallis, and the anxiety became intense and +almost unbearable as the days went by. When the news came at last that +Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over, so great +was the excitement that the doorkeeper of the House of Congress +dropped dead from joyful excitement. And if this long war between your +soul and God should come to an end this morning by your entire +surrender, the war forever over, the news would very soon reach the +heavens, and nothing but the supernatural health of your loved ones +before the throne would keep them from being prostrated with overjoy +at the cessation of all spiritual hostilities.</p> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 110%">THE END.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14139 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + + + + + diff --git a/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg b/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3addf01 --- /dev/null +++ b/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..632734c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14139 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14139) diff --git a/old/14139-8.txt b/old/14139-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee70cbf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14139-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9537 @@ +Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: New Tabernacle Sermons + +Author: Thomas De Witt Talmage + +Release Date: November 24, 2004 [EBook #14139] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS +BY +T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. + +AUTHOR OF +"_CRUMBS SWEPT UP_," "_THE ABOMINATIONS OF MODERN SOCIETY_," etc. + +Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. + +VOL. I + +NEW YORK: +GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER, +17 TO 27 VANDEWATER STREET. +1886. + + + + +[Illustration: T. De Witt Talmage] + + + _Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by_ + GEORGE MUNRO, _in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, + Washington, D.C._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + BRAWN AND MUSCLE 7 + THE PLEIADES AND ORION 21 + THE QUEEN'S VISIT 34 + VICARIOUS SUFFERING 45 + POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY 59 + THE LORD'S RAZOR 72 + WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM 83 + STORMED AND TAKEN 95 + ALL THE WORLD AKIN 108 + A MOMENTOUS QUEST 119 + THE GREAT ASSIZE 134 + THE ROAD TO THE CITY 147 + THE RANSOMLESS 158 + THE THREE GROUPS 171 + THE INSIGNIFICANT 184 + THE THREE RINGS 197 + HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT 209 + CASTLE JESUS 221 + STRIPPING THE SLAIN 233 + SOLD OUT 246 + SUMMER TEMPTATIONS 259 + THE BANISHED QUEEN 274 + THE DAY WE LIVE IN 285 + CAPITAL AND LABOR 297 + DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE 311 + TOBACCO AND OPIUM 325 + WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? 339 + + + + +BRAWN AND MUSCLE. + + "And Samson went down to Timnath."--JUDGES xiv: 1. + + +There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his +life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the +grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character +fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver +lessons we devote our morning sermon. + +This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. +It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons--the boy Napoleon and +the man Napoleon--but both alike; two Howards--the boy Howard and the +man Howard--but both alike; two Samsons--the boy Samson and the man +Samson--but both alike. This giant was no doubt the hero of the +playground, and nothing could stand before his exhibitions of youthful +prowess. At eighteen years of age he was betrothed to the daughter of +a Philistine. Going down toward Timnath, a lion came out upon him, +and, although this young giant was weaponless, he seized the monster +by the long mane and shook him as a hungry hound shakes a March hare, +and made his bones crack, and left him by the wayside bleeding under +the smiting of his fist and the grinding heft of his heel. + +There he stands, looming up above other men, a mountain of flesh, his +arms bunched with muscle that can lift the gate of a city, taking an +attitude defiant of everything. His hair had never been cut, and it +rolled down in seven great plaits over his shoulders, adding to his +bulk, fierceness, and terror. The Philistines want to conquer him, and +therefore they must find out where the secret of his strength lies. + +There is a dissolute woman living in the valley of Sorek by the name +of Delilah. They appoint her the agent in the case. The Philistines +are secreted in the same building, and then Delilah goes to work and +coaxes Samson to tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well," he +says, "if you should take seven green withes such as they fasten wild +beasts with and put them around me I should be perfectly powerless." +So she binds him with the seven green withes. Then she claps her hands +and says: "They come--the Philistines!" and he walks out as though +they were no impediment. She coaxes him again, and says: "Now tell me +the secret of this great strength?" and he replies: "If you should +take some ropes that have never been used and tie me with them I +should be just like other men." She ties him with the ropes, claps her +hands, and shouts: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out as +easily as he did before--not a single obstruction. She coaxes him +again, and he says: "Now, if you should take these seven long plaits +of hair, and by this house-loom weave them into a web, I could not get +away." So the house-loom is rolled up, and the shuttle flies backward +and forward and the long plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then she +claps her hands, and says: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out +as easily as he did before, dragging a part of the loom with him. + +But after awhile she persuades him to tell the truth. He says: "If you +should take a razor or shears and cut off this long hair, I should be +powerless and in the hands of my enemies." Samson sleeps, and that she +may not wake him up during the process of shearing, help is called in. +You know that the barbers of the East have such a skillful way of +manipulating the head to this very day that, instead of waking up a +sleeping man, they will put a man wide awake sound asleep. I hear the +blades of the shears grinding against each other, and I see the long +locks falling off. The shears or razor accomplishes what green withes +and new ropes and house-loom could not do. Suddenly she claps her +hands, and says: "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" He rouses up +with a struggle, but his strength is all gone. He is in the hands of +his enemies. + +I hear the groan of the giant as they take his eyes out, and then I +see him staggering on in his blindness, feeling his way as he goes on +toward Gaza. The prison door is open, and the giant is thrust in. He +sits down and puts his hands on the mill-crank, which, with exhausting +horizontal motion, goes day after day, week after week, month after +month--work, work, work! The consternation of the world in captivity, +his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding corn in Gaza! + +I. First of all, behold in this giant of the text that physical power +is not always an index of moral power. He was a huge man--the lion +found it out, and the three thousand men whom he slew found it out; +yet he was the subject of petty revenges and out-gianted by low +passion. I am far from throwing any discredit upon physical stamina. +There are those who seem to have great admiration for delicacy and +sickliness of constitution. I never could see any glory in weak nerves +or sick headache. Whatever effort in our day is made to make the men +and women more robust should have the favor of every good citizen as +well as of every Christian. Gymnastics may be positively religious. + +Good people sometimes ascribe to a wicked heart what they ought to +ascribe to a slow liver. The body and the soul are such near neighbors +that they often catch each other's diseases. Those who never saw a +sick day, and who, like Hercules, show the giant in the cradle, have +more to answer for than those who are the subjects of life-long +infirmities. He who can lift twice as much as you can, and walk twice +as far, and work twice as long, will have a double account to meet in +the judgment. + +How often it is that you do not find physical energy indicative of +spiritual power! If a clear head is worth more than one dizzy with +perpetual vertigo--if muscles with the play of health in them are +worth more than those drawn up in chronic "rheumatics"--if an eye +quick to catch passing objects is better than one with vision dim and +uncertain--then God will require of us efficiency just in proportion +to what he has given us. Physical energy ought to be a type of moral +power. We ought to have as good digestion of truth as we have capacity +to assimilate food. Our spiritual hearing ought to be as good as our +physical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as our +tongue. Samsons in body, we ought to be giants in moral power. + +But while you find a great many men who realize that they ought to use +their money aright, and use their intelligence aright, how few men you +find aware of the fact that they ought to use their physical organism +aright! With every thump of the heart there is something saying, +"Work! work!" and, lest we should complain that we have no tools to +work with, God gives us our hands and feet, with every knuckle, and +with every joint, and with every muscle saying to us, "Lay hold and do +something." + +But how often it is that men with physical strength do not serve +Christ! They are like a ship full manned and full rigged, capable of +vast tonnage, able to endure all stress of weather, yet swinging idly +at the docks, when these men ought to be crossing and recrossing the +great ocean of human suffering and sin with God's supplies of mercy. +How often it is that physical strength is used in doing positive +damage, or in luxurious ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed +bosom, fearless of the shafts of opposition, it ought to be laying +hold with all its might, and tugging away to lift up this sunken wreck +of a world. + +It is a most shameful fact that much of the business of the Church and +of the world must be done by those comparatively invalid. Richard +Baxter, by reason of his diseases, all his days sitting in the door of +the tomb, yet writing more than a hundred volumes, and sending out an +influence for God that will endure as long as the "Saints' Everlasting +Rest." Edward Payson, never knowing a well day, yet how he preached, +and how he wrote, helping thousands of dying souls like himself to +swim in a sea of glory! And Robert M'Cheyne, a walking skeleton, yet +you know what he did in Dundee, and how he shook Scotland with zeal +for God. Philip Doddridge, advised by his friends, because of his +illness, not to enter the ministry, yet you know what he did for the +"rise and progress of religion" in the Church and in the world. + +Wilberforce was told by his doctors that he could not live a +fortnight, yet at that very time entering upon philanthropic +enterprises that demanded the greatest endurance and persistence. +Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so that often in his pulpit +while preaching he would stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting up +again to preach about heaven until the glories of the celestial city +dropped on the multitude, doing more work, perhaps, than almost any +well man in his day. + +Oh, how often it is that men with great physical endurance are not as +great in moral and spiritual stature! While there are achievements for +those who are bent all their days with sickness--achievements of +patience, achievements of Christian endurance--I call upon men of +health to-day, men of muscle, men of nerve, men of physical power, to +devote themselves to the Lord. Giants in body, you ought to be giants +in soul. + +II. Behold also, in the story of my text, illustration of the fact of +the damage that strength can do if it be misguided. It seems to me +that this man spent a great deal of his time in doing evil--this +Samson of my text. To pay a bet which he had lost by guessing of his +riddle he robs and kills thirty people. He was not only gigantic in +strength, but gigantic in mischief, and a type of those men in all +ages of the world who, powerful in body or mind, or any faculty of +social position or wealth, have used their strength for iniquitous +purposes. + +It is not the small, weak men of the day who do the damage. These +small men who go swearing and loafing about your stores and shops and +banking-houses, assailing Christ and the Bible and the Church--they do +not do the damage. They have no influence. They are vermin that you +crush with your foot. But it is the giants of the day, the misguided +giants, giants in physical power, or giants in mental acumen, or +giants in social position, or giants in wealth, who do the damage. + +The men with sharp pens that stab religion and throw their poison all +through our literature; the men who use the power of wealth to +sanction iniquity, and bribe justice, and make truth and honor bow to +their golden scepter. + +Misguided giants--look out for them! In the middle and the latter part +of the last century no doubt there were thousands of men in Paris and +Edinburgh and London who hated God and blasphemed the name of the +Almighty; but they did but little mischief--they were small men, +insignificant men. Yet there were giants in those days. + +Who can calculate the soul-havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a very +enthusiasm of iniquity, with fiery imagination seizing upon all the +impulsive natures of his day? or David Hume, who employed his life as +a spider employs its summer, in spinning out silken webs to trap the +unwary? or Voltaire, the most learned man of his day, marshaling a +great host of skeptics, and leading them out in the dark land of +infidelity? or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrollable grudge against +religion in his history of one of the most fascinating periods of the +world's existence--the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--a book in +which, with all the splendors of his genius, he magnified the errors +of Christian disciples, while, with a sparseness of notice that never +can be forgiven, he treated of the Christian heroes of whom the world +was not worthy? + +Oh, men of stout physical health, men of great mental stature, men of +high social position, men of great power of any sort, I want you to +understand your power, and I want you to know that that power devoted +to God will be a crown on earth, to you typical of a crown in heaven; +but misguided, bedraggled in sin, administrative of evil, God will +thunder against you with His condemnation in the day when millionaire +and pauper, master and slave, king and subject, shall stand side by +side in the judgment, and money-bags, and judicial ermine, and royal +robe shall be riven with the lightnings. + +Behold also, how a giant may be slain of a woman. Delilah started the +train of circumstances that pulled down the temple of Dagon about +Samson's ears. And tens of thousands of giants have gone down to death +and hell through the same impure fascinations. It seems to me that it +is high time that pulpit and platform and printing-press speak out +against the impurities of modern society. Fastidiousness and Prudery +say: "Better not speak--you will rouse up adverse criticism; you will +make worse what you want to make better; better deal in glittering +generalities; the subject is too delicate for polite ears." But there +comes a voice from heaven overpowering the mincing sentimentalities of +the day, saying: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a +trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of +Jacob their sins." + +The trouble is that when people write or speak upon this theme they +are apt to cover it up with the graces of belles-lettres, so that the +crime is made attractive instead of repulsive. Lord Byron in "Don +Juan" adorns this crime until it smiles like a May queen. Michelet, +the great French writer, covers it up with bewitching rhetoric until +it glows like the rising sun, when it ought to be made loathsome as a +small-pox hospital. There are to-day influences abroad which, if +unresisted by the pulpit and the printing-press, will turn New York +and Brooklyn into Sodom and Gomorrah, fit only for the storm of fire +and brimstone that whelmed the cities of the plain. + +You who are seated in your Christian homes, compassed by moral and +religious restraints, do not realize the gulf of iniquity that bounds +you on the north and the south and the east and the west. While I +speak there are tens of thousands of men and women going over the +awful plunge of an impure life; and while I cry to God for mercy upon +their souls, I call upon you to marshal in the defense of your homes, +your Church and your nation. There is a banqueting hall that you have +never heard described. You know all about the feast of Ahasuerus, +where a thousand lords sat. You know all about Belshazzar's carousal, +where the blood of the murdered king spurted into the faces of the +banqueters. You may know of the scene of riot and wassail, when there +was set before Esopus one dish of food that cost $400,000. But I speak +now of a different banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its +floor is tesselated with fire. Its chalices are chased with fire. Its +song is a song of fire. Its walls are buttresses of fire. Solomon +refers to it when he says: "Her guests are in the depths of hell." + +Our American communities are suffering from the gospel of Free +Loveism, which, fifteen or twenty years ago, was preached on the +platform and in some of the churches of this country. I charge upon +Free Loveism that it has blighted innumerable homes, and that it has +sent innumerable souls to ruin. Free Loveism is bestial; it is +worse--it is infernal! It has furnished this land with about one +thousand divorces annually. In one county in the State of Indiana it +furnished eleven divorces in one day before dinner. It has roused up +elopements, North, South, East, and West. You can hardly take up a +paper but you read of an elopement. As far as I can understand the +doctrine of Free Loveism it is this: That every man ought to have +somebody else's wife, and every wife somebody else's husband. They do +not like our Christian organization of society, and I wish they would +all elope, the wretches of one sex taking the wretches of the other, +and start to-morrow morning for the great Sahara Desert, until the +simoom shall sweep seven feet of sand all over them, and not one +passing caravan for the next five hundred years bring back one +miserable bone of their carcasses! Free Loveism! It is the +double-distilled extract of nux vomica, ratsbane, and adder's tongue. +Never until society goes back to the old Bible, and hears its eulogy +of purity and its anathema of uncleanness--never until then will this +evil be extirpated. + +IV. Behold also in this giant of the text and in the giant of our own +century that great physical power must crumble and expire. The Samson +of the text long ago went away. He fought the lion. He fought the +Philistines. He could fight anything, but death was too much for him. +He may have required a longer grave and a broader grave; but the tomb +nevertheless was his terminus. + +If, then, we are to be compelled to go out of this world, where are we +to go to? This body and soul must soon part. What shall be the destiny +of the former I know--dust to dust. But what shall be the destiny of +the latter? Shall it rise into the companionship of the white-robed, +whose sins Christ has slain? or will it go down among the unbelieving, +who tried to gain the world and save their souls, but were swindled +out of both? Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in +the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is +ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is +this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to +save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power +and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his +dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined. + +V. In the light of this subject I want to call your attention to a +fact which may not have been rightly considered by five men in this +house, and that is the fact that we must be brought into judgment for +the employment of our physical organism. Shoulder, brain, hand, +foot--we must answer in judgment for the use we have made of them. +Have they been used for the elevation of society or for its +depression? In proportion as our arm is strong and our step elastic +will our account at last be intensified. Thousands of sermons are +preached to invalids. I preach this sermon this morning to stout men +and healthful women. We must give to God an account for the right use +of this physical organism. + +These invalids have comparatively little to account for, perhaps. They +could not lift twenty pounds. They could not walk half a mile without +sitting down to rest. In the preparation of this subject I have said +to myself, how shall I account to God in judgment for the use of a +body which never knew one moment of real sickness? Rising up in +judgment, standing beside the men and women who had only little +physical energy, and yet consumed that energy in a conflagration of +religious enthusiasm, how will we feel abashed! + +Oh, men of the strong arm and the stout heart, what use are you making +of your physical forces? Will you be able to stand the test of that +day when we must answer for the use of every talent, whether it were a +physical energy, or a mental acumen, or a spiritual power? + +The day approaches, and I see one who in this world was an invalid, +and as she stands before the throne of God to answer she says, "I was +sick all my days. I had but very little strength, but I did as well as +I could in being kind to those who were more sick and more +suffering." And Christ will say, "Well done, faithful servant." + +And then a little child will stand before the throne, and she will +say, "On earth I had a curvature of the spine, and I was very weak, +and I was very sick; but I used to gather flowers out of the wild-wood +and bring them to my sick mother, and she was comforted when she saw +the sweet flowers out of the wild-wood. I didn't do much, but I did +something." And Christ shall say, as He takes her up in His arm and +kisses her, "Well done, well done, faithful servant; enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord." + +What, then, will be said to us--we to whom the Lord gave physical +strength and continuous health? Hark! it thunders again. The judgment! +the judgment! + +I said to an old Scotch minister, who was one of the best friends I +ever had, "Doctor, did you ever know Robert Pollock, the Scotch poet, +who wrote 'The Course of Time'?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew him +well; I was his classmate." And then the doctor went on to tell me how +that the writing of "The Course of Time" exhausted the health of +Robert Pollock, and he expired. It seems as if no man could have such +a glimpse of the day for which all other days were made as Robert +Pollock had, and long survive that glimpse. In the description of that +day he says, among other things: + + "Begin the woe, ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds + And doleful winds wail to the howling hills, + And howling hills mourn to the dismal vales, + And dismal vales sigh to the sorrowing brooks, + And sorrowing brooks weep to the weeping stream, + And weeping stream awake the groaning deep; + Ye heavens, great archway of the universe, put sack-cloth on; + And ocean, robe thyself in garb of widowhood, + And gather all thy waves into a groan, and utter it. + Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense. + The occasion asks it, Nature dies, and angels come to lay + her in her grave." + +What Robert Pollock saw in poetic dream, you and I will see in +positive reality--the judgment! the judgment! + + + + +THE PLEIADES AND ORION. + + "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."--AMOS. v. 8 + + +A country farmer wrote this text--Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth +and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as +formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the +sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was +getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take +from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and +stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and +Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, +and Israelites trembled. + +Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and +David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as +might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his +prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, +and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts +devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He +watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of +bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all +night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight +roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the +tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year +when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open +field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the +night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of +lunar light. + +What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at +twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, +and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's +hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the +thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the +map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out +before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He +associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He +had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, +and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. +But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while +seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of +the midnight heavens--the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The +former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it +rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the +winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven +Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald of the +tempest. The ancients were the more apt to study the physiognomy and +juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies, because they thought they had a +special influence upon the earth; and perhaps they were right. If the +moon every few hours lifts and lets down the tides of the Atlantic +Ocean, and the electric storms of last year in the sun, by all +scientific admission, affected the earth, why not the stars have +proportionate effect? + +And there are some things which make me think that it may not have +been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of +the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Did not a meteor +run on evangelistic errand on the first Christmas night, and designate +the rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars in their courses fight +against Sisera? Was it merely coincidental that before the destruction +of Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights? Did +it merely happen so that a new star appeared in constellation +Cassiopeia, and then disappeared just before King Charles IX. of +France, who was responsible for St. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it +without significance that in the days of the Roman Emperor Justinian +war and famine were preceded by the dimness of the sun, which for +nearly a year gave no more light than the moon, although there were no +clouds to obscure it? + +Astrology, after all, may have been something more than a brilliant +heathenism. No wonder that Amos of the text, having heard these two +anthems of the stars, put down the stout rough staff of the herdsman +and took into his brown hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen of a +prophet, and advised the recreant people of his time to return to God, +saying: "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." This +command, which Amos gave 785 years B.C., is just as appropriate for +us, 1885 A.D. + +In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made +the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a +star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but +seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night +after night and season after season and decade after decade they had +kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never +clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called +the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his +Æneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order +established for their coming and going; order written not in +manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty +on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. +Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order. + +What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations +sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at +hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps +seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly +keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in +adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of +the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the +Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care +of the one world we inhabit. + +So I feel very much as my father felt one day when we were going to +the country mill to get a grist ground, and I, a boy of seven years, +sat in the back part of the wagon, and our yoke of oxen ran away with +us and along a labyrinthine road through the woods, so that I thought +every moment we would be dashed to pieces, and I made a terrible +outcry of fright, and my father turned to me with a face perfectly +calm, and said: "De Witt, what are you crying about? I guess we can +ride as fast as the oxen can run." And, my hearers, why should we be +affrighted and lose our equilibrium in the swift movement of worldly +events, especially when we are assured that it is not a yoke of +unbroken steers that are drawing us on, but that order and wise +government are in the yoke? + +In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, +and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, +and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with +you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better +than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see +further than Amos with the naked eye could--namely, two hundred stars +in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there +is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions +of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made +all that and controls all that--the wheel of the constellations +turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the +breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. +For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge +you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +groups of the text was the God of light. Amos saw that God was not +satisfied with making one star, or two or three stars, but He makes +seven; and having finished that group of worlds, makes another +group--group after group. To the Pleiades He adds Orion. It seems that +God likes light so well that He keeps making it. Only one being in the +universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, meteoric +creations, and that is the--Creator Himself. And they have all been +lovingly christened, each one a name as distinct as the names of your +children. "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by +their names." The seven Pleiades had names given to them, and they are +Alcyone, Merope, Celæno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. + +But think of the billions and trillions of daughters of starry light +that God calls by name as they sweep by Him with beaming brow and +lustrous robe! So fond is God of light--natural light, moral light, +spiritual light. Again and again is light harnessed for +symbolization--Christ, the bright and morning star; evangelization, +the daybreak; the redemption of nations, Sun of Righteousness rising +with healing in His wings. Oh, men and women, with so many sorrows and +sins and perplexities, if you want light of comfort, light of pardon, +light of goodness, in earnest, pray through Christ, "Seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +archipelagoes of stars must be an unchanging God. There had been no +change in the stellar appearance in this herdsman's life-time, and his +father, a shepherd, reported to him that there had been no change in +his life-time. And these two clusters hang over the celestial arbor +now just as they were the first night that they shone on the Edenic +bowers, the same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top +of which to watch them, the same as when the Chaldeans calculated the +eclipses, the same as when Elihu, according to the Book of Job, went +out to study the aurora borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and +Copernican system, the same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras, and from +Pythagoras to Herschel. Surely, a changeless God must have fashioned +the Pleiades and Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups and downs of +life, and the flux and reflux of the tides of prosperity, to know that +we have a changeless God, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. + +Xerxes garlanded and knighted the steersman of his boat in the +morning, and hanged him in the evening of the same day. Fifty thousand +people stood around the columns of the national capitol, shouting +themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural, and in four months so +great were the antipathies that a ruffian's pistol in Washington depot +expressed the sentiment of a great multitude. The world sits in its +chariot and drives tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the horse +behind is Anathema. Lord Cobham, in King James' time, was applauded, +and had thirty-five thousand dollars a year, but was afterward +execrated, and lived on scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. +Alexander the Great after death remained unburied for thirty days, +because no one would do the honor of shoveling him under. The Duke of +Wellington refused to have his iron fence mended, because it had been +broken by an infuriated populace in some hour of political +excitement, and he left it in ruins that men might learn what a fickle +thing is human favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting +to everlasting to them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto the +children's children of such as keep His covenant, and to those who +remember His commandments to do them." This moment "seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +beacons of the Oriental night sky must be a God of love and kindly +warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to all the herdsmen and +shepherds and husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and +cultivate your gardens and fields." Orion, coming in winter, warned +them to prepare for tempest. All navigation was regulated by these two +constellations. The one said to shipmaster and crew: "Hoist sail for +the sea, and gather merchandise from other lands." But Orion was the +storm-signal, and said: "Reef sail, make things snug, or put into +harbor, for the hurricanes are getting their wings out." As the +Pleiades were the sweet evangels of the spring, Orion was the warning +prophet of the winter. + +Oh, now I get the best view of God I ever had! There are two kinds of +sermons I never want to preach--the one that presents God so kind, so +indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will +against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their +impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are +spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in +His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven." The other kind of sermon I never want to +preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and +thundercloud, and with red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into +paroxysms of infinite agony. The sermon that I am now preaching +believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and +winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion. + +You must remember that the winter is just as important as the spring. +Let one winter pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to bind +the rivers and snow to enrich our fields, and then you will have to +enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries. "A green Christmas makes a +fat grave-yard," was the old proverb. Storms to purify the air. +Thermometer at ten degrees above zero to tone up the system. December +and January just as important as May and June. I tell you we need the +storms of life as much as we do the sunshine. There are more men +ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, +before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and +worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been +like Julius Cæsar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was +divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the +firmament. + +One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages made last summer by the +"Etruria" was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from +New York to Liverpool. But to those going in the opposite direction +the storm was a buffeting and a hinderance. It is a bad thing to have +a storm ahead, pushing us back; but if we be God's children and +aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner +into the harbor. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and +typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of the land and sea are not +unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but are under divine +supervision! I am so glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also the +God of Orion! It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina +Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," +and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in +favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of +consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility +of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your +persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal +heaven. + +Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible +God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in +Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and +minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! +worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we +stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling +off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric +iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve +around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around +the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make +about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time +between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos +into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition. + +And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, +many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there," +says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says +St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says +Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says +Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the +herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about +those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let +us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop +or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the +heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this +shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already +occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their +gates to let us in. + +When I read, "In my Father's house are many mansions," I do not know +but that each world is a room, and as many rooms as there are worlds, +stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hallways, stellar windows, +stellar domes. How our departed friends must pity us shut up in these +cramped apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles, when they some +morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar +system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling +constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve +luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep +of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic, +archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their +windows illuminated for festivity. + +Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How +little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future! +How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed +up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are +worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which +there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion, +how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must +obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call +to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable, +but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all +the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills +of Tekoa. + +I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never +impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest +Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two +or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building. +All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with +precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes +with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and +eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich +colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues +above statues, until sculpture can do no more, but faints and falls +back against carved stalls and down on pavements over which the kings +and queens of the earth have walked to confession. Nave and aisles and +transept and portals combining the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced, +interfoliated, intercolumned grandeur. As I stood outside, looking at +the double range of flying buttresses and the forest of pinnacles, +higher and higher and higher, until I almost reeled from dizziness, I +exclaimed; "Great doxology in stone! Frozen prayer of many nations!" + +But while standing there I saw a poor man enter and put down his pack +and kneel beside his burden on the hard floor of that cathedral. And +tears of deep emotion came into my eyes, as I said to myself: "There +is a soul worth more than all the material surroundings. That man will +live after the last pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all that +cathedral glory shall remain uncrumbled. He is now a Lazarus in rags +and poverty and weariness, but immortal, and a son of the Lord God +Almighty; and the prayer he now offers, though amid many +superstitions, I believe God will hear; and among the Apostles whose +sculptured forms stand in the surrounding niches he will at last be +lifted, and into the presence of that Christ whose sufferings are +represented by the crucifix before which he bows; and be raised in due +time out of all his poverties into the glorious home built for him and +built for us by 'Him who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion.'" + + + + +THE QUEEN'S VISIT. + + "Behold, the half was not told me."--I KINGS x: 7. + + +Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all +sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, +and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. +He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the +East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were +obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the +hands of Solomon's merchants. He manned the fortress Thapsacus at the +chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that +passed there. The three great products of Palestine--wine pressed from +the richest clusters and celebrated all the world over; oil which in +that hot country is the entire substitute for butter and lard, and was +pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country became +an oil well; and honey which was the entire substitute for +sugar--these three great products of the country Solomon exported, and +received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every +clime. + +He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered a fleet of ships to be +constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the +flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage, to bring +home the wealth of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian +horses were large and swift, and long-maned and round-limbed, and he +resolved to purchase them, giving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, +putting the best of these horses in his own stall, and selling the +surplus to foreign potentates at great profit. + +He heard that there was the best of timber on Mount Lebanon, and he +sent out one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest +and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into +rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thence to be drawn by ox-teams +twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there +were beautiful flowers in other lands. He sent for them, planted them +in his own gardens, and to this very day there are flowers found in +the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of +Palestine, the lineal descendants of the very flowers that Solomon +planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest +voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and +bring them there, and he put them into his cages. + +Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming up to the +king's gate, and the ox-trains from Egypt, gold and silver and +precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, +and fish of every scale! See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and +the horsemen run, and the chariots wheel! Hark to the orchestra! Gaze +upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, +step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace! + +Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the +king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the +architect, and of the other artists is here seen in the long line of +corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. +Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting +into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network +of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging +baskets. Three branches--so Josephus tells us--three branches +sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves +seemed to quiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of +water on six hundred brazen ox-heads, which gushed with water and +filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and +musical plash. Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and +cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seating place of +the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen lion. Why, my friends, +in that place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and +they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces +in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of +gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold +reflected in the water! Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing +in the crown! Gold, gold, gold! + +Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere +by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of +Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long +procession approaching Jerusalem? I think from the pomp of it there +must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of the spices which +are brought as presents, and I hear the shout of the drivers, and I +see the dust-covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry +the news up to the palace. The Queen of Sheba advances. Let all the +people come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the +palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace +before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and the +saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense, and pass it into the +treasure house. Take up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun. + +The Queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the +bath. She sits down at the banquet. The cup-bearers bow. The meat +smokes. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten +sea. Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the +conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Solomon +many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the +Hebrews, and she then and there becomes a servant of the Lord God. + +She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices she +brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned +into harps and psalteries and into railings for the causeway between +the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand +dollars in money--she begins to think that all these presents amount +to nothing in such a place, and she is almost ashamed that she has +brought them, and she says within herself: "I heard a great deal +about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, +but I find it far beyond my highest anticipations. I must add more +than fifty per cent. to what has been related. It exceeds everything +that I could have expected. The half--the half was not told me." + +Learn from this subject what a beautiful thing it is when social +position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes +to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say +it is because they are weak-minded. I say it is because they have +quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and +capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the +Gospel then all the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who +have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all come the people of +affluence and high social position. Alas, that it is so! + +If there are those here to-day who have been favored of fortune, or, +as I might better put it, favored of God, surrender all you have and +all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba. +Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I +am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all +ages--Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen +of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of +Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in +Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen +Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors +to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove +to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; +Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen +Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper. + +I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its +thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures, +and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and +conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line +of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with +gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and +the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this +greater than Solomon. + +Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of +truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say +in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great +way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to +cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering +deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a +committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates +report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She +wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this +by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand +kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by +Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of +eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the +jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time +to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan, +dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and +among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an +earnest seeker after the truth." + +But there are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that +way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come +to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their +arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am +to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost." +A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem +will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the +Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. +Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures +of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the +waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne. +Sit down at the banquet--the wine pressed from the grapes of the +heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the +camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. +The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"--that is, this very +woman I am speaking of--"the Queen of the South shall rise up in +judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the +uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, +behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the +infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting +to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it +shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the +camels! + +Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a +surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in +Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of +Christ--that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler +coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship +and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, +and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia +Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. +And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so +much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half--the half was +not told her. + +So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of +grace--an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; +martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with +visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through +the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It +has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with +pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great +congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of +God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this +banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of +His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with +tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea +you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian +with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a +Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that +you never in the days of your spiritual bondage had any appreciation +of what was to come. You are ready to-day to answer, and if I gave you +an opportunity in the midst of this assemblage, you would speak out +and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and +the grace and the goodness of God: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +Well, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this +world, when it is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells +of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of +Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren, +winter-bleached, storm-scarred, thunder-split rock breaking into +floods of bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their +nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoom--deserts blooming +into carnation roses and silver-tipped lilies. + +It is the old story. Everybody tells it. Isaiah told it, John told it, +Paul told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John +Milton told it--everybody tells it; and yet--and yet when the midnight +shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal His great army, and +China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of God +and wheel into line; and India, destroying her Juggernaut and +snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the +voice of God and wheel into line; and vine-covered Italy, and +wheat-crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the +voice of God and fall into line; then the Church, which has been +toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded like +a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up +into the face of her Lord the King, and say: "The half--the half was +not told me." + +Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian--a greater +surprise than anything I have depicted. Heaven is an old story. +Everybody talks about it. There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book that +does not refer to it. Children read about it in their Sabbath-school +book. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a +harbor from the storm. We call it our home. We say it is the house of +many mansions. We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, +exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out +in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a +surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the Queen of Sheba, +the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have +started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though +our feet be blistered with the way? We are hastening to the palace. We +take all our loves and hopes and Christian ambitions, as frankincense +and myrrh and cassia, to the great King. We must not rest. We must not +halt. The night is coming on, and it is not safe out here in the +desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the +houses of Lebanon, and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains +dance in the sun, and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor +pilgrims. + +Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are +weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: +"Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters, recline on these banks. +Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censer +and swing it before the altar." And yet, my friends, when heaven +bursts upon us it will be a greater surprise than that--Jesus on the +throne, and we made like Him! All our Christian friends surrounding us +in glory! All our sorrows and tears and sins gone by forever! The +thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, +the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without +end: "The half--the half was not told us!" + + + + +VICARIOUS SUFFERING. + + "Without shedding of blood is no remission."--HEB. ix: 22. + + +John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that +made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White +Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out +Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you +really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ +to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The +Bible statement agrees with all physicians, and all physiologists, and +all scientists, in saying that the blood is the life, and in the +Christian religion it means simply that Christ's life was given for +our life. Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible story of blood +is disgusting, and that they don't want what they call a +"slaughter-house religion," only shows their incapacity or +unwillingness to look through the figure of speech toward the thing +signified. The blood that, on the darkest Friday the world ever saw, +oozed, or trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side, and the +hands, and the feet of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in +a few hours coagulated and dried up, and forever disappeared; and if +man had depended on the application of the literal blood of Christ, +there would not have been a soul saved for the last eighteen +centuries. + +In order to understand this red word of my text, we only have to +exercise as much common sense in religion as we do in everything else. +Pang for pang, hunger for hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear, +blood for blood, life for life, we see every day illustrated. The act +of substitution is no novelty, although I hear men talk as though the +idea of Christ's suffering substituted for our suffering were +something abnormal, something distressingly odd, something wildly +eccentric, a solitary episode in the world's history; when I could +take you out into this city, and before sundown point you to five +hundred cases of substitution and voluntary suffering of one in behalf +of another. + +At two o'clock to-morrow afternoon go among the places of business or +toil. It will be no difficult thing for you to find men who, by their +looks, show you that they are overworked. They are prematurely old. +They are hastening rapidly toward their decease. They have gone +through crises in business that shattered their nervous system, and +pulled on the brain. They have a shortness of breath, and a pain in +the back of the head, and at night an insomnia that alarms them. Why +are they drudging at business early and late? For fun? No; it would be +difficult to extract any amusement out of that exhaustion. Because +they are avaricious? In many cases no. Because their own personal +expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars would meet all their +wants. The simple fact is, the man is enduring all that fatigue and +exasperation, and wear and tear, to keep his home prosperous. There +is an invisible line reaching from that store, from that bank, from +that shop, from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few blocks, a few +miles away, and there is the secret of that business endurance. He is +simply the champion of a homestead, for which he wins bread, and +wardrobe, and education, and prosperity, and in such battle ten +thousand men fall. Of ten business men whom I bury, nine die of +overwork for others. Some sudden disease finds them with no power of +resistance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood. +Substitution! + +At one o'clock to-morrow morning, the hour when slumber is most +uninterrupted and most profound, walk amid the dwelling-houses of the +city. Here and there you will find a dim light, because it is the +household custom to keep a subdued light burning: but most of the +houses from base to top are as dark as though uninhabited. A merciful +God has sent forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over +the city. But yonder is a clear light burning, and outside on the +window casement a glass or pitcher containing food for a sick child; +the food is set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that mother +has sat up with that sufferer. She has to the last point obeyed the +physician's prescription, not giving a drop too much or too little, or +a moment too soon or too late. She is very anxious, for she has buried +three children with the same disease, and she prays and weeps, each +prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. By dint of +kindness she gets the little one through the ordeal. After it is all +over, the mother is taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in, and +one day she leaves the convalescent child with a mother's blessing, +and goes up to join the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for life. +Substitution! The fact is that there are an uncounted number of +mothers who, after they have navigated a large family of children +through all the diseases of infancy, and got them fairly started up +the flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only strength enough +left to die. They fade away. Some call it consumption; some call it +nervous prostration; some call it intermittent or malarial +disposition; but I call it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +Or perhaps the mother lingers long enough to see a son get on the +wrong road, and his former kindness becomes rough reply when she +expresses anxiety about him. But she goes right on, looking carefully +after his apparel, remembering his every birthday with some memento, +and when he is brought home worn out with dissipation, nurses him till +he gets well and starts him again, and hopes, and expects, and prays, +and counsels, and suffers, until her strength gives out and she fails. +She is going, and attendants, bending over her pillow, ask her if she +has any message to leave, and she makes great effort to say something, +but out of three or four minutes of indistinct utterance they can +catch but three words: "My poor boy!" The simple fact is she died for +him. Life for life. Substitution! + +About twenty-four years ago there went forth from our homes hundreds +of thousands of men to do battle for their country. All the poetry of +war soon vanished, and left them nothing but the terrible prose. They +waded knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow-banks. They marched till +their cut feet tracked the earth. They were swindled out of their +honest rations, and lived on meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all +fractured, and eyes extinguished, and limbs shot away. Thousands of +them cried for water as they lay dying on the field the night after +the battle, and got it not. They were homesick, and received no +message from their loved ones. They died in barns, in bushes, in +ditches, the buzzards of the summer heat the only attendants on their +obsequies. No one but the infinite God who knows everything, knows the +ten thousandth part of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height +of anguish of the Northern and Southern battlefields. Why did these +fathers leave their children and go to the front, and why did these +young men, postponing the marriage-day, start out into the +probabilities of never coming back? For the country they died. Life +for life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +But we need not go so far. What is that monument in Greenwood? It is +to the doctors who fell in the Southern epidemics. Why go? Were there +not enough sick to be attended in these Northern latitudes? Oh, yes; +but the doctor puts a few medical books in his valise, and some vials +of medicine, and leaves his patients here in the hands of other +physicians, and takes the rail-train. Before he gets to the infected +regions he passes crowded rail-trains, regular and extra, taking the +flying and affrighted populations. He arrives in a city over which a +great horror is brooding. He goes from couch to couch, feeling of +pulse and studying symptoms, and prescribing day after day, night +after night, until a fellow-physician says: "Doctor, you had better go +home and rest; you look miserable." But he can not rest while so many +are suffering. On and on, until some morning finds him in a delirium, +in which he talks of home, and then rises and says he must go and look +after those patients. He is told to lie down; but he fights his +attendants until he falls back, and is weaker and weaker, and dies for +people with whom he had no kinship, and far away from his own family, +and is hastily put away in a stranger's tomb, and only the fifth part +of a newspaper line tells us of his sacrifice--his name just mentioned +among five. Yet he has touched the furthest height of sublimity in +that three weeks of humanitarian service. He goes straight as an arrow +to the bosom of Him who said: "I was sick and ye visited Me." Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +In the legal profession I see the same principle of self-sacrifice. In +1846, William Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic negro, was at Auburn, +N.Y., on trial for murder. He had slain the entire Van Nest family. +The foaming wrath of the community could be kept off him only by armed +constables. Who would volunteer to be his counsel? No attorney wanted +to sacrifice his popularity by such an ungrateful task. All were +silent save one, a young lawyer with feeble voice, that could hardly +be heard outside the bar, pale and thin and awkward. It was William H. +Seward, who saw that the prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible, and +ought to be put in an asylum rather than put to death, the heroic +counsel uttering these beautiful words: + +"I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged prisoner +and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a +pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child with +an affectionate smile disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever +I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give +because he says, 'God bless you!' as I pass. My dog caresses me with +fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse recognizes me when I +fill his manger. What reward, what gratitude, what sympathy and +affection can I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look at him. +Look at the assemblage around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed +censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors +or my fellow-men, where, even in his heart, I can expect to find a +sentiment, a thought, not to say of reward or of acknowledgment, or +even of recognition? Gentlemen, you may think of this evidence what +you please, bring in what verdict you can, but I asseverate before +Heaven and you, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the +prisoner at the bar does not at this moment know why it is that my +shadow falls on you instead of his own." + +The gallows got its victim, but the post-mortem examination of the +poor creature showed to all the surgeons and to all the world that the +public were wrong, and William H. Seward was right, and that hard, +stony step of obloquy in the Auburn court-room was the first step of +the stairs of fame up which he went to the top, or to within one step +of the top, that last denied him through the treachery of American +politics. Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an American court-room +than William H. Seward, without reward, standing between the fury of +the populace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution! + +In the realm of the fine arts there was as remarkable an instance. A +brilliant but hypercriticised painter, Joseph William Turner, was met +by a volley of abuse from all the art galleries of Europe. His +paintings, which have since won the applause of all civilized nations, +"The Fifth Plague of Egypt," "Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally +Weather," "Calais Pier," "The Sun Rising Through Mist," and "Dido +Building Carthage," were then targets for critics to shoot at. In +defense of this outrageously abused man, a young author of twenty-four +years, just one year out of college, came forth with his pen, and +wrote the ablest and most famous essays on art that the world ever +saw, or ever will see--John Ruskin's "Modern Painters." For seventeen +years this author fought the battles of the maltreated artist, and +after, in poverty and broken-heartedness, the painter had died, and +the public tried to undo their cruelties toward him by giving him a +big funeral and burial at St. Paul's Cathedral, his old-time friend +took out of a tin box nineteen thousand pieces of paper containing +drawings by the old painter, and through many weary and uncompensated +months assorted and arranged them for public observation. People say +John Ruskin in his old days is cross, misanthropic, and morbid. +Whatever he may do that he ought not to do, and whatever he may say +that he ought not to say between now and his death, he will leave this +world insolvent as far as it has any capacity to pay this author's pen +for its chivalric and Christian defense of a poor painter's pencil. +John Ruskin for William Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +What an exalting principle this which leads one to suffer for another! +Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic +canto, or moves nations. The principle is the dominant one in our +religion--Christ the Martyr, Christ the celestial Hero, Christ the +Defender, Christ the Substitute. No new principle, for it was as old +as human nature; but now on a grander, wider, higher, deeper, and more +world-resounding scale! The shepherd boy as a champion for Israel with +a sling toppled the giant of Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but +here is another David who, for all the armies of churches militant and +triumphant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the crash of +his brazen armor like an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had at God's +command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same God just in +time had provided a ram of the thicket as a substitute; but here is +another Isaac bound to the altar, and no hand arrests the sharp edges +of laceration and death, and the universe shivers and quakes and +recoils and groans at the horror. + +All good men have for centuries been trying to tell whom this +Substitute was like, and every comparison, inspired and uninspired, +evangelistic, prophetic, apostolic, and human, falls short, for Christ +was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of Christ, because he came directly +from God; Noah a type of Christ, because he delivered his own family +from deluge; Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he had no +predecessor or successor; Joseph a type of Christ, because he was cast +out by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ, because he was a +deliverer from bondage; Joshua a type of Christ, because he was a +conqueror; Samson a type of Christ, because of his strength to slay +the lions and carry off the iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a +type of Christ, in the affluence of his dominion; Jonah a type of +Christ, because of the stormy sea in which he threw himself for the +rescue of others; but put together Adam and Noah and Melchisedec and +Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they +would not make a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half +of a Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ. + +He forsook a throne and sat down on His own footstool. He came from +the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and changed a +circumference seraphic for a circumference diabolic. Once waited on by +angels, now hissed at by brigands. From afar and high up He came down; +past meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones, Himself more +lustrous; past larger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs of +firmaments, and from cloud to cloud, and through tree-tops and into +the earners stall, to thrust His shoulder under our burdens and take +the lances of pain through His vitals, and wrapped himself in all the +agonies which we deserve for our misdoings, and stood on the splitting +decks of a foundering vessel, amid the drenching surf of the sea, and +passed midnights on the mountains amid wild beasts of prey, and stood +at the point where all earthly and infernal hostilities charged on Him +at once with their keen sabers--our Substitute! + +When did attorney ever endure so much for a pauper client, or +physician for the patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the child in +membranous croup, as Christ for us, and Christ for you, and Christ for +me? Shall any man or woman or child in this audience who has ever +suffered for another find it hard to understand this Christly +suffering for us? Shall those whose sympathies have been wrung in +behalf of the unfortunate have no appreciation of that one moment +which was lifted out of all the ages of eternity as most conspicuous, +when Christ gathered up all the sins of those to be redeemed under His +one arm, and all their sorrows under His other arm, and said: "I will +atone for these under my right arm, and will heal all those under my +left arm. Strike me with all thy glittering shafts, O Eternal Justice! +Roll over me with all thy surges, ye oceans of sorrow"? And the +thunderbolts struck Him from above, and the seas of trouble rolled up +from beneath, hurricane after hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone, +and then and there in presence of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all +worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter price, the transcendent +price, the awful price, the glorious price, the infinite price, the +eternal price, was paid that sets us free. + +That is what Paul means, that is what I mean, that is what all those +who have ever had their heart changed mean by "blood." I glory in this +religion of blood! I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color in +sacramental cup, whether it be of burnished silver set on cloth +immaculately white, or rough-hewn from wood set on table in log-hut +meeting-house of the wilderness. Now I am thrilled as I see the altars +of ancient sacrifice crimson with the blood of the slain lamb, and +Leviticus is to me not so much the Old Testament as the New. Now I see +why the destroying angel passing over Egypt in the night spared all +those houses that had blood sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I know +what Isaiah means when he speaks of "one in red apparel coming with +dyed garments from Bozrah;" and whom the Apocalypse means when it +describes a heavenly chieftain whose "vesture was dipped in blood;" +and what Peter, the apostle, means when he speaks of the "precious +blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and what the old, worn-out, +decrepit missionary Paul means when, in my text, he cries, "Without +shedding of blood is no remission." By that blood you and I will be +saved--or never saved at all. In all the ages of the world God has not +once pardoned a single sin except through the Saviour's expiation, and +He never will. Glory be to God that the hill back of Jerusalem was the +battle-field on which Christ achieved our liberty! + +The most exciting and overpowering day of last summer was the day I +spent on the battle-field of Waterloo. Starting out with the morning +train from Brussels, Belgium, we arrived in about an hour on that +famous spot. A son of one who was in the battle, and who had heard +from his father a thousand times the whole scene recited, accompanied +us over the field. There stood the old Hougomont Château, the walls +dented, and scratched, and broken, and shattered by grape-shot and +cannon-ball. There is the well in which three hundred dying and dead +were pitched. There is the chapel with the head of the infant Christ +shot off. There are the gates at which, for many hours, English and +French armies wrestled. Yonder were the one hundred and sixty guns of +the English, and the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. Yonder +the Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods. Yonder was the ravine of +Ohain, where the French cavalry, not knowing there was a hollow in the +ground, rolled over and down, troop after troop, tumbling into one +awful mass of suffering, hoof of kicking horses against brow and +breast of captains and colonels and private soldiers, the human and +the beastly groan kept up until, the day after, all was shoveled under +because of the malodor arising in that hot month of June. + +"There," said our guide, "the Highland regiments lay down on their +faces waiting for the moment to spring upon the foe. In that orchard +twenty-five hundred men were cut to pieces. Here stood Wellington with +white lips, and up that knoll rode Marshal Ney on his sixth horse, +five having been shot under him. Here the ranks of the French broke, +and Marshal Ney, with his boot slashed of a sword, and his hat off, +and his face covered with powder and blood, tried to rally his troops +as he cried: 'Come and see how a marshal of French dies on the +battle-field.' From yonder direction Grouchy was expected for the +French re-enforcement, but he came not. Around those woods Blucher was +looked for to re-enforce the English, and just in time he came up. +Yonder is the field where Napoleon stood, his arm through the reins of +the horse's bridle, dazed and insane, trying to go back." Scene of a +battle that went on from twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock, on the +eighteenth of June, until four o'clock, when the English seemed +defeated, and their commander cried out; "Boys, can you think of +giving way? Remember old England!" and the tides turned, and at eight +o'clock in the evening the man of destiny, who was called by his +troops Old Two Hundred Thousand, turned away with broken heart, and +the fate of centuries was decided. + +No wonder a great mound has been reared there, hundreds of feet +high--a mound at the expense of millions of dollars and many years in +rising, and on the top is the great Belgian lion of bronze, and a +grand old lion it is. But our great Waterloo was in Palestine. There +came a day when all hell rode up, led by Apollyon, and the Captain of +our salvation confronted them alone. The Rider on the white horse of +the Apocalypse going out against the black horse cavalry of death, and +the battalions of the demoniac, and the myrmidons of darkness. From +twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock in the afternoon the greatest +battle of the universe went on. Eternal destinies were being decided. +All the arrows of hell pierced our Chieftain, and the battle-axes +struck Him, until brow and cheek and shoulder and hand and foot were +incarnadined with oozing life; but He fought on until He gave a final +stroke with sword from Jehovah's buckler, and the commander-in-chief +of hell and all his forces fell back in everlasting ruin, and the +victory is ours. And on the mound that celebrates the triumph we plant +this day two figures, not in bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but +two figures of living light, the Lion of Judah's tribe and the Lamb +that was slain. + + + + +POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY. + + "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the + place where the tree falleth there it shall be."--ECCLES. xi: 3. + + +There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there +will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of +this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it +will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a +defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to +the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment +in his behalf, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, +if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of +eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs +remitted, and we may be victorious defendants forever. + +My object in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my +text, declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that +the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the +disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause +of his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this +world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. +Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on. + +That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking," said +the doctor, "and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will +destroy you.". The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm; but, under +skillful medical treatment, he begins to sit up, begins to walk about +the room, begins to go to business. And, lo! he goes back to the same +grog-shops for his morning dram, and his even dram, and the drams +between. Flat down again! Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same +medical warning. + +Now, the illness is more protracted; the liver is more stubborn, the +stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious. +But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shops, +and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health. + +He sees that his downward course is ruining his household, that his +life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow, that that +broken-hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he +married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons +are to be taunted for a life-time by the father's drunkenness, that +the daughters are to pass into life under the scarification of a +disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their +prospects for this life, and, perhaps, for the life to come. Sometimes +an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system +is all a tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, +rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. +Does it reform him? + +After awhile he has delirium tremens, with a whole jungle of hissing +reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors +as he dashes out of his bed, crying: "Take these things off me!" As he +sits, pale and convalescent, the doctor says: "Now I want to have a +plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you +will have you will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die." He +gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time +medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying +there is no hope. Death ends the scene. + +That process of inebriation, warning, and dissolution is going on +within stone's throw of this church, going on in all the neighborhoods +of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What +is true in one sense is true in all senses, and will forever be so, +and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. +Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and +you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been +there before, some of them four, five, six times. With a million +illustrations all working the other way in this world, people are +expecting that distress in the next state will be salvatory. You can +not imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some +men have suffered here, and without any salutary consequence. + +Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more +improbable than a reformation here. In this world the life started +with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will +open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. +Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out +of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with +innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what +prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there +would be a seraph evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of +making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than +out of an old black rock seamed and cracked with the storms of a half +century. Surely upon a clean, white sheet of paper it is easier to +write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and +blotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, +though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out +badly, the next life will succeed, though it starts with a dead +failure. + +"But," says some one, "I think we ought to have a chance in the next +life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. +We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood +of the one almost touching the marble of the other." But do you know +what made the ancient deluge a necessity? It was the longevity of the +antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their +life-time than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the +third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eight, and +nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed, and scrubbed, and +soaked, and anchored, clear out of sight for more than a month before +it could be made fit for decent people to live in. Longevity never +cures impenitency. All the pictures of Time represent him with a +scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of +medicines to heal. Seneca says that Nero for the first five years of +his public life was set up for an example of clemency and kindness, +but his path all the way descended until at sixty-eight he became a +suicide. If eight hundred years did not make antediluvians any better, +but only made them worse, the ages of eternity could have no effect +except prolongation of depravity. + +"But," says some one, "in the future state evil surroundings will be +withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation, +and sublimation, and glorification." But the righteous, all their sins +forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the +unsaved will be left alone. It can not be expected that Doctor Duff, +who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and +Doctor Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and +Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be +sent down by some celestial missionary society to educate those who +wasted all their earthly existence. Evangelistic and missionary +efforts are ended. The entire kingdom of the morally bankrupt by +themselves, where are the salvatory influences to come from? Can one +speckled and bad apple in a barrel of diseased apples turn the other +apples good? Can those who are themselves down help others up? Can +those who have themselves failed in the business of the soul pay the +debts of their spiritual insolvents? Can a million wrongs make one +right? + +Poneropolis was a city where King Philip of Thracia put all the bad +people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at +Poneropolis I do not think the parents from other cities would have +sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the other world, +all the associations, now that the good are evolved, will be +degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera +or yellow fever hospital for his health; and the great lazaretto of +the next world, containing the diseased and plague-struck, will be a +poor place for moral recovery. If the surroundings in this world were +crowded of temptation, the surroundings of the next world, after the +righteous have passed up and on, will be a thousand per cent. more +crowded of temptation. + +The Count of Chateaubriand made his little son sleep at night at the +top of a castle turret, where the winds howled and where specters were +said to haunt the place; and while the mother and sisters almost died +with fright, the son tells us that the process gave him nerves that +could not tremble and a courage that never faltered. But I don't think +that towers of darkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco and +Euroclydon will ever fit one for the land of eternal sunshine. I +wonder what is the curriculum of that college of Inferno, where, after +proper preparation by the sins of this life, the candidate enters, +passing on from freshman class of depravity to sophomore of +abandonment, and from sophomore to junior, and from junior to senior, +and day of graduation comes, and with diploma signed by Satan, the +president, and other professorial demoniacs, attesting that the +candidate has been long enough under their drill, he passes up to +enter heaven! Pandemonium a preparative course for heavenly admission! +Ah, my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted +multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness. + +Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another +chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a +man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, +society would be terribly demoralized, and the human race demolished +in a few years. The fear that, if we are bad and unforgiven here, it +will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence +that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and +semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight +savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all +nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for +those who have wasted this. + +Multitudes of men who are kept within bounds would say, "Go to, now! +Let me get all out of this life there is in it. Come, gluttony, and +inebriation, and uncleanness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and +wait upon me! My life may be somewhat shortened in this world by +dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger +scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and +will enter the Heavenly Temple only a little later than those who +behaved themselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little +wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to +heaven _via_ Gehenna and _via_ Sheol." Another chance in the next +world means free license and wild abandonment in this. + +Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew +from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried +twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, but that the +second would decide everything; for which trial would you make the +most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be +most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the +stress upon the second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, +saying, "The first is nothing, the last is everything." Give the race +assurance of a second and more important trial in the subsequent life, +and all the preparation for eternity would be _post-mortem_, +post-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched +off into impiety and godlessness. + +Furthermore, let me ask why a chance should be given in the next world +if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a +banquet, and you invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines +to come, or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the +course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is +invited to them all, and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. +After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you +again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who +declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he +a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done +you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. +He invited us by His Providence and His Spirit three hundred and +sixty-five days of every year since we knew our right hand from our +left. If we declined it every time, or treated the invitation with +indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on +our part toward the Banqueter, and at last He spreads the banquet in a +more luxurious and kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a +right to expect Him to invite us again, and have we a right to blame +Him if He does not invite us? + +If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years +for our admission, and at the end of that time they are closed, can we +complain of it and say, "These gates ought to be open again. Give us +another chance"? If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and we want to +get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every +morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we +have that advertisement before our eyes, and then we go down to the +docks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into the stream and say: +"Come back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this +way. Swing up to the dock again, and throw out planks, and let me come +on board." Such behavior would invite arrest as a madman. + +And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for +years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have +urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any moment, and +after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to +come back? You might as well go out on the Highlands at Neversink and +call to the "Aurania" after she has been three days out, and expect +her to return, as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it once +has sped away. All heaven offered us as a gratuity, and for a +life-time we refuse to take it, and then rush on the bosses of +Jehovah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to be, there +can be, there will be no such thing as posthumous opportunity. Thus, +our common sense agrees with my text--"If the tree fall toward the +south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there +it shall be." + +You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant +way-station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity +whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation +must be made in this world, or never made at all. That piles up all +the emphases and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life +here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the +importance of this chance! + +Alexander with his army used to surround a city, and then would lift a +great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before +that light went out, all would be well; but if once the light went +out, then the battering-rams would swing against the wall, and +demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our +present and everlasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the +King and Conqueror--surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, +surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of +Gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross and +flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender +while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there +will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance! + +In the time of Edward the Sixth, at the battle of Musselburgh, a +private soldier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley had lost his helmet, +took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of the earl; and the +head of the private soldier uncovered, he was soon slain, while his +commander rode safely out of the battle. But in our case, instead of a +private soldier offering helmet to an earl, it is a King putting His +crown upon an unworthy subject, the King dying that we might live. +Tell it to all points of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell +it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all +millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that +we need no other chance in the next. + +I am in the burnished Judgment Hall of the Last Day. A great white +throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are +waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. "What +are you waiting here for?" says a soul that went up from Madagascar to +a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: "I came from +America, where forty years I heard the Gospel preached, and Bible +read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother's +knee until my last hour I had Gospel advantage, but, for some reason, +I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the +Judge to give me a new trial and another chance." "Strange!" says the +other; "I had but one Gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted it, +and I do not need another chance." + +"Why are you here?" says one who on earth had feeblest intellect to +one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of +influence. The latter responds: "Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I +mastered libraries, and had learned titles from colleges, and my name +was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, +and I am here waiting for a new trial." "Strange," says the one of the +feeble earthly capacity; "I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but +I knew Christ, and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another +chance." + +Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great +folding-doors of the Hall swing open. "Stand back!" cry the celestial +ushers. "Stand back, and let the Judge of quick and dead pass +through!" He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of +nations, He says: "Come to judgment, the last judgment, the only +judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each one +flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. "Divide!" says +the Judge to the assembly. "Divide!" echo the walls. "Divide!" cry the +guards angelic. + +And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after +awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum +widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one +side, says: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he +that is holy, let him be holy still;" and then, turning toward the +throng on the opposite side, He says: "He that is unjust, let him be +unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still;" and +then, lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: "If the tree +fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the +tree falleth, there it shall be." And then I hear something jar with a +great sound. It is the closing of the Book of Judgment. The Judge +ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is +cleared and shut. The high court of eternity is adjourned forever. + + + + +THE LORD'S RAZOR. + + "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is + hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of + Assyria."--ISAIAH vii: 20. + + +The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes +in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes +seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is +that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame +and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While +there are times when He employs in the Bible the gentle dew and the +morning cloud and the dove and the daybreak in the presentation of +truth, we often find the iron chariot, the lightning, the earthquake, +the spray, the sword, and, in my text, the razor. + +This keen-bladed instrument has advanced in usefulness with the ages. +In Bible times and lands the beard remained uncut save in the seasons +of mourning and humiliation, but the razor was always a suggestive +symbol. David says of Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp +razor working deceitfully;" that is, it pretends to clear the face, +but is really used for deadly incision. In this morning's text the +weapon of the toilet appears under the following circumstances: Judea +needed to have some of its prosperities cut off, and God sends +against it three Assyrian kings--first Sennacherib, then Esrahaddon, +and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. Those three sharp invasions, that cut +down the glory of Judea, are compared to so many sweeps of the razor +across the face of the land. And these circumstances were called a +hired razor because God took the kings of Assyria, with whom He had no +sympathy, to do the work, and paid them in palaces and spoils and +annexations. These kings were hired to execute the divine behests. And +now the text, which on its first reading may have seemed trivial or +inapt, is charged with momentous import: "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired--namely, by them beyond the +river, by the King of Assyria." + +Well, if God's judgments are razors, we had better be careful how we +use them on other people. In careful sheath these domestic weapons are +put away, where no one by accident may touch them, and where the hands +of children may not reach them. Such instruments must be carefully +handled or not handled at all. But how recklessly some people wield +the judgments of God! If a man meet with business misfortune, how many +there are ready to cry out: "That is a judgment of God upon him +because he was unscrupulous, or arrogant, or overreaching, or miserly. +I thought he would get cut down! What a clean sweep of everything! His +city house and country house gone! His stables emptied of all the fine +bays and sorrels and grays that used to prance by his door! All his +resources overthrown, and all that he prided himself on tumbled into +demolition! Good for him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling around too +freely the judgments of God, for they are razors. + +Some of the most wicked business men succeed, and they live and die in +prosperity, and some of the most honest and conscientious are driven +into bankruptcy. Perhaps his manner was unfortunate, and he was not +really as proud as he looked to be. Some of those who carry their head +erect and look imperial are humble as a child, while many a man in +seedy coat and slouch hat and unblacked shoes is as proud as Lucifer. +You can not tell by a man's look. Perhaps he was not unscrupulous in +business, for there are two sides to every story, and everybody that +accomplishes anything for himself or others gets industriously lied +about. Perhaps his business misfortune was not a punishment, but the +fatherly discipline to prepare him for heaven, and God may love him +far more than He loves you, who can pay dollar for dollar, and are put +down in the commercial catalogues as A1. Whom the Lord loveth He gives +four hundred thousand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillows? No: +whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Better keep your hand off the +Lord's razors, lest they cut and wound people that do not deserve it. +If you want to shave off some of the bristling pride of your own heart +do so; but be very careful how you put the sharp edge on others. + +How I do dislike the behavior of those persons who, when people are +unfortunate, say: "I told you so--getting punished--served him right." +If those I-told-you-so's got their desert they would long ago have +been pitched over the battlements. The mote in their neighbor's +eyes--so small that it takes a microscope to find it--gives them more +trouble than the beam which obscures their own optics. With air +sometimes supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical, and always +blasphemous, they take the razor of the divine judgment and sharpen it +on the hone of their own hard hearts, and then go to work on men +sprawled out at full length under disaster, cutting mercilessly. They +begin by soft expressions of sympathy and pity and half praise, and, +lather the victim all over before they put on the sharp edge. + +Let us be careful how we shoot at others lest we take down the wrong +one, remembering the servant of King William Rufus who shot at a deer, +but the arrow glanced against a tree and killed the king. Instead of +going out with shafts to pierce, and razors to cut, we had better +imitate the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, in the war of the +Crusades, was captured and imprisoned, but none of his friends knew +where. So his loyal friend went around the land from stronghold to +stronghold, and sung at each window a snatch of song that Richard +Coeur de Lion had taught him in other days. And one day, coming before +a jail where he suspected his king might be incarcerated, he sung two +lines of song, and immediately King Richard responded from his cell +with the other two lines, and so his whereabouts were discovered, and +immediately a successful movement was made for his liberation. So let +us go up and down the world with the music of kind words and +sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate, and trying to get out +of trouble men who had noble natures, but, by unforeseen +circumstances, have been incarcerated, thus liberating kings. More +hymn-book and less razor. + +Especially ought we to be apologetic and merciful toward those who, +while they have great faults, have also great virtues. Some people are +barren of virtues. No weeds verily, but no flowers. I must not be too +much enraged at a nettle along the fence if it be in a field +containing forty acres of ripe Michigan wheat. At the present time, +naturalists tell us, there is on the sun a spot twenty thousand miles +long, but from the brightness and warmth I conclude it is a good deal +of a sun yet. + +Again, when I read in my text that the Lord shaves with the hired +razor of Assyria the land of Judea, I bethink myself of the precision +of God's providence. A razor swung the tenth part of an inch out of +the right line means either failure or laceration, but God's dealings +never slip, and they do not miss by the thousandth part of an inch the +right direction. People talk as though things in this world were at +loose ends. Cholera sweeps across Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo, +and we watch anxiously. Will the epidemic sweep Europe and America? +People say, "That will entirely depend on whether inoculation is a +successful experiment; that will depend entirely on quarantine +regulations; that will depend on the early or late appearance of +frost; that epidemic is pitched into the world, and it goes blundering +across the continents, and it is all guess-work and an appalling +perhaps." + +My friends, I think, perhaps, that God had something to do with it, +and that His mercy may have in some way protected us--that He may have +done as much for us as the quarantine and the health officers. It was +right and a necessity that all caution should be used, but there has +come enough macaroni from Italy, and enough grapes from the south of +France, and enough rags from tatterdemalions, and hidden in these +articles of transportation enough choleraic germs to have left by this +time all Brooklyn mourning at Greenwood, and all Philadelphia at +Laurel Hill, and all Boston at Mount Auburn. I thank all the doctors +and quarantines; but, more than all, and first of all, and last of +all, and all the time, I thank God. In all the six thousand years of +the world's existence there has not one thing merely "happened so." +God is not an anarchist, but a King, a Father. + +When little Tod, the son of President Lincoln, died, all the land +sympathized with the sorrow in the White House. He used to rush into +the room where the cabinet was in session, and while the most eminent +men of the land were discussing the questions of national existence. +But the child had no care about those questions. Now God the Father, +and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session in +regard to this world and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child, rush in +to criticise or arraign or condemn the divine government? No; the +Cabinet of the Eternal Three can govern and will govern in the wisest +and best way, and there never will be a mistake, and like razor +skillfully swung, shall cut that which ought to be cut, and avoid that +which ought to be avoided. Precision to the very hair-breadth. Earthly +time-pieces may get out of order and strike wrong, saying that it is +one o'clock when it is two, or two when it is three. God's clock is +always right, and when it is one it strikes one, and when it is twelve +it strikes twelve, and the second hand is as accurate as the minute +hand. + +Further, my text tells us that God sometimes shaves nations: "In the +same day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired." With one +sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its +power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath +desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity, +and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its +sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned +again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to +Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the +heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword +of war was the Lord's razor. + +In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again. +Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the +history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during +those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit +some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take +us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics, +droughts, deluges, plagues--grasshopper and locust; or our +overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands +that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may +combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north +and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more +hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power. + +We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our +fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being +hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated +China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her +resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern +warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans +must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come +upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I +hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to +show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the +hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the +Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because +of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870, +Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is +the razor with which very shortly the Lord will shave Russia. But +nations are to repent in a day. May a speedy and world-wide coming to +God hinder, on both sides the sea, all national calamity. But do not +let us, as a nation, either by unrighteous law at Washington, or bad +lives among ourselves, defy the Almighty. + +One would think that our national symbol of the eagle might sometimes +suggest another eagle, that which ancient Rome carried. In the talons +of that eagle were clutched at one time Britain, France, Spain, Italy, +Dalmatia, Rhactia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, +Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and +all Northern Africa, and all the islands of the Mediterranean, indeed, +all the world that was worth having, an hundred and twenty millions of +people under the wings of that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask +Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem, the "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire." Ask her gigantic ruins straggling their sadness through +the ages, the screech owl at windows out of which world-wide +conquerors looked. Ask the day of judgment when her crowned +debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax, and Caligula and Diocletian, shall +answer for their infamy? As men and as nations let us repent, and have +our trust in a pardoning God, rather than depend on former successes +for immunity! Out of thirteen greatest battles of the world, Napoleon +had lost but one before Waterloo. Pride and destruction often ride in +the same saddle. + +But notice once more, and more than all in my text, that God is so +kind and loving, that when it is necessary for Him to cut, He has to +go to others for the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired." God is love. God is pity. God +is help. God is shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp edges about +Him, no thrusting points, no instruments of laceration. If you want +balm for wounds, He has that. If you want salve for divine eyesight, +He has that. But if there is sharp and cutting work to do which +requires a razor, that He hires. God has nothing about Him that hurts, +save when dire necessity demands, and then He has to go clear off to +some one else to get the instrument. + +This divine geniality will be no novelty to those who have pondered +the Calvarean massacre, where God submerged Himself in human tears, +and crimsoned Himself from punctured arteries, and let the terrestrial +and infernal worlds maul Him until the chandeliers of the sky had to +be turned out, because the universe could not endure the indecency. +Illustrious for love He must have been to take all that as our +substitute, paying out of His own heart the price of our admission at +the gates of heaven. + +King Henry II., of England, crowned his son as king, and on the day of +coronation put on a servant's garb and waited, he, the king, at the +son's table, to the astonishment of all the princes. But we know of a +more wondrous scene, the King of heaven and earth offering to put on +you, His child, the crown of life, and in the form of a servant +waiting on you with blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all +sculpture, all music, all architecture, all worship! In Dresdenian +gallery let Raphael hold Him up as a child, and in Antwerp Cathedral +let Rubens hand Him down from the cross as a martyr, and Handel make +all his oratorio vibrate around that one chord--"He was wounded for +our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." But not until all the +redeemed get home, and from the countenances of all the piled-up +galleries of the ransomed shall be revealed the wonders of redemption, +shall either man or seraph or archangel know the height, and depth, +and length, and breadth of the love of God. + +At our national capital, a monument in honor of him who did more than +any one to achieve our American Independence, was for scores of years +in building, and most of us were discouraged and said it never would +be completed. And how glad we all were when in the presence of the +highest officials of the nation, the work was done! But will the +monument to Him who died for the eternal liberation of the human race +ever be completed? For ages the work has been going up; evangelists +and apostles and martyrs have been adding to the heavenly pile, and +every one of the millions of the redeemed going up from earth, has +made to it contribution of gladness, and weight of glory is swung to +the top of other weight of glory, higher and higher as the centuries +go by, higher and higher as the whole millenniums roll, sapphire on +the top of jasper, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony, and chrysoprasus +above topaz, until, far beneath shall be the walls and towers and +domes of the great capitol, a monument forever and forever rising, and +yet never done. "Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our +sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests forever." + +Allelujah, amen. + + + + +WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM. + + "His windows being open and his chamber toward + Jerusalem."--DAN. vi: 10. + + +The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy +against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever +prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who +are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, +or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth +trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of +Daniel, the Coeur-de-Lion of the ages. His enemies might as well have +a law that the sun should not draw water or that the south wind should +not sweep across a garden of magnolias or that God should be +abolished. They could not scare him with the red-hot furnaces, and +they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of +this enactment he leaves his office of Secretary of State, with its +upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps +and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters +back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred +city of Jerusalem, and then prays. + +I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his +window, and said: "Just see that man defying the law; he ought to be +arrested." And the constabulary of the city rush to the police +head-quarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide-open +window. "You are my prisoner," says the officer of the law, dropping a +heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Daniel. As the constables +open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner, they see the +glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion-tamer, +and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps +with the shaggy mane of a wild beast for his pillow, while the king +that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him the paw and teeth of a +lion he can not tame--the lion of a remorseful conscience. + +What a picture it would be for some artist; Darius, in the early dusk +of morning, not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, +all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and looking through the +crevices of the cage to see what had become of his prime-minister! +"What, no sound!" he says: "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions +are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man +scattered across the floor of the cavern." With trembling voice Darius +calls out, "Daniel!" No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound +slumber. But a lion, more easily awakened, advances, and, with hot +breath blown through the crevice, seems angrily to demand the cause of +this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from +under Daniel's head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report +himself all unhurt and well. + +But our text stands us at Daniel's window, open toward Jerusalem. Why +in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the +pomp of his Babylonish successes could not make him forget it. He +came there from Jerusalem at eighteen years of age, and he never +visited it, though he lived to be eighty-five years. Yet, when he +wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grandest aspirations of his +heart, he had his window open toward his native Jerusalem. There are +many of you to-day who understand that without any exposition. This is +getting to be a nation of foreigners. They have come into all +occupations and professions. They sit in all churches. It may be +twenty years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may +be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your +birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are +open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may +have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory +often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it--the +hill, the tree, the brook, the house, the place so sacred, the door +from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way +in the world; and God only knows how sometimes you have longed to see +the familiar places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life +you would like to have caught a glimpse of the old, wrinkled face that +bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap twenty or forty or fifty +years ago. You may have on this side of the sea risen in fortune, and, +like Daniel, have become great, and may have come into prosperities +which you never could have reached if you had stayed there, and you +may have many windows to your house--bay-windows, and +sky-light-windows, and windows of conservatory, and windows on all +sides--but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem. + +When the foreign steamer comes to the wharf, you see the long line of +sailors, with shouldered mail-bags, coming down the planks, carrying +as many letters as you might suppose would be enough for a year's +correspondence, and this repeated again and again during the week. +Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the post-offices +of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, +hundreds of thousands of persons finding that window of foreign mails +the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say: "When are you +coming home to see us? Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. +Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having a great +struggle to get on here. Would you advise us to come to you, or will +you come to us? All join in love, and hope to meet you, if not in this +world, then in a better. Good-bye." + +Yes, yes; in all these cities, and amid the flowering western +prairies, and on the slopes of the Pacific, and amid the Sierras, and +on the banks of the lagoon, and on the ranches of Texas there is an +uncounted multitude who, this hour, stand and sit and kneel with their +windows open toward Jerusalem. Some of them played on the heather of +the Scottish hills. Some of them were driven out by Irish famine. Some +of them, in early life, drilled in the German army. Some of them were +accustomed at Lyons or Marseilles or Paris to see on the street Victor +Hugo and Gambetta. Some chased the chamois among the Alpine +precipices. Some plucked the ripe clusters from Italian vineyard. +Some lifted their faces under the midnight sun of Norway. It is no +dishonor to our land that they remember the place of their nativity. +Miscreants would they be if, while they have some of their windows +open to take in the free air of America and the sunlight of an +atmosphere which no kingly despot has ever breathed, they forgot +sometime to open the window toward Jerusalem. + +No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing +the national air of his country sung, the malady of home-sickness +comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example +of the heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. +Forget not the old folks at home. Write often; and, if you have +surplus of means and they are poor, make practical contribution, and +rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity +as is no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the +evangelization of other lands? What a stirring, melting, gospelizing +theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while +our windows are open toward them! + +But Daniel, in the text, kept this port-hole of his domestic fortress +unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There +had smoked the sacrifice. There was the Holy of Holies. There was the +Ark of the Covenant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to +keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we +may see and hear and appropriate its advantages. What does the world +say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of +the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Babylon. +Windows open toward Corinth. Windows open toward Athens. Windows open +toward Sodom. Windows open toward the flats, instead of windows open +toward the hills. Sad mistake, for this world as a god is like +something I saw the other day in the museum of Strasburg, Germany--the +figure of a virgin in wood and iron. The victim in olden time was +brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, +and, once infolded, the figure closed with a hundred knives and lances +upon him, and then let him drop one hundred and eighty feet sheer +down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them +with many tortures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest +honor the world could confer was to make a man Roman emperor; but, out +of sixty-three emperors, it allowed only six to die peacefully in +their beds. + +The dominion of this world over multitudes is illustrated by the names +of coins of many countries. They have their pieces of money which they +call sovereigns and half sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons +and half Napoleons, Fredericks and double Fredericks, and ducats, and +Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as +dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the +salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the +length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King +Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and +by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. +We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion. + +But, mark you, that good lion-tamer is not standing at the window, but +kneeling, while he looks out. Most photographs are taken of those in +standing or sitting posture. I now remember but one picture of a man +kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who in the cause of God and +civilization sacrificed himself; and in the heart of Africa his +servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of a candle, +stuck on the top of a box, his head in his hands upon the pillow, and +dead on his knees. But here is a great lion-tamer, living under the +dash of the light, and his hair disheveled of the breeze, praying. The +fact is, that a man can see further on his knees than standing on +tiptoe. Jerusalem was about five hundred and fifty statute miles from +Babylon, and the vast Arabian Desert shifted its sands between them. +Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between it, +saw beyond, saw time, saw eternity, saw earth, and saw heaven. Would +you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your +troubles to comfort, through temptation to rescue, through dire +sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things +terrestrial to things celestial, you will not see them till you take +Daniel's posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap +of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made +so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and especial +provision for those who want to pray, and physiological structure +joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray, and pray, and pray. + +In olden time the Earl of Westmoreland said he had no need to pray, +because he had enough pious tenants on his estate to pray for him; +but all the prayers of the church universal amount to nothing unless, +like Daniel, we pray for ourselves. Oh, men and women, bounded on one +side by Shadrach's red-hot furnace, and the other side by devouring +lions, learn the secret of courage and deliverance by looking at that +Babylonish window open toward the south-west! "Oh," you say, "that is +the direction of the Arabian Desert!" Yes; but on the other side of +the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven. + +The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so +multiform, so expensive--four hundred francs a pound. All the world +seeks it. Do you know how it is made? The spinning is done in a dark +room, the only light admitted through a small aperture, and that light +falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian +character I have ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found +in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and +misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the +interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a +throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved. + +But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our +windows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus saw it one day as the surf +of the Icarian sea foamed and splashed over the bowlders at his feet, +and his vision reminded me of a wedding-day when the bride by sister +and maid was having garlands twisted for her hair and jewels strung +for her neck just before she puts her betrothed hand into the hand of +her affianced: "I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming +down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her +husband." Toward that bridal Jerusalem are our windows opened? + +We would do well to think more of heaven. It is not a mere annex of +earth. It is not a desolate outpost. As Jerusalem was the capital of +Judae, and Babylon the capital of the Babylonian monarchy, and London +is the capital of Great Britain, and Washington is the capital of our +own republic, the New Jerusalem is the capital of the universe. The +king lives there, and the royal family of the redeemed have their +palaces there, and there is a congress of many nations and the +parliament of all the worlds. Yea, as Daniel had kindred in Jerusalem +of whom he often thought, though he had left home when a very young +man, perhaps father and mother and brothers and sisters still living, +and was homesick to see them, and they belonged to the high circles of +royalty, Daniel himself having royal blood in his veins, so we have in +the New Jerusalem a great many kindred, and we are sometimes homesick +to see them, and they are all princes and princesses, in them the +blood imperial, and we do well to keep our windows open toward their +eternal residence. + +It is a joy for us to believe that while we are interested in them +they are interested in us. Much thought of heaven makes one heavenly. +The airs that blow through that open window are charged with life, and +sweep up to us aromas from gardens that never wither, under skies that +never cloud, in a spring-tide that never terminates. Compared with it +all other heavens are dead failures. + +Homer's heaven was an elysium which he describes as a plain at the +end of the earth or beneath, with no snow nor rainfall, and the sun +never goes down, and Rhadamanthus, the justest of men, rules. Hesiod's +heaven is what he calls the islands of the blessed, in the midst of +the ocean, three times a year blooming with most exquisite flowers, +and the air is tinted with purple, while games and music and +horse-races occupy the time. The Scandinavian's heaven was the hall of +Walhalla, where the god Odin gave unending wine-suppers to earthly +heroes and heroines. The Mohammedan's heaven passes its disciples in +over the bridge Al-Sirat, which is finer than a hair and sharper than +a sword, and then they are let loose into a riot of everlasting +sensuality. + +The American aborigines look forward to a heaven of illimitable +hunting-ground, partridge and deer and wild duck more than plentiful, +and the hounds never off the scent, and the guns never missing fire. +But the geographer has followed the earth round, and found no Homer's +elysium. Voyagers have traversed the deep in all directions, and found +no Hesiod's islands of the blessed. The Mohammedan's celestial +debauchery and the Indian's eternal hunting-ground for vast multitudes +have no charm. But here rolls in the Bible heaven. No more sea--that +is, no wide separation. No more night--that is, no insomnia. No more +tears--that is, no heart-break. No more pain--that is, dismissal of +lancet and bitter draught and miasma, and banishment of neuralgias and +catalepsies and consumptions. All colors in the wall except gloomy +black; all the music in the major-key, because celebrative and +jubilant. River crystalline, gate crystalline, and skies crystalline, +because everything is clear and without doubt. White robes, and that +means sinlessness. Vials full of odors, and that means pure regalement +of the senses. Rainbow, and that means the storm is over. Marriage +supper, and that means gladdest festivity. Twelve manner of fruits, +and that means luscious and unending variety. Harp, trumpet, grand +march, anthem, amen, and hallelujah in the same orchestra. Choral +meeting solo, and overture meeting antiphon, and strophe joining +dithyramb, as they roll into the ocean of doxologies. And you and I +may have all that, and have it forever through Christ, if we will let +Him with the blood of one wounded hand rub out our sin, and with the +other wounded hand swing open the shining portals. + +Day and night keep your window open toward that Jerusalem. Sing about +it. Pray about it. Think about it. Talk about it. Dream about it. Do +not be inconsolable about your friends who have gone into it. Do not +worry if something in your heart indicates that you are not far off +from its ecstasies. Do not think that when a Christian dies he stops, +for he goes on. + +An ingenious man has taken the heavenly furlongs as mentioned in +Revelation, and has calculated that there will be in heaven one +hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each ascending soul, though this +world should lose a hundred millions yearly. But all the rooms of +heaven will be ours, for they are family rooms; and as no room in your +house is too good for your children, so all the rooms of all the +palaces of the heavenly Jerusalem will be free to God's children and +even the throne-room will not be denied, and you may run up the steps +of the throne, and put your hand on the side of the throne, and sit +down beside the king according to the promise: "To him that overcometh +will I grant to sit with me in my throne." + +But you can not go in except as conquerors. Many years ago the Turks +and Christians were in battle, and the Christians were defeated, and +with their commander Stephen fled toward a fortress where the mother +of this commander was staying. When she saw her son and his army in +disgraceful retreat, she had the gates of the fortress rolled shut, +and then from the top of the battlement cried out to her son, "You can +not enter here except as conqueror!" Then Stephen rallied his forces +and resumed the battle and gained the day, twenty thousand driving +back two hundred thousand. For those who are defeated in the battle +with sin and death and hell nothing but shame and contempt; but for +those who gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of +the New Jerusalem will hoist, and there shall be an abundant entrance +into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, toward which you do well to +keep your windows open. + + + + +STORMED AND TAKEN. + + "And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the + people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his + hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and + laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut + down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them + to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all + the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand + men and women."--JUDGES ix: 48, 49. + + +Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible history, and yet full of +profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell +where the rocks are. The snake's rattle is hideous, but it gives +timely warning. From the piazza of my summer home, night by night I +saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed there for adornment, +but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all +the iron-bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul, and Herod, +and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Abimelech. These bad people are +mentioned in the Bible, not only as warnings, but because there were +sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of imitation. +God sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very poor hammer. + +The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to +do it. I see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the +shouting of the captains and the yell of the besiegers. The swords +clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two +armies in death-grapple is horrible to hear. The battle goes on all +day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry "Surrender!" +to the beaten foe. And, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem +falls; and there are pools of blood, and dissevered limbs, and glazed +eyes looking up beggingly for mercy that war never shows, and dying +soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, who +have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection: and a +groan rolls across the city, stopping not, because there is no spot +for it to rest, so full is the place of other groans. A city wounded! +A city dying! A city dead! Wail for Shechem, all ye who know the +horrors of a sacked town! + +As I look over the city I can find only one building standing, and +that is the temple of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the +city, in a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now +begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this +temple of Berith. They get within the door, shut it, and they say, +"Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he can not +take this temple of Berith. Here we shall be under the protection of +the gods." Oh, Berith, the god! do your best now for these refugees. +If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have +thunderbolts, strike for them. + +But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berith and +the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with sword? Nay. +Will they do it with spear? Nay. With battering-ram, rolled up by +hundred-armed strength, crashing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech +marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off a limb of +a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to +his men, "You do the same." They are obedient to their commander. + +Oh, what a strange army, with what strange equipment! They come to the +foot of the temple of Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree +and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they +throw down their branches; and the second platoon, and the third, +until all around about the temple of Berith there is a pile of +tree-branches. The Shechemites look out from the windows of the temple +upon what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies. +But soon the flints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the +brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red +elements leap to the casement, and the woodwork begins to blaze, and +one arm of flame is thrown up on the right side of the temple, and +another arm of flame is thrown up on the left side of the temple, +until they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the +cry of "Fire!" within, and "Fire!" without announces the terror, and +the strangulation, and the doom of the Shechemites, and the complete +overthrow of the temple of the god Berith. Then there went up a shout, +long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech +and his men, as they stood amid the ashes and the dust, crying: +"Victory! Victory!" + +Now, I learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any +one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for +God. Look over the weaponry of olden times--javelins, battle-axes, +habergeons--and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his +men could have gained such complete victory. It is no easy thing to +take a temple thus armed. I saw a house where, during revolutionary +times, a man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, +because they were inside the house, and the assaulting soldiers were +outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they +surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single +man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old +Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: "You are only going up there to be +cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other +mode--certainly not by ordinary modes--could that temple so easily, so +thoroughly have been taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters +in Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to learn this day is that +any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the +temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to +stick to the old modes of attack. + +We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, +glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the +castle, but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the +castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world +for God by any keen saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of +rhetoric, by any sapping and mining of profound disquisition, by any +gunpowdery explosions of indignation, by sharp shootings of wit, by +howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell five miles, by +cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain all the +attempts on the part of these ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light +horsemen, and grenadiers. + +My friends, I propose this morning a different style of tactics. Let +each one go to the forest of God's promise and invitation, and hew +down a branch and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around +these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the +fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will +burn them out. What steel can not do, fire may. And I, this morning, +announce myself in favor of any plan of religious attack that +succeeds--any plan of religious attack, however radical, however odd, +however unpopular, however hostile to all the conventionalities of +Church and State. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our +alms-giving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. +Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword, and more of Abimelech's +conflagration! I have often heard + + "There is a fountain filled with blood" + +sung artistically by four birds perched on their Sunday roost in the +gallery, until I thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and Sontag, and +all the other warblers; but there came not one tear to my eye, nor one +master emotion to my heart. But one night I went down to the African +Methodist meeting-house in Philadelphia, and at the close of the +service a black woman, in the midst of the audience, began to sing +that hymn, and all the audience joined in, and we were floated some +three or four miles nearer heaven than I have ever been since. I saw +with my own eyes that "fountain filled with blood"--red, agonizing, +sacrificial, redemptive--and I heard the crimson plash of the wave as +we all went down under it: + + "For sinners plunged beneath that flood + Lose all their guilty stains." + +Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a syllogism; It is not casuistry, it +is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it +is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; +it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all glow; it +is arborescent with all sweet shade. I have seen the sun rise on Mount +Washington, and from the Tip-top House; but there was no beauty in +that compared with the day-spring from on high when Christ gives light +to a soul. I have heard Parepa sing; but there was no music in that +compared with the voice of Christ when He said: "Thy sins are forgiven +thee; go in peace." Good news! Let every one cut down a branch of this +tree of life and wave it. Let him throw it down and kindle it. Let all +the way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled with the tossing joy. +Good news! This bonfire of the Gospel shall consume the last temple of +sin, and will illumine the sky with apocalyptic joy that Jesus Christ +came into the world to save sinners. Any new plan that makes a man +quit his sin, and that prostrates a wrong, I am as much in favor of as +though all the doctors, and the bishops, and the archbishops, and the +synods, and the academical gownsmen of Christianity sanctioned it. The +temple of Berith must come down, and I do not care how it comes. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If +Abimelech had sat down on the grass and told his men to go and get the +boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, +or, if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective +result; but when Abimelech goes with his own ax and hews down a +branch, and with Abimelech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and +marches on--then, my text says, all the people did the same. How +natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most +magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the +overcoming power of example! Here is a father on the wrong road; all +his boys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlists for +Christ; his children enlist. + +I saw, in some of the picture-galleries of Europe, that before many of +the great works of the masters--the old masters--there would be +sometimes four or five artists taking copies of the pictures. These +copies they were going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; +and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and +it is being copied, and long after you are gone it will bloom or blast +in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look +out what you say. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. +The best sermon ever preached is a holy life. The best music ever +chanted is a consistent walk. + +I saw, near the beach, a wrecker's machine. It was a cylinder with +some holes at the side, made for the thrusting in of some long poles +with strong leverage; and when there is a vessel in trouble or going +to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers shoot a rope out to the +suffering men. They grasp it, and the wreckers turn the cylinder, and +the rope winds around the cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked are +saved. So at your feet to-day there is an influence with a tremendous +leverage. The rope attached to it swings far out into the billowy +future. Your children, your children's children, and all the +generations that are to follow, will grip that influence and feel the +long-reaching pull long after the figures on your tombstone are so +near worn out that the visitor can not tell whether it was in 1885, or +1775, or 1675 that you died. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the advantages of concerted +action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work +would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had +gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, +and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about +the temple, the victory is gained--the temple falls. My friends, where +there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his +whole duty there are a great many who never lift an ax or swing a +blow. + +Oh, we all want our boat to get over to the golden sands, but the most +of us are seated either in the prow or in the stern, wrapped in our +striped shawl, holding a big-handled sunshade, while others are +blistered in the heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan, and the +blades bend till they snap. Oh, religious sleepy-heads, wake up! While +we have in our church a great many who are toiling for God, there are +some too lazy to brush the flies off their heavy eyelids. + +Suppose, in military circles, on the morning of battle the roll is +called, and out of a thousand men only a hundred men in the regiment +answered. What excitement there would be in the camp! What would the +colonel say? What high talking there would be among the captains, and +majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that +these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had +overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were +afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking +rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's +battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of +heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on +the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to +what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what +Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to +what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do +you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you +ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman +sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then +hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book +of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it +out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not +let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the +throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your +betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died. + +May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I +would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished +something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to +join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing +new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are +you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that +there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing +as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted +action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It +has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human +enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of +Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life, +and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on +and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and +worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of +ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would +fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over +demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours! + +Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. +As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they +were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may +batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where +we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and +they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I +are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may +have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends +may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have +told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, +if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to +measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know +it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a +sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it." + +I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into +some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You +say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are +adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the +suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have +established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that +tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your +unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are +kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the +suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the +deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." + +"Well," you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I +go?" Step into this tower of indifference. You say: "If this tower is +attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken." You feel at +ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assaults, coming on. +Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you +surrender everything, and they clamor for your immortal overthrow, and +they throw their skeleton arms in the windows, and with their iron +fists they beat against the door; and while you are trying to keep +them out you see the torches of judgment kindling, and every forest is +a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch; and while +the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into a live coal, blown +redder and redder by the whirlwind breath of a God omnipotent, what +will become of your refuge of lies? + +"But," says some one, "you are engaged in a very mean business, +driving us from tower to tower." Oh, no. I want to tell you of a +Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a wall that +no satanic assault can scale; of a bulwark that the judgment +earthquakes can not budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: "In +God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, +fling yourself into it! Tread down unceremoniously everything that +intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death +and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished just +outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the +latch. Oh, get inside! Not one surplus second have you to spare. +Quick, quick, quick! + +Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too +hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the +grave? Is this world, which swings at the speed of thousands of miles +an hour around the sun, going with tenfold more speed toward the +judgment-day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought; and in the +conclusion I cry to one and I cry to the other: "Oh, time! Oh, +eternity! Oh, the dead! Oh, the judgment-day! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!" +But, catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to +hold on to: for "in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the +everlasting arms." And, exhausted with my failure to save myself, I +throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this divine promise, +as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a +wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued +man throws himself into the refuge; for "in God is thy refuge, and +underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, for a flood of tears +with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue! + + + + +ALL THE WORLD AKIN. + + "And hath made of one blood all nations of men."--ACTS xvii: 26. + + +Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a +European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that +theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations +are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A +difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper. + +An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his +pulse moderating and his temper becoming more calm. The air on this +side the ocean is more tonic than on the other side. An American +breathes more oxygen than a European. A European coming to America +finds a great change taking place in himself. He walks with more rapid +strides, and finds his voice becoming keener and shriller. The +Englishman who walks in London Strand at the rate of three miles the +hour, coming to America and residing for a long while here, walks +Broadway at the rate of four miles the hour. Much of the difference +between an American and a European, between an Asiatic and an African, +is atmospheric. The lack of the warm sunlight pales the Greenlander. +The full dash of the sunlight darkens the African. + +Then, ignorance or intelligence makes its impression on the physical +organism--in the one case ignorance flattening the skull, as with the +Egyptian; in the other case intelligence building up the great dome of +the forehead, as with the German. Then the style of god that the +nation worships decides how much it shall be elevated or debased, so +that those nations that worship reptiles are themselves only a +superior form of reptile, while those nations that worship the natural +sun in the heavens are the noblest style of barbaric people. But +whatever be the difference of physiognomy, and whatever the difference +of temperament, the physiologist tells us that after careful analysis +he finds out that the plasma and the disk in the human blood have the +same characteristics: so that if you should put twenty men from twenty +nationalities abreast in line of battle, and a bullet should fly +through the hearts of the twenty men, the blood flowing forth would, +through analysis, prove itself to be the same blood in every instance. +In other words, the science of the day confirming the truth of my text +that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men." + +I have thought, my friends, it might be profitable this morning if I +gave you some of the moral and religious impressions which I received +when, through your indulgence, I had transatlantic absence. First, I +observe that the majority of people in all lands are in a mighty +struggle for bread. While in nearly all lands there are only a few +cases of actual starvation reported, there is a vast population in +every country I visited who have a limited supply of food, or such +food as is incompetent to sustain physical vigor. This struggle in +some lands is becoming more agonizing, while here and there it is +lightened. I have joy in reporting that Ireland, about the sufferings +of which we have heard so much, has far better prospects than I have +seen there in previous visits. In 1879, coming home from that land, I +prophesied the famine that must come upon, and did come upon, the +deluged fields of that country. This year the crops are large, and +both parties--those who like the English Government and those who +don't like it--are expecting relief. I said to one of the intelligent +men of Ireland: "Tell me in a few words what are the sufferings of +Ireland, and what is the Land Relief enactment?" He replied: "I will +tell you. Suppose I am a landlord and you a tenant. You rent from me a +place for ten pounds a year. You improve it. You turn it from a bog +into a garden. You put a house upon it. After a while I, the landlord, +come around, and I say to my agent: 'How much rent is this man +paying;' He answers, 'Ten pounds.' 'Is that all? Put his rent up to +twenty pounds.' The tenant goes on improving his property, and after +awhile I come around and I say to my agent, 'How much rent is this man +paying?' He says, 'Twenty pounds.' 'Put his rent up to twenty-five +pounds.' The tenant protests and says, 'I can't pay it.' Then I, the +landlord, say, 'Pay it or get out;' and the tenant is helpless, and, +leaving the place, the property in its improved condition turns over +to the landlord. Now, to stop that outrage the Relief Enactment comes +in and appoints commissioners who shall see that if the tenant is +turned out, he shall receive the difference of value between the farm +as he got it and the farm as he surrenders it. Moreover, the +government loans money to the tenant, so that he may buy the property +out and out if the landlord will sell." Mighty advancement toward the +righting of a great wrong! But there and in all lands, not excepting +our own, there is a far-reaching distress. And let those who broke +their fast this morning, and those who shall dine to-day, remember +those who are in want, and by prayer and practical beneficence do all +they can to alleviate the hunger swoon of nations. + +Another impression was--indeed the impression carried with me all the +summer--the thought already suggested, the brotherhood of man. The +fact is that the differences are so small between nations that they +may be said to be all alike. Though I spent the most of the summer in +silence, I spoke a few times and to people of different nations, and +how soon I noticed that they were very much alike! If a man knows how +to play the piano, it does not make any difference whether he finds it +in New Orleans or San Francisco or Boston or St. Petersburg or Moscow +or Madras; it has so many keys, and he puts his fingers right on them. +And the human heart is a divine instrument, with just so many keys in +all cases, and you strike some of them and there is joy, and you +strike some of them and there is sorrow. Plied by the same motives, +lifted up by the same success, depressed by the same griefs. The +cab-men of London have the same characteristics as the cab-men of New +York, and are just as modest and retiring. The gold and silver drive +Piccadilly and the Boulevards just as they drive Wall Street. If there +be a great political excitement in Europe, the Bourse in Paris howls +just as loudly as ever did the American gold-room. + +The same grief that we saw in our country in 1864 you may find now in +the military hospitals of England containing the wounded and sick from +the Egyptian wars. The same widowhood and orphanage that sat down in +despair after the battles of Shiloh and South Mountain poured their +grief in the Shannon and the Clyde and the Dee and the Thames. Oh, ye +men and women who know how to pray, never get up from your knees until +you have implored God in behalf of the fourteen hundred millions of +the race just like yourselves, finding life a tremendous struggle! For +who knows but that as the sun to-day draws up drops of water from the +Caspian and the Black seas and from the Amazon and the Mississippi, +after a while to distill the rain, these very drops on the fields--who +knows but that the sun of righteousness may draw up the tears of your +sympathy, and then rain them down in distillation of comfort o'er all +the world? + +Who is that poor man, carried on a stretcher to the Afghan ambulance? +He is your brother. If in the Pantheon at Paris you smite your hand +against the wall among the tombs of the dead, you will hear a very +strange echo coming from all parts of the Pantheon just as soon as you +smite the wall. And I suppose it is so arranged that every stroke of +sorrow among the tombs of bereavement ought to have loud, long, and +oft-repeated echoes of sympathy all around the world. Oh, what a +beautiful theory it is--and it is a Christian theory--that Englishman, +Scotchman, Irishman, Norwegian, Frenchman, Italian, Russian, are all +akin. Of one blood all nations. That is a very beautiful inscription +that I saw a few days ago over the door in Edinburgh, the door of the +house where John Knox used to live. It is getting somewhat dim now, +but there is the inscription, fit for the door of any household--"Love +God above all, and your neighbor as yourself." + +I was also impressed in journeying on the other side the sea with the +difference the Bible makes in countries. The two nations of Europe +that are the most moral to-day and that have the least crime are +Scotland and Wales. They have by statistics, as you might find, fewer +thefts, fewer arsons, fewer murders. What is the reason? A bad book +can hardly live in Wales. The Bible crowds it out. I was told by one +of the first literary men in Wales: "There is not a bad book in the +Welsh language." He said: "Bad books come down from London, but they +can not live here." It is the Bible that is dominant in Wales. And +then in Scotland just open your Bible to give out your text, and there +is a rustling all over the house almost startling to an American. What +is it? The people opening their Bibles to find the text, looking at +the context, picking out the referenced passages, seeing whether you +make right quotation. Scotland and Wales Bible-reading people. That +accounts for it. A man, a city, a nation that reads God's Word must be +virtuous. That Book is the foe of all wrong-doing. What makes +Edinburgh better than Constantinople? The Bible. + +Oh, I am afraid in America we are allowing the good book to be covered +up with other good books! We have our ever-welcome morning and evening +newspapers, and we have our good books on all subjects--geological +subjects, botanical subjects, physiological subjects, theological +subjects--good books, beautiful books, and so many good books that we +have not time to read the Bible. Oh, my friends, it is not a matter of +very great importance that you have a family Bible on the center-table +in your parlor! Better have one pocket New Testament, the passages +marked, the leaves turned down, the binding worn smooth with much +usage, than fifty pictorial family Bibles too handsome to read! Oh, +let us take a whisk-broom and brush the dust off our Bibles! Do you +want poetry? Go and hear Job describe the war-horse, or David tell how +the mountains skipped like lambs. Do you want logic? Go and hear Paul +reason until your brain aches under the spell of his mighty intellect. +Do you want history? Go and see Moses put into a few pages stupendous +information which Herodotus, Thucydides, and Prescott never preached +after. And, above all, if you want to find how a nation struck down by +sin can rise to happiness and to heaven, read of that blood which can +wash away the pollution of a world. There is one passage in the Bible +of vast tonnage: "God so loved the world that He gave His only +begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." Oh, may God fill this country with Bibles and +help the people to read them! + +I was also impressed in my transatlantic journeys with the wonderful +power that Christ holds among the nations. The great name in Europe +to-day is not Victoria, not Marquis of Salisbury, not William the +Emperor, not Bismarck; the great name in Europe to-day is Christ. You +find the crucifix on the gate-post, you find it in the hay field, you +find it at the entrance of the manor, you find it by the side of the +road. + +The greatest pictures in all the galleries of Italy, Germany, France, +England, and Scotland are Bible pictures. What were the subjects of +Raphael's great paintings? "The Transfiguration," "The Miraculous +Draught of Fishes," "The Charge to Peter," "The Holy Family," "The +Massacre of the Innocents," "Moses at the Burning Bush," "The +Nativity," "Michael the Archangel," and the four or five exquisite +"Madonnas." What are Tintoretto's great pictures? "Fall of Adam," +"Cain and Abel," "The Plague of the Fiery Serpent," "Paradise," "Agony +in the Garden," "The Temptation," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The +Communication," "Baptism," "Massacre of the Innocents," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Crucifixion," "The Madonna." What are Titian's great +pictures? "The Flagellation of Christ," "The Supper at Emmaus," "The +Death of Abel," "The Assumption," "The Entombment," "Faith," "The +Madonna." What are Michael Angelo's great pictures? "The +Annunciation," "The Spirits in Prison," "At the feet of Christ," "The +Infant Christ," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment." What are Paul +Veronese's great pictures? "Queen of Sheba," "The Marriage in Cana," +"Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," "The Holy Family." Who has not +heard of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"? Who has not heard of Turner's +"Pools of Solomon"? Who has not heard of Claude's "Marriage of Isaac +and Rebecca"? Who has not heard of Dürer's "Dragon of the +Apocalypse"? The mightiest picture on this planet is Rubens' +"Scourging of Christ." Painter's pencil loves to sketch the face of +Christ. Sculptor's chisel loves to present the form of Christ. Organs +love to roll forth the sorrows of Christ. + +The first time you go to London go into the Doré picture gallery. As I +went and sat down before "Christ Descending the Steps of the +Prætorium," at the first I was disappointed. I said: "There isn't +enough majesty in that countenance, not enough tenderness in that +eye;" but as I sat and looked at the picture it grew upon me until I +was overwhelmed with its power, and I staggered with emotion as I went +out into the fresh air, and said; "Oh, for that Christ I must live, +and for that Christ I must be willing to die!" Make that Christ your +personal friend, my sister, my brother. You may never go to Milan to +see Da Vinci's "Last Supper;" but, better than that, you can have +Christ come and sup with you. You may never get to Antwerp to see +Rubens' "Descent of Christ from the Cross," but you can have Christ +come down from the mountain of His suffering into your heart and abide +there forever. Oh, you must have Him! We are all so diseased with sin +that we want that which hurts us, and we won't have that which cures +us. The best thing for you and for me to do to-day is to get down on +our bended knees before God and say: "Oh, Almighty Son of God, I am +blind! I want to see. My arms are palsied. I want to take hold of thy +cross. Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus!" Why will you live on husks +when you may sit down to this white bread of heaven? Oh, with such a +God, and with such a Christ, and with such a Holy Spirit, and with +such an immortal nature, wake up! + +Once more, I was impressed greatly on the other side the sea with the +wonderful triumphs of the Christian religion. The tide is rising, the +tide of moral and spiritual prosperity in the world. I think that any +man who keeps his eyes open, traveling in foreign lands, will come to +that conclusion. More Bibles than ever before, more churches, more +consecrated men and women, more people ready to be martyrs now than +ever before, if need be; so that instead of there being, as people +sometimes say, less spirit of martyrdom now than ever before, I +believe where there was once one martyr there would be a thousand +martyrs if the fires were kindled--men ready to go through flood and +fire for Christ's sake. Oh, the signs are promising! The world is on +the way to millennial brightness. All art, all invention, all +literature, all commerce will be the Lord's. + +These ships that you see going up and down New York harbor are to be +brought into the service of God. All those ships I saw at Liverpool, +at Southampton, at Glasgow, are to be brought into the service of +Christ. What is that passage, "Ships of Tarshish shall bring +presents"? That is what it means. Oh, what a goodly fleet when the +vessels of the sea come into the service of God! No guns frowning +through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from +cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity. Those ships will come from +all parts of the seas. Great flocks of ships that never met on the +high sea but in wrath, will cry, "Ship ahoy!" and drop down beside +each other in calmness, the flags of Emmanuel streaming from the +top-gallants. The old slaver, with decks scrubbed and washed and +glistened and burnished--the old slaver will wheel into line; and the +Chinese junk and the Venetian gondola, and the miners' and the +pirates' corvette, will fall into line, equipped, readorned, +beautified, only the small craft of this grand flotilla which shall +float out for the truth--a flotilla mightier than the armada of Xerxes +moving in the pomp and pride of Persian insolence; mightier than the +Carthaginian navy rushing with forty thousand oarsmen upon the Roman +galleys, the life of nations dashed out against the gunwales. + +Rise, O sea! and shine, O heavens! to greet this squadron of light and +victory! On the glistening decks are the feet of them that bring good +tidings, and songs of heaven float among the rigging. Crowd on all the +canvas. Line-of-battle ship and merchantmen wheel into the way. It is +noon. Strike eight bells. From all the squadron the sailors' songs +arise. "Surely the isles shall wait for thee, and the ships of +Tarshish to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with +them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel." + + + + +A MOMENTOUS QUEST. + + "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."--ISA. lv: 6. + + +Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors +in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of +our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side +face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the +full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some +things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more +epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime; but when you want to see Christ +coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, +you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard +to Christ might be called the "Oratorio of the Messiah," the writing +of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah Chorus," where all the batons wave and +all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of +insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus, and +Philo, and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among +the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets. + +My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out +into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men +might know Him; his voice rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord while +He may be found." "Oh," says some one: "that was for olden times." +No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a +circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in +St. Petersburg, or Venice, or Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris; +you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I +want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for +one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for +all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: +"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." + +I come, to-day, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice +distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on +the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this +morning will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. +In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine: it either +kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a +Christian, I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of +influences to come;" and still you are waiting. You are wiser in +worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to +Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, or to the steam-boat wharf, +and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit +in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men +who say they are waiting to get to heaven--waiting, waiting, but not +with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of +Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God. + +Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with +earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and +there is a matter of $10,000 connected with your seeing him, and you +can not at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in +the directory, but can not find the name; you go in circles where you +think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city +where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through +street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on +searching for weeks and for months. + +You say: "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, +that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one half +that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of +the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we +may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our +life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the +Spirit of God would help this morning while I try to show you, in +carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in +the next place, when to seek Him. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be +found." + +I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest +and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a +throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing +up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a +bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on His knee, and get +His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to +the "fountain of living water," and dip up refreshment for our +thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the +corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley +fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. + +I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large +an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before +God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no +response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a +believing spirit within, your cry would not go further up than the +shout of a plow-boy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, +loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, +and a bird, affrighted, darts into the window, and wheels about the +room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its +fluttering heart. You say, "Poor thing, poor thing!" Now, a prayer +goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, +and He catches it, and He feels its fluttering pulse, and He puts it +in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, +pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills +to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into +the depths of God's mercy and bring up "pearls of great price." There +was an instance where prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret solid as +Russ pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! +Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were +persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men +among the Covenanters prayed: "Oh, Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou +shalt help us! Oh, Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor +things!" And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted +from their persecutors--the promise literally fulfilled: "While they +are yet speaking I will hear." + +Oh, impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God +says: "He is loving, and faithful, and patient." Do you believe that? +You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? +You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel +is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: "Oh, +Lord! I know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, +and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep Thy promise, and liberate my +captive soul." + +Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the +store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the +manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as He +confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come +before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would +send in petitions and remonstrances! And yet there has been enough sin +in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or +petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the +means, you would go and spend the summer in Germany, and the winter in +Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all +round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any +effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual +health? No, you have not taken one step. + +O that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some +of you have been working for years and years for the support of your +families. Have you given one half day to the working out of your +salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an +earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest +purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if +you want to find the Lord, you must pray, and pray, and pray. + +I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible +is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds +of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds +of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five +minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the +heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through +Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will +find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop +straight from the throne of God into your heart. + +There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If +they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them +to Christ than Washington's farewell address or the Koran of Mohammed +or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's Word +you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Madeleine, in +Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully +constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole +week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the +wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant +altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the +outside door of God's Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, +instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the +dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over penitent and +believing souls! + +O my friends! if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not +go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take "Howe's Elements of +Criticism"--it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to +study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of +William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, +and at last to gain the blessedness of Heaven, search the Scriptures, +"for in them ye have eternal life." + +When people are anxious about their souls--and there are some such +here to-day--there are those who recommend good books. That is all +right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under +such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the +Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The +Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best +rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious +Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer. + +O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A +dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade +shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the +canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel +in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and +read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: +"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a +dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live! +Blessed book when we die! + +I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," +say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply, +there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but +the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; +and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily +when we are in the assembly--the feelings of others emphasizing our +own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth +that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily +against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs. + +When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, +and only for one purpose--to find the way to Christ. When I see people +critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and +critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in +prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government +brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and +says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me +to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such +an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise +my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It +is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this +morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to our souls, +should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it +is a matter of heaven or hell? + +But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to +seek the Lord. "While He may be found." When is that? Old age? You may +not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You +may not see to-night. Now! O if I could only write on every heart in +three capital letters, that word N-O-W--Now! + +Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and +with a trivial manner: "Oh, yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful +disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all +moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. +Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes +the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: +"That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had +called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. +It is too late now; the crisis has passed." Just so it is in the +spiritual treatment of the soul--there is a crisis. Before that, life! +After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let +the crisis pass unattended to! + +There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if they +had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few +acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. +They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprung up on +those acres of ground, and they see what a mistake they made in not +buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never +came back again. And so it is in regard to a man's spiritual and +eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it +never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back. + +A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a +height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the +most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and +now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he +knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the +emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time to-day with +you, O impenitent soul!--the forces of light on the one side, and the +siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter +will be settled for eternity. + +There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on +board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not +on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is +sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year till the +bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are +adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to +year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to +pay for it. + +Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin +will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? +that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost +pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by +the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. +The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this +matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are +before me this morning, whether, in the ten or fifteen years they have +passed in the postponement of these matters, they have come any nearer +God or heaven? + +I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they +may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to the matter. +Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder +and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an +undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, fly for +refuge! The avenger of blood is on the track! The throne of judgment +will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal +salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul +is precious, and it ceaseth forever! + +Oh, if men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they +would love Him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or +sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises +behind Calvary, and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed +Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, +and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty, and English beauty; but I care +not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him "chief +among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." O my blessed +Jesus! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of +Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men can not +love Thee! + +The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does +not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of +Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures +for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, +harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God +too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a +fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour +the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you +to attend to this matter--to attend to it now? Time is flying, +flying--the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to +you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off! + +Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your +immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that +must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for +heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are +open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? +Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it +will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for +all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The +Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more +convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this +very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say +this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I +show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward +beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be +launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ +shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost--would I +not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand +before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now +is the day of your redemption. + +It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in +judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see +Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the +earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will +come up for our glory or for our discomfiture--every prayer, every +sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; +and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is +being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas! +alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these matters. +We may throw them off now. We can not then. We will all be in earnest +then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation then. No rescue then. +Driven away in our wickedness--banished, exiled, forever! + +Have you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that +day unpardoned, as it looks back upon its past life? "Oh," says the +soul, "I had glorious Sabbaths! There was one Sabbath in autumn when +I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood +and spread out His arm and invited me to His holy heart. I refused +Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin +complete! Darkness unpitying, deep, eternal! I am lost! +Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am +lost! O Thou long-suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! O day of +judgment, I am lost! O father, mother, brother, sister, child in +glory, I am lost!" And then as the tide goes out, your soul goes out +with it--further from God, further from happiness, and I hear your +voice fainter, and fainter, and fainter: "Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! +Lost!" O ye dying, yet immortal men, "seek the Lord while He may be +found." + +But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to +dwell on--the hint that there is a time when He can not be found. +There is a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a +clergyman who came in, "Do you think that a man at eighty years of age +can get pardoned?" "Oh, yes," said the clergyman. The old man said: "I +can't; when I was twenty years of age--I am now eighty years--the +Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending +to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I +have had no feeling." "Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to +have me pray with you?" "Yes," replied the old man, "but it will do no +good. You can pray with me if you like to." The minister knelt down +and prayed, and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no +effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, +and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and +with his last breath he said; "I shall never be forgiven!" "O seek the +Lord while He may be found." + + + + +THE GREAT ASSIZE. + +DOCTOR TALMAGE'S SERMON, PREACHED AT CORK, IRELAND, +SUNDAY MORNING, SEPT 6th, 1885. + + "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy + angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His + glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He + shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth + his sheep from the goats."--MATTHEW xxv: 31, 32. + + +Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the +horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful +natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my +companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last +judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat. +These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels. +This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the +audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point +out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an +audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics, +and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience +to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day. + +A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there +shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now +inexplicable shall be explained. + +Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I +don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying +of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits +wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I +must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were +not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there +would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never +recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try +Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The +world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on +earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being +healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could +have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around +about him would have been the slain under that overpowering +effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe. +Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to +mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise. + +But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory. +No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of +grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the +most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim +as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ +rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will +be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to +horizon aflame with His splendor. + +Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire +and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of +fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the +law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will +be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy +arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of +spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory +of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An +unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an +interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which +shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and +be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with +setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers +takes off the top of a burned wick. + +It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on +hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and +with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses +and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are +uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the +judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of +the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt +shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea +into silence. + +Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment +day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars +about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not +always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else +fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar, +and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His +left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every +mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful +gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in +behalf of the human race. + +But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro +above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of +heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene, +and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a +hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all +heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the +scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a +circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher +up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of +cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to +watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were +made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is +Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy +sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those +who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near +the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and +his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke +the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing +brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing, +turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into +corpses. + +Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly +turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the +Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other +group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial +bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered +to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His +sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now +appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides +by angelic radiance. + +But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The +entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that +time the American Republic, the English Government, the French +Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for +something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be +brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece +and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never +slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South +America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the +twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century--all centuries +present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be +in that assembly. + +No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a +millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of +albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A +congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent, +because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the +Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the +world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent +is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of +the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and +underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty +God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up +worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars +strong enough to hold up any auditorium. + +But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on +earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an +audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this +audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will +separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But +the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this +world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical +institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican +institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities +of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high +circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles +go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together, +the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the +king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and +the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without +his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the +beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad +orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly +inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the +mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward +deciding the questions of that very great day. + +"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of +those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming +mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of +those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any +divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character +outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of +choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character +inside as well as character outside. + +In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all +earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will +take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace +will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and +some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh, +what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social +rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a +thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all +ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the +figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2. + +Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two +eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and +everlasting two! + +I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened +allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the +book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names +of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of +such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred +years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes +between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of +judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every +human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they +were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or +three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their +past life flashed before them--all they had ever thought, all they had +ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The +memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a +closed book. + +Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the +thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall +them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes, +although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of +them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the +drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly +unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened, +so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix. + +You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many +revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the +manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find +just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been +accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and +it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that +all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of +judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can +easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen. +And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that +not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be +revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will +read not only your own character and your own history, but the +character and history of others. + +In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing, +and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in +one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another +way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have +to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the +trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet +on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give +significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having +marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun +and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the +trumpet! + +Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead, +the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the +mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys +never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of +the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with +those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages--from +Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and +from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the +bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the +garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east +and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies +of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and +thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The +trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The +leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned +sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with +rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet! +the trumpet! + +Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The +high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their +two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue +tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the +auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded +wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery +throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The +conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and +off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the +world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel +flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the +dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!" + +That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for +cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a +large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to +the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that +margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage +demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to +tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of +judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for +cancellation. + +There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin. +That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever. +It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were +cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made +in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it +will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and +sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and +glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned +prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh, +no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf. + +I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and +testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask +you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that +you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for +something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in +my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our +condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been +swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so +long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems +a ripple on the Atlantic. + +When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death, +and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move +up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high +pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the +Shepherd's crook! "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and +all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His +glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall +separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart! +That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last, +"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a +great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and +swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the +great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they +boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in +simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor. +Your unalterable destiny the quotient. + + + + +THE ROAD TO THE CITY. + + "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be + called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over + it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though + fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any + ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found + there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of + the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and + everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and + gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."--ISAIAH + xxxv: 8-10. + + +There are hundreds of people in this house this morning who want to +find the right road. You sometimes see a person halting at cross +roads, and you can tell by his looks that he wishes to ask a question +as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence +this morning conscious of the fact that there are many of you here who +realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one; +and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it +is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in +it. There are a great many expensive toll-gates scattered all along +that way. Indeed at every road you must pay in tears, or pay in +genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get +through it at all, you have to pay your own way; and since this +differs so much from what I have heard in regard to the right way, I +believe it is the wrong way. + +Here is another road. On either side of it are houses of sinful +entertainment, and invitations to come in, and dine and rest; but, +from the looks of the people who stand on the piazza I am very certain +that it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It +is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses' hoofs clatter and ring, +and they who ride over it spin along the highway, until suddenly they +find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, +and they saw the bit in the mouth of the fiery steed, and cry "Ho! +ho!" But it is too late, and--crash!--they go over the embankment. We +shall turn, this morning, and see if we can not find a different kind +of a road. + +You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty miles +long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was a +path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal +shape and fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of +smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that +in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were +exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time--the old +conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it--there is nothing +left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to +tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good +as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. +Millions more will come. + + "The prophets and apostles, too, + Pursued this road while here below; + We therefore will, without dismay + Still walk in Christ, the good old way." + +"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way +of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall +not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the +ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!" + +I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the +diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, +and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over +bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under +projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip +with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time, +learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government +authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from +earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness; +it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be +wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the +human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be +blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the +Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of +devils. + +The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and +heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered +hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen +million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon +might go over for the devastation of Italy; but our King, at a greater +expense, has built a road for a different purpose, that the banners of +heavenly dominion might come down over it, and all the redeemed of +earth travel up over it. + +Being a King's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly +arched and buttressed have given way and crushed the passengers who +attempted to cross them. But Christ, the King, would build no such +thing as that. The work done, He mounts the chariot of His love, and +multitudes mount with Him, and He drives on and up the steep of heaven +amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done--well +done--gloriously done--magnificently done. + +II. Still further: this road spoken of is a clean road. + +Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it has not been +properly cared for; but my text says the unclean shall not walk on +this one. Room on either side to throw away your sins. Indeed, if you +want to carry them along, you are not on the right road. That bridge +will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night will come +down, leaving you at the mercy of the mountain bandits, and at the +very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really on +this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop +ever and anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the +eternal rock. Ay, at almost every step of the journey you will be +crying out: "Create within me a clean heart!" If you have no such +aspirations as that, it proves that you have mistaken your way; and if +you will only look up and see the finger-board above your head, you +may read upon it the words: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a +man, but the end thereof is death." Without holiness no man shall see +the Lord; and if you have any idea that you can carry along your sins, +your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to the end of the Christian +race, you are so awfully mistaken that, in the name of God, this +morning I shatter the delusion. + +III. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. "The wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein." That is, if a man is three +fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a +philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing-stock of the street, and +followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the +gate of heaven, and it swings open: while there has been many a man +who can lecture about pneumatics, and chemistry, and tell the story of +Farraday's theory of electrical polarization, and yet has been shut +out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory +and swept the heavens with his telescope, and yet has not been able to +see the Morning Star. Many a man has been familiar with all the higher +branches of mathematics, and yet could not do the simple sum, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems, and +yet could not "read his title clear to mansions in the skies." Many a +man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." But if one shall come in the right +spirit, crying the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The +pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain. + +He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament +teaching will get on beautifully. He who goes through philosophical +discussion will not get on at all. Christ says: "Come to Me, and I +will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away." +Now what is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? +If you wanted to go to Albany, and I pointed you out a highway +thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological +discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological +discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. +After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me +to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the human will, +or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the +road--go on it. It is a plain way. + +"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ +Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And that is you and that +is me. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. +"Unless you become as a little child, you can not see the kingdom of +God." If you are saved, it will not be as a philosopher, it will be as +a little child. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Unless you get +the spirit of little children, you will never come out at their +glorious destiny. + +IV. Still further: this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the +traveler in those ancient highways would think himself perfectly +secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep +between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under the +fearful spring the man's life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass +by the roadside. But, says my text, "No lion shall be there." I wish I +could make you feel, this morning, your entire security. I tell you +plainly that one minute after a man has become a child of God, he is +as safe as though he had been ten thousand years in heaven. He may +slip, he may slide, he may stumble; but he can not be destroyed. Kept +by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation. +Everlastingly safe. + +The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill +him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can +happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers +that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His +soul, you can not hurt it. No fires can consume it. No floods can +drown it. No devils can capture it. + + "Firm and unmoved are they + Who rest their souls on God; + Fixed as the ground where David stood, + Or where the ark abode." + +His soul is safe. His reputation is safe. Everything is safe. "But," +you say, "suppose his store burns up?" Why, then, it will be only a +change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. "But," you +say, "suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and +contempt?" The name will be so much brighter in glory. "Suppose his +physical health fails?" God will pour into him the floods of +everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly +subtraction is heavenly addition. The tears of earth are the crystals +of heaven. As they take rags and tatters and put them through the +paper-mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so, +often, the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, +come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal +emancipation. + +There was one passage of Scripture, the force of which I never +understood until one day at Chamounix, with Mont Blanc on one side, +and Montanvent on the other, I opened my Bible and read: "As the +mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them +that fear Him." The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary. + + "Though troubles assail, and dangers affright; + Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite; + Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, + The Scriptures assure us the Lord will provide." + +V. Still further: the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a +bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. "All +things work together for good to those who love God." No weapon formed +against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed, and +delivered by the President of the whole universe. What is the use of +your fretting, O child of God, about food? "Behold the fowls of the +air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; +yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." And will He take care of the +sparrow, will He take care of the hawk, and let you die? What is the +use of your fretting about clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field. +Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What is the +use worrying for fear something will happen to your home? "He blesseth +the habitation of the just." What is the use of your fretting lest you +will be overcome of temptations? "God is faithful, who will not suffer +you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation +also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." + +O this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over +until their branches interlock and drop midway their fruit and shade. +Houses of entertainment on either side the road for poor pilgrims. +Tables spread with a feast of good things, and walls adorned with +apples of gold in pictures of silver. I start out on this King's +highway, and I find a harper, and I say: "What is your name?" The +harper makes no response, but leaves me to guess, as, with his eyes +toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes +rippling on the air: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom +shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be +afraid?" I go a little further on the same road and meet a trumpeter +of heaven, and I say: "Haven't you got some music for a tired +pilgrim?" And wiping his lip and taking a long breath, he puts his +mouth to the trumpet and pours forth this strain: "They shall hunger +no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes." I go a little distance further +on the same road, and I meet a maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but +she has cymbals. They look as if they had rusted from sea-spray; and I +say to the maiden of Israel: "Have you no song for a tired pilgrim?" +And like the clang of victors' shields the cymbals clap as Miriam +begins to discourse: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed +gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea." And +then I see a white-robed group. They come bounding toward me, and I +say: "Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest +in all heaven--who are they?" And the answer comes: "These are they +who came out of great tribulations, and had their robes washed and +made white with the blood of the Lamb." + +I pursue this subject only one step further. What is the terminus? I +do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where it +comes out. My text declares it: "The redeemed of the Lord come to +Zion." You know what Zion was. That was the King's palace. It was a +mountain fastness. It was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness +of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those +towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away; they can +not break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sebastopol was taken, +Babylon fell; but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either +to human or Satanic besiegement. The Lord God Almighty is the defense +of it. Great capital of the universe! Terminus of the King's highway! + +Doctor Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we +should study chemistry, and geometry, and conic sections. Southey +thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer +and Shakespeare. Now, Doctor Dick may have his mathematics for all +eternity, and Southey his Shakespeare. Give me Christ and my old +friends--that is all the heaven I want, that is heaven enough for me. +O garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never +fail! O banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste, and +whose guests are kings forever! O city of light, whose walls are +salvation, and whose gates are praise! O palace of rest, where God is +the monarch and everlasting ages the length of His reign! O song +louder than the surf-beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of +cherubim! + +O my heaven! When my last wound is healed, when the last heart-break +is ended, when the last tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when +the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers +take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their +trumpets, and all across heaven there be chorus of morning stars, +chorus of white-robed victors, chorus of martyrs from under the +throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song +sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored--that of +Jesus only. + + + + +THE RANSOMLESS. + + "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great + ransom can not deliver thee."--JOB xxxvi: 18. + + +Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his +property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear +children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any +spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are +now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have +begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow +cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and +happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with +many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the +condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him: +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can +not deliver thee." + +I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our +gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is +ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a +great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect. + +"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to +adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the +hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the +accidental discharge of a gun--and your mind is gone. If you have ever +been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you +know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our +eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so +easily destroyed? + +"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I +reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the +best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten +years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had +their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it +went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible +for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will +be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well; +and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was demented, and +I had no responsibility," God will say: "Yes, you were demented; but +there were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance +for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a +little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like +poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just +appeared in England--a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus +Christ by scores and scores--giving an account of his own conversion, +when he said: "The mob got after me, and I lost my hat, and climbed +up by a meat-stand, in order that I might not be trampled under foot, +and while I was there, my heart got on fire with love toward those who +were chasing me, and, springing to my feet, I began to exhort and to +pray." Oh, my God, let me be in the last, last day the Cornish fool, +rather than have the best intellect God ever created unillumined by +the Gospel of Jesus Christ! + +Consider what an uncertain possession you have in your intellect, when +there are so many things around to destroy it; and beware, lest before +you use it in making the religious choice, God takes it away with a +stroke. I know a good many of my friends who are putting off religion +until the last hour. They say when they get sick they will attend to +it, but generally the intellect is beclouded; and oh; what a doleful +thing it is to stand by a dying bed, and talk to a man about his soul, +and feel, from what you see of the motion of his head, and the glare +of his eye, and from what you hear of the jargon of his lips, that he +does not understand what you are saying to him. I have stood beside +the death-bed of a man who had lived a sinful life, and was as +unprepared for eternity as it is possible for a man to be, and I tried +to make him understand my pastoral errand; but all in vain. He could +not understand it, and so he died. + +Oh! ye who are putting off until the sick hour preparation for +eternity, let me tell you that in all probability, you will not be +able in your last hour to attend to it at all. There are a great many +people who say they will repent on the death-bed. + +I have no doubt there are many who have repented on the death-bed, but +I think it is the exception. Albert Barnes, who was one of the coolest +of men, and gave no rash statistics, said thus: that in a ministry of +nearly half a century--he was over seventy when he went up to +glory--he had known a great many people who said they repented on the +dying bed, but, unexpectedly to themselves, got well; and he says, How +many of those, do you suppose, who thought it was their dying bed, and +who, after they repented on that dying bed, having got well, lived +consistently, showing that it was real repentance, and not mock +repentance--how many? not one! not one! + +II. Again: this stroke may come to you in the withdrawal of God's +spirit. + +I see people before me who were, twenty years ago, serious about their +souls. They are not now. They have no interest in what I am saying. +They will never have any anxiety in what any minister of the Gospel +says about their souls. Their time seems to have passed. I know a man, +seventy-five years of age, who, in early life, became almost a +Christian, but grieved away the spirit of God, and he has never +thought earnestly since, and he can not be roused. I do not believe he +will be roused until eternity flashes on his astonished vision. + +It does seem as if sometimes, in quite early life, the Holy Spirit +moves upon a heart, and being grieved away and rejected, never comes +back. You say that is all imaginary? A letter, the address of which I +will not give, dated last Monday morning, came to me on Tuesday, +saying this: "Your sermon last night (that is, last Sabbath night) +did not fit my case, although I believe it did all others in the +Academy; but your sermon of a week ago did fit my case, for I am 'past +feeling.' I am not ashamed to be a Christian. I would as soon be known +to be a Christian as anything else. Indeed, I wish I was, but I have +not the least power to become one. Don't you know that with some +persons there is a tide in their spiritual natures which, if taken at +the flood, leads on to salvation? Such a tide I felt two years ago. I +want you to pray for me, not that I may be led to Christ--for that +prayer would not be answered--but that I may be kept from the +temptation to suicide!" + +What I had to say to the author of that I said in a private letter; +but what I have to say to this audience is: Beware lest you grieve the +Holy Ghost, and He be gone, and never return. Next Wednesday, at two +or three o'clock, a Cunard steamer will put out from Jersey City wharf +for Liverpool. After it has gone one hour, and the vessel is down by +the Narrows, or beyond, go out on the Jersey City wharf, and wave your +hand, and shout, and ask that steamer to come back to the wharf. Will +it? Yes, sooner than the Holy Ghost will come back when once He has +taken his final flight from thy soul. With that Holy Spirit some of +you have been in treaty, my dear friends. + +The Holy Spirit said: "Come, come to Christ." You said: "No, I won't." +The Spirit said, more importunately: "Come to Christ." You said: +"Well, I will after awhile, when I get my business fixed up; when my +friends consent to my coming; when they won't laugh at me--then I'll +come." But the Holy Spirit more emphatically said: "Come now." You +said: "No, I can't. I can't come now." And that Holy Spirit stands in +your heart to-night, with His hand on the door of your soul, ready to +come out. Will you let Him depart? If so, then, with a pen of light, +dipped in ink of eternal blackness, the sentence may be now writing: +"Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone! Let him alone!" When +that fatal record is made, you might as well brace yourselves up +against the sorrows of the last day, against the anguish of an +unforgiven death-bed, against the flame and the overthrow of an undone +eternity; for though you might live thirty years after that in the +world, your fate would be as certain as though you had already entered +the gates of darkness. That is the dead line. Look out how you cross +it! + + "'There is a line by us unseen, + That crosses every path; + The hidden boundary between + God's patience and His wrath.'" + +And some of you, to-night, have come up to that line. Ay, you have +lifted your foot, and when you put it down, it will be on the other +side! Look out how you cross it! Oh, grieve not the Spirit of God, +lest He never come back! + +III. This fatal stroke spoken of in the text may be our exit from this +world. I hear aged people sometimes saying: "I can't live much +longer." But do you know the fact that there are a hundred young +people and middle-aged people who go out of this life to one aged +person, for the simple reason that there are not many aged people to +leave life? The aged seem to stand around like stalks--separate stalks +of wheat at the corner of the field; but when death goes a-mowing, he +likes to go down amid the thick of the harvest. What is more to the +point: a man's going out of this world is never in the way he +expects--it is never at the time he expects. The moment of leaving +this world is always a surprise. If you expect to go in the winter, it +may be in the summer; if in the summer, it may be in the winter; if in +the night, it maybe in the day-time; if you think to go in the +day-time, it may be in the night. Suddenly the event will rush upon +you, and you will be gone. Where? If a Christian--into joy. If not a +Christian--into suffering. + +The Gospel call stops outside of the door of the sepulcher. The +sleeper within can not hear it. If that call should be sounded out +with clarion voice louder than ever rang through the air, that sleeper +could not hear it. I suppose every hour of the day, and now, while I +am speaking, there are souls rushing into eternity unprepared. They +slide from the pillow, or they slip from the pavement, and in an +eye-twinkling they are gone. Elegant and eloquent funeral oration will +not do them any good. Epitaph, cut on polished Scotch granite, will +not do them any good. Wailing of beloved kindred can not call them +back. + +But, says some one: "I'll keep out of peril; I will not go on the sea, +I will not go into battle--I'll keep out of all danger." That is no +defense. Thousands of people, last night, on their couches, with the +front door locked, and no armed assassin anywhere around, surrounded +by all defended circumstances, slipped out of this life into the +next. If time had been on one side of the shuttle and eternity on the +other side of the shuttle, they could not have shot quicker across it. +A man was saying: "My father was lost at sea, and my grandfather, and +my great-grandfather. Wasn't it strange?" A man, talking to him, said: +"You ought never to venture on the sea, lest you, yourself, be lost at +sea." The man turned to the other, and said: "Where did your father +die?" He replied: "In his bed." "Where did your grandfather die?" "In +his bed." "Where did your great-grandfather die?" "In his bed." +"Then," he said, "be careful, lest some night, while you are asleep on +your couch, your time may come!" + +Death alone is sure. Suddenly, you and I will go out of life. I am not +saying anything to your soul that I am not going to say to my own +soul. We have got to go suddenly out of this life. If I am prepared +for that change, I do not care where my body is taken from--at what +point I am taken out of this life. If I am ready, all is well. If I am +not ready, though I might be at home, and though my loved ones might +be standing around me, and though there might be the best surgical and +medical ability in the room, I tell you, if I were not prepared, I +would be frightened more than tongue can tell. It may seem like +cowardice, but I am not ashamed to say that I should have the most +indescribable horror about going out of this world if I thought I was +unprepared for the next--if I had no Christ in my soul; for it would +be a plunge compared with which a leap from the top of Mont Blanc +would be nothing. + +But this brings me to the most tremendous thought of my text. The text +supposes that a man goes into ruin, and that an effort is made +afterward for his rescue, and then says the thing can not be done. Is +that so? After death seizes upon that soul, is there no resurrection? +If a man topples off the edge of life, is there nothing to break his +fall? If an impenitent man goes overboard, are there no +grappling-hooks to hoist him into safety? The text says distinctly: +"Then a great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I know there are people who call themselves "Restorationists," and +they say a sinful man may go down into the world of the lost; he stays +there until he gets reformed, and then comes up into the world of +light and blessedness. It seems to me to be a most unreasonable +doctrine--as though the world of darkness were a place where a man +could get reformed. Is there anything in the society of the lost +world--the abandoned and the wretched of God's universe--to elevate a +man's character and lift him at last to heaven? Can we go into +companionship of the Neroes and the Herods, and the Jim Fisks, and +spend a certain number of years in that lost world, and then by that +society be purified and lifted up? Is that the kind of society that +reforms a man and prepares him for heaven? Would you go to Shreveport +or Memphis, with the yellow fever there, to get your physical health +restored? Can it be that a man may go down into the diseased world--a +world overwhelmed by an epidemic of transgressions--and by that +process, and in that atmosphere, be lifted up to health and glory? +Your common sense says: "No! no!" In such society as that, instead of +being restored, you would go down worse and worse, plunging every hour +into deeper depths of suffering and darkness. What your common sense +says the Bible reaffirms, when it says: "These shall go away into +three months of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These shall go +away into ten years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These +shall go into a thousand years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. +"These shall go into _everlasting_ punishment." And now I have quoted +it right; or, if you prefer, in the words of my text: "Then a great +ransom can not deliver thee." + +Now just suppose that a spirit should come down from heaven and knock +at the gates of woe and say: "Let that man out! Let me come in and +suffer in his stead. I will be the sacrifice. Let him come out." The +grim jailer would reply: "No, you don't know what a place this is, or +you would not ask to come in; besides that, this man had full warning +and full opportunity of escape. He did not take the warning, and now a +great ransom shall not deliver him." + +Sometimes men are sentenced to imprisonment for life. There comes +another judge on the bench, there comes another governor in the chair, +and in three or four years you find the man who was sentenced for life +in the street. You say: "I thought you were sentenced for life." "Oh!" +he says, "politics are changed, and I am now a free man." But it will +not be so for a soul at the last. There will be no new judge or new +governor. If at the end of a century a soul might come out, it would +not be so bad. If at the end of a thousand years it might come out, +it would not be so bad. If there were any time in all the future, in +quadrillions and quadrillions of years, that the soul might come out, +it would not be so bad; but if the Bible be true, it is a state of +unending duration. + +Far on in the ages one lost soul shall cry out to another lost soul: +"How long have you been here?" and the soul will reply: "The years of +my ruin are countless. I estimated the time for thousands of years; +but what is the use of estimating when all these rolling cycles bring +us no nearer the terminus." Ages! Ages! Ages! Eternity! Eternity! +Eternity! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! No +medicine to cure that marasmus of the soul. No hammer to strike off +the handcuff of that incarceration. No burglar's key to pick the locks +which the Lord hath fastened. Sir Francis Newport, in his last moment, +caught just one glimpse of that world. He had lived a sinful life. +Before he went into the eternal world he looked into it. The last +words he ever uttered were, as he gathered himself up on his elbows in +the bed: "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" The lost soul will cry +out: "I can not stand this! I can not stand this! Is there no way +out?" and the echo will answer: "No way out." And the soul will cry: +"Is this forever?" and the echo will answer: "Forever!" + +Is it all true? "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, +while the righteous go into life eternal." Are there two destinies? +and must all this audience share one or the other? Shall I give an +account for what I have told you to-night? Have I held back any truth, +though it were plain, though it were unpalatable? Must I meet you +there, oh, you dying but immortal auditory? I wish that my text, with +all its uplifted hands of warning, could come upon your souls: "Beware +lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not +deliver thee." + +Glory be to God, there is a ransom that can now deliver you, braver +than Grace Darling putting out in a life-boat from Eddystone +Light-house for the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire +steamer--Christ the Lord launched from heaven, amid the shouting of +the angels. Thirty-three years afterward, Christ the Lord launched +from earth to heaven, amid human and infernal execration; yet staying +here long enough to save all who will believe in Him. Do you hear +that? To save all who will believe in Him. Oh, that pierced side! Oh, +that bleeding brow! Oh, that crushed foot! Oh, that broken heart! That +is your hope, sinner. That is your ransom from sin, and death, and +hell. + +Why have I told you all these things to-night, plainly and frankly? It +is because I know there is redemption for you, and I would have you +now come and get it. Oh, men and women long prayed for, and striven +with, and coaxed of the mercy of God--have you concentrated all your +physical, mental, and spiritual energies in one awful determination to +be lost? Is there nothing in the value of your soul, in the +graciousness of Christ, in the thunders of the last day, in the +blazing glories of heaven, and the surging wrath of an undone eternity +to start you out of your indifference, and make you pray? Oh, must God +come upon you in some other way? Must He take another darling child +from your household? Must He take another installment from your +worldly estate? Must life come upon you with sorrow after sorrow, and +smite you down with sickness before you will be moved, and before you +will feel? + +Oh, weep now, while Jesus will count the tears! Sigh, now in +repentance, while Jesus will hear the grief. Now clutch the cross of +the Son of God before it be swept away. Beware, lest the Holy Spirit +leave thy heart. Beware, lest this night thy soul be required of thee. +"Beware, lest he take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom +can not deliver thee." Oh, Lord God of Israel, see these impenitent +souls on the verge of death ready to topple over! See them! Is there +no help? Is this plea all in vain? I can not believe it, blessed God. +Oh, thou mighty One, whose garments are red with the wine-press of +Thine own sufferings, in the greatness of Thy strength ride through +this audience, and may all this people fall into line, the willing +captives of Thy grace. Men and women immortal! I lay hold of you +to-night with both hands of entreaty and of prayer, and I beg of you, +prepare for death, judgment, and eternity. + + + + +THE THREE GROUPS. + + "And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties."--MARK + vi: 40. + + +The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were +five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how +Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and +freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel +while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His +great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand +hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppose there were ten thousand there, +for the Bible says there were five thousand men, besides women and +children. The case is put in that way, not because the women and +children were of less importance than the men, but because they would +eat less; and the whole force of the miracle turns on the amount of +food required. + +How shall this great multitude be supplied? I see a selfish man in +that crowd pulling a luncheon out of his own pocket, and saying: "Let +the people starve. They had no business to come out here in the desert +without any provisions. They are improvident, and the improvident +ought to suffer." There is another man, not quite so heartless, who +says: "Go up into the village and buy bread." What a foolish +proposition! There is not enough food in all the village for this +crowd; besides that, who has the money to pay for it? Xerxes' army, +one million strong, was fed by a private individual of great wealth +for only one day, but it broke him. Who, then, shall feed this +multitude? + +I see a man rising in that great crowd and asking: "Is there any one +here who has bread or meat?" A kind of moan goes through the whole +throng. "No bread--no meat." But just at that time a lad steps up. You +know when a great crowd goes off upon an excursion, there are always +men and boys to go along for the purpose of merchandise and to strike +a bargain: and so, I suppose, this boy had gone along for the purpose +of merchandise; but he was nearly all sold out, having only five +loaves and two fishes left. He is a generous boy, and he turns them +over to Christ. + +But these loaves would not feed twenty people, how much less ten +thousand! Though the action was so generous on the part of the boy, so +far as satisfying the multitude, it was a dead failure. Then Jesus +comes to the rescue. He is apt to come when there is a dead lift. He +commands the people that they sit down "in ranks, by hundreds and by +fifties," as much as to say: "Order! order! so that none be missed." +It was fortunate that that arrangement was made; otherwise, at the +very first appearance of bread, the strong ones would have clutched +it, while the feeble and the modest would have gone unsupplied. + +I suppose it was no easy work to get that crowd seated, for they all +wanted to be in the front row, lest the bread give out before their +turn come. No sooner are they seated than there comes a great hush +over all the people. Jesus stands there, His light complexion and +auburn locks illumined by the setting sun. Every eye is on Him. They +wonder what He will do next. He takes one of the loaves that the boy +furnished and breaks off it a piece, which immediately grows to as +large a size as the original loaf, the original loaf staying as large +as it was before the piece was broken off. And they leaned forward +with intense scrutiny, saying: "Look! look!" When some one, anxious to +see more minutely what is going on, rises in front, they cry: "Sit +down in front! Let us look for ourselves." + +And then, when the bread is passed around, they taste of it +skeptically and inquiringly, as much as to say: "Is it bread? Really, +is it bread?" Yes, the best bread that was ever made, for Christ made +it. Bread for the first fifty and second fifty. Bread for the first +hundred and the second hundred. Bread for the first thousand and the +second thousand. Pass it all around the circle: there, where that aged +man sits leaning on his staff, and where that woman sits with the +child in her arms. Pass it all around. Are you all fed? "Ay! ay!" +respond the ten thousand voices; "all fed." One basket would have held +the loaves before the miracle; it takes twelve baskets now. Sound it +through all the ages of earth and heaven, that Christ the Lord comes +to our suffering race with the bread of this life in one hand, and the +bread of eternal life in the other hand. + +You have all immediately run out the analogy between that scene and +this. There were thousands there; there are thousands here. They were +in the desert; many of you are in the desert of trouble and sin. No +human power could feed them; no human power can feed you. Christ +appeared to them; Christ appears to you. Bread enough for all in the +desert; bread enough for all who are here. And, as on that occasion, +so in this: we have the people "sit down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties;" for the fact that many of you stand is no fault of ours, for +we have tried to give you seats. As Christ divided that company into +groups, so I divide this audience into three groups: the pardoned, the +seeking, the careless. + +I. And, first, I speak to the pardoned. + +It is with some of you half past five in the morning, and some faint +streaks of light. With others it is seven o'clock, and thus full dawn. +With others it is twelve o'clock at noon, and you sit in full blaze of +Gospel pardon. I bring you congratulation. Joseph delivered from +Potiphar's dungeon; Daniel lifted from the lion's den; Saul arrested +and unhorsed on the road to Damascus. Oh, you delivered captives, how +your eyes should gleam, and your souls should bound, and your lips +should sing in this pardon! From what land did you come? A land of +darkness. What is to be your destiny? A land of light. Who got you +out? Christ, the Lord. Can you sit so placidly and unmoved while all +heaven comes to your soul with congratulation, and harps are strung, +and crowns are lifted, and a great joy swings round the heavens at the +news of your disinthrallment? If you could realize out of what a pit +you have been dug, to what height you are to be raised, and to what +glory you are destined, you would spring to your feet with "Hosanna!" + +In 1808 there was a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia at +Erfurt. There were distinguished men there also from other lands. It +was so arranged that when any of the emperors arrived at the door of +the reception-room, the drum should beat three times; but when a +lesser dignitary should come, then the drum would sound but twice. +After awhile the people in the audience-chamber heard two taps of the +drum. They said: "A prince is coming." But after awhile there were +three taps, and they cried: "The emperor!" Oh, there is a more +glorious arrival at your soul to-night! The drum beats twice at the +coming in of the lesser joys and congratulations of your soul; but it +beats once, twice, thrice at the coming in of a glorious King--Jesus +the Saviour, Jesus the God! I congratulate you. All are yours--things +present and things to come. + +II. I come now to speak of the second division--those who are seeking; +some of you with more earnestness, some of you with less earnestness. +But I believe that to-night, if I should ask all those who wish to +find the way to heaven to rise, and the world did not scoff at you, +and your own proud heart did not keep you down, there would be a +thousand souls who would cry out as they rose up: "Show me the way to +heaven!" That young man who smiled to the one next to him, as though +he cared for none of these things, would be on his knees crying for +mercy. Why this anxious look? Why this deep disquietude in the soul? +Why, at the beginning of this service, did you do what you have not +done for years--bow your head in prayer? You are seeking. + +"I am a gambler," says one man. There is mercy for you. "I am a +libertine," says another. There is mercy for you. "I have plunged into +every abomination." Mercy for you. The door of grace does not stand +ajar to-night, nor half swung around on the hinges. It is wide, wide +open; and there is nothing in the Bible, or in Christ, or God, or +earth, or heaven, or hell, to keep you out of the door of safety, if +you want to go in. Christ has borne your burdens, fought your battles, +suffered for your sins. The debt is paid, and the receipt is handed to +you, written in the blood of the Son of God--will you have it? Oh, +decide the matter now! Decide it here! Fling your exhausted soul down +at the feet of an all-compassionate, all-sympathizing, all-pitying, +all-pardoning Jesus. The laceration on His brow, the gash in His side, +the torn muscles and nerves of His feet beg you to come. + +But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in +as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a +shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. +There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very near being +saved--perhaps as near as you are to-night--but were not saved. + +On the eastern coast of England, a few weeks ago, in a +fishing-village, there was a good deal of excitement. While people +were in church, the sailors and fishermen hearing the Gospel on the +Sabbath, there was a cry: "To the beach!" and the minister closed the +Bible, and with his congregation went out to help, and they saw in the +offing a ship in trouble; but there was some disorder amid the +fishing-smacks, and amid all the boats, and it was almost impossible +to get anything launched. But after awhile they did, and they pulled +away for the wreck, and came almost up, when suddenly the distressed +bark in the offing capsized, and they all went down. Oh, if the +lifeboats had only been ten minutes quicker! And how many a life-boat +has been launched from the Gospel shore! It has come almost up to the +drowning, and yet, after all, they were not rescued. Somehow they did +not get into it! + +I suppose there are people who have asked for our prayers, and I +suppose there were some in the side room, last Sabbath night, talking +about their souls, who will miss heaven. They do not take the last +step, and all the other steps go for nothing until you have taken the +last step, for I have here, in the presence of God and this people, to +announce the solemn truth, that to be almost saved is to be lost +forever. That is all I have to say to the second division. + +III. I come now to speak to the careless. You look indifferent, and I +suppose you are indifferent. You say: "I came in here because a friend +invited me to see what is going on, but with no serious intentions +about my soul. I have so much work, and so much pleasure on hand, +don't bother me about religion." And yet you are gentlemanly, and you +are lady-like, in your behavior, and, therefore, I know that you will +listen respectfully if I talk courteously. Christian people are +sometimes afraid to talk to men and women of the world lest they be +insulted. If they talk courteously to people of the world, they will +listen courteously. So now I try to come in that way, and in that +spirit, and talk to those of you who tell me that you are careless +about your soul. + +Then you have a soul, have you? Yes, precious, with infinite capacity +for joy or suffering, winged for flight somewhere. Beckoned upward, +beckoned downward. Fought after by angels and by fiends. Immortal! + + "The sun is but a spark of fire, + A transient meteor in the sky: + The soul, immortal as its Sire, + Can never die." + +Your body will soon be taken down, the castle will be destroyed, the +tower will be in the dust, the windows will be broken out, and the +place where your body sleeps will be forgotten; but your soul, after +that, will be living, acting, feeling, thinking--where? where? Oh, +there must be something of incomputable worth in that for which heaven +gave up its best inhabitant, and Christ went into martyrdom, and at +the coming of which angels chant an eternal litany and devils rush to +the gate. When everything above you, and beneath you, and around you, +is intent upon that soul, you can not afford to be careless, +especially when I think, this moment while I speak, there are +thousands of souls in heaven rejoicing that they attended to this +matter in time, while at this very instant there are souls in the lost +world mourning that they did not attend to it in time. Hark to the +howling of the damned! + +Oh, if this room could be vacated of this audience, and you were all +gone, and the wan spirits of the lost could come up and occupy this +place, and I could stand before them with offers of pardon through +Jesus Christ, and then ask them if they would accept it, there would +come up an instantaneous, multitudinous, overwhelming cry: "Yes! yes! +yes! yes!" No such fortune for them. They had their day of grace, and +sacrificed it. You have yours; will you sacrifice it? I wish that I +could have you see these things as you will one day see them. + +Suppose, on your way home, a runaway horse should dash across the +street, or between the dock and the boat you should accidentally slip, +where would you be at twelve o'clock to-night or seven o'clock +to-morrow morning? Or for all eternity where would you be? I do not +answer the question. I just leave it to you to answer. + +But suppose you escape fatal accident. Suppose you go out by the +ordinary process of sickness. I will just suppose now that your last +hour has come. The doctor says, as he goes out of the room: "Can't get +well." There is something in the faces of those who stand around you +that prophesies that you can not get well. You say within yourself: "I +can't get well." Where are your comrades now? Oh, they are off to the +gay party that very night! They dance as well as they ever did. They +drink as much wine. They laugh as loud as though you were not dying. +They destroyed your soul, but do not come to help you die. + +Well, there are father and mother in the room. They are very quiet, +but occasionally they go out into the next room and weep bitterly. The +bed is very much disheveled. They have not been able to make it up +for two or three days. There are four or five pillows lying around, +because they have been trying to make you as easy as they could. On +the one side of your bed are all the past years of your life--the +Bibles, the sermons, the communion-tables, the offers of mercy. You +say: "Take them away." Your mother thinks you are delirious. She says: +"There is nothing there, my dear, nothing there." There is something +there! It is your wasted opportunities. It is your procrastinations. +It is those years you gave to the world that you ought to have given +to Christ. They are there; and some of them put their fingers on your +aching temples, and some of them feel for the strings of your heart, +and some put more thorns in your tumbled pillow, and you say: "Turn me +over." And they turn you over, but, alas! there is a more appalling +vision. You say: "Take that away!" They say: "There is nothing there, +nothing there." There is--an open grave there! the judgment is there! +a lost eternity is there! Take it away! They can not take it away. + +You say: "How dark it is getting in the room!" Why, the burners are +all lighted. Your family come up one by one, and tenderly kiss you +good-bye. Your feet are cold, and the hands are cold, and the lips are +cold, and they take a small mirror and they put it over your mouth to +see if there is any breathing, and that mirror is taken away without a +single blur upon it; and they whisper through the room: "She is gone." +And then the door of the body opens and the soul flashes out. Make +room for the destroyed spirit. + +Push back that door! Lost! Let it come into its eternal residence. +Woe! woe! No cup of merriment now, but cup of the wrath of Almighty +God. The last chance for heaven gone. The door of mercy shut. The doom +sealed. The blackness of darkness forever! + +Voltaire is there. Herod is there. Robespierre is there. The +debauchees are there. The murderers are there. All the rejectors of +Jesus Christ are there. And you will be there unless you repent. You +can not say, my dear brother, that you were not warned. This sermon +would be a witness against you. You can not say that God's Holy Spirit +never strove with your heart. He is striving now. You can not say that +you had no chance for heaven, for the Omnipotent Son of God offers you +His rescue. You can not say: "I had no warning about that world; I +didn't know there was any such place," for the Bible distinctly rings +in your ears to-day, saying: "At the end of the world the angels shall +separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a +furnace of fire." And again that book says: "The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And again it +says: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever." + +You can not say that you did not hear about heaven, the other +alternative, for you hear of it now: "The Lamb which is in the midst +of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God +shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No sorrow, no suffering, +no death. Oh, will you be careless any longer, when I tell you that +Christ, the Conqueror of earth and hell, offers you now escape from +all peril, and offers to introduce you this very hour into the peace +and pardon of the Gospel, preparing you for that good land? The sides +of Calvary run blood for you. Jesus, who had not where to lay His +head, offers you His heart as a pillow of rest. Christ offers with His +own body to bridge over the chasm of death, saying: "Walk over Me; I +am the way." + +O suffering Jesus! the thief scoffed at Thee, and the malefactor spat +on Thee, and the soldiers stabbed Thee; but these who sit before Thee +to-day have no heart to do that. O Jesus! tell them of Thy love, tell +them of Thy sympathy, tell them of the rewards Thou wilt give them in +the better land. Groan again, O blessed Jesus! groan again, and +perhaps when the rocks fall, their hard hearts may break. + + "Nothing brought Him from above, + Nothing but redeeming love." + +The promise is all free, the path all clear. Come, Mary, and sit +to-night at the feet of Jesus. Come, Bartimeus, and have your eyes +opened. Come, O prodigal! and sit at thy father's table. Come, O you +suffering, sinning, dying the soul! and find rest on the heart of +Jesus. The Spirit and Bride say "Come," and Churches militant and +triumphant say "Come," and all the voices of the past, mingling with +all the voices of the future, in one great thunder of emphasis, bid +you "Come now!" Are not those of you who are in the third class ready +to pass over into the second division, and become seekers after +Christ? Ay, are you not ready to pass over into the first division, +and become the pardoned sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? I +can do no more than offer you, through Jesus Christ, peace on earth +and everlasting residence in His presence. + + "When God makes up His last account + Of natives in His holy mount, + 'Twill be an honor to appear + As one new-born and nourished there." + +Good-night! The Lord bless you! Go to your homes seeking after Christ. +Sleep not until you have made your peace with God. Good-night--a deep, +hearty, loving, Christian good-night! + + + + +THE INSIGNIFICANT. + + "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the + reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field + belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of + Elimelech."--RUTH ii: 3. + + +The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It +was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for +the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the +poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls +of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest had been +reaped, instead of raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by the custom +of the land, left in its place, so that the poor, coming along that +way, might glean it and get their bread. But, you say, "What is the +use of all these harvest-fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old +and feeble to go out and toil in the sun; and can you expect that +Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister +her hands in the harvest-field?" + +Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in +the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned +reapers, he beholds a beautiful woman gleaning--a woman more fit to +bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. +Ah, that was an eventful day! + +It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly +gleaner--an attachment full of undying interest to the Church of God +in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, +goes home to Naomi to tell her the successes and adventures of the +day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and +traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the +harvest-field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in +Judah, and becomes in after-time the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the +Lord of glory! Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a +morning? + +I. I learn, in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops +character. It was bereavement, poverty, and exile that developed, +illustrated, and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's +character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was +sorrow that made John Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the +better poet, and O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the +better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better +encyclopædist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-law. + +I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very +brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems +to have so little heart and tenderness in his sermons?" "Well," he +replied, "the reason is, our pastor has never had any trouble. When +misfortune comes upon him, his style will be different." After awhile +the Lord took a child out of that pastor's house; and though the +preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the +tenderness of his discourses! The fact is, that trouble is a great +educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and +his execution is cold and formal and unfeeling. The reason is that all +his life he has been prospered. But let misfortune or bereavement come +to that man, and he sits down at the instrument, and you discover the +pathos in the first sweep of the keys. + +Misfortune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a +sick-room where there is a dying child. Perhaps he is very rough in +his prescription, and very rough in his manner, and rough in the +feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious +question; but years roll on, and there has been one dead in his own +house; and now he comes into the sick-room, and with tearful eye he +looks at the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how this reminds me of my +Charlie!" Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow--I see its touch in the +grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its +power in the mightiest argument. + +Grecian mythology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out +by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life +that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort +and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of +disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage best by the flash of +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on +the foundering ship under the glare of the lightning in the breakers +of Melita. God crowns His children amid the howling of wild beasts and +the chopping of blood-splashed guillotine and the crackling fires of +martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop +Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took the pope's bull and the cardinal's +curse and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all +the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord +Claverhouse to develop James Renwick, and Andrew Melville, and Hugh +McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy +sea, and the December blast, and the desolate New England coast, and +the war-whoop of savages, to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim +Fathers-- + + "When amid the storms they sung, + And the stars heard, and the sea, + And the sounding aisles of the dim wood + Rang to the anthems of the free." + +It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present +national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it +will march along after the foreign aristocracies that have mocked and +the tyrannies that have jeered, shall be swept down under the +omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism, and who, by the strength +of His own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is +individually, and in the family, and in the Church, and in the world, +that through darkness and storm and trouble men, women, churches, +nations, are developed. + +II. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I +suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in +prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to +trudge off with her toward Judah, when she had to make that lonely +journey? One--the heroine of my text. One--absolutely one. I suppose +when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all +things went well, they had a great many callers; but I suppose that +after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and +poor, she was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that +sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now +the night has fallen. + +Oh, these beautiful sun-flowers that spread out their color in the +morning hour! but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! +Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when +his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much +that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and +Zophar the Naamathite. + +Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls +down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a +man's character, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the +imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which +in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are +reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down +under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch +of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant. + +In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling +it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days +of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a +friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a +friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in +the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in +Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from +following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God +my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." + +III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in +hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth +started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her +mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature +to go away from her father's house, to go off with a poor old woman +toward the land of Judah! They won't live to get across the desert. +They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will +destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with +Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be +affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the +grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is +that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly. + +When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of +conviction--how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the +darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it +was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. +After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God's mercy; you +began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more +sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, +saying: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and +whose sins are covered." A very dark starting in conviction, a very +bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the +Gospel! + +So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we +start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back, +but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must +go;" and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, +and we have to traverse the desert and we are pounded and flailed of +misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten +thousand obstacles that have been slain by our own right arm. We have +to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the +castle; but, blessed be God, the day of rest and reward will come. On +the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if +not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, +no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it? Know it! I +know it because God says so: "They shall hunger no more, neither +thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, +for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to +living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their +eyes." + +It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his +day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morning +quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use; +but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared +like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, +clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark +rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked +out on the wreck of a ruined earth. + +Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than +the thieves on either side of the cross, human hate smacking its lips +in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the +sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifixion. Tell me, +O Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever darker times than those? +Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of +Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back +by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day +of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world +are to be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on +whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come +up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of +the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising +on their thrones, beat time with their scepters: "Hallelujah, for the +Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world +have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!" + + "That song of love, now low and far, + Ere long shall swell from star to star; + That light, the breaking day which tips + The golden-spired Apocalypse." + +IV. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most +insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more +unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can +you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just +happened to alight--as they say--just happened to alight on that field +of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact +that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all +nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a +thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your +history and in mine: events that you thought of no importance at all +have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that +accidental meeting--you did not think of it again for a long while; +but how it changed all the phase of your life! + +It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments +of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction +of all the world's minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a +stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from +it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the +long-continued strains of Jubal's harp and Jubal's organ. It seemed to +be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses +of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo +in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of +factories on the Merrimac. + +It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in +a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids +fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest +convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the +sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation. It seemed to be a +matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, +dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard +Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of +his salvation. + +In after-days that man wrote a book called "The Call to the +Unconverted," that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among +others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a book called "The +Rise and Progress of Religion," which has brought thousands and tens +of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great +Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book called "A Practical View of +Christianity," which was the means of bringing a great multitude to +Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called +"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation +of unconverted multitudes. And that tide of influence started from the +fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of +Richard Baxter--the tide of influence rolling on through Richard +Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, +through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the +insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most +momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed +to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of +some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to +you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history. + +V. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female +industry. + +Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field under the hot sun, or at noon +taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which +Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course, have changed, +and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, +every intelligent woman will find something to do. + +I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some +families there are persons of no practical service to the household or +community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in +the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pattern, or +bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot +himself! They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley +on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness +may seem to do very well while they are under the shelter of their +father's house; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of +these butterflies? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon +themselves habits of indolence; but when they come out into practical +life their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel +in their hearts what the poet so severely satirized when he said: + + "Folks are so awkward, things so impolite, + They're elegantly pained from morning until night." + +Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, +useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity! Spinola said to Sir Horace +Vere: "Of what did your brother die?" "Of having nothing to do," was +the answer. "Ah!" said Spinola, "that's enough to kill any general of +us." Oh! can it be possible in this world, where there is so much +suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so +many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find +anything to do? + +Madame de Staël did a world of work in her time; and one day, while +she was seated amid instruments of music, all of which she had +mastered, and amid manuscript books which she had written, some one +said to her: "How do you find time to attend to all these things?" +"Oh," she replied, "these are not the things I am proud of. My chief +boast is in the fact that I have seventeen trades, by any one of which +I could make a livelihood if necessary." And if in secular spheres +there is so much to be done, in spiritual work how vast the field! How +many dying all around about us without one word of comfort! We want +more Abigails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more Deborahs +consecrated--body, mind, soul--to the Lord who bought them. + +VI. Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning. + +Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw, +and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for +myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said +beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together, +and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that +down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf, +and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all +together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, +nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners! + +Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's +shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher +in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, +while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to +open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they +have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of +life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours, +and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth +gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and +busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which, +gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It +is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up +and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much +joy. + +There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the +field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you +gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one +or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in +this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of +gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, +shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever! + + + + +THE THREE RINGS. + + "Put a ring on his hand."--LUKE xv: 22. + + +I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the +parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard +time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and +prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of +parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front +of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and +say: "What's the matter? What _is_ the matter?" But before they quite +arrive, the old man cries out: "Put a ring on his hand." What a +seeming absurdity! What can such a wretched mendicant as this fellow +that is tramping on toward the house want with a ring? Oh, he is the +prodigal son. No more tending of the swine-trough. No more longing for +the pods of the carob-tree. No more blistered feet. Off with the rags! +On with the robe! Out with the ring! Even so does God receive every +one of us when we come back. There are gold rings, and pearl rings, +and carnelian rings, and diamond rings; but the richest ring that ever +flashed on the vision is that which our Father puts upon a forgiven +soul. + +I know that the impression is abroad among some people that religion +bemeans and belittles a man; that it takes all the sparkle out of his +soul; that he has to exchange a roistering independence for an +ecclesiastical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian, +he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten +thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting +out--it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence, +it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is +not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the +palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the +throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest +liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment. +"Put a ring on his hand." + +I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into +His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years +ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of +the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten +children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to +find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the +pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the +services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this +little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own +children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage, +and went away. + +The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for +the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under +her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the +poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright +and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said +that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption. + +There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry, +and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries. +In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a +king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His +adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold +what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should +be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may +be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live +in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are +assured of eternal defenses. + +Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of +earth and heaven. We have the family name, the family dress, the +family keys, the family wardrobe. The Father looks after us, robes us, +defends us, blesses us. We have royal blood in our veins, and there +are crowns in our line. If we are His children, then princes and +princesses. It is only a question of time when we get our coronet. +Adopted! Then we have the family secrets. "The secret of the Lord is +with them that fear Him." Adopted! Then we have the family +inheritance, and in the day when our Father shall divide the riches of +heaven we shall take our share of the mansions and palaces and +temples. Henceforth let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry. The +insignia of eternal glory is our coat of arms. This ring of adoption +puts upon us all honor and all privilege. Now we can take the words of +Charles Wesley, that prince of hymn-makers, and sing: + + "Come, let us join our friends above, + Who have obtained the prize, + And on the eagle wings of love + To joy celestial rise. + + "Let all the saints terrestrial sing + With those to glory gone; + For all the servants of our King, + In heaven and earth, are one." + +I have been told that when any of the members of any of the great +secret societies of this country are in a distant city and are in any +kind of trouble, and are set upon by enemies, they have only to give a +certain signal and the members of that organization will flock around +for defense. And when any man belongs to this great Christian +brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial, in persecution, in +temptation, he has only to show this ring of Christ's adoption, and +all the armed cohorts of heaven will come to his rescue. + +Still further, when Christ takes a soul into His love He puts upon it +a marriage-ring. Now, that is not a whim of mine: "And I will betroth +thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in +righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in +mercies." (Hosea ii: 19.) At the wedding altar the bridegroom puts a +ring upon the hand of the bride, signifying love and faithfulness. +Trouble may come upon the household, and the carpets may go, the +pictures may go, the piano may go, everything else may go--the last +thing that goes is that marriage-ring, for it is considered sacred. In +the burial hour it is withdrawn from the hand and kept in a casket, +and sometimes the box is opened on an anniversary day, and as you look +at that ring you see under its arch a long procession of precious +memories. Within the golden circle of that ring there is room for a +thousand sweet recollections to revolve, and you think of the great +contrast between the hour when, at the close of the "Wedding March," +under the flashing lights and amid the aroma of orange-blossoms, you +set that ring on the round finger of the plump hand, and that other +hour when, at the close of the exhaustive watching, when you knew that +the soul had fled, you took from the hand, which gave back no +responsive clasp, from that emaciated finger, the ring that she had +worn so long and worn so well. + +On some anniversary day you take up that ring, and you repolish it +until all the old luster comes back, and you can see in it the flash +of eyes that long ago ceased to weep. Oh, it is not an unmeaning thing +when I tell you that when Christ receives a soul into His keeping He +puts on it a marriage-ring. He endows you from that moment with all +His wealth. You are one--Christ and the soul--one in sympathy, one in +affection, one in hope. + +There is no power in earth or hell to effect a divorcement after +Christ and the soul are united. Other kings have turned out their +companions when they got weary of them, and sent them adrift from the +palace gate. Ahasuerus banished Vashti; Napoleon forsook Josephine; +but Christ is the husband that is true forever. Having loved you once, +He loves you to the end. Did they not try to divorce Margaret, the +Scotch girl, from Jesus? They said: "You must give up your religion." +She said: "I can't give up my religion." And so they took her down to +the beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake at low-water mark, and +they fastened her to it, expecting that as the tide came up her faith +would fail. The tide began to rise, and came up higher and higher, and +to the girdle, and to the lip, and in the last moment, just as the +wave was washing her soul into glory, she shouted the praises of +Jesus. + +Oh, no, you can not separate a soul from Christ! It is an everlasting +marriage. Battle and storm and darkness can not do it. Is it too much +exultation for a man, who is but dust and ashes like myself, to cry +out this morning: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor any other creature shall separate me from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus my Lord"? Glory be to God that when Christ and the +soul are married they are bound by a chain, a golden chain--if I might +say so--a chain with one link, and that one link the golden ring of +God's everlasting love. + +I go a step further, and tell you that when Christ receives a soul +into His love He puts on him the ring of festivity. You know that it +has been the custom in all ages to bestow rings on very happy +occasions. There is nothing more appropriate for a birthday gift than +a ring. You delight to bestow such a gift upon your children at such +a time. It means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well, when this old man of +the text wanted to tell how glad he was that his boy had got back, he +expressed it in this way. Actually, before he ordered sandals to be +put on his bare feet; before he ordered the fatted calf to be killed +to appease the boy's hunger, he commanded: "Put a ring on his hand." + +Oh, it is a merry time when Christ and the soul are united! Joy of +forgiveness! What a splendid thing it is to feel that all is right +between me and God. What a glorious thing it is to have God just take +up all the sins of my life and put them in one bundle, and then fling +them into the depths of the sea, never to rise again, never to be +talked of again. Pollution all gone. Darkness all illumined. God +reconciled. The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his hand." + +Every day I find happy Christian people. I find some of them with no +second coat, some of them in huts and tenement houses, not one earthly +comfort afforded them; and yet they are as happy as happy can be. They +sing "Rock of Ages" as no other people in the world sing it. They +never wore any jewelry in their life but one gold ring, and that was +the ring of God's undying affection. Oh, how happy religion makes us! +Did it make you gloomy and sad? Did you go with your head cast down? I +do not think you got religion, my brother. That is not the effect of +religion. True religion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, +and all her paths are peace." + +Why, religion lightens all our burdens. It smooths all our way. It +interprets all our sorrows. It changes the jar of earthly discord for +the peal of festal bells. In front of the flaming furnace of trial it +sets the forge on which scepters are hammered out. Would you not like +to-day to come up from the swine-feeding and try this religion? All +the joys of heaven would come out and meet you, and God would cry from +the throne: "Put a ring on his hand." + +You are not happy. I see it. There is no peace, and sometimes you +laugh when you feel a great deal more like crying. The world is a +cheat. It first wears you down with its follies, then it kicks you out +into darkness. It comes back from the massacre of a million souls to +attempt the destruction of your soul to-day. No peace out of God, but +here is the fountain that can slake the thirst. Here is the harbor +where you can drop safe anchorage. + +Would you not like, I ask you--not perfunctorily, but as one brother +might talk to another--would you not like to have a pillow of rest to +put your head on? And would you not like, when you retire at night, to +feel that all is well, whether you wake up to-morrow morning at six +o'clock, or sleep the sleep that knows no waking? Would you not like +to exchange this awful uncertainty about the future for a glorious +assurance of heaven? Accept of the Lord Jesus to-day, and all is well. +If on your way home some peril should cross the street and dash your +life out, it would not hurt you. You would rise up immediately. You +would stand in the celestial streets. You would be amid the great +throng that forever worship and are forever happy. If this day some +sudden disease should come upon you, it would not frighten you. If you +knew you were going you could give a calm farewell to your beautiful +home on earth, and know that you are going right into the +companionship of those who have already got beyond the toiling and the +weeping. + +You feel on Saturday night different from the way you feel any other +night of the week. You come home from the bank, or the store, or the +shop, and you say: "Well, now my week's work is done, and to-morrow is +Sunday." It is a pleasant thought. There is refreshment and +reconstruction in the very idea. Oh, how pleasant it will be, if, when +we get through the day of our life, and we go and lie down in our bed +of dust, we can realize: "Well, now the work is all done, and +to-morrow is Sunday--an everlasting Sunday." + + "Oh, when, thou city of my God, + Shall I thy courts ascend? + Where congregations ne'er break up, + And Sabbaths have no end." + +There are people in this house to-day who are very near the eternal +world. If you are Christians, I bid you be of good cheer. Bear with +you our congratulations to the bright city. Aged men, who will soon be +gone, take with you our love for our kindred in the better land, and +when you see them, tell them that we are soon coming. Only a few more +sermons to preach and hear. Only a few more heart-aches. Only a few +more toils. Only a few more tears. And then--what an entrancing +spectacle will open before us! + + "Beautiful heaven, where all is light, + Beautiful angels clothed in white, + Beautiful strains that never tire, + Beautiful harps through all the choir; + There shall I join the chorus sweet, + Worshiping at the Saviour's feet." + +I stand before you on this Sabbath, the last Sabbath preceding the +great feast-day in this Church. On the next Lord's-day the door of +communion will be open, and you will all be invited to come in. And so +I approach you now with a general invitation, not picking out here and +there a man, or here and there a woman, or here and there a child; but +giving you an unlimited invitation, saying: "Come, for all things are +now ready." We invite you to the warm heart of Christ, and the +inclosure of the Christian Church. I know a great many think that the +Church does not amount to much--that it is obsolete; that it did its +work and is gone now, so far as all usefulness is concerned. It is the +happiest place I have ever been in except my own home. + +I know there are some people who say they are Christians who seem to +get along without any help from others, and who culture solitary +piety. They do not want any ordinances. I do not belong to that class. +I can not get along without them. There are so many things in this +world that take my attention from God, and Christ, and heaven, that I +want all the helps of all the symbols and of all the Christian +associations; and I want around about me a solid phalanx of men who +love God and keep His commandments. Are there any here who would like +to enter into that association? Then by a simple, child-like faith, +apply for admission into the visible Church, and you will be received. +No questions asked about your past history or present surroundings. +Only one test--do you love Jesus? + +Baptism does not amount to anything, say a great many people; but the +Lord Jesus declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be +saved," putting baptism and faith side by side. And an apostle +declares, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." I do not stickle +for any particular mode of baptism, but I put great emphasis on the +fact that you ought to be baptized. Yet no more emphasis than the Lord +Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church, puts upon it. + +The world is going to lose a great many of its votaries next Sabbath. +We give you warning. There is a great host coming in to stand under +the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is +going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered +sheaves? + +Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You +have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be +Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there +you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be +saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of +mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you +have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will +not be because you did not have a good offer. + + "God's spirit will not always strive + With hardened, self-destroying man; + Ye who persist His love to grieve + May never hear his voice again." + +May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from +the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the +banquet, and "put a ring on your hand." + + + + +HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT. + + "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be + Anathema Maranatha."--I COR. xvi: 22. + + +The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words +except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. +Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." +Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him +with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement +about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into +this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had +he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the +world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no. +It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by +what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I +close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised +at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the +same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should +have had the facial proportions of Christ--the front face, the side +face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing--provided He had submitted to that +art; but since the sun did not become a portrait painter until +eighteen centuries after Christ, our idea about the Saviour's personal +appearance is all guess work. Still, tradition tells us that He was +the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth. +If His features had been rugged, and His gait had been ungainly, that +would not have hindered Him from being attractive. Many men you have +known and loved have had few charms of physiognomy. Wilberforce was +not attractive in face. Socrates was repulsive. Suwarrow, the great +Russian hero, looked almost an imbecile. And some whom you have known, +and honored, and loved, have not had very great attractiveness of +personal appearance. The shape of the mouth, and the nose, and the +eyebrow, did not hinder the soul from shining through the cuticle of +the face in all-powerful irradiation. + +But to a lovely exterior Christ joined all loveliness of disposition. +Run through the galleries of heaven, and find out that He is _a +non-such_. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His +sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the +crimson flowing forth of His blood, make a picture worthy of being +called the masterpiece of the eternities. Hung on the wall of heaven, +the celestial population would be enchanted but for the fact that they +have the grand and magnificent original, and they want no picture. But +Christ having gone away from earth, we are dependent upon four +indistinct pictures. Matthew took one, Mark another, Luke another, +and John another. I care not which picture you take, it is lovely. +Lovely? He was altogether lovely. + +He had a way of taking up a dropsical limb without hurting it, and of +removing the cataract from the eye without the knife, and of starting +the circulation through the shrunken arteries without the shock of the +electric battery, and of putting intelligence into the dull stare of +lunacy, and of restringing the auditory nerve of the deaf ear, and of +striking articulation into the stiff tongue, and of making the +stark-naked madman dress himself and exchange tombstone for ottoman, +and of unlocking from the skeleton grip of death the daughter of +Jairus to embosom her in her glad father's arms. Oh, He was +lovely--sitting, standing, kneeling, lying down--always lovely. + +Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us. Home, +celestial companionship, music of seraphic harps, balmy breath of +eternal summer, all joy, all light, all music, and heard the gates +slam shut behind Him as He came out to fight for our freedom, and with +bare feet plunged on the sharp javelins of human and satanic hate, +until His blood spurted into the faces of those who slew Him. You want +the soft, low, minor key of sweetest music to describe the pathos; but +it needs an orchestra, under swinging of an archangel's baton, +reaching from throne to manger, to drum and trumpet the doxologies of +His praise. He took everybody's trouble--the leper's sickness, the +widow's dead boy, the harlot's shame, the Galilean fisherman's poor +luck, the invalidism of Simon's mother-in-law, the sting of Malchus' +amputated ear. + +Some people cry very easily, and for some it is very difficult to cry. +A great many tears on some cheeks do not mean so much as one tear on +another cheek. What is it that I see glittering in the mild eye of +Jesus? It was all the sorrows of earth, and the woes of hell, from +which He had plucked our souls, accreted into one transparent drop, +lingering on the lower eyelash until it fell on a cheek red with the +slap of human hands--just one salt, bitter, burning tear of Jesus. No +wonder the rock, the sky, and the cemetery were in consternation when +He died! No wonder the universe was convulsed! It was the Lord God +Almighty bursting into tears. Now, suppose that, notwithstanding all +this, a man can not have any affection for Him. What ought to be done +with such hard behavior? + +It seems to me that there ought to be some chastisement for a man who +will not love such a Christ. Does it not make your blood tingle to +think of Jesus coming over the tens of thousands of miles that seem to +separate God from us, and then to see a man jostle Him out, and push +Him back, and shut the door in His face, and trample upon His +entreaties? While you may not be able to rise up to the towering +excitement of the Apostle in my text, you can at any rate somewhat +understand his feelings when he cried out: "After all this, 'if a man +love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. Now, there is nothing +that excites a man like injustice. You go along the street, and you +see your little child buffeted, or a ruffian comes and takes a boy's +hat and throws it into the ditch. You say: "What great meanness, what +injustice that is!" You can not stand injustice. I remember, in my +boyhood days, attending a large meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. +Thousands of people were huzzaing, and the same kind of audiences were +assembled at the same time in Boston, Edinburgh, and London. Why? +Because the Madaii family, in Italy, had been robbed of their Bible. +"A little thing," you say. Ah, that injustice was enough to arouse the +indignation of a world. But while we are so sensitive about injustice +as between man and man, how little sensitive we are about injustice +between man and God. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of +anything, then Christ purchased us. He paid for us, not in shekels, +not in ancient coins inscribed with effigies of Hercules, or Ægina's +tortoise, or lyre of Mitylene, but in two kinds of coin--one red, the +other glittering--blood and tears! If anything is purchased and paid +for, ought not the goods to be delivered? If you have bought property +and given the money, do you not want to come into possession of it? +"Yes," you say, "I will have it. I bought and paid for it." And you +will go to law for it, and you will denounce the man as a defrauder. +Ay, if need be, you will hurl him into jail. You will say: "I am bound +to get that property. I bought it. I paid for it!" + +Now, transpose the case. Suppose Jesus Christ to be the wronged +purchaser on the one side, and the impenitent soul on the other, +trying to defraud Him of that which He bought at such an exorbitant +price, how do you feel about that injustice? How do you feel toward +that spiritual fraud, turpitude and perfidy? A man with an ardent +temperament rises and he says that such injustice as between man and +man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and +intolerable, and he brings his fist down on the pew, and he says: "I +can stand this injustice no longer. After all this purchase, 'if any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha'!" + +I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to +love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have +only one feeling toward him--sympathy and a desire to help him. If he +has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten +cents on a dollar--ay, if he can not pay anything--though his +creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with +him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But +suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into +his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come +to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your +perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for +the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten +thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then +everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't +take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for +offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You +would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to +fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all +this house who would have any sympathy for that man. + +But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual +embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal +defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay +me what thou owest." + +We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of +all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here +is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My +red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through +anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't +meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I +want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would +say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he +would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants; +he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of +choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who +understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can +say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and +rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love +Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to +hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind +look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may +overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that +you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to +make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of +delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you +have broken His heart! + +Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage: +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did +this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at +the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees +below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go +up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You +knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are +freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist +you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless +or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure. +You go away. + +The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with +very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing +in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in. +I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from +Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the +cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My +head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of +foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been +here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with +hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch--shove back the +bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and +knock!'" + +But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be +another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be +on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the +sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me +in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick +and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head. +The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both +fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in. +Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified +kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall +say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and +now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of +your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the +arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and +throne, and cry with loud voice, that makes the eternal city quake +from capstone to foundation, saying: "If any man love not the Lord +Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +Sabbath audience in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all to whom these +words shall come on both sides the sea, notice here the tremendous +alternative: it is not whether you live in Pierrepont Street or +Carlton Avenue, walk Trafalgar Square or the "Canongate;" nor whether +your dress shall be black or brown; nor whether you shall be robust +or an invalid; nor whether you shall live on the banks of the Hudson, +the Shannon, the Seine, the Thames, the Tiber; but it is a question +whether you will love Christ or suffer banishment; whether you will +give yourselves to Him who owns you or fall under the millstone; +whether you will rise to glories that have no terminus or plunge to a +depth which has no bottom. I do not see how you can take the +ten-thousandth part of a second to decide it, when there are two +worlds fastened at opposite ends of a swivel, and the swivel turns on +one point, and that point is now, now. Is it not fair that you love +Him? Is it not right that you love Him? Is it not imperative that you +love Him? What is it that keeps you from rushing up and throwing the +arms of your affection about His neck? + +My text pronounces Anathema Maranatha upon all those who refuse to +love Christ. Anathema--cut off. Cut off from light, from hope, from +peace, from heaven. Oh, sharp, keen, sword-like words! Cut off! +Everlastingly cut off! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of +God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou +continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. +Maranatha--that is the other word. "When he comes" is the meaning of +it. + +Will He come? I see no signs of it. I looked into the sky as I rode +down to church. I saw no signs of the coming. No signal of God's +appearance. The earth stands solid on its foundation. No cry of +welcome or of woe. Will He come! He will. Maranatha! Hear it ye +mountains, and prepare to fall. Ye cities, and prepare to burn. Ye +righteous, and prepare to reign. Ye wicked, and prepare to die. +Maranatha! Maranatha! + +But, oh, my brother, I am not so aroused by that coming as I am by a +previous coming, and that is the coming of our death hour, which will +fix everything for us. I can not help now, while preaching, asking +myself the question--Am I ready for that? If I am ready for the first +I will be ready for the next. Are you ready for the emergency? Shall I +tell you when your death hour will come? "Oh, no," says some one, "I +don't want to know. I would rather not know." Some one says: "I would +rather know, if you can tell me." I will tell you. It will be at the +most unexpected moment, when you are most busy, and when you think you +can be least spared. I can not exactly say whether it will be in the +noon, or at the sundown when people are coming home, or in the morning +when the world is waking up, or while the clock is striking twelve at +night. But I tell you what I think, that with some of you it will be +before next Saturday night. + +A minister of the Gospel said to an audience: "Before next Sabbath +some of you will be gone." And a man said during the week: "I shall +watch now, and if no one dies in our congregation during this week I +shall go and tell the minister his falsehood." A man standing next to +him said: "Why, it may be yourself." "Oh, no," he replied; "I shall +live on to be an old man." That night he breathed his last. + +Standing before some who shall be launched into the great eternity, +what are your equipments? About to jump, where will you land? Oh, the +subject is overwhelming to me; and when I say these things to you, I +say them to myself. "Lord, is it I? Is it I?" Some of us part to-night +never to meet again. If never before, I now here commit my soul into +the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. I throw my sinful heart upon His +infinite mercy. But some of you will not do that. You will go over to +the store to-morrow, and your comrades will say: "Where were you +yesterday?" You will say: "I heard Talmage preach, and I don't believe +what he preaches." And you will go on and die in your sins. + +Feeling that you are bound unto death eternal I solemnly take leave of +you. Be careful of your health, for when your respiration gives out +all your good times will have ended. Be careful in walking near a +scaffold, for one falling brick or stone might usher you into the +great eternity for which you have no preparation. A few months, or +weeks, or days, or hours will pass on, and then you will see the last +light, and hear the last music, and have the last pleasant emotion, +and a destroyed eternity will rush upon you. Farewell, oh, doomed +spirit! As you shove off from hope, I wave you this last salutation. +Oh, it is hard to part forever and forever! I bid you one long, last, +bitter, eternal adieu! + + + + +CASTLE JESUS. + + "Who have fled for refuge."--HEB. vi: 18. + + +Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles +them these "who have fled for refuge." + +Moses established six cities of refuge--three on the east side of the +river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one +accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them +were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge +nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there +might be any mistake about the way, there were signs put up pointing +in the right way, with the word "Refuge." Having gained the limits of +one of these cities the man was safe, and the mothers of the priests +provided for him. + +Some of us have seen our peril, and have fled to Christ, and feel that +we shall never be captured. We are among those "who have fled for +refuge." Christ is represented in the Bible as a Tower, a High Rock, a +Fortress, and a Shelter. If you have seen any of the ancient castles +of Europe, you know that they are surrounded by trenches, across which +there is a draw-bridge. If an enemy approach, the people, for defense, +would get into the castle, have the trenches filled with water, and +lift up the draw-bridge. Whether to a city of safety, or a tower, +Paul refers, I know not, and care not, for in any case he means +Christ, the safety of the soul. + +But why talk of refuge? Who needs it, if the refuge spoken of be a +city or a castle, into which men fly for safety? It is all sunlight +here. No sound of war in our streets. We do not hear the rush of armed +men against the doors of our dwellings. We do not come with weapons to +church. Our lives are not at the mercy of an assassin. Why, then, talk +of refuge? + +Alas! I stand before a company of imperiled men. No flock of sheep was +ever so threatened or endangered of a pack of wolves; no ship was ever +so beaten of a storm; no company of men were ever so environed of a +band of savages. A refuge you must have, or fall before an +all-devouring destruction. There are not so many serpents in Africa; +there are not so many hyenas in Asia; there are not so many panthers +in the forest, as there are transgressions attacking my soul. I will +take the best unregenerated man anywhere, and say to him, You are +utterly corrupt. If all the sins of your past life were marshaled in +single file, they would reach from here to hell. If you have escaped +all other sins, the fact that you have rejected the mission of the Son +of God is enough to condemn you forever, pushing you off into +bottomless darkness, struck by ten thousand hissing thunder-bolts of +Omnipotent wrath. + +You are a sinner. The Bible says it, and your conscience affirms it. +Not a small sinner, or a moderate sinner, or a tolerable sinner, but a +great sinner, a protracted sinner, a vile sinner, an outrageous +sinner, a condemned sinner. As God, with His all-scrutinizing gaze, +looks upon you to-day, He can not find one sound spot in your soul. +Sin has put scales on your eyes, and deadened your ear with an awful +deafness, and palsied your right arm, and stunned your sensibilities, +and blasted you with an infinite blasting. The Bible, which you admit +to be true, affirms that you are diseased from the crown of your head +to the sole of your foot. You are unclean; you are a leper. Believe +not me, but believe God's Word, that over and over again announces, in +language that a fool might understand, the total and complete +depravity of the unchanged heart: "The heart is deceitful above all +things, and desperately wicked." + +In addition to the sins of your life there are uncounted troubles in +pursuit of you. Bereavements, losses, disappointments are a flock of +vultures ever on the wing. Did you get your house built, and +furnished, and made comfortable any sooner than misfortune came in +without knocking, and sat beside you--a skeleton apparition? Have not +pains shot their poisoned arrows, and fevers kindled their fire in +your brain? Many of you, for years, have walked on burning marl. You +stepped out of one disaster into another. You may, like Job, have +cursed the day in which you were born. This world boils over with +trouble for you, and you are wondering where the next grave will gape, +and where the next storm will burst. Oh, ye pursued, sinning, dying, +troubled, exhausted souls, are you not ready now to hear me while I +tell you of Christ, the Refuge? + +A soldier, during the war, heard of the sickness of his wife and +asked for a furlough. It was denied him, and he ran away. He was +caught, brought back, and sentenced to be shot as a deserter. The +officer took from his pocket a document that announced his death on +the following morning. As the document was read, the man flinched not +and showed no sorrow or anxiety. But the officer then took from his +pocket another document that contained the prisoner's pardon. Then he +broke down with deep emotion at the thought of the leniency that had +been extended. Though you may not appear moved while I tell you of the +law that thundered its condemnation, while I tell you of the pardon +and the peace of the Gospel I wonder if they will not overcome you. + +Jesus is a safe refuge. Fort Hudson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Moultrie, Fort +Sumter, Gibraltar, Sebastopol were taken. But Jesus is a castle into +which the righteous runneth and is safe. No battering-ram can demolish +its wall. No sappers or miners can explode its ramparts, no storm-bolt +of perdition leap upon its towers. The weapons that guard this fort +are omnipotent. Hell shall unlimber its great guns as death only to +have them dismantled. In Christ our sins are pardoned, discomforted, +blotted out, forgiven. An ocean can not so easily drown a fly as the +ocean of God's forgiveness swallow up, utterly and forever, our +transgressions. He is able to save unto the uttermost. + +You who have been so often overcome in a hand-to-hand fight with the +world, the flesh, and devil, try this fortress. Once here, you are +safe forever. Satan may charge up the steep, and shout amid the uproar +of the fight, Forward, to his battalions of darkness; but you will +stand in the might of the great God, your Redeemer, safe in the +refuge. The troubles of life, that once overwhelmed you, may come on +with their long wagon-trains laden with care and worryment; and you +may hear in their tramp the bereavements that once broke your heart; +but Christ is your friend, Christ your sympathizer, Christ your +reward. Safe in the refuge! + +Death at last may lay the siege to your spirit, and the shadows of the +sepulcher may shake their horrors in the breeze, and the hoarse howl +of the night wind may be mingled with the cry of despair, yet you will +shout in triumph from the ramparts, and the pale horse shall be hurled +back on his haunches. Safe in the refuge! To this castle I fly. This +last fire shall but illumine its towers; and the rolling thunders of +the judgment will be the salvo of its victory. + +Just after Queen Victoria had been crowned--she being only nineteen or +twenty years of age--Wellington handed her a death-warrant for her +signature. It was to take the life of a soldier in the army. She said +to Wellington: "Can there nothing good be said of this man?" He said: +"No; he is a bad soldier, and deserves to die." She took up the +death-warrant, and it trembled in her hand as she again asked: "Does +no one know anything good of this man?" Wellington said: "I have heard +that at his trial a man said that he had been a good son to his old +mother." "Then let his life be spared," said the queen, and she +ordered his sentence commuted. + +Christ is on a throne of grace. Our case is brought before him. The +question is asked: "Is there any good about this man?" The law says: +"None." Justice says: "None." Our own conscience says: "None." +Nevertheless, Christ hands over our pardon, and asks us to take it. +Oh, the height and depth, the length and breadth of his mercy! + +Again, Christ is a near refuge. When we are attacked, what advantage +is there in having a fortress on the other side of the mountain? Many +an army has had an intrenchment, but could not get to it before the +battle opened. Blessed be God, it is no long march to our castle. We +may get off, with all our troops, from the worst earthly defeat in +this stronghold. In a moment we may step from the battle into the +tower. I sing of a Saviour near. + +During the late war the forts of the North were named after the +Northern generals, and the forts of the South were named after the +Southern generals. This fortress of our soul I shall call Castle +Jesus. I have seen men pursued of sins that chased them with feet of +lightning, and yet with one glad leap they bounded into the tower. I +have seen troubles, with more than the speed and terror of a cavalry +troop, dash after a retreating soul, yet were hurled back in defeat +from the bulwarks. Jesus near! A child's cry, a prisoner's prayer, a +sailor's death-shriek, a pauper's moan reaches him. No pilgrimages on +spikes. No journeying with a huge pack on your back. No kneeling in +penance in cold vestibule of mercy. But an open door! A compassionate +Saviour! A present salvation! A near refuge! Castle Jesus! + +Oh, why do you not put out your arm and reach it? Why do you not fly +to it? Why be riddled, and shelled, and consumed under the rattling +bombardment of perdition, when one moment's faith would plant you in +the glorious refuge? I preach a Jesus here; a Jesus now; a fountain +close to your feet; a fiery pillar right over your head; bread already +broken for your hunger; a crown already gleaming for your brow. Hark +to the castle gates rattling back for your entrance! Hear you not the +welcome of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope +set before us? + +Again, it is a universal refuge. A fortress is seldom large enough to +hold a whole army. I look out upon fourteen hundred millions of the +race; and then I look at this fortress, and I say that there is room +enough for all. If it had been possible, this salvation would have +been monopolized. Men would have said: "Let us have all this to +ourselves--no publicans, no plebeians, no lazzaroni, no converted +pickpockets. We will ride toward heaven on fierce chargers, our feet +in golden stirrups. Grace for lords, and dukes, and duchesses, and +counts. Let Napoleon and his marshals come in, but not the common +soldier that fought under him. Let the Girards and the Barings come +in, but not the stevedores that unloaded their cargoes, or the men who +kept their books." Heaven would have been a glorified Windsor Castle, +or Tuileries, or Vatican; and exclusive aristocrats would have +strutted through the golden streets to all eternity. + +Thank God, there is mercy for the poor! The great Doctor John Mason +preached over a hundred times the same sermon; and the text was: "To +the poor the Gospel is preached." Lazarus went up, while Dives went +down; and there are candidates for Imperial splendors in the back +alley, and by the peat-fire of the Irish shanty. King Jesus set up His +throne in a manger, and made a resurrection day for the poor widow of +Nain, and sprung the gate of heaven wide open, so that all the +beggars, and thieves, and scoundrels of the universe may come in if +they will only repent. I can snatch the knife from the murderer's hand +while it is yet dripping with the blood of his victim, and tell him of +the grace that is sufficient to pardon his soul. Do you say that I +swing open the gate of heaven too far? I swing it open no wider than +Christ, when He says: "Whosoever will, let him come." Don't you want +to go in with such a rabble? Then you can stay out. + +The whole world will yet come into this refuge. The windows of heaven +will be opened; God's trumpet of salvation will sound, and China will +come from its tea-fields and rice-harvests, and lift itself up into +the light. India will come forth, the chariots of salvation jostling +to pieces her Juggernauts. Freezing Greenland, and sweltering +Abyssinia, will, side by side, press into the kingdom; and transformed +Bornesian cannibal preach of the resurrection of the missionary he has +slain. The glory of Calvary will tinge the tip of the Pyrenees; and +Lebanon cedars shall clap their hands; and by one swing of the sickle +Christ shall harvest nations for the skies. + +I sing a world redeemed. In the rush of the winds that set the forest +in motion, like giants wrestling on the hills, I see the tossing up of +the triumphal branches that shall wave all along the line of our King +as He comes to take empire. In the stormy diapason of the ocean's +organ, and the more gentle strains that in the calm come sounding up +from the crystal and jasper keys at the beach, I hear the prophecy: +"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters +fill the sea." + +The gospel morning will come like the natural morning. At first it +seems only like another hue of the night. Then a pallor strikes +through the sky, as though a company of ministering spirits, pale with +tedious watching through the night, had turned in their flight upward +to look back upon the earth. Then a faint glow of fire, as though on a +barren beach a wrecked mariner was kindling a flickering flame. Then +chariots and horses of fire racing up and down the heavens; then +perfect day: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning?" + +Come in, black Hottentot and snow-white Caucasian, come in, mitered +official and diseased beggar; let all the world come in. Room in +Castle Jesus! Sound it through all lands; sound it by all tongues. Let +sermons preach it, and bells chime it, and pencils sketch it, and +processions celebrate it, and bells ring it: Room in Castle Jesus! + +Again, Christ is the only refuge. If you were very sick, and there was +only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get +that medicine. If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the +ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious +you would be to get into that harbor. Oh, sin-sick soul, Christ is the +only medicine; oh, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor. Need +I tell a cultured audience like this that there is no other name given +among men by which ye can be saved? That if you want the handcuffs +knocked from your wrists, and the hopples from your feet, and the icy +bands from your heart, there is just one Almighty arm in all the +universe to do everything? There are other fortresses to which you +might fly, and other ramparts behind which you might hide, but God +will cut to pieces, with the hail of His vengeance, all these refuges +of lies. + +Some of you are foundering in terrible Euroclydon. Hark to the howling +of the gale, and the splintering of the spars, and the starting of the +timbers, and the breaking of the billow, clear across the hurricane +deck. Down she goes! Into the life-boat! Quick! One boat! One shore! +One oarsman! One salvation! You are polluted; there is but one well at +which you can wash clean. You are enslaved; there is but one +proclamation that can emancipate. You are blind; there is but one +salve that can kindle your vision. You are dead; there is but one +trumpet that can burst the grave. + +I have seen men come near the refuge but not make entrance. They came +up, and fronted the gate, and looked in, but passed on, and passed +down; and they will curse their folly through all eternity, that they +despised the only refuge. Oh! forget everything else I have said, if +you will but remember that there is but one atonement, one sacrifice, +one justification, one faith, one hope, one Jesus, one refuge. There +is that old Christian. Many a scar on his face tells where trouble +lacerated him. He has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He has had +enough misfortune to shadow his countenance with perpetual despair. +Yet he is full of hope. Has he found any new elixir? "No," he says; "I +have found Jesus the refuge." + +Christ is our only defense at the last. John Holland, in his +concluding moment, swept his hand over the Bible, and said: "Come, let +us gather a few flowers from this garden." As it was even-time he said +to his wife: "Have you lighted the candles?" "No," she said; "we have +not lighted the candles." "Then," said he, "it must be the brightness +of the face of Jesus that I see." + +Ask that dying Christian woman the source of her comfort. Why that +supernatural glow on the curtains of the death-chamber; and the +tossing out of one hand, as if to wave the triumph, and the reaching +up of the other, as if to take a crown? Hosanna on the tongue. Glory +beaming from the forehead. Heaven in the eyes. Spirit departing. Wings +to bear it. Anthems to charm it. Open the gates to receive it. +Hallelujah! Speak, dying Christian--what light do you see? What sounds +do you hear? The thin lips part. The pale hand is lifted. She says: +"Jesus the refuge!" Let all in the death-chamber stop weeping now. +Celebrate the triumph. Take up a song. Clap your hands. Shout it. +Hallelujah! Hallelujah! + +But this refuge will be of no worth to you unless you lay hold of it. +The time will come when you will wish that you had done so. It will +come soon. At an unexpected moment it will come. The castle bridge +will be drawn up and the fortress closed. When you see this +discomfiture, and look back, and look up at the storm gathering, and +the billowy darkness of death has rolled upon the sheeted flash of +the storm, you will discover the utter desolation of those who are +outside of the refuge. + +What you propose to do in this matter you had better do right away. A +mistake this morning may never be corrected. Jesus, the Great Captain +of salvation, puts forth his wounded hand to-day to cheer you on the +race to heaven. If you despise it, the ghastliest vision that will +haunt the eternal darkness of your soul will be the gaping, bleeding +wounds of the dying Redeemer. + +Jesus is to be crucified to-day. Think not of it as a day that is +past. He comes before you to-day weary and worn. Here is the cross, +and here is the victim. But there are no nails, and there are no +thorns, and there are no hammers. Who will furnish these? A man out +yonder says: "I will furnish with my sins the nails!" Now we have the +cross, and the victim, and the nails. But we have no thorns. Who will +furnish the thorns? A man in the audience says: "With my sins I will +furnish the thorns!" Now we have the cross, the victim, the nails, and +the thorns. But we have no hammers. Who will furnish the hammers? A +voice in the audience says: "My hard heart shall be the hammer!" +Everything is ready now. The crucifixion goes out! See Jesus dying! +"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." + + + + +STRIPPING THE SLAIN. + + "And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came + to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons + fallen in Mount Gilboa."--I. SAM. xxxi: 8. + + +Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or +Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a +battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the +field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening +I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken from the +bodies of the dead, for there are always vultures hovering over and +around about an army, and they pick up the watches, and the memorandum +books, and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and the hats, and the +coats, applying them to their own uses. The dead make no resistance. +So there are always camp followers going on and after an army, as when +Scott went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon marched up toward +Moscow, as when Von Moltke went to Sedan. There is a similar scene in +my text. + +Saul and his army had been horribly cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was +ghastly with the dead. On the morrow the stragglers came on to the +field, and they lifted the latchet of the helmet from under the chin +of the dead, and they picked up the swords and bent them on their +knee to test the temper of the metal, and they opened the wallets and +counted the coin. Saul lay dead along the ground, eight or nine feet +in length, and I suppose the cowardly Philistines, to show their +bravery, leaped upon the trunk of his carcass, and jeered at the +fallen slain, and whistled through the mouth of the helmet. Before +night those cormorants had taken everything valuable from the field: +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip +the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount +Gilboa." + +Before I get through to-day I will show you that the same process is +going on all the world over, and every day, and that when men have +fallen, Satan and the world, so far from pitying them or helping them, +go to work remorselessly to take what little is left, thus stripping +the slain. + +There are tens of thousands of young men every year coming from the +country to our great cities. They come with brave hearts and grand +expectations. They think they will be Rufus Choates in the law, or +Drapers in chemistry, or A.T. Stewarts in merchandise. The country +lads sit down in the village grocery, with their feet on the iron rod +around the red-hot stove, in the evening, talking over the prospects +of the young man who has gone off to the city. Two or three of them +think that perhaps he may get along very well and succeed, but the +most of them prophesy failure; for it is very hard to think that those +whom we knew in boyhood will ever make any stir in the world. + +But our young man has a fine position in a dry-goods store. The month +is over. He gets his wages. He is not accustomed to have so much money +belonging to himself. He is a little excited, and does not know +exactly what to do with it, and he spends it in some places where he +ought not. Soon there come up new companions and acquaintances from +the bar-rooms and the saloons of the city. Soon that young man begins +to waver in the battle of temptation, and soon his soul goes down. In +a few months, or few years, he has fallen. He is morally dead. He is a +mere corpse of what he once was. The harpies of sin snuff up the taint +and come on the field. His garments gradually give out. He has pawned +his watch. His health is failing him. His credit perishes. He is too +poor to stay in the city, and he is too poor to pay his way home to +the country. Down! down! Why do the low fellows of the city now stick +to him so closely? Is it to help him back to a moral and spiritual +life? Oh, no! I will tell you why they stay; they are the Philistines +stripping the slain. + +Do not look where I point, but yonder stands a man who once had a +beautiful home in this city. His house had elegant furniture, his +children were beautifully clad, his name was synonymous with honor and +usefulness; but evil habit knocked at his front door, knocked at his +back door, knocked at his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom door. +Where is the piano? Sold to pay the rent. Where is the hat-rack? Sold +to meet the butcher's bill. Where are the carpets? Sold to get bread. +Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters? +Working their fingers off in trying to keep the family together. +Worse and worse, until everything is gone. Who is that going up the +front steps of that house? That is a creditor, hoping to find some +chair or bed that has not been levied upon. Who are those two +gentlemen now going up the front steps? The one is a constable, the +other is the sheriff. Why do they go there? The unfortunate is morally +dead, socially dead, financially dead. Why do they go there? I will +tell you why the creditors, and the constables, and the sheriffs go +there. They are, some on their own account, and some on account of the +law, stripping the slain. + +An ex-member of Congress, one of the most eloquent men that ever stood +in the House of Representatives, said in his last moments: "This is +the end. I am dying--dying on a borrowed bed, covered by a borrowed +sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in +the middle of the field, where I shall not be crowded, for I have been +crowded all my life." Where were the jolly politicians and the +dissipating comrades who had been with him, laughing at his jokes, +applauding his eloquence, and plunging him into sin? They have left. +Why? His money is gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is gone, his +clothes are gone, everything is gone. Why should they stay any longer? +They have completed their work. They have stripped the slain. + +There is another way, however, of doing that same work. Here is a man +who, through his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that he has done +wrong. Now is the time for you to go to that man and say: "Thousands +of people have been as far astray as you are, and got back." Now is +the time for you to go to that man and tell him of the omnipotent +grace of God, that is sufficient for any poor soul. Now is the time to +go to tell him how swearing John Bunyan, through the grace of God, +afterward came to the celestial city. Now is the time to go to that +man and tell him how profligate Newton came, through conversion, to be +a world-renowned preacher of righteousness. Now is the time to tell +that man that multitudes who have been pounded with all the flails of +sin and dragged through all the sewers of pollution at last have risen +to positive dominion of moral power. + +You do not tell him that, do you? No. You say to him: "Loan you money? +No. You are down. You will have to go to the dogs. Lend you a +shilling? I would not lend you five cents to keep you from the +gallows. You are debauched! Get out of my sight, now! Down; you will +have to stay down!" And thus those bruised and battered men are +sometimes accosted by those who ought to lift them up. Thus the last +vestige of hope is taken from them. Thus those who ought to go and +lift and save them are guilty of stripping the slain. + +The point I want to make is this: sin is hard, cruel, and merciless. +Instead of helping a man up it helps him down; and when, like Saul and +his comrades, you lie on the field, it will come and steal your sword +and helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal and the crow. + +But the world and Satan do not do all their work with the outcast and +abandoned. A respectable, impenitent man comes to die. He is flat on +his back. He could not get up if the house were on fire. Adroitest +medical skill and gentlest nursing have been a failure. He has come to +his last hour. What does Satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches up +all the inapt, disagreeable, and harrowing things in his life. He +says: "Do you remember those chances you had for heaven, and missed +them? Do you remember all those lapses in conduct? Do you remember all +those opprobrious words and thoughts and actions? Don't remember them, +eh? I'll make you remember them." And then he takes all the past and +empties it on that death-bed, as the mail-bags are emptied on the +post-office floor. The man is sick. He can not get away from them. + +Then the man says to Satan: "You have deceived me. You told me that +all would be well. You said there would be no trouble at the last. You +told me if I did so and so, you would do so and so. Now you corner me, +and hedge me up, and submerge me in everything evil." "Ha! ha!" says +Satan, "I was only fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer. +I have been for thirty years plotting to get you just where you are. +It is hard for you now--it will be worse for you after awhile. It +pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't flinch or shudder. Come now, I will +tear off from you the last rag of expectation. I will rend away from +your soul the last hope. I will leave you bare for the beating of the +storm. It is my business to strip the slain." + +While men are in robust health, and their digestion is good, and their +nerves are strong, they think their physical strength will get them +safely through the last exigency. They say it is only cowardly women +who are afraid at the last, and cry out for God. "Wait till I come to +die. I will show you. You won't hear me pray, nor call for a minister, +nor want a chapter read me from the Bible." But after the man has been +three weeks in a sick-room his nerves are not so steady, and his +worldly companions are not anywhere near to cheer him up, and he is +persuaded that he must quit life: his physical courage is all gone. + +He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a saucer. He shivers at the idea +of going away. He says: "Wife, I don't think my infidelity is going to +take me through. For God's sake don't bring up the children to do as I +have done. If you feel like it, I wish you would read a verse or two +out of Fannie's Sabbath-school hymn-book or New Testament." But Satan +breaks in, and says: "You have always thought religion trash and a +lie; don't give up at the last. Besides that, you can not, in the hour +you have to live, get off on that track. Die as you lived. With my +great black wings I shut out that light. Die in darkness. I rend away +from you that last vestige of hope. It is my business to strip the +slain." + +A man who had rejected Christianity and thought it all trash, came to +die. He was in the sweat of a great agony, and his wife said: "We had +better have some prayer." "Mary, not a breath of that," he said. "The +lightest word of prayer would roll back on me like rocks on a drowning +man. I have come to the hour of test. I had a chance, and I forfeited +it. I believed in a liar, and he has left me in the lurch. Mary, bring +me Tom Paine, that book that I swore by and lived by, and pitch it in +the fire, and let it burn and burn as I myself shall soon burn." And +then, with the foam on his lip and his hands tossing wildly in the +air, he cried out: "Blackness of darkness! Oh, my God, too late!" And +the spirits of darkness whistled up from the depth, and wheeled around +and around him, stripping the slain. + +Sin is a luxury now; it is exhilaration now; it is victory now. But +after awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is +jackalism; it is robbing the dead; it is stripping the slain. Give it +up to-day--give it up! Oh, how you have been cheated on, my brother, +from one thing to another! All these years you have been under an evil +mastery that you understood not. What have your companions done for +you? What have they done for your health? Nearly ruined it by +carousal. What have they done for your fortune? Almost scattered it by +spendthrift behavior. What have they done for your reputation? Almost +ruined it with good men. What have they done for your immortal soul? +Almost insured its overthrow. + +You are hastening on toward the consummation of all that is sad. +To-day you stop and think, but it is only for a moment, and then you +will tramp on, and at the close of this service you will go out, and +the question will be: "How did you like the sermon?" And one man will +say: "I liked it very well," and another man will say: "I didn't like +it at all;" but neither of the answers will touch the tremendous fact +that, if impenitent, you are going at eighteen knots an hour toward +shipwreck! Yea, you are in a battle where you will fall; and while +your surviving relatives will take your remaining estate, and the +cemetery will take your body, the messengers of darkness will take +your soul, and come and go about you for the next ten million years, +stripping the slain. + +Many are crying out: "I admit I am slain, I admit it!" On what +battle-field, my brothers? By what weapon? "Polluted imagination," +says one man; "Intoxicating liquor," says another man; "My own hard +heart," says another man. Do you realize this? Then I come to tell you +that the omnipotent Christ is ready to walk across this battle-field, +and revive, and resuscitate, and resurrect your dead soul. Let Him +take your hand and rub away the numbness; your head, and bathe off the +aching; your heart, and stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to +life; He brought Jairus' daughter to life; He brought the young man of +Nain to life, and these are three proofs anyhow that he can bring you +to life. + +When the Philistines came down on the field, they stepped between the +corpses, and they rolled over the dead, and they took away everything +that was valuable; and so it was with the people that followed after +our army at Chancellorsville, and at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone +River, and at Atlanta, stripping the slain; but the Northern and +Southern women--God bless them!--came on the field with basins, and +pads, and towels, and lint, and cordials, and Christian encouragement; +and the poor fellows that lay there lifted up their arms and said: +"Oh, how good that does feel since you dressed it!" and others looked +up and said: "Oh, how you make me think of my mother!" and others +said: "Tell the folks at home I died thinking about them;" and another +looked up and said: "Miss, won't you sing me a verse of 'Home, Sweet +Home,' before I die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and the hats +were off, and the service was read: "I am the resurrection and the +life;" and in honor of the departed the muskets were loaded, and the +command given: "Take aim--fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the +head of the grave, with the epitaph of "Lieutenant ---- in the +Fourteenth Massachusetts Regulars," or "Captain ---- in the Fifteenth +Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers." And so to-night, across this +great field of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of God come +walking among the slain, and there are voices of comfort, and voices +of hope, and voices of resurrection, and voices of heaven. + +Christ is ready to give life to the dead. He will make the deaf ear to +hear, the blind eye to see, the pulseless heart to beat, and the damp +walls of your spiritual charnel-house will crash into ruin at His cry: +"Come forth!" I verily believe there are souls in this house who are +now dead in sin, who in half an hour will be alive forever. There was +a thrilling dream, a glorious dream--you may have heard of it. Ezekiel +closed his eyes, and he saw two mountains, and a valley between the +mountains. That valley looked as though there had been a great battle +there, and a whole army had been slain, and they had been unburied; +and the heat of the land, and the vultures coming there, soon the +bones were exposed to the sun, and they looked like thousands of +snow-drifts all through the valley. Frightful spectacle! The bleaching +skeletons of a host! + +But Ezekiel still kept his eyes shut; and lo! there were four +currents of wind that struck the battle-field, and when those four +currents of wind met, the bones began to rattle; and the foot came to +the ankle, and the hand came to the wrist, and the jaws clashed +together, and the spinal column gathered up the ganglions and the +nervous fiber, and all the valley wriggled and writhed, and throbbed, +and rocked, and rose up. There, a man coming to life. There, a hundred +men. There, a thousand; and all falling into line, waiting for the +shout of their commander. Ten thousand bleached skeletons springing up +into ten thousand warriors, panting for the fray. I hope that instead +of being a dream it may be a prophecy of what we shall see here +to-day. Let this north wall be one of the mountains, and the south +wall be taken for another of the mountains, and let all the aisles and +the pews be the valley between, for there are thousands here to-day +without one pulsation of spiritual life. + +I look off in one direction, and they are dead. I look off in another +direction, and they are dead. Who will bring them to life? Who shall +rouse them up? If I should halloo at the top of my voice I could not +wake them. Wait a moment! Listen! There is a rustling. There is a gale +from heaven. It comes from the north, and from the south, and from the +east, and from the west. It shuts us in. It blows upon the slain. +There a soul begins to move in spiritual life; there, ten souls; +there, a score of souls; there, a hundred souls. The nostrils +throbbing in divine respiration, the hands lifted as though to take +hold of heaven, the tongue moving as in prayer and adoration. Life! +immortal life coming into the slain. Ten men for God--fifty--a +hundred--a regiment--an army for God! Oh, that we might have such a +scene here to-day! In Ezekiel's words, and in almost a frenzy of +prayer, I cry: "Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon +the slain." + +You will have to surrender your heart to-day to God. You can not take +the responsibility of fighting against the Spirit in this crisis which +will decide whether you are to go to heaven or to hell--to join the +hallelujahs of the saved, or the lamentations of the lost. You must +pray. You must repent. You must this day fling your sinful soul on the +pardoning mercy of God. You must! I see your resolution against God +giving way, your determination wavering. I break through the breach in +the wall and follow up the advantage gained, hoping to rout your last +opposition to Christ, and to make you "ground arms" at the feet of the +Divine Conqueror. Oh, you must! You must! + +The moon does not ask the tides of the Atlantic Ocean to rise. It only +stoops down with two great hands of light, the one at the European +beach, and the other at the American beach, and then lifts the great +layer of molten silver. And God, it seems to me, is now going to lift +this audience to newness of life. Do you not feel the swellings of the +great oceanic tides of Divine mercy? My heart is in anguish to have +you saved. For this I pray, and preach, and long, glad to be called a +fool for Christ's sake, and your salvation. + +Some one replies: "Dear me, I do wish I could have these matters +arranged with my God. I want to be saved. God knows I want to be +saved; but you stand there talking about this matter, and you don't +show me how." My dear brother, the work has all been done. Christ did +it with His own torn hand, and lacerated foot, and bleeding side. He +took your place, and died your death, if you will only believe +it--only accept Him as your substitute. + +What an amazing pity that any man should go from this house unblessed, +when such a large blessing is offered him at less cost than you would +pay for a pin--"without money and without price." I have driven down +to-day with the Lord's ambulance to the battle-field where your soul +lies exposed to the darkness and the storm, and I want to lift you in, +and drive off with you toward heaven. Oh, Christians, by your prayers +help to lift these wounded souls into the ambulance! God forbid that +any should be left on the field, and that at last eternal sorrow, and +remorse, and despair should come up around their soul like the bandit +Philistines to the field of Gilboa, stripping the slain. + + + + +SOLD OUT. + + "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed + without money."--ISA. lii: 3. + + +The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been +carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. +Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews +that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, +literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; +and ye shall be redeemed without money." + +There is enough Gospel in this text for fifty sermons; though I never +heard of its being preached on. There are persons in this house who +have, like the Jews of the text, sold out. You do not seem to belong +either to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over +to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never +paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some +adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world +does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a +summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his +physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts +with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary +culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire +nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the +first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down +the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays +down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone; +and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment, +and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and +says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed +over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to +collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well," +you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now +to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "_I have +failed. I am bankrupt._ I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not +for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me +back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can +not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of +eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the +consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought." + +I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a +cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a +bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays +the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted, +it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little +while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash +and get for it worthless scrip--so the world passes over to you the +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in that shape which will not be +worth a farthing to you a thousandth part of a second after you are +dead. "Oh," you say, "it will help to bury me, anyhow." Oh, my +brother! you need not worry about that. The world will bury you soon +enough, from sanitary considerations. After you have been deceased for +three or four days you will compel the world to bury you. + +Post-mortem emoluments are of no use to you. The treasures of this +world will not pass current in the future world; and if all the wealth +of the Bank of England were put in the pocket of your shroud, and you +in the midst of the Jordan of death were asked to pay three cents for +your ferriage, you could not do it. There comes a moment in your +existence beyond which all earthly values fail; and many a man has +wakened up in such a time to find that he has sold out for eternity, +and has nothing to show for it. I should as soon think of going to +Chatham Street to buy silk pocket-handkerchiefs with no cotton in +them, as to go to this world expecting to find any permanent +happiness. It has deceived and deluded every man that has ever put his +trust in it. + +History tells us of one who resolved that he would have all his senses +gratified at one and the same time, and he expended thousands of +dollars on each sense. He entered a room, and there were the first +musicians of the land pleasing his ear, and there were fine pictures +fascinating his eye, and there were costly aromatics regaling his +nostril, and there were the richest meats, and wines, and fruits, and +confections pleasing the appetite, and there was a soft couch of +sinful indulgence on which he reclined; and the man declared afterward +that he would give ten times what he had given if he could have one +week of such enjoyment, even though he lost his soul by it. Ah! that +was the rub. He did lose his soul by it! Cyrus the Conqueror thought +for a little while that he was making a fine thing out of this world, +and yet before he came to his grave he wrote out this pitiful epitaph +for his monument: "I am Cyrus. I occupied the Persian Empire. I was +king over Asia. Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in after +years plowed up his sepulcher. + +The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in honor of Charles +Lamb; but what does he say? "I walk up and down, thinking I am happy, +but feeling I am not." Call the roll, and be quick about it. Samuel +Johnson, the learned! Happy? "No. I am afraid I shall some day get +crazy." William Hazlitt, the great essayist! Happy? "No. I have been +for two hours and a half going up and down Paternoster Row with a +volcano in my breast." Smollett, the witty author! Happy? "No. I am +sick of praise and blame, and I wish to God that I had such +circumstances around me that I could throw my pen into oblivion." +Buchanan, the world-renowned writer, exiled from his own country, +appealing to Henry VIII. for protection! Happy? "No. Over mountains +covered with snow, and through valleys flooded with rain, I come a +fugitive." Molière, the popular dramatic author! Happy? "No. That +wretch of an actor just now recited four of my lines without the +proper accent and gesture. To have the children of my brain so hung, +drawn, and quartered, tortures me like a condemned spirit." + +I went to see a worldling die. As I went into the hall I saw its floor +was tessellated, and its wall was a picture-gallery. I found his +death-chamber adorned with tapestry until it seemed as if the clouds +of the setting sun had settled in the room. The man had given forty +years to the world--his wit, his time, his genius, his talent, his +soul. Did the world come in to stand by his death-bed, and clearing +off the vials of bitter medicine, put down any compensation? Oh, no! +The world does not like sick and dying people, and leaves them in the +lurch. It ruined this man, and then left him. He had a magnificent +funeral. All the ministers wore scarfs, and there were forty-three +carriages in a row; but the departed man appreciated not the +obsequies. + +I want to persuade my audience that this world is a poor investment; +that it does not pay ninety per cent. of satisfaction, nor eighty per +cent., nor twenty per cent., nor two per cent., nor one; that it gives +no solace when a dead babe lies on your lap; that it gives no peace +when conscience rings its alarm; that it gives no explanation in the +day of dire trouble; and at the time of your decease it takes hold of +the pillow-case, and shakes out the feathers, and then jolts down in +the place thereof sighs, and groans, and execrations, and then makes +you put your head on it. Oh, ye who have tried this world, is it a +satisfactory portion? Would you advise your friends to make the +investment? No. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Your conscience +went. Your hope went. Your Bible went. Your heaven went. Your God +went. When a sheriff under a writ from the courts sells a man out, the +officer generally leaves a few chairs and a bed, and a few cups and +knives; but in this awful vendue in which you have been engaged the +auctioneer's mallet has come down upon body, mind, and soul: Going! +Gone! "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +How could you do so? Did you think that your soul was a mere trinket +which for a few pennies you could buy in a toy shop? Did you think +that your soul, if once lost, might be found again if you went out +with torches and lanterns? Did you think that your soul was +short-lived, and that, panting, it would soon lie down for extinction? +Or had you no idea what your soul was worth? Did you ever put your +forefingers on its eternal pulses? Have you never felt the quiver of +its peerless wing? Have you not known that, after leaving the body, +the first step of your soul reaches to the stars, and the next step to +the furthest outposts of God's universe, and that it will not die +until the day when the everlasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my brother, +what possessed you that you should part with your soul so cheap? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought." + +But I have some good news to tell you. I want to engage in a +litigation for the recovery of that soul of yours. I want to show that +you have been cheated out of it. I want to prove, as I will, that you +were crazy on that subject, and that the world, under such +circumstances, has no right to take the title-deed from you; and if +you will join me I shall get a decree from the High Chancery Court of +Heaven reinstating you into the possession of your soul. "Oh," you +say, "I am afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive, and I can not +pay the cost." Then have you forgotten the last half of my text? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money." + +Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in +this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and +pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy +your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of +Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us +to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is? +I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, +no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king's blood. It must +be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent. But where +is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, +yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue. But after awhile the +clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of +a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, +and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to +cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and +then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the +sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we +who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and +imperial blood. + +We have in this day professed Christians who are so rarefied and +etherealized that they do not want a religion of blood. What do you +want? You seem to want a religion of brains. The Bible says: "In the +blood is the life." No atonement without blood. Ought not the apostle +to know? What did he say? "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible +things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ." +You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the +blood, and you leave it a mere corpse, fit only for the grave. Why did +God command the priests of old to strike the knife into the kid, and +the goat, and the pigeon, and the bullock, and the lamb? It was so +that when the blood rushed out from these animals on the floor of the +ancient tabernacle the people should be compelled to think of the +coming carnage of the Son of God. No blood, no atonement. + +I think that God intended to impress us with the vividness of that +color. The green of the grass, the blue of the sky, would not have +startled and aroused us like this deep crimson. It is as if God had +said: "Now, sinner, wake up and see what the Saviour endured for you. +This is not water. This is not wine. It is blood. It is the blood of +my own Son. It is the blood of the Immaculate. It is the blood of +God." Without the shedding of blood is no remission. There has been +many a man who in courts of law has pleaded "not guilty," who +nevertheless has been condemned because there was blood found on his +hands, or blood found in his room; and what shall we do in the last +day if it be found that we have recrucified the Lord of Glory and have +never repented of it? You must believe in the blood or die. No +escape. Unless you let the sacrifice of Jesus go in your stead you +yourself must suffer. It is either Christ's blood or your blood. + +"Oh," says some one, "the thought of blood sickens me." Good. God +intended it to sicken you with your sin. Do not act as though you had +nothing to do with that Calvarian massacre. You had. Your sins were +the implements of torture. Those implements were not made of steel, +and iron, and wood, so much as out of your sins. Guilty of this +homicide, and this regicide, and this deicide, confess your guilt +to-day. Ten thousand voices of heaven bring in the verdict against you +of guilty, guilty. Prepare to die, or believe in that blood. Stretch +yourself out for the sacrifice, or accept the Saviour's sacrifice. Do +not fling away your one chance. + +It seems to me as if all heaven were trying to bid in your soul. The +first bid it makes is the tears of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus; but +that is not a high enough price. The next bid heaven makes is the +sweat of Gethsemane; but it is too cheap a price. The next bid heaven +makes seems to be the whipped back of Pilate's hall; but it is not a +high enough price. Can it be possible that heaven can not buy you in? +Heaven tries once more. It says: "I bid this time for that man's soul +the tortures of Christ's martyrdom, the blood on His temple, the blood +on His cheek, the blood on His chin, the blood on His hand, the blood +on His side, the blood on His knee, the blood on His foot--the blood +in drops, the blood in rills, the blood in pools coagulated beneath +the cross; the blood that wet the tips of the soldiers' spears, the +blood that plashed warm in the faces of His enemies." Glory to God, +that bid wins it! The highest price that was ever paid for anything +was paid for your soul. Nothing could buy it but blood! The estranged +property is bought back. Take it. "You have sold yourselves for +nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." O atoning blood, +cleansing blood, life-giving blood, sanctifying blood, glorifying +blood of Jesus! Why not burst into tears at the thought that for thee +He shed it--for thee the hard-hearted, for thee the lost? + +"No," says some one; "I will have nothing to do with it except that, +like the Jews, I put both my hands into that carnage and scoop up both +palms full, and throw it on my head and cry: 'His blood be on us and +on our children!'" Can you do such a shocking thing as that? Just rub +your handkerchief across your brow and look at it. It is the blood of +the Son of God whom you have despised and driven back all these years. +Oh, do not do that any longer! Come out frankly and boldly and +honestly, and tell Christ you are sorry. You can not afford to so +roughly treat Him upon whom everything depends. + +I do not know how you will get away from this subject. You see that +you are sold out, and that Christ wants to buy you back. There are +three persons who come after you to-night: God the Father, God the +Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They unite their three omnipotences in +one movement for your salvation. You will not take up arms against the +Triune God, will you? Is there enough muscle in your arm for such a +combat? By the highest throne in heaven, and by the deepest chasm in +hell, I beg you look out. Unless you allow Christ to carry away your +sins, they will carry you away. Unless you allow Christ to lift you +up, they will drag you down. There is only one hope for you, and that +is the blood. Christ, the sin-offering, bearing your transgressions. +Christ, the surety, paying your debts. Christ, the divine Cyrus, +loosening your Babylonish captivity. + +Would you not like to be free? Here is the price of your +liberation--not money, but blood. I tremble from head to foot, not +because I fear your presence, for I am used to that, but because I +fear that you will miss your chance for immortal rescue, and die. This +is the alternative divinely put: "He that believeth on the Son shall +have everlasting life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not +see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." In the last day, if +you now reject Christ, every drop of that sacrificial blood, instead +of pleading for your release as it would have pleaded if you had +repented, will plead against you. It will seem to say: "They refused +the ransom; they chose to die; let them die; they must die. Down with +them to the weeping and the wailing. Depart! go away from me. You +would not have me, now I will not have you. Sold out for eternity." + +O Lord God of the judgment day! avert that calamity! Let us see the +quick flash of the cimeter that slays the sin but saves the sinner. +Strike, omnipotent God, for the soul's deliverance! Beat, O eternal +sea! with all thy waves against the barren beach of that rocky soul, +and make it tremble. Oh! the oppressiveness of the hour, the minute, +the second, on which the soul's destiny quivers, and this is that +hour, that minute, that second! + +I wonder what proportion of this audience will be saved? What +proportion will be lost? When the "Schiller" went down, out of three +hundred and eighty people only forty were saved. When the "Ville du +Havre" went down, out of three hundred and forty about fifty were +saved. Out of this audience to-day, how many will get to the shore of +heaven? It is no idle question for me to ask, for many of you I shall +never see again until the day when the books are open. + +Some years ago there came down a fierce storm on the sea-coast, and a +vessel got in the breakers and was going to pieces. They threw up some +signal of distress, and the people on the shore saw them. They put out +in a life-boat. They came on, and they saw the poor sailors, almost +exhausted, clinging to a raft; and so afraid were the boatmen that the +men would give up before they got to them, they gave them three rounds +of cheers, and cried: "Hold on, there! Hold on! We'll save you!" After +awhile the boat came up. One man was saved by having the boat-hook put +in the collar of his coat; and some in one way, and some in another; +but they all got into the boat. "Now," says the captain, "for the +shore. Pull away now, pull!" The people on the land were afraid the +life-boat had gone down. They said: "How long the boat stays. Why, it +must have been swamped, and they have all perished together." + +And there were men and women on the pier-heads and on the beach +wringing their hands; and while they waited and watched, they saw +something looming up through the mist, and it turned out to be the +life-boat. As soon as it came within speaking distance the people on +the shore cried out: "Did you save any of them? Did you save any of +them?" And as the boat swept through the boiling surf and came to the +pier-head, the captain waved his hand over the exhausted sailors that +lay flat on the bottom of the boat, and cried: "All saved! Thank God! +All saved!" So may it be to-day. The waves of your sin run high, the +storm is on you, the danger is appalling. Oh! shipwrecked soul, I have +come for you. I cheer you with this Gospel hope. God grant that within +the next ten minutes we may row with you into the harbor of God's +mercy. And when these Christian men gather around to see the result of +this service, and the glorified gathering on the pier-heads of heaven +to watch and to listen, may we be able to report all saved! Young and +old, good and bad! All saved! Saved from sin, and death, and hell. +Saved for time. Saved for eternity. "And so it came to pass that they +all escaped safe to land." + + + + +SUMMER TEMPTATIONS. + + "Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest + awhile."--MARK vi: 31. + + +Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been +living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they +get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, +I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday +afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that +release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people +will have opportunity of recreation this summer than in any previous +summer. Others will have whole weeks and months of rest. The railway +trains are being laden with passengers and baggage on their way to the +mountains and the lakes and the sea-shore. Multitudes of our citizens +are packing their trunks for a restorative absence. + +The city heats are pursuing the people with torch and fear of +sunstroke. The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz +with excited arrivals. The crystalline surface of Winnipiseogee is +shattered with the stroke of steamer, laden with excursionists. The +antlers of Adirondack deer rattle under the shot of city sportsmen. +The trout make fatal snaps at the hook of adroit sportsmen and toss +their spotted brilliance into the game-basket. Already the baton of +the orchestral leader taps the music-stand on the hotel green, and +American life puts on festal array, and the rumbling of the tenpin +alley, and the crack of the ivory balls on the green-baized billiard +tables, and the jolting of the bar-room goblets, and the explosive +uncorking of champagne bottles, and the whirl and the rustle of the +ball-room dance, and the clattering hoofs of the race-courses, attest +that the season for the great American watering-places is fairly +inaugurated. Music--flute and drum and cornet-à-piston and clapping +cymbals--will wake the echoes of the mountains. + +Glad I am that fagged-out American life for the most part will have an +opportunity to rest, and that nerves racked and destroyed will find a +Bethesda. I believe in watering-places. Let not the commercial firm +begrudge the clerk, or the employer the journeyman, or the patient the +physician, or the church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. Luther +used to sport with his children; Edmund Burke used to caress his +favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the dark hours of the church's +disruption, played kite for recreation--as I was told by his own +daughter--and the busy Christ said to the busy apostles: "Come ye +apart awhile into the desert and rest yourselves." And I have observed +that they who do not know how to rest do not know how to work. + +But I have to declare this truth to-day, that some of our fashionable +watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of "a +multitude that no man can number," and amid the congratulations of +this season and the prospect of the departure of many of you for the +country I must utter a note of warning--plain, earnest, and +unmistakable. + +I. The first temptation that is apt to hover in this direction is to +leave your piety all at home. You will send the dog and cat and canary +bird to be well cared for somewhere else; but the temptation will be +to leave your religion in the room with the blinds down and the door +bolted, and then you will come back in the autumn to find that it is +starved and suffocated, lying stretched on the rug stark dead. There +is no surplus of piety at the watering-places. I never knew any one to +grow very rapidly in grace at the Catskill Mountain House, or Sharon +Springs, or the Falls of Montmorency. It is generally the case that +the Sabbath is more of a carousal than any other day, and there are +Sunday walks and Sunday rides and Sunday excursions. + +Elders and deacons and ministers of religion who are entirely +consistent at home, sometimes when the Sabbath dawns on them at +Niagara Falls or the White Mountains take the day to themselves. If +they go to the church, it is apt to be a sacred parade, and the +discourse, instead of being a plain talk about the soul, is apt to be +what is called _a crack sermon_--that is, some discourse picked out of +the effusions of the year as the one most adapted to excite +admiration; and in those churches, from the way the ladies hold their +fans, you know that they are not so much impressed with the heat as +with the picturesqueness of half-disclosed features. Four puny souls +stand in the organ-loft and squall a tune that nobody knows, and +worshipers, with two thousand dollars' worth of diamonds on the right +hand, drop a cent into the poor-box, and then the benediction is +pronounced and the farce is ended. + +The toughest thing I ever tried to do was to be good at a +watering-place. The air is bewitched with "the world, the flesh, and +the devil." There are Christians who in three or four weeks in such a +place have had such terrible rents made in their Christian robe that +they had to keep darning it until Christmas to get it mended! The +health of a great many people makes an annual visit to some mineral +spring an absolute necessity; but, my dear people, take your Bible +along with you, and take an hour for secret prayer every day, though +you be surrounded by guffaw and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sabbath, +though they denounce you as a bigoted Puritan. Stand off from those +institutions which propose to imitate on this side the water the +iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let your moral and your immortal health +keep pace with your physical recuperation, and remember that all the +waters of Hathorne and sulphur and chalybeate springs can not do you +so much good as the mineral, healing, perennial flood that breaks +forth from the "Rock of Ages." This may be your last summer. If so, +make it a fit vestibule of heaven. + +II. Another temptation around nearly all our watering-places is the +horse-racing business. We all admire the horse. There needs to be a +redistribution of coronets among the brute creation. For ages the lion +has been called the king of beasts. I knock off its coronet and put +the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether in shape or +spirit or sagacity or intelligence or affection or usefulness. He is +semi-human, and knows how to reason on a small scale. The centaur of +olden times, part horse and part man, seems to be a suggestion of the +fact that the horse is something more than a beast. + +Job sets forth his strength, his beauty, his majesty, the panting of +his nostril, the pawing of his hoof, and his enthusiasm for the +battle. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and what Landseer did +for the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does for the horse. +Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak of him. He comes into every +kingly procession and into every great occasion and into every +triumph. It is very evident that Job and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel +and Jeremiah and John were fond of the horse. He came into much of +their imagery. A red horse--that meant war; a black horse--that meant +famine; a pale horse--that meant death; a white horse--that meant +victory. + +As the Bible makes a favorite of the horse, the patriarch and the +prophet and the evangelist and the apostle, stroking his sleek hide, +and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his exquisitely +formed hoof, and listening with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so +all great natures in all ages have spoken of him in encomiastic terms. +Virgil in his Georgics almost seems to plagiarize from the description +of Job. The Duke of Wellington would not allow any one irreverently to +touch his old war-horse, Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen +hours without dismounting at Waterloo; and when old Copenhagen died, +his master ordered a military salute fired over his grave. John +Howard showed that he did not exhaust all his sympathies in pitying +the human race, for when sick he writes home: "Has my old chaise-horse +become sick or spoiled?" + +But we do not think that the speed of the horse should be cultured at +the expense of human degradation. Horse-races, in olden times, were +under the ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution +has come up under fictitious names, and it is called a "Summer +Meeting," almost suggestive of positive religious exercises. And it is +called an "Agricultural Fair," suggestive of everything that is +improving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are +the same cheating and the same betting, the same drunkenness and the +same vagabondage and the same abominations that were to be found under +the old horse-racing system. + +I never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the +turf for a long reach of time, and not be battered in morals. They +hook up their spanking team, and put on their sporting-cap, and light +their cigar, and take the reins, and dash down the road to perdition. +The great day at Saratoga, and Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly +all the other watering-places, is the day of the races. The hotels are +thronged, nearly every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost +fabulous price, and there are many respectable people mingling with +jockeys, and gamblers, and libertines, and foul-mouthed men and flashy +women. The bar-tender stirs up the brandy-smash. The bets run high. +The greenhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough +to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is +decided, and the men in the secret know on which steed to bet their +money. The two men on the horses riding around long before arranged +who shall beat. + +Leaning from the stand or from the carriage are men and women so +absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle and mettle that they make +a grand harvest for the pickpockets, who carry off the pocket-books +and portemonnaies. Men looking on see only two horses with two riders +flying around the ring; but there is many a man on that stand whose +honor and domestic happiness and fortune--white mane, white foot, +white flank--are in the ring, racing with inebriety, and with fraud, +and with profanity, and with ruin--black neck, black foot, black +flank. Neck and neck they go in that moral Epsom. + +Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse-racing dissipations this +summer. Long ago the English government got through looking to the +turf for the dragoon and light-cavalry horse. They found the turf +depreciates the stock, and it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes, the +member of parliament and the author, known all the world over, hearing +that a new turf enterprise was being started in this country, wrote a +letter, in which he said: "Heaven help you, then; for of all the +cankers of our old civilization there is nothing in this country +approaching in unblushing meanness, in rascality holding its head +high, to this belauded institution of the British turf." Another +famous sportsman writes: "How many fine domains have been shared among +these hosts of rapacious sharks during the last two hundred years; and +unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into +the same gulf!" The Duke of Hamilton, through his horse-racing +proclivities, in three years got through his entire fortune of +£70,000, and I will say that some of you are being undermined by it. +With the bull-fights of Spain and the bear-baitings of the pit may the +Lord God annihilate the infamous and accursed horse-racing of England +and America. + +III. I go further, and speak of another temptation that hovers over +the watering-places; and this is the temptation to sacrifice physical +strength. The modern Bethesda was intended to recuperate the physical +health; and yet how many come from the watering-places, their health +absolutely destroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots boasting of having +imbibed twenty glasses of Congress water before breakfast. Families +accustomed to going to bed at ten o'clock at night gossiping until one +or two o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about +their health, mingling ice-creams, and lemons, and lobster-salads, and +cocoa-nuts, until the gastric juices lift up all their voices of +lamentation and protest. Delicate women and brainless young men +chassezing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and +women coming back from our watering-places in the autumn with the +foundations laid for ailments that will last them all their life long. +You know as well as I do that this is the simple truth. + +In the summer you say to your good health: "Good-bye, I am going to +have a good time for a little while. I will be very glad to see you +again in the autumn." Then in the autumn, when you are hard at work in +your office, or store, or shop, or counting-room, Good Health will +come and say: "Good-bye, I am going." You say: "Where are you going?" +"Oh," says Good Health, "I am going to take a vacation!" It is a poor +rule that will not work both ways, and your good health will leave you +choleric and splenetic and exhausted. You coquetted with your good +health in the summer-time, and your good health is coquetting with you +in the winter-time. A fragment of Paul's charge to the jailer would be +an appropriate inscription for the hotel-register in every +watering-place: "Do thyself no harm." + +IV. Another temptation hovering around the watering-place is to the +formation of hasty and life-long alliances. The watering-places are +responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than +all the other things combined. Society is so artificial there that no +sure judgment of character can be formed. Those who form +companionships amid such circumstances go into a lottery where there +are twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe tug of life you want +more than glitter and splash. Life is not a ball-room where the music +decides the step, and bow and prance and graceful swing of long trail +can make up for strong common sense. You might as well go among the +gayly painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels as to go +among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character +that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah, in +the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a +croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it, +you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper +and a feminine butterfly. + +If there is any man in the community that excites my contempt, and +that ought to excite the contempt of every man and woman, it is the +soft-handed, soft-headed fop, who, perfumed until the air is actually +sick, spends his summer in taking killing attitudes, and waving +sentimental adieus, and talking infinitesimal nothings, and finding +his heaven in the set of a lavender kid-glove. Boots as tight as an +Inquisition, two hours of consummate skill exhibited in the tie of a +flaming cravat, his conversation made up of "Ah's" and "Oh's" and +"He-hee's." It would take five hundred of them stewed down to make a +teaspoonful of calves-foot jelly. There is only one counterpart to +such a man as that, and that is the frothy young woman at the +watering-place, her conversation made up of French moonshine; what she +has on her head only equaled by what she has on her back; useless ever +since she was born, and to be useless until she is dead: and what they +will do with her in the next world I do not know, except to set her +upon the banks of the River Life for eternity to look sweet! God +intends us to admire music and fair faces and graceful step, but amid +the heartlessness and the inflation and the fantastic influences of +our modern watering-places, beware how you make life-long covenants! + +V. Another temptation that will hover over the watering-place is that +of baneful literature. Almost every one starting off for the summer +takes some reading matter. It is a book out of the library or off the +bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking books through the cars. I +really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the +intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten +months of the year. Men and women who at home would not be satisfied +with a book that was not really sensible, I found sitting on +hotel-piazzas or under the trees reading books the index of which +would make them blush if they knew that you knew what the book was. + +"Oh," they say, "you must have intellectual recreation!" Yes. There is +no need that you take along into a watering-place "Hamilton's +Metaphysics" or some thunderous discourse on the eternal decrees, or +"Faraday's Philosophy." There are many easy books that are good. You +might as well say: "I propose now to give a little rest to my +digestive organs; and, instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I +will for a little while take lighter food--a little strychnine and a +few grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in August is as bad as +literary poison in December. Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the +lice of a corrupt printing-press jump and crawl into your Saratoga +trunk or White Mountain valise. + +Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning +some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered +romances--the hero a Parisian _roué_, the heroine an unprincipled +flirt--chapters in the book that you would not read to your children +at the rate of $100 a line? Throw out all that stuff from your summer +baggage. Are there not good books that are easy to read--books of +entertaining travel, books of congenial history, books of pure fun, +books of poetry ringing with merry canto, books of fine engravings, +books that will rest the mind as well as purify the heart and elevate +the whole life? My hearers, there will not be an hour between this +and the day of your death when you can afford to read a book lacking +in moral principle. + +VI. Another temptation hovering all around our watering-places is the +intoxicating beverage. I am told that it is becoming more and more +fashionable for woman to drink. I care not how well a woman may dress, +if she has taken enough of wine to flush her cheek and put glassiness +on her eyes, she is intoxicated. She may be handed into a $2500 +carriage, and have diamonds enough to confound the Tiffanys--she is +intoxicated. She may be a graduate of Packer Institute, and the +daughter of some man in danger of being nominated for the +Presidency--she is drunk. You may have a larger vocabulary than I +have, and you may say in regard to her that she is "convivial," or she +is "merry," or she is "festive," or she is "exhilarated," but you can +not with all your garlands of verbiage cover up the plain fact that it +is an old-fashioned case of drunk. + +Now, the watering-places are full of temptations to men and women to +tipple. At the close of the tenpin or billiard-game they tipple. At +the close of the cotillon they tipple. Seated on the piazza cooling +themselves off they tipple. The tinged glasses come around with bright +straws, and they tipple. First they take "light wines," as they call +them; but "light wines" are heavy enough to debase the appetite. There +is not a very long road between champagne at $5 a bottle and whiskey +at five cents a glass. + +Satan has three or four grades down which he takes men to destruction. +One man he takes up, and through one spree pitches him into eternal +darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom, indeed, can you find a man +who will be such a fool as that. + +When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to a plane. It is +almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly see +it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade, and +it tips only a little toward darkness--just a little. And the first +mile it is claret, and the second mile it is sherry, and the third +mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it +is porter, and the sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets steeper +and steeper and steeper, and the man gets frightened and says, "Oh, +let me get off!" "No," says the conductor, "this is an express train, +and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at +Smashupton." Ah, "look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last +it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." And if any young +man in my congregation should get astray this summer in this direction +it will not be because I have not given him fair warning. + +My friends, whether you tarry at home--which will be quite as safe and +perhaps quite as comfortable--or go into the country, arm yourself +against temptation. The grace of God is the only safe shelter, whether +in town or country. There are watering-places accessible to all of us. +You can not open a book of the Bible without finding out some such +watering-place. Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness; wells of +salvation; streams from Lebanon; a flood struck out of the rock by +Moses; fountains in the wilderness discovered by Hagar; water to +drink and water to bathe in; the river of God, which is full of water; +water of which if a man drink he shall never thirst; wells of water in +the Valley of Baca; living fountains of water; a pure river of water +as clear as crystal from under the throne of God. + +These are watering-places accessible to all of us. We do not have a +laborious packing up before we start--only the throwing away of our +transgressions. No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is "without money +and without price." No long and dirty travel before we get there; it +is only one step away. California in five minutes. I walked around and +saw ten fountains, all bubbling up, and they were all different. And +in five minutes I can get through this Bible _parterre_ and find you +fifty bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up into eternal life. + +A chemist will go to one of these summer watering-places and take the +water and analyze it and tell you that it contains so much of iron, +and so much of soda, and so much of lime, and so much of magnesia. I +come to this Gospel well, this living fountain and analyze the water, +and I find that its ingredients are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hope, +comfort, life, heaven. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye" to this +watering-place! + +Crowd around this Bethesda this morning! Oh, you sick, you lame, you +troubled, you dying--crowd around this Bethesda! Step in it! Oh, step +in it! The angel of the covenant this morning stirs the water. Why do +you not step in it? Some of you are too weak to take a step in that +direction. Then we take you up in the arms of our closing prayer and +plunge you clean under the wave, hoping that the cure may be as sudden +and as radical as with Captain Naaman, who, blotched and carbuncled, +stepped into the Jordan, and after the seventh dive came up, his skin +roseate-complexioned as the flesh of a little child. + + + + +THE BANISHED QUEEN. + + "Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal + house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day + when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded + Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and + Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of + Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king + with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her + beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti + refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains; + therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in + him."--ESTHER i: 9-12. + + +We stand amid the palaces of Shushan. The pinnacles are aflame with +the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth +of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with images +of bird and beast, and scenes of prowess and conquest. The walls are +hung with shields, and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round +of splendors is exhausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural +achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings +of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the +greenness of the grass, and the whiteness of the sea-foam. Tapestries +hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. +Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled +with luxuriant couches, in which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is +submerged. Those for carousal, where kings drink down a kingdom at one +swallow. + +Amazing spectacle! + +Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. +Floors of stained marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with +gleaming pearl. + +In connection with this palace there is a garden, where the mighty men +of foreign lands are seated at a banquet. Under the spread of oak and +linden and acacia the tables are arranged. The breath of honeysuckle +and frankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the +spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon +flowering shrubs--then rolling down through channels of marble, and +widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes +of foreign aquariums, bordered with scarlet anemones, hypericums, and +many-colored ranunculi. + +Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics. +The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with +apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully +twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eulæus filling the +urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the +traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz, in bottles +of tinged shell, and lily-shaped cups of silver, and flagons and +tankards of solid gold. The music rises higher, and the revelry breaks +out into wilder transport, and the wine has flushed the cheek and +touched the brain, and louder than all other voices are the hiccough +of the inebriates, the gabble of fools, and the song of the drunkards. + +In another part of the palace, Queen Vashti is entertaining the +princesses of Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his +servants, "You go out and fetch Vashti from, that banquet with the +women, and bring her to this banquet with the men, and let me display +her beauty." The servants immediately start to obey the king's +command; but there was a rule in Oriental society that no woman might +appear in public without having her face veiled. Yet here was a +mandate that no one dare dispute, demanding that Vashti come in +unveiled before the multitude. However, there was in Vashti's soul a +principle more regal than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than the gold of +Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her +to disobey this order of the king; and so all the righteousness and +holiness and modesty of her nature rise up into one sublime refusal. +She says, "I will not go into the banquet unveiled." Ahasuerus was +infuriate; and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is +driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation, and +yet to receive the applause of after generations, who shall rise up to +admire this martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the last vestige of that +feast is gone; the last garland has faded; the last arch has fallen; +the last tankard has been destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but as +long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, +familiar with the Bible, who will come into this picture-gallery of +God and admire the divine portrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti the +veiled, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent. + +I. In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti the queen. A +blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated +her queenly position. It was no small honor to be queen in such a +realm as that. Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her +jewels! And yet, my friends, it is not necessary to have place and +regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with stout faith +in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and godless +display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by a grand +and a glorious service, I say: "That woman is a queen," and the ranks +of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation; and whether +she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the +fashionable square, I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen +Vashti!" + +What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of +England, or Margaret of France, or Catherine of Russia, compared with +the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into +glory?--or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all +into the Lord's treasury?--or of Jephtha's daughter, who made a +demonstration of unselfish patriotism?--or of Abigail, who rescued the +herds and flocks of her husband?--or of Ruth, who toiled under a +tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi?--or of Florence +Nightingale, who went at midnight to stanch the battle wounds of the +Crimea?--or of Mrs. Adoniram Judson, who kindled the lights of +salvation amid the darkness of Burmah?--or of Mrs. Hemans, who poured +out her holy soul in words which will forever be associated with +hunter's horn, and captive's chain, and bridal hour, and lute's throb, +and curfew's knell at the dying day?--and scores and hundreds of +women, unknown on earth, who have given water to the thirsty, and +bread to the hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles to the +discouraged--their footsteps heard along dark lane and in government +hospital, and in almshouse corridor, and by prison gate? There may be +no royal robe--there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not +need them; for all charitable men will unite with the crackling lips +of fever-struck hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in greeting her +as she passes: "Hail! Hail! Queen Vashti!" + +II. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared +before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she +would have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the +very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come, in their +sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive +best in the dark lane and in the shadow, and where the sun does not +seem to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures a retiring +and unobtrusive spirit. + +God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to +strike the timbrel at the front of a host, or a Marie Antoinette to +quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at the front of an armed +battalion, crying out, "Up! Up! This is the day in which the Lord will +deliver Sisera into thy hands." And when the women are called to such +out-door work and to such heroic positions, God prepares them for it; +and they have iron in their soul, and lightnings in their eye, and +whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord +Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though +they were hedges of wild-flowers, and cross seas as though they were +shimmering sapphire; and all the harpies of hell down to their dungeon +at the stamp of womanly indignation. + +But these are the exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather make a +garment for the poor boy; Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the +camels; Hannah would rather make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid +would rather give a prescription for Naaman's leprosy; the woman of +Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks to cook a meal for famished +Elijah; Phebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle; +Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures. When I see +a woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity presiding at +the table, with kind and gentle, but firm discipline presiding in the +nursery, going out into the world without any blast of trumpets, +following in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good--I say: +"This is Vashti with a veil on." + +But when I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a +tongue of infinite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing +through the streets with the step of a walking-beam, gayly arrayed in +a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out: "Vashti has lost her veil!" +When I see a woman struggling for political preferment--trying to +force her way on up to the ballot-box, amid the masculine demagogues +who stand, with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and pestiferous +breath, to guard the polls--wanting to go through the loaferism and +the defilement of popular sovereigns, who crawl up from the saloons +greasy and foul and vermin-covered, to decide questions of justice and +order and civilization--when I see a woman, I say, who wants to press +through all that horrible scum to get to the ballot-box, I say: "Ah, +what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil!" + +When I see a woman of comely features, and of adroitness of intellect, +and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high +social position, yet moving in society with superciliousness and +_hauteur_, as though she would have people know their place, and with +an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed +with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic +infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and railroad +conductors, discoverers of significant meanings in plain conversation, +prodigies of badinage and innuendo--I say: "Vashti has lost her veil." + +III. Again, I want you this morning to consider Vashti the sacrifice. +Who is this that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It +seems to me that I have seen her before. She comes homeless, +houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? +It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh! what a change it was from regal +position to a wayfarer's crust! A little while ago, approved and +sought for; now, none so poor as to acknowledge her acquaintanceship. +Vashti the sacrifice! + +Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home empalaced with +beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home +has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking +hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will +flounder and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter's net--further +away from God, further away from the right. Soon the bright apparel of +the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become +the sobbing of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal +Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapithæ. The house full of +outrage and cruelty and abomination, while trudging forth from the +palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes represented +in this house this morning that are in danger of such breaking-up. Oh, +Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a home, by a dissipated life +destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your +children should ever have to wring their hands, and have people point +their finger at them as they pass down the street, and say, "There +goes a drunkard's child." God forbid that the little feet should ever +have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness! God forbid that +any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or the brandy-glass should come +forth and uproot that garden, and with a lasting, blistering, +all-consuming curse, shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and +the children. + +One night during the war I went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and +I stood on a hill-top and looked down upon them. I saw the camp-fires +all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird +spectacle, those camp-fires, and I stood and watched them; and the +soldiers who were gathered around them were, no doubt, talking of +their homes, and of the long march they had taken, and of the battles +they were to fight; but after awhile I saw these camp-fires begin to +lower; and they continued to lower, until they were all gone out, and +the army slept. It was imposing when I saw the camp-fires; it was +imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep. +Well, God looks down from heaven, and He sees the fireside of +Christendom and the loved ones gathered around these firesides. These +are the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at the close of day, and +talk over the battles of life we have fought and the battles that are +yet to come. God grant that when at last these fires begin to go out, +and continue to lower until finally they are extinguished, and the +ashes of consumed hopes strew the hearth of the old homestead, it may +be because we have + + "Gone to sleep that last long sleep, + From which none ever wake to weep." + +Now we are an army on the march of life. Then we shall be an army +bivouacked in the tent of the grave. + +IV. Once more: I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not +hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace +gate. From the very dignity of her nature, you know there will be no +vociferation. Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; +sometimes in life it is necessary to resist; but there are crises when +the most triumphant thing to do is to keep silence. The philosopher, +confident in his newly discovered principle, waited for the coming of +more intelligent generations, willing that men should laugh at the +lightning-rod and cotton-gin and steam-boat--waiting for long years +through the scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand and +magnificent silence. + +Galileo, condemned by mathematicians and monks and cardinals, +caricatured everywhere, yet waiting and watching with his telescope to +see the coming up of stellar reenforcements, when the stars in their +courses would fight for the Copernican system; then sitting down in +complete blindness and deafness to wait for the coming on of the +generations who would build his monument and bow at his grave. The +reformer, execrated by his contemporaries, fastened in a pillory, the +slow fires of public contempt burning under him, ground under the +cylinders of the printing-press, yet calmly waiting for the day when +purity of soul and heroism of character will get the sanction of earth +and the plaudits of heaven. + +Affliction enduring without any complaint the sharpness of the pang, +and the violence of the storm, and the heft of the chain, and the +darkness of the night--waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth +to soothe the pang, and hush the storm, and release the captive. A +wife abused, persecuted, and a perpetual exile from every earthly +comfort--waiting, waiting, until the Lord shall gather up His dear +children in a heavenly home, and no poor Vashti will ever be thrust +out from the palace gate. + +Jesus, in silence and answering not a word, drinking the gall, bearing +the cross, in prospect of the rapturous consummation when + + "Angels thronged their chariot wheel, + And bore Him to His throne, + Then swept their golden harps and sung, + 'The glorious work is done!'" + +Oh, woman! does not this story of Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled, +Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your soul? My sermon +converges into the one absorbing hope that none of you may be shut out +of the palace gate of heaven. You can endure the hardships, and the +privations, and the cruelties, and the misfortunes of this life if you +can only gain admission there. Through the blood of the everlasting +covenant you go through those gates, or never go at all. God forbid +that you should at last be banished from the society of angels, and +banished from the companionship of your glorified kindred, and +banished forever. Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may +you be enabled to imitate the example of Rachel, and Hannah, and +Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Esther, and Vashti. + + + + +THE DAY WE LIVE IN. + + "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a + time as this?"--ESTHER iv. 14. + + +Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The +time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in +behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was +afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but +her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the +suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that +peculiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work; you and I +have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women +you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the age in which +God has cast your lot. If you have come expecting to hear abstractions +discussed, or dry technicalities of religion glorified, you have come +to the wrong church; but if you really would like to know what this +age has a right to expect of you as Christian men and women, then I am +ready in the Lord's name to look you in the face. When two armies have +rushed into battle the officers of either army do not want a +philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood +or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the batteries +and swab out the guns. And now, when all the forces of light and +darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged into the fight, it is no +time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and +technicalities and conventionalities of religion. + +What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic, and +triumphant help. + +I. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this +age, you need to be an unmistakably aggressive Christian. Of +half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The Church of Jesus +Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief +obstacle to the Church's advancement. I am speaking of another kind of +Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian +are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad +daylight of God's forgiveness. You may have come into this Tabernacle +the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you go out of these doors +you may become princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what +excitement there was in this country, years ago, when the Prince of +Wales came here--how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to +see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon +the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the +honor to which God calls you--to be sons and daughters of the Lord +Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings unto God? "They shall reign with +Him forever and forever." + +But, my friends, you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like +those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces +and wondering why they do not make any progress. How much robustness +of health would a man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great +deal of the piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It +needs more fresh air, more out-door exercise. There are many +Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They +are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their +spiritual health. How long would a man have robust physical health if +he kept all the days and weeks and months and years of his life +feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, every-day +work? + +I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North +Carolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and +yet when I would take up one of these cactuses and pull the leaves +apart, the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever +been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day +just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in +them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of +self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their +Christian character. I remember when I was a boy I used to have a +small piece in the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn +there, and every few days I would pull it up to see how fast it was +growing. Now, there are a great many Christian people in this day +whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which +they only yesterday or the day before planted. + +O my friends! if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, +plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian +usefulness, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun +of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a +great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. I +have no patience with these flower-pot Christians. They keep +themselves under shelter, and all their Christian experience in a +small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great +garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic +with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the Church of God is +more brawn of piety. + +The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, +but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets +whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom; so I have +really more heartfelt admiration when I see the dewy tears in the blue +eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christian friends, +time is going by so rapidly that we can not afford to be idle. + +A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only +thirty-two years. From these thirty-two years you must subtract all +the time you take for sleep and the taking of food and recreation; +that will leave you about sixteen years. From those sixteen years you +must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the +earning of a livelihood; that will leave you about eight years. From +those eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months--all +the length of time that is passed in childhood and sickness, leaving +you about one year in which to work for God. Oh, my soul, wake up! +How darest thou sleep in harvest-time and with so few hours in which +to reap? So that I state it as a simple fact that all the time that +the vast majority of you will have for the exclusive service of God +will be less than one year! + +"But," says some man, "I liberally support the Gospel, and the church +is open and the Gospel is preached: all the spiritual advantages are +spread before men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be +saved; I have discharged all my responsibility." Ah! is that the +Master's spirit? Is there not an old Book somewhere that commands us +to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to +come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come +down off the hills of heaven, and if He had not come through the door +of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if He had not with the crushed hand +of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our +spiritual death, crying, "Lazarus, come forth"? Oh, my Christian +friends, this is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness +seem to be in full blast; when steam printing-presses are publishing +infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers +of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the +night-air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up +from the ten thousand saloons of dissipation and abandonment; when the +fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some +who, only a little while ago, were incorrupt. Oh, never since the +curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an +unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the Church to sleep! +The great audiences are not gathered in the Christian churches; the +great audiences are gathered in temples of sin--tears of unutterable +woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their +sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world +the organ dirge of their worship. + +II. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this +age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless +iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick too much to things because +they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories +of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many +Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their +confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are +useless, and they are unhappy. New plans--secular, ethical, +philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic--long enough to +make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake +City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is +new. Try it by the realities of a Judgment Day. + +But, on the other hand, do not adhere to any thing merely because it +is old. There is not a single enterprise of the Church or the world +but has sometimes been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided +even Bible societies; and when a few young men met near a hay-stack in +Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever +organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around +the Christian Church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And +so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who +ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever +noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of +mysterious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and +Gennesaret, and he drew his illustration from the lakes, from the +sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the corn-stalks. How the +Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! How Caiaphas hissed! And this +Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they spat in his face, and they +called him "this fellow!" All the great enterprises in and out of the +Church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great +multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall +to pieces if it once got out of the old rut. + +And so there are those who have no patience with anything like +improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, +hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious +discussion which goes down walking among every-day men rather than +that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the +Church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! We must admit +the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not +reach the great masses. There are fifty thousand people in Edinburgh +who never hear the Gospel. There are one million people in London who +never hear the Gospel. There are at least three hundred thousand souls +in the city of Brooklyn who come not under the immediate ministrations +of Christ's truth; and the Church of God in this day, instead of being +a place full of living epistles, read and known of all men, is more +like a "dead-letter" post-office. + +"But," say the people, "the world is going to be converted; you must +be patient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of +Christ," Never, unless the Church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed +and energy. Instead of the Church converting the world, the world is +converting the Church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it be +taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off the supplies, +and says: "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation +they will have to give up." Weeks and months, and perhaps a year, pass +along, and finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and +exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be +taken in that way. If they are taken for God it will be by storm; you +will have to bring up the great siege guns of the Gospel to the very +wall and wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed +infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to +give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!" + +Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order +to this grand accomplishment! Here is my pulpit, and I preach in it. +Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit is the +editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house +scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanic's shop. I may stand in this +place and, through cowardice or through self-seeking, may keep back +the word I ought to utter; while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow +besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations +of heaven with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that this morning +this whole audience might feel that the Lord Almighty was putting upon +them the hands of ordination. I tell you, every one, go forth and +preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as +any man has. Only find out the pulpit where God will have you preach, +and there preach. + +Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God +came to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed +at him, and said: "You are a hypocrite; you are as bad as ever you +were." Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding +that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they +said to him: "Oh, you are nothing but a Methodist." That did not +disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had +formed all his troop into a Bible-class, and the whole encampment was +shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen +temple in India while the English army was there, and put a candle +into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the +heathen temple, and by the light of those candles, held up by the +idols, General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance, and +judgment to come. And who will say, on earth or in Heaven, that +Havelock had not the right to preach? + +In the minister's house where I prepared for college, there was a man +who worked, by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor +write, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the +house--grave theologians--and at family prayers Peter Croy would be +called upon to lead; and all those wise men sat around, wonder-struck +at his religious efficiency. When he prayed he reached up and seemed +to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with +God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting-room. Oh, +if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my +bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatest +archbishop, arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach this Gospel. You +say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, this +morning, I license you. Go preach this Gospel--preach it in the +Sabbath-schools, in the prayer-meetings, in the highways, in the +hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not. + +III. I remark, again, that in order to be qualified to meet your duty +in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the +truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian Church +ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How +long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom or +shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when He once arises in +His strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity? Between this +time and that there may be long seasons of darkness--the +chariot-wheels of God's Gospel may seem to drag heavily; but here is +the promise, and yonder is the throne; and when Omniscience has lost +its eyesight, and Omnipotence falls back impotent, and Jehovah is +driven from His throne, then the Church of Jesus Christ can afford to +be despondent, but never until then. Despots may plan and armies may +march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are +adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the +earth are only the dust of the chariot-wheels of God's providence. + +I think that before the sun of this century shall set the last tyranny +will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the +astonishment of the universe God will set forth the brightness and +pomp and glory and perpetuity of His eternal government. Out of the +starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a +path for His own triumph, and, returning from universal conquest, He +will sit down, the grandest, strongest, highest throne of earth His +footstool. + + "Then shall all nations' song ascend + To Thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend, + Till heaven's high arch resounds again + With 'Peace on earth, good will to men.'" + +I preach this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers +in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on! march +on! His Spirit will bless you. His shield will defend you. His sword +will strike for you. March on! march on! The despotism will fall, and +paganism will burn its idols, and Mohammedanism will give up its false +prophet, and Judaism will confess the true Messiah, and the great +walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at the long, +loud blast of the Gospel trumpet. March on! march on! The besiegement +will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few +more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries, then God will put the +laurel upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will +bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March +on! march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid +the outflashings of the judgment throne, and the trumpeting of +resurrection angels, and the upheaving of a world of graves, and the +hosanna and the groaning of the saved and the lost, we shall be +rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our stupidity. Blessed +be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the +whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. + + + + +CAPITAL AND LABOR. + + "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so + to them."--MATT. vii: 12. + + +The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. +The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty +Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five +continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this +country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of +power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are +diminishing; and if things go on at the same ratio as they are now +going, it will not be very long before there will be no middle class +in this country, but all will be very rich or very poor, princes or +paupers, and the country will be given up to palaces and hovels. + +The antagonistic forces are closing in upon each other. The +telegraphic operators' strikes, the railroad employés' strikes, the +Pennsylvania miners' strikes, the movements of the Boycotters and the +dynamiters are only skirmishes before a general engagement, or, if you +prefer it, escapes through the safety-valves of an imprisoned force +which promises the explosion of society. You may pooh-pooh it; you may +say that this trouble, like an angry child, will cry itself to sleep; +you may belittle it by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. +Simonism, or Nihilism, or Communism; but that will not hinder the fact +that it is the mightiest, the darkest, the most terrific threat of +this century. All attempts at pacification have been dead failures, +and monopoly is more arrogant, and the trades unions more bitter. +"Give us more wages," cry the employés. "You shall have less," say the +capitalists. "Compel us to do fewer hours of toil in a day." "You +shall toil more hours," say the others. "Then, under certain +conditions, we will not work at all," say these. "Then you shall +starve," say those, and the workmen gradually using up that which they +accumulated in better times, unless there be some radical change, we +shall have soon in this country three million hungry men and women. +Now, three million hungry people can not be kept quiet. All the +enactments of legislatures and all the constabularies of the cities, +and all the army and navy of the United States can not keep three +million hungry people quiet. What then? Will this war between capital +and labor be settled by human wisdom? Never. The brow of the one +becomes more rigid, the fist of the other more clinched. + +But that which human wisdom can not achieve will be accomplished by +Christianity if it be given full sway. You have heard of medicines so +powerful that one drop would stop a disease and restore a patient; and +I have to tell you that one drop of my text properly administered will +stop all those woes of society and give convalescence and complete +health to all classes. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them." + +I shall first show you this morning how this quarrel between monopoly +and hard work can not be stopped, and then I will show you how this +controversy will be settled. + +Futile remedies. In the first place, there will come no pacification +to this trouble through an outcry against rich men merely because they +are rich. There is no member of a trades-union on earth that would not +be rich if he could be. Sometimes through a fortunate invention, or +through some accident of prosperity, a man who had nothing comes to +large estate, and we see him arrogant and supercilious, and taking +people by the throat just as other people took him by the throat. +There is something very mean about human nature when it comes to the +top. But it is no more a sin to be rich than it is a sin to be poor. +There are those who have gathered a great estate through fraud, and +then there are millionaires who have gathered their fortune through +foresight in regard to changes in the markets, and through brilliant +business faculty, and every dollar of their estate is as honest as the +dollar which the plumber gets for mending a pipe, or the mason gets +for building a wall. There are those who keep in poverty because of +their own fault. They might have been well-off, but they smoked or +chewed up their earnings, or they lived beyond their means, while +others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to +competency. I know a man who is all the time complaining of his +poverty and crying out against rich men, while he himself keeps two +dogs, and chews and smokes, and is filled to the chin with whisky and +beer! + +Micawber said to David Copperfield: "Copperfield, my boy, one pound +income, twenty shillings and sixpence expenses: result misery. But, +Copperfield, my boy, one pound income, expenses nineteen shillings and +sixpence; result, happiness." And there are vast multitudes of people +who are kept poor because they are the victims of their own +improvidence. It is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin to be poor. I +protest against this outcry which I hear against those who, through +economy and self-denial and assiduity, have come to large fortune. +This bombardment of commercial success will never stop this quarrel +between capital and labor. + +Neither will the contest be settled by cynical and unsympathetic +treatment of the laboring classes. There are those who speak of them +as though they were only cattle or draught horses. Their nerves are +nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing, their happiness is +nothing. They have no more sympathy for them than a hound has for a +hare, or a hawk for a hen, or a tiger for a calf. When Jean Valjean, +the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after a life of suffering +and brave endurance, goes into incarceration and death, they clap the +book shut and say, "Good for him!" They stamp their feet with +indignation and say just the opposite of "Save the working-classes." +They have all their sympathies with Shylock, and not with Antonio and +Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feelings are infernal. They are +filled with irritation and irascibility on this subject. To stop this +awful imbroglio between capital and labor they will lift not so much +as the tip end of the little finger. + +Neither will there be any pacification of this angry controversy +through violence. God never blessed murder. + +The poorest use you can put a man to is to kill him. Blow up to-morrow +all the country-seats on the banks of the Hudson, and all the fine +houses on Madison Square, and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill, and +Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon Street, and all the bricks and timber +and stone will just fall back on the bare head of American labor. The +worst enemies of the working-classes in the United States and Ireland +are their demented coadjutors. Assassination--the assassination of +Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, +Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned +away from that afflicted people millions of sympathizers. The recent +attempt to blow up the House of Commons, in London, had only this +effect: to throw out of employment tens of thousands of innocent Irish +people in England. + +In this country the torch put to the factories that have discharged +hands for good or bad reason; obstructions on the rail-track in front +of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the +president of the company; strikes on shipboard the hour they were +going to sail, or in printing-offices the hour the paper was to go to +press, or in mines the day the coal was to be delivered, or on house +scaffoldings so the builder fails in keeping his contract--all these +are only a hard blow on the head of American labor, and cripple its +arms, and lame its feet, and pierce its heart. Take the last great +strike in America--the telegraph operators' strike--and you have to +find that the operators lost four hundred thousand dollars' worth of +wages, and have had poorer wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly +upon employers, and violence, never took one knot out of the knuckle +of toil, or put one farthing of wages into a callous palm. Barbarism +will never cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark that! + +Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and +he resolved to get it. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller +three times the value of the property. The miller would not take it, +because it was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt +about his vineyard when Ahab wanted it. Frederick the Great was a +rough and terrible man, and he ordered the miller into his presence; +and the king, with a stick, in his hand--a stick with which he +sometimes struck his officers of state--said to this miller: "Now, I +have offered you three times the value of that property, and if you +won't sell it I'll take it anyhow." The miller said, "Your majesty, +you won't." "Yes," said the king, "I will take it." "Then," said the +miller, "if your majesty does take it, I will sue you in the Chancery +Court." At that threat Frederick the Great yielded his infamous +demand. And the most imperious outrage against the working-classes +will yet cower before the law. Violence and contrary to the law will +never accomplish anything, but righteousness and according to law will +accomplish it. + +Well, if this controversy between Capital and Labor can not be settled +by human wisdom, if to-day Capital and Labor stand with their thumbs +on each other's throat--as they do--it is time for us to look +somewhere else for relief, and it points from my text roseate and +jubilant, and puts one hand on the broadcloth shoulder of Capital, and +puts the other hand on the homespun-covered shoulder of Toil, and +says, with a voice that will grandly and gloriously settle this, and +settle everything, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do +ye even so to them." That is, the lady of the household will say: "I +must treat the maid in the kitchen just as I would like to be treated +if I were down-stairs, and it were my work to wash, and cook, and +sweep, and it were the duty of the maid in the kitchen to preside in +this parlor." The maid in the kitchen must say: "If my employer seems +to be more prosperous than I, that is no fault of hers; I shall not +treat her as an enemy. I will have the same industry and fidelity +down-stairs as I would expect from my subordinates, if I happened to +be the wife of a silk importer." + +The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before +leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing +into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there +stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and +the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in +here. You look very much exhausted. I hear your child is sick with +scarlet fever. If you want your wages a little earlier this week, so +as to pay the nurse and get the medicines, just come into my office +any time." + +After awhile, crash goes the money market, and there is no more demand +for the articles manufactured in that iron mill, and the owner does +not know what to do. He says, "Shall I stop the mill, or shall I run +it on half time, or shall I cut down the men's wages?" He walks the +floor of his counting-room all day, hardly knowing what to do. Toward +evening he calls all the laborers together. They stand all around, +some with arms akimbo, some with folded arms, wondering what the boss +is going to do now. The manufacturer says: "Men, times are very hard; +I don't make twenty dollars where I used to make one hundred. Somehow, +there is no demand now for what we manufacture, or but very little +demand. You see I am at vast expense, and I have called you together +this afternoon to see what you would advise. I don't want to shut up +the mill, because that would force you out of work, and you have +always been very faithful, and I like you, and you seem to like me, +and the bairns must be looked after, and your wife will after awhile +want a new dress. I don't know what to do." + +There is a dead halt for a minute or two, and then one of the workmen +steps out from the ranks of his fellows, and says: "Boss, you have +been very good to us, and when you prospered we prospered, and now you +are in a tight place and I am sorry, and we have got to sympathize +with you. I don't know how the others feel, but I propose that we take +off twenty per cent. from our wages, and that when the times get good +you will remember us and raise them again." The workman looks around +to his comrades, and says: "Boys, what do you say to this? all in +favor of my proposition will say ay." "Ay! ay! ay!" shout two hundred +voices. + +But the mill-owner, getting in some new machinery, exposes himself +very much, and takes cold, and it settles into pneumonia, and he dies. +In the procession to the tomb are all the workmen, tears rolling down +their cheeks, and off upon the ground; but an hour before the +procession gets to the cemetery the wives and the children of those +workmen are at the grave waiting for the arrival of the funeral +pageant. The minister of religion may have delivered an eloquent +eulogium before they started from the house, but the most impressive +things are said that day by the working-classes standing around the +tomb. + +That night in all the cabins of the working-people where they have +family prayers the widowhood and the orphanage in the mansion are +remembered. No glaring populations look over the iron fence of the +cemetery; but, hovering over the scene, the benediction of God and man +is coming for the fulfillment of the Christlike injunction, +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them." + +"Oh," says some man here, "that is all Utopian, that is apocryphal, +that is impossible." No. Yesterday, I cut out of a paper this: "One of +the pleasantest incidents recorded in a long time is reported from +Sheffield, England. The wages of the men in the iron works at +Sheffield are regulated by a board of arbitration, by whose decision +both masters and men are bound. For some time past the iron and steel +trade has been extremely unprofitable, and the employers can not, +without much loss, pay the wages fixed by the board, which neither +employers nor employed have the power to change. To avoid this +difficulty, the workmen in one of the largest steel works in Sheffield +hit upon a device as rare as it was generous. They offered to work for +their employers one week without any pay whatever. How much better +that plan is than a strike would be." + +But you go with me and I will show you--not so far off as Sheffield, +England--factories, banking-houses, storehouses, and costly +enterprises where this Christ-like injunction of my text is fully +kept, and you could no more get the employer to practice an injustice +upon his men, or the men to conspire against the employer, than you +could get your right hand and your left hand, your right eye and your +left eye, your right ear and your left ear, into physiological +antagonism. Now, where is this to begin? In our homes, in our stores, +on our farms--not waiting for other people to do their duty. Is there +a divergence now between the parlor and the kitchen? Then there is +something wrong, either in the parlor or the kitchen, perhaps in both. +Are the clerks in your store irate against the firm? Then there is +something wrong, either behind the counter, or in the private office, +or perhaps in both. + +The great want of the world to-day is the fulfillment of this +Christ-like injunction, that which He promulgated in His sermon +Olivetic. All the political economists under the arch or vault of the +heavens in convention for a thousand years can not settle this +controversy between monopoly and hard work, between capital and labor. +During the Revolutionary War there was a heavy piece of timber to be +lifted, perhaps for some fortress, and a corporal was overseeing the +work, and he was giving commands to some soldiers as they lifted: +"Heave away, there! yo heave!" Well, the timber was too heavy; they +could not get it up. There was a gentleman riding by on a horse, and +he stopped and said to this corporal, "Why don't you help them lift? +That timber is too heavy for them to lift." "No," he said, "I won't; +I am a corporal." The gentleman got off his horse and came up to the +place. "Now," he said to the soldiers, "all together--yo heave!" and +the timber went to its place. "Now," said the gentleman to the +corporal, "when you have a piece of timber too heavy for the men to +lift, and you want help, you send to your commander-in-chief." It was +Washington. Now, that is about all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of +giving somebody a lift, a lift out of darkness, a lift out of earth +into heaven. That is all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of helping +somebody else to lift. + +"Oh," says some wiseacre, "talk as you will, the law of demand and +supply will regulate these things until the end of time." No, they +will not, unless God dies and the batteries of the Judgment Day are +spiked, and Pluto and Proserpine, king and queen of the infernal +regions, take full possession of this world. Do you know who Supply +and Demand are? They have gone into partnership, and they propose to +swindle this earth and are swindling it. You are drowning. Supply and +Demand stand on the shore, one on one side, the other on the other +side, of the life-boat, and they cry out to you, "Now, you pay us what +we ask you for getting you to shore, or go to the bottom!" If you can +borrow $5000 you can keep from failing in business. Supply and Demand +say, "Now, you pay us exorbitant usury, or you go into bankruptcy." +This robber firm of Supply and Demand say to you: "The crops are +short. We bought up all the wheat and it is in our bin. Now, you pay +our price or starve." That is your magnificent law of supply and +demand. + +Supply and Demand own the largest mill on earth, and all the rivers +roll over their wheel, and into their hopper they put all the men, +women, and children they can shovel out of the centuries, and the +blood and the bones redden the valley while the mill grinds. That +diabolic law of supply and demand will yet have to stand aside, and +instead thereof will come the law of love, the law of cooperation, the +law of kindness, the law of sympathy, the law of Christ. + +Have you no idea of the coming of such a time? Then you do not believe +the Bible. All the Bible is full of promises on this subject, and as +the ages roll on the time will come when men or fortune will be giving +larger sums to humanitarian and evangelistic purposes, and there will +be more James Lenoxes and Peter Coopers and William E. Dodges and +George Peabodys. As that time comes there will be more parks, more +picture-galleries, more gardens thrown open for the holiday people and +the working-classes. + +I was reading only this morning in regard to a charge that had been +made in England against Lambeth Palace, that it was exclusive; and +that charge demonstrated the sublime fact that to the grounds of that +wealthy estate eight hundred poor families have free passes, and forty +croquet companies, and on the hall-day holidays four thousand poor +people recline on the grass, walk through the paths, and sit under the +trees. That is Gospel--Gospel on the wing, Gospel out-of-doors worth +just as much as in-doors. That time is going to come. + +That is only a hint of what is going to be. The time is going to come +when, if you have anything in your house worth looking at--pictures, +pieces of sculpture--you are going to invite me to come and see it, +you are going to invite my friends to come and see it, and you will +say, "See what I have been blessed with. God has given me this, and so +far as enjoying it, it is yours also." That is Gospel. + +In crossing the Alleghany Mountains, many years ago, the stage halted, +and Henry Clay dismounted from the stage, and went out on a rock at +the very verge of the cliff, and he stood there with his cloak wrapped +about him, and he seemed to be listening for something. Some one said +to him, "What are you listening for?" Standing there, on the top of +the mountain, he said: "I am listening to the tramp of the footsteps +of the coming millions of this continent." A sublime posture for an +American statesman! You and I to-day stand on the mountain-top of +privilege, and on the Rock of Ages, and we look off, and we hear +coming from the future the happy industries, and smiling populations, +and the consecrated fortunes, and the innumerable prosperities of the +closing nineteenth and the opening twentieth century. + +While I speak this morning, there lies in state the dead author and +patriot of France, Victor Hugo. The ten thousand dollars in his will +he has given to the poor of the city are only a hint of the work he +has done for all nations and for all times. I wonder not that they +allow eleven days to pass between his death and his burial, his body +meantime kept under triumphal arch, for the world can hardly afford to +let go this man who for more than eight decades has by his +unparalleled genius blessed it. His name shall be a terror to all +despots, and an encouragement to all the struggling. He has made the +world's burden lighter, and its darkness less dense, and its chain +less galling, and its thrones of iniquity less secure. Farewell, +patriot, genius of the century, Victor Hugo! But he was not the +overtowering friend of mankind. + +The greatest friend of capitalist and toiler, and the one who will yet +bring them together in complete accord, was born one Christmas night +while the curtains of heaven swung, stirred by the wings angelic. +Owner of all things--all the continents, all worlds, and all the +islands of light. Capitalist of immensity, crossing over to our +condition. Coming into our world, not by gate of palace, but by door +of barn. Spending His first night amid the shepherds. Gathering after +around Him the fishermen to be His chief attendants. With adze, and +saw, and chisel, and ax, and in a carpenter-shop showing himself +brother with the tradesmen. Owner of all things, and yet on a hillock +back of Jerusalem one day resigning everything for others, keeping not +so much as a shekel to pay for His obsequies, by charity buried in the +suburbs of a city that had cast Him out. Before the cross of such a +capitalist, and such a carpenter, all men can afford to shake hands +and worship. Here is the every man's Christ. None so high, but He was +higher. None so poor, but He was poorer. At His feet the hostile +extremes will yet renounce their animosities, and countenances which +have glowered with the prejudices and revenge of centuries shall +brighten with the smile of heaven as He commands: "Whatsoever ye would +that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." + + + + +DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE. + + "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are + done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power; but they had no + comforter."--ECCLES. iv: 1. + + +Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for +women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace +showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at +Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the +Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned +by some member of his royal family. So let the toiler everywhere be +respected! + +The needle has slain more than the sword. When the sewing-machine was +invented some thought that invention would alleviate woman's toil and +put an end to the despotism of the needle. But no; while the +sewing-machine has been a great blessing to well-to-do families in +many cases, it has added to the stab of the needle the crush of the +wheel; and multitudes of women, notwithstanding the re-enforcement of +the sewing-machines, can only make, work hard as they will, between +two dollars and three dollars per week. + +The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents +was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, +in their perfect state, might have got along without work, or only +such slight employment as a perfect garden with no weeds in it +demanded. But as soon as they had sinned, the best thing for them was +to be turned out where they would have to work. We know what a +withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to do. Old Ashbel +Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: "I +do so to keep out of mischief." We see that a man who has a large +amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand +prosperous and honorable men that you know, nine hundred and +ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to +tell you that industry is just as important for a woman's safety and +happiness. The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are those +who have no engagements to call them up in the morning; who, once +having risen and breakfasted, lounge through the dull forenoon in +slippers down at the heel and with disheveled hair, reading Ouida's +last novel, and who, having dragged through a wretched forenoon and +taken their afternoon sleep, and having passed an hour and a half at +their toilet, pick up their card-case and go out to make calls, and +who pass their evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break up +the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in so dark a +dungeon as that. + +There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may be with hand, it may be +with brain, it may be with foot; but work she must, or be wretched +forever. The little girls of our families must be started with that +idea. + +The curse of American society is that our young women are taught that +the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, +fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take +care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under +God they may take care of themselves. The simple fact is that a +majority of them do have to take care of themselves, and that, too, +after having, through the false notions of their parents, wasted the +years in which they ought to have learned how successfully to maintain +themselves. We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and +outrage of that father and mother who pass their daughters into +womanhood, having given them no facility for earning their livelihood. +Madame de Staël said: "It is not these writings that I am proud of, +but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of +which I could make a livelihood." You say you have a fortune to leave +them. Oh, man and woman, have you not learned that like vultures, like +hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and fly away? Though you should +be successful in leaving a competency behind you, the trickery of +executors may swamp it in a night? or some officials in our churches +may get up a mining company and induce your orphans to put their money +into a hole in Colorado, and if by the most skillful machinery the +sunken money can not be brought up again, prove to them, that it was +eternally decreed that that was the way they were to lose it, and that +it went in the most orthodox and heavenly style. Oh, the damnable +schemes that professed Christians will engage in until God puts His +fingers into the collar of the hypocrite's robe and strips it clear +down to the bottom! You have no right, because you are well off, to +conclude that your children are going to be as well off. A man died +leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead in a Philadelphia +grog-shop. His old comrades came in and said as they bent over his +corpse: "What is the matter with you, Boggsey?" The surgeon standing +over him said: "Hush ye! He is dead!" "Oh, he is dead," they said. +"Come, boys; let us go and take a drink in memory of poor Boggsey!" +Have you nothing better than money to leave your children? If you have +not, but send your daughters into the world with empty brain and +unskilled hand, you are guilty of assassination, homicide, regicide, +infanticide. + +There are women toiling in our cities for two and three dollars per +week who were the daughters of merchant princes. These suffering ones +now would be glad to have the crumbs that once fell from their +fathers' table. That worn-out, broken shoe that she wears is the +lineal descendant of the twelve-dollar gaiters in which her mother +walked; and that torn and faded calico had ancestry of magnificent +brocade that swept Broadway clean without any expense to the street +commissioners. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare +sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to +them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society +that, though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and +make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing +anything for a livelihood is dishonorable. It is a shame for a young +woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father +toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to +be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It is as honorable to +sweep the house, make beds or trim hats as it is to twist a +watch-chain. + +As far as I can understand, the line of respectability lies between +that which is useful and that which is useless. If women do that which +is of no value, their work is honorable. If they do practical work, it +is dishonorable. That our young women may escape the censure of doing +dishonorable work, I shall particularize. You may knit a tidy for the +back of an arm-chair, but by no means make the money wherewith to buy +the chair. You may with a delicate brush beautify a mantel ornament, +but die rather than earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You may learn +artistic music until you can squall Italian, but never sing +"Ortonville" or "Old Hundred." Do nothing practical if you would in +the eyes of refined society preserve your respectability. I scout +these fine notions. I tell you a woman, no more than a man, has a +right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it. + +In the course of a life-time you consume whole harvests and droves of +cattle, and every day you live, breathe forty hogsheads of good, pure +air. You must by some kind of usefulness pay for all this. Our race +was the last thing created--the birds and fishes on the fourth day, +the cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. If +geologists are right, the earth was a million of years in the +possession of the insects, beasts, and birds before our race came upon +it. In one sense we were innovators. The cattle, the lizards, and the +hawks had pre-emption right. The question is not what we are to do +with the lizards and summer insects, but what the lizards and summer +insects are to do with us. If we want a place in this world, we must +earn it. The partridge makes its own nest before it occupies it. The +lark by its morning song earns its breakfast before it eats it, and +the Bible gives an intimation that the first duty of an idler is to +starve when it says: "If he will not work, neither shall he eat." +Idleness ruins the health; and very soon nature says: "This man has +refused to pay his rent, out with him!" Society is to be reconstructed +on the subject of woman's toil. A vast majority of those who would +have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment +in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything that she can +do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, +or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for +sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for +delineating animals, let her make "The Horse Fair." If Miss Mitchell +will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will +be a merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will preach the +Gospel, let her thrill with her womanly eloquence the Quaker +meeting-house. + +It is said, If woman is given such opportunities she will occupy +places that might be taken by men. I say, If she have more skill and +adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have it! She has +as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home, as men +have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is +unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history +what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than +that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? The +battering-ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle-ax, have made no +such havoc as the needle. I would that these living sepulchers in +which women have for ages been buried might be opened, and that some +resurrection trumpet might bring up these living corpses to the fresh +air and sunlight. + +Go with me and I will show you a woman who by hardest toil supports +her children, her drunken husband, her old father and mother, pays her +house rent, always has wholesome food on her table, and when she can +get some neighbor on the Sabbath to come in and take care of her +family, appears in church with hat and cloak that are far from +indicating the toil to which she is subjected. Such a woman as that +has body and soul enough to fit her for any position. She could stand +beside the majority of your salesmen and dispose of more goods. She +could go into your wheelwright shops and beat one half of your workmen +at making carriages. We talk about woman as though we had resigned to +her all the light work, and ourselves had shouldered the heavier. But +the day of judgment, which will reveal the sufferings of the stake and +Inquisition, will marshal before the throne of God and the hierarchs +of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub and needle. Now, I say if there be +any preference in occupation, let women have it. God knows her trials +are the severest. By her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by her +hour of anguish, I demand that no one hedge up her pathway to a +livelihood. Oh! the meanness, the despicability of men who begrudge a +woman the right to work anywhere in any honorable calling! + +I go still further and say that woman should have equal compensation +with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our +cities get only two thirds as much pay as men, and in many cases only +half? Here is the gigantic injustice--that for work equally well, if +not better, done, woman receives far less compensation than man. Start +with the National Government. Women clerks in Washington get nine +hundred dollars for doing that for which men receive eighteen hundred +dollars. The wheel of oppression is rolling over the necks of +thousands of women who are at this moment in despair about what they +are to do. Many of the largest mercantile establishments of our cities +are accessory to these abominations, and from their large +establishments there are scores of souls being pitched off into death, +and their employers know it. Is there a God? Will there be a judgment? +I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs, many of our +large establishments will be swallowed up quicker than a South +American earthquake ever took down a city. God will catch these +oppressors between the two millstones of his wrath and grind them to +powder. + +Why is it that a female principal in a school gets only eight hundred +and twenty-five dollars for doing work for which a male principal gets +sixteen hundred and fifty dollars? I hear from all this land the wail +of womanhood. Man has nothing to answer to that wail but flatteries. +He says she is an angel. She is not. She knows she is not. She is a +human being who gets hungry when she has no food, and cold when she +has no fire. Give her no more flatteries; give her justice! There are +sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the +sunlight comes their death groan. It is not such a cry as comes from +those who are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding, +horrible wasting-away. Gather them before you and look into their +faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger-struck! Look at their fingers, +needle-pricked and blood-tipped! See that premature stoop in the +shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough! At a large meeting +of these women held in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were +delivered, but a needle-woman took the stand, threw aside her faded +shawl, and with her shriveled arm hurled a very thunder-bolt of +eloquence, speaking out the horrors of her own experience. + +Stand at the corner of a street in New York at six or seven o'clock in +the morning as the women go to work. Many of them had no breakfast +except the crumbs that were left over from the night before, or the +crumbs they chew on their way through the street. Here they come! The +working-girls of New York and Brooklyn. These engaged in head work, +these in flower-making, in millinery, in paper-box making; but, most +overworked of all and least compensated, the sewing-women. Why do they +not take the city cars on their way up? They can not afford the five +cents. If, concluding to deny herself something else, she gets into +the car, give her a seat. You want to see how Latimer and Ridley +appeared in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a more horrible +martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more agonizing death. Ask that woman how +much she gets for her work, and she will tell you six cents for making +coarse shirts and find her own thread. + +Years ago, one Sabbath night in the vestibule of this church, after +service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed +medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in +her delirium she said, gaspingly: "Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get +some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents!" We found afterward that she was making garments for eight +cents apiece, and that she could make but three of them in a day. Hear +it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have +comfortable homes! Some of the worst villains of our cities are the +employers of these women. They beat them down to the last penny and +try to cheat them out of that. The woman must deposit a dollar or two +before she gets the garments to work on. When the work is done it is +sharply inspected, the most insignificant flaws picked out, and the +wages refused and sometimes the dollar deposited not given back. The +Women's Protective Union reports a case where one of the poor souls, +finding a place where she could get more wages, resolved to change +employers, and went to get her pay for work done. The employer says: +"I hear you are going to leave me?" "Yes," she said, "and I have come +to get what you owe me." He made no answer. She said: "Are you not +going to pay me?" "Yes," he said, "I will pay you," and he kicked her +down-stairs. + +Oh, that Women's Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York! The +blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is +doing in the defense of toiling womanhood! What tragedies of suffering +are presented to them day by day! A paragraph from their report: "'Can +you make Mr. Jones pay me? He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, +and I can't get anything, and my child is very sick!' The speaker, a +young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke. +She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story +to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions. +Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50." + +Another paragraph from their report: "A fortnight had passed, when she +modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth. +'Oh, my dear,' he replied, 'you are getting to be one of the most +valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price. +Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.' And the +girl's fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate. The picture +of $10 a week had almost turned her head. A few nights later, while +crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the +conversation of girls who stood near: 'What, John Snipes? Why, he +don't pay! Look out for him every time. He'll keep you on trial, as he +calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let you go, and get some other +fool!' And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler. +But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth +of each of those days of 'trial.'" + +Another paragraph: "Her mortification may be imagined when told that +one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her +work was counterfeit. But her mortification was swallowed up in +indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and +insultingly asked her to prove it. When the Protective Union had +placed this matter in the courts, the judge said: 'You will pay +Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the +court.'" + +How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: "Give woman the +ballot." What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am +not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage +on women's wages? I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by +woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not +women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who +sews for them? Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and +milliners and mantua-makers? If a woman asks a dollar for her work, +does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety +cents? You say, "Only ten cents difference." But that is sometimes the +difference between heaven and hell. Women often have less +commiseration for women than men. If a woman steps aside from the path +of rectitude, man may forgive--woman never! Woman will never get +justice done her from woman's ballot. Neither will she get it from +man's ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more +resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate +when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her +oppressors. + +But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to +excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after awhile to get +larger wages. Unskilled and incompetent labor must take what is given: +skilled and competent labor will eventually make its own standard. +Admitting that the law of supply and demand regulates these things, I +contend that the demand for skilled labor is very great and the supply +very small. Start with the idea that work is honorable, and that you +can do some one thing better than anybody else. Resolve that, God +helping, you will take care of yourself. If you are after awhile +called into another relation you will all the better be qualified for +it by your spirit of self-reliance, or if you are called to stay as +you are, you can be happy and self-supporting. + +Poets are fond of talking about man as an oak and woman the vine that +climbs it; but I have seen many a tree fall that not only went down +itself, but took all the vines with it. I can tell you of something +stronger than an oak for an ivy to climb on, and that is the throne of +the great Jehovah. Single or affianced, that woman is strong who leans +on God and does her best. Many of you will go single-handed through +life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman, +I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling, +irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be +a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian. +What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more +thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she +will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her +sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The +dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene +closes--draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the +farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless +life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity. + +Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian +aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that +she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single, +that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the +sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went +with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick +pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she +was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam--just +the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to +fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody +who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from +her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she +ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well--auntie always +dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet +spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died +you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to +rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with +japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with +their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world +said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto +the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!" + + + + +TOBACCO AND OPIUM. + + "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding + seed."--GEN. i: 11. + + +The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. +They preceded the brute creation and the human family--the grass for +the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and +took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and +took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for +food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for +anodyne as in case of paroxysm, for stimulant as when the pulses flag +under the weight of disease. The caterer comes and takes the herb and +presents it in all styles of delicacy. The physician comes and takes +the herb and compounds it for physical recuperation. Millions of +people come and take the herb for ruinous physical and intellectual +delectation. The herb, which was divinely created, and for good +purposes, has often been degraded for bad results. There is a useful +and a baneful employment of the herbaceous kingdom. + +There sprung up in Yucatan of this continent an herb that has +bewitched the world. In the fifteenth century it crossed the Atlantic +Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the +French embassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French +Empire. Then Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great +Britain. Nicotiana, ascribed to that genus by the botanists, but we +all know it is the exhilarating, elevating, emparadising, +nerve-shattering, dyspepsia-breeding, health-destroying tobacco. I +shall not in my remarks be offensively personal, because you all use +it, or nearly all! I know by experience how it soothes and roseates +the world, and kindles sociality, and I also know some of its baleful +results. I was its slave, and by the grace of God I have become its +conqueror. Tens of thousands of people have been asking the question +during the past two months, asking it with great pathos and great +earnestness: "Does the use of tobacco produce cancerous and other +troubles?" I shall not answer the question in regard to any particular +case, but shall deal with the subject in a more general way. + +You say to me, "Did God not create tobacco?" Yes. You say to me, "Is +not God good?" Yes. Well, then, you say, "If God is good and he +created tobacco, He must have created it for some good purpose." Yes, +your logic is complete. But God created the common sense at the same +time, by which we are to know how to use a poison and how not to use +it. God created that just as He created henbane and nux vomica and +copperas and belladonna and all other poisons, whether directly +created by Himself or extracted by man. + +That it is a poison no man of common sense will deny. A case was +reported where a little child lay upon its mother's lap and one drop +fell from a pipe to the child's lip, and it went into convulsions and +into death. But you say, "Haven't people lived on in complete use of +it to old age?" Oh, yes; just as I have seen inebriates seventy years +old. In Boston, years ago, there was a meeting in which there were +several centenarians, and they were giving their experience, and one +centenarian said that he had lived over a hundred years, and that he +ascribed it to the fact that he had refrained from the use of +intoxicating liquors. Right after him another centenarian said he had +lived over a hundred years, and he ascribed it to the fact that for +the last fifty years he had hardly seen a sober moment. It is an +amazing thing how many outrages men may commit upon their physical +system and yet live on. In the case of the man of the jug he lived on +because his body was pickled. In the case of the man of the pipe, he +lived on because his body turned into smoked liver! + +But are there no truths to be uttered in regard to this great evil? +What is the advice to be given to the multitude of young people who +hear me this day? What is the advice you are going to give to your +children? + +First of all, we must advise them to abstain from the use of tobacco +because all the medical fraternity of the United States and Great +Britain agree in ascribing to this habit terrific unhealth. The men +whose life-time work is the study of the science of health say so, and +shall I set up my opinion against theirs? Dr. Agnew, Dr. Olcott, Dr. +Barnes, Dr. Rush, Dr. Mott, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hosack--all the doctors, +allopathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, eclectic, denounce the habit as +a matter of unhealth. A distinguished physician declared he considered +the use of tobacco caused seventy different styles of disease, and he +says: "Of all the cases of cancer in the mouth that have come under my +observation, almost in every case it has been ascribed to tobacco." + +The united testimony of all physicians is that it depresses the +nervous system, that it takes away twenty-five per cent. of the +physical vigor of this generation, and that it goes on as the years +multiply and, damaging this generation with accumulated curse, it +strikes other centuries. And if it is so deleterious to the body, how +much more destructive to the mind. An eminent physician, who was the +superintendent of the insane asylum at Northampton, Massachusetts, +says: "Fully one half the patients we get in our asylum have lost +their intellect through the use of tobacco." If it is such a bad thing +to injure the body, what a bad thing, what a worse thing it is to +injure the mind, and any man of common sense knows that tobacco +attacks the nervous system, and everybody knows that the nervous +system attacks the mind. + +Besides that, all reformers will tell you that the use of tobacco +creates an unnatural thirst, and it is the cause of drunkenness in +America to-day more than anything else. In all cases where you find +men taking strong drink you find they use tobacco. There are men who +use tobacco who do not take strong drink, but all who use strong drink +use tobacco, and that shows beyond controversy there is an affinity +between the two products. There are reformers here to-day who will +testify to you it is impossible for a man to reform from taking strong +drink until he quits tobacco. In many of the cases where men have been +reformed from strong drink and have gone back to their cups, they +have testified that they first touched tobacco and then they +surrendered to intoxicants. + +I say in the presence of this assemblage to-day, in which there are +many physicians--and they know that what I say is true on the +subject--that the pathway to the drunkard's grave and the drunkard's +hell is strewn thick with tobacco-leaves. What has been the testimony +on this subject? Is this a mere statement of a preacher whose business +it is to talk morals, or is the testimony of the world just as +emphatic? What did Benjamin Franklin say? "I never saw a well man in +the exercise of common sense who would say that tobacco did him any +good." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Certainly he is good authority. +He says in regard to the culture of tobacco, "It is a culture +productive of infinite wretchdness." What did Horace Greeley say of +it? "It is a profane stench." What did Daniel Webster say of it? "If +those men must smoke, let them take the horse-shed!" One reason why +the habit goes on from destruction to destruction is that so many +ministers of the gospel take it. They smoke themselves into +bronchitis, and then the dear people have to send them to Europe to +get them restored from exhausting religious services! They smoke until +the nervous system is shattered. They smoke themselves to death. I +could mention the names of five distinguished clergymen who died of +cancer of the mouth, and the doctor said, in every case, it was the +result of tobacco. The tombstone of many a minister of religion has +been covered all over with handsome eulogy, when, if the true epitaph +had been written, it would have said: "Here lies a man killed by too +much cavendish!" They smoke until the world is blue, and their +theology is blue, and everything is blue. How can a man stand in the +pulpit and preach on the subject of temperance when he is indulging +such a habit as that? I have seen a cuspadore in a pulpit into which +the holy man dropped his cud before he got up to read about "blessed +are the pure in heart," and to read about the rolling of sin as a +sweet morsel under the tongue, and to read about the unclean animals +in Leviticus that chewed the cud. + +About sixty-five years ago a student at Andover Theological Seminary +graduated into the ministry. He had an eloquence and a magnetism which +sent him to the front. Nothing could stand before him. But in a few +months he was put in an insane asylum, and the physician said tobacco +was the cause of the disaster. It was the custom in those days to give +a portion of tobacco to every patient in the asylum. Nearly twenty +years passed along, and that man was walking the floor of his cell in +the asylum, when his reason returned, and he saw the situation, and he +took the tobacco from his mouth and threw it against the iron gate of +the place in which he was confined, and he said: "What brought me +here? What keeps me here? Tobacco! tobacco! God forgive me, God help +me, and I will never use it again." He was fully restored to reason, +came forth, preached the Gospel of Christ for some ten years, and then +went into everlasting blessedness. + +There are ministers of religion now in this country who are dying by +inches, and they do not know what is the matter with them. They are +being killed by tobacco. They are despoiling their influence through +tobacco. They are malodorous with tobacco. I could give one paragraph +of history, and that would be my own experience. It took ten cigars to +make one sermon, and I got very nervous, and I awakened one day to see +what an outrage I was committing upon my health by the use of tobacco. +I was about to change settlement, and a generous tobacconist of +Philadelphia told me if I would come to Philadelphia and be his pastor +he would give me all the cigars I wanted for nothing all the rest of +my life. I halted. I said to myself, "If I smoke more than I ought to +now in these war times, and when my salary is small, what would I do +if I had gratuitous and unlimited supply?" Then and there, twenty-four +years ago, I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me. Much of +the time the world looked blue before that, because I was looking +through tobacco smoke. Ever since the world has been full of sunshine, +and though I have done as much work as any one of my age, God has +blessed me, it seems to me, with the best health that a man ever had. + +I say that no minister of religion can afford to smoke. Put in my hand +all the money expended by Christian men in Brooklyn for tobacco, and I +will support three orphan asylums as well and as grandly as the three +great orphan asylums already established. Put into my hand the money +spent by the Christians of America for tobacco, and I will clothe, +shelter, and feed all the suffering poor of the continent. The +American Church gives a million dollars a year for the salvation of +the heathen, and American Christians smoke five million dollars' worth +of tobacco. + +I stand here to-day in the presence of a vast multitude of young +people who are forming their habits. Between seventeen and twenty-five +years of age a great many young men get on them habits in the use of +tobacco that they never get over. Let me say to all my young friends, +you can not afford to smoke, you can not afford to chew. You either +take very good tobacco, or you take very cheap tobacco. If it is +cheap, I will tell you why it is cheap. It is made of burdock, and +lampblack, and sawdust, and colt's-foot, and plantain leaves, and +fuller's earth, and salt, and alum, and lime, and a little tobacco, +and you can not afford to put such a mess as that in your mouth. But +if you use expensive tobacco, do you not think it would be better for +you to take that amount of money which you are now expending for this +herb, and which you will expend during the course of your life if you +keep the habit up, and with it buy a splendid farm and make the +afternoon and the evening of your life comfortable? + +There are young men whose life is going out inch by inch from +cigarettes. Now, do you not think it would be well for you to listen +to the testimony of a merchant of New York, who said this: "In early +life I smoked six cigars a day at six and a half cents each. They +averaged that. I thought to myself one day, I'll just put aside all I +consume in cigars and all I would consume if I keep on in the habit, +and I'll see what it will come to by compound interest." And he gives +this tremendous statistic: "Last July completed thirty-nine years +since, by the grace of God, I was emancipated from the filthy habit, +and the saving amounted to the enormous sum of $29,102.03 by compound +interest. We lived in the city, but the children, who had learned +something of the enjoyment of country life from their annual visits to +their grandparents, longed for a home among the green fields. I found +a very pleasant place in the country for sale. The cigar money came +into requisition, and I found it amounted to a sufficient sum to +purchase the place, and it is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice. +Smoking without a home, or a home without smoking." This is common +sense as well as religion. + +I must say a word to my friends who smoke the best tobacco, and who +could stop at any time. What is your Christian influence in this +respect? What is your influence upon young men? Do you not think it +would be better for you to exercise a little self-denial! People +wondered why George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts, wore a cravat +but no collar. "Oh," they said, "it is an absurd eccentricity." This +was the history of the cravat without any collar: For many years +before he had been talking with an inebriate, trying to persuade him +to give up the habit of drinking and he said to the inebriate, "Your +habit is entirely unnecessary." "Ah!" replied the inebriate, "we do a +great many things that are not necessary. It isn't necessary that you +should have that collar." "Well," said Mr. Briggs, "I'll never wear a +collar again if you will stop drinking." "Agreed," said the other. +They joined hands in a pledge that they kept for twenty years--kept +until death. That is magnificent. That is Gospel, practical Gospel, +worthy of George Briggs, worthy of you. Self-denial for others. +Subtraction from our advantage that there may be an addition to +somebody else's advantage. + +But what I have said has been chiefly appropriate for men. Now my +subject widens and shall be appropriate for both sexes. In all ages of +the world there has been a search for some herb or flower that would +stimulate lethargy and compose grief. Among the ancient Greeks and +Egyptians they found something they called nepenthe, and the Theban +women knew how to compound it. If a person should chew a few of those +leaves his grief would be immediately whelmed with hilarity. Nepenthe +passed out from the consideration of the world and then came hasheesh, +which is from the Indian hemp. It is manufactured from the flowers at +the top. The workman with leathern apparel walks through the field and +the exudation of the plants adheres to the leathern garments, and then +the man comes out and scrapes off this exudation, and it is mixed with +aromatics and becomes an intoxicant that has brutalized whole nations. +Its first effect is sight, spectacle glorious and grand beyond all +description, but afterward it pulls down body, mind, and soul into +anguish. + +I knew one of the most brilliant men of our time. His appearance in a +newspaper column, or a book, or a magazine was an enchantment. In the +course of a half hour he could produce more wit and more valuable +information than any man I ever heard talk. But he chewed hasheesh. He +first took it out of curiosity to see whether the power said to be +attached really existed. He took it. He got under the power of it. He +tried to break loose. He put his hand in the cockatrice's den to see +whether it would bite, and he found out to his own undoing. His +friends gathered around and tried to save him, but he could not be +saved. The father, a minister of the Gospel, prayed with him and +counseled him, and out of a comparatively small salary employed the +first medical advice of New York, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Paris, +London, and Berlin, for he was his only son. No help came. First his +body gave way in pangs and convulsions of suffering. Then his mind +gave way and he became a raving maniac. Then his soul went out +blaspheming God into a starless eternity. He died at thirty years of +age. Behold the work of accursed hasheesh. + +But I must put my emphasis upon the use of opium. It is made from the +white poppy. It is not a new discovery. Three hundred years before +Christ we read of it; but it was not until the seventh century that it +took up its march of death, and, passing out of the curative and the +medicinal, through smoking and mastication it has become the curse of +nations. In 1861 there were imported into this country one hundred and +seven thousand pounds of opium. In 1880, nineteen years after, there +were imported five hundred and thirty thousand pounds of opium. In +1876 there were in this country two hundred and twenty-five thousand +opium-consumers. Now, it is estimated there are in the United States +to-day six hundred thousand victims of opium. It is appalling. + +We do not know why some families do not get on. There is something +mysterious about them. The opium habit is so stealthy, it is so +deceitful, and it is so deathful, you can cure a hundred men of +strong drink where you can cure one opium-eater. + +I have knelt down in this very church by those who were elegant in +apparel, and elegant in appearance, and from the depths of their souls +and from the depths of my soul, we cried out for God's rescue. Somehow +it did not come. In many a household only the physician and pastor +know it--the physician called in for physical relief, the pastor +called in for spiritual relief, and they both fail. The physician +confesses his defeat, the minister of religion confesses his defeat, +for somehow God does not seem to hear a prayer offered for an +opium-eater. His grace is infinite, and I have been told there are +cases of reformation. I never saw one. I say this not to wound the +feelings of any who may feel this awful grip, but to utter a potent +warning that you stand back from that gate of hell. Oh, man, oh, +woman, tampering with this great evil, have you fallen back on this as +a permanent resource because of some physical distress or mental +anguish? Better stop. The ecstasies do not pay for the horrors. The +Paradise is followed too soon by the Pandemonium. Morphia, a blessing +of God for the relief of sudden pang and of acute dementia, +misappropriated and never intended for permanent use. + +It is not merely the barbaric fanatics that are taken down by it. Did +you ever read De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-Eater?" He says +that during the first ten years the habit handed to him all the keys +of Paradise, but it would take something as mighty as De Quincey's pen +to describe the consequent horrors. There is nothing that I have ever +read about the tortures of the damned that seemed more horrible than +those which De Quincey says he suffered. Samuel Taylor Coleridge first +conquered the world with his exquisite pen, and then was conquered by +opium. The most brilliant, the most eloquent lawyer of the nineteenth +century went down under its power, and there is a vast multitude of +men and women--but more women than men--who are going into the dungeon +of that awful incarceration. + +The worst thing about it is, it takes advantage of one's weakness. De +Quincey says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of my +rheumatism." Coleridge says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of +my sleeplessness." For what are you taking it? For God's sake do not +take it long. The wealthiest, the grandest families going down under +its power. Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in Chicago. +Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in St. Louis, and, according to +that average, seventy-five thousand victims of opium in New York and +Brooklyn. + +The clerk of a drug store says: "I can tell them when they come in; +there is something about their complexion, something about their +manner, something about the look of their eyes that shows they are +victims." Some in the struggle to get away from it try chloral. Whole +tons of chloral manufactured in Germany every year. Baron Liebig says +he knows one chemist in Germany who manufactures a half ton of chloral +every week. Beware of hydrate of chloral. It is coming on with mighty +tread to curse these cities. But I am chiefly under this head speaking +of the morphine. The devil of morphia is going to be in this country, +in my opinion, mightier than the devil of alcohol. By the power of the +Christian pulpit, by the power of the Christianized printing-press, by +the power of the Lord God Almighty, all these evils are going to be +extirpated--all, all, and you have a work in regard to that, and I +have a work. But what we do we had better do right away. The clock +ticks now, and we hear it; after awhile the clock will tick and we +will not hear it. + +I sat at a country fireside, and I saw the fire kindle and blaze, and +go out. I sat long enough at that fireside to get a good many +practical reflections, and I said: "That is like human life, that fire +on the hearth." We put on the fagots and they blaze up, and out, and +on, and the whole room is filled with the light, gay of sparkle, gay +of flash, gay of crackle. Emblem of boyhood. Now the fire intensifies. +Now the flame reddens into coals. Now the heat is becoming more and +more intense, and the more it is stirred the redder is the coal. Now +with one sweep of flame it cleaves the way, and all the hearth glows +with the intensity. Emblem of full manhood. Now the coals begin to +whiten. Now the heat lessens. Now the flickering shadows die along the +wall. Now the fagots fall apart. Now the household hover over the +expiring embers. Now the last breath of smoke is lost in the chimney. +The fire is out. Shovel up the white remains. Ashes! Ashes! + + + + +WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? + + "Wherefore do the wicked live?"--JOB xxi: 7, + + +Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the +misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, +bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that +he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware +to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his +complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better +if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swear a little. +For each boil a plaster of objurgation. + +Probably no man was ever more tempted to take the bad advice than +when, at last, Job's three exasperating friends came in, Eliphaz, +Zophar, and Bildad, practically saying to him, "You old sinner, serves +you right; you are a hypocrite; what a sight you are! God has sent +these chastisements for your wickedness." + +The disfigured invalid, putting down the pieces of broken saucer with +which he had been rubbing his arms, with swollen eyelids looks up and +says to his garrulous friends in substance, "The most wicked people +sometimes have the best health and are the most prospered," and then +in that connection hurls the question which every man and woman has +asked in some juncture of affairs, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +They build up fortunes that overshadow the earth. They confound all +the life-insurance tables on the subject of longevity, dying +octogenarians, perhaps nonagenarians, possibly centenarians. Ahab in +the palace, Naboth in the cabinet. Unclean Herod on the throne, +consecrated Paul twisting ropes for tent-making. Manasseh, the worst +of all the kings of Juda, living longer than any of them. While the +general rule is the wicked do not live out half their days, there are +exceptions where they live on to great age and in a Paradise of beauty +and luxuriance, and die with a whole college of physicians expending +its skill in trying further prolongation of life, and have a funeral +with casket under mountain of calla-lilies, the finest equipages of +the city jingling and flashing into line, the poor, angle-worm of the +dust carried out to its hole in the ground with the pomp that might +make a spirit from some other world suppose that the Archangel Michael +was dead. + +Go up among the finest residences of the city, and on some of the +door-plates you will find the names of those mightiest for commercial +and social iniquity. They are the vampires of society--they are the +gorgons of the century. Some of these men have each wheel of their +carriage a juggernaut wet with the blood of those sacrificed to their +avarice. Some of them are like Caligula, who wished that all the +people had only one neck that he might strike it off at one blow. Oh, +the slain, the slain! A long procession of usurers and libertines and +infamous quacks and legal charlatans and world-grabbing monsters. What +apostleship of despoliation! Demons incarnate. Hundreds of men +concentering all their energies of body, mind, and soul in one +prolonged, ever-intensifying, and unrelenting effort to scald and +scarify and blast and consume the world. I do not blame you for asking +me the quivering, throbbing, burning, resounding, appalling question +of my text, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +In the first place, they live to demonstrate beyond all controversy +the long-suffering patience of God. You sometimes say, under some +great affront, "I will not stand it;" but perhaps you are compelled to +stand it. God, with all the batteries of omnipotence loaded with +thunderbolts, stands it century after century. I have no doubt +sometimes an angel comes to Him and suggests, "Now is the time to +strike." "No," says God; "wait a year, wait twenty years, wait a +century, wait five centuries." What God does is not so wonderful as +what He does not do. He has the reserve corps with which He could +strike Mormonism and Mohammedanism and Paganism from the earth in a +day. He could take all the fraud in New York on the west side of +Broadway and hurl it into the Hudson, and all the fraud on the east +side of Broadway and hurl it into the East River in an hour. He +understands the combination lock of every dishonest money-safe, and +could blow it up quicker than by any earthly explosive. Written all +over the earth, written all over history are the words, "Divine +forbearance, divine leniency, divine long-suffering." + +I wonder that God did not burn this world up two thousand years ago, +scattering its ashes into immensity, its aerolites dropping into +other worlds to be kept in their museums as specimens of a defunct +planet. People sometimes talk of God as though He were hasty in His +judgments and as though He snapped men up quick. Oh, no! He waited one +hundred and twenty years for the people to get into the ark, and +warned them all the time--one hundred and twenty years, then the flood +came. The Anchor Line gives only a month's announcement of the sailing +of the "Circassia," the White Star Line gives only a month's +announcement of the sailing of the "Britannic," the Cunard Line gives +only a month's announcement of the sailing of the "Oregon;" but of the +sailing of that ship that Noah commanded God gave one hundred and +twenty years' announcement and warning. Patience antediluvian, +patience postdiluvian, patience in times Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, +Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Whitefieldian. Patience with men and +nations. Patience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six thousand +years of patience! Overtopping attribute of God, all of whose +attributes are immeasurable. Why do the wicked live? That their +overthrow may be the more impressive and climacteric. They must pile +up their mischief until all the community shall see it, until the +nation shall see it, until all the world shall see it. The higher it +goes up the harder it will come down and the grander will be the +divine vindication. + +God will not allow sin to sneak out of the world. God will not allow +it merely to resign and quit. This shall not be a case that goes by +default because no one appears against it. God will arraign it, +handcuff it, try it, bring against it the verdict of all the good, and +then gibbet it so high up that if one half of the gibbet stood on +Mount Washington and the other on the Himalaya, it would not be any +more conspicuous. + +About fifteen years ago we had in this country a most illustrious +instance of how God lets a man go on in iniquity, so that at the close +of the career his overthrow may be the more impressive, full of +warning and climacteric. First, an honest chairmaker, then an +alderman, then a member of congress, then a supervisor of a city, then +school commissioner, then state senator, then commissioner of public +works--on and up, stealing thousands of dollars here and thousands of +dollars there, until the malfeasance in office overtopped anything the +world had ever seen--making the new Court House in New York a monument +of municipal crime, and rushing the debt of the city from thirty-six +million dollars to ninety-seven millions. Now, he is at the top of +millionairedom. + +Country-seat terraced and arbored and parterred clear to the water's +brink. Horses enough to stock a king's equerry. Grooms and postilions +in full rig. Wine cellars enough to make a whole legislature drunk. +New York finances and New York politics in his vest pocket. He winked, +and men in high place fell. He lifted his little finger, and +ignoramuses took important office. He whispered, and in Albany and +Washington they said it thundered. Wider and mightier and more baleful +his influence, until it seemed as if Pandemonium was to be adjourned +to this world, and in the Satanic realm there was to be a change of +administration, and Apollyon, who had held dominion so long, should +have a successful competitor. + +To bring all to a climax, a wedding came in the house of that man. +Diamonds as large as hickory nuts. A pin of sixty diamonds +representing sheaves of wheat. Musicians in a semicircle, half-hidden +by a great harp of flowers. Ships of flowers. Forty silver sets, one +of them with two hundred and forty pieces. One wedding-dress that cost +five thousand dollars. A famous libertine, who owned several Long +Island Sound steamboats, and not long before he was shot for his +crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house a frosted silver +iceberg, with representations of arctic bears walking on +icicle-handles and ascending the spoons. Was there ever such a +convocation of pictures, bronzes, of bric-à-brac, of grandeurs, social +grandeurs? The highest wave of New York splendor rolled into that +house and recoiled perhaps never again to rise so high. But just at +that time, when all earthly and infernal observation was concentered +on that man, eternal justice, impersonated by that wonder of the +American bar, Charles O'Connor, got on the track of the offender. +First arraignment, then sentence to twelve years' imprisonment under +twelve indictments, then penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, then a +lawsuit against him for six million dollars, then incarceration in +Ludlow Street jail, then escape to foreign land, to be brought back +under the stout grip of the constabulary, then dying of broken heart +in a prison cell. God allowed him to go on in iniquity until all the +world saw as never before that "the way of the transgressor is hard," +and that dishonesty will not declare permanent dividends, and that you +had better be an honest chairmaker with a day's wages at a time than +a brilliant commissioner of public works, all your pockets crammed +with plunder. + +What a brilliant figure in history is William the Conqueror, the +intimidator of France, of Anjou, of Brittany, victor at Hastings, +snatching the crown of England and setting it on his own brow, +destroying homesteads that he might have a larger game forest, making +a Doomsday Book by which he could keep the whole land under despotic +espionage, proclaiming war in revenge for a joke uttered in regard to +his obesity. Harvest fields and vineyards going down under the cavalry +hoof. Nations horror-struck. But one day while at the apex of all +observation he is riding out and the horse put his hoof on a hot +cinder, throwing the king so violently against the pommel of the +saddle that he dies, his son hastening to England to get the crown +before the breath has left his father's body. + +The imperial corpse drawn by a cart, most of the attendants leaving it +in the street because of a fire alarm that they might go off and see +the conflagration. And just as they are going to put his body down in +the church which he had built, a man stepping up and saying, "Bishop, +the man you praise is a robber. This church stands on my father's +homestead. The property on which this church is built is mine. I +reclaim my right. In the name of Almighty God I forbid you to bury the +king here, or to cover him with my glebe." "Go up," said the ambition +of William the Conqueror. "Go up by conquest, go up by throne, go up +in the sight of all nations, go up by cruelties." But one day God +said, "Come down, come down by the way of a miserable death, come down +by the way of an ignominious obsequies, come down in the sight of all +nations, come clear down, come down forever." And you and I see the +same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time--illustrations of +the fact that God lets the wicked live that He may make their +overthrow the more climacteric. + +What is true in regard to sin is true in regard to its author, Satan, +called Abaddon, called the Prince of the Power of the Air, called the +serpent, called the dragon. It seems to me any intelligent man must +admit that there is a commander-in-chief of all evil. + +The Persians called him Ahriman, the Hindus called him Siva. He was +represented on canvas as a mythological combination of Thor and +Cerberus and Pan and Vulcan and other horrible addenda. I do not care +what you call him, that monster of evil is abroad, and his one work is +destruction. John Milton almost glorified him by witchery of +description, but he is the concentration of all meanness and of all +despicability. My little child, seven years of age, said to her mother +one day, "Why don't God kill the devil at once, and have done with +it?" In less terse phrase we have all asked the same question. The +Bible says he is to be imprisoned and he is to be chained down. Why +not heave the old miscreant into his dungeon now? Does it not seem as +if his volume of infamy were complete? Does it not seem as if the last +fifty years would make an appropriate peroration? No; God will let him +go on to the top of all bad endeavor, and then when all the earth and +all constellations and galaxies and all the universe are watching, God +will hurl him down with a violence and ghastliness enough to persuade +five hundred eternities that a rebellion against God must perish. God +will not do it by piecemeal, God will not do it by small skirmish. He +will wait until all the troops are massed, and then some day when in +defiant and confident mood, at the head of his army, this Goliath of +hell stalks forth, our champion, the son of David, will strike him +down, not with smooth stones from the brook, but with fragments from +the Rock of Ages. But it will not be done until this giant of evil and +his holy antagonist come out within full sight of the two great +armies. The tragedy is only postponed to make the overthrow more +impressive and climacteric. Do not fret. If God can afford to wait you +can afford to wait. God's clock of destiny strikes only once in a +thousand years. Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on +your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow +may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more +resounding, the more climacteric. + +Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for +righteousness to capture. Have you not noticed that God harnesses men, +bad men, and accomplishes good through them? Witness Cyrus, witness +Nebuchadnezzar, witness the fact that the Bastile of oppression was +pried open by the bayonets of a bad man. Recently there came to me the +fact that a college had been built at the Far West for infidel +purposes. There was to be no nonsense of chapel prayers, no Bible +reading there. All the professors there were pronounced infidels. The +college was opened, and the work went on, but, of course, failed. Not +long ago a Presbyterian minister was in a bank in that village on +purposes of business, and he heard in an adjoining room the board of +trustees of that college discussing what they had better do with the +institution, as it did not get on successfully, and one of the +trustees proposed that it be handed over to the Presbyterians, +prefacing the word Presbyterians with a very unhappy expletive. The +resolutions were passed, and that fortress of infidelity has become a +fortress of old-fashioned, orthodox religion, the only religion that +will be worth a snap of your finger when you come to die or appear in +the Day of Judgment. The devil built the college. Righteousness +captured it. + +In some city there goes up a great club-house--the architecture, the +furniture, all the equipment a bedazzlement of wealth. That particular +club-house is designed to make gambling and dissipation respectable. + +Do not fret. That splendid building will after a while be a free +library, or it will be a hospital, or it will be a gallery of pure +art. Again and again observatories have been built by infidelity, and +the first thing you know they go into the hand of Christian science. +God said in the Bible that He would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose +and pull him down by a way he knew not. And God has a hook to-day in +the nose of every Sennacherib of infidelity and sin, and will drag him +about as He will. Marble halls deserted to sinful amusements will yet +be dedicated for religious assemblage. All these castles of sin are to +be captured for God as we go forth with the battle-shout that Oliver +Cromwell rang out at the head of his troops as he rode in on the field +of Naseby: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!" After a +great fire in London, amid the ruins there was nothing left but an +arch with the name of the architect upon it; and, my friends, whatever +else goes down, God stays up. + +Why do the wicked live? That some of them may be monuments of mercy. + +So it was with John Newton, so it was with Augustine, perhaps so it +was with you. Chieftains of sin to become chieftains of grace. Paul, +the apostle, made out of Saul, the persecutor. Baxter, the flaming +evangel, made out of Baxter, the blasphemer. Whole squadrons, with +streamers of Emmanuel floating from the masthead, though once they +were launched from the dry-docks of diabolism. God lets these wicked +men live that He may make jewels out of them for coronets, that He may +make tongues of fire out of them for Pentecosts, that He may make +warriors out of them for Armageddons, that he may make conquerors out +of them for the day when they shall ride at the head of the +white-horse host in the grand review of the resurrection. + +Why do the wicked live? To make it plain beyond all controversy that +there is another place of adjustment. So many of the bad up, so many +of the good down. It seems to me that no man can look abroad without +saying--no man of common sense, religious or irreligious, can look +abroad without saying, "There must be some place where brilliant +scoundrelism shall be arrested, where innocence shall get out from +under the heel of despotism." Common fairness as well as eternal +justice demands it. + +We adjourn to the great assizes, the stupendous injustices of this +life. They are not righted here. There must be some place where they +will be righted. God can not afford to omit the judgment day or the +reconstruction of conditions. For you can not make me believe that +that man stuffed with all abomination, having devoured widows' houses +and digested them, looking with basilisk or tigerish eyes upon his +fellows, no music so sweet to him as the sound of breaking hearts, is, +at death, to get out of the landau at the front door of the sepulcher +and pass right on through to the back door of the sepulcher, and find +a celestial turnout waiting for him, so that he can drive tandem right +up primrosed hills, one glory riding as lackey ahead, and another +glory riding as postilion behind, while that poor woman who supported +her invalid husband and her helpless children by taking in washing and +ironing, often putting her hand to her side where the cancerous +trouble had already begun, and dropping dead late on Saturday night +while she was preparing the garments for the Sabbath day, coming afoot +to the front door of the sepulcher, shall pass through to the back +door of the sepulcher and find nothing waiting, no one to welcome, no +one to tell her the way to the King's gate. I will not believe it. +Solomon was confounded in his day by what he represents as princes +afoot and beggars a-horseback, but I tell you there must be a place +and a time when the right foot will get into the stirrup. To +demonstrate beyond all controversy that there is another place for +adjustment, God lets the wicked live. + +Why do the wicked live? For the same reason that He lets us live--to +have time for repentance. + +Where would you and I have been if sin had been followed by immediate +catastrophe? While the foot of Christ is fleet as that of a roebuck +when He comes to save, it does seem as if he were hoppled with great +languors and infinite lethargies when He comes to punish. Oh, I +celebrate God's slowness, God's retardation, God's putting off the +retribution! Do you not think, my brother, it would be a great deal +better for us to exchange our impatient hypercriticism of Providence +because this man, by watering of stock, makes a million dollars in one +day, and another man rides on in one bloated iniquity year after +year--would it not be better for us to exchange that impatient +hypercriticism for gratitude everlasting that God let us who were +wicked live, though we deserved nothing but capsize and demolition? +Oh, I celebrate God's slowness! The slower the rail-train comes the +better, if the drawbridge is off. + +How long have you, my brother, lived unforgiven? Fifteen, twenty, +forty, sixty years? Lived through great awakenings, lived through +domestic sorrow, lived through commercial calamity, lived through +providential crises that startled nations, and you are living yet, +strangers to God, and with no hope for a great future into which you +may be precipitated. Oh, would it not be better for us to get our +nature through the Grace of Christ revolutionized and transfigured? +For I want you to know that God sometimes changes His gait, and +instead of the deliberate tread He is the swift witness, and sometimes +the enemies of God are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. + +Make God your ally. What an offer that is! Do not fight against Him. +Do not contend against your best interests. Yield this morning to the +best impulse of your heart, and that is toward Christ and heaven. Do +not fight the Lord that made you and offers to redeem you. + +Philip of France went out with his army, with bows and arrows, to +fight King Edward III. of England; but just as they got into the +critical moment of the battle, a shower of rain came and relaxed the +bow-strings so that they were of no effect, and Philip and his army +were worsted. And all your weaponry against God will be as nothing +when he rains upon you discomfiture from the heavens. Do not fight the +Lord any longer. Change allegiance. Take down the old flag of sin, run +up the new flag of grace. It does not take the Lord Jesus Christ the +thousandth part of a second to convert you if you will only surrender, +be willing to be saved. The American Congress was in anxiety during +the Revolutionary War while awaiting to hear news from the conflict +between Washington and Cornwallis, and the anxiety became intense and +almost unbearable as the days went by. When the news came at last that +Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over, so great +was the excitement that the doorkeeper of the House of Congress +dropped dead from joyful excitement. And if this long war between your +soul and God should come to an end this morning by your entire +surrender, the war forever over, the news would very soon reach the +heavens, and nothing but the supernatural health of your loved ones +before the throne would keep them from being prostrated with overjoy +at the cessation of all spiritual hostilities. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + +***** This file should be named 14139-8.txt or 14139-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/1/3/14139/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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De Witt Talmage, D.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond; /* all headings centered */ + } + H2 { + text-align: center; font-size: 145%; color: maroon; font-family: garamond; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H3 { + text-align: center; font-size: 125%; color: maroon; font-family: garamond; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H4 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond; font-weight: normal; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a.noline {text-decoration: none} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 6em; margin-right: 6em;} /* block indent */ + .center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} + .tble {text-align: center;} /* centering tables */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .tdright {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdcenter {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */ + .tdleft {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 85%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: New Tabernacle Sermons + +Author: Thomas De Witt Talmage + +Release Date: November 24, 2004 [EBook #14139] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2>NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS</h2> +<h3>by</h3> +<h2>T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.</h2> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;">Author Of +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 105%">"<i>Crumbs Swept Up</i>," "<i>The Abominations Of Modern Society</i>,"</span> etc.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">VOL. I</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">New York:<br /> +George Munro, Publisher,<br /> +17 To 27 Vandewater Street.<br /> +1886. +</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<br /> + +<p class="center"> +<img border="0" src="images/image-01.jpg" height="400" width="415" alt="T. De Witt Talmage" /></p> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em">T. De Witt Talmage</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<br /> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;"><i>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by</i><br /> + <span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">George Munro</span>,<br /> + <i>in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><h3>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<div class='tble'> + <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" width="75%" summary="Table of Contents" style="align: left"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdright" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Page</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#brawn_and_muscle">Brawn And Muscle</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">7</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_pleiades_and_orion">The Pleiades And Orion</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">21</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_queens_visit">The Queen's Visit</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">34</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#vicarious_suffering">Vicarious Suffering</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">45</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#posthumous_opportunity">Posthumous Opportunity</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">59</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_lords_razor">The Lord's Razor</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">72</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#windows_toward_jerusalem">Windows Toward Jerusalem</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">83</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#stormed_and_taken">Stormed And Taken</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">95</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#all_the_world_akin">All The World Akin</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">108</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#a_momentous_quest">A Momentous Quest</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">119</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_great_assize">The Great Assize</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">134</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_road_to_the_city">The Road To The City</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">147</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_ransomless">The Ransomless</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">158</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_three_groups">The Three Groups</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">171</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_insignificant">The Insignificant</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">184</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_three_rings">The Three Rings</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">197</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#how_he_came_to_say_it">How He Came To Say It</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">209</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#castle_jesus">Castle Jesus</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">221</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#stripping_the_slain">Stripping The Slain</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">233</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#sold_out">Sold Out</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">246</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#summer_temptations">Summer Temptations</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">259</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_banished_queen">The Banished Queen</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">274</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#the_day_we_live_in">The Day We Live In</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">285</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#capital_and_labor">Capital And Labor</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">297</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#despotism_of_the_needle">Despotism Of The Needle</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">311</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#tobacco_and_opium">Tobacco And Opium</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">325</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="65%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%"><a class="noline" href="#why_are_satan">Why Are Satan And Sin Permitted?</a></td> + <td width="35%" class="tdright">339</td> + </tr> + </table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="brawn_and_muscle" id="brawn_and_muscle"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>BRAWN AND MUSCLE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And Samson went down to Timnath."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Judges</span> xiv: 1.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his +life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the +grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character +fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver +lessons we devote our morning sermon.</p> + +<p>This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. +It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons—the boy Napoleon and +the man Napoleon—but both alike; two Howards—the boy Howard and the +man Howard—but both alike; two Samsons—the boy Samson and the man +Samson—but both alike. This giant was no doubt the hero of the +playground, and nothing could stand before his exhibitions of youthful +prowess. At eighteen years of age he was betrothed to the daughter of +a Philistine. Going down toward Timnath, a lion came out upon him, +and, although this young giant was weaponless, he seized the monster +by the long mane and shook him as a hungry hound shakes a March hare, +and made his bones crack, and left him by the wayside bleeding under +the smiting of his fist and the grinding heft of his heel.</p> + +<p>There he stands, looming up above other men, a mountain of flesh, his +arms bunched with muscle that can lift the gate of a city, taking an +attitude defiant of everything. His hair had never been cut, and it +rolled down in seven great plaits over his shoulders, adding to his +bulk, fierceness, and terror. The Philistines want to conquer him, and +therefore they must find out where the secret of his strength lies.</p> + +<p>There is a dissolute woman living in the valley of Sorek by the name +of Delilah. They appoint her the agent in the case. The Philistines +are secreted in the same building, and then Delilah goes to work and +coaxes Samson to tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well," he +says, "if you should take seven green withes such as they fasten wild +beasts with and put them around me I should be perfectly powerless." +So she binds him with the seven green withes. Then she claps her hands +and says: "They come—the Philistines!" and he walks out as though +they were no impediment. She coaxes him again, and says: "Now tell me +the secret of this great strength?" and he replies: "If you should +take some ropes that have never been used and tie me with them I +should be just like other men." She ties him with the ropes, claps her +hands, and shouts: "They come—the Philistines!" He walks out as +easily as he did before—not a single obstruction. She coaxes him +again, and he says: "Now, if you should take these seven long plaits +of hair, and by this house-loom weave them into a web, I could not get +away." So the house-loom is rolled up, and the shuttle flies backward +and forward and the long plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then she +claps her hands, and says: "They come—the Philistines!" He walks out +as easily as he did before, dragging a part of the loom with him.</p> + +<p>But after awhile she persuades him to tell the truth. He says: "If you +should take a razor or shears and cut off this long hair, I should be +powerless and in the hands of my enemies." Samson sleeps, and that she +may not wake him up during the process of shearing, help is called in. +You know that the barbers of the East have such a skillful way of +manipulating the head to this very day that, instead of waking up a +sleeping man, they will put a man wide awake sound asleep. I hear the +blades of the shears grinding against each other, and I see the long +locks falling off. The shears or razor accomplishes what green withes +and new ropes and house-loom could not do. Suddenly she claps her +hands, and says: "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" He rouses up +with a struggle, but his strength is all gone. He is in the hands of +his enemies.</p> + +<p>I hear the groan of the giant as they take his eyes out, and then I +see him staggering on in his blindness, feeling his way as he goes on +toward Gaza. The prison door is open, and the giant is thrust in. He +sits down and puts his hands on the mill-crank, which, with exhausting +horizontal motion, goes day after day, week after week, month after +month—work, work, work! The consternation of the world in captivity, +his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding corn in Gaza!</p> + +<p>I. First of all, behold in this giant of the text that physical power +is not always an index of moral power. He was a huge man—the lion +found it out, and the three thousand men whom he slew found it out; +yet he was the subject of petty revenges and out-gianted by low +passion. I am far from throwing any discredit upon physical stamina. +There are those who seem to have great admiration for delicacy and +sickliness of constitution. I never could see any glory in weak nerves +or sick headache. Whatever effort in our day is made to make the men +and women more robust should have the favor of every good citizen as +well as of every Christian. Gymnastics may be positively religious.</p> + +<p>Good people sometimes ascribe to a wicked heart what they ought to +ascribe to a slow liver. The body and the soul are such near neighbors +that they often catch each other's diseases. Those who never saw a +sick day, and who, like Hercules, show the giant in the cradle, have +more to answer for than those who are the subjects of life-long +infirmities. He who can lift twice as much as you can, and walk twice +as far, and work twice as long, will have a double account to meet in +the judgment.</p> + +<p>How often it is that you do not find physical energy indicative of +spiritual power! If a clear head is worth more than one dizzy with +perpetual vertigo—if muscles with the play of health in them are +worth more than those drawn up in chronic "rheumatics"—if an eye +quick to catch passing objects is better than one with vision dim and +uncertain—then God will require of us efficiency just in proportion +to what he has given us. Physical energy ought to be a type of moral +power. We ought to have as good digestion of truth as we have capacity +to assimilate food. Our spiritual hearing ought to be as good as our +physical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as our +tongue. Samsons in body, we ought to be giants in moral power.</p> + +<p>But while you find a great many men who realize that they ought to use +their money aright, and use their intelligence aright, how few men you +find aware of the fact that they ought to use their physical organism +aright! With every thump of the heart there is something saying, +"Work! work!" and, lest we should complain that we have no tools to +work with, God gives us our hands and feet, with every knuckle, and +with every joint, and with every muscle saying to us, "Lay hold and do +something."</p> + +<p>But how often it is that men with physical strength do not serve +Christ! They are like a ship full manned and full rigged, capable of +vast tonnage, able to endure all stress of weather, yet swinging idly +at the docks, when these men ought to be crossing and recrossing the +great ocean of human suffering and sin with God's supplies of mercy. +How often it is that physical strength is used in doing positive +damage, or in luxurious ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed +bosom, fearless of the shafts of opposition, it ought to be laying +hold with all its might, and tugging away to lift up this sunken wreck +of a world.</p> + +<p>It is a most shameful fact that much of the business of the Church and +of the world must be done by those comparatively invalid. Richard +Baxter, by reason of his diseases, all his days sitting in the door of +the tomb, yet writing more than a hundred volumes, and sending out an +influence for God that will endure as long as the "Saints' Everlasting +Rest." Edward Payson, never knowing a well day, yet how he preached, +and how he wrote, helping thousands of dying souls like himself to +swim in a sea of glory! And Robert M'Cheyne, a walking skeleton, yet +you know what he did in Dundee, and how he shook Scotland with zeal +for God. Philip Doddridge, advised by his friends, because of his +illness, not to enter the ministry, yet you know what he did for the +"rise and progress of religion" in the Church and in the world.</p> + +<p>Wilberforce was told by his doctors that he could not live a +fortnight, yet at that very time entering upon philanthropic +enterprises that demanded the greatest endurance and persistence. +Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so that often in his pulpit +while preaching he would stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting up +again to preach about heaven until the glories of the celestial city +dropped on the multitude, doing more work, perhaps, than almost any +well man in his day.</p> + +<p>Oh, how often it is that men with great physical endurance are not as +great in moral and spiritual stature! While there are achievements for +those who are bent all their days with sickness—achievements of +patience, achievements of Christian endurance—I call upon men of +health to-day, men of muscle, men of nerve, men of physical power, to +devote themselves to the Lord. Giants in body, you ought to be giants +in soul.</p> + +<p>II. Behold also, in the story of my text, illustration of the fact of +the damage that strength can do if it be misguided. It seems to me +that this man spent a great deal of his time in doing evil—this +Samson of my text. To pay a bet which he had lost by guessing of his +riddle he robs and kills thirty people. He was not only gigantic in +strength, but gigantic in mischief, and a type of those men in all +ages of the world who, powerful in body or mind, or any faculty of +social position or wealth, have used their strength for iniquitous +purposes.</p> + +<p>It is not the small, weak men of the day who do the damage. These +small men who go swearing and loafing about your stores and shops and +banking-houses, assailing Christ and the Bible and the Church—they do +not do the damage. They have no influence. They are vermin that you +crush with your foot. But it is the giants of the day, the misguided +giants, giants in physical power, or giants in mental acumen, or +giants in social position, or giants in wealth, who do the damage.</p> + +<p>The men with sharp pens that stab religion and throw their poison all +through our literature; the men who use the power of wealth to +sanction iniquity, and bribe justice, and make truth and honor bow to +their golden scepter.</p> + +<p>Misguided giants—look out for them! In the middle and the latter part +of the last century no doubt there were thousands of men in Paris and +Edinburgh and London who hated God and blasphemed the name of the +Almighty; but they did but little mischief—they were small men, +insignificant men. Yet there were giants in those days.</p> + +<p>Who can calculate the soul-havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a very +enthusiasm of iniquity, with fiery imagination seizing upon all the +impulsive natures of his day? or David Hume, who employed his life as +a spider employs its summer, in spinning out silken webs to trap the +unwary? or Voltaire, the most learned man of his day, marshaling a +great host of skeptics, and leading them out in the dark land of +infidelity? or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrollable grudge against +religion in his history of one of the most fascinating periods of the +world's existence—the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire—a book in +which, with all the splendors of his genius, he magnified the errors +of Christian disciples, while, with a sparseness of notice that never +can be forgiven, he treated of the Christian heroes of whom the world +was not worthy?</p> + +<p>Oh, men of stout physical health, men of great mental stature, men of +high social position, men of great power of any sort, I want you to +understand your power, and I want you to know that that power devoted +to God will be a crown on earth, to you typical of a crown in heaven; +but misguided, bedraggled in sin, administrative of evil, God will +thunder against you with His condemnation in the day when millionaire +and pauper, master and slave, king and subject, shall stand side by +side in the judgment, and money-bags, and judicial ermine, and royal +robe shall be riven with the lightnings.</p> + +<p>Behold also, how a giant may be slain of a woman. Delilah started the +train of circumstances that pulled down the temple of Dagon about +Samson's ears. And tens of thousands of giants have gone down to death +and hell through the same impure fascinations. It seems to me that it +is high time that pulpit and platform and printing-press speak out +against the impurities of modern society. Fastidiousness and Prudery +say: "Better not speak—you will rouse up adverse criticism; you will +make worse what you want to make better; better deal in glittering +generalities; the subject is too delicate for polite ears." But there +comes a voice from heaven overpowering the mincing sentimentalities of +the day, saying: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a +trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of +Jacob their sins."</p> + +<p>The trouble is that when people write or speak upon this theme they +are apt to cover it up with the graces of belles-lettres, so that the +crime is made attractive instead of repulsive. Lord Byron in "Don +Juan" adorns this crime until it smiles like a May queen. Michelet, +the great French writer, covers it up with bewitching rhetoric until +it glows like the rising sun, when it ought to be made loathsome as a +small-pox hospital. There are to-day influences abroad which, if +unresisted by the pulpit and the printing-press, will turn New York +and Brooklyn into Sodom and Gomorrah, fit only for the storm of fire +and brimstone that whelmed the cities of the plain.</p> + +<p>You who are seated in your Christian homes, compassed by moral and +religious restraints, do not realize the gulf of iniquity that bounds +you on the north and the south and the east and the west. While I +speak there are tens of thousands of men and women going over the +awful plunge of an impure life; and while I cry to God for mercy upon +their souls, I call upon you to marshal in the defense of your homes, +your Church and your nation. There is a banqueting hall that you have +never heard described. You know all about the feast of Ahasuerus, +where a thousand lords sat. You know all about Belshazzar's carousal, +where the blood of the murdered king spurted into the faces of the +banqueters. You may know of the scene of riot and wassail, when there +was set before Esopus one dish of food that cost $400,000. But I speak +now of a different banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its +floor is tesselated with fire. Its chalices are chased with fire. Its +song is a song of fire. Its walls are buttresses of fire. Solomon +refers to it when he says: "Her guests are in the depths of hell."</p> + +<p>Our American communities are suffering from the gospel of Free +Loveism, which, fifteen or twenty years ago, was preached on the +platform and in some of the churches of this country. I charge upon +Free Loveism that it has blighted innumerable homes, and that it has +sent innumerable souls to ruin. Free Loveism is bestial; it is +worse—it is infernal! It has furnished this land with about one +thousand divorces annually. In one county in the State of Indiana it +furnished eleven divorces in one day before dinner. It has roused up +elopements, North, South, East, and West. You can hardly take up a +paper but you read of an elopement. As far as I can understand the +doctrine of Free Loveism it is this: That every man ought to have +somebody else's wife, and every wife somebody else's husband. They do +not like our Christian organization of society, and I wish they would +all elope, the wretches of one sex taking the wretches of the other, +and start to-morrow morning for the great Sahara Desert, until the +simoom shall sweep seven feet of sand all over them, and not one +passing caravan for the next five hundred years bring back one +miserable bone of their carcasses! Free Loveism! It is the +double-distilled extract of nux vomica, ratsbane, and adder's tongue. +Never until society goes back to the old Bible, and hears its eulogy +of purity and its anathema of uncleanness—never until then will this +evil be extirpated.</p> + +<p>IV. Behold also in this giant of the text and in the giant of our own +century that great physical power must crumble and expire. The Samson +of the text long ago went away. He fought the lion. He fought the +Philistines. He could fight anything, but death was too much for him. +He may have required a longer grave and a broader grave; but the tomb +nevertheless was his terminus.</p> + +<p>If, then, we are to be compelled to go out of this world, where are we +to go to? This body and soul must soon part. What shall be the destiny +of the former I know—dust to dust. But what shall be the destiny of +the latter? Shall it rise into the companionship of the white-robed, +whose sins Christ has slain? or will it go down among the unbelieving, +who tried to gain the world and save their souls, but were swindled +out of both? Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in +the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is +ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is +this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to +save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power +and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his +dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined.</p> + +<p>V. In the light of this subject I want to call your attention to a +fact which may not have been rightly considered by five men in this +house, and that is the fact that we must be brought into judgment for +the employment of our physical organism. Shoulder, brain, hand, +foot—we must answer in judgment for the use we have made of them. +Have they been used for the elevation of society or for its +depression? In proportion as our arm is strong and our step elastic +will our account at last be intensified. Thousands of sermons are +preached to invalids. I preach this sermon this morning to stout men +and healthful women. We must give to God an account for the right use +of this physical organism.</p> + +<p>These invalids have comparatively little to account for, perhaps. They +could not lift twenty pounds. They could not walk half a mile without +sitting down to rest. In the preparation of this subject I have said +to myself, how shall I account to God in judgment for the use of a +body which never knew one moment of real sickness? Rising up in +judgment, standing beside the men and women who had only little +physical energy, and yet consumed that energy in a conflagration of +religious enthusiasm, how will we feel abashed!</p> + +<p>Oh, men of the strong arm and the stout heart, what use are you making +of your physical forces? Will you be able to stand the test of that +day when we must answer for the use of every talent, whether it were a +physical energy, or a mental acumen, or a spiritual power?</p> + +<p>The day approaches, and I see one who in this world was an invalid, +and as she stands before the throne of God to answer she says, "I was +sick all my days. I had but very little strength, but I did as well as +I could in being kind to those who were more sick and more +suffering." And Christ will say, "Well done, faithful servant."</p> + +<p>And then a little child will stand before the throne, and she will +say, "On earth I had a curvature of the spine, and I was very weak, +and I was very sick; but I used to gather flowers out of the wild-wood +and bring them to my sick mother, and she was comforted when she saw +the sweet flowers out of the wild-wood. I didn't do much, but I did +something." And Christ shall say, as He takes her up in His arm and +kisses her, "Well done, well done, faithful servant; enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord."</p> + +<p>What, then, will be said to us—we to whom the Lord gave physical +strength and continuous health? Hark! it thunders again. The judgment! +the judgment!</p> + +<p>I said to an old Scotch minister, who was one of the best friends I +ever had, "Doctor, did you ever know Robert Pollock, the Scotch poet, +who wrote 'The Course of Time'?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew him +well; I was his classmate." And then the doctor went on to tell me how +that the writing of "The Course of Time" exhausted the health of +Robert Pollock, and he expired. It seems as if no man could have such +a glimpse of the day for which all other days were made as Robert +Pollock had, and long survive that glimpse. In the description of that +day he says, among other things:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Begin the woe, ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds<br /></span> +<span>And doleful winds wail to the howling hills,<br /></span> +<span>And howling hills mourn to the dismal vales,<br /></span> +<span>And dismal vales sigh to the sorrowing brooks,<br /></span> +<span>And sorrowing brooks weep to the weeping stream,<br /></span> +<span>And weeping stream awake the groaning deep;<br /></span> +<span>Ye heavens, great archway of the universe, put sack-cloth on;<br /></span> +<span>And ocean, robe thyself in garb of widowhood,<br /></span> +<span>And gather all thy waves into a groan, and utter it.<br /></span> +<span>Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense.<br /></span> +<span>The occasion asks it, Nature dies, and angels come to lay<br /></span> +<span class="i4">her in her grave."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>What Robert Pollock saw in poetic dream, you and I will see in +positive reality—the judgment! the judgment!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_pleiades_and_orion" id="the_pleiades_and_orion"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3>THE PLEIADES AND ORION.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Amos</span>. v. 8</p> +<br /> + +<p>A country farmer wrote this text—Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth +and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as +formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the +sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was +getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take +from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and +stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and +Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, +and Israelites trembled.</p> + +<p>Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and +David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as +might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his +prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, +and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts +devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He +watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of +bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all +night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight +roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the +tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year +when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open +field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the +night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of +lunar light.</p> + +<p>What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at +twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, +and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's +hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the +thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the +map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out +before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He +associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He +had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, +and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. +But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while +seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of +the midnight heavens—the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The +former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it +rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the +winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven +Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald of the +tempest. The ancients were the more apt to study the physiognomy and +juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies, because they thought they had a +special influence upon the earth; and perhaps they were right. If the +moon every few hours lifts and lets down the tides of the Atlantic +Ocean, and the electric storms of last year in the sun, by all +scientific admission, affected the earth, why not the stars have +proportionate effect?</p> + +<p>And there are some things which make me think that it may not have +been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of +the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Did not a meteor +run on evangelistic errand on the first Christmas night, and designate +the rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars in their courses fight +against Sisera? Was it merely coincidental that before the destruction +of Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights? Did +it merely happen so that a new star appeared in constellation +Cassiopeia, and then disappeared just before King Charles IX. of +France, who was responsible for St. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it +without significance that in the days of the Roman Emperor Justinian +war and famine were preceded by the dimness of the sun, which for +nearly a year gave no more light than the moon, although there were no +clouds to obscure it?</p> + +<p>Astrology, after all, may have been something more than a brilliant +heathenism. No wonder that Amos of the text, having heard these two +anthems of the stars, put down the stout rough staff of the herdsman +and took into his brown hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen of a +prophet, and advised the recreant people of his time to return to God, +saying: "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." This +command, which Amos gave 785 years B.C., is just as appropriate for +us, 1885 A.D.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made +the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a +star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but +seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night +after night and season after season and decade after decade they had +kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never +clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called +the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his +Æneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order +established for their coming and going; order written not in +manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty +on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. +Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order.</p> + +<p>What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations +sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at +hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps +seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly +keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in +adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of +the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the +Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care +of the one world we inhabit.</p> + +<p>So I feel very much as my father felt one day when we were going to +the country mill to get a grist ground, and I, a boy of seven years, +sat in the back part of the wagon, and our yoke of oxen ran away with +us and along a labyrinthine road through the woods, so that I thought +every moment we would be dashed to pieces, and I made a terrible +outcry of fright, and my father turned to me with a face perfectly +calm, and said: "De Witt, what are you crying about? I guess we can +ride as fast as the oxen can run." And, my hearers, why should we be +affrighted and lose our equilibrium in the swift movement of worldly +events, especially when we are assured that it is not a yoke of +unbroken steers that are drawing us on, but that order and wise +government are in the yoke?</p> + +<p>In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, +and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, +and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with +you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better +than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see +further than Amos with the naked eye could—namely, two hundred stars +in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there +is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions +of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made +all that and controls all that—the wheel of the constellations +turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the +breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. +For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge +you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +groups of the text was the God of light. Amos saw that God was not +satisfied with making one star, or two or three stars, but He makes +seven; and having finished that group of worlds, makes another +group—group after group. To the Pleiades He adds Orion. It seems that +God likes light so well that He keeps making it. Only one being in the +universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, meteoric +creations, and that is the—Creator Himself. And they have all been +lovingly christened, each one a name as distinct as the names of your +children. "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by +their names." The seven Pleiades had names given to them, and they are +Alcyone, Merope, Celæno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia.</p> + +<p>But think of the billions and trillions of daughters of starry light +that God calls by name as they sweep by Him with beaming brow and +lustrous robe! So fond is God of light—natural light, moral light, +spiritual light. Again and again is light harnessed for +symbolization—Christ, the bright and morning star; evangelization, +the daybreak; the redemption of nations, Sun of Righteousness rising +with healing in His wings. Oh, men and women, with so many sorrows and +sins and perplexities, if you want light of comfort, light of pardon, +light of goodness, in earnest, pray through Christ, "Seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +archipelagoes of stars must be an unchanging God. There had been no +change in the stellar appearance in this herdsman's life-time, and his +father, a shepherd, reported to him that there had been no change in +his life-time. And these two clusters hang over the celestial arbor +now just as they were the first night that they shone on the Edenic +bowers, the same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top +of which to watch them, the same as when the Chaldeans calculated the +eclipses, the same as when Elihu, according to the Book of Job, went +out to study the aurora borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and +Copernican system, the same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras, and from +Pythagoras to Herschel. Surely, a changeless God must have fashioned +the Pleiades and Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups and downs of +life, and the flux and reflux of the tides of prosperity, to know that +we have a changeless God, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.</p> + +<p>Xerxes garlanded and knighted the steersman of his boat in the +morning, and hanged him in the evening of the same day. Fifty thousand +people stood around the columns of the national capitol, shouting +themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural, and in four months so +great were the antipathies that a ruffian's pistol in Washington depot +expressed the sentiment of a great multitude. The world sits in its +chariot and drives tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the horse +behind is Anathema. Lord Cobham, in King James' time, was applauded, +and had thirty-five thousand dollars a year, but was afterward +execrated, and lived on scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. +Alexander the Great after death remained unburied for thirty days, +because no one would do the honor of shoveling him under. The Duke of +Wellington refused to have his iron fence mended, because it had been +broken by an infuriated populace in some hour of political +excitement, and he left it in ruins that men might learn what a fickle +thing is human favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting +to everlasting to them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto the +children's children of such as keep His covenant, and to those who +remember His commandments to do them." This moment "seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."</p> + +<p>Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +beacons of the Oriental night sky must be a God of love and kindly +warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to all the herdsmen and +shepherds and husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and +cultivate your gardens and fields." Orion, coming in winter, warned +them to prepare for tempest. All navigation was regulated by these two +constellations. The one said to shipmaster and crew: "Hoist sail for +the sea, and gather merchandise from other lands." But Orion was the +storm-signal, and said: "Reef sail, make things snug, or put into +harbor, for the hurricanes are getting their wings out." As the +Pleiades were the sweet evangels of the spring, Orion was the warning +prophet of the winter.</p> + +<p>Oh, now I get the best view of God I ever had! There are two kinds of +sermons I never want to preach—the one that presents God so kind, so +indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will +against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their +impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are +spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in +His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven." The other kind of sermon I never want to +preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and +thundercloud, and with red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into +paroxysms of infinite agony. The sermon that I am now preaching +believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and +winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion.</p> + +<p>You must remember that the winter is just as important as the spring. +Let one winter pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to bind +the rivers and snow to enrich our fields, and then you will have to +enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries. "A green Christmas makes a +fat grave-yard," was the old proverb. Storms to purify the air. +Thermometer at ten degrees above zero to tone up the system. December +and January just as important as May and June. I tell you we need the +storms of life as much as we do the sunshine. There are more men +ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, +before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and +worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been +like Julius Cæsar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was +divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the +firmament.</p> + +<p>One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages made last summer by the +"Etruria" was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from +New York to Liverpool. But to those going in the opposite direction +the storm was a buffeting and a hinderance. It is a bad thing to have +a storm ahead, pushing us back; but if we be God's children and +aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner +into the harbor. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and +typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of the land and sea are not +unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but are under divine +supervision! I am so glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also the +God of Orion! It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina +Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," +and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in +favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of +consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility +of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your +persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal +heaven.</p> + +<p>Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible +God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in +Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and +minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! +worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we +stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling +off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric +iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve +around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around +the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make +about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time +between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos +into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition.</p> + +<p>And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, +many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there," +says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says +St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says +Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says +Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the +herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about +those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let +us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop +or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the +heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this +shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already +occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their +gates to let us in.</p> + +<p>When I read, "In my Father's house are many mansions," I do not know +but that each world is a room, and as many rooms as there are worlds, +stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hallways, stellar windows, +stellar domes. How our departed friends must pity us shut up in these +cramped apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles, when they some +morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar +system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling +constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve +luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep +of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic, +archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their +windows illuminated for festivity.</p> + +<p>Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How +little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future! +How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed +up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are +worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which +there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion, +how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must +obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call +to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable, +but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all +the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills +of Tekoa.</p> + +<p>I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never +impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest +Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two +or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building. +All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with +precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes +with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and +eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich +colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues +above statues, until sculpture can do no more, but faints and falls +back against carved stalls and down on pavements over which the kings +and queens of the earth have walked to confession. Nave and aisles and +transept and portals combining the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced, +interfoliated, intercolumned grandeur. As I stood outside, looking at +the double range of flying buttresses and the forest of pinnacles, +higher and higher and higher, until I almost reeled from dizziness, I +exclaimed; "Great doxology in stone! Frozen prayer of many nations!"</p> + +<p>But while standing there I saw a poor man enter and put down his pack +and kneel beside his burden on the hard floor of that cathedral. And +tears of deep emotion came into my eyes, as I said to myself: "There +is a soul worth more than all the material surroundings. That man will +live after the last pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all that +cathedral glory shall remain uncrumbled. He is now a Lazarus in rags +and poverty and weariness, but immortal, and a son of the Lord God +Almighty; and the prayer he now offers, though amid many +superstitions, I believe God will hear; and among the Apostles whose +sculptured forms stand in the surrounding niches he will at last be +lifted, and into the presence of that Christ whose sufferings are +represented by the crucifix before which he bows; and be raised in due +time out of all his poverties into the glorious home built for him and +built for us by 'Him who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion.'"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_queens_visit" id="the_queens_visit"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>THE QUEEN'S VISIT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Behold, the half was not told me."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I Kings</span> x: 7.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all +sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, +and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. +He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the +East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were +obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the +hands of Solomon's merchants. He manned the fortress Thapsacus at the +chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that +passed there. The three great products of Palestine—wine pressed from +the richest clusters and celebrated all the world over; oil which in +that hot country is the entire substitute for butter and lard, and was +pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country became +an oil well; and honey which was the entire substitute for +sugar—these three great products of the country Solomon exported, and +received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every +clime.</p> + +<p>He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered a fleet of ships to be +constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the +flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage, to bring +home the wealth of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian +horses were large and swift, and long-maned and round-limbed, and he +resolved to purchase them, giving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, +putting the best of these horses in his own stall, and selling the +surplus to foreign potentates at great profit.</p> + +<p>He heard that there was the best of timber on Mount Lebanon, and he +sent out one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest +and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into +rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thence to be drawn by ox-teams +twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there +were beautiful flowers in other lands. He sent for them, planted them +in his own gardens, and to this very day there are flowers found in +the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of +Palestine, the lineal descendants of the very flowers that Solomon +planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest +voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and +bring them there, and he put them into his cages.</p> + +<p>Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming up to the +king's gate, and the ox-trains from Egypt, gold and silver and +precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, +and fish of every scale! See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and +the horsemen run, and the chariots wheel! Hark to the orchestra! Gaze +upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, +step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace!</p> + +<p>Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the +king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the +architect, and of the other artists is here seen in the long line of +corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. +Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting +into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network +of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging +baskets. Three branches—so Josephus tells us—three branches +sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves +seemed to quiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of +water on six hundred brazen ox-heads, which gushed with water and +filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and +musical plash. Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and +cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seating place of +the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen lion. Why, my friends, +in that place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and +they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces +in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of +gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold +reflected in the water! Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing +in the crown! Gold, gold, gold!</p> + +<p>Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere +by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of +Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long +procession approaching Jerusalem? I think from the pomp of it there +must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of the spices which +are brought as presents, and I hear the shout of the drivers, and I +see the dust-covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry +the news up to the palace. The Queen of Sheba advances. Let all the +people come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the +palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace +before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and the +saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense, and pass it into the +treasure house. Take up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun.</p> + +<p>The Queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the +bath. She sits down at the banquet. The cup-bearers bow. The meat +smokes. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten +sea. Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the +conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Solomon +many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the +Hebrews, and she then and there becomes a servant of the Lord God.</p> + +<p>She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices she +brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned +into harps and psalteries and into railings for the causeway between +the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand +dollars in money—she begins to think that all these presents amount +to nothing in such a place, and she is almost ashamed that she has +brought them, and she says within herself: "I heard a great deal +about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, +but I find it far beyond my highest anticipations. I must add more +than fifty per cent. to what has been related. It exceeds everything +that I could have expected. The half—the half was not told me."</p> + +<p>Learn from this subject what a beautiful thing it is when social +position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes +to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say +it is because they are weak-minded. I say it is because they have +quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and +capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the +Gospel then all the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who +have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all come the people of +affluence and high social position. Alas, that it is so!</p> + +<p>If there are those here to-day who have been favored of fortune, or, +as I might better put it, favored of God, surrender all you have and +all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba. +Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I +am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all +ages—Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen +of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of +Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in +Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen +Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors +to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove +to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; +Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen +Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper.</p> + +<p>I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its +thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures, +and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and +conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line +of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with +gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and +the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this +greater than Solomon.</p> + +<p>Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of +truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say +in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great +way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to +cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering +deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a +committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates +report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She +wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this +by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand +kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by +Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of +eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the +jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time +to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan, +dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and +among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an +earnest seeker after the truth."</p> + +<p>But there are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that +way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come +to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their +arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am +to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost." +A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem +will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the +Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. +Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures +of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the +waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne. +Sit down at the banquet—the wine pressed from the grapes of the +heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the +camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. +The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"—that is, this very +woman I am speaking of—"the Queen of the South shall rise up in +judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the +uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, +behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the +infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting +to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it +shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the +camels!</p> + +<p>Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a +surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in +Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of +Christ—that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler +coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship +and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, +and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia +Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. +And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so +much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half—the half was +not told her.</p> + +<p>So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of +grace—an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; +martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with +visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through +the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It +has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with +pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great +congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of +God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this +banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of +His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with +tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half—the half was not told +me!"</p> + +<p>I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea +you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian +with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a +Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that +you never in the days of your spiritual bondage had any appreciation +of what was to come. You are ready to-day to answer, and if I gave you +an opportunity in the midst of this assemblage, you would speak out +and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and +the grace and the goodness of God: "The half—the half was not told +me!"</p> + +<p>Well, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this +world, when it is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells +of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of +Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren, +winter-bleached, storm-scarred, thunder-split rock breaking into +floods of bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their +nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoom—deserts blooming +into carnation roses and silver-tipped lilies.</p> + +<p>It is the old story. Everybody tells it. Isaiah told it, John told it, +Paul told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John +Milton told it—everybody tells it; and yet—and yet when the midnight +shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal His great army, and +China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of God +and wheel into line; and India, destroying her Juggernaut and +snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the +voice of God and wheel into line; and vine-covered Italy, and +wheat-crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the +voice of God and fall into line; then the Church, which has been +toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded like +a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up +into the face of her Lord the King, and say: "The half—the half was +not told me."</p> + +<p>Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian—a greater +surprise than anything I have depicted. Heaven is an old story. +Everybody talks about it. There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book that +does not refer to it. Children read about it in their Sabbath-school +book. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a +harbor from the storm. We call it our home. We say it is the house of +many mansions. We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, +exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out +in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a +surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the Queen of Sheba, +the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have +started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though +our feet be blistered with the way? We are hastening to the palace. We +take all our loves and hopes and Christian ambitions, as frankincense +and myrrh and cassia, to the great King. We must not rest. We must not +halt. The night is coming on, and it is not safe out here in the +desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the +houses of Lebanon, and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains +dance in the sun, and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor +pilgrims.</p> + +<p>Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are +weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: +"Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters, recline on these banks. +Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censer +and swing it before the altar." And yet, my friends, when heaven +bursts upon us it will be a greater surprise than that—Jesus on the +throne, and we made like Him! All our Christian friends surrounding us +in glory! All our sorrows and tears and sins gone by forever! The +thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, +the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without +end: "The half—the half was not told us!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="vicarious_suffering" id="vicarious_suffering"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>VICARIOUS SUFFERING.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Without shedding of blood is no remission."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Heb.</span> ix: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that +made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White +Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out +Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you +really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ +to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The +Bible statement agrees with all physicians, and all physiologists, and +all scientists, in saying that the blood is the life, and in the +Christian religion it means simply that Christ's life was given for +our life. Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible story of blood +is disgusting, and that they don't want what they call a +"slaughter-house religion," only shows their incapacity or +unwillingness to look through the figure of speech toward the thing +signified. The blood that, on the darkest Friday the world ever saw, +oozed, or trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side, and the +hands, and the feet of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in +a few hours coagulated and dried up, and forever disappeared; and if +man had depended on the application of the literal blood of Christ, +there would not have been a soul saved for the last eighteen +centuries.</p> + +<p>In order to understand this red word of my text, we only have to +exercise as much common sense in religion as we do in everything else. +Pang for pang, hunger for hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear, +blood for blood, life for life, we see every day illustrated. The act +of substitution is no novelty, although I hear men talk as though the +idea of Christ's suffering substituted for our suffering were +something abnormal, something distressingly odd, something wildly +eccentric, a solitary episode in the world's history; when I could +take you out into this city, and before sundown point you to five +hundred cases of substitution and voluntary suffering of one in behalf +of another.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock to-morrow afternoon go among the places of business or +toil. It will be no difficult thing for you to find men who, by their +looks, show you that they are overworked. They are prematurely old. +They are hastening rapidly toward their decease. They have gone +through crises in business that shattered their nervous system, and +pulled on the brain. They have a shortness of breath, and a pain in +the back of the head, and at night an insomnia that alarms them. Why +are they drudging at business early and late? For fun? No; it would be +difficult to extract any amusement out of that exhaustion. Because +they are avaricious? In many cases no. Because their own personal +expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars would meet all their +wants. The simple fact is, the man is enduring all that fatigue and +exasperation, and wear and tear, to keep his home prosperous. There +is an invisible line reaching from that store, from that bank, from +that shop, from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few blocks, a few +miles away, and there is the secret of that business endurance. He is +simply the champion of a homestead, for which he wins bread, and +wardrobe, and education, and prosperity, and in such battle ten +thousand men fall. Of ten business men whom I bury, nine die of +overwork for others. Some sudden disease finds them with no power of +resistance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood. +Substitution!</p> + +<p>At one o'clock to-morrow morning, the hour when slumber is most +uninterrupted and most profound, walk amid the dwelling-houses of the +city. Here and there you will find a dim light, because it is the +household custom to keep a subdued light burning: but most of the +houses from base to top are as dark as though uninhabited. A merciful +God has sent forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over +the city. But yonder is a clear light burning, and outside on the +window casement a glass or pitcher containing food for a sick child; +the food is set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that mother +has sat up with that sufferer. She has to the last point obeyed the +physician's prescription, not giving a drop too much or too little, or +a moment too soon or too late. She is very anxious, for she has buried +three children with the same disease, and she prays and weeps, each +prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. By dint of +kindness she gets the little one through the ordeal. After it is all +over, the mother is taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in, and +one day she leaves the convalescent child with a mother's blessing, +and goes up to join the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for life. +Substitution! The fact is that there are an uncounted number of +mothers who, after they have navigated a large family of children +through all the diseases of infancy, and got them fairly started up +the flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only strength enough +left to die. They fade away. Some call it consumption; some call it +nervous prostration; some call it intermittent or malarial +disposition; but I call it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>Or perhaps the mother lingers long enough to see a son get on the +wrong road, and his former kindness becomes rough reply when she +expresses anxiety about him. But she goes right on, looking carefully +after his apparel, remembering his every birthday with some memento, +and when he is brought home worn out with dissipation, nurses him till +he gets well and starts him again, and hopes, and expects, and prays, +and counsels, and suffers, until her strength gives out and she fails. +She is going, and attendants, bending over her pillow, ask her if she +has any message to leave, and she makes great effort to say something, +but out of three or four minutes of indistinct utterance they can +catch but three words: "My poor boy!" The simple fact is she died for +him. Life for life. Substitution!</p> + +<p>About twenty-four years ago there went forth from our homes hundreds +of thousands of men to do battle for their country. All the poetry of +war soon vanished, and left them nothing but the terrible prose. They +waded knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow-banks. They marched till +their cut feet tracked the earth. They were swindled out of their +honest rations, and lived on meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all +fractured, and eyes extinguished, and limbs shot away. Thousands of +them cried for water as they lay dying on the field the night after +the battle, and got it not. They were homesick, and received no +message from their loved ones. They died in barns, in bushes, in +ditches, the buzzards of the summer heat the only attendants on their +obsequies. No one but the infinite God who knows everything, knows the +ten thousandth part of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height +of anguish of the Northern and Southern battlefields. Why did these +fathers leave their children and go to the front, and why did these +young men, postponing the marriage-day, start out into the +probabilities of never coming back? For the country they died. Life +for life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>But we need not go so far. What is that monument in Greenwood? It is +to the doctors who fell in the Southern epidemics. Why go? Were there +not enough sick to be attended in these Northern latitudes? Oh, yes; +but the doctor puts a few medical books in his valise, and some vials +of medicine, and leaves his patients here in the hands of other +physicians, and takes the rail-train. Before he gets to the infected +regions he passes crowded rail-trains, regular and extra, taking the +flying and affrighted populations. He arrives in a city over which a +great horror is brooding. He goes from couch to couch, feeling of +pulse and studying symptoms, and prescribing day after day, night +after night, until a fellow-physician says: "Doctor, you had better go +home and rest; you look miserable." But he can not rest while so many +are suffering. On and on, until some morning finds him in a delirium, +in which he talks of home, and then rises and says he must go and look +after those patients. He is told to lie down; but he fights his +attendants until he falls back, and is weaker and weaker, and dies for +people with whom he had no kinship, and far away from his own family, +and is hastily put away in a stranger's tomb, and only the fifth part +of a newspaper line tells us of his sacrifice—his name just mentioned +among five. Yet he has touched the furthest height of sublimity in +that three weeks of humanitarian service. He goes straight as an arrow +to the bosom of Him who said: "I was sick and ye visited Me." Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>In the legal profession I see the same principle of self-sacrifice. In +1846, William Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic negro, was at Auburn, +N.Y., on trial for murder. He had slain the entire Van Nest family. +The foaming wrath of the community could be kept off him only by armed +constables. Who would volunteer to be his counsel? No attorney wanted +to sacrifice his popularity by such an ungrateful task. All were +silent save one, a young lawyer with feeble voice, that could hardly +be heard outside the bar, pale and thin and awkward. It was William H. +Seward, who saw that the prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible, and +ought to be put in an asylum rather than put to death, the heroic +counsel uttering these beautiful words:</p> + +<p>"I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged prisoner +and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a +pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child with +an affectionate smile disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever +I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give +because he says, 'God bless you!' as I pass. My dog caresses me with +fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse recognizes me when I +fill his manger. What reward, what gratitude, what sympathy and +affection can I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look at him. +Look at the assemblage around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed +censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors +or my fellow-men, where, even in his heart, I can expect to find a +sentiment, a thought, not to say of reward or of acknowledgment, or +even of recognition? Gentlemen, you may think of this evidence what +you please, bring in what verdict you can, but I asseverate before +Heaven and you, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the +prisoner at the bar does not at this moment know why it is that my +shadow falls on you instead of his own."</p> + +<p>The gallows got its victim, but the post-mortem examination of the +poor creature showed to all the surgeons and to all the world that the +public were wrong, and William H. Seward was right, and that hard, +stony step of obloquy in the Auburn court-room was the first step of +the stairs of fame up which he went to the top, or to within one step +of the top, that last denied him through the treachery of American +politics. Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an American court-room +than William H. Seward, without reward, standing between the fury of +the populace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution!</p> + +<p>In the realm of the fine arts there was as remarkable an instance. A +brilliant but hypercriticised painter, Joseph William Turner, was met +by a volley of abuse from all the art galleries of Europe. His +paintings, which have since won the applause of all civilized nations, +"The Fifth Plague of Egypt," "Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally +Weather," "Calais Pier," "The Sun Rising Through Mist," and "Dido +Building Carthage," were then targets for critics to shoot at. In +defense of this outrageously abused man, a young author of twenty-four +years, just one year out of college, came forth with his pen, and +wrote the ablest and most famous essays on art that the world ever +saw, or ever will see—John Ruskin's "Modern Painters." For seventeen +years this author fought the battles of the maltreated artist, and +after, in poverty and broken-heartedness, the painter had died, and +the public tried to undo their cruelties toward him by giving him a +big funeral and burial at St. Paul's Cathedral, his old-time friend +took out of a tin box nineteen thousand pieces of paper containing +drawings by the old painter, and through many weary and uncompensated +months assorted and arranged them for public observation. People say +John Ruskin in his old days is cross, misanthropic, and morbid. +Whatever he may do that he ought not to do, and whatever he may say +that he ought not to say between now and his death, he will leave this +world insolvent as far as it has any capacity to pay this author's pen +for its chivalric and Christian defense of a poor painter's pencil. +John Ruskin for William Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution!</p> + +<p>What an exalting principle this which leads one to suffer for another! +Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic +canto, or moves nations. The principle is the dominant one in our +religion—Christ the Martyr, Christ the celestial Hero, Christ the +Defender, Christ the Substitute. No new principle, for it was as old +as human nature; but now on a grander, wider, higher, deeper, and more +world-resounding scale! The shepherd boy as a champion for Israel with +a sling toppled the giant of Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but +here is another David who, for all the armies of churches militant and +triumphant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the crash of +his brazen armor like an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had at God's +command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same God just in +time had provided a ram of the thicket as a substitute; but here is +another Isaac bound to the altar, and no hand arrests the sharp edges +of laceration and death, and the universe shivers and quakes and +recoils and groans at the horror.</p> + +<p>All good men have for centuries been trying to tell whom this +Substitute was like, and every comparison, inspired and uninspired, +evangelistic, prophetic, apostolic, and human, falls short, for Christ +was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of Christ, because he came directly +from God; Noah a type of Christ, because he delivered his own family +from deluge; Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he had no +predecessor or successor; Joseph a type of Christ, because he was cast +out by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ, because he was a +deliverer from bondage; Joshua a type of Christ, because he was a +conqueror; Samson a type of Christ, because of his strength to slay +the lions and carry off the iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a +type of Christ, in the affluence of his dominion; Jonah a type of +Christ, because of the stormy sea in which he threw himself for the +rescue of others; but put together Adam and Noah and Melchisedec and +Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they +would not make a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half +of a Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ.</p> + +<p>He forsook a throne and sat down on His own footstool. He came from +the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and changed a +circumference seraphic for a circumference diabolic. Once waited on by +angels, now hissed at by brigands. From afar and high up He came down; +past meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones, Himself more +lustrous; past larger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs of +firmaments, and from cloud to cloud, and through tree-tops and into +the earners stall, to thrust His shoulder under our burdens and take +the lances of pain through His vitals, and wrapped himself in all the +agonies which we deserve for our misdoings, and stood on the splitting +decks of a foundering vessel, amid the drenching surf of the sea, and +passed midnights on the mountains amid wild beasts of prey, and stood +at the point where all earthly and infernal hostilities charged on Him +at once with their keen sabers—our Substitute!</p> + +<p>When did attorney ever endure so much for a pauper client, or +physician for the patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the child in +membranous croup, as Christ for us, and Christ for you, and Christ for +me? Shall any man or woman or child in this audience who has ever +suffered for another find it hard to understand this Christly +suffering for us? Shall those whose sympathies have been wrung in +behalf of the unfortunate have no appreciation of that one moment +which was lifted out of all the ages of eternity as most conspicuous, +when Christ gathered up all the sins of those to be redeemed under His +one arm, and all their sorrows under His other arm, and said: "I will +atone for these under my right arm, and will heal all those under my +left arm. Strike me with all thy glittering shafts, O Eternal Justice! +Roll over me with all thy surges, ye oceans of sorrow"? And the +thunderbolts struck Him from above, and the seas of trouble rolled up +from beneath, hurricane after hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone, +and then and there in presence of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all +worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter price, the transcendent +price, the awful price, the glorious price, the infinite price, the +eternal price, was paid that sets us free.</p> + +<p>That is what Paul means, that is what I mean, that is what all those +who have ever had their heart changed mean by "blood." I glory in this +religion of blood! I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color in +sacramental cup, whether it be of burnished silver set on cloth +immaculately white, or rough-hewn from wood set on table in log-hut +meeting-house of the wilderness. Now I am thrilled as I see the altars +of ancient sacrifice crimson with the blood of the slain lamb, and +Leviticus is to me not so much the Old Testament as the New. Now I see +why the destroying angel passing over Egypt in the night spared all +those houses that had blood sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I know +what Isaiah means when he speaks of "one in red apparel coming with +dyed garments from Bozrah;" and whom the Apocalypse means when it +describes a heavenly chieftain whose "vesture was dipped in blood;" +and what Peter, the apostle, means when he speaks of the "precious +blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and what the old, worn-out, +decrepit missionary Paul means when, in my text, he cries, "Without +shedding of blood is no remission." By that blood you and I will be +saved—or never saved at all. In all the ages of the world God has not +once pardoned a single sin except through the Saviour's expiation, and +He never will. Glory be to God that the hill back of Jerusalem was the +battle-field on which Christ achieved our liberty!</p> + +<p>The most exciting and overpowering day of last summer was the day I +spent on the battle-field of Waterloo. Starting out with the morning +train from Brussels, Belgium, we arrived in about an hour on that +famous spot. A son of one who was in the battle, and who had heard +from his father a thousand times the whole scene recited, accompanied +us over the field. There stood the old Hougomont Château, the walls +dented, and scratched, and broken, and shattered by grape-shot and +cannon-ball. There is the well in which three hundred dying and dead +were pitched. There is the chapel with the head of the infant Christ +shot off. There are the gates at which, for many hours, English and +French armies wrestled. Yonder were the one hundred and sixty guns of +the English, and the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. Yonder +the Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods. Yonder was the ravine of +Ohain, where the French cavalry, not knowing there was a hollow in the +ground, rolled over and down, troop after troop, tumbling into one +awful mass of suffering, hoof of kicking horses against brow and +breast of captains and colonels and private soldiers, the human and +the beastly groan kept up until, the day after, all was shoveled under +because of the malodor arising in that hot month of June.</p> + +<p>"There," said our guide, "the Highland regiments lay down on their +faces waiting for the moment to spring upon the foe. In that orchard +twenty-five hundred men were cut to pieces. Here stood Wellington with +white lips, and up that knoll rode Marshal Ney on his sixth horse, +five having been shot under him. Here the ranks of the French broke, +and Marshal Ney, with his boot slashed of a sword, and his hat off, +and his face covered with powder and blood, tried to rally his troops +as he cried: 'Come and see how a marshal of French dies on the +battle-field.' From yonder direction Grouchy was expected for the +French re-enforcement, but he came not. Around those woods Blucher was +looked for to re-enforce the English, and just in time he came up. +Yonder is the field where Napoleon stood, his arm through the reins of +the horse's bridle, dazed and insane, trying to go back." Scene of a +battle that went on from twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock, on the +eighteenth of June, until four o'clock, when the English seemed +defeated, and their commander cried out; "Boys, can you think of +giving way? Remember old England!" and the tides turned, and at eight +o'clock in the evening the man of destiny, who was called by his +troops Old Two Hundred Thousand, turned away with broken heart, and +the fate of centuries was decided.</p> + +<p>No wonder a great mound has been reared there, hundreds of feet +high—a mound at the expense of millions of dollars and many years in +rising, and on the top is the great Belgian lion of bronze, and a +grand old lion it is. But our great Waterloo was in Palestine. There +came a day when all hell rode up, led by Apollyon, and the Captain of +our salvation confronted them alone. The Rider on the white horse of +the Apocalypse going out against the black horse cavalry of death, and +the battalions of the demoniac, and the myrmidons of darkness. From +twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock in the afternoon the greatest +battle of the universe went on. Eternal destinies were being decided. +All the arrows of hell pierced our Chieftain, and the battle-axes +struck Him, until brow and cheek and shoulder and hand and foot were +incarnadined with oozing life; but He fought on until He gave a final +stroke with sword from Jehovah's buckler, and the commander-in-chief +of hell and all his forces fell back in everlasting ruin, and the +victory is ours. And on the mound that celebrates the triumph we plant +this day two figures, not in bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but +two figures of living light, the Lion of Judah's tribe and the Lamb +that was slain.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="posthumous_opportunity" id="posthumous_opportunity"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"If the tree fall toward the south or toward +the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall +be."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Eccles.</span> xi: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there +will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of +this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it +will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a +defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to +the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment +in his behalf, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, +if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of +eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs +remitted, and we may be victorious defendants forever.</p> + +<p>My object in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my +text, declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that +the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the +disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause +of his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this +world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. +Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on.</p> + +<p>That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking," said +the doctor, "and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will +destroy you.". The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm; but, under +skillful medical treatment, he begins to sit up, begins to walk about +the room, begins to go to business. And, lo! he goes back to the same +grog-shops for his morning dram, and his even dram, and the drams +between. Flat down again! Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same +medical warning.</p> + +<p>Now, the illness is more protracted; the liver is more stubborn, the +stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious. +But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shops, +and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health.</p> + +<p>He sees that his downward course is ruining his household, that his +life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow, that that +broken-hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he +married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons +are to be taunted for a life-time by the father's drunkenness, that +the daughters are to pass into life under the scarification of a +disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their +prospects for this life, and, perhaps, for the life to come. Sometimes +an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system +is all a tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, +rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. +Does it reform him?</p> + +<p>After awhile he has delirium tremens, with a whole jungle of hissing +reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors +as he dashes out of his bed, crying: "Take these things off me!" As he +sits, pale and convalescent, the doctor says: "Now I want to have a +plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you +will have you will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die." He +gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time +medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying +there is no hope. Death ends the scene.</p> + +<p>That process of inebriation, warning, and dissolution is going on +within stone's throw of this church, going on in all the neighborhoods +of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What +is true in one sense is true in all senses, and will forever be so, +and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. +Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and +you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been +there before, some of them four, five, six times. With a million +illustrations all working the other way in this world, people are +expecting that distress in the next state will be salvatory. You can +not imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some +men have suffered here, and without any salutary consequence.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more +improbable than a reformation here. In this world the life started +with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will +open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. +Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out +of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with +innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what +prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there +would be a seraph evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of +making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than +out of an old black rock seamed and cracked with the storms of a half +century. Surely upon a clean, white sheet of paper it is easier to +write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and +blotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, +though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out +badly, the next life will succeed, though it starts with a dead +failure.</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "I think we ought to have a chance in the next +life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. +We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood +of the one almost touching the marble of the other." But do you know +what made the ancient deluge a necessity? It was the longevity of the +antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their +life-time than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the +third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eight, and +nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed, and scrubbed, and +soaked, and anchored, clear out of sight for more than a month before +it could be made fit for decent people to live in. Longevity never +cures impenitency. All the pictures of Time represent him with a +scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of +medicines to heal. Seneca says that Nero for the first five years of +his public life was set up for an example of clemency and kindness, +but his path all the way descended until at sixty-eight he became a +suicide. If eight hundred years did not make antediluvians any better, +but only made them worse, the ages of eternity could have no effect +except prolongation of depravity.</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "in the future state evil surroundings will be +withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation, +and sublimation, and glorification." But the righteous, all their sins +forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the +unsaved will be left alone. It can not be expected that Doctor Duff, +who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and +Doctor Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and +Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be +sent down by some celestial missionary society to educate those who +wasted all their earthly existence. Evangelistic and missionary +efforts are ended. The entire kingdom of the morally bankrupt by +themselves, where are the salvatory influences to come from? Can one +speckled and bad apple in a barrel of diseased apples turn the other +apples good? Can those who are themselves down help others up? Can +those who have themselves failed in the business of the soul pay the +debts of their spiritual insolvents? Can a million wrongs make one +right?</p> + +<p>Poneropolis was a city where King Philip of Thracia put all the bad +people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at +Poneropolis I do not think the parents from other cities would have +sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the other world, +all the associations, now that the good are evolved, will be +degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera +or yellow fever hospital for his health; and the great lazaretto of +the next world, containing the diseased and plague-struck, will be a +poor place for moral recovery. If the surroundings in this world were +crowded of temptation, the surroundings of the next world, after the +righteous have passed up and on, will be a thousand per cent. more +crowded of temptation.</p> + +<p>The Count of Chateaubriand made his little son sleep at night at the +top of a castle turret, where the winds howled and where specters were +said to haunt the place; and while the mother and sisters almost died +with fright, the son tells us that the process gave him nerves that +could not tremble and a courage that never faltered. But I don't think +that towers of darkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco and +Euroclydon will ever fit one for the land of eternal sunshine. I +wonder what is the curriculum of that college of Inferno, where, after +proper preparation by the sins of this life, the candidate enters, +passing on from freshman class of depravity to sophomore of +abandonment, and from sophomore to junior, and from junior to senior, +and day of graduation comes, and with diploma signed by Satan, the +president, and other professorial demoniacs, attesting that the +candidate has been long enough under their drill, he passes up to +enter heaven! Pandemonium a preparative course for heavenly admission! +Ah, my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted +multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another +chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a +man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, +society would be terribly demoralized, and the human race demolished +in a few years. The fear that, if we are bad and unforgiven here, it +will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence +that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and +semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight +savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all +nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for +those who have wasted this.</p> + +<p>Multitudes of men who are kept within bounds would say, "Go to, now! +Let me get all out of this life there is in it. Come, gluttony, and +inebriation, and uncleanness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and +wait upon me! My life may be somewhat shortened in this world by +dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger +scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and +will enter the Heavenly Temple only a little later than those who +behaved themselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little +wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to +heaven <i>via</i> Gehenna and <i>via</i> Sheol." Another chance in the next +world means free license and wild abandonment in this.</p> + +<p>Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew +from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried +twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, but that the +second would decide everything; for which trial would you make the +most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be +most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the +stress upon the second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, +saying, "The first is nothing, the last is everything." Give the race +assurance of a second and more important trial in the subsequent life, +and all the preparation for eternity would be <i>post-mortem</i>, +post-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched +off into impiety and godlessness.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, let me ask why a chance should be given in the next world +if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a +banquet, and you invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines +to come, or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the +course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is +invited to them all, and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. +After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you +again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who +declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he +a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done +you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. +He invited us by His Providence and His Spirit three hundred and +sixty-five days of every year since we knew our right hand from our +left. If we declined it every time, or treated the invitation with +indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on +our part toward the Banqueter, and at last He spreads the banquet in a +more luxurious and kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a +right to expect Him to invite us again, and have we a right to blame +Him if He does not invite us?</p> + +<p>If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years +for our admission, and at the end of that time they are closed, can we +complain of it and say, "These gates ought to be open again. Give us +another chance"? If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and we want to +get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every +morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we +have that advertisement before our eyes, and then we go down to the +docks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into the stream and say: +"Come back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this +way. Swing up to the dock again, and throw out planks, and let me come +on board." Such behavior would invite arrest as a madman.</p> + +<p>And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for +years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have +urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any moment, and +after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to +come back? You might as well go out on the Highlands at Neversink and +call to the "Aurania" after she has been three days out, and expect +her to return, as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it once +has sped away. All heaven offered us as a gratuity, and for a +life-time we refuse to take it, and then rush on the bosses of +Jehovah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to be, there +can be, there will be no such thing as posthumous opportunity. Thus, +our common sense agrees with my text—"If the tree fall toward the +south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there +it shall be."</p> + +<p>You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant +way-station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity +whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation +must be made in this world, or never made at all. That piles up all +the emphases and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life +here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the +importance of this chance!</p> + +<p>Alexander with his army used to surround a city, and then would lift a +great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before +that light went out, all would be well; but if once the light went +out, then the battering-rams would swing against the wall, and +demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our +present and everlasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the +King and Conqueror—surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, +surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of +Gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross and +flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender +while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there +will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance!</p> + +<p>In the time of Edward the Sixth, at the battle of Musselburgh, a +private soldier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley had lost his helmet, +took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of the earl; and the +head of the private soldier uncovered, he was soon slain, while his +commander rode safely out of the battle. But in our case, instead of a +private soldier offering helmet to an earl, it is a King putting His +crown upon an unworthy subject, the King dying that we might live. +Tell it to all points of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell +it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all +millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that +we need no other chance in the next.</p> + +<p>I am in the burnished Judgment Hall of the Last Day. A great white +throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are +waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. "What +are you waiting here for?" says a soul that went up from Madagascar to +a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: "I came from +America, where forty years I heard the Gospel preached, and Bible +read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother's +knee until my last hour I had Gospel advantage, but, for some reason, +I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the +Judge to give me a new trial and another chance." "Strange!" says the +other; "I had but one Gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted it, +and I do not need another chance."</p> + +<p>"Why are you here?" says one who on earth had feeblest intellect to +one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of +influence. The latter responds: "Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I +mastered libraries, and had learned titles from colleges, and my name +was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, +and I am here waiting for a new trial." "Strange," says the one of the +feeble earthly capacity; "I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but +I knew Christ, and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another +chance."</p> + +<p>Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great +folding-doors of the Hall swing open. "Stand back!" cry the celestial +ushers. "Stand back, and let the Judge of quick and dead pass +through!" He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of +nations, He says: "Come to judgment, the last judgment, the only +judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each one +flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. "Divide!" says +the Judge to the assembly. "Divide!" echo the walls. "Divide!" cry the +guards angelic.</p> + +<p>And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after +awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum +widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one +side, says: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he +that is holy, let him be holy still;" and then, turning toward the +throng on the opposite side, He says: "He that is unjust, let him be +unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still;" and +then, lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: "If the tree +fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the +tree falleth, there it shall be." And then I hear something jar with a +great sound. It is the closing of the Book of Judgment. The Judge +ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is +cleared and shut. The high court of eternity is adjourned forever.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_lords_razor" id="the_lords_razor"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE LORD'S RAZOR.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is + hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of + Assyria."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isaiah</span> vii: 20.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes +in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes +seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is +that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame +and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While +there are times when He employs in the Bible the gentle dew and the +morning cloud and the dove and the daybreak in the presentation of +truth, we often find the iron chariot, the lightning, the earthquake, +the spray, the sword, and, in my text, the razor.</p> + +<p>This keen-bladed instrument has advanced in usefulness with the ages. +In Bible times and lands the beard remained uncut save in the seasons +of mourning and humiliation, but the razor was always a suggestive +symbol. David says of Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp +razor working deceitfully;" that is, it pretends to clear the face, +but is really used for deadly incision. In this morning's text the +weapon of the toilet appears under the following circumstances: Judea +needed to have some of its prosperities cut off, and God sends +against it three Assyrian kings—first Sennacherib, then Esrahaddon, +and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. Those three sharp invasions, that cut +down the glory of Judea, are compared to so many sweeps of the razor +across the face of the land. And these circumstances were called a +hired razor because God took the kings of Assyria, with whom He had no +sympathy, to do the work, and paid them in palaces and spoils and +annexations. These kings were hired to execute the divine behests. And +now the text, which on its first reading may have seemed trivial or +inapt, is charged with momentous import: "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired—namely, by them beyond the +river, by the King of Assyria."</p> + +<p>Well, if God's judgments are razors, we had better be careful how we +use them on other people. In careful sheath these domestic weapons are +put away, where no one by accident may touch them, and where the hands +of children may not reach them. Such instruments must be carefully +handled or not handled at all. But how recklessly some people wield +the judgments of God! If a man meet with business misfortune, how many +there are ready to cry out: "That is a judgment of God upon him +because he was unscrupulous, or arrogant, or overreaching, or miserly. +I thought he would get cut down! What a clean sweep of everything! His +city house and country house gone! His stables emptied of all the fine +bays and sorrels and grays that used to prance by his door! All his +resources overthrown, and all that he prided himself on tumbled into +demolition! Good for him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling around too +freely the judgments of God, for they are razors.</p> + +<p>Some of the most wicked business men succeed, and they live and die in +prosperity, and some of the most honest and conscientious are driven +into bankruptcy. Perhaps his manner was unfortunate, and he was not +really as proud as he looked to be. Some of those who carry their head +erect and look imperial are humble as a child, while many a man in +seedy coat and slouch hat and unblacked shoes is as proud as Lucifer. +You can not tell by a man's look. Perhaps he was not unscrupulous in +business, for there are two sides to every story, and everybody that +accomplishes anything for himself or others gets industriously lied +about. Perhaps his business misfortune was not a punishment, but the +fatherly discipline to prepare him for heaven, and God may love him +far more than He loves you, who can pay dollar for dollar, and are put +down in the commercial catalogues as A1. Whom the Lord loveth He gives +four hundred thousand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillows? No: +whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Better keep your hand off the +Lord's razors, lest they cut and wound people that do not deserve it. +If you want to shave off some of the bristling pride of your own heart +do so; but be very careful how you put the sharp edge on others.</p> + +<p>How I do dislike the behavior of those persons who, when people are +unfortunate, say: "I told you so—getting punished—served him right." +If those I-told-you-so's got their desert they would long ago have +been pitched over the battlements. The mote in their neighbor's +eyes—so small that it takes a microscope to find it—gives them more +trouble than the beam which obscures their own optics. With air +sometimes supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical, and always +blasphemous, they take the razor of the divine judgment and sharpen it +on the hone of their own hard hearts, and then go to work on men +sprawled out at full length under disaster, cutting mercilessly. They +begin by soft expressions of sympathy and pity and half praise, and, +lather the victim all over before they put on the sharp edge.</p> + +<p>Let us be careful how we shoot at others lest we take down the wrong +one, remembering the servant of King William Rufus who shot at a deer, +but the arrow glanced against a tree and killed the king. Instead of +going out with shafts to pierce, and razors to cut, we had better +imitate the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, in the war of the +Crusades, was captured and imprisoned, but none of his friends knew +where. So his loyal friend went around the land from stronghold to +stronghold, and sung at each window a snatch of song that Richard +Coeur de Lion had taught him in other days. And one day, coming before +a jail where he suspected his king might be incarcerated, he sung two +lines of song, and immediately King Richard responded from his cell +with the other two lines, and so his whereabouts were discovered, and +immediately a successful movement was made for his liberation. So let +us go up and down the world with the music of kind words and +sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate, and trying to get out +of trouble men who had noble natures, but, by unforeseen +circumstances, have been incarcerated, thus liberating kings. More +hymn-book and less razor.</p> + +<p>Especially ought we to be apologetic and merciful toward those who, +while they have great faults, have also great virtues. Some people are +barren of virtues. No weeds verily, but no flowers. I must not be too +much enraged at a nettle along the fence if it be in a field +containing forty acres of ripe Michigan wheat. At the present time, +naturalists tell us, there is on the sun a spot twenty thousand miles +long, but from the brightness and warmth I conclude it is a good deal +of a sun yet.</p> + +<p>Again, when I read in my text that the Lord shaves with the hired +razor of Assyria the land of Judea, I bethink myself of the precision +of God's providence. A razor swung the tenth part of an inch out of +the right line means either failure or laceration, but God's dealings +never slip, and they do not miss by the thousandth part of an inch the +right direction. People talk as though things in this world were at +loose ends. Cholera sweeps across Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo, +and we watch anxiously. Will the epidemic sweep Europe and America? +People say, "That will entirely depend on whether inoculation is a +successful experiment; that will depend entirely on quarantine +regulations; that will depend on the early or late appearance of +frost; that epidemic is pitched into the world, and it goes blundering +across the continents, and it is all guess-work and an appalling +perhaps."</p> + +<p>My friends, I think, perhaps, that God had something to do with it, +and that His mercy may have in some way protected us—that He may have +done as much for us as the quarantine and the health officers. It was +right and a necessity that all caution should be used, but there has +come enough macaroni from Italy, and enough grapes from the south of +France, and enough rags from tatterdemalions, and hidden in these +articles of transportation enough choleraic germs to have left by this +time all Brooklyn mourning at Greenwood, and all Philadelphia at +Laurel Hill, and all Boston at Mount Auburn. I thank all the doctors +and quarantines; but, more than all, and first of all, and last of +all, and all the time, I thank God. In all the six thousand years of +the world's existence there has not one thing merely "happened so." +God is not an anarchist, but a King, a Father.</p> + +<p>When little Tod, the son of President Lincoln, died, all the land +sympathized with the sorrow in the White House. He used to rush into +the room where the cabinet was in session, and while the most eminent +men of the land were discussing the questions of national existence. +But the child had no care about those questions. Now God the Father, +and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session in +regard to this world and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child, rush in +to criticise or arraign or condemn the divine government? No; the +Cabinet of the Eternal Three can govern and will govern in the wisest +and best way, and there never will be a mistake, and like razor +skillfully swung, shall cut that which ought to be cut, and avoid that +which ought to be avoided. Precision to the very hair-breadth. Earthly +time-pieces may get out of order and strike wrong, saying that it is +one o'clock when it is two, or two when it is three. God's clock is +always right, and when it is one it strikes one, and when it is twelve +it strikes twelve, and the second hand is as accurate as the minute +hand.</p> + +<p>Further, my text tells us that God sometimes shaves nations: "In the +same day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired." With one +sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its +power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath +desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity, +and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its +sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned +again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to +Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the +heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword +of war was the Lord's razor.</p> + +<p>In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again. +Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the +history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during +those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit +some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take +us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics, +droughts, deluges, plagues—grasshopper and locust; or our +overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands +that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may +combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north +and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more +hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power.</p> + +<p>We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our +fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being +hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated +China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her +resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern +warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans +must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come +upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I +hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to +show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the +hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the +Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because +of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870, +Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is +the razor with which very shortly the Lord will shave Russia. But +nations are to repent in a day. May a speedy and world-wide coming to +God hinder, on both sides the sea, all national calamity. But do not +let us, as a nation, either by unrighteous law at Washington, or bad +lives among ourselves, defy the Almighty.</p> + +<p>One would think that our national symbol of the eagle might sometimes +suggest another eagle, that which ancient Rome carried. In the talons +of that eagle were clutched at one time Britain, France, Spain, Italy, +Dalmatia, Rhactia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, +Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and +all Northern Africa, and all the islands of the Mediterranean, indeed, +all the world that was worth having, an hundred and twenty millions of +people under the wings of that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask +Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem, the "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire." Ask her gigantic ruins straggling their sadness through +the ages, the screech owl at windows out of which world-wide +conquerors looked. Ask the day of judgment when her crowned +debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax, and Caligula and Diocletian, shall +answer for their infamy? As men and as nations let us repent, and have +our trust in a pardoning God, rather than depend on former successes +for immunity! Out of thirteen greatest battles of the world, Napoleon +had lost but one before Waterloo. Pride and destruction often ride in +the same saddle.</p> + +<p>But notice once more, and more than all in my text, that God is so +kind and loving, that when it is necessary for Him to cut, He has to +go to others for the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired." God is love. God is pity. God +is help. God is shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp edges about +Him, no thrusting points, no instruments of laceration. If you want +balm for wounds, He has that. If you want salve for divine eyesight, +He has that. But if there is sharp and cutting work to do which +requires a razor, that He hires. God has nothing about Him that hurts, +save when dire necessity demands, and then He has to go clear off to +some one else to get the instrument.</p> + +<p>This divine geniality will be no novelty to those who have pondered +the Calvarean massacre, where God submerged Himself in human tears, +and crimsoned Himself from punctured arteries, and let the terrestrial +and infernal worlds maul Him until the chandeliers of the sky had to +be turned out, because the universe could not endure the indecency. +Illustrious for love He must have been to take all that as our +substitute, paying out of His own heart the price of our admission at +the gates of heaven.</p> + +<p>King Henry II., of England, crowned his son as king, and on the day of +coronation put on a servant's garb and waited, he, the king, at the +son's table, to the astonishment of all the princes. But we know of a +more wondrous scene, the King of heaven and earth offering to put on +you, His child, the crown of life, and in the form of a servant +waiting on you with blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all +sculpture, all music, all architecture, all worship! In Dresdenian +gallery let Raphael hold Him up as a child, and in Antwerp Cathedral +let Rubens hand Him down from the cross as a martyr, and Handel make +all his oratorio vibrate around that one chord—"He was wounded for +our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." But not until all the +redeemed get home, and from the countenances of all the piled-up +galleries of the ransomed shall be revealed the wonders of redemption, +shall either man or seraph or archangel know the height, and depth, +and length, and breadth of the love of God.</p> + +<p>At our national capital, a monument in honor of him who did more than +any one to achieve our American Independence, was for scores of years +in building, and most of us were discouraged and said it never would +be completed. And how glad we all were when in the presence of the +highest officials of the nation, the work was done! But will the +monument to Him who died for the eternal liberation of the human race +ever be completed? For ages the work has been going up; evangelists +and apostles and martyrs have been adding to the heavenly pile, and +every one of the millions of the redeemed going up from earth, has +made to it contribution of gladness, and weight of glory is swung to +the top of other weight of glory, higher and higher as the centuries +go by, higher and higher as the whole millenniums roll, sapphire on +the top of jasper, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony, and chrysoprasus +above topaz, until, far beneath shall be the walls and towers and +domes of the great capitol, a monument forever and forever rising, and +yet never done. "Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our +sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests forever."</p> + +<p>Allelujah, amen.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="windows_toward_jerusalem" id="windows_toward_jerusalem"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"His windows being open and his chamber toward + Jerusalem."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Dan.</span> vi: 10.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy +against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever +prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who +are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, +or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth +trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of +Daniel, the Coeur-de-Lion of the ages. His enemies might as well have +a law that the sun should not draw water or that the south wind should +not sweep across a garden of magnolias or that God should be +abolished. They could not scare him with the red-hot furnaces, and +they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of +this enactment he leaves his office of Secretary of State, with its +upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps +and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters +back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred +city of Jerusalem, and then prays.</p> + +<p>I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his +window, and said: "Just see that man defying the law; he ought to be +arrested." And the constabulary of the city rush to the police +head-quarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide-open +window. "You are my prisoner," says the officer of the law, dropping a +heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Daniel. As the constables +open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner, they see the +glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion-tamer, +and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps +with the shaggy mane of a wild beast for his pillow, while the king +that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him the paw and teeth of a +lion he can not tame—the lion of a remorseful conscience.</p> + +<p>What a picture it would be for some artist; Darius, in the early dusk +of morning, not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, +all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and looking through the +crevices of the cage to see what had become of his prime-minister! +"What, no sound!" he says: "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions +are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man +scattered across the floor of the cavern." With trembling voice Darius +calls out, "Daniel!" No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound +slumber. But a lion, more easily awakened, advances, and, with hot +breath blown through the crevice, seems angrily to demand the cause of +this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from +under Daniel's head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report +himself all unhurt and well.</p> + +<p>But our text stands us at Daniel's window, open toward Jerusalem. Why +in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the +pomp of his Babylonish successes could not make him forget it. He +came there from Jerusalem at eighteen years of age, and he never +visited it, though he lived to be eighty-five years. Yet, when he +wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grandest aspirations of his +heart, he had his window open toward his native Jerusalem. There are +many of you to-day who understand that without any exposition. This is +getting to be a nation of foreigners. They have come into all +occupations and professions. They sit in all churches. It may be +twenty years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may +be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your +birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are +open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may +have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory +often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it—the +hill, the tree, the brook, the house, the place so sacred, the door +from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way +in the world; and God only knows how sometimes you have longed to see +the familiar places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life +you would like to have caught a glimpse of the old, wrinkled face that +bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap twenty or forty or fifty +years ago. You may have on this side of the sea risen in fortune, and, +like Daniel, have become great, and may have come into prosperities +which you never could have reached if you had stayed there, and you +may have many windows to your house—bay-windows, and +sky-light-windows, and windows of conservatory, and windows on all +sides—but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>When the foreign steamer comes to the wharf, you see the long line of +sailors, with shouldered mail-bags, coming down the planks, carrying +as many letters as you might suppose would be enough for a year's +correspondence, and this repeated again and again during the week. +Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the post-offices +of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, +hundreds of thousands of persons finding that window of foreign mails +the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say: "When are you +coming home to see us? Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. +Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having a great +struggle to get on here. Would you advise us to come to you, or will +you come to us? All join in love, and hope to meet you, if not in this +world, then in a better. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>Yes, yes; in all these cities, and amid the flowering western +prairies, and on the slopes of the Pacific, and amid the Sierras, and +on the banks of the lagoon, and on the ranches of Texas there is an +uncounted multitude who, this hour, stand and sit and kneel with their +windows open toward Jerusalem. Some of them played on the heather of +the Scottish hills. Some of them were driven out by Irish famine. Some +of them, in early life, drilled in the German army. Some of them were +accustomed at Lyons or Marseilles or Paris to see on the street Victor +Hugo and Gambetta. Some chased the chamois among the Alpine +precipices. Some plucked the ripe clusters from Italian vineyard. +Some lifted their faces under the midnight sun of Norway. It is no +dishonor to our land that they remember the place of their nativity. +Miscreants would they be if, while they have some of their windows +open to take in the free air of America and the sunlight of an +atmosphere which no kingly despot has ever breathed, they forgot +sometime to open the window toward Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing +the national air of his country sung, the malady of home-sickness +comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example +of the heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. +Forget not the old folks at home. Write often; and, if you have +surplus of means and they are poor, make practical contribution, and +rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity +as is no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the +evangelization of other lands? What a stirring, melting, gospelizing +theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while +our windows are open toward them!</p> + +<p>But Daniel, in the text, kept this port-hole of his domestic fortress +unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There +had smoked the sacrifice. There was the Holy of Holies. There was the +Ark of the Covenant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to +keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we +may see and hear and appropriate its advantages. What does the world +say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of +the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Babylon. +Windows open toward Corinth. Windows open toward Athens. Windows open +toward Sodom. Windows open toward the flats, instead of windows open +toward the hills. Sad mistake, for this world as a god is like +something I saw the other day in the museum of Strasburg, Germany—the +figure of a virgin in wood and iron. The victim in olden time was +brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, +and, once infolded, the figure closed with a hundred knives and lances +upon him, and then let him drop one hundred and eighty feet sheer +down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them +with many tortures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest +honor the world could confer was to make a man Roman emperor; but, out +of sixty-three emperors, it allowed only six to die peacefully in +their beds.</p> + +<p>The dominion of this world over multitudes is illustrated by the names +of coins of many countries. They have their pieces of money which they +call sovereigns and half sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons +and half Napoleons, Fredericks and double Fredericks, and ducats, and +Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as +dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the +salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the +length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King +Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and +by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. +We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion.</p> + +<p>But, mark you, that good lion-tamer is not standing at the window, but +kneeling, while he looks out. Most photographs are taken of those in +standing or sitting posture. I now remember but one picture of a man +kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who in the cause of God and +civilization sacrificed himself; and in the heart of Africa his +servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of a candle, +stuck on the top of a box, his head in his hands upon the pillow, and +dead on his knees. But here is a great lion-tamer, living under the +dash of the light, and his hair disheveled of the breeze, praying. The +fact is, that a man can see further on his knees than standing on +tiptoe. Jerusalem was about five hundred and fifty statute miles from +Babylon, and the vast Arabian Desert shifted its sands between them. +Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between it, +saw beyond, saw time, saw eternity, saw earth, and saw heaven. Would +you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your +troubles to comfort, through temptation to rescue, through dire +sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things +terrestrial to things celestial, you will not see them till you take +Daniel's posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap +of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made +so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and especial +provision for those who want to pray, and physiological structure +joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray, and pray, and pray.</p> + +<p>In olden time the Earl of Westmoreland said he had no need to pray, +because he had enough pious tenants on his estate to pray for him; +but all the prayers of the church universal amount to nothing unless, +like Daniel, we pray for ourselves. Oh, men and women, bounded on one +side by Shadrach's red-hot furnace, and the other side by devouring +lions, learn the secret of courage and deliverance by looking at that +Babylonish window open toward the south-west! "Oh," you say, "that is +the direction of the Arabian Desert!" Yes; but on the other side of +the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven.</p> + +<p>The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so +multiform, so expensive—four hundred francs a pound. All the world +seeks it. Do you know how it is made? The spinning is done in a dark +room, the only light admitted through a small aperture, and that light +falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian +character I have ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found +in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and +misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the +interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a +throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved.</p> + +<p>But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our +windows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus saw it one day as the surf +of the Icarian sea foamed and splashed over the bowlders at his feet, +and his vision reminded me of a wedding-day when the bride by sister +and maid was having garlands twisted for her hair and jewels strung +for her neck just before she puts her betrothed hand into the hand of +her affianced: "I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming +down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her +husband." Toward that bridal Jerusalem are our windows opened?</p> + +<p>We would do well to think more of heaven. It is not a mere annex of +earth. It is not a desolate outpost. As Jerusalem was the capital of +Judae, and Babylon the capital of the Babylonian monarchy, and London +is the capital of Great Britain, and Washington is the capital of our +own republic, the New Jerusalem is the capital of the universe. The +king lives there, and the royal family of the redeemed have their +palaces there, and there is a congress of many nations and the +parliament of all the worlds. Yea, as Daniel had kindred in Jerusalem +of whom he often thought, though he had left home when a very young +man, perhaps father and mother and brothers and sisters still living, +and was homesick to see them, and they belonged to the high circles of +royalty, Daniel himself having royal blood in his veins, so we have in +the New Jerusalem a great many kindred, and we are sometimes homesick +to see them, and they are all princes and princesses, in them the +blood imperial, and we do well to keep our windows open toward their +eternal residence.</p> + +<p>It is a joy for us to believe that while we are interested in them +they are interested in us. Much thought of heaven makes one heavenly. +The airs that blow through that open window are charged with life, and +sweep up to us aromas from gardens that never wither, under skies that +never cloud, in a spring-tide that never terminates. Compared with it +all other heavens are dead failures.</p> + +<p>Homer's heaven was an elysium which he describes as a plain at the +end of the earth or beneath, with no snow nor rainfall, and the sun +never goes down, and Rhadamanthus, the justest of men, rules. Hesiod's +heaven is what he calls the islands of the blessed, in the midst of +the ocean, three times a year blooming with most exquisite flowers, +and the air is tinted with purple, while games and music and +horse-races occupy the time. The Scandinavian's heaven was the hall of +Walhalla, where the god Odin gave unending wine-suppers to earthly +heroes and heroines. The Mohammedan's heaven passes its disciples in +over the bridge Al-Sirat, which is finer than a hair and sharper than +a sword, and then they are let loose into a riot of everlasting +sensuality.</p> + +<p>The American aborigines look forward to a heaven of illimitable +hunting-ground, partridge and deer and wild duck more than plentiful, +and the hounds never off the scent, and the guns never missing fire. +But the geographer has followed the earth round, and found no Homer's +elysium. Voyagers have traversed the deep in all directions, and found +no Hesiod's islands of the blessed. The Mohammedan's celestial +debauchery and the Indian's eternal hunting-ground for vast multitudes +have no charm. But here rolls in the Bible heaven. No more sea—that +is, no wide separation. No more night—that is, no insomnia. No more +tears—that is, no heart-break. No more pain—that is, dismissal of +lancet and bitter draught and miasma, and banishment of neuralgias and +catalepsies and consumptions. All colors in the wall except gloomy +black; all the music in the major-key, because celebrative and +jubilant. River crystalline, gate crystalline, and skies crystalline, +because everything is clear and without doubt. White robes, and that +means sinlessness. Vials full of odors, and that means pure regalement +of the senses. Rainbow, and that means the storm is over. Marriage +supper, and that means gladdest festivity. Twelve manner of fruits, +and that means luscious and unending variety. Harp, trumpet, grand +march, anthem, amen, and hallelujah in the same orchestra. Choral +meeting solo, and overture meeting antiphon, and strophe joining +dithyramb, as they roll into the ocean of doxologies. And you and I +may have all that, and have it forever through Christ, if we will let +Him with the blood of one wounded hand rub out our sin, and with the +other wounded hand swing open the shining portals.</p> + +<p>Day and night keep your window open toward that Jerusalem. Sing about +it. Pray about it. Think about it. Talk about it. Dream about it. Do +not be inconsolable about your friends who have gone into it. Do not +worry if something in your heart indicates that you are not far off +from its ecstasies. Do not think that when a Christian dies he stops, +for he goes on.</p> + +<p>An ingenious man has taken the heavenly furlongs as mentioned in +Revelation, and has calculated that there will be in heaven one +hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each ascending soul, though this +world should lose a hundred millions yearly. But all the rooms of +heaven will be ours, for they are family rooms; and as no room in your +house is too good for your children, so all the rooms of all the +palaces of the heavenly Jerusalem will be free to God's children and +even the throne-room will not be denied, and you may run up the steps +of the throne, and put your hand on the side of the throne, and sit +down beside the king according to the promise: "To him that overcometh +will I grant to sit with me in my throne."</p> + +<p>But you can not go in except as conquerors. Many years ago the Turks +and Christians were in battle, and the Christians were defeated, and +with their commander Stephen fled toward a fortress where the mother +of this commander was staying. When she saw her son and his army in +disgraceful retreat, she had the gates of the fortress rolled shut, +and then from the top of the battlement cried out to her son, "You can +not enter here except as conqueror!" Then Stephen rallied his forces +and resumed the battle and gained the day, twenty thousand driving +back two hundred thousand. For those who are defeated in the battle +with sin and death and hell nothing but shame and contempt; but for +those who gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of +the New Jerusalem will hoist, and there shall be an abundant entrance +into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, toward which you do well to +keep your windows open.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="stormed_and_taken" id="stormed_and_taken"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>STORMED AND TAKEN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the + people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his + hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and + laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut + down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them + to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all + the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand + men and women."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Judges</span> ix: 48, 49.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible history, and yet full of +profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell +where the rocks are. The snake's rattle is hideous, but it gives +timely warning. From the piazza of my summer home, night by night I +saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed there for adornment, +but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all +the iron-bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul, and Herod, +and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Abimelech. These bad people are +mentioned in the Bible, not only as warnings, but because there were +sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of imitation. +God sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very poor hammer.</p> + +<p>The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to +do it. I see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the +shouting of the captains and the yell of the besiegers. The swords +clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two +armies in death-grapple is horrible to hear. The battle goes on all +day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry "Surrender!" +to the beaten foe. And, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem +falls; and there are pools of blood, and dissevered limbs, and glazed +eyes looking up beggingly for mercy that war never shows, and dying +soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, who +have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection: and a +groan rolls across the city, stopping not, because there is no spot +for it to rest, so full is the place of other groans. A city wounded! +A city dying! A city dead! Wail for Shechem, all ye who know the +horrors of a sacked town!</p> + +<p>As I look over the city I can find only one building standing, and +that is the temple of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the +city, in a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now +begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this +temple of Berith. They get within the door, shut it, and they say, +"Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he can not +take this temple of Berith. Here we shall be under the protection of +the gods." Oh, Berith, the god! do your best now for these refugees. +If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have +thunderbolts, strike for them.</p> + +<p>But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berith and +the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with sword? Nay. +Will they do it with spear? Nay. With battering-ram, rolled up by +hundred-armed strength, crashing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech +marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off a limb of +a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to +his men, "You do the same." They are obedient to their commander.</p> + +<p>Oh, what a strange army, with what strange equipment! They come to the +foot of the temple of Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree +and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they +throw down their branches; and the second platoon, and the third, +until all around about the temple of Berith there is a pile of +tree-branches. The Shechemites look out from the windows of the temple +upon what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies. +But soon the flints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the +brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red +elements leap to the casement, and the woodwork begins to blaze, and +one arm of flame is thrown up on the right side of the temple, and +another arm of flame is thrown up on the left side of the temple, +until they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the +cry of "Fire!" within, and "Fire!" without announces the terror, and +the strangulation, and the doom of the Shechemites, and the complete +overthrow of the temple of the god Berith. Then there went up a shout, +long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech +and his men, as they stood amid the ashes and the dust, crying: +"Victory! Victory!"</p> + +<p>Now, I learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any +one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for +God. Look over the weaponry of olden times—javelins, battle-axes, +habergeons—and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his +men could have gained such complete victory. It is no easy thing to +take a temple thus armed. I saw a house where, during revolutionary +times, a man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, +because they were inside the house, and the assaulting soldiers were +outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they +surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single +man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old +Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: "You are only going up there to be +cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other +mode—certainly not by ordinary modes—could that temple so easily, so +thoroughly have been taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters +in Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to learn this day is that +any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the +temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to +stick to the old modes of attack.</p> + +<p>We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, +glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the +castle, but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the +castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world +for God by any keen saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of +rhetoric, by any sapping and mining of profound disquisition, by any +gunpowdery explosions of indignation, by sharp shootings of wit, by +howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell five miles, by +cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain all the +attempts on the part of these ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light +horsemen, and grenadiers.</p> + +<p>My friends, I propose this morning a different style of tactics. Let +each one go to the forest of God's promise and invitation, and hew +down a branch and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around +these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the +fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will +burn them out. What steel can not do, fire may. And I, this morning, +announce myself in favor of any plan of religious attack that +succeeds—any plan of religious attack, however radical, however odd, +however unpopular, however hostile to all the conventionalities of +Church and State. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our +alms-giving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. +Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword, and more of Abimelech's +conflagration! I have often heard</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"There is a fountain filled with blood"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>sung artistically by four birds perched on their Sunday roost in the +gallery, until I thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and Sontag, and +all the other warblers; but there came not one tear to my eye, nor one +master emotion to my heart. But one night I went down to the African +Methodist meeting-house in Philadelphia, and at the close of the +service a black woman, in the midst of the audience, began to sing +that hymn, and all the audience joined in, and we were floated some +three or four miles nearer heaven than I have ever been since. I saw +with my own eyes that "fountain filled with blood"—red, agonizing, +sacrificial, redemptive—and I heard the crimson plash of the wave as +we all went down under it:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"For sinners plunged beneath that flood<br /></span> +<span>Lose all their guilty stains."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a syllogism; It is not casuistry, it +is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it +is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; +it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all glow; it +is arborescent with all sweet shade. I have seen the sun rise on Mount +Washington, and from the Tip-top House; but there was no beauty in +that compared with the day-spring from on high when Christ gives light +to a soul. I have heard Parepa sing; but there was no music in that +compared with the voice of Christ when He said: "Thy sins are forgiven +thee; go in peace." Good news! Let every one cut down a branch of this +tree of life and wave it. Let him throw it down and kindle it. Let all +the way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled with the tossing joy. +Good news! This bonfire of the Gospel shall consume the last temple of +sin, and will illumine the sky with apocalyptic joy that Jesus Christ +came into the world to save sinners. Any new plan that makes a man +quit his sin, and that prostrates a wrong, I am as much in favor of as +though all the doctors, and the bishops, and the archbishops, and the +synods, and the academical gownsmen of Christianity sanctioned it. The +temple of Berith must come down, and I do not care how it comes.</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If +Abimelech had sat down on the grass and told his men to go and get the +boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, +or, if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective +result; but when Abimelech goes with his own ax and hews down a +branch, and with Abimelech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and +marches on—then, my text says, all the people did the same. How +natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most +magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the +overcoming power of example! Here is a father on the wrong road; all +his boys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlists for +Christ; his children enlist.</p> + +<p>I saw, in some of the picture-galleries of Europe, that before many of +the great works of the masters—the old masters—there would be +sometimes four or five artists taking copies of the pictures. These +copies they were going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; +and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and +it is being copied, and long after you are gone it will bloom or blast +in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look +out what you say. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. +The best sermon ever preached is a holy life. The best music ever +chanted is a consistent walk.</p> + +<p>I saw, near the beach, a wrecker's machine. It was a cylinder with +some holes at the side, made for the thrusting in of some long poles +with strong leverage; and when there is a vessel in trouble or going +to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers shoot a rope out to the +suffering men. They grasp it, and the wreckers turn the cylinder, and +the rope winds around the cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked are +saved. So at your feet to-day there is an influence with a tremendous +leverage. The rope attached to it swings far out into the billowy +future. Your children, your children's children, and all the +generations that are to follow, will grip that influence and feel the +long-reaching pull long after the figures on your tombstone are so +near worn out that the visitor can not tell whether it was in 1885, or +1775, or 1675 that you died.</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the advantages of concerted +action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work +would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had +gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, +and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about +the temple, the victory is gained—the temple falls. My friends, where +there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his +whole duty there are a great many who never lift an ax or swing a +blow.</p> + +<p>Oh, we all want our boat to get over to the golden sands, but the most +of us are seated either in the prow or in the stern, wrapped in our +striped shawl, holding a big-handled sunshade, while others are +blistered in the heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan, and the +blades bend till they snap. Oh, religious sleepy-heads, wake up! While +we have in our church a great many who are toiling for God, there are +some too lazy to brush the flies off their heavy eyelids.</p> + +<p>Suppose, in military circles, on the morning of battle the roll is +called, and out of a thousand men only a hundred men in the regiment +answered. What excitement there would be in the camp! What would the +colonel say? What high talking there would be among the captains, and +majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that +these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had +overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were +afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking +rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's +battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of +heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on +the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to +what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what +Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to +what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do +you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you +ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman +sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then +hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book +of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it +out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not +let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the +throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your +betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died.</p> + +<p>May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I +would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished +something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to +join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing +new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are +you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that +there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing +as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted +action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It +has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human +enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of +Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life, +and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on +and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and +worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of +ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would +fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over +demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours!</p> + +<p>Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. +As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they +were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may +batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where +we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and +they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I +are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may +have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends +may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have +told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, +if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to +measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know +it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a +sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it."</p> + +<p>I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into +some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You +say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are +adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the +suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have +established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that +tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your +unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are +kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the +suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the +deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified."</p> + +<p>"Well," you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I +go?" Step into this tower of indifference. You say: "If this tower is +attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken." You feel at +ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assaults, coming on. +Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you +surrender everything, and they clamor for your immortal overthrow, and +they throw their skeleton arms in the windows, and with their iron +fists they beat against the door; and while you are trying to keep +them out you see the torches of judgment kindling, and every forest is +a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch; and while +the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into a live coal, blown +redder and redder by the whirlwind breath of a God omnipotent, what +will become of your refuge of lies?</p> + +<p>"But," says some one, "you are engaged in a very mean business, +driving us from tower to tower." Oh, no. I want to tell you of a +Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a wall that +no satanic assault can scale; of a bulwark that the judgment +earthquakes can not budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: "In +God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, +fling yourself into it! Tread down unceremoniously everything that +intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death +and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished just +outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the +latch. Oh, get inside! Not one surplus second have you to spare. +Quick, quick, quick!</p> + +<p>Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too +hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the +grave? Is this world, which swings at the speed of thousands of miles +an hour around the sun, going with tenfold more speed toward the +judgment-day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought; and in the +conclusion I cry to one and I cry to the other: "Oh, time! Oh, +eternity! Oh, the dead! Oh, the judgment-day! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!" +But, catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to +hold on to: for "in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the +everlasting arms." And, exhausted with my failure to save myself, I +throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this divine promise, +as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a +wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued +man throws himself into the refuge; for "in God is thy refuge, and +underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, for a flood of tears +with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="all_the_world_akin" id="all_the_world_akin"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ALL THE WORLD AKIN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And hath made of one blood all nations of men."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Acts</span> xvii: 26.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a +European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that +theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations +are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A +difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper.</p> + +<p>An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his +pulse moderating and his temper becoming more calm. The air on this +side the ocean is more tonic than on the other side. An American +breathes more oxygen than a European. A European coming to America +finds a great change taking place in himself. He walks with more rapid +strides, and finds his voice becoming keener and shriller. The +Englishman who walks in London Strand at the rate of three miles the +hour, coming to America and residing for a long while here, walks +Broadway at the rate of four miles the hour. Much of the difference +between an American and a European, between an Asiatic and an African, +is atmospheric. The lack of the warm sunlight pales the Greenlander. +The full dash of the sunlight darkens the African.</p> + +<p>Then, ignorance or intelligence makes its impression on the physical +organism—in the one case ignorance flattening the skull, as with the +Egyptian; in the other case intelligence building up the great dome of +the forehead, as with the German. Then the style of god that the +nation worships decides how much it shall be elevated or debased, so +that those nations that worship reptiles are themselves only a +superior form of reptile, while those nations that worship the natural +sun in the heavens are the noblest style of barbaric people. But +whatever be the difference of physiognomy, and whatever the difference +of temperament, the physiologist tells us that after careful analysis +he finds out that the plasma and the disk in the human blood have the +same characteristics: so that if you should put twenty men from twenty +nationalities abreast in line of battle, and a bullet should fly +through the hearts of the twenty men, the blood flowing forth would, +through analysis, prove itself to be the same blood in every instance. +In other words, the science of the day confirming the truth of my text +that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men."</p> + +<p>I have thought, my friends, it might be profitable this morning if I +gave you some of the moral and religious impressions which I received +when, through your indulgence, I had transatlantic absence. First, I +observe that the majority of people in all lands are in a mighty +struggle for bread. While in nearly all lands there are only a few +cases of actual starvation reported, there is a vast population in +every country I visited who have a limited supply of food, or such +food as is incompetent to sustain physical vigor. This struggle in +some lands is becoming more agonizing, while here and there it is +lightened. I have joy in reporting that Ireland, about the sufferings +of which we have heard so much, has far better prospects than I have +seen there in previous visits. In 1879, coming home from that land, I +prophesied the famine that must come upon, and did come upon, the +deluged fields of that country. This year the crops are large, and +both parties—those who like the English Government and those who +don't like it—are expecting relief. I said to one of the intelligent +men of Ireland: "Tell me in a few words what are the sufferings of +Ireland, and what is the Land Relief enactment?" He replied: "I will +tell you. Suppose I am a landlord and you a tenant. You rent from me a +place for ten pounds a year. You improve it. You turn it from a bog +into a garden. You put a house upon it. After a while I, the landlord, +come around, and I say to my agent: 'How much rent is this man +paying;' He answers, 'Ten pounds.' 'Is that all? Put his rent up to +twenty pounds.' The tenant goes on improving his property, and after +awhile I come around and I say to my agent, 'How much rent is this man +paying?' He says, 'Twenty pounds.' 'Put his rent up to twenty-five +pounds.' The tenant protests and says, 'I can't pay it.' Then I, the +landlord, say, 'Pay it or get out;' and the tenant is helpless, and, +leaving the place, the property in its improved condition turns over +to the landlord. Now, to stop that outrage the Relief Enactment comes +in and appoints commissioners who shall see that if the tenant is +turned out, he shall receive the difference of value between the farm +as he got it and the farm as he surrenders it. Moreover, the +government loans money to the tenant, so that he may buy the property +out and out if the landlord will sell." Mighty advancement toward the +righting of a great wrong! But there and in all lands, not excepting +our own, there is a far-reaching distress. And let those who broke +their fast this morning, and those who shall dine to-day, remember +those who are in want, and by prayer and practical beneficence do all +they can to alleviate the hunger swoon of nations.</p> + +<p>Another impression was—indeed the impression carried with me all the +summer—the thought already suggested, the brotherhood of man. The +fact is that the differences are so small between nations that they +may be said to be all alike. Though I spent the most of the summer in +silence, I spoke a few times and to people of different nations, and +how soon I noticed that they were very much alike! If a man knows how +to play the piano, it does not make any difference whether he finds it +in New Orleans or San Francisco or Boston or St. Petersburg or Moscow +or Madras; it has so many keys, and he puts his fingers right on them. +And the human heart is a divine instrument, with just so many keys in +all cases, and you strike some of them and there is joy, and you +strike some of them and there is sorrow. Plied by the same motives, +lifted up by the same success, depressed by the same griefs. The +cab-men of London have the same characteristics as the cab-men of New +York, and are just as modest and retiring. The gold and silver drive +Piccadilly and the Boulevards just as they drive Wall Street. If there +be a great political excitement in Europe, the Bourse in Paris howls +just as loudly as ever did the American gold-room.</p> + +<p>The same grief that we saw in our country in 1864 you may find now in +the military hospitals of England containing the wounded and sick from +the Egyptian wars. The same widowhood and orphanage that sat down in +despair after the battles of Shiloh and South Mountain poured their +grief in the Shannon and the Clyde and the Dee and the Thames. Oh, ye +men and women who know how to pray, never get up from your knees until +you have implored God in behalf of the fourteen hundred millions of +the race just like yourselves, finding life a tremendous struggle! For +who knows but that as the sun to-day draws up drops of water from the +Caspian and the Black seas and from the Amazon and the Mississippi, +after a while to distill the rain, these very drops on the fields—who +knows but that the sun of righteousness may draw up the tears of your +sympathy, and then rain them down in distillation of comfort o'er all +the world?</p> + +<p>Who is that poor man, carried on a stretcher to the Afghan ambulance? +He is your brother. If in the Pantheon at Paris you smite your hand +against the wall among the tombs of the dead, you will hear a very +strange echo coming from all parts of the Pantheon just as soon as you +smite the wall. And I suppose it is so arranged that every stroke of +sorrow among the tombs of bereavement ought to have loud, long, and +oft-repeated echoes of sympathy all around the world. Oh, what a +beautiful theory it is—and it is a Christian theory—that Englishman, +Scotchman, Irishman, Norwegian, Frenchman, Italian, Russian, are all +akin. Of one blood all nations. That is a very beautiful inscription +that I saw a few days ago over the door in Edinburgh, the door of the +house where John Knox used to live. It is getting somewhat dim now, +but there is the inscription, fit for the door of any household—"Love +God above all, and your neighbor as yourself."</p> + +<p>I was also impressed in journeying on the other side the sea with the +difference the Bible makes in countries. The two nations of Europe +that are the most moral to-day and that have the least crime are +Scotland and Wales. They have by statistics, as you might find, fewer +thefts, fewer arsons, fewer murders. What is the reason? A bad book +can hardly live in Wales. The Bible crowds it out. I was told by one +of the first literary men in Wales: "There is not a bad book in the +Welsh language." He said: "Bad books come down from London, but they +can not live here." It is the Bible that is dominant in Wales. And +then in Scotland just open your Bible to give out your text, and there +is a rustling all over the house almost startling to an American. What +is it? The people opening their Bibles to find the text, looking at +the context, picking out the referenced passages, seeing whether you +make right quotation. Scotland and Wales Bible-reading people. That +accounts for it. A man, a city, a nation that reads God's Word must be +virtuous. That Book is the foe of all wrong-doing. What makes +Edinburgh better than Constantinople? The Bible.</p> + +<p>Oh, I am afraid in America we are allowing the good book to be covered +up with other good books! We have our ever-welcome morning and evening +newspapers, and we have our good books on all subjects—geological +subjects, botanical subjects, physiological subjects, theological +subjects—good books, beautiful books, and so many good books that we +have not time to read the Bible. Oh, my friends, it is not a matter of +very great importance that you have a family Bible on the center-table +in your parlor! Better have one pocket New Testament, the passages +marked, the leaves turned down, the binding worn smooth with much +usage, than fifty pictorial family Bibles too handsome to read! Oh, +let us take a whisk-broom and brush the dust off our Bibles! Do you +want poetry? Go and hear Job describe the war-horse, or David tell how +the mountains skipped like lambs. Do you want logic? Go and hear Paul +reason until your brain aches under the spell of his mighty intellect. +Do you want history? Go and see Moses put into a few pages stupendous +information which Herodotus, Thucydides, and Prescott never preached +after. And, above all, if you want to find how a nation struck down by +sin can rise to happiness and to heaven, read of that blood which can +wash away the pollution of a world. There is one passage in the Bible +of vast tonnage: "God so loved the world that He gave His only +begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." Oh, may God fill this country with Bibles and +help the people to read them!</p> + +<p>I was also impressed in my transatlantic journeys with the wonderful +power that Christ holds among the nations. The great name in Europe +to-day is not Victoria, not Marquis of Salisbury, not William the +Emperor, not Bismarck; the great name in Europe to-day is Christ. You +find the crucifix on the gate-post, you find it in the hay field, you +find it at the entrance of the manor, you find it by the side of the +road.</p> + +<p>The greatest pictures in all the galleries of Italy, Germany, France, +England, and Scotland are Bible pictures. What were the subjects of +Raphael's great paintings? "The Transfiguration," "The Miraculous +Draught of Fishes," "The Charge to Peter," "The Holy Family," "The +Massacre of the Innocents," "Moses at the Burning Bush," "The +Nativity," "Michael the Archangel," and the four or five exquisite +"Madonnas." What are Tintoretto's great pictures? "Fall of Adam," +"Cain and Abel," "The Plague of the Fiery Serpent," "Paradise," "Agony +in the Garden," "The Temptation," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The +Communication," "Baptism," "Massacre of the Innocents," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Crucifixion," "The Madonna." What are Titian's great +pictures? "The Flagellation of Christ," "The Supper at Emmaus," "The +Death of Abel," "The Assumption," "The Entombment," "Faith," "The +Madonna." What are Michael Angelo's great pictures? "The +Annunciation," "The Spirits in Prison," "At the feet of Christ," "The +Infant Christ," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment." What are Paul +Veronese's great pictures? "Queen of Sheba," "The Marriage in Cana," +"Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," "The Holy Family." Who has not +heard of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"? Who has not heard of Turner's +"Pools of Solomon"? Who has not heard of Claude's "Marriage of Isaac +and Rebecca"? Who has not heard of Dürer's "Dragon of the +Apocalypse"? The mightiest picture on this planet is Rubens' +"Scourging of Christ." Painter's pencil loves to sketch the face of +Christ. Sculptor's chisel loves to present the form of Christ. Organs +love to roll forth the sorrows of Christ.</p> + +<p>The first time you go to London go into the Doré picture gallery. As I +went and sat down before "Christ Descending the Steps of the +Prætorium," at the first I was disappointed. I said: "There isn't +enough majesty in that countenance, not enough tenderness in that +eye;" but as I sat and looked at the picture it grew upon me until I +was overwhelmed with its power, and I staggered with emotion as I went +out into the fresh air, and said; "Oh, for that Christ I must live, +and for that Christ I must be willing to die!" Make that Christ your +personal friend, my sister, my brother. You may never go to Milan to +see Da Vinci's "Last Supper;" but, better than that, you can have +Christ come and sup with you. You may never get to Antwerp to see +Rubens' "Descent of Christ from the Cross," but you can have Christ +come down from the mountain of His suffering into your heart and abide +there forever. Oh, you must have Him! We are all so diseased with sin +that we want that which hurts us, and we won't have that which cures +us. The best thing for you and for me to do to-day is to get down on +our bended knees before God and say: "Oh, Almighty Son of God, I am +blind! I want to see. My arms are palsied. I want to take hold of thy +cross. Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus!" Why will you live on husks +when you may sit down to this white bread of heaven? Oh, with such a +God, and with such a Christ, and with such a Holy Spirit, and with +such an immortal nature, wake up!</p> + +<p>Once more, I was impressed greatly on the other side the sea with the +wonderful triumphs of the Christian religion. The tide is rising, the +tide of moral and spiritual prosperity in the world. I think that any +man who keeps his eyes open, traveling in foreign lands, will come to +that conclusion. More Bibles than ever before, more churches, more +consecrated men and women, more people ready to be martyrs now than +ever before, if need be; so that instead of there being, as people +sometimes say, less spirit of martyrdom now than ever before, I +believe where there was once one martyr there would be a thousand +martyrs if the fires were kindled—men ready to go through flood and +fire for Christ's sake. Oh, the signs are promising! The world is on +the way to millennial brightness. All art, all invention, all +literature, all commerce will be the Lord's.</p> + +<p>These ships that you see going up and down New York harbor are to be +brought into the service of God. All those ships I saw at Liverpool, +at Southampton, at Glasgow, are to be brought into the service of +Christ. What is that passage, "Ships of Tarshish shall bring +presents"? That is what it means. Oh, what a goodly fleet when the +vessels of the sea come into the service of God! No guns frowning +through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from +cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity. Those ships will come from +all parts of the seas. Great flocks of ships that never met on the +high sea but in wrath, will cry, "Ship ahoy!" and drop down beside +each other in calmness, the flags of Emmanuel streaming from the +top-gallants. The old slaver, with decks scrubbed and washed and +glistened and burnished—the old slaver will wheel into line; and the +Chinese junk and the Venetian gondola, and the miners' and the +pirates' corvette, will fall into line, equipped, readorned, +beautified, only the small craft of this grand flotilla which shall +float out for the truth—a flotilla mightier than the armada of Xerxes +moving in the pomp and pride of Persian insolence; mightier than the +Carthaginian navy rushing with forty thousand oarsmen upon the Roman +galleys, the life of nations dashed out against the gunwales.</p> + +<p>Rise, O sea! and shine, O heavens! to greet this squadron of light and +victory! On the glistening decks are the feet of them that bring good +tidings, and songs of heaven float among the rigging. Crowd on all the +canvas. Line-of-battle ship and merchantmen wheel into the way. It is +noon. Strike eight bells. From all the squadron the sailors' songs +arise. "Surely the isles shall wait for thee, and the ships of +Tarshish to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with +them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="a_momentous_quest" id="a_momentous_quest"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>A MOMENTOUS QUEST.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isa.</span> lv: 6.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors +in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of +our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side +face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the +full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some +things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more +epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime; but when you want to see Christ +coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, +you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard +to Christ might be called the "Oratorio of the Messiah," the writing +of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah Chorus," where all the batons wave and +all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of +insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus, and +Philo, and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among +the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets.</p> + +<p>My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out +into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men +might know Him; his voice rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord while +He may be found." "Oh," says some one: "that was for olden times." +No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a +circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in +St. Petersburg, or Venice, or Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris; +you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I +want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for +one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for +all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: +"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found."</p> + +<p>I come, to-day, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice +distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on +the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this +morning will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. +In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine: it either +kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a +Christian, I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of +influences to come;" and still you are waiting. You are wiser in +worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to +Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, or to the steam-boat wharf, +and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit +in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men +who say they are waiting to get to heaven—waiting, waiting, but not +with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of +Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with +earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and +there is a matter of $10,000 connected with your seeing him, and you +can not at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in +the directory, but can not find the name; you go in circles where you +think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city +where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through +street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on +searching for weeks and for months.</p> + +<p>You say: "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, +that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one half +that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of +the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we +may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our +life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the +Spirit of God would help this morning while I try to show you, in +carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in +the next place, when to seek Him. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be +found."</p> + +<p>I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest +and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a +throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing +up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a +bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on His knee, and get +His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to +the "fountain of living water," and dip up refreshment for our +thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the +corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley +fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing.</p> + +<p>I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large +an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before +God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no +response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a +believing spirit within, your cry would not go further up than the +shout of a plow-boy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, +loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, +and a bird, affrighted, darts into the window, and wheels about the +room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its +fluttering heart. You say, "Poor thing, poor thing!" Now, a prayer +goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, +and He catches it, and He feels its fluttering pulse, and He puts it +in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, +pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills +to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into +the depths of God's mercy and bring up "pearls of great price." There +was an instance where prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret solid as +Russ pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! +Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were +persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men +among the Covenanters prayed: "Oh, Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou +shalt help us! Oh, Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor +things!" And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted +from their persecutors—the promise literally fulfilled: "While they +are yet speaking I will hear."</p> + +<p>Oh, impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God +says: "He is loving, and faithful, and patient." Do you believe that? +You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? +You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel +is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: "Oh, +Lord! I know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, +and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep Thy promise, and liberate my +captive soul."</p> + +<p>Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the +store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the +manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as He +confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come +before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would +send in petitions and remonstrances! And yet there has been enough sin +in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or +petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the +means, you would go and spend the summer in Germany, and the winter in +Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all +round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any +effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual +health? No, you have not taken one step.</p> + +<p>O that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some +of you have been working for years and years for the support of your +families. Have you given one half day to the working out of your +salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an +earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest +purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if +you want to find the Lord, you must pray, and pray, and pray.</p> + +<p>I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible +is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds +of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds +of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five +minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the +heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through +Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will +find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop +straight from the throne of God into your heart.</p> + +<p>There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If +they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them +to Christ than Washington's farewell address or the Koran of Mohammed +or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's Word +you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Madeleine, in +Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully +constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole +week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the +wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant +altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the +outside door of God's Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, +instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the +dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over penitent and +believing souls!</p> + +<p>O my friends! if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not +go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take "Howe's Elements of +Criticism"—it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to +study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of +William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, +and at last to gain the blessedness of Heaven, search the Scriptures, +"for in them ye have eternal life."</p> + +<p>When people are anxious about their souls—and there are some such +here to-day—there are those who recommend good books. That is all +right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under +such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the +Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The +Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best +rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious +Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer.</p> + +<p>O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A +dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade +shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the +canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel +in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and +read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: +"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a +dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live! +Blessed book when we die!</p> + +<p>I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," +say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply, +there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but +the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; +and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily +when we are in the assembly—the feelings of others emphasizing our +own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth +that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily +against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs.</p> + +<p>When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, +and only for one purpose—to find the way to Christ. When I see people +critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and +critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in +prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government +brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and +says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me +to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such +an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise +my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It +is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this +morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to our souls, +should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it +is a matter of heaven or hell?</p> + +<p>But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to +seek the Lord. "While He may be found." When is that? Old age? You may +not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You +may not see to-night. Now! O if I could only write on every heart in +three capital letters, that word N-O-W—Now!</p> + +<p>Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and +with a trivial manner: "Oh, yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful +disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all +moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. +Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes +the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: +"That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had +called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. +It is too late now; the crisis has passed." Just so it is in the +spiritual treatment of the soul—there is a crisis. Before that, life! +After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let +the crisis pass unattended to!</p> + +<p>There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if they +had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few +acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. +They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprung up on +those acres of ground, and they see what a mistake they made in not +buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never +came back again. And so it is in regard to a man's spiritual and +eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it +never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back.</p> + +<p>A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a +height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the +most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and +now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he +knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the +emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time to-day with +you, O impenitent soul!—the forces of light on the one side, and the +siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter +will be settled for eternity.</p> + +<p>There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on +board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not +on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is +sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year till the +bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are +adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to +year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to +pay for it.</p> + +<p>Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin +will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? +that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost +pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by +the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. +The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this +matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are +before me this morning, whether, in the ten or fifteen years they have +passed in the postponement of these matters, they have come any nearer +God or heaven?</p> + +<p>I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they +may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to the matter. +Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder +and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an +undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, fly for +refuge! The avenger of blood is on the track! The throne of judgment +will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal +salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul +is precious, and it ceaseth forever!</p> + +<p>Oh, if men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they +would love Him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or +sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises +behind Calvary, and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed +Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, +and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty, and English beauty; but I care +not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him "chief +among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." O my blessed +Jesus! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of +Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men can not +love Thee!</p> + +<p>The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does +not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of +Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures +for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, +harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God +too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a +fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour +the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you +to attend to this matter—to attend to it now? Time is flying, +flying—the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to +you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off!</p> + +<p>Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your +immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that +must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for +heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are +open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? +Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it +will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for +all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The +Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more +convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this +very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say +this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I +show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward +beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be +launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ +shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost—would I +not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand +before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now +is the day of your redemption.</p> + +<p>It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in +judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see +Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the +earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will +come up for our glory or for our discomfiture—every prayer, every +sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; +and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is +being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas! +alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these matters. +We may throw them off now. We can not then. We will all be in earnest +then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation then. No rescue then. +Driven away in our wickedness—banished, exiled, forever!</p> + +<p>Have you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that +day unpardoned, as it looks back upon its past life? "Oh," says the +soul, "I had glorious Sabbaths! There was one Sabbath in autumn when +I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood +and spread out His arm and invited me to His holy heart. I refused +Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin +complete! Darkness unpitying, deep, eternal! I am lost! +Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am +lost! O Thou long-suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! O day of +judgment, I am lost! O father, mother, brother, sister, child in +glory, I am lost!" And then as the tide goes out, your soul goes out +with it—further from God, further from happiness, and I hear your +voice fainter, and fainter, and fainter: "Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! +Lost!" O ye dying, yet immortal men, "seek the Lord while He may be +found."</p> + +<p>But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to +dwell on—the hint that there is a time when He can not be found. +There is a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a +clergyman who came in, "Do you think that a man at eighty years of age +can get pardoned?" "Oh, yes," said the clergyman. The old man said: "I +can't; when I was twenty years of age—I am now eighty years—the +Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending +to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I +have had no feeling." "Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to +have me pray with you?" "Yes," replied the old man, "but it will do no +good. You can pray with me if you like to." The minister knelt down +and prayed, and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no +effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, +and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and +with his last breath he said; "I shall never be forgiven!" "O seek the +Lord while He may be found."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_great_assize" id="the_great_assize"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE GREAT ASSIZE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Doctor Talmage's Sermon, Preached At Cork, Ireland,<br /> +Sunday Morning, Sept 6th, 1885.</p> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy + angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His + glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He + shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth + his sheep from the goats."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Matthew</span> xxv: 31, 32.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the +horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful +natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my +companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last +judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat. +These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels. +This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the +audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point +out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an +audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics, +and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience +to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day.</p> + +<p>A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there +shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now +inexplicable shall be explained.</p> + +<p>Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I +don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying +of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits +wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I +must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were +not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there +would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never +recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try +Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The +world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on +earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being +healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could +have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around +about him would have been the slain under that overpowering +effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe. +Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to +mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise.</p> + +<p>But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory. +No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of +grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the +most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim +as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ +rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will +be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to +horizon aflame with His splendor.</p> + +<p>Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire +and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of +fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the +law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will +be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy +arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of +spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory +of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An +unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an +interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which +shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and +be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with +setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers +takes off the top of a burned wick.</p> + +<p>It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on +hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and +with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses +and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are +uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the +judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of +the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt +shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea +into silence.</p> + +<p>Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment +day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars +about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not +always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else +fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar, +and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His +left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every +mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful +gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in +behalf of the human race.</p> + +<p>But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro +above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of +heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene, +and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a +hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all +heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the +scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a +circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher +up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of +cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to +watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were +made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is +Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy +sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those +who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near +the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and +his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke +the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing +brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing, +turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into +corpses.</p> + +<p>Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly +turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the +Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other +group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial +bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered +to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His +sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now +appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides +by angelic radiance.</p> + +<p>But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The +entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that +time the American Republic, the English Government, the French +Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for +something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be +brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece +and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never +slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South +America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the +twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century—all centuries +present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be +in that assembly.</p> + +<p>No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a +millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of +albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A +congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent, +because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the +Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the +world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent +is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of +the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and +underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty +God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up +worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars +strong enough to hold up any auditorium.</p> + +<p>But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on +earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an +audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this +audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will +separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats."</p> + +<p>"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But +the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this +world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical +institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican +institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities +of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high +circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles +go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together, +the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the +king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and +the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without +his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the +beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad +orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly +inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the +mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward +deciding the questions of that very great day.</p> + +<p>"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of +those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming +mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of +those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any +divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character +outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of +choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character +inside as well as character outside.</p> + +<p>In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all +earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will +take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace +will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and +some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh, +what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social +rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a +thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all +ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the +figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2.</p> + +<p>Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two +eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and +everlasting two!</p> + +<p>I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened +allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the +book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names +of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of +such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred +years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes +between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of +judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every +human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they +were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or +three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their +past life flashed before them—all they had ever thought, all they had +ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The +memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a +closed book.</p> + +<p>Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the +thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall +them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes, +although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of +them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the +drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly +unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened, +so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix.</p> + +<p>You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many +revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the +manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find +just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been +accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and +it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that +all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of +judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can +easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen. +And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that +not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be +revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will +read not only your own character and your own history, but the +character and history of others.</p> + +<p>In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing, +and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in +one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another +way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have +to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the +trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet +on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give +significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having +marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun +and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the +trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead, +the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the +mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys +never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of +the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with +those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages—from +Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and +from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the +bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the +garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east +and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies +of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and +thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The +trumpet! the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The +leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned +sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with +rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet! +the trumpet!</p> + +<p>Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The +high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their +two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue +tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the +auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded +wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery +throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The +conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and +off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the +world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel +flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the +dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!"</p> + +<p>That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for +cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a +large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to +the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that +margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage +demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to +tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of +judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for +cancellation.</p> + +<p>There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin. +That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever. +It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were +cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made +in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it +will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and +sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and +glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned +prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh, +no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf.</p> + +<p>I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and +testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask +you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that +you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for +something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in +my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our +condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been +swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so +long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems +a ripple on the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death, +and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move +up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high +pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the +Shepherd's crook! "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and +all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His +glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall +separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats."</p> + +<p>Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart! +That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last, +"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a +great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and +swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the +great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they +boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in +simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor. +Your unalterable destiny the quotient.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_road_to_the_city" id="the_road_to_the_city"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE ROAD TO THE CITY.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be + called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over + it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though + fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any + ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found + there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of + the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and + everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and + gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isaiah</span> + xxxv: 8-10.</p> +<br /> + +<p>There are hundreds of people in this house this morning who want to +find the right road. You sometimes see a person halting at cross +roads, and you can tell by his looks that he wishes to ask a question +as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence +this morning conscious of the fact that there are many of you here who +realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one; +and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it +is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in +it. There are a great many expensive toll-gates scattered all along +that way. Indeed at every road you must pay in tears, or pay in +genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get +through it at all, you have to pay your own way; and since this +differs so much from what I have heard in regard to the right way, I +believe it is the wrong way.</p> + +<p>Here is another road. On either side of it are houses of sinful +entertainment, and invitations to come in, and dine and rest; but, +from the looks of the people who stand on the piazza I am very certain +that it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It +is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses' hoofs clatter and ring, +and they who ride over it spin along the highway, until suddenly they +find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, +and they saw the bit in the mouth of the fiery steed, and cry "Ho! +ho!" But it is too late, and—crash!—they go over the embankment. We +shall turn, this morning, and see if we can not find a different kind +of a road.</p> + +<p>You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty miles +long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was a +path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal +shape and fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of +smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that +in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were +exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time—the old +conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it—there is nothing +left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to +tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good +as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. +Millions more will come.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"The prophets and apostles, too,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pursued this road while here below;<br /></span> +<span>We therefore will, without dismay<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Still walk in Christ, the good old way."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way +of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall +not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the +ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!"</p> + +<p>I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the +diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, +and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over +bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under +projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip +with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time, +learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government +authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from +earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness; +it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be +wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the +human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be +blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the +Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of +devils.</p> + +<p>The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and +heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered +hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen +million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon +might go over for the devastation of Italy; but our King, at a greater +expense, has built a road for a different purpose, that the banners of +heavenly dominion might come down over it, and all the redeemed of +earth travel up over it.</p> + +<p>Being a King's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly +arched and buttressed have given way and crushed the passengers who +attempted to cross them. But Christ, the King, would build no such +thing as that. The work done, He mounts the chariot of His love, and +multitudes mount with Him, and He drives on and up the steep of heaven +amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done—well +done—gloriously done—magnificently done.</p> + +<p>II. Still further: this road spoken of is a clean road.</p> + +<p>Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it has not been +properly cared for; but my text says the unclean shall not walk on +this one. Room on either side to throw away your sins. Indeed, if you +want to carry them along, you are not on the right road. That bridge +will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night will come +down, leaving you at the mercy of the mountain bandits, and at the +very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really on +this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop +ever and anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the +eternal rock. Ay, at almost every step of the journey you will be +crying out: "Create within me a clean heart!" If you have no such +aspirations as that, it proves that you have mistaken your way; and if +you will only look up and see the finger-board above your head, you +may read upon it the words: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a +man, but the end thereof is death." Without holiness no man shall see +the Lord; and if you have any idea that you can carry along your sins, +your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to the end of the Christian +race, you are so awfully mistaken that, in the name of God, this +morning I shatter the delusion.</p> + +<p>III. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. "The wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein." That is, if a man is three +fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a +philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing-stock of the street, and +followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the +gate of heaven, and it swings open: while there has been many a man +who can lecture about pneumatics, and chemistry, and tell the story of +Farraday's theory of electrical polarization, and yet has been shut +out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory +and swept the heavens with his telescope, and yet has not been able to +see the Morning Star. Many a man has been familiar with all the higher +branches of mathematics, and yet could not do the simple sum, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems, and +yet could not "read his title clear to mansions in the skies." Many a +man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." But if one shall come in the right +spirit, crying the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The +pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain.</p> + +<p>He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament +teaching will get on beautifully. He who goes through philosophical +discussion will not get on at all. Christ says: "Come to Me, and I +will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away." +Now what is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? +If you wanted to go to Albany, and I pointed you out a highway +thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological +discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological +discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. +After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me +to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the human will, +or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the +road—go on it. It is a plain way.</p> + +<p>"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ +Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And that is you and that +is me. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. +"Unless you become as a little child, you can not see the kingdom of +God." If you are saved, it will not be as a philosopher, it will be as +a little child. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Unless you get +the spirit of little children, you will never come out at their +glorious destiny.</p> + +<p>IV. Still further: this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the +traveler in those ancient highways would think himself perfectly +secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep +between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under the +fearful spring the man's life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass +by the roadside. But, says my text, "No lion shall be there." I wish I +could make you feel, this morning, your entire security. I tell you +plainly that one minute after a man has become a child of God, he is +as safe as though he had been ten thousand years in heaven. He may +slip, he may slide, he may stumble; but he can not be destroyed. Kept +by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation. +Everlastingly safe.</p> + +<p>The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill +him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can +happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers +that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His +soul, you can not hurt it. No fires can consume it. No floods can +drown it. No devils can capture it.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Firm and unmoved are they<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who rest their souls on God;<br /></span> +<span>Fixed as the ground where David stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or where the ark abode."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His soul is safe. His reputation is safe. Everything is safe. "But," +you say, "suppose his store burns up?" Why, then, it will be only a +change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. "But," you +say, "suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and +contempt?" The name will be so much brighter in glory. "Suppose his +physical health fails?" God will pour into him the floods of +everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly +subtraction is heavenly addition. The tears of earth are the crystals +of heaven. As they take rags and tatters and put them through the +paper-mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so, +often, the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, +come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal +emancipation.</p> + +<p>There was one passage of Scripture, the force of which I never +understood until one day at Chamounix, with Mont Blanc on one side, +and Montanvent on the other, I opened my Bible and read: "As the +mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them +that fear Him." The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Though troubles assail, and dangers affright;<br /></span> +<span>Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite;<br /></span> +<span>Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,<br /></span> +<span>The Scriptures assure us the Lord will provide."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>V. Still further: the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a +bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. "All +things work together for good to those who love God." No weapon formed +against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed, and +delivered by the President of the whole universe. What is the use of +your fretting, O child of God, about food? "Behold the fowls of the +air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; +yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." And will He take care of the +sparrow, will He take care of the hawk, and let you die? What is the +use of your fretting about clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field. +Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What is the +use worrying for fear something will happen to your home? "He blesseth +the habitation of the just." What is the use of your fretting lest you +will be overcome of temptations? "God is faithful, who will not suffer +you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation +also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."</p> + +<p>O this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over +until their branches interlock and drop midway their fruit and shade. +Houses of entertainment on either side the road for poor pilgrims. +Tables spread with a feast of good things, and walls adorned with +apples of gold in pictures of silver. I start out on this King's +highway, and I find a harper, and I say: "What is your name?" The +harper makes no response, but leaves me to guess, as, with his eyes +toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes +rippling on the air: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom +shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be +afraid?" I go a little further on the same road and meet a trumpeter +of heaven, and I say: "Haven't you got some music for a tired +pilgrim?" And wiping his lip and taking a long breath, he puts his +mouth to the trumpet and pours forth this strain: "They shall hunger +no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes." I go a little distance further +on the same road, and I meet a maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but +she has cymbals. They look as if they had rusted from sea-spray; and I +say to the maiden of Israel: "Have you no song for a tired pilgrim?" +And like the clang of victors' shields the cymbals clap as Miriam +begins to discourse: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed +gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea." And +then I see a white-robed group. They come bounding toward me, and I +say: "Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest +in all heaven—who are they?" And the answer comes: "These are they +who came out of great tribulations, and had their robes washed and +made white with the blood of the Lamb."</p> + +<p>I pursue this subject only one step further. What is the terminus? I +do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where it +comes out. My text declares it: "The redeemed of the Lord come to +Zion." You know what Zion was. That was the King's palace. It was a +mountain fastness. It was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness +of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those +towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away; they can +not break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sebastopol was taken, +Babylon fell; but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either +to human or Satanic besiegement. The Lord God Almighty is the defense +of it. Great capital of the universe! Terminus of the King's highway!</p> + +<p>Doctor Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we +should study chemistry, and geometry, and conic sections. Southey +thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer +and Shakespeare. Now, Doctor Dick may have his mathematics for all +eternity, and Southey his Shakespeare. Give me Christ and my old +friends—that is all the heaven I want, that is heaven enough for me. +O garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never +fail! O banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste, and +whose guests are kings forever! O city of light, whose walls are +salvation, and whose gates are praise! O palace of rest, where God is +the monarch and everlasting ages the length of His reign! O song +louder than the surf-beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of +cherubim!</p> + +<p>O my heaven! When my last wound is healed, when the last heart-break +is ended, when the last tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when +the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers +take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their +trumpets, and all across heaven there be chorus of morning stars, +chorus of white-robed victors, chorus of martyrs from under the +throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song +sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored—that of +Jesus only.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_ransomless" id="the_ransomless"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE RANSOMLESS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great +ransom can not deliver thee."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Job</span> xxxvi: 18.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his +property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear +children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any +spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are +now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have +begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow +cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and +happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with +many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the +condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him: +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can +not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our +gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is +ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a +great ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to +adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the +hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the +accidental discharge of a gun—and your mind is gone. If you have ever +been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you +know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our +eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so +easily destroyed?</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I +reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the +best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten +years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had +their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it +went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible +for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will +be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well; +and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was demented, and +I had no responsibility," God will say: "Yes, you were demented; but +there were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance +for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a +little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like +poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just +appeared in England—a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus +Christ by scores and scores—giving an account of his own conversion, +when he said: "The mob got after me, and I lost my hat, and climbed +up by a meat-stand, in order that I might not be trampled under foot, +and while I was there, my heart got on fire with love toward those who +were chasing me, and, springing to my feet, I began to exhort and to +pray." Oh, my God, let me be in the last, last day the Cornish fool, +rather than have the best intellect God ever created unillumined by +the Gospel of Jesus Christ!</p> + +<p>Consider what an uncertain possession you have in your intellect, when +there are so many things around to destroy it; and beware, lest before +you use it in making the religious choice, God takes it away with a +stroke. I know a good many of my friends who are putting off religion +until the last hour. They say when they get sick they will attend to +it, but generally the intellect is beclouded; and oh; what a doleful +thing it is to stand by a dying bed, and talk to a man about his soul, +and feel, from what you see of the motion of his head, and the glare +of his eye, and from what you hear of the jargon of his lips, that he +does not understand what you are saying to him. I have stood beside +the death-bed of a man who had lived a sinful life, and was as +unprepared for eternity as it is possible for a man to be, and I tried +to make him understand my pastoral errand; but all in vain. He could +not understand it, and so he died.</p> + +<p>Oh! ye who are putting off until the sick hour preparation for +eternity, let me tell you that in all probability, you will not be +able in your last hour to attend to it at all. There are a great many +people who say they will repent on the death-bed.</p> + +<p>I have no doubt there are many who have repented on the death-bed, but +I think it is the exception. Albert Barnes, who was one of the coolest +of men, and gave no rash statistics, said thus: that in a ministry of +nearly half a century—he was over seventy when he went up to +glory—he had known a great many people who said they repented on the +dying bed, but, unexpectedly to themselves, got well; and he says, How +many of those, do you suppose, who thought it was their dying bed, and +who, after they repented on that dying bed, having got well, lived +consistently, showing that it was real repentance, and not mock +repentance—how many? not one! not one!</p> + +<p>II. Again: this stroke may come to you in the withdrawal of God's +spirit.</p> + +<p>I see people before me who were, twenty years ago, serious about their +souls. They are not now. They have no interest in what I am saying. +They will never have any anxiety in what any minister of the Gospel +says about their souls. Their time seems to have passed. I know a man, +seventy-five years of age, who, in early life, became almost a +Christian, but grieved away the spirit of God, and he has never +thought earnestly since, and he can not be roused. I do not believe he +will be roused until eternity flashes on his astonished vision.</p> + +<p>It does seem as if sometimes, in quite early life, the Holy Spirit +moves upon a heart, and being grieved away and rejected, never comes +back. You say that is all imaginary? A letter, the address of which I +will not give, dated last Monday morning, came to me on Tuesday, +saying this: "Your sermon last night (that is, last Sabbath night) +did not fit my case, although I believe it did all others in the +Academy; but your sermon of a week ago did fit my case, for I am 'past +feeling.' I am not ashamed to be a Christian. I would as soon be known +to be a Christian as anything else. Indeed, I wish I was, but I have +not the least power to become one. Don't you know that with some +persons there is a tide in their spiritual natures which, if taken at +the flood, leads on to salvation? Such a tide I felt two years ago. I +want you to pray for me, not that I may be led to Christ—for that +prayer would not be answered—but that I may be kept from the +temptation to suicide!"</p> + +<p>What I had to say to the author of that I said in a private letter; +but what I have to say to this audience is: Beware lest you grieve the +Holy Ghost, and He be gone, and never return. Next Wednesday, at two +or three o'clock, a Cunard steamer will put out from Jersey City wharf +for Liverpool. After it has gone one hour, and the vessel is down by +the Narrows, or beyond, go out on the Jersey City wharf, and wave your +hand, and shout, and ask that steamer to come back to the wharf. Will +it? Yes, sooner than the Holy Ghost will come back when once He has +taken his final flight from thy soul. With that Holy Spirit some of +you have been in treaty, my dear friends.</p> + +<p>The Holy Spirit said: "Come, come to Christ." You said: "No, I won't." +The Spirit said, more importunately: "Come to Christ." You said: +"Well, I will after awhile, when I get my business fixed up; when my +friends consent to my coming; when they won't laugh at me—then I'll +come." But the Holy Spirit more emphatically said: "Come now." You +said: "No, I can't. I can't come now." And that Holy Spirit stands in +your heart to-night, with His hand on the door of your soul, ready to +come out. Will you let Him depart? If so, then, with a pen of light, +dipped in ink of eternal blackness, the sentence may be now writing: +"Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone! Let him alone!" When +that fatal record is made, you might as well brace yourselves up +against the sorrows of the last day, against the anguish of an +unforgiven death-bed, against the flame and the overthrow of an undone +eternity; for though you might live thirty years after that in the +world, your fate would be as certain as though you had already entered +the gates of darkness. That is the dead line. Look out how you cross +it!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"'There is a line by us unseen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That crosses every path;<br /></span> +<span>The hidden boundary between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God's patience and His wrath.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And some of you, to-night, have come up to that line. Ay, you have +lifted your foot, and when you put it down, it will be on the other +side! Look out how you cross it! Oh, grieve not the Spirit of God, +lest He never come back!</p> + +<p>III. This fatal stroke spoken of in the text may be our exit from this +world. I hear aged people sometimes saying: "I can't live much +longer." But do you know the fact that there are a hundred young +people and middle-aged people who go out of this life to one aged +person, for the simple reason that there are not many aged people to +leave life? The aged seem to stand around like stalks—separate stalks +of wheat at the corner of the field; but when death goes a-mowing, he +likes to go down amid the thick of the harvest. What is more to the +point: a man's going out of this world is never in the way he +expects—it is never at the time he expects. The moment of leaving +this world is always a surprise. If you expect to go in the winter, it +may be in the summer; if in the summer, it may be in the winter; if in +the night, it maybe in the day-time; if you think to go in the +day-time, it may be in the night. Suddenly the event will rush upon +you, and you will be gone. Where? If a Christian—into joy. If not a +Christian—into suffering.</p> + +<p>The Gospel call stops outside of the door of the sepulcher. The +sleeper within can not hear it. If that call should be sounded out +with clarion voice louder than ever rang through the air, that sleeper +could not hear it. I suppose every hour of the day, and now, while I +am speaking, there are souls rushing into eternity unprepared. They +slide from the pillow, or they slip from the pavement, and in an +eye-twinkling they are gone. Elegant and eloquent funeral oration will +not do them any good. Epitaph, cut on polished Scotch granite, will +not do them any good. Wailing of beloved kindred can not call them +back.</p> + +<p>But, says some one: "I'll keep out of peril; I will not go on the sea, +I will not go into battle—I'll keep out of all danger." That is no +defense. Thousands of people, last night, on their couches, with the +front door locked, and no armed assassin anywhere around, surrounded +by all defended circumstances, slipped out of this life into the +next. If time had been on one side of the shuttle and eternity on the +other side of the shuttle, they could not have shot quicker across it. +A man was saying: "My father was lost at sea, and my grandfather, and +my great-grandfather. Wasn't it strange?" A man, talking to him, said: +"You ought never to venture on the sea, lest you, yourself, be lost at +sea." The man turned to the other, and said: "Where did your father +die?" He replied: "In his bed." "Where did your grandfather die?" "In +his bed." "Where did your great-grandfather die?" "In his bed." +"Then," he said, "be careful, lest some night, while you are asleep on +your couch, your time may come!"</p> + +<p>Death alone is sure. Suddenly, you and I will go out of life. I am not +saying anything to your soul that I am not going to say to my own +soul. We have got to go suddenly out of this life. If I am prepared +for that change, I do not care where my body is taken from—at what +point I am taken out of this life. If I am ready, all is well. If I am +not ready, though I might be at home, and though my loved ones might +be standing around me, and though there might be the best surgical and +medical ability in the room, I tell you, if I were not prepared, I +would be frightened more than tongue can tell. It may seem like +cowardice, but I am not ashamed to say that I should have the most +indescribable horror about going out of this world if I thought I was +unprepared for the next—if I had no Christ in my soul; for it would +be a plunge compared with which a leap from the top of Mont Blanc +would be nothing.</p> + +<p>But this brings me to the most tremendous thought of my text. The text +supposes that a man goes into ruin, and that an effort is made +afterward for his rescue, and then says the thing can not be done. Is +that so? After death seizes upon that soul, is there no resurrection? +If a man topples off the edge of life, is there nothing to break his +fall? If an impenitent man goes overboard, are there no +grappling-hooks to hoist him into safety? The text says distinctly: +"Then a great ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>I know there are people who call themselves "Restorationists," and +they say a sinful man may go down into the world of the lost; he stays +there until he gets reformed, and then comes up into the world of +light and blessedness. It seems to me to be a most unreasonable +doctrine—as though the world of darkness were a place where a man +could get reformed. Is there anything in the society of the lost +world—the abandoned and the wretched of God's universe—to elevate a +man's character and lift him at last to heaven? Can we go into +companionship of the Neroes and the Herods, and the Jim Fisks, and +spend a certain number of years in that lost world, and then by that +society be purified and lifted up? Is that the kind of society that +reforms a man and prepares him for heaven? Would you go to Shreveport +or Memphis, with the yellow fever there, to get your physical health +restored? Can it be that a man may go down into the diseased world—a +world overwhelmed by an epidemic of transgressions—and by that +process, and in that atmosphere, be lifted up to health and glory? +Your common sense says: "No! no!" In such society as that, instead of +being restored, you would go down worse and worse, plunging every hour +into deeper depths of suffering and darkness. What your common sense +says the Bible reaffirms, when it says: "These shall go away into +three months of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These shall go +away into ten years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These +shall go into a thousand years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. +"These shall go into <i>everlasting</i> punishment." And now I have quoted +it right; or, if you prefer, in the words of my text: "Then a great +ransom can not deliver thee."</p> + +<p>Now just suppose that a spirit should come down from heaven and knock +at the gates of woe and say: "Let that man out! Let me come in and +suffer in his stead. I will be the sacrifice. Let him come out." The +grim jailer would reply: "No, you don't know what a place this is, or +you would not ask to come in; besides that, this man had full warning +and full opportunity of escape. He did not take the warning, and now a +great ransom shall not deliver him."</p> + +<p>Sometimes men are sentenced to imprisonment for life. There comes +another judge on the bench, there comes another governor in the chair, +and in three or four years you find the man who was sentenced for life +in the street. You say: "I thought you were sentenced for life." "Oh!" +he says, "politics are changed, and I am now a free man." But it will +not be so for a soul at the last. There will be no new judge or new +governor. If at the end of a century a soul might come out, it would +not be so bad. If at the end of a thousand years it might come out, +it would not be so bad. If there were any time in all the future, in +quadrillions and quadrillions of years, that the soul might come out, +it would not be so bad; but if the Bible be true, it is a state of +unending duration.</p> + +<p>Far on in the ages one lost soul shall cry out to another lost soul: +"How long have you been here?" and the soul will reply: "The years of +my ruin are countless. I estimated the time for thousands of years; +but what is the use of estimating when all these rolling cycles bring +us no nearer the terminus." Ages! Ages! Ages! Eternity! Eternity! +Eternity! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! No +medicine to cure that marasmus of the soul. No hammer to strike off +the handcuff of that incarceration. No burglar's key to pick the locks +which the Lord hath fastened. Sir Francis Newport, in his last moment, +caught just one glimpse of that world. He had lived a sinful life. +Before he went into the eternal world he looked into it. The last +words he ever uttered were, as he gathered himself up on his elbows in +the bed: "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" The lost soul will cry +out: "I can not stand this! I can not stand this! Is there no way +out?" and the echo will answer: "No way out." And the soul will cry: +"Is this forever?" and the echo will answer: "Forever!"</p> + +<p>Is it all true? "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, +while the righteous go into life eternal." Are there two destinies? +and must all this audience share one or the other? Shall I give an +account for what I have told you to-night? Have I held back any truth, +though it were plain, though it were unpalatable? Must I meet you +there, oh, you dying but immortal auditory? I wish that my text, with +all its uplifted hands of warning, could come upon your souls: "Beware +lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not +deliver thee."</p> + +<p>Glory be to God, there is a ransom that can now deliver you, braver +than Grace Darling putting out in a life-boat from Eddystone +Light-house for the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire +steamer—Christ the Lord launched from heaven, amid the shouting of +the angels. Thirty-three years afterward, Christ the Lord launched +from earth to heaven, amid human and infernal execration; yet staying +here long enough to save all who will believe in Him. Do you hear +that? To save all who will believe in Him. Oh, that pierced side! Oh, +that bleeding brow! Oh, that crushed foot! Oh, that broken heart! That +is your hope, sinner. That is your ransom from sin, and death, and +hell.</p> + +<p>Why have I told you all these things to-night, plainly and frankly? It +is because I know there is redemption for you, and I would have you +now come and get it. Oh, men and women long prayed for, and striven +with, and coaxed of the mercy of God—have you concentrated all your +physical, mental, and spiritual energies in one awful determination to +be lost? Is there nothing in the value of your soul, in the +graciousness of Christ, in the thunders of the last day, in the +blazing glories of heaven, and the surging wrath of an undone eternity +to start you out of your indifference, and make you pray? Oh, must God +come upon you in some other way? Must He take another darling child +from your household? Must He take another installment from your +worldly estate? Must life come upon you with sorrow after sorrow, and +smite you down with sickness before you will be moved, and before you +will feel?</p> + +<p>Oh, weep now, while Jesus will count the tears! Sigh, now in +repentance, while Jesus will hear the grief. Now clutch the cross of +the Son of God before it be swept away. Beware, lest the Holy Spirit +leave thy heart. Beware, lest this night thy soul be required of thee. +"Beware, lest he take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom +can not deliver thee." Oh, Lord God of Israel, see these impenitent +souls on the verge of death ready to topple over! See them! Is there +no help? Is this plea all in vain? I can not believe it, blessed God. +Oh, thou mighty One, whose garments are red with the wine-press of +Thine own sufferings, in the greatness of Thy strength ride through +this audience, and may all this people fall into line, the willing +captives of Thy grace. Men and women immortal! I lay hold of you +to-night with both hands of entreaty and of prayer, and I beg of you, +prepare for death, judgment, and eternity.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_three_groups" id="the_three_groups"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE THREE GROUPS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Mark</span> + vi: 40.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were +five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how +Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and +freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel +while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His +great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand +hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppose there were ten thousand there, +for the Bible says there were five thousand men, besides women and +children. The case is put in that way, not because the women and +children were of less importance than the men, but because they would +eat less; and the whole force of the miracle turns on the amount of +food required.</p> + +<p>How shall this great multitude be supplied? I see a selfish man in +that crowd pulling a luncheon out of his own pocket, and saying: "Let +the people starve. They had no business to come out here in the desert +without any provisions. They are improvident, and the improvident +ought to suffer." There is another man, not quite so heartless, who +says: "Go up into the village and buy bread." What a foolish +proposition! There is not enough food in all the village for this +crowd; besides that, who has the money to pay for it? Xerxes' army, +one million strong, was fed by a private individual of great wealth +for only one day, but it broke him. Who, then, shall feed this +multitude?</p> + +<p>I see a man rising in that great crowd and asking: "Is there any one +here who has bread or meat?" A kind of moan goes through the whole +throng. "No bread—no meat." But just at that time a lad steps up. You +know when a great crowd goes off upon an excursion, there are always +men and boys to go along for the purpose of merchandise and to strike +a bargain: and so, I suppose, this boy had gone along for the purpose +of merchandise; but he was nearly all sold out, having only five +loaves and two fishes left. He is a generous boy, and he turns them +over to Christ.</p> + +<p>But these loaves would not feed twenty people, how much less ten +thousand! Though the action was so generous on the part of the boy, so +far as satisfying the multitude, it was a dead failure. Then Jesus +comes to the rescue. He is apt to come when there is a dead lift. He +commands the people that they sit down "in ranks, by hundreds and by +fifties," as much as to say: "Order! order! so that none be missed." +It was fortunate that that arrangement was made; otherwise, at the +very first appearance of bread, the strong ones would have clutched +it, while the feeble and the modest would have gone unsupplied.</p> + +<p>I suppose it was no easy work to get that crowd seated, for they all +wanted to be in the front row, lest the bread give out before their +turn come. No sooner are they seated than there comes a great hush +over all the people. Jesus stands there, His light complexion and +auburn locks illumined by the setting sun. Every eye is on Him. They +wonder what He will do next. He takes one of the loaves that the boy +furnished and breaks off it a piece, which immediately grows to as +large a size as the original loaf, the original loaf staying as large +as it was before the piece was broken off. And they leaned forward +with intense scrutiny, saying: "Look! look!" When some one, anxious to +see more minutely what is going on, rises in front, they cry: "Sit +down in front! Let us look for ourselves."</p> + +<p>And then, when the bread is passed around, they taste of it +skeptically and inquiringly, as much as to say: "Is it bread? Really, +is it bread?" Yes, the best bread that was ever made, for Christ made +it. Bread for the first fifty and second fifty. Bread for the first +hundred and the second hundred. Bread for the first thousand and the +second thousand. Pass it all around the circle: there, where that aged +man sits leaning on his staff, and where that woman sits with the +child in her arms. Pass it all around. Are you all fed? "Ay! ay!" +respond the ten thousand voices; "all fed." One basket would have held +the loaves before the miracle; it takes twelve baskets now. Sound it +through all the ages of earth and heaven, that Christ the Lord comes +to our suffering race with the bread of this life in one hand, and the +bread of eternal life in the other hand.</p> + +<p>You have all immediately run out the analogy between that scene and +this. There were thousands there; there are thousands here. They were +in the desert; many of you are in the desert of trouble and sin. No +human power could feed them; no human power can feed you. Christ +appeared to them; Christ appears to you. Bread enough for all in the +desert; bread enough for all who are here. And, as on that occasion, +so in this: we have the people "sit down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties;" for the fact that many of you stand is no fault of ours, for +we have tried to give you seats. As Christ divided that company into +groups, so I divide this audience into three groups: the pardoned, the +seeking, the careless.</p> + +<p>I. And, first, I speak to the pardoned.</p> + +<p>It is with some of you half past five in the morning, and some faint +streaks of light. With others it is seven o'clock, and thus full dawn. +With others it is twelve o'clock at noon, and you sit in full blaze of +Gospel pardon. I bring you congratulation. Joseph delivered from +Potiphar's dungeon; Daniel lifted from the lion's den; Saul arrested +and unhorsed on the road to Damascus. Oh, you delivered captives, how +your eyes should gleam, and your souls should bound, and your lips +should sing in this pardon! From what land did you come? A land of +darkness. What is to be your destiny? A land of light. Who got you +out? Christ, the Lord. Can you sit so placidly and unmoved while all +heaven comes to your soul with congratulation, and harps are strung, +and crowns are lifted, and a great joy swings round the heavens at the +news of your disinthrallment? If you could realize out of what a pit +you have been dug, to what height you are to be raised, and to what +glory you are destined, you would spring to your feet with "Hosanna!"</p> + +<p>In 1808 there was a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia at +Erfurt. There were distinguished men there also from other lands. It +was so arranged that when any of the emperors arrived at the door of +the reception-room, the drum should beat three times; but when a +lesser dignitary should come, then the drum would sound but twice. +After awhile the people in the audience-chamber heard two taps of the +drum. They said: "A prince is coming." But after awhile there were +three taps, and they cried: "The emperor!" Oh, there is a more +glorious arrival at your soul to-night! The drum beats twice at the +coming in of the lesser joys and congratulations of your soul; but it +beats once, twice, thrice at the coming in of a glorious King—Jesus +the Saviour, Jesus the God! I congratulate you. All are yours—things +present and things to come.</p> + +<p>II. I come now to speak of the second division—those who are seeking; +some of you with more earnestness, some of you with less earnestness. +But I believe that to-night, if I should ask all those who wish to +find the way to heaven to rise, and the world did not scoff at you, +and your own proud heart did not keep you down, there would be a +thousand souls who would cry out as they rose up: "Show me the way to +heaven!" That young man who smiled to the one next to him, as though +he cared for none of these things, would be on his knees crying for +mercy. Why this anxious look? Why this deep disquietude in the soul? +Why, at the beginning of this service, did you do what you have not +done for years—bow your head in prayer? You are seeking.</p> + +<p>"I am a gambler," says one man. There is mercy for you. "I am a +libertine," says another. There is mercy for you. "I have plunged into +every abomination." Mercy for you. The door of grace does not stand +ajar to-night, nor half swung around on the hinges. It is wide, wide +open; and there is nothing in the Bible, or in Christ, or God, or +earth, or heaven, or hell, to keep you out of the door of safety, if +you want to go in. Christ has borne your burdens, fought your battles, +suffered for your sins. The debt is paid, and the receipt is handed to +you, written in the blood of the Son of God—will you have it? Oh, +decide the matter now! Decide it here! Fling your exhausted soul down +at the feet of an all-compassionate, all-sympathizing, all-pitying, +all-pardoning Jesus. The laceration on His brow, the gash in His side, +the torn muscles and nerves of His feet beg you to come.</p> + +<p>But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in +as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a +shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. +There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very near being +saved—perhaps as near as you are to-night—but were not saved.</p> + +<p>On the eastern coast of England, a few weeks ago, in a +fishing-village, there was a good deal of excitement. While people +were in church, the sailors and fishermen hearing the Gospel on the +Sabbath, there was a cry: "To the beach!" and the minister closed the +Bible, and with his congregation went out to help, and they saw in the +offing a ship in trouble; but there was some disorder amid the +fishing-smacks, and amid all the boats, and it was almost impossible +to get anything launched. But after awhile they did, and they pulled +away for the wreck, and came almost up, when suddenly the distressed +bark in the offing capsized, and they all went down. Oh, if the +lifeboats had only been ten minutes quicker! And how many a life-boat +has been launched from the Gospel shore! It has come almost up to the +drowning, and yet, after all, they were not rescued. Somehow they did +not get into it!</p> + +<p>I suppose there are people who have asked for our prayers, and I +suppose there were some in the side room, last Sabbath night, talking +about their souls, who will miss heaven. They do not take the last +step, and all the other steps go for nothing until you have taken the +last step, for I have here, in the presence of God and this people, to +announce the solemn truth, that to be almost saved is to be lost +forever. That is all I have to say to the second division.</p> + +<p>III. I come now to speak to the careless. You look indifferent, and I +suppose you are indifferent. You say: "I came in here because a friend +invited me to see what is going on, but with no serious intentions +about my soul. I have so much work, and so much pleasure on hand, +don't bother me about religion." And yet you are gentlemanly, and you +are lady-like, in your behavior, and, therefore, I know that you will +listen respectfully if I talk courteously. Christian people are +sometimes afraid to talk to men and women of the world lest they be +insulted. If they talk courteously to people of the world, they will +listen courteously. So now I try to come in that way, and in that +spirit, and talk to those of you who tell me that you are careless +about your soul.</p> + +<p>Then you have a soul, have you? Yes, precious, with infinite capacity +for joy or suffering, winged for flight somewhere. Beckoned upward, +beckoned downward. Fought after by angels and by fiends. Immortal!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"The sun is but a spark of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A transient meteor in the sky:<br /></span> +<span>The soul, immortal as its Sire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can never die."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Your body will soon be taken down, the castle will be destroyed, the +tower will be in the dust, the windows will be broken out, and the +place where your body sleeps will be forgotten; but your soul, after +that, will be living, acting, feeling, thinking—where? where? Oh, +there must be something of incomputable worth in that for which heaven +gave up its best inhabitant, and Christ went into martyrdom, and at +the coming of which angels chant an eternal litany and devils rush to +the gate. When everything above you, and beneath you, and around you, +is intent upon that soul, you can not afford to be careless, +especially when I think, this moment while I speak, there are +thousands of souls in heaven rejoicing that they attended to this +matter in time, while at this very instant there are souls in the lost +world mourning that they did not attend to it in time. Hark to the +howling of the damned!</p> + +<p>Oh, if this room could be vacated of this audience, and you were all +gone, and the wan spirits of the lost could come up and occupy this +place, and I could stand before them with offers of pardon through +Jesus Christ, and then ask them if they would accept it, there would +come up an instantaneous, multitudinous, overwhelming cry: "Yes! yes! +yes! yes!" No such fortune for them. They had their day of grace, and +sacrificed it. You have yours; will you sacrifice it? I wish that I +could have you see these things as you will one day see them.</p> + +<p>Suppose, on your way home, a runaway horse should dash across the +street, or between the dock and the boat you should accidentally slip, +where would you be at twelve o'clock to-night or seven o'clock +to-morrow morning? Or for all eternity where would you be? I do not +answer the question. I just leave it to you to answer.</p> + +<p>But suppose you escape fatal accident. Suppose you go out by the +ordinary process of sickness. I will just suppose now that your last +hour has come. The doctor says, as he goes out of the room: "Can't get +well." There is something in the faces of those who stand around you +that prophesies that you can not get well. You say within yourself: "I +can't get well." Where are your comrades now? Oh, they are off to the +gay party that very night! They dance as well as they ever did. They +drink as much wine. They laugh as loud as though you were not dying. +They destroyed your soul, but do not come to help you die.</p> + +<p>Well, there are father and mother in the room. They are very quiet, +but occasionally they go out into the next room and weep bitterly. The +bed is very much disheveled. They have not been able to make it up +for two or three days. There are four or five pillows lying around, +because they have been trying to make you as easy as they could. On +the one side of your bed are all the past years of your life—the +Bibles, the sermons, the communion-tables, the offers of mercy. You +say: "Take them away." Your mother thinks you are delirious. She says: +"There is nothing there, my dear, nothing there." There is something +there! It is your wasted opportunities. It is your procrastinations. +It is those years you gave to the world that you ought to have given +to Christ. They are there; and some of them put their fingers on your +aching temples, and some of them feel for the strings of your heart, +and some put more thorns in your tumbled pillow, and you say: "Turn me +over." And they turn you over, but, alas! there is a more appalling +vision. You say: "Take that away!" They say: "There is nothing there, +nothing there." There is—an open grave there! the judgment is there! +a lost eternity is there! Take it away! They can not take it away.</p> + +<p>You say: "How dark it is getting in the room!" Why, the burners are +all lighted. Your family come up one by one, and tenderly kiss you +good-bye. Your feet are cold, and the hands are cold, and the lips are +cold, and they take a small mirror and they put it over your mouth to +see if there is any breathing, and that mirror is taken away without a +single blur upon it; and they whisper through the room: "She is gone." +And then the door of the body opens and the soul flashes out. Make +room for the destroyed spirit.</p> + +<p>Push back that door! Lost! Let it come into its eternal residence. +Woe! woe! No cup of merriment now, but cup of the wrath of Almighty +God. The last chance for heaven gone. The door of mercy shut. The doom +sealed. The blackness of darkness forever!</p> + +<p>Voltaire is there. Herod is there. Robespierre is there. The +debauchees are there. The murderers are there. All the rejectors of +Jesus Christ are there. And you will be there unless you repent. You +can not say, my dear brother, that you were not warned. This sermon +would be a witness against you. You can not say that God's Holy Spirit +never strove with your heart. He is striving now. You can not say that +you had no chance for heaven, for the Omnipotent Son of God offers you +His rescue. You can not say: "I had no warning about that world; I +didn't know there was any such place," for the Bible distinctly rings +in your ears to-day, saying: "At the end of the world the angels shall +separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a +furnace of fire." And again that book says: "The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And again it +says: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever."</p> + +<p>You can not say that you did not hear about heaven, the other +alternative, for you hear of it now: "The Lamb which is in the midst +of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God +shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No sorrow, no suffering, +no death. Oh, will you be careless any longer, when I tell you that +Christ, the Conqueror of earth and hell, offers you now escape from +all peril, and offers to introduce you this very hour into the peace +and pardon of the Gospel, preparing you for that good land? The sides +of Calvary run blood for you. Jesus, who had not where to lay His +head, offers you His heart as a pillow of rest. Christ offers with His +own body to bridge over the chasm of death, saying: "Walk over Me; I +am the way."</p> + +<p>O suffering Jesus! the thief scoffed at Thee, and the malefactor spat +on Thee, and the soldiers stabbed Thee; but these who sit before Thee +to-day have no heart to do that. O Jesus! tell them of Thy love, tell +them of Thy sympathy, tell them of the rewards Thou wilt give them in +the better land. Groan again, O blessed Jesus! groan again, and +perhaps when the rocks fall, their hard hearts may break.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Nothing brought Him from above,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nothing but redeeming love."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The promise is all free, the path all clear. Come, Mary, and sit +to-night at the feet of Jesus. Come, Bartimeus, and have your eyes +opened. Come, O prodigal! and sit at thy father's table. Come, O you +suffering, sinning, dying the soul! and find rest on the heart of +Jesus. The Spirit and Bride say "Come," and Churches militant and +triumphant say "Come," and all the voices of the past, mingling with +all the voices of the future, in one great thunder of emphasis, bid +you "Come now!" Are not those of you who are in the third class ready +to pass over into the second division, and become seekers after +Christ? Ay, are you not ready to pass over into the first division, +and become the pardoned sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? I +can do no more than offer you, through Jesus Christ, peace on earth +and everlasting residence in His presence.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"When God makes up His last account<br /></span> +<span>Of natives in His holy mount,<br /></span> +<span>'Twill be an honor to appear<br /></span> +<span>As one new-born and nourished there."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Good-night! The Lord bless you! Go to your homes seeking after Christ. +Sleep not until you have made your peace with God. Good-night—a deep, +hearty, loving, Christian good-night!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_insignificant" id="the_insignificant"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE INSIGNIFICANT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the + reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field + belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of + Elimelech."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Ruth</span> ii: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It +was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for +the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the +poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls +of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest had been +reaped, instead of raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by the custom +of the land, left in its place, so that the poor, coming along that +way, might glean it and get their bread. But, you say, "What is the +use of all these harvest-fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old +and feeble to go out and toil in the sun; and can you expect that +Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister +her hands in the harvest-field?"</p> + +<p>Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in +the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned +reapers, he beholds a beautiful woman gleaning—a woman more fit to +bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. +Ah, that was an eventful day!</p> + +<p>It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly +gleaner—an attachment full of undying interest to the Church of God +in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, +goes home to Naomi to tell her the successes and adventures of the +day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and +traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the +harvest-field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in +Judah, and becomes in after-time the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the +Lord of glory! Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a +morning?</p> + +<p>I. I learn, in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops +character. It was bereavement, poverty, and exile that developed, +illustrated, and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's +character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was +sorrow that made John Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the +better poet, and O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the +better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better +encyclopædist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very +brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems +to have so little heart and tenderness in his sermons?" "Well," he +replied, "the reason is, our pastor has never had any trouble. When +misfortune comes upon him, his style will be different." After awhile +the Lord took a child out of that pastor's house; and though the +preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the +tenderness of his discourses! The fact is, that trouble is a great +educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and +his execution is cold and formal and unfeeling. The reason is that all +his life he has been prospered. But let misfortune or bereavement come +to that man, and he sits down at the instrument, and you discover the +pathos in the first sweep of the keys.</p> + +<p>Misfortune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a +sick-room where there is a dying child. Perhaps he is very rough in +his prescription, and very rough in his manner, and rough in the +feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious +question; but years roll on, and there has been one dead in his own +house; and now he comes into the sick-room, and with tearful eye he +looks at the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how this reminds me of my +Charlie!" Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow—I see its touch in the +grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its +power in the mightiest argument.</p> + +<p>Grecian mythology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out +by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life +that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort +and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of +disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage best by the flash of +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on +the foundering ship under the glare of the lightning in the breakers +of Melita. God crowns His children amid the howling of wild beasts and +the chopping of blood-splashed guillotine and the crackling fires of +martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop +Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took the pope's bull and the cardinal's +curse and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all +the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord +Claverhouse to develop James Renwick, and Andrew Melville, and Hugh +McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy +sea, and the December blast, and the desolate New England coast, and +the war-whoop of savages, to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim +Fathers—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"When amid the storms they sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the stars heard, and the sea,<br /></span> +<span>And the sounding aisles of the dim wood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Rang to the anthems of the free."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present +national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it +will march along after the foreign aristocracies that have mocked and +the tyrannies that have jeered, shall be swept down under the +omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism, and who, by the strength +of His own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is +individually, and in the family, and in the Church, and in the world, +that through darkness and storm and trouble men, women, churches, +nations, are developed.</p> + +<p>II. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I +suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in +prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to +trudge off with her toward Judah, when she had to make that lonely +journey? One—the heroine of my text. One—absolutely one. I suppose +when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all +things went well, they had a great many callers; but I suppose that +after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and +poor, she was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that +sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now +the night has fallen.</p> + +<p>Oh, these beautiful sun-flowers that spread out their color in the +morning hour! but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! +Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when +his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much +that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and +Zophar the Naamathite.</p> + +<p>Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls +down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a +man's character, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the +imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which +in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are +reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down +under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch +of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant.</p> + +<p>In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling +it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days +of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a +friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a +friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in +the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in +Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from +following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God +my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."</p> + +<p>III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in +hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth +started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her +mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature +to go away from her father's house, to go off with a poor old woman +toward the land of Judah! They won't live to get across the desert. +They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will +destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with +Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be +affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the +grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is +that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly.</p> + +<p>When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of +conviction—how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the +darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it +was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. +After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God's mercy; you +began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more +sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, +saying: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and +whose sins are covered." A very dark starting in conviction, a very +bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the +Gospel!</p> + +<p>So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we +start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back, +but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must +go;" and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, +and we have to traverse the desert and we are pounded and flailed of +misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten +thousand obstacles that have been slain by our own right arm. We have +to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the +castle; but, blessed be God, the day of rest and reward will come. On +the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if +not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, +no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it? Know it! I +know it because God says so: "They shall hunger no more, neither +thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, +for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to +living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their +eyes."</p> + +<p>It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his +day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morning +quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use; +but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared +like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, +clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark +rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked +out on the wreck of a ruined earth.</p> + +<p>Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than +the thieves on either side of the cross, human hate smacking its lips +in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the +sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifixion. Tell me, +O Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever darker times than those? +Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of +Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back +by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day +of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world +are to be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on +whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come +up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of +the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising +on their thrones, beat time with their scepters: "Hallelujah, for the +Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world +have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"That song of love, now low and far,<br /></span> +<span>Ere long shall swell from star to star;<br /></span> +<span>That light, the breaking day which tips<br /></span> +<span>The golden-spired Apocalypse."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>IV. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most +insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more +unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can +you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just +happened to alight—as they say—just happened to alight on that field +of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact +that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all +nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a +thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your +history and in mine: events that you thought of no importance at all +have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that +accidental meeting—you did not think of it again for a long while; +but how it changed all the phase of your life!</p> + +<p>It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments +of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction +of all the world's minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a +stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from +it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the +long-continued strains of Jubal's harp and Jubal's organ. It seemed to +be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses +of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo +in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of +factories on the Merrimac.</p> + +<p>It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in +a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids +fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest +convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the +sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation. It seemed to be a +matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, +dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard +Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of +his salvation.</p> + +<p>In after-days that man wrote a book called "The Call to the +Unconverted," that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among +others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a book called "The +Rise and Progress of Religion," which has brought thousands and tens +of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great +Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book called "A Practical View of +Christianity," which was the means of bringing a great multitude to +Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called +"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation +of unconverted multitudes. And that tide of influence started from the +fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of +Richard Baxter—the tide of influence rolling on through Richard +Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, +through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the +insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most +momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed +to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of +some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to +you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history.</p> + +<p>V. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female +industry.</p> + +<p>Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field under the hot sun, or at noon +taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which +Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course, have changed, +and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, +every intelligent woman will find something to do.</p> + +<p>I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some +families there are persons of no practical service to the household or +community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in +the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pattern, or +bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot +himself! They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley +on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness +may seem to do very well while they are under the shelter of their +father's house; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of +these butterflies? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon +themselves habits of indolence; but when they come out into practical +life their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel +in their hearts what the poet so severely satirized when he said:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Folks are so awkward, things so impolite,<br /></span> +<span>They're elegantly pained from morning until night."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, +useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity! Spinola said to Sir Horace +Vere: "Of what did your brother die?" "Of having nothing to do," was +the answer. "Ah!" said Spinola, "that's enough to kill any general of +us." Oh! can it be possible in this world, where there is so much +suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so +many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find +anything to do?</p> + +<p>Madame de Staël did a world of work in her time; and one day, while +she was seated amid instruments of music, all of which she had +mastered, and amid manuscript books which she had written, some one +said to her: "How do you find time to attend to all these things?" +"Oh," she replied, "these are not the things I am proud of. My chief +boast is in the fact that I have seventeen trades, by any one of which +I could make a livelihood if necessary." And if in secular spheres +there is so much to be done, in spiritual work how vast the field! How +many dying all around about us without one word of comfort! We want +more Abigails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more Deborahs +consecrated—body, mind, soul—to the Lord who bought them.</p> + +<p>VI. Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning.</p> + +<p>Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw, +and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for +myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said +beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together, +and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that +down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf, +and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all +together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, +nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners!</p> + +<p>Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's +shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher +in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, +while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to +open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they +have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of +life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours, +and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth +gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and +busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which, +gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It +is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up +and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much +joy.</p> + +<p>There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the +field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you +gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one +or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in +this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of +gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, +shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_three_rings" id="the_three_rings"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE THREE RINGS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Put a ring on his hand."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Luke</span> xv: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the +parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard +time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and +prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of +parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front +of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and +say: "What's the matter? What <i>is</i> the matter?" But before they quite +arrive, the old man cries out: "Put a ring on his hand." What a +seeming absurdity! What can such a wretched mendicant as this fellow +that is tramping on toward the house want with a ring? Oh, he is the +prodigal son. No more tending of the swine-trough. No more longing for +the pods of the carob-tree. No more blistered feet. Off with the rags! +On with the robe! Out with the ring! Even so does God receive every +one of us when we come back. There are gold rings, and pearl rings, +and carnelian rings, and diamond rings; but the richest ring that ever +flashed on the vision is that which our Father puts upon a forgiven +soul.</p> + +<p>I know that the impression is abroad among some people that religion +bemeans and belittles a man; that it takes all the sparkle out of his +soul; that he has to exchange a roistering independence for an +ecclesiastical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian, +he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten +thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting +out—it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence, +it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is +not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the +palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the +throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest +liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment. +"Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into +His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years +ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of +the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten +children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to +find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the +pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the +services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this +little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own +children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage, +and went away.</p> + +<p>The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for +the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under +her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the +poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright +and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said +that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption.</p> + +<p>There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry, +and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries. +In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a +king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His +adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold +what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should +be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may +be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live +in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are +assured of eternal defenses.</p> + +<p>Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of +earth and heaven. We have the family name, the family dress, the +family keys, the family wardrobe. The Father looks after us, robes us, +defends us, blesses us. We have royal blood in our veins, and there +are crowns in our line. If we are His children, then princes and +princesses. It is only a question of time when we get our coronet. +Adopted! Then we have the family secrets. "The secret of the Lord is +with them that fear Him." Adopted! Then we have the family +inheritance, and in the day when our Father shall divide the riches of +heaven we shall take our share of the mansions and palaces and +temples. Henceforth let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry. The +insignia of eternal glory is our coat of arms. This ring of adoption +puts upon us all honor and all privilege. Now we can take the words of +Charles Wesley, that prince of hymn-makers, and sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Come, let us join our friends above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who have obtained the prize,<br /></span> +<span>And on the eagle wings of love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To joy celestial rise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Let all the saints terrestrial sing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With those to glory gone;<br /></span> +<span>For all the servants of our King,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In heaven and earth, are one."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have been told that when any of the members of any of the great +secret societies of this country are in a distant city and are in any +kind of trouble, and are set upon by enemies, they have only to give a +certain signal and the members of that organization will flock around +for defense. And when any man belongs to this great Christian +brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial, in persecution, in +temptation, he has only to show this ring of Christ's adoption, and +all the armed cohorts of heaven will come to his rescue.</p> + +<p>Still further, when Christ takes a soul into His love He puts upon it +a marriage-ring. Now, that is not a whim of mine: "And I will betroth +thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in +righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in +mercies." (Hosea ii: 19.) At the wedding altar the bridegroom puts a +ring upon the hand of the bride, signifying love and faithfulness. +Trouble may come upon the household, and the carpets may go, the +pictures may go, the piano may go, everything else may go—the last +thing that goes is that marriage-ring, for it is considered sacred. In +the burial hour it is withdrawn from the hand and kept in a casket, +and sometimes the box is opened on an anniversary day, and as you look +at that ring you see under its arch a long procession of precious +memories. Within the golden circle of that ring there is room for a +thousand sweet recollections to revolve, and you think of the great +contrast between the hour when, at the close of the "Wedding March," +under the flashing lights and amid the aroma of orange-blossoms, you +set that ring on the round finger of the plump hand, and that other +hour when, at the close of the exhaustive watching, when you knew that +the soul had fled, you took from the hand, which gave back no +responsive clasp, from that emaciated finger, the ring that she had +worn so long and worn so well.</p> + +<p>On some anniversary day you take up that ring, and you repolish it +until all the old luster comes back, and you can see in it the flash +of eyes that long ago ceased to weep. Oh, it is not an unmeaning thing +when I tell you that when Christ receives a soul into His keeping He +puts on it a marriage-ring. He endows you from that moment with all +His wealth. You are one—Christ and the soul—one in sympathy, one in +affection, one in hope.</p> + +<p>There is no power in earth or hell to effect a divorcement after +Christ and the soul are united. Other kings have turned out their +companions when they got weary of them, and sent them adrift from the +palace gate. Ahasuerus banished Vashti; Napoleon forsook Josephine; +but Christ is the husband that is true forever. Having loved you once, +He loves you to the end. Did they not try to divorce Margaret, the +Scotch girl, from Jesus? They said: "You must give up your religion." +She said: "I can't give up my religion." And so they took her down to +the beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake at low-water mark, and +they fastened her to it, expecting that as the tide came up her faith +would fail. The tide began to rise, and came up higher and higher, and +to the girdle, and to the lip, and in the last moment, just as the +wave was washing her soul into glory, she shouted the praises of +Jesus.</p> + +<p>Oh, no, you can not separate a soul from Christ! It is an everlasting +marriage. Battle and storm and darkness can not do it. Is it too much +exultation for a man, who is but dust and ashes like myself, to cry +out this morning: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor any other creature shall separate me from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus my Lord"? Glory be to God that when Christ and the +soul are married they are bound by a chain, a golden chain—if I might +say so—a chain with one link, and that one link the golden ring of +God's everlasting love.</p> + +<p>I go a step further, and tell you that when Christ receives a soul +into His love He puts on him the ring of festivity. You know that it +has been the custom in all ages to bestow rings on very happy +occasions. There is nothing more appropriate for a birthday gift than +a ring. You delight to bestow such a gift upon your children at such +a time. It means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well, when this old man of +the text wanted to tell how glad he was that his boy had got back, he +expressed it in this way. Actually, before he ordered sandals to be +put on his bare feet; before he ordered the fatted calf to be killed +to appease the boy's hunger, he commanded: "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>Oh, it is a merry time when Christ and the soul are united! Joy of +forgiveness! What a splendid thing it is to feel that all is right +between me and God. What a glorious thing it is to have God just take +up all the sins of my life and put them in one bundle, and then fling +them into the depths of the sea, never to rise again, never to be +talked of again. Pollution all gone. Darkness all illumined. God +reconciled. The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>Every day I find happy Christian people. I find some of them with no +second coat, some of them in huts and tenement houses, not one earthly +comfort afforded them; and yet they are as happy as happy can be. They +sing "Rock of Ages" as no other people in the world sing it. They +never wore any jewelry in their life but one gold ring, and that was +the ring of God's undying affection. Oh, how happy religion makes us! +Did it make you gloomy and sad? Did you go with your head cast down? I +do not think you got religion, my brother. That is not the effect of +religion. True religion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, +and all her paths are peace."</p> + +<p>Why, religion lightens all our burdens. It smooths all our way. It +interprets all our sorrows. It changes the jar of earthly discord for +the peal of festal bells. In front of the flaming furnace of trial it +sets the forge on which scepters are hammered out. Would you not like +to-day to come up from the swine-feeding and try this religion? All +the joys of heaven would come out and meet you, and God would cry from +the throne: "Put a ring on his hand."</p> + +<p>You are not happy. I see it. There is no peace, and sometimes you +laugh when you feel a great deal more like crying. The world is a +cheat. It first wears you down with its follies, then it kicks you out +into darkness. It comes back from the massacre of a million souls to +attempt the destruction of your soul to-day. No peace out of God, but +here is the fountain that can slake the thirst. Here is the harbor +where you can drop safe anchorage.</p> + +<p>Would you not like, I ask you—not perfunctorily, but as one brother +might talk to another—would you not like to have a pillow of rest to +put your head on? And would you not like, when you retire at night, to +feel that all is well, whether you wake up to-morrow morning at six +o'clock, or sleep the sleep that knows no waking? Would you not like +to exchange this awful uncertainty about the future for a glorious +assurance of heaven? Accept of the Lord Jesus to-day, and all is well. +If on your way home some peril should cross the street and dash your +life out, it would not hurt you. You would rise up immediately. You +would stand in the celestial streets. You would be amid the great +throng that forever worship and are forever happy. If this day some +sudden disease should come upon you, it would not frighten you. If you +knew you were going you could give a calm farewell to your beautiful +home on earth, and know that you are going right into the +companionship of those who have already got beyond the toiling and the +weeping.</p> + +<p>You feel on Saturday night different from the way you feel any other +night of the week. You come home from the bank, or the store, or the +shop, and you say: "Well, now my week's work is done, and to-morrow is +Sunday." It is a pleasant thought. There is refreshment and +reconstruction in the very idea. Oh, how pleasant it will be, if, when +we get through the day of our life, and we go and lie down in our bed +of dust, we can realize: "Well, now the work is all done, and +to-morrow is Sunday—an everlasting Sunday."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Oh, when, thou city of my God,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall I thy courts ascend?<br /></span> +<span>Where congregations ne'er break up,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Sabbaths have no end."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There are people in this house to-day who are very near the eternal +world. If you are Christians, I bid you be of good cheer. Bear with +you our congratulations to the bright city. Aged men, who will soon be +gone, take with you our love for our kindred in the better land, and +when you see them, tell them that we are soon coming. Only a few more +sermons to preach and hear. Only a few more heart-aches. Only a few +more toils. Only a few more tears. And then—what an entrancing +spectacle will open before us!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Beautiful heaven, where all is light,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful angels clothed in white,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful strains that never tire,<br /></span> +<span>Beautiful harps through all the choir;<br /></span> +<span>There shall I join the chorus sweet,<br /></span> +<span>Worshiping at the Saviour's feet."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I stand before you on this Sabbath, the last Sabbath preceding the +great feast-day in this Church. On the next Lord's-day the door of +communion will be open, and you will all be invited to come in. And so +I approach you now with a general invitation, not picking out here and +there a man, or here and there a woman, or here and there a child; but +giving you an unlimited invitation, saying: "Come, for all things are +now ready." We invite you to the warm heart of Christ, and the +inclosure of the Christian Church. I know a great many think that the +Church does not amount to much—that it is obsolete; that it did its +work and is gone now, so far as all usefulness is concerned. It is the +happiest place I have ever been in except my own home.</p> + +<p>I know there are some people who say they are Christians who seem to +get along without any help from others, and who culture solitary +piety. They do not want any ordinances. I do not belong to that class. +I can not get along without them. There are so many things in this +world that take my attention from God, and Christ, and heaven, that I +want all the helps of all the symbols and of all the Christian +associations; and I want around about me a solid phalanx of men who +love God and keep His commandments. Are there any here who would like +to enter into that association? Then by a simple, child-like faith, +apply for admission into the visible Church, and you will be received. +No questions asked about your past history or present surroundings. +Only one test—do you love Jesus?</p> + +<p>Baptism does not amount to anything, say a great many people; but the +Lord Jesus declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be +saved," putting baptism and faith side by side. And an apostle +declares, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." I do not stickle +for any particular mode of baptism, but I put great emphasis on the +fact that you ought to be baptized. Yet no more emphasis than the Lord +Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church, puts upon it.</p> + +<p>The world is going to lose a great many of its votaries next Sabbath. +We give you warning. There is a great host coming in to stand under +the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is +going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered +sheaves?</p> + +<p>Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You +have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be +Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there +you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be +saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of +mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you +have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will +not be because you did not have a good offer.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"God's spirit will not always strive<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With hardened, self-destroying man;<br /></span> +<span>Ye who persist His love to grieve<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May never hear his voice again."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from +the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the +banquet, and "put a ring on your hand."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="how_he_came_to_say_it" id="how_he_came_to_say_it"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be + Anathema Maranatha."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I Cor.</span> xvi: 22.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words +except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. +Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." +Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him +with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement +about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into +this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had +he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the +world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no. +It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by +what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I +close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised +at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the +same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha."</p> + +<p>If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should +have had the facial proportions of Christ—the front face, the side +face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing—provided He had submitted to that +art; but since the sun did not become a portrait painter until +eighteen centuries after Christ, our idea about the Saviour's personal +appearance is all guess work. Still, tradition tells us that He was +the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth. +If His features had been rugged, and His gait had been ungainly, that +would not have hindered Him from being attractive. Many men you have +known and loved have had few charms of physiognomy. Wilberforce was +not attractive in face. Socrates was repulsive. Suwarrow, the great +Russian hero, looked almost an imbecile. And some whom you have known, +and honored, and loved, have not had very great attractiveness of +personal appearance. The shape of the mouth, and the nose, and the +eyebrow, did not hinder the soul from shining through the cuticle of +the face in all-powerful irradiation.</p> + +<p>But to a lovely exterior Christ joined all loveliness of disposition. +Run through the galleries of heaven, and find out that He is <i>a +non-such</i>. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His +sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the +crimson flowing forth of His blood, make a picture worthy of being +called the masterpiece of the eternities. Hung on the wall of heaven, +the celestial population would be enchanted but for the fact that they +have the grand and magnificent original, and they want no picture. But +Christ having gone away from earth, we are dependent upon four +indistinct pictures. Matthew took one, Mark another, Luke another, +and John another. I care not which picture you take, it is lovely. +Lovely? He was altogether lovely.</p> + +<p>He had a way of taking up a dropsical limb without hurting it, and of +removing the cataract from the eye without the knife, and of starting +the circulation through the shrunken arteries without the shock of the +electric battery, and of putting intelligence into the dull stare of +lunacy, and of restringing the auditory nerve of the deaf ear, and of +striking articulation into the stiff tongue, and of making the +stark-naked madman dress himself and exchange tombstone for ottoman, +and of unlocking from the skeleton grip of death the daughter of +Jairus to embosom her in her glad father's arms. Oh, He was +lovely—sitting, standing, kneeling, lying down—always lovely.</p> + +<p>Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us. Home, +celestial companionship, music of seraphic harps, balmy breath of +eternal summer, all joy, all light, all music, and heard the gates +slam shut behind Him as He came out to fight for our freedom, and with +bare feet plunged on the sharp javelins of human and satanic hate, +until His blood spurted into the faces of those who slew Him. You want +the soft, low, minor key of sweetest music to describe the pathos; but +it needs an orchestra, under swinging of an archangel's baton, +reaching from throne to manger, to drum and trumpet the doxologies of +His praise. He took everybody's trouble—the leper's sickness, the +widow's dead boy, the harlot's shame, the Galilean fisherman's poor +luck, the invalidism of Simon's mother-in-law, the sting of Malchus' +amputated ear.</p> + +<p>Some people cry very easily, and for some it is very difficult to cry. +A great many tears on some cheeks do not mean so much as one tear on +another cheek. What is it that I see glittering in the mild eye of +Jesus? It was all the sorrows of earth, and the woes of hell, from +which He had plucked our souls, accreted into one transparent drop, +lingering on the lower eyelash until it fell on a cheek red with the +slap of human hands—just one salt, bitter, burning tear of Jesus. No +wonder the rock, the sky, and the cemetery were in consternation when +He died! No wonder the universe was convulsed! It was the Lord God +Almighty bursting into tears. Now, suppose that, notwithstanding all +this, a man can not have any affection for Him. What ought to be done +with such hard behavior?</p> + +<p>It seems to me that there ought to be some chastisement for a man who +will not love such a Christ. Does it not make your blood tingle to +think of Jesus coming over the tens of thousands of miles that seem to +separate God from us, and then to see a man jostle Him out, and push +Him back, and shut the door in His face, and trample upon His +entreaties? While you may not be able to rise up to the towering +excitement of the Apostle in my text, you can at any rate somewhat +understand his feelings when he cried out: "After all this, 'if a man +love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"</p> + +<p>Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. Now, there is nothing +that excites a man like injustice. You go along the street, and you +see your little child buffeted, or a ruffian comes and takes a boy's +hat and throws it into the ditch. You say: "What great meanness, what +injustice that is!" You can not stand injustice. I remember, in my +boyhood days, attending a large meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. +Thousands of people were huzzaing, and the same kind of audiences were +assembled at the same time in Boston, Edinburgh, and London. Why? +Because the Madaii family, in Italy, had been robbed of their Bible. +"A little thing," you say. Ah, that injustice was enough to arouse the +indignation of a world. But while we are so sensitive about injustice +as between man and man, how little sensitive we are about injustice +between man and God. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of +anything, then Christ purchased us. He paid for us, not in shekels, +not in ancient coins inscribed with effigies of Hercules, or Ægina's +tortoise, or lyre of Mitylene, but in two kinds of coin—one red, the +other glittering—blood and tears! If anything is purchased and paid +for, ought not the goods to be delivered? If you have bought property +and given the money, do you not want to come into possession of it? +"Yes," you say, "I will have it. I bought and paid for it." And you +will go to law for it, and you will denounce the man as a defrauder. +Ay, if need be, you will hurl him into jail. You will say: "I am bound +to get that property. I bought it. I paid for it!"</p> + +<p>Now, transpose the case. Suppose Jesus Christ to be the wronged +purchaser on the one side, and the impenitent soul on the other, +trying to defraud Him of that which He bought at such an exorbitant +price, how do you feel about that injustice? How do you feel toward +that spiritual fraud, turpitude and perfidy? A man with an ardent +temperament rises and he says that such injustice as between man and +man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and +intolerable, and he brings his fist down on the pew, and he says: "I +can stand this injustice no longer. After all this purchase, 'if any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha'!"</p> + +<p>I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to +love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have +only one feeling toward him—sympathy and a desire to help him. If he +has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten +cents on a dollar—ay, if he can not pay anything—though his +creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with +him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But +suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into +his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come +to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your +perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for +the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten +thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then +everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't +take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for +offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You +would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to +fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all +this house who would have any sympathy for that man.</p> + +<p>But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual +embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal +defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay +me what thou owest."</p> + +<p>We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of +all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here +is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My +red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through +anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't +meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I +want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would +say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he +would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants; +he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of +choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who +understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can +say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and +rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"</p> + +<p>I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love +Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to +hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind +look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may +overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that +you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to +make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of +delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you +have broken His heart!</p> + +<p>Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage: +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did +this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at +the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees +below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go +up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You +knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are +freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist +you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless +or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure. +You go away.</p> + +<p>The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with +very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing +in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in. +I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from +Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the +cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My +head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of +foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been +here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with +hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch—shove back the +bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and +knock!'"</p> + +<p>But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be +another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be +on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the +sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me +in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick +and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head. +The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both +fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in. +Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified +kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall +say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and +now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of +your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the +arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and +throne, and cry with loud voice, that makes the eternal city quake +from capstone to foundation, saying: "If any man love not the Lord +Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."</p> + +<p>Sabbath audience in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all to whom these +words shall come on both sides the sea, notice here the tremendous +alternative: it is not whether you live in Pierrepont Street or +Carlton Avenue, walk Trafalgar Square or the "Canongate;" nor whether +your dress shall be black or brown; nor whether you shall be robust +or an invalid; nor whether you shall live on the banks of the Hudson, +the Shannon, the Seine, the Thames, the Tiber; but it is a question +whether you will love Christ or suffer banishment; whether you will +give yourselves to Him who owns you or fall under the millstone; +whether you will rise to glories that have no terminus or plunge to a +depth which has no bottom. I do not see how you can take the +ten-thousandth part of a second to decide it, when there are two +worlds fastened at opposite ends of a swivel, and the swivel turns on +one point, and that point is now, now. Is it not fair that you love +Him? Is it not right that you love Him? Is it not imperative that you +love Him? What is it that keeps you from rushing up and throwing the +arms of your affection about His neck?</p> + +<p>My text pronounces Anathema Maranatha upon all those who refuse to +love Christ. Anathema—cut off. Cut off from light, from hope, from +peace, from heaven. Oh, sharp, keen, sword-like words! Cut off! +Everlastingly cut off! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of +God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou +continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. +Maranatha—that is the other word. "When he comes" is the meaning of +it.</p> + +<p>Will He come? I see no signs of it. I looked into the sky as I rode +down to church. I saw no signs of the coming. No signal of God's +appearance. The earth stands solid on its foundation. No cry of +welcome or of woe. Will He come! He will. Maranatha! Hear it ye +mountains, and prepare to fall. Ye cities, and prepare to burn. Ye +righteous, and prepare to reign. Ye wicked, and prepare to die. +Maranatha! Maranatha!</p> + +<p>But, oh, my brother, I am not so aroused by that coming as I am by a +previous coming, and that is the coming of our death hour, which will +fix everything for us. I can not help now, while preaching, asking +myself the question—Am I ready for that? If I am ready for the first +I will be ready for the next. Are you ready for the emergency? Shall I +tell you when your death hour will come? "Oh, no," says some one, "I +don't want to know. I would rather not know." Some one says: "I would +rather know, if you can tell me." I will tell you. It will be at the +most unexpected moment, when you are most busy, and when you think you +can be least spared. I can not exactly say whether it will be in the +noon, or at the sundown when people are coming home, or in the morning +when the world is waking up, or while the clock is striking twelve at +night. But I tell you what I think, that with some of you it will be +before next Saturday night.</p> + +<p>A minister of the Gospel said to an audience: "Before next Sabbath +some of you will be gone." And a man said during the week: "I shall +watch now, and if no one dies in our congregation during this week I +shall go and tell the minister his falsehood." A man standing next to +him said: "Why, it may be yourself." "Oh, no," he replied; "I shall +live on to be an old man." That night he breathed his last.</p> + +<p>Standing before some who shall be launched into the great eternity, +what are your equipments? About to jump, where will you land? Oh, the +subject is overwhelming to me; and when I say these things to you, I +say them to myself. "Lord, is it I? Is it I?" Some of us part to-night +never to meet again. If never before, I now here commit my soul into +the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. I throw my sinful heart upon His +infinite mercy. But some of you will not do that. You will go over to +the store to-morrow, and your comrades will say: "Where were you +yesterday?" You will say: "I heard Talmage preach, and I don't believe +what he preaches." And you will go on and die in your sins.</p> + +<p>Feeling that you are bound unto death eternal I solemnly take leave of +you. Be careful of your health, for when your respiration gives out +all your good times will have ended. Be careful in walking near a +scaffold, for one falling brick or stone might usher you into the +great eternity for which you have no preparation. A few months, or +weeks, or days, or hours will pass on, and then you will see the last +light, and hear the last music, and have the last pleasant emotion, +and a destroyed eternity will rush upon you. Farewell, oh, doomed +spirit! As you shove off from hope, I wave you this last salutation. +Oh, it is hard to part forever and forever! I bid you one long, last, +bitter, eternal adieu!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="castle_jesus" id="castle_jesus"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CASTLE JESUS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Who have fled for refuge."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Heb.</span> vi: 18.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles +them these "who have fled for refuge."</p> + +<p>Moses established six cities of refuge—three on the east side of the +river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one +accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them +were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge +nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there +might be any mistake about the way, there were signs put up pointing +in the right way, with the word "Refuge." Having gained the limits of +one of these cities the man was safe, and the mothers of the priests +provided for him.</p> + +<p>Some of us have seen our peril, and have fled to Christ, and feel that +we shall never be captured. We are among those "who have fled for +refuge." Christ is represented in the Bible as a Tower, a High Rock, a +Fortress, and a Shelter. If you have seen any of the ancient castles +of Europe, you know that they are surrounded by trenches, across which +there is a draw-bridge. If an enemy approach, the people, for defense, +would get into the castle, have the trenches filled with water, and +lift up the draw-bridge. Whether to a city of safety, or a tower, +Paul refers, I know not, and care not, for in any case he means +Christ, the safety of the soul.</p> + +<p>But why talk of refuge? Who needs it, if the refuge spoken of be a +city or a castle, into which men fly for safety? It is all sunlight +here. No sound of war in our streets. We do not hear the rush of armed +men against the doors of our dwellings. We do not come with weapons to +church. Our lives are not at the mercy of an assassin. Why, then, talk +of refuge?</p> + +<p>Alas! I stand before a company of imperiled men. No flock of sheep was +ever so threatened or endangered of a pack of wolves; no ship was ever +so beaten of a storm; no company of men were ever so environed of a +band of savages. A refuge you must have, or fall before an +all-devouring destruction. There are not so many serpents in Africa; +there are not so many hyenas in Asia; there are not so many panthers +in the forest, as there are transgressions attacking my soul. I will +take the best unregenerated man anywhere, and say to him, You are +utterly corrupt. If all the sins of your past life were marshaled in +single file, they would reach from here to hell. If you have escaped +all other sins, the fact that you have rejected the mission of the Son +of God is enough to condemn you forever, pushing you off into +bottomless darkness, struck by ten thousand hissing thunder-bolts of +Omnipotent wrath.</p> + +<p>You are a sinner. The Bible says it, and your conscience affirms it. +Not a small sinner, or a moderate sinner, or a tolerable sinner, but a +great sinner, a protracted sinner, a vile sinner, an outrageous +sinner, a condemned sinner. As God, with His all-scrutinizing gaze, +looks upon you to-day, He can not find one sound spot in your soul. +Sin has put scales on your eyes, and deadened your ear with an awful +deafness, and palsied your right arm, and stunned your sensibilities, +and blasted you with an infinite blasting. The Bible, which you admit +to be true, affirms that you are diseased from the crown of your head +to the sole of your foot. You are unclean; you are a leper. Believe +not me, but believe God's Word, that over and over again announces, in +language that a fool might understand, the total and complete +depravity of the unchanged heart: "The heart is deceitful above all +things, and desperately wicked."</p> + +<p>In addition to the sins of your life there are uncounted troubles in +pursuit of you. Bereavements, losses, disappointments are a flock of +vultures ever on the wing. Did you get your house built, and +furnished, and made comfortable any sooner than misfortune came in +without knocking, and sat beside you—a skeleton apparition? Have not +pains shot their poisoned arrows, and fevers kindled their fire in +your brain? Many of you, for years, have walked on burning marl. You +stepped out of one disaster into another. You may, like Job, have +cursed the day in which you were born. This world boils over with +trouble for you, and you are wondering where the next grave will gape, +and where the next storm will burst. Oh, ye pursued, sinning, dying, +troubled, exhausted souls, are you not ready now to hear me while I +tell you of Christ, the Refuge?</p> + +<p>A soldier, during the war, heard of the sickness of his wife and +asked for a furlough. It was denied him, and he ran away. He was +caught, brought back, and sentenced to be shot as a deserter. The +officer took from his pocket a document that announced his death on +the following morning. As the document was read, the man flinched not +and showed no sorrow or anxiety. But the officer then took from his +pocket another document that contained the prisoner's pardon. Then he +broke down with deep emotion at the thought of the leniency that had +been extended. Though you may not appear moved while I tell you of the +law that thundered its condemnation, while I tell you of the pardon +and the peace of the Gospel I wonder if they will not overcome you.</p> + +<p>Jesus is a safe refuge. Fort Hudson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Moultrie, Fort +Sumter, Gibraltar, Sebastopol were taken. But Jesus is a castle into +which the righteous runneth and is safe. No battering-ram can demolish +its wall. No sappers or miners can explode its ramparts, no storm-bolt +of perdition leap upon its towers. The weapons that guard this fort +are omnipotent. Hell shall unlimber its great guns as death only to +have them dismantled. In Christ our sins are pardoned, discomforted, +blotted out, forgiven. An ocean can not so easily drown a fly as the +ocean of God's forgiveness swallow up, utterly and forever, our +transgressions. He is able to save unto the uttermost.</p> + +<p>You who have been so often overcome in a hand-to-hand fight with the +world, the flesh, and devil, try this fortress. Once here, you are +safe forever. Satan may charge up the steep, and shout amid the uproar +of the fight, Forward, to his battalions of darkness; but you will +stand in the might of the great God, your Redeemer, safe in the +refuge. The troubles of life, that once overwhelmed you, may come on +with their long wagon-trains laden with care and worryment; and you +may hear in their tramp the bereavements that once broke your heart; +but Christ is your friend, Christ your sympathizer, Christ your +reward. Safe in the refuge!</p> + +<p>Death at last may lay the siege to your spirit, and the shadows of the +sepulcher may shake their horrors in the breeze, and the hoarse howl +of the night wind may be mingled with the cry of despair, yet you will +shout in triumph from the ramparts, and the pale horse shall be hurled +back on his haunches. Safe in the refuge! To this castle I fly. This +last fire shall but illumine its towers; and the rolling thunders of +the judgment will be the salvo of its victory.</p> + +<p>Just after Queen Victoria had been crowned—she being only nineteen or +twenty years of age—Wellington handed her a death-warrant for her +signature. It was to take the life of a soldier in the army. She said +to Wellington: "Can there nothing good be said of this man?" He said: +"No; he is a bad soldier, and deserves to die." She took up the +death-warrant, and it trembled in her hand as she again asked: "Does +no one know anything good of this man?" Wellington said: "I have heard +that at his trial a man said that he had been a good son to his old +mother." "Then let his life be spared," said the queen, and she +ordered his sentence commuted.</p> + +<p>Christ is on a throne of grace. Our case is brought before him. The +question is asked: "Is there any good about this man?" The law says: +"None." Justice says: "None." Our own conscience says: "None." +Nevertheless, Christ hands over our pardon, and asks us to take it. +Oh, the height and depth, the length and breadth of his mercy!</p> + +<p>Again, Christ is a near refuge. When we are attacked, what advantage +is there in having a fortress on the other side of the mountain? Many +an army has had an intrenchment, but could not get to it before the +battle opened. Blessed be God, it is no long march to our castle. We +may get off, with all our troops, from the worst earthly defeat in +this stronghold. In a moment we may step from the battle into the +tower. I sing of a Saviour near.</p> + +<p>During the late war the forts of the North were named after the +Northern generals, and the forts of the South were named after the +Southern generals. This fortress of our soul I shall call Castle +Jesus. I have seen men pursued of sins that chased them with feet of +lightning, and yet with one glad leap they bounded into the tower. I +have seen troubles, with more than the speed and terror of a cavalry +troop, dash after a retreating soul, yet were hurled back in defeat +from the bulwarks. Jesus near! A child's cry, a prisoner's prayer, a +sailor's death-shriek, a pauper's moan reaches him. No pilgrimages on +spikes. No journeying with a huge pack on your back. No kneeling in +penance in cold vestibule of mercy. But an open door! A compassionate +Saviour! A present salvation! A near refuge! Castle Jesus!</p> + +<p>Oh, why do you not put out your arm and reach it? Why do you not fly +to it? Why be riddled, and shelled, and consumed under the rattling +bombardment of perdition, when one moment's faith would plant you in +the glorious refuge? I preach a Jesus here; a Jesus now; a fountain +close to your feet; a fiery pillar right over your head; bread already +broken for your hunger; a crown already gleaming for your brow. Hark +to the castle gates rattling back for your entrance! Hear you not the +welcome of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope +set before us?</p> + +<p>Again, it is a universal refuge. A fortress is seldom large enough to +hold a whole army. I look out upon fourteen hundred millions of the +race; and then I look at this fortress, and I say that there is room +enough for all. If it had been possible, this salvation would have +been monopolized. Men would have said: "Let us have all this to +ourselves—no publicans, no plebeians, no lazzaroni, no converted +pickpockets. We will ride toward heaven on fierce chargers, our feet +in golden stirrups. Grace for lords, and dukes, and duchesses, and +counts. Let Napoleon and his marshals come in, but not the common +soldier that fought under him. Let the Girards and the Barings come +in, but not the stevedores that unloaded their cargoes, or the men who +kept their books." Heaven would have been a glorified Windsor Castle, +or Tuileries, or Vatican; and exclusive aristocrats would have +strutted through the golden streets to all eternity.</p> + +<p>Thank God, there is mercy for the poor! The great Doctor John Mason +preached over a hundred times the same sermon; and the text was: "To +the poor the Gospel is preached." Lazarus went up, while Dives went +down; and there are candidates for Imperial splendors in the back +alley, and by the peat-fire of the Irish shanty. King Jesus set up His +throne in a manger, and made a resurrection day for the poor widow of +Nain, and sprung the gate of heaven wide open, so that all the +beggars, and thieves, and scoundrels of the universe may come in if +they will only repent. I can snatch the knife from the murderer's hand +while it is yet dripping with the blood of his victim, and tell him of +the grace that is sufficient to pardon his soul. Do you say that I +swing open the gate of heaven too far? I swing it open no wider than +Christ, when He says: "Whosoever will, let him come." Don't you want +to go in with such a rabble? Then you can stay out.</p> + +<p>The whole world will yet come into this refuge. The windows of heaven +will be opened; God's trumpet of salvation will sound, and China will +come from its tea-fields and rice-harvests, and lift itself up into +the light. India will come forth, the chariots of salvation jostling +to pieces her Juggernauts. Freezing Greenland, and sweltering +Abyssinia, will, side by side, press into the kingdom; and transformed +Bornesian cannibal preach of the resurrection of the missionary he has +slain. The glory of Calvary will tinge the tip of the Pyrenees; and +Lebanon cedars shall clap their hands; and by one swing of the sickle +Christ shall harvest nations for the skies.</p> + +<p>I sing a world redeemed. In the rush of the winds that set the forest +in motion, like giants wrestling on the hills, I see the tossing up of +the triumphal branches that shall wave all along the line of our King +as He comes to take empire. In the stormy diapason of the ocean's +organ, and the more gentle strains that in the calm come sounding up +from the crystal and jasper keys at the beach, I hear the prophecy: +"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters +fill the sea."</p> + +<p>The gospel morning will come like the natural morning. At first it +seems only like another hue of the night. Then a pallor strikes +through the sky, as though a company of ministering spirits, pale with +tedious watching through the night, had turned in their flight upward +to look back upon the earth. Then a faint glow of fire, as though on a +barren beach a wrecked mariner was kindling a flickering flame. Then +chariots and horses of fire racing up and down the heavens; then +perfect day: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning?"</p> + +<p>Come in, black Hottentot and snow-white Caucasian, come in, mitered +official and diseased beggar; let all the world come in. Room in +Castle Jesus! Sound it through all lands; sound it by all tongues. Let +sermons preach it, and bells chime it, and pencils sketch it, and +processions celebrate it, and bells ring it: Room in Castle Jesus!</p> + +<p>Again, Christ is the only refuge. If you were very sick, and there was +only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get +that medicine. If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the +ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious +you would be to get into that harbor. Oh, sin-sick soul, Christ is the +only medicine; oh, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor. Need +I tell a cultured audience like this that there is no other name given +among men by which ye can be saved? That if you want the handcuffs +knocked from your wrists, and the hopples from your feet, and the icy +bands from your heart, there is just one Almighty arm in all the +universe to do everything? There are other fortresses to which you +might fly, and other ramparts behind which you might hide, but God +will cut to pieces, with the hail of His vengeance, all these refuges +of lies.</p> + +<p>Some of you are foundering in terrible Euroclydon. Hark to the howling +of the gale, and the splintering of the spars, and the starting of the +timbers, and the breaking of the billow, clear across the hurricane +deck. Down she goes! Into the life-boat! Quick! One boat! One shore! +One oarsman! One salvation! You are polluted; there is but one well at +which you can wash clean. You are enslaved; there is but one +proclamation that can emancipate. You are blind; there is but one +salve that can kindle your vision. You are dead; there is but one +trumpet that can burst the grave.</p> + +<p>I have seen men come near the refuge but not make entrance. They came +up, and fronted the gate, and looked in, but passed on, and passed +down; and they will curse their folly through all eternity, that they +despised the only refuge. Oh! forget everything else I have said, if +you will but remember that there is but one atonement, one sacrifice, +one justification, one faith, one hope, one Jesus, one refuge. There +is that old Christian. Many a scar on his face tells where trouble +lacerated him. He has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He has had +enough misfortune to shadow his countenance with perpetual despair. +Yet he is full of hope. Has he found any new elixir? "No," he says; "I +have found Jesus the refuge."</p> + +<p>Christ is our only defense at the last. John Holland, in his +concluding moment, swept his hand over the Bible, and said: "Come, let +us gather a few flowers from this garden." As it was even-time he said +to his wife: "Have you lighted the candles?" "No," she said; "we have +not lighted the candles." "Then," said he, "it must be the brightness +of the face of Jesus that I see."</p> + +<p>Ask that dying Christian woman the source of her comfort. Why that +supernatural glow on the curtains of the death-chamber; and the +tossing out of one hand, as if to wave the triumph, and the reaching +up of the other, as if to take a crown? Hosanna on the tongue. Glory +beaming from the forehead. Heaven in the eyes. Spirit departing. Wings +to bear it. Anthems to charm it. Open the gates to receive it. +Hallelujah! Speak, dying Christian—what light do you see? What sounds +do you hear? The thin lips part. The pale hand is lifted. She says: +"Jesus the refuge!" Let all in the death-chamber stop weeping now. +Celebrate the triumph. Take up a song. Clap your hands. Shout it. +Hallelujah! Hallelujah!</p> + +<p>But this refuge will be of no worth to you unless you lay hold of it. +The time will come when you will wish that you had done so. It will +come soon. At an unexpected moment it will come. The castle bridge +will be drawn up and the fortress closed. When you see this +discomfiture, and look back, and look up at the storm gathering, and +the billowy darkness of death has rolled upon the sheeted flash of +the storm, you will discover the utter desolation of those who are +outside of the refuge.</p> + +<p>What you propose to do in this matter you had better do right away. A +mistake this morning may never be corrected. Jesus, the Great Captain +of salvation, puts forth his wounded hand to-day to cheer you on the +race to heaven. If you despise it, the ghastliest vision that will +haunt the eternal darkness of your soul will be the gaping, bleeding +wounds of the dying Redeemer.</p> + +<p>Jesus is to be crucified to-day. Think not of it as a day that is +past. He comes before you to-day weary and worn. Here is the cross, +and here is the victim. But there are no nails, and there are no +thorns, and there are no hammers. Who will furnish these? A man out +yonder says: "I will furnish with my sins the nails!" Now we have the +cross, and the victim, and the nails. But we have no thorns. Who will +furnish the thorns? A man in the audience says: "With my sins I will +furnish the thorns!" Now we have the cross, the victim, the nails, and +the thorns. But we have no hammers. Who will furnish the hammers? A +voice in the audience says: "My hard heart shall be the hammer!" +Everything is ready now. The crucifixion goes out! See Jesus dying! +"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="stripping_the_slain" id="stripping_the_slain"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>STRIPPING THE SLAIN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came + to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons + fallen in Mount Gilboa."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">I. Sam.</span> xxxi: 8.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or +Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a +battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the +field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening +I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken from the +bodies of the dead, for there are always vultures hovering over and +around about an army, and they pick up the watches, and the memorandum +books, and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and the hats, and the +coats, applying them to their own uses. The dead make no resistance. +So there are always camp followers going on and after an army, as when +Scott went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon marched up toward +Moscow, as when Von Moltke went to Sedan. There is a similar scene in +my text.</p> + +<p>Saul and his army had been horribly cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was +ghastly with the dead. On the morrow the stragglers came on to the +field, and they lifted the latchet of the helmet from under the chin +of the dead, and they picked up the swords and bent them on their +knee to test the temper of the metal, and they opened the wallets and +counted the coin. Saul lay dead along the ground, eight or nine feet +in length, and I suppose the cowardly Philistines, to show their +bravery, leaped upon the trunk of his carcass, and jeered at the +fallen slain, and whistled through the mouth of the helmet. Before +night those cormorants had taken everything valuable from the field: +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip +the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount +Gilboa."</p> + +<p>Before I get through to-day I will show you that the same process is +going on all the world over, and every day, and that when men have +fallen, Satan and the world, so far from pitying them or helping them, +go to work remorselessly to take what little is left, thus stripping +the slain.</p> + +<p>There are tens of thousands of young men every year coming from the +country to our great cities. They come with brave hearts and grand +expectations. They think they will be Rufus Choates in the law, or +Drapers in chemistry, or A.T. Stewarts in merchandise. The country +lads sit down in the village grocery, with their feet on the iron rod +around the red-hot stove, in the evening, talking over the prospects +of the young man who has gone off to the city. Two or three of them +think that perhaps he may get along very well and succeed, but the +most of them prophesy failure; for it is very hard to think that those +whom we knew in boyhood will ever make any stir in the world.</p> + +<p>But our young man has a fine position in a dry-goods store. The month +is over. He gets his wages. He is not accustomed to have so much money +belonging to himself. He is a little excited, and does not know +exactly what to do with it, and he spends it in some places where he +ought not. Soon there come up new companions and acquaintances from +the bar-rooms and the saloons of the city. Soon that young man begins +to waver in the battle of temptation, and soon his soul goes down. In +a few months, or few years, he has fallen. He is morally dead. He is a +mere corpse of what he once was. The harpies of sin snuff up the taint +and come on the field. His garments gradually give out. He has pawned +his watch. His health is failing him. His credit perishes. He is too +poor to stay in the city, and he is too poor to pay his way home to +the country. Down! down! Why do the low fellows of the city now stick +to him so closely? Is it to help him back to a moral and spiritual +life? Oh, no! I will tell you why they stay; they are the Philistines +stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Do not look where I point, but yonder stands a man who once had a +beautiful home in this city. His house had elegant furniture, his +children were beautifully clad, his name was synonymous with honor and +usefulness; but evil habit knocked at his front door, knocked at his +back door, knocked at his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom door. +Where is the piano? Sold to pay the rent. Where is the hat-rack? Sold +to meet the butcher's bill. Where are the carpets? Sold to get bread. +Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters? +Working their fingers off in trying to keep the family together. +Worse and worse, until everything is gone. Who is that going up the +front steps of that house? That is a creditor, hoping to find some +chair or bed that has not been levied upon. Who are those two +gentlemen now going up the front steps? The one is a constable, the +other is the sheriff. Why do they go there? The unfortunate is morally +dead, socially dead, financially dead. Why do they go there? I will +tell you why the creditors, and the constables, and the sheriffs go +there. They are, some on their own account, and some on account of the +law, stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>An ex-member of Congress, one of the most eloquent men that ever stood +in the House of Representatives, said in his last moments: "This is +the end. I am dying—dying on a borrowed bed, covered by a borrowed +sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in +the middle of the field, where I shall not be crowded, for I have been +crowded all my life." Where were the jolly politicians and the +dissipating comrades who had been with him, laughing at his jokes, +applauding his eloquence, and plunging him into sin? They have left. +Why? His money is gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is gone, his +clothes are gone, everything is gone. Why should they stay any longer? +They have completed their work. They have stripped the slain.</p> + +<p>There is another way, however, of doing that same work. Here is a man +who, through his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that he has done +wrong. Now is the time for you to go to that man and say: "Thousands +of people have been as far astray as you are, and got back." Now is +the time for you to go to that man and tell him of the omnipotent +grace of God, that is sufficient for any poor soul. Now is the time to +go to tell him how swearing John Bunyan, through the grace of God, +afterward came to the celestial city. Now is the time to go to that +man and tell him how profligate Newton came, through conversion, to be +a world-renowned preacher of righteousness. Now is the time to tell +that man that multitudes who have been pounded with all the flails of +sin and dragged through all the sewers of pollution at last have risen +to positive dominion of moral power.</p> + +<p>You do not tell him that, do you? No. You say to him: "Loan you money? +No. You are down. You will have to go to the dogs. Lend you a +shilling? I would not lend you five cents to keep you from the +gallows. You are debauched! Get out of my sight, now! Down; you will +have to stay down!" And thus those bruised and battered men are +sometimes accosted by those who ought to lift them up. Thus the last +vestige of hope is taken from them. Thus those who ought to go and +lift and save them are guilty of stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>The point I want to make is this: sin is hard, cruel, and merciless. +Instead of helping a man up it helps him down; and when, like Saul and +his comrades, you lie on the field, it will come and steal your sword +and helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal and the crow.</p> + +<p>But the world and Satan do not do all their work with the outcast and +abandoned. A respectable, impenitent man comes to die. He is flat on +his back. He could not get up if the house were on fire. Adroitest +medical skill and gentlest nursing have been a failure. He has come to +his last hour. What does Satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches up +all the inapt, disagreeable, and harrowing things in his life. He +says: "Do you remember those chances you had for heaven, and missed +them? Do you remember all those lapses in conduct? Do you remember all +those opprobrious words and thoughts and actions? Don't remember them, +eh? I'll make you remember them." And then he takes all the past and +empties it on that death-bed, as the mail-bags are emptied on the +post-office floor. The man is sick. He can not get away from them.</p> + +<p>Then the man says to Satan: "You have deceived me. You told me that +all would be well. You said there would be no trouble at the last. You +told me if I did so and so, you would do so and so. Now you corner me, +and hedge me up, and submerge me in everything evil." "Ha! ha!" says +Satan, "I was only fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer. +I have been for thirty years plotting to get you just where you are. +It is hard for you now—it will be worse for you after awhile. It +pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't flinch or shudder. Come now, I will +tear off from you the last rag of expectation. I will rend away from +your soul the last hope. I will leave you bare for the beating of the +storm. It is my business to strip the slain."</p> + +<p>While men are in robust health, and their digestion is good, and their +nerves are strong, they think their physical strength will get them +safely through the last exigency. They say it is only cowardly women +who are afraid at the last, and cry out for God. "Wait till I come to +die. I will show you. You won't hear me pray, nor call for a minister, +nor want a chapter read me from the Bible." But after the man has been +three weeks in a sick-room his nerves are not so steady, and his +worldly companions are not anywhere near to cheer him up, and he is +persuaded that he must quit life: his physical courage is all gone.</p> + +<p>He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a saucer. He shivers at the idea +of going away. He says: "Wife, I don't think my infidelity is going to +take me through. For God's sake don't bring up the children to do as I +have done. If you feel like it, I wish you would read a verse or two +out of Fannie's Sabbath-school hymn-book or New Testament." But Satan +breaks in, and says: "You have always thought religion trash and a +lie; don't give up at the last. Besides that, you can not, in the hour +you have to live, get off on that track. Die as you lived. With my +great black wings I shut out that light. Die in darkness. I rend away +from you that last vestige of hope. It is my business to strip the +slain."</p> + +<p>A man who had rejected Christianity and thought it all trash, came to +die. He was in the sweat of a great agony, and his wife said: "We had +better have some prayer." "Mary, not a breath of that," he said. "The +lightest word of prayer would roll back on me like rocks on a drowning +man. I have come to the hour of test. I had a chance, and I forfeited +it. I believed in a liar, and he has left me in the lurch. Mary, bring +me Tom Paine, that book that I swore by and lived by, and pitch it in +the fire, and let it burn and burn as I myself shall soon burn." And +then, with the foam on his lip and his hands tossing wildly in the +air, he cried out: "Blackness of darkness! Oh, my God, too late!" And +the spirits of darkness whistled up from the depth, and wheeled around +and around him, stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Sin is a luxury now; it is exhilaration now; it is victory now. But +after awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is +jackalism; it is robbing the dead; it is stripping the slain. Give it +up to-day—give it up! Oh, how you have been cheated on, my brother, +from one thing to another! All these years you have been under an evil +mastery that you understood not. What have your companions done for +you? What have they done for your health? Nearly ruined it by +carousal. What have they done for your fortune? Almost scattered it by +spendthrift behavior. What have they done for your reputation? Almost +ruined it with good men. What have they done for your immortal soul? +Almost insured its overthrow.</p> + +<p>You are hastening on toward the consummation of all that is sad. +To-day you stop and think, but it is only for a moment, and then you +will tramp on, and at the close of this service you will go out, and +the question will be: "How did you like the sermon?" And one man will +say: "I liked it very well," and another man will say: "I didn't like +it at all;" but neither of the answers will touch the tremendous fact +that, if impenitent, you are going at eighteen knots an hour toward +shipwreck! Yea, you are in a battle where you will fall; and while +your surviving relatives will take your remaining estate, and the +cemetery will take your body, the messengers of darkness will take +your soul, and come and go about you for the next ten million years, +stripping the slain.</p> + +<p>Many are crying out: "I admit I am slain, I admit it!" On what +battle-field, my brothers? By what weapon? "Polluted imagination," +says one man; "Intoxicating liquor," says another man; "My own hard +heart," says another man. Do you realize this? Then I come to tell you +that the omnipotent Christ is ready to walk across this battle-field, +and revive, and resuscitate, and resurrect your dead soul. Let Him +take your hand and rub away the numbness; your head, and bathe off the +aching; your heart, and stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to +life; He brought Jairus' daughter to life; He brought the young man of +Nain to life, and these are three proofs anyhow that he can bring you +to life.</p> + +<p>When the Philistines came down on the field, they stepped between the +corpses, and they rolled over the dead, and they took away everything +that was valuable; and so it was with the people that followed after +our army at Chancellorsville, and at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone +River, and at Atlanta, stripping the slain; but the Northern and +Southern women—God bless them!—came on the field with basins, and +pads, and towels, and lint, and cordials, and Christian encouragement; +and the poor fellows that lay there lifted up their arms and said: +"Oh, how good that does feel since you dressed it!" and others looked +up and said: "Oh, how you make me think of my mother!" and others +said: "Tell the folks at home I died thinking about them;" and another +looked up and said: "Miss, won't you sing me a verse of 'Home, Sweet +Home,' before I die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and the hats +were off, and the service was read: "I am the resurrection and the +life;" and in honor of the departed the muskets were loaded, and the +command given: "Take aim—fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the +head of the grave, with the epitaph of "Lieutenant —— in the +Fourteenth Massachusetts Regulars," or "Captain —— in the Fifteenth +Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers." And so to-night, across this +great field of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of God come +walking among the slain, and there are voices of comfort, and voices +of hope, and voices of resurrection, and voices of heaven.</p> + +<p>Christ is ready to give life to the dead. He will make the deaf ear to +hear, the blind eye to see, the pulseless heart to beat, and the damp +walls of your spiritual charnel-house will crash into ruin at His cry: +"Come forth!" I verily believe there are souls in this house who are +now dead in sin, who in half an hour will be alive forever. There was +a thrilling dream, a glorious dream—you may have heard of it. Ezekiel +closed his eyes, and he saw two mountains, and a valley between the +mountains. That valley looked as though there had been a great battle +there, and a whole army had been slain, and they had been unburied; +and the heat of the land, and the vultures coming there, soon the +bones were exposed to the sun, and they looked like thousands of +snow-drifts all through the valley. Frightful spectacle! The bleaching +skeletons of a host!</p> + +<p>But Ezekiel still kept his eyes shut; and lo! there were four +currents of wind that struck the battle-field, and when those four +currents of wind met, the bones began to rattle; and the foot came to +the ankle, and the hand came to the wrist, and the jaws clashed +together, and the spinal column gathered up the ganglions and the +nervous fiber, and all the valley wriggled and writhed, and throbbed, +and rocked, and rose up. There, a man coming to life. There, a hundred +men. There, a thousand; and all falling into line, waiting for the +shout of their commander. Ten thousand bleached skeletons springing up +into ten thousand warriors, panting for the fray. I hope that instead +of being a dream it may be a prophecy of what we shall see here +to-day. Let this north wall be one of the mountains, and the south +wall be taken for another of the mountains, and let all the aisles and +the pews be the valley between, for there are thousands here to-day +without one pulsation of spiritual life.</p> + +<p>I look off in one direction, and they are dead. I look off in another +direction, and they are dead. Who will bring them to life? Who shall +rouse them up? If I should halloo at the top of my voice I could not +wake them. Wait a moment! Listen! There is a rustling. There is a gale +from heaven. It comes from the north, and from the south, and from the +east, and from the west. It shuts us in. It blows upon the slain. +There a soul begins to move in spiritual life; there, ten souls; +there, a score of souls; there, a hundred souls. The nostrils +throbbing in divine respiration, the hands lifted as though to take +hold of heaven, the tongue moving as in prayer and adoration. Life! +immortal life coming into the slain. Ten men for God—fifty—a +hundred—a regiment—an army for God! Oh, that we might have such a +scene here to-day! In Ezekiel's words, and in almost a frenzy of +prayer, I cry: "Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon +the slain."</p> + +<p>You will have to surrender your heart to-day to God. You can not take +the responsibility of fighting against the Spirit in this crisis which +will decide whether you are to go to heaven or to hell—to join the +hallelujahs of the saved, or the lamentations of the lost. You must +pray. You must repent. You must this day fling your sinful soul on the +pardoning mercy of God. You must! I see your resolution against God +giving way, your determination wavering. I break through the breach in +the wall and follow up the advantage gained, hoping to rout your last +opposition to Christ, and to make you "ground arms" at the feet of the +Divine Conqueror. Oh, you must! You must!</p> + +<p>The moon does not ask the tides of the Atlantic Ocean to rise. It only +stoops down with two great hands of light, the one at the European +beach, and the other at the American beach, and then lifts the great +layer of molten silver. And God, it seems to me, is now going to lift +this audience to newness of life. Do you not feel the swellings of the +great oceanic tides of Divine mercy? My heart is in anguish to have +you saved. For this I pray, and preach, and long, glad to be called a +fool for Christ's sake, and your salvation.</p> + +<p>Some one replies: "Dear me, I do wish I could have these matters +arranged with my God. I want to be saved. God knows I want to be +saved; but you stand there talking about this matter, and you don't +show me how." My dear brother, the work has all been done. Christ did +it with His own torn hand, and lacerated foot, and bleeding side. He +took your place, and died your death, if you will only believe +it—only accept Him as your substitute.</p> + +<p>What an amazing pity that any man should go from this house unblessed, +when such a large blessing is offered him at less cost than you would +pay for a pin—"without money and without price." I have driven down +to-day with the Lord's ambulance to the battle-field where your soul +lies exposed to the darkness and the storm, and I want to lift you in, +and drive off with you toward heaven. Oh, Christians, by your prayers +help to lift these wounded souls into the ambulance! God forbid that +any should be left on the field, and that at last eternal sorrow, and +remorse, and despair should come up around their soul like the bandit +Philistines to the field of Gilboa, stripping the slain.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="sold_out" id="sold_out"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SOLD OUT.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed + without money."— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Isa.</span> lii: 3.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been +carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. +Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews +that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, +literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; +and ye shall be redeemed without money."</p> + +<p>There is enough Gospel in this text for fifty sermons; though I never +heard of its being preached on. There are persons in this house who +have, like the Jews of the text, sold out. You do not seem to belong +either to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over +to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never +paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some +adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world +does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a +summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his +physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts +with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary +culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire +nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the +first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down +the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays +down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone; +and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment, +and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and +says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed +over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to +collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well," +you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now +to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "<i>I have +failed. I am bankrupt.</i> I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not +for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me +back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can +not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of +eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the +consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought."</p> + +<p>I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a +cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a +bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays +the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted, +it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little +while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash +and get for it worthless scrip—so the world passes over to you the +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in that shape which will not be +worth a farthing to you a thousandth part of a second after you are +dead. "Oh," you say, "it will help to bury me, anyhow." Oh, my +brother! you need not worry about that. The world will bury you soon +enough, from sanitary considerations. After you have been deceased for +three or four days you will compel the world to bury you.</p> + +<p>Post-mortem emoluments are of no use to you. The treasures of this +world will not pass current in the future world; and if all the wealth +of the Bank of England were put in the pocket of your shroud, and you +in the midst of the Jordan of death were asked to pay three cents for +your ferriage, you could not do it. There comes a moment in your +existence beyond which all earthly values fail; and many a man has +wakened up in such a time to find that he has sold out for eternity, +and has nothing to show for it. I should as soon think of going to +Chatham Street to buy silk pocket-handkerchiefs with no cotton in +them, as to go to this world expecting to find any permanent +happiness. It has deceived and deluded every man that has ever put his +trust in it.</p> + +<p>History tells us of one who resolved that he would have all his senses +gratified at one and the same time, and he expended thousands of +dollars on each sense. He entered a room, and there were the first +musicians of the land pleasing his ear, and there were fine pictures +fascinating his eye, and there were costly aromatics regaling his +nostril, and there were the richest meats, and wines, and fruits, and +confections pleasing the appetite, and there was a soft couch of +sinful indulgence on which he reclined; and the man declared afterward +that he would give ten times what he had given if he could have one +week of such enjoyment, even though he lost his soul by it. Ah! that +was the rub. He did lose his soul by it! Cyrus the Conqueror thought +for a little while that he was making a fine thing out of this world, +and yet before he came to his grave he wrote out this pitiful epitaph +for his monument: "I am Cyrus. I occupied the Persian Empire. I was +king over Asia. Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in after +years plowed up his sepulcher.</p> + +<p>The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in honor of Charles +Lamb; but what does he say? "I walk up and down, thinking I am happy, +but feeling I am not." Call the roll, and be quick about it. Samuel +Johnson, the learned! Happy? "No. I am afraid I shall some day get +crazy." William Hazlitt, the great essayist! Happy? "No. I have been +for two hours and a half going up and down Paternoster Row with a +volcano in my breast." Smollett, the witty author! Happy? "No. I am +sick of praise and blame, and I wish to God that I had such +circumstances around me that I could throw my pen into oblivion." +Buchanan, the world-renowned writer, exiled from his own country, +appealing to Henry VIII. for protection! Happy? "No. Over mountains +covered with snow, and through valleys flooded with rain, I come a +fugitive." Molière, the popular dramatic author! Happy? "No. That +wretch of an actor just now recited four of my lines without the +proper accent and gesture. To have the children of my brain so hung, +drawn, and quartered, tortures me like a condemned spirit."</p> + +<p>I went to see a worldling die. As I went into the hall I saw its floor +was tessellated, and its wall was a picture-gallery. I found his +death-chamber adorned with tapestry until it seemed as if the clouds +of the setting sun had settled in the room. The man had given forty +years to the world—his wit, his time, his genius, his talent, his +soul. Did the world come in to stand by his death-bed, and clearing +off the vials of bitter medicine, put down any compensation? Oh, no! +The world does not like sick and dying people, and leaves them in the +lurch. It ruined this man, and then left him. He had a magnificent +funeral. All the ministers wore scarfs, and there were forty-three +carriages in a row; but the departed man appreciated not the +obsequies.</p> + +<p>I want to persuade my audience that this world is a poor investment; +that it does not pay ninety per cent. of satisfaction, nor eighty per +cent., nor twenty per cent., nor two per cent., nor one; that it gives +no solace when a dead babe lies on your lap; that it gives no peace +when conscience rings its alarm; that it gives no explanation in the +day of dire trouble; and at the time of your decease it takes hold of +the pillow-case, and shakes out the feathers, and then jolts down in +the place thereof sighs, and groans, and execrations, and then makes +you put your head on it. Oh, ye who have tried this world, is it a +satisfactory portion? Would you advise your friends to make the +investment? No. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Your conscience +went. Your hope went. Your Bible went. Your heaven went. Your God +went. When a sheriff under a writ from the courts sells a man out, the +officer generally leaves a few chairs and a bed, and a few cups and +knives; but in this awful vendue in which you have been engaged the +auctioneer's mallet has come down upon body, mind, and soul: Going! +Gone! "Ye have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>How could you do so? Did you think that your soul was a mere trinket +which for a few pennies you could buy in a toy shop? Did you think +that your soul, if once lost, might be found again if you went out +with torches and lanterns? Did you think that your soul was +short-lived, and that, panting, it would soon lie down for extinction? +Or had you no idea what your soul was worth? Did you ever put your +forefingers on its eternal pulses? Have you never felt the quiver of +its peerless wing? Have you not known that, after leaving the body, +the first step of your soul reaches to the stars, and the next step to +the furthest outposts of God's universe, and that it will not die +until the day when the everlasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my brother, +what possessed you that you should part with your soul so cheap? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought."</p> + +<p>But I have some good news to tell you. I want to engage in a +litigation for the recovery of that soul of yours. I want to show that +you have been cheated out of it. I want to prove, as I will, that you +were crazy on that subject, and that the world, under such +circumstances, has no right to take the title-deed from you; and if +you will join me I shall get a decree from the High Chancery Court of +Heaven reinstating you into the possession of your soul. "Oh," you +say, "I am afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive, and I can not +pay the cost." Then have you forgotten the last half of my text? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money."</p> + +<p>Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in +this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and +pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy +your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of +Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us +to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is? +I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, +no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king's blood. It must +be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent. But where +is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, +yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue. But after awhile the +clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of +a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, +and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to +cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and +then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the +sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we +who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and +imperial blood.</p> + +<p>We have in this day professed Christians who are so rarefied and +etherealized that they do not want a religion of blood. What do you +want? You seem to want a religion of brains. The Bible says: "In the +blood is the life." No atonement without blood. Ought not the apostle +to know? What did he say? "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible +things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ." +You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the +blood, and you leave it a mere corpse, fit only for the grave. Why did +God command the priests of old to strike the knife into the kid, and +the goat, and the pigeon, and the bullock, and the lamb? It was so +that when the blood rushed out from these animals on the floor of the +ancient tabernacle the people should be compelled to think of the +coming carnage of the Son of God. No blood, no atonement.</p> + +<p>I think that God intended to impress us with the vividness of that +color. The green of the grass, the blue of the sky, would not have +startled and aroused us like this deep crimson. It is as if God had +said: "Now, sinner, wake up and see what the Saviour endured for you. +This is not water. This is not wine. It is blood. It is the blood of +my own Son. It is the blood of the Immaculate. It is the blood of +God." Without the shedding of blood is no remission. There has been +many a man who in courts of law has pleaded "not guilty," who +nevertheless has been condemned because there was blood found on his +hands, or blood found in his room; and what shall we do in the last +day if it be found that we have recrucified the Lord of Glory and have +never repented of it? You must believe in the blood or die. No +escape. Unless you let the sacrifice of Jesus go in your stead you +yourself must suffer. It is either Christ's blood or your blood.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some one, "the thought of blood sickens me." Good. God +intended it to sicken you with your sin. Do not act as though you had +nothing to do with that Calvarian massacre. You had. Your sins were +the implements of torture. Those implements were not made of steel, +and iron, and wood, so much as out of your sins. Guilty of this +homicide, and this regicide, and this deicide, confess your guilt +to-day. Ten thousand voices of heaven bring in the verdict against you +of guilty, guilty. Prepare to die, or believe in that blood. Stretch +yourself out for the sacrifice, or accept the Saviour's sacrifice. Do +not fling away your one chance.</p> + +<p>It seems to me as if all heaven were trying to bid in your soul. The +first bid it makes is the tears of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus; but +that is not a high enough price. The next bid heaven makes is the +sweat of Gethsemane; but it is too cheap a price. The next bid heaven +makes seems to be the whipped back of Pilate's hall; but it is not a +high enough price. Can it be possible that heaven can not buy you in? +Heaven tries once more. It says: "I bid this time for that man's soul +the tortures of Christ's martyrdom, the blood on His temple, the blood +on His cheek, the blood on His chin, the blood on His hand, the blood +on His side, the blood on His knee, the blood on His foot—the blood +in drops, the blood in rills, the blood in pools coagulated beneath +the cross; the blood that wet the tips of the soldiers' spears, the +blood that plashed warm in the faces of His enemies." Glory to God, +that bid wins it! The highest price that was ever paid for anything +was paid for your soul. Nothing could buy it but blood! The estranged +property is bought back. Take it. "You have sold yourselves for +nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." O atoning blood, +cleansing blood, life-giving blood, sanctifying blood, glorifying +blood of Jesus! Why not burst into tears at the thought that for thee +He shed it—for thee the hard-hearted, for thee the lost?</p> + +<p>"No," says some one; "I will have nothing to do with it except that, +like the Jews, I put both my hands into that carnage and scoop up both +palms full, and throw it on my head and cry: 'His blood be on us and +on our children!'" Can you do such a shocking thing as that? Just rub +your handkerchief across your brow and look at it. It is the blood of +the Son of God whom you have despised and driven back all these years. +Oh, do not do that any longer! Come out frankly and boldly and +honestly, and tell Christ you are sorry. You can not afford to so +roughly treat Him upon whom everything depends.</p> + +<p>I do not know how you will get away from this subject. You see that +you are sold out, and that Christ wants to buy you back. There are +three persons who come after you to-night: God the Father, God the +Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They unite their three omnipotences in +one movement for your salvation. You will not take up arms against the +Triune God, will you? Is there enough muscle in your arm for such a +combat? By the highest throne in heaven, and by the deepest chasm in +hell, I beg you look out. Unless you allow Christ to carry away your +sins, they will carry you away. Unless you allow Christ to lift you +up, they will drag you down. There is only one hope for you, and that +is the blood. Christ, the sin-offering, bearing your transgressions. +Christ, the surety, paying your debts. Christ, the divine Cyrus, +loosening your Babylonish captivity.</p> + +<p>Would you not like to be free? Here is the price of your +liberation—not money, but blood. I tremble from head to foot, not +because I fear your presence, for I am used to that, but because I +fear that you will miss your chance for immortal rescue, and die. This +is the alternative divinely put: "He that believeth on the Son shall +have everlasting life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not +see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." In the last day, if +you now reject Christ, every drop of that sacrificial blood, instead +of pleading for your release as it would have pleaded if you had +repented, will plead against you. It will seem to say: "They refused +the ransom; they chose to die; let them die; they must die. Down with +them to the weeping and the wailing. Depart! go away from me. You +would not have me, now I will not have you. Sold out for eternity."</p> + +<p>O Lord God of the judgment day! avert that calamity! Let us see the +quick flash of the cimeter that slays the sin but saves the sinner. +Strike, omnipotent God, for the soul's deliverance! Beat, O eternal +sea! with all thy waves against the barren beach of that rocky soul, +and make it tremble. Oh! the oppressiveness of the hour, the minute, +the second, on which the soul's destiny quivers, and this is that +hour, that minute, that second!</p> + +<p>I wonder what proportion of this audience will be saved? What +proportion will be lost? When the "Schiller" went down, out of three +hundred and eighty people only forty were saved. When the "Ville du +Havre" went down, out of three hundred and forty about fifty were +saved. Out of this audience to-day, how many will get to the shore of +heaven? It is no idle question for me to ask, for many of you I shall +never see again until the day when the books are open.</p> + +<p>Some years ago there came down a fierce storm on the sea-coast, and a +vessel got in the breakers and was going to pieces. They threw up some +signal of distress, and the people on the shore saw them. They put out +in a life-boat. They came on, and they saw the poor sailors, almost +exhausted, clinging to a raft; and so afraid were the boatmen that the +men would give up before they got to them, they gave them three rounds +of cheers, and cried: "Hold on, there! Hold on! We'll save you!" After +awhile the boat came up. One man was saved by having the boat-hook put +in the collar of his coat; and some in one way, and some in another; +but they all got into the boat. "Now," says the captain, "for the +shore. Pull away now, pull!" The people on the land were afraid the +life-boat had gone down. They said: "How long the boat stays. Why, it +must have been swamped, and they have all perished together."</p> + +<p>And there were men and women on the pier-heads and on the beach +wringing their hands; and while they waited and watched, they saw +something looming up through the mist, and it turned out to be the +life-boat. As soon as it came within speaking distance the people on +the shore cried out: "Did you save any of them? Did you save any of +them?" And as the boat swept through the boiling surf and came to the +pier-head, the captain waved his hand over the exhausted sailors that +lay flat on the bottom of the boat, and cried: "All saved! Thank God! +All saved!" So may it be to-day. The waves of your sin run high, the +storm is on you, the danger is appalling. Oh! shipwrecked soul, I have +come for you. I cheer you with this Gospel hope. God grant that within +the next ten minutes we may row with you into the harbor of God's +mercy. And when these Christian men gather around to see the result of +this service, and the glorified gathering on the pier-heads of heaven +to watch and to listen, may we be able to report all saved! Young and +old, good and bad! All saved! Saved from sin, and death, and hell. +Saved for time. Saved for eternity. "And so it came to pass that they +all escaped safe to land."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="summer_temptations" id="summer_temptations"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SUMMER TEMPTATIONS.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest + awhile."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Mark</span> vi: 31.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been +living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they +get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, +I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday +afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that +release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people +will have opportunity of recreation this summer than in any previous +summer. Others will have whole weeks and months of rest. The railway +trains are being laden with passengers and baggage on their way to the +mountains and the lakes and the sea-shore. Multitudes of our citizens +are packing their trunks for a restorative absence.</p> + +<p>The city heats are pursuing the people with torch and fear of +sunstroke. The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz +with excited arrivals. The crystalline surface of Winnipiseogee is +shattered with the stroke of steamer, laden with excursionists. The +antlers of Adirondack deer rattle under the shot of city sportsmen. +The trout make fatal snaps at the hook of adroit sportsmen and toss +their spotted brilliance into the game-basket. Already the baton of +the orchestral leader taps the music-stand on the hotel green, and +American life puts on festal array, and the rumbling of the tenpin +alley, and the crack of the ivory balls on the green-baized billiard +tables, and the jolting of the bar-room goblets, and the explosive +uncorking of champagne bottles, and the whirl and the rustle of the +ball-room dance, and the clattering hoofs of the race-courses, attest +that the season for the great American watering-places is fairly +inaugurated. Music—flute and drum and cornet-à-piston and clapping +cymbals—will wake the echoes of the mountains.</p> + +<p>Glad I am that fagged-out American life for the most part will have an +opportunity to rest, and that nerves racked and destroyed will find a +Bethesda. I believe in watering-places. Let not the commercial firm +begrudge the clerk, or the employer the journeyman, or the patient the +physician, or the church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. Luther +used to sport with his children; Edmund Burke used to caress his +favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the dark hours of the church's +disruption, played kite for recreation—as I was told by his own +daughter—and the busy Christ said to the busy apostles: "Come ye +apart awhile into the desert and rest yourselves." And I have observed +that they who do not know how to rest do not know how to work.</p> + +<p>But I have to declare this truth to-day, that some of our fashionable +watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of "a +multitude that no man can number," and amid the congratulations of +this season and the prospect of the departure of many of you for the +country I must utter a note of warning—plain, earnest, and +unmistakable.</p> + +<p>I. The first temptation that is apt to hover in this direction is to +leave your piety all at home. You will send the dog and cat and canary +bird to be well cared for somewhere else; but the temptation will be +to leave your religion in the room with the blinds down and the door +bolted, and then you will come back in the autumn to find that it is +starved and suffocated, lying stretched on the rug stark dead. There +is no surplus of piety at the watering-places. I never knew any one to +grow very rapidly in grace at the Catskill Mountain House, or Sharon +Springs, or the Falls of Montmorency. It is generally the case that +the Sabbath is more of a carousal than any other day, and there are +Sunday walks and Sunday rides and Sunday excursions.</p> + +<p>Elders and deacons and ministers of religion who are entirely +consistent at home, sometimes when the Sabbath dawns on them at +Niagara Falls or the White Mountains take the day to themselves. If +they go to the church, it is apt to be a sacred parade, and the +discourse, instead of being a plain talk about the soul, is apt to be +what is called <i>a crack sermon</i>—that is, some discourse picked out of +the effusions of the year as the one most adapted to excite +admiration; and in those churches, from the way the ladies hold their +fans, you know that they are not so much impressed with the heat as +with the picturesqueness of half-disclosed features. Four puny souls +stand in the organ-loft and squall a tune that nobody knows, and +worshipers, with two thousand dollars' worth of diamonds on the right +hand, drop a cent into the poor-box, and then the benediction is +pronounced and the farce is ended.</p> + +<p>The toughest thing I ever tried to do was to be good at a +watering-place. The air is bewitched with "the world, the flesh, and +the devil." There are Christians who in three or four weeks in such a +place have had such terrible rents made in their Christian robe that +they had to keep darning it until Christmas to get it mended! The +health of a great many people makes an annual visit to some mineral +spring an absolute necessity; but, my dear people, take your Bible +along with you, and take an hour for secret prayer every day, though +you be surrounded by guffaw and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sabbath, +though they denounce you as a bigoted Puritan. Stand off from those +institutions which propose to imitate on this side the water the +iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let your moral and your immortal health +keep pace with your physical recuperation, and remember that all the +waters of Hathorne and sulphur and chalybeate springs can not do you +so much good as the mineral, healing, perennial flood that breaks +forth from the "Rock of Ages." This may be your last summer. If so, +make it a fit vestibule of heaven.</p> + +<p>II. Another temptation around nearly all our watering-places is the +horse-racing business. We all admire the horse. There needs to be a +redistribution of coronets among the brute creation. For ages the lion +has been called the king of beasts. I knock off its coronet and put +the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether in shape or +spirit or sagacity or intelligence or affection or usefulness. He is +semi-human, and knows how to reason on a small scale. The centaur of +olden times, part horse and part man, seems to be a suggestion of the +fact that the horse is something more than a beast.</p> + +<p>Job sets forth his strength, his beauty, his majesty, the panting of +his nostril, the pawing of his hoof, and his enthusiasm for the +battle. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and what Landseer did +for the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does for the horse. +Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak of him. He comes into every +kingly procession and into every great occasion and into every +triumph. It is very evident that Job and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel +and Jeremiah and John were fond of the horse. He came into much of +their imagery. A red horse—that meant war; a black horse—that meant +famine; a pale horse—that meant death; a white horse—that meant +victory.</p> + +<p>As the Bible makes a favorite of the horse, the patriarch and the +prophet and the evangelist and the apostle, stroking his sleek hide, +and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his exquisitely +formed hoof, and listening with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so +all great natures in all ages have spoken of him in encomiastic terms. +Virgil in his Georgics almost seems to plagiarize from the description +of Job. The Duke of Wellington would not allow any one irreverently to +touch his old war-horse, Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen +hours without dismounting at Waterloo; and when old Copenhagen died, +his master ordered a military salute fired over his grave. John +Howard showed that he did not exhaust all his sympathies in pitying +the human race, for when sick he writes home: "Has my old chaise-horse +become sick or spoiled?"</p> + +<p>But we do not think that the speed of the horse should be cultured at +the expense of human degradation. Horse-races, in olden times, were +under the ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution +has come up under fictitious names, and it is called a "Summer +Meeting," almost suggestive of positive religious exercises. And it is +called an "Agricultural Fair," suggestive of everything that is +improving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are +the same cheating and the same betting, the same drunkenness and the +same vagabondage and the same abominations that were to be found under +the old horse-racing system.</p> + +<p>I never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the +turf for a long reach of time, and not be battered in morals. They +hook up their spanking team, and put on their sporting-cap, and light +their cigar, and take the reins, and dash down the road to perdition. +The great day at Saratoga, and Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly +all the other watering-places, is the day of the races. The hotels are +thronged, nearly every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost +fabulous price, and there are many respectable people mingling with +jockeys, and gamblers, and libertines, and foul-mouthed men and flashy +women. The bar-tender stirs up the brandy-smash. The bets run high. +The greenhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough +to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is +decided, and the men in the secret know on which steed to bet their +money. The two men on the horses riding around long before arranged +who shall beat.</p> + +<p>Leaning from the stand or from the carriage are men and women so +absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle and mettle that they make +a grand harvest for the pickpockets, who carry off the pocket-books +and portemonnaies. Men looking on see only two horses with two riders +flying around the ring; but there is many a man on that stand whose +honor and domestic happiness and fortune—white mane, white foot, +white flank—are in the ring, racing with inebriety, and with fraud, +and with profanity, and with ruin—black neck, black foot, black +flank. Neck and neck they go in that moral Epsom.</p> + +<p>Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse-racing dissipations this +summer. Long ago the English government got through looking to the +turf for the dragoon and light-cavalry horse. They found the turf +depreciates the stock, and it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes, the +member of parliament and the author, known all the world over, hearing +that a new turf enterprise was being started in this country, wrote a +letter, in which he said: "Heaven help you, then; for of all the +cankers of our old civilization there is nothing in this country +approaching in unblushing meanness, in rascality holding its head +high, to this belauded institution of the British turf." Another +famous sportsman writes: "How many fine domains have been shared among +these hosts of rapacious sharks during the last two hundred years; and +unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into +the same gulf!" The Duke of Hamilton, through his horse-racing +proclivities, in three years got through his entire fortune of +£70,000, and I will say that some of you are being undermined by it. +With the bull-fights of Spain and the bear-baitings of the pit may the +Lord God annihilate the infamous and accursed horse-racing of England +and America.</p> + +<p>III. I go further, and speak of another temptation that hovers over +the watering-places; and this is the temptation to sacrifice physical +strength. The modern Bethesda was intended to recuperate the physical +health; and yet how many come from the watering-places, their health +absolutely destroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots boasting of having +imbibed twenty glasses of Congress water before breakfast. Families +accustomed to going to bed at ten o'clock at night gossiping until one +or two o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about +their health, mingling ice-creams, and lemons, and lobster-salads, and +cocoa-nuts, until the gastric juices lift up all their voices of +lamentation and protest. Delicate women and brainless young men +chassezing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and +women coming back from our watering-places in the autumn with the +foundations laid for ailments that will last them all their life long. +You know as well as I do that this is the simple truth.</p> + +<p>In the summer you say to your good health: "Good-bye, I am going to +have a good time for a little while. I will be very glad to see you +again in the autumn." Then in the autumn, when you are hard at work in +your office, or store, or shop, or counting-room, Good Health will +come and say: "Good-bye, I am going." You say: "Where are you going?" +"Oh," says Good Health, "I am going to take a vacation!" It is a poor +rule that will not work both ways, and your good health will leave you +choleric and splenetic and exhausted. You coquetted with your good +health in the summer-time, and your good health is coquetting with you +in the winter-time. A fragment of Paul's charge to the jailer would be +an appropriate inscription for the hotel-register in every +watering-place: "Do thyself no harm."</p> + +<p>IV. Another temptation hovering around the watering-place is to the +formation of hasty and life-long alliances. The watering-places are +responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than +all the other things combined. Society is so artificial there that no +sure judgment of character can be formed. Those who form +companionships amid such circumstances go into a lottery where there +are twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe tug of life you want +more than glitter and splash. Life is not a ball-room where the music +decides the step, and bow and prance and graceful swing of long trail +can make up for strong common sense. You might as well go among the +gayly painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels as to go +among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character +that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah, in +the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a +croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it, +you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper +and a feminine butterfly.</p> + +<p>If there is any man in the community that excites my contempt, and +that ought to excite the contempt of every man and woman, it is the +soft-handed, soft-headed fop, who, perfumed until the air is actually +sick, spends his summer in taking killing attitudes, and waving +sentimental adieus, and talking infinitesimal nothings, and finding +his heaven in the set of a lavender kid-glove. Boots as tight as an +Inquisition, two hours of consummate skill exhibited in the tie of a +flaming cravat, his conversation made up of "Ah's" and "Oh's" and +"He-hee's." It would take five hundred of them stewed down to make a +teaspoonful of calves-foot jelly. There is only one counterpart to +such a man as that, and that is the frothy young woman at the +watering-place, her conversation made up of French moonshine; what she +has on her head only equaled by what she has on her back; useless ever +since she was born, and to be useless until she is dead: and what they +will do with her in the next world I do not know, except to set her +upon the banks of the River Life for eternity to look sweet! God +intends us to admire music and fair faces and graceful step, but amid +the heartlessness and the inflation and the fantastic influences of +our modern watering-places, beware how you make life-long covenants!</p> + +<p>V. Another temptation that will hover over the watering-place is that +of baneful literature. Almost every one starting off for the summer +takes some reading matter. It is a book out of the library or off the +bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking books through the cars. I +really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the +intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten +months of the year. Men and women who at home would not be satisfied +with a book that was not really sensible, I found sitting on +hotel-piazzas or under the trees reading books the index of which +would make them blush if they knew that you knew what the book was.</p> + +<p>"Oh," they say, "you must have intellectual recreation!" Yes. There is +no need that you take along into a watering-place "Hamilton's +Metaphysics" or some thunderous discourse on the eternal decrees, or +"Faraday's Philosophy." There are many easy books that are good. You +might as well say: "I propose now to give a little rest to my +digestive organs; and, instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I +will for a little while take lighter food—a little strychnine and a +few grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in August is as bad as +literary poison in December. Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the +lice of a corrupt printing-press jump and crawl into your Saratoga +trunk or White Mountain valise.</p> + +<p>Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning +some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered +romances—the hero a Parisian <i>roué</i>, the heroine an unprincipled +flirt—chapters in the book that you would not read to your children +at the rate of $100 a line? Throw out all that stuff from your summer +baggage. Are there not good books that are easy to read—books of +entertaining travel, books of congenial history, books of pure fun, +books of poetry ringing with merry canto, books of fine engravings, +books that will rest the mind as well as purify the heart and elevate +the whole life? My hearers, there will not be an hour between this +and the day of your death when you can afford to read a book lacking +in moral principle.</p> + +<p>VI. Another temptation hovering all around our watering-places is the +intoxicating beverage. I am told that it is becoming more and more +fashionable for woman to drink. I care not how well a woman may dress, +if she has taken enough of wine to flush her cheek and put glassiness +on her eyes, she is intoxicated. She may be handed into a $2500 +carriage, and have diamonds enough to confound the Tiffanys—she is +intoxicated. She may be a graduate of Packer Institute, and the +daughter of some man in danger of being nominated for the +Presidency—she is drunk. You may have a larger vocabulary than I +have, and you may say in regard to her that she is "convivial," or she +is "merry," or she is "festive," or she is "exhilarated," but you can +not with all your garlands of verbiage cover up the plain fact that it +is an old-fashioned case of drunk.</p> + +<p>Now, the watering-places are full of temptations to men and women to +tipple. At the close of the tenpin or billiard-game they tipple. At +the close of the cotillon they tipple. Seated on the piazza cooling +themselves off they tipple. The tinged glasses come around with bright +straws, and they tipple. First they take "light wines," as they call +them; but "light wines" are heavy enough to debase the appetite. There +is not a very long road between champagne at $5 a bottle and whiskey +at five cents a glass.</p> + +<p>Satan has three or four grades down which he takes men to destruction. +One man he takes up, and through one spree pitches him into eternal +darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom, indeed, can you find a man +who will be such a fool as that.</p> + +<p>When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to a plane. It is +almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly see +it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade, and +it tips only a little toward darkness—just a little. And the first +mile it is claret, and the second mile it is sherry, and the third +mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it +is porter, and the sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets steeper +and steeper and steeper, and the man gets frightened and says, "Oh, +let me get off!" "No," says the conductor, "this is an express train, +and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at +Smashupton." Ah, "look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last +it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." And if any young +man in my congregation should get astray this summer in this direction +it will not be because I have not given him fair warning.</p> + +<p>My friends, whether you tarry at home—which will be quite as safe and +perhaps quite as comfortable—or go into the country, arm yourself +against temptation. The grace of God is the only safe shelter, whether +in town or country. There are watering-places accessible to all of us. +You can not open a book of the Bible without finding out some such +watering-place. Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness; wells of +salvation; streams from Lebanon; a flood struck out of the rock by +Moses; fountains in the wilderness discovered by Hagar; water to +drink and water to bathe in; the river of God, which is full of water; +water of which if a man drink he shall never thirst; wells of water in +the Valley of Baca; living fountains of water; a pure river of water +as clear as crystal from under the throne of God.</p> + +<p>These are watering-places accessible to all of us. We do not have a +laborious packing up before we start—only the throwing away of our +transgressions. No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is "without money +and without price." No long and dirty travel before we get there; it +is only one step away. California in five minutes. I walked around and +saw ten fountains, all bubbling up, and they were all different. And +in five minutes I can get through this Bible <i>parterre</i> and find you +fifty bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up into eternal life.</p> + +<p>A chemist will go to one of these summer watering-places and take the +water and analyze it and tell you that it contains so much of iron, +and so much of soda, and so much of lime, and so much of magnesia. I +come to this Gospel well, this living fountain and analyze the water, +and I find that its ingredients are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hope, +comfort, life, heaven. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye" to this +watering-place!</p> + +<p>Crowd around this Bethesda this morning! Oh, you sick, you lame, you +troubled, you dying—crowd around this Bethesda! Step in it! Oh, step +in it! The angel of the covenant this morning stirs the water. Why do +you not step in it? Some of you are too weak to take a step in that +direction. Then we take you up in the arms of our closing prayer and +plunge you clean under the wave, hoping that the cure may be as sudden +and as radical as with Captain Naaman, who, blotched and carbuncled, +stepped into the Jordan, and after the seventh dive came up, his skin +roseate-complexioned as the flesh of a little child.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<a name="the_banished_queen" id="the_banished_queen"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE BANISHED QUEEN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal + house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day + when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded + Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and + Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of + Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king + with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her + beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti + refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains; + therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in + him."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Esther</span> i: 9-12.</p> +<br /> + +<p>We stand amid the palaces of Shushan. The pinnacles are aflame with +the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth +of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with images +of bird and beast, and scenes of prowess and conquest. The walls are +hung with shields, and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round +of splendors is exhausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural +achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings +of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the +greenness of the grass, and the whiteness of the sea-foam. Tapestries +hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. +Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled +with luxuriant couches, in which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is +submerged. Those for carousal, where kings drink down a kingdom at one +swallow.</p> + +<p>Amazing spectacle!</p> + +<p>Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. +Floors of stained marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with +gleaming pearl.</p> + +<p>In connection with this palace there is a garden, where the mighty men +of foreign lands are seated at a banquet. Under the spread of oak and +linden and acacia the tables are arranged. The breath of honeysuckle +and frankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the +spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon +flowering shrubs—then rolling down through channels of marble, and +widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes +of foreign aquariums, bordered with scarlet anemones, hypericums, and +many-colored ranunculi.</p> + +<p>Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics. +The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with +apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully +twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eulæus filling the +urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the +traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz, in bottles +of tinged shell, and lily-shaped cups of silver, and flagons and +tankards of solid gold. The music rises higher, and the revelry breaks +out into wilder transport, and the wine has flushed the cheek and +touched the brain, and louder than all other voices are the hiccough +of the inebriates, the gabble of fools, and the song of the drunkards.</p> + +<p>In another part of the palace, Queen Vashti is entertaining the +princesses of Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his +servants, "You go out and fetch Vashti from, that banquet with the +women, and bring her to this banquet with the men, and let me display +her beauty." The servants immediately start to obey the king's +command; but there was a rule in Oriental society that no woman might +appear in public without having her face veiled. Yet here was a +mandate that no one dare dispute, demanding that Vashti come in +unveiled before the multitude. However, there was in Vashti's soul a +principle more regal than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than the gold of +Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her +to disobey this order of the king; and so all the righteousness and +holiness and modesty of her nature rise up into one sublime refusal. +She says, "I will not go into the banquet unveiled." Ahasuerus was +infuriate; and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is +driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation, and +yet to receive the applause of after generations, who shall rise up to +admire this martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the last vestige of that +feast is gone; the last garland has faded; the last arch has fallen; +the last tankard has been destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but as +long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, +familiar with the Bible, who will come into this picture-gallery of +God and admire the divine portrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti the +veiled, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti the queen. A +blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated +her queenly position. It was no small honor to be queen in such a +realm as that. Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her +jewels! And yet, my friends, it is not necessary to have place and +regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with stout faith +in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and godless +display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by a grand +and a glorious service, I say: "That woman is a queen," and the ranks +of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation; and whether +she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the +fashionable square, I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen +Vashti!"</p> + +<p>What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of +England, or Margaret of France, or Catherine of Russia, compared with +the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into +glory?—or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all +into the Lord's treasury?—or of Jephtha's daughter, who made a +demonstration of unselfish patriotism?—or of Abigail, who rescued the +herds and flocks of her husband? —or of Ruth, who toiled under a +tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi?—or of Florence +Nightingale, who went at midnight to stanch the battle wounds of the +Crimea?—or of Mrs. Adoniram Judson, who kindled the lights of +salvation amid the darkness of Burmah?—or of Mrs. Hemans, who poured +out her holy soul in words which will forever be associated with +hunter's horn, and captive's chain, and bridal hour, and lute's throb, +and curfew's knell at the dying day?—and scores and hundreds of +women, unknown on earth, who have given water to the thirsty, and +bread to the hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles to the +discouraged—their footsteps heard along dark lane and in government +hospital, and in almshouse corridor, and by prison gate? There may be +no royal robe—there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not +need them; for all charitable men will unite with the crackling lips +of fever-struck hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in greeting her +as she passes: "Hail! Hail! Queen Vashti!"</p> + +<p>II. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared +before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she +would have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the +very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come, in their +sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive +best in the dark lane and in the shadow, and where the sun does not +seem to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures a retiring +and unobtrusive spirit.</p> + +<p>God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to +strike the timbrel at the front of a host, or a Marie Antoinette to +quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at the front of an armed +battalion, crying out, "Up! Up! This is the day in which the Lord will +deliver Sisera into thy hands." And when the women are called to such +out-door work and to such heroic positions, God prepares them for it; +and they have iron in their soul, and lightnings in their eye, and +whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord +Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though +they were hedges of wild-flowers, and cross seas as though they were +shimmering sapphire; and all the harpies of hell down to their dungeon +at the stamp of womanly indignation.</p> + +<p>But these are the exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather make a +garment for the poor boy; Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the +camels; Hannah would rather make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid +would rather give a prescription for Naaman's leprosy; the woman of +Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks to cook a meal for famished +Elijah; Phebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle; +Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures. When I see +a woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity presiding at +the table, with kind and gentle, but firm discipline presiding in the +nursery, going out into the world without any blast of trumpets, +following in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good—I say: +"This is Vashti with a veil on."</p> + +<p>But when I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a +tongue of infinite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing +through the streets with the step of a walking-beam, gayly arrayed in +a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out: "Vashti has lost her veil!" +When I see a woman struggling for political preferment—trying to +force her way on up to the ballot-box, amid the masculine demagogues +who stand, with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and pestiferous +breath, to guard the polls—wanting to go through the loaferism and +the defilement of popular sovereigns, who crawl up from the saloons +greasy and foul and vermin-covered, to decide questions of justice and +order and civilization—when I see a woman, I say, who wants to press +through all that horrible scum to get to the ballot-box, I say: "Ah, +what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil!"</p> + +<p>When I see a woman of comely features, and of adroitness of intellect, +and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high +social position, yet moving in society with superciliousness and +<i>hauteur</i>, as though she would have people know their place, and with +an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed +with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic +infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and railroad +conductors, discoverers of significant meanings in plain conversation, +prodigies of badinage and innuendo—I say: "Vashti has lost her veil."</p> + +<p>III. Again, I want you this morning to consider Vashti the sacrifice. +Who is this that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It +seems to me that I have seen her before. She comes homeless, +houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? +It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh! what a change it was from regal +position to a wayfarer's crust! A little while ago, approved and +sought for; now, none so poor as to acknowledge her acquaintanceship. +Vashti the sacrifice!</p> + +<p>Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home empalaced with +beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home +has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking +hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will +flounder and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter's net—further +away from God, further away from the right. Soon the bright apparel of +the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become +the sobbing of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal +Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapithæ. The house full of +outrage and cruelty and abomination, while trudging forth from the +palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes represented +in this house this morning that are in danger of such breaking-up. Oh, +Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a home, by a dissipated life +destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your +children should ever have to wring their hands, and have people point +their finger at them as they pass down the street, and say, "There +goes a drunkard's child." God forbid that the little feet should ever +have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness! God forbid that +any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or the brandy-glass should come +forth and uproot that garden, and with a lasting, blistering, +all-consuming curse, shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and +the children.</p> + +<p>One night during the war I went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and +I stood on a hill-top and looked down upon them. I saw the camp-fires +all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird +spectacle, those camp-fires, and I stood and watched them; and the +soldiers who were gathered around them were, no doubt, talking of +their homes, and of the long march they had taken, and of the battles +they were to fight; but after awhile I saw these camp-fires begin to +lower; and they continued to lower, until they were all gone out, and +the army slept. It was imposing when I saw the camp-fires; it was +imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep. +Well, God looks down from heaven, and He sees the fireside of +Christendom and the loved ones gathered around these firesides. These +are the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at the close of day, and +talk over the battles of life we have fought and the battles that are +yet to come. God grant that when at last these fires begin to go out, +and continue to lower until finally they are extinguished, and the +ashes of consumed hopes strew the hearth of the old homestead, it may +be because we have</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Gone to sleep that last long sleep,<br /></span> +<span>From which none ever wake to weep."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now we are an army on the march of life. Then we shall be an army +bivouacked in the tent of the grave.</p> + +<p>IV. Once more: I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not +hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace +gate. From the very dignity of her nature, you know there will be no +vociferation. Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; +sometimes in life it is necessary to resist; but there are crises when +the most triumphant thing to do is to keep silence. The philosopher, +confident in his newly discovered principle, waited for the coming of +more intelligent generations, willing that men should laugh at the +lightning-rod and cotton-gin and steam-boat—waiting for long years +through the scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand and +magnificent silence.</p> + +<p>Galileo, condemned by mathematicians and monks and cardinals, +caricatured everywhere, yet waiting and watching with his telescope to +see the coming up of stellar reenforcements, when the stars in their +courses would fight for the Copernican system; then sitting down in +complete blindness and deafness to wait for the coming on of the +generations who would build his monument and bow at his grave. The +reformer, execrated by his contemporaries, fastened in a pillory, the +slow fires of public contempt burning under him, ground under the +cylinders of the printing-press, yet calmly waiting for the day when +purity of soul and heroism of character will get the sanction of earth +and the plaudits of heaven.</p> + +<p>Affliction enduring without any complaint the sharpness of the pang, +and the violence of the storm, and the heft of the chain, and the +darkness of the night—waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth +to soothe the pang, and hush the storm, and release the captive. A +wife abused, persecuted, and a perpetual exile from every earthly +comfort—waiting, waiting, until the Lord shall gather up His dear +children in a heavenly home, and no poor Vashti will ever be thrust +out from the palace gate.</p> + +<p>Jesus, in silence and answering not a word, drinking the gall, bearing +the cross, in prospect of the rapturous consummation when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Angels thronged their chariot wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bore Him to His throne,<br /></span> +<span>Then swept their golden harps and sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'The glorious work is done!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oh, woman! does not this story of Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled, +Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your soul? My sermon +converges into the one absorbing hope that none of you may be shut out +of the palace gate of heaven. You can endure the hardships, and the +privations, and the cruelties, and the misfortunes of this life if you +can only gain admission there. Through the blood of the everlasting +covenant you go through those gates, or never go at all. God forbid +that you should at last be banished from the society of angels, and +banished from the companionship of your glorified kindred, and +banished forever. Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may +you be enabled to imitate the example of Rachel, and Hannah, and +Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Esther, and Vashti.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="the_day_we_live_in" id="the_day_we_live_in"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE DAY WE LIVE IN.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a + time as this?"— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Esther</span> iv. 14.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The +time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in +behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was +afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but +her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the +suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that +peculiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work; you and I +have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women +you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the age in which +God has cast your lot. If you have come expecting to hear abstractions +discussed, or dry technicalities of religion glorified, you have come +to the wrong church; but if you really would like to know what this +age has a right to expect of you as Christian men and women, then I am +ready in the Lord's name to look you in the face. When two armies have +rushed into battle the officers of either army do not want a +philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood +or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the batteries +and swab out the guns. And now, when all the forces of light and +darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged into the fight, it is no +time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and +technicalities and conventionalities of religion.</p> + +<p>What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic, and +triumphant help.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this +age, you need to be an unmistakably aggressive Christian. Of +half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The Church of Jesus +Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief +obstacle to the Church's advancement. I am speaking of another kind of +Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian +are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad +daylight of God's forgiveness. You may have come into this Tabernacle +the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you go out of these doors +you may become princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what +excitement there was in this country, years ago, when the Prince of +Wales came here—how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to +see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon +the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the +honor to which God calls you—to be sons and daughters of the Lord +Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings unto God? "They shall reign with +Him forever and forever."</p> + +<p>But, my friends, you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like +those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces +and wondering why they do not make any progress. How much robustness +of health would a man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great +deal of the piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It +needs more fresh air, more out-door exercise. There are many +Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They +are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their +spiritual health. How long would a man have robust physical health if +he kept all the days and weeks and months and years of his life +feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, every-day +work?</p> + +<p>I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North +Carolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and +yet when I would take up one of these cactuses and pull the leaves +apart, the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever +been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day +just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in +them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of +self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their +Christian character. I remember when I was a boy I used to have a +small piece in the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn +there, and every few days I would pull it up to see how fast it was +growing. Now, there are a great many Christian people in this day +whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which +they only yesterday or the day before planted.</p> + +<p>O my friends! if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, +plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian +usefulness, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun +of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a +great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. I +have no patience with these flower-pot Christians. They keep +themselves under shelter, and all their Christian experience in a +small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great +garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic +with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the Church of God is +more brawn of piety.</p> + +<p>The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, +but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets +whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom; so I have +really more heartfelt admiration when I see the dewy tears in the blue +eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christian friends, +time is going by so rapidly that we can not afford to be idle.</p> + +<p>A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only +thirty-two years. From these thirty-two years you must subtract all +the time you take for sleep and the taking of food and recreation; +that will leave you about sixteen years. From those sixteen years you +must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the +earning of a livelihood; that will leave you about eight years. From +those eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months—all +the length of time that is passed in childhood and sickness, leaving +you about one year in which to work for God. Oh, my soul, wake up! +How darest thou sleep in harvest-time and with so few hours in which +to reap? So that I state it as a simple fact that all the time that +the vast majority of you will have for the exclusive service of God +will be less than one year!</p> + +<p>"But," says some man, "I liberally support the Gospel, and the church +is open and the Gospel is preached: all the spiritual advantages are +spread before men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be +saved; I have discharged all my responsibility." Ah! is that the +Master's spirit? Is there not an old Book somewhere that commands us +to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to +come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come +down off the hills of heaven, and if He had not come through the door +of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if He had not with the crushed hand +of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our +spiritual death, crying, "Lazarus, come forth"? Oh, my Christian +friends, this is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness +seem to be in full blast; when steam printing-presses are publishing +infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers +of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the +night-air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up +from the ten thousand saloons of dissipation and abandonment; when the +fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some +who, only a little while ago, were incorrupt. Oh, never since the +curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an +unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the Church to sleep! +The great audiences are not gathered in the Christian churches; the +great audiences are gathered in temples of sin—tears of unutterable +woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their +sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world +the organ dirge of their worship.</p> + +<p>II. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this +age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless +iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick too much to things because +they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories +of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many +Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their +confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are +useless, and they are unhappy. New plans—secular, ethical, +philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic—long enough to +make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake +City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is +new. Try it by the realities of a Judgment Day.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, do not adhere to any thing merely because it +is old. There is not a single enterprise of the Church or the world +but has sometimes been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided +even Bible societies; and when a few young men met near a hay-stack in +Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever +organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around +the Christian Church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And +so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who +ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever +noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of +mysterious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and +Gennesaret, and he drew his illustration from the lakes, from the +sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the corn-stalks. How the +Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! How Caiaphas hissed! And this +Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they spat in his face, and they +called him "this fellow!" All the great enterprises in and out of the +Church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great +multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall +to pieces if it once got out of the old rut.</p> + +<p>And so there are those who have no patience with anything like +improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, +hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious +discussion which goes down walking among every-day men rather than +that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the +Church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! We must admit +the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not +reach the great masses. There are fifty thousand people in Edinburgh +who never hear the Gospel. There are one million people in London who +never hear the Gospel. There are at least three hundred thousand souls +in the city of Brooklyn who come not under the immediate ministrations +of Christ's truth; and the Church of God in this day, instead of being +a place full of living epistles, read and known of all men, is more +like a "dead-letter" post-office.</p> + +<p>"But," say the people, "the world is going to be converted; you must +be patient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of +Christ," Never, unless the Church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed +and energy. Instead of the Church converting the world, the world is +converting the Church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it be +taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off the supplies, +and says: "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation +they will have to give up." Weeks and months, and perhaps a year, pass +along, and finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and +exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be +taken in that way. If they are taken for God it will be by storm; you +will have to bring up the great siege guns of the Gospel to the very +wall and wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed +infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to +give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!"</p> + +<p>Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order +to this grand accomplishment! Here is my pulpit, and I preach in it. +Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit is the +editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house +scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanic's shop. I may stand in this +place and, through cowardice or through self-seeking, may keep back +the word I ought to utter; while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow +besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations +of heaven with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that this morning +this whole audience might feel that the Lord Almighty was putting upon +them the hands of ordination. I tell you, every one, go forth and +preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as +any man has. Only find out the pulpit where God will have you preach, +and there preach.</p> + +<p>Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God +came to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed +at him, and said: "You are a hypocrite; you are as bad as ever you +were." Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding +that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they +said to him: "Oh, you are nothing but a Methodist." That did not +disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had +formed all his troop into a Bible-class, and the whole encampment was +shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen +temple in India while the English army was there, and put a candle +into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the +heathen temple, and by the light of those candles, held up by the +idols, General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance, and +judgment to come. And who will say, on earth or in Heaven, that +Havelock had not the right to preach?</p> + +<p>In the minister's house where I prepared for college, there was a man +who worked, by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor +write, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the +house—grave theologians—and at family prayers Peter Croy would be +called upon to lead; and all those wise men sat around, wonder-struck +at his religious efficiency. When he prayed he reached up and seemed +to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with +God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting-room. Oh, +if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my +bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatest +archbishop, arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach this Gospel. You +say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, this +morning, I license you. Go preach this Gospel—preach it in the +Sabbath-schools, in the prayer-meetings, in the highways, in the +hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not.</p> + +<p>III. I remark, again, that in order to be qualified to meet your duty +in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the +truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian Church +ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How +long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom or +shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when He once arises in +His strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity? Between this +time and that there may be long seasons of darkness—the +chariot-wheels of God's Gospel may seem to drag heavily; but here is +the promise, and yonder is the throne; and when Omniscience has lost +its eyesight, and Omnipotence falls back impotent, and Jehovah is +driven from His throne, then the Church of Jesus Christ can afford to +be despondent, but never until then. Despots may plan and armies may +march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are +adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the +earth are only the dust of the chariot-wheels of God's providence.</p> + +<p>I think that before the sun of this century shall set the last tyranny +will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the +astonishment of the universe God will set forth the brightness and +pomp and glory and perpetuity of His eternal government. Out of the +starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a +path for His own triumph, and, returning from universal conquest, He +will sit down, the grandest, strongest, highest throne of earth His +footstool.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Then shall all nations' song ascend<br /></span> +<span>To Thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend,<br /></span> +<span>Till heaven's high arch resounds again<br /></span> +<span>With 'Peace on earth, good will to men.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I preach this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers +in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on! march +on! His Spirit will bless you. His shield will defend you. His sword +will strike for you. March on! march on! The despotism will fall, and +paganism will burn its idols, and Mohammedanism will give up its false +prophet, and Judaism will confess the true Messiah, and the great +walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at the long, +loud blast of the Gospel trumpet. March on! march on! The besiegement +will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few +more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries, then God will put the +laurel upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will +bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March +on! march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid +the outflashings of the judgment throne, and the trumpeting of +resurrection angels, and the upheaving of a world of graves, and the +hosanna and the groaning of the saved and the lost, we shall be +rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our stupidity. Blessed +be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the +whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="capital_and_labor" id="capital_and_labor"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CAPITAL AND LABOR.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so + to them."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Matt.</span> vii: 12.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. +The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty +Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five +continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this +country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of +power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are +diminishing; and if things go on at the same ratio as they are now +going, it will not be very long before there will be no middle class +in this country, but all will be very rich or very poor, princes or +paupers, and the country will be given up to palaces and hovels.</p> + +<p>The antagonistic forces are closing in upon each other. The +telegraphic operators' strikes, the railroad employés' strikes, the +Pennsylvania miners' strikes, the movements of the Boycotters and the +dynamiters are only skirmishes before a general engagement, or, if you +prefer it, escapes through the safety-valves of an imprisoned force +which promises the explosion of society. You may pooh-pooh it; you may +say that this trouble, like an angry child, will cry itself to sleep; +you may belittle it by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. +Simonism, or Nihilism, or Communism; but that will not hinder the fact +that it is the mightiest, the darkest, the most terrific threat of +this century. All attempts at pacification have been dead failures, +and monopoly is more arrogant, and the trades unions more bitter. +"Give us more wages," cry the employés. "You shall have less," say the +capitalists. "Compel us to do fewer hours of toil in a day." "You +shall toil more hours," say the others. "Then, under certain +conditions, we will not work at all," say these. "Then you shall +starve," say those, and the workmen gradually using up that which they +accumulated in better times, unless there be some radical change, we +shall have soon in this country three million hungry men and women. +Now, three million hungry people can not be kept quiet. All the +enactments of legislatures and all the constabularies of the cities, +and all the army and navy of the United States can not keep three +million hungry people quiet. What then? Will this war between capital +and labor be settled by human wisdom? Never. The brow of the one +becomes more rigid, the fist of the other more clinched.</p> + +<p>But that which human wisdom can not achieve will be accomplished by +Christianity if it be given full sway. You have heard of medicines so +powerful that one drop would stop a disease and restore a patient; and +I have to tell you that one drop of my text properly administered will +stop all those woes of society and give convalescence and complete +health to all classes. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them."</p> + +<p>I shall first show you this morning how this quarrel between monopoly +and hard work can not be stopped, and then I will show you how this +controversy will be settled.</p> + +<p>Futile remedies. In the first place, there will come no pacification +to this trouble through an outcry against rich men merely because they +are rich. There is no member of a trades-union on earth that would not +be rich if he could be. Sometimes through a fortunate invention, or +through some accident of prosperity, a man who had nothing comes to +large estate, and we see him arrogant and supercilious, and taking +people by the throat just as other people took him by the throat. +There is something very mean about human nature when it comes to the +top. But it is no more a sin to be rich than it is a sin to be poor. +There are those who have gathered a great estate through fraud, and +then there are millionaires who have gathered their fortune through +foresight in regard to changes in the markets, and through brilliant +business faculty, and every dollar of their estate is as honest as the +dollar which the plumber gets for mending a pipe, or the mason gets +for building a wall. There are those who keep in poverty because of +their own fault. They might have been well-off, but they smoked or +chewed up their earnings, or they lived beyond their means, while +others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to +competency. I know a man who is all the time complaining of his +poverty and crying out against rich men, while he himself keeps two +dogs, and chews and smokes, and is filled to the chin with whisky and +beer!</p> + +<p>Micawber said to David Copperfield: "Copperfield, my boy, one pound +income, twenty shillings and sixpence expenses: result misery. But, +Copperfield, my boy, one pound income, expenses nineteen shillings and +sixpence; result, happiness." And there are vast multitudes of people +who are kept poor because they are the victims of their own +improvidence. It is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin to be poor. I +protest against this outcry which I hear against those who, through +economy and self-denial and assiduity, have come to large fortune. +This bombardment of commercial success will never stop this quarrel +between capital and labor.</p> + +<p>Neither will the contest be settled by cynical and unsympathetic +treatment of the laboring classes. There are those who speak of them +as though they were only cattle or draught horses. Their nerves are +nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing, their happiness is +nothing. They have no more sympathy for them than a hound has for a +hare, or a hawk for a hen, or a tiger for a calf. When Jean Valjean, +the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after a life of suffering +and brave endurance, goes into incarceration and death, they clap the +book shut and say, "Good for him!" They stamp their feet with +indignation and say just the opposite of "Save the working-classes." +They have all their sympathies with Shylock, and not with Antonio and +Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feelings are infernal. They are +filled with irritation and irascibility on this subject. To stop this +awful imbroglio between capital and labor they will lift not so much +as the tip end of the little finger.</p> + +<p>Neither will there be any pacification of this angry controversy +through violence. God never blessed murder.</p> + +<p>The poorest use you can put a man to is to kill him. Blow up to-morrow +all the country-seats on the banks of the Hudson, and all the fine +houses on Madison Square, and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill, and +Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon Street, and all the bricks and timber +and stone will just fall back on the bare head of American labor. The +worst enemies of the working-classes in the United States and Ireland +are their demented coadjutors. Assassination—the assassination of +Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, +Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned +away from that afflicted people millions of sympathizers. The recent +attempt to blow up the House of Commons, in London, had only this +effect: to throw out of employment tens of thousands of innocent Irish +people in England.</p> + +<p>In this country the torch put to the factories that have discharged +hands for good or bad reason; obstructions on the rail-track in front +of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the +president of the company; strikes on shipboard the hour they were +going to sail, or in printing-offices the hour the paper was to go to +press, or in mines the day the coal was to be delivered, or on house +scaffoldings so the builder fails in keeping his contract—all these +are only a hard blow on the head of American labor, and cripple its +arms, and lame its feet, and pierce its heart. Take the last great +strike in America—the telegraph operators' strike—and you have to +find that the operators lost four hundred thousand dollars' worth of +wages, and have had poorer wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly +upon employers, and violence, never took one knot out of the knuckle +of toil, or put one farthing of wages into a callous palm. Barbarism +will never cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark that!</p> + +<p>Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and +he resolved to get it. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller +three times the value of the property. The miller would not take it, +because it was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt +about his vineyard when Ahab wanted it. Frederick the Great was a +rough and terrible man, and he ordered the miller into his presence; +and the king, with a stick, in his hand—a stick with which he +sometimes struck his officers of state—said to this miller: "Now, I +have offered you three times the value of that property, and if you +won't sell it I'll take it anyhow." The miller said, "Your majesty, +you won't." "Yes," said the king, "I will take it." "Then," said the +miller, "if your majesty does take it, I will sue you in the Chancery +Court." At that threat Frederick the Great yielded his infamous +demand. And the most imperious outrage against the working-classes +will yet cower before the law. Violence and contrary to the law will +never accomplish anything, but righteousness and according to law will +accomplish it.</p> + +<p>Well, if this controversy between Capital and Labor can not be settled +by human wisdom, if to-day Capital and Labor stand with their thumbs +on each other's throat—as they do—it is time for us to look +somewhere else for relief, and it points from my text roseate and +jubilant, and puts one hand on the broadcloth shoulder of Capital, and +puts the other hand on the homespun-covered shoulder of Toil, and +says, with a voice that will grandly and gloriously settle this, and +settle everything, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do +ye even so to them." That is, the lady of the household will say: "I +must treat the maid in the kitchen just as I would like to be treated +if I were down-stairs, and it were my work to wash, and cook, and +sweep, and it were the duty of the maid in the kitchen to preside in +this parlor." The maid in the kitchen must say: "If my employer seems +to be more prosperous than I, that is no fault of hers; I shall not +treat her as an enemy. I will have the same industry and fidelity +down-stairs as I would expect from my subordinates, if I happened to +be the wife of a silk importer."</p> + +<p>The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before +leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing +into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there +stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and +the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in +here. You look very much exhausted. I hear your child is sick with +scarlet fever. If you want your wages a little earlier this week, so +as to pay the nurse and get the medicines, just come into my office +any time."</p> + +<p>After awhile, crash goes the money market, and there is no more demand +for the articles manufactured in that iron mill, and the owner does +not know what to do. He says, "Shall I stop the mill, or shall I run +it on half time, or shall I cut down the men's wages?" He walks the +floor of his counting-room all day, hardly knowing what to do. Toward +evening he calls all the laborers together. They stand all around, +some with arms akimbo, some with folded arms, wondering what the boss +is going to do now. The manufacturer says: "Men, times are very hard; +I don't make twenty dollars where I used to make one hundred. Somehow, +there is no demand now for what we manufacture, or but very little +demand. You see I am at vast expense, and I have called you together +this afternoon to see what you would advise. I don't want to shut up +the mill, because that would force you out of work, and you have +always been very faithful, and I like you, and you seem to like me, +and the bairns must be looked after, and your wife will after awhile +want a new dress. I don't know what to do."</p> + +<p>There is a dead halt for a minute or two, and then one of the workmen +steps out from the ranks of his fellows, and says: "Boss, you have +been very good to us, and when you prospered we prospered, and now you +are in a tight place and I am sorry, and we have got to sympathize +with you. I don't know how the others feel, but I propose that we take +off twenty per cent. from our wages, and that when the times get good +you will remember us and raise them again." The workman looks around +to his comrades, and says: "Boys, what do you say to this? all in +favor of my proposition will say ay." "Ay! ay! ay!" shout two hundred +voices.</p> + +<p>But the mill-owner, getting in some new machinery, exposes himself +very much, and takes cold, and it settles into pneumonia, and he dies. +In the procession to the tomb are all the workmen, tears rolling down +their cheeks, and off upon the ground; but an hour before the +procession gets to the cemetery the wives and the children of those +workmen are at the grave waiting for the arrival of the funeral +pageant. The minister of religion may have delivered an eloquent +eulogium before they started from the house, but the most impressive +things are said that day by the working-classes standing around the +tomb.</p> + +<p>That night in all the cabins of the working-people where they have +family prayers the widowhood and the orphanage in the mansion are +remembered. No glaring populations look over the iron fence of the +cemetery; but, hovering over the scene, the benediction of God and man +is coming for the fulfillment of the Christlike injunction, +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them."</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some man here, "that is all Utopian, that is apocryphal, +that is impossible." No. Yesterday, I cut out of a paper this: "One of +the pleasantest incidents recorded in a long time is reported from +Sheffield, England. The wages of the men in the iron works at +Sheffield are regulated by a board of arbitration, by whose decision +both masters and men are bound. For some time past the iron and steel +trade has been extremely unprofitable, and the employers can not, +without much loss, pay the wages fixed by the board, which neither +employers nor employed have the power to change. To avoid this +difficulty, the workmen in one of the largest steel works in Sheffield +hit upon a device as rare as it was generous. They offered to work for +their employers one week without any pay whatever. How much better +that plan is than a strike would be."</p> + +<p>But you go with me and I will show you—not so far off as Sheffield, +England—factories, banking-houses, storehouses, and costly +enterprises where this Christ-like injunction of my text is fully +kept, and you could no more get the employer to practice an injustice +upon his men, or the men to conspire against the employer, than you +could get your right hand and your left hand, your right eye and your +left eye, your right ear and your left ear, into physiological +antagonism. Now, where is this to begin? In our homes, in our stores, +on our farms—not waiting for other people to do their duty. Is there +a divergence now between the parlor and the kitchen? Then there is +something wrong, either in the parlor or the kitchen, perhaps in both. +Are the clerks in your store irate against the firm? Then there is +something wrong, either behind the counter, or in the private office, +or perhaps in both.</p> + +<p>The great want of the world to-day is the fulfillment of this +Christ-like injunction, that which He promulgated in His sermon +Olivetic. All the political economists under the arch or vault of the +heavens in convention for a thousand years can not settle this +controversy between monopoly and hard work, between capital and labor. +During the Revolutionary War there was a heavy piece of timber to be +lifted, perhaps for some fortress, and a corporal was overseeing the +work, and he was giving commands to some soldiers as they lifted: +"Heave away, there! yo heave!" Well, the timber was too heavy; they +could not get it up. There was a gentleman riding by on a horse, and +he stopped and said to this corporal, "Why don't you help them lift? +That timber is too heavy for them to lift." "No," he said, "I won't; +I am a corporal." The gentleman got off his horse and came up to the +place. "Now," he said to the soldiers, "all together—yo heave!" and +the timber went to its place. "Now," said the gentleman to the +corporal, "when you have a piece of timber too heavy for the men to +lift, and you want help, you send to your commander-in-chief." It was +Washington. Now, that is about all the Gospel I know—the Gospel of +giving somebody a lift, a lift out of darkness, a lift out of earth +into heaven. That is all the Gospel I know—the Gospel of helping +somebody else to lift.</p> + +<p>"Oh," says some wiseacre, "talk as you will, the law of demand and +supply will regulate these things until the end of time." No, they +will not, unless God dies and the batteries of the Judgment Day are +spiked, and Pluto and Proserpine, king and queen of the infernal +regions, take full possession of this world. Do you know who Supply +and Demand are? They have gone into partnership, and they propose to +swindle this earth and are swindling it. You are drowning. Supply and +Demand stand on the shore, one on one side, the other on the other +side, of the life-boat, and they cry out to you, "Now, you pay us what +we ask you for getting you to shore, or go to the bottom!" If you can +borrow $5000 you can keep from failing in business. Supply and Demand +say, "Now, you pay us exorbitant usury, or you go into bankruptcy." +This robber firm of Supply and Demand say to you: "The crops are +short. We bought up all the wheat and it is in our bin. Now, you pay +our price or starve." That is your magnificent law of supply and +demand.</p> + +<p>Supply and Demand own the largest mill on earth, and all the rivers +roll over their wheel, and into their hopper they put all the men, +women, and children they can shovel out of the centuries, and the +blood and the bones redden the valley while the mill grinds. That +diabolic law of supply and demand will yet have to stand aside, and +instead thereof will come the law of love, the law of cooperation, the +law of kindness, the law of sympathy, the law of Christ.</p> + +<p>Have you no idea of the coming of such a time? Then you do not believe +the Bible. All the Bible is full of promises on this subject, and as +the ages roll on the time will come when men or fortune will be giving +larger sums to humanitarian and evangelistic purposes, and there will +be more James Lenoxes and Peter Coopers and William E. Dodges and +George Peabodys. As that time comes there will be more parks, more +picture-galleries, more gardens thrown open for the holiday people and +the working-classes.</p> + +<p>I was reading only this morning in regard to a charge that had been +made in England against Lambeth Palace, that it was exclusive; and +that charge demonstrated the sublime fact that to the grounds of that +wealthy estate eight hundred poor families have free passes, and forty +croquet companies, and on the hall-day holidays four thousand poor +people recline on the grass, walk through the paths, and sit under the +trees. That is Gospel—Gospel on the wing, Gospel out-of-doors worth +just as much as in-doors. That time is going to come.</p> + +<p>That is only a hint of what is going to be. The time is going to come +when, if you have anything in your house worth looking at—pictures, +pieces of sculpture—you are going to invite me to come and see it, +you are going to invite my friends to come and see it, and you will +say, "See what I have been blessed with. God has given me this, and so +far as enjoying it, it is yours also." That is Gospel.</p> + +<p>In crossing the Alleghany Mountains, many years ago, the stage halted, +and Henry Clay dismounted from the stage, and went out on a rock at +the very verge of the cliff, and he stood there with his cloak wrapped +about him, and he seemed to be listening for something. Some one said +to him, "What are you listening for?" Standing there, on the top of +the mountain, he said: "I am listening to the tramp of the footsteps +of the coming millions of this continent." A sublime posture for an +American statesman! You and I to-day stand on the mountain-top of +privilege, and on the Rock of Ages, and we look off, and we hear +coming from the future the happy industries, and smiling populations, +and the consecrated fortunes, and the innumerable prosperities of the +closing nineteenth and the opening twentieth century.</p> + +<p>While I speak this morning, there lies in state the dead author and +patriot of France, Victor Hugo. The ten thousand dollars in his will +he has given to the poor of the city are only a hint of the work he +has done for all nations and for all times. I wonder not that they +allow eleven days to pass between his death and his burial, his body +meantime kept under triumphal arch, for the world can hardly afford to +let go this man who for more than eight decades has by his +unparalleled genius blessed it. His name shall be a terror to all +despots, and an encouragement to all the struggling. He has made the +world's burden lighter, and its darkness less dense, and its chain +less galling, and its thrones of iniquity less secure. Farewell, +patriot, genius of the century, Victor Hugo! But he was not the +overtowering friend of mankind.</p> + +<p>The greatest friend of capitalist and toiler, and the one who will yet +bring them together in complete accord, was born one Christmas night +while the curtains of heaven swung, stirred by the wings angelic. +Owner of all things—all the continents, all worlds, and all the +islands of light. Capitalist of immensity, crossing over to our +condition. Coming into our world, not by gate of palace, but by door +of barn. Spending His first night amid the shepherds. Gathering after +around Him the fishermen to be His chief attendants. With adze, and +saw, and chisel, and ax, and in a carpenter-shop showing himself +brother with the tradesmen. Owner of all things, and yet on a hillock +back of Jerusalem one day resigning everything for others, keeping not +so much as a shekel to pay for His obsequies, by charity buried in the +suburbs of a city that had cast Him out. Before the cross of such a +capitalist, and such a carpenter, all men can afford to shake hands +and worship. Here is the every man's Christ. None so high, but He was +higher. None so poor, but He was poorer. At His feet the hostile +extremes will yet renounce their animosities, and countenances which +have glowered with the prejudices and revenge of centuries shall +brighten with the smile of heaven as He commands: "Whatsoever ye would +that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="despotism_of_the_needle" id="despotism_of_the_needle"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;"> +"So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are + done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power; but they had no + comforter."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Eccles.</span> iv: 1.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for +women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace +showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at +Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the +Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned +by some member of his royal family. So let the toiler everywhere be +respected!</p> + +<p>The needle has slain more than the sword. When the sewing-machine was +invented some thought that invention would alleviate woman's toil and +put an end to the despotism of the needle. But no; while the +sewing-machine has been a great blessing to well-to-do families in +many cases, it has added to the stab of the needle the crush of the +wheel; and multitudes of women, notwithstanding the re-enforcement of +the sewing-machines, can only make, work hard as they will, between +two dollars and three dollars per week.</p> + +<p>The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents +was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, +in their perfect state, might have got along without work, or only +such slight employment as a perfect garden with no weeds in it +demanded. But as soon as they had sinned, the best thing for them was +to be turned out where they would have to work. We know what a +withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to do. Old Ashbel +Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: "I +do so to keep out of mischief." We see that a man who has a large +amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand +prosperous and honorable men that you know, nine hundred and +ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to +tell you that industry is just as important for a woman's safety and +happiness. The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are those +who have no engagements to call them up in the morning; who, once +having risen and breakfasted, lounge through the dull forenoon in +slippers down at the heel and with disheveled hair, reading Ouida's +last novel, and who, having dragged through a wretched forenoon and +taken their afternoon sleep, and having passed an hour and a half at +their toilet, pick up their card-case and go out to make calls, and +who pass their evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break up +the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in so dark a +dungeon as that.</p> + +<p>There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may be with hand, it may be +with brain, it may be with foot; but work she must, or be wretched +forever. The little girls of our families must be started with that +idea.</p> + +<p>The curse of American society is that our young women are taught that +the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, +fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take +care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under +God they may take care of themselves. The simple fact is that a +majority of them do have to take care of themselves, and that, too, +after having, through the false notions of their parents, wasted the +years in which they ought to have learned how successfully to maintain +themselves. We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and +outrage of that father and mother who pass their daughters into +womanhood, having given them no facility for earning their livelihood. +Madame de Staël said: "It is not these writings that I am proud of, +but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of +which I could make a livelihood." You say you have a fortune to leave +them. Oh, man and woman, have you not learned that like vultures, like +hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and fly away? Though you should +be successful in leaving a competency behind you, the trickery of +executors may swamp it in a night? or some officials in our churches +may get up a mining company and induce your orphans to put their money +into a hole in Colorado, and if by the most skillful machinery the +sunken money can not be brought up again, prove to them, that it was +eternally decreed that that was the way they were to lose it, and that +it went in the most orthodox and heavenly style. Oh, the damnable +schemes that professed Christians will engage in until God puts His +fingers into the collar of the hypocrite's robe and strips it clear +down to the bottom! You have no right, because you are well off, to +conclude that your children are going to be as well off. A man died +leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead in a Philadelphia +grog-shop. His old comrades came in and said as they bent over his +corpse: "What is the matter with you, Boggsey?" The surgeon standing +over him said: "Hush ye! He is dead!" "Oh, he is dead," they said. +"Come, boys; let us go and take a drink in memory of poor Boggsey!" +Have you nothing better than money to leave your children? If you have +not, but send your daughters into the world with empty brain and +unskilled hand, you are guilty of assassination, homicide, regicide, +infanticide.</p> + +<p>There are women toiling in our cities for two and three dollars per +week who were the daughters of merchant princes. These suffering ones +now would be glad to have the crumbs that once fell from their +fathers' table. That worn-out, broken shoe that she wears is the +lineal descendant of the twelve-dollar gaiters in which her mother +walked; and that torn and faded calico had ancestry of magnificent +brocade that swept Broadway clean without any expense to the street +commissioners. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare +sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to +them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society +that, though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and +make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing +anything for a livelihood is dishonorable. It is a shame for a young +woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father +toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to +be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It is as honorable to +sweep the house, make beds or trim hats as it is to twist a +watch-chain.</p> + +<p>As far as I can understand, the line of respectability lies between +that which is useful and that which is useless. If women do that which +is of no value, their work is honorable. If they do practical work, it +is dishonorable. That our young women may escape the censure of doing +dishonorable work, I shall particularize. You may knit a tidy for the +back of an arm-chair, but by no means make the money wherewith to buy +the chair. You may with a delicate brush beautify a mantel ornament, +but die rather than earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You may learn +artistic music until you can squall Italian, but never sing +"Ortonville" or "Old Hundred." Do nothing practical if you would in +the eyes of refined society preserve your respectability. I scout +these fine notions. I tell you a woman, no more than a man, has a +right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it.</p> + +<p>In the course of a life-time you consume whole harvests and droves of +cattle, and every day you live, breathe forty hogsheads of good, pure +air. You must by some kind of usefulness pay for all this. Our race +was the last thing created—the birds and fishes on the fourth day, +the cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. If +geologists are right, the earth was a million of years in the +possession of the insects, beasts, and birds before our race came upon +it. In one sense we were innovators. The cattle, the lizards, and the +hawks had pre-emption right. The question is not what we are to do +with the lizards and summer insects, but what the lizards and summer +insects are to do with us. If we want a place in this world, we must +earn it. The partridge makes its own nest before it occupies it. The +lark by its morning song earns its breakfast before it eats it, and +the Bible gives an intimation that the first duty of an idler is to +starve when it says: "If he will not work, neither shall he eat." +Idleness ruins the health; and very soon nature says: "This man has +refused to pay his rent, out with him!" Society is to be reconstructed +on the subject of woman's toil. A vast majority of those who would +have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment +in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything that she can +do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, +or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for +sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for +delineating animals, let her make "The Horse Fair." If Miss Mitchell +will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will +be a merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will preach the +Gospel, let her thrill with her womanly eloquence the Quaker +meeting-house.</p> + +<p>It is said, If woman is given such opportunities she will occupy +places that might be taken by men. I say, If she have more skill and +adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have it! She has +as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home, as men +have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is +unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history +what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than +that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? The +battering-ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle-ax, have made no +such havoc as the needle. I would that these living sepulchers in +which women have for ages been buried might be opened, and that some +resurrection trumpet might bring up these living corpses to the fresh +air and sunlight.</p> + +<p>Go with me and I will show you a woman who by hardest toil supports +her children, her drunken husband, her old father and mother, pays her +house rent, always has wholesome food on her table, and when she can +get some neighbor on the Sabbath to come in and take care of her +family, appears in church with hat and cloak that are far from +indicating the toil to which she is subjected. Such a woman as that +has body and soul enough to fit her for any position. She could stand +beside the majority of your salesmen and dispose of more goods. She +could go into your wheelwright shops and beat one half of your workmen +at making carriages. We talk about woman as though we had resigned to +her all the light work, and ourselves had shouldered the heavier. But +the day of judgment, which will reveal the sufferings of the stake and +Inquisition, will marshal before the throne of God and the hierarchs +of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub and needle. Now, I say if there be +any preference in occupation, let women have it. God knows her trials +are the severest. By her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by her +hour of anguish, I demand that no one hedge up her pathway to a +livelihood. Oh! the meanness, the despicability of men who begrudge a +woman the right to work anywhere in any honorable calling!</p> + +<p>I go still further and say that woman should have equal compensation +with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our +cities get only two thirds as much pay as men, and in many cases only +half? Here is the gigantic injustice—that for work equally well, if +not better, done, woman receives far less compensation than man. Start +with the National Government. Women clerks in Washington get nine +hundred dollars for doing that for which men receive eighteen hundred +dollars. The wheel of oppression is rolling over the necks of +thousands of women who are at this moment in despair about what they +are to do. Many of the largest mercantile establishments of our cities +are accessory to these abominations, and from their large +establishments there are scores of souls being pitched off into death, +and their employers know it. Is there a God? Will there be a judgment? +I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs, many of our +large establishments will be swallowed up quicker than a South +American earthquake ever took down a city. God will catch these +oppressors between the two millstones of his wrath and grind them to +powder.</p> + +<p>Why is it that a female principal in a school gets only eight hundred +and twenty-five dollars for doing work for which a male principal gets +sixteen hundred and fifty dollars? I hear from all this land the wail +of womanhood. Man has nothing to answer to that wail but flatteries. +He says she is an angel. She is not. She knows she is not. She is a +human being who gets hungry when she has no food, and cold when she +has no fire. Give her no more flatteries; give her justice! There are +sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the +sunlight comes their death groan. It is not such a cry as comes from +those who are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding, +horrible wasting-away. Gather them before you and look into their +faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger-struck! Look at their fingers, +needle-pricked and blood-tipped! See that premature stoop in the +shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough! At a large meeting +of these women held in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were +delivered, but a needle-woman took the stand, threw aside her faded +shawl, and with her shriveled arm hurled a very thunder-bolt of +eloquence, speaking out the horrors of her own experience.</p> + +<p>Stand at the corner of a street in New York at six or seven o'clock in +the morning as the women go to work. Many of them had no breakfast +except the crumbs that were left over from the night before, or the +crumbs they chew on their way through the street. Here they come! The +working-girls of New York and Brooklyn. These engaged in head work, +these in flower-making, in millinery, in paper-box making; but, most +overworked of all and least compensated, the sewing-women. Why do they +not take the city cars on their way up? They can not afford the five +cents. If, concluding to deny herself something else, she gets into +the car, give her a seat. You want to see how Latimer and Ridley +appeared in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a more horrible +martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more agonizing death. Ask that woman how +much she gets for her work, and she will tell you six cents for making +coarse shirts and find her own thread.</p> + +<p>Years ago, one Sabbath night in the vestibule of this church, after +service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed +medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in +her delirium she said, gaspingly: "Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get +some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents!" We found afterward that she was making garments for eight +cents apiece, and that she could make but three of them in a day. Hear +it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have +comfortable homes! Some of the worst villains of our cities are the +employers of these women. They beat them down to the last penny and +try to cheat them out of that. The woman must deposit a dollar or two +before she gets the garments to work on. When the work is done it is +sharply inspected, the most insignificant flaws picked out, and the +wages refused and sometimes the dollar deposited not given back. The +Women's Protective Union reports a case where one of the poor souls, +finding a place where she could get more wages, resolved to change +employers, and went to get her pay for work done. The employer says: +"I hear you are going to leave me?" "Yes," she said, "and I have come +to get what you owe me." He made no answer. She said: "Are you not +going to pay me?" "Yes," he said, "I will pay you," and he kicked her +down-stairs.</p> + +<p>Oh, that Women's Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York! The +blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is +doing in the defense of toiling womanhood! What tragedies of suffering +are presented to them day by day! A paragraph from their report: "'Can +you make Mr. Jones pay me? He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, +and I can't get anything, and my child is very sick!' The speaker, a +young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke. +She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story +to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions. +Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50."</p> + +<p>Another paragraph from their report: "A fortnight had passed, when she +modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth. +'Oh, my dear,' he replied, 'you are getting to be one of the most +valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price. +Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.' And the +girl's fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate. The picture +of $10 a week had almost turned her head. A few nights later, while +crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the +conversation of girls who stood near: 'What, John Snipes? Why, he +don't pay! Look out for him every time. He'll keep you on trial, as he +calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let you go, and get some other +fool!' And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler. +But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth +of each of those days of 'trial.'"</p> + +<p>Another paragraph: "Her mortification may be imagined when told that +one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her +work was counterfeit. But her mortification was swallowed up in +indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and +insultingly asked her to prove it. When the Protective Union had +placed this matter in the courts, the judge said: 'You will pay +Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the +court.'"</p> + +<p>How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: "Give woman the +ballot." What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am +not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage +on women's wages? I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by +woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not +women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who +sews for them? Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and +milliners and mantua-makers? If a woman asks a dollar for her work, +does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety +cents? You say, "Only ten cents difference." But that is sometimes the +difference between heaven and hell. Women often have less +commiseration for women than men. If a woman steps aside from the path +of rectitude, man may forgive—woman never! Woman will never get +justice done her from woman's ballot. Neither will she get it from +man's ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more +resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate +when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her +oppressors.</p> + +<p>But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to +excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after awhile to get +larger wages. Unskilled and incompetent labor must take what is given: +skilled and competent labor will eventually make its own standard. +Admitting that the law of supply and demand regulates these things, I +contend that the demand for skilled labor is very great and the supply +very small. Start with the idea that work is honorable, and that you +can do some one thing better than anybody else. Resolve that, God +helping, you will take care of yourself. If you are after awhile +called into another relation you will all the better be qualified for +it by your spirit of self-reliance, or if you are called to stay as +you are, you can be happy and self-supporting.</p> + +<p>Poets are fond of talking about man as an oak and woman the vine that +climbs it; but I have seen many a tree fall that not only went down +itself, but took all the vines with it. I can tell you of something +stronger than an oak for an ivy to climb on, and that is the throne of +the great Jehovah. Single or affianced, that woman is strong who leans +on God and does her best. Many of you will go single-handed through +life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman, +I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling, +irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be +a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian. +What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more +thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she +will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her +sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The +dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene +closes—draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the +farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless +life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity.</p> + +<p>Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian +aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that +she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single, +that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the +sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went +with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick +pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she +was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam—just +the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to +fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody +who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from +her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she +ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well—auntie always +dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet +spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died +you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to +rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with +japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with +their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world +said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto +the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!"</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="tobacco_and_opium" id="tobacco_and_opium"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TOBACCO AND OPIUM.</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding + seed."—<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Gen.</span> i: 11.</p> +<br /> + +<p>The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. +They preceded the brute creation and the human family—the grass for +the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and +took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and +took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for +food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for +anodyne as in case of paroxysm, for stimulant as when the pulses flag +under the weight of disease. The caterer comes and takes the herb and +presents it in all styles of delicacy. The physician comes and takes +the herb and compounds it for physical recuperation. Millions of +people come and take the herb for ruinous physical and intellectual +delectation. The herb, which was divinely created, and for good +purposes, has often been degraded for bad results. There is a useful +and a baneful employment of the herbaceous kingdom.</p> + +<p>There sprung up in Yucatan of this continent an herb that has +bewitched the world. In the fifteenth century it crossed the Atlantic +Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the +French embassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French +Empire. Then Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great +Britain. Nicotiana, ascribed to that genus by the botanists, but we +all know it is the exhilarating, elevating, emparadising, +nerve-shattering, dyspepsia-breeding, health-destroying tobacco. I +shall not in my remarks be offensively personal, because you all use +it, or nearly all! I know by experience how it soothes and roseates +the world, and kindles sociality, and I also know some of its baleful +results. I was its slave, and by the grace of God I have become its +conqueror. Tens of thousands of people have been asking the question +during the past two months, asking it with great pathos and great +earnestness: "Does the use of tobacco produce cancerous and other +troubles?" I shall not answer the question in regard to any particular +case, but shall deal with the subject in a more general way.</p> + +<p>You say to me, "Did God not create tobacco?" Yes. You say to me, "Is +not God good?" Yes. Well, then, you say, "If God is good and he +created tobacco, He must have created it for some good purpose." Yes, +your logic is complete. But God created the common sense at the same +time, by which we are to know how to use a poison and how not to use +it. God created that just as He created henbane and nux vomica and +copperas and belladonna and all other poisons, whether directly +created by Himself or extracted by man.</p> + +<p>That it is a poison no man of common sense will deny. A case was +reported where a little child lay upon its mother's lap and one drop +fell from a pipe to the child's lip, and it went into convulsions and +into death. But you say, "Haven't people lived on in complete use of +it to old age?" Oh, yes; just as I have seen inebriates seventy years +old. In Boston, years ago, there was a meeting in which there were +several centenarians, and they were giving their experience, and one +centenarian said that he had lived over a hundred years, and that he +ascribed it to the fact that he had refrained from the use of +intoxicating liquors. Right after him another centenarian said he had +lived over a hundred years, and he ascribed it to the fact that for +the last fifty years he had hardly seen a sober moment. It is an +amazing thing how many outrages men may commit upon their physical +system and yet live on. In the case of the man of the jug he lived on +because his body was pickled. In the case of the man of the pipe, he +lived on because his body turned into smoked liver!</p> + +<p>But are there no truths to be uttered in regard to this great evil? +What is the advice to be given to the multitude of young people who +hear me this day? What is the advice you are going to give to your +children?</p> + +<p>First of all, we must advise them to abstain from the use of tobacco +because all the medical fraternity of the United States and Great +Britain agree in ascribing to this habit terrific unhealth. The men +whose life-time work is the study of the science of health say so, and +shall I set up my opinion against theirs? Dr. Agnew, Dr. Olcott, Dr. +Barnes, Dr. Rush, Dr. Mott, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hosack—all the doctors, +allopathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, eclectic, denounce the habit as +a matter of unhealth. A distinguished physician declared he considered +the use of tobacco caused seventy different styles of disease, and he +says: "Of all the cases of cancer in the mouth that have come under my +observation, almost in every case it has been ascribed to tobacco."</p> + +<p>The united testimony of all physicians is that it depresses the +nervous system, that it takes away twenty-five per cent. of the +physical vigor of this generation, and that it goes on as the years +multiply and, damaging this generation with accumulated curse, it +strikes other centuries. And if it is so deleterious to the body, how +much more destructive to the mind. An eminent physician, who was the +superintendent of the insane asylum at Northampton, Massachusetts, +says: "Fully one half the patients we get in our asylum have lost +their intellect through the use of tobacco." If it is such a bad thing +to injure the body, what a bad thing, what a worse thing it is to +injure the mind, and any man of common sense knows that tobacco +attacks the nervous system, and everybody knows that the nervous +system attacks the mind.</p> + +<p>Besides that, all reformers will tell you that the use of tobacco +creates an unnatural thirst, and it is the cause of drunkenness in +America to-day more than anything else. In all cases where you find +men taking strong drink you find they use tobacco. There are men who +use tobacco who do not take strong drink, but all who use strong drink +use tobacco, and that shows beyond controversy there is an affinity +between the two products. There are reformers here to-day who will +testify to you it is impossible for a man to reform from taking strong +drink until he quits tobacco. In many of the cases where men have been +reformed from strong drink and have gone back to their cups, they +have testified that they first touched tobacco and then they +surrendered to intoxicants.</p> + +<p>I say in the presence of this assemblage to-day, in which there are +many physicians—and they know that what I say is true on the +subject—that the pathway to the drunkard's grave and the drunkard's +hell is strewn thick with tobacco-leaves. What has been the testimony +on this subject? Is this a mere statement of a preacher whose business +it is to talk morals, or is the testimony of the world just as +emphatic? What did Benjamin Franklin say? "I never saw a well man in +the exercise of common sense who would say that tobacco did him any +good." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Certainly he is good authority. +He says in regard to the culture of tobacco, "It is a culture +productive of infinite wretchdness." What did Horace Greeley say of +it? "It is a profane stench." What did Daniel Webster say of it? "If +those men must smoke, let them take the horse-shed!" One reason why +the habit goes on from destruction to destruction is that so many +ministers of the gospel take it. They smoke themselves into +bronchitis, and then the dear people have to send them to Europe to +get them restored from exhausting religious services! They smoke until +the nervous system is shattered. They smoke themselves to death. I +could mention the names of five distinguished clergymen who died of +cancer of the mouth, and the doctor said, in every case, it was the +result of tobacco. The tombstone of many a minister of religion has +been covered all over with handsome eulogy, when, if the true epitaph +had been written, it would have said: "Here lies a man killed by too +much cavendish!" They smoke until the world is blue, and their +theology is blue, and everything is blue. How can a man stand in the +pulpit and preach on the subject of temperance when he is indulging +such a habit as that? I have seen a cuspadore in a pulpit into which +the holy man dropped his cud before he got up to read about "blessed +are the pure in heart," and to read about the rolling of sin as a +sweet morsel under the tongue, and to read about the unclean animals +in Leviticus that chewed the cud.</p> + +<p>About sixty-five years ago a student at Andover Theological Seminary +graduated into the ministry. He had an eloquence and a magnetism which +sent him to the front. Nothing could stand before him. But in a few +months he was put in an insane asylum, and the physician said tobacco +was the cause of the disaster. It was the custom in those days to give +a portion of tobacco to every patient in the asylum. Nearly twenty +years passed along, and that man was walking the floor of his cell in +the asylum, when his reason returned, and he saw the situation, and he +took the tobacco from his mouth and threw it against the iron gate of +the place in which he was confined, and he said: "What brought me +here? What keeps me here? Tobacco! tobacco! God forgive me, God help +me, and I will never use it again." He was fully restored to reason, +came forth, preached the Gospel of Christ for some ten years, and then +went into everlasting blessedness.</p> + +<p>There are ministers of religion now in this country who are dying by +inches, and they do not know what is the matter with them. They are +being killed by tobacco. They are despoiling their influence through +tobacco. They are malodorous with tobacco. I could give one paragraph +of history, and that would be my own experience. It took ten cigars to +make one sermon, and I got very nervous, and I awakened one day to see +what an outrage I was committing upon my health by the use of tobacco. +I was about to change settlement, and a generous tobacconist of +Philadelphia told me if I would come to Philadelphia and be his pastor +he would give me all the cigars I wanted for nothing all the rest of +my life. I halted. I said to myself, "If I smoke more than I ought to +now in these war times, and when my salary is small, what would I do +if I had gratuitous and unlimited supply?" Then and there, twenty-four +years ago, I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me. Much of +the time the world looked blue before that, because I was looking +through tobacco smoke. Ever since the world has been full of sunshine, +and though I have done as much work as any one of my age, God has +blessed me, it seems to me, with the best health that a man ever had.</p> + +<p>I say that no minister of religion can afford to smoke. Put in my hand +all the money expended by Christian men in Brooklyn for tobacco, and I +will support three orphan asylums as well and as grandly as the three +great orphan asylums already established. Put into my hand the money +spent by the Christians of America for tobacco, and I will clothe, +shelter, and feed all the suffering poor of the continent. The +American Church gives a million dollars a year for the salvation of +the heathen, and American Christians smoke five million dollars' worth +of tobacco.</p> + +<p>I stand here to-day in the presence of a vast multitude of young +people who are forming their habits. Between seventeen and twenty-five +years of age a great many young men get on them habits in the use of +tobacco that they never get over. Let me say to all my young friends, +you can not afford to smoke, you can not afford to chew. You either +take very good tobacco, or you take very cheap tobacco. If it is +cheap, I will tell you why it is cheap. It is made of burdock, and +lampblack, and sawdust, and colt's-foot, and plantain leaves, and +fuller's earth, and salt, and alum, and lime, and a little tobacco, +and you can not afford to put such a mess as that in your mouth. But +if you use expensive tobacco, do you not think it would be better for +you to take that amount of money which you are now expending for this +herb, and which you will expend during the course of your life if you +keep the habit up, and with it buy a splendid farm and make the +afternoon and the evening of your life comfortable?</p> + +<p>There are young men whose life is going out inch by inch from +cigarettes. Now, do you not think it would be well for you to listen +to the testimony of a merchant of New York, who said this: "In early +life I smoked six cigars a day at six and a half cents each. They +averaged that. I thought to myself one day, I'll just put aside all I +consume in cigars and all I would consume if I keep on in the habit, +and I'll see what it will come to by compound interest." And he gives +this tremendous statistic: "Last July completed thirty-nine years +since, by the grace of God, I was emancipated from the filthy habit, +and the saving amounted to the enormous sum of $29,102.03 by compound +interest. We lived in the city, but the children, who had learned +something of the enjoyment of country life from their annual visits to +their grandparents, longed for a home among the green fields. I found +a very pleasant place in the country for sale. The cigar money came +into requisition, and I found it amounted to a sufficient sum to +purchase the place, and it is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice. +Smoking without a home, or a home without smoking." This is common +sense as well as religion.</p> + +<p>I must say a word to my friends who smoke the best tobacco, and who +could stop at any time. What is your Christian influence in this +respect? What is your influence upon young men? Do you not think it +would be better for you to exercise a little self-denial! People +wondered why George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts, wore a cravat +but no collar. "Oh," they said, "it is an absurd eccentricity." This +was the history of the cravat without any collar: For many years +before he had been talking with an inebriate, trying to persuade him +to give up the habit of drinking and he said to the inebriate, "Your +habit is entirely unnecessary." "Ah!" replied the inebriate, "we do a +great many things that are not necessary. It isn't necessary that you +should have that collar." "Well," said Mr. Briggs, "I'll never wear a +collar again if you will stop drinking." "Agreed," said the other. +They joined hands in a pledge that they kept for twenty years—kept +until death. That is magnificent. That is Gospel, practical Gospel, +worthy of George Briggs, worthy of you. Self-denial for others. +Subtraction from our advantage that there may be an addition to +somebody else's advantage.</p> + +<p>But what I have said has been chiefly appropriate for men. Now my +subject widens and shall be appropriate for both sexes. In all ages of +the world there has been a search for some herb or flower that would +stimulate lethargy and compose grief. Among the ancient Greeks and +Egyptians they found something they called nepenthe, and the Theban +women knew how to compound it. If a person should chew a few of those +leaves his grief would be immediately whelmed with hilarity. Nepenthe +passed out from the consideration of the world and then came hasheesh, +which is from the Indian hemp. It is manufactured from the flowers at +the top. The workman with leathern apparel walks through the field and +the exudation of the plants adheres to the leathern garments, and then +the man comes out and scrapes off this exudation, and it is mixed with +aromatics and becomes an intoxicant that has brutalized whole nations. +Its first effect is sight, spectacle glorious and grand beyond all +description, but afterward it pulls down body, mind, and soul into +anguish.</p> + +<p>I knew one of the most brilliant men of our time. His appearance in a +newspaper column, or a book, or a magazine was an enchantment. In the +course of a half hour he could produce more wit and more valuable +information than any man I ever heard talk. But he chewed hasheesh. He +first took it out of curiosity to see whether the power said to be +attached really existed. He took it. He got under the power of it. He +tried to break loose. He put his hand in the cockatrice's den to see +whether it would bite, and he found out to his own undoing. His +friends gathered around and tried to save him, but he could not be +saved. The father, a minister of the Gospel, prayed with him and +counseled him, and out of a comparatively small salary employed the +first medical advice of New York, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Paris, +London, and Berlin, for he was his only son. No help came. First his +body gave way in pangs and convulsions of suffering. Then his mind +gave way and he became a raving maniac. Then his soul went out +blaspheming God into a starless eternity. He died at thirty years of +age. Behold the work of accursed hasheesh.</p> + +<p>But I must put my emphasis upon the use of opium. It is made from the +white poppy. It is not a new discovery. Three hundred years before +Christ we read of it; but it was not until the seventh century that it +took up its march of death, and, passing out of the curative and the +medicinal, through smoking and mastication it has become the curse of +nations. In 1861 there were imported into this country one hundred and +seven thousand pounds of opium. In 1880, nineteen years after, there +were imported five hundred and thirty thousand pounds of opium. In +1876 there were in this country two hundred and twenty-five thousand +opium-consumers. Now, it is estimated there are in the United States +to-day six hundred thousand victims of opium. It is appalling.</p> + +<p>We do not know why some families do not get on. There is something +mysterious about them. The opium habit is so stealthy, it is so +deceitful, and it is so deathful, you can cure a hundred men of +strong drink where you can cure one opium-eater.</p> + +<p>I have knelt down in this very church by those who were elegant in +apparel, and elegant in appearance, and from the depths of their souls +and from the depths of my soul, we cried out for God's rescue. Somehow +it did not come. In many a household only the physician and pastor +know it—the physician called in for physical relief, the pastor +called in for spiritual relief, and they both fail. The physician +confesses his defeat, the minister of religion confesses his defeat, +for somehow God does not seem to hear a prayer offered for an +opium-eater. His grace is infinite, and I have been told there are +cases of reformation. I never saw one. I say this not to wound the +feelings of any who may feel this awful grip, but to utter a potent +warning that you stand back from that gate of hell. Oh, man, oh, +woman, tampering with this great evil, have you fallen back on this as +a permanent resource because of some physical distress or mental +anguish? Better stop. The ecstasies do not pay for the horrors. The +Paradise is followed too soon by the Pandemonium. Morphia, a blessing +of God for the relief of sudden pang and of acute dementia, +misappropriated and never intended for permanent use.</p> + +<p>It is not merely the barbaric fanatics that are taken down by it. Did +you ever read De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-Eater?" He says +that during the first ten years the habit handed to him all the keys +of Paradise, but it would take something as mighty as De Quincey's pen +to describe the consequent horrors. There is nothing that I have ever +read about the tortures of the damned that seemed more horrible than +those which De Quincey says he suffered. Samuel Taylor Coleridge first +conquered the world with his exquisite pen, and then was conquered by +opium. The most brilliant, the most eloquent lawyer of the nineteenth +century went down under its power, and there is a vast multitude of +men and women—but more women than men—who are going into the dungeon +of that awful incarceration.</p> + +<p>The worst thing about it is, it takes advantage of one's weakness. De +Quincey says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of my +rheumatism." Coleridge says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of +my sleeplessness." For what are you taking it? For God's sake do not +take it long. The wealthiest, the grandest families going down under +its power. Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in Chicago. +Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in St. Louis, and, according to +that average, seventy-five thousand victims of opium in New York and +Brooklyn.</p> + +<p>The clerk of a drug store says: "I can tell them when they come in; +there is something about their complexion, something about their +manner, something about the look of their eyes that shows they are +victims." Some in the struggle to get away from it try chloral. Whole +tons of chloral manufactured in Germany every year. Baron Liebig says +he knows one chemist in Germany who manufactures a half ton of chloral +every week. Beware of hydrate of chloral. It is coming on with mighty +tread to curse these cities. But I am chiefly under this head speaking +of the morphine. The devil of morphia is going to be in this country, +in my opinion, mightier than the devil of alcohol. By the power of the +Christian pulpit, by the power of the Christianized printing-press, by +the power of the Lord God Almighty, all these evils are going to be +extirpated—all, all, and you have a work in regard to that, and I +have a work. But what we do we had better do right away. The clock +ticks now, and we hear it; after awhile the clock will tick and we +will not hear it.</p> + +<p>I sat at a country fireside, and I saw the fire kindle and blaze, and +go out. I sat long enough at that fireside to get a good many +practical reflections, and I said: "That is like human life, that fire +on the hearth." We put on the fagots and they blaze up, and out, and +on, and the whole room is filled with the light, gay of sparkle, gay +of flash, gay of crackle. Emblem of boyhood. Now the fire intensifies. +Now the flame reddens into coals. Now the heat is becoming more and +more intense, and the more it is stirred the redder is the coal. Now +with one sweep of flame it cleaves the way, and all the hearth glows +with the intensity. Emblem of full manhood. Now the coals begin to +whiten. Now the heat lessens. Now the flickering shadows die along the +wall. Now the fagots fall apart. Now the household hover over the +expiring embers. Now the last breath of smoke is lost in the chimney. +The fire is out. Shovel up the white remains. Ashes! Ashes!</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<a name="why_are_satan" id="why_are_satan"></a><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED?</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<p class="blkquot" style="text-indent: 0em;">"Wherefore do the wicked live?"— +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Job</span> xxi: 7,</p> +<br /> + +<p>Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the +misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, +bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that +he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware +to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his +complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better +if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swear a little. +For each boil a plaster of objurgation.</p> + +<p>Probably no man was ever more tempted to take the bad advice than +when, at last, Job's three exasperating friends came in, Eliphaz, +Zophar, and Bildad, practically saying to him, "You old sinner, serves +you right; you are a hypocrite; what a sight you are! God has sent +these chastisements for your wickedness."</p> + +<p>The disfigured invalid, putting down the pieces of broken saucer with +which he had been rubbing his arms, with swollen eyelids looks up and +says to his garrulous friends in substance, "The most wicked people +sometimes have the best health and are the most prospered," and then +in that connection hurls the question which every man and woman has +asked in some juncture of affairs, "Wherefore do the wicked live?"</p> + +<p>They build up fortunes that overshadow the earth. They confound all +the life-insurance tables on the subject of longevity, dying +octogenarians, perhaps nonagenarians, possibly centenarians. Ahab in +the palace, Naboth in the cabinet. Unclean Herod on the throne, +consecrated Paul twisting ropes for tent-making. Manasseh, the worst +of all the kings of Juda, living longer than any of them. While the +general rule is the wicked do not live out half their days, there are +exceptions where they live on to great age and in a Paradise of beauty +and luxuriance, and die with a whole college of physicians expending +its skill in trying further prolongation of life, and have a funeral +with casket under mountain of calla-lilies, the finest equipages of +the city jingling and flashing into line, the poor, angle-worm of the +dust carried out to its hole in the ground with the pomp that might +make a spirit from some other world suppose that the Archangel Michael +was dead.</p> + +<p>Go up among the finest residences of the city, and on some of the +door-plates you will find the names of those mightiest for commercial +and social iniquity. They are the vampires of society—they are the +gorgons of the century. Some of these men have each wheel of their +carriage a juggernaut wet with the blood of those sacrificed to their +avarice. Some of them are like Caligula, who wished that all the +people had only one neck that he might strike it off at one blow. Oh, +the slain, the slain! A long procession of usurers and libertines and +infamous quacks and legal charlatans and world-grabbing monsters. What +apostleship of despoliation! Demons incarnate. Hundreds of men +concentering all their energies of body, mind, and soul in one +prolonged, ever-intensifying, and unrelenting effort to scald and +scarify and blast and consume the world. I do not blame you for asking +me the quivering, throbbing, burning, resounding, appalling question +of my text, "Wherefore do the wicked live?"</p> + +<p>In the first place, they live to demonstrate beyond all controversy +the long-suffering patience of God. You sometimes say, under some +great affront, "I will not stand it;" but perhaps you are compelled to +stand it. God, with all the batteries of omnipotence loaded with +thunderbolts, stands it century after century. I have no doubt +sometimes an angel comes to Him and suggests, "Now is the time to +strike." "No," says God; "wait a year, wait twenty years, wait a +century, wait five centuries." What God does is not so wonderful as +what He does not do. He has the reserve corps with which He could +strike Mormonism and Mohammedanism and Paganism from the earth in a +day. He could take all the fraud in New York on the west side of +Broadway and hurl it into the Hudson, and all the fraud on the east +side of Broadway and hurl it into the East River in an hour. He +understands the combination lock of every dishonest money-safe, and +could blow it up quicker than by any earthly explosive. Written all +over the earth, written all over history are the words, "Divine +forbearance, divine leniency, divine long-suffering."</p> + +<p>I wonder that God did not burn this world up two thousand years ago, +scattering its ashes into immensity, its aerolites dropping into +other worlds to be kept in their museums as specimens of a defunct +planet. People sometimes talk of God as though He were hasty in His +judgments and as though He snapped men up quick. Oh, no! He waited one +hundred and twenty years for the people to get into the ark, and +warned them all the time—one hundred and twenty years, then the flood +came. The Anchor Line gives only a month's announcement of the sailing +of the "Circassia," the White Star Line gives only a month's +announcement of the sailing of the "Britannic," the Cunard Line gives +only a month's announcement of the sailing of the "Oregon;" but of the +sailing of that ship that Noah commanded God gave one hundred and +twenty years' announcement and warning. Patience antediluvian, +patience postdiluvian, patience in times Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, +Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Whitefieldian. Patience with men and +nations. Patience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six thousand +years of patience! Overtopping attribute of God, all of whose +attributes are immeasurable. Why do the wicked live? That their +overthrow may be the more impressive and climacteric. They must pile +up their mischief until all the community shall see it, until the +nation shall see it, until all the world shall see it. The higher it +goes up the harder it will come down and the grander will be the +divine vindication.</p> + +<p>God will not allow sin to sneak out of the world. God will not allow +it merely to resign and quit. This shall not be a case that goes by +default because no one appears against it. God will arraign it, +handcuff it, try it, bring against it the verdict of all the good, and +then gibbet it so high up that if one half of the gibbet stood on +Mount Washington and the other on the Himalaya, it would not be any +more conspicuous.</p> + +<p>About fifteen years ago we had in this country a most illustrious +instance of how God lets a man go on in iniquity, so that at the close +of the career his overthrow may be the more impressive, full of +warning and climacteric. First, an honest chairmaker, then an +alderman, then a member of congress, then a supervisor of a city, then +school commissioner, then state senator, then commissioner of public +works—on and up, stealing thousands of dollars here and thousands of +dollars there, until the malfeasance in office overtopped anything the +world had ever seen—making the new Court House in New York a monument +of municipal crime, and rushing the debt of the city from thirty-six +million dollars to ninety-seven millions. Now, he is at the top of +millionairedom.</p> + +<p>Country-seat terraced and arbored and parterred clear to the water's +brink. Horses enough to stock a king's equerry. Grooms and postilions +in full rig. Wine cellars enough to make a whole legislature drunk. +New York finances and New York politics in his vest pocket. He winked, +and men in high place fell. He lifted his little finger, and +ignoramuses took important office. He whispered, and in Albany and +Washington they said it thundered. Wider and mightier and more baleful +his influence, until it seemed as if Pandemonium was to be adjourned +to this world, and in the Satanic realm there was to be a change of +administration, and Apollyon, who had held dominion so long, should +have a successful competitor.</p> + +<p>To bring all to a climax, a wedding came in the house of that man. +Diamonds as large as hickory nuts. A pin of sixty diamonds +representing sheaves of wheat. Musicians in a semicircle, half-hidden +by a great harp of flowers. Ships of flowers. Forty silver sets, one +of them with two hundred and forty pieces. One wedding-dress that cost +five thousand dollars. A famous libertine, who owned several Long +Island Sound steamboats, and not long before he was shot for his +crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house a frosted silver +iceberg, with representations of arctic bears walking on +icicle-handles and ascending the spoons. Was there ever such a +convocation of pictures, bronzes, of bric-à-brac, of grandeurs, social +grandeurs? The highest wave of New York splendor rolled into that +house and recoiled perhaps never again to rise so high. But just at +that time, when all earthly and infernal observation was concentered +on that man, eternal justice, impersonated by that wonder of the +American bar, Charles O'Connor, got on the track of the offender. +First arraignment, then sentence to twelve years' imprisonment under +twelve indictments, then penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, then a +lawsuit against him for six million dollars, then incarceration in +Ludlow Street jail, then escape to foreign land, to be brought back +under the stout grip of the constabulary, then dying of broken heart +in a prison cell. God allowed him to go on in iniquity until all the +world saw as never before that "the way of the transgressor is hard," +and that dishonesty will not declare permanent dividends, and that you +had better be an honest chairmaker with a day's wages at a time than +a brilliant commissioner of public works, all your pockets crammed +with plunder.</p> + +<p>What a brilliant figure in history is William the Conqueror, the +intimidator of France, of Anjou, of Brittany, victor at Hastings, +snatching the crown of England and setting it on his own brow, +destroying homesteads that he might have a larger game forest, making +a Doomsday Book by which he could keep the whole land under despotic +espionage, proclaiming war in revenge for a joke uttered in regard to +his obesity. Harvest fields and vineyards going down under the cavalry +hoof. Nations horror-struck. But one day while at the apex of all +observation he is riding out and the horse put his hoof on a hot +cinder, throwing the king so violently against the pommel of the +saddle that he dies, his son hastening to England to get the crown +before the breath has left his father's body.</p> + +<p>The imperial corpse drawn by a cart, most of the attendants leaving it +in the street because of a fire alarm that they might go off and see +the conflagration. And just as they are going to put his body down in +the church which he had built, a man stepping up and saying, "Bishop, +the man you praise is a robber. This church stands on my father's +homestead. The property on which this church is built is mine. I +reclaim my right. In the name of Almighty God I forbid you to bury the +king here, or to cover him with my glebe." "Go up," said the ambition +of William the Conqueror. "Go up by conquest, go up by throne, go up +in the sight of all nations, go up by cruelties." But one day God +said, "Come down, come down by the way of a miserable death, come down +by the way of an ignominious obsequies, come down in the sight of all +nations, come clear down, come down forever." And you and I see the +same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time—illustrations of +the fact that God lets the wicked live that He may make their +overthrow the more climacteric.</p> + +<p>What is true in regard to sin is true in regard to its author, Satan, +called Abaddon, called the Prince of the Power of the Air, called the +serpent, called the dragon. It seems to me any intelligent man must +admit that there is a commander-in-chief of all evil.</p> + +<p>The Persians called him Ahriman, the Hindus called him Siva. He was +represented on canvas as a mythological combination of Thor and +Cerberus and Pan and Vulcan and other horrible addenda. I do not care +what you call him, that monster of evil is abroad, and his one work is +destruction. John Milton almost glorified him by witchery of +description, but he is the concentration of all meanness and of all +despicability. My little child, seven years of age, said to her mother +one day, "Why don't God kill the devil at once, and have done with +it?" In less terse phrase we have all asked the same question. The +Bible says he is to be imprisoned and he is to be chained down. Why +not heave the old miscreant into his dungeon now? Does it not seem as +if his volume of infamy were complete? Does it not seem as if the last +fifty years would make an appropriate peroration? No; God will let him +go on to the top of all bad endeavor, and then when all the earth and +all constellations and galaxies and all the universe are watching, God +will hurl him down with a violence and ghastliness enough to persuade +five hundred eternities that a rebellion against God must perish. God +will not do it by piecemeal, God will not do it by small skirmish. He +will wait until all the troops are massed, and then some day when in +defiant and confident mood, at the head of his army, this Goliath of +hell stalks forth, our champion, the son of David, will strike him +down, not with smooth stones from the brook, but with fragments from +the Rock of Ages. But it will not be done until this giant of evil and +his holy antagonist come out within full sight of the two great +armies. The tragedy is only postponed to make the overthrow more +impressive and climacteric. Do not fret. If God can afford to wait you +can afford to wait. God's clock of destiny strikes only once in a +thousand years. Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on +your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow +may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more +resounding, the more climacteric.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for +righteousness to capture. Have you not noticed that God harnesses men, +bad men, and accomplishes good through them? Witness Cyrus, witness +Nebuchadnezzar, witness the fact that the Bastile of oppression was +pried open by the bayonets of a bad man. Recently there came to me the +fact that a college had been built at the Far West for infidel +purposes. There was to be no nonsense of chapel prayers, no Bible +reading there. All the professors there were pronounced infidels. The +college was opened, and the work went on, but, of course, failed. Not +long ago a Presbyterian minister was in a bank in that village on +purposes of business, and he heard in an adjoining room the board of +trustees of that college discussing what they had better do with the +institution, as it did not get on successfully, and one of the +trustees proposed that it be handed over to the Presbyterians, +prefacing the word Presbyterians with a very unhappy expletive. The +resolutions were passed, and that fortress of infidelity has become a +fortress of old-fashioned, orthodox religion, the only religion that +will be worth a snap of your finger when you come to die or appear in +the Day of Judgment. The devil built the college. Righteousness +captured it.</p> + +<p>In some city there goes up a great club-house—the architecture, the +furniture, all the equipment a bedazzlement of wealth. That particular +club-house is designed to make gambling and dissipation respectable.</p> + +<p>Do not fret. That splendid building will after a while be a free +library, or it will be a hospital, or it will be a gallery of pure +art. Again and again observatories have been built by infidelity, and +the first thing you know they go into the hand of Christian science. +God said in the Bible that He would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose +and pull him down by a way he knew not. And God has a hook to-day in +the nose of every Sennacherib of infidelity and sin, and will drag him +about as He will. Marble halls deserted to sinful amusements will yet +be dedicated for religious assemblage. All these castles of sin are to +be captured for God as we go forth with the battle-shout that Oliver +Cromwell rang out at the head of his troops as he rode in on the field +of Naseby: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!" After a +great fire in London, amid the ruins there was nothing left but an +arch with the name of the architect upon it; and, my friends, whatever +else goes down, God stays up.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? That some of them may be monuments of mercy.</p> + +<p>So it was with John Newton, so it was with Augustine, perhaps so it +was with you. Chieftains of sin to become chieftains of grace. Paul, +the apostle, made out of Saul, the persecutor. Baxter, the flaming +evangel, made out of Baxter, the blasphemer. Whole squadrons, with +streamers of Emmanuel floating from the masthead, though once they +were launched from the dry-docks of diabolism. God lets these wicked +men live that He may make jewels out of them for coronets, that He may +make tongues of fire out of them for Pentecosts, that He may make +warriors out of them for Armageddons, that he may make conquerors out +of them for the day when they shall ride at the head of the +white-horse host in the grand review of the resurrection.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? To make it plain beyond all controversy that +there is another place of adjustment. So many of the bad up, so many +of the good down. It seems to me that no man can look abroad without +saying—no man of common sense, religious or irreligious, can look +abroad without saying, "There must be some place where brilliant +scoundrelism shall be arrested, where innocence shall get out from +under the heel of despotism." Common fairness as well as eternal +justice demands it.</p> + +<p>We adjourn to the great assizes, the stupendous injustices of this +life. They are not righted here. There must be some place where they +will be righted. God can not afford to omit the judgment day or the +reconstruction of conditions. For you can not make me believe that +that man stuffed with all abomination, having devoured widows' houses +and digested them, looking with basilisk or tigerish eyes upon his +fellows, no music so sweet to him as the sound of breaking hearts, is, +at death, to get out of the landau at the front door of the sepulcher +and pass right on through to the back door of the sepulcher, and find +a celestial turnout waiting for him, so that he can drive tandem right +up primrosed hills, one glory riding as lackey ahead, and another +glory riding as postilion behind, while that poor woman who supported +her invalid husband and her helpless children by taking in washing and +ironing, often putting her hand to her side where the cancerous +trouble had already begun, and dropping dead late on Saturday night +while she was preparing the garments for the Sabbath day, coming afoot +to the front door of the sepulcher, shall pass through to the back +door of the sepulcher and find nothing waiting, no one to welcome, no +one to tell her the way to the King's gate. I will not believe it. +Solomon was confounded in his day by what he represents as princes +afoot and beggars a-horseback, but I tell you there must be a place +and a time when the right foot will get into the stirrup. To +demonstrate beyond all controversy that there is another place for +adjustment, God lets the wicked live.</p> + +<p>Why do the wicked live? For the same reason that He lets us live—to +have time for repentance.</p> + +<p>Where would you and I have been if sin had been followed by immediate +catastrophe? While the foot of Christ is fleet as that of a roebuck +when He comes to save, it does seem as if he were hoppled with great +languors and infinite lethargies when He comes to punish. Oh, I +celebrate God's slowness, God's retardation, God's putting off the +retribution! Do you not think, my brother, it would be a great deal +better for us to exchange our impatient hypercriticism of Providence +because this man, by watering of stock, makes a million dollars in one +day, and another man rides on in one bloated iniquity year after +year—would it not be better for us to exchange that impatient +hypercriticism for gratitude everlasting that God let us who were +wicked live, though we deserved nothing but capsize and demolition? +Oh, I celebrate God's slowness! The slower the rail-train comes the +better, if the drawbridge is off.</p> + +<p>How long have you, my brother, lived unforgiven? Fifteen, twenty, +forty, sixty years? Lived through great awakenings, lived through +domestic sorrow, lived through commercial calamity, lived through +providential crises that startled nations, and you are living yet, +strangers to God, and with no hope for a great future into which you +may be precipitated. Oh, would it not be better for us to get our +nature through the Grace of Christ revolutionized and transfigured? +For I want you to know that God sometimes changes His gait, and +instead of the deliberate tread He is the swift witness, and sometimes +the enemies of God are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy.</p> + +<p>Make God your ally. What an offer that is! Do not fight against Him. +Do not contend against your best interests. Yield this morning to the +best impulse of your heart, and that is toward Christ and heaven. Do +not fight the Lord that made you and offers to redeem you.</p> + +<p>Philip of France went out with his army, with bows and arrows, to +fight King Edward III. of England; but just as they got into the +critical moment of the battle, a shower of rain came and relaxed the +bow-strings so that they were of no effect, and Philip and his army +were worsted. And all your weaponry against God will be as nothing +when he rains upon you discomfiture from the heavens. Do not fight the +Lord any longer. Change allegiance. Take down the old flag of sin, run +up the new flag of grace. It does not take the Lord Jesus Christ the +thousandth part of a second to convert you if you will only surrender, +be willing to be saved. The American Congress was in anxiety during +the Revolutionary War while awaiting to hear news from the conflict +between Washington and Cornwallis, and the anxiety became intense and +almost unbearable as the days went by. When the news came at last that +Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over, so great +was the excitement that the doorkeeper of the House of Congress +dropped dead from joyful excitement. And if this long war between your +soul and God should come to an end this morning by your entire +surrender, the war forever over, the news would very soon reach the +heavens, and nothing but the supernatural health of your loved ones +before the throne would keep them from being prostrated with overjoy +at the cessation of all spiritual hostilities.</p> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 110%">THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + +***** This file should be named 14139-h.htm or 14139-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/1/3/14139/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + + + + diff --git a/old/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg b/old/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3addf01 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14139-h/images/image-01.jpg diff --git a/old/14139.txt b/old/14139.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..393be21 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14139.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9537 @@ +Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: New Tabernacle Sermons + +Author: Thomas De Witt Talmage + +Release Date: November 24, 2004 [EBook #14139] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS +BY +T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. + +AUTHOR OF +"_CRUMBS SWEPT UP_," "_THE ABOMINATIONS OF MODERN SOCIETY_," etc. + +Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. + +VOL. I + +NEW YORK: +GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER, +17 TO 27 VANDEWATER STREET. +1886. + + + + +[Illustration: T. De Witt Talmage] + + + _Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by_ + GEORGE MUNRO, _in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, + Washington, D.C._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + BRAWN AND MUSCLE 7 + THE PLEIADES AND ORION 21 + THE QUEEN'S VISIT 34 + VICARIOUS SUFFERING 45 + POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY 59 + THE LORD'S RAZOR 72 + WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM 83 + STORMED AND TAKEN 95 + ALL THE WORLD AKIN 108 + A MOMENTOUS QUEST 119 + THE GREAT ASSIZE 134 + THE ROAD TO THE CITY 147 + THE RANSOMLESS 158 + THE THREE GROUPS 171 + THE INSIGNIFICANT 184 + THE THREE RINGS 197 + HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT 209 + CASTLE JESUS 221 + STRIPPING THE SLAIN 233 + SOLD OUT 246 + SUMMER TEMPTATIONS 259 + THE BANISHED QUEEN 274 + THE DAY WE LIVE IN 285 + CAPITAL AND LABOR 297 + DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE 311 + TOBACCO AND OPIUM 325 + WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? 339 + + + + +BRAWN AND MUSCLE. + + "And Samson went down to Timnath."--JUDGES xiv: 1. + + +There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his +life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the +grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character +fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver +lessons we devote our morning sermon. + +This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. +It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons--the boy Napoleon and +the man Napoleon--but both alike; two Howards--the boy Howard and the +man Howard--but both alike; two Samsons--the boy Samson and the man +Samson--but both alike. This giant was no doubt the hero of the +playground, and nothing could stand before his exhibitions of youthful +prowess. At eighteen years of age he was betrothed to the daughter of +a Philistine. Going down toward Timnath, a lion came out upon him, +and, although this young giant was weaponless, he seized the monster +by the long mane and shook him as a hungry hound shakes a March hare, +and made his bones crack, and left him by the wayside bleeding under +the smiting of his fist and the grinding heft of his heel. + +There he stands, looming up above other men, a mountain of flesh, his +arms bunched with muscle that can lift the gate of a city, taking an +attitude defiant of everything. His hair had never been cut, and it +rolled down in seven great plaits over his shoulders, adding to his +bulk, fierceness, and terror. The Philistines want to conquer him, and +therefore they must find out where the secret of his strength lies. + +There is a dissolute woman living in the valley of Sorek by the name +of Delilah. They appoint her the agent in the case. The Philistines +are secreted in the same building, and then Delilah goes to work and +coaxes Samson to tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well," he +says, "if you should take seven green withes such as they fasten wild +beasts with and put them around me I should be perfectly powerless." +So she binds him with the seven green withes. Then she claps her hands +and says: "They come--the Philistines!" and he walks out as though +they were no impediment. She coaxes him again, and says: "Now tell me +the secret of this great strength?" and he replies: "If you should +take some ropes that have never been used and tie me with them I +should be just like other men." She ties him with the ropes, claps her +hands, and shouts: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out as +easily as he did before--not a single obstruction. She coaxes him +again, and he says: "Now, if you should take these seven long plaits +of hair, and by this house-loom weave them into a web, I could not get +away." So the house-loom is rolled up, and the shuttle flies backward +and forward and the long plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then she +claps her hands, and says: "They come--the Philistines!" He walks out +as easily as he did before, dragging a part of the loom with him. + +But after awhile she persuades him to tell the truth. He says: "If you +should take a razor or shears and cut off this long hair, I should be +powerless and in the hands of my enemies." Samson sleeps, and that she +may not wake him up during the process of shearing, help is called in. +You know that the barbers of the East have such a skillful way of +manipulating the head to this very day that, instead of waking up a +sleeping man, they will put a man wide awake sound asleep. I hear the +blades of the shears grinding against each other, and I see the long +locks falling off. The shears or razor accomplishes what green withes +and new ropes and house-loom could not do. Suddenly she claps her +hands, and says: "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!" He rouses up +with a struggle, but his strength is all gone. He is in the hands of +his enemies. + +I hear the groan of the giant as they take his eyes out, and then I +see him staggering on in his blindness, feeling his way as he goes on +toward Gaza. The prison door is open, and the giant is thrust in. He +sits down and puts his hands on the mill-crank, which, with exhausting +horizontal motion, goes day after day, week after week, month after +month--work, work, work! The consternation of the world in captivity, +his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding corn in Gaza! + +I. First of all, behold in this giant of the text that physical power +is not always an index of moral power. He was a huge man--the lion +found it out, and the three thousand men whom he slew found it out; +yet he was the subject of petty revenges and out-gianted by low +passion. I am far from throwing any discredit upon physical stamina. +There are those who seem to have great admiration for delicacy and +sickliness of constitution. I never could see any glory in weak nerves +or sick headache. Whatever effort in our day is made to make the men +and women more robust should have the favor of every good citizen as +well as of every Christian. Gymnastics may be positively religious. + +Good people sometimes ascribe to a wicked heart what they ought to +ascribe to a slow liver. The body and the soul are such near neighbors +that they often catch each other's diseases. Those who never saw a +sick day, and who, like Hercules, show the giant in the cradle, have +more to answer for than those who are the subjects of life-long +infirmities. He who can lift twice as much as you can, and walk twice +as far, and work twice as long, will have a double account to meet in +the judgment. + +How often it is that you do not find physical energy indicative of +spiritual power! If a clear head is worth more than one dizzy with +perpetual vertigo--if muscles with the play of health in them are +worth more than those drawn up in chronic "rheumatics"--if an eye +quick to catch passing objects is better than one with vision dim and +uncertain--then God will require of us efficiency just in proportion +to what he has given us. Physical energy ought to be a type of moral +power. We ought to have as good digestion of truth as we have capacity +to assimilate food. Our spiritual hearing ought to be as good as our +physical hearing. Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear as our +tongue. Samsons in body, we ought to be giants in moral power. + +But while you find a great many men who realize that they ought to use +their money aright, and use their intelligence aright, how few men you +find aware of the fact that they ought to use their physical organism +aright! With every thump of the heart there is something saying, +"Work! work!" and, lest we should complain that we have no tools to +work with, God gives us our hands and feet, with every knuckle, and +with every joint, and with every muscle saying to us, "Lay hold and do +something." + +But how often it is that men with physical strength do not serve +Christ! They are like a ship full manned and full rigged, capable of +vast tonnage, able to endure all stress of weather, yet swinging idly +at the docks, when these men ought to be crossing and recrossing the +great ocean of human suffering and sin with God's supplies of mercy. +How often it is that physical strength is used in doing positive +damage, or in luxurious ease, when, with sleeves rolled up and bronzed +bosom, fearless of the shafts of opposition, it ought to be laying +hold with all its might, and tugging away to lift up this sunken wreck +of a world. + +It is a most shameful fact that much of the business of the Church and +of the world must be done by those comparatively invalid. Richard +Baxter, by reason of his diseases, all his days sitting in the door of +the tomb, yet writing more than a hundred volumes, and sending out an +influence for God that will endure as long as the "Saints' Everlasting +Rest." Edward Payson, never knowing a well day, yet how he preached, +and how he wrote, helping thousands of dying souls like himself to +swim in a sea of glory! And Robert M'Cheyne, a walking skeleton, yet +you know what he did in Dundee, and how he shook Scotland with zeal +for God. Philip Doddridge, advised by his friends, because of his +illness, not to enter the ministry, yet you know what he did for the +"rise and progress of religion" in the Church and in the world. + +Wilberforce was told by his doctors that he could not live a +fortnight, yet at that very time entering upon philanthropic +enterprises that demanded the greatest endurance and persistence. +Robert Hall, suffering excruciations, so that often in his pulpit +while preaching he would stop and lie down on a sofa, then getting up +again to preach about heaven until the glories of the celestial city +dropped on the multitude, doing more work, perhaps, than almost any +well man in his day. + +Oh, how often it is that men with great physical endurance are not as +great in moral and spiritual stature! While there are achievements for +those who are bent all their days with sickness--achievements of +patience, achievements of Christian endurance--I call upon men of +health to-day, men of muscle, men of nerve, men of physical power, to +devote themselves to the Lord. Giants in body, you ought to be giants +in soul. + +II. Behold also, in the story of my text, illustration of the fact of +the damage that strength can do if it be misguided. It seems to me +that this man spent a great deal of his time in doing evil--this +Samson of my text. To pay a bet which he had lost by guessing of his +riddle he robs and kills thirty people. He was not only gigantic in +strength, but gigantic in mischief, and a type of those men in all +ages of the world who, powerful in body or mind, or any faculty of +social position or wealth, have used their strength for iniquitous +purposes. + +It is not the small, weak men of the day who do the damage. These +small men who go swearing and loafing about your stores and shops and +banking-houses, assailing Christ and the Bible and the Church--they do +not do the damage. They have no influence. They are vermin that you +crush with your foot. But it is the giants of the day, the misguided +giants, giants in physical power, or giants in mental acumen, or +giants in social position, or giants in wealth, who do the damage. + +The men with sharp pens that stab religion and throw their poison all +through our literature; the men who use the power of wealth to +sanction iniquity, and bribe justice, and make truth and honor bow to +their golden scepter. + +Misguided giants--look out for them! In the middle and the latter part +of the last century no doubt there were thousands of men in Paris and +Edinburgh and London who hated God and blasphemed the name of the +Almighty; but they did but little mischief--they were small men, +insignificant men. Yet there were giants in those days. + +Who can calculate the soul-havoc of a Rousseau, going on with a very +enthusiasm of iniquity, with fiery imagination seizing upon all the +impulsive natures of his day? or David Hume, who employed his life as +a spider employs its summer, in spinning out silken webs to trap the +unwary? or Voltaire, the most learned man of his day, marshaling a +great host of skeptics, and leading them out in the dark land of +infidelity? or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrollable grudge against +religion in his history of one of the most fascinating periods of the +world's existence--the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--a book in +which, with all the splendors of his genius, he magnified the errors +of Christian disciples, while, with a sparseness of notice that never +can be forgiven, he treated of the Christian heroes of whom the world +was not worthy? + +Oh, men of stout physical health, men of great mental stature, men of +high social position, men of great power of any sort, I want you to +understand your power, and I want you to know that that power devoted +to God will be a crown on earth, to you typical of a crown in heaven; +but misguided, bedraggled in sin, administrative of evil, God will +thunder against you with His condemnation in the day when millionaire +and pauper, master and slave, king and subject, shall stand side by +side in the judgment, and money-bags, and judicial ermine, and royal +robe shall be riven with the lightnings. + +Behold also, how a giant may be slain of a woman. Delilah started the +train of circumstances that pulled down the temple of Dagon about +Samson's ears. And tens of thousands of giants have gone down to death +and hell through the same impure fascinations. It seems to me that it +is high time that pulpit and platform and printing-press speak out +against the impurities of modern society. Fastidiousness and Prudery +say: "Better not speak--you will rouse up adverse criticism; you will +make worse what you want to make better; better deal in glittering +generalities; the subject is too delicate for polite ears." But there +comes a voice from heaven overpowering the mincing sentimentalities of +the day, saying: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a +trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of +Jacob their sins." + +The trouble is that when people write or speak upon this theme they +are apt to cover it up with the graces of belles-lettres, so that the +crime is made attractive instead of repulsive. Lord Byron in "Don +Juan" adorns this crime until it smiles like a May queen. Michelet, +the great French writer, covers it up with bewitching rhetoric until +it glows like the rising sun, when it ought to be made loathsome as a +small-pox hospital. There are to-day influences abroad which, if +unresisted by the pulpit and the printing-press, will turn New York +and Brooklyn into Sodom and Gomorrah, fit only for the storm of fire +and brimstone that whelmed the cities of the plain. + +You who are seated in your Christian homes, compassed by moral and +religious restraints, do not realize the gulf of iniquity that bounds +you on the north and the south and the east and the west. While I +speak there are tens of thousands of men and women going over the +awful plunge of an impure life; and while I cry to God for mercy upon +their souls, I call upon you to marshal in the defense of your homes, +your Church and your nation. There is a banqueting hall that you have +never heard described. You know all about the feast of Ahasuerus, +where a thousand lords sat. You know all about Belshazzar's carousal, +where the blood of the murdered king spurted into the faces of the +banqueters. You may know of the scene of riot and wassail, when there +was set before Esopus one dish of food that cost $400,000. But I speak +now of a different banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its +floor is tesselated with fire. Its chalices are chased with fire. Its +song is a song of fire. Its walls are buttresses of fire. Solomon +refers to it when he says: "Her guests are in the depths of hell." + +Our American communities are suffering from the gospel of Free +Loveism, which, fifteen or twenty years ago, was preached on the +platform and in some of the churches of this country. I charge upon +Free Loveism that it has blighted innumerable homes, and that it has +sent innumerable souls to ruin. Free Loveism is bestial; it is +worse--it is infernal! It has furnished this land with about one +thousand divorces annually. In one county in the State of Indiana it +furnished eleven divorces in one day before dinner. It has roused up +elopements, North, South, East, and West. You can hardly take up a +paper but you read of an elopement. As far as I can understand the +doctrine of Free Loveism it is this: That every man ought to have +somebody else's wife, and every wife somebody else's husband. They do +not like our Christian organization of society, and I wish they would +all elope, the wretches of one sex taking the wretches of the other, +and start to-morrow morning for the great Sahara Desert, until the +simoom shall sweep seven feet of sand all over them, and not one +passing caravan for the next five hundred years bring back one +miserable bone of their carcasses! Free Loveism! It is the +double-distilled extract of nux vomica, ratsbane, and adder's tongue. +Never until society goes back to the old Bible, and hears its eulogy +of purity and its anathema of uncleanness--never until then will this +evil be extirpated. + +IV. Behold also in this giant of the text and in the giant of our own +century that great physical power must crumble and expire. The Samson +of the text long ago went away. He fought the lion. He fought the +Philistines. He could fight anything, but death was too much for him. +He may have required a longer grave and a broader grave; but the tomb +nevertheless was his terminus. + +If, then, we are to be compelled to go out of this world, where are we +to go to? This body and soul must soon part. What shall be the destiny +of the former I know--dust to dust. But what shall be the destiny of +the latter? Shall it rise into the companionship of the white-robed, +whose sins Christ has slain? or will it go down among the unbelieving, +who tried to gain the world and save their souls, but were swindled +out of both? Blessed be God, we have a Champion! He is so styled in +the Bible: A Champion who has conquered death and hell, and he is +ready to fight all our battles from the first to the last. "Who is +this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, mighty to +save?" If we follow in the wake of that Champion death has no power +and the grave no victory. The worst man trusting in Him shall have his +dying pangs alleviated and his future illumined. + +V. In the light of this subject I want to call your attention to a +fact which may not have been rightly considered by five men in this +house, and that is the fact that we must be brought into judgment for +the employment of our physical organism. Shoulder, brain, hand, +foot--we must answer in judgment for the use we have made of them. +Have they been used for the elevation of society or for its +depression? In proportion as our arm is strong and our step elastic +will our account at last be intensified. Thousands of sermons are +preached to invalids. I preach this sermon this morning to stout men +and healthful women. We must give to God an account for the right use +of this physical organism. + +These invalids have comparatively little to account for, perhaps. They +could not lift twenty pounds. They could not walk half a mile without +sitting down to rest. In the preparation of this subject I have said +to myself, how shall I account to God in judgment for the use of a +body which never knew one moment of real sickness? Rising up in +judgment, standing beside the men and women who had only little +physical energy, and yet consumed that energy in a conflagration of +religious enthusiasm, how will we feel abashed! + +Oh, men of the strong arm and the stout heart, what use are you making +of your physical forces? Will you be able to stand the test of that +day when we must answer for the use of every talent, whether it were a +physical energy, or a mental acumen, or a spiritual power? + +The day approaches, and I see one who in this world was an invalid, +and as she stands before the throne of God to answer she says, "I was +sick all my days. I had but very little strength, but I did as well as +I could in being kind to those who were more sick and more +suffering." And Christ will say, "Well done, faithful servant." + +And then a little child will stand before the throne, and she will +say, "On earth I had a curvature of the spine, and I was very weak, +and I was very sick; but I used to gather flowers out of the wild-wood +and bring them to my sick mother, and she was comforted when she saw +the sweet flowers out of the wild-wood. I didn't do much, but I did +something." And Christ shall say, as He takes her up in His arm and +kisses her, "Well done, well done, faithful servant; enter thou into +the joy of thy Lord." + +What, then, will be said to us--we to whom the Lord gave physical +strength and continuous health? Hark! it thunders again. The judgment! +the judgment! + +I said to an old Scotch minister, who was one of the best friends I +ever had, "Doctor, did you ever know Robert Pollock, the Scotch poet, +who wrote 'The Course of Time'?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew him +well; I was his classmate." And then the doctor went on to tell me how +that the writing of "The Course of Time" exhausted the health of +Robert Pollock, and he expired. It seems as if no man could have such +a glimpse of the day for which all other days were made as Robert +Pollock had, and long survive that glimpse. In the description of that +day he says, among other things: + + "Begin the woe, ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds + And doleful winds wail to the howling hills, + And howling hills mourn to the dismal vales, + And dismal vales sigh to the sorrowing brooks, + And sorrowing brooks weep to the weeping stream, + And weeping stream awake the groaning deep; + Ye heavens, great archway of the universe, put sack-cloth on; + And ocean, robe thyself in garb of widowhood, + And gather all thy waves into a groan, and utter it. + Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense. + The occasion asks it, Nature dies, and angels come to lay + her in her grave." + +What Robert Pollock saw in poetic dream, you and I will see in +positive reality--the judgment! the judgment! + + + + +THE PLEIADES AND ORION. + + "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."--AMOS. v. 8 + + +A country farmer wrote this text--Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth +and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as +formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the +sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was +getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take +from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and +stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and +Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, +and Israelites trembled. + +Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and +David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as +might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his +prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, +and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts +devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He +watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of +bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all +night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight +roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the +tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year +when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open +field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the +night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of +lunar light. + +What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at +twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, +and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's +hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the +thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the +map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out +before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He +associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He +had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, +and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. +But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while +seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of +the midnight heavens--the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The +former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it +rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the +winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven +Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy; Orion, the herald of the +tempest. The ancients were the more apt to study the physiognomy and +juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies, because they thought they had a +special influence upon the earth; and perhaps they were right. If the +moon every few hours lifts and lets down the tides of the Atlantic +Ocean, and the electric storms of last year in the sun, by all +scientific admission, affected the earth, why not the stars have +proportionate effect? + +And there are some things which make me think that it may not have +been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of +the heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Did not a meteor +run on evangelistic errand on the first Christmas night, and designate +the rough cradle of our Lord? Did not the stars in their courses fight +against Sisera? Was it merely coincidental that before the destruction +of Jerusalem the moon was eclipsed for twelve consecutive nights? Did +it merely happen so that a new star appeared in constellation +Cassiopeia, and then disappeared just before King Charles IX. of +France, who was responsible for St. Bartholomew massacre, died? Was it +without significance that in the days of the Roman Emperor Justinian +war and famine were preceded by the dimness of the sun, which for +nearly a year gave no more light than the moon, although there were no +clouds to obscure it? + +Astrology, after all, may have been something more than a brilliant +heathenism. No wonder that Amos of the text, having heard these two +anthems of the stars, put down the stout rough staff of the herdsman +and took into his brown hand and cut and knotted fingers the pen of a +prophet, and advised the recreant people of his time to return to God, +saying: "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." This +command, which Amos gave 785 years B.C., is just as appropriate for +us, 1885 A.D. + +In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made +the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a +star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but +seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night +after night and season after season and decade after decade they had +kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never +clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called +the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his +AEneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order +established for their coming and going; order written not in +manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty +on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. +Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order. + +What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations +sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at +hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps +seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly +keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in +adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of +the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the +Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care +of the one world we inhabit. + +So I feel very much as my father felt one day when we were going to +the country mill to get a grist ground, and I, a boy of seven years, +sat in the back part of the wagon, and our yoke of oxen ran away with +us and along a labyrinthine road through the woods, so that I thought +every moment we would be dashed to pieces, and I made a terrible +outcry of fright, and my father turned to me with a face perfectly +calm, and said: "De Witt, what are you crying about? I guess we can +ride as fast as the oxen can run." And, my hearers, why should we be +affrighted and lose our equilibrium in the swift movement of worldly +events, especially when we are assured that it is not a yoke of +unbroken steers that are drawing us on, but that order and wise +government are in the yoke? + +In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, +and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, +and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with +you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better +than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see +further than Amos with the naked eye could--namely, two hundred stars +in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there +is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions +of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made +all that and controls all that--the wheel of the constellations +turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the +breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. +For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge +you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +groups of the text was the God of light. Amos saw that God was not +satisfied with making one star, or two or three stars, but He makes +seven; and having finished that group of worlds, makes another +group--group after group. To the Pleiades He adds Orion. It seems that +God likes light so well that He keeps making it. Only one being in the +universe knows the statistics of solar, lunar, stellar, meteoric +creations, and that is the--Creator Himself. And they have all been +lovingly christened, each one a name as distinct as the names of your +children. "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by +their names." The seven Pleiades had names given to them, and they are +Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia. + +But think of the billions and trillions of daughters of starry light +that God calls by name as they sweep by Him with beaming brow and +lustrous robe! So fond is God of light--natural light, moral light, +spiritual light. Again and again is light harnessed for +symbolization--Christ, the bright and morning star; evangelization, +the daybreak; the redemption of nations, Sun of Righteousness rising +with healing in His wings. Oh, men and women, with so many sorrows and +sins and perplexities, if you want light of comfort, light of pardon, +light of goodness, in earnest, pray through Christ, "Seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +archipelagoes of stars must be an unchanging God. There had been no +change in the stellar appearance in this herdsman's life-time, and his +father, a shepherd, reported to him that there had been no change in +his life-time. And these two clusters hang over the celestial arbor +now just as they were the first night that they shone on the Edenic +bowers, the same as when the Egyptians built the Pyramids from the top +of which to watch them, the same as when the Chaldeans calculated the +eclipses, the same as when Elihu, according to the Book of Job, went +out to study the aurora borealis, the same under Ptolemaic system and +Copernican system, the same from Calisthenes to Pythagoras, and from +Pythagoras to Herschel. Surely, a changeless God must have fashioned +the Pleiades and Orion! Oh, what an anodyne amid the ups and downs of +life, and the flux and reflux of the tides of prosperity, to know that +we have a changeless God, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. + +Xerxes garlanded and knighted the steersman of his boat in the +morning, and hanged him in the evening of the same day. Fifty thousand +people stood around the columns of the national capitol, shouting +themselves hoarse at the presidential inaugural, and in four months so +great were the antipathies that a ruffian's pistol in Washington depot +expressed the sentiment of a great multitude. The world sits in its +chariot and drives tandem, and the horse ahead is Huzza, and the horse +behind is Anathema. Lord Cobham, in King James' time, was applauded, +and had thirty-five thousand dollars a year, but was afterward +execrated, and lived on scraps stolen from the royal kitchen. +Alexander the Great after death remained unburied for thirty days, +because no one would do the honor of shoveling him under. The Duke of +Wellington refused to have his iron fence mended, because it had been +broken by an infuriated populace in some hour of political +excitement, and he left it in ruins that men might learn what a fickle +thing is human favor. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting +to everlasting to them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto the +children's children of such as keep His covenant, and to those who +remember His commandments to do them." This moment "seek Him that +maketh the Seven Stars and Orion." + +Again, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made these two +beacons of the Oriental night sky must be a God of love and kindly +warning. The Pleiades rising in mid-sky said to all the herdsmen and +shepherds and husbandmen: "Come out and enjoy the mild weather, and +cultivate your gardens and fields." Orion, coming in winter, warned +them to prepare for tempest. All navigation was regulated by these two +constellations. The one said to shipmaster and crew: "Hoist sail for +the sea, and gather merchandise from other lands." But Orion was the +storm-signal, and said: "Reef sail, make things snug, or put into +harbor, for the hurricanes are getting their wings out." As the +Pleiades were the sweet evangels of the spring, Orion was the warning +prophet of the winter. + +Oh, now I get the best view of God I ever had! There are two kinds of +sermons I never want to preach--the one that presents God so kind, so +indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will +against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their +impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are +spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in +His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven." The other kind of sermon I never want to +preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and +thundercloud, and with red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into +paroxysms of infinite agony. The sermon that I am now preaching +believes in a God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and +winter, the God of the Pleiades and Orion. + +You must remember that the winter is just as important as the spring. +Let one winter pass without frost to kill vegetation and ice to bind +the rivers and snow to enrich our fields, and then you will have to +enlarge your hospitals and your cemeteries. "A green Christmas makes a +fat grave-yard," was the old proverb. Storms to purify the air. +Thermometer at ten degrees above zero to tone up the system. December +and January just as important as May and June. I tell you we need the +storms of life as much as we do the sunshine. There are more men +ruined by prosperity than by adversity. If we had our own way in life, +before this we would have been impersonations of selfishness and +worldliness and disgusting sin, and puffed up until we would have been +like Julius Caesar, who was made by sycophants to believe that he was +divine, and the freckles on his face were as the stars of the +firmament. + +One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages made last summer by the +"Etruria" was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from +New York to Liverpool. But to those going in the opposite direction +the storm was a buffeting and a hinderance. It is a bad thing to have +a storm ahead, pushing us back; but if we be God's children and +aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner +into the harbor. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and +typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of the land and sea are not +unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but are under divine +supervision! I am so glad that the God of the Seven Stars is also the +God of Orion! It was out of Dante's suffering came the sublime "Divina +Commedia," and out of John Milton's blindness came "Paradise Lost," +and out of miserable infidel attack came the "Bridgewater Treatise" in +favor of Christianity, and out of David's exile came the songs of +consolation, and out of the sufferings of Christ came the possibility +of the world's redemption, and out of your bereavement, your +persecution, your poverties, your misfortunes, may yet come an eternal +heaven. + +Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible +God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in +Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and +minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! +worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we +stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling +off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric +iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve +around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around +the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make +about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time +between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos +into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition. + +And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, +many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there," +says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says +St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says +Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says +Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the +herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about +those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let +us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop +or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the +heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this +shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already +occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their +gates to let us in. + +When I read, "In my Father's house are many mansions," I do not know +but that each world is a room, and as many rooms as there are worlds, +stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hallways, stellar windows, +stellar domes. How our departed friends must pity us shut up in these +cramped apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles, when they some +morning, by one stroke of wing, can make circuit of the whole stellar +system and be back in time for matins! Perhaps yonder twinkling +constellation is the residence of the martyrs; that group of twelve +luminaries is the celestial home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep +of light is the dwelling-place of angels cherubic, seraphic, +archangelic. A mansion with as many rooms as worlds, and all their +windows illuminated for festivity. + +Oh, how this widens and lifts and stimulates our expectation! How +little it makes the present, and how stupendous it makes the future! +How it consoles us about our pious dead, that instead of being boxed +up and under the ground have the range of as many rooms as there are +worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is the Father's house, in which +there are many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion, +how can I endure the transport, the ecstasy, of such a vision! I must +obey my text and seek Him. I will seek Him. I seek Him now, for I call +to mind that it is not the material universe that is most valuable, +but the spiritual, and that each of us has a soul worth more than all +the worlds which the inspired herdsman saw from his booth on the hills +of Tekoa. + +I had studied it before, but the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany, never +impressed me as it did this summer. It is admittedly the grandest +Gothic structure in the world, its foundation laid in 1248, only two +or three years ago completed. More than six hundred years in building. +All Europe taxed for its construction. Its chapel of the Magi with +precious stones enough to purchase a kingdom. Its chapel of St. Agnes +with masterpieces of painting. Its spire springing five hundred and +eleven feet into the heavens. Its stained glass the chorus of all rich +colors. Statues encircling the pillars and encircling all. Statues +above statues, until sculpture can do no more, but faints and falls +back against carved stalls and down on pavements over which the kings +and queens of the earth have walked to confession. Nave and aisles and +transept and portals combining the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced, +interfoliated, intercolumned grandeur. As I stood outside, looking at +the double range of flying buttresses and the forest of pinnacles, +higher and higher and higher, until I almost reeled from dizziness, I +exclaimed; "Great doxology in stone! Frozen prayer of many nations!" + +But while standing there I saw a poor man enter and put down his pack +and kneel beside his burden on the hard floor of that cathedral. And +tears of deep emotion came into my eyes, as I said to myself: "There +is a soul worth more than all the material surroundings. That man will +live after the last pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all that +cathedral glory shall remain uncrumbled. He is now a Lazarus in rags +and poverty and weariness, but immortal, and a son of the Lord God +Almighty; and the prayer he now offers, though amid many +superstitions, I believe God will hear; and among the Apostles whose +sculptured forms stand in the surrounding niches he will at last be +lifted, and into the presence of that Christ whose sufferings are +represented by the crucifix before which he bows; and be raised in due +time out of all his poverties into the glorious home built for him and +built for us by 'Him who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion.'" + + + + +THE QUEEN'S VISIT. + + "Behold, the half was not told me."--I KINGS x: 7. + + +Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all +sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, +and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. +He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the +East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were +obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the +hands of Solomon's merchants. He manned the fortress Thapsacus at the +chief ford of the Euphrates, and put under guard everything that +passed there. The three great products of Palestine--wine pressed from +the richest clusters and celebrated all the world over; oil which in +that hot country is the entire substitute for butter and lard, and was +pressed from the olive branches until every tree in the country became +an oil well; and honey which was the entire substitute for +sugar--these three great products of the country Solomon exported, and +received in return fruits and precious woods and the animals of every +clime. + +He went down to Ezion-geber and ordered a fleet of ships to be +constructed, oversaw the workmen, and watched the launching of the +flotilla which was to go out on more than a year's voyage, to bring +home the wealth of the then known world. He heard that the Egyptian +horses were large and swift, and long-maned and round-limbed, and he +resolved to purchase them, giving eighty-five dollars apiece for them, +putting the best of these horses in his own stall, and selling the +surplus to foreign potentates at great profit. + +He heard that there was the best of timber on Mount Lebanon, and he +sent out one hundred and eighty thousand men to hew down the forest +and drag the timber through the mountain gorges, to construct it into +rafts to be floated to Joppa, and from thence to be drawn by ox-teams +twenty-five miles across the land to Jerusalem. He heard that there +were beautiful flowers in other lands. He sent for them, planted them +in his own gardens, and to this very day there are flowers found in +the ruins of that city such as are to be found in no other part of +Palestine, the lineal descendants of the very flowers that Solomon +planted. He heard that in foreign groves there were birds of richest +voice and most luxuriant wing. He sent out people to catch them and +bring them there, and he put them into his cages. + +Stand back now and see this long train of camels coming up to the +king's gate, and the ox-trains from Egypt, gold and silver and +precious stones, and beasts of every hoof, and birds of every wing, +and fish of every scale! See the peacocks strut under the cedars, and +the horsemen run, and the chariots wheel! Hark to the orchestra! Gaze +upon the dance! Not stopping to look into the wonders of the temple, +step right on to the causeway, and pass up to Solomon's palace! + +Here we find ourselves amid a collection of buildings on which the +king had lavished the wealth of many empires. The genius of Hiram, the +architect, and of the other artists is here seen in the long line of +corridors and the suspended gallery and the approach to the throne. +Traceried window opposite traceried window. Bronzed ornaments bursting +into lotus and lily and pomegranate. Chapiters surrounded by network +of leaves in which imitation fruit seemed suspended as in hanging +baskets. Three branches--so Josephus tells us--three branches +sculptured on the marble, so thin and subtle that even the leaves +seemed to quiver. A laver capable of holding five hundred barrels of +water on six hundred brazen ox-heads, which gushed with water and +filled the whole place with coolness and crystalline brightness and +musical plash. Ten tables chased with chariot wheel and lion and +cherubim. Solomon sat on a throne of ivory. At the seating place of +the throne, on each end of the steps, a brazen lion. Why, my friends, +in that place they trimmed their candles with snuffers of gold, and +they cut their fruits with knives of gold, and they washed their faces +in basins of gold, and they scooped out the ashes with shovels of +gold, and they stirred the altar fires with tongs of gold. Gold +reflected in the water! Gold flashing from the apparel! Gold blazing +in the crown! Gold, gold, gold! + +Of course the news of the affluence of that place went out everywhere +by every caravan and by wing of every ship, until soon the streets of +Jerusalem are crowded with curiosity seekers. What is that long +procession approaching Jerusalem? I think from the pomp of it there +must be royalty in the train. I smell the breath of the spices which +are brought as presents, and I hear the shout of the drivers, and I +see the dust-covered caravan showing that they come from far away. Cry +the news up to the palace. The Queen of Sheba advances. Let all the +people come out to see. Let the mighty men of the land come out on the +palace corridors. Let Solomon come down the stairs of the palace +before the queen has alighted. Shake out the cinnamon, and the +saffron, and the calamus, and the frankincense, and pass it into the +treasure house. Take up the diamonds until they glitter in the sun. + +The Queen of Sheba alights. She enters the palace. She washes at the +bath. She sits down at the banquet. The cup-bearers bow. The meat +smokes. The music trembles in the dash of the waters from the molten +sea. Then she rises from the banquet, and walks through the +conservatories, and gazes on the architecture, and she asks Solomon +many strange questions, and she learns about the religion of the +Hebrews, and she then and there becomes a servant of the Lord God. + +She is overwhelmed. She begins to think that all the spices she +brought, and all the precious woods which are intended to be turned +into harps and psalteries and into railings for the causeway between +the temple and the palace, and the one hundred and eighty thousand +dollars in money--she begins to think that all these presents amount +to nothing in such a place, and she is almost ashamed that she has +brought them, and she says within herself: "I heard a great deal +about this place, and about this wonderful religion of the Hebrews, +but I find it far beyond my highest anticipations. I must add more +than fifty per cent. to what has been related. It exceeds everything +that I could have expected. The half--the half was not told me." + +Learn from this subject what a beautiful thing it is when social +position and wealth surrender themselves to God. When religion comes +to a neighborhood, the first to receive it are the women. Some men say +it is because they are weak-minded. I say it is because they have +quicker perception of what is right, more ardent affection and +capacity for sublimer emotion. After the women have received the +Gospel then all the distressed and the poor of both sexes, those who +have no friends, accept Jesus. Last of all come the people of +affluence and high social position. Alas, that it is so! + +If there are those here to-day who have been favored of fortune, or, +as I might better put it, favored of God, surrender all you have and +all you expect to be to the Lord who blessed this Queen of Sheba. +Certainly you are not ashamed to be found in this queen's company. I +am glad that Christ has had His imperial friends in all +ages--Elizabeth Christina, Queen of Prussia; Maria Feodorovna, Queen +of Russia; Marie, Empress of France; Helena, the imperial mother of +Constantine; Arcadia, from her great fortunes building public baths in +Constantinople and toiling for the alleviation of the masses; Queen +Clotilda, leading her husband and three thousand of his armed warriors +to Christian baptism; Elizabeth of Burgundy, giving her jeweled glove +to a beggar, and scattering great fortunes among the distressed; +Prince Albert, singing "Rock of Ages" in Windsor Castle, and Queen +Victoria, incognita, reading the Scriptures to a dying pauper. + +I bless God that the day is coming when royalty will bring all its +thrones, and music all its harmonies, and painting all its pictures, +and sculpture all its statuary, and architecture all its pillars, and +conquest all its scepters; and the queens of the earth, in long line +of advance, frankincense filling the air and the camels laden with +gold, shall approach Jerusalem, and the gates shall be hoisted, and +the great burden of splendor shall be lifted into the palace of this +greater than Solomon. + +Again, my subject teaches me what is earnestness in the search of +truth. Do you know where Sheba was? It was in Abyssinia, or some say +in the southern part of Arabia Felix. In either case it was a great +way off from Jerusalem. To get from there to Jerusalem she had to +cross a country infested with bandits, and go across blistering +deserts. Why did not the Queen of Sheba stay at home and send a +committee to inquire about this new religion, and have the delegates +report in regard to that religion and wealth of King Solomon? She +wanted to see for herself, and hear for herself. She could not do this +by work of committee. She felt she had a soul worth ten thousand +kingdoms like Sheba, and she wanted a robe richer than any woven by +Oriental shuttles, and she wanted a crown set with the jewels of +eternity. Bring out the camels. Put on the spices. Gather up the +jewels of the throne and put them on the caravan. Start now; no time +to be lost. Goad on the camels. When I see that caravan, +dust-covered, weary, and exhausted, trudging on across the desert and +among the bandits until it reaches Jerusalem, I say: "There is an +earnest seeker after the truth." + +But there are a great many of you, my friends, who do not act in that +way. You all want to get the truth, but you want the truth to come +to-you; you do not want to go to it. There are people who fold their +arms and say: "I am ready to become a Christian at any time; if I am +to be saved I shall be saved, and if I am to be lost I shall be lost." +A man who says that and keeps on saying it, will be lost. Jerusalem +will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. The religion of the +Lord Jesus Christ will not come to you; you must go and get religion. +Bring out the camels; put on all the sweet spices, all the treasures +of the heart's affection. Start for the throne. Go in and hear the +waters of salvation dashing in fountains all around about the throne. +Sit down at the banquet--the wine pressed from the grapes of the +heavenly Eschol, the angels of God the cup-bearers. Goad on the +camels; Jerusalem will never come to you; you must go to Jerusalem. +The Bible declares it: "The Queen of the South"--that is, this very +woman I am speaking of--"the Queen of the South shall rise up in +judgment against this generation and condemn it; for she came from the +uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, +behold! a greater than Solomon is here." God help me to break up the +infatuation of those people who are sitting down in idleness expecting +to be saved. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Ask, and it +shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened to you." Take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. Urge on the +camels! + +Again, my subject impresses me with the fact that religion is a +surprise to any one that gets it. This story of the new religion in +Jerusalem, and of the glory of King Solomon, who was a type of +Christ--that story rolls on and on, and is told by every traveler +coming back from Jerusalem. The news goes on the wing of every ship +and with every caravan, and you know a story enlarges as it is retold, +and by the time that story gets down into the southern part of Arabia +Felix, and the Queen of Sheba hears it, it must be a tremendous story. +And yet this queen declares in regard to it, although she had heard so +much and had her anticipations raised so high, the half--the half was +not told her. + +So religion is always a surprise to any one that gets it. The story of +grace--an old story. Apostles preached it with rattle of chain; +martyrs declared it with arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it with +visions of glory, and ministers of religion have sounded it through +the lanes, and the highways, and the chapels, and the cathedrals. It +has been cut into stone with chisel, and spread on the canvas with +pencil; and it has been recited in the doxology of great +congregations. And yet when a man first comes to look on the palace of +God's mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ, and the wealth of this +banquet, and the luxuriance of His attendants, and the loveliness of +His face, and the joy of His service, he exclaims with prayers, with +tears, with sighs, with triumphs: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +I appeal to those in this house who are Christians. Compare the idea +you had of the joy of the Christian life before you became a Christian +with the appreciation of that joy you have now since you have become a +Christian, and you are willing to attest before angels and men that +you never in the days of your spiritual bondage had any appreciation +of what was to come. You are ready to-day to answer, and if I gave you +an opportunity in the midst of this assemblage, you would speak out +and say in regard to the discoveries you have made of the mercy and +the grace and the goodness of God: "The half--the half was not told +me!" + +Well, we hear a great deal about the good time that is coming to this +world, when it is to be girded with salvation. Holiness on the bells +of the horses. The lion's mane patted by the hand of a babe. Ships of +Tarshish bringing cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren, +winter-bleached, storm-scarred, thunder-split rock breaking into +floods of bright water. Deserts into which dromedaries thrust their +nostrils, because they were afraid of the simoom--deserts blooming +into carnation roses and silver-tipped lilies. + +It is the old story. Everybody tells it. Isaiah told it, John told it, +Paul told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin told it, John +Milton told it--everybody tells it; and yet--and yet when the midnight +shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal His great army, and +China, dashing her idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of God +and wheel into line; and India, destroying her Juggernaut and +snatching up her little children from the Ganges, shall hear the +voice of God and wheel into line; and vine-covered Italy, and +wheat-crowned Russia, and all the nations of the earth shall hear the +voice of God and fall into line; then the Church, which has been +toiling and struggling through the centuries, robed and garlanded like +a bride adorned for her husband, shall put aside her veil and look up +into the face of her Lord the King, and say: "The half--the half was +not told me." + +Well, there is coming a greater surprise to every Christian--a greater +surprise than anything I have depicted. Heaven is an old story. +Everybody talks about it. There is hardly a hymn in the hymn-book that +does not refer to it. Children read about it in their Sabbath-school +book. Aged men put on their spectacles to study it. We say it is a +harbor from the storm. We call it our home. We say it is the house of +many mansions. We weave together all sweet, beautiful, delicate, +exhilarant words; we weave them into letters, and then we spell it out +in rose and lily and amaranth. And yet that place is going to be a +surprise to the most intelligent Christian. Like the Queen of Sheba, +the report has come to us from the far country, and many of us have +started. It is a desert march, but we urge on the camels. What though +our feet be blistered with the way? We are hastening to the palace. We +take all our loves and hopes and Christian ambitions, as frankincense +and myrrh and cassia, to the great King. We must not rest. We must not +halt. The night is coming on, and it is not safe out here in the +desert. Urge on the camels. I see the domes against the sky, and the +houses of Lebanon, and the temples and the gardens. See the fountains +dance in the sun, and the gates flash as they open to let in the poor +pilgrims. + +Send the word up to the palace that we are coming, and that we are +weary of the march of the desert. The King will come out and say: +"Welcome to the palace; bathe in these waters, recline on these banks. +Take this cinnamon and frankincense and myrrh and put it upon a censer +and swing it before the altar." And yet, my friends, when heaven +bursts upon us it will be a greater surprise than that--Jesus on the +throne, and we made like Him! All our Christian friends surrounding us +in glory! All our sorrows and tears and sins gone by forever! The +thousands of thousands, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, +the great multitudes that no man can number, will cry, world without +end: "The half--the half was not told us!" + + + + +VICARIOUS SUFFERING. + + "Without shedding of blood is no remission."--HEB. ix: 22. + + +John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that +made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White +Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out +Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you +really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ +to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The +Bible statement agrees with all physicians, and all physiologists, and +all scientists, in saying that the blood is the life, and in the +Christian religion it means simply that Christ's life was given for +our life. Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible story of blood +is disgusting, and that they don't want what they call a +"slaughter-house religion," only shows their incapacity or +unwillingness to look through the figure of speech toward the thing +signified. The blood that, on the darkest Friday the world ever saw, +oozed, or trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side, and the +hands, and the feet of the illustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in +a few hours coagulated and dried up, and forever disappeared; and if +man had depended on the application of the literal blood of Christ, +there would not have been a soul saved for the last eighteen +centuries. + +In order to understand this red word of my text, we only have to +exercise as much common sense in religion as we do in everything else. +Pang for pang, hunger for hunger, fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear, +blood for blood, life for life, we see every day illustrated. The act +of substitution is no novelty, although I hear men talk as though the +idea of Christ's suffering substituted for our suffering were +something abnormal, something distressingly odd, something wildly +eccentric, a solitary episode in the world's history; when I could +take you out into this city, and before sundown point you to five +hundred cases of substitution and voluntary suffering of one in behalf +of another. + +At two o'clock to-morrow afternoon go among the places of business or +toil. It will be no difficult thing for you to find men who, by their +looks, show you that they are overworked. They are prematurely old. +They are hastening rapidly toward their decease. They have gone +through crises in business that shattered their nervous system, and +pulled on the brain. They have a shortness of breath, and a pain in +the back of the head, and at night an insomnia that alarms them. Why +are they drudging at business early and late? For fun? No; it would be +difficult to extract any amusement out of that exhaustion. Because +they are avaricious? In many cases no. Because their own personal +expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars would meet all their +wants. The simple fact is, the man is enduring all that fatigue and +exasperation, and wear and tear, to keep his home prosperous. There +is an invisible line reaching from that store, from that bank, from +that shop, from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few blocks, a few +miles away, and there is the secret of that business endurance. He is +simply the champion of a homestead, for which he wins bread, and +wardrobe, and education, and prosperity, and in such battle ten +thousand men fall. Of ten business men whom I bury, nine die of +overwork for others. Some sudden disease finds them with no power of +resistance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood. +Substitution! + +At one o'clock to-morrow morning, the hour when slumber is most +uninterrupted and most profound, walk amid the dwelling-houses of the +city. Here and there you will find a dim light, because it is the +household custom to keep a subdued light burning: but most of the +houses from base to top are as dark as though uninhabited. A merciful +God has sent forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over +the city. But yonder is a clear light burning, and outside on the +window casement a glass or pitcher containing food for a sick child; +the food is set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that mother +has sat up with that sufferer. She has to the last point obeyed the +physician's prescription, not giving a drop too much or too little, or +a moment too soon or too late. She is very anxious, for she has buried +three children with the same disease, and she prays and weeps, each +prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the pale cheek. By dint of +kindness she gets the little one through the ordeal. After it is all +over, the mother is taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in, and +one day she leaves the convalescent child with a mother's blessing, +and goes up to join the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for life. +Substitution! The fact is that there are an uncounted number of +mothers who, after they have navigated a large family of children +through all the diseases of infancy, and got them fairly started up +the flowering slope of boyhood and girlhood, have only strength enough +left to die. They fade away. Some call it consumption; some call it +nervous prostration; some call it intermittent or malarial +disposition; but I call it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +Or perhaps the mother lingers long enough to see a son get on the +wrong road, and his former kindness becomes rough reply when she +expresses anxiety about him. But she goes right on, looking carefully +after his apparel, remembering his every birthday with some memento, +and when he is brought home worn out with dissipation, nurses him till +he gets well and starts him again, and hopes, and expects, and prays, +and counsels, and suffers, until her strength gives out and she fails. +She is going, and attendants, bending over her pillow, ask her if she +has any message to leave, and she makes great effort to say something, +but out of three or four minutes of indistinct utterance they can +catch but three words: "My poor boy!" The simple fact is she died for +him. Life for life. Substitution! + +About twenty-four years ago there went forth from our homes hundreds +of thousands of men to do battle for their country. All the poetry of +war soon vanished, and left them nothing but the terrible prose. They +waded knee-deep in mud. They slept in snow-banks. They marched till +their cut feet tracked the earth. They were swindled out of their +honest rations, and lived on meat not fit for a dog. They had jaws all +fractured, and eyes extinguished, and limbs shot away. Thousands of +them cried for water as they lay dying on the field the night after +the battle, and got it not. They were homesick, and received no +message from their loved ones. They died in barns, in bushes, in +ditches, the buzzards of the summer heat the only attendants on their +obsequies. No one but the infinite God who knows everything, knows the +ten thousandth part of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height +of anguish of the Northern and Southern battlefields. Why did these +fathers leave their children and go to the front, and why did these +young men, postponing the marriage-day, start out into the +probabilities of never coming back? For the country they died. Life +for life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +But we need not go so far. What is that monument in Greenwood? It is +to the doctors who fell in the Southern epidemics. Why go? Were there +not enough sick to be attended in these Northern latitudes? Oh, yes; +but the doctor puts a few medical books in his valise, and some vials +of medicine, and leaves his patients here in the hands of other +physicians, and takes the rail-train. Before he gets to the infected +regions he passes crowded rail-trains, regular and extra, taking the +flying and affrighted populations. He arrives in a city over which a +great horror is brooding. He goes from couch to couch, feeling of +pulse and studying symptoms, and prescribing day after day, night +after night, until a fellow-physician says: "Doctor, you had better go +home and rest; you look miserable." But he can not rest while so many +are suffering. On and on, until some morning finds him in a delirium, +in which he talks of home, and then rises and says he must go and look +after those patients. He is told to lie down; but he fights his +attendants until he falls back, and is weaker and weaker, and dies for +people with whom he had no kinship, and far away from his own family, +and is hastily put away in a stranger's tomb, and only the fifth part +of a newspaper line tells us of his sacrifice--his name just mentioned +among five. Yet he has touched the furthest height of sublimity in +that three weeks of humanitarian service. He goes straight as an arrow +to the bosom of Him who said: "I was sick and ye visited Me." Life for +life. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +In the legal profession I see the same principle of self-sacrifice. In +1846, William Freeman, a pauperized and idiotic negro, was at Auburn, +N.Y., on trial for murder. He had slain the entire Van Nest family. +The foaming wrath of the community could be kept off him only by armed +constables. Who would volunteer to be his counsel? No attorney wanted +to sacrifice his popularity by such an ungrateful task. All were +silent save one, a young lawyer with feeble voice, that could hardly +be heard outside the bar, pale and thin and awkward. It was William H. +Seward, who saw that the prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible, and +ought to be put in an asylum rather than put to death, the heroic +counsel uttering these beautiful words: + +"I speak now in the hearing of a people who have prejudged prisoner +and condemned me for pleading in his behalf. He is a convict, a +pauper, a negro, without intellect, sense, or emotion. My child with +an affectionate smile disarms my care-worn face of its frown whenever +I cross my threshold. The beggar in the street obliges me to give +because he says, 'God bless you!' as I pass. My dog caresses me with +fondness if I will but smile on him. My horse recognizes me when I +fill his manger. What reward, what gratitude, what sympathy and +affection can I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look at him. +Look at the assemblage around you. Listen to their ill-suppressed +censures and their excited fears, and tell me where among my neighbors +or my fellow-men, where, even in his heart, I can expect to find a +sentiment, a thought, not to say of reward or of acknowledgment, or +even of recognition? Gentlemen, you may think of this evidence what +you please, bring in what verdict you can, but I asseverate before +Heaven and you, that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the +prisoner at the bar does not at this moment know why it is that my +shadow falls on you instead of his own." + +The gallows got its victim, but the post-mortem examination of the +poor creature showed to all the surgeons and to all the world that the +public were wrong, and William H. Seward was right, and that hard, +stony step of obloquy in the Auburn court-room was the first step of +the stairs of fame up which he went to the top, or to within one step +of the top, that last denied him through the treachery of American +politics. Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an American court-room +than William H. Seward, without reward, standing between the fury of +the populace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitution! + +In the realm of the fine arts there was as remarkable an instance. A +brilliant but hypercriticised painter, Joseph William Turner, was met +by a volley of abuse from all the art galleries of Europe. His +paintings, which have since won the applause of all civilized nations, +"The Fifth Plague of Egypt," "Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally +Weather," "Calais Pier," "The Sun Rising Through Mist," and "Dido +Building Carthage," were then targets for critics to shoot at. In +defense of this outrageously abused man, a young author of twenty-four +years, just one year out of college, came forth with his pen, and +wrote the ablest and most famous essays on art that the world ever +saw, or ever will see--John Ruskin's "Modern Painters." For seventeen +years this author fought the battles of the maltreated artist, and +after, in poverty and broken-heartedness, the painter had died, and +the public tried to undo their cruelties toward him by giving him a +big funeral and burial at St. Paul's Cathedral, his old-time friend +took out of a tin box nineteen thousand pieces of paper containing +drawings by the old painter, and through many weary and uncompensated +months assorted and arranged them for public observation. People say +John Ruskin in his old days is cross, misanthropic, and morbid. +Whatever he may do that he ought not to do, and whatever he may say +that he ought not to say between now and his death, he will leave this +world insolvent as far as it has any capacity to pay this author's pen +for its chivalric and Christian defense of a poor painter's pencil. +John Ruskin for William Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution! + +What an exalting principle this which leads one to suffer for another! +Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic +canto, or moves nations. The principle is the dominant one in our +religion--Christ the Martyr, Christ the celestial Hero, Christ the +Defender, Christ the Substitute. No new principle, for it was as old +as human nature; but now on a grander, wider, higher, deeper, and more +world-resounding scale! The shepherd boy as a champion for Israel with +a sling toppled the giant of Philistine braggadocio in the dust; but +here is another David who, for all the armies of churches militant and +triumphant, hurls the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the crash of +his brazen armor like an explosion at Hell Gate. Abraham had at God's +command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same God just in +time had provided a ram of the thicket as a substitute; but here is +another Isaac bound to the altar, and no hand arrests the sharp edges +of laceration and death, and the universe shivers and quakes and +recoils and groans at the horror. + +All good men have for centuries been trying to tell whom this +Substitute was like, and every comparison, inspired and uninspired, +evangelistic, prophetic, apostolic, and human, falls short, for Christ +was the Great Unlike. Adam a type of Christ, because he came directly +from God; Noah a type of Christ, because he delivered his own family +from deluge; Melchisedec a type of Christ, because he had no +predecessor or successor; Joseph a type of Christ, because he was cast +out by his brethren; Moses a type of Christ, because he was a +deliverer from bondage; Joshua a type of Christ, because he was a +conqueror; Samson a type of Christ, because of his strength to slay +the lions and carry off the iron gates of impossibility; Solomon a +type of Christ, in the affluence of his dominion; Jonah a type of +Christ, because of the stormy sea in which he threw himself for the +rescue of others; but put together Adam and Noah and Melchisedec and +Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they +would not make a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a Christ, the half +of a Christ, or the millionth part of a Christ. + +He forsook a throne and sat down on His own footstool. He came from +the top of glory to the bottom of humiliation, and changed a +circumference seraphic for a circumference diabolic. Once waited on by +angels, now hissed at by brigands. From afar and high up He came down; +past meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones, Himself more +lustrous; past larger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs of +firmaments, and from cloud to cloud, and through tree-tops and into +the earners stall, to thrust His shoulder under our burdens and take +the lances of pain through His vitals, and wrapped himself in all the +agonies which we deserve for our misdoings, and stood on the splitting +decks of a foundering vessel, amid the drenching surf of the sea, and +passed midnights on the mountains amid wild beasts of prey, and stood +at the point where all earthly and infernal hostilities charged on Him +at once with their keen sabers--our Substitute! + +When did attorney ever endure so much for a pauper client, or +physician for the patient in the lazaretto, or mother for the child in +membranous croup, as Christ for us, and Christ for you, and Christ for +me? Shall any man or woman or child in this audience who has ever +suffered for another find it hard to understand this Christly +suffering for us? Shall those whose sympathies have been wrung in +behalf of the unfortunate have no appreciation of that one moment +which was lifted out of all the ages of eternity as most conspicuous, +when Christ gathered up all the sins of those to be redeemed under His +one arm, and all their sorrows under His other arm, and said: "I will +atone for these under my right arm, and will heal all those under my +left arm. Strike me with all thy glittering shafts, O Eternal Justice! +Roll over me with all thy surges, ye oceans of sorrow"? And the +thunderbolts struck Him from above, and the seas of trouble rolled up +from beneath, hurricane after hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone, +and then and there in presence of heaven and earth and hell, yea, all +worlds witnessing, the price, the bitter price, the transcendent +price, the awful price, the glorious price, the infinite price, the +eternal price, was paid that sets us free. + +That is what Paul means, that is what I mean, that is what all those +who have ever had their heart changed mean by "blood." I glory in this +religion of blood! I am thrilled as I see the suggestive color in +sacramental cup, whether it be of burnished silver set on cloth +immaculately white, or rough-hewn from wood set on table in log-hut +meeting-house of the wilderness. Now I am thrilled as I see the altars +of ancient sacrifice crimson with the blood of the slain lamb, and +Leviticus is to me not so much the Old Testament as the New. Now I see +why the destroying angel passing over Egypt in the night spared all +those houses that had blood sprinkled on their door-posts. Now I know +what Isaiah means when he speaks of "one in red apparel coming with +dyed garments from Bozrah;" and whom the Apocalypse means when it +describes a heavenly chieftain whose "vesture was dipped in blood;" +and what Peter, the apostle, means when he speaks of the "precious +blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and what the old, worn-out, +decrepit missionary Paul means when, in my text, he cries, "Without +shedding of blood is no remission." By that blood you and I will be +saved--or never saved at all. In all the ages of the world God has not +once pardoned a single sin except through the Saviour's expiation, and +He never will. Glory be to God that the hill back of Jerusalem was the +battle-field on which Christ achieved our liberty! + +The most exciting and overpowering day of last summer was the day I +spent on the battle-field of Waterloo. Starting out with the morning +train from Brussels, Belgium, we arrived in about an hour on that +famous spot. A son of one who was in the battle, and who had heard +from his father a thousand times the whole scene recited, accompanied +us over the field. There stood the old Hougomont Chateau, the walls +dented, and scratched, and broken, and shattered by grape-shot and +cannon-ball. There is the well in which three hundred dying and dead +were pitched. There is the chapel with the head of the infant Christ +shot off. There are the gates at which, for many hours, English and +French armies wrestled. Yonder were the one hundred and sixty guns of +the English, and the two hundred and fifty guns of the French. Yonder +the Hanoverian Hussars fled for the woods. Yonder was the ravine of +Ohain, where the French cavalry, not knowing there was a hollow in the +ground, rolled over and down, troop after troop, tumbling into one +awful mass of suffering, hoof of kicking horses against brow and +breast of captains and colonels and private soldiers, the human and +the beastly groan kept up until, the day after, all was shoveled under +because of the malodor arising in that hot month of June. + +"There," said our guide, "the Highland regiments lay down on their +faces waiting for the moment to spring upon the foe. In that orchard +twenty-five hundred men were cut to pieces. Here stood Wellington with +white lips, and up that knoll rode Marshal Ney on his sixth horse, +five having been shot under him. Here the ranks of the French broke, +and Marshal Ney, with his boot slashed of a sword, and his hat off, +and his face covered with powder and blood, tried to rally his troops +as he cried: 'Come and see how a marshal of French dies on the +battle-field.' From yonder direction Grouchy was expected for the +French re-enforcement, but he came not. Around those woods Blucher was +looked for to re-enforce the English, and just in time he came up. +Yonder is the field where Napoleon stood, his arm through the reins of +the horse's bridle, dazed and insane, trying to go back." Scene of a +battle that went on from twenty-five minutes to twelve o'clock, on the +eighteenth of June, until four o'clock, when the English seemed +defeated, and their commander cried out; "Boys, can you think of +giving way? Remember old England!" and the tides turned, and at eight +o'clock in the evening the man of destiny, who was called by his +troops Old Two Hundred Thousand, turned away with broken heart, and +the fate of centuries was decided. + +No wonder a great mound has been reared there, hundreds of feet +high--a mound at the expense of millions of dollars and many years in +rising, and on the top is the great Belgian lion of bronze, and a +grand old lion it is. But our great Waterloo was in Palestine. There +came a day when all hell rode up, led by Apollyon, and the Captain of +our salvation confronted them alone. The Rider on the white horse of +the Apocalypse going out against the black horse cavalry of death, and +the battalions of the demoniac, and the myrmidons of darkness. From +twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock in the afternoon the greatest +battle of the universe went on. Eternal destinies were being decided. +All the arrows of hell pierced our Chieftain, and the battle-axes +struck Him, until brow and cheek and shoulder and hand and foot were +incarnadined with oozing life; but He fought on until He gave a final +stroke with sword from Jehovah's buckler, and the commander-in-chief +of hell and all his forces fell back in everlasting ruin, and the +victory is ours. And on the mound that celebrates the triumph we plant +this day two figures, not in bronze or iron or sculptured marble, but +two figures of living light, the Lion of Judah's tribe and the Lamb +that was slain. + + + + +POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY. + + "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the + place where the tree falleth there it shall be."--ECCLES. xi: 3. + + +There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there +will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of +this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it +will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a +defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to +the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment +in his behalf, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, +if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of +eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs +remitted, and we may be victorious defendants forever. + +My object in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my +text, declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that +the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the +disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause +of his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this +world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. +Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on. + +That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking," said +the doctor, "and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will +destroy you.". The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm; but, under +skillful medical treatment, he begins to sit up, begins to walk about +the room, begins to go to business. And, lo! he goes back to the same +grog-shops for his morning dram, and his even dram, and the drams +between. Flat down again! Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same +medical warning. + +Now, the illness is more protracted; the liver is more stubborn, the +stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious. +But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shops, +and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health. + +He sees that his downward course is ruining his household, that his +life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow, that that +broken-hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he +married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons +are to be taunted for a life-time by the father's drunkenness, that +the daughters are to pass into life under the scarification of a +disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their +prospects for this life, and, perhaps, for the life to come. Sometimes +an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system +is all a tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, +rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. +Does it reform him? + +After awhile he has delirium tremens, with a whole jungle of hissing +reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors +as he dashes out of his bed, crying: "Take these things off me!" As he +sits, pale and convalescent, the doctor says: "Now I want to have a +plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you +will have you will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die." He +gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time +medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying +there is no hope. Death ends the scene. + +That process of inebriation, warning, and dissolution is going on +within stone's throw of this church, going on in all the neighborhoods +of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What +is true in one sense is true in all senses, and will forever be so, +and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. +Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and +you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been +there before, some of them four, five, six times. With a million +illustrations all working the other way in this world, people are +expecting that distress in the next state will be salvatory. You can +not imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some +men have suffered here, and without any salutary consequence. + +Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more +improbable than a reformation here. In this world the life started +with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will +open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. +Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out +of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with +innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what +prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there +would be a seraph evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of +making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than +out of an old black rock seamed and cracked with the storms of a half +century. Surely upon a clean, white sheet of paper it is easier to +write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and +blotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, +though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out +badly, the next life will succeed, though it starts with a dead +failure. + +"But," says some one, "I think we ought to have a chance in the next +life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. +We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood +of the one almost touching the marble of the other." But do you know +what made the ancient deluge a necessity? It was the longevity of the +antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their +life-time than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the +third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eight, and +nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed, and scrubbed, and +soaked, and anchored, clear out of sight for more than a month before +it could be made fit for decent people to live in. Longevity never +cures impenitency. All the pictures of Time represent him with a +scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of +medicines to heal. Seneca says that Nero for the first five years of +his public life was set up for an example of clemency and kindness, +but his path all the way descended until at sixty-eight he became a +suicide. If eight hundred years did not make antediluvians any better, +but only made them worse, the ages of eternity could have no effect +except prolongation of depravity. + +"But," says some one, "in the future state evil surroundings will be +withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation, +and sublimation, and glorification." But the righteous, all their sins +forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the +unsaved will be left alone. It can not be expected that Doctor Duff, +who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and +Doctor Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and +Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be +sent down by some celestial missionary society to educate those who +wasted all their earthly existence. Evangelistic and missionary +efforts are ended. The entire kingdom of the morally bankrupt by +themselves, where are the salvatory influences to come from? Can one +speckled and bad apple in a barrel of diseased apples turn the other +apples good? Can those who are themselves down help others up? Can +those who have themselves failed in the business of the soul pay the +debts of their spiritual insolvents? Can a million wrongs make one +right? + +Poneropolis was a city where King Philip of Thracia put all the bad +people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at +Poneropolis I do not think the parents from other cities would have +sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the other world, +all the associations, now that the good are evolved, will be +degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera +or yellow fever hospital for his health; and the great lazaretto of +the next world, containing the diseased and plague-struck, will be a +poor place for moral recovery. If the surroundings in this world were +crowded of temptation, the surroundings of the next world, after the +righteous have passed up and on, will be a thousand per cent. more +crowded of temptation. + +The Count of Chateaubriand made his little son sleep at night at the +top of a castle turret, where the winds howled and where specters were +said to haunt the place; and while the mother and sisters almost died +with fright, the son tells us that the process gave him nerves that +could not tremble and a courage that never faltered. But I don't think +that towers of darkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco and +Euroclydon will ever fit one for the land of eternal sunshine. I +wonder what is the curriculum of that college of Inferno, where, after +proper preparation by the sins of this life, the candidate enters, +passing on from freshman class of depravity to sophomore of +abandonment, and from sophomore to junior, and from junior to senior, +and day of graduation comes, and with diploma signed by Satan, the +president, and other professorial demoniacs, attesting that the +candidate has been long enough under their drill, he passes up to +enter heaven! Pandemonium a preparative course for heavenly admission! +Ah, my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted +multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness. + +Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another +chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a +man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, +society would be terribly demoralized, and the human race demolished +in a few years. The fear that, if we are bad and unforgiven here, it +will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence +that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and +semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight +savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all +nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for +those who have wasted this. + +Multitudes of men who are kept within bounds would say, "Go to, now! +Let me get all out of this life there is in it. Come, gluttony, and +inebriation, and uncleanness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and +wait upon me! My life may be somewhat shortened in this world by +dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger +scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and +will enter the Heavenly Temple only a little later than those who +behaved themselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little +wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to +heaven _via_ Gehenna and _via_ Sheol." Another chance in the next +world means free license and wild abandonment in this. + +Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew +from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried +twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, but that the +second would decide everything; for which trial would you make the +most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be +most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the +stress upon the second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, +saying, "The first is nothing, the last is everything." Give the race +assurance of a second and more important trial in the subsequent life, +and all the preparation for eternity would be _post-mortem_, +post-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched +off into impiety and godlessness. + +Furthermore, let me ask why a chance should be given in the next world +if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a +banquet, and you invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines +to come, or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the +course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is +invited to them all, and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. +After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you +again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who +declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he +a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done +you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. +He invited us by His Providence and His Spirit three hundred and +sixty-five days of every year since we knew our right hand from our +left. If we declined it every time, or treated the invitation with +indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on +our part toward the Banqueter, and at last He spreads the banquet in a +more luxurious and kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a +right to expect Him to invite us again, and have we a right to blame +Him if He does not invite us? + +If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years +for our admission, and at the end of that time they are closed, can we +complain of it and say, "These gates ought to be open again. Give us +another chance"? If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and we want to +get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every +morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we +have that advertisement before our eyes, and then we go down to the +docks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into the stream and say: +"Come back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this +way. Swing up to the dock again, and throw out planks, and let me come +on board." Such behavior would invite arrest as a madman. + +And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for +years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have +urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any moment, and +after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to +come back? You might as well go out on the Highlands at Neversink and +call to the "Aurania" after she has been three days out, and expect +her to return, as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it once +has sped away. All heaven offered us as a gratuity, and for a +life-time we refuse to take it, and then rush on the bosses of +Jehovah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to be, there +can be, there will be no such thing as posthumous opportunity. Thus, +our common sense agrees with my text--"If the tree fall toward the +south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there +it shall be." + +You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant +way-station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity +whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation +must be made in this world, or never made at all. That piles up all +the emphases and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life +here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the +importance of this chance! + +Alexander with his army used to surround a city, and then would lift a +great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before +that light went out, all would be well; but if once the light went +out, then the battering-rams would swing against the wall, and +demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our +present and everlasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the +King and Conqueror--surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, +surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of +Gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross and +flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender +while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there +will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord +Jesus Christ. Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance! + +In the time of Edward the Sixth, at the battle of Musselburgh, a +private soldier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley had lost his helmet, +took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of the earl; and the +head of the private soldier uncovered, he was soon slain, while his +commander rode safely out of the battle. But in our case, instead of a +private soldier offering helmet to an earl, it is a King putting His +crown upon an unworthy subject, the King dying that we might live. +Tell it to all points of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell +it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all +millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that +we need no other chance in the next. + +I am in the burnished Judgment Hall of the Last Day. A great white +throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are +waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. "What +are you waiting here for?" says a soul that went up from Madagascar to +a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: "I came from +America, where forty years I heard the Gospel preached, and Bible +read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother's +knee until my last hour I had Gospel advantage, but, for some reason, +I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the +Judge to give me a new trial and another chance." "Strange!" says the +other; "I had but one Gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted it, +and I do not need another chance." + +"Why are you here?" says one who on earth had feeblest intellect to +one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of +influence. The latter responds: "Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I +mastered libraries, and had learned titles from colleges, and my name +was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, +and I am here waiting for a new trial." "Strange," says the one of the +feeble earthly capacity; "I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but +I knew Christ, and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another +chance." + +Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great +folding-doors of the Hall swing open. "Stand back!" cry the celestial +ushers. "Stand back, and let the Judge of quick and dead pass +through!" He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of +nations, He says: "Come to judgment, the last judgment, the only +judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each one +flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. "Divide!" says +the Judge to the assembly. "Divide!" echo the walls. "Divide!" cry the +guards angelic. + +And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after +awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum +widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one +side, says: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he +that is holy, let him be holy still;" and then, turning toward the +throng on the opposite side, He says: "He that is unjust, let him be +unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still;" and +then, lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: "If the tree +fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the +tree falleth, there it shall be." And then I hear something jar with a +great sound. It is the closing of the Book of Judgment. The Judge +ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is +cleared and shut. The high court of eternity is adjourned forever. + + + + +THE LORD'S RAZOR. + + "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is + hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of + Assyria."--ISAIAH vii: 20. + + +The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes +in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes +seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is +that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame +and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While +there are times when He employs in the Bible the gentle dew and the +morning cloud and the dove and the daybreak in the presentation of +truth, we often find the iron chariot, the lightning, the earthquake, +the spray, the sword, and, in my text, the razor. + +This keen-bladed instrument has advanced in usefulness with the ages. +In Bible times and lands the beard remained uncut save in the seasons +of mourning and humiliation, but the razor was always a suggestive +symbol. David says of Doeg, his antagonist: "Thy tongue is a sharp +razor working deceitfully;" that is, it pretends to clear the face, +but is really used for deadly incision. In this morning's text the +weapon of the toilet appears under the following circumstances: Judea +needed to have some of its prosperities cut off, and God sends +against it three Assyrian kings--first Sennacherib, then Esrahaddon, +and afterward Nebuchadnezzar. Those three sharp invasions, that cut +down the glory of Judea, are compared to so many sweeps of the razor +across the face of the land. And these circumstances were called a +hired razor because God took the kings of Assyria, with whom He had no +sympathy, to do the work, and paid them in palaces and spoils and +annexations. These kings were hired to execute the divine behests. And +now the text, which on its first reading may have seemed trivial or +inapt, is charged with momentous import: "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired--namely, by them beyond the +river, by the King of Assyria." + +Well, if God's judgments are razors, we had better be careful how we +use them on other people. In careful sheath these domestic weapons are +put away, where no one by accident may touch them, and where the hands +of children may not reach them. Such instruments must be carefully +handled or not handled at all. But how recklessly some people wield +the judgments of God! If a man meet with business misfortune, how many +there are ready to cry out: "That is a judgment of God upon him +because he was unscrupulous, or arrogant, or overreaching, or miserly. +I thought he would get cut down! What a clean sweep of everything! His +city house and country house gone! His stables emptied of all the fine +bays and sorrels and grays that used to prance by his door! All his +resources overthrown, and all that he prided himself on tumbled into +demolition! Good for him!" Stop, my brother. Don't sling around too +freely the judgments of God, for they are razors. + +Some of the most wicked business men succeed, and they live and die in +prosperity, and some of the most honest and conscientious are driven +into bankruptcy. Perhaps his manner was unfortunate, and he was not +really as proud as he looked to be. Some of those who carry their head +erect and look imperial are humble as a child, while many a man in +seedy coat and slouch hat and unblacked shoes is as proud as Lucifer. +You can not tell by a man's look. Perhaps he was not unscrupulous in +business, for there are two sides to every story, and everybody that +accomplishes anything for himself or others gets industriously lied +about. Perhaps his business misfortune was not a punishment, but the +fatherly discipline to prepare him for heaven, and God may love him +far more than He loves you, who can pay dollar for dollar, and are put +down in the commercial catalogues as A1. Whom the Lord loveth He gives +four hundred thousand dollars and lets die on embroidered pillows? No: +whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Better keep your hand off the +Lord's razors, lest they cut and wound people that do not deserve it. +If you want to shave off some of the bristling pride of your own heart +do so; but be very careful how you put the sharp edge on others. + +How I do dislike the behavior of those persons who, when people are +unfortunate, say: "I told you so--getting punished--served him right." +If those I-told-you-so's got their desert they would long ago have +been pitched over the battlements. The mote in their neighbor's +eyes--so small that it takes a microscope to find it--gives them more +trouble than the beam which obscures their own optics. With air +sometimes supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical, and always +blasphemous, they take the razor of the divine judgment and sharpen it +on the hone of their own hard hearts, and then go to work on men +sprawled out at full length under disaster, cutting mercilessly. They +begin by soft expressions of sympathy and pity and half praise, and, +lather the victim all over before they put on the sharp edge. + +Let us be careful how we shoot at others lest we take down the wrong +one, remembering the servant of King William Rufus who shot at a deer, +but the arrow glanced against a tree and killed the king. Instead of +going out with shafts to pierce, and razors to cut, we had better +imitate the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, who, in the war of the +Crusades, was captured and imprisoned, but none of his friends knew +where. So his loyal friend went around the land from stronghold to +stronghold, and sung at each window a snatch of song that Richard +Coeur de Lion had taught him in other days. And one day, coming before +a jail where he suspected his king might be incarcerated, he sung two +lines of song, and immediately King Richard responded from his cell +with the other two lines, and so his whereabouts were discovered, and +immediately a successful movement was made for his liberation. So let +us go up and down the world with the music of kind words and +sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate, and trying to get out +of trouble men who had noble natures, but, by unforeseen +circumstances, have been incarcerated, thus liberating kings. More +hymn-book and less razor. + +Especially ought we to be apologetic and merciful toward those who, +while they have great faults, have also great virtues. Some people are +barren of virtues. No weeds verily, but no flowers. I must not be too +much enraged at a nettle along the fence if it be in a field +containing forty acres of ripe Michigan wheat. At the present time, +naturalists tell us, there is on the sun a spot twenty thousand miles +long, but from the brightness and warmth I conclude it is a good deal +of a sun yet. + +Again, when I read in my text that the Lord shaves with the hired +razor of Assyria the land of Judea, I bethink myself of the precision +of God's providence. A razor swung the tenth part of an inch out of +the right line means either failure or laceration, but God's dealings +never slip, and they do not miss by the thousandth part of an inch the +right direction. People talk as though things in this world were at +loose ends. Cholera sweeps across Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo, +and we watch anxiously. Will the epidemic sweep Europe and America? +People say, "That will entirely depend on whether inoculation is a +successful experiment; that will depend entirely on quarantine +regulations; that will depend on the early or late appearance of +frost; that epidemic is pitched into the world, and it goes blundering +across the continents, and it is all guess-work and an appalling +perhaps." + +My friends, I think, perhaps, that God had something to do with it, +and that His mercy may have in some way protected us--that He may have +done as much for us as the quarantine and the health officers. It was +right and a necessity that all caution should be used, but there has +come enough macaroni from Italy, and enough grapes from the south of +France, and enough rags from tatterdemalions, and hidden in these +articles of transportation enough choleraic germs to have left by this +time all Brooklyn mourning at Greenwood, and all Philadelphia at +Laurel Hill, and all Boston at Mount Auburn. I thank all the doctors +and quarantines; but, more than all, and first of all, and last of +all, and all the time, I thank God. In all the six thousand years of +the world's existence there has not one thing merely "happened so." +God is not an anarchist, but a King, a Father. + +When little Tod, the son of President Lincoln, died, all the land +sympathized with the sorrow in the White House. He used to rush into +the room where the cabinet was in session, and while the most eminent +men of the land were discussing the questions of national existence. +But the child had no care about those questions. Now God the Father, +and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session in +regard to this world and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child, rush in +to criticise or arraign or condemn the divine government? No; the +Cabinet of the Eternal Three can govern and will govern in the wisest +and best way, and there never will be a mistake, and like razor +skillfully swung, shall cut that which ought to be cut, and avoid that +which ought to be avoided. Precision to the very hair-breadth. Earthly +time-pieces may get out of order and strike wrong, saying that it is +one o'clock when it is two, or two when it is three. God's clock is +always right, and when it is one it strikes one, and when it is twelve +it strikes twelve, and the second hand is as accurate as the minute +hand. + +Further, my text tells us that God sometimes shaves nations: "In the +same day shall the Lord shave with the razor that is hired." With one +sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its +power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath +desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity, +and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its +sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned +again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to +Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the +heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword +of war was the Lord's razor. + +In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again. +Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the +history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during +those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit +some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take +us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics, +droughts, deluges, plagues--grasshopper and locust; or our +overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands +that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may +combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north +and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more +hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power. + +We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our +fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being +hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated +China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her +resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern +warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans +must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come +upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I +hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to +show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the +hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the +Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because +of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870, +Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is +the razor with which very shortly the Lord will shave Russia. But +nations are to repent in a day. May a speedy and world-wide coming to +God hinder, on both sides the sea, all national calamity. But do not +let us, as a nation, either by unrighteous law at Washington, or bad +lives among ourselves, defy the Almighty. + +One would think that our national symbol of the eagle might sometimes +suggest another eagle, that which ancient Rome carried. In the talons +of that eagle were clutched at one time Britain, France, Spain, Italy, +Dalmatia, Rhactia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, +Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and +all Northern Africa, and all the islands of the Mediterranean, indeed, +all the world that was worth having, an hundred and twenty millions of +people under the wings of that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask +Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem, the "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire." Ask her gigantic ruins straggling their sadness through +the ages, the screech owl at windows out of which world-wide +conquerors looked. Ask the day of judgment when her crowned +debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax, and Caligula and Diocletian, shall +answer for their infamy? As men and as nations let us repent, and have +our trust in a pardoning God, rather than depend on former successes +for immunity! Out of thirteen greatest battles of the world, Napoleon +had lost but one before Waterloo. Pride and destruction often ride in +the same saddle. + +But notice once more, and more than all in my text, that God is so +kind and loving, that when it is necessary for Him to cut, He has to +go to others for the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same day shall the +Lord shave with a razor that is hired." God is love. God is pity. God +is help. God is shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp edges about +Him, no thrusting points, no instruments of laceration. If you want +balm for wounds, He has that. If you want salve for divine eyesight, +He has that. But if there is sharp and cutting work to do which +requires a razor, that He hires. God has nothing about Him that hurts, +save when dire necessity demands, and then He has to go clear off to +some one else to get the instrument. + +This divine geniality will be no novelty to those who have pondered +the Calvarean massacre, where God submerged Himself in human tears, +and crimsoned Himself from punctured arteries, and let the terrestrial +and infernal worlds maul Him until the chandeliers of the sky had to +be turned out, because the universe could not endure the indecency. +Illustrious for love He must have been to take all that as our +substitute, paying out of His own heart the price of our admission at +the gates of heaven. + +King Henry II., of England, crowned his son as king, and on the day of +coronation put on a servant's garb and waited, he, the king, at the +son's table, to the astonishment of all the princes. But we know of a +more wondrous scene, the King of heaven and earth offering to put on +you, His child, the crown of life, and in the form of a servant +waiting on you with blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all +sculpture, all music, all architecture, all worship! In Dresdenian +gallery let Raphael hold Him up as a child, and in Antwerp Cathedral +let Rubens hand Him down from the cross as a martyr, and Handel make +all his oratorio vibrate around that one chord--"He was wounded for +our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." But not until all the +redeemed get home, and from the countenances of all the piled-up +galleries of the ransomed shall be revealed the wonders of redemption, +shall either man or seraph or archangel know the height, and depth, +and length, and breadth of the love of God. + +At our national capital, a monument in honor of him who did more than +any one to achieve our American Independence, was for scores of years +in building, and most of us were discouraged and said it never would +be completed. And how glad we all were when in the presence of the +highest officials of the nation, the work was done! But will the +monument to Him who died for the eternal liberation of the human race +ever be completed? For ages the work has been going up; evangelists +and apostles and martyrs have been adding to the heavenly pile, and +every one of the millions of the redeemed going up from earth, has +made to it contribution of gladness, and weight of glory is swung to +the top of other weight of glory, higher and higher as the centuries +go by, higher and higher as the whole millenniums roll, sapphire on +the top of jasper, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony, and chrysoprasus +above topaz, until, far beneath shall be the walls and towers and +domes of the great capitol, a monument forever and forever rising, and +yet never done. "Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our +sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests forever." + +Allelujah, amen. + + + + +WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM. + + "His windows being open and his chamber toward + Jerusalem."--DAN. vi: 10. + + +The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy +against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever +prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who +are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, +or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth +trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of +Daniel, the Coeur-de-Lion of the ages. His enemies might as well have +a law that the sun should not draw water or that the south wind should +not sweep across a garden of magnolias or that God should be +abolished. They could not scare him with the red-hot furnaces, and +they can not now scare him with the lions. As soon as Daniel hears of +this enactment he leaves his office of Secretary of State, with its +upholstery of crimson and gold, and comes down the white marble steps +and goes to his own house. He opens his window and puts the shutters +back and pulls the curtain aside so that he can look toward the sacred +city of Jerusalem, and then prays. + +I suppose the people in the street gathered under and before his +window, and said: "Just see that man defying the law; he ought to be +arrested." And the constabulary of the city rush to the police +head-quarters and report that Daniel is on his knees at the wide-open +window. "You are my prisoner," says the officer of the law, dropping a +heavy hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Daniel. As the constables +open the door of the cavern to thrust in their prisoner, they see the +glaring eyes of the monsters. But Daniel becomes the first lion-tamer, +and they lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and that night he sleeps +with the shaggy mane of a wild beast for his pillow, while the king +that night, sleepless in the palace, has on him the paw and teeth of a +lion he can not tame--the lion of a remorseful conscience. + +What a picture it would be for some artist; Darius, in the early dusk +of morning, not waiting for footmen or chariot, hastening to the den, +all flushed and nervous and in dishabille, and looking through the +crevices of the cage to see what had become of his prime-minister! +"What, no sound!" he says: "Daniel is surely devoured, and the lions +are sleeping after their horrid meal, the bones of the poor man +scattered across the floor of the cavern." With trembling voice Darius +calls out, "Daniel!" No answer, for the prophet is yet in profound +slumber. But a lion, more easily awakened, advances, and, with hot +breath blown through the crevice, seems angrily to demand the cause of +this interruption, and then another wild beast lifts his mane from +under Daniel's head, and the prophet, waking up, comes forth to report +himself all unhurt and well. + +But our text stands us at Daniel's window, open toward Jerusalem. Why +in that direction open? Jerusalem was his native land, and all the +pomp of his Babylonish successes could not make him forget it. He +came there from Jerusalem at eighteen years of age, and he never +visited it, though he lived to be eighty-five years. Yet, when he +wanted to arouse the deepest emotions and grandest aspirations of his +heart, he had his window open toward his native Jerusalem. There are +many of you to-day who understand that without any exposition. This is +getting to be a nation of foreigners. They have come into all +occupations and professions. They sit in all churches. It may be +twenty years ago since you got your naturalization papers, and you may +be thoroughly Americanized, but you can't forget the land of your +birth, and your warmest sympathies go out toward it. Your windows are +open toward Jerusalem. Your father and mother are buried there. It may +have been a very humble home in which you were born, but your memory +often plays around it, and you hope some day to go and see it--the +hill, the tree, the brook, the house, the place so sacred, the door +from which you started off with parental blessing to make your own way +in the world; and God only knows how sometimes you have longed to see +the familiar places of your childhood, and how in awful crises of life +you would like to have caught a glimpse of the old, wrinkled face that +bent over you as you lay on the gentle lap twenty or forty or fifty +years ago. You may have on this side of the sea risen in fortune, and, +like Daniel, have become great, and may have come into prosperities +which you never could have reached if you had stayed there, and you +may have many windows to your house--bay-windows, and +sky-light-windows, and windows of conservatory, and windows on all +sides--but you have at least one window open toward Jerusalem. + +When the foreign steamer comes to the wharf, you see the long line of +sailors, with shouldered mail-bags, coming down the planks, carrying +as many letters as you might suppose would be enough for a year's +correspondence, and this repeated again and again during the week. +Multitudes of them are letters from home, and at all the post-offices +of the land people will go to the window and anxiously ask for them, +hundreds of thousands of persons finding that window of foreign mails +the open window toward Jerusalem. Messages that say: "When are you +coming home to see us? Brother has gone into the army. Sister is dead. +Father and mother are getting very feeble. We are having a great +struggle to get on here. Would you advise us to come to you, or will +you come to us? All join in love, and hope to meet you, if not in this +world, then in a better. Good-bye." + +Yes, yes; in all these cities, and amid the flowering western +prairies, and on the slopes of the Pacific, and amid the Sierras, and +on the banks of the lagoon, and on the ranches of Texas there is an +uncounted multitude who, this hour, stand and sit and kneel with their +windows open toward Jerusalem. Some of them played on the heather of +the Scottish hills. Some of them were driven out by Irish famine. Some +of them, in early life, drilled in the German army. Some of them were +accustomed at Lyons or Marseilles or Paris to see on the street Victor +Hugo and Gambetta. Some chased the chamois among the Alpine +precipices. Some plucked the ripe clusters from Italian vineyard. +Some lifted their faces under the midnight sun of Norway. It is no +dishonor to our land that they remember the place of their nativity. +Miscreants would they be if, while they have some of their windows +open to take in the free air of America and the sunlight of an +atmosphere which no kingly despot has ever breathed, they forgot +sometime to open the window toward Jerusalem. + +No wonder that the son of the Swiss, when far away from home, hearing +the national air of his country sung, the malady of home-sickness +comes on him so powerfully as to cause his death. You have the example +of the heroic Daniel of my text for keeping early memories fresh. +Forget not the old folks at home. Write often; and, if you have +surplus of means and they are poor, make practical contribution, and +rejoice that America is bound to all the world by ties of sanguinity +as is no other nation. Who can doubt but it is appointed for the +evangelization of other lands? What a stirring, melting, gospelizing +theory that all the doors of other nations are open toward us, while +our windows are open toward them! + +But Daniel, in the text, kept this port-hole of his domestic fortress +unclosed because Jerusalem was the capital of sacred influences. There +had smoked the sacrifice. There was the Holy of Holies. There was the +Ark of the Covenant. There stood the temple. We are all tempted to +keep our windows open on the opposite side, toward the world, that we +may see and hear and appropriate its advantages. What does the world +say? What does the world think? What does the world do? Worshipers of +the world instead of worshipers of God. Windows open toward Babylon. +Windows open toward Corinth. Windows open toward Athens. Windows open +toward Sodom. Windows open toward the flats, instead of windows open +toward the hills. Sad mistake, for this world as a god is like +something I saw the other day in the museum of Strasburg, Germany--the +figure of a virgin in wood and iron. The victim in olden time was +brought there, and this figure would open its arms to receive him, +and, once infolded, the figure closed with a hundred knives and lances +upon him, and then let him drop one hundred and eighty feet sheer +down. So the world first embraces its idolaters, then closes upon them +with many tortures, and then lets them drop forever down. The highest +honor the world could confer was to make a man Roman emperor; but, out +of sixty-three emperors, it allowed only six to die peacefully in +their beds. + +The dominion of this world over multitudes is illustrated by the names +of coins of many countries. They have their pieces of money which they +call sovereigns and half sovereigns, crowns and half crowns, Napoleons +and half Napoleons, Fredericks and double Fredericks, and ducats, and +Isabellinos, all of which names mean not so much usefulness as +dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the +salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the +length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King +Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and +by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. +We need, like Daniel, to open our windows toward God and religion. + +But, mark you, that good lion-tamer is not standing at the window, but +kneeling, while he looks out. Most photographs are taken of those in +standing or sitting posture. I now remember but one picture of a man +kneeling, and that was David Livingstone, who in the cause of God and +civilization sacrificed himself; and in the heart of Africa his +servant, Majwara, found him in the tent by the light of a candle, +stuck on the top of a box, his head in his hands upon the pillow, and +dead on his knees. But here is a great lion-tamer, living under the +dash of the light, and his hair disheveled of the breeze, praying. The +fact is, that a man can see further on his knees than standing on +tiptoe. Jerusalem was about five hundred and fifty statute miles from +Babylon, and the vast Arabian Desert shifted its sands between them. +Yet through that open window Daniel saw Jerusalem, saw all between it, +saw beyond, saw time, saw eternity, saw earth, and saw heaven. Would +you like to see the way through your sins to pardon, through your +troubles to comfort, through temptation to rescue, through dire +sickness to immortal health, through night to day, through things +terrestrial to things celestial, you will not see them till you take +Daniel's posture. No cap of bone to the joints of the fingers, no cap +of bone to the joints of the elbow, but cap of bone to the knees, made +so because the God of the body was the God of the soul, and especial +provision for those who want to pray, and physiological structure +joins with spiritual necessity in bidding us pray, and pray, and pray. + +In olden time the Earl of Westmoreland said he had no need to pray, +because he had enough pious tenants on his estate to pray for him; +but all the prayers of the church universal amount to nothing unless, +like Daniel, we pray for ourselves. Oh, men and women, bounded on one +side by Shadrach's red-hot furnace, and the other side by devouring +lions, learn the secret of courage and deliverance by looking at that +Babylonish window open toward the south-west! "Oh," you say, "that is +the direction of the Arabian Desert!" Yes; but on the other side of +the desert is God, is Christ, is Jerusalem, is heaven. + +The Brussels lace is superior to all other lace, so beautiful, so +multiform, so expensive--four hundred francs a pound. All the world +seeks it. Do you know how it is made? The spinning is done in a dark +room, the only light admitted through a small aperture, and that light +falling directly on the pattern. And the finest specimens of Christian +character I have ever seen or ever expect to see are those to be found +in lives all of whose windows have been darkened by bereavement and +misfortune save one, but under that one window of prayer the +interlacing of divine workmanship went on until it was fit to deck a +throne, a celestial embroidery which angels admired and God approved. + +But it is another Jerusalem toward which we now need to open our +windows. The exiled evangelist of Ephesus saw it one day as the surf +of the Icarian sea foamed and splashed over the bowlders at his feet, +and his vision reminded me of a wedding-day when the bride by sister +and maid was having garlands twisted for her hair and jewels strung +for her neck just before she puts her betrothed hand into the hand of +her affianced: "I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming +down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her +husband." Toward that bridal Jerusalem are our windows opened? + +We would do well to think more of heaven. It is not a mere annex of +earth. It is not a desolate outpost. As Jerusalem was the capital of +Judae, and Babylon the capital of the Babylonian monarchy, and London +is the capital of Great Britain, and Washington is the capital of our +own republic, the New Jerusalem is the capital of the universe. The +king lives there, and the royal family of the redeemed have their +palaces there, and there is a congress of many nations and the +parliament of all the worlds. Yea, as Daniel had kindred in Jerusalem +of whom he often thought, though he had left home when a very young +man, perhaps father and mother and brothers and sisters still living, +and was homesick to see them, and they belonged to the high circles of +royalty, Daniel himself having royal blood in his veins, so we have in +the New Jerusalem a great many kindred, and we are sometimes homesick +to see them, and they are all princes and princesses, in them the +blood imperial, and we do well to keep our windows open toward their +eternal residence. + +It is a joy for us to believe that while we are interested in them +they are interested in us. Much thought of heaven makes one heavenly. +The airs that blow through that open window are charged with life, and +sweep up to us aromas from gardens that never wither, under skies that +never cloud, in a spring-tide that never terminates. Compared with it +all other heavens are dead failures. + +Homer's heaven was an elysium which he describes as a plain at the +end of the earth or beneath, with no snow nor rainfall, and the sun +never goes down, and Rhadamanthus, the justest of men, rules. Hesiod's +heaven is what he calls the islands of the blessed, in the midst of +the ocean, three times a year blooming with most exquisite flowers, +and the air is tinted with purple, while games and music and +horse-races occupy the time. The Scandinavian's heaven was the hall of +Walhalla, where the god Odin gave unending wine-suppers to earthly +heroes and heroines. The Mohammedan's heaven passes its disciples in +over the bridge Al-Sirat, which is finer than a hair and sharper than +a sword, and then they are let loose into a riot of everlasting +sensuality. + +The American aborigines look forward to a heaven of illimitable +hunting-ground, partridge and deer and wild duck more than plentiful, +and the hounds never off the scent, and the guns never missing fire. +But the geographer has followed the earth round, and found no Homer's +elysium. Voyagers have traversed the deep in all directions, and found +no Hesiod's islands of the blessed. The Mohammedan's celestial +debauchery and the Indian's eternal hunting-ground for vast multitudes +have no charm. But here rolls in the Bible heaven. No more sea--that +is, no wide separation. No more night--that is, no insomnia. No more +tears--that is, no heart-break. No more pain--that is, dismissal of +lancet and bitter draught and miasma, and banishment of neuralgias and +catalepsies and consumptions. All colors in the wall except gloomy +black; all the music in the major-key, because celebrative and +jubilant. River crystalline, gate crystalline, and skies crystalline, +because everything is clear and without doubt. White robes, and that +means sinlessness. Vials full of odors, and that means pure regalement +of the senses. Rainbow, and that means the storm is over. Marriage +supper, and that means gladdest festivity. Twelve manner of fruits, +and that means luscious and unending variety. Harp, trumpet, grand +march, anthem, amen, and hallelujah in the same orchestra. Choral +meeting solo, and overture meeting antiphon, and strophe joining +dithyramb, as they roll into the ocean of doxologies. And you and I +may have all that, and have it forever through Christ, if we will let +Him with the blood of one wounded hand rub out our sin, and with the +other wounded hand swing open the shining portals. + +Day and night keep your window open toward that Jerusalem. Sing about +it. Pray about it. Think about it. Talk about it. Dream about it. Do +not be inconsolable about your friends who have gone into it. Do not +worry if something in your heart indicates that you are not far off +from its ecstasies. Do not think that when a Christian dies he stops, +for he goes on. + +An ingenious man has taken the heavenly furlongs as mentioned in +Revelation, and has calculated that there will be in heaven one +hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each ascending soul, though this +world should lose a hundred millions yearly. But all the rooms of +heaven will be ours, for they are family rooms; and as no room in your +house is too good for your children, so all the rooms of all the +palaces of the heavenly Jerusalem will be free to God's children and +even the throne-room will not be denied, and you may run up the steps +of the throne, and put your hand on the side of the throne, and sit +down beside the king according to the promise: "To him that overcometh +will I grant to sit with me in my throne." + +But you can not go in except as conquerors. Many years ago the Turks +and Christians were in battle, and the Christians were defeated, and +with their commander Stephen fled toward a fortress where the mother +of this commander was staying. When she saw her son and his army in +disgraceful retreat, she had the gates of the fortress rolled shut, +and then from the top of the battlement cried out to her son, "You can +not enter here except as conqueror!" Then Stephen rallied his forces +and resumed the battle and gained the day, twenty thousand driving +back two hundred thousand. For those who are defeated in the battle +with sin and death and hell nothing but shame and contempt; but for +those who gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the gates of +the New Jerusalem will hoist, and there shall be an abundant entrance +into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, toward which you do well to +keep your windows open. + + + + +STORMED AND TAKEN. + + "And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the + people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his + hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and + laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut + down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them + to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all + the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand + men and women."--JUDGES ix: 48, 49. + + +Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible history, and yet full of +profitable suggestion. Buoys are black and uncomely, but they tell +where the rocks are. The snake's rattle is hideous, but it gives +timely warning. From the piazza of my summer home, night by night I +saw a lighthouse fifteen miles away, not placed there for adornment, +but to tell mariners to stand off from that dangerous point. So all +the iron-bound coast of moral danger is marked with Saul, and Herod, +and Rehoboam, and Jezebel, and Abimelech. These bad people are +mentioned in the Bible, not only as warnings, but because there were +sometimes flashes of good conduct in their lives worthy of imitation. +God sometimes drives a very straight nail with a very poor hammer. + +The city of Shechem had to be taken, and Abimelech and his men were to +do it. I see the dust rolling up from their excited march. I hear the +shouting of the captains and the yell of the besiegers. The swords +clack sharply on the parrying shields, and the vociferation of two +armies in death-grapple is horrible to hear. The battle goes on all +day, and as the sun is setting Abimelech and his army cry "Surrender!" +to the beaten foe. And, unable longer to resist, the city of Shechem +falls; and there are pools of blood, and dissevered limbs, and glazed +eyes looking up beggingly for mercy that war never shows, and dying +soldiers with their head on the lap of mother, or wife, or sister, who +have come out for the last offices of kindness and affection: and a +groan rolls across the city, stopping not, because there is no spot +for it to rest, so full is the place of other groans. A city wounded! +A city dying! A city dead! Wail for Shechem, all ye who know the +horrors of a sacked town! + +As I look over the city I can find only one building standing, and +that is the temple of the god Berith. Some soldiers outside of the +city, in a tower, finding that they can no longer defend Shechem, now +begin to look out for their own personal safety, and they fly to this +temple of Berith. They get within the door, shut it, and they say, +"Now we are safe. Abimelech has taken the whole city, but he can not +take this temple of Berith. Here we shall be under the protection of +the gods." Oh, Berith, the god! do your best now for these refugees. +If you have eyes, pity them. If you have hands, help them. If you have +thunderbolts, strike for them. + +But how shall Abimelech and his army take this temple of Berith and +the men who are there fortified? Will they do it with sword? Nay. +Will they do it with spear? Nay. With battering-ram, rolled up by +hundred-armed strength, crashing against the walls? Nay. Abimelech +marches his men to a wood in Zalmon. With his ax he hews off a limb of +a tree, and puts that limb upon his own shoulder, and then he says to +his men, "You do the same." They are obedient to their commander. + +Oh, what a strange army, with what strange equipment! They come to the +foot of the temple of Berith, and Abimelech takes his limb of a tree +and throws it down; and the first platoon of soldiers come up and they +throw down their branches; and the second platoon, and the third, +until all around about the temple of Berith there is a pile of +tree-branches. The Shechemites look out from the windows of the temple +upon what seems to them childish play on the part of their enemies. +But soon the flints are struck, and the spark begins to kindle the +brush, and the flame comes up all through the pile, and the red +elements leap to the casement, and the woodwork begins to blaze, and +one arm of flame is thrown up on the right side of the temple, and +another arm of flame is thrown up on the left side of the temple, +until they clasp their lurid palms under the wild night sky, and the +cry of "Fire!" within, and "Fire!" without announces the terror, and +the strangulation, and the doom of the Shechemites, and the complete +overthrow of the temple of the god Berith. Then there went up a shout, +long and loud, from the stout lungs and swarthy chests of Abimelech +and his men, as they stood amid the ashes and the dust, crying: +"Victory! Victory!" + +Now, I learn first from this subject the folly of depending upon any +one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for +God. Look over the weaponry of olden times--javelins, battle-axes, +habergeons--and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his +men could have gained such complete victory. It is no easy thing to +take a temple thus armed. I saw a house where, during revolutionary +times, a man and his wife kept back a whole regiment hour after hour, +because they were inside the house, and the assaulting soldiers were +outside the house. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they +surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single +man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old +Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: "You are only going up there to be +cut to pieces." Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other +mode--certainly not by ordinary modes--could that temple so easily, so +thoroughly have been taken. Fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters +in Jesus Christ, what the Church most wants to learn this day is that +any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the +temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to +stick to the old modes of attack. + +We put on the old-style coat of mail. We come up with the sharp, keen, +glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the +castle, but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the +castle of sin stands. Oh, my friends, we will never capture this world +for God by any keen saber of sarcasm, by any glittering lances of +rhetoric, by any sapping and mining of profound disquisition, by any +gunpowdery explosions of indignation, by sharp shootings of wit, by +howitzers of mental strength made to swing shell five miles, by +cavalry horses gorgeously caparisoned pawing the air. In vain all the +attempts on the part of these ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light +horsemen, and grenadiers. + +My friends, I propose this morning a different style of tactics. Let +each one go to the forest of God's promise and invitation, and hew +down a branch and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around +these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the +fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will +burn them out. What steel can not do, fire may. And I, this morning, +announce myself in favor of any plan of religious attack that +succeeds--any plan of religious attack, however radical, however odd, +however unpopular, however hostile to all the conventionalities of +Church and State. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our +alms-giving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. +Oh, for less of Abimelech's sword, and more of Abimelech's +conflagration! I have often heard + + "There is a fountain filled with blood" + +sung artistically by four birds perched on their Sunday roost in the +gallery, until I thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and Sontag, and +all the other warblers; but there came not one tear to my eye, nor one +master emotion to my heart. But one night I went down to the African +Methodist meeting-house in Philadelphia, and at the close of the +service a black woman, in the midst of the audience, began to sing +that hymn, and all the audience joined in, and we were floated some +three or four miles nearer heaven than I have ever been since. I saw +with my own eyes that "fountain filled with blood"--red, agonizing, +sacrificial, redemptive--and I heard the crimson plash of the wave as +we all went down under it: + + "For sinners plunged beneath that flood + Lose all their guilty stains." + +Oh, my friends, the Gospel is not a syllogism; It is not casuistry, it +is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it +is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; +it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all glow; it +is arborescent with all sweet shade. I have seen the sun rise on Mount +Washington, and from the Tip-top House; but there was no beauty in +that compared with the day-spring from on high when Christ gives light +to a soul. I have heard Parepa sing; but there was no music in that +compared with the voice of Christ when He said: "Thy sins are forgiven +thee; go in peace." Good news! Let every one cut down a branch of this +tree of life and wave it. Let him throw it down and kindle it. Let all +the way from Mount Zalmon to Shechem be filled with the tossing joy. +Good news! This bonfire of the Gospel shall consume the last temple of +sin, and will illumine the sky with apocalyptic joy that Jesus Christ +came into the world to save sinners. Any new plan that makes a man +quit his sin, and that prostrates a wrong, I am as much in favor of as +though all the doctors, and the bishops, and the archbishops, and the +synods, and the academical gownsmen of Christianity sanctioned it. The +temple of Berith must come down, and I do not care how it comes. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If +Abimelech had sat down on the grass and told his men to go and get the +boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, +or, if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective +result; but when Abimelech goes with his own ax and hews down a +branch, and with Abimelech's arm puts it on Abimelech's shoulder, and +marches on--then, my text says, all the people did the same. How +natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most +magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the +overcoming power of example! Here is a father on the wrong road; all +his boys go on the wrong road. Here is a father who enlists for +Christ; his children enlist. + +I saw, in some of the picture-galleries of Europe, that before many of +the great works of the masters--the old masters--there would be +sometimes four or five artists taking copies of the pictures. These +copies they were going to carry with them, perhaps to distant lands; +and I have thought that your life and character are a masterpiece, and +it is being copied, and long after you are gone it will bloom or blast +in the homes of those who knew you, and be a Gorgon or a Madonna. Look +out what you say. Look out what you do. Eternity will hear the echo. +The best sermon ever preached is a holy life. The best music ever +chanted is a consistent walk. + +I saw, near the beach, a wrecker's machine. It was a cylinder with +some holes at the side, made for the thrusting in of some long poles +with strong leverage; and when there is a vessel in trouble or going +to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers shoot a rope out to the +suffering men. They grasp it, and the wreckers turn the cylinder, and +the rope winds around the cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked are +saved. So at your feet to-day there is an influence with a tremendous +leverage. The rope attached to it swings far out into the billowy +future. Your children, your children's children, and all the +generations that are to follow, will grip that influence and feel the +long-reaching pull long after the figures on your tombstone are so +near worn out that the visitor can not tell whether it was in 1885, or +1775, or 1675 that you died. + +Still further, I learn from this subject the advantages of concerted +action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch the work +would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had +gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, +and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about +the temple, the victory is gained--the temple falls. My friends, where +there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his +whole duty there are a great many who never lift an ax or swing a +blow. + +Oh, we all want our boat to get over to the golden sands, but the most +of us are seated either in the prow or in the stern, wrapped in our +striped shawl, holding a big-handled sunshade, while others are +blistered in the heat, and pull until the oar-locks groan, and the +blades bend till they snap. Oh, religious sleepy-heads, wake up! While +we have in our church a great many who are toiling for God, there are +some too lazy to brush the flies off their heavy eyelids. + +Suppose, in military circles, on the morning of battle the roll is +called, and out of a thousand men only a hundred men in the regiment +answered. What excitement there would be in the camp! What would the +colonel say? What high talking there would be among the captains, and +majors, and the adjutants! Suppose word came to head-quarters that +these delinquents excused themselves on the ground that they had +overslept themselves, or that the morning was damp and they were +afraid of getting their feet wet, or that they were busy cooking +rations. My friends, this is the morning of the day of God Almighty's +battle! Do you not see the troops? Hear you not all the trumpets of +heaven and all the drums of hell? Which side are you on? If you are on +the right side, to what cavalry troop, to what artillery service, to +what garrison duty do you belong? In other words, in what +Sabbath-school do you teach? in what prayer-meeting do you exhort? to +what penitentiary do you declare eternal liberty? to what almshouse do +you announce the riches of heaven? What broken bone of sorrow have you +ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman +sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing? Then +hide the horrible secret from the angels. Keep it away from the book +of judgment. If you are doing nothing do not let the world find it +out, lest they charge your religion with being a false-face. Do not +let your cowardice and treason be heard among the martyrs about the +throne, lest they forget the sanctity of the place and curse your +betrayal of that cause for which they agonized and died. + +May the eternal God rouse us all to action! As for myself, I feel I +would be ashamed to die now and enter heaven until I have accomplished +something more decisive for the Lord that bought me. I would like to +join with you in an oath, with hand high uplifted to heaven, swearing +new allegiance to Jesus Christ, and to work more for His kingdom. Are +you ready to join with me in some new work for Christ? I feel that +there is such a thing as claustral piety, that there is such a thing +as insular work; but it seems to me that what we want now is concerted +action. The temple of Berith is very broad, and it is very high. It +has been going up by the hands of men and devils, and no human +enginery can demolish it; but if the fifty thousand ministers of +Christ in this country should each take a branch of the tree of life, +and all their congregations should do the same, and we should march on +and throw these branches around the great temples of sin, and +worldliness and folly, it would need no match, or coal, or torch of +ours to touch off the pile; for, as in the days of Elijah, fire would +fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over +demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours! + +Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. +As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they +were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may +batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where +we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and +they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I +are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may +have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends +may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have +told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, +if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to +measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know +it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a +sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it." + +I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into +some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You +say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are +adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the +suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have +established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that +tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your +unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are +kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the +suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the +deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." + +"Well," you say, "I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I +go?" Step into this tower of indifference. You say: "If this tower is +attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken." You feel at +ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assaults, coming on. +Death and his forces are gathering around, and they demand that you +surrender everything, and they clamor for your immortal overthrow, and +they throw their skeleton arms in the windows, and with their iron +fists they beat against the door; and while you are trying to keep +them out you see the torches of judgment kindling, and every forest is +a torch, and every mountain a torch, and every sea a torch; and while +the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Himalayas turn into a live coal, blown +redder and redder by the whirlwind breath of a God omnipotent, what +will become of your refuge of lies? + +"But," says some one, "you are engaged in a very mean business, +driving us from tower to tower." Oh, no. I want to tell you of a +Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a wall that +no satanic assault can scale; of a bulwark that the judgment +earthquakes can not budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: "In +God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, +fling yourself into it! Tread down unceremoniously everything that +intercepts you. Wedge your way there. There are enough hounds of death +and peril after you to make you hurry. Many a man has perished just +outside the tower, with his foot on the step, with his hand on the +latch. Oh, get inside! Not one surplus second have you to spare. +Quick, quick, quick! + +Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too +hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the +grave? Is this world, which swings at the speed of thousands of miles +an hour around the sun, going with tenfold more speed toward the +judgment-day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought; and in the +conclusion I cry to one and I cry to the other: "Oh, time! Oh, +eternity! Oh, the dead! Oh, the judgment-day! Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!" +But, catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to +hold on to: for "in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the +everlasting arms." And, exhausted with my failure to save myself, I +throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this divine promise, +as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a +wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued +man throws himself into the refuge; for "in God is thy refuge, and +underneath thee are the everlasting arms." Oh, for a flood of tears +with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue! + + + + +ALL THE WORLD AKIN. + + "And hath made of one blood all nations of men."--ACTS xvii: 26. + + +Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a +European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that +theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations +are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A +difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper. + +An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his +pulse moderating and his temper becoming more calm. The air on this +side the ocean is more tonic than on the other side. An American +breathes more oxygen than a European. A European coming to America +finds a great change taking place in himself. He walks with more rapid +strides, and finds his voice becoming keener and shriller. The +Englishman who walks in London Strand at the rate of three miles the +hour, coming to America and residing for a long while here, walks +Broadway at the rate of four miles the hour. Much of the difference +between an American and a European, between an Asiatic and an African, +is atmospheric. The lack of the warm sunlight pales the Greenlander. +The full dash of the sunlight darkens the African. + +Then, ignorance or intelligence makes its impression on the physical +organism--in the one case ignorance flattening the skull, as with the +Egyptian; in the other case intelligence building up the great dome of +the forehead, as with the German. Then the style of god that the +nation worships decides how much it shall be elevated or debased, so +that those nations that worship reptiles are themselves only a +superior form of reptile, while those nations that worship the natural +sun in the heavens are the noblest style of barbaric people. But +whatever be the difference of physiognomy, and whatever the difference +of temperament, the physiologist tells us that after careful analysis +he finds out that the plasma and the disk in the human blood have the +same characteristics: so that if you should put twenty men from twenty +nationalities abreast in line of battle, and a bullet should fly +through the hearts of the twenty men, the blood flowing forth would, +through analysis, prove itself to be the same blood in every instance. +In other words, the science of the day confirming the truth of my text +that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men." + +I have thought, my friends, it might be profitable this morning if I +gave you some of the moral and religious impressions which I received +when, through your indulgence, I had transatlantic absence. First, I +observe that the majority of people in all lands are in a mighty +struggle for bread. While in nearly all lands there are only a few +cases of actual starvation reported, there is a vast population in +every country I visited who have a limited supply of food, or such +food as is incompetent to sustain physical vigor. This struggle in +some lands is becoming more agonizing, while here and there it is +lightened. I have joy in reporting that Ireland, about the sufferings +of which we have heard so much, has far better prospects than I have +seen there in previous visits. In 1879, coming home from that land, I +prophesied the famine that must come upon, and did come upon, the +deluged fields of that country. This year the crops are large, and +both parties--those who like the English Government and those who +don't like it--are expecting relief. I said to one of the intelligent +men of Ireland: "Tell me in a few words what are the sufferings of +Ireland, and what is the Land Relief enactment?" He replied: "I will +tell you. Suppose I am a landlord and you a tenant. You rent from me a +place for ten pounds a year. You improve it. You turn it from a bog +into a garden. You put a house upon it. After a while I, the landlord, +come around, and I say to my agent: 'How much rent is this man +paying;' He answers, 'Ten pounds.' 'Is that all? Put his rent up to +twenty pounds.' The tenant goes on improving his property, and after +awhile I come around and I say to my agent, 'How much rent is this man +paying?' He says, 'Twenty pounds.' 'Put his rent up to twenty-five +pounds.' The tenant protests and says, 'I can't pay it.' Then I, the +landlord, say, 'Pay it or get out;' and the tenant is helpless, and, +leaving the place, the property in its improved condition turns over +to the landlord. Now, to stop that outrage the Relief Enactment comes +in and appoints commissioners who shall see that if the tenant is +turned out, he shall receive the difference of value between the farm +as he got it and the farm as he surrenders it. Moreover, the +government loans money to the tenant, so that he may buy the property +out and out if the landlord will sell." Mighty advancement toward the +righting of a great wrong! But there and in all lands, not excepting +our own, there is a far-reaching distress. And let those who broke +their fast this morning, and those who shall dine to-day, remember +those who are in want, and by prayer and practical beneficence do all +they can to alleviate the hunger swoon of nations. + +Another impression was--indeed the impression carried with me all the +summer--the thought already suggested, the brotherhood of man. The +fact is that the differences are so small between nations that they +may be said to be all alike. Though I spent the most of the summer in +silence, I spoke a few times and to people of different nations, and +how soon I noticed that they were very much alike! If a man knows how +to play the piano, it does not make any difference whether he finds it +in New Orleans or San Francisco or Boston or St. Petersburg or Moscow +or Madras; it has so many keys, and he puts his fingers right on them. +And the human heart is a divine instrument, with just so many keys in +all cases, and you strike some of them and there is joy, and you +strike some of them and there is sorrow. Plied by the same motives, +lifted up by the same success, depressed by the same griefs. The +cab-men of London have the same characteristics as the cab-men of New +York, and are just as modest and retiring. The gold and silver drive +Piccadilly and the Boulevards just as they drive Wall Street. If there +be a great political excitement in Europe, the Bourse in Paris howls +just as loudly as ever did the American gold-room. + +The same grief that we saw in our country in 1864 you may find now in +the military hospitals of England containing the wounded and sick from +the Egyptian wars. The same widowhood and orphanage that sat down in +despair after the battles of Shiloh and South Mountain poured their +grief in the Shannon and the Clyde and the Dee and the Thames. Oh, ye +men and women who know how to pray, never get up from your knees until +you have implored God in behalf of the fourteen hundred millions of +the race just like yourselves, finding life a tremendous struggle! For +who knows but that as the sun to-day draws up drops of water from the +Caspian and the Black seas and from the Amazon and the Mississippi, +after a while to distill the rain, these very drops on the fields--who +knows but that the sun of righteousness may draw up the tears of your +sympathy, and then rain them down in distillation of comfort o'er all +the world? + +Who is that poor man, carried on a stretcher to the Afghan ambulance? +He is your brother. If in the Pantheon at Paris you smite your hand +against the wall among the tombs of the dead, you will hear a very +strange echo coming from all parts of the Pantheon just as soon as you +smite the wall. And I suppose it is so arranged that every stroke of +sorrow among the tombs of bereavement ought to have loud, long, and +oft-repeated echoes of sympathy all around the world. Oh, what a +beautiful theory it is--and it is a Christian theory--that Englishman, +Scotchman, Irishman, Norwegian, Frenchman, Italian, Russian, are all +akin. Of one blood all nations. That is a very beautiful inscription +that I saw a few days ago over the door in Edinburgh, the door of the +house where John Knox used to live. It is getting somewhat dim now, +but there is the inscription, fit for the door of any household--"Love +God above all, and your neighbor as yourself." + +I was also impressed in journeying on the other side the sea with the +difference the Bible makes in countries. The two nations of Europe +that are the most moral to-day and that have the least crime are +Scotland and Wales. They have by statistics, as you might find, fewer +thefts, fewer arsons, fewer murders. What is the reason? A bad book +can hardly live in Wales. The Bible crowds it out. I was told by one +of the first literary men in Wales: "There is not a bad book in the +Welsh language." He said: "Bad books come down from London, but they +can not live here." It is the Bible that is dominant in Wales. And +then in Scotland just open your Bible to give out your text, and there +is a rustling all over the house almost startling to an American. What +is it? The people opening their Bibles to find the text, looking at +the context, picking out the referenced passages, seeing whether you +make right quotation. Scotland and Wales Bible-reading people. That +accounts for it. A man, a city, a nation that reads God's Word must be +virtuous. That Book is the foe of all wrong-doing. What makes +Edinburgh better than Constantinople? The Bible. + +Oh, I am afraid in America we are allowing the good book to be covered +up with other good books! We have our ever-welcome morning and evening +newspapers, and we have our good books on all subjects--geological +subjects, botanical subjects, physiological subjects, theological +subjects--good books, beautiful books, and so many good books that we +have not time to read the Bible. Oh, my friends, it is not a matter of +very great importance that you have a family Bible on the center-table +in your parlor! Better have one pocket New Testament, the passages +marked, the leaves turned down, the binding worn smooth with much +usage, than fifty pictorial family Bibles too handsome to read! Oh, +let us take a whisk-broom and brush the dust off our Bibles! Do you +want poetry? Go and hear Job describe the war-horse, or David tell how +the mountains skipped like lambs. Do you want logic? Go and hear Paul +reason until your brain aches under the spell of his mighty intellect. +Do you want history? Go and see Moses put into a few pages stupendous +information which Herodotus, Thucydides, and Prescott never preached +after. And, above all, if you want to find how a nation struck down by +sin can rise to happiness and to heaven, read of that blood which can +wash away the pollution of a world. There is one passage in the Bible +of vast tonnage: "God so loved the world that He gave His only +begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." Oh, may God fill this country with Bibles and +help the people to read them! + +I was also impressed in my transatlantic journeys with the wonderful +power that Christ holds among the nations. The great name in Europe +to-day is not Victoria, not Marquis of Salisbury, not William the +Emperor, not Bismarck; the great name in Europe to-day is Christ. You +find the crucifix on the gate-post, you find it in the hay field, you +find it at the entrance of the manor, you find it by the side of the +road. + +The greatest pictures in all the galleries of Italy, Germany, France, +England, and Scotland are Bible pictures. What were the subjects of +Raphael's great paintings? "The Transfiguration," "The Miraculous +Draught of Fishes," "The Charge to Peter," "The Holy Family," "The +Massacre of the Innocents," "Moses at the Burning Bush," "The +Nativity," "Michael the Archangel," and the four or five exquisite +"Madonnas." What are Tintoretto's great pictures? "Fall of Adam," +"Cain and Abel," "The Plague of the Fiery Serpent," "Paradise," "Agony +in the Garden," "The Temptation," "The Adoration of the Magi," "The +Communication," "Baptism," "Massacre of the Innocents," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Crucifixion," "The Madonna." What are Titian's great +pictures? "The Flagellation of Christ," "The Supper at Emmaus," "The +Death of Abel," "The Assumption," "The Entombment," "Faith," "The +Madonna." What are Michael Angelo's great pictures? "The +Annunciation," "The Spirits in Prison," "At the feet of Christ," "The +Infant Christ," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment." What are Paul +Veronese's great pictures? "Queen of Sheba," "The Marriage in Cana," +"Magdalen Washing the Feet of Christ," "The Holy Family." Who has not +heard of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"? Who has not heard of Turner's +"Pools of Solomon"? Who has not heard of Claude's "Marriage of Isaac +and Rebecca"? Who has not heard of Duerer's "Dragon of the +Apocalypse"? The mightiest picture on this planet is Rubens' +"Scourging of Christ." Painter's pencil loves to sketch the face of +Christ. Sculptor's chisel loves to present the form of Christ. Organs +love to roll forth the sorrows of Christ. + +The first time you go to London go into the Dore picture gallery. As I +went and sat down before "Christ Descending the Steps of the +Praetorium," at the first I was disappointed. I said: "There isn't +enough majesty in that countenance, not enough tenderness in that +eye;" but as I sat and looked at the picture it grew upon me until I +was overwhelmed with its power, and I staggered with emotion as I went +out into the fresh air, and said; "Oh, for that Christ I must live, +and for that Christ I must be willing to die!" Make that Christ your +personal friend, my sister, my brother. You may never go to Milan to +see Da Vinci's "Last Supper;" but, better than that, you can have +Christ come and sup with you. You may never get to Antwerp to see +Rubens' "Descent of Christ from the Cross," but you can have Christ +come down from the mountain of His suffering into your heart and abide +there forever. Oh, you must have Him! We are all so diseased with sin +that we want that which hurts us, and we won't have that which cures +us. The best thing for you and for me to do to-day is to get down on +our bended knees before God and say: "Oh, Almighty Son of God, I am +blind! I want to see. My arms are palsied. I want to take hold of thy +cross. Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus!" Why will you live on husks +when you may sit down to this white bread of heaven? Oh, with such a +God, and with such a Christ, and with such a Holy Spirit, and with +such an immortal nature, wake up! + +Once more, I was impressed greatly on the other side the sea with the +wonderful triumphs of the Christian religion. The tide is rising, the +tide of moral and spiritual prosperity in the world. I think that any +man who keeps his eyes open, traveling in foreign lands, will come to +that conclusion. More Bibles than ever before, more churches, more +consecrated men and women, more people ready to be martyrs now than +ever before, if need be; so that instead of there being, as people +sometimes say, less spirit of martyrdom now than ever before, I +believe where there was once one martyr there would be a thousand +martyrs if the fires were kindled--men ready to go through flood and +fire for Christ's sake. Oh, the signs are promising! The world is on +the way to millennial brightness. All art, all invention, all +literature, all commerce will be the Lord's. + +These ships that you see going up and down New York harbor are to be +brought into the service of God. All those ships I saw at Liverpool, +at Southampton, at Glasgow, are to be brought into the service of +Christ. What is that passage, "Ships of Tarshish shall bring +presents"? That is what it means. Oh, what a goodly fleet when the +vessels of the sea come into the service of God! No guns frowning +through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from +cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity. Those ships will come from +all parts of the seas. Great flocks of ships that never met on the +high sea but in wrath, will cry, "Ship ahoy!" and drop down beside +each other in calmness, the flags of Emmanuel streaming from the +top-gallants. The old slaver, with decks scrubbed and washed and +glistened and burnished--the old slaver will wheel into line; and the +Chinese junk and the Venetian gondola, and the miners' and the +pirates' corvette, will fall into line, equipped, readorned, +beautified, only the small craft of this grand flotilla which shall +float out for the truth--a flotilla mightier than the armada of Xerxes +moving in the pomp and pride of Persian insolence; mightier than the +Carthaginian navy rushing with forty thousand oarsmen upon the Roman +galleys, the life of nations dashed out against the gunwales. + +Rise, O sea! and shine, O heavens! to greet this squadron of light and +victory! On the glistening decks are the feet of them that bring good +tidings, and songs of heaven float among the rigging. Crowd on all the +canvas. Line-of-battle ship and merchantmen wheel into the way. It is +noon. Strike eight bells. From all the squadron the sailors' songs +arise. "Surely the isles shall wait for thee, and the ships of +Tarshish to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with +them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel." + + + + +A MOMENTOUS QUEST. + + "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."--ISA. lv: 6. + + +Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors +in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of +our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side +face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the +full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some +things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more +epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime; but when you want to see Christ +coming out from the gates of prophecy in all His grandeur and glory, +you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard +to Christ might be called the "Oratorio of the Messiah," the writing +of Isaiah is the "Hallelujah Chorus," where all the batons wave and +all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of +insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus, and +Philo, and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among +the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets. + +My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out +into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men +might know Him; his voice rings down the ages: "Seek ye the Lord while +He may be found." "Oh," says some one: "that was for olden times." +No, my hearer. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a +circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in +St. Petersburg, or Venice, or Rome, or Antwerp, or Brussels, or Paris; +you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I +want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for +one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for +all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: +"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." + +I come, to-day, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice +distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on +the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach this +morning will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. +In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine: it either +kills or cures. There are those who say: "I would like to become a +Christian, I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of +influences to come;" and still you are waiting. You are wiser in +worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to +Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, or to the steam-boat wharf, +and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit +in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men +who say they are waiting to get to heaven--waiting, waiting, but not +with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of +Christian influences that would bear them into the kingdom of God. + +Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with +earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and +there is a matter of $10,000 connected with your seeing him, and you +can not at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in +the directory, but can not find the name; you go in circles where you +think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city +where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through +street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on +searching for weeks and for months. + +You say: "It is a matter of $10,000 whether I see him or not." Oh, +that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one half +that persistence you would long ago have found Him who is the joy of +the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we +may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our +life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the +Spirit of God would help this morning while I try to show you, in +carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in +the next place, when to seek Him. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be +found." + +I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest +and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a +throne, with His arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing +up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a +bower, waiting for His children to come and climb on His knee, and get +His kiss and His benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to +the "fountain of living water," and dip up refreshment for our +thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the +corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley +fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. + +I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large +an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before +God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no +response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a +believing spirit within, your cry would not go further up than the +shout of a plow-boy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, +loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, +and a bird, affrighted, darts into the window, and wheels about the +room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its +fluttering heart. You say, "Poor thing, poor thing!" Now, a prayer +goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God's mercy, +and He catches it, and He feels its fluttering pulse, and He puts it +in His own bosom of affection and safety. Prayer is a warm, ardent, +pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills +to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into +the depths of God's mercy and bring up "pearls of great price." There +was an instance where prayer made the waves of the Gennesaret solid as +Russ pavement. Oh, how many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! +Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were +persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men +among the Covenanters prayed: "Oh, Lord, we be as dead men unless Thou +shalt help us! Oh, Lord, throw the lap of Thy cloak over these poor +things!" And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted +from their persecutors--the promise literally fulfilled: "While they +are yet speaking I will hear." + +Oh, impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God +says: "He is loving, and faithful, and patient." Do you believe that? +You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? +You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel +is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to Him and say: "Oh, +Lord! I know Thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, +and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep Thy promise, and liberate my +captive soul." + +Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the +store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the +manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as He +confronted Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come +before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would +send in petitions and remonstrances! And yet there has been enough sin +in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or +petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the +means, you would go and spend the summer in Germany, and the winter in +Italy, and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all +round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any +effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual +health? No, you have not taken one step. + +O that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some +of you have been working for years and years for the support of your +families. Have you given one half day to the working out of your +salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an +earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest +purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if +you want to find the Lord, you must pray, and pray, and pray. + +I remark again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible +is the newest book in the world. "Oh," you say, "it was made hundreds +of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds +of years ago." I confute that idea by telling you it is not five +minutes old, when God, by His blessed Spirit, retranslates it into the +heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through +Scripture study, implore God's light to fall upon the page, you will +find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop +straight from the throne of God into your heart. + +There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If +they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them +to Christ than Washington's farewell address or the Koran of Mohammed +or the Shaster of the Hindoos. It is the inward light of God's Word +you must get or die. I went up to the church of the Madeleine, in +Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully +constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole +week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the +wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant +altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the +outside door of God's Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, +instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the +dome of God's mercy and salvation that hovers over penitent and +believing souls! + +O my friends! if you merely want to study the laws of language, do not +go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Take "Howe's Elements of +Criticism"--it will be better than the Bible for that. If you want to +study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of +William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, +and at last to gain the blessedness of Heaven, search the Scriptures, +"for in them ye have eternal life." + +When people are anxious about their souls--and there are some such +here to-day--there are those who recommend good books. That is all +right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under +such circumstances. Baxter wrote "A Call to the Unconverted," but the +Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote "The +Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but the Bible is the best +rise and progress. John Angell James wrote "Advice to the Anxious +Inquirer," but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer. + +O, the Bible is the very book you need, anxious and inquiring soul! A +dying soldier said to his mate: "Comrade, give me a drop!" The comrade +shook up the canteen, and said: "There isn't a drop of water in the +canteen." "Oh," said the dying soldier, "that's not what I want; feel +in my knapsack for my Bible," and his comrade found the Bible, and +read him a few of the gracious promises, and the dying soldier said: +"Ah, that's what I want. There isn't anything like the Bible for a +dying soldier, is there, my comrade?" O blessed book while we live! +Blessed book when we die! + +I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. "What," +say you, "can't a man be saved without going to church?" I reply, +there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church: but +the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; +and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily +when we are in the assembly--the feelings of others emphasizing our +own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play, and a truth +that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, beats mightily +against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs. + +When you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, +and only for one purpose--to find the way to Christ. When I see people +critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and +critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in +prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government +brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and +says: "Here is your pardon. Come and get it." "What! Do you expect me +to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such +an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise +my rhetorical notions!" Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It +is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this +morning, that pardon from the throne of God is offered to our souls, +should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism, feeling that it +is a matter of heaven or hell? + +But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to +seek the Lord. "While He may be found." When is that? Old age? You may +not see old age. To-morrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You +may not see to-night. Now! O if I could only write on every heart in +three capital letters, that word N-O-W--Now! + +Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and +with a trivial manner: "Oh, yes, I'm a sinner." Sin is an awful +disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all +moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. +Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes +the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: +"That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had +called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. +It is too late now; the crisis has passed." Just so it is in the +spiritual treatment of the soul--there is a crisis. Before that, life! +After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let +the crisis pass unattended to! + +There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if they +had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few +acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. +They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprung up on +those acres of ground, and they see what a mistake they made in not +buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never +came back again. And so it is in regard to a man's spiritual and +eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it +never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back. + +A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a +height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the +most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and +now the other. After awhile the host wheeled in such a way that he +knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the +emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time to-day with +you, O impenitent soul!--the forces of light on the one side, and the +siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter +will be settled for eternity. + +There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on +board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not +on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is +sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year till the +bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are +adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to +year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to +pay for it. + +Why defer this matter, oh, my dear hearer? Have you any idea that sin +will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp? +that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost +pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by +the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. +The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this +matter the steeper the path will become. I ask those men who are +before me this morning, whether, in the ten or fifteen years they have +passed in the postponement of these matters, they have come any nearer +God or heaven? + +I would not be afraid to challenge this whole audience, so far as they +may not have found the peace of the Gospel, in regard to the matter. +Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder +and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an +undertaking now than it ever would have been before. Oh, fly for +refuge! The avenger of blood is on the track! The throne of judgment +will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal +salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of your soul +is precious, and it ceaseth forever! + +Oh, if men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they +would love Him! Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or +sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises +behind Calvary, and sets behind Joseph's sepulcher? He is a blessed +Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty, +and Swiss beauty, and Italian beauty, and English beauty; but I care +not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces Him "chief +among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." O my blessed +Jesus! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of +Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men can not +love Thee! + +The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does +not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of +Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures +for eternity. Oh, cry for mercy! "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, +harden not your hearts." There is a way of opposing the mercy of God +too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a +fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour +the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you +to attend to this matter--to attend to it now? Time is flying, +flying--the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to +you, "Now is the time! Now is the time!" Oh, put it not off! + +Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your +immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that +must soon appear before God for review. Why throw away your chance for +heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are +open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? +Why will ye die miserably when eternal life is offered you, and it +will cost you nothing but just willingness to accept it? "Come, for +all things are now ready." Come, Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The +Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more +convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this +very one. Reject this, and you may die in your sins. Why do I say +this? Is it to frighten your soul? Oh, no! It is to persuade you. I +show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward +beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be +launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ +shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost--would I +not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand +before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? My dear brethren, now +is the day of your redemption. + +It is very certain that you and I must soon appear before God in +judgment. We can not escape it. The Bible says: "Every eye shall see +Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the +earth shall wail because of Him." On that day all our advantages will +come up for our glory or for our discomfiture--every prayer, every +sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; +and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is +being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced. Alas! +alas! if on that day it is found that we have neglected these matters. +We may throw them off now. We can not then. We will all be in earnest +then. But no pardon then. No offer of salvation then. No rescue then. +Driven away in our wickedness--banished, exiled, forever! + +Have you ever imagined what will be the soliloquy of the soul on that +day unpardoned, as it looks back upon its past life? "Oh," says the +soul, "I had glorious Sabbaths! There was one Sabbath in autumn when +I was invited to Christ. There was a Sabbath morning when Jesus stood +and spread out His arm and invited me to His holy heart. I refused +Him. I have destroyed myself. I have no one else to blame. Ruin +complete! Darkness unpitying, deep, eternal! I am lost! +Notwithstanding all the opportunities I have had of being saved, I am +lost! O Thou long-suffering Lord God Almighty, I am lost! O day of +judgment, I am lost! O father, mother, brother, sister, child in +glory, I am lost!" And then as the tide goes out, your soul goes out +with it--further from God, further from happiness, and I hear your +voice fainter, and fainter, and fainter: "Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost! +Lost!" O ye dying, yet immortal men, "seek the Lord while He may be +found." + +But I want you to take the hint of the text that I have no time to +dwell on--the hint that there is a time when He can not be found. +There is a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a +clergyman who came in, "Do you think that a man at eighty years of age +can get pardoned?" "Oh, yes," said the clergyman. The old man said: "I +can't; when I was twenty years of age--I am now eighty years--the +Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending +to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I +have had no feeling." "Well," said the minister, "wouldn't you like to +have me pray with you?" "Yes," replied the old man, "but it will do no +good. You can pray with me if you like to." The minister knelt down +and prayed, and commended the man's soul to God. It seemed to have no +effect upon him. After awhile the last hour of the man's life came, +and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and +with his last breath he said; "I shall never be forgiven!" "O seek the +Lord while He may be found." + + + + +THE GREAT ASSIZE. + +DOCTOR TALMAGE'S SERMON, PREACHED AT CORK, IRELAND, +SUNDAY MORNING, SEPT 6th, 1885. + + "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy + angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His + glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He + shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth + his sheep from the goats."--MATTHEW xxv: 31, 32. + + +Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the +horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful +natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my +companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last +judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat. +These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels. +This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the +audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point +out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an +audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics, +and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience +to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day. + +A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there +shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now +inexplicable shall be explained. + +Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I +don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying +of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits +wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I +must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were +not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there +would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never +recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try +Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The +world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on +earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being +healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could +have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around +about him would have been the slain under that overpowering +effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe. +Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to +mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise. + +But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory. +No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of +grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the +most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim +as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ +rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will +be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to +horizon aflame with His splendor. + +Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire +and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of +fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the +law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will +be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy +arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of +spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory +of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An +unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an +interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which +shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and +be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with +setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers +takes off the top of a burned wick. + +It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on +hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and +with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses +and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are +uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the +judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of +the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt +shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea +into silence. + +Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment +day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars +about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not +always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else +fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar, +and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His +left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every +mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful +gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in +behalf of the human race. + +But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro +above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of +heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene, +and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a +hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all +heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the +scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a +circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher +up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of +cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to +watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were +made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is +Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy +sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those +who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near +the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and +his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke +the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing +brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing, +turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into +corpses. + +Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly +turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the +Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other +group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial +bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered +to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His +sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now +appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides +by angelic radiance. + +But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The +entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that +time the American Republic, the English Government, the French +Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for +something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be +brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece +and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never +slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South +America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the +twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century--all centuries +present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be +in that assembly. + +No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a +millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of +albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A +congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent, +because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the +Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the +world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent +is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of +the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and +underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty +God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up +worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars +strong enough to hold up any auditorium. + +But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on +earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an +audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this +audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will +separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But +the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this +world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical +institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican +institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities +of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high +circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles +go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together, +the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the +king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and +the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without +his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the +beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad +orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly +inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the +mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward +deciding the questions of that very great day. + +"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of +those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming +mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of +those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any +divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character +outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of +choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character +inside as well as character outside. + +In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all +earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will +take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace +will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and +some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh, +what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social +rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a +thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all +ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the +figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2. + +Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two +eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and +everlasting two! + +I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened +allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the +book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names +of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of +such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred +years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes +between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of +judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every +human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they +were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or +three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their +past life flashed before them--all they had ever thought, all they had +ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The +memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a +closed book. + +Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the +thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall +them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes, +although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of +them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the +drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly +unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened, +so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix. + +You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many +revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the +manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find +just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been +accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and +it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that +all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of +judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can +easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen. +And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that +not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be +revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will +read not only your own character and your own history, but the +character and history of others. + +In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing, +and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in +one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another +way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have +to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the +trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet +on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give +significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having +marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun +and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the +trumpet! + +Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead, +the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the +mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys +never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of +the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with +those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages--from +Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and +from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the +bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the +garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east +and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies +of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and +thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The +trumpet! the trumpet! + +Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The +leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned +sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with +rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet! +the trumpet! + +Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The +high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their +two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue +tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the +auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded +wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery +throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The +conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and +off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the +world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel +flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the +dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!" + +That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for +cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a +large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to +the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that +margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage +demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to +tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of +judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for +cancellation. + +There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin. +That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever. +It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were +cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made +in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it +will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and +sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and +glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned +prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh, +no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf. + +I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and +testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask +you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that +you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for +something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in +my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our +condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been +swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so +long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems +a ripple on the Atlantic. + +When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death, +and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move +up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high +pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the +Shepherd's crook! "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and +all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His +glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall +separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from +the goats." + +Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart! +That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last, +"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a +great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and +swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the +great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they +boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in +simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor. +Your unalterable destiny the quotient. + + + + +THE ROAD TO THE CITY. + + "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be + called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over + it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though + fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any + ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found + there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of + the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and + everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and + gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."--ISAIAH + xxxv: 8-10. + + +There are hundreds of people in this house this morning who want to +find the right road. You sometimes see a person halting at cross +roads, and you can tell by his looks that he wishes to ask a question +as to what direction he had better take. And I stand in your presence +this morning conscious of the fact that there are many of you here who +realize that there are a thousand wrong roads, but only one right one; +and I take it for granted that you have come in to ask which one it +is. Here is one road that opens widely, but I have not much faith in +it. There are a great many expensive toll-gates scattered all along +that way. Indeed at every road you must pay in tears, or pay in +genuflexions, or pay in flagellations. On that road, if you get +through it at all, you have to pay your own way; and since this +differs so much from what I have heard in regard to the right way, I +believe it is the wrong way. + +Here is another road. On either side of it are houses of sinful +entertainment, and invitations to come in, and dine and rest; but, +from the looks of the people who stand on the piazza I am very certain +that it is the wrong house and the wrong way. Here is another road. It +is very beautiful and macadamized. The horses' hoofs clatter and ring, +and they who ride over it spin along the highway, until suddenly they +find that the road breaks over an embankment, and they try to halt, +and they saw the bit in the mouth of the fiery steed, and cry "Ho! +ho!" But it is too late, and--crash!--they go over the embankment. We +shall turn, this morning, and see if we can not find a different kind +of a road. + +You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty miles +long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was a +path for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal +shape and fitted together. What a road it must have been! Made of +smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that +in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were +exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time--the old +conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it--there is nothing +left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to +tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good +as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. +Millions more will come. + + "The prophets and apostles, too, + Pursued this road while here below; + We therefore will, without dismay + Still walk in Christ, the good old way." + +"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way +of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for +those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion +shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall +not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the +ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!" + +I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the +diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile, +and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over +bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under +projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip +with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time, +learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government +authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from +earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness; +it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be +wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the +human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be +blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the +Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of +devils. + +The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and +heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered +hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen +million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon +might go over for the devastation of Italy; but our King, at a greater +expense, has built a road for a different purpose, that the banners of +heavenly dominion might come down over it, and all the redeemed of +earth travel up over it. + +Being a King's highway, of course it is well built. Bridges splendidly +arched and buttressed have given way and crushed the passengers who +attempted to cross them. But Christ, the King, would build no such +thing as that. The work done, He mounts the chariot of His love, and +multitudes mount with Him, and He drives on and up the steep of heaven +amid the plaudits of gazing worlds! The work is done--well +done--gloriously done--magnificently done. + +II. Still further: this road spoken of is a clean road. + +Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it has not been +properly cared for; but my text says the unclean shall not walk on +this one. Room on either side to throw away your sins. Indeed, if you +want to carry them along, you are not on the right road. That bridge +will break, those overhanging rocks will fall, the night will come +down, leaving you at the mercy of the mountain bandits, and at the +very next turn of the road you will perish. But if you are really on +this clean road of which I have been speaking, then you will stop +ever and anon to wash in the water that stands in the basin of the +eternal rock. Ay, at almost every step of the journey you will be +crying out: "Create within me a clean heart!" If you have no such +aspirations as that, it proves that you have mistaken your way; and if +you will only look up and see the finger-board above your head, you +may read upon it the words: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a +man, but the end thereof is death." Without holiness no man shall see +the Lord; and if you have any idea that you can carry along your sins, +your lusts, your worldliness, and yet get to the end of the Christian +race, you are so awfully mistaken that, in the name of God, this +morning I shatter the delusion. + +III. Still further, the road spoken of is a plain road. "The wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein." That is, if a man is three +fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well as if he were a +philosopher. The imbecile boy, the laughing-stock of the street, and +followed by a mob hooting at him, has only just to knock once at the +gate of heaven, and it swings open: while there has been many a man +who can lecture about pneumatics, and chemistry, and tell the story of +Farraday's theory of electrical polarization, and yet has been shut +out of heaven. There has been many a man who stood in an observatory +and swept the heavens with his telescope, and yet has not been able to +see the Morning Star. Many a man has been familiar with all the higher +branches of mathematics, and yet could not do the simple sum, "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" Many a man has been a fine reader of tragedies and poems, and +yet could not "read his title clear to mansions in the skies." Many a +man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of +Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." But if one shall come in the right +spirit, crying the way to heaven, he will find it a plain way. The +pardon is plain. The peace is plain. Everything is plain. + +He who tries to get on the road to heaven through the New Testament +teaching will get on beautifully. He who goes through philosophical +discussion will not get on at all. Christ says: "Come to Me, and I +will take all your sins away, and I will take all your troubles away." +Now what is the use of my discussing it any more? Is not that plain? +If you wanted to go to Albany, and I pointed you out a highway +thoroughly laid out, would I be wise in detaining you by a geological +discussion about the gravel you will pass over, or a physiological +discussion about the muscles you will have to bring into play? No. +After this Bible has pointed you the way to heaven, is it wise for me +to detain you with any discussion about the nature of the human will, +or whether the atonement is limited or unlimited? There is the +road--go on it. It is a plain way. + +"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ +Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And that is you and that +is me. Any little child here can understand this as well as I can. +"Unless you become as a little child, you can not see the kingdom of +God." If you are saved, it will not be as a philosopher, it will be as +a little child. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Unless you get +the spirit of little children, you will never come out at their +glorious destiny. + +IV. Still further: this road to heaven is a safe road. Sometimes the +traveler in those ancient highways would think himself perfectly +secure, not knowing there was a lion by the way, burying his head deep +between his paws, and then, when the right moment came, under the +fearful spring the man's life was gone, and there was a mauled carcass +by the roadside. But, says my text, "No lion shall be there." I wish I +could make you feel, this morning, your entire security. I tell you +plainly that one minute after a man has become a child of God, he is +as safe as though he had been ten thousand years in heaven. He may +slip, he may slide, he may stumble; but he can not be destroyed. Kept +by the power of God, through faith, unto complete salvation. +Everlastingly safe. + +The severest trial to which you can subject a Christian man is to kill +him, and that is glory. In other words, the worst thing that can +happen a child of God is heaven. The body is only the old slippers +that he throws aside just before putting on the sandals of light. His +soul, you can not hurt it. No fires can consume it. No floods can +drown it. No devils can capture it. + + "Firm and unmoved are they + Who rest their souls on God; + Fixed as the ground where David stood, + Or where the ark abode." + +His soul is safe. His reputation is safe. Everything is safe. "But," +you say, "suppose his store burns up?" Why, then, it will be only a +change of investments from earthly to heavenly securities. "But," you +say, "suppose his name goes down under the hoof of scorn and +contempt?" The name will be so much brighter in glory. "Suppose his +physical health fails?" God will pour into him the floods of +everlasting health, and it will not make any difference. Earthly +subtraction is heavenly addition. The tears of earth are the crystals +of heaven. As they take rags and tatters and put them through the +paper-mill, and they come out beautiful white sheets of paper, so, +often, the rags of earthly destitution, under the cylinders of death, +come out a white scroll upon which shall be written eternal +emancipation. + +There was one passage of Scripture, the force of which I never +understood until one day at Chamounix, with Mont Blanc on one side, +and Montanvent on the other, I opened my Bible and read: "As the +mountains are around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about them +that fear Him." The surroundings were an omnipotent commentary. + + "Though troubles assail, and dangers affright; + Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite; + Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, + The Scriptures assure us the Lord will provide." + +V. Still further: the road spoken of is a pleasant road. God gives a +bond of indemnity against all evil to every man that treads it. "All +things work together for good to those who love God." No weapon formed +against them can prosper. That is the bond, signed, sealed, and +delivered by the President of the whole universe. What is the use of +your fretting, O child of God, about food? "Behold the fowls of the +air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; +yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." And will He take care of the +sparrow, will He take care of the hawk, and let you die? What is the +use of your fretting about clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field. +Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" What is the +use worrying for fear something will happen to your home? "He blesseth +the habitation of the just." What is the use of your fretting lest you +will be overcome of temptations? "God is faithful, who will not suffer +you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation +also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." + +O this King's highway! Trees of life on either side, bending over +until their branches interlock and drop midway their fruit and shade. +Houses of entertainment on either side the road for poor pilgrims. +Tables spread with a feast of good things, and walls adorned with +apples of gold in pictures of silver. I start out on this King's +highway, and I find a harper, and I say: "What is your name?" The +harper makes no response, but leaves me to guess, as, with his eyes +toward heaven and his hand upon the trembling strings this tune comes +rippling on the air: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom +shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be +afraid?" I go a little further on the same road and meet a trumpeter +of heaven, and I say: "Haven't you got some music for a tired +pilgrim?" And wiping his lip and taking a long breath, he puts his +mouth to the trumpet and pours forth this strain: "They shall hunger +no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun +light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the +throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God shall +wipe away all tears from their eyes." I go a little distance further +on the same road, and I meet a maiden of Israel. She has no harp, but +she has cymbals. They look as if they had rusted from sea-spray; and I +say to the maiden of Israel: "Have you no song for a tired pilgrim?" +And like the clang of victors' shields the cymbals clap as Miriam +begins to discourse: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed +gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea." And +then I see a white-robed group. They come bounding toward me, and I +say: "Who are they? The happiest, and the brightest, and the fairest +in all heaven--who are they?" And the answer comes: "These are they +who came out of great tribulations, and had their robes washed and +made white with the blood of the Lamb." + +I pursue this subject only one step further. What is the terminus? I +do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where it +comes out. My text declares it: "The redeemed of the Lord come to +Zion." You know what Zion was. That was the King's palace. It was a +mountain fastness. It was impregnable. And so heaven is the fastness +of the universe. No howitzer has long enough range to shell those +towers. Let all the batteries of earth and hell blaze away; they can +not break in those gates. Gibraltar was taken, Sebastopol was taken, +Babylon fell; but these walls of heaven shall never surrender either +to human or Satanic besiegement. The Lord God Almighty is the defense +of it. Great capital of the universe! Terminus of the King's highway! + +Doctor Dick said that, among other things, he thought in heaven we +should study chemistry, and geometry, and conic sections. Southey +thought that in heaven he would have the pleasure of seeing Chaucer +and Shakespeare. Now, Doctor Dick may have his mathematics for all +eternity, and Southey his Shakespeare. Give me Christ and my old +friends--that is all the heaven I want, that is heaven enough for me. +O garden of light, whose leaves never wither, and whose fruits never +fail! O banquet of God, whose sweetness never palls the taste, and +whose guests are kings forever! O city of light, whose walls are +salvation, and whose gates are praise! O palace of rest, where God is +the monarch and everlasting ages the length of His reign! O song +louder than the surf-beat of many waters, yet soft as the whisper of +cherubim! + +O my heaven! When my last wound is healed, when the last heart-break +is ended, when the last tear of earthly sorrow is wiped away, and when +the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion, then let all the harpers +take down their harps, and all the trumpeters take down their +trumpets, and all across heaven there be chorus of morning stars, +chorus of white-robed victors, chorus of martyrs from under the +throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song +sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored--that of +Jesus only. + + + + +THE RANSOMLESS. + + "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great + ransom can not deliver thee."--JOB xxxvi: 18. + + +Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his +property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear +children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any +spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are +now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have +begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow +cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and +happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with +many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the +condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him: +"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can +not deliver thee." + +I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our +gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is +ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a +great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect. + +"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to +adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the +hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the +accidental discharge of a gun--and your mind is gone. If you have ever +been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you +know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our +eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so +easily destroyed? + +"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I +reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the +best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten +years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had +their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it +went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible +for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will +be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well; +and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was demented, and +I had no responsibility," God will say: "Yes, you were demented; but +there were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance +for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a +little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like +poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just +appeared in England--a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus +Christ by scores and scores--giving an account of his own conversion, +when he said: "The mob got after me, and I lost my hat, and climbed +up by a meat-stand, in order that I might not be trampled under foot, +and while I was there, my heart got on fire with love toward those who +were chasing me, and, springing to my feet, I began to exhort and to +pray." Oh, my God, let me be in the last, last day the Cornish fool, +rather than have the best intellect God ever created unillumined by +the Gospel of Jesus Christ! + +Consider what an uncertain possession you have in your intellect, when +there are so many things around to destroy it; and beware, lest before +you use it in making the religious choice, God takes it away with a +stroke. I know a good many of my friends who are putting off religion +until the last hour. They say when they get sick they will attend to +it, but generally the intellect is beclouded; and oh; what a doleful +thing it is to stand by a dying bed, and talk to a man about his soul, +and feel, from what you see of the motion of his head, and the glare +of his eye, and from what you hear of the jargon of his lips, that he +does not understand what you are saying to him. I have stood beside +the death-bed of a man who had lived a sinful life, and was as +unprepared for eternity as it is possible for a man to be, and I tried +to make him understand my pastoral errand; but all in vain. He could +not understand it, and so he died. + +Oh! ye who are putting off until the sick hour preparation for +eternity, let me tell you that in all probability, you will not be +able in your last hour to attend to it at all. There are a great many +people who say they will repent on the death-bed. + +I have no doubt there are many who have repented on the death-bed, but +I think it is the exception. Albert Barnes, who was one of the coolest +of men, and gave no rash statistics, said thus: that in a ministry of +nearly half a century--he was over seventy when he went up to +glory--he had known a great many people who said they repented on the +dying bed, but, unexpectedly to themselves, got well; and he says, How +many of those, do you suppose, who thought it was their dying bed, and +who, after they repented on that dying bed, having got well, lived +consistently, showing that it was real repentance, and not mock +repentance--how many? not one! not one! + +II. Again: this stroke may come to you in the withdrawal of God's +spirit. + +I see people before me who were, twenty years ago, serious about their +souls. They are not now. They have no interest in what I am saying. +They will never have any anxiety in what any minister of the Gospel +says about their souls. Their time seems to have passed. I know a man, +seventy-five years of age, who, in early life, became almost a +Christian, but grieved away the spirit of God, and he has never +thought earnestly since, and he can not be roused. I do not believe he +will be roused until eternity flashes on his astonished vision. + +It does seem as if sometimes, in quite early life, the Holy Spirit +moves upon a heart, and being grieved away and rejected, never comes +back. You say that is all imaginary? A letter, the address of which I +will not give, dated last Monday morning, came to me on Tuesday, +saying this: "Your sermon last night (that is, last Sabbath night) +did not fit my case, although I believe it did all others in the +Academy; but your sermon of a week ago did fit my case, for I am 'past +feeling.' I am not ashamed to be a Christian. I would as soon be known +to be a Christian as anything else. Indeed, I wish I was, but I have +not the least power to become one. Don't you know that with some +persons there is a tide in their spiritual natures which, if taken at +the flood, leads on to salvation? Such a tide I felt two years ago. I +want you to pray for me, not that I may be led to Christ--for that +prayer would not be answered--but that I may be kept from the +temptation to suicide!" + +What I had to say to the author of that I said in a private letter; +but what I have to say to this audience is: Beware lest you grieve the +Holy Ghost, and He be gone, and never return. Next Wednesday, at two +or three o'clock, a Cunard steamer will put out from Jersey City wharf +for Liverpool. After it has gone one hour, and the vessel is down by +the Narrows, or beyond, go out on the Jersey City wharf, and wave your +hand, and shout, and ask that steamer to come back to the wharf. Will +it? Yes, sooner than the Holy Ghost will come back when once He has +taken his final flight from thy soul. With that Holy Spirit some of +you have been in treaty, my dear friends. + +The Holy Spirit said: "Come, come to Christ." You said: "No, I won't." +The Spirit said, more importunately: "Come to Christ." You said: +"Well, I will after awhile, when I get my business fixed up; when my +friends consent to my coming; when they won't laugh at me--then I'll +come." But the Holy Spirit more emphatically said: "Come now." You +said: "No, I can't. I can't come now." And that Holy Spirit stands in +your heart to-night, with His hand on the door of your soul, ready to +come out. Will you let Him depart? If so, then, with a pen of light, +dipped in ink of eternal blackness, the sentence may be now writing: +"Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him alone! Let him alone!" When +that fatal record is made, you might as well brace yourselves up +against the sorrows of the last day, against the anguish of an +unforgiven death-bed, against the flame and the overthrow of an undone +eternity; for though you might live thirty years after that in the +world, your fate would be as certain as though you had already entered +the gates of darkness. That is the dead line. Look out how you cross +it! + + "'There is a line by us unseen, + That crosses every path; + The hidden boundary between + God's patience and His wrath.'" + +And some of you, to-night, have come up to that line. Ay, you have +lifted your foot, and when you put it down, it will be on the other +side! Look out how you cross it! Oh, grieve not the Spirit of God, +lest He never come back! + +III. This fatal stroke spoken of in the text may be our exit from this +world. I hear aged people sometimes saying: "I can't live much +longer." But do you know the fact that there are a hundred young +people and middle-aged people who go out of this life to one aged +person, for the simple reason that there are not many aged people to +leave life? The aged seem to stand around like stalks--separate stalks +of wheat at the corner of the field; but when death goes a-mowing, he +likes to go down amid the thick of the harvest. What is more to the +point: a man's going out of this world is never in the way he +expects--it is never at the time he expects. The moment of leaving +this world is always a surprise. If you expect to go in the winter, it +may be in the summer; if in the summer, it may be in the winter; if in +the night, it maybe in the day-time; if you think to go in the +day-time, it may be in the night. Suddenly the event will rush upon +you, and you will be gone. Where? If a Christian--into joy. If not a +Christian--into suffering. + +The Gospel call stops outside of the door of the sepulcher. The +sleeper within can not hear it. If that call should be sounded out +with clarion voice louder than ever rang through the air, that sleeper +could not hear it. I suppose every hour of the day, and now, while I +am speaking, there are souls rushing into eternity unprepared. They +slide from the pillow, or they slip from the pavement, and in an +eye-twinkling they are gone. Elegant and eloquent funeral oration will +not do them any good. Epitaph, cut on polished Scotch granite, will +not do them any good. Wailing of beloved kindred can not call them +back. + +But, says some one: "I'll keep out of peril; I will not go on the sea, +I will not go into battle--I'll keep out of all danger." That is no +defense. Thousands of people, last night, on their couches, with the +front door locked, and no armed assassin anywhere around, surrounded +by all defended circumstances, slipped out of this life into the +next. If time had been on one side of the shuttle and eternity on the +other side of the shuttle, they could not have shot quicker across it. +A man was saying: "My father was lost at sea, and my grandfather, and +my great-grandfather. Wasn't it strange?" A man, talking to him, said: +"You ought never to venture on the sea, lest you, yourself, be lost at +sea." The man turned to the other, and said: "Where did your father +die?" He replied: "In his bed." "Where did your grandfather die?" "In +his bed." "Where did your great-grandfather die?" "In his bed." +"Then," he said, "be careful, lest some night, while you are asleep on +your couch, your time may come!" + +Death alone is sure. Suddenly, you and I will go out of life. I am not +saying anything to your soul that I am not going to say to my own +soul. We have got to go suddenly out of this life. If I am prepared +for that change, I do not care where my body is taken from--at what +point I am taken out of this life. If I am ready, all is well. If I am +not ready, though I might be at home, and though my loved ones might +be standing around me, and though there might be the best surgical and +medical ability in the room, I tell you, if I were not prepared, I +would be frightened more than tongue can tell. It may seem like +cowardice, but I am not ashamed to say that I should have the most +indescribable horror about going out of this world if I thought I was +unprepared for the next--if I had no Christ in my soul; for it would +be a plunge compared with which a leap from the top of Mont Blanc +would be nothing. + +But this brings me to the most tremendous thought of my text. The text +supposes that a man goes into ruin, and that an effort is made +afterward for his rescue, and then says the thing can not be done. Is +that so? After death seizes upon that soul, is there no resurrection? +If a man topples off the edge of life, is there nothing to break his +fall? If an impenitent man goes overboard, are there no +grappling-hooks to hoist him into safety? The text says distinctly: +"Then a great ransom can not deliver thee." + +I know there are people who call themselves "Restorationists," and +they say a sinful man may go down into the world of the lost; he stays +there until he gets reformed, and then comes up into the world of +light and blessedness. It seems to me to be a most unreasonable +doctrine--as though the world of darkness were a place where a man +could get reformed. Is there anything in the society of the lost +world--the abandoned and the wretched of God's universe--to elevate a +man's character and lift him at last to heaven? Can we go into +companionship of the Neroes and the Herods, and the Jim Fisks, and +spend a certain number of years in that lost world, and then by that +society be purified and lifted up? Is that the kind of society that +reforms a man and prepares him for heaven? Would you go to Shreveport +or Memphis, with the yellow fever there, to get your physical health +restored? Can it be that a man may go down into the diseased world--a +world overwhelmed by an epidemic of transgressions--and by that +process, and in that atmosphere, be lifted up to health and glory? +Your common sense says: "No! no!" In such society as that, instead of +being restored, you would go down worse and worse, plunging every hour +into deeper depths of suffering and darkness. What your common sense +says the Bible reaffirms, when it says: "These shall go away into +three months of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These shall go +away into ten years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. "These +shall go into a thousand years of punishment." I have quoted it wrong. +"These shall go into _everlasting_ punishment." And now I have quoted +it right; or, if you prefer, in the words of my text: "Then a great +ransom can not deliver thee." + +Now just suppose that a spirit should come down from heaven and knock +at the gates of woe and say: "Let that man out! Let me come in and +suffer in his stead. I will be the sacrifice. Let him come out." The +grim jailer would reply: "No, you don't know what a place this is, or +you would not ask to come in; besides that, this man had full warning +and full opportunity of escape. He did not take the warning, and now a +great ransom shall not deliver him." + +Sometimes men are sentenced to imprisonment for life. There comes +another judge on the bench, there comes another governor in the chair, +and in three or four years you find the man who was sentenced for life +in the street. You say: "I thought you were sentenced for life." "Oh!" +he says, "politics are changed, and I am now a free man." But it will +not be so for a soul at the last. There will be no new judge or new +governor. If at the end of a century a soul might come out, it would +not be so bad. If at the end of a thousand years it might come out, +it would not be so bad. If there were any time in all the future, in +quadrillions and quadrillions of years, that the soul might come out, +it would not be so bad; but if the Bible be true, it is a state of +unending duration. + +Far on in the ages one lost soul shall cry out to another lost soul: +"How long have you been here?" and the soul will reply: "The years of +my ruin are countless. I estimated the time for thousands of years; +but what is the use of estimating when all these rolling cycles bring +us no nearer the terminus." Ages! Ages! Ages! Eternity! Eternity! +Eternity! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! No +medicine to cure that marasmus of the soul. No hammer to strike off +the handcuff of that incarceration. No burglar's key to pick the locks +which the Lord hath fastened. Sir Francis Newport, in his last moment, +caught just one glimpse of that world. He had lived a sinful life. +Before he went into the eternal world he looked into it. The last +words he ever uttered were, as he gathered himself up on his elbows in +the bed: "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" The lost soul will cry +out: "I can not stand this! I can not stand this! Is there no way +out?" and the echo will answer: "No way out." And the soul will cry: +"Is this forever?" and the echo will answer: "Forever!" + +Is it all true? "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, +while the righteous go into life eternal." Are there two destinies? +and must all this audience share one or the other? Shall I give an +account for what I have told you to-night? Have I held back any truth, +though it were plain, though it were unpalatable? Must I meet you +there, oh, you dying but immortal auditory? I wish that my text, with +all its uplifted hands of warning, could come upon your souls: "Beware +lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not +deliver thee." + +Glory be to God, there is a ransom that can now deliver you, braver +than Grace Darling putting out in a life-boat from Eddystone +Light-house for the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire +steamer--Christ the Lord launched from heaven, amid the shouting of +the angels. Thirty-three years afterward, Christ the Lord launched +from earth to heaven, amid human and infernal execration; yet staying +here long enough to save all who will believe in Him. Do you hear +that? To save all who will believe in Him. Oh, that pierced side! Oh, +that bleeding brow! Oh, that crushed foot! Oh, that broken heart! That +is your hope, sinner. That is your ransom from sin, and death, and +hell. + +Why have I told you all these things to-night, plainly and frankly? It +is because I know there is redemption for you, and I would have you +now come and get it. Oh, men and women long prayed for, and striven +with, and coaxed of the mercy of God--have you concentrated all your +physical, mental, and spiritual energies in one awful determination to +be lost? Is there nothing in the value of your soul, in the +graciousness of Christ, in the thunders of the last day, in the +blazing glories of heaven, and the surging wrath of an undone eternity +to start you out of your indifference, and make you pray? Oh, must God +come upon you in some other way? Must He take another darling child +from your household? Must He take another installment from your +worldly estate? Must life come upon you with sorrow after sorrow, and +smite you down with sickness before you will be moved, and before you +will feel? + +Oh, weep now, while Jesus will count the tears! Sigh, now in +repentance, while Jesus will hear the grief. Now clutch the cross of +the Son of God before it be swept away. Beware, lest the Holy Spirit +leave thy heart. Beware, lest this night thy soul be required of thee. +"Beware, lest he take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom +can not deliver thee." Oh, Lord God of Israel, see these impenitent +souls on the verge of death ready to topple over! See them! Is there +no help? Is this plea all in vain? I can not believe it, blessed God. +Oh, thou mighty One, whose garments are red with the wine-press of +Thine own sufferings, in the greatness of Thy strength ride through +this audience, and may all this people fall into line, the willing +captives of Thy grace. Men and women immortal! I lay hold of you +to-night with both hands of entreaty and of prayer, and I beg of you, +prepare for death, judgment, and eternity. + + + + +THE THREE GROUPS. + + "And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties."--MARK + vi: 40. + + +The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were +five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how +Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and +freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel +while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His +great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand +hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppose there were ten thousand there, +for the Bible says there were five thousand men, besides women and +children. The case is put in that way, not because the women and +children were of less importance than the men, but because they would +eat less; and the whole force of the miracle turns on the amount of +food required. + +How shall this great multitude be supplied? I see a selfish man in +that crowd pulling a luncheon out of his own pocket, and saying: "Let +the people starve. They had no business to come out here in the desert +without any provisions. They are improvident, and the improvident +ought to suffer." There is another man, not quite so heartless, who +says: "Go up into the village and buy bread." What a foolish +proposition! There is not enough food in all the village for this +crowd; besides that, who has the money to pay for it? Xerxes' army, +one million strong, was fed by a private individual of great wealth +for only one day, but it broke him. Who, then, shall feed this +multitude? + +I see a man rising in that great crowd and asking: "Is there any one +here who has bread or meat?" A kind of moan goes through the whole +throng. "No bread--no meat." But just at that time a lad steps up. You +know when a great crowd goes off upon an excursion, there are always +men and boys to go along for the purpose of merchandise and to strike +a bargain: and so, I suppose, this boy had gone along for the purpose +of merchandise; but he was nearly all sold out, having only five +loaves and two fishes left. He is a generous boy, and he turns them +over to Christ. + +But these loaves would not feed twenty people, how much less ten +thousand! Though the action was so generous on the part of the boy, so +far as satisfying the multitude, it was a dead failure. Then Jesus +comes to the rescue. He is apt to come when there is a dead lift. He +commands the people that they sit down "in ranks, by hundreds and by +fifties," as much as to say: "Order! order! so that none be missed." +It was fortunate that that arrangement was made; otherwise, at the +very first appearance of bread, the strong ones would have clutched +it, while the feeble and the modest would have gone unsupplied. + +I suppose it was no easy work to get that crowd seated, for they all +wanted to be in the front row, lest the bread give out before their +turn come. No sooner are they seated than there comes a great hush +over all the people. Jesus stands there, His light complexion and +auburn locks illumined by the setting sun. Every eye is on Him. They +wonder what He will do next. He takes one of the loaves that the boy +furnished and breaks off it a piece, which immediately grows to as +large a size as the original loaf, the original loaf staying as large +as it was before the piece was broken off. And they leaned forward +with intense scrutiny, saying: "Look! look!" When some one, anxious to +see more minutely what is going on, rises in front, they cry: "Sit +down in front! Let us look for ourselves." + +And then, when the bread is passed around, they taste of it +skeptically and inquiringly, as much as to say: "Is it bread? Really, +is it bread?" Yes, the best bread that was ever made, for Christ made +it. Bread for the first fifty and second fifty. Bread for the first +hundred and the second hundred. Bread for the first thousand and the +second thousand. Pass it all around the circle: there, where that aged +man sits leaning on his staff, and where that woman sits with the +child in her arms. Pass it all around. Are you all fed? "Ay! ay!" +respond the ten thousand voices; "all fed." One basket would have held +the loaves before the miracle; it takes twelve baskets now. Sound it +through all the ages of earth and heaven, that Christ the Lord comes +to our suffering race with the bread of this life in one hand, and the +bread of eternal life in the other hand. + +You have all immediately run out the analogy between that scene and +this. There were thousands there; there are thousands here. They were +in the desert; many of you are in the desert of trouble and sin. No +human power could feed them; no human power can feed you. Christ +appeared to them; Christ appears to you. Bread enough for all in the +desert; bread enough for all who are here. And, as on that occasion, +so in this: we have the people "sit down in ranks by hundreds and by +fifties;" for the fact that many of you stand is no fault of ours, for +we have tried to give you seats. As Christ divided that company into +groups, so I divide this audience into three groups: the pardoned, the +seeking, the careless. + +I. And, first, I speak to the pardoned. + +It is with some of you half past five in the morning, and some faint +streaks of light. With others it is seven o'clock, and thus full dawn. +With others it is twelve o'clock at noon, and you sit in full blaze of +Gospel pardon. I bring you congratulation. Joseph delivered from +Potiphar's dungeon; Daniel lifted from the lion's den; Saul arrested +and unhorsed on the road to Damascus. Oh, you delivered captives, how +your eyes should gleam, and your souls should bound, and your lips +should sing in this pardon! From what land did you come? A land of +darkness. What is to be your destiny? A land of light. Who got you +out? Christ, the Lord. Can you sit so placidly and unmoved while all +heaven comes to your soul with congratulation, and harps are strung, +and crowns are lifted, and a great joy swings round the heavens at the +news of your disinthrallment? If you could realize out of what a pit +you have been dug, to what height you are to be raised, and to what +glory you are destined, you would spring to your feet with "Hosanna!" + +In 1808 there was a meeting of the emperors of France and Russia at +Erfurt. There were distinguished men there also from other lands. It +was so arranged that when any of the emperors arrived at the door of +the reception-room, the drum should beat three times; but when a +lesser dignitary should come, then the drum would sound but twice. +After awhile the people in the audience-chamber heard two taps of the +drum. They said: "A prince is coming." But after awhile there were +three taps, and they cried: "The emperor!" Oh, there is a more +glorious arrival at your soul to-night! The drum beats twice at the +coming in of the lesser joys and congratulations of your soul; but it +beats once, twice, thrice at the coming in of a glorious King--Jesus +the Saviour, Jesus the God! I congratulate you. All are yours--things +present and things to come. + +II. I come now to speak of the second division--those who are seeking; +some of you with more earnestness, some of you with less earnestness. +But I believe that to-night, if I should ask all those who wish to +find the way to heaven to rise, and the world did not scoff at you, +and your own proud heart did not keep you down, there would be a +thousand souls who would cry out as they rose up: "Show me the way to +heaven!" That young man who smiled to the one next to him, as though +he cared for none of these things, would be on his knees crying for +mercy. Why this anxious look? Why this deep disquietude in the soul? +Why, at the beginning of this service, did you do what you have not +done for years--bow your head in prayer? You are seeking. + +"I am a gambler," says one man. There is mercy for you. "I am a +libertine," says another. There is mercy for you. "I have plunged into +every abomination." Mercy for you. The door of grace does not stand +ajar to-night, nor half swung around on the hinges. It is wide, wide +open; and there is nothing in the Bible, or in Christ, or God, or +earth, or heaven, or hell, to keep you out of the door of safety, if +you want to go in. Christ has borne your burdens, fought your battles, +suffered for your sins. The debt is paid, and the receipt is handed to +you, written in the blood of the Son of God--will you have it? Oh, +decide the matter now! Decide it here! Fling your exhausted soul down +at the feet of an all-compassionate, all-sympathizing, all-pitying, +all-pardoning Jesus. The laceration on His brow, the gash in His side, +the torn muscles and nerves of His feet beg you to come. + +But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in +as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a +shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. +There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very near being +saved--perhaps as near as you are to-night--but were not saved. + +On the eastern coast of England, a few weeks ago, in a +fishing-village, there was a good deal of excitement. While people +were in church, the sailors and fishermen hearing the Gospel on the +Sabbath, there was a cry: "To the beach!" and the minister closed the +Bible, and with his congregation went out to help, and they saw in the +offing a ship in trouble; but there was some disorder amid the +fishing-smacks, and amid all the boats, and it was almost impossible +to get anything launched. But after awhile they did, and they pulled +away for the wreck, and came almost up, when suddenly the distressed +bark in the offing capsized, and they all went down. Oh, if the +lifeboats had only been ten minutes quicker! And how many a life-boat +has been launched from the Gospel shore! It has come almost up to the +drowning, and yet, after all, they were not rescued. Somehow they did +not get into it! + +I suppose there are people who have asked for our prayers, and I +suppose there were some in the side room, last Sabbath night, talking +about their souls, who will miss heaven. They do not take the last +step, and all the other steps go for nothing until you have taken the +last step, for I have here, in the presence of God and this people, to +announce the solemn truth, that to be almost saved is to be lost +forever. That is all I have to say to the second division. + +III. I come now to speak to the careless. You look indifferent, and I +suppose you are indifferent. You say: "I came in here because a friend +invited me to see what is going on, but with no serious intentions +about my soul. I have so much work, and so much pleasure on hand, +don't bother me about religion." And yet you are gentlemanly, and you +are lady-like, in your behavior, and, therefore, I know that you will +listen respectfully if I talk courteously. Christian people are +sometimes afraid to talk to men and women of the world lest they be +insulted. If they talk courteously to people of the world, they will +listen courteously. So now I try to come in that way, and in that +spirit, and talk to those of you who tell me that you are careless +about your soul. + +Then you have a soul, have you? Yes, precious, with infinite capacity +for joy or suffering, winged for flight somewhere. Beckoned upward, +beckoned downward. Fought after by angels and by fiends. Immortal! + + "The sun is but a spark of fire, + A transient meteor in the sky: + The soul, immortal as its Sire, + Can never die." + +Your body will soon be taken down, the castle will be destroyed, the +tower will be in the dust, the windows will be broken out, and the +place where your body sleeps will be forgotten; but your soul, after +that, will be living, acting, feeling, thinking--where? where? Oh, +there must be something of incomputable worth in that for which heaven +gave up its best inhabitant, and Christ went into martyrdom, and at +the coming of which angels chant an eternal litany and devils rush to +the gate. When everything above you, and beneath you, and around you, +is intent upon that soul, you can not afford to be careless, +especially when I think, this moment while I speak, there are +thousands of souls in heaven rejoicing that they attended to this +matter in time, while at this very instant there are souls in the lost +world mourning that they did not attend to it in time. Hark to the +howling of the damned! + +Oh, if this room could be vacated of this audience, and you were all +gone, and the wan spirits of the lost could come up and occupy this +place, and I could stand before them with offers of pardon through +Jesus Christ, and then ask them if they would accept it, there would +come up an instantaneous, multitudinous, overwhelming cry: "Yes! yes! +yes! yes!" No such fortune for them. They had their day of grace, and +sacrificed it. You have yours; will you sacrifice it? I wish that I +could have you see these things as you will one day see them. + +Suppose, on your way home, a runaway horse should dash across the +street, or between the dock and the boat you should accidentally slip, +where would you be at twelve o'clock to-night or seven o'clock +to-morrow morning? Or for all eternity where would you be? I do not +answer the question. I just leave it to you to answer. + +But suppose you escape fatal accident. Suppose you go out by the +ordinary process of sickness. I will just suppose now that your last +hour has come. The doctor says, as he goes out of the room: "Can't get +well." There is something in the faces of those who stand around you +that prophesies that you can not get well. You say within yourself: "I +can't get well." Where are your comrades now? Oh, they are off to the +gay party that very night! They dance as well as they ever did. They +drink as much wine. They laugh as loud as though you were not dying. +They destroyed your soul, but do not come to help you die. + +Well, there are father and mother in the room. They are very quiet, +but occasionally they go out into the next room and weep bitterly. The +bed is very much disheveled. They have not been able to make it up +for two or three days. There are four or five pillows lying around, +because they have been trying to make you as easy as they could. On +the one side of your bed are all the past years of your life--the +Bibles, the sermons, the communion-tables, the offers of mercy. You +say: "Take them away." Your mother thinks you are delirious. She says: +"There is nothing there, my dear, nothing there." There is something +there! It is your wasted opportunities. It is your procrastinations. +It is those years you gave to the world that you ought to have given +to Christ. They are there; and some of them put their fingers on your +aching temples, and some of them feel for the strings of your heart, +and some put more thorns in your tumbled pillow, and you say: "Turn me +over." And they turn you over, but, alas! there is a more appalling +vision. You say: "Take that away!" They say: "There is nothing there, +nothing there." There is--an open grave there! the judgment is there! +a lost eternity is there! Take it away! They can not take it away. + +You say: "How dark it is getting in the room!" Why, the burners are +all lighted. Your family come up one by one, and tenderly kiss you +good-bye. Your feet are cold, and the hands are cold, and the lips are +cold, and they take a small mirror and they put it over your mouth to +see if there is any breathing, and that mirror is taken away without a +single blur upon it; and they whisper through the room: "She is gone." +And then the door of the body opens and the soul flashes out. Make +room for the destroyed spirit. + +Push back that door! Lost! Let it come into its eternal residence. +Woe! woe! No cup of merriment now, but cup of the wrath of Almighty +God. The last chance for heaven gone. The door of mercy shut. The doom +sealed. The blackness of darkness forever! + +Voltaire is there. Herod is there. Robespierre is there. The +debauchees are there. The murderers are there. All the rejectors of +Jesus Christ are there. And you will be there unless you repent. You +can not say, my dear brother, that you were not warned. This sermon +would be a witness against you. You can not say that God's Holy Spirit +never strove with your heart. He is striving now. You can not say that +you had no chance for heaven, for the Omnipotent Son of God offers you +His rescue. You can not say: "I had no warning about that world; I +didn't know there was any such place," for the Bible distinctly rings +in your ears to-day, saying: "At the end of the world the angels shall +separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a +furnace of fire." And again that book says: "The wicked shall be +turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." And again it +says: "The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever." + +You can not say that you did not hear about heaven, the other +alternative, for you hear of it now: "The Lamb which is in the midst +of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of water, and God +shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No sorrow, no suffering, +no death. Oh, will you be careless any longer, when I tell you that +Christ, the Conqueror of earth and hell, offers you now escape from +all peril, and offers to introduce you this very hour into the peace +and pardon of the Gospel, preparing you for that good land? The sides +of Calvary run blood for you. Jesus, who had not where to lay His +head, offers you His heart as a pillow of rest. Christ offers with His +own body to bridge over the chasm of death, saying: "Walk over Me; I +am the way." + +O suffering Jesus! the thief scoffed at Thee, and the malefactor spat +on Thee, and the soldiers stabbed Thee; but these who sit before Thee +to-day have no heart to do that. O Jesus! tell them of Thy love, tell +them of Thy sympathy, tell them of the rewards Thou wilt give them in +the better land. Groan again, O blessed Jesus! groan again, and +perhaps when the rocks fall, their hard hearts may break. + + "Nothing brought Him from above, + Nothing but redeeming love." + +The promise is all free, the path all clear. Come, Mary, and sit +to-night at the feet of Jesus. Come, Bartimeus, and have your eyes +opened. Come, O prodigal! and sit at thy father's table. Come, O you +suffering, sinning, dying the soul! and find rest on the heart of +Jesus. The Spirit and Bride say "Come," and Churches militant and +triumphant say "Come," and all the voices of the past, mingling with +all the voices of the future, in one great thunder of emphasis, bid +you "Come now!" Are not those of you who are in the third class ready +to pass over into the second division, and become seekers after +Christ? Ay, are you not ready to pass over into the first division, +and become the pardoned sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? I +can do no more than offer you, through Jesus Christ, peace on earth +and everlasting residence in His presence. + + "When God makes up His last account + Of natives in His holy mount, + 'Twill be an honor to appear + As one new-born and nourished there." + +Good-night! The Lord bless you! Go to your homes seeking after Christ. +Sleep not until you have made your peace with God. Good-night--a deep, +hearty, loving, Christian good-night! + + + + +THE INSIGNIFICANT. + + "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the + reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field + belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of + Elimelech."--RUTH ii: 3. + + +The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It +was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for +the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the +poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls +of grain scattered across the field after the main harvest had been +reaped, instead of raking it, as farmers do now, it was, by the custom +of the land, left in its place, so that the poor, coming along that +way, might glean it and get their bread. But, you say, "What is the +use of all these harvest-fields to Ruth and Naomi? Naomi is too old +and feeble to go out and toil in the sun; and can you expect that +Ruth, the young and the beautiful, should tan her cheeks and blister +her hands in the harvest-field?" + +Boaz owns a large farm, and he goes out to see the reapers gather in +the grain. Coming there, right behind the swarthy, sun-browned +reapers, he beholds a beautiful woman gleaning--a woman more fit to +bend to a harp or sit upon a throne than to stoop among the sheaves. +Ah, that was an eventful day! + +It was love at first sight. Boaz forms an attachment for the womanly +gleaner--an attachment full of undying interest to the Church of God +in all ages; while Ruth, with an ephah, or nearly a bushel of barley, +goes home to Naomi to tell her the successes and adventures of the +day. That Ruth, who left her native land of Moab in darkness, and +traveled through an undying affection for her mother-in-law, is in the +harvest-field of Boaz, is affianced to one of the best families in +Judah, and becomes in after-time the ancestress of Jesus Christ, the +Lord of glory! Out of so dark a night did there ever dawn so bright a +morning? + +I. I learn, in the first place, from this subject how trouble develops +character. It was bereavement, poverty, and exile that developed, +illustrated, and announced to all ages the sublimity of Ruth's +character. That is a very unfortunate man who has no trouble. It was +sorrow that made John Bunyan the better dreamer, and Doctor Young the +better poet, and O'Connell the better orator, and Bishop Hall the +better preacher, and Havelock the better soldier, and Kitto the better +encyclopaedist, and Ruth the better daughter-in-law. + +I once asked an aged man in regard to his pastor, who was a very +brilliant man, "Why is it that your pastor, so very brilliant, seems +to have so little heart and tenderness in his sermons?" "Well," he +replied, "the reason is, our pastor has never had any trouble. When +misfortune comes upon him, his style will be different." After awhile +the Lord took a child out of that pastor's house; and though the +preacher was just as brilliant as he was before, oh, the warmth, the +tenderness of his discourses! The fact is, that trouble is a great +educator. You see sometimes a musician sit down at an instrument, and +his execution is cold and formal and unfeeling. The reason is that all +his life he has been prospered. But let misfortune or bereavement come +to that man, and he sits down at the instrument, and you discover the +pathos in the first sweep of the keys. + +Misfortune and trials are great educators. A young doctor comes into a +sick-room where there is a dying child. Perhaps he is very rough in +his prescription, and very rough in his manner, and rough in the +feeling of the pulse, and rough in his answer to the mother's anxious +question; but years roll on, and there has been one dead in his own +house; and now he comes into the sick-room, and with tearful eye he +looks at the dying child, and he says, "Oh, how this reminds me of my +Charlie!" Trouble, the great educator. Sorrow--I see its touch in the +grandest painting; I hear its tremor in the sweetest song; I feel its +power in the mightiest argument. + +Grecian mythology said that the fountain of Hippocrene was struck out +by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. I have often noticed in life +that the brightest and most beautiful fountains of Christian comfort +and spiritual life have been struck out by the iron-shod hoof of +disaster and calamity. I see Daniel's courage best by the flash of +Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I see Paul's prowess best when I find him on +the foundering ship under the glare of the lightning in the breakers +of Melita. God crowns His children amid the howling of wild beasts and +the chopping of blood-splashed guillotine and the crackling fires of +martyrdom. It took the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius to develop +Polycarp and Justin Martyr. It took the pope's bull and the cardinal's +curse and the world's anathema to develop Martin Luther. It took all +the hostilities against the Scotch Covenanters and the fury of Lord +Claverhouse to develop James Renwick, and Andrew Melville, and Hugh +McKail, the glorious martyrs of Scotch history. It took the stormy +sea, and the December blast, and the desolate New England coast, and +the war-whoop of savages, to show forth the prowess of the Pilgrim +Fathers-- + + "When amid the storms they sung, + And the stars heard, and the sea, + And the sounding aisles of the dim wood + Rang to the anthems of the free." + +It took all our past national distresses, and it takes all our present +national sorrows, to lift up our nation on that high career where it +will march along after the foreign aristocracies that have mocked and +the tyrannies that have jeered, shall be swept down under the +omnipotent wrath of God, who hates despotism, and who, by the strength +of His own red right arm, will make all men free. And so it is +individually, and in the family, and in the Church, and in the world, +that through darkness and storm and trouble men, women, churches, +nations, are developed. + +II. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship. I +suppose there were plenty of friends for Naomi while she was in +prosperity; but of all her acquaintances, how many were willing to +trudge off with her toward Judah, when she had to make that lonely +journey? One--the heroine of my text. One--absolutely one. I suppose +when Naomi's husband was living, and they had plenty of money, and all +things went well, they had a great many callers; but I suppose that +after her husband died, and her property went, and she got old and +poor, she was not troubled very much with callers. All the birds that +sung in the bower while the sun shone have gone to their nests, now +the night has fallen. + +Oh, these beautiful sun-flowers that spread out their color in the +morning hour! but they are always asleep when the sun is going down! +Job had plenty of friends when he was the richest man in Uz; but when +his property went and the trials came, then there were none so much +that pestered as Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and +Zophar the Naamathite. + +Life often seems to be a mere game, where the successful player pulls +down all the other men into his own lap. Let suspicions arise about a +man's character, and he becomes like a bank in a panic, and all the +imputations rush on him and break down in a day that character which +in due time would have had strength to defend itself. There are +reputations that have been half a century in building, which go down +under some moral exposure, as a vast temple is consumed by the touch +of a sulphurous match. A hog can uproot a century plant. + +In this world, so full of heartlessness and hypocrisy, how thrilling +it is to find some friend as faithful in days of adversity as in days +of prosperity! David had such a friend in Hushai; the Jews had such a +friend in Mordecai, who never forgot their cause; Paul had such a +friend in Onesiphorus, who visited him in jail; Christ had such in +the Marys, who adhered to Him on the cross; Naomi had such a one in +Ruth, who cried out: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from +following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God +my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." + +III. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in +hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth +started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her +mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: "Oh, what a foolish creature +to go away from her father's house, to go off with a poor old woman +toward the land of Judah! They won't live to get across the desert. +They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackals of the wilderness will +destroy them." It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with +Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be +affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the +grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is +that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly. + +When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of +conviction--how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the +darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it +was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. +After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God's mercy; you +began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more +sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, +saying: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and +whose sins are covered." A very dark starting in conviction, a very +bright ending in the pardon and the hope and the triumph of the +Gospel! + +So, very often in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we +start off on a very dark path. We must go. The flesh may shrink back, +but there is a voice within, or a voice from above, saying, "You must +go;" and we have to drink the gall, and we have to carry the cross, +and we have to traverse the desert and we are pounded and flailed of +misrepresentation and abuse, and we have to urge our way through ten +thousand obstacles that have been slain by our own right arm. We have +to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the +castle; but, blessed be God, the day of rest and reward will come. On +the tip-top of the captured battlements we will shout the victory; if +not in this world, then in that world where there is no gall to drink, +no burdens to carry, no battles to fight. How do I know it? Know it! I +know it because God says so: "They shall hunger no more, neither +thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, +for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them to +living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from their +eyes." + +It was very hard for Noah to endure the scoffing of the people in his +day, while he was trying to build the ark, and was every morning +quizzed about his old boat that would never be of any practical use; +but when the deluge came, and the tops of the mountains disappeared +like the backs of sea-monsters, and the elements, lashed up in fury, +clapped their hands over a drowned world, then Noah in the ark +rejoiced in his own safety and in the safety of his family, and looked +out on the wreck of a ruined earth. + +Christ, hounded of persecutors, denied a pillow, worse maltreated than +the thieves on either side of the cross, human hate smacking its lips +in satisfaction after it had been draining His last drop of blood, the +sheeted dead bursting from the sepulchers at His crucifixion. Tell me, +O Gethsemane and Golgotha! were there ever darker times than those? +Like the booming of the midnight sea against the rock, the surges of +Christ's anguish beat against the gates of eternity, to be echoed back +by all the thrones of heaven and all the dungeons of hell. But the day +of reward comes for Christ; all the pomp and dominion of this world +are to be hung on His throne, uncrowned heads are to bow before Him on +whose head are many crowns, and all the celestial worship is to come +up at His feet, like the humming of the forest, like the rushing of +the waters, like the thundering of the seas, while all heaven, rising +on their thrones, beat time with their scepters: "Hallelujah, for the +Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah, the kingdoms of this world +have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ!" + + "That song of love, now low and far, + Ere long shall swell from star to star; + That light, the breaking day which tips + The golden-spired Apocalypse." + +IV. Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most +insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more +unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can +you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just +happened to alight--as they say--just happened to alight on that field +of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact +that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all +nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a +thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction. So it is in your +history and in mine: events that you thought of no importance at all +have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that +accidental meeting--you did not think of it again for a long while; +but how it changed all the phase of your life! + +It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments +of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction +of all the world's minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a +stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from +it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the +long-continued strains of Jubal's harp and Jubal's organ. It seemed to +be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses +of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo +in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of +factories on the Merrimac. + +It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in +a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids +fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest +convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the +sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation. It seemed to be a +matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, +dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard +Baxter. He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of +his salvation. + +In after-days that man wrote a book called "The Call to the +Unconverted," that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among +others Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote a book called "The +Rise and Progress of Religion," which has brought thousands and tens +of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great +Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book called "A Practical View of +Christianity," which was the means of bringing a great multitude to +Christ, among others Legh Richmond. Legh Richmond wrote a tract called +"The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation +of unconverted multitudes. And that tide of influence started from the +fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of +Richard Baxter--the tide of influence rolling on through Richard +Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, +through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever. So the +insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most +momentous. The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed +to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of +some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to +you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history. + +V. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female +industry. + +Behold Ruth toiling in the harvest-field under the hot sun, or at noon +taking plain bread with the reapers, or eating the parched corn which +Boaz handed to her. The customs of society, of course, have changed, +and without the hardships and exposure to which Ruth was subjected, +every intelligent woman will find something to do. + +I know there is a sickly sentimentality on this subject. In some +families there are persons of no practical service to the household or +community; and though there are so many woes all around about them in +the world, they spend their time languishing over a new pattern, or +bursting into tears at midnight over the story of some lover who shot +himself! They would not deign to look at Ruth carrying back the barley +on her way home to her mother-in-law, Naomi. All this fastidiousness +may seem to do very well while they are under the shelter of their +father's house; but when the sharp winter of misfortune comes, what of +these butterflies? Persons under indulgent parentage may get upon +themselves habits of indolence; but when they come out into practical +life their soul will recoil with disgust and chagrin. They will feel +in their hearts what the poet so severely satirized when he said: + + "Folks are so awkward, things so impolite, + They're elegantly pained from morning until night." + +Through that gate of indolence how many men and women have marched, +useless on earth, to a destroyed eternity! Spinola said to Sir Horace +Vere: "Of what did your brother die?" "Of having nothing to do," was +the answer. "Ah!" said Spinola, "that's enough to kill any general of +us." Oh! can it be possible in this world, where there is so much +suffering to be alleviated, so much darkness to be enlightened, and so +many burdens to be carried, that there is any person who cannot find +anything to do? + +Madame de Stael did a world of work in her time; and one day, while +she was seated amid instruments of music, all of which she had +mastered, and amid manuscript books which she had written, some one +said to her: "How do you find time to attend to all these things?" +"Oh," she replied, "these are not the things I am proud of. My chief +boast is in the fact that I have seventeen trades, by any one of which +I could make a livelihood if necessary." And if in secular spheres +there is so much to be done, in spiritual work how vast the field! How +many dying all around about us without one word of comfort! We want +more Abigails, more Hannahs, more Rebeccas, more Marys, more Deborahs +consecrated--body, mind, soul--to the Lord who bought them. + +VI. Once more I learn from my subject the value of gleaning. + +Ruth going into that harvest-field might have said: "There is a straw, +and there is a straw, but what is a straw? I can't get any barley for +myself or my mother-in-law out of these separate straws." Not so said +beautiful Ruth. She gathered two straws, and she put them together, +and more straws, until she got enough to make a sheaf. Putting that +down, she went and gathered more straws, until she had another sheaf, +and another, and another, and another, and then she brought them all +together, and she threshed them out, and she had an ephah of barley, +nigh a bushel. Oh, that we might all be gleaners! + +Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith's +shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher +in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, +while, as a physician, he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to +open. Yet how many there are in this day who say they are so busy they +have no time for mental or spiritual improvement; the great duties of +life cross the field like strong reapers, and carry off all the hours, +and there is only here and there a fragment left, that is not worth +gleaning. Ah, my friends, you could go into the busiest day and +busiest week of your life and find golden opportunities, which, +gathered, might at last make a whole sheaf for the Lord's garner. It +is the stray opportunities and the stray privileges which, taken up +and bound together and beaten out, will at last fill you with much +joy. + +There are a few moments left worth the gleaning. Now, Ruth, to the +field! May each one have a measure full and running over! Oh, you +gleaners, to the field! And if there be in your household an aged one +or a sick relative that is not strong enough to come forth and toil in +this field, then let Ruth take home to feeble Naomi this sheaf of +gleaning: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, +shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with +him." May the Lord God of Ruth and Naomi be our portion forever! + + + + +THE THREE RINGS. + + "Put a ring on his hand."--LUKE xv: 22. + + +I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the +parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard +time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and +prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of +parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front +of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and +say: "What's the matter? What _is_ the matter?" But before they quite +arrive, the old man cries out: "Put a ring on his hand." What a +seeming absurdity! What can such a wretched mendicant as this fellow +that is tramping on toward the house want with a ring? Oh, he is the +prodigal son. No more tending of the swine-trough. No more longing for +the pods of the carob-tree. No more blistered feet. Off with the rags! +On with the robe! Out with the ring! Even so does God receive every +one of us when we come back. There are gold rings, and pearl rings, +and carnelian rings, and diamond rings; but the richest ring that ever +flashed on the vision is that which our Father puts upon a forgiven +soul. + +I know that the impression is abroad among some people that religion +bemeans and belittles a man; that it takes all the sparkle out of his +soul; that he has to exchange a roistering independence for an +ecclesiastical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian, +he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten +thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting +out--it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence, +it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is +not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the +palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the +throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest +liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment. +"Put a ring on his hand." + +I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into +His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years +ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of +the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten +children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to +find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the +pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the +services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this +little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own +children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage, +and went away. + +The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for +the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under +her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the +poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright +and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said +that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption. + +There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry, +and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries. +In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a +king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His +adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold +what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should +be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may +be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live +in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are +assured of eternal defenses. + +Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of +earth and heaven. We have the family name, the family dress, the +family keys, the family wardrobe. The Father looks after us, robes us, +defends us, blesses us. We have royal blood in our veins, and there +are crowns in our line. If we are His children, then princes and +princesses. It is only a question of time when we get our coronet. +Adopted! Then we have the family secrets. "The secret of the Lord is +with them that fear Him." Adopted! Then we have the family +inheritance, and in the day when our Father shall divide the riches of +heaven we shall take our share of the mansions and palaces and +temples. Henceforth let us boast no more of an earthly ancestry. The +insignia of eternal glory is our coat of arms. This ring of adoption +puts upon us all honor and all privilege. Now we can take the words of +Charles Wesley, that prince of hymn-makers, and sing: + + "Come, let us join our friends above, + Who have obtained the prize, + And on the eagle wings of love + To joy celestial rise. + + "Let all the saints terrestrial sing + With those to glory gone; + For all the servants of our King, + In heaven and earth, are one." + +I have been told that when any of the members of any of the great +secret societies of this country are in a distant city and are in any +kind of trouble, and are set upon by enemies, they have only to give a +certain signal and the members of that organization will flock around +for defense. And when any man belongs to this great Christian +brotherhood, if he gets in trouble, in trial, in persecution, in +temptation, he has only to show this ring of Christ's adoption, and +all the armed cohorts of heaven will come to his rescue. + +Still further, when Christ takes a soul into His love He puts upon it +a marriage-ring. Now, that is not a whim of mine: "And I will betroth +thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in +righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in +mercies." (Hosea ii: 19.) At the wedding altar the bridegroom puts a +ring upon the hand of the bride, signifying love and faithfulness. +Trouble may come upon the household, and the carpets may go, the +pictures may go, the piano may go, everything else may go--the last +thing that goes is that marriage-ring, for it is considered sacred. In +the burial hour it is withdrawn from the hand and kept in a casket, +and sometimes the box is opened on an anniversary day, and as you look +at that ring you see under its arch a long procession of precious +memories. Within the golden circle of that ring there is room for a +thousand sweet recollections to revolve, and you think of the great +contrast between the hour when, at the close of the "Wedding March," +under the flashing lights and amid the aroma of orange-blossoms, you +set that ring on the round finger of the plump hand, and that other +hour when, at the close of the exhaustive watching, when you knew that +the soul had fled, you took from the hand, which gave back no +responsive clasp, from that emaciated finger, the ring that she had +worn so long and worn so well. + +On some anniversary day you take up that ring, and you repolish it +until all the old luster comes back, and you can see in it the flash +of eyes that long ago ceased to weep. Oh, it is not an unmeaning thing +when I tell you that when Christ receives a soul into His keeping He +puts on it a marriage-ring. He endows you from that moment with all +His wealth. You are one--Christ and the soul--one in sympathy, one in +affection, one in hope. + +There is no power in earth or hell to effect a divorcement after +Christ and the soul are united. Other kings have turned out their +companions when they got weary of them, and sent them adrift from the +palace gate. Ahasuerus banished Vashti; Napoleon forsook Josephine; +but Christ is the husband that is true forever. Having loved you once, +He loves you to the end. Did they not try to divorce Margaret, the +Scotch girl, from Jesus? They said: "You must give up your religion." +She said: "I can't give up my religion." And so they took her down to +the beach of the sea, and they drove in a stake at low-water mark, and +they fastened her to it, expecting that as the tide came up her faith +would fail. The tide began to rise, and came up higher and higher, and +to the girdle, and to the lip, and in the last moment, just as the +wave was washing her soul into glory, she shouted the praises of +Jesus. + +Oh, no, you can not separate a soul from Christ! It is an everlasting +marriage. Battle and storm and darkness can not do it. Is it too much +exultation for a man, who is but dust and ashes like myself, to cry +out this morning: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor any other creature shall separate me from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus my Lord"? Glory be to God that when Christ and the +soul are married they are bound by a chain, a golden chain--if I might +say so--a chain with one link, and that one link the golden ring of +God's everlasting love. + +I go a step further, and tell you that when Christ receives a soul +into His love He puts on him the ring of festivity. You know that it +has been the custom in all ages to bestow rings on very happy +occasions. There is nothing more appropriate for a birthday gift than +a ring. You delight to bestow such a gift upon your children at such +a time. It means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well, when this old man of +the text wanted to tell how glad he was that his boy had got back, he +expressed it in this way. Actually, before he ordered sandals to be +put on his bare feet; before he ordered the fatted calf to be killed +to appease the boy's hunger, he commanded: "Put a ring on his hand." + +Oh, it is a merry time when Christ and the soul are united! Joy of +forgiveness! What a splendid thing it is to feel that all is right +between me and God. What a glorious thing it is to have God just take +up all the sins of my life and put them in one bundle, and then fling +them into the depths of the sea, never to rise again, never to be +talked of again. Pollution all gone. Darkness all illumined. God +reconciled. The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his hand." + +Every day I find happy Christian people. I find some of them with no +second coat, some of them in huts and tenement houses, not one earthly +comfort afforded them; and yet they are as happy as happy can be. They +sing "Rock of Ages" as no other people in the world sing it. They +never wore any jewelry in their life but one gold ring, and that was +the ring of God's undying affection. Oh, how happy religion makes us! +Did it make you gloomy and sad? Did you go with your head cast down? I +do not think you got religion, my brother. That is not the effect of +religion. True religion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, +and all her paths are peace." + +Why, religion lightens all our burdens. It smooths all our way. It +interprets all our sorrows. It changes the jar of earthly discord for +the peal of festal bells. In front of the flaming furnace of trial it +sets the forge on which scepters are hammered out. Would you not like +to-day to come up from the swine-feeding and try this religion? All +the joys of heaven would come out and meet you, and God would cry from +the throne: "Put a ring on his hand." + +You are not happy. I see it. There is no peace, and sometimes you +laugh when you feel a great deal more like crying. The world is a +cheat. It first wears you down with its follies, then it kicks you out +into darkness. It comes back from the massacre of a million souls to +attempt the destruction of your soul to-day. No peace out of God, but +here is the fountain that can slake the thirst. Here is the harbor +where you can drop safe anchorage. + +Would you not like, I ask you--not perfunctorily, but as one brother +might talk to another--would you not like to have a pillow of rest to +put your head on? And would you not like, when you retire at night, to +feel that all is well, whether you wake up to-morrow morning at six +o'clock, or sleep the sleep that knows no waking? Would you not like +to exchange this awful uncertainty about the future for a glorious +assurance of heaven? Accept of the Lord Jesus to-day, and all is well. +If on your way home some peril should cross the street and dash your +life out, it would not hurt you. You would rise up immediately. You +would stand in the celestial streets. You would be amid the great +throng that forever worship and are forever happy. If this day some +sudden disease should come upon you, it would not frighten you. If you +knew you were going you could give a calm farewell to your beautiful +home on earth, and know that you are going right into the +companionship of those who have already got beyond the toiling and the +weeping. + +You feel on Saturday night different from the way you feel any other +night of the week. You come home from the bank, or the store, or the +shop, and you say: "Well, now my week's work is done, and to-morrow is +Sunday." It is a pleasant thought. There is refreshment and +reconstruction in the very idea. Oh, how pleasant it will be, if, when +we get through the day of our life, and we go and lie down in our bed +of dust, we can realize: "Well, now the work is all done, and +to-morrow is Sunday--an everlasting Sunday." + + "Oh, when, thou city of my God, + Shall I thy courts ascend? + Where congregations ne'er break up, + And Sabbaths have no end." + +There are people in this house to-day who are very near the eternal +world. If you are Christians, I bid you be of good cheer. Bear with +you our congratulations to the bright city. Aged men, who will soon be +gone, take with you our love for our kindred in the better land, and +when you see them, tell them that we are soon coming. Only a few more +sermons to preach and hear. Only a few more heart-aches. Only a few +more toils. Only a few more tears. And then--what an entrancing +spectacle will open before us! + + "Beautiful heaven, where all is light, + Beautiful angels clothed in white, + Beautiful strains that never tire, + Beautiful harps through all the choir; + There shall I join the chorus sweet, + Worshiping at the Saviour's feet." + +I stand before you on this Sabbath, the last Sabbath preceding the +great feast-day in this Church. On the next Lord's-day the door of +communion will be open, and you will all be invited to come in. And so +I approach you now with a general invitation, not picking out here and +there a man, or here and there a woman, or here and there a child; but +giving you an unlimited invitation, saying: "Come, for all things are +now ready." We invite you to the warm heart of Christ, and the +inclosure of the Christian Church. I know a great many think that the +Church does not amount to much--that it is obsolete; that it did its +work and is gone now, so far as all usefulness is concerned. It is the +happiest place I have ever been in except my own home. + +I know there are some people who say they are Christians who seem to +get along without any help from others, and who culture solitary +piety. They do not want any ordinances. I do not belong to that class. +I can not get along without them. There are so many things in this +world that take my attention from God, and Christ, and heaven, that I +want all the helps of all the symbols and of all the Christian +associations; and I want around about me a solid phalanx of men who +love God and keep His commandments. Are there any here who would like +to enter into that association? Then by a simple, child-like faith, +apply for admission into the visible Church, and you will be received. +No questions asked about your past history or present surroundings. +Only one test--do you love Jesus? + +Baptism does not amount to anything, say a great many people; but the +Lord Jesus declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be +saved," putting baptism and faith side by side. And an apostle +declares, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." I do not stickle +for any particular mode of baptism, but I put great emphasis on the +fact that you ought to be baptized. Yet no more emphasis than the Lord +Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church, puts upon it. + +The world is going to lose a great many of its votaries next Sabbath. +We give you warning. There is a great host coming in to stand under +the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you be among them? It is +going to be a great harvest-day. Will you be among the gathered +sheaves? + +Some of you have been thinking on this subject year after year. You +have found out that this world is a poor portion. You want to be +Christians. You have come almost into the kingdom of God; but there +you stop, forgetful of the fact that to be almost saved is not to be +saved at all. Oh, my brother, after having come so near to the door of +mercy, if you turn back, you will never come at all. After all you +have heard of the goodness of God, if you turn away and die, it will +not be because you did not have a good offer. + + "God's spirit will not always strive + With hardened, self-destroying man; + Ye who persist His love to grieve + May never hear his voice again." + +May God Almighty this hour move upon your soul and bring you back from +the husks of the wilderness to the Father's house, and set you at the +banquet, and "put a ring on your hand." + + + + +HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT. + + "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be + Anathema Maranatha."--I COR. xvi: 22. + + +The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words +except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. +Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." +Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him +with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitement +about human sorrow; and now he throws those red-hot iron words into +this letter to the Corinthians. Had he lost his patience? Ok, no. Had +he resigned his confidence in the Christian religion? Oh, no. Had the +world treated him so badly that he had become its sworn enemy? Oh, no. +It needs some explanation, I confess, and I shall proceed to show by +what process Paul came to the vehement utterance of my text. Before I +close, if God shall give His Spirit, you shall cease to be surprised +at the exclamation of the Apostle, and you yourselves will employ the +same emphasis, declaring, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +If the photographic art had been discovered early enough, we should +have had the facial proportions of Christ--the front face, the side +face, Jesus sitting, Jesus standing--provided He had submitted to that +art; but since the sun did not become a portrait painter until +eighteen centuries after Christ, our idea about the Saviour's personal +appearance is all guess work. Still, tradition tells us that He was +the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth. +If His features had been rugged, and His gait had been ungainly, that +would not have hindered Him from being attractive. Many men you have +known and loved have had few charms of physiognomy. Wilberforce was +not attractive in face. Socrates was repulsive. Suwarrow, the great +Russian hero, looked almost an imbecile. And some whom you have known, +and honored, and loved, have not had very great attractiveness of +personal appearance. The shape of the mouth, and the nose, and the +eyebrow, did not hinder the soul from shining through the cuticle of +the face in all-powerful irradiation. + +But to a lovely exterior Christ joined all loveliness of disposition. +Run through the galleries of heaven, and find out that He is _a +non-such_. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His +sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the +crimson flowing forth of His blood, make a picture worthy of being +called the masterpiece of the eternities. Hung on the wall of heaven, +the celestial population would be enchanted but for the fact that they +have the grand and magnificent original, and they want no picture. But +Christ having gone away from earth, we are dependent upon four +indistinct pictures. Matthew took one, Mark another, Luke another, +and John another. I care not which picture you take, it is lovely. +Lovely? He was altogether lovely. + +He had a way of taking up a dropsical limb without hurting it, and of +removing the cataract from the eye without the knife, and of starting +the circulation through the shrunken arteries without the shock of the +electric battery, and of putting intelligence into the dull stare of +lunacy, and of restringing the auditory nerve of the deaf ear, and of +striking articulation into the stiff tongue, and of making the +stark-naked madman dress himself and exchange tombstone for ottoman, +and of unlocking from the skeleton grip of death the daughter of +Jairus to embosom her in her glad father's arms. Oh, He was +lovely--sitting, standing, kneeling, lying down--always lovely. + +Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us. Home, +celestial companionship, music of seraphic harps, balmy breath of +eternal summer, all joy, all light, all music, and heard the gates +slam shut behind Him as He came out to fight for our freedom, and with +bare feet plunged on the sharp javelins of human and satanic hate, +until His blood spurted into the faces of those who slew Him. You want +the soft, low, minor key of sweetest music to describe the pathos; but +it needs an orchestra, under swinging of an archangel's baton, +reaching from throne to manger, to drum and trumpet the doxologies of +His praise. He took everybody's trouble--the leper's sickness, the +widow's dead boy, the harlot's shame, the Galilean fisherman's poor +luck, the invalidism of Simon's mother-in-law, the sting of Malchus' +amputated ear. + +Some people cry very easily, and for some it is very difficult to cry. +A great many tears on some cheeks do not mean so much as one tear on +another cheek. What is it that I see glittering in the mild eye of +Jesus? It was all the sorrows of earth, and the woes of hell, from +which He had plucked our souls, accreted into one transparent drop, +lingering on the lower eyelash until it fell on a cheek red with the +slap of human hands--just one salt, bitter, burning tear of Jesus. No +wonder the rock, the sky, and the cemetery were in consternation when +He died! No wonder the universe was convulsed! It was the Lord God +Almighty bursting into tears. Now, suppose that, notwithstanding all +this, a man can not have any affection for Him. What ought to be done +with such hard behavior? + +It seems to me that there ought to be some chastisement for a man who +will not love such a Christ. Does it not make your blood tingle to +think of Jesus coming over the tens of thousands of miles that seem to +separate God from us, and then to see a man jostle Him out, and push +Him back, and shut the door in His face, and trample upon His +entreaties? While you may not be able to rise up to the towering +excitement of the Apostle in my text, you can at any rate somewhat +understand his feelings when he cried out: "After all this, 'if a man +love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. Now, there is nothing +that excites a man like injustice. You go along the street, and you +see your little child buffeted, or a ruffian comes and takes a boy's +hat and throws it into the ditch. You say: "What great meanness, what +injustice that is!" You can not stand injustice. I remember, in my +boyhood days, attending a large meeting in Tripler Hall, New York. +Thousands of people were huzzaing, and the same kind of audiences were +assembled at the same time in Boston, Edinburgh, and London. Why? +Because the Madaii family, in Italy, had been robbed of their Bible. +"A little thing," you say. Ah, that injustice was enough to arouse the +indignation of a world. But while we are so sensitive about injustice +as between man and man, how little sensitive we are about injustice +between man and God. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of +anything, then Christ purchased us. He paid for us, not in shekels, +not in ancient coins inscribed with effigies of Hercules, or AEgina's +tortoise, or lyre of Mitylene, but in two kinds of coin--one red, the +other glittering--blood and tears! If anything is purchased and paid +for, ought not the goods to be delivered? If you have bought property +and given the money, do you not want to come into possession of it? +"Yes," you say, "I will have it. I bought and paid for it." And you +will go to law for it, and you will denounce the man as a defrauder. +Ay, if need be, you will hurl him into jail. You will say: "I am bound +to get that property. I bought it. I paid for it!" + +Now, transpose the case. Suppose Jesus Christ to be the wronged +purchaser on the one side, and the impenitent soul on the other, +trying to defraud Him of that which He bought at such an exorbitant +price, how do you feel about that injustice? How do you feel toward +that spiritual fraud, turpitude and perfidy? A man with an ardent +temperament rises and he says that such injustice as between man and +man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and +intolerable, and he brings his fist down on the pew, and he says: "I +can stand this injustice no longer. After all this purchase, 'if any +man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha'!" + +I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to +love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have +only one feeling toward him--sympathy and a desire to help him. If he +has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten +cents on a dollar--ay, if he can not pay anything--though his +creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with +him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But +suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into +his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come +to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your +perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for +the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten +thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then +everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't +take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for +offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You +would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to +fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all +this house who would have any sympathy for that man. + +But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual +embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal +defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay +me what thou owest." + +We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of +all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here +is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My +red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through +anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't +meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I +want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would +say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he +would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants; +he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of +choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who +understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can +say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and +rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, +let him be Anathema Maranatha.'" + +I go a step further, and say it is most cruel for a man not to love +Jesus. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to +hurt your feelings. Sharp words sometimes cut like a dagger. An unkind +look will sometimes rive like the lightning. An unkind deed may +overmaster a sensitive spirit, and if you have made up your mind that +you have done wrong to any one, it does not take you two minutes to +make up your mind to go and apologize. Now, Christ is a bundle of +delicacy and sensitiveness. How you have shocked His nerves! How you +have broken His heart! + +Did you, my brother, ever measure the meaning of that one passage: +"Behold, I stand at the door and knock"? It never came to me as it did +this morning while I was thinking on this subject. "Behold, I stand at +the door and knock." Some January day, the thermometer five degrees +below zero, the wind and sleet beating mercilessly against you, you go +up the steps of a house where you have a very important errand. You +knock with one knuckle. No answer. You are very earnest, and you are +freezing. The next time you knock harder. After awhile with your fist +you beat against the door. You must get in, but the inmate is careless +or stubborn, and he does not want you in. Your errand is a failure. +You go away. + +The Lord Jesus Christ comes up on the steps of your heart, and with +very sore hand he knocks hard at the door of your soul. He is standing +in the cold blasts of human suffering. He knocks. He says: "Let me in. +I have come a great way. I have come all the way from Nazareth, from +Bethlehem, from Golgotha. Let Me in. I am shivering and blue with the +cold. Let Me in. My feet are bare but for their covering of blood. My +head is uncovered but for a turban of brambles. By all these wounds of +foot, and head, and heart, I beg you to let Me in. Oh, I have been +here a great while, and the night is getting darker. I am faint with +hunger. I am dying to get in. Oh, lift the latch--shove back the +bolt! Won't you let Me in? Won't you? 'Behold, I stand at the door and +knock!'" + +But after awhile, my brother, the scene will change. It will be +another door, but Christ will be on the other side of it. He will be +on the inside, and the rejected sinner will be on the outside, and the +sinner will come up and knock at the door, and say: "Let me in, let me +in. I have come a great way. I came all the way from earth. I am sick +and dying. Let me in. The merciless storm beats my unsheltered head. +The wolves of a great night are on my track. Let me in. With both +fists I beat against this door. Oh, let me in. Oh, Christ, let me in. +Oh, Holy Ghost, let me in. Oh, God, let me in. Oh, my glorified +kindred, let me in." No answer save the voice of Christ, who shall +say: "Sinner, when I stood at your door you would not let Me in, and +now you are standing at My door, and I can not let you in. The day of +your grace is past. Officer of the law, seize him." And while the +arrest is going on, all the myriads of heaven rise on gallery and +throne, and cry with loud voice, that makes the eternal city quake +from capstone to foundation, saying: "If any man love not the Lord +Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." + +Sabbath audience in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and all to whom these +words shall come on both sides the sea, notice here the tremendous +alternative: it is not whether you live in Pierrepont Street or +Carlton Avenue, walk Trafalgar Square or the "Canongate;" nor whether +your dress shall be black or brown; nor whether you shall be robust +or an invalid; nor whether you shall live on the banks of the Hudson, +the Shannon, the Seine, the Thames, the Tiber; but it is a question +whether you will love Christ or suffer banishment; whether you will +give yourselves to Him who owns you or fall under the millstone; +whether you will rise to glories that have no terminus or plunge to a +depth which has no bottom. I do not see how you can take the +ten-thousandth part of a second to decide it, when there are two +worlds fastened at opposite ends of a swivel, and the swivel turns on +one point, and that point is now, now. Is it not fair that you love +Him? Is it not right that you love Him? Is it not imperative that you +love Him? What is it that keeps you from rushing up and throwing the +arms of your affection about His neck? + +My text pronounces Anathema Maranatha upon all those who refuse to +love Christ. Anathema--cut off. Cut off from light, from hope, from +peace, from heaven. Oh, sharp, keen, sword-like words! Cut off! +Everlastingly cut off! Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of +God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou +continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. +Maranatha--that is the other word. "When he comes" is the meaning of +it. + +Will He come? I see no signs of it. I looked into the sky as I rode +down to church. I saw no signs of the coming. No signal of God's +appearance. The earth stands solid on its foundation. No cry of +welcome or of woe. Will He come! He will. Maranatha! Hear it ye +mountains, and prepare to fall. Ye cities, and prepare to burn. Ye +righteous, and prepare to reign. Ye wicked, and prepare to die. +Maranatha! Maranatha! + +But, oh, my brother, I am not so aroused by that coming as I am by a +previous coming, and that is the coming of our death hour, which will +fix everything for us. I can not help now, while preaching, asking +myself the question--Am I ready for that? If I am ready for the first +I will be ready for the next. Are you ready for the emergency? Shall I +tell you when your death hour will come? "Oh, no," says some one, "I +don't want to know. I would rather not know." Some one says: "I would +rather know, if you can tell me." I will tell you. It will be at the +most unexpected moment, when you are most busy, and when you think you +can be least spared. I can not exactly say whether it will be in the +noon, or at the sundown when people are coming home, or in the morning +when the world is waking up, or while the clock is striking twelve at +night. But I tell you what I think, that with some of you it will be +before next Saturday night. + +A minister of the Gospel said to an audience: "Before next Sabbath +some of you will be gone." And a man said during the week: "I shall +watch now, and if no one dies in our congregation during this week I +shall go and tell the minister his falsehood." A man standing next to +him said: "Why, it may be yourself." "Oh, no," he replied; "I shall +live on to be an old man." That night he breathed his last. + +Standing before some who shall be launched into the great eternity, +what are your equipments? About to jump, where will you land? Oh, the +subject is overwhelming to me; and when I say these things to you, I +say them to myself. "Lord, is it I? Is it I?" Some of us part to-night +never to meet again. If never before, I now here commit my soul into +the keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. I throw my sinful heart upon His +infinite mercy. But some of you will not do that. You will go over to +the store to-morrow, and your comrades will say: "Where were you +yesterday?" You will say: "I heard Talmage preach, and I don't believe +what he preaches." And you will go on and die in your sins. + +Feeling that you are bound unto death eternal I solemnly take leave of +you. Be careful of your health, for when your respiration gives out +all your good times will have ended. Be careful in walking near a +scaffold, for one falling brick or stone might usher you into the +great eternity for which you have no preparation. A few months, or +weeks, or days, or hours will pass on, and then you will see the last +light, and hear the last music, and have the last pleasant emotion, +and a destroyed eternity will rush upon you. Farewell, oh, doomed +spirit! As you shove off from hope, I wave you this last salutation. +Oh, it is hard to part forever and forever! I bid you one long, last, +bitter, eternal adieu! + + + + +CASTLE JESUS. + + "Who have fled for refuge."--HEB. vi: 18. + + +Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles +them these "who have fled for refuge." + +Moses established six cities of refuge--three on the east side of the +river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one +accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them +were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge +nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there +might be any mistake about the way, there were signs put up pointing +in the right way, with the word "Refuge." Having gained the limits of +one of these cities the man was safe, and the mothers of the priests +provided for him. + +Some of us have seen our peril, and have fled to Christ, and feel that +we shall never be captured. We are among those "who have fled for +refuge." Christ is represented in the Bible as a Tower, a High Rock, a +Fortress, and a Shelter. If you have seen any of the ancient castles +of Europe, you know that they are surrounded by trenches, across which +there is a draw-bridge. If an enemy approach, the people, for defense, +would get into the castle, have the trenches filled with water, and +lift up the draw-bridge. Whether to a city of safety, or a tower, +Paul refers, I know not, and care not, for in any case he means +Christ, the safety of the soul. + +But why talk of refuge? Who needs it, if the refuge spoken of be a +city or a castle, into which men fly for safety? It is all sunlight +here. No sound of war in our streets. We do not hear the rush of armed +men against the doors of our dwellings. We do not come with weapons to +church. Our lives are not at the mercy of an assassin. Why, then, talk +of refuge? + +Alas! I stand before a company of imperiled men. No flock of sheep was +ever so threatened or endangered of a pack of wolves; no ship was ever +so beaten of a storm; no company of men were ever so environed of a +band of savages. A refuge you must have, or fall before an +all-devouring destruction. There are not so many serpents in Africa; +there are not so many hyenas in Asia; there are not so many panthers +in the forest, as there are transgressions attacking my soul. I will +take the best unregenerated man anywhere, and say to him, You are +utterly corrupt. If all the sins of your past life were marshaled in +single file, they would reach from here to hell. If you have escaped +all other sins, the fact that you have rejected the mission of the Son +of God is enough to condemn you forever, pushing you off into +bottomless darkness, struck by ten thousand hissing thunder-bolts of +Omnipotent wrath. + +You are a sinner. The Bible says it, and your conscience affirms it. +Not a small sinner, or a moderate sinner, or a tolerable sinner, but a +great sinner, a protracted sinner, a vile sinner, an outrageous +sinner, a condemned sinner. As God, with His all-scrutinizing gaze, +looks upon you to-day, He can not find one sound spot in your soul. +Sin has put scales on your eyes, and deadened your ear with an awful +deafness, and palsied your right arm, and stunned your sensibilities, +and blasted you with an infinite blasting. The Bible, which you admit +to be true, affirms that you are diseased from the crown of your head +to the sole of your foot. You are unclean; you are a leper. Believe +not me, but believe God's Word, that over and over again announces, in +language that a fool might understand, the total and complete +depravity of the unchanged heart: "The heart is deceitful above all +things, and desperately wicked." + +In addition to the sins of your life there are uncounted troubles in +pursuit of you. Bereavements, losses, disappointments are a flock of +vultures ever on the wing. Did you get your house built, and +furnished, and made comfortable any sooner than misfortune came in +without knocking, and sat beside you--a skeleton apparition? Have not +pains shot their poisoned arrows, and fevers kindled their fire in +your brain? Many of you, for years, have walked on burning marl. You +stepped out of one disaster into another. You may, like Job, have +cursed the day in which you were born. This world boils over with +trouble for you, and you are wondering where the next grave will gape, +and where the next storm will burst. Oh, ye pursued, sinning, dying, +troubled, exhausted souls, are you not ready now to hear me while I +tell you of Christ, the Refuge? + +A soldier, during the war, heard of the sickness of his wife and +asked for a furlough. It was denied him, and he ran away. He was +caught, brought back, and sentenced to be shot as a deserter. The +officer took from his pocket a document that announced his death on +the following morning. As the document was read, the man flinched not +and showed no sorrow or anxiety. But the officer then took from his +pocket another document that contained the prisoner's pardon. Then he +broke down with deep emotion at the thought of the leniency that had +been extended. Though you may not appear moved while I tell you of the +law that thundered its condemnation, while I tell you of the pardon +and the peace of the Gospel I wonder if they will not overcome you. + +Jesus is a safe refuge. Fort Hudson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Moultrie, Fort +Sumter, Gibraltar, Sebastopol were taken. But Jesus is a castle into +which the righteous runneth and is safe. No battering-ram can demolish +its wall. No sappers or miners can explode its ramparts, no storm-bolt +of perdition leap upon its towers. The weapons that guard this fort +are omnipotent. Hell shall unlimber its great guns as death only to +have them dismantled. In Christ our sins are pardoned, discomforted, +blotted out, forgiven. An ocean can not so easily drown a fly as the +ocean of God's forgiveness swallow up, utterly and forever, our +transgressions. He is able to save unto the uttermost. + +You who have been so often overcome in a hand-to-hand fight with the +world, the flesh, and devil, try this fortress. Once here, you are +safe forever. Satan may charge up the steep, and shout amid the uproar +of the fight, Forward, to his battalions of darkness; but you will +stand in the might of the great God, your Redeemer, safe in the +refuge. The troubles of life, that once overwhelmed you, may come on +with their long wagon-trains laden with care and worryment; and you +may hear in their tramp the bereavements that once broke your heart; +but Christ is your friend, Christ your sympathizer, Christ your +reward. Safe in the refuge! + +Death at last may lay the siege to your spirit, and the shadows of the +sepulcher may shake their horrors in the breeze, and the hoarse howl +of the night wind may be mingled with the cry of despair, yet you will +shout in triumph from the ramparts, and the pale horse shall be hurled +back on his haunches. Safe in the refuge! To this castle I fly. This +last fire shall but illumine its towers; and the rolling thunders of +the judgment will be the salvo of its victory. + +Just after Queen Victoria had been crowned--she being only nineteen or +twenty years of age--Wellington handed her a death-warrant for her +signature. It was to take the life of a soldier in the army. She said +to Wellington: "Can there nothing good be said of this man?" He said: +"No; he is a bad soldier, and deserves to die." She took up the +death-warrant, and it trembled in her hand as she again asked: "Does +no one know anything good of this man?" Wellington said: "I have heard +that at his trial a man said that he had been a good son to his old +mother." "Then let his life be spared," said the queen, and she +ordered his sentence commuted. + +Christ is on a throne of grace. Our case is brought before him. The +question is asked: "Is there any good about this man?" The law says: +"None." Justice says: "None." Our own conscience says: "None." +Nevertheless, Christ hands over our pardon, and asks us to take it. +Oh, the height and depth, the length and breadth of his mercy! + +Again, Christ is a near refuge. When we are attacked, what advantage +is there in having a fortress on the other side of the mountain? Many +an army has had an intrenchment, but could not get to it before the +battle opened. Blessed be God, it is no long march to our castle. We +may get off, with all our troops, from the worst earthly defeat in +this stronghold. In a moment we may step from the battle into the +tower. I sing of a Saviour near. + +During the late war the forts of the North were named after the +Northern generals, and the forts of the South were named after the +Southern generals. This fortress of our soul I shall call Castle +Jesus. I have seen men pursued of sins that chased them with feet of +lightning, and yet with one glad leap they bounded into the tower. I +have seen troubles, with more than the speed and terror of a cavalry +troop, dash after a retreating soul, yet were hurled back in defeat +from the bulwarks. Jesus near! A child's cry, a prisoner's prayer, a +sailor's death-shriek, a pauper's moan reaches him. No pilgrimages on +spikes. No journeying with a huge pack on your back. No kneeling in +penance in cold vestibule of mercy. But an open door! A compassionate +Saviour! A present salvation! A near refuge! Castle Jesus! + +Oh, why do you not put out your arm and reach it? Why do you not fly +to it? Why be riddled, and shelled, and consumed under the rattling +bombardment of perdition, when one moment's faith would plant you in +the glorious refuge? I preach a Jesus here; a Jesus now; a fountain +close to your feet; a fiery pillar right over your head; bread already +broken for your hunger; a crown already gleaming for your brow. Hark +to the castle gates rattling back for your entrance! Hear you not the +welcome of those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope +set before us? + +Again, it is a universal refuge. A fortress is seldom large enough to +hold a whole army. I look out upon fourteen hundred millions of the +race; and then I look at this fortress, and I say that there is room +enough for all. If it had been possible, this salvation would have +been monopolized. Men would have said: "Let us have all this to +ourselves--no publicans, no plebeians, no lazzaroni, no converted +pickpockets. We will ride toward heaven on fierce chargers, our feet +in golden stirrups. Grace for lords, and dukes, and duchesses, and +counts. Let Napoleon and his marshals come in, but not the common +soldier that fought under him. Let the Girards and the Barings come +in, but not the stevedores that unloaded their cargoes, or the men who +kept their books." Heaven would have been a glorified Windsor Castle, +or Tuileries, or Vatican; and exclusive aristocrats would have +strutted through the golden streets to all eternity. + +Thank God, there is mercy for the poor! The great Doctor John Mason +preached over a hundred times the same sermon; and the text was: "To +the poor the Gospel is preached." Lazarus went up, while Dives went +down; and there are candidates for Imperial splendors in the back +alley, and by the peat-fire of the Irish shanty. King Jesus set up His +throne in a manger, and made a resurrection day for the poor widow of +Nain, and sprung the gate of heaven wide open, so that all the +beggars, and thieves, and scoundrels of the universe may come in if +they will only repent. I can snatch the knife from the murderer's hand +while it is yet dripping with the blood of his victim, and tell him of +the grace that is sufficient to pardon his soul. Do you say that I +swing open the gate of heaven too far? I swing it open no wider than +Christ, when He says: "Whosoever will, let him come." Don't you want +to go in with such a rabble? Then you can stay out. + +The whole world will yet come into this refuge. The windows of heaven +will be opened; God's trumpet of salvation will sound, and China will +come from its tea-fields and rice-harvests, and lift itself up into +the light. India will come forth, the chariots of salvation jostling +to pieces her Juggernauts. Freezing Greenland, and sweltering +Abyssinia, will, side by side, press into the kingdom; and transformed +Bornesian cannibal preach of the resurrection of the missionary he has +slain. The glory of Calvary will tinge the tip of the Pyrenees; and +Lebanon cedars shall clap their hands; and by one swing of the sickle +Christ shall harvest nations for the skies. + +I sing a world redeemed. In the rush of the winds that set the forest +in motion, like giants wrestling on the hills, I see the tossing up of +the triumphal branches that shall wave all along the line of our King +as He comes to take empire. In the stormy diapason of the ocean's +organ, and the more gentle strains that in the calm come sounding up +from the crystal and jasper keys at the beach, I hear the prophecy: +"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters +fill the sea." + +The gospel morning will come like the natural morning. At first it +seems only like another hue of the night. Then a pallor strikes +through the sky, as though a company of ministering spirits, pale with +tedious watching through the night, had turned in their flight upward +to look back upon the earth. Then a faint glow of fire, as though on a +barren beach a wrecked mariner was kindling a flickering flame. Then +chariots and horses of fire racing up and down the heavens; then +perfect day: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning?" + +Come in, black Hottentot and snow-white Caucasian, come in, mitered +official and diseased beggar; let all the world come in. Room in +Castle Jesus! Sound it through all lands; sound it by all tongues. Let +sermons preach it, and bells chime it, and pencils sketch it, and +processions celebrate it, and bells ring it: Room in Castle Jesus! + +Again, Christ is the only refuge. If you were very sick, and there was +only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get +that medicine. If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the +ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious +you would be to get into that harbor. Oh, sin-sick soul, Christ is the +only medicine; oh, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor. Need +I tell a cultured audience like this that there is no other name given +among men by which ye can be saved? That if you want the handcuffs +knocked from your wrists, and the hopples from your feet, and the icy +bands from your heart, there is just one Almighty arm in all the +universe to do everything? There are other fortresses to which you +might fly, and other ramparts behind which you might hide, but God +will cut to pieces, with the hail of His vengeance, all these refuges +of lies. + +Some of you are foundering in terrible Euroclydon. Hark to the howling +of the gale, and the splintering of the spars, and the starting of the +timbers, and the breaking of the billow, clear across the hurricane +deck. Down she goes! Into the life-boat! Quick! One boat! One shore! +One oarsman! One salvation! You are polluted; there is but one well at +which you can wash clean. You are enslaved; there is but one +proclamation that can emancipate. You are blind; there is but one +salve that can kindle your vision. You are dead; there is but one +trumpet that can burst the grave. + +I have seen men come near the refuge but not make entrance. They came +up, and fronted the gate, and looked in, but passed on, and passed +down; and they will curse their folly through all eternity, that they +despised the only refuge. Oh! forget everything else I have said, if +you will but remember that there is but one atonement, one sacrifice, +one justification, one faith, one hope, one Jesus, one refuge. There +is that old Christian. Many a scar on his face tells where trouble +lacerated him. He has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He has had +enough misfortune to shadow his countenance with perpetual despair. +Yet he is full of hope. Has he found any new elixir? "No," he says; "I +have found Jesus the refuge." + +Christ is our only defense at the last. John Holland, in his +concluding moment, swept his hand over the Bible, and said: "Come, let +us gather a few flowers from this garden." As it was even-time he said +to his wife: "Have you lighted the candles?" "No," she said; "we have +not lighted the candles." "Then," said he, "it must be the brightness +of the face of Jesus that I see." + +Ask that dying Christian woman the source of her comfort. Why that +supernatural glow on the curtains of the death-chamber; and the +tossing out of one hand, as if to wave the triumph, and the reaching +up of the other, as if to take a crown? Hosanna on the tongue. Glory +beaming from the forehead. Heaven in the eyes. Spirit departing. Wings +to bear it. Anthems to charm it. Open the gates to receive it. +Hallelujah! Speak, dying Christian--what light do you see? What sounds +do you hear? The thin lips part. The pale hand is lifted. She says: +"Jesus the refuge!" Let all in the death-chamber stop weeping now. +Celebrate the triumph. Take up a song. Clap your hands. Shout it. +Hallelujah! Hallelujah! + +But this refuge will be of no worth to you unless you lay hold of it. +The time will come when you will wish that you had done so. It will +come soon. At an unexpected moment it will come. The castle bridge +will be drawn up and the fortress closed. When you see this +discomfiture, and look back, and look up at the storm gathering, and +the billowy darkness of death has rolled upon the sheeted flash of +the storm, you will discover the utter desolation of those who are +outside of the refuge. + +What you propose to do in this matter you had better do right away. A +mistake this morning may never be corrected. Jesus, the Great Captain +of salvation, puts forth his wounded hand to-day to cheer you on the +race to heaven. If you despise it, the ghastliest vision that will +haunt the eternal darkness of your soul will be the gaping, bleeding +wounds of the dying Redeemer. + +Jesus is to be crucified to-day. Think not of it as a day that is +past. He comes before you to-day weary and worn. Here is the cross, +and here is the victim. But there are no nails, and there are no +thorns, and there are no hammers. Who will furnish these? A man out +yonder says: "I will furnish with my sins the nails!" Now we have the +cross, and the victim, and the nails. But we have no thorns. Who will +furnish the thorns? A man in the audience says: "With my sins I will +furnish the thorns!" Now we have the cross, the victim, the nails, and +the thorns. But we have no hammers. Who will furnish the hammers? A +voice in the audience says: "My hard heart shall be the hammer!" +Everything is ready now. The crucifixion goes out! See Jesus dying! +"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." + + + + +STRIPPING THE SLAIN. + + "And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came + to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons + fallen in Mount Gilboa."--I. SAM. xxxi: 8. + + +Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or +Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a +battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the +field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening +I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken from the +bodies of the dead, for there are always vultures hovering over and +around about an army, and they pick up the watches, and the memorandum +books, and the letters, and the daguerreotypes, and the hats, and the +coats, applying them to their own uses. The dead make no resistance. +So there are always camp followers going on and after an army, as when +Scott went down into Mexico, as when Napoleon marched up toward +Moscow, as when Von Moltke went to Sedan. There is a similar scene in +my text. + +Saul and his army had been horribly cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was +ghastly with the dead. On the morrow the stragglers came on to the +field, and they lifted the latchet of the helmet from under the chin +of the dead, and they picked up the swords and bent them on their +knee to test the temper of the metal, and they opened the wallets and +counted the coin. Saul lay dead along the ground, eight or nine feet +in length, and I suppose the cowardly Philistines, to show their +bravery, leaped upon the trunk of his carcass, and jeered at the +fallen slain, and whistled through the mouth of the helmet. Before +night those cormorants had taken everything valuable from the field: +"And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip +the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount +Gilboa." + +Before I get through to-day I will show you that the same process is +going on all the world over, and every day, and that when men have +fallen, Satan and the world, so far from pitying them or helping them, +go to work remorselessly to take what little is left, thus stripping +the slain. + +There are tens of thousands of young men every year coming from the +country to our great cities. They come with brave hearts and grand +expectations. They think they will be Rufus Choates in the law, or +Drapers in chemistry, or A.T. Stewarts in merchandise. The country +lads sit down in the village grocery, with their feet on the iron rod +around the red-hot stove, in the evening, talking over the prospects +of the young man who has gone off to the city. Two or three of them +think that perhaps he may get along very well and succeed, but the +most of them prophesy failure; for it is very hard to think that those +whom we knew in boyhood will ever make any stir in the world. + +But our young man has a fine position in a dry-goods store. The month +is over. He gets his wages. He is not accustomed to have so much money +belonging to himself. He is a little excited, and does not know +exactly what to do with it, and he spends it in some places where he +ought not. Soon there come up new companions and acquaintances from +the bar-rooms and the saloons of the city. Soon that young man begins +to waver in the battle of temptation, and soon his soul goes down. In +a few months, or few years, he has fallen. He is morally dead. He is a +mere corpse of what he once was. The harpies of sin snuff up the taint +and come on the field. His garments gradually give out. He has pawned +his watch. His health is failing him. His credit perishes. He is too +poor to stay in the city, and he is too poor to pay his way home to +the country. Down! down! Why do the low fellows of the city now stick +to him so closely? Is it to help him back to a moral and spiritual +life? Oh, no! I will tell you why they stay; they are the Philistines +stripping the slain. + +Do not look where I point, but yonder stands a man who once had a +beautiful home in this city. His house had elegant furniture, his +children were beautifully clad, his name was synonymous with honor and +usefulness; but evil habit knocked at his front door, knocked at his +back door, knocked at his parlor door, knocked at his bedroom door. +Where is the piano? Sold to pay the rent. Where is the hat-rack? Sold +to meet the butcher's bill. Where are the carpets? Sold to get bread. +Where is the wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where are the daughters? +Working their fingers off in trying to keep the family together. +Worse and worse, until everything is gone. Who is that going up the +front steps of that house? That is a creditor, hoping to find some +chair or bed that has not been levied upon. Who are those two +gentlemen now going up the front steps? The one is a constable, the +other is the sheriff. Why do they go there? The unfortunate is morally +dead, socially dead, financially dead. Why do they go there? I will +tell you why the creditors, and the constables, and the sheriffs go +there. They are, some on their own account, and some on account of the +law, stripping the slain. + +An ex-member of Congress, one of the most eloquent men that ever stood +in the House of Representatives, said in his last moments: "This is +the end. I am dying--dying on a borrowed bed, covered by a borrowed +sheet, in a house built by public charity. Bury me under that tree in +the middle of the field, where I shall not be crowded, for I have been +crowded all my life." Where were the jolly politicians and the +dissipating comrades who had been with him, laughing at his jokes, +applauding his eloquence, and plunging him into sin? They have left. +Why? His money is gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is gone, his +clothes are gone, everything is gone. Why should they stay any longer? +They have completed their work. They have stripped the slain. + +There is another way, however, of doing that same work. Here is a man +who, through his sin, is prostrate. He acknowledges that he has done +wrong. Now is the time for you to go to that man and say: "Thousands +of people have been as far astray as you are, and got back." Now is +the time for you to go to that man and tell him of the omnipotent +grace of God, that is sufficient for any poor soul. Now is the time to +go to tell him how swearing John Bunyan, through the grace of God, +afterward came to the celestial city. Now is the time to go to that +man and tell him how profligate Newton came, through conversion, to be +a world-renowned preacher of righteousness. Now is the time to tell +that man that multitudes who have been pounded with all the flails of +sin and dragged through all the sewers of pollution at last have risen +to positive dominion of moral power. + +You do not tell him that, do you? No. You say to him: "Loan you money? +No. You are down. You will have to go to the dogs. Lend you a +shilling? I would not lend you five cents to keep you from the +gallows. You are debauched! Get out of my sight, now! Down; you will +have to stay down!" And thus those bruised and battered men are +sometimes accosted by those who ought to lift them up. Thus the last +vestige of hope is taken from them. Thus those who ought to go and +lift and save them are guilty of stripping the slain. + +The point I want to make is this: sin is hard, cruel, and merciless. +Instead of helping a man up it helps him down; and when, like Saul and +his comrades, you lie on the field, it will come and steal your sword +and helmet and shield, leaving you to the jackal and the crow. + +But the world and Satan do not do all their work with the outcast and +abandoned. A respectable, impenitent man comes to die. He is flat on +his back. He could not get up if the house were on fire. Adroitest +medical skill and gentlest nursing have been a failure. He has come to +his last hour. What does Satan do for such a man? Why, he fetches up +all the inapt, disagreeable, and harrowing things in his life. He +says: "Do you remember those chances you had for heaven, and missed +them? Do you remember all those lapses in conduct? Do you remember all +those opprobrious words and thoughts and actions? Don't remember them, +eh? I'll make you remember them." And then he takes all the past and +empties it on that death-bed, as the mail-bags are emptied on the +post-office floor. The man is sick. He can not get away from them. + +Then the man says to Satan: "You have deceived me. You told me that +all would be well. You said there would be no trouble at the last. You +told me if I did so and so, you would do so and so. Now you corner me, +and hedge me up, and submerge me in everything evil." "Ha! ha!" says +Satan, "I was only fooling you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer. +I have been for thirty years plotting to get you just where you are. +It is hard for you now--it will be worse for you after awhile. It +pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't flinch or shudder. Come now, I will +tear off from you the last rag of expectation. I will rend away from +your soul the last hope. I will leave you bare for the beating of the +storm. It is my business to strip the slain." + +While men are in robust health, and their digestion is good, and their +nerves are strong, they think their physical strength will get them +safely through the last exigency. They say it is only cowardly women +who are afraid at the last, and cry out for God. "Wait till I come to +die. I will show you. You won't hear me pray, nor call for a minister, +nor want a chapter read me from the Bible." But after the man has been +three weeks in a sick-room his nerves are not so steady, and his +worldly companions are not anywhere near to cheer him up, and he is +persuaded that he must quit life: his physical courage is all gone. + +He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a saucer. He shivers at the idea +of going away. He says: "Wife, I don't think my infidelity is going to +take me through. For God's sake don't bring up the children to do as I +have done. If you feel like it, I wish you would read a verse or two +out of Fannie's Sabbath-school hymn-book or New Testament." But Satan +breaks in, and says: "You have always thought religion trash and a +lie; don't give up at the last. Besides that, you can not, in the hour +you have to live, get off on that track. Die as you lived. With my +great black wings I shut out that light. Die in darkness. I rend away +from you that last vestige of hope. It is my business to strip the +slain." + +A man who had rejected Christianity and thought it all trash, came to +die. He was in the sweat of a great agony, and his wife said: "We had +better have some prayer." "Mary, not a breath of that," he said. "The +lightest word of prayer would roll back on me like rocks on a drowning +man. I have come to the hour of test. I had a chance, and I forfeited +it. I believed in a liar, and he has left me in the lurch. Mary, bring +me Tom Paine, that book that I swore by and lived by, and pitch it in +the fire, and let it burn and burn as I myself shall soon burn." And +then, with the foam on his lip and his hands tossing wildly in the +air, he cried out: "Blackness of darkness! Oh, my God, too late!" And +the spirits of darkness whistled up from the depth, and wheeled around +and around him, stripping the slain. + +Sin is a luxury now; it is exhilaration now; it is victory now. But +after awhile it is collision; it is defeat; it is extermination; it is +jackalism; it is robbing the dead; it is stripping the slain. Give it +up to-day--give it up! Oh, how you have been cheated on, my brother, +from one thing to another! All these years you have been under an evil +mastery that you understood not. What have your companions done for +you? What have they done for your health? Nearly ruined it by +carousal. What have they done for your fortune? Almost scattered it by +spendthrift behavior. What have they done for your reputation? Almost +ruined it with good men. What have they done for your immortal soul? +Almost insured its overthrow. + +You are hastening on toward the consummation of all that is sad. +To-day you stop and think, but it is only for a moment, and then you +will tramp on, and at the close of this service you will go out, and +the question will be: "How did you like the sermon?" And one man will +say: "I liked it very well," and another man will say: "I didn't like +it at all;" but neither of the answers will touch the tremendous fact +that, if impenitent, you are going at eighteen knots an hour toward +shipwreck! Yea, you are in a battle where you will fall; and while +your surviving relatives will take your remaining estate, and the +cemetery will take your body, the messengers of darkness will take +your soul, and come and go about you for the next ten million years, +stripping the slain. + +Many are crying out: "I admit I am slain, I admit it!" On what +battle-field, my brothers? By what weapon? "Polluted imagination," +says one man; "Intoxicating liquor," says another man; "My own hard +heart," says another man. Do you realize this? Then I come to tell you +that the omnipotent Christ is ready to walk across this battle-field, +and revive, and resuscitate, and resurrect your dead soul. Let Him +take your hand and rub away the numbness; your head, and bathe off the +aching; your heart, and stop its wild throb. He brought Lazarus to +life; He brought Jairus' daughter to life; He brought the young man of +Nain to life, and these are three proofs anyhow that he can bring you +to life. + +When the Philistines came down on the field, they stepped between the +corpses, and they rolled over the dead, and they took away everything +that was valuable; and so it was with the people that followed after +our army at Chancellorsville, and at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone +River, and at Atlanta, stripping the slain; but the Northern and +Southern women--God bless them!--came on the field with basins, and +pads, and towels, and lint, and cordials, and Christian encouragement; +and the poor fellows that lay there lifted up their arms and said: +"Oh, how good that does feel since you dressed it!" and others looked +up and said: "Oh, how you make me think of my mother!" and others +said: "Tell the folks at home I died thinking about them;" and another +looked up and said: "Miss, won't you sing me a verse of 'Home, Sweet +Home,' before I die?" And then the tattoo was sounded, and the hats +were off, and the service was read: "I am the resurrection and the +life;" and in honor of the departed the muskets were loaded, and the +command given: "Take aim--fire!" And there was a shingle set up at the +head of the grave, with the epitaph of "Lieutenant ---- in the +Fourteenth Massachusetts Regulars," or "Captain ---- in the Fifteenth +Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers." And so to-night, across this +great field of moral and spiritual battle, the angels of God come +walking among the slain, and there are voices of comfort, and voices +of hope, and voices of resurrection, and voices of heaven. + +Christ is ready to give life to the dead. He will make the deaf ear to +hear, the blind eye to see, the pulseless heart to beat, and the damp +walls of your spiritual charnel-house will crash into ruin at His cry: +"Come forth!" I verily believe there are souls in this house who are +now dead in sin, who in half an hour will be alive forever. There was +a thrilling dream, a glorious dream--you may have heard of it. Ezekiel +closed his eyes, and he saw two mountains, and a valley between the +mountains. That valley looked as though there had been a great battle +there, and a whole army had been slain, and they had been unburied; +and the heat of the land, and the vultures coming there, soon the +bones were exposed to the sun, and they looked like thousands of +snow-drifts all through the valley. Frightful spectacle! The bleaching +skeletons of a host! + +But Ezekiel still kept his eyes shut; and lo! there were four +currents of wind that struck the battle-field, and when those four +currents of wind met, the bones began to rattle; and the foot came to +the ankle, and the hand came to the wrist, and the jaws clashed +together, and the spinal column gathered up the ganglions and the +nervous fiber, and all the valley wriggled and writhed, and throbbed, +and rocked, and rose up. There, a man coming to life. There, a hundred +men. There, a thousand; and all falling into line, waiting for the +shout of their commander. Ten thousand bleached skeletons springing up +into ten thousand warriors, panting for the fray. I hope that instead +of being a dream it may be a prophecy of what we shall see here +to-day. Let this north wall be one of the mountains, and the south +wall be taken for another of the mountains, and let all the aisles and +the pews be the valley between, for there are thousands here to-day +without one pulsation of spiritual life. + +I look off in one direction, and they are dead. I look off in another +direction, and they are dead. Who will bring them to life? Who shall +rouse them up? If I should halloo at the top of my voice I could not +wake them. Wait a moment! Listen! There is a rustling. There is a gale +from heaven. It comes from the north, and from the south, and from the +east, and from the west. It shuts us in. It blows upon the slain. +There a soul begins to move in spiritual life; there, ten souls; +there, a score of souls; there, a hundred souls. The nostrils +throbbing in divine respiration, the hands lifted as though to take +hold of heaven, the tongue moving as in prayer and adoration. Life! +immortal life coming into the slain. Ten men for God--fifty--a +hundred--a regiment--an army for God! Oh, that we might have such a +scene here to-day! In Ezekiel's words, and in almost a frenzy of +prayer, I cry: "Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon +the slain." + +You will have to surrender your heart to-day to God. You can not take +the responsibility of fighting against the Spirit in this crisis which +will decide whether you are to go to heaven or to hell--to join the +hallelujahs of the saved, or the lamentations of the lost. You must +pray. You must repent. You must this day fling your sinful soul on the +pardoning mercy of God. You must! I see your resolution against God +giving way, your determination wavering. I break through the breach in +the wall and follow up the advantage gained, hoping to rout your last +opposition to Christ, and to make you "ground arms" at the feet of the +Divine Conqueror. Oh, you must! You must! + +The moon does not ask the tides of the Atlantic Ocean to rise. It only +stoops down with two great hands of light, the one at the European +beach, and the other at the American beach, and then lifts the great +layer of molten silver. And God, it seems to me, is now going to lift +this audience to newness of life. Do you not feel the swellings of the +great oceanic tides of Divine mercy? My heart is in anguish to have +you saved. For this I pray, and preach, and long, glad to be called a +fool for Christ's sake, and your salvation. + +Some one replies: "Dear me, I do wish I could have these matters +arranged with my God. I want to be saved. God knows I want to be +saved; but you stand there talking about this matter, and you don't +show me how." My dear brother, the work has all been done. Christ did +it with His own torn hand, and lacerated foot, and bleeding side. He +took your place, and died your death, if you will only believe +it--only accept Him as your substitute. + +What an amazing pity that any man should go from this house unblessed, +when such a large blessing is offered him at less cost than you would +pay for a pin--"without money and without price." I have driven down +to-day with the Lord's ambulance to the battle-field where your soul +lies exposed to the darkness and the storm, and I want to lift you in, +and drive off with you toward heaven. Oh, Christians, by your prayers +help to lift these wounded souls into the ambulance! God forbid that +any should be left on the field, and that at last eternal sorrow, and +remorse, and despair should come up around their soul like the bandit +Philistines to the field of Gilboa, stripping the slain. + + + + +SOLD OUT. + + "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed + without money."--ISA. lii: 3. + + +The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been +carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. +Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews +that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, +literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; +and ye shall be redeemed without money." + +There is enough Gospel in this text for fifty sermons; though I never +heard of its being preached on. There are persons in this house who +have, like the Jews of the text, sold out. You do not seem to belong +either to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over +to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never +paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some +adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world +does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a +summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his +physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts +with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary +culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire +nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the +first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down +the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays +down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone; +and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment, +and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and +says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed +over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to +collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well," +you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now +to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "_I have +failed. I am bankrupt._ I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not +for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me +back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can +not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of +eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the +consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought." + +I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a +cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a +bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays +the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted, +it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little +while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash +and get for it worthless scrip--so the world passes over to you the +two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in that shape which will not be +worth a farthing to you a thousandth part of a second after you are +dead. "Oh," you say, "it will help to bury me, anyhow." Oh, my +brother! you need not worry about that. The world will bury you soon +enough, from sanitary considerations. After you have been deceased for +three or four days you will compel the world to bury you. + +Post-mortem emoluments are of no use to you. The treasures of this +world will not pass current in the future world; and if all the wealth +of the Bank of England were put in the pocket of your shroud, and you +in the midst of the Jordan of death were asked to pay three cents for +your ferriage, you could not do it. There comes a moment in your +existence beyond which all earthly values fail; and many a man has +wakened up in such a time to find that he has sold out for eternity, +and has nothing to show for it. I should as soon think of going to +Chatham Street to buy silk pocket-handkerchiefs with no cotton in +them, as to go to this world expecting to find any permanent +happiness. It has deceived and deluded every man that has ever put his +trust in it. + +History tells us of one who resolved that he would have all his senses +gratified at one and the same time, and he expended thousands of +dollars on each sense. He entered a room, and there were the first +musicians of the land pleasing his ear, and there were fine pictures +fascinating his eye, and there were costly aromatics regaling his +nostril, and there were the richest meats, and wines, and fruits, and +confections pleasing the appetite, and there was a soft couch of +sinful indulgence on which he reclined; and the man declared afterward +that he would give ten times what he had given if he could have one +week of such enjoyment, even though he lost his soul by it. Ah! that +was the rub. He did lose his soul by it! Cyrus the Conqueror thought +for a little while that he was making a fine thing out of this world, +and yet before he came to his grave he wrote out this pitiful epitaph +for his monument: "I am Cyrus. I occupied the Persian Empire. I was +king over Asia. Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in after +years plowed up his sepulcher. + +The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in honor of Charles +Lamb; but what does he say? "I walk up and down, thinking I am happy, +but feeling I am not." Call the roll, and be quick about it. Samuel +Johnson, the learned! Happy? "No. I am afraid I shall some day get +crazy." William Hazlitt, the great essayist! Happy? "No. I have been +for two hours and a half going up and down Paternoster Row with a +volcano in my breast." Smollett, the witty author! Happy? "No. I am +sick of praise and blame, and I wish to God that I had such +circumstances around me that I could throw my pen into oblivion." +Buchanan, the world-renowned writer, exiled from his own country, +appealing to Henry VIII. for protection! Happy? "No. Over mountains +covered with snow, and through valleys flooded with rain, I come a +fugitive." Moliere, the popular dramatic author! Happy? "No. That +wretch of an actor just now recited four of my lines without the +proper accent and gesture. To have the children of my brain so hung, +drawn, and quartered, tortures me like a condemned spirit." + +I went to see a worldling die. As I went into the hall I saw its floor +was tessellated, and its wall was a picture-gallery. I found his +death-chamber adorned with tapestry until it seemed as if the clouds +of the setting sun had settled in the room. The man had given forty +years to the world--his wit, his time, his genius, his talent, his +soul. Did the world come in to stand by his death-bed, and clearing +off the vials of bitter medicine, put down any compensation? Oh, no! +The world does not like sick and dying people, and leaves them in the +lurch. It ruined this man, and then left him. He had a magnificent +funeral. All the ministers wore scarfs, and there were forty-three +carriages in a row; but the departed man appreciated not the +obsequies. + +I want to persuade my audience that this world is a poor investment; +that it does not pay ninety per cent. of satisfaction, nor eighty per +cent., nor twenty per cent., nor two per cent., nor one; that it gives +no solace when a dead babe lies on your lap; that it gives no peace +when conscience rings its alarm; that it gives no explanation in the +day of dire trouble; and at the time of your decease it takes hold of +the pillow-case, and shakes out the feathers, and then jolts down in +the place thereof sighs, and groans, and execrations, and then makes +you put your head on it. Oh, ye who have tried this world, is it a +satisfactory portion? Would you advise your friends to make the +investment? No. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." Your conscience +went. Your hope went. Your Bible went. Your heaven went. Your God +went. When a sheriff under a writ from the courts sells a man out, the +officer generally leaves a few chairs and a bed, and a few cups and +knives; but in this awful vendue in which you have been engaged the +auctioneer's mallet has come down upon body, mind, and soul: Going! +Gone! "Ye have sold yourselves for nought." + +How could you do so? Did you think that your soul was a mere trinket +which for a few pennies you could buy in a toy shop? Did you think +that your soul, if once lost, might be found again if you went out +with torches and lanterns? Did you think that your soul was +short-lived, and that, panting, it would soon lie down for extinction? +Or had you no idea what your soul was worth? Did you ever put your +forefingers on its eternal pulses? Have you never felt the quiver of +its peerless wing? Have you not known that, after leaving the body, +the first step of your soul reaches to the stars, and the next step to +the furthest outposts of God's universe, and that it will not die +until the day when the everlasting Jehovah expires? Oh, my brother, +what possessed you that you should part with your soul so cheap? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought." + +But I have some good news to tell you. I want to engage in a +litigation for the recovery of that soul of yours. I want to show that +you have been cheated out of it. I want to prove, as I will, that you +were crazy on that subject, and that the world, under such +circumstances, has no right to take the title-deed from you; and if +you will join me I shall get a decree from the High Chancery Court of +Heaven reinstating you into the possession of your soul. "Oh," you +say, "I am afraid of lawsuits; they are so expensive, and I can not +pay the cost." Then have you forgotten the last half of my text? "Ye +have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without +money." + +Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in +this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and +pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy +your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of +Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us +to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is? +I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, +no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king's blood. It must +be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent. But where +is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, +yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue. But after awhile the +clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of +a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, +and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to +cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and +then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the +sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we +who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and +imperial blood. + +We have in this day professed Christians who are so rarefied and +etherealized that they do not want a religion of blood. What do you +want? You seem to want a religion of brains. The Bible says: "In the +blood is the life." No atonement without blood. Ought not the apostle +to know? What did he say? "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible +things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ." +You put your lancet into the arm of our holy religion and withdraw the +blood, and you leave it a mere corpse, fit only for the grave. Why did +God command the priests of old to strike the knife into the kid, and +the goat, and the pigeon, and the bullock, and the lamb? It was so +that when the blood rushed out from these animals on the floor of the +ancient tabernacle the people should be compelled to think of the +coming carnage of the Son of God. No blood, no atonement. + +I think that God intended to impress us with the vividness of that +color. The green of the grass, the blue of the sky, would not have +startled and aroused us like this deep crimson. It is as if God had +said: "Now, sinner, wake up and see what the Saviour endured for you. +This is not water. This is not wine. It is blood. It is the blood of +my own Son. It is the blood of the Immaculate. It is the blood of +God." Without the shedding of blood is no remission. There has been +many a man who in courts of law has pleaded "not guilty," who +nevertheless has been condemned because there was blood found on his +hands, or blood found in his room; and what shall we do in the last +day if it be found that we have recrucified the Lord of Glory and have +never repented of it? You must believe in the blood or die. No +escape. Unless you let the sacrifice of Jesus go in your stead you +yourself must suffer. It is either Christ's blood or your blood. + +"Oh," says some one, "the thought of blood sickens me." Good. God +intended it to sicken you with your sin. Do not act as though you had +nothing to do with that Calvarian massacre. You had. Your sins were +the implements of torture. Those implements were not made of steel, +and iron, and wood, so much as out of your sins. Guilty of this +homicide, and this regicide, and this deicide, confess your guilt +to-day. Ten thousand voices of heaven bring in the verdict against you +of guilty, guilty. Prepare to die, or believe in that blood. Stretch +yourself out for the sacrifice, or accept the Saviour's sacrifice. Do +not fling away your one chance. + +It seems to me as if all heaven were trying to bid in your soul. The +first bid it makes is the tears of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus; but +that is not a high enough price. The next bid heaven makes is the +sweat of Gethsemane; but it is too cheap a price. The next bid heaven +makes seems to be the whipped back of Pilate's hall; but it is not a +high enough price. Can it be possible that heaven can not buy you in? +Heaven tries once more. It says: "I bid this time for that man's soul +the tortures of Christ's martyrdom, the blood on His temple, the blood +on His cheek, the blood on His chin, the blood on His hand, the blood +on His side, the blood on His knee, the blood on His foot--the blood +in drops, the blood in rills, the blood in pools coagulated beneath +the cross; the blood that wet the tips of the soldiers' spears, the +blood that plashed warm in the faces of His enemies." Glory to God, +that bid wins it! The highest price that was ever paid for anything +was paid for your soul. Nothing could buy it but blood! The estranged +property is bought back. Take it. "You have sold yourselves for +nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." O atoning blood, +cleansing blood, life-giving blood, sanctifying blood, glorifying +blood of Jesus! Why not burst into tears at the thought that for thee +He shed it--for thee the hard-hearted, for thee the lost? + +"No," says some one; "I will have nothing to do with it except that, +like the Jews, I put both my hands into that carnage and scoop up both +palms full, and throw it on my head and cry: 'His blood be on us and +on our children!'" Can you do such a shocking thing as that? Just rub +your handkerchief across your brow and look at it. It is the blood of +the Son of God whom you have despised and driven back all these years. +Oh, do not do that any longer! Come out frankly and boldly and +honestly, and tell Christ you are sorry. You can not afford to so +roughly treat Him upon whom everything depends. + +I do not know how you will get away from this subject. You see that +you are sold out, and that Christ wants to buy you back. There are +three persons who come after you to-night: God the Father, God the +Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They unite their three omnipotences in +one movement for your salvation. You will not take up arms against the +Triune God, will you? Is there enough muscle in your arm for such a +combat? By the highest throne in heaven, and by the deepest chasm in +hell, I beg you look out. Unless you allow Christ to carry away your +sins, they will carry you away. Unless you allow Christ to lift you +up, they will drag you down. There is only one hope for you, and that +is the blood. Christ, the sin-offering, bearing your transgressions. +Christ, the surety, paying your debts. Christ, the divine Cyrus, +loosening your Babylonish captivity. + +Would you not like to be free? Here is the price of your +liberation--not money, but blood. I tremble from head to foot, not +because I fear your presence, for I am used to that, but because I +fear that you will miss your chance for immortal rescue, and die. This +is the alternative divinely put: "He that believeth on the Son shall +have everlasting life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not +see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." In the last day, if +you now reject Christ, every drop of that sacrificial blood, instead +of pleading for your release as it would have pleaded if you had +repented, will plead against you. It will seem to say: "They refused +the ransom; they chose to die; let them die; they must die. Down with +them to the weeping and the wailing. Depart! go away from me. You +would not have me, now I will not have you. Sold out for eternity." + +O Lord God of the judgment day! avert that calamity! Let us see the +quick flash of the cimeter that slays the sin but saves the sinner. +Strike, omnipotent God, for the soul's deliverance! Beat, O eternal +sea! with all thy waves against the barren beach of that rocky soul, +and make it tremble. Oh! the oppressiveness of the hour, the minute, +the second, on which the soul's destiny quivers, and this is that +hour, that minute, that second! + +I wonder what proportion of this audience will be saved? What +proportion will be lost? When the "Schiller" went down, out of three +hundred and eighty people only forty were saved. When the "Ville du +Havre" went down, out of three hundred and forty about fifty were +saved. Out of this audience to-day, how many will get to the shore of +heaven? It is no idle question for me to ask, for many of you I shall +never see again until the day when the books are open. + +Some years ago there came down a fierce storm on the sea-coast, and a +vessel got in the breakers and was going to pieces. They threw up some +signal of distress, and the people on the shore saw them. They put out +in a life-boat. They came on, and they saw the poor sailors, almost +exhausted, clinging to a raft; and so afraid were the boatmen that the +men would give up before they got to them, they gave them three rounds +of cheers, and cried: "Hold on, there! Hold on! We'll save you!" After +awhile the boat came up. One man was saved by having the boat-hook put +in the collar of his coat; and some in one way, and some in another; +but they all got into the boat. "Now," says the captain, "for the +shore. Pull away now, pull!" The people on the land were afraid the +life-boat had gone down. They said: "How long the boat stays. Why, it +must have been swamped, and they have all perished together." + +And there were men and women on the pier-heads and on the beach +wringing their hands; and while they waited and watched, they saw +something looming up through the mist, and it turned out to be the +life-boat. As soon as it came within speaking distance the people on +the shore cried out: "Did you save any of them? Did you save any of +them?" And as the boat swept through the boiling surf and came to the +pier-head, the captain waved his hand over the exhausted sailors that +lay flat on the bottom of the boat, and cried: "All saved! Thank God! +All saved!" So may it be to-day. The waves of your sin run high, the +storm is on you, the danger is appalling. Oh! shipwrecked soul, I have +come for you. I cheer you with this Gospel hope. God grant that within +the next ten minutes we may row with you into the harbor of God's +mercy. And when these Christian men gather around to see the result of +this service, and the glorified gathering on the pier-heads of heaven +to watch and to listen, may we be able to report all saved! Young and +old, good and bad! All saved! Saved from sin, and death, and hell. +Saved for time. Saved for eternity. "And so it came to pass that they +all escaped safe to land." + + + + +SUMMER TEMPTATIONS. + + "Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest + awhile."--MARK vi: 31. + + +Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been +living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they +get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, +I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday +afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that +release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people +will have opportunity of recreation this summer than in any previous +summer. Others will have whole weeks and months of rest. The railway +trains are being laden with passengers and baggage on their way to the +mountains and the lakes and the sea-shore. Multitudes of our citizens +are packing their trunks for a restorative absence. + +The city heats are pursuing the people with torch and fear of +sunstroke. The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz +with excited arrivals. The crystalline surface of Winnipiseogee is +shattered with the stroke of steamer, laden with excursionists. The +antlers of Adirondack deer rattle under the shot of city sportsmen. +The trout make fatal snaps at the hook of adroit sportsmen and toss +their spotted brilliance into the game-basket. Already the baton of +the orchestral leader taps the music-stand on the hotel green, and +American life puts on festal array, and the rumbling of the tenpin +alley, and the crack of the ivory balls on the green-baized billiard +tables, and the jolting of the bar-room goblets, and the explosive +uncorking of champagne bottles, and the whirl and the rustle of the +ball-room dance, and the clattering hoofs of the race-courses, attest +that the season for the great American watering-places is fairly +inaugurated. Music--flute and drum and cornet-a-piston and clapping +cymbals--will wake the echoes of the mountains. + +Glad I am that fagged-out American life for the most part will have an +opportunity to rest, and that nerves racked and destroyed will find a +Bethesda. I believe in watering-places. Let not the commercial firm +begrudge the clerk, or the employer the journeyman, or the patient the +physician, or the church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. Luther +used to sport with his children; Edmund Burke used to caress his +favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the dark hours of the church's +disruption, played kite for recreation--as I was told by his own +daughter--and the busy Christ said to the busy apostles: "Come ye +apart awhile into the desert and rest yourselves." And I have observed +that they who do not know how to rest do not know how to work. + +But I have to declare this truth to-day, that some of our fashionable +watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of "a +multitude that no man can number," and amid the congratulations of +this season and the prospect of the departure of many of you for the +country I must utter a note of warning--plain, earnest, and +unmistakable. + +I. The first temptation that is apt to hover in this direction is to +leave your piety all at home. You will send the dog and cat and canary +bird to be well cared for somewhere else; but the temptation will be +to leave your religion in the room with the blinds down and the door +bolted, and then you will come back in the autumn to find that it is +starved and suffocated, lying stretched on the rug stark dead. There +is no surplus of piety at the watering-places. I never knew any one to +grow very rapidly in grace at the Catskill Mountain House, or Sharon +Springs, or the Falls of Montmorency. It is generally the case that +the Sabbath is more of a carousal than any other day, and there are +Sunday walks and Sunday rides and Sunday excursions. + +Elders and deacons and ministers of religion who are entirely +consistent at home, sometimes when the Sabbath dawns on them at +Niagara Falls or the White Mountains take the day to themselves. If +they go to the church, it is apt to be a sacred parade, and the +discourse, instead of being a plain talk about the soul, is apt to be +what is called _a crack sermon_--that is, some discourse picked out of +the effusions of the year as the one most adapted to excite +admiration; and in those churches, from the way the ladies hold their +fans, you know that they are not so much impressed with the heat as +with the picturesqueness of half-disclosed features. Four puny souls +stand in the organ-loft and squall a tune that nobody knows, and +worshipers, with two thousand dollars' worth of diamonds on the right +hand, drop a cent into the poor-box, and then the benediction is +pronounced and the farce is ended. + +The toughest thing I ever tried to do was to be good at a +watering-place. The air is bewitched with "the world, the flesh, and +the devil." There are Christians who in three or four weeks in such a +place have had such terrible rents made in their Christian robe that +they had to keep darning it until Christmas to get it mended! The +health of a great many people makes an annual visit to some mineral +spring an absolute necessity; but, my dear people, take your Bible +along with you, and take an hour for secret prayer every day, though +you be surrounded by guffaw and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sabbath, +though they denounce you as a bigoted Puritan. Stand off from those +institutions which propose to imitate on this side the water the +iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let your moral and your immortal health +keep pace with your physical recuperation, and remember that all the +waters of Hathorne and sulphur and chalybeate springs can not do you +so much good as the mineral, healing, perennial flood that breaks +forth from the "Rock of Ages." This may be your last summer. If so, +make it a fit vestibule of heaven. + +II. Another temptation around nearly all our watering-places is the +horse-racing business. We all admire the horse. There needs to be a +redistribution of coronets among the brute creation. For ages the lion +has been called the king of beasts. I knock off its coronet and put +the crown upon the horse, in every way nobler, whether in shape or +spirit or sagacity or intelligence or affection or usefulness. He is +semi-human, and knows how to reason on a small scale. The centaur of +olden times, part horse and part man, seems to be a suggestion of the +fact that the horse is something more than a beast. + +Job sets forth his strength, his beauty, his majesty, the panting of +his nostril, the pawing of his hoof, and his enthusiasm for the +battle. What Rosa Bonheur did for the cattle, and what Landseer did +for the dog, Job, with mightier pencil, does for the horse. +Eighty-eight times does the Bible speak of him. He comes into every +kingly procession and into every great occasion and into every +triumph. It is very evident that Job and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel +and Jeremiah and John were fond of the horse. He came into much of +their imagery. A red horse--that meant war; a black horse--that meant +famine; a pale horse--that meant death; a white horse--that meant +victory. + +As the Bible makes a favorite of the horse, the patriarch and the +prophet and the evangelist and the apostle, stroking his sleek hide, +and patting his rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his exquisitely +formed hoof, and listening with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so +all great natures in all ages have spoken of him in encomiastic terms. +Virgil in his Georgics almost seems to plagiarize from the description +of Job. The Duke of Wellington would not allow any one irreverently to +touch his old war-horse, Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen +hours without dismounting at Waterloo; and when old Copenhagen died, +his master ordered a military salute fired over his grave. John +Howard showed that he did not exhaust all his sympathies in pitying +the human race, for when sick he writes home: "Has my old chaise-horse +become sick or spoiled?" + +But we do not think that the speed of the horse should be cultured at +the expense of human degradation. Horse-races, in olden times, were +under the ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution +has come up under fictitious names, and it is called a "Summer +Meeting," almost suggestive of positive religious exercises. And it is +called an "Agricultural Fair," suggestive of everything that is +improving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are +the same cheating and the same betting, the same drunkenness and the +same vagabondage and the same abominations that were to be found under +the old horse-racing system. + +I never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the +turf for a long reach of time, and not be battered in morals. They +hook up their spanking team, and put on their sporting-cap, and light +their cigar, and take the reins, and dash down the road to perdition. +The great day at Saratoga, and Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly +all the other watering-places, is the day of the races. The hotels are +thronged, nearly every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost +fabulous price, and there are many respectable people mingling with +jockeys, and gamblers, and libertines, and foul-mouthed men and flashy +women. The bar-tender stirs up the brandy-smash. The bets run high. +The greenhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough +to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is +decided, and the men in the secret know on which steed to bet their +money. The two men on the horses riding around long before arranged +who shall beat. + +Leaning from the stand or from the carriage are men and women so +absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle and mettle that they make +a grand harvest for the pickpockets, who carry off the pocket-books +and portemonnaies. Men looking on see only two horses with two riders +flying around the ring; but there is many a man on that stand whose +honor and domestic happiness and fortune--white mane, white foot, +white flank--are in the ring, racing with inebriety, and with fraud, +and with profanity, and with ruin--black neck, black foot, black +flank. Neck and neck they go in that moral Epsom. + +Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse-racing dissipations this +summer. Long ago the English government got through looking to the +turf for the dragoon and light-cavalry horse. They found the turf +depreciates the stock, and it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes, the +member of parliament and the author, known all the world over, hearing +that a new turf enterprise was being started in this country, wrote a +letter, in which he said: "Heaven help you, then; for of all the +cankers of our old civilization there is nothing in this country +approaching in unblushing meanness, in rascality holding its head +high, to this belauded institution of the British turf." Another +famous sportsman writes: "How many fine domains have been shared among +these hosts of rapacious sharks during the last two hundred years; and +unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into +the same gulf!" The Duke of Hamilton, through his horse-racing +proclivities, in three years got through his entire fortune of +L70,000, and I will say that some of you are being undermined by it. +With the bull-fights of Spain and the bear-baitings of the pit may the +Lord God annihilate the infamous and accursed horse-racing of England +and America. + +III. I go further, and speak of another temptation that hovers over +the watering-places; and this is the temptation to sacrifice physical +strength. The modern Bethesda was intended to recuperate the physical +health; and yet how many come from the watering-places, their health +absolutely destroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots boasting of having +imbibed twenty glasses of Congress water before breakfast. Families +accustomed to going to bed at ten o'clock at night gossiping until one +or two o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about +their health, mingling ice-creams, and lemons, and lobster-salads, and +cocoa-nuts, until the gastric juices lift up all their voices of +lamentation and protest. Delicate women and brainless young men +chassezing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and +women coming back from our watering-places in the autumn with the +foundations laid for ailments that will last them all their life long. +You know as well as I do that this is the simple truth. + +In the summer you say to your good health: "Good-bye, I am going to +have a good time for a little while. I will be very glad to see you +again in the autumn." Then in the autumn, when you are hard at work in +your office, or store, or shop, or counting-room, Good Health will +come and say: "Good-bye, I am going." You say: "Where are you going?" +"Oh," says Good Health, "I am going to take a vacation!" It is a poor +rule that will not work both ways, and your good health will leave you +choleric and splenetic and exhausted. You coquetted with your good +health in the summer-time, and your good health is coquetting with you +in the winter-time. A fragment of Paul's charge to the jailer would be +an appropriate inscription for the hotel-register in every +watering-place: "Do thyself no harm." + +IV. Another temptation hovering around the watering-place is to the +formation of hasty and life-long alliances. The watering-places are +responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than +all the other things combined. Society is so artificial there that no +sure judgment of character can be formed. Those who form +companionships amid such circumstances go into a lottery where there +are twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe tug of life you want +more than glitter and splash. Life is not a ball-room where the music +decides the step, and bow and prance and graceful swing of long trail +can make up for strong common sense. You might as well go among the +gayly painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels as to go +among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character +that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah, in +the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a +croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it, +you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper +and a feminine butterfly. + +If there is any man in the community that excites my contempt, and +that ought to excite the contempt of every man and woman, it is the +soft-handed, soft-headed fop, who, perfumed until the air is actually +sick, spends his summer in taking killing attitudes, and waving +sentimental adieus, and talking infinitesimal nothings, and finding +his heaven in the set of a lavender kid-glove. Boots as tight as an +Inquisition, two hours of consummate skill exhibited in the tie of a +flaming cravat, his conversation made up of "Ah's" and "Oh's" and +"He-hee's." It would take five hundred of them stewed down to make a +teaspoonful of calves-foot jelly. There is only one counterpart to +such a man as that, and that is the frothy young woman at the +watering-place, her conversation made up of French moonshine; what she +has on her head only equaled by what she has on her back; useless ever +since she was born, and to be useless until she is dead: and what they +will do with her in the next world I do not know, except to set her +upon the banks of the River Life for eternity to look sweet! God +intends us to admire music and fair faces and graceful step, but amid +the heartlessness and the inflation and the fantastic influences of +our modern watering-places, beware how you make life-long covenants! + +V. Another temptation that will hover over the watering-place is that +of baneful literature. Almost every one starting off for the summer +takes some reading matter. It is a book out of the library or off the +bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking books through the cars. I +really believe there is more pestiferous trash read among the +intelligent classes in July and August than in all the other ten +months of the year. Men and women who at home would not be satisfied +with a book that was not really sensible, I found sitting on +hotel-piazzas or under the trees reading books the index of which +would make them blush if they knew that you knew what the book was. + +"Oh," they say, "you must have intellectual recreation!" Yes. There is +no need that you take along into a watering-place "Hamilton's +Metaphysics" or some thunderous discourse on the eternal decrees, or +"Faraday's Philosophy." There are many easy books that are good. You +might as well say: "I propose now to give a little rest to my +digestive organs; and, instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I +will for a little while take lighter food--a little strychnine and a +few grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in August is as bad as +literary poison in December. Mark that. Do not let the frogs and the +lice of a corrupt printing-press jump and crawl into your Saratoga +trunk or White Mountain valise. + +Would it not be an awful thing for you to be struck with lightning +some day when you had in your hand one of these paper-covered +romances--the hero a Parisian _roue_, the heroine an unprincipled +flirt--chapters in the book that you would not read to your children +at the rate of $100 a line? Throw out all that stuff from your summer +baggage. Are there not good books that are easy to read--books of +entertaining travel, books of congenial history, books of pure fun, +books of poetry ringing with merry canto, books of fine engravings, +books that will rest the mind as well as purify the heart and elevate +the whole life? My hearers, there will not be an hour between this +and the day of your death when you can afford to read a book lacking +in moral principle. + +VI. Another temptation hovering all around our watering-places is the +intoxicating beverage. I am told that it is becoming more and more +fashionable for woman to drink. I care not how well a woman may dress, +if she has taken enough of wine to flush her cheek and put glassiness +on her eyes, she is intoxicated. She may be handed into a $2500 +carriage, and have diamonds enough to confound the Tiffanys--she is +intoxicated. She may be a graduate of Packer Institute, and the +daughter of some man in danger of being nominated for the +Presidency--she is drunk. You may have a larger vocabulary than I +have, and you may say in regard to her that she is "convivial," or she +is "merry," or she is "festive," or she is "exhilarated," but you can +not with all your garlands of verbiage cover up the plain fact that it +is an old-fashioned case of drunk. + +Now, the watering-places are full of temptations to men and women to +tipple. At the close of the tenpin or billiard-game they tipple. At +the close of the cotillon they tipple. Seated on the piazza cooling +themselves off they tipple. The tinged glasses come around with bright +straws, and they tipple. First they take "light wines," as they call +them; but "light wines" are heavy enough to debase the appetite. There +is not a very long road between champagne at $5 a bottle and whiskey +at five cents a glass. + +Satan has three or four grades down which he takes men to destruction. +One man he takes up, and through one spree pitches him into eternal +darkness. That is a rare case. Very seldom, indeed, can you find a man +who will be such a fool as that. + +When a man goes down to destruction Satan brings him to a plane. It is +almost a level. The depression is so slight that you can hardly see +it. The man does not actually know that he is on the down grade, and +it tips only a little toward darkness--just a little. And the first +mile it is claret, and the second mile it is sherry, and the third +mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is ale, and the fifth mile it +is porter, and the sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets steeper +and steeper and steeper, and the man gets frightened and says, "Oh, +let me get off!" "No," says the conductor, "this is an express train, +and it does not stop until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at +Smashupton." Ah, "look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it +giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last +it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." And if any young +man in my congregation should get astray this summer in this direction +it will not be because I have not given him fair warning. + +My friends, whether you tarry at home--which will be quite as safe and +perhaps quite as comfortable--or go into the country, arm yourself +against temptation. The grace of God is the only safe shelter, whether +in town or country. There are watering-places accessible to all of us. +You can not open a book of the Bible without finding out some such +watering-place. Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness; wells of +salvation; streams from Lebanon; a flood struck out of the rock by +Moses; fountains in the wilderness discovered by Hagar; water to +drink and water to bathe in; the river of God, which is full of water; +water of which if a man drink he shall never thirst; wells of water in +the Valley of Baca; living fountains of water; a pure river of water +as clear as crystal from under the throne of God. + +These are watering-places accessible to all of us. We do not have a +laborious packing up before we start--only the throwing away of our +transgressions. No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is "without money +and without price." No long and dirty travel before we get there; it +is only one step away. California in five minutes. I walked around and +saw ten fountains, all bubbling up, and they were all different. And +in five minutes I can get through this Bible _parterre_ and find you +fifty bright, sparkling fountains bubbling up into eternal life. + +A chemist will go to one of these summer watering-places and take the +water and analyze it and tell you that it contains so much of iron, +and so much of soda, and so much of lime, and so much of magnesia. I +come to this Gospel well, this living fountain and analyze the water, +and I find that its ingredients are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hope, +comfort, life, heaven. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye" to this +watering-place! + +Crowd around this Bethesda this morning! Oh, you sick, you lame, you +troubled, you dying--crowd around this Bethesda! Step in it! Oh, step +in it! The angel of the covenant this morning stirs the water. Why do +you not step in it? Some of you are too weak to take a step in that +direction. Then we take you up in the arms of our closing prayer and +plunge you clean under the wave, hoping that the cure may be as sudden +and as radical as with Captain Naaman, who, blotched and carbuncled, +stepped into the Jordan, and after the seventh dive came up, his skin +roseate-complexioned as the flesh of a little child. + + + + +THE BANISHED QUEEN. + + "Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal + house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day + when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded + Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and + Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of + Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king + with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her + beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti + refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains; + therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in + him."--ESTHER i: 9-12. + + +We stand amid the palaces of Shushan. The pinnacles are aflame with +the morning light. The columns rise festooned and wreathed, the wealth +of empires flashing from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with images +of bird and beast, and scenes of prowess and conquest. The walls are +hung with shields, and emblazoned until it seems that the whole round +of splendors is exhausted. Each arch is a mighty leaf of architectural +achievement. Golden stars shining down on glowing arabesque. Hangings +of embroidered work in which mingle the blueness of the sky, the +greenness of the grass, and the whiteness of the sea-foam. Tapestries +hung on silver rings, wedding together the pillars of marble. +Pavilions reaching out in every direction. These for repose, filled +with luxuriant couches, in which weary limbs sink until all fatigue is +submerged. Those for carousal, where kings drink down a kingdom at one +swallow. + +Amazing spectacle! + +Light of silver dripping down over stairs of ivory on shields of gold. +Floors of stained marble, sunset red and night black, and inlaid with +gleaming pearl. + +In connection with this palace there is a garden, where the mighty men +of foreign lands are seated at a banquet. Under the spread of oak and +linden and acacia the tables are arranged. The breath of honeysuckle +and frankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up into the light, the +spray struck through with rainbows falling in crystalline baptism upon +flowering shrubs--then rolling down through channels of marble, and +widening out here and there into pools swirling with the finny tribes +of foreign aquariums, bordered with scarlet anemones, hypericums, and +many-colored ranunculi. + +Meats of rarest bird and beast smoking up amid wreaths of aromatics. +The vases filled with apricots and almonds. The baskets piled up with +apricots and figs and oranges and pomegranates. Melons tastefully +twined with leaves of acacia. The bright waters of Eulaeus filling the +urns and dropping outside the rim in flashing beads amid the +traceries. Wine from the royal vats of Ispahan and Shiraz, in bottles +of tinged shell, and lily-shaped cups of silver, and flagons and +tankards of solid gold. The music rises higher, and the revelry breaks +out into wilder transport, and the wine has flushed the cheek and +touched the brain, and louder than all other voices are the hiccough +of the inebriates, the gabble of fools, and the song of the drunkards. + +In another part of the palace, Queen Vashti is entertaining the +princesses of Persia at a banquet. Drunken Ahasuerus says to his +servants, "You go out and fetch Vashti from, that banquet with the +women, and bring her to this banquet with the men, and let me display +her beauty." The servants immediately start to obey the king's +command; but there was a rule in Oriental society that no woman might +appear in public without having her face veiled. Yet here was a +mandate that no one dare dispute, demanding that Vashti come in +unveiled before the multitude. However, there was in Vashti's soul a +principle more regal than Ahasuerus, more brilliant than the gold of +Shushan, of more wealth than the realm of Persia, which commanded her +to disobey this order of the king; and so all the righteousness and +holiness and modesty of her nature rise up into one sublime refusal. +She says, "I will not go into the banquet unveiled." Ahasuerus was +infuriate; and Vashti, robbed of her position and her estate, is +driven forth in poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn of a nation, and +yet to receive the applause of after generations, who shall rise up to +admire this martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the last vestige of that +feast is gone; the last garland has faded; the last arch has fallen; +the last tankard has been destroyed; and Shushan is a ruin; but as +long as the world stands there will be multitudes of men and women, +familiar with the Bible, who will come into this picture-gallery of +God and admire the divine portrait of Vashti the queen, Vashti the +veiled, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent. + +I. In the first place, I want you to look upon Vashti the queen. A +blue ribbon, rayed with white, drawn around her forehead, indicated +her queenly position. It was no small honor to be queen in such a +realm as that. Hark to the rustle of her robes! See the blaze of her +jewels! And yet, my friends, it is not necessary to have place and +regal robe in order to be queenly. When I see a woman with stout faith +in God, putting her foot upon all meanness and selfishness and godless +display, going right forward to serve Christ and the race by a grand +and a glorious service, I say: "That woman is a queen," and the ranks +of heaven look over the battlements upon the coronation; and whether +she comes up from the shanty on the commons or the mansion of the +fashionable square, I greet her with the shout, "All hail, Queen +Vashti!" + +What glory was there on the brow of Mary of Scotland, or Elizabeth of +England, or Margaret of France, or Catherine of Russia, compared with +the worth of some of our Christian mothers, many of them gone into +glory?--or of that woman mentioned in the Scriptures, who put her all +into the Lord's treasury?--or of Jephtha's daughter, who made a +demonstration of unselfish patriotism?--or of Abigail, who rescued the +herds and flocks of her husband?--or of Ruth, who toiled under a +tropical sun for poor, old, helpless Naomi?--or of Florence +Nightingale, who went at midnight to stanch the battle wounds of the +Crimea?--or of Mrs. Adoniram Judson, who kindled the lights of +salvation amid the darkness of Burmah?--or of Mrs. Hemans, who poured +out her holy soul in words which will forever be associated with +hunter's horn, and captive's chain, and bridal hour, and lute's throb, +and curfew's knell at the dying day?--and scores and hundreds of +women, unknown on earth, who have given water to the thirsty, and +bread to the hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles to the +discouraged--their footsteps heard along dark lane and in government +hospital, and in almshouse corridor, and by prison gate? There may be +no royal robe--there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not +need them; for all charitable men will unite with the crackling lips +of fever-struck hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in greeting her +as she passes: "Hail! Hail! Queen Vashti!" + +II. Again, I want you to consider Vashti the veiled. Had she appeared +before Ahasuerus and his court on that day with her face uncovered she +would have shocked all the delicacies of Oriental society, and the +very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come, in their +sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive +best in the dark lane and in the shadow, and where the sun does not +seem to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures a retiring +and unobtrusive spirit. + +God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam to +strike the timbrel at the front of a host, or a Marie Antoinette to +quell a French mob, or a Deborah to stand at the front of an armed +battalion, crying out, "Up! Up! This is the day in which the Lord will +deliver Sisera into thy hands." And when the women are called to such +out-door work and to such heroic positions, God prepares them for it; +and they have iron in their soul, and lightnings in their eye, and +whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord +Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though +they were hedges of wild-flowers, and cross seas as though they were +shimmering sapphire; and all the harpies of hell down to their dungeon +at the stamp of womanly indignation. + +But these are the exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would rather make a +garment for the poor boy; Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the +camels; Hannah would rather make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid +would rather give a prescription for Naaman's leprosy; the woman of +Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks to cook a meal for famished +Elijah; Phebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle; +Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures. When I see +a woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity presiding at +the table, with kind and gentle, but firm discipline presiding in the +nursery, going out into the world without any blast of trumpets, +following in the footsteps of Him who went about doing good--I say: +"This is Vashti with a veil on." + +But when I see a woman of unblushing boldness, loud-voiced, with a +tongue of infinite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look, passing +through the streets with the step of a walking-beam, gayly arrayed in +a very hurricane of millinery, I cry out: "Vashti has lost her veil!" +When I see a woman struggling for political preferment--trying to +force her way on up to the ballot-box, amid the masculine demagogues +who stand, with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and pestiferous +breath, to guard the polls--wanting to go through the loaferism and +the defilement of popular sovereigns, who crawl up from the saloons +greasy and foul and vermin-covered, to decide questions of justice and +order and civilization--when I see a woman, I say, who wants to press +through all that horrible scum to get to the ballot-box, I say: "Ah, +what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil!" + +When I see a woman of comely features, and of adroitness of intellect, +and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high +social position, yet moving in society with superciliousness and +_hauteur_, as though she would have people know their place, and with +an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed +with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic +infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and railroad +conductors, discoverers of significant meanings in plain conversation, +prodigies of badinage and innuendo--I say: "Vashti has lost her veil." + +III. Again, I want you this morning to consider Vashti the sacrifice. +Who is this that I see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It +seems to me that I have seen her before. She comes homeless, +houseless, friendless, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? +It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh! what a change it was from regal +position to a wayfarer's crust! A little while ago, approved and +sought for; now, none so poor as to acknowledge her acquaintanceship. +Vashti the sacrifice! + +Ah! you and I have seen it many a time. Here is a home empalaced with +beauty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home +has been done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking +hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will +flounder and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter's net--further +away from God, further away from the right. Soon the bright apparel of +the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become +the sobbing of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal +Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapithae. The house full of +outrage and cruelty and abomination, while trudging forth from the +palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes represented +in this house this morning that are in danger of such breaking-up. Oh, +Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a home, by a dissipated life +destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your +children should ever have to wring their hands, and have people point +their finger at them as they pass down the street, and say, "There +goes a drunkard's child." God forbid that the little feet should ever +have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness! God forbid that +any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or the brandy-glass should come +forth and uproot that garden, and with a lasting, blistering, +all-consuming curse, shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and +the children. + +One night during the war I went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and +I stood on a hill-top and looked down upon them. I saw the camp-fires +all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird +spectacle, those camp-fires, and I stood and watched them; and the +soldiers who were gathered around them were, no doubt, talking of +their homes, and of the long march they had taken, and of the battles +they were to fight; but after awhile I saw these camp-fires begin to +lower; and they continued to lower, until they were all gone out, and +the army slept. It was imposing when I saw the camp-fires; it was +imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep. +Well, God looks down from heaven, and He sees the fireside of +Christendom and the loved ones gathered around these firesides. These +are the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at the close of day, and +talk over the battles of life we have fought and the battles that are +yet to come. God grant that when at last these fires begin to go out, +and continue to lower until finally they are extinguished, and the +ashes of consumed hopes strew the hearth of the old homestead, it may +be because we have + + "Gone to sleep that last long sleep, + From which none ever wake to weep." + +Now we are an army on the march of life. Then we shall be an army +bivouacked in the tent of the grave. + +IV. Once more: I want you to look at Vashti the silent. You do not +hear any outcry from this woman as she goes forth from the palace +gate. From the very dignity of her nature, you know there will be no +vociferation. Sometimes in life it is necessary to make a retort; +sometimes in life it is necessary to resist; but there are crises when +the most triumphant thing to do is to keep silence. The philosopher, +confident in his newly discovered principle, waited for the coming of +more intelligent generations, willing that men should laugh at the +lightning-rod and cotton-gin and steam-boat--waiting for long years +through the scoffing of philosophical schools, in grand and +magnificent silence. + +Galileo, condemned by mathematicians and monks and cardinals, +caricatured everywhere, yet waiting and watching with his telescope to +see the coming up of stellar reenforcements, when the stars in their +courses would fight for the Copernican system; then sitting down in +complete blindness and deafness to wait for the coming on of the +generations who would build his monument and bow at his grave. The +reformer, execrated by his contemporaries, fastened in a pillory, the +slow fires of public contempt burning under him, ground under the +cylinders of the printing-press, yet calmly waiting for the day when +purity of soul and heroism of character will get the sanction of earth +and the plaudits of heaven. + +Affliction enduring without any complaint the sharpness of the pang, +and the violence of the storm, and the heft of the chain, and the +darkness of the night--waiting until a Divine hand shall be put forth +to soothe the pang, and hush the storm, and release the captive. A +wife abused, persecuted, and a perpetual exile from every earthly +comfort--waiting, waiting, until the Lord shall gather up His dear +children in a heavenly home, and no poor Vashti will ever be thrust +out from the palace gate. + +Jesus, in silence and answering not a word, drinking the gall, bearing +the cross, in prospect of the rapturous consummation when + + "Angels thronged their chariot wheel, + And bore Him to His throne, + Then swept their golden harps and sung, + 'The glorious work is done!'" + +Oh, woman! does not this story of Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled, +Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your soul? My sermon +converges into the one absorbing hope that none of you may be shut out +of the palace gate of heaven. You can endure the hardships, and the +privations, and the cruelties, and the misfortunes of this life if you +can only gain admission there. Through the blood of the everlasting +covenant you go through those gates, or never go at all. God forbid +that you should at last be banished from the society of angels, and +banished from the companionship of your glorified kindred, and +banished forever. Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may +you be enabled to imitate the example of Rachel, and Hannah, and +Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Esther, and Vashti. + + + + +THE DAY WE LIVE IN. + + "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a + time as this?"--ESTHER iv. 14. + + +Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The +time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in +behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was +afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but +her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the +suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for that +peculiar mission. "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?" Esther had her God-appointed work; you and I +have ours. It is my business to tell you what style of men and women +you ought to be in order that you meet the demand of the age in which +God has cast your lot. If you have come expecting to hear abstractions +discussed, or dry technicalities of religion glorified, you have come +to the wrong church; but if you really would like to know what this +age has a right to expect of you as Christian men and women, then I am +ready in the Lord's name to look you in the face. When two armies have +rushed into battle the officers of either army do not want a +philosophical discussion about the chemical properties of human blood +or the nature of gunpowder; they want some one to man the batteries +and swab out the guns. And now, when all the forces of light and +darkness, of heaven and hell, have plunged into the fight, it is no +time to give ourselves to the definitions and formulas and +technicalities and conventionalities of religion. + +What we want is practical, earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic, and +triumphant help. + +I. In the first place, in order to meet the special demand of this +age, you need to be an unmistakably aggressive Christian. Of +half-and-half Christians we do not want any more. The Church of Jesus +Christ will be better without ten thousand of them. They are the chief +obstacle to the Church's advancement. I am speaking of another kind of +Christian. All the appliances for your becoming an earnest Christian +are at your hand, and there is a straight path for you into the broad +daylight of God's forgiveness. You may have come into this Tabernacle +the bondsmen of the world, and yet before you go out of these doors +you may become princes of the Lord God Almighty. You remember what +excitement there was in this country, years ago, when the Prince of +Wales came here--how the people rushed out by hundreds of thousands to +see him. Why? Because they expected that some day he would sit upon +the throne of England. But what was all that honor compared with the +honor to which God calls you--to be sons and daughters of the Lord +Almighty; yea, to be queens and kings unto God? "They shall reign with +Him forever and forever." + +But, my friends, you need to be aggressive Christians, and not like +those persons who spend their lives in hugging their Christian graces +and wondering why they do not make any progress. How much robustness +of health would a man have if he hid himself in a dark closet? A great +deal of the piety of the day is too exclusive. It hides itself. It +needs more fresh air, more out-door exercise. There are many +Christians who are giving their entire life to self-examination. They +are feeling their pulses to see what is the condition of their +spiritual health. How long would a man have robust physical health if +he kept all the days and weeks and months and years of his life +feeling his pulse instead of going out into active, earnest, every-day +work? + +I was once amid the wonderful, bewitching cactus growths of North +Carolina. I never was more bewildered with the beauty of flowers, and +yet when I would take up one of these cactuses and pull the leaves +apart, the beauty was all gone. You could hardly tell that it had ever +been a flower. And there are a great many Christian people in this day +just pulling apart their Christian experiences to see what there is in +them, and there is nothing left in them. This style of +self-examination is a damage instead of an advantage to their +Christian character. I remember when I was a boy I used to have a +small piece in the garden that I called my own, and I planted corn +there, and every few days I would pull it up to see how fast it was +growing. Now, there are a great many Christian people in this day +whose self-examination merely amounts to the pulling up of that which +they only yesterday or the day before planted. + +O my friends! if you want to have a stalwart Christian character, +plant it right out of doors in the great field of Christian +usefulness, and though storms may come upon it, and though the hot sun +of trial may try to consume it, it will thrive until it becomes a +great tree, in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation. I +have no patience with these flower-pot Christians. They keep +themselves under shelter, and all their Christian experience in a +small, exclusive circle, when they ought to plant it in the great +garden of the Lord, so that the whole atmosphere could be aromatic +with their Christian usefulness. What we want in the Church of God is +more brawn of piety. + +The century plant is wonderfully suggestive and wonderfully beautiful, +but I never look at it without thinking of its parsimony. It lets +whole generations go by before it puts forth one blossom; so I have +really more heartfelt admiration when I see the dewy tears in the blue +eyes of the violets, for they come every spring. My Christian friends, +time is going by so rapidly that we can not afford to be idle. + +A recent statistician says that human life now has an average of only +thirty-two years. From these thirty-two years you must subtract all +the time you take for sleep and the taking of food and recreation; +that will leave you about sixteen years. From those sixteen years you +must subtract all the time that you are necessarily engaged in the +earning of a livelihood; that will leave you about eight years. From +those eight years you must take all the days and weeks and months--all +the length of time that is passed in childhood and sickness, leaving +you about one year in which to work for God. Oh, my soul, wake up! +How darest thou sleep in harvest-time and with so few hours in which +to reap? So that I state it as a simple fact that all the time that +the vast majority of you will have for the exclusive service of God +will be less than one year! + +"But," says some man, "I liberally support the Gospel, and the church +is open and the Gospel is preached: all the spiritual advantages are +spread before men, and if they want to be saved, let them come to be +saved; I have discharged all my responsibility." Ah! is that the +Master's spirit? Is there not an old Book somewhere that commands us +to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to +come in? What would have become of you and me if Christ had not come +down off the hills of heaven, and if He had not come through the door +of the Bethlehem caravansary, and if He had not with the crushed hand +of the crucifixion knocked at the iron gate of the sepulcher of our +spiritual death, crying, "Lazarus, come forth"? Oh, my Christian +friends, this is no time for inertia, when all the forces of darkness +seem to be in full blast; when steam printing-presses are publishing +infidel tracts; when express railroad trains are carrying messengers +of sin; when fast clippers are laden with opium and rum; when the +night-air of our cities is polluted with the laughter that breaks up +from the ten thousand saloons of dissipation and abandonment; when the +fires of the second death already are kindled in the cheeks of some +who, only a little while ago, were incorrupt. Oh, never since the +curse fell upon the earth has there been a time when it was such an +unwise, such a cruel, such an awful thing for the Church to sleep! +The great audiences are not gathered in the Christian churches; the +great audiences are gathered in temples of sin--tears of unutterable +woe their baptism, the blood of crushed hearts the awful wine of their +sacrament, blasphemies their litany, and the groans of the lost world +the organ dirge of their worship. + +II. Again, if you want to be qualified to meet the duties which this +age demands of you, you must on the one hand avoid reckless +iconoclasm, and on the other hand not stick too much to things because +they are old. The air is full of new plans, new projects, new theories +of government, new theologies, and I am amazed to see how so many +Christians want only novelty in order to recommend a thing to their +confidence; and so they vacillate and swing to and fro, and they are +useless, and they are unhappy. New plans--secular, ethical, +philosophical, religious, cisatlantic, transatlantic--long enough to +make a line reaching from the German universities to Great Salt Lake +City. Ah, my brother, do not take hold of a thing merely because it is +new. Try it by the realities of a Judgment Day. + +But, on the other hand, do not adhere to any thing merely because it +is old. There is not a single enterprise of the Church or the world +but has sometimes been scoffed at. There was a time when men derided +even Bible societies; and when a few young men met near a hay-stack in +Massachusetts and organized the first missionary society ever +organized in this country, there went laughter and ridicule all around +the Christian Church. They said the undertaking was preposterous. And +so also the work of Jesus Christ was assailed. People cried out, "Who +ever heard of such theories of ethics and government? Who ever +noticed such a style of preaching as Jesus has?" Ezekiel had talked of +mysterious wings and wheels. Here came a man from Capernaum and +Gennesaret, and he drew his illustration from the lakes, from the +sand, from the ravine, from the lilies, from the corn-stalks. How the +Pharisees scoffed! How Herod derided! How Caiaphas hissed! And this +Jesus they plucked by the beard, and they spat in his face, and they +called him "this fellow!" All the great enterprises in and out of the +Church have at times been scoffed at, and there have been a great +multitude who have thought that the chariot of God's truth would fall +to pieces if it once got out of the old rut. + +And so there are those who have no patience with anything like +improvement in church architecture, or with anything like good, +hearty, earnest church singing, and they deride any form of religious +discussion which goes down walking among every-day men rather than +that which makes an excursion on rhetorical stilts. Oh, that the +Church of God would wake up to an adaptability of work! We must admit +the simple fact that the churches of Jesus Christ in this day do not +reach the great masses. There are fifty thousand people in Edinburgh +who never hear the Gospel. There are one million people in London who +never hear the Gospel. There are at least three hundred thousand souls +in the city of Brooklyn who come not under the immediate ministrations +of Christ's truth; and the Church of God in this day, instead of being +a place full of living epistles, read and known of all men, is more +like a "dead-letter" post-office. + +"But," say the people, "the world is going to be converted; you must +be patient; the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of +Christ," Never, unless the Church of Jesus Christ puts on more speed +and energy. Instead of the Church converting the world, the world is +converting the Church. Here is a great fortress. How shall it be +taken? An army comes and sits around about it, cuts off the supplies, +and says: "Now we will just wait until from exhaustion and starvation +they will have to give up." Weeks and months, and perhaps a year, pass +along, and finally the fortress surrenders through that starvation and +exhaustion. But, my friends, the fortresses of sin are never to be +taken in that way. If they are taken for God it will be by storm; you +will have to bring up the great siege guns of the Gospel to the very +wall and wheel the flying artillery into line, and when the armed +infantry of heaven shall confront the battlements you will have to +give the quick command, "Forward! Charge!" + +Ah, my friends, there is work for you to do and for me to do in order +to this grand accomplishment! Here is my pulpit, and I preach in it. +Your pulpit is the bank. Your pulpit is the store. Your pulpit is the +editorial chair. Your pulpit is the anvil. Your pulpit is the house +scaffolding. Your pulpit is the mechanic's shop. I may stand in this +place and, through cowardice or through self-seeking, may keep back +the word I ought to utter; while you, with sleeve rolled up and brow +besweated with toil, may utter the word that will jar the foundations +of heaven with the shout of a great victory. Oh, that this morning +this whole audience might feel that the Lord Almighty was putting upon +them the hands of ordination. I tell you, every one, go forth and +preach this gospel. You have as much right to preach as I have, or as +any man has. Only find out the pulpit where God will have you preach, +and there preach. + +Hedley Vicars was a wicked man in the English army. The grace of God +came to him. He became an earnest and eminent Christian. They scoffed +at him, and said: "You are a hypocrite; you are as bad as ever you +were." Still he kept his faith in Christ, and after awhile, finding +that they could not turn him aside by calling him a hypocrite, they +said to him: "Oh, you are nothing but a Methodist." That did not +disturb him. He went on performing his Christian duty until he had +formed all his troop into a Bible-class, and the whole encampment was +shaken with the presence of God. So Havelock went into the heathen +temple in India while the English army was there, and put a candle +into the hand of each of the heathen gods that stood around in the +heathen temple, and by the light of those candles, held up by the +idols, General Havelock preached righteousness, temperance, and +judgment to come. And who will say, on earth or in Heaven, that +Havelock had not the right to preach? + +In the minister's house where I prepared for college, there was a man +who worked, by the name of Peter Croy. He could neither read nor +write, but he was a man of God. Often theologians would stop in the +house--grave theologians--and at family prayers Peter Croy would be +called upon to lead; and all those wise men sat around, wonder-struck +at his religious efficiency. When he prayed he reached up and seemed +to take hold of the very throne of the Almighty, and he talked with +God until the very heavens were bowed down into the sitting-room. Oh, +if I were dying I would rather have plain Peter Croy kneel by my +bedside and commend my immortal spirit to God than the greatest +archbishop, arrayed in costly canonicals. Go preach this Gospel. You +say you are not licensed. In the name of the Lord Almighty, this +morning, I license you. Go preach this Gospel--preach it in the +Sabbath-schools, in the prayer-meetings, in the highways, in the +hedges. Woe be unto you if you preach it not. + +III. I remark, again, that in order to be qualified to meet your duty +in this particular age you want unbounded faith in the triumph of the +truth and the overthrow of wickedness. How dare the Christian Church +ever get discouraged? Have we not the Lord Almighty on our side? How +long did it take God to slay the hosts of Sennacherib or burn Sodom or +shake down Jericho? How long will it take God, when He once arises in +His strength, to overthrow all the forces of iniquity? Between this +time and that there may be long seasons of darkness--the +chariot-wheels of God's Gospel may seem to drag heavily; but here is +the promise, and yonder is the throne; and when Omniscience has lost +its eyesight, and Omnipotence falls back impotent, and Jehovah is +driven from His throne, then the Church of Jesus Christ can afford to +be despondent, but never until then. Despots may plan and armies may +march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are +adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the +earth are only the dust of the chariot-wheels of God's providence. + +I think that before the sun of this century shall set the last tyranny +will fall, and with a splendor of demonstration that shall be the +astonishment of the universe God will set forth the brightness and +pomp and glory and perpetuity of His eternal government. Out of the +starry flags and the emblazoned insignia of this world God will make a +path for His own triumph, and, returning from universal conquest, He +will sit down, the grandest, strongest, highest throne of earth His +footstool. + + "Then shall all nations' song ascend + To Thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend, + Till heaven's high arch resounds again + With 'Peace on earth, good will to men.'" + +I preach this sermon because I want to encourage all Christian workers +in every possible department. Hosts of the living God, march on! march +on! His Spirit will bless you. His shield will defend you. His sword +will strike for you. March on! march on! The despotism will fall, and +paganism will burn its idols, and Mohammedanism will give up its false +prophet, and Judaism will confess the true Messiah, and the great +walls of superstition will come down in thunder and wreck at the long, +loud blast of the Gospel trumpet. March on! march on! The besiegement +will soon be ended. Only a few more steps on the long way; only a few +more sturdy blows; only a few more battle cries, then God will put the +laurel upon your brow, and from the living fountains of heaven will +bathe off the sweat and the heat and the dust of the conflict. March +on! march on! For you the time for work will soon be passed, and amid +the outflashings of the judgment throne, and the trumpeting of +resurrection angels, and the upheaving of a world of graves, and the +hosanna and the groaning of the saved and the lost, we shall be +rewarded for our faithfulness or punished for our stupidity. Blessed +be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the +whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. + + + + +CAPITAL AND LABOR. + + "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so + to them."--MATT. vii: 12. + + +The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. +The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty +Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five +continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this +country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of +power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are +diminishing; and if things go on at the same ratio as they are now +going, it will not be very long before there will be no middle class +in this country, but all will be very rich or very poor, princes or +paupers, and the country will be given up to palaces and hovels. + +The antagonistic forces are closing in upon each other. The +telegraphic operators' strikes, the railroad employes' strikes, the +Pennsylvania miners' strikes, the movements of the Boycotters and the +dynamiters are only skirmishes before a general engagement, or, if you +prefer it, escapes through the safety-valves of an imprisoned force +which promises the explosion of society. You may pooh-pooh it; you may +say that this trouble, like an angry child, will cry itself to sleep; +you may belittle it by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. +Simonism, or Nihilism, or Communism; but that will not hinder the fact +that it is the mightiest, the darkest, the most terrific threat of +this century. All attempts at pacification have been dead failures, +and monopoly is more arrogant, and the trades unions more bitter. +"Give us more wages," cry the employes. "You shall have less," say the +capitalists. "Compel us to do fewer hours of toil in a day." "You +shall toil more hours," say the others. "Then, under certain +conditions, we will not work at all," say these. "Then you shall +starve," say those, and the workmen gradually using up that which they +accumulated in better times, unless there be some radical change, we +shall have soon in this country three million hungry men and women. +Now, three million hungry people can not be kept quiet. All the +enactments of legislatures and all the constabularies of the cities, +and all the army and navy of the United States can not keep three +million hungry people quiet. What then? Will this war between capital +and labor be settled by human wisdom? Never. The brow of the one +becomes more rigid, the fist of the other more clinched. + +But that which human wisdom can not achieve will be accomplished by +Christianity if it be given full sway. You have heard of medicines so +powerful that one drop would stop a disease and restore a patient; and +I have to tell you that one drop of my text properly administered will +stop all those woes of society and give convalescence and complete +health to all classes. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so to them." + +I shall first show you this morning how this quarrel between monopoly +and hard work can not be stopped, and then I will show you how this +controversy will be settled. + +Futile remedies. In the first place, there will come no pacification +to this trouble through an outcry against rich men merely because they +are rich. There is no member of a trades-union on earth that would not +be rich if he could be. Sometimes through a fortunate invention, or +through some accident of prosperity, a man who had nothing comes to +large estate, and we see him arrogant and supercilious, and taking +people by the throat just as other people took him by the throat. +There is something very mean about human nature when it comes to the +top. But it is no more a sin to be rich than it is a sin to be poor. +There are those who have gathered a great estate through fraud, and +then there are millionaires who have gathered their fortune through +foresight in regard to changes in the markets, and through brilliant +business faculty, and every dollar of their estate is as honest as the +dollar which the plumber gets for mending a pipe, or the mason gets +for building a wall. There are those who keep in poverty because of +their own fault. They might have been well-off, but they smoked or +chewed up their earnings, or they lived beyond their means, while +others on the same wages and on the same salaries went on to +competency. I know a man who is all the time complaining of his +poverty and crying out against rich men, while he himself keeps two +dogs, and chews and smokes, and is filled to the chin with whisky and +beer! + +Micawber said to David Copperfield: "Copperfield, my boy, one pound +income, twenty shillings and sixpence expenses: result misery. But, +Copperfield, my boy, one pound income, expenses nineteen shillings and +sixpence; result, happiness." And there are vast multitudes of people +who are kept poor because they are the victims of their own +improvidence. It is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin to be poor. I +protest against this outcry which I hear against those who, through +economy and self-denial and assiduity, have come to large fortune. +This bombardment of commercial success will never stop this quarrel +between capital and labor. + +Neither will the contest be settled by cynical and unsympathetic +treatment of the laboring classes. There are those who speak of them +as though they were only cattle or draught horses. Their nerves are +nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing, their happiness is +nothing. They have no more sympathy for them than a hound has for a +hare, or a hawk for a hen, or a tiger for a calf. When Jean Valjean, +the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after a life of suffering +and brave endurance, goes into incarceration and death, they clap the +book shut and say, "Good for him!" They stamp their feet with +indignation and say just the opposite of "Save the working-classes." +They have all their sympathies with Shylock, and not with Antonio and +Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feelings are infernal. They are +filled with irritation and irascibility on this subject. To stop this +awful imbroglio between capital and labor they will lift not so much +as the tip end of the little finger. + +Neither will there be any pacification of this angry controversy +through violence. God never blessed murder. + +The poorest use you can put a man to is to kill him. Blow up to-morrow +all the country-seats on the banks of the Hudson, and all the fine +houses on Madison Square, and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill, and +Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon Street, and all the bricks and timber +and stone will just fall back on the bare head of American labor. The +worst enemies of the working-classes in the United States and Ireland +are their demented coadjutors. Assassination--the assassination of +Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, +Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned +away from that afflicted people millions of sympathizers. The recent +attempt to blow up the House of Commons, in London, had only this +effect: to throw out of employment tens of thousands of innocent Irish +people in England. + +In this country the torch put to the factories that have discharged +hands for good or bad reason; obstructions on the rail-track in front +of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the +president of the company; strikes on shipboard the hour they were +going to sail, or in printing-offices the hour the paper was to go to +press, or in mines the day the coal was to be delivered, or on house +scaffoldings so the builder fails in keeping his contract--all these +are only a hard blow on the head of American labor, and cripple its +arms, and lame its feet, and pierce its heart. Take the last great +strike in America--the telegraph operators' strike--and you have to +find that the operators lost four hundred thousand dollars' worth of +wages, and have had poorer wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly +upon employers, and violence, never took one knot out of the knuckle +of toil, or put one farthing of wages into a callous palm. Barbarism +will never cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark that! + +Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and +he resolved to get it. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller +three times the value of the property. The miller would not take it, +because it was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt +about his vineyard when Ahab wanted it. Frederick the Great was a +rough and terrible man, and he ordered the miller into his presence; +and the king, with a stick, in his hand--a stick with which he +sometimes struck his officers of state--said to this miller: "Now, I +have offered you three times the value of that property, and if you +won't sell it I'll take it anyhow." The miller said, "Your majesty, +you won't." "Yes," said the king, "I will take it." "Then," said the +miller, "if your majesty does take it, I will sue you in the Chancery +Court." At that threat Frederick the Great yielded his infamous +demand. And the most imperious outrage against the working-classes +will yet cower before the law. Violence and contrary to the law will +never accomplish anything, but righteousness and according to law will +accomplish it. + +Well, if this controversy between Capital and Labor can not be settled +by human wisdom, if to-day Capital and Labor stand with their thumbs +on each other's throat--as they do--it is time for us to look +somewhere else for relief, and it points from my text roseate and +jubilant, and puts one hand on the broadcloth shoulder of Capital, and +puts the other hand on the homespun-covered shoulder of Toil, and +says, with a voice that will grandly and gloriously settle this, and +settle everything, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do +ye even so to them." That is, the lady of the household will say: "I +must treat the maid in the kitchen just as I would like to be treated +if I were down-stairs, and it were my work to wash, and cook, and +sweep, and it were the duty of the maid in the kitchen to preside in +this parlor." The maid in the kitchen must say: "If my employer seems +to be more prosperous than I, that is no fault of hers; I shall not +treat her as an enemy. I will have the same industry and fidelity +down-stairs as I would expect from my subordinates, if I happened to +be the wife of a silk importer." + +The owner of an iron mill, having taken a dose of my text before +leaving home in the morning, will go into his foundry, and, passing +into what is called the puddling-room, he will see a man there +stripped to the waist, and besweated and exhausted with the labor and +the toil, and he will say to him: "Why, it seems to be very hot in +here. You look very much exhausted. I hear your child is sick with +scarlet fever. If you want your wages a little earlier this week, so +as to pay the nurse and get the medicines, just come into my office +any time." + +After awhile, crash goes the money market, and there is no more demand +for the articles manufactured in that iron mill, and the owner does +not know what to do. He says, "Shall I stop the mill, or shall I run +it on half time, or shall I cut down the men's wages?" He walks the +floor of his counting-room all day, hardly knowing what to do. Toward +evening he calls all the laborers together. They stand all around, +some with arms akimbo, some with folded arms, wondering what the boss +is going to do now. The manufacturer says: "Men, times are very hard; +I don't make twenty dollars where I used to make one hundred. Somehow, +there is no demand now for what we manufacture, or but very little +demand. You see I am at vast expense, and I have called you together +this afternoon to see what you would advise. I don't want to shut up +the mill, because that would force you out of work, and you have +always been very faithful, and I like you, and you seem to like me, +and the bairns must be looked after, and your wife will after awhile +want a new dress. I don't know what to do." + +There is a dead halt for a minute or two, and then one of the workmen +steps out from the ranks of his fellows, and says: "Boss, you have +been very good to us, and when you prospered we prospered, and now you +are in a tight place and I am sorry, and we have got to sympathize +with you. I don't know how the others feel, but I propose that we take +off twenty per cent. from our wages, and that when the times get good +you will remember us and raise them again." The workman looks around +to his comrades, and says: "Boys, what do you say to this? all in +favor of my proposition will say ay." "Ay! ay! ay!" shout two hundred +voices. + +But the mill-owner, getting in some new machinery, exposes himself +very much, and takes cold, and it settles into pneumonia, and he dies. +In the procession to the tomb are all the workmen, tears rolling down +their cheeks, and off upon the ground; but an hour before the +procession gets to the cemetery the wives and the children of those +workmen are at the grave waiting for the arrival of the funeral +pageant. The minister of religion may have delivered an eloquent +eulogium before they started from the house, but the most impressive +things are said that day by the working-classes standing around the +tomb. + +That night in all the cabins of the working-people where they have +family prayers the widowhood and the orphanage in the mansion are +remembered. No glaring populations look over the iron fence of the +cemetery; but, hovering over the scene, the benediction of God and man +is coming for the fulfillment of the Christlike injunction, +"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them." + +"Oh," says some man here, "that is all Utopian, that is apocryphal, +that is impossible." No. Yesterday, I cut out of a paper this: "One of +the pleasantest incidents recorded in a long time is reported from +Sheffield, England. The wages of the men in the iron works at +Sheffield are regulated by a board of arbitration, by whose decision +both masters and men are bound. For some time past the iron and steel +trade has been extremely unprofitable, and the employers can not, +without much loss, pay the wages fixed by the board, which neither +employers nor employed have the power to change. To avoid this +difficulty, the workmen in one of the largest steel works in Sheffield +hit upon a device as rare as it was generous. They offered to work for +their employers one week without any pay whatever. How much better +that plan is than a strike would be." + +But you go with me and I will show you--not so far off as Sheffield, +England--factories, banking-houses, storehouses, and costly +enterprises where this Christ-like injunction of my text is fully +kept, and you could no more get the employer to practice an injustice +upon his men, or the men to conspire against the employer, than you +could get your right hand and your left hand, your right eye and your +left eye, your right ear and your left ear, into physiological +antagonism. Now, where is this to begin? In our homes, in our stores, +on our farms--not waiting for other people to do their duty. Is there +a divergence now between the parlor and the kitchen? Then there is +something wrong, either in the parlor or the kitchen, perhaps in both. +Are the clerks in your store irate against the firm? Then there is +something wrong, either behind the counter, or in the private office, +or perhaps in both. + +The great want of the world to-day is the fulfillment of this +Christ-like injunction, that which He promulgated in His sermon +Olivetic. All the political economists under the arch or vault of the +heavens in convention for a thousand years can not settle this +controversy between monopoly and hard work, between capital and labor. +During the Revolutionary War there was a heavy piece of timber to be +lifted, perhaps for some fortress, and a corporal was overseeing the +work, and he was giving commands to some soldiers as they lifted: +"Heave away, there! yo heave!" Well, the timber was too heavy; they +could not get it up. There was a gentleman riding by on a horse, and +he stopped and said to this corporal, "Why don't you help them lift? +That timber is too heavy for them to lift." "No," he said, "I won't; +I am a corporal." The gentleman got off his horse and came up to the +place. "Now," he said to the soldiers, "all together--yo heave!" and +the timber went to its place. "Now," said the gentleman to the +corporal, "when you have a piece of timber too heavy for the men to +lift, and you want help, you send to your commander-in-chief." It was +Washington. Now, that is about all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of +giving somebody a lift, a lift out of darkness, a lift out of earth +into heaven. That is all the Gospel I know--the Gospel of helping +somebody else to lift. + +"Oh," says some wiseacre, "talk as you will, the law of demand and +supply will regulate these things until the end of time." No, they +will not, unless God dies and the batteries of the Judgment Day are +spiked, and Pluto and Proserpine, king and queen of the infernal +regions, take full possession of this world. Do you know who Supply +and Demand are? They have gone into partnership, and they propose to +swindle this earth and are swindling it. You are drowning. Supply and +Demand stand on the shore, one on one side, the other on the other +side, of the life-boat, and they cry out to you, "Now, you pay us what +we ask you for getting you to shore, or go to the bottom!" If you can +borrow $5000 you can keep from failing in business. Supply and Demand +say, "Now, you pay us exorbitant usury, or you go into bankruptcy." +This robber firm of Supply and Demand say to you: "The crops are +short. We bought up all the wheat and it is in our bin. Now, you pay +our price or starve." That is your magnificent law of supply and +demand. + +Supply and Demand own the largest mill on earth, and all the rivers +roll over their wheel, and into their hopper they put all the men, +women, and children they can shovel out of the centuries, and the +blood and the bones redden the valley while the mill grinds. That +diabolic law of supply and demand will yet have to stand aside, and +instead thereof will come the law of love, the law of cooperation, the +law of kindness, the law of sympathy, the law of Christ. + +Have you no idea of the coming of such a time? Then you do not believe +the Bible. All the Bible is full of promises on this subject, and as +the ages roll on the time will come when men or fortune will be giving +larger sums to humanitarian and evangelistic purposes, and there will +be more James Lenoxes and Peter Coopers and William E. Dodges and +George Peabodys. As that time comes there will be more parks, more +picture-galleries, more gardens thrown open for the holiday people and +the working-classes. + +I was reading only this morning in regard to a charge that had been +made in England against Lambeth Palace, that it was exclusive; and +that charge demonstrated the sublime fact that to the grounds of that +wealthy estate eight hundred poor families have free passes, and forty +croquet companies, and on the hall-day holidays four thousand poor +people recline on the grass, walk through the paths, and sit under the +trees. That is Gospel--Gospel on the wing, Gospel out-of-doors worth +just as much as in-doors. That time is going to come. + +That is only a hint of what is going to be. The time is going to come +when, if you have anything in your house worth looking at--pictures, +pieces of sculpture--you are going to invite me to come and see it, +you are going to invite my friends to come and see it, and you will +say, "See what I have been blessed with. God has given me this, and so +far as enjoying it, it is yours also." That is Gospel. + +In crossing the Alleghany Mountains, many years ago, the stage halted, +and Henry Clay dismounted from the stage, and went out on a rock at +the very verge of the cliff, and he stood there with his cloak wrapped +about him, and he seemed to be listening for something. Some one said +to him, "What are you listening for?" Standing there, on the top of +the mountain, he said: "I am listening to the tramp of the footsteps +of the coming millions of this continent." A sublime posture for an +American statesman! You and I to-day stand on the mountain-top of +privilege, and on the Rock of Ages, and we look off, and we hear +coming from the future the happy industries, and smiling populations, +and the consecrated fortunes, and the innumerable prosperities of the +closing nineteenth and the opening twentieth century. + +While I speak this morning, there lies in state the dead author and +patriot of France, Victor Hugo. The ten thousand dollars in his will +he has given to the poor of the city are only a hint of the work he +has done for all nations and for all times. I wonder not that they +allow eleven days to pass between his death and his burial, his body +meantime kept under triumphal arch, for the world can hardly afford to +let go this man who for more than eight decades has by his +unparalleled genius blessed it. His name shall be a terror to all +despots, and an encouragement to all the struggling. He has made the +world's burden lighter, and its darkness less dense, and its chain +less galling, and its thrones of iniquity less secure. Farewell, +patriot, genius of the century, Victor Hugo! But he was not the +overtowering friend of mankind. + +The greatest friend of capitalist and toiler, and the one who will yet +bring them together in complete accord, was born one Christmas night +while the curtains of heaven swung, stirred by the wings angelic. +Owner of all things--all the continents, all worlds, and all the +islands of light. Capitalist of immensity, crossing over to our +condition. Coming into our world, not by gate of palace, but by door +of barn. Spending His first night amid the shepherds. Gathering after +around Him the fishermen to be His chief attendants. With adze, and +saw, and chisel, and ax, and in a carpenter-shop showing himself +brother with the tradesmen. Owner of all things, and yet on a hillock +back of Jerusalem one day resigning everything for others, keeping not +so much as a shekel to pay for His obsequies, by charity buried in the +suburbs of a city that had cast Him out. Before the cross of such a +capitalist, and such a carpenter, all men can afford to shake hands +and worship. Here is the every man's Christ. None so high, but He was +higher. None so poor, but He was poorer. At His feet the hostile +extremes will yet renounce their animosities, and countenances which +have glowered with the prejudices and revenge of centuries shall +brighten with the smile of heaven as He commands: "Whatsoever ye would +that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." + + + + +DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE. + + "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are + done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power; but they had no + comforter."--ECCLES. iv: 1. + + +Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for +women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace +showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at +Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the +Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned +by some member of his royal family. So let the toiler everywhere be +respected! + +The needle has slain more than the sword. When the sewing-machine was +invented some thought that invention would alleviate woman's toil and +put an end to the despotism of the needle. But no; while the +sewing-machine has been a great blessing to well-to-do families in +many cases, it has added to the stab of the needle the crush of the +wheel; and multitudes of women, notwithstanding the re-enforcement of +the sewing-machines, can only make, work hard as they will, between +two dollars and three dollars per week. + +The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents +was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, +in their perfect state, might have got along without work, or only +such slight employment as a perfect garden with no weeds in it +demanded. But as soon as they had sinned, the best thing for them was +to be turned out where they would have to work. We know what a +withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to do. Old Ashbel +Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: "I +do so to keep out of mischief." We see that a man who has a large +amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand +prosperous and honorable men that you know, nine hundred and +ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to +tell you that industry is just as important for a woman's safety and +happiness. The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are those +who have no engagements to call them up in the morning; who, once +having risen and breakfasted, lounge through the dull forenoon in +slippers down at the heel and with disheveled hair, reading Ouida's +last novel, and who, having dragged through a wretched forenoon and +taken their afternoon sleep, and having passed an hour and a half at +their toilet, pick up their card-case and go out to make calls, and +who pass their evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break up +the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in so dark a +dungeon as that. + +There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may be with hand, it may be +with brain, it may be with foot; but work she must, or be wretched +forever. The little girls of our families must be started with that +idea. + +The curse of American society is that our young women are taught that +the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, +fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take +care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under +God they may take care of themselves. The simple fact is that a +majority of them do have to take care of themselves, and that, too, +after having, through the false notions of their parents, wasted the +years in which they ought to have learned how successfully to maintain +themselves. We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and +outrage of that father and mother who pass their daughters into +womanhood, having given them no facility for earning their livelihood. +Madame de Stael said: "It is not these writings that I am proud of, +but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of +which I could make a livelihood." You say you have a fortune to leave +them. Oh, man and woman, have you not learned that like vultures, like +hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and fly away? Though you should +be successful in leaving a competency behind you, the trickery of +executors may swamp it in a night? or some officials in our churches +may get up a mining company and induce your orphans to put their money +into a hole in Colorado, and if by the most skillful machinery the +sunken money can not be brought up again, prove to them, that it was +eternally decreed that that was the way they were to lose it, and that +it went in the most orthodox and heavenly style. Oh, the damnable +schemes that professed Christians will engage in until God puts His +fingers into the collar of the hypocrite's robe and strips it clear +down to the bottom! You have no right, because you are well off, to +conclude that your children are going to be as well off. A man died +leaving a large fortune. His son fell dead in a Philadelphia +grog-shop. His old comrades came in and said as they bent over his +corpse: "What is the matter with you, Boggsey?" The surgeon standing +over him said: "Hush ye! He is dead!" "Oh, he is dead," they said. +"Come, boys; let us go and take a drink in memory of poor Boggsey!" +Have you nothing better than money to leave your children? If you have +not, but send your daughters into the world with empty brain and +unskilled hand, you are guilty of assassination, homicide, regicide, +infanticide. + +There are women toiling in our cities for two and three dollars per +week who were the daughters of merchant princes. These suffering ones +now would be glad to have the crumbs that once fell from their +fathers' table. That worn-out, broken shoe that she wears is the +lineal descendant of the twelve-dollar gaiters in which her mother +walked; and that torn and faded calico had ancestry of magnificent +brocade that swept Broadway clean without any expense to the street +commissioners. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare +sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to +them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society +that, though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and +make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing +anything for a livelihood is dishonorable. It is a shame for a young +woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father +toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to +be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. It is as honorable to +sweep the house, make beds or trim hats as it is to twist a +watch-chain. + +As far as I can understand, the line of respectability lies between +that which is useful and that which is useless. If women do that which +is of no value, their work is honorable. If they do practical work, it +is dishonorable. That our young women may escape the censure of doing +dishonorable work, I shall particularize. You may knit a tidy for the +back of an arm-chair, but by no means make the money wherewith to buy +the chair. You may with a delicate brush beautify a mantel ornament, +but die rather than earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You may learn +artistic music until you can squall Italian, but never sing +"Ortonville" or "Old Hundred." Do nothing practical if you would in +the eyes of refined society preserve your respectability. I scout +these fine notions. I tell you a woman, no more than a man, has a +right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it. + +In the course of a life-time you consume whole harvests and droves of +cattle, and every day you live, breathe forty hogsheads of good, pure +air. You must by some kind of usefulness pay for all this. Our race +was the last thing created--the birds and fishes on the fourth day, +the cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. If +geologists are right, the earth was a million of years in the +possession of the insects, beasts, and birds before our race came upon +it. In one sense we were innovators. The cattle, the lizards, and the +hawks had pre-emption right. The question is not what we are to do +with the lizards and summer insects, but what the lizards and summer +insects are to do with us. If we want a place in this world, we must +earn it. The partridge makes its own nest before it occupies it. The +lark by its morning song earns its breakfast before it eats it, and +the Bible gives an intimation that the first duty of an idler is to +starve when it says: "If he will not work, neither shall he eat." +Idleness ruins the health; and very soon nature says: "This man has +refused to pay his rent, out with him!" Society is to be reconstructed +on the subject of woman's toil. A vast majority of those who would +have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment +in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything that she can +do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, +or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for +sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for +delineating animals, let her make "The Horse Fair." If Miss Mitchell +will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will +be a merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will preach the +Gospel, let her thrill with her womanly eloquence the Quaker +meeting-house. + +It is said, If woman is given such opportunities she will occupy +places that might be taken by men. I say, If she have more skill and +adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have it! She has +as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home, as men +have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is +unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history +what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than +that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? The +battering-ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle-ax, have made no +such havoc as the needle. I would that these living sepulchers in +which women have for ages been buried might be opened, and that some +resurrection trumpet might bring up these living corpses to the fresh +air and sunlight. + +Go with me and I will show you a woman who by hardest toil supports +her children, her drunken husband, her old father and mother, pays her +house rent, always has wholesome food on her table, and when she can +get some neighbor on the Sabbath to come in and take care of her +family, appears in church with hat and cloak that are far from +indicating the toil to which she is subjected. Such a woman as that +has body and soul enough to fit her for any position. She could stand +beside the majority of your salesmen and dispose of more goods. She +could go into your wheelwright shops and beat one half of your workmen +at making carriages. We talk about woman as though we had resigned to +her all the light work, and ourselves had shouldered the heavier. But +the day of judgment, which will reveal the sufferings of the stake and +Inquisition, will marshal before the throne of God and the hierarchs +of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub and needle. Now, I say if there be +any preference in occupation, let women have it. God knows her trials +are the severest. By her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by her +hour of anguish, I demand that no one hedge up her pathway to a +livelihood. Oh! the meanness, the despicability of men who begrudge a +woman the right to work anywhere in any honorable calling! + +I go still further and say that woman should have equal compensation +with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our +cities get only two thirds as much pay as men, and in many cases only +half? Here is the gigantic injustice--that for work equally well, if +not better, done, woman receives far less compensation than man. Start +with the National Government. Women clerks in Washington get nine +hundred dollars for doing that for which men receive eighteen hundred +dollars. The wheel of oppression is rolling over the necks of +thousands of women who are at this moment in despair about what they +are to do. Many of the largest mercantile establishments of our cities +are accessory to these abominations, and from their large +establishments there are scores of souls being pitched off into death, +and their employers know it. Is there a God? Will there be a judgment? +I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs, many of our +large establishments will be swallowed up quicker than a South +American earthquake ever took down a city. God will catch these +oppressors between the two millstones of his wrath and grind them to +powder. + +Why is it that a female principal in a school gets only eight hundred +and twenty-five dollars for doing work for which a male principal gets +sixteen hundred and fifty dollars? I hear from all this land the wail +of womanhood. Man has nothing to answer to that wail but flatteries. +He says she is an angel. She is not. She knows she is not. She is a +human being who gets hungry when she has no food, and cold when she +has no fire. Give her no more flatteries; give her justice! There are +sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the +sunlight comes their death groan. It is not such a cry as comes from +those who are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding, +horrible wasting-away. Gather them before you and look into their +faces, pinched, ghastly, hunger-struck! Look at their fingers, +needle-pricked and blood-tipped! See that premature stoop in the +shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough! At a large meeting +of these women held in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were +delivered, but a needle-woman took the stand, threw aside her faded +shawl, and with her shriveled arm hurled a very thunder-bolt of +eloquence, speaking out the horrors of her own experience. + +Stand at the corner of a street in New York at six or seven o'clock in +the morning as the women go to work. Many of them had no breakfast +except the crumbs that were left over from the night before, or the +crumbs they chew on their way through the street. Here they come! The +working-girls of New York and Brooklyn. These engaged in head work, +these in flower-making, in millinery, in paper-box making; but, most +overworked of all and least compensated, the sewing-women. Why do they +not take the city cars on their way up? They can not afford the five +cents. If, concluding to deny herself something else, she gets into +the car, give her a seat. You want to see how Latimer and Ridley +appeared in the fire. Look at that woman and behold a more horrible +martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more agonizing death. Ask that woman how +much she gets for her work, and she will tell you six cents for making +coarse shirts and find her own thread. + +Years ago, one Sabbath night in the vestibule of this church, after +service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed +medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in +her delirium she said, gaspingly: "Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get +some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight +cents!" We found afterward that she was making garments for eight +cents apiece, and that she could make but three of them in a day. Hear +it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have +comfortable homes! Some of the worst villains of our cities are the +employers of these women. They beat them down to the last penny and +try to cheat them out of that. The woman must deposit a dollar or two +before she gets the garments to work on. When the work is done it is +sharply inspected, the most insignificant flaws picked out, and the +wages refused and sometimes the dollar deposited not given back. The +Women's Protective Union reports a case where one of the poor souls, +finding a place where she could get more wages, resolved to change +employers, and went to get her pay for work done. The employer says: +"I hear you are going to leave me?" "Yes," she said, "and I have come +to get what you owe me." He made no answer. She said: "Are you not +going to pay me?" "Yes," he said, "I will pay you," and he kicked her +down-stairs. + +Oh, that Women's Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York! The +blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is +doing in the defense of toiling womanhood! What tragedies of suffering +are presented to them day by day! A paragraph from their report: "'Can +you make Mr. Jones pay me? He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, +and I can't get anything, and my child is very sick!' The speaker, a +young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke. +She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story +to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions. +Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50." + +Another paragraph from their report: "A fortnight had passed, when she +modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth. +'Oh, my dear,' he replied, 'you are getting to be one of the most +valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price. +Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.' And the +girl's fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate. The picture +of $10 a week had almost turned her head. A few nights later, while +crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the +conversation of girls who stood near: 'What, John Snipes? Why, he +don't pay! Look out for him every time. He'll keep you on trial, as he +calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let you go, and get some other +fool!' And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler. +But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth +of each of those days of 'trial.'" + +Another paragraph: "Her mortification may be imagined when told that +one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her +work was counterfeit. But her mortification was swallowed up in +indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and +insultingly asked her to prove it. When the Protective Union had +placed this matter in the courts, the judge said: 'You will pay +Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the +court.'" + +How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: "Give woman the +ballot." What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am +not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage +on women's wages? I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by +woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not +women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who +sews for them? Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and +milliners and mantua-makers? If a woman asks a dollar for her work, +does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety +cents? You say, "Only ten cents difference." But that is sometimes the +difference between heaven and hell. Women often have less +commiseration for women than men. If a woman steps aside from the path +of rectitude, man may forgive--woman never! Woman will never get +justice done her from woman's ballot. Neither will she get it from +man's ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more +resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate +when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her +oppressors. + +But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to +excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after awhile to get +larger wages. Unskilled and incompetent labor must take what is given: +skilled and competent labor will eventually make its own standard. +Admitting that the law of supply and demand regulates these things, I +contend that the demand for skilled labor is very great and the supply +very small. Start with the idea that work is honorable, and that you +can do some one thing better than anybody else. Resolve that, God +helping, you will take care of yourself. If you are after awhile +called into another relation you will all the better be qualified for +it by your spirit of self-reliance, or if you are called to stay as +you are, you can be happy and self-supporting. + +Poets are fond of talking about man as an oak and woman the vine that +climbs it; but I have seen many a tree fall that not only went down +itself, but took all the vines with it. I can tell you of something +stronger than an oak for an ivy to climb on, and that is the throne of +the great Jehovah. Single or affianced, that woman is strong who leans +on God and does her best. Many of you will go single-handed through +life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman, +I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling, +irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be +a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian. +What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more +thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she +will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her +sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The +dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene +closes--draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the +farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless +life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity. + +Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian +aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that +she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single, +that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the +sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went +with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick +pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she +was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam--just +the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to +fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody +who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from +her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she +ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well--auntie always +dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet +spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died +you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to +rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with +japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with +their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world +said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto +the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!" + + + + +TOBACCO AND OPIUM. + + "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding + seed."--GEN. i: 11. + + +The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. +They preceded the brute creation and the human family--the grass for +the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and +took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and +took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for +food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for +anodyne as in case of paroxysm, for stimulant as when the pulses flag +under the weight of disease. The caterer comes and takes the herb and +presents it in all styles of delicacy. The physician comes and takes +the herb and compounds it for physical recuperation. Millions of +people come and take the herb for ruinous physical and intellectual +delectation. The herb, which was divinely created, and for good +purposes, has often been degraded for bad results. There is a useful +and a baneful employment of the herbaceous kingdom. + +There sprung up in Yucatan of this continent an herb that has +bewitched the world. In the fifteenth century it crossed the Atlantic +Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the +French embassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French +Empire. Then Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great +Britain. Nicotiana, ascribed to that genus by the botanists, but we +all know it is the exhilarating, elevating, emparadising, +nerve-shattering, dyspepsia-breeding, health-destroying tobacco. I +shall not in my remarks be offensively personal, because you all use +it, or nearly all! I know by experience how it soothes and roseates +the world, and kindles sociality, and I also know some of its baleful +results. I was its slave, and by the grace of God I have become its +conqueror. Tens of thousands of people have been asking the question +during the past two months, asking it with great pathos and great +earnestness: "Does the use of tobacco produce cancerous and other +troubles?" I shall not answer the question in regard to any particular +case, but shall deal with the subject in a more general way. + +You say to me, "Did God not create tobacco?" Yes. You say to me, "Is +not God good?" Yes. Well, then, you say, "If God is good and he +created tobacco, He must have created it for some good purpose." Yes, +your logic is complete. But God created the common sense at the same +time, by which we are to know how to use a poison and how not to use +it. God created that just as He created henbane and nux vomica and +copperas and belladonna and all other poisons, whether directly +created by Himself or extracted by man. + +That it is a poison no man of common sense will deny. A case was +reported where a little child lay upon its mother's lap and one drop +fell from a pipe to the child's lip, and it went into convulsions and +into death. But you say, "Haven't people lived on in complete use of +it to old age?" Oh, yes; just as I have seen inebriates seventy years +old. In Boston, years ago, there was a meeting in which there were +several centenarians, and they were giving their experience, and one +centenarian said that he had lived over a hundred years, and that he +ascribed it to the fact that he had refrained from the use of +intoxicating liquors. Right after him another centenarian said he had +lived over a hundred years, and he ascribed it to the fact that for +the last fifty years he had hardly seen a sober moment. It is an +amazing thing how many outrages men may commit upon their physical +system and yet live on. In the case of the man of the jug he lived on +because his body was pickled. In the case of the man of the pipe, he +lived on because his body turned into smoked liver! + +But are there no truths to be uttered in regard to this great evil? +What is the advice to be given to the multitude of young people who +hear me this day? What is the advice you are going to give to your +children? + +First of all, we must advise them to abstain from the use of tobacco +because all the medical fraternity of the United States and Great +Britain agree in ascribing to this habit terrific unhealth. The men +whose life-time work is the study of the science of health say so, and +shall I set up my opinion against theirs? Dr. Agnew, Dr. Olcott, Dr. +Barnes, Dr. Rush, Dr. Mott, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hosack--all the doctors, +allopathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, eclectic, denounce the habit as +a matter of unhealth. A distinguished physician declared he considered +the use of tobacco caused seventy different styles of disease, and he +says: "Of all the cases of cancer in the mouth that have come under my +observation, almost in every case it has been ascribed to tobacco." + +The united testimony of all physicians is that it depresses the +nervous system, that it takes away twenty-five per cent. of the +physical vigor of this generation, and that it goes on as the years +multiply and, damaging this generation with accumulated curse, it +strikes other centuries. And if it is so deleterious to the body, how +much more destructive to the mind. An eminent physician, who was the +superintendent of the insane asylum at Northampton, Massachusetts, +says: "Fully one half the patients we get in our asylum have lost +their intellect through the use of tobacco." If it is such a bad thing +to injure the body, what a bad thing, what a worse thing it is to +injure the mind, and any man of common sense knows that tobacco +attacks the nervous system, and everybody knows that the nervous +system attacks the mind. + +Besides that, all reformers will tell you that the use of tobacco +creates an unnatural thirst, and it is the cause of drunkenness in +America to-day more than anything else. In all cases where you find +men taking strong drink you find they use tobacco. There are men who +use tobacco who do not take strong drink, but all who use strong drink +use tobacco, and that shows beyond controversy there is an affinity +between the two products. There are reformers here to-day who will +testify to you it is impossible for a man to reform from taking strong +drink until he quits tobacco. In many of the cases where men have been +reformed from strong drink and have gone back to their cups, they +have testified that they first touched tobacco and then they +surrendered to intoxicants. + +I say in the presence of this assemblage to-day, in which there are +many physicians--and they know that what I say is true on the +subject--that the pathway to the drunkard's grave and the drunkard's +hell is strewn thick with tobacco-leaves. What has been the testimony +on this subject? Is this a mere statement of a preacher whose business +it is to talk morals, or is the testimony of the world just as +emphatic? What did Benjamin Franklin say? "I never saw a well man in +the exercise of common sense who would say that tobacco did him any +good." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Certainly he is good authority. +He says in regard to the culture of tobacco, "It is a culture +productive of infinite wretchdness." What did Horace Greeley say of +it? "It is a profane stench." What did Daniel Webster say of it? "If +those men must smoke, let them take the horse-shed!" One reason why +the habit goes on from destruction to destruction is that so many +ministers of the gospel take it. They smoke themselves into +bronchitis, and then the dear people have to send them to Europe to +get them restored from exhausting religious services! They smoke until +the nervous system is shattered. They smoke themselves to death. I +could mention the names of five distinguished clergymen who died of +cancer of the mouth, and the doctor said, in every case, it was the +result of tobacco. The tombstone of many a minister of religion has +been covered all over with handsome eulogy, when, if the true epitaph +had been written, it would have said: "Here lies a man killed by too +much cavendish!" They smoke until the world is blue, and their +theology is blue, and everything is blue. How can a man stand in the +pulpit and preach on the subject of temperance when he is indulging +such a habit as that? I have seen a cuspadore in a pulpit into which +the holy man dropped his cud before he got up to read about "blessed +are the pure in heart," and to read about the rolling of sin as a +sweet morsel under the tongue, and to read about the unclean animals +in Leviticus that chewed the cud. + +About sixty-five years ago a student at Andover Theological Seminary +graduated into the ministry. He had an eloquence and a magnetism which +sent him to the front. Nothing could stand before him. But in a few +months he was put in an insane asylum, and the physician said tobacco +was the cause of the disaster. It was the custom in those days to give +a portion of tobacco to every patient in the asylum. Nearly twenty +years passed along, and that man was walking the floor of his cell in +the asylum, when his reason returned, and he saw the situation, and he +took the tobacco from his mouth and threw it against the iron gate of +the place in which he was confined, and he said: "What brought me +here? What keeps me here? Tobacco! tobacco! God forgive me, God help +me, and I will never use it again." He was fully restored to reason, +came forth, preached the Gospel of Christ for some ten years, and then +went into everlasting blessedness. + +There are ministers of religion now in this country who are dying by +inches, and they do not know what is the matter with them. They are +being killed by tobacco. They are despoiling their influence through +tobacco. They are malodorous with tobacco. I could give one paragraph +of history, and that would be my own experience. It took ten cigars to +make one sermon, and I got very nervous, and I awakened one day to see +what an outrage I was committing upon my health by the use of tobacco. +I was about to change settlement, and a generous tobacconist of +Philadelphia told me if I would come to Philadelphia and be his pastor +he would give me all the cigars I wanted for nothing all the rest of +my life. I halted. I said to myself, "If I smoke more than I ought to +now in these war times, and when my salary is small, what would I do +if I had gratuitous and unlimited supply?" Then and there, twenty-four +years ago, I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me. Much of +the time the world looked blue before that, because I was looking +through tobacco smoke. Ever since the world has been full of sunshine, +and though I have done as much work as any one of my age, God has +blessed me, it seems to me, with the best health that a man ever had. + +I say that no minister of religion can afford to smoke. Put in my hand +all the money expended by Christian men in Brooklyn for tobacco, and I +will support three orphan asylums as well and as grandly as the three +great orphan asylums already established. Put into my hand the money +spent by the Christians of America for tobacco, and I will clothe, +shelter, and feed all the suffering poor of the continent. The +American Church gives a million dollars a year for the salvation of +the heathen, and American Christians smoke five million dollars' worth +of tobacco. + +I stand here to-day in the presence of a vast multitude of young +people who are forming their habits. Between seventeen and twenty-five +years of age a great many young men get on them habits in the use of +tobacco that they never get over. Let me say to all my young friends, +you can not afford to smoke, you can not afford to chew. You either +take very good tobacco, or you take very cheap tobacco. If it is +cheap, I will tell you why it is cheap. It is made of burdock, and +lampblack, and sawdust, and colt's-foot, and plantain leaves, and +fuller's earth, and salt, and alum, and lime, and a little tobacco, +and you can not afford to put such a mess as that in your mouth. But +if you use expensive tobacco, do you not think it would be better for +you to take that amount of money which you are now expending for this +herb, and which you will expend during the course of your life if you +keep the habit up, and with it buy a splendid farm and make the +afternoon and the evening of your life comfortable? + +There are young men whose life is going out inch by inch from +cigarettes. Now, do you not think it would be well for you to listen +to the testimony of a merchant of New York, who said this: "In early +life I smoked six cigars a day at six and a half cents each. They +averaged that. I thought to myself one day, I'll just put aside all I +consume in cigars and all I would consume if I keep on in the habit, +and I'll see what it will come to by compound interest." And he gives +this tremendous statistic: "Last July completed thirty-nine years +since, by the grace of God, I was emancipated from the filthy habit, +and the saving amounted to the enormous sum of $29,102.03 by compound +interest. We lived in the city, but the children, who had learned +something of the enjoyment of country life from their annual visits to +their grandparents, longed for a home among the green fields. I found +a very pleasant place in the country for sale. The cigar money came +into requisition, and I found it amounted to a sufficient sum to +purchase the place, and it is mine. Now, boys, you take your choice. +Smoking without a home, or a home without smoking." This is common +sense as well as religion. + +I must say a word to my friends who smoke the best tobacco, and who +could stop at any time. What is your Christian influence in this +respect? What is your influence upon young men? Do you not think it +would be better for you to exercise a little self-denial! People +wondered why George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts, wore a cravat +but no collar. "Oh," they said, "it is an absurd eccentricity." This +was the history of the cravat without any collar: For many years +before he had been talking with an inebriate, trying to persuade him +to give up the habit of drinking and he said to the inebriate, "Your +habit is entirely unnecessary." "Ah!" replied the inebriate, "we do a +great many things that are not necessary. It isn't necessary that you +should have that collar." "Well," said Mr. Briggs, "I'll never wear a +collar again if you will stop drinking." "Agreed," said the other. +They joined hands in a pledge that they kept for twenty years--kept +until death. That is magnificent. That is Gospel, practical Gospel, +worthy of George Briggs, worthy of you. Self-denial for others. +Subtraction from our advantage that there may be an addition to +somebody else's advantage. + +But what I have said has been chiefly appropriate for men. Now my +subject widens and shall be appropriate for both sexes. In all ages of +the world there has been a search for some herb or flower that would +stimulate lethargy and compose grief. Among the ancient Greeks and +Egyptians they found something they called nepenthe, and the Theban +women knew how to compound it. If a person should chew a few of those +leaves his grief would be immediately whelmed with hilarity. Nepenthe +passed out from the consideration of the world and then came hasheesh, +which is from the Indian hemp. It is manufactured from the flowers at +the top. The workman with leathern apparel walks through the field and +the exudation of the plants adheres to the leathern garments, and then +the man comes out and scrapes off this exudation, and it is mixed with +aromatics and becomes an intoxicant that has brutalized whole nations. +Its first effect is sight, spectacle glorious and grand beyond all +description, but afterward it pulls down body, mind, and soul into +anguish. + +I knew one of the most brilliant men of our time. His appearance in a +newspaper column, or a book, or a magazine was an enchantment. In the +course of a half hour he could produce more wit and more valuable +information than any man I ever heard talk. But he chewed hasheesh. He +first took it out of curiosity to see whether the power said to be +attached really existed. He took it. He got under the power of it. He +tried to break loose. He put his hand in the cockatrice's den to see +whether it would bite, and he found out to his own undoing. His +friends gathered around and tried to save him, but he could not be +saved. The father, a minister of the Gospel, prayed with him and +counseled him, and out of a comparatively small salary employed the +first medical advice of New York, Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Paris, +London, and Berlin, for he was his only son. No help came. First his +body gave way in pangs and convulsions of suffering. Then his mind +gave way and he became a raving maniac. Then his soul went out +blaspheming God into a starless eternity. He died at thirty years of +age. Behold the work of accursed hasheesh. + +But I must put my emphasis upon the use of opium. It is made from the +white poppy. It is not a new discovery. Three hundred years before +Christ we read of it; but it was not until the seventh century that it +took up its march of death, and, passing out of the curative and the +medicinal, through smoking and mastication it has become the curse of +nations. In 1861 there were imported into this country one hundred and +seven thousand pounds of opium. In 1880, nineteen years after, there +were imported five hundred and thirty thousand pounds of opium. In +1876 there were in this country two hundred and twenty-five thousand +opium-consumers. Now, it is estimated there are in the United States +to-day six hundred thousand victims of opium. It is appalling. + +We do not know why some families do not get on. There is something +mysterious about them. The opium habit is so stealthy, it is so +deceitful, and it is so deathful, you can cure a hundred men of +strong drink where you can cure one opium-eater. + +I have knelt down in this very church by those who were elegant in +apparel, and elegant in appearance, and from the depths of their souls +and from the depths of my soul, we cried out for God's rescue. Somehow +it did not come. In many a household only the physician and pastor +know it--the physician called in for physical relief, the pastor +called in for spiritual relief, and they both fail. The physician +confesses his defeat, the minister of religion confesses his defeat, +for somehow God does not seem to hear a prayer offered for an +opium-eater. His grace is infinite, and I have been told there are +cases of reformation. I never saw one. I say this not to wound the +feelings of any who may feel this awful grip, but to utter a potent +warning that you stand back from that gate of hell. Oh, man, oh, +woman, tampering with this great evil, have you fallen back on this as +a permanent resource because of some physical distress or mental +anguish? Better stop. The ecstasies do not pay for the horrors. The +Paradise is followed too soon by the Pandemonium. Morphia, a blessing +of God for the relief of sudden pang and of acute dementia, +misappropriated and never intended for permanent use. + +It is not merely the barbaric fanatics that are taken down by it. Did +you ever read De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-Eater?" He says +that during the first ten years the habit handed to him all the keys +of Paradise, but it would take something as mighty as De Quincey's pen +to describe the consequent horrors. There is nothing that I have ever +read about the tortures of the damned that seemed more horrible than +those which De Quincey says he suffered. Samuel Taylor Coleridge first +conquered the world with his exquisite pen, and then was conquered by +opium. The most brilliant, the most eloquent lawyer of the nineteenth +century went down under its power, and there is a vast multitude of +men and women--but more women than men--who are going into the dungeon +of that awful incarceration. + +The worst thing about it is, it takes advantage of one's weakness. De +Quincey says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of my +rheumatism." Coleridge says: "I got to be an opium-eater on account of +my sleeplessness." For what are you taking it? For God's sake do not +take it long. The wealthiest, the grandest families going down under +its power. Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in Chicago. +Twenty-five thousand victims of opium in St. Louis, and, according to +that average, seventy-five thousand victims of opium in New York and +Brooklyn. + +The clerk of a drug store says: "I can tell them when they come in; +there is something about their complexion, something about their +manner, something about the look of their eyes that shows they are +victims." Some in the struggle to get away from it try chloral. Whole +tons of chloral manufactured in Germany every year. Baron Liebig says +he knows one chemist in Germany who manufactures a half ton of chloral +every week. Beware of hydrate of chloral. It is coming on with mighty +tread to curse these cities. But I am chiefly under this head speaking +of the morphine. The devil of morphia is going to be in this country, +in my opinion, mightier than the devil of alcohol. By the power of the +Christian pulpit, by the power of the Christianized printing-press, by +the power of the Lord God Almighty, all these evils are going to be +extirpated--all, all, and you have a work in regard to that, and I +have a work. But what we do we had better do right away. The clock +ticks now, and we hear it; after awhile the clock will tick and we +will not hear it. + +I sat at a country fireside, and I saw the fire kindle and blaze, and +go out. I sat long enough at that fireside to get a good many +practical reflections, and I said: "That is like human life, that fire +on the hearth." We put on the fagots and they blaze up, and out, and +on, and the whole room is filled with the light, gay of sparkle, gay +of flash, gay of crackle. Emblem of boyhood. Now the fire intensifies. +Now the flame reddens into coals. Now the heat is becoming more and +more intense, and the more it is stirred the redder is the coal. Now +with one sweep of flame it cleaves the way, and all the hearth glows +with the intensity. Emblem of full manhood. Now the coals begin to +whiten. Now the heat lessens. Now the flickering shadows die along the +wall. Now the fagots fall apart. Now the household hover over the +expiring embers. Now the last breath of smoke is lost in the chimney. +The fire is out. Shovel up the white remains. Ashes! Ashes! + + + + +WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED? + + "Wherefore do the wicked live?"--JOB xxi: 7, + + +Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the +misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, +bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that +he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware +to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his +complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better +if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swear a little. +For each boil a plaster of objurgation. + +Probably no man was ever more tempted to take the bad advice than +when, at last, Job's three exasperating friends came in, Eliphaz, +Zophar, and Bildad, practically saying to him, "You old sinner, serves +you right; you are a hypocrite; what a sight you are! God has sent +these chastisements for your wickedness." + +The disfigured invalid, putting down the pieces of broken saucer with +which he had been rubbing his arms, with swollen eyelids looks up and +says to his garrulous friends in substance, "The most wicked people +sometimes have the best health and are the most prospered," and then +in that connection hurls the question which every man and woman has +asked in some juncture of affairs, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +They build up fortunes that overshadow the earth. They confound all +the life-insurance tables on the subject of longevity, dying +octogenarians, perhaps nonagenarians, possibly centenarians. Ahab in +the palace, Naboth in the cabinet. Unclean Herod on the throne, +consecrated Paul twisting ropes for tent-making. Manasseh, the worst +of all the kings of Juda, living longer than any of them. While the +general rule is the wicked do not live out half their days, there are +exceptions where they live on to great age and in a Paradise of beauty +and luxuriance, and die with a whole college of physicians expending +its skill in trying further prolongation of life, and have a funeral +with casket under mountain of calla-lilies, the finest equipages of +the city jingling and flashing into line, the poor, angle-worm of the +dust carried out to its hole in the ground with the pomp that might +make a spirit from some other world suppose that the Archangel Michael +was dead. + +Go up among the finest residences of the city, and on some of the +door-plates you will find the names of those mightiest for commercial +and social iniquity. They are the vampires of society--they are the +gorgons of the century. Some of these men have each wheel of their +carriage a juggernaut wet with the blood of those sacrificed to their +avarice. Some of them are like Caligula, who wished that all the +people had only one neck that he might strike it off at one blow. Oh, +the slain, the slain! A long procession of usurers and libertines and +infamous quacks and legal charlatans and world-grabbing monsters. What +apostleship of despoliation! Demons incarnate. Hundreds of men +concentering all their energies of body, mind, and soul in one +prolonged, ever-intensifying, and unrelenting effort to scald and +scarify and blast and consume the world. I do not blame you for asking +me the quivering, throbbing, burning, resounding, appalling question +of my text, "Wherefore do the wicked live?" + +In the first place, they live to demonstrate beyond all controversy +the long-suffering patience of God. You sometimes say, under some +great affront, "I will not stand it;" but perhaps you are compelled to +stand it. God, with all the batteries of omnipotence loaded with +thunderbolts, stands it century after century. I have no doubt +sometimes an angel comes to Him and suggests, "Now is the time to +strike." "No," says God; "wait a year, wait twenty years, wait a +century, wait five centuries." What God does is not so wonderful as +what He does not do. He has the reserve corps with which He could +strike Mormonism and Mohammedanism and Paganism from the earth in a +day. He could take all the fraud in New York on the west side of +Broadway and hurl it into the Hudson, and all the fraud on the east +side of Broadway and hurl it into the East River in an hour. He +understands the combination lock of every dishonest money-safe, and +could blow it up quicker than by any earthly explosive. Written all +over the earth, written all over history are the words, "Divine +forbearance, divine leniency, divine long-suffering." + +I wonder that God did not burn this world up two thousand years ago, +scattering its ashes into immensity, its aerolites dropping into +other worlds to be kept in their museums as specimens of a defunct +planet. People sometimes talk of God as though He were hasty in His +judgments and as though He snapped men up quick. Oh, no! He waited one +hundred and twenty years for the people to get into the ark, and +warned them all the time--one hundred and twenty years, then the flood +came. The Anchor Line gives only a month's announcement of the sailing +of the "Circassia," the White Star Line gives only a month's +announcement of the sailing of the "Britannic," the Cunard Line gives +only a month's announcement of the sailing of the "Oregon;" but of the +sailing of that ship that Noah commanded God gave one hundred and +twenty years' announcement and warning. Patience antediluvian, +patience postdiluvian, patience in times Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, +Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Whitefieldian. Patience with men and +nations. Patience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six thousand +years of patience! Overtopping attribute of God, all of whose +attributes are immeasurable. Why do the wicked live? That their +overthrow may be the more impressive and climacteric. They must pile +up their mischief until all the community shall see it, until the +nation shall see it, until all the world shall see it. The higher it +goes up the harder it will come down and the grander will be the +divine vindication. + +God will not allow sin to sneak out of the world. God will not allow +it merely to resign and quit. This shall not be a case that goes by +default because no one appears against it. God will arraign it, +handcuff it, try it, bring against it the verdict of all the good, and +then gibbet it so high up that if one half of the gibbet stood on +Mount Washington and the other on the Himalaya, it would not be any +more conspicuous. + +About fifteen years ago we had in this country a most illustrious +instance of how God lets a man go on in iniquity, so that at the close +of the career his overthrow may be the more impressive, full of +warning and climacteric. First, an honest chairmaker, then an +alderman, then a member of congress, then a supervisor of a city, then +school commissioner, then state senator, then commissioner of public +works--on and up, stealing thousands of dollars here and thousands of +dollars there, until the malfeasance in office overtopped anything the +world had ever seen--making the new Court House in New York a monument +of municipal crime, and rushing the debt of the city from thirty-six +million dollars to ninety-seven millions. Now, he is at the top of +millionairedom. + +Country-seat terraced and arbored and parterred clear to the water's +brink. Horses enough to stock a king's equerry. Grooms and postilions +in full rig. Wine cellars enough to make a whole legislature drunk. +New York finances and New York politics in his vest pocket. He winked, +and men in high place fell. He lifted his little finger, and +ignoramuses took important office. He whispered, and in Albany and +Washington they said it thundered. Wider and mightier and more baleful +his influence, until it seemed as if Pandemonium was to be adjourned +to this world, and in the Satanic realm there was to be a change of +administration, and Apollyon, who had held dominion so long, should +have a successful competitor. + +To bring all to a climax, a wedding came in the house of that man. +Diamonds as large as hickory nuts. A pin of sixty diamonds +representing sheaves of wheat. Musicians in a semicircle, half-hidden +by a great harp of flowers. Ships of flowers. Forty silver sets, one +of them with two hundred and forty pieces. One wedding-dress that cost +five thousand dollars. A famous libertine, who owned several Long +Island Sound steamboats, and not long before he was shot for his +crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house a frosted silver +iceberg, with representations of arctic bears walking on +icicle-handles and ascending the spoons. Was there ever such a +convocation of pictures, bronzes, of bric-a-brac, of grandeurs, social +grandeurs? The highest wave of New York splendor rolled into that +house and recoiled perhaps never again to rise so high. But just at +that time, when all earthly and infernal observation was concentered +on that man, eternal justice, impersonated by that wonder of the +American bar, Charles O'Connor, got on the track of the offender. +First arraignment, then sentence to twelve years' imprisonment under +twelve indictments, then penitentiary on Blackwell's Island, then a +lawsuit against him for six million dollars, then incarceration in +Ludlow Street jail, then escape to foreign land, to be brought back +under the stout grip of the constabulary, then dying of broken heart +in a prison cell. God allowed him to go on in iniquity until all the +world saw as never before that "the way of the transgressor is hard," +and that dishonesty will not declare permanent dividends, and that you +had better be an honest chairmaker with a day's wages at a time than +a brilliant commissioner of public works, all your pockets crammed +with plunder. + +What a brilliant figure in history is William the Conqueror, the +intimidator of France, of Anjou, of Brittany, victor at Hastings, +snatching the crown of England and setting it on his own brow, +destroying homesteads that he might have a larger game forest, making +a Doomsday Book by which he could keep the whole land under despotic +espionage, proclaiming war in revenge for a joke uttered in regard to +his obesity. Harvest fields and vineyards going down under the cavalry +hoof. Nations horror-struck. But one day while at the apex of all +observation he is riding out and the horse put his hoof on a hot +cinder, throwing the king so violently against the pommel of the +saddle that he dies, his son hastening to England to get the crown +before the breath has left his father's body. + +The imperial corpse drawn by a cart, most of the attendants leaving it +in the street because of a fire alarm that they might go off and see +the conflagration. And just as they are going to put his body down in +the church which he had built, a man stepping up and saying, "Bishop, +the man you praise is a robber. This church stands on my father's +homestead. The property on which this church is built is mine. I +reclaim my right. In the name of Almighty God I forbid you to bury the +king here, or to cover him with my glebe." "Go up," said the ambition +of William the Conqueror. "Go up by conquest, go up by throne, go up +in the sight of all nations, go up by cruelties." But one day God +said, "Come down, come down by the way of a miserable death, come down +by the way of an ignominious obsequies, come down in the sight of all +nations, come clear down, come down forever." And you and I see the +same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time--illustrations of +the fact that God lets the wicked live that He may make their +overthrow the more climacteric. + +What is true in regard to sin is true in regard to its author, Satan, +called Abaddon, called the Prince of the Power of the Air, called the +serpent, called the dragon. It seems to me any intelligent man must +admit that there is a commander-in-chief of all evil. + +The Persians called him Ahriman, the Hindus called him Siva. He was +represented on canvas as a mythological combination of Thor and +Cerberus and Pan and Vulcan and other horrible addenda. I do not care +what you call him, that monster of evil is abroad, and his one work is +destruction. John Milton almost glorified him by witchery of +description, but he is the concentration of all meanness and of all +despicability. My little child, seven years of age, said to her mother +one day, "Why don't God kill the devil at once, and have done with +it?" In less terse phrase we have all asked the same question. The +Bible says he is to be imprisoned and he is to be chained down. Why +not heave the old miscreant into his dungeon now? Does it not seem as +if his volume of infamy were complete? Does it not seem as if the last +fifty years would make an appropriate peroration? No; God will let him +go on to the top of all bad endeavor, and then when all the earth and +all constellations and galaxies and all the universe are watching, God +will hurl him down with a violence and ghastliness enough to persuade +five hundred eternities that a rebellion against God must perish. God +will not do it by piecemeal, God will not do it by small skirmish. He +will wait until all the troops are massed, and then some day when in +defiant and confident mood, at the head of his army, this Goliath of +hell stalks forth, our champion, the son of David, will strike him +down, not with smooth stones from the brook, but with fragments from +the Rock of Ages. But it will not be done until this giant of evil and +his holy antagonist come out within full sight of the two great +armies. The tragedy is only postponed to make the overthrow more +impressive and climacteric. Do not fret. If God can afford to wait you +can afford to wait. God's clock of destiny strikes only once in a +thousand years. Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on +your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow +may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more +resounding, the more climacteric. + +Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for +righteousness to capture. Have you not noticed that God harnesses men, +bad men, and accomplishes good through them? Witness Cyrus, witness +Nebuchadnezzar, witness the fact that the Bastile of oppression was +pried open by the bayonets of a bad man. Recently there came to me the +fact that a college had been built at the Far West for infidel +purposes. There was to be no nonsense of chapel prayers, no Bible +reading there. All the professors there were pronounced infidels. The +college was opened, and the work went on, but, of course, failed. Not +long ago a Presbyterian minister was in a bank in that village on +purposes of business, and he heard in an adjoining room the board of +trustees of that college discussing what they had better do with the +institution, as it did not get on successfully, and one of the +trustees proposed that it be handed over to the Presbyterians, +prefacing the word Presbyterians with a very unhappy expletive. The +resolutions were passed, and that fortress of infidelity has become a +fortress of old-fashioned, orthodox religion, the only religion that +will be worth a snap of your finger when you come to die or appear in +the Day of Judgment. The devil built the college. Righteousness +captured it. + +In some city there goes up a great club-house--the architecture, the +furniture, all the equipment a bedazzlement of wealth. That particular +club-house is designed to make gambling and dissipation respectable. + +Do not fret. That splendid building will after a while be a free +library, or it will be a hospital, or it will be a gallery of pure +art. Again and again observatories have been built by infidelity, and +the first thing you know they go into the hand of Christian science. +God said in the Bible that He would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose +and pull him down by a way he knew not. And God has a hook to-day in +the nose of every Sennacherib of infidelity and sin, and will drag him +about as He will. Marble halls deserted to sinful amusements will yet +be dedicated for religious assemblage. All these castles of sin are to +be captured for God as we go forth with the battle-shout that Oliver +Cromwell rang out at the head of his troops as he rode in on the field +of Naseby: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!" After a +great fire in London, amid the ruins there was nothing left but an +arch with the name of the architect upon it; and, my friends, whatever +else goes down, God stays up. + +Why do the wicked live? That some of them may be monuments of mercy. + +So it was with John Newton, so it was with Augustine, perhaps so it +was with you. Chieftains of sin to become chieftains of grace. Paul, +the apostle, made out of Saul, the persecutor. Baxter, the flaming +evangel, made out of Baxter, the blasphemer. Whole squadrons, with +streamers of Emmanuel floating from the masthead, though once they +were launched from the dry-docks of diabolism. God lets these wicked +men live that He may make jewels out of them for coronets, that He may +make tongues of fire out of them for Pentecosts, that He may make +warriors out of them for Armageddons, that he may make conquerors out +of them for the day when they shall ride at the head of the +white-horse host in the grand review of the resurrection. + +Why do the wicked live? To make it plain beyond all controversy that +there is another place of adjustment. So many of the bad up, so many +of the good down. It seems to me that no man can look abroad without +saying--no man of common sense, religious or irreligious, can look +abroad without saying, "There must be some place where brilliant +scoundrelism shall be arrested, where innocence shall get out from +under the heel of despotism." Common fairness as well as eternal +justice demands it. + +We adjourn to the great assizes, the stupendous injustices of this +life. They are not righted here. There must be some place where they +will be righted. God can not afford to omit the judgment day or the +reconstruction of conditions. For you can not make me believe that +that man stuffed with all abomination, having devoured widows' houses +and digested them, looking with basilisk or tigerish eyes upon his +fellows, no music so sweet to him as the sound of breaking hearts, is, +at death, to get out of the landau at the front door of the sepulcher +and pass right on through to the back door of the sepulcher, and find +a celestial turnout waiting for him, so that he can drive tandem right +up primrosed hills, one glory riding as lackey ahead, and another +glory riding as postilion behind, while that poor woman who supported +her invalid husband and her helpless children by taking in washing and +ironing, often putting her hand to her side where the cancerous +trouble had already begun, and dropping dead late on Saturday night +while she was preparing the garments for the Sabbath day, coming afoot +to the front door of the sepulcher, shall pass through to the back +door of the sepulcher and find nothing waiting, no one to welcome, no +one to tell her the way to the King's gate. I will not believe it. +Solomon was confounded in his day by what he represents as princes +afoot and beggars a-horseback, but I tell you there must be a place +and a time when the right foot will get into the stirrup. To +demonstrate beyond all controversy that there is another place for +adjustment, God lets the wicked live. + +Why do the wicked live? For the same reason that He lets us live--to +have time for repentance. + +Where would you and I have been if sin had been followed by immediate +catastrophe? While the foot of Christ is fleet as that of a roebuck +when He comes to save, it does seem as if he were hoppled with great +languors and infinite lethargies when He comes to punish. Oh, I +celebrate God's slowness, God's retardation, God's putting off the +retribution! Do you not think, my brother, it would be a great deal +better for us to exchange our impatient hypercriticism of Providence +because this man, by watering of stock, makes a million dollars in one +day, and another man rides on in one bloated iniquity year after +year--would it not be better for us to exchange that impatient +hypercriticism for gratitude everlasting that God let us who were +wicked live, though we deserved nothing but capsize and demolition? +Oh, I celebrate God's slowness! The slower the rail-train comes the +better, if the drawbridge is off. + +How long have you, my brother, lived unforgiven? Fifteen, twenty, +forty, sixty years? Lived through great awakenings, lived through +domestic sorrow, lived through commercial calamity, lived through +providential crises that startled nations, and you are living yet, +strangers to God, and with no hope for a great future into which you +may be precipitated. Oh, would it not be better for us to get our +nature through the Grace of Christ revolutionized and transfigured? +For I want you to know that God sometimes changes His gait, and +instead of the deliberate tread He is the swift witness, and sometimes +the enemies of God are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. + +Make God your ally. What an offer that is! Do not fight against Him. +Do not contend against your best interests. Yield this morning to the +best impulse of your heart, and that is toward Christ and heaven. Do +not fight the Lord that made you and offers to redeem you. + +Philip of France went out with his army, with bows and arrows, to +fight King Edward III. of England; but just as they got into the +critical moment of the battle, a shower of rain came and relaxed the +bow-strings so that they were of no effect, and Philip and his army +were worsted. And all your weaponry against God will be as nothing +when he rains upon you discomfiture from the heavens. Do not fight the +Lord any longer. Change allegiance. Take down the old flag of sin, run +up the new flag of grace. It does not take the Lord Jesus Christ the +thousandth part of a second to convert you if you will only surrender, +be willing to be saved. The American Congress was in anxiety during +the Revolutionary War while awaiting to hear news from the conflict +between Washington and Cornwallis, and the anxiety became intense and +almost unbearable as the days went by. When the news came at last that +Cornwallis had surrendered and the war was practically over, so great +was the excitement that the doorkeeper of the House of Congress +dropped dead from joyful excitement. And if this long war between your +soul and God should come to an end this morning by your entire +surrender, the war forever over, the news would very soon reach the +heavens, and nothing but the supernatural health of your loved ones +before the throne would keep them from being prostrated with overjoy +at the cessation of all spiritual hostilities. + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's New Tabernacle Sermons, by Thomas De Witt Talmage + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS *** + +***** This file should be named 14139.txt or 14139.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/1/3/14139/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Jeannie Howse and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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