A DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON: The Gospel Alkali. “If 1 wash myself with snow waler and cleanse my hands inalkali, yet shalt thou plun 0 mo in the diteh, and mind own clothes shall abhor'me.’i Job 9:30, 31. (Rev. Ver.) ALBERT BARNES—honored be his pame on earth and in heaven—went straight back to the original writing of my text, and translated itas 1 have now quoted it, giving substantial reasons for so doing. Although we know better, the ancients had an idea that in snow water there was a special power to cleanse, and that a garment washed and rinsed in it would be as clean as clean could be; but if the plain snow water failed to do its work, then they would take lye or alkali and mix it with oil, and under that preparation they felt that the last impurity would certainly be gone, Job, in my text, in most forceful figure sets forth the idea that all his attempts to make himself pure before God were a dead failure, and that, unless we are abulated by something better than earthly liquids and chemical preparations, we are loathsome and in the ditch, “If 1 wash myself with snow water, and should I cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own cloths shall abhor me,” You are sitting for YOUR PICTURE, I turn the camera obscura of God's word full upon you, and I pray that the sunshine falling through the sky- light may enable me to take you just us you are. Shall it be a flattering picture or shall it be a true one? You say: “Let it be a true one,’”” The first pro- file that was ever taken was taken three hundred and thirty years before Christ, of Antigonus. He had a blind eye, and he compelled the artist to take his pro- file so as to hide the defect in his vision. But since that invention three hundred and thirty years before Christ, there have been a great many profiles, Shall 1 to-day give you a one-sided view of yourselves, a profile, or shall it be a full. length portrait, showing you just what you are? If God will help me, I shall give you that last kind of a picture. When I first entered the ministry I used to write my sermons all out and read them, and run my hand along the line lest I should lose my place, I have hundreds of those manuscripts, Shall I ever preach them? Never; for in those days I was somewhat overmastered with the idea 1 heard talked all around and I adopted the idea, and I evolved it, and I illustrated it, and I argued it; but coming on in life, and having seen more of the world, and was faulty, and that there is NO DIGNITY IN HUMAN NATURE God, Talk about vessels ng pleces on the Skerries, off Ireland! There never was such a shipwreck as in the Gihon and the Hiddekel, rivers of Eden, where our first parents foundered. Talk of a steamer going down with five hundred passengers on board! What is that to the shipwreck of fourteen hun- dred million souls! We are by nature a mass of uncleanness and putrefaction, goi cate us, *If I wash myself with snow water, and should I cleansemy hands in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me. ”’ I. I remark, in the first place, that “Iam a inherited Here is one man who says: sinner: 1 confess that; but I this. My fatber was a sinner, grandfather, my great- great - grand- father, and all the way back to Adam, and I couldn't help myself.” My brother, have you not, every day in your lite, added something to THE ORIGINAL ESTATE OF SIN, that was bequeathed to you? Are not brave enough to confess that you have sometimes surrendered to sin which you bught to have conquered? I ask you whether it is fairplay to put up- on our ancestry things for which we ourselves are personally responsible? If your nature was askew when you got it, have you not sometimes given it an additional twist? Will all the tomb- stones of those who have preceeded us make a barricade high enough for eternal defenses? I know a devout man who had blasphemous parentage. I know an honest man whose father was a thief. I know a pure man whose mother was a waif of the street, The hereditary tide may be very strong, but there is such a thing as stemming it, The fact that 1 have a corrupt nature is no reason why I should yield to it. The deep stains of our soul can never be washed out by the snow water of such insufficient apology. Still further, says some one: have gone into sin, it has been THROUGH MY COMPANIONS, my comrades, and associates; they rained me, They taught me to drink, They took me to the gambling hell, They plunged me into the house of sin, They ruined my soul,” I do not believe it. God gave to no one the power to destroy you or me. If a man is des- troyed, he is self-destroyed, and that is always so, Why did you not break away from them? If they had tried to steal your purse, you would have knock ed them down; if they had tried to pur- loin your gold watch, you would have riddled them with shot; but when they tried to steal your immortal soul, you placidly submitted to it. Those bad fel. ows have a cup of fire to drink, do not pour your cup into it, In this matter of i 1 soul, every man for himself. That those persons are not fully responsible for your sin, I prove by the fact that you still consort with them. You can- not get off by blaming them. Though you gathas up all these apologies; though there were a flood of them; though they should come down with the force of the melting snows from Leban- on, they could not wash out one stain of your immortal soul. Still further: some persons a for their sins by saying: ** great deal BETTER THAN SOME PEOPLE, You see all around about us that are a gread worse than we.” You stand columnar in your integrity, and down upon those who are you “it 1 oglize o are a a prostrate in their habits and crimes, What of that, my brother? If I failed through recklessness and wicked im- prudence for ten thousand dollars, 18 the matter alleviated at all by the fact that somebody else has failed for one hundred thousand dollars, and some- body else for two hundred thousand dollars? Oh, no. If I have the neu- ralgia, shall I refuse medical atten- dance because my neighbor has virulent typhoid fever? The fact that his dis- ease is worse than mine-—does that cure mine? If I, through my foolhardiness, leap off into ruin, does it break the fall to know that ethers leap off a higher cliff into deeper darkness? When the Hudson River rail train went through the bridge at Spuyton Duyvil, did it alleviate the matter at all that instead of two or three people being burt, there were seventy-five mangled and crushed? Because others are depraved, is that any excuse for my depravity? AM I BETTER THAN THEY, Perhaps they had worse temptations than I have had. Perhaps their sur- roundings in life were more overpower- ing. Perhaps, O man, if you had been under the same stress of temptation, in- stead of sitting here to-day you would have been looking through the bars of a penitentiary. Perbaps, O woman, it you had been under the same power of temptation, instead of sitting here to- day you would have been trampling the street, the laughing-stock of men and the grief of the angels of God, dungeon- ed, body, mind, and soul, in the black- ness ot despair. Ah, do not let us solace ourselves with the thought that other people are worse than we. Derhaps in the future, when our fortupes may change, unless God prevents it we may be worse than they. Many a man, after thirty years, after forty years, after fifty years, after sixty years, has gone to pieces on the sandbars, Ob, instead of wasting our time in hypercriticlsm | about others, let us ask ourselves the questions. Where do we stand? What are our sins? What are our deficits? What are our perils? What our hoces? Let each one say to himself: *‘Where will I be? Shall I range in summery elds, or grind in the mills of a great night? Where? Where? THE POLLUTED SNOW, Some winter morning you go out and gee a snow bank in graceful drifts, as though by some heavenly compass it had { been curved; and as the sun glints it | the lustre is almost insufferable. and it | in & shroud, with white plaits woven in | looms celestial. And you say- ‘“‘Was | there ever anything so pure as the snow so beautiful as the snow?’ But you brought a pail of that snow and put it { upon the stove and melled it; and you | found that there was a sediment at the water was riled; and | snow bank had gathered up the impurity of the fleld, and that after all it was not fit to wash in. And so I say it will be these apologies attempt to wash out the sins of sour heart and life, an unsuccessful ablution. Such | water will never wash away a single stain of an immortal soul, IL. 3ut I hear some one say: “‘I will | try something better than that. I will try the force of GOOD RESOLUTIONS, | That will be more pungent, more caus- | tic, more extirpating, more cleansing. | The snow water has (ailed and now I will try the alkall of the good, strong | resolution.’’ My dear brother, have | you any idea that a resolution about the | future will liquidate the past? Suppose | | I owed you five thousand dollars and I | should come to you to-morrow and say: | “Sir, I will never run in debt to you | again; if I should live thirty years, I | will never run in debt to you again;”’ | | will you turn to me and say: “If you | will not run In debt in the future, 1 will | forgive you the five thousand dollars.” | Will you do that? Nol i We have been running up a long score | of indebtedness with God. | future we should abstain from sin, that would be no defrayment of past indebt- edness, Though you should live from this time forth pure as an archangel before the throne, that would not re- deem the past, God, in the Bible, dis- tinctly declares that He “*will require that which is past’’—past opportunities, or - imaginations, past everything. THE PAST IS A GREAT CEMETERY, and every day is buried in it here is a long row of three hundred and sixty-six graves, They are the dead days of 1888. Here is a long row of three hundred and sixty-five more 1887. And here is a long row of three hundred and sixty five more graves, and they are the dead days of 1856, It is a vast cemetery of the past, But God will rouse them all up with a resurrec- tionary blast, and as the prisoner stands face to face with juror and judge, so you and I will have to come up and look upon those departed days, exulting in their smile or cowering in their frown. “Murder will out” is a proverb that stops too short, Every sin, however small, as well as great, will out. In hard times in England, years ago, It is authentically stated that a manufac- turer was on his way, with a bag of money to pay off his hands. A man in~ furiated with hunger met him on the road, and took a rail with a nail in it from a paling fence and struck him down, and the nail entering the skull in- stantly slew him. Thirty years after that the murdeter went back to the place. He passed into the graveyard, where the sexton was digging a grav and while he stood there the spade o the sexton turned up a skull, and, Joi the murderer saw a nall protruding from the back part of the skull; and as the sexton turned the skull, it seemed with hollow eyes to glare on the murderer; and he, first petrified with horror, stood in silence, but soon cried out, “‘Gullty! guilty! O God!” The mystery of the crime was over. The man was tried and executed, My friends, all our un pardoned sins, though WE MAY THINK THEY ARE BURIED out of sight and gone into u mere skele- ton of memory, will turn up in the cemetery of the past, and Joes upon us with thelr misdoings, unpardoned sins, Oh, have you done the preposterous thing of supposing that. good resolutions for the future will wipe out the past? Good resolutions, though they may be pungent and caustic as alkali, (have no power to neutralize a sin, have no power to wash away a transgression, 1t wants something more than earthly chemistry to do this, Yea, yea, though *‘I wash myself with snow water, and should I cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” You see from the last part of this text that Job's idea of sin was very different from that of Eugene Sue, or Georges Sand, or M. J. Michelet, or any of the writers who have done up INIQUITY IN MEZZOTINT, and garlanded the wine cup with eglan- tine and rosemary, and made the path of the libertine end in bowers of ease instead of on the hot flagging of eternal torture. You see that Job thinks that sin 18 not a flowery parterre; that it is not a tableland of fine prospects; that it is not music—dulcimer, violoncello, castanet, and Pandean pipes, all making music together. No, Ie says itis a ditch, long, deep, loathsome, stenchful, and we are all plunged into it, and there we wallow und sink and struggle, not able to get out. Our robes of propriety and robes of worldly profession are satu- rated in the slime and abomination, and our souls covered over with transgres- sion, hates its covering, and the cover- ing hates the soul, until we are plunged into the ditch, and our own clothes abhor us, I know that some modern religionists caricature sorrow for sin, and they make out an easier path than the ‘‘pligrim’s progress,’’ that John Bunyan dreamed of. The road they travel does not start where John’s did, at the city of Destruc- tion, but at the gate of the university: and I am very certain that it will not come out where John's did, under the shining ramparts of the celestial city. No repentance, no pardon. If you do not, my brother, feel that YOU ARE DOWN IN THE DITCH, out? If you the fact that you are asiray, you want of Him who came to seek and which was lost? Inmans, coming across the Atlantic, The wind is abaft, so that she has not only her engines at work, but all sails up. I am on board the Umbria, ot the Cunard The boat davits line, are The the bridge and savs: want?' 1 reply: {from “Get out of the Ty nation and say: Aud then I or three hundred over the taffrail. Jut the Umbria and the Oty of Paris a while, out The Crty of Pars is coming of a cyclone; the down. The boatswain gives his last whistle of despairing com- mand. he passangers run up and fifteen from the ratlines down to the cabin, 1 soe the distress, the side of the Oty of Parts, the fren. THERE IS BUT ONE LIFE BOAT, cry is: ‘*Me next! me next!” As a beautiful port, and has all sail set, he of God's convicting spirit he sees that he is “1 want to I want to be saved now, 1 No sense of Oh, that God’s eternal spirit would flash upon us a sense of our sinfuiness! The Bible tells THE STORY IN LETTERS OF FIRE, but we get used to it, We joke about sin. We make merry overit, What is sin? Is it a trifling thing? Sinisa vampire that is sucking out the life blood of your immortal nature, Sin? It is a Bastile that no earthly key ever unlocked. Sin? It Is grand larceny against the Almighty, for the Bible asks the question: “Will a man rob God?” answering it in the affirmative, This Gospel is a writ of replevin to re- Saver property unlawfully detained from God, In the Sandwich Islands there is a man with leprosy. The hollow of the foot has swollen until it is flat on the ground. The joints begin to fall away, The ankle thickens until it looks like the foot of a wild beast, A stare un- natural comes to the eye. The nostril is constricted, The voice drops to an almost inaudible hoarseness, Tubercles blotch the whole body, and from them comes an exudation that is unbearablo to the beholder. That is leprosy, and we have all got it unless cleansed by the grace of God, See Leviticus, see LI (ings. See Mark. See Luke. See fifty Bible confirmations. THE BIBLE 18 NOT COMPLIMENTARY in its language. It does not speak min- clngly about our situs, It does not talk ogetically, Theres no vermillion in its style, It does not cover up our transgressions with blooming metaphor. It does not sing about them In weak falsetto; but it thunders out: “Tha i nation of man’s heart is evil from bi foun “Every ono has back. He together tacome hy. * He 1 abominable and filthy, and mn iniquity like water.” And then the Lord Jesus Christ flings down at our feet this humiliating catalogue: ‘*‘Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries, fornication, mur- ders, thefts, blasphemy,”” There is a text for your rationalists to preach from! h the dignity of human nature! There is an element of your science of man that the anthropologist never has had the courage yet to touch; and the Bible, in all the ins and outs of the mast forceful style, sets forth our natural pollution, and represents iniquity as a frightful thing, as an exhausting thing, az a loathsome thing. It is not a nere be- miring of the feet, it 18 not a mere be~ fouling of the hands; it is going down, head and ears, ic a ditch, until our clothes abhor us. My brethren, shall we stay down where sin thrusts us? I shall not, if you do. We cannot afford to, I have to- day to tell you that there is something purer than snow water, something more pungent than alkali, and thal is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin, Ay, theriver of salvation, bright, crystalline, and heaven-born, rushes through this audience with billowy tide strong enough to wash your gins completely and forever away. O Jesus, let the dam that holds It back now break, and the floods of salvation roll over us, Let the water and the blood, From Thy side a healing flood, te of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure Let us get down on both knees and bathe in that flood of mercy. To you is the word of this salvation sent. Take of the divine bounty. Though you have gone DOWN IN THE DEEPEST DITCH libidinous desire and corrupt of be- phemies until there is not one sinful Clirist bends over you to-day, and offers and then raising you that never die, said a Christ- ian bootblack to another, “when we come won't make any «Filly ¥ JY, differ- s here gy s get in, not how or Billy, we shall get straight for we shall AEC Oh, if you only knew free and tender ist this day, Y Ot how full and he offer of Christ WOULD ALL TAKE Oh Hi one exception, that this ceive him! It is nota Gospel merely i i vagrants and bux is for the highly polished, and the educated, and the refined as well, “Except a man be born again, he can- of (od be hi hat- associations, y refinements, I God 1 expect to answer in the last day, that if you are the grace of God, you he ditch of stn, i The ail be your may whatever your worl swefore 1 in ihe pation; a ditch that empties 213 His His Gospel, { free grace cries, Escape mountain For all that believe, C1 The ¥ pard n praise him Jordan ssn AIS Perpetual Guests, 2 $s 5 1 Buddhist priests, in order to confirm the faith of the lower classes in China, 0 the young pearl oyster minut de shell of the representations of their ities, which formation of the shell, so features of the gods i mother-of-pearl Horticulturists produce similar last ing effects on their plants. A gourd, and green, is tied at a cer- ndelibly fixed in A few drops of a drug are poured its flowers henceforth bloom with color unknown to any of its species. Precisely the same process goes on in a girl or boy in the formation of habits, a “There is but one thing which time eannot kill,” says Poyntz, ‘“‘and that is habit.” “(irace,” said the old preacher Bas. com, “can congner the devil in you. But yoyr bad habits conquer grace.” No matter how trivial or slight the youth may be, | of a word, vulgarity at table, or the use | of slang, it will come back in after life, | after years of schooling and struggling | with it, fresh and vigorous; just as old | men, in extreme illness, speak the lang- uage of their childhood, [argotten | through all their middle age. A habit of gentle bearing, ot low, pleasant intonation, of universal court- esy, is worth more to its possessor | throughout life than wealth or great talents. It smoothes one’s way at every turn, and creates friends who take pleasure in ministering to one who is lite and considerate, not by effort, yat because habit has made it natural for him to be so. A habit of prayer, formed in child- hood, though neglscted for many years will come back in age and sorrow and pechate bring a blessing from heaven with it. Our habits, in short, are the alien guests of the Beoteh superst tion which once seated at Torr only go from it with death. Let us take care, then, how we open our doors to them. sisi AI ISAO AA. Carbolic acid shells are the latest notion, It is stated that a German artillery officer has succeeded in making a new explosive from carbolic acid; a shell filled with this material possesses a power hitherto unattained. Experi- ments made with these shells, thrown from mortars, have all, it is stated, proved highly successful. —— YP — A 6oop way to make children tell the truth is to it yourself, 4 . SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON, Buspay Juse 16, 15393, Jesus Crucified. LESSON TEXT. (Mark 15 : 21-30. Memory verses, 25.28) LESSON PLAN. Toric or Tie QUARTER ; ishing His Work. Gorpes Text von THE QUARTER : Jesus Fine / Lizssos Toric: Crucified Unjustly, 1. Affixed to the Cross, vs { 21-5 2. Experiences Croms, vs, 2-58 at the Cross on the Lessox Our INE: { 3. Utterances vi. A009. Govroex Texr : He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. — Phil, 2 © 8. Dairy Hone Reaping ; M.—Mark 15 21-39, unjustly. Matt. parallel narrative, W. Luke 23 : 26-47. lel narrative J ip John 19 : 16.5 lel narrative, Isa. 53 1-12. Isaiah's pro- phecy of Christ's death. John 12 20-36. Jesus’ pheey of his own death. 1 Pet. 2 © 18.25. Peter's mem- ories of Christ's death Crucified oO" “a 1 27 31-54. Matthew's Lmke's paral- 30. John's paral- F. 8, pro- 5. LESSON ANALYSIS, I. AFFIXED TO THE CROSS, i 1. Bearing the Cross: They compel one passing by, | he might bear his cross (21) He that doth not take his cross not worthy of me (Matt Let him take up h low me (Matt, 16 : 24). They laid on him the cross, to bear it after Jesus (Luke 23 : 26 bearing the cross { He self (John 19 : 17 il. The Place of Suffering: he ple ich 1s, . h 10 : 3K). 1 fol- his Cross, fd went ont { we Lrolgr i} ORE fn, Wh J ests al } (Heb. 13 itl. Endur It was th 12 ng the Agony: ¢ third hour Was Je WE bry J RUS; ated by the played by Pil - ald EXPERIENCES ON THE CROSR withthe sSOrs him they crucif Numbered he was reckon Luke 22 : 37). 11. Mocked by the Crowds: They that passed by railed th wil e300 EH $ mple scoffed at him (Luks < One of the malefactors him {Lake 23 : 38) i111. Wrapped in Darkness: The re was darkness over the whole land {33 sun railed on shall be darkened in his ing forth (Isa. 13 : 10). I will cause the sun to go down at noon (Amos. 8: From the sixth hour there ness (Matt, 27 : 45) darkness came, the failing (Luke 23 : 44) 1. “With him they crucify two rob- bers.” (1) A Saviour; (2) A penitent; (3) A rebel {1} Three sufferers: {2} Three characters: (3) Three destinies, “They that passed by railed on him.” (1) A model of cruelty; (2) A model of meekness. (1) Base rail- ing; (2) Meek submission. . “He saved others; himself he ecan- not save.” (1) A splendid admission; {2) A baseless assertion 111. UTTERANCES AT THE CROSS i. From the Sufferer: Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi (34). Jesus cried again, ....and yielded up his spirit (Matt. 27 : 50). Father, forgive them {Luke 23 : 34). Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23 : 46). . It is finished (John 19 : 80), ii. Fromthe By~standers: Some of themfthat stood by, . ...said we { 30D J. Some. . . said, This man ealleth Elijah (Matt. 27 : 47). Save thyself, and come down from the cross (Mark 15 : 30), Himself he cannot save (Mark 15 : 81). If thou art the King of the Jews, save thyself (Luke 23 : 37). 111. From the Centurion: The centurion... said, Truly this an was the Son of God (89). The centurion... saw the earthquake (Matt. 27 : BA). Truly this was the Son of God (Matt. : Od), He learned it of the centurion (Mark go- was dark- A ht suns ug —- 1. “My God, my God, why hast thon forsaken me?’ (1) The mysterious abandonment; (2; The unshaken trust; (3) The pathetic inquiry. 2. “Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost,” (1) The crisis; (2) The outery; (3) The surrender. 8. “The veil of the temple was rent in twain.” (1) What the perfect veil concealed; (2; What the rent veil disclosed -_—— LESSON BIBLE READING, HAYINGS AT THE CROWS 1. From the Scoffers: The passers by (Matt. Mark 15 : 29, 30). The rulers (Matt. 15 : 81, 82). The bystanders (Luke 23 : 35 The soldiers (Luke 23 : 86, 37). The malefactors (Matt, 27 : 44 15: 82 ‘ Luke 28 : 89) Bome of the crowd (Matt. Mark 15 2. Fromthe Lord : Praver for his murderers 34). Assurance 23 : 48) To his mother 26, 27). oa" 27 : 89, 40 3 or Zi : 41-43 ; Mark Mark 27 : 40 . ap » Ohh) to the penitent and John To his Father (Matt, 27 : 46 Declaring his thirst (John 19 Announcing the end (John 19 Commending his spirit (Luke 2 From the Penitent Robber Bebuking his comrade (Luks 40, 41 Appealing to Jesus ( 4. From the Soldiers : 2 > he entire band (Matt he commander : 47) T The a 23 m—————— LESSON SURROUNDINGS Ti last le closed with the lead- crucifixion. But probably immedistely mentioned in Mark ade further attempts I prisoner (John 19 : 4-1¢ mock royalty, Jesus is peoy Pilate argues with frightened by the acen £43 SEO J ss 10 . ; ne, but they still «ment (John 19 may be explained we call, ing » day was the year of Rom Matthew : John 19 : 17-3 ——— A Broker's Opinion of Women. men ut becoming hysteri- They y more talk- make with yon i over the transactions want your advice and 1 all you know they them something dif- un happen to give a woman ng a great fit an . § x they y than she can’t see how she be held responsible and doesn’t pay. A woman usually psys we in such a way thet makes a r feel as though he was robbing hints that is the last penny on earth, that she has a mother P rs. or that if her husband it out would be ruined. is nothing in such remarks to omfortable. The woman gets a taste lating it seems harder for her me the fascination than for a jut there are hundreds of York and ry sh i 1 ker feel © is that if a Fir AK 1 ble 20 over jut New Brooklyn and the majority of them in i i ! : i i 3 i I know a Brookly lady, the wife of a who lost a clean 810.000 in a week and then came to me with the request that I pawn her beau- tiful diamonds She had kept the knowledge of her losses from her hus- band. 1 refused to pawn the diamonds and she became so excited that 1 feared office. The next day she ealled She promised me then that guess she has kept her promise. There ape several Brooklyn ladies who deal speculations through a confidential ent who carries out their instructions. Mrs. Hetty Green, of Brooklyn, is one of the most successful women specula~ tors in the world. There are few men on the street who can get the better of her in a deal.” “Do women prefer stocks everything else to speculate in?" “Well, cool headed, sensible women deal in real estate quite extensively. It is slower and steadier than stocks. Real estate men have many women customers, and 1 believe that many of them are making money in Brooklyn. Most women get rattled if they make a big hit at the start and want to plunge in on a big soale. I don’t mean to say that all women are slike in the matter of speculation, be » they are not. The ool headed ones keep in the back- und and let somebody else osrry out ir schemes. They don't make the mistake of becoming a figure on the street. But I don’t want women for customers and I don’t believe many of boys do." above
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