lIBRARYCFfRIUCnCN 
 
 
 
 NOV 2 T 2000 
 
 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEk.lKnni 
 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT: 
 
 BEING A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 T. DE WITT TALMAGE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 SERMONS," "second SERIES OF SERMONS," ETC 
 
 PHONOGRAPHICALLY REPORTED AND REVISED. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS 
 
 lo AND 12 Dey Street. 
 1886. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book takes its title not more from tlie first ser- 
 mon than from the fact that it is an attempt to re-open 
 the old fountains of the Gospel, which have of late years 
 been partially filled up. For that reason we call the 
 book "Old Wells Dug Out." 
 
 Some of these discourses were preached in the Brook- 
 lyn Tabernacle, and others in the Academy of Music, 
 while our new church was being built. 
 
 As word comes to us from all directions that the pre- 
 vious volumes have been the means of comfort and sal- 
 vation to very many on both sides the Atlantic, we send 
 this book out, hoping it may do a similar work. These 
 sermons, like their predecessors, were taken down by 
 phonographerSj and are left as they were uttered in ex- 
 temporaneous delivery, without any material changes, 
 because I have not had time to reconstruct them. 
 
 They are part of my life. With me the lecturing 
 platform and the literary column are episodes; but the 
 preaching of the Gospel of the Son of God is my chief 
 employment and my indescribable delight. The Chris- 
 tian printing-press is only the pulpit on cylinders. May 
 this attempt to preach through the printed page harvest 
 many sheaves for the Lord's garner ! 
 
 T. De Witt Talmagk 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGt 
 
 OLD WELLS DUG OUT.c.t 1-- 
 
 CHRIST EVERY THING ^. - 28 
 
 THE EING'S wagons 3^ 
 
 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS 5] 
 
 THE "VILLE DU HAATJE " 62 
 
 GRACE IN CRYSTALS 75 
 
 GOSPEL ARCHERY 85 
 
 THE BEST WE HAVE 97 
 
 WASTED AROMA 109 
 
 THINGS NOT BURNED UP 120 
 
 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES 133 
 
 FOURTH ANNIVERSARY 147 
 
 MIGRATION HEAVENWARD : 162 ^^ 
 
 THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES 174 {,■> 
 
 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE 187 
 
 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM 201 
 
 FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED 213 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED 227 
 
 woman's war against THE BOTTLE 242 
 
 THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED 257 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE-WOMAN 269 
 
 HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD 280 
 
 ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN 292 
 
 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN 305 
 
 DIFFICULT ROWING 316 
 
 THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE 329 
 
1-i CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS 340 
 
 THE WORLD GOING 356 
 
 WEAPONS CAPTURED 3G5 
 
 THE PILE OF STONES SPEAKING 376 
 
 CHRIST OUR SONG 387 
 
 THE WELL BY THE GATE 401 
 
 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT 415 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 "And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in 
 the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them 
 after the death of Abraham : and he called their names after the names 
 by which his father had called them." — Genesis xxvi., 18. 
 
 I]Sr Oriental lands a well of water is a fortune. If a 
 king dug one, he became as famous as though he 
 had built a pyramid or conquered a province. Great 
 battles were fought for the conquest or defense of wells 
 of water ; castles and towers were erected to secure per- 
 manent possession of them. The traveler to-day finds 
 the well of Jacob dug one hundred feet through a solid 
 rock of limestone. These ancient wells of water were 
 surrounded by walls of rock. This wall of rock was 
 covered up with a great slab. In the centre of the slab 
 there was a hole through which the leathern bottle or 
 earthen jar was let down. This opening was covered 
 by a stone. When Jacob, a young man of seventy years, 
 was courting Eachel, he won her favor, the Bible says, 
 by removing the stone from the opening of the well. 
 He liked her because she was industrious enough to 
 come down and water the camels. She liked him be- 
 cause he was clever enough to lay hold and give a lift to 
 
 one who needed it. 
 
 1* 
 
16 OLD WULL^ DUG GUT. 
 
 It was considered one of the greatest calamities that 
 could happen a nation when these wells of water were 
 stopped. Isaac, you see in the text, found out that the 
 wells of water, that had been dug out by his father Abra- 
 ham at great expense and care, had been filled up by the 
 spiteful Philistines. Immediately Isaac orders them all 
 opened again. I see the spades plunging, and the earth 
 tossing, and the water starting, until the old wells are en- 
 tirely restored ; and the cattle come down to the trough 
 and thrust their nostrils in the water, their bodies quak- 
 ing at every swallow, until they lift up their heads and 
 look around and take a long breath, the water from the 
 sides of their mouths dripping in sparkles down into the 
 trough. I never tasted such water in my life as in my 
 boyhood I drank out of the moss-covered bucket that 
 swung up on the chains of the old well-sweep ; and I 
 think when Isaac leaned over the curb of these restored 
 wells, he felt within himself that it was a beverage 
 worthy of God's brewing. He was very careful to call 
 all the wells by the same names which his father had 
 called them by; and if this well was called "The Well 
 in the Valley," or "The Well by the Kock," or "The 
 Well of Bubbles," Isaac baptized it with the same no- 
 menclature. 
 
 You have noticed, my Christian friends, that many of 
 the old Gospel wells that our fathers dug have been fill- 
 ed up by the modern Philistines. They have thrown in 
 their skepticisms and their philosophies, until the well is 
 almost filled up, and it is nigh impossible to get one 
 drop of the clear water. These men tell us that you 
 ought to put the Bible on the same shelf with the Koran 
 and the old Persian manuscripts, and to read it with the 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 17 
 
 same spirit; and there is not a day but somebody comes 
 along and drops a brick or a stone or a carcass in this 
 old Gospel well. We are told that all the world wants 
 is development, forgetful of the fact that without the 
 Gospel the world always develops downward, and that 
 if you should take the religion of Christ out of this 
 world, in one hundred years it would develop into the 
 ''Five Points" of the universe. Yet there are a great 
 many men and there are a great many rostrums whose 
 whole work it is to fill up these Christian wells. 
 
 You will not think it strange, then, if the Isaac who 
 speaks to you this morning tries to dig open some of the 
 old wells made by Abraham, his father, nor will you be 
 surprised if he calls them by the same old names. 
 
 Bring your shovel and pickaxe and crow-bar, and the 
 first well we will open is the glorious well of the Atone- 
 ment It is nearly filled up with the chips and debris of 
 old philosophies that were worn out in the time of Con- 
 fucius and Zeno, but which smart men in our day unwrap 
 from their mummy-bandages, and try to make us believe 
 are original with themselves. I plunge the shovel to the 
 very bottom of the well, and I find the clear water start- 
 ing. Glorious well of the Atonement! Perhaps there 
 are people here who do not know what "atonement" 
 means, it is so long since you have heard the definition. 
 The word itself, if you give it a peculiar pronunciation, 
 will show you the meaning — at-one-ment. Man is a sin- 
 ner, and deserves to die. Jesus comes in and bears his 
 punishments and weeps his griefs. I was lost once, but 
 now I am found. I deserved to die, but Jesus took the 
 lances into his own heart until his face grew pale and his 
 chin dropped on his chest, and he had strength only to 
 
18 OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 say, "It is finished!" The boat swung round into the 
 trough of the sea, and would have been swamped, but 
 Jesus took hold of the oar. I was set in the battle, and 
 must have been cut to pieces had not, at night-fall, he 
 who rideth on the white horse come into the fray. That 
 which must have been the Waterloo of my defeat now 
 becomes the Waterloo of my triumph, because Blucher 
 has come up to save. Expiation ! expiation ! The law 
 tried me for high treason against God, and found me 
 guilty. The angels of God were the jurors impaneled 
 in the case, and they found me guilty. I was asked what 
 I had to say why sentence of eternal death should not 
 be pronounced upon me, and I had nothing to say. I 
 stood on the scaffold of God's justice ; the black cap of 
 eternal death was about to be drawn over my eyes, when 
 from the hill of Calvary One came. He dashed through 
 the ranks of earth and heaven and hell. He rode swift- 
 ly. His garments were dyed with blood, his face was 
 bleeding, his feet were dabbled with gore, and he cried 
 out, "Save that man from going down to the pit. I am 
 the ransom." And he threw back the coat from his 
 heart, and that heart burst into a crimson fountain, and 
 he dropped dead at my feet ; and I felt of his hands, and 
 they were stiff; and I felt of his feet, and they were cold ; 
 and I felt of his heart, and it was pulseless; and I cried, 
 " Dead !" And angels w^ith excited wings flew upward, 
 amidst the the thrones, crying, "Dead!" and spirits lost 
 in black brood wheeled down amidst the caverns, crying, 
 " Dead !" Expiation ! expiation ! 
 
 Cowper, overborne with his sin, threw himself into a 
 chair by the window, picked up a New Testament, and 
 his eye lighted upon this, "Whom God hath set forth as 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT. IC 
 
 a propitiation through faith in bis blood;" and instantly 
 he was free! Unless Christ pays our debt, we go to 
 eternal jail. Unless our Joseph opens the king's corn- 
 crib, we die of famine. One sacrifice for all. 
 
 A heathen got worried about his sins, and came to a 
 priest and asked how he might be cured. The priest 
 said, "If you will drive spikes in your shoes and walk 
 five hundred miles, you will get over it." So he drove 
 spikes in his shoes and began the pilgrimage, trembling, 
 tottering, agonizing on the way, until he came about 
 twenty miles, and sat down under a tree, exhausted. 
 Near by a missionary was preaching Christ, the Saviour 
 of all men. When the heathen heard it, he pulled off 
 his sandals, threw them as far as he could, and cried, 
 "That's what I want; give me Jesus! give me Jesus!" 
 Oh, ye who have been convicted and worn of sin, trudg- 
 ing on all your days to reap eternal woe, will you not, 
 this morning, at the announcement of a full and glorious 
 atonement, throw your torturing transgressions to the 
 winds? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin ;" that was the very passage that came to the tent 
 of Iledley Vicars, the brave English soldier, and changed 
 him into a hero for the Lord. 
 
 Around this great well of the Atonement the chief 
 battles of Christianity are to be fought. Ye Bedouins 
 of infidelity, take the other wells, but do not touch this. 
 I call it by the same name that our father Abraham 
 gave it — the Atonement Here is where he stood, his 
 staff against the well-curb. Here is where he walked, 
 the track of his feet all around about the well. This is 
 the very water that with trembling hand, in his dying 
 moment, he piU to his lips. Oh, 3^e sun-struck, desert- 
 
20 OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 worn pilgrims, drive up your camels, and dismount ! A 
 pitcher of water for each one of you, and I will fill the 
 trough for the camels. See the bucket tumble and dash 
 into the depths ; but I bring it up again, hand over hand, 
 crying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters!" 
 
 ISTow, bring your shovels and your pickaxes, and we 
 will try to open another well. I call it the well of Chris- 
 tian comfort. You have noticed that there are a good 
 many new ways of comforting. Your father dies. Your 
 neighbor comes in, and he says, "It is only a natural law 
 that your father should die. The machinery is merely 
 worn out ;" and before he leaves you, he makes some 
 other excellent remarks about the coagulation of blood, 
 and the difference between respiratory and nitrogenized 
 food. Your child dies, and your philosophic neighbor 
 comes, and for your soothing tells you that it was impos- 
 sible the child should live with such a state of mucous 
 membrane! Out! with your chemistry and physiology 
 when I have trouble, and give me a plain New Testa- 
 ment! I would rather have an illiterate man from the 
 backwoods who knows Christ, talk with me, when I am 
 in trouble, than the profoundest worldling who does not 
 know him. The Gospel, without telling you any thing 
 about mucous membrane or gastric juice or hydrochloric 
 ac "d, comes and says, "All things together work for gG^d 
 to those who love Grod," and that if your child is gone, 
 it is only because Jesus has folded it in his arms, and that 
 the Judgment-day will explain things that are now inex- 
 plicable. Oh ! let us dig out this Gospel well of comfort. 
 Take away the stoicism and fatality with which you have 
 been trying to fill it. Drive up the great herd of your 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 21 
 
 cares and anxieties, and stop their bleating in this cool 
 fountain ! To this well David came when he lost Absa- 
 lom ; and Paul, when his back was red and raw with the 
 scourge; and Dr. Young, when his daughter died; and 
 Latimer, when the flames of martyrdom leaped on his 
 track; and M'Kail, when he heard the knife sharpening 
 for his beheading ; and all God's sheep in all the ages. 
 
 After one of Napoleon's battles, it was found that the 
 fight had been so terrific that, when the muster-roll was 
 called of one regiment, there were only three privates and 
 one drummer-boy that answered. An awful fight that! 
 Oh ! that Christ to-day might come so mightily for the 
 slaying of your troubles and sorrows that when you go 
 home and call the muster-roll of the terrible troop, not 
 one — not one — shall answer, Christ having quelched ev- 
 ery annoyance, and salved every gash, and wiped every 
 tear, and made complete extermination. 
 
 Now bring your shovels and pickaxes, and we will 
 dig out another well — a well opened by our father Abra- 
 ham, but which the Philistines have filled up. It is the 
 ivell of Gospel Inviiaiion. I suppose j^ou have noticed 
 that religious address in this day, for the most part, has 
 gone into the abstract and essayic. You know the word 
 "sinner" is almost dropped out of the Christian vocabu- 
 lary ; it is not thought polite to use that word now. It 
 is methodistic or old-fashioned. If you want to tell men 
 that they are sinners, you must say they are spiritually 
 erratic, or have moral deficits, or they have not had a 
 proper spiritual development; and I have not heard in 
 twenty years that old hymn, 
 
 " Come, ye sinners, poor and needy." 
 
22 OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 In the first place, they are not sinners, and in the sec- 
 ond place, they are neither poor ncr needy ! I have 
 heard Christian men in prayer-meetings and elsewhere 
 talk as though there were no very great radical change 
 before a man becomes a Christian. All he has got to 
 do is to stop swearing, clear his throat a few times, take 
 a good wash, and he is ready for heaven ! My friends, 
 if every man has not gone astray, and if the whole race 
 is not plunged in sin and ruin, then that Bible is the 
 greatest fraud ever enacted ; for, from beginning to end, 
 it sets forth that they are. Now, my brothers and sisters, 
 if a man must be born again in order to see the kingdom 
 of God, and if a man is absolutely ruined unless Christ 
 check his course, why not proclaim it? There must be 
 an infinite and radical change in every man's heart, or 
 he can not come within ten thousand miles of heaven. 
 There must be an earthquake in his soul, shaking down 
 his sins, and there must be the trumpet-blast of Christ's 
 resurrection bringing him up from the depths of sin and 
 darkness into the glorious life of the Gospel. Do you 
 know why more men do not come to Christ? It is be- 
 cause men are not invited that they do not come. You 
 get a general invitation from your friend : " Come round 
 some time to my house and dine with me." You do not 
 go. But he says, " Come around to-day at four o'clock, 
 and bring your family, and we'll dine together." And 
 you say, "I don't know as I have any engagement: I 
 will come." " I expect you at four o'clock." And you 
 go. The world feels it is a general invitation to come 
 around some time and sit at the great Gospel feast, and 
 men do not come because they are not specially invited. 
 It is because you do not take hold of them and say, *' My 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUZ 23 
 
 brother, come to Christ ; come now — come now !" How 
 was it that in the days of Daniel Baker and Truman Os- 
 borne, and Nettleton, so many thousands came to Jesus? 
 Because those men did nothing else but invite them to 
 come. They spent their lifetime uttering invitations, 
 and they did not mince matters either? Where did 
 John Bunyan's pilgrim start from ? Did he start from 
 some easy, quiet, cozy place? No; if you have read 
 John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," you know where 
 he started from, and that was the City of Destruction^ 
 where every sinner starts from. Do you know what 
 Livingstone, the Scotch minister, was preaching about in 
 Scotland when three hundred souls under one sermon 
 came to Christ? He was preaching about the human 
 heart as unclean, and hard, and stony. Do you know 
 what George Whitefield was preaching about in his first 
 sermon, when fifteen souls saw the salvation of God ? It 
 was this: "Ye must be born again." Do 3^ou know 
 what is the last subject he ever preached upon ? " Flee 
 the wrath to come." Oh ! that the Lord God would 
 come into our pulpits, and prayer-meetings, and Christian 
 circles, and bring us from our fine rhetoric and profound 
 metaphysics, and our elegant hair-splitting, to the old- 
 fashioned well of Gospel Invitation. There are enough 
 sinners in this house this morning, if they should come 
 to God, to make joy enough in heaven to keep jubilee a 
 thousand years. Why not come ? Have you never had 
 a special invitation to come? If not, I give it now: 
 you, you, you, come now to Jesus! Why do you try to 
 cover up that cancer with a piece of court-plaster, when 
 Christ, the surgeon, with his scalpel, would take it all 
 away, and it would ne-ver come again ? Do you know 
 
2-1 OLD WELLS DUO OUT. 
 
 that your nature is all wrong unless it has been changed 
 by the grace of God ? Do you not know that God can 
 not be pleased with you, my dear brother, in your pres- 
 ent state ? Do you know that your sinful condition ex- 
 cites the wrath of God? " God is angry with the wick- 
 ed every day." Do you not know that you have made 
 war upon God? Do you not know that you have 
 plunged your spear into the Saviour's side, and that you 
 have punctured his temples, and spiked his feet, and 
 that you have broken his heart? 
 
 Oh! is this what he deserves, you blood-bought soul? 
 Is this the price you pay him for his long, earthly tramp, 
 and his shelterless nights, and his dying prayer, and the 
 groan that made creation shiver? Do you want to drive 
 another nail into him? Do you want to stick him with 
 another thorn ? Do you want to join the mob that with 
 bloody hands smote him on the cheek, crying, " His blood 
 be on us and our children forever I" Oh, your sins! 
 And when I say that, I do not pick out some man who 
 may not have been in a house of worship for forty years, 
 but I pick out any man you choose, whose heart has not- 
 been changed by the grace of God. Oh, your sins! I 
 press them on your attention — the sins of your lifetime. 
 What a record for a death-pillow ! What data for the 
 Judgment-day ! What a cup of gall for your lips ! Look 
 at all the sins of your childhood and riper years, with 
 their forked tongues and adder stings and deathless poig- 
 nancy, unless Jesus with his heel shall crush the ser- 
 pents. You have sinned against your God; 5^ou have 
 sinned against your Jesus ; you have sinned against your 
 grave — ay, you have sinned against the little resting- 
 place of your darling child, for you will never see her 
 
OLD WELLi^ DUG OUT. 25 
 
 again unless you repent. How can you go to the good 
 place, the pure place where she is, your heart unpardon- 
 ed? You have sinned against a Christian father's coun- 
 sel and a dying mother's prayer. 
 
 I saw an account the other day of a little boy who was 
 to be taken by a city missionary, with some other boys, 
 to the country to find homes. He was well clad, and 
 had a new hat given him ; but while the missionary was 
 getting the other children ready to go, this boy went into 
 a corner and took the hat he had thrown off, and tore 
 the lining out of it. The missionary said, "What are 
 you doing with that hat? You don't want it. What 
 are you tearing the lining out of it for?" "Ahl" said 
 the boy, " that was made out of mother's dress. She 
 loved me very much before she died, and I have noth- 
 ing to remember her b}^ but the lining." And so the 
 boy tore it out and put it in his bosom. Oh ! would you 
 not like to have one shred of your mother's religion to 
 remember her by ? Do not her prayers clamor for an 
 answer this morning? Do you not see her hold her 
 withered hands stretched out from the death-bed, beg- 
 ging you to come to God and be at peace with him ? 
 Would you not like to have the purity of your mother? 
 Would you not like to have the comfort she felt in dark 
 days ? Would you not like to have some of that peace 
 which she had in her last moments, when she looked up 
 through her spectacles at you, and said she must go away, 
 for Jesus called her, and you said, " Mother, we can't 
 spare you ;" and the outcry of grief was answered by a 
 long breath that told you it was all over ? Oh, my God ! 
 let not m.other be on one side and father on the same 
 side, and loved ones on the same side of the throne, and 
 
26 OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 
 
 I be on the other side. If we are this morning on the 
 wrong side, let us cross over — let us cross over now. 
 Blessed Jesus, we come, bruised with sin, and throw our- 
 selves in the arms of thy compassion ! None ever want- 
 ed thee more than we. Oh ! turn on us thy benedic- 
 tion ! Wliatever else we lose or get, we must win 
 heaven. " Lord, save us — we perish !" 
 
 Let us come around the old Gospel well. A good 
 many of you came in these doors this morning carrying 
 a very heavy burden. I do not know what it is — I can 
 not guess what it is ; but I noticed some of you, when 
 you came in this morning, looked sad. It may be a 
 home trouble you can not tell any body. How many 
 have burdens on your shoulders and on your hearts! 
 Come to the well ; put down the pack right beside the 
 well. Jacob's well was one hundred feet deep, and cut 
 through the rock ; but this Gospel well is deep as eterni- 
 ty, and it is cut right down through the heart of the Son 
 of God. Shovels opened that other well ; spears opened 
 this. You remember the old well-sweep in the country 
 was made out of two pieces — one planted in the ground, 
 and on it was swung a long beam, which we laid hold of 
 in our boyhood and brought downward, and the bucket 
 dipped into the water and came up full. So the cross of 
 Jesus is made out of two pieces. I take one piece and 
 plant it close by this good old well, and then swing on 
 it the long piece, and I lay hold of it with my prayer, 
 and I pull it down until the bucket strikes the bottom 
 of the Saviour's groans and the Saviour's tears, and then 
 I fetch it up, bubbling, foaming, brimming, sparkling, 
 with the water of which, if a man drink, he shall never 
 thirst. 
 
OLD WELLS DUG OUT. 2-1 
 
 *' To the dear fountain of thy blood, 
 Incarnate God I I fly : 
 Here let me wash my spotted soul 
 From crimes of deepest dye, 
 
 *' A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, 
 On thy kind arras I fall ; 
 Be thou my strength and righteousnesSj 
 My Jesus and my all." 
 
28 CEBIST EVERY THING, 
 
 CHEIST EVERY THING. 
 
 "Christ is all and in all." — Colossians iii., 11. 
 
 EYERY age of the world has had its historians, its 
 philosophers, its artists, its thinkers, and its teach- 
 ers. Were there histories to be written, there has al- 
 ways been a Moses, or a Herodotus, or a Xenophon, or 
 a Josephus to write them. Were there poems to be 
 constructed, there has always been a Job or a Homer to 
 construct them. Were there thrones, lustrous and pow- 
 erful, to be lifted, there has always been a David or a 
 Caesar to raise them. Were there teachers demanded 
 for the intellect and the hearts, there has been a Soc- 
 rates, and a Zeno, and a Cleanthes, and a Marcus Anto- 
 ninus coming forth on the grand and glorious mission. 
 Every age of the world has had its triumphs of reason 
 and morality. There has not been a single age of the 
 world which has not had some decided system of re- 
 ligion. The Platonism, Orientalism, Stoicism, Brahman- 
 ism, and Buddhism, considering the ages in which they 
 were established, were not lacking in ingenuity and 
 force. Now, in this line of beneficent institutions and 
 of noble men, there appeared a personage more wonder- 
 ful than any predecessor. He came from a family with- 
 out any royal or aristocratic pretension. He became a 
 Galilean mechanic. He had no advantage from the 
 schools. There were people beside him day after day 
 who had no idea that he was going to be any thing re- 
 
CHRIST EVERY THING. 29 
 
 markable or do any thing remarkable. Yet, notwith- 
 standing all this, and without any title, or scholarly 
 profession, or flaming rhetoric, he startled the world with 
 the strangest announcements, ran in collision with sol- 
 emn priest and proud ruler, and with a voice that rang 
 through temple, and palace, and over ship's deck, and 
 mountain top, exclaimed, "I am the light of the world!" 
 Men were taken all aback at the idea that that hand, yet 
 hard from the use of the axe, and saw, and adze, and 
 hatchet, should wave the sceptre of authority, and that 
 upon that brow, from which they had so often seen him 
 wipe the sweat of toil, there would yet come the crown 
 of unparalleled splendor and of universal dominion. We 
 all know how difficult it is to think that any body who 
 was at school with us in boyhood has got to be any 
 thing great or famous; and no wonder that those who 
 had been boys with Christ in the streets of Nazareth, 
 and seen him in after-years in the days of his complete 
 obscurity, should have been very slow to acknowledge 
 Christ's wonderful mission. 
 
 From this humble point the stream of life flowed out. 
 At first it was just a faint rill, hardly able to find its 
 way down the rock ; but the tears of a weeping Christ 
 added to its volume; and it flowed on until, by the 
 beauty and greenness of the banks, you might know the 
 path the crystal stream was taking. On and on, until 
 the lepers were brought down and washed oflP their lep- 
 rosy, and the dead were lifted into the water that they 
 might have life, and pearls of joy and promise were 
 gathered from the brink, and innumerable churches gath- 
 ered on either bank, and the tide -flows on deeper, and 
 stronger, and wider, until it rolls into the river from 
 
30 CHRIST EVERY THINO. 
 
 under the throne of God, mingling billow with billow, 
 and brightness with brightness, and joy with joy, and 
 hosanna with hosanna ! 
 
 I was looking a few days ago at some of the paintings 
 of the late artist, Mr. Kensett. I saw some pictures that 
 were just faint outlines; in some places you would see 
 only the branches of a tree and no trunk ; and in an- 
 other case the trunk and no branches. He had not 
 finished the work. It would have taken him days 
 and months, perhaps, to have completed it. Well, my 
 friends, in this world we get only the faintest outline of 
 what Christ is. It will take all eternity to fill up the 
 picture — so loving, so kind, so merciful, so great! Paul 
 does not, in this chapter, say of Christ he is good, or he 
 is loving, or he is patient, or he is kind; but in his ex- 
 clamation of the text he embraces every thing when he 
 says, " Christ is all and in all." 
 
 I remark, in the first place, Christ is every thing in the 
 Bible. I do not care where I open the Bible, I find 
 Jesus. In whatever path I start, I come, after a while, 
 to the Bethlehem manger. I go back to the old dispensa- 
 tion, and see a lamb on the altar, and say, "Behold the 
 Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world !" 
 Then I go and see the manna provided for the Israelites 
 in the wilderness, and I say, "Jesus, the bread of life." 
 Then I look at the rock which was smitten by the 
 prophet's rod, and, as the water gushes out, I say, " It 
 is Jesus, the fountain opened for sin and for unclean- 
 ness," I go back and look at the writings of Job, and 
 hear him exclaim, " I know that my Redeemer liveth." 
 Then I go to Ezekiel, and I find Christ presented there 
 as "a plant of renown;" and then I turn over to Isaiah, 
 
CHRIST EVERY THING. 31 
 
 and Christ is spoken of " as a sheep before her shearers." 
 It is Jesus all the way between Genesis and Malachi, 
 Then I turn over to the ISTew Testament, and it is Christ 
 in the parable, it is Christ in the miracle, it is Christ in 
 the evangelists' story, it is Christ in the apostles' epistles, 
 and it is Christ in the trumpet peal of the Apocalypse. 
 I know there are a great many people who do not find 
 Christ in the Bible. Here is a man who studies the 
 Bible as a historian. Well, if you come as a historian, 
 you will find in this book how the world was made, 
 how the seas fled to their places, how empires were es- 
 tablished, how nation fought with nation, javelin ringing 
 against harbegeon, until the earth was ghastly with the 
 dead. You will see the coronation of princes, the tri- 
 umph of conquerors, and the world turned upside down 
 and back again and down again, cleft and scarred with 
 great agonies of earthquake, and tempest, and battle. 
 It is a wonderful history, putting to the blush all oth- 
 ers in the accuracy of its recital, and in the stupendous 
 events it records. Homer, and Thucj^dides, and Gibbon 
 could make great stories out of little events; but it took 
 a Moses to tell how the heavens and the earth were 
 made in one chapter, and to give the history of thou- 
 sands of years upon two leaves. 
 
 There are others w^ho come to the Bible merely as an- 
 tiquarians. If you come as an antiquarian you will find 
 a great many odd things in the Bible: peculiarities of 
 manner and custom, marriage and burial ; peculiarities 
 of dress, tunics, sandals, crisping-pins, amulets and gir- 
 dles, and tinkling ornaments. If you come to look at 
 military arrangements, you will find coats of mail, and 
 javelins, and engines of war, and circumvallation, and 
 
 2 
 
32 CHRIST EVERY THING. 
 
 encampments. If you look for peculiar musical instru- 
 ments, you will find psalteries, and shigionoths, and 
 ram's horns. The antiquarian will find in the Bible 
 curiosities in agriculture, and in commerce, and in art, 
 and in religion, that will keep him absorbed a great 
 while. There are those who come to this Bible as you 
 would to a cabinet of curiosities, and jo\x pick up this 
 and say, "What a strange sword that isi" and "What a 
 peculiar hat this is !" and " What an unlooked-for lamp 
 that is!" and the Bible to such becomes a British Mu- 
 seum. 
 
 Then there are others who find nothing in the Bible 
 but the 'poetry. Well, if you come as a poet, you will 
 find in this book faultless rhythm, and bold imagery, 
 and startling antithesis, and rapturous lyric, and sweet 
 pastoral, and instructive narrative, and devotional psalm : 
 thoughts expressed in a style more solemn than that of 
 Montgomery, more bold than that of Milton, more ter- 
 rible than that of Dante, more natural than that of Words- 
 worth, more impassioned than that of Pollock, more ten- 
 der than that of Cowper, more weird than that of Spen- 
 ser. This great poem brings all the gems of the earth 
 into its coronet, and it weaves the flames of judgment in 
 its garland, and pours eternal harmonies in its rhythm. 
 Every thing this book touches it makes beautiful, from 
 the plain stones of the summer threshing-floor, and the 
 daughters of Nahor filling the trough for the camels, 
 and the fish-pools of Heshbon, up to the Psalmist prais- 
 ing God with diapason of storm and whirlwind, and Job 
 leading forth Orion, Arcturus, and the Pleiades. It is 
 a wonderful poem ; and a great many people read it as 
 they do Thomas Moore's " Lalla Eookh," and Walter 
 
CUEIST EVERY THING. 33 
 
 Scott's "Lady of the Lake," and Southey's "Curse of 
 Gehenna." They sit down, and are so absorbed in look- 
 ing at the shells on the shore that they forget to look off 
 on the great ocean of God's mercy and salvation. 
 
 Then there are others who come to this book as shep- 
 tics. They marshal passage against passage, and try to 
 get Matthew and Luke in a quarrel, and would have a 
 discrepancy between what Paul and James say about 
 faith and works; and they try the account of Moses 
 concerning the Creation by modern decisions in science, 
 and resolve that in all questions between the scientific 
 explorer and the inspired writer they will give the pref- 
 erence to the geologist. These men — these spiders, I will 
 say — suck poison out of the sweetest flowers. They fat- 
 ten their infidelity upon the truths which have led thou- 
 sands to heaven, and in their distorted vision prophet 
 seems to war with prophet, and evangelist with evangel- 
 ist, and apostle with apostle ; and if they can find some 
 bad trait of character in a man of God mentioned in that 
 Bible, these carrion crows caw and flap their wings over 
 the carcass. Because they can not understand how the 
 whale swallowed Jonah, they attempt the more wonder- 
 ful feat of swallowing the monster whale of modern skep- 
 ticism. They do not believe it possible that the Bible'*^ 
 story should be true which says that the dumb ass spake, |. 
 while they themselves prove the thing possible by their^j 
 own utterances. I am amused beyond bounds when I 
 hear one of these men talking about a fjiiture life. Just 
 ask a man who rejects that Bible what heaven is, and 
 hear him befog your soul. He will tell you that heaven 
 is merely the development of the internal resources of a 
 man ; it is an efQorescence of the dynamic forces into a 
 
34 CHRIST EVEliY THING. 
 
 state of ethereal and transcendental lucubration, in close 
 juxtaposition to the ever-present "was," and the great 
 " to be," and the everlasting " No." Considering them- 
 selves wise, thej are fools for time, fools for eternity. 
 
 Then there is another class of persons who come to 
 the Bible as controversialists. They are enormous Pres- 
 byterians, or fierce Baptists, or violent Methodists. They 
 cut the Bible to suit their creed, instead of cutting their 
 creed to suit the Bible. If the Scriptures think as they 
 do, well; if not, so much the worse for the Scriptures. 
 The Bible is merely the whetstone on which they sharp- 
 en the dissecting-knife of controversy. They come to it 
 as a Government in time of war comes to armories or ar- 
 senals for weapons and munitions. They have declared 
 everlasting war against all other sects, and they want so 
 many broadswords, so many muskets, so many howitzers, 
 so many columbiads, so much grape and canister, so many 
 field-pieces with which to rake the field of dispute; for 
 they mean to get the victory, though the heavens be 
 darkened with the smoke and the earth rent with the 
 thunder. What do they care about the religion of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ? I have seen some such men come 
 back from an ecclesiastical massacre as proud of their 
 achievements as an Indian warrior boasting of the num- 
 ber of scalps he has taken. I have more admiration for 
 a man who goes forth with his fists to get the- cham- 
 pionship — for a Heenan or a Morrissey — than I have 
 for these theological pugilists who make our theological 
 magazines ring with their horrible war-cry. There are 
 men who seem to think the only use of the sword of 
 truth is to stick somebody. There is one passage of 
 the Scriptures that they like better than all others, and 
 
CHRIST EVERT THING. 85 
 
 that is this : " Blessed be the Lord which teacheth my 
 hands to war, and my fingers to fight." Woe to us if 
 we come to God's word as controversialists, or as skep- 
 tics, or as connoisseurs^ or as fault-finders, or merely as 
 poets ! 
 
 Those only get into the heart of God's truth who come 
 seeking for Christ. Welcome all such ! They will find 
 him coming out from behind the curtain of prophecy, 
 until he stands, in the full light of New Testament dis- 
 closure, Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. 
 They will find him in genealogical table and in chron- 
 ological calculation, in poetic stanza and in historical 
 narrative, in profound parable and in startling miracle. 
 They will see his foot on every sea, and his tears in the 
 drops of dew on Hermon, and hear his voice in the wind, 
 and behold his words all abloom in the valley between 
 Mount Olivet and Jerusalem. There are some men who 
 come and walk around the Temple of Truth, and merely 
 see the outside. There are others who walk into the 
 porch, and then go away. There are others who come 
 in and look at the pictures, but they know nothing about 
 the chief attractions of the Bible. It is only the man who 
 comes and knocks at the gate, saying, "I would see Je- 
 sus." For him the glories of that book open, and he 
 goes in and finds Christ, and with him peace, pardon, 
 life, comfort, nnd heaven. "All in all is Jesus" in the 
 Bible. 
 
 I remark again that Christ is every thing in the great 
 plan of redemption. We are slaves; Christ gives deliver- 
 ance to the captive. We are thirsty ; Christ is the river 
 or salvation to slake our thirst. We are hungry; Jesus 
 says, '' i am the bread of life." We are condemned to 
 
36 CHRIST EVERY THING. 
 
 die; Christ says, "Save that man from going down to 
 the pit; I am the ransom." We are tossed on a sea of 
 troubles; Jesus comes over it, saying, "It is I, be not 
 afraid." We are in darkness; Jesus says, "I am the 
 bright and the morning-star." We are sick; Jesus is 
 the balm of Gilead. We are dead ; hear the shrouds 
 rend and the grave hillocks heave as he cries, " I am the 
 resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live." We want justification ; 
 "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ^ We want to exercise faith ; " Be- 
 lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
 I want to get from under condemnation ; " There is now, 
 therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
 Jesus." The cross — he carried it. The flames of hell — 
 he suffered them. The shame — he endured it. The 
 crown — he won it. Heights of heaven sing it, and worlds 
 of light to worlds of light all round the heavens cry, 
 "Glory, glory!" 
 
 Let us go forth and gather the trophies for Jesus. 
 From Golconda mines we gather the diamonds, from 
 Ceylon banks we gather the pearls, from all lands and 
 kingdoms we gather precious stones, and we bring the 
 glittering burdens and put them down at the feet of Je- 
 sus,' *and say, "All these are thine. Thou art worthy." 
 We go forth again for more trophies, and into one sheaf 
 we gather all the sceptres of the Caesars, and the Alexan- 
 ders, and the Czars, and the Sultans, of all royalties and 
 dominions, and then we bring the sheaf of sceptres and 
 put it down at the feet of Jesus, and say, " Thou art King 
 of kings, and these thou hast conquered." And then we 
 go forth again to gather more trophies, and we bid the 
 
CHRIST EVERY THING. 37 
 
 redeemed of all ages, the sons and daughters of the Lord 
 Almighty, to come. We ask them to come and offer 
 their thanksgivings, and the hosts of heaven bring crown, 
 and palm, and sceptre, and here by these bleeding feet 
 and by this riven side, and by this wounded heart, cry, 
 "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him 
 that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever 
 and forever!" Tell me of a tear that he did not weep, 
 of a burden that he did not carry, of a battle that he did 
 not fight, of a victory that he did not achieve. "All in 
 all is Jesus " in the great plan of redemption. 
 
 I remark again, Christ is every thing to the Christian 
 in time of trouble. Who has escaped trouble? We must 
 all stoop down and drink out of the bitter lake. The 
 moss has no time to grow on the buckets that come up 
 out of the heart's well, dripping with tears. Great trials 
 are upon our track as certain as greyhound pack on the 
 scent of deer. From our hearts in every direction there 
 are a thousand chords reachinar out bindinsr us to loved 
 ones, and ever and anon some of these tendrils snap. 
 The winds that cross this sea of life are not all abaft. 
 The clouds that cross our sky are not feathery and afar, 
 straying like flocks of sheep on heavenly pastures; but 
 wrathful and sombre, and gleaming with terror, they wrap 
 the mountains in fire, and come down baying with their 
 thunders through every gorge. The richest fruits of 
 blessing have a prickly shell. Life here is not lying at 
 anchor; it is weathering a gale. It is not sleeping in 
 a soldier's tent with our arms stacked ; it is a bayonet- 
 charge. We stumble over grave-stones, and we drive 
 on with our wheel deep in the old rut of graves. Trouble 
 has wrinkled your brow, and it has frosted your head. 
 
38 CHRIST EVERY THING. 
 
 Falling in this battle of life, is there no angel of mercy 
 to bind our wounds? Hath God made this world with 
 so many things to hurt and none to heal? For this 
 snake-bite of sorrow, is there no herb growing by all the 
 brooks to heal the poison ? Blessed be God that in the 
 Gospel we find the antidote ! Christ has bottled an 
 ocean of tears. How many thorns he hath plucked out 
 of human agony I Oh I he knows too well what it is 
 to carry a cross, not to help us carry ours. He knows 
 too well what it is to climb the mountain, not to help us 
 up the steep. He knows too well what it is to be per- 
 secuted, not to help those who are imposed upon. He 
 knows too well what it is to be sick, not to help those 
 who suffer. Ay, he knows too well what it is to die, not 
 to help us in our last extremity. Blessed Jesus, thou 
 knowest it all. Seeing thy wounded side, and thy wound- 
 ed hand, and thy wounded feet, and thy wounded brow, 
 we are sure thou knowest it all. Oh! when those into 
 whose bosom we used to breathe our sorrows are 
 snatched from us, blessed be God the heart of Jesus still 
 beats; and when all other lights go out and the world 
 gets dark, then we see coming out from behind a cloud 
 something so bright and cheering, we know it to be the 
 morninsf-star of the soul's deliverance. The hand of care 
 may make you stagger, or the hand of persecution may 
 beat you down, or the hand of disappointment may beat 
 you back ; but there is a Hand, and it is so kind, and it 
 is so gentle, that it wipeth all tears from all faces. 
 
THE KLS'G'S WAGONS. 39 
 
 THE KING'S WAGONS. 
 
 "And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, 
 the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived." — Genesis xlv., 27. 
 
 THE Egyptian capital was the focus of the world's 
 wealth. In ships and barges, there had been 
 brought to it from India frankincense, and cinnamon, 
 and ivory, and diamonds; from the North, marble and 
 iron ; from Syria, purple and silk ; from Greece, some of 
 the finest horses of the world, and some of the most 
 brilliant chariots; and from all the^ earth that which 
 could best please the eye, and charm the ear, and grati- 
 fy the taste. There were temples aflame with red sand- 
 stone, entered by gate-ways that were guarded by pillars 
 bewildering with hieroglyphics, and wound with brazen 
 serpents, and adorned with winged creatures — their eyes, 
 and beaks, and pinions glittering with precious stones. 
 There were marble columns blooming into white flower- 
 buds ; there were stone pillars, at the top bursting into 
 the shape of the lotus when in full bloom. Along the 
 avenues, lined with sphinx, and fane, and obelisk, there 
 were princes who came in gorgeously-upholstered palan- 
 quin, carried by servants in scarlet, or elsewhere drawn 
 by vehicles, the snow-white horses, golden-bitted, and six 
 abreast, dashing at full run. There were fountains from 
 stone-wreathed vases climbing the ladders of the light. 
 You would hear a bolt shove, and a door of brass would 
 open like a flash of the sun. The surrounding gardens 
 
 2* 
 
40 THE KING'S WAGONS. 
 
 were saturated with odors that mounted the terrace, and 
 dripped from the arbors, and burned their incense in the 
 Egyptian noon. On floors of mosaic the glories of Pha- 
 raoh were spelled out in letters of porphjny, and beryl, 
 and flame. There were ornaments twisted from the 
 wood of the tamarisk, embossed with silver breaking 
 into foam. There were footstools made out of a single 
 precious stone. There were beds fashioned out of a 
 crouched lion in bronze. There were chairs spotted 
 with the sleek hide of leopards. There were sofas foot- 
 ed with the claws of wild beasts, and armed with the 
 beaks of birds. As you stand on the level beach of the 
 sea on a summer-day, and look either way, and there 
 are miles of breakers, white with the ocean foam, dash- 
 ing shoreward ; so it seemed as if the sea of the world's 
 pomp and wealth in the Egj^ptian capital for miles and 
 miles flung itself up into white breakers of marble tem- 
 ple, mausoleum, and obelisk. 
 
 This was the place where Joseph, the shepherd-boy, 
 was called to stand next to Pharaoh in honor. What a 
 contrast between this scene and his humble starting, and 
 the pit into which his brothers threw him ! Yet he was 
 not forgetful of his early home ; he was not ashamed of 
 where he came from. The Bishop of Mentz, descended 
 from a wheelwright, covered his house with spokes, and 
 hammers, and wheels; and the King of Sicily, in honor 
 of his father, who was a potter, refused to drink out of 
 any thing but an earthen vessel. So Joseph was not 
 ashamed of his early surroundings, or of his old-time fix- 
 ther, or of his brothers. When they came up from the 
 famine-stricken land to get corn from the king's corn- 
 crib, Joseph, instead of chiding them for the way they 
 
THE KING'S WAGONS. 41 
 
 had maltreated and abused him, sent them back with 
 wagons, which Pharaoh furnished, laden with corn ; and 
 old Jacob, the father, in the very same w^agons, was 
 brought back, that Joseph, the son, might see him, and 
 give him a comfortable home all the rest of his days. 
 
 Well, I hear the wagons, the king's wagons, rumbling 
 down in front of the palace. On the ou tside of the pal- 
 ace, to see the wagons go off, stands Pharaoh in royal 
 robes; and beside him prime-minister Joseph, with a 
 chain of gold around his neck, and on his hand a ring 
 given by Pharaoh to him, so that any time he wanted to 
 stamp the royal seal upon a document he could do so. 
 Wagon after wagon rolls on down from the palace, laden 
 wath corn, and meat, and changes of raiment, and every 
 thing that could help a famine-struck people. One day 
 I see aged Jacob seated in the front of his house. HeTs 
 possibl}^ thinking~ofTi1s" a1teen1rboyTS-(sons, however old 
 they get, are never to a father any more than boys) ; and 
 w^hile he is seated there, he sees dust arising, and he 
 hears wagons rumbling, and he wonders what is coming 
 now, for the whole land had been smitten with the fam- 
 ine, and was in silence. But after a while the wagons 
 have come near enough, and he sees his sons on the wag- 
 ons, and before they come quite up, they shout, "Joseph 
 is yet alive!" The old man faints dead away. I do not 
 wonder at it. The boys tell the story how that the boy, 
 the long-absent Joseph, has got to be the first man in the 
 Egj^ptian palace. While they unload the wagons, the 
 wan and wasted creatures in the neighborliood come up 
 and ask for a handful of corn, and thev arq satisfied. 
 
 One day the wagons are brought"^up4-.fpr Jacob, the 
 old father, is about to go to see Joseph in the Egyptian 
 
42 THE KINO'S WAGONS. 
 
 palace. You know it is not a very easy thing to 
 transplant an old tree, and Jacob has hard work to get 
 away from the place where he has lived so long. He 
 bids good-bye to the old place, and leaves his blessing 
 with the neighbors, and then his sons steady him, while 
 he, determined to help himself, gets into the wagon, stiff, 
 old, and decrepit. Yonder they go, Jacob and his sons, 
 and their wives, and their children, eighty-two in all, fol- 
 lowed by herds and flocks, which the herdsmen drive 
 along. They are going out from famine to luxuriance; 
 they are going from a plain country home to the finest 
 palace under the sun. Joseph, the prime minister, gets 
 in his chariot, and drives down to meet the old man. 
 Joseph's charioteer holds up the horses on the one side 
 — the dust-covered wagons of the emigrants stop on the 
 other. Joseph, instead of waiting for his father to come, 
 leaps out of the chariot and jumps into the emigrants' 
 wagon, throws his arms around the old man, and weeps 
 aloud for past memories and present joy. The father, 
 Jacob, can hardly think it is his boy. Why, the smooth 
 brow of childhood has become a wrinkled brow, wrinkled 
 with the cares of state, and the garb of the shepherd-boy 
 has become a robe royally bedizened! But as the old 
 man finds out it is actually Joseph, I see the thin lip 
 quiver against the toothless gum as he cries out, " Now 
 let me die, since I have seen thy face; behold, Joseph is 
 yet alive!" The wagons roll. up in front of the palace. 
 Help out the grandchildren, and take them in out of the 
 hot Egyptian sun. Help old Jacob out of the wagon. 
 Send word to Pharaoh that the old shepherd has come. 
 In the royal apartment Pharaoh and Jacob meet— digni- 
 ty and rusticity — the gracefulness of the court and the 
 
THE KING'S WAGONS. 43 
 
 plain manners of the field. The king, wanting to make 
 the old countrj^man at ease, and seeing how white his 
 beard is, and how feeble his step, looks familiarly into 
 his face, and says to the aged man, " How old art thou ?" 
 Give the old man a seat. Unload the wagons ; drive 
 out the cattle toward the pastures of Goshen. Let the 
 slaves in scarlet kneel and wash the feet of the newly- 
 arrived, wiping them on the finest linen of the palace. 
 From vases of perfume let the newly-arrived be sprin- 
 kled and refreshed ; let minstrels come in with sandals 
 of crimson, and thrum the harps, and clap the cymbals, 
 and jingle the tambourines, while we sit down, at this 
 great distance of time and space, and learn the lesson of the 
 king'^s luagons. 
 
 My friends, we are in a world by sin famine-struck; 
 but the King is in constant communication with us, his 
 wagons coming and going perpetually ; and in the rest 
 of my discourse I will show you what the wagons bring 
 and what they take back. 
 
 In the first place, like those that came from the Egyp- 
 tian palace, the King's wagons now bring us eoryi and 
 7neat, and^many changes of raiment. We are apt to think 
 of the fields and tTTe"^ orchards as feeding us; but who 
 makes the flax grow for the linen, and the wheat for the 
 bread, and the wool on the sheep's back? Oh, I wish 
 we could see through every grain-field, by every sheep- 
 fold, under the trees of every orchard, the King's wag- 
 ons! They drive up three times a day — morning, noon, 
 and night. They bring furs from the arctic, they bring 
 fruits from the tropic, they bring bread from the temper- 
 ate zone. The King looks out, and he says, "There are 
 twelve hundred millions of people to be fed and clothed. 
 
44 THE KING'S WAGONS. 
 
 yn So many pounds of meat, so many barrels of flour, so 
 • many yards of cloth and linen and flannel, so many 
 7^1 hats, so many socks, so many shoes;" enough for all, 
 ^ save that we who are greedy get more shoes than be- 
 long to us, and others go barefooted. None but a God 
 could feed and clothe the world. None but a king's 
 corn-crib could appease the world's famine. None but 
 a king could tell how many wagons to send, and how 
 heavily to load them, and when they are to start. They 
 are coming over the frozen ground to-day. Do you not 
 hear their rumbling? They will stop at noon at your 
 table. Oh, if for a little while they should cease, hun- 
 ger would come into the nations, as to Utica wlien Ha- 
 milcar besieged it, and as in Jerusalem when Vespasian 
 surrounded it; and the nations would be hollow-eyed, 
 and fall upon each other in universal cannibalism ; and 
 skeleton would drop upon skeleton ; and there would be 
 no one to bury the dead ; and the earth would be a field 
 of bleached skeletons ; and the birds of prey would fall 
 dead, flock after flock, without any carcasses to devour; 
 and the earth in silence would wheel around, one great 
 black hearse! All life stopped because the King's wag- 
 ons are stopped. Oh, thank God for bread-^or bread! 
 
 I remark again^ that, like those that came from the 
 
 Egyptian palace, the King's wagons bring us goodjiews. 
 
 Jacob had not heard from his boy for a great many 
 
 years. He never thought of him but with a heart-ache. 
 
 /"- There was in Jacob's heart a room where lay the corpse 
 
 . 'pf his unburied Joseph ; and when the wagons came, the 
 
 ''^/king's wagons, and told him that Joseph was yet alive, 
 
 he faints dead awa}^ Good news for Jacob! good 
 
 news for us! The King's wagons come down and tell 
 
THE KING'S WAGONS. 45 
 
 US that our Joseph- Jesus is 3^et alive; that he has for- 
 given us because we threw him into the pit of suffering 
 and the dungeon of shame. He has risen from thence 
 to stand in a palace. The Bethlehem shepherds were 
 awakened at midnight by the rattling of the wagons 
 that brought the tidings. Our Joseph-Jesus sends us a 
 message of pardon, of life, of heaven ; corn for our hun- 
 ger, raiment for our nakedness. Joseph- Jesus is yet alive! 
 I go to hunt up Jesus. I go to the village of Beth- 
 any, and say, " Where does Mary live ?" They say, 
 "Yonder Mary lives." I go in. I see where she sat in 
 the sitting-room. I go out where Martha worked in the 
 kitchen, but I find no Jesus. I go into Pilate's court- 
 room, and I find the judges and the police and the pris- 
 oner's box, but no Jesus. I go into the Arimathean 
 cemetery ; but the door is gone, and the shroud is gone, 
 and Jesus is gone. By faith I look up to the King's 
 palace; and behold I have found him! Joseph -Jesus 
 is still alive! Glorious religion, a religion made not out 
 of deaths'-heads, and cross-bones, and undertaker's screw- 
 driver, but one bounding with life, and sympathy, and 
 gladness. Joseph is yet alive ! 
 
 "I know that my Kedeemer lives. 
 
 What comfort this sweet sentence gives ! ■» \ J^ *7 
 
 He lives, He lives, who once was dead, i-^ ^ 
 
 He lives, my ever-living Head ! C vj^ ^ 
 
 " He lives to grant me daily breath, 
 He lives, and I shall conquer death. 
 He lives my mansion to prepare, 
 He lives to bring me safely there. 
 
 " He lives, all glory to His name ; 
 He lives, my Jesus still the same. 
 Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives, 
 I know that my Redeemer lives ' " 
 
46 \ (^ \J^ TEE KING'S WAGONS. 
 
 The King's wagons will after a w^hile unload, and they 
 will turn around, and they will go back to the palace, 
 and I really think that you and I will go with them. 
 The King will not leave us in this famine-struck world. 
 The King has ordered that we be lifted into the wagons, 
 and that we go over into Goshen, where there shall be 
 pasturage for our largest flock of joy, and then we will 
 drive up to the palace, where there are glories awaiting 
 us which will melt all the snow of Egyptian marble into 
 forgetfulness. 
 
 I think that the King's wagons will take us up to see 
 our lost friends. Jacob's chief anticipation was not se~e=^ 
 ing the Nile, nor of seeing the long colonnades of archi- 
 tectural beauty, nor of seeing the throne-room. There 
 was a focus to all his journeyings, to all his anticipations; 
 and that was Joseph. AYell, my friends, I do not think 
 heaven would be w^orth much if our brother Jesus was 
 not there. If there were two heavens, the one with all 
 the pomp and paraphernalia of an eternal monarchy, 
 but no Christ, and the other w^ere a plain heaven, hum- 
 bly thatched, with a few daisies in the yard, and Christ 
 were there, I would say, "Let the King's wagons take 
 me up to the old farm-house." 
 
 If Jesus were not in heaven, there would be no music 
 there ; there would be but very few people there ; they 
 would be off looking for the lost Christ, crying through 
 the universe, "Where is Jesus? where is Jesus?" and 
 after they had found him, with loving violence they 
 would take him and bear him through the gates; and it 
 would be the greatest day known in heaven within the 
 memory of the oldest inhabitant. Jesus never went off 
 from heaven but once, and he w^as so badly treated on 
 that excursion they will never let him go .again. 
 
TEE KIXG'S WAGONS. 47 
 
 Ob, the joy of meeting our brother, Joseph -Jesus ! Af- 
 ter we have talked about him for ten, or fifty, or seventy 
 years, to talk luith him, and to clasp hands with the hero 
 of the ages ; not crouching as underlings in his presence, 
 but, as Jacob and Joseph, hug each other. We will want 
 some new term by which to address him. On earth we 
 call him Saviour, or Redeemer, or friend ; but when we 
 throw our arms around him in everlasting embrace, we 
 will want some new name of endearment. I can think 
 of what we shall do through the long ages of eternity; 
 but what we shall do the first minute I can not guess. 
 In the first flash of his countenance, in the first rush of 
 our emotions, what we shall do I can not imagine. Oh 
 the overwhelming glory of the first sixty seconds in 
 heaven ! Methinks we will just stand, and look and look 
 and look. 
 
 The king's wagons took Jacob up to see his lost boy, 
 and so I really think that the King's wagons will take 
 us up to see our lost kindred. How long is it since Jo- 
 seph went out of your household? How many 3'ears is 
 it now last Christmas, or the fourteenth of next month? 
 It was a dark night when he died, and a stormy day it 
 was at the burial ; and the clouds wept with you, and the 
 winds sighed for the dead. The bell at Greenwood's 
 gate rang only a few moments, but your heart has been 
 tolling, tolling, ever since. You have been under a de- 
 lusion, like Jacob of old. You have thought that Joseph 
 was dead. You put his name first in the birth-record of 
 the family Bible, and then jo\x put it in the death-record 
 of the family Bible, and you have been deceived. Joseph 
 is yet alive. He is more alive than you are. Of all the 
 sixteen thousand millions of children that statisticians 
 say have gone into the future world, there is not one of 
 
48 THE KINO'S WAQOXS. 
 
 them dead, and tlie King's wagons will take you up to 
 see them. You often think how glad you will be to see 
 them. Have you never thought, my brother, my sister, 
 bow glad they will be to see you ? Jacob was no more 
 glad to see Joseph than Joseph was to see Jacob. Every 
 time the door in heaven opens, they look to see if it is 
 you coming in. Joseph, once standing in the palace, 
 burst out crying when he thought of Jacob — afar off. 
 And the heaven of your little ones will not be fairly be- 
 gun until you get there. All the kindnesses shown them 
 by immortals will not make them forget you. There 
 they are, the radiant throngs that went out from your 
 homes ! I throw a kiss to the sweet darlings. They are 
 all well now in the palace. The crippled child has a 
 sound foot now. A little lame child says, " Ma, will I be 
 lame in heaven?" "No, my darling you won't be lame 
 in heaven." A little sick child says, "Ma, will I be 
 sick in heaven?" "No, my dear, you won't be sick in 
 heaven." A little blind child says, "Ma, will I be blind 
 in heaven?" "No, my dear, you won't be blind in 
 heaven." They are all well there. 
 
 In my boyhood, for some time we lived three miles 
 from church, and on stormy days the children staid at 
 home, but father and mother always went to church: 
 that was a habit they had. On those stormy Sabbaths 
 when we staid at home, the absence of our parents seem- 
 ed very much protracted ; for the roads were very bad, 
 and they could not get on very fast. So we would go to 
 the window at twelve o'clock to see if they were com- 
 ing, and then we would go at half-past twelve to see if 
 they were coming, and at a quarter to one, and then at 
 one o'clock. After a while, Mary, or David, or De Witt 
 would shout, "The wagon's coming!" and then we 
 
THE KING ' S WA G ONS. 49 
 
 would see it winding out of the woods, and over the 
 brook, and through the lane, and up in front of the old 
 farm-house; and then we would rush out, leaving the 
 doors wide open, with many things to tell them, asking 
 them many questions. Well, my dear brethren, I think 
 we are many of us in the King's wagons, and we are on 
 the way home. The road is very bad, and we get on 
 slowly; but after a while we will come winding out of 
 the woods, and through the brook of death, and up in 
 front of the old heavenly homestead ; and our departed 
 kindred, who have been waiting and watching for us, 
 will rush out through the doors and over the lawn, cry- 
 ing, "The wagons are coming! the King's wagons are 
 coming!" Hark! the bell of the City Hall strikes 
 twelve. Twelve o'clock on earth, and likewise it is high 
 noon in heaven. 
 
 During the past week some_pf God's wagons have 
 come to us, and a loved one is gone : John R. Lansing, 
 an elder of this church, loved by me, loved by you all — 
 one of those pure spirits that we sometimes see early ri- 
 pening for heaven. I never heard a young man pray as 
 Lansing did. He talked with God like an old Christian. 
 Last Thursday morning the King's wagon halted at his 
 pillow. There was no one present to see him go. Yes 
 there was; Jesus was there. I went around afterward 
 where he dwelt, and they had nothing but words of 
 praise to say of him — so kind he was, so gentle he was, 
 so pure he was, so upright he was ! We picked him out 
 of our large congregation as especially qualified for the 
 service of the eldership. I have always been glad since, 
 we did. He was a young man to be called an elder; 
 but he was worthy of his ofl&ce, and he honored it. If I 
 
h^^>^;;A.- ^-^ nil 
 
 50 ' I THE KING'S WAGONS. "1 n^ 
 
 knew ot any better words of eulogium, honest eulogium, 
 than those I have already uttered, I Vv'ould say them. 
 Joy to him! ISTo more asthma or heart disease for him. 
 He is well now. He will never cough again. Joy, joy ! 
 But ours is the grief, in the elders' board, in the Sabbatb- 
 ^ school, in the prayer-meeting — ours is the grief "Let 
 > ^me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
 like his." May God comfort those that mourn, especially 
 that aged mother, too feeble to hear of such tidings. I 
 do not know but that the King's wagon will take them 
 both side by side through the gates into the city. 
 
 Does not the subject of the morning take the gloom 
 out of the thoughts that would otherwise be struck 
 through with midnight? We used to think that when 
 we died we would have to go afoot, sagging down in the 
 mire, and the hounds of terror might get after us, and 
 that if we got through into heaven at all, we would come 
 in torn, and wounded, and bleeding. I remember when 
 my teeth chattered and my knees knocked together when 
 I heard any body talk about death ; but I have come to 
 think that the grave will be the softest bed I ever slept 
 in, and the bottom of my feet will not be wet with the 
 passage of the Jordan. " Them that sleep in Jesus will 
 God bring with him." 
 
 I was reading a day or two ago of Kobert Southey, 
 who said he wished he could die far away from his 
 friends — like a dog, crawling into a corner and dying un- 
 observed. Those were his words. Be it ours to die on 
 a couch surrounded by loved ones, so that they with us 
 
 I may hear the glad, sweet, jubilant announcement, "The 
 
 II King's wagons are coming." Hark! I near them now. 
 »l Are they coming for you or me? 
 
THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 51 
 
 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS, 
 
 "Thou hast given me a south land ; give me also springs of water. And 
 he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs." — Joshua xv., 19. 
 
 THE city of Debir was the Boston of antiquity — a 
 great place for brain and books. Caleb wanted it, 
 and he offered bis daughter Achsah as a prize to any one 
 who would capture that city. It was a strange thing for 
 Caleb to do ; and yet the man that could take the city 
 would have, at any rate, two elements of manhood — 
 bravery and patriotism. Besides, I do not think that 
 Caleb was as foolish in offering his daughter to the con- 
 queror of Debir, as thousands in this day who seek alli- 
 ances for their children with those who have large means, 
 without any reference to moral or mental acquirements. 
 Of two evils, I would rather measure happiness by the 
 length of the sword than by the length of the pocket- 
 book. In one case there is sure to be one good element 
 of character; in the other there may be none at all. 
 AVith Caleb's daughter as a prize to fight for, General 
 Othniel rode into the battle. The gates of Debir were 
 thundered into the dust, and the city of books lay at the 
 feet of the conquerors. The work done, Othniel comes 
 back to claim his bride. Having conquered the city, it 
 is no great job for him to conquer the girl's heart; for 
 however faint-hearted a woman herself n:iay be, she al- 
 ways loves courage in a man. I never -saw an exception 
 to that. . The wedding festivity having gone by, Othniel 
 
62 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS'. 
 
 and Achsah are about to go to their new home. How- 
 ever loudly the cymbals may clash and the laughter 
 ring, parents are always sad when a fondly-cherished 
 daughter goes off to stay ; and Achsah, the daughter of 
 Caleb, knows that now is the time to ask almost any 
 thing she wants of her father. It seems that Caleb, the 
 good old man, had given as a wedding -present to his 
 daughter a piece of land that was mountainous, and slop- 
 ing southward toward the deserts of Arabia, swept with 
 some very hot winds. It was called " a south land." 
 But Achsah wants an addition of property ; she wants a 
 piece of land that is well watered and fertile. Now it is 
 no wonder that Caleb, standing amidst the bridal party, 
 his eyes so full of tears because she was going away that 
 he could hardly see her at all, gives her more than she 
 asks. She said to him, " Thou hast given me a south 
 land ; give me also springs of water. And he gave her 
 the upper springs, and the nether springs." 
 
 I never saw that passage until a little while ago ; and 
 as I came upon it I said, if God will give me grace, I 
 shall preach a sermon upon that before long. The fact 
 is, that as Caleb, the father, gave Achsah, the daughter, a 
 south land, so God gives to us his world. I am very 
 thankful he has given it to us. But I am like Achsah 
 in the fact that I am not satisfied with the portion. 
 Trees, and flowers, and grass, and blue skies are very 
 well in their places; but he who has nothing but this 
 'world for a portion has no portion at all. It is a mount- 
 ainous land, sloping off toward the desert of sorrow, swept 
 by fiery siroccos; it is "a south land," a poor portion 
 for any man that tries to put his trust in it. What has 
 been your experience? What has been the experience 
 
TEE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 58 
 
 of every man, of every woman that has tried this world 
 for a portion ? Queen Elizabeth, amidst the surround- 
 ings of pomp, is unhappy because the painter sketches 
 too minutely the wrinkles on her face, and she indignant- 
 ly cries out, " You must strike off my likeness without 
 any shadows !" Hogarth, at the very height of his ar- 
 tistic triumph, is stung almost to death with chagrin be- 
 cause the painting he had dedicated to the king does not 
 seem to be acceptable; for George 11. cries out, "Who 
 is this Hogarth? Take his trumpery out of my pres- 
 ence." Brinsley Sheridan thrilled the earth with his elo- 
 quence, but had for his last words, " I am absolutely 
 undone." Walter Scott, fumbling around the inkstand, 
 trying to write, says to his daughter, "Oh, take me back 
 to my room ; there is no rest for Sir Walter but in the 
 grave!" Stephen Girard, the wealthiest man in his day, 
 or, at any rate, only second in wealth, says, "I live the 
 life of a galley-slave : when I arise in the morning my one 
 effort is to work so hard that I can sleep when it gets to 
 be night." Charles Lamb, applauded of all the v/orld, 
 in the very midst of his literary triumph, says, "Do you 
 remember, Bridget, when we used to laugh from the shil- 
 ling gallery at the play ? There are now no good plays 
 to laugh at from the boxes." But why go so far as that ? 
 I need to go no farther than your street to find an illus- 
 tration of what I am saying. 
 
 Pick me out ten successful worldlings — and you know 
 what I mean by thoroughly successful worldlings — pick 
 me out ten successful worldlings, and you. can not find 
 more than one that looks happy. Care drags him across 
 the ferry ; care drags him back. Take your stand at two 
 o'clock at the corner of Nassau and Wall streets, or at 
 
54 TEE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 
 
 the corner of Canal Street and Broadwa}^, and see the 
 agonized physiognomies. Your bankers, your insurance 
 men, your importers, your wholesalers, and your retail- 
 ers, as a class — as a class, are they happy ? No. Care 
 dogs their steps ; and, making no appeal to God for 
 help or comfort, they are tossed everywhither, while Jay 
 Gould makes New York quake from Central Park to 
 the Battery. How has it been with you, my hearer? 
 Are you more contented in the house of fourteen rooms 
 than you were in the two rooms you had in a house 
 when you started ? Have you not had more care and 
 worriment since you won that fifty thousand dollars than 
 you did before ? Some of the poorest men I have ever 
 known have been those of great fortune. A man of 
 small means may be put in great business straits, but the 
 ghastliest of all embarrassments is that of the man who 
 has large estates. The men who commit suicide because 
 of monetary losses are those who can not bear the bur- 
 den any more, because they have only fifty thousand 
 dollars left. 
 
 On Bowling Green, New York, there is a house where 
 Talleyrand used to go. He was a favorite man. All 
 the world knew him, and he had wealth almost unlimit- 
 ed; yet at the close of his life he says, "Behold, eighty- 
 three years have passed without any practical result, save 
 fatigue of body and fatigue of mind, great discourage- 
 ment for the future, and great disgust for the past." Oh, 
 my friends, this is " a south land," and it slopes off to- 
 ward deserts of sorrows ; and the prayer which Achsah 
 made to her father Caleb we make this day to our Father 
 God: "Thou hast given me a south land; give me also 
 springs of water. And he gave them the upper springs, 
 and the nether springs." 
 
THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 55 
 
 Blessed be God ! we have more advantages given us 
 than we can really appreciate. We have spiritual bless- 
 ings offered us in this world which I shall call the nether 
 springs, and glories in the world to come which I shall 
 call the upper springs. 
 
 Where shall I find words enough threaded with light 
 to set forth the pleasure of religion ? David, unable to 
 describe it in words, played it on a harp. Mrs. Hemans, 
 not finding enough power in prose, sings that praise in a 
 canto. Christopher Wren, unable to describe it in lan- 
 guage, sprung it into the arches of St. Paul's. John 
 Bunyan, unable to present it in ordinary phraseology, 
 takes all the fascination of allegory. Handel, with ordi- 
 nary music unable to reach the height of the theme, rouses 
 it up in an oratorio. Oh, there is no life on earth so 
 happy as a really Christian life ! I do not mean a sham 
 Christian life, but a real Christian life. Where there is 
 a thorn, there is a whole garland of roses. Where there 
 is one groan, there are three doxologies. Where there 
 is one day of cloud, there is a whole season of sunshine. 
 Take the humblest Christian man that you know — angels 
 of God canopy him with their white wings; the light- 
 nings of heaven are his armed allies; the Lord is his 
 Shepherd, picking out for him green pastures by still wa- 
 ters; if he walk forth, heaven is his body-guard; if he lie 
 down to sleep, ladders of light, angel-blossoming, are let 
 into his dreams; if he be thirsty, the potentates of heav- 
 en are his cup-bearers ; if he sit down to food, his plain 
 table blooms into the King's banquet. Men say, " Look 
 at that old fellow with the worn-out coat;" the angels of 
 God cry, "Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, and 
 let hmi come in I" Fastidious people cry, " Get off mj 
 
 3 
 
56 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 
 
 front steps!" the door-keepers of heaven cry, "Come 
 you, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom !" When 
 he comes to die, though he may be carried out in a pine 
 box to the potter's field, to that potter's field the chariots 
 of Christ will come down, and the cavalcade will crowd 
 all the boulevards of heaven. 
 
 I bless Christ for the present satisfaction of religion. 
 It makes a man all right with reference to the past; it 
 makes a man all right with reference to the future. Oh 
 these nether springs of comfort! They are perennial. 
 The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, 
 " The Lord knoweth them that are his." " The mount- 
 ains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kind- 
 ness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the cove- 
 nant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, who hath 
 mercy upon them." Oh, cluster of diamonds set in 
 burnished gold ! Oh, nether springs of comfort bursting 
 through all the valleys of trial and tribulation! When 
 you see, you of the world, what satisfaction there is on 
 earth in religion, do you not thirst after it as the daugh- 
 ter of Caleb thirsted after the water-springs? It is no 
 stagnant pond, scummed over with malaria, but springs 
 of water leaping from the Kock of Ages ! Take up one 
 cup of that spring-water, and across the top of the chalice 
 will float the delicate shadows of the heavenly wall, the 
 yellow of jasper, the green of emerald, the blue of sar- 
 donyx, the fire of jacinth. 
 
 I wish I could make you understand the joy religion 
 is to some of us. It makes a man happy while he lives, 
 and glad when he dies. With two feet upon a chair 
 and bursting with dropsies, I heard an old man in the 
 poor-house cry out, " Bless the Lord, oh my soul !" I 
 
THE UPPEE AND NETHER SPRINGS. 57 
 
 looked around and said, '' What has this man got to 
 thank God for?" It makes the lame man leap as a hart, 
 and the dumb sing. They say that the old Puritan re- 
 ligion is a juiceless and joyless religion ; but I remember 
 reading of Dr. Goodwin, the celebrated Puritan, who in 
 his last moment said, "Is this dying? Why, my bow 
 abides in strength ! I am swallowed up in God !" " Her 
 ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
 peace." Oh, you who have been trying to satisfy your- 
 selves with the "south land" of this world, do you not 
 feel that you would, this morning, like to have access 
 to the nether springs of spiritual comfort? Would 3^ou 
 not like to have Jesus Christ bend over your cradle and 
 bless your table and heal your wounds, and strew flow- 
 ers of consolation all up and down the graves of your 
 dead? 
 
 " 'Tis religion that can give 
 Sweetest pleasures while we live : 
 'Tis religion can supply 
 Sweetest comfort when we die." 
 
 But I have something better to tell you, suggested by 
 this text. It seems that old Father Caleb on the wed- 
 ding-day of his daughter wanted to make her just as 
 happy as possible. Though Othniel was taking her 
 away, and his heart was almost broken because she was 
 going, yet he gives her a "south land;" not only that, 
 but the nether springs ; not only that, but the upper 
 springs. God ! my Father, I thank thee that thou 
 hast given me a "south land"- in this world, and the 
 nether springs of spiritual comfort in this world ; but, 
 more than all, I thank thee for the upper springs in 
 heaven. 
 
58 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 
 
 It is very fortunate that we can not see heaven until 
 we get into it. Oh, Christian man, if you could see what 
 a place it is, we would never get you back again to the 
 office or store or shop, and the duties you ought to per- 
 form would go neglected. I am glad I shall not see 
 that world until I enter it. Suppose we were allowed 
 to go on an excursion into that good land with the idea 
 of returning. When we got there, and heard the song, 
 and looked at their raptured faces, and mingled in the 
 supernal society, we would cry out, " Let us stay ! We 
 are coming here anyhow. Why take the trouble of go- 
 ing back again to that old world ? We are here now ; 
 let us stay." And it would take angelic violence to put 
 us out of that world, if once we got there. But as peo- 
 ple who can not afford to pay for an entertainment 
 sometimes come around it and look through the door 
 ajar, or through the openings in the fence, so we come 
 and look through the crevices into that good land which 
 God has provided for us. We can just catch a glimpse 
 of it. We come near enough to hear the rumbling of 
 the eternal orchestra, though not near enough to know 
 who blows the cornet or who fingers the harp. My soul 
 spreads out both wings and claps them in triumph at 
 the thought of those upper springs. One of them breaks 
 from beneath the throne ; another breaks forth from be- 
 neath the altar of the temple; another at the door of 
 " the house of many mansions." Upper springs of glad- 
 ness! upper springs of light! upper springs of love! It 
 is no fancy of mine. "The Lamb which is in the midst 
 of the throne shall lead them to living fountains of wa- 
 ter." Oh, Saviour divine, roll in upon our souls one of 
 those anticipated raptures! Pour around the roots of 
 
THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 59 
 
 the parched tongue one drop of that liquid life! Toss 
 before our vision those fountains of God, rainbowed with 
 eternal victory. Hear it! They are never sick there; 
 not so much as a headache, or twinge rheumatic, or 
 thrust neuralgic. The inhabitant never says, "I am 
 sick." They are never tired there. Flight to farthest 
 w^orld is only the play of a holiday. They never sin 
 there. It is as easy for them to be holy as it is for us 
 to sin. They never die there. You might go through 
 all the outskirts of the great city and find not one place 
 where the ground was broken for a grave. The eye- 
 sight of the redeemed is never blurred with tears. There 
 is health in every cheek. There is spring in every foot. 
 There is majesty on every brow. There is joy in every 
 heart. There is hosanna on every lip. How they must 
 pity us as they look over and look down and see us, 
 and say, " Poor things away down in that world !" And 
 when some Christian is hurled into a fatal accident, they 
 cry, " Good, he is coming!" And when we stand around 
 the couch of some loved one (whose strength is going 
 away) and we shake our heads forebodinglj^, they cry, 
 "I am glad he is worse; he has been down there long 
 enough. There, he is dead ! Come home! come home!" 
 Oh, if we could only get our ideas about that future 
 world untwisted, our thought of transfer from here to 
 there w^ould be as pleasant to us as it was to a little 
 child that was dying. She said, "Papa, when will I 
 go home?" And he said, " To-day, Florence." "To- 
 day? so soon? I am so glad !" 
 
 I wish I could stimulate you with these thoughts, oh 
 Christian man, to the highest possible exhilaration. The 
 day of your deliverance is coming, is coming- It is roll- 
 
60 THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 
 
 ing on with the shining wheels of the day, and the jet 
 wheels of the night. Every thump of the heart is only 
 a hammer-stroke striking off another chain of clay. Bet- 
 ter scour the deck and coil the rope, for harbor is only 
 six miles away. Jesus will come down in the "Nar- 
 rows " to meet you. " Now is your salvation nearer than 
 when you believed." 
 
 Unforgiven man, unpardoned man, will you not to-day 
 make a choice between these two portions, between the 
 "south land" of -this world, which slopes to the desert, 
 and this glorious land which thy Father offers thee, run- 
 ning with eternal water-courses? Why let your tongue 
 be consumed of thirst when there are the nether springs 
 and the upper springs: comfort here, and glory hereafter? 
 
 Let me tell you, my dear brother, that the silliest and 
 wickedest thing a man ever does is to reject Jesus Ctirist. 
 The loss of the soul is a mistake that can never be cor- 
 rected. It is a downfall that knows no alleviation ; it 
 is a ruin that is remediless ; it is a sickness that has no 
 medicament; it is a grave into which a man goes but 
 never comes out. Therefore, putting my hand on your 
 shoulder, as one brother puts his hand on the shoulder 
 of a brother, I say this day, be manly, and surrender your 
 heart to Christ. You have been long enough serving 
 the world ; now begin to serve the Lord who bought 
 you. You have tried long enough to carry these bur- 
 dens; let Jesus Christ put his shoulder under your bur- 
 dens. Do I hear any one in the audience say, " I mean 
 to attend to that after a while; it is not just the time?" 
 It is the time, for the simple reason that you are sure 
 of no other; and God sent you into the Academy of 
 Music this morning, and he sent me here to confront you 
 
THE UPPER AND NETHER SPRINGS. 61 
 
 witb this message ; and you must hear now that Christ 
 died to save your soul, and that if you want to be saved 
 you may be saved. " Whosoever will, let him come." 
 You will never find any more convenient season than 
 this. Some of you have been waiting ten, twenty, thirty, 
 forty, fifty, and sixty years. On some of you the snow 
 has fallen. I see it on your brow, and yet you have not 
 attended to those duties which belong to the very spring- 
 time of life. It is September with you now, it is Octo- 
 ber with you, it is December with you. I am no alarm- 
 ist. I simply know this : if a man does not repent in 
 this world he never repents at all, and that now is the 
 accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. Oh, put 
 off this matter no longer. Do not turn your back on 
 Jesus Christ who comes to save you, lest you should lose 
 your soul. 
 
 Last Monday morning a friend of mine started from 
 New York to celebrate her birthday with her daughter 
 in Virginia. Yesterday morning, just after sunrise, I 
 stood at the gate of Greenwood waiting for her silent 
 form to come in. It was only a few weeks ago she sat 
 out yonder in the gallery while I preached. It is a long 
 journey to take in one week — from New York to Phil- 
 adelphia, from Philadelphia to Baltimore, from Baltimore 
 to Washington, from Washington to Virginia, from Vir- 
 ginia into the great Eternity ! " What thy hand findeth 
 to do, DO IT." 
 
62 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE: 
 
 I 
 
 WEECK OF THE ''YILLE DU HAYEK" 
 
 " In perils of waters." — 2 Corinthians xi., 26. 
 
 T required courage either to be a sailor or a voyager 
 in olden times, the ships were so small, so clumsy, so 
 unmanageable — the islands, the rocks, the shores so poor- 
 ly defined ; no weather "probabilities," no signals hoist- 
 ed, no light-houses. It was almost impossible to hail a 
 vessel if in distress, because ships were seldom seen ! 
 Sailors might have cried, " Ship ahoy !" " Haul down the 
 flying-jib 1" or " Brace her cross-jack yards sharp aback !" 
 Nobody would have noticed it. Only here and there a 
 vessel traversing the deep ; and a vessel might go on for 
 days and weeks, and not hail a single sail. Yet I am 
 not certain but there are as great perils now on the 
 sea as there were then, notwithstanding our perfect sea- 
 charts and our light-houses and our sextants and our 
 iron-clads, and the fact that there are flags flying all 
 along the coast telling sailors, " Beware, for the storm is 
 coming." The danger arises now from the multiplicity 
 of crafts. The captain in mid- Atlantic puts the sea-glass 
 to his eye and sweeps the horizon, and perhaps in the 
 distance sees a full-rigged brig, bark, ship, or steamer of 
 the Cunard, White Star, Inman, and National lines. It 
 is a fact that in one year in this country there were built 
 over fifty sea-going steamers. Every year there are fish- 
 ing-smacks along the Banks of Newfoundland run down 
 
WMECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVREy 63 
 
 in the fog; and the only report of it is that John and 
 George come not back to their home, and the women 
 weep, and the children starve. Last summer, in the 
 thick night, I heard the fog-horns of the fishermen off 
 Newfoundland within twenty yards of where our levia- 
 than ship ran by. If Paul in his day, because of the im- 
 perfect sea equipment, could talk of "perils of waters," 
 certainly we may in this day, because of the multiplicity 
 of crafts and the danger of collision. 
 
 Only a few days ago the Loch Earn^ a vessel of one 
 thousand two hundred tons, bowsprit steel-plated, weigh- 
 ed anchor in English waters. Only a few days ago the 
 Yille du Havre was ready to sail from New York. The 
 usual warning was given on deck, "All ashore that's 
 going !" Then the gangways were cleared and the 
 planks hauled in, and the usual flirewell waving, and, as 
 though foreboding evil, a young man stands on deck and 
 waves to his friends ashore, crying, "Good-bye ; you will 
 never see me again on this side the water !" It seemed 
 almost impossible that two vessels starting from such 
 distant ports should even hail each other on the sea. 
 Nevertheless, they came on through day and night, and 
 darkness and storm, and fog and sunshine, approxima- 
 ting, as though they had appointed a place and a time 
 for meeting. The Loch Earn sometimes took a differ- 
 ent tack, and the Ville du Havre changed sometimes its 
 course, but nevertheless approximating all the while, the 
 hour for their meeting coming very soon. It is twelve 
 o'clock at night. The bells have sounded. It is one 
 o'clock in the mornino:. It is two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. Lights hung in the rigging. The helmsman at the 
 wheel. The fireman down at the furnace. The watch 
 
 8* 
 
64 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE BU HAVREy 
 
 pacing the lookout. The passengers asleep in the berths 
 and cabins ; when crash ! came the Loch Earn midships 
 the Villa da Havre. They who were around the gang- 
 way rushed to the decks, and mariners and passengers ran 
 wild, and some stark mad, and there was a rush for the 
 life-boats, and a cry to God and man for help. No time 
 to put on life-preservers. No time to sound the min- 
 ute-gun of distress across the sea. Here they kneel in 
 prayer; yonder leap into the wave; there they stand 
 white with horror. The thought of home and loved ones 
 far away comes over them, and they feel as if they can 
 not, must not die. But already the steamer has begun 
 to sink. Pull away there in the life-boats, lest you be 
 sucked down in the awful ingulfment! Pull away there 
 in the life-boats! The mizzen mast crashes upon some 
 of the life-boats and they are gone, and the steamer sinks. 
 As it goes down toward the bottom of the sea, down 
 lower, until the deck is even with the wave, the com- 
 bined, the unearthl}^, the stupendous shriek of two hun- 
 dred and twelve passengers rends the air of earth and 
 heaven with the catastrophe. 
 
 I can not, as a minister of Christ and as a lover 
 of humanity, let this solemn occurrence pass without 
 learning for myself and teaching you three or four les- 
 sons. 
 
 And first I learn the responsibility of those who hold the 
 lives, or the pro}oerty, or the souls of men in keeping. I will 
 leave to the marine authorities to say who were guilty; 
 but it is certain that there is wickedness somewhere. 
 No fog, no storm, clear starlight; and yet five hundred, 
 perhaps one thousand families, in this country and in 
 Europe, are whelmed in bereavement to-day. I will not 
 
WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE y 65 
 
 say who is to blame, I do not know who is to blame ; 
 but the two continents have been impaneled as coroner's 
 jury, and have rendered the verdict, "Appalling guilt 
 somewhere!" The commanders of steamships, the en- 
 gineers of locomotives, the conductors of rail-trains, the 
 architects of buildings, the pilots of steamboats, have in 
 their hands and on their shoulders very great responsi- 
 bility. God will hold them to account for what they do 
 with the lives and with the souls of men. It may have 
 seemed a very insignificant thing connected with this 
 disaster that there were thirty-four thousand bushels of 
 wheat that went to the bottom of the sea ; but I do not 
 think it was at all insignificant when there are so many 
 starving^ for bread. The world could not afford to waste 
 thirty-four thousand bushels of wheat. The responsibil- 
 ity must rest somewhere. Pastors of churches, private 
 Christians who hold in their hands the souls of people, 
 had better look out what they do with them — all the 
 time having a light hung out, keeping the helm up, ring- 
 ing the bells of warning, standing on the lookout, obey- 
 ing the injunction, watch ! 
 
 I tell you plainly that I would rather have been Cap- 
 tain Williams running the Atlantic last spring on Mars 
 Head Eock until five hundred people dropped into the 
 wave, than be a "Christian" minister, yet by preaching 
 a wrong theology conduct an audience of hundreds and 
 thousands of immortal men and women into an eternal 
 catastrophe. " When I say to the wicked, ' Thou shalt 
 surely die,' and thou givest him no warning, nor speak- 
 est to warn the wicked from his wickedness — that same 
 man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require 
 at thy hands." 
 
QQ WRECK OF TEE ''VILLE BTJ HAVRE:' 
 
 " 'Tis not a cause of small import, 
 The pastor's care demands ; 
 But what might fill an angel's heart — 
 It filled a Saviour's hand." 
 
 Oh, men who have under your charge the bodies, the 
 property, the souls of immortal men, look out how you 
 discharge your responsibility ! 
 
 Again, I learn from this disaster at sea that, lolien ive 
 part from our friends^ reunion is uncertain. A voyage to 
 Europe is so common, a journey to any part of our coun- 
 try so common, that when we part from our friends we 
 expect certainly to see them again. My counsel to you 
 is that if you have any duty to peiform toward your 
 friends in regard to their eternal interests, you had bet- 
 ter perform that duty before they take steamer or rail 
 car. If there were any impenitent persons who perished 
 in that wreck of the Ville du Havre^ how do you suppose 
 their unfaithful Christian friends feel about it now ? They 
 are saying this very day, " Oh, if on the 15th of Novem- 
 ber, when I stood on the steamer's deck or stood on the 
 wharf, before that vessel sailed, I had just asked them to 
 come to Christ and make preparations for eternity ! But 
 that was my last chance — it was my last chance !" If 
 your friends have already gone from you on a voyage or 
 journey, write to them to-mori-ow morning by the first 
 mail, lest they die on their way back, and you have a 
 harrowing of the soul for them because you did not do 
 your duty toward them. I believe that there are thou- 
 sands and hundreds of thousands of souls out of Christ 
 to-day simply because Christian friends do not do their 
 duty. Did you notice that one strangely thrilling tele- 
 gram that came last week ? A husband and father sent 
 
WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU IlAVREy G7 
 
 out a wife and daughter on tbeir excursion. Thej^ took 
 the Yille du Havre. The wife went down in the wreck ; 
 the daughter was rescued, and she telegraphed to her fa- 
 ther in New York, " I am saved ! AloneP^ Oh, will that 
 be the history of any family in this house to-day? Will 
 you at last reach heaven, and the rest be lost ? Having 
 so many opportunities of bringing your friends and your 
 families into the kingdom of God, will it be announced 
 at the last that you are " saved ! Aloner'' 
 
 I further learn from this disaster at sea that elegant 
 surrounding is no security. The most of people could not 
 afford to take that line of steamers. The fare is higher 
 on that line of steamers than on any that sail the sea. 
 It was a vessel of five thousand four hundred tons. It 
 had cost, in its building and in its repair, one million five 
 hundred thousand dollars. The saloons were upholstered 
 with crimson and gold ; but iceberg and storm and dark- 
 ness and collision can see no difference between magnifi- 
 cent mail steamship, and Nantucket whaler, with rusty 
 bolts and greasy deck. The plush, the tapestry, the 
 paintings, the cut glass, the statuary, went down with 
 the passengers. Oh, my hearer, do not think that brill- 
 iant surroundings will keep off the last foe ! Belshazzar, 
 in the banqueting-hall ; Napoleon III., in t'he mansion at 
 Chiselhurst ; the Prince of Wales, in Windsor Castle ; the 
 German emperor, now wheeled every day from table to 
 bed, and from bed to table, in his serious illness ; the pas- 
 sengers of the Yille du Havre^ in gilded cabin and amidst 
 brilliant companionship, are summoned away. The arm- 
 ed sentinel stands at the gate of the king's palace. A 
 man comes up. However great he may be, the sentinel 
 cries " Halt !" and the man has to halt. But Death comes 
 
68 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVEE.'' 
 
 to the gate and captures both gate and sentinel. If those 
 people on this fated steamer could have exchanged their 
 money for life, would not they have given it? Oh yes. 
 One would have cried out, " Here are twenty thousand 
 dollars for one day." Another would have cried out, 
 *' I'll give you one hundred thousand dollars for one 
 hour." Another would have said, "Two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars for five minutes more." Ah, Death can not 
 be bribed ! He comes with muddy feet, from walking 
 amidst the upturned earth of new-made graves, and blun- 
 ders over the finest carpets, and sets his spade against 
 the head-board of rose-wood bedstead. " They that boast 
 themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them 
 can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God 
 a ransom for him, that he should not see corruption : 
 the wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish per- 
 son, and leave their wealth to others." Do not think 
 that brilliant companionship and gorgeous surrounding 
 will defend you against the last foe. 
 
 Again, I learn from this accident at sea that there 
 are some Christians nearer to glory than they think. To 
 many of the passengers on that ship death was transla- 
 tion. They arrived at a better port than France could 
 have afforded them. They did not know, when they 
 went to sleep that night, that they were so near the 
 jasper sea, so near the throne of Christ, so near reunion 
 with the friends gone before, so near to the end of all 
 pain, and struggle, and trial. If they had had any ap- 
 preciation of the coming joy, they could not have slept a 
 wink that night. They would have said, "In one hour 
 I shall be with Christ in glory." Heaven was a surprise 
 to them. I suppose, for the past few days they had been 
 
WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVREy 69 
 
 thinking about how their friends would look when they 
 came down the gangway, as they arrived in port. Per- 
 haps they were thinking how the mementoes would look 
 that were packed away in their trunks — mementoes of 
 American travel. But God had a better reunion for 
 them, and a better gladness. 
 
 Some of them were ministers of the Grospel. I sup- 
 pose that the same Jesus they had preached in Madrid, and 
 Paris, and Geneva, stood by them on the parting deck. 
 I suppose that when the Loch Earn crashed in on the one 
 side, the Lord Jesus Christ walked the water on the other 
 side. Some of those men of God worshiped with us 
 in this buikling only a few Sabbaths ago. One of them 
 sat in that very box. I sent word to a member of my 
 family to stand, and to give the brother a seat. I did 
 not know he was so near to glory, so near to the man- 
 sions of the skies, so near heaven. I did not realize it. 
 It was ray only opportunity of showing him any courte- 
 sy. I never came any nearer to him than that. Oh! my 
 friends, those men of God on the sea did not know that 
 they were going from one Evangelical Alliance to anoth- 
 er. But the one here was nothing compared to that great 
 one beyond, made up of the one hundred and forty and 
 four thousand, "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, 
 and tono^ues." It was two o'clock in the morninsr — two 
 o'clock. Sabbath morning — when those men went up to 
 God — a good morning In which to go to heaven. 
 
 The Sabbath is a good day in which to live or to die. 
 Day of resurrection. Day of jubilee. Day of ascension 
 to their soul. Yet how strange it did seem that, fifteen 
 minutes before, those men down in the cabins heard not 
 the trumpets before the throne, heard not the rush of 
 
70 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE:' 
 
 the chariots of salvation, heard not the hallelujah of the 
 redeemed! Oh, wake up, ye men of God, down in the 
 cabins, within fifteen minutes of glory I The gates are 
 opening, the hospitalities of heaven are preparing, the 
 kings and queens of God are coming down to the gate 
 to greet you. Wake up! men of God, down in the 
 cabins of the Ville du Havre. 
 
 Some of you are nearer heaven than you believe. 
 Some of you are spending your last Sabbath, singing 
 your last song, giving your last salutations. There is a 
 Loch Earn somewhere that is making toward you, and 
 ere you are aware you will open your eyes on raptures 
 eternal. I congratulate you. Your friends in heaven 
 have been saying to Jesus, " Why not let our friends 
 come up from earth ? Why not let them come now, O 
 Jesus? We await their coming. Let them come now." 
 And Jesus, to please them, and to please you, will say to 
 his angels, "Bring them home." And the clusters are 
 already on the table, and the beakers are filled, and there 
 is an excitement as of expected arrival, and you will 
 soon be gone. 
 
 " Be with me Avhen iny feet 
 
 Ave slipping over the brink, 
 Tor I may be nearer home, 
 Nearer now than I think." 
 
 Again, I learn from this disaster at sea that the world 
 has not yet been persuaded of the nonse^ue of prayer. \ 
 suppose those people on that ship had all read, in En- 
 glish, or French, or in Spanish, or in German, that prayer 
 is unscientific and entirely useless. Had they been per- 
 suaded ? Oh no. The report comes to us that they all 
 prayed; and there was one woman who seemed to be 
 
WEECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE:' 71 
 
 the chief apostle of the scene, who prayed aloud until, it 
 was said, her words sounded like inspiration. I do not 
 suppose that she had ever been ordained by conference 
 or by presbytery ; but we all feel that that woman had a 
 right to pray in that public assemblage. How soothing 
 her words must have been in that awful anguish ! How 
 strong it makes one feel to hear a woman pray ! A wife 
 praying for her husband. A sister praying for her way- 
 ward brother. A mother praying for her children. A 
 shipwrecked woman praying for two hundred drowning! 
 Oh! women of Christ, can you pray aloud? Can you 
 pray aloud ? You may never have to officiate as priest- 
 ess of God, as that woman did, on the deck of a found- 
 ering ship, but there will be times when there will be 
 dying souls who will want from you not so much silent 
 prayer as audible supplication. Can you pray aloud? 
 Are you ashamed to have your children hear you pray 
 aloud? I have heard doctors of divinity pray, and I have 
 heard learned bishops pray, but against all the prayers 
 that I ever heard, I put, for tenderness and power, the un- 
 educated prayer of my mother, now eleven years in glory. 
 She did not have to go to an English hospital to have 
 the " prayer test." She had it in her own home when 
 she prayed that all her children might be brought to 
 God; and they all were brought to God, five of them 
 already with her in the land where God wipes away all 
 tears from the eyes. 
 
 Had Tyndall been there, and all the skeptics and phi- 
 losophers of the world, they would have praj-ed too; 
 though I fear not with the calmness, and power, and 
 unction of that woman who officiated on the deck. Have 
 you been persuaded of the uselessness of prayer? I 
 
72 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE:' 
 
 have not. Katber, I say, Oh, the omnipotence of prayer! 
 Had you not better try it, ye who have sins to be par- 
 doned, ye who have diseases to be healed, ye who have 
 burdens to cany ? 
 
 *' Restraining prayer, we cease to fi^ht; 
 Prayer makes the Christian's armor bright; 
 And Satan trembles when he sees 
 The weakest saint upon his knees. 
 
 *' Were half the breath that's vainly spent 
 To heaven in supplication sent, 
 Our cheerful song would oftener be : 
 ' Hear what the Lord has done for me.' " 
 
 I learn, also, from this disaster, the importance ofalioays 
 being ready for transition. What an awful thing it must 
 have been, at two o'clock in the morning, on that ship 
 for those not ready ! The longest time spoken of, be- 
 tween the collision and the plunge, was twelve minutes. 
 Alas! for the impenitent people on board that vessel! 
 Only twelve minutes to do the whole work of a life- 
 time, and make preparation for countless ages of eterni- 
 ty. Twelve minutes! Twelve minutes! I think they 
 took ten of them in hoping that they could get off into 
 the life -boats or on the Loch Earn^ climbing down the 
 mast. I think that ten minutes were taken in that way, 
 hoping to get off. Then, there were only two minutes 
 left; but even these two minutes must be split up ; one 
 minute to look over a wasted life, and the other minute 
 to look forward to the great eternity. What a short 
 time that is, you saj^, what a short time for preparation ! 
 But do you not realize the fact, my dear brother, that 
 you may not be so fortunate as that? "Ob!" you say, 
 "I will never venture on the sea." Perhaps you may 
 
WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE:'' 73 
 
 never step on shipboard, but do you not know that men 
 go out of life without twelve minutes warning, without 
 one minute? When the Avondale explosion took place, 
 how long did those men have time to prepare for eterni- 
 ty ? Not half a second ! Witness our railway disasters, 
 how, in an instant, they hurl men and women into an 
 unending eternity. " In such a day and in such an hour 
 as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." You have 
 had friends leave the world — did they go at the time 
 you expected, at the time they expected? Is it not 
 almost always a surprise? It has been so with my 
 friends. None of them went away at the time I thought 
 they would. Though their sickness may have been 
 long, though they may have been sick for three months, 
 yet death was a surprise at the last. So it will be with 
 you, in all probability, and so with me. " In such an 
 hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." 
 
 I can not realize that that steamer is gone. Did you 
 ever see her? She was a beautiful vessel. I was on 
 her deck one day (she was lying at the wharf) examin- 
 ing the marvels of her structure and the beauty of her 
 cabins. She was the most beautiful steamer I ever saw; 
 and now at the bottom of the Atlantic is that dead 
 steamer. The furnaces all out. The pulsating machin- 
 ery still. Passengers still in their berths, sleeping their 
 last sleep ! No hand on the helm. No foot pacing the 
 lookout. Sea-monsters floating in and out the gashed 
 side of the steamer. Along the gangway, on the stairs, 
 and in the cabins, the bodies of men, and fair maidens, 
 and beautiful children waiting for the resurrection. Oh! 
 the dead steamer, buried in coffin of coral, under gar- 
 lands of sea-weed, in the cemetery of dead ships, beside 
 
74 WRECK OF THE ''VILLE DU HAVRE:' 
 
 the Arctic^ and the Pacific^ and the Cambria, and the 
 President, and the Ciiy of Boston. Toll all the cathedral 
 bells of Madrid, and Paris, and Geneva, and New York. 
 But all those shipwrecked ones must come up. " The 
 sea shall give up its dead," and all the cemeteries on the 
 land must yield their trophies. What a time there will 
 be in Greenwood, and in Laurel Hill, and in the village 
 grave-yard! Oh, what a time! The Bible declares it: 
 "They shall come forth, some to the resurrection of life, 
 and some to the resurrection of damnation." Day of 
 joy. Day of sorrow. Day of light. Day of darkness. 
 Day of victory. Day of defeat. Day of resurrection. O 
 God ! prepare me for that day. Are we ready? There 
 comes a voice from the dead steamer that overpowers all 
 other voices as it says: "What thy hand findeth to do, 
 do it with all thy might, for there is neither wisdom, 
 nor device, nor knowledge in the grave whither we are 
 all hastening." 
 
GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 75 
 
 GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 "Salt is good." — Luke xiv., S-t. 
 
 THE Bible is a dictionary of the finest similes. It 
 employs, among living creatures, storks and eagles, 
 and doves and unicorns, and sheep and cattle; among 
 trees, sycamores and terebinths, and pomegranates, and 
 almonds, and apples ; among jewels, pearls and amethysts, 
 and jacinths and chrysoprases. Christ uses no stale il- 
 lustrations. The lilies that he plucks for his sermons 
 are dewy fresh; the ravens in his discourses are not 
 stuffed specimens of birds, but warm wnth life from wing; 
 tip to wing-tip; the fish he points to are not dull about 
 the gills, as though long captured, but a-squirm in the 
 wet net just brought up on the beach of Tiberias. In 
 my text, which is the peroration of one of his sermons, 
 he picks up a crystal and holds it before his congregation 
 as an illustration of divine grace in the heart, when he 
 says, what we all know by experiment, "Salt is good." 
 
 I shall try to carry out the Saviour's idea in this text, 
 and in the first place say to you that grace is like salt in 
 its beauty. In Galicia there are mines of salt with exca- 
 vations and under-ground passages reaching, I am tokl, 
 two hundred and eighty miles. Far under-ground there 
 are chapels and halls of reception, the columns, the altars, 
 and the pulpits of salt. When the king and the princes 
 come to visit these mines, the whole place is illumined, 
 and the glory of crystal walls and crystal ceilings and 
 
76 OR ACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 crystal floors and crystal columns, under the glare of the 
 torches and the lamps, needs words of crystal to describe 
 it. But you need not go so far as that to find the beauty 
 of salt. We live in a land which produces fourteen mill- 
 ions of bushels of it in a year, and you can take the 
 morning rail train, and in a few hours get to the salt- 
 mines and salt-springs; and you have this article morn- 
 ing, noon, and night, on your table. Salt has all the 
 beauty of the snow-flake and water-foam, with durability 
 added. It is beautiful to the naked eye, but under the 
 glass you see the stars and the diamonds and the white 
 tree-branches, and the splinters and the bridges of fire as 
 the sun glints them. There is more architectural skill 
 in one of these crystals of salt than human ingenuity has 
 ever demonstrated in an Alhambra or St. Peter's. It 
 would take all time, with an infringement upon eternity, 
 for an angel of God to tell one-half the glories in a salt- 
 crystal. So with the grace of God : it is perfectly beau- 
 tiful. I have seen it smooth out wrinkles of care from 
 the brow ; I have seen it make an aged man feel almost 
 young again ; I have seen it lift the stooping shoulders, 
 and put sparkle into the dull eye. Solomon discovered 
 its anatomical qualities when he said, "It is marrow to 
 the bones." It helps to digest the food, and to purify 
 the blood, and to calm the pulses, and quiet the spleen ; 
 and instead of putting a man in a philosophical hospital 
 to be experimented upon by prayer, it keeps him so well 
 that he does not need to be prayed for as an invalid. I 
 am speaking now of a healthy religion — not of that mor- 
 bid religion that sits for three hours on a grave-stone, 
 reading "Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs" — a 
 religion that prospers best in a bad state of the liver! I 
 
GJIACE IN CRYSTALS. 77 
 
 speak of the religion that Christ preached. I suppose, 
 when that religion has conquered the world, that disease 
 will be banished; and that a man a hundred 3'ears of 
 age will come in from business, and say, " I feel tired. I 
 think it must be time for me to go," and without one 
 pliysical pang, heaven will have him. 
 
 But the chief beauty of grace is in the soul. It takes 
 that which was hard and cold and repulsive, and makes 
 it all over again. It pours upon one's nature what David 
 calls " the beauty of holiness." It extirpates every thing 
 that is hateful and unclean. If jealousy and pride and 
 lust and worldliness lurk about, they are chained, and 
 have a very small sweep. Jesus throws upon the soul 
 the fragrance of a summer garden as he comes in, say- 
 ing, "I am the rose of Sharon;" and he submerges it 
 with the glory of a spring morning as he says, " I am the 
 light." Oh, how much that grace did for the three Johns! 
 It took John Bunyan, the foul-mouthed, and made him 
 John Bunyan, the immortal dreamer. It took John New- 
 ton, the infidel sailor, and in the midst of the hurricane 
 made him cry out, "My mother's God, have mercy upon 
 me!" It took John Summerfield from a life of sin, and 
 by the hand of a Christian edge-tool maker led him into 
 the pulpit that burns still with the light of that Christian 
 eloquence which charmed thousands to the Jesus whom 
 he once despised. Ah ! you may search all the earth 
 over for any thing so beautiful or beautifying as the 
 grace of God. Go all through the deep mine passages 
 of Wieliczka and amidst the under-ground kingdoms of 
 salt in Hallstadt, and show me any thing so exquisite, 
 so transcendentally beautiful as this grace of God fash- 
 ioned and hung in eternal crystals. 
 
78 GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 Again, grace is like salt, in the fact that it is a necessity 
 of life. Man and beast perish without salt. What are 
 those paths across the Western prairies? Why, they 
 were made there by deer and buffalo going to and coming 
 away from the salt "licks." Chemists and physicians, 
 all the world over, tell us that salt is a necessity of life. 
 And so with the grace of God : you must have it or die. 
 I know a great many people speak of it as a mere adorn- 
 ment, a sort of shoulder-strap adorning a soldier, or a 
 light, frothing dessert, brought in after the greatest part 
 of the banquet of life is over, or a medicine to be taken 
 after calomel and mustard-plasters have failed to do their 
 work ; but ordinarily a mere superfluity, a string of bells 
 around a horse's neck while he draws the load, and in 
 no wise helping him to draw it. So far from that, I de- 
 clare the grace of God to be the first and the last neces- 
 sity. It is food we must take, or starve into an eternity 
 of famine. It is clothing, without which we freeze to the 
 mast of infinite terror. It is the plank, and the only 
 plank, on which we can float shoreward. It is the lad- 
 der, and the only ladder, on which we can climb away 
 fi'om eternal burnings. And that young woman who 
 sits before me and laughs must have it or die. It is a 
 positive necessity for the soul. You can tell very easi- 
 ly what the effect would be if a person refused to take 
 salt into the body. The energies would fail, the lungs 
 would struggle with the air, slow fevers would crawl 
 through the brain, the heart would flutter, and the life 
 would be gone. That process of death is going on in 
 many a one because they take not the salt of divine 
 grace. The soul becomes weaker and weaker, and after 
 a while the pulses of life will stop entirely. Stretch out 
 
GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 79 
 
 that soul on the bier of eternal death ! Coffin it in a 
 groan ! Strew on it wreaths of nightshade ! Cover it 
 with a pall of eternal blackness ! Set no burning lamps 
 at the head and at the feet, but rather the extinguished 
 torches of the silly virgins whose lamps went out. Let 
 the pall-bearers come in — Eemorse and Despair and An- 
 guish and Pain, and shoulder it, and take it away with 
 solemn and awful tramp, remembering that they carry 
 the corpse of a soul. "He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." Salt, a necessity for the life of the body — the 
 grace of God a necessity for the life of the soul. 
 
 Again I remark, that grace is like salt in abundance. 
 God has strewn salt in vast profusion all over the con- 
 tinents. Russia seems built on a salt-cellar. There is 
 one region of that country that turns out ninety thou- 
 sand tons in a year. England and Russia and Italy 
 have inexhaustible resources in this respect. Norway 
 and Sweden, white with snow above, white with salt be- 
 neath. Austria, yielding nine hundred thousand tons 
 annually. ISTearlyall the nations rich in it — rock-salt, 
 spring-salt, sea-salt. Christ, the Creator of the world, 
 when he uttered our text, knew it would become more 
 and more significant as the shafts were sunk, and the 
 springs were bored, and the pumps were worked, and 
 the crystals were gathered. So the grace of' God is 
 abundant. It is for all lands, for all ages, for all con- 
 ditions. It seems to nndergird every thing. Pardon 
 for the worst sin, comfort for the sharpest suffering, 
 brightest light for the thickest darkness. Around about 
 the salt lakes of Saratoy there are ten thousand men 
 toiling day and night, and yet they never exhaust the 
 
so OR ACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 saline treasures. And if tbe one thousand millions of 
 
 our race should now cry out to God for his mercy, there 
 
 would be enough for all; for those flirthest gone in sin, 
 
 for the murderer standing on the drop of the gallows, 
 
 for Eosenzweig, and Stokes, and Foster. It is an ocean 
 
 of mercy ; and if Europe and Asia, Africa, North and 
 
 South America, and all the islands of the sea, went down 
 
 in It to-day, they would have room enough to wash and 
 
 come up clean. Let no man in this house think that 
 
 his case is too tough a one for God to act upon ; though 
 
 your sin may be deep and raging, let me tell you th°at 
 
 God's grace is a bridge not built on earthly piers, but 
 
 suspended, and spanning the awful chasm of your guilt, 
 
 one end resting upon the rock of eternal promises, and 
 
 the other on the foundations of heaven. Demetrius 
 
 wore a robe so incrusted with jewels that no one after 
 
 him ever dared to wear it; but our King, Jesus, takes 
 
 off the robe of his righteousness, a robe blood-dyed and 
 
 heaven-impearled, and reaches it out to the worst wretch 
 
 in all the earth, and says, "Put that on! wear it now! 
 
 wear it forever." 
 
 Again, the grace of God is like salt in the ivay lue come 
 at it. The salt on the surface is almost always impure 
 —that which incrusts the Eocky Mountains and the 
 South American pampas and in India; but the miners 
 go down through the shafts and through the dark laby- 
 rinths, and along by galleries of rock, and, with torches 
 and pickaxes, find their way under the very foundations 
 of the earth, to where the salt lies that makes up the 
 nation's wealth. To get to the best saline springs of the 
 earth huge machinery goes down, boring depth below 
 depth, depth below depth, until from under the very 
 
GRACE m CRYSTALS. 81 
 
 roots of the mountains, the saline water supplies the 
 aqueduct. This water is brought to the surface, and is 
 exposed in tanks to the sun for evaporation, or it is put 
 in boilers mightily heated, and the water evaporates, and 
 the salt gathers at the bottom of the tank— the work is 
 completed, and the fortune is made. So with the grace 
 of God. It is to be profoundly sought after. With all 
 the concentred energies of body, mind, and soul we 
 must dig for it. No man stumbles accidentally on it. 
 We need to go down to the very lowest strata of ear- 
 nestness and faith to find it. Superficial exploration 
 will not turn it up. We must strive, and implore, and 
 dig until we strike the spring foaming with living waters. 
 Then the work of evaporation begins; and as when the 
 saline waters are exposed to the sun, the vapors float 
 away, leaving nothing but the pure white salt at the 
 bottom of the tank, so, when the Christian's soul is ex- 
 posed to the Sun of Kighteousness, the vapors of pride 
 and selfishness and worldliness float off, and there is 
 chiefly left beneath pure white holiness of heart. Then, 
 as in the case of the salt, the furnace is added. Blazing 
 troubles, stirred by smutted stokers of darkness, quicken 
 the evaporation of worldliness, and the crystallization 
 of grace. 
 
 Have you not been in enough trouble to have that 
 work go on? I was reading of Aristotle, who said there 
 was a field of flowers in Sicily so sweet that once a 
 hound, coming on the track of game, came to that field, 
 and was bewildered by the perfumes, and so lost the 
 track. Oh ! that our souls might become like " a field 
 which the Lord hath blessed," and exhale so much of the 
 sweetness of Christian character that the hounds of temp- 
 
82 GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 tation, coming on our track, might lose it, and go howling 
 back with disappointment! 
 
 But, I remark again, that the grace of God is like the 
 salt in its preservative quality. You know that salt absorbs 
 the moisture of articles of food and infuses them with 
 brine, which preserves them for a long while. Salt is the 
 great antiputreflictive of the world. Experimenters, in 
 preserving food, have tried sugar, and smoke, and air- 
 tight jars, and every thing else; but as long as the world 
 stands Christ's words will be suggestive, and men will 
 admit that, as a great preservative, "salt is good." But 
 for the grace of God, the earth would have become a 
 stale carcass long before this. That grace is the only 
 preservative of laws, and constitutions, and literatures. 
 Just as soon as a Government loses this salt of divine 
 grace, it perishes. The philosophy of this day, so far as 
 it is antagonistic to this religion, putrefies and stinks. 
 The great want of our schools of learning and our insti- 
 tutions of science to-day is, not more Leydenjars, and 
 galvanic batteries, and spectroscopes, and philosophical 
 apparatus, but more of that grace that will teach our men 
 of science that the God of the universe is the God of the 
 Bible. How strange it is that in all their magnificent 
 sweep of the telescope they have not seen the morning- 
 star of Jesus, and that in all their experiments with light 
 and heat they have not seen the light and felt the warmth 
 of the Sun of Righteousness ! We want more of the salt 
 of God's grace in our homes, in our schools, in our col- 
 leges,in oursocial life,in ourChristianity. And thatwhich 
 has it will live — that which has it not will die. I pro- 
 claim the tendency of every thing earthly to putrefaction 
 and death — the religion of Christ the only preservative. 
 
GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 83 
 
 My subject is one of great congratulation to those who 
 have within their souls this Gospel antiseptic. This salt 
 will preserve them through the temptations and sorrows 
 of life, and through the ages of eternity. I do not mean 
 to say that you will have a smooth time because you are 
 a Christian. On the contrary, if you do your whole duty, 
 I will promise you a rough time. You march through 
 an enemy's country, and they will try to double up both 
 flanks, and to cut you off from your source of supplies. 
 The war you wage will not be with toy arrows, but 
 sword plunged to the hilt, and spurring on your steed 
 over heaps of the slain. But I think that God omnipo- 
 tent will see you through. I think he will. But why 
 do I talk like an atheist, when I ought to say I know he 
 will ? " Kept by the power of God through faith unto 
 complete salvation." 
 
 When Governor Geary, of Pennsylvania, died a few 
 days ago, I lost a good friend. He impressed me mighti- 
 ly with the horrors of war. In the eight hours that it 
 takes to come from Harrisburg to New York, he recited 
 to me the scenes through which he had passed in the last 
 war. He said that there came one battle upon which 
 every thing seemed to pivot. Telegrams from Washing- 
 ton said that the life of the nation depended upon that 
 struggle. He said to me: "I went into that battle, sir, 
 with my son. His mother and I thought every thing of 
 him. You know how a father will feel toward his son 
 who is coming up manly, and brave, and good. Well, the 
 battle opened and concentred, and it was awful ! Horses 
 and riders bent and twisted and piled up together: it was 
 awful, sir! We quit firing, and took to the point of the 
 bayonet. Well, sir, I didn't feel like myself that day. 
 
84 GRACE IN CRYSTALS. 
 
 I had prayed to God for strengtli for that particular bat° 
 tie, and I went into it feeling that I had in my right arm 
 the strength often giants," and as the governor brought 
 his arm down on the back of the seat, it fairly made the 
 car tremble. "Well," he said, " the battle was desperate, 
 but after a while we gained a little, and we marched on 
 a little. I turned round to the troops and shouted, 
 'Come on, boys!' and I stepped across a dead soldier, 
 and lo ! it was my son. I saw at the first glance he was 
 dead, and yet I did not dare to stop a minute, for the crisis 
 had come in the battle ; so I just got down on my knees, 
 and I threw my arms around him, and I gave him one 
 good kiss, and said, ' Good-bye, dear,' and sprang up and 
 shouted, 'Come on, boys!'" So it is in the Christian 
 conflict — it is a fierce fight. Eternal ages seem depend- 
 ing on the strife. Heaven is waiting for the bulletins to 
 announce the tremendous issue. Hail of shot, gash of 
 sabre, fall of battle-axe, groaning on every side. We 
 can not stop for loss or bereavement, or any thing else. 
 With one ardent embrace and one loving kiss, we utter 
 our farewells, and then cry, " Come on, boys! There are 
 other heights to be captured, there are other foes to be 
 conquered, there are other crowns to be won." 
 
 Yet, as one of the Lord's surgeons, I must bind up 
 two or three wounds. Just lift them now, whatever they 
 be. I have been told there is nothing like salt to stop 
 the bleeding of a wound, and so I take this salt of Christ's 
 Gospel and put it on the lacerated soul. It smarts a lit- 
 tle at first; but see! the bleeding stops, and lo! the flesh 
 comes again as the flesh of a little child. " Salt is good !" 
 
GOSFEL ARCHERY. 85 
 
 GOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 *' He was a mighty hunter before the Lord." — Genesis x., 9. 
 
 IN our day hunting is a sport ; but in the lands and 
 the times infested of wild beasts, it was a matter of 
 life or death with the people. It was very different from 
 going out on a sunshiny afternoon with a patent breech- 
 loader, to shoot reed-birds on the flats, when Pollux and 
 Achilles and Diomedes went out to clear the land of 
 lions and tigers and bears. My text sets forth Nimrod 
 as a hero, when it presents him with broad shoulders and 
 shaggy apparel and sun-browned face, and arm bunched 
 with muscle — "a mighty hunter before the Lord." I 
 think he used the bow and the arrows with great suc- 
 cess, practicing archery. 
 
 I have thought if it is such a grand thing and such a 
 brave thing to clear wild beasts out of a country, if it is 
 not a better and braver thing to hunt down and destroy 
 those great evils of society that are stalking the land 
 with fierce eye, and bloody paw, and sharp tusk, and 
 quick spring. I have wondered if there is not such a 
 thing as Gospel archery, by which those who have been 
 flying from the truth may be captured for God and 
 heaven. The Lord Jesus in his sermon used the art of 
 angling for an illustration, when he said, "I will make 
 you fishers of men." And so I think I have authority 
 for using hunting as an illustration of Gospel truth ; and 
 I pray God that there may be m.any a man in this con- 
 
86 GOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 gregation who shall begin to study Gospel archery, of 
 whora it may, after a while, be said, "He was a mighty 
 hunter before the Lord." 
 
 How much awkward Christian work there is done in 
 the world ! How many good people there are who drive 
 souls away from Christ instead of bringing them to him ! 
 All their fingers are thumbs — religious blunderers who 
 upset more than they right. Their gun has a crooked 
 barrel, and kicks as it goes off. They are like a clumsy 
 comrade who goes along with skillful hunters; at the 
 very moment he ought to be most quiet, he is crackling 
 an alder, or falling over a log and frightening away the 
 game. How few Christian people have ever learned the 
 lesson of which I read at the beginning of this service, 
 how that the Lord Jesus Christ at the well went fi-om 
 talking about a cup of water to the most practical re- 
 ligious truths, which won the woman's soul for God ! 
 Jesus in the wilderness was breaking bread to the peo- 
 ple. I think it w^as very good bread; it was very light 
 bread, and the yeast had done its work thoroughly. 
 Christ, after he had broken the bread, said to the peo- 
 ple, " Bew^are of the yeast, or of the leaven of the Phari- 
 sees." So natural a transition it w^as, and how easily 
 they all understood him ! Bat how few Christian peo- 
 ple there are who understand how to fasten the truths 
 of God and relii^ion to the souls of men! Truman Os- 
 
 a 
 
 borne, one of the evangelists who went through this 
 country some j^ears ago, had a wonderful art in the 
 right direction. He came to ni}^ father's house one day, 
 and while we were all seated in the room, he said, "Mr. 
 Talmage, are all your children Christians?" Father said, 
 " Yes, all but De Witt." Then Truman Osborne looked 
 
GOSPEL ARCHERY. - 87 
 
 down into the fire-place, and began to tell a story of a 
 storm that came on the mountains, and all the sheep 
 were in the fold ; but there was one lamb outside that 
 perished in the storm. Had he looked me m the eve 
 I should have been angered when he told that story ; 
 but he looked into the fire-place, and it was so pathetic- 
 ally and beautifully done that I never found any peace 
 until I was sure I was inside the fold, where the other, 
 sheep are. 
 
 The archers of olden time-st»di€d--their art. They 
 "were very precise in the matter. The old books gave 
 especial directions as to how an archer should go, and as 
 to what an archer should do. He must stand erect and 
 firm, his left foot a little in advance of the right foot. 
 With his left hand he must take hold of the bow in the 
 middle, and then with the three fingers and the thumb 
 of his right hand he should lay hold the arrow and affix 
 it to the string — so precise was the direction given. But 
 iiow clumsy we are about religious work! How little 
 skill and care we exercise ! How often our arrows miss 
 the mark ! Oh ! that there were lay colleges established 
 in all the towns and cities of our land, where men might 
 learn the art of doing good — studying spiritual archery, 
 and known as " mighty hunters before the Lord !" 
 
 In the first place, if you w^ant to be effectual in doing 
 good, you must be very sur e of your weapon . There was 
 something very fascinating about the archery of olden 
 times. Perhaps you do not know what they could do 
 with the bow and arrow. Why, the chief battles fought 
 by the English Plantagenets were with the long-bow. 
 They would take the arrow of polished wood, and feath- 
 er it with the plume of a bird, and then it would fly 
 
 4* 
 
88 QOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 from the bowstring of plaited silk. The bloody fields 
 of Agincourt, and Solway Moss, and Neville's Cross 
 heard the loud thrum of the archer's bowstring. Now, 
 my Christian friends, we have a mightier weapon than 
 that. It is the arrow of the Gospel ; it is a sharp arrow ; 
 it is a straight arrow ; it is feathered from the wing of 
 the dove of God's Spirit; it flies from a bow made out 
 of the wood of the cross. As far as I can estimate or 
 calculate, it has brought down three hundred millions of 
 souls. Paul knew how to bring the notch of that arrow 
 on to the bowstring, and its whir was heard through the 
 Corinthian theatres, and through the court-room, until 
 the knees of Felix knocked together. It was that arrow 
 that stuck in Luther's heart when he cried out, " Oh, my 
 sins! Oh, my sins!" If it strike a man in the head, it 
 kills his skepticism; if it strike him in the heel, it will 
 turn his step ; if it strike him in the heart, he throws up 
 his hands, as did one of old when wounded in the battle, 
 crying, "O Galilean ! thou hnst conquered !" 
 
 In the armory of the Earl of Pembroke, there are old 
 corselets which show that the arrow of the English used 
 to go through the breastplate, through the body of the 
 warrior, and out through the backplate. What a sym- 
 bol of that Gospel which is sharper than a two-edged 
 sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and bodj^, 
 and of the joints and marrow! Would to God we had 
 more faith in that Gospel ! The humblest man in this 
 house, if he had enough faith in it, could bring a hun- 
 dred souls to Jesus — perhaps five hundred. Just in pro- 
 portion as this age seems to believe less and less in it, I 
 believe more and more in it. What are men about that 
 they will not accept their own deliverance? There is 
 
GOSPEL ARCHERY. 89 
 
 nothing proposed bj men that can do any thing like this 
 Gospel. The religion of Ealph Waldo Emerson is the 
 philosophy of icicles; the religion of Theodore Parker 
 was a sirocco of the desert, covering up the soul with dry 
 sand; the religion of Kenan is the romance of believing 
 nothing; the religion of Thomas Carlyle is only a con- 
 densed London fog; the religion of the Huxleys and the 
 Spencers is merely a pedestal on which human philoso- 
 phy sits shivering in the night of the soul, looking up to 
 the stars, offering no help to the nations that crouch and 
 groan at the base. Tell me where there is one man who 
 has rejected that Gospel for another, who is thoroughly 
 satisfied, and helped, and contented in his skepticism, and 
 I will take the car to-morrow and ride five hundred miles 
 to see him. The full power of the Gospel has not yet 
 been touched. As a sportsman throws up his hand and 
 catches the ball flying through the air, just so easily will 
 this Gospel after a while catch this round w^orld flying 
 from its orbit, and bring it back to the heart of Christ. 
 Give it full swing, and it will pardon every sin, heal ev- 
 ery wound, cure every trouble, emancipate every slave, 
 and ransom every nation. Ye Christian men and wom- 
 en who go out this afternoon to do Christian work, as 
 you go into the Sunday-schools and the lay-preaching 
 stations, and the penitentiaries, and the asylums, I want 
 you to feel that you bear in your hand a weapon, com- 
 pared with which the lightning has no speed, and ava- 
 lanches have no heft, and the thunder-bolts of heaven 
 have no power; it is the arrow of the omnipotent Gos- 
 pel. Take careful aim! Pull the arrow clear back un- 
 til the head strikes the bow ! Then let it fly. And may 
 the slain of the Lord be many I 
 
90 GOSPEL AliCHEliY. 
 
 Again, if you want to be skillful in spiritual archery, 
 you must bunt in unfrequented and secluded places. Why 
 does the hunter go three --or four di^yS~^T^4ke,P^ 
 vania forests or over Kaquette Lake into the wilds of 
 the Adirondacks? It is the only way to do. The deer 
 are shy, and one "bang" of the gun clears the forest. 
 From the California stage you see, as you go over the 
 plains, here and there, a coj^ote trotting along, almost 
 within range of the gun — sometimes quite within range 
 of it. No one cares for that ; it is worthless. The good 
 game is hidden and secluded. Every hunter knows 
 that. So many of the souls that will be of most worth 
 for Christ and of most value to the Church are secluded. 
 They do not come in your way. You will have to go 
 where they are. Yonder they are down in that cellar; 
 yonder they are np in that garret — far away from 
 the door of any church ; the Gospel arrow has not been 
 pointed at them. The tract distributer and the city 
 missionary sometimes just catch a glimpse of them, as a 
 hunter through the trees gets a momentary- sight of a 
 partridge or roebuck. The trouble is, we are waiting 
 for the game to come to us. We are not good hunt- 
 ers. We are standing on Montague Street and Scher- 
 merhorn Street, expecting that the timid antelope will 
 come up and eat out of our hand. We are expecting 
 that the prairie-fowl will light on our church -steeple. 
 It is not their habit. If the Church should wait ten 
 millions of years for the world to come in and be saved, 
 it will wait in vain. The world will not come. What 
 the Church wants now is to lift its feet from damask 
 ottomans, and put them in the stirrups. The Church 
 wants not so much cushions as it wants saddle-bags and 
 
GOSPEL ARCHERY. 91 
 
 arrows. We have got to put aside the gown and tne 
 kid-gloves, and put on the hunting -shirt. We want a 
 pulpit on wheels. We have been fishing so long in the 
 brooks that run under the shadow of the Church that 
 the fish know us, and they avoid the hook, and escape 
 as soon as we come to the bank, while yonder is Upper 
 Saranac and Big Tupper's Lake, where the first swing of 
 the Gospel net would break it for the multitude of the 
 fishes. There is outside work to be done. What is it 
 that I see in the backwoods? It is a tent. The hunt- 
 ers have made a clearing, and camped out. What do 
 they care if they have wet feet, or if they have nothing 
 but a pine branch for a pillow, or for the north-east 
 storm? If a moose in the darkness steps into the lake 
 to drink, they hear it right away. If a loon cry in the 
 midnight, they hear it. So, in the service of God, we 
 have exposed work. We have got to camp out and 
 rough it. We are putting all our care on the forty 
 thousand people in Brooklj-n who, they say, come to 
 church. What are we doing for the three hundred and-'' 
 sixty thousand that do not come? Have they no souls? \ 
 Are they sinless, that they need no pardon? Are there 
 no dead in their houses, that they need no comfort? Are 
 they cut off from God, to go into eternit}^ — no wing to 
 bear them, no light to cheer them, no welcome to greet 
 them ? I hear to-day, surging up from that lower depth 
 of Brooklyn, a groan that comes through our Christian 
 assemblages and through our beautiful churches; and it 
 blots out all this scene from my eyes to-day, as by the 
 mists of a great Niagara, for the dash and the plunge of 
 these great torrents of life dropping down into the fath- 
 omless and thundering abysm of suffering and woe. I 
 
92 GOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 sometimes think that just as God blotted out the church- 
 es of Thyatira and Corinth andLaodicea because of their 
 sloth and stolidity, he will blot out American and En- 
 glish Christianity, and raise on the ruins a stalwart, 
 wide-awake missionary church that can take the full 
 meaning of that command, " Go ye into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature. He that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that be- 
 lieveth not shall be damned" — a command, you see, 
 punctuated with a throne of heaven and a dungeon of 
 hell. 
 
 I remark, further, if you want to succeed in spiritual 
 archery you_must have comage. If the hunter stands 
 with trembling hanJ~oF shoulder that flinches with fear, 
 instead of his taking the catamount, the catamount takes 
 him. What would become of the Greenlander if, when 
 out hunting for the bear, he should stand shivering with 
 terror on an iceberg? What would have become of 
 Du Chaillu and Livingstone in the African thicket, with 
 a faint heart and a weak knee? When a panther comes 
 within twenty paces of you, and it has its eye on you, 
 and it has squatted for the fearful spring, "Steady there!" 
 Courage, oh, ye spiritual archers 1 There are great mon- 
 sters of iniquity prowling all around about the commu- 
 nity. Shall we not in the strength of God go forth and 
 combat them ? We not only need more heart, but more 
 backbone. What is the Church of God that it should 
 fear to look in the eye any transgression ? There is the 
 Bengal tiger of drunkenness that prowls around; and 
 '.instead of attacking it, how many of us hide under the 
 *€hurch-pew or the communion-table ! There is so much 
 invested in it we are afraid to assault it ; millions of dol- 
 
GOSrEL ARCHERY. 93 
 
 ]ars in barrels, in vats, in spigots, in corkscrews, in gin- 
 palaces with marble floors and Italian -top tables, and 
 chased ice -coolers, and in the strychnine, and the log- 
 wood, and the tartaric acid, and the mix vomica^ that 
 go to make up our "pure" American drinks. I looked 
 with wondering eyes on the " Heidelberg tun." It is the 
 great liquor- vat of Germany, which is said to hold eight 
 hundred hogsheads of wine, and only three times in a 
 hundred years it has been filled. But, as I stood and 
 looked at it, I said to myself, " That is nothing — eight 
 hundred hogsheads. Why, our American vat holds five 
 million two hundred thousand barrels of strong drinks, 
 and we keep two hundred thousand men with nothing 
 to do but to see that it is filled." Oh ! to attack this 
 great monster of Intemperance, and the kindred monsters 
 of fraud and uncleanness, requires you to rally all your 
 Christian courage. Through the press, through the pul- 
 pit, through the platform you must assault it. Would 
 to God that all our American Christians would band to- 
 gether, not for crack-brained fanaticism, but for holy 
 Christian reform! I think it was in 1793 that there 
 went out from Luck now, India, under the sovereign, the 
 greatest hunting-party that was ever projected. There 
 were ten thousand armed men in that hunting-party. 
 There were camels, and horses, and elephants. On some 
 princes rode, and royal ladies under exquisite housings, 
 and five hundred coolies waited upon the train, and the 
 desolate places of India were invaded by this excursion, 
 and the rhinoceros, and deer, and elephant fell under the 
 stroke of the sabre and bullet. After a while the party 
 brought back trophies worth fifty thousand rupees, hav- 
 ing left the wilderness of India ghastly with the slain 
 
94 GOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 bodies of wild beasts. Would to God that, instead of 
 here and there a straggler going out to fight these great 
 monsters of iniquity in our country, the millions of mem- 
 bership of our churches would band together and hew 
 in twain these great crimes that make the land frightful 
 with their roar, and are fattening upon the bodies and 
 souls of immortal men ! Who is ready for such a party 
 as that? Who will be a mighty hunter for the Lord? 
 
 I remark, again, if you want to be successful in spirit- 
 ual archery, you need not only to bring (^oi£?2jthe_gam:e, 
 but brin^jt^r— I think one of the niostl)eautifal pic- 
 tures' of Thorwaldsen is his "Autumn." It represents 
 a sportsman coming home, and standing under a grape- 
 vine. He has a staff over his shoulder, and on the other 
 end of that staff are hung a rabbit and a brace of birds. 
 Ev^ery hunter brings home the game. No one would 
 think of bringing down a reindeer or whipping up a 
 stream, for trout, and letting them lie in the woods. At 
 even -tide the camp is adorned with the treasures of the 
 forest — beak, and fin, and antler. 
 
 If you go out to hunt for immortal souls, not only 
 bring them down under the arrow of the Gospel, but 
 bring them into the Church of God, the grand home and 
 encampment we have pitched this side the skies. Fetch 
 them in ; do not let them lie out in the open field. They 
 need our prayers and sympathies and help. That is the 
 meaning of the Church of God — help. Oh, ye hunters 
 for the Lord ! not only bring down the game, but bring 
 it in. 
 
 If Mithridates liked hunting so well that for seven 
 years he never went indoors, what enthusiasm ought 
 we to have who are hunting for immortal souls! If 
 
GOSPEL ARCHERY. 95 
 
 Domitian practiced archery until he could stand a boy 
 down in the Koman amphitheatre with a hand out, the 
 fingers apart like that, and then the king could shoot an 
 arrow between the fingers without wounding them, to 
 what drill and what practice ought not we to subject our- 
 selves in order to become spiritual archers and "mighty 
 hunters before the Lord!" But let me say you will 
 never work any better than you pray. The old archers 
 took the bow, put one end of it down beside the foot, 
 elevated the other end, and it was the rule that the bow 
 should be just the size of the archer; if it were just his 
 size, then he would go into the battle with confidence. 
 Let me say that your power to project good in the world 
 will correspond exactly to your own spiritual stature. 
 In other words, the first thing, in preparation for Chris- 
 tian work, is personal consecration. 
 
 " Oh for a closer walk with God, 
 A calm and heavenly frame, 
 A light to shine upon the road 
 That leads me to the Lamb." 
 
 I am sure that there are some here who at some time 
 have been hit by the Gospel arrow. You felt the wound 
 of that conviction, and you plunged into the world deeper; 
 just as the stag, w^hen the hounds are after it, plunges 
 into Scroon Lake, expecting in that way to escape. Jesus 
 Christ is on your track to-day, oh, impenitent man ! not 
 in wrath, but in mercy. Oh, ye chased and panting 
 souls! here is the stream of God's mercy and salvation, 
 where you may cool your thirst ! Stop that chase of sin 
 to-day. By the red fountain that leaped from the heart 
 of my Lord, I bid you stop ! There is mercy for you — 
 mercy that pardons, mercy that heals, everlasting mercy. 
 
96 GOSPEL ARCHERY. 
 
 Is there in all this house any one who can refuse the 
 offer that comes from the heart of the dying Son of God? 
 Why, do you know that there are, in the banished world, 
 souls that, for that offer you get to-day, would fling the 
 crown of the universe at your feet, if they possessed it? 
 But they went out on the mountains, the storm took 
 them, and they died. 
 
 There is in a forest in Germany a place they call the 
 " deer-leap "—two crags, about eighteen yards apart, be- 
 tween them a fearful chasm. This is called the " deer- 
 leap," because once a hunter was on the track of a deer; 
 it came to one of these crags ; there was no escape for 
 it from the pursuit of the hunter, and in utter despair it 
 gathered itself up, and in the death-agony attempted to 
 jump across. Of course it fell, and was dashed on the 
 rocks flir beneath. Here is a path to heaven. It is plain ; 
 it is safe. Jesus marks it out for every man to walk in. 
 But here is a man who says, " I won't walk in that path ; 
 I will take my own way." He comes on up until he 
 confronts the chasm that divides his soul from heaven. 
 Now his last hour has come, and he resolves that he 
 will leap that chasm, from the heights of earth to the 
 heights of heaven. Stand back now, and give him full 
 swing, for no soul ever did that successfully. Let him 
 try. Jump! jump! He misses the mark, and he goes 
 down, depth below depth, "destroyed without remedy." 
 Men ! angels ! devils ! what shall we call that place of 
 awful catastrophe? Let it be known forever as the 
 sinner's death-leap. 
 
THE BEST WE MA VE. 97 
 
 THE BEST WE HAYE * 
 
 "And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at 
 meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spike- 
 nard very precious ; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 
 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached through- 
 out the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for 
 a memorial of her."— Mari- xiv., 3, 9. 
 
 IN a village where I once lived, on a cold night there 
 was a cry of "fire." House after house was con- 
 sumed, but there was in the village a large, hospitable 
 dwelling. As soon as people were burned out they 
 came to this common centre. The good man of the 
 house stood at the door, and said, "Come in," and the 
 little children, as they were brought to the door, some 
 of them wrapped in blankets and shawls very hastily, 
 were taken up to bed, and as the old people that came 
 in from their consumed dwellings were seated around 
 the fire, the good man of the house told them that all 
 would be well. This is a very cold day to be burned 
 out of house and home, but we come into this hospitable 
 home to-night, and gather around this great warm fire 
 of Christian kindness and love. And it is good to be 
 here. The Lord built the Tabernacle and the Lord let 
 it burn down ; blessed be the name of the Lord ! We do 
 not feel like sitting down in discouragement, although 
 the place was very dear to ns, our hearts often there 
 
 * Sermon preached at Plymouth Church on the evening of the day ia 
 which the Brooklyn Tabernacle was burned. 
 
98 THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 having been comforted; and many and many a time did 
 Jesus appear, his face radiant as the sun. To-day, when 
 the Christian sympathy came in from Plymouth Church 
 and ten other churches of the city, all offering their 
 houses of worship to us, I must say that it became very 
 damp weather about the eyelashes. 
 
 If any body tells you that there is no kindness be- 
 tween churches — if any body tells you that there is no 
 such thing as Chi'istian brotherhood, tell him he lies! 
 I find amidst the sorrows of the day one cause for ex- 
 treme congratulation. I thank God that the fire took 
 place w^hen it did, and not an hour later. Had it come 
 an hour later, when we were assembled for worship, 
 many who are here to-night — (Mr. Talmnge hesitated, 
 and was visibly much affected. In a moment he con- 
 tinued.) I will not finish that. 
 
 I shall say to you what I would have said this morn- 
 ing if my pulpit had not been burned up, more especial- 
 ly addressing my own people, who, through the courtesy 
 of this church, are here to-night. 
 
 A man pale and wasted with recent sickness is en- 
 tertaiuino- the doctor who cured him. Simon the host, 
 Christ the guest. It is unpleasant to be interrupted at 
 meals, and considerable indignation is aroused by the 
 fact that a woman presses into the dining-hall with oint- 
 ment made of spikes of nard, and pours this ointment on 
 the head of Christ. It was an ointment so costly and so 
 rare that the bestowment of it implied great admiration 
 and affection. "Put her out!" cried the people; "what 
 an outrageous interruption this is! why is this woman 
 allowed to come in here?" Besides that, it i& such a lack 
 of economy. Here she takes a stone-jar made from the 
 
THE BEST WE HAVE. 99 
 
 mountains near the city of Alabastron — a stone-jar filled 
 \\'ith perfume so costly that it might have purchased 
 bread for the poor, and pours it on the head of one who 
 cares nothing for the fragrance. "Stop," said Jesus, 
 " don't put her out 1" He who had mingled the cup of 
 all the flowers appreciated the breath of the nard, and 
 he who had made the stone-jars in the factories of Ala- 
 bastron knew the worth of that box. Jesus says : " The 
 woman is right. She has done her best, and the per- 
 fume which fills this banqueting-house shall yet fill all 
 the earth and all ages." 
 
 I notice in this subject, in the first place, a very pleas- 
 ant way of getting ourselves remenihered. Jesus says that 
 this woman's action of kindness and love shall be a me- 
 morial of her. I can not understand the feelings of 
 those wlio would like to be remembered far on in the fu- 
 ture, but I think it is pleasant for us to think that our 
 friends and associates will remember us when we are 
 gone. To get w^orldly fame men tread on nettles, and 
 work mightily and die wretchedly. Human aggrandize- 
 ment gives no permanent satisfaction. 
 
 I had an aged friend who went into the White House 
 when General Jackson was President of the United 
 States, four days before he left the White House, and 
 ^ae President said to him, "I am bothered almost to 
 death. People strive for this White House as though 
 it were some grand thing to get here, but I tell you it 
 is a perfect hell!" There was nothing in the eleva- 
 tion the world had given him that rendered him satis- 
 faction, or could keep off the annoyances and vexations 
 of life. 
 
 A man writes a book. He thinks it will circulate for 
 
100 THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 a long while. Before long it goes into the archives of 
 the city library to be disturbed once a year, and that 
 when the janitor cleans house ! A man builds a splen- 
 did home, and thinks he will get fame from it. ' A few 
 years pass along, and it goes down under the auctioneer's 
 mallet at the executor's sale, and a stranger buys it. 
 
 The Pyramids were constructed for the honor of the 
 men who ordered them built. Who built them ? Do not 
 know! For whom were they built? Do not know; 
 their whole history is an obscuration and a mystery. 
 There were men in Thebes and Tyre and Babylon who 
 strove for great eminence, but they were forgotten ; 
 while the woman of the text, who lovingly accosted Je- 
 sus has her memorial in all the ages. Ah ! men and 
 women of God, I have found out the secret : that which 
 we do for ourselves is forgotten ; that which we do for 
 Christ is immortal. They who are kind to the sick, 
 they who instruct the ignorant, they who comfort the 
 troubled, shall not be forgotten. 
 
 There have been more brilliant women than Florence 
 Nightingale, but all the world sings her praise. There 
 have been men of more brain than Missionary Carey ; 
 their names are forgotten, while his is famous on the rec- 
 ords of the Christian Church. There may have been 
 women with vases more costly than that which was 
 brought into the house of Simon the leper; but their 
 names have been forgotten, while I stand before you to- 
 night reading the beautiful story of this Bethany wor- 
 shiper. In the gallery of heaven are the portraits of 
 Christ's faithful servants, and the monuments may crum- 
 ble, and earth may burn, and the stars may fall, and time 
 may perish ; but God's faithful ones shall be talked of 
 
THE BEST WE HAVE. 101 
 
 among the thrones, and from the earthly seed they sowed 
 there shall be reaped a harvest of everlasting joy. 
 
 In contrast with the struggle for earthly aggrandize- 
 ment, I put the life and the death of an aged Christian 
 minister who lay down in the country parsonage the 
 other day and died. A brilliant intellect, a large heart, 
 and a consecrated life were the alabaster-box he brought 
 to Jesus. For fort}^ years he had toiled for the welfare 
 of men, and then he laid down peacefully and died. We 
 went out to put him away to his sleep. For hours the 
 carriages came over the hills and through the valleys. 
 The aged came, who had forty years ago entertained him 
 at their own firesides. The young came, who had taken 
 his benediction from the marriage altar. Ministers of all 
 denominations of Christians came, with whom he had 
 mingled in Christian counsel. We joined hands that 
 day in new consecration to the cause for which he had 
 lived and died, and there we put him away in the shad- 
 ow of the old meeting-house, amidst the graves of his 
 kindred, and whole generations in the door of whose sep- 
 ulchre he had stood with consolation, and so on the morn- 
 ing of the resurrection, when he rises up, he will find his 
 old friends all around him, and say : " I baptized you ; 
 I married you ; I buried you ; this is the day of which 
 I often spoke ; it is the resurrection !" When I came 
 to talk of his departure, I did not have long to look for 
 a text ; this one immediately flashed upon my mind : 
 "Let me die the death of the righteous — let my last end 
 be like his." 
 
 I learn further from this subject that Christ deserves the 
 test of every tiling. That woman could have got a vase 
 that would not have cost so much as those made of ala- 
 
102 THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 baster. She miglit have brought perfume that would 
 have cost only fifty pence; this cost three hundred. As 
 far as I can understand, her whole fortune was in it. She 
 might have been more economical ; but no — she gets the 
 very best box, and puts in it the very best perfume, and 
 pours it all out on the head of her Kedeemer. My broth- 
 ers and sisters in Christ, the trouble is that we bring to 
 Christ too cheap a box. If we have one of alabaster and 
 one of earthenware, we keep the first for ourselves, and 
 we give the latter to Christ. We owe Jesus the best of 
 our time, the best of our talents, the best of every thing. 
 Is there an hour in the day when we are wider awake 
 than any other, more capable of thought and feeling, let 
 us bring that to Christ. We are apt to take a few mo- 
 ments in the morning when we are getting awake, or a 
 few moments at night when we are getting asleep, to 
 Jesus. If there be an hour in the day when we are most 
 appreciative of God's goodness and Christ's pardon and 
 heaven's joy, oh that is the alabaster - box to bring to 
 Jesus. We owe Christ the very best years of our life. 
 When the sight is the clearest, when the hearing is the 
 acutest, when the arm is the strongest, when the nerves 
 are the steadiest, when the imagination is the brightest, 
 let us come to Jesus, and not wait until our joints are 
 stiffened with rheumatism, and the glow is gone out of 
 our temperament, and we arise in the morning as weary 
 as when we laid down at night. 
 
 How often we bring the broken pitcher of exhausted 
 faculties instead of the bright alabaster-box ! Men come 
 to Christ when they have a great pain, or when some 
 terror looks in at the store or house ; but how few well 
 men, how few prospered men, come to Jesus ! Christ has 
 
THE BEST WE HAVE. 103 
 
 whole piles of broken ware thrown at his feet. We take 
 the best of the lumber for our own structure, and give 
 Christ the chips. We eat the ripe, luscious clusters, and 
 give Christ the rinds and the peelings. The best thing 
 we can do is to bring our infancy ; the next best thing, 
 our youth ; the next best thing, our athletic manhood ; 
 but I tell you, the poorest thing we can do is to bring 
 our emaciation and sickness. Would it not be sad if, 
 after all the blessings we have had, we should bring to 
 Christ a wasted skeleton and an empty skull ? or a 
 shattered box, when Jesus knows that for years we have 
 had in our possession the vases of Alabastron ? 
 
 The people of Circassia used, until sixty years of age, 
 to worship on the outside of the temple. They let the 
 younger people go in. These old men tarried outside, 
 because they wanted to give themselves up to worldliness 
 and vice. At sixty years of age they proposed to go in 
 and worship. How many stand now on the outside of 
 the temple of Christian sanctification and Christian work, 
 expecting after a while to go in ! I can think of but two 
 aged men that the Bible speaks of as coming to God, 
 Abraham, in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus, in the 
 l^ew. " Eemember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
 youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw 
 nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." 
 Oh that to-night I might twine all these youthful hearts 
 into a wreath for my blessed Jesus ! 
 
 But I remark further, that we owe to Christ the best 
 of all our affections. If there is any body on earth you 
 love better than Jesus, you wrong him. Who has ever 
 been so loving and pure and generous? Which one of 
 your friends offered to pay all your debts, and carry all 
 
 5 
 
 ^=^. 
 
 'J . J- St .a.^.^..^ - J ^6^-^ 
 
lOJ. THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 your burdens, and suffer all your pains ? Wbicli one of 
 them offered to go into the grave to make you richer? 
 Tell me who he is, and where he lives, that I may go 
 and worship him also. No, no, you know there has 
 never been but one — Jesus— and that if he got his dues, 
 we would bring to him all the gems of the mountains, 
 and all the pearls of the sea, and all the flowers of the 
 field, and all the fruits of the tropics, and all the crowns 
 of dominion, and all the boxes of alabaster. If you have 
 any brilliancy of wit, bring it; any clearness of judg- 
 ment, any largeness of heart, any attractiveness of posi- 
 tion, bring them. Away with the cheap bottles of stale 
 perfume, when you may fill the banqueting-hall of Christ 
 with exquisite aroma ! Paul had made great speeches 
 before, but he made his best speech for Christ. John 
 had warmth of affection in other directions, but he had 
 his greatest warmth of affection for Christ. Kobert 
 M'Cheyne was weary before, but he worked himself to 
 death for Christ. Jesus deserves the best word we ever 
 uttered, the gladdest song we ever sang, the lovingest 
 letter we ever wrote, the healthiest day we ever lived, 
 the strongest heart-throb we ever felt. 
 
 I will go further, and say we owe to Christ all our 
 Icindred and friends. Is thei'e a child in your household 
 especially bright and beautiful, take it right up to Jesus. 
 Hold it in baptism before him ; kneel beside it in prayer ; 
 take it right up to where Jesus is. Oh, do you not 
 know, father and mother, that the best thing that could 
 happen to that child would be to have Jesus put his 
 hands on it? , If some day Jesus should come to the 
 household, and take one away to come back never, 
 never, do not resist him ; his heart is warmer, his arm 
 
THE BEST WE HAVE. 105 
 
 stronger than yours. The cradle for a child is not so 
 safe a place as the arms of Jesus. If Christ should come 
 into your household where you have your very best 
 treasures, and should select from all the caskets an ala- 
 baster-box, do not repulse him. It has seemed as if 
 Jesus took the best ; from many of your households the 
 best one is gone. You knew that she was too good for 
 this world; she was the gentlest in her ways, the deep- 
 est in her affections, and when at last the sickness came, 
 you had no faith in medicines. You knew that Jesus 
 was coming over the door-sill. You knew that the hour 
 of parting had come, and when, through the rich grace 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, you surrendered that treasure, 
 you said, " Lord Jesus, take it — it is the best we have — 
 take it. Thou art worthy." The others in the house- 
 hold may have been of grosser mould ; she was of ala- 
 baster. 
 
 The other day a man was taking me from the depot 
 to a village. He was very rough and coarse, and very 
 blasphemous; but after a while he mellowed down as he 
 began to talk of his little son whom he had lost. " Oh, 
 sir !" he said, " that boy was different from the rest of us. 
 He never used any bad language ; no, sir. I never heard 
 him use a bad word in my life. He used to say his 
 prayers, and we laughed at him ; but he would keep on 
 saying his prayers, and I often thought I can't keep 
 that child; and I said to my wife, ' Mother, we can't keep 
 that child.' But, sir, the day he was drowned, and they 
 brought him in and laid him down on the carpet so white 
 and so beautiful, my heart broke, sir. I knew we could 
 not keep him." Yes, yes, that is Christ's way ; he takes 
 the alabaster-box. 
 
106 THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 Kow, my friends, this woman made her offering to 
 Christ. What offering have you to make to Jesus? 
 She brought an alabaster-box, and she brought oint- 
 ment. Some of you have been sick. In the hours of 
 loneliness and suffering, you said, "Lord Jesus, let me 
 get well this time, and I will be consecrated to thee." 
 The medicines did their work ; the doctor was success- 
 ful ; you are well ; you are here to-night. What offer- 
 ing have you to make to the Lord Jesus who cured you? 
 Some of you have been out to Greenwood, not as those 
 who go to look at the monuments and criticise the epi- 
 laphs, but in the procession that came out of the gate 
 with one less than when you went in. And yet you 
 have been comforted. The grave-digger's spade seemed 
 to turn up the flowers of that good land where God shall 
 wipe away the tears from your eyes. For that Jesus 
 who so comforted you and so pitied you, what offering 
 have you to make? Some of you have passed without 
 any special trouble. To-day at noon, when 3^ou gath- 
 ered around the table, if you had called the familiar 
 names, they would have all answered. Plenty at the 
 table, plenty in the wardrobe. To that Jesus who has 
 clothed and fed you all your life-long, to that Jesus who 
 covered himself with the glooms of death that he might 
 purchase your emancipation, what offering of the soul 
 have you to make ? 
 
 The woman of the text brought the perfumes of nard. 
 You say, "The flowers of the field are all dead now, and 
 we can not bring them." I know it. The flowers on 
 the platform are only those that are plucked from the 
 grim hand of Death ; they are the children of the hot- 
 house. The flowers of the field are all dead I We saw 
 
THE BEST WE HAVE. 107 
 
 them blooming in the valleys and mountains; they ran. 
 up to the very lips of the cave ; they garlanded the neck 
 of the hills like a May-queen. They set their banquet 
 of golden cups for the bee, and dripped in drops of 
 honeysuckle for the humming-bird. They dashed their 
 antlers against the white hand of the sick child, and 
 came to the nostrils of the dying like spice gales from 
 heaven. They shook in the agitation of the bride, and 
 at the burial hour rang the silver chime of a resurrec- 
 tion. Beautiful flowers ! Bright flowers 1 Sweet flow- 
 ers ! But they are all dead now. I saw their scattered 
 petals on the foam of the wild brook, and I pulled aside 
 the hedge and saw the place where their corpses lay. 
 We can not bring the flowers. What shall we bring? 
 Oh, from our hearts' affections to-night, let us bring the 
 sweet-smelling savor of a Christian sacrifice! Let us 
 bring it to Christ; and as we have no other vase in 
 w^hich to carry it, let this glorious Sabbath hour be the 
 alabaster-box. 
 
 Eawlins White, an old martyr, was very decrepit, and 
 for years he had been bowed almost double, and could 
 hardly walk; but he was condemned to death, and on 
 his way to the stake, we are told, the bonds of his body 
 seemed to break, and he roused himself up as straight 
 and exuberant as an athlete, and walked into the fire 
 singing victory over the flames. Ah, it was the joy of 
 dying for Jesus that straightened his body and roused 
 his soul ! If we suffer with him on earth, we shall be 
 glorified with him in heaven. Choose his service ; it is 
 a blessed service. Let no man or woman go out of this 
 house to-night unblessed. Jesus spreads out both arms 
 of his mercy. He does not ask where you came from or 
 
108 THE BEST WE HAVE. 
 
 what have been your wanderings ; but he says, with a 
 pathos and tenderness that ought to break you down, 
 " Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest." Who will accept the offer of 
 his mercy? 
 
 "Shall Jesus bear the cross alone, 
 And all the world go free ? 
 No, there's a cross for every one, 
 And there's a cross for me." 
 
WASTUD AR03IA. 109 
 
 L 
 
 WASTED AROMA. 
 
 "Why was this waste?" — Mark xiv,, 14. 
 
 AST Sabbatli night in Plymoutli Churcli we saw a 
 woman with a box of costly perfume pressing into 
 the banqueting-hall where sat Christ the physician, and 
 Simon the convalescent. The box in which she carried 
 the perfume had been made in the city of Alabastron, 
 from stone dug up from a hill near that city, and hence, 
 you see, was very appropriately called an alabaster-box. 
 According to an olden custom, she shook the box and 
 poured the odor out on the head of the Jesus whom she 
 very dearly loved. The guests were seized with a sud- 
 den fit of prudence, and pronounced the whole thing as 
 uneconomical, crying out in the words of the text, "Why 
 was this waste?" But Jesus applauded her, and said, 
 "She hath done what she could," and proclaimed the 
 fact that her behavior should be approvingly known 
 through all the earth and through all the ages. 
 
 Now, before I come, this morning, to the main thought 
 of my subject, I want you to see what a beautiful thing 
 it is for a woman to approach Christ. This woman of 
 Bethany might have done a great many pleasant things 
 before ; but this was the grandest, bravest, sweetest thing 
 she ever did, and it is told as a memorial of her. 
 
 Woman's life is dull and monotonous in this country 
 without Jesus. Men may go out into the world, as they 
 do every day, and they see new sights and hear new 
 
110 WASTED AROMA. 
 
 sounds; but woman, for the most part, suffers and toils 
 indoors. She needs a rest and inspiration she can not 
 get from music and needle-work. She has affections 
 deep and priceless, and will never be happy until she 
 pours that alabaster - box on the head of Christ. She 
 may try to satisfy her soul by drawing-room flatteries 
 and elegancies of apparel, but will often feel great dis- 
 quietude. She can not have peace here and a state of 
 well-being hereafter, unless, like the woman of the text, 
 she bursts into the room where Jesus sits, with all wor- 
 shipful affection. Oh ! that Mary would, this morning, 
 sit down at the feet of Jesus, and Martha, and Kachel, 
 and Kebecca, and the Israelitish waiting-maid, and grand- 
 mother Louise. 
 
 I see also that Christ asks no impossibilities. That 
 woman brought an alabaster-box. What was it to Je- 
 sus? Why, he owns all the fragrance of earth and heav- 
 en ; but he took it. He was satisfied with it. If it had 
 been a wooden box, he would have been just as well 
 satisfied, had it been the best one she could bring. I 
 hear some one say, " If I only had this, that, or the other 
 thing, I would do so much for God." In the last day it 
 may be found that a cup of cold water given in the name 
 of a disciple gets as rich a reward as the founding of a 
 kingdom, and that the sewing-girl's needle may be as 
 honorable in God's sight as a king's sceptre, and that the 
 grandest eulogium that was ever uttered about any one 
 was, " She hath done what she could." 
 
 There she sits at the head of the Sabbath -school class, 
 and she says, "I wish I understood the Scriptures in 
 Greek and Hebrew. I wish I had more faculty for in- 
 struction. I wish I could get the attention of my class. 
 
WASTED JMOMA. HI 
 
 I wisli I could bring tliem all to Christ." Do not wor- 
 ry. Clirist does not want you to know the Scriptures in 
 Greek and Hebrew. Do as well as you can, and from the 
 throne the proclamation will flame forth, "Crown that 
 princess; she hath done what she could." 
 
 There is a man toiling for Christ. He does not get on 
 much. He is discouraged when he hears Paul thunder, 
 and Edward Payson pray. He says, " I wonder if I will 
 ever join the song of heaven." He wonders if it would 
 not look odd for him to stand amidst the apostles who 
 preached, and the martyrs who flamed. Greater will be 
 his wonder on the day when he shall find out that many 
 who were first in the Church on earth are last in the 
 Church of heaven, and when he sees the procession wind- 
 ing up among the thrones of the sorrowing ones, who 
 never again shall weep, and the weary ones, who never 
 again shall get tired, and the poor, who never again shall 
 beg, and Christ, regardless of all antecedents, will put 
 upon the head of his disciples a crown made from the 
 gold of the eternal hills, set in with pearl from the celes- 
 tial sea, inscribed with the words, "He hath done what 
 he could." 
 
 But I also see in this subject ivhat ivrong notions the 
 world has of economy. Just as soon as these people saw 
 the ointment spilling on the head of Christ, they said, 
 "Why this waste? Why, that ointment might have been 
 sold and given to the poor!" The hypocrites! what did 
 they care about the poor? I do not believe that one of 
 them that made the complaint ever gave a farthing to the 
 poor. I think Judas was most indignant, and he sold his 
 Master for thirty pieces of silver. There is nothing that 
 makes a stingy man so cross as to see generosity in oth- 
 
112 WASTED AROMA. 
 
 ers. If this woman of the text had brought in an old, 
 worn-out box, with some stale perfume, and given that 
 to Christ, they could have endured it; but to have her 
 bring in a vessel on which had been expended the adroit- 
 ness of skilled artisans, and containing perfume that had 
 usually been reserved for palatial and queenly use, they 
 could not stand it. And so it is often the case in com- 
 munities and in churches, that those are the most unpop- 
 ular men who give the most. Judas can not bear to see 
 the alabaster-box broken at the feet of Christ. 
 
 Here is a man who gives a thousand dollars to 
 the missionary cause. Men cry out, "What a waste! 
 What's the use of sending- New Testaments and mission- 
 aries, and spending your money in that way? Why 
 don't you send plows, and corn-threshers, and locomo- 
 tives, and telegraphs?" But is it a waste? Ask the na- 
 tions that have been saved : Have not religious blessings 
 always preceded financial blessings? Show me a com- 
 munity where the Gospel of Christ triumphs, and I will 
 show you a community prospered in a worldly sense. 
 Is it a waste to comfort the distressed, to instruct the ig- 
 norant, to balk immorality, to capture for God the in- 
 numerable hosts of men who erst with quick feet were 
 tramping the way to hell ? If a man buy railroad stock, 
 it may decline ; if a man invest in a bank, the cashier 
 may abscond ; if a man go into partnership, his associ- 
 ate may sink the store. Alas! for the man who has 
 nothing better than "greenbacks" and Government se- 
 curities! God ever and anon blows up the money-safe, 
 and, with a hurricane of marine disaster, dismantles the 
 merchantmen, and from the blackened heavens he hurls 
 into the exchanore the hissinsr thunder-bolts of his wrath. 
 
WASTED AROMA. 113 
 
 People cry up t"his investment and cry down the other; 
 but I tell you there is no safe investment save that which 
 is made in the bank of which God holds the keys. The 
 interest in that is always being paid, and there are eter- 
 nal dividends. God will change that gold into crowns 
 that shall never lose their lustre, and into sceptres that 
 shall forever wave over a land where the poorest inhab- 
 itant is richer than all the wealth of earth tossed np into 
 one glittering coin! So if I stand this morning before 
 men who are now of small means, but who once were 
 greatly prospered, and who in the days of their prosperi- 
 ty were benevolent, let me ask you to sit down and count 
 up your investments. All the loaves of bread you ever 
 gave to the hungry — they are yours yet; all the shoes 
 you ever gave to the barefooted — they are yours yet; all 
 tbe dollars you ever gave to churches, and schools, and 
 colleges — they are yours yet. Bank -clerks sometimes 
 make mistakes about deposits; but God keeps an unfail- 
 ing record of all Christian deposits ; and though on the 
 great judgment there may be a "run" upon that bank, 
 ten thousand times ten thousand men will get back all 
 they ever gave to Christ — get all back, heaped up, press- 
 ed down, shaken together, and running over. 
 
 A young Christian woman starts to instruct the freed- 
 men at the South, with a spelling-book in one hand and 
 a Bible in the other. She goes aboard a steamer for 
 Savannah. Through days, and months, and years she 
 toils among the freedmen of the South, and one day 
 there comes up a poisonous breath from the swamp, and 
 a fever smites her low, and far away from home, watched 
 tearfully by those whom she has come to save, she drops 
 ^to an early grave. " Ob, what a waste ! waste of beau- 
 
114 WASTUD AROMA. 
 
 ty, waste of talent, waste of affection, waste of every 
 thing," cries the world. " Why, she might have been 
 the joy of her father's house ; she might have been the 
 pride of the drawing-room." But in the day when re- 
 wards are given for earnest Christian work, her inher- 
 itance will make insignificant all the treasures of Croesus. 
 Not wasted, her gentle words; not wasted, her home- 
 sickness; not wasted, her heart-aches; not wasted, her 
 tears of loneliness; not wasted, the pangs of her last 
 hour; not wasted, the sweat on her dying pillow. The 
 freedmen thought it was the breath of the magnolia in 
 the thicket; the planter thought it was the sweetness 
 of acacia coming up from the hedge. ISTo, no; it was 
 the fragrance of an alabast^er-box poured on the head of 
 Christ. 
 
 Our world will after a while burn up. So great have 
 been its abominations and disorders, that one would think 
 that when the flames touch it a horrible stench would 
 roll into the skies: the coal-mines consuming, the im- 
 purities of great cities burning, you might think that a 
 lost spirit from the pit would stagger back at the sick- 
 ening odor. But no. I suppose on that day a cloud of 
 incense will roll into the skies, all the wilderness of trop- 
 ical flowers on fire, the mountains of frankincense, the 
 white sheet of the water-lilies, the million tufts of heli- 
 otrope, the trellises of honeysuckle, the walls of "morn- 
 ing-glory." The earth shall be a burning censer held 
 up before the throne of God, with all the sweet odors of 
 the hemispheres. But on that day a sweeter gale shall 
 waft into the skies. It will come up from ages past, 
 from altars of devotion, and hovels of poverty, and beds 
 of pain, and stakes of martyrdom, and from all the places 
 
WASTED AROMA. 115 
 
 where good men and women have suffered for God and 
 died for the truth. It will be the fragrance of ten thou- 
 sand boxes of alabaster, which, through the long reach 
 of the ages, were poured on the head of Christ. 
 
 Last Sabbath morning, I think a great many persons, 
 standing in the presence of our burning Tabernacle on 
 Schermerhorn Street, said, " What a waste ! Here all 
 the toil expended gone in an hour." Indeed, those who 
 have built churches know that there are a great many 
 toils and anxieties and sacrifices connected with such an 
 enterprise ; the solicitation and collection of funds ; the 
 selection of a site for building; the choice of architects 
 and plans and materials; the discussion of acoustics; 
 the watching of building committees, themselves severe- 
 ly watched ; the fatigue by day and the sleeplessness by 
 night. It is a fact that, in many cases, after the church 
 has been built, the congregation is exhausted, and the 
 minister is kicked out. Oh, you people of the Brooklyn 
 Tabernacle, what have you to show for all the toil, and 
 prayer, and expenditure of the last two years? A heap 
 of ashes, twisted walls, scorched pillars — an utter oblit- 
 eration of all you have done. "Why was this waste?" 
 Ah, my dear friends, there was not any waste. All the 
 toil and money you put in that enterprise had a heaven- 
 ly insurance, and it will be paid back to you in some 
 shape. You may depend upon that. What money I 
 gave toward it, I would rather have where it is — this 
 morning — than have it in my pocket; having it in my 
 pocket, I might lose it ; but where it is, it is safe forever. 
 I do not begrudge a nail, or a bolt, or a screw that went 
 down in that great conflagration. Why, if it cost us 
 nothing, do you think Christ would have wanted it? 
 
116 WASTED AROMA, 
 
 Do not fling any of your useless, worn-out boxes at him I 
 That was the great precious alabaster-box that the con- 
 gregation poured on the head of Christ. When I say 
 it was precious, I only say what is true. Our hearts had 
 twined around that place very much. I can hear the 
 old organ going yet, marshaling the hosts of God for the 
 battle-shout of Christian song. I can see the audience 
 rising yet to the "Old Hundred" doxology. I can see 
 the pillars entwined with Christmas garlands, telling the 
 people that Jesus is born, and every man has a chance 
 for heaven. Oh! the place was all crowded with mem- 
 ories; days when Jesus rode through with dyed gar- 
 ments from Bozrah, smiting down our sins, and discom- 
 fiting our sorrows. On the last Sabbath-night I preach- 
 ed in that place, inviting men to the hope and joy of 
 the Gospel, if I had known it was the last time, I would 
 have kissed the old place good-bye. It seemed to me 
 that when the roof went in, and we felt that all was 
 gone, that the tears on the cheeks stopped and the sighs 
 ceased, and as if there went through the street on that 
 cold morning one great groan. But do not mourn the 
 loss of that; Jesus is worthy of the most precious gift. 
 "Was it a waste? Are all the joys we felt there a waste? 
 Are all the comforts that brooded over our souls in days 
 of darkness, when trouble came to our souls and to our 
 families, a waste? Were the hundreds and hundreds 
 of souls who, in that building first found the peace of 
 the Gospel, a waste? ISTo, no, no; the building did its 
 work, and it is gone ! Let not the woman of Bethany 
 begrudge the box, or begrudge the perfume. Let her 
 rather go and get a better box, and put in it a sweeter 
 odor, and come with another offering. 
 
WASTED AHOJfA. 117 
 
 I have been bothered all the morning with a snatch of 
 an old hymn which I can not quite catch. I wish some 
 of you would hunt it up and tell it to me. I get only 
 two or three lines of it: 
 
 " Her dust and ruins that remain 
 Are precious in our eyes ; 
 Those ruins shall be built again, 
 And all that dust shall rise." 
 
 You remember that, Father Waterbury ; find it for 
 me sometime. 
 
 God means something by this disaster. If such a torch 
 be lifted, it means to light us somewhere. I wish that 
 fire had burned up all our sins. I wish that it might 
 teach us what a poor foundation man builds on when he 
 builds in this world, and that iron and brick and granite 
 are wax when God breathes on them. We see that there 
 is nothing of an earthly nature safe. Does not the tele- 
 graph flashing from all parts of the earth now bring bale- 
 ful tidings? You are not safe on land or on sea. Wit- 
 ness the Portuguese bark driven, on night before last, 
 on Peaked Head Bar, and the bark Kadosh on Aldernon 
 Point. Ay, you are not safe on the other side of the sea. 
 Witness the hurricane that last week swept over Lon- 
 don; witness the floods that swept through Derbyshire. 
 You are not safe on the rail train. The lightning ex- 
 press last week rolls over an embankment in Pennsylva- 
 nia, and thirty lives are ground out. On last Tuesday 
 night the floor gives way under a festival, and the man- 
 gled children are dragged out on the snow for fathers and 
 mothers to look at. God, by fire, and earthquake, and 
 storm, is crying to all the earth, saying: "Build higher; 
 
118 WASTED AROMA. 
 
 build firmer; build on the rock." I am glad to bear 
 that there were some of our people who, in the presence 
 of that raving, thundering ruin last Sabbath morning, re- 
 solved to be the Lord's. They started for heaven. They 
 say: "Is this the way things go on earth? Give me 
 something better, something stronger, something that will 
 last." 
 
 My friends, all these flames in Brooklyn and in Chica- 
 go and in Boston are only prefigurements of a great day 
 of fire which you and I will see just as certainly as you 
 sit there and I stand here. That day the fire will test 
 us thoroughly. It will show w^hether our religion is a 
 reality, or whether it is a false -fiice. When that fire 
 comes over the fields, it will come swifter than an autum- 
 nal fire across the Illinois prairie. Before it, beasts will 
 dash from the rocks in wild leap. Coming over the prec- 
 ipices, it will be a Niagara of fire. The continents of 
 eartb will wrap themselves in a winding-sheet of flame, 
 and the mountains will cry to the plain, "Fire!" and the 
 plain will cry to the sea, "Fire!" and the sea will cry to 
 the sky, "Fire!" and heaven will answer back to earth, 
 and the caverns will groan it, and the winds will shriek 
 it, and the thunders will toll it, and the storms will wail 
 it, and the nations will cry it, "Fire! fire!" And the 
 day will burn on, and away will go all the churches j^ou 
 ever built, and away will go all your store-houses, and 
 away will go all your cities. But what will become of 
 those who have no Christ, no sins pardoned, no heaven 
 secured? Oh, I wish that this morning, in our first serv- 
 ice in this beautiful place, the hour might be signalized 
 by a great stampede for heaven ! I wish that you would 
 all come in, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, 
 
WASTED AROMA. 119 
 
 wives, sons, daughters, friends, and neighbors. In tbe 
 presence of tlie great sorrow that has come upon us, can 
 you not do that? Do you believe that if this morning, 
 with all the solemn surroundings of the past week, you 
 reject the Gospel of Christ, you will ever feel? Do not 
 some of you think that this is the last opportunity? Do 
 you not feel that if you drive away the Spirit of God, he 
 will never come back? Do you not think that God is 
 speaking to me, and speaking to you all ? Oh ! that this 
 house, set apart for secular song, might this morning hear 
 sweeter music, namely, the angelic minstrelsy that sounds 
 when sins are pardoned, and God is glorified, and Jesus 
 sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. Strike all 
 your harps, ye spirits blessed, the prodigal is come home ! 
 Clap your hands, all ye people, the lost is found 1 
 
120 THINGS NOT BUltNED UP. 
 
 THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 
 
 " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." — Isaiah xl,, 1. 
 
 THESE words came to Isaiah after Jerusalem had 
 been wasted with fire and famine and war; and 
 I wish to-night, from these leaves of the tree of life, to 
 compound a salve for a very sore burn. 
 
 Standing to-day in this briUiant Academy, by its trus- 
 tees so kindly afforded us, our first feeling is one of grati- 
 tude to God and to them for so grand a refuge ; but not- 
 withstanding it is so much costlier a place than we are 
 used to, we feel home-sick. The wanderer in a strange 
 land, amidst palaces and temples and cathedrals, sits 
 down and says to himself, "I would give the whole 
 world for one hour under the thatched roof of my hum- 
 ble home." "Home, sweet home ; there is no place like 
 home." It was nothing but home-sickness that made 
 the inspired writer say : " By the rivers of Babylon, there 
 we sat down ; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. 
 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst 
 thereof For there they that carried us away captive re- 
 quired of us a song ; and they that wasted us required 
 of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 
 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ?" 
 
 The Brooklyn Tabernacle is gone ! The bell that 
 hung in its tower last Sabbath morning rang its own 
 funeral knell. On that day we gathered from our homes 
 with our ftimilies, to hear what Christ had of comfort 
 
THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 121 
 
 and inspiration for his people. "We expected to meet 
 cheerful smiles and warm hand -shakings, and the tri- 
 umphant song, and the large brotherhood that character- 
 ized that blessed place ; but coming to the doors we 
 found nothing but an excited populace and a blazing 
 church. People who had given until thej deeply felt it 
 saw all the results of their benevolence going down into 
 ashes, and on that cold morning the tears froze on the 
 cheeks of God's people as they saw they were being 
 burned out. Brooklyn Tabernacle is gone ! The plat- 
 form -on which it was my joy to stand with messages of 
 salvation ; the pews in which you listened and prayed 
 and wept and rejoiced ; the altars around which you and 
 your children were consecrated in baptism ; the commun- 
 ion-table where we celebrated the Saviour's love — all 
 that scene which to us was the shining gate of heaven 
 is gone. I will not hide the loss. If I ever forget the 
 glorious Sabbaths we spent there, and the sweet re- 
 unions, and the mighty demonstrations of God's Spirit 
 among the people, may my right hand forget her cun- 
 ning, and my soul be left desolate! But we have not 
 come here to sound a dirge. "All things work together 
 for good to them that love God." Sorrows are loath- 
 some things, but they are necessary. They are leeches 
 that suck out the hot inflammation from the soul. 
 "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in 
 llie morning." I could cover up all this place with prom- 
 ises of hope and peace and comfort and deliverance. 
 H.illelnjah 1 for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! 
 
 I am here to-night not to preach a formal sermon, but 
 to tell you 0^ some ihiugs thai last Sahhath icere not burned 
 lip. 
 
122 THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 
 
 First, the spirit of Christian brotherhood was not con- 
 sumed. You never greeted the members of our church 
 "with such cordiahtj as this week on the street, in cars, 
 and on the ferries. You stood on no cold formalities. 
 The people who, during the last two years sat on the 
 other side of the aisle, whose faces were familiar to you, 
 but to whom you had never spoken, you greeted them 
 this week with smiles and tears as you said, " Well, the 
 old place is gone." You did not want to seem to cry, 
 and so you swept the sleeve near the corner of the eye, 
 and pretended it was the sharp wind that made your 
 eyes weak. Ah ! there was nothing the matter with 
 your eyes ; it was your soul bubbling over. I tell you 
 that it is impossible to sit for two or three years around 
 the same church fireside and not have sympathies in 
 common. Somehow you feel that you would like those 
 people on the other side of the aisle, about whom you 
 know but little, prospered and pardoned and blessed and 
 saved. You feel as if you are in the same boat, and you 
 want to glide up the same harbor, and want to disembark 
 at the same wharf If you put gold and iron and lead 
 and zinc in sufficient heat, they will melt into a conglom- 
 erate mass ; and I really feel that last Sabbath's fire has 
 fused us all, grosser and finer natures, into one. It 
 seems as if we all had our hands on a wire connected 
 with an electric battery ; and when this church sorrow 
 started, it thrilled through the whole circle, and we all 
 felt the shock. The oldest man and the youngest child 
 could join hands in this misfortune. Grandfather said, 
 "I expected from those altars to be buried ;" and one of 
 the children last Sabbath cried, "I don't want the Tab- 
 ernacle to burn, I have been there so many times." You 
 
THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 123 
 
 may remember that over the organ we had the words, 
 "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." That was our 
 creed. Well, that is all burned down ; but the senti- 
 ment is engraved with such durability in our souls that 
 no earthl}^ fire can scorch it, and the flames of the Judg- 
 ment-day will have no power to burn it. 
 
 Another thing that did not burn up is the cross of Christ. 
 That is used to the fire. On the dark day when Jesus 
 died, the lightning struck it from above, and the flames 
 of hell dashed up against it from beneath. That tearful, 
 painful, tender, blessed cross still stands. On it we hang 
 all our hopes ; beneath it we put down all our sins ; in the 
 light of it we expect to make the rest of our pilgrimage. 
 Within sight of such a sacrifice, who can feel he has it 
 hard? In the sight of such a symbol, who can be dis- 
 couraged, however great the darkness that may come 
 down upon him? Jesus lives! The loving, patient, 
 sympathizing, mighty Jesus! It shall not be told on 
 earth, or in hell, or in heaven, that three Hebrew chil- 
 dren had the Son of God beside them in the fire, and 
 that a whole church was forsaken by the Lord, when 
 they went through a furnace one hundred and fifty feet 
 front by one hundred deep. O Lord Jesus! shall we 
 take out of thy hand the flowers and the fruits, and the 
 brightness and the joys, and then turn away because 
 thou dost give us one cup of bitterness to drink? Oh 
 no, Jesus !. we will drink it dry. But how it is changed I 
 Blessed Jesus, what hast thou put into the cup to sweet- 
 en it? Why, it has become the wine of heaven, and 
 our souls grow strong. I come to-night, and place both 
 of my feet deep down into the blackened ashes of our 
 consumed church, and I cry out with an exhilaration 
 
 /\ 
 
124 THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 
 
 that I never felt since the day of my soul's emancipation, 
 " Victory ! victory ! through our Lord Jesus Christ I" 
 
 " Your harps, ye trembling saints, 
 Down from the willows take; 
 Loud to the praise of love divine 
 Bid every string awake." 
 
 I remark, again, that the catliolicity of the Christian 
 churches has not been burned up. We are in the Acade- 
 my to-day not because we have no other place to go. 
 Last Sabbath morning at nine o'clock we had but one 
 church ; now we have twenty-six, all at our disposal. 
 Their pastors and their trustees say, " You may take our 
 main audience-rooms, you may take our lecture-rooms, 
 you may take our ohurch parlors, you may baptize in 
 our baptisteries, and sit on our anxious-seats." Oh ! if 
 there be any larger-hearted ministers or larger-hearted 
 churches anywhere than in Brooklyn, tell me where 
 they are, that I may go and see them before I die. The 
 millennium has come. People keep wondering when it 
 is coming. It has come. The lion and the lamb lie 
 down together, and the tiger eats straw like an ox. I 
 should like to have seen two of the old-time bigots, with 
 their swords, fighting through that great fire on Scber- 
 merhorn Street last Sabbath. I am sure the swords 
 would have melted, and they who wielded them would 
 have learned war no more. I can never say a word 
 against any other denomination of Christians. I thank 
 God I never have been tempted to do it. I can not be a 
 sectarian. I have been told I ought to be, and I have 
 tried to be, but I have not enough material in me to 
 make such a structure. Every time I get the thing most 
 
THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 125 
 
 done, there comes a fire, or something else, and all is 
 gone. The angels of God shake out on this Christnias 
 air, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good will toward men." I do not think the day is far 
 distant when all the different branches of the Presbyte- 
 rian Church will be one, and all the different branches 
 of the Methodist Church will be one, and all the differ- 
 ent branches of the Episcopal Church will be one. I do 
 not know but I see on the horizon the first gleam of the 
 morning which shall unite all evangelical denominations 
 in one organization ; churches distinguished from each 
 other, not by varieties of creeds, but difference of local- 
 it}^, as it was in the time of the apostles. It was then 
 the Church of Thyatira, and the Church of Thessalonica, 
 and the Church of Antioch, and the Church of Laodicea. 
 So I do not know but that in the future history, and not 
 far off either, it may be simply a distinction of local- 
 ity, and not of creed, as the Church of New York, the 
 Church of Brooklyn, the Church of Boston, the Church 
 of Charleston, the Church of Madras, the Church of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 My dear brethren, we can not afford to be severely 
 divided. Standing in front of the great foes of our com- 
 mon Christianity, we want to put on the whole armor of 
 God, and march down in solid column, shoulder to shoul- 
 der ! one commander ! one banner ! one triumph ! 
 
 "The trumpet gives a martial strain 
 O Israel ! gird thee for the fight : 
 Arise, the combat to maintain, 
 Arise, and put thy foes to flight." 
 
 I have to announce also, among the things not burned 
 
126 THINGS NOT BUBNED UP. 
 
 up is heaven. Fires may sweep through other cities — 
 we heard the tolling of the bell as we came in to-night ; 
 but I am glad to know that the New Jerusalem is fire- 
 proof. There will be no engines rushing through those 
 streets; there will be no temples consumed in that city. 
 Coming to the doors of that Church, we will find them 
 open, resonant with songs, and not cries of fire. Oh, my 
 dear brother and sister ! if this short lane of life comes 
 up so soon to that blessed place, what is the use of our 
 worrying? I have felt a good many times this last week 
 like Father Taylor, the sailor- preacher. He got in a 
 long sentence while he was preaching one day, and lost 
 himself, and could not find his way out of the sentence. 
 He stopped, and said, "Brethren, I have lost the nomina- 
 tive of this sentence, and things are generally mixed up, 
 but I am bound for the kingdom anyhow." And during 
 this last week, when I saw the rushing to and fro and the 
 excitement, I said to myself, "I do not know just where 
 we shall start again, but I am bound for the kingdom 
 anyhow." I do not want to go just yet. I want to be 
 pastor of this people until I am about eighty-nine years 
 of age, but I have sometimes thought that there are such 
 glories ahead that I might be persuaded to go a little 
 earlier — for instance, at eighty-two or eighty-three; but 
 I really think that if we could have an appreciation of 
 what God has in reserve for us, we w^ould want to go to- 
 night, stepping right out of the Academy of Music into 
 the glories of the skies. Ah ! that is a good land. Whj^, 
 they tell me that in that land they never have a heart- 
 ache. They tell me that a man might walk five hundred 
 years in that land and never see a tear or hear a sigh. 
 They tell me that our friends who have left us and gone 
 
THIXGS XOT BURNED UP. 127 
 
 there, i}ie\v feet are radiant as the sun, and that they take 
 hold of the hand of Jesus familiarh^, and that they open 
 that hand and see in the palm of it a healed wound that 
 must have been very cruel before it was healed. And 
 they tell me that there is no winter there, and that they 
 never get hungry or cold, and that the sewing-girl never 
 wades through the December snow-bank to her dailv 
 toil, and that the clock never strikes twelve for the night, 
 but only twelve for the day. 
 
 See that light in the window. I wonder who set it 
 there. "Oh!" you say, "my father that went into glory 
 must have set that light in the window." No; guess 
 again. " My mother, who died fifteen years ago in Je- 
 sus I think must have set that light there." Ko; guess 
 again. You say, "My darling little child, that last sum- 
 mer I put away for the resurrection, I think she must 
 have set that light there in the window." No; guess 
 again. Jesus set it there; and he will keep it burning 
 until the day we put our finger on the latch of the door 
 and go in to be at home forever. Oh ! when my sight 
 gets black in death, put on my eyelids that sweet oint- 
 ment. When in the last weariness I can not take anoth- 
 er step, just help me put my foot on that door-sill. When 
 my ear catches no more the voices of wife and child, let 
 me go right in, to have my deafness cured by the stroke 
 of the harpers whose fingers fly over the strings with the 
 anthems of the free. Heaven never burns down ! The 
 fires of the last day, that are already kindled in the heart 
 of the earth, but are hidden because God keeps down the 
 hatches — those internal fires will after a while break 
 through the crust, and the plains, and the mountains, and 
 the seas will be consumed, and the flames will fling their 
 
 6 
 
128 THINGS NOT BURNED UR 
 
 long arms into the skies; but all tbe terrors of a burning 
 world will do no more harm to that heavenly temple than 
 the fires of the setting sun which kindle up the window- 
 glass of the house on yonder hill-top. Oh, blessed land ! 
 But I do not want to go there until I see the Brooklyn 
 Tabernacle rebuilt. You say, " Will it be ?" You might 
 as well ask me if the sun will rise to-morrow morning, 
 or if the next spring will put garlands on its head. You 
 and I may not do it — you and I may not live to see it; 
 but the Church of God does not stand on two legs nor 
 on a thousand legs. I am here to tell you that among 
 the things not burned up is our deUrmination^ in the 
 strength and help of God, to go forward. 
 
 You say, "Where are you going to get the means?" 
 I do not know. The building of the Tabernacle within 
 two years, and then an enlargement, at great expense, 
 within that same time, and the establishment and the 
 maintenance of the Lay College, have taken most of our 
 funds. Did I say just now that I did not know where 
 the funds are to come from ? I take that back. I do ! 
 I do ! From the hearts of the Christian people, and the 
 lovers of the cause of morality all over this land. I am 
 sure they will help us, and we shall go on, and the new 
 structure shall rise. How did the Israelites get through 
 the Ked Sea? I suppose somebody may have come and 
 said, "There is no need of trying; you will get your feet 
 wet; you will spoil your clothes; you will drown your- 
 selves. Whoever heard of getting through such a sea 
 as that?" How did they get through it? Did they go 
 back? No. Did they go to the right ? No. Did they 
 go to the left? No. They \Yentforivard in the strength 
 of the Lord Almighty ; and that is the way we mean to 
 
THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 129 
 
 get through the Red Sea. Do you tell me that God is 
 going to let the effort for the establishment of a free 
 Christian church in Brooklyn fail ? Why, on the dedi- 
 cation-day of our Tabernacle, I was not more confident, 
 and was not so happy as I am now. That building 
 did its work. We wanted to support a free Christian 
 church ; we did it, and got along pleasantly and success- 
 fully, and demonstrated the fact. The building is gone. 
 The ninety-five souls received at the first communion in 
 that building more than paid us for all the expenditure. 
 We only put up the Tabernacle for two years. Do you 
 know that? Here sits a member of the Board of Trus- 
 tees right under me, and he remembers that when we 
 built we said, " We shall put it up for two years ; it will 
 be a temporary residence ; and at the close of that time 
 we will know how large a building we want, and what 
 style of building we want." But having put it up, 
 we liked it so well, we concluded to stay there perma- 
 nently. But God decided otherwise; and I take it as 
 one of the providential indications of that fearful disas- 
 ter that we are to build a larger church, and ask all the 
 people to come in and be saved. You know how we 
 were crowded, and pushed, and jammed in that build- 
 ing; and last summer some of us talked about an en- 
 largement, but we found it impossible without changing 
 the whole structure of the building. The difficulty now 
 is gone ; and if the people ^N'orth, South, East, and 
 West will help us, we shall build on a larger scale, and 
 the hundreds and thousands who have wanted to be 
 with us, but could not, shall have room for themselves 
 and families, where they may come and be comforted in 
 their sorrows, and, by the grace of the Lord Jesus, find 
 
130 THIXOS NOT BURXED UP. 
 
 out the waj^ to heaven. Do you tell me that the human 
 voice can not reach more people than we used to have 
 there? It is a mistake. I have been wearing myself 
 out for the last two years in trying to keep my voice in. 
 Give me room where I can preach the glories of Christ 
 and the grandeurs of heaven. 
 
 The old iron-clad has gone down with a shot amid- 
 ships. We will build next time of brick. The build- 
 ing shall be amphitheatrical in shape ; it shall be very 
 large; it shall be very plain. Whether the material 
 will be any better than the one used in the old struc- 
 ture, I can not say, for there are four things that God 
 has demonstrated within a short time are not fire-proof. 
 One is corrugated iron : witness the Brooklyn Taberna- 
 cle. Another is brick: witness the fire last week in 
 Centre Street, New York. Another is Joliet stone : wit- 
 ness Chicago. Another is Quincy granite: witness Bos- 
 ton. When God rises up to burn any thing, a stone 
 w^all is shavings. Hear that, oh you men who are build- 
 ing on nothing but earthly foundations! The people 
 will rise up, and all our friends, North, South, East, 
 and West, who have been giving us their sympathies, 
 will translate their sympathies and their "God bless 
 yous" into "greenbacks," and next winter the people 
 will cry out, "The glory of the second temple is greater 
 than the first.'' 
 
 There was a king of olden time who prided himself on 
 doing that which his people thought impossible; and it 
 ought to be the joy of the Christian Church to accomplish 
 that which the world thinks can not be done. 
 
 But I want you to know that it will require more 
 prayer than we have ever offered, and more hard work 
 
THIXGS NOT BURNED UP. l^t 
 
 than we have ever put forth. Mere skirmishing around 
 the mercy -seat will not do. We have to take the 
 kingdom of heaven by violence. We have to march 
 on, breaking down all bridges behind us, making retreat 
 impossible. Throw away your knapsack if it impedes 
 your march. Keep your sword-arm free. Strike for 
 Christ and his kingdom while you may. JSTo people ever 
 had a better mission than you are sent on. Prove your- 
 selves worthy. If I am not fit to be your leader, set me 
 aside. The brightest goal on earth that I can think of is 
 a country parsonage amidst the mountains. But I am 
 not afraid to lead you. I have a few hundred dollars 
 they are at your disposal. I have good physical health 
 it is yours as long as it lasts. I have enthusiasm of soul 
 I will not keep it back from your service. I have some 
 faith in God, and I shall direct it toward the rebuilding 
 of our new spiritual house. Come on, then ! I will lead 
 you. Come on, ye aged men, not yet passed over Jor- 
 dan ! Give us one more lift before you go into the prom- 
 ised land. You men in mid-life, harness all your busi- 
 ness faculties to this enterprise. Young man, put the 
 fire of your soul in this work. Let women consecrate 
 their persuasiveness and persistence to this cause, and 
 they will be preparing benedictions for their dying hour 
 and everlasting rewards; and if Satan really did burn 
 that Tabernacle down, as some people say he did, he 
 will find it the poorest job he ever undertook. 
 
 Good-bye, old Tabernacle ! your career short but bless- 
 ed; your ashes precious in our sight. In the last day, 
 may we be able to meet the songs there sung, and the 
 prayers there offered, and the sermons there preached. 
 Good-bye, old place, where some of us first felt the Gos- 
 
132 THINGS NOT BURNED UP. 
 
 pel peace, and others heard the last message ere they fled 
 away into the skies! Good-bye, Brooklyn Tabernacle 
 of 1870 ! But welcome our new church (I see it as plain- 
 ly as though it were already built) ! Your walls firmer ; 
 your gates wider; your songs more triumphant; your 
 ingatherings more glorious. Eise out of the ashes, and 
 greet our waiting vision ! Burst on our souls, oh day 
 of our church's resurrection ! By your altars, may we be 
 prepared for the hour when the fire, shall try every man's 
 work of what sort it is. Welcome, Brooklyn Tabernacle 
 of 1873 ! 
 
WICKUDNJESi) /xV BIGK PLACES. 133 
 
 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 *' Their right hand is full of bribes." — Psalm xxvi., 10. 
 "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in 
 the morning." — Ecclesiastes x., 16. 
 
 THOSE two passages are descriptive of wickedness 
 in high places. The morals of a nation hardly ever 
 rise higher than the virtue of the rulers. Henry YIII. 
 makes impurity national and popular. William Wilber- 
 force in the Parliament is perpetual elevation to an em- 
 pire. Sin, epauleted and bestarred, comes to respect and 
 canonization ; vice, elevated, is recommended. Malarias 
 rise from the marsh, float upward and away ; but moral 
 distempers descend from the mountain to the plain. The 
 "Five Points" and Coal Street disgust men with the bes- 
 tiality of sin ; but dissolute French court and corrupt 
 Congressional delegation put a premium upon crime. 
 The most of the vices of the world are kingly exiles that 
 had a throne once, but, driven out, they have come down 
 in tattered robes to be entertained by the humble and 
 the insignificant. 
 
 I do not believe that there is any nation on earth 
 "which has more noble-minded and pure-hearted men in 
 places of authority than this nation. There is not a 
 meetinsf of Leoislature or Cons-ress or Cabinet but* has 
 in it tlie best specimens of Christian character — men 
 whose hands would consume a bribe ; whose cheek has 
 never been flushed with intoxication; whose lips have 
 
134 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 never been smitten of blasphemy, or stung of a lie ; men 
 whose speeches against the wrong and in behalf of the 
 right make us think of the fiery words of the Scotch 
 Covenanters, and of the daring challenge of Martin Lu- 
 ther, and of the red lightning of Micah and Habakkuk. 
 I do not believe that our legislative and political coun- 
 cils are any more corrupt than they were in olden time. 
 I will not believe it so long as I read in history of Aaron 
 Burr, stuffed with corruption until he could hold no 
 more — body, mind, and soul soaked in abomination, the 
 debaucher of the debauched, yet a member of the State 
 Legislature, afterward Attorney-general, afterward Uni- 
 ted States Senator, and, last of all, Vice-president of the 
 Union. You can not make me believe that political dis- 
 honesty is peculiar to our day when I find out that the 
 governor of this very State, almost fifty years ago, dis- 
 banded the Legislature because it was too corrupt to 
 sit in council ; and when, in the State of Massachusetts, 
 there was a man in the gubernatorial chair so offensive 
 that when he made his proclamation for Thanksgiving- 
 day, ending with his own signature as governor, and the 
 stereotyped phrase, "God save the Commonwealth," a 
 minister of Christ, while reading the Governor's procla- 
 mation for Thanksgiving, put this emphasis after read- 
 ing the proclamation, saying, "Marcus Morton, Governor 
 of Massachusetts? Ood save the Commonivealih T 
 
 There has been a tendency to contrast the past with 
 the present, to the advantage of the former; and I sup- 
 pose that sixty years from now political writers will 
 make angels out of us, although the material now seems 
 so very unpromising. But the crimes in high places in 
 olden times are no apology for the crimes in high places 
 
WICKEDNESS JN HIQH PLACES 135 
 
 in modern times; and I shall this morning, in the fear 
 of Grod, and with reference to my last account, unroll be- 
 fore you the scroll of public wickedness. 
 
 If there was ever a time when the minister of the Gos- 
 pel and the philanthropist should speak out, this is the 
 time. King David must feel the rebuke of Nathan; 
 Felix must be made to tremble ; sin must be denounced ; 
 God must be honored ; tbe nation must be saved. We 
 may hold back the truth on these subjects, and walk with 
 muffled feet lest we wake up some big sinner. But what 
 will we answer in the day when men who have stood in 
 the high places of the earth, warring against God, shall 
 fall like lightning from heaven ? or, as John Milton has it: 
 
 " Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
 With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
 To bottomless perdition." 
 
 I stand this morning in the presence of men who hold 
 in their hands the suffrages of the nation, and by whose 
 vote, and by whose printing-press, and by whose social 
 influence, and by whose prayer, the future character of 
 this country is to be decided. 
 
 In unrolling, then, this scroll of wickedness in high 
 places, the first thing that I mark especially is incompe- 
 iency for office. If a man seek for a place and win it 
 when he is incompetent, he is committing a crime against 
 God and a crime against man. It is not a sin for me to 
 be ignorant of medical science ; but if, without medical 
 attainment, I set myself up among professional men, and 
 trifle, in my ignorance, with the lives of those whose con- 
 fidence I have won, then my charlatanism becomes high- 
 handed knavery. The ignorance that in the one case 
 
 6* 
 
136 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 was innocence, in the other case becomes a crime. It is 
 not a sin for me to be ignorant of machinery; but if I 
 attempt to engineer a steamer across the Atlantic, amidst 
 darkness and hurricane, holding the lives of hundreds of 
 people in mj grasp, then the blood of all the shipwrecked 
 is on mj garment. But what shall we say of men who 
 attempt to engineer our State and national affairs over 
 the rough waters, without the first element of qualifica- 
 tion ? — men not knowing enough to vote " aye" or " no," 
 until they have looked for the wink of others of their 
 party? So we have had Legislative and Congressional 
 committees to make tariffs and homestead bills, and ar- 
 range about the fisheries, and think out the best way 
 of collecting indemnities — men whose incompetency has 
 been the laughing-stock of the country. In this coun- 
 try, to-day, qualification for office is not the question, but 
 "How much has the man done for the party?" And so 
 we had a Congressional committee that made one tariff 
 for flaxseed-oil and another for linseed-oil — not knowing, 
 in their stupidity, that flaxseed and linseed oil are the 
 same thing. No depth or length or breadth of disqualifi- 
 cation in this country hinders a man from holding office. 
 The polished civilian of acknowledged integrity, pro- 
 foundly acquainted with the spirit of our institutions, is 
 run over by the great stampede of men who rush out from 
 their bloated and unthinking ignorance to take the posi- 
 tions of trust in this country. So we have had, in some 
 parts of the countrj^, school-commissioners nominated in a 
 grog-shop, hurraed for by the rabble, hardly able to read 
 their own commissions when they were handed to them; 
 judges of courts in important cases giving the charge 
 with so much inaccuracy of phraseology that the thief 
 
WICKEDNESS IX HIGH PLACES. 137 
 
 ii, tdQ prisoner's-box was more amused at the stupidity 
 of the bencli than alarmed at his own prospective punish- 
 ment. We arraign, to-da}^, incapacity for office as one of 
 the crimes to be seen in our national and State councils. 
 I unroll the scroll a little farther, and find intemper- 
 ance and the co-ordinate crimes. I admit there has been 
 some improvement in this thing. The grog-shop that 
 used to flourish in the basement of the Capitol, where 
 senators once went to get inspiration for their speeches, 
 has been abolished. There is a temperance society in 
 Congress. But the plague is not yet stayed. I knew a 
 man who, only a few years ago, was an example of in- 
 tegrity, and honored everywhere. Last winter I went 
 to Washington. I had not seen him for 3^ears, and I 
 thought I would send my card into the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and call him out. The card went in by the 
 sergeant-at-arms, and my old friend that I had not seen 
 in ten years came out staggering drunk. In this countrj^, 
 the temptations to intemperance in public life are so great 
 that more of our men in office die o^ delirium tremens^ and 
 the kindred diseases that come from intemperance and 
 an impure life, than from all the other causes combined. 
 There is one weapon that slays more senators and con- 
 gressmen and legislators and common councilmen than 
 any other, and that is the bottle. How few of the men 
 who were in prominent political offices twenty-five or 
 thirty years ago, when they died, came to honorable 
 graves ! The family physician, to relieve the family and 
 keep them from national disgrace, said it was gout, or it 
 was epilepsj", or it was obstruction of the liver, or it was 
 exhaustion from patriotic services ! But God knew it was 
 whisky. It was the same habit that smote the great man 
 
138 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 down that smote the dark villain in the alley. The one 
 you wrapped up in a coarse cloth, and threw into a rough 
 coffin, and carried out in a box-wagon, and put down in 
 a pauper's grave, without prayer or benediction ; the oth- 
 er gathered the pomp of the city, and the name was on 
 the silver plate, and lordly men walked uncovered beside 
 the hearse with tossing plumes, on the way to a grave 
 soon to be adorned with a marble pillar of four sides, 
 which shall be covered with the story of the man who 
 died o^ exhaustion from patriotic services! The difference 
 between the two was this: the one put an end to his ex- 
 istence with logwood-rum at two cents a glass, and the 
 other perished in a beverage at three dollars a bottle. I 
 write both of their epitaphs: on a shingle over the pau- 
 per's grave I write it with a lead-pencil; on the white 
 shaft over a senator's tomb I cut it with a chisel — ^^ Slain 
 by strong drink F'' 
 
 It is a simple fact that dissipated habits have not, in 
 this country, been a hinderance to a man's getting office: 
 if he be sober sometimes ; if the governor can get straight 
 enough to write his message ; if the judge's tongue is not 
 positively thick when he delivers the charge ; if the vice- 
 president is not drunk when he is sworn in — that will 
 do. So we have had world-renowned secretaries of state 
 carried out drunk from their office, and senators of the 
 United States arrested at midnight in houses of shame 
 for uproarious behavior; judges and jurors and lawyers 
 by night, while the trial is going on by day, gambling 
 and singing the song of the drunkard. Oh, it is a sad 
 thinsj to have a hand tremulous with intoxication hold- 
 ing the scales of justice, when the lives of men and the 
 destinies of a nation are in the balance : to have a chari- 
 
WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 189 
 
 oteer witli unskillful hands on the reins while the swift 
 destinies of governments are harnessed, on a road where 
 governments have been dashed to pieces and empires 
 have gone down in darkness and woe! 
 
 What was it that drove back your armies in the last 
 war so often ? Were your sons and fathers cowards and 
 poltroons? ISTo! It was because so often drunkenness 
 sat in the saddle. What are those graves on the heights 
 of Fredericksburg, as you pass down to Eichmond ? 
 Was it the sword or the bottle that slew them? The 
 bottle! for that day drunkenness rode in some of the 
 stirrups, leading forth your sons and fathers to death. 
 Dissipation in all the high circles as well as the low. A 
 trial in the courts ever and anon reveals the fact that 
 Impurity walks in robes, and dances under the palatial 
 chandelier, and drowses on the damask upholstery. Sin 
 is tolerable, if it is only rich. Stand back and let the 
 libertine go by, for he rides in a three -thousand- dollar 
 turn-out. The Congressional galleries are thrilled by 
 the appeals of men who on the following night fulfill 
 what Solomon said, "He goeth after her straightway, as 
 an ox to the slauo-hter and as a fool to the correction of 
 stocks, until a dart strike through his liver." Mean- 
 while, political parties are silent, lest they lose votes; and 
 newspapers are quiet, lest they lose subscribers ; and min- 
 isters of the Gospel are still, lest some affluent pew-hold- 
 er should be disgusted. But God's indignation gathers 
 like the fiery flashes around the edges of a blackening 
 cloud just before the swoop of a tornado. His voice 
 sounds through this country to-day, in the words of the 
 text: "Woe unto thee, land, when thy king is a child, 
 and thy princes drink in the morning." Oh, the land 
 
140 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 groans to be delivered ! It sweats great drops of blood ! 
 It is crucified — not between two thieves, but between 
 a thousand, while the nations ride past, wagging their 
 heads and crj'ing, "Aha! aha!" 
 
 I unroll the scroll of wickedness in high places still 
 farther, and I see the crime of bribery. It was that 
 which corrupted Lord Bacon in his magnificent position 
 — it was that which led Chief-justice Thorpe to the gal* 
 lows. You know as well as I that in the past few years 
 it has been almost impossible to get a law passed by 
 State or National Legislature unless there was some 
 financial consideration. When a bill has appeared at 
 the door, the question among your representatives has 
 been, "How much money is in this?" Reformers and 
 philanthropists, with some scheme for the elevation of 
 the nation, approach the door of the Legislature, or the 
 door of Congress, and are laughed at because their hands 
 are empty. Political bribes, offered in the shape of pre- 
 ferment for office : " If you vote so and so, you shall 
 have so and so." "If you will vote for my bill giving 
 a monopoly to my moneyed institution, then I will vote 
 for your bill giving a monopoly to your moneyed insti- 
 tution." " Here is a bill with which we shall have a 
 great deal of trouble, but it must go through. Crowd 
 the lobbies with railroad men, and manufacturers, and 
 contractors. Make an entertainment for the members, 
 and when they are good and drunk, have them promise 
 to vote that way. Put a thousand dollars or five thou- 
 sand dollars in the hand of this man, who will be pru- 
 dent in the disLiibution of it. Put two thousand dollars 
 in the hand of this man, v^io will see that 'it does good.' 
 Be very cautious how you approach men. Now we 
 
WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 141 
 
 want only four more votes, and this matter will be all 
 right. Give a thousand dollars to that very intelligent 
 member from Westchester. Give five hundred dollars 
 to that stupid member from Ulster. Now we have but 
 two more votes to regulate. Give three hundred dollars 
 to this man, and he will be sick and stay at home, and 
 then give three hundred to this man, and he will go to 
 the bedside of his great-aunt languishing in her last sick- 
 ness !" The day for the passage of the bill has come. 
 The speaker thumps his gavel on the desk and says, 
 " Senators, are you ready for the question ? All in fa- 
 vor of this bill that wnll vote one or two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, or a million dollars, into the hands of un- 
 principled speculators, will say. Aye." Aye! aye! aye! 
 aye ! "All opposed, No." " The ayes have it." The 
 money is wasted, the public treasure is gone, business 
 is embarrassed, and our National and State Legislatures 
 become the sewers into which the filth and the vomit of 
 this nation empty themselves. If you think that I ex- 
 aggerate the matter, go to any of these places just be- 
 fore a bill is to be passed, and learn that I have not 
 more than half represented the truth in the case, and 
 that this crime of bribery is smiting the whole country, 
 depleting your wealth, oh, you men of affluence! grind- 
 ing harder your faces, oh, you children of the poor! 
 
 The Democratic party filled its cup of iniquity before 
 it went out of power at the beginning of the war. The 
 Republican party came along, and as it had more oppor- 
 tunity, by reason of the contracts, filled its cup of iniquity 
 in shorter time; and there they are, two carcasses lying 
 side by side — the Republican party and the Democratic 
 party — putrefied until they have no more power to rot! 
 
142 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 The bribery during the war is cursing us yet, and I fear 
 will curse us for a century. You know how it was then. 
 " If you give me the contract above all others who apply 
 for it, I'll give you ten per cent, of the profits. If you 
 will only pass these worn-out cavalry horses and certify 
 that they are fit for service, I'll give you five thousand 
 dollars bonus." "Bonus" was the word. So it went 
 down to your sons and fathers in the army — rice that was 
 worm-eaten, crackers that were mouldy, garments that 
 were shoddy, meat that was rank, horses that stumbled in 
 the charge, tents that sifted the rain into the faces of the 
 exhausted. But it was all right, for they got the bonus! 
 
 The argument in behalf of the stability of republics is 
 stronger in my mind now than it ever was. If our Gov- 
 ernment had not been thoroughly established, all this 
 bribery and theft and outrage would have swamped it 
 forever. The amount of money that has been spent in 
 this country in railroads that ought never to have been 
 constructed, in canals that ought never to have been dug, 
 in loans that ought never to have been allowed, in fiirci- 
 cal scliemes that ought never to have been countenanced, 
 would have swamped any three monarchies. 
 
 We sit to-day, this whole nation, under the shadow of 
 Congressional dishonor. The white marble of our beau- 
 tiful Capitol has become the vast mausoleum of the slain. 
 Both political parties implicated. The stables of Augeas, 
 uncleaned after three thousand oxen had stood there for 
 thirty years, was a small job for Hercules, compared with 
 what the Poland Committee found of national dirt in the 
 Congressional halls. On that Union Pacific Railroad 
 many of your representatives took a through ticket to 
 hell. They paid their fare in eighty per cent, dividends. 
 
WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 143 
 
 Thej sold out political influence, honor, Christian princi- 
 ple, and immortal soul. But be careful, my friends, lest 
 you smite the innocent with the guilty. I think the na- 
 tion is on the track of some men who have not been 
 proven guilty. We take men to be innocent until they 
 are found villainous. I can not believe that men, after thir- 
 ty years of integrity, amidst temptations where the}^ might 
 have made millions of dollars, would now sell heaven 
 for a few hundred. A solid column of defamers reach- 
 ing from Biooklyn to Washington, with uplifted hand in 
 solemn oath, could not make me believe that some of the 
 men arraigned are iniquitous. But, my friends, we must 
 admit that this nation sits to-day in the shadow of na- 
 tional dishonor and Congressional disgrace. The crimes 
 found in public places are only the index of political 
 abandonment. The blotches on the surface only show 
 the disease within. I do not believe the men inculpated 
 in public places to-day are any worse than thousands of 
 the political hucksters who in your legislatures and your 
 congresses have been bought up by moneyed institutions. 
 Some of the finest houses ever built on Fifth Avenue, 
 and Beacon Street, and Eittenhouse Square, have been 
 built out of money paid for votes by railroad companies 
 in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massa- 
 chusetts. I was glad when the explosion came. Pub- 
 lic men will see that they must beware, since there are 
 thunders on the track, and God has said that he "will 
 wound the hairy scalp of him who goeth on still in his 
 trespasses." You throw up your hands and say, "Why, 
 we can't help it." Can you not? If I thought there 
 was nothing for you and me to do, I would not preach 
 this sermon. There are four things for you to do. 
 
144 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 
 
 First, stand off from all political office unless your 
 own principles are thoroughly siittlcd. Do not go into 
 the blaze of temptation unless you are fire -proof. 
 Common council, water-board, legislative hall, and con- 
 gressional assemblage have been the damnation of a 
 great many respectable people. But if you go into 
 political life without your principles thoroughly settled, 
 before you get through with it you will drink, and you 
 will swear, and you will lie, and you will take bribes. 
 "Ah!" you say, "that is not complimentary." Well, I 
 always was clumsy at compliments. 
 
 The second thing to do is to take the counsel of Paul, 
 and pray for your rulers ; pray for all in authority. Do 
 you know that Shadrach and Abed-nego did not need 
 the Son of God beside them in the fire so much as your 
 rulers do? We pray every Sunday for the President 
 of the United States, because that is in the liturgy. But 
 have we been editirely cleared of all responsibility for 
 the national corruption, from the fact that we have not 
 prayed as we should for our representatives? When I 
 take up the paper and see this awful defalcation in char- 
 acter, I feel just as I did when I saw the account of the 
 wreck of the Northfleet a few nights ngo in English wa- 
 ters — the Northfleet run down by a strong steamer; for 
 those men were crashed into by temptations, with fiery 
 furnace and thundering wheel-bucket; and there was no 
 life-boat. Pray for your rulers! 
 
 In the next place, be faithful at the ballot-box. Do 
 not stand on your dignity and refuse to vote because the 
 rabble go. Put on your old clothes, and elbow 3^our 
 way through the unwashed, and the wretched, and the 
 abandoned, and go to the polls. Cast your own vote. 
 
WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 145 
 
 Make up your mind in a Cbi'istian way as to who are 
 the men best for office; then vote for the man who loves 
 God and hates rum, and believes in having the Bible 
 read every day as long as the world stands in all our 
 common schools. Refuse to vote, or vote the wrong 
 way, and you sin against the graves of the men who 
 died for the Government, and you sin against your chil- 
 dren, who may live to feel the curse of your negligence 
 or 3^our political dishonesty. 
 
 But I have a better prescription than all. It is the fiL 
 fourth thing I have to say in the way of counsel, and T- 
 that is. Evangelize tJie 2:>eo2:)le. Gospelize this country, 
 and you will have pure representatives and pure men 
 everywhere. I have no faith in the conversion of an 
 old politician. I never knew one to be converted. I 
 suppose the grace of God can do it, but seldom tries it. 
 I should be no more surprised to see the Pope of Rome 
 and the cardinals come in and sit down on the "anx- 
 ious-seat" in a Methodist meetinsf-house than I would 
 to see a long row of politicians converted. What work 
 we have to do we are to do with the great masses of the 
 people who cast the votes, and with our children who 
 are coming up to be the sovereigns. That woman who 
 this afternoon, in the Sabbath -school class, teaches six 
 boys how to be Christians, does more for our political 
 future than all the fine essays that were ever written 
 about the Constitution, or the arraignment of the Amer- 
 ican Senate for holding stock of the Credit Mobilier. I 
 want you to understand there is w^ork for you and me 
 to do. Change men's hearts, and their lives will be right. fj^> 
 There were good men this last week in Cooper Institute, 
 New York, trying to have the Christian religion recog- 
 
146 WICKEDNESS IN HIOH PLACES. 
 
 nized in the Constitution of the United States. But, my 
 friends, you get the people converted by the grace of 
 God, and I do not care about the mere technicality of a 
 Constitutional recognition. What we want in this coun- 
 try is just four revivals — revivals that come like those 
 in the days of Nettleton and Jonathan Edwards and 
 George Whitefield. We want four revivals all at once: 
 one starting from the North, rolling South ; one starting 
 from the South, rolling North; one starting from the 
 East, rolling West; one starting from the West, rolling 
 East. And then I want to stand on the spot where the 
 four seas meet, that I may shout, " Hallelujah ! for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah! for the 
 kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." But remember, that if there be 
 forty millions of people in this country, upon you person- 
 ally rests a forty-millionth of the responsibility. The 
 least thing you can do for the country is to contribute 
 toward it a heart changed by the grace of God, and a life 
 all pure. Eemember that it is net as nations we are at 
 last to be judged, but as individuals, each man answering 
 for himself in that day when monarchies and republics 
 alike shall perish, and the earth itself shall become a heap 
 of ashes, scattered in the blast of the nostrils of the Lord 
 God Almighty I 
 
THE FOURTH ANNIVERi^ARY. 147 
 
 THE FOUETH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 "He thanked God, and took courage." — Acts xxviii., 15. 
 
 PAUL had just come ashore at Puteoli, and was soon 
 to go across the country to Rome, to meet, perhaps, 
 a great many trials and perplexities. The Christians at 
 Rome hear that Paul has landed at Puteoli and is on the 
 way, so they go out to escort him to the city. When he 
 saw them, his heart revived, or, as my text says, " He 
 thanked God, and took courage." That is descriptive of 
 my own feelings this morning. You may not be aware 
 that this is the anniversary of my settlement as the 
 pastor of this church. Fifty-two times the shuttle has 
 flown, in each flight weaving a week, with a golden bor- 
 der of Sabbath. Three hundred and sixty-four times 
 the clock has struck twelve for the noon and twelve for 
 the night. In that time, how many marriage garlands 
 have been twisted, how many graves dug, how many 
 sorrows suffered, how many fortunes won, how many 
 souls lost, how many immortals saved ! 
 
 Four years ago, this month, I came to you with chas- 
 tened spirit, for only the Sabbath before I had delivered 
 my valedictory sermon in Philadelphia, and the sharp 
 laceration of soul which I felt that Sabbath-night as, 
 standing at the foot of the pulpit, I bade ftirewell to 
 long -tried friends, many of them my own children in 
 the Gospel, can be appreciated only by those who have 
 gone through the same process. Coming here, I found 
 
148 THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 strangers in both boards of the church, and a building 
 ahnost empty. Still mj heart failed not, for I was sure 
 that God had called me to the work, and, however weak 
 a man may feel in himself, he is strong while leaning 
 against the throne of the Lord Almighty. Instead 
 of standing among strangers to-day, I look off upon fa- 
 miliar faces, and upon those with whom I have been 
 taking sweet counsel, and those whom I know are re- 
 membering me, day by day, in their prayers. So I shall 
 address them this morning as one large, Christian fam- 
 ily. I have thought that in this, my anniversary ser- 
 mon, it might be well if I should tell you what, by the 
 help of God, I have been trying to do in this congre- 
 gation. 
 
 In the first place, I remark, I have been trying to win 
 your confidence and love, not by sycophancy or by the 
 consultation of your prejudices, but by preaching a 
 straightforward Gospel, regardless as to where it hit. 
 A minister living amidst people who do not believe in 
 him can not be useful. When a congregation wish that 
 their pastor would be called to some other position, he 
 really has a call to go. When they have the idea that 
 he is influenced by selfish and worldly motives, his use- 
 fulness is done, and he as really has a call to go as he 
 had a call to come. There are churches being depleted 
 and blasted by a ministry not adapted to them. A min- 
 ister has no more right to kill a church than a church 
 has a right to kill a minister. I know a man who pro- 
 fesses to be a minister of Christ, who is in his third set- 
 tlement. The two previous churches that he served 
 have come to extinction as the result of that ministry, 
 and there is not much prospect that the third will long 
 
THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 149 
 
 survive; while, on the other hand, there are ministers 
 of Christ who have for thirty and forty years stood in 
 the same places, and the tie of affection and confidence 
 between pastor and people has all the time strengthened. 
 
 A good many years ago, a lad, fifteen years of age, 
 heard, in England, John Flavel preach from the text : 
 " If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be 
 Anathema Maranatha." The lad grew up, came to this 
 country, and lived to be one hundred years of age, not 
 having found Christ. One day he stood in the field, 
 and the memory of that sermon of John Flavel crossed 
 his mind, and the thought of how that minister of Christ, 
 at the close of the service, said: "How can I pronounce 
 the benediction, when there may be some here who love 
 not the Lord Jesus Christ, and are Anathema Mara- 
 natha." The remembrance of that minister brought the 
 old man to Christ at one hundred years of age, and 
 eighty-five years after he had heard that Gospel sermon. 
 Oh ! it is a grand thing to preach earnestly, faithfully, 
 and successfully this glorious Gospel. Kow let me be 
 frank, and say to you, my dear people, that I have tried 
 to win your confidence and your deep sympathy in my 
 Christian work. If you have seen in me many short- 
 comings, be aware of the fact that I have had a deeper 
 realization of them than you possibly could have had, 
 and I am here to say that you have given me more than 
 I deserve, and that your kindness through the last four 
 years has made my ministry in this place an undisturbed 
 satisfaction. 
 
 I remark again, I have tried, in my ministry during 
 the past year and the past four years, to create amidst 
 this people Christian sociality. There are churches that 
 
150 THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 are arctic seas, iceberg grinding against iceberg. The 
 attendants upon them come as men come into the ferry- 
 boat, sitting down beside each other — no nod of recogni- 
 tion, no hand-grasping of fellowship, no throb of broth- 
 erly and sisterly affection. They come in, they sit down, 
 they go out. From Saturday to Monday morning they 
 are ferried over by Christian ordinances, and that is all 
 there is of it. Now, my dear brother, if you are cold 
 and hard and selfish, then the higher the wall you build 
 around your soul, the better. You would do well to be 
 exclusive; but if there is in you any thing kind, any 
 thing lovely, any thing noble, any thing useful, let it 
 shine out. Suppose a vessel were driven on the rocks, 
 and while fifty people were struggling in the surf, one 
 man gets safely to the beach, and runs up to the fisher- 
 man's hut and sits down and warms himself, regardless 
 of those who are still struggling in the water — what a 
 cruel thing that would be ! How much better, like the 
 survivors of the Atlantic shipwreck, toiling with both 
 hands until the left hand gave out, and until the right 
 hand gave out, and then with their teeth seizing the 
 clothing of the suffering ones and pulling them ashore! 
 And what do you suppose God thinks of us if, having 
 escaped from the floods of sin and darkness and death, 
 we are culturing an unchristian selfishness, while there 
 are hundreds and thousands all around about us still 
 struggling in the wave ? I say, let us have a kindly 
 sympathy and helpfulness toward those who are all 
 around us. Every church was intended by God to be 
 a large family circle — of fathers and mothers, and broth- 
 ers and sisters. What kind of a family circle would 
 that be where the brothers did not recosjnize each other^ 
 
THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 151 
 
 and the parents were characterized by frigidity and 
 heartlessness ? Sons and daughters of God, have 3^oa 
 no higher appreciation of the larger Christian broth- 
 erhood in which you are gathered in churches? Who 
 is that that used to sit before you in the Tabernacle ? 
 Do not know. Who is that that used to sit at your right 
 hand and at your left hand ? Do not know. You ought 
 to have known. It is a sin not to be acquainted with 
 those who sit by us in the house of God year after year. 
 Do not stand upon the formalities of society. In the 
 name of Christ, I declare to you the privilege of giving 
 the right hand of fellowship to every one who comes to 
 the same church. We have tried to culture this Chris- 
 tian sociality in the sociable ; much has already been ac- 
 complished, and when our new church shall be built, we 
 will put our hand more earnestly to the work. The 
 church sociable ought to be the most cheerful of all 
 places. Let there be in it a time to laugh. Do not 
 with long faces overshadow the young people. You go 
 to church and to the prayer- meeting to worship; then 
 worship, and have nothing but worship. You go to the 
 sociable; then have nothing but sociality. Yet there are 
 church reunions so entirely formal that the liveliest 
 thing in all the evening is the long- metre doxology. 
 Be cheerful, be kind, be sympathetic with all with whom 
 you are associated. If fish go in schools, and if sheep 
 go in flocks, and if flowers go in tribes, and if stars swing 
 in galaxies, then let all those who worship in the same 
 church move together in loving and shining bands. 
 *' Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren 
 to^dwell together in unity!" 
 
 Again, I have tried in this church to preach an every- 
 
 7 
 
152 THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY, 
 
 day religion. The vast majority of my congregation are 
 in business life. It would have been absurd for me to 
 talk about abstract trials when I saw by the paper that 
 gold was going down, and men were losing their fortunes. 
 We must bring a Gospel comfort just suited to the con- 
 dition of the people to whom we preach. Here is a phy- 
 sician who comes into a sick-room where there is a case 
 of diphtheria. Does he apply to it medicines for chole- 
 ra, or yellow fever, or marasmus ? Oh no, it is a specific 
 for diphtheria. And if we want to make the Gospel suc- 
 cessful in the hearts of men in the way of comfort, w^e 
 must bring that particular phase of it which is thorough- 
 ly adapted to the case. So I have from time to time 
 tried to bring you a Gospel that would be appropriate 
 in Wall Street, and in Broadway, and in Schermerhorn 
 Street, and in Montague Street. 
 
 It is a simple fact that there are but few men who take 
 the comforts of religion into their business. You get 
 sick, or a member of your family dies; you say, "Send 
 for the minister!" But suppose you are in a business 
 corner; suppose the sheriff is after you; suppose your 
 best friend betrays you ; suppose there are three or four 
 men in the front office with duns for debts that you can 
 not meet ; suppose that you can no more sleep at night 
 than if you were on the top of a mast in a Mediterrane- 
 an hurricane; suppose with flushed cheek you walk the 
 floor nights, your head aching as though it would split 
 open — why, then, do you not send for religious consola- 
 tion? No, you do not. You send for some poor, mis- 
 erable skinflint, and ask him if he will lend you a thou- 
 sand dollars at two per cent, a month, and he will not do 
 it! You go to a friend you helped in time of trouble, 
 
TEE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 153 
 
 and want to get his name on your note, and he will not 
 give it, and in utter despair, and wild with trouble, you 
 say, "If it were not for my wife and children, I would 
 jump off the dock." I remember a man who, in 1857, 
 helped a dozen people through the financial straits. He 
 loaned a thousand dollars here, and five thousand there, 
 and ten thousand there, and took his friends to the bank, 
 and allowed them to go on his credit, and helped them 
 through. Five years after his trial came. Where were 
 those old friends? Gone ; or, if they came into his store, 
 it was only to say, " God bless you !" forgetful of the fact 
 that one ounce of pure financial help at that time would 
 have been worth fifty tons of "God bless yous." In- 
 stead of going at such a time to worldly resources, why 
 did you not go to God? Why did you not lock the 
 door of your private office, and get down on your knees, 
 and say, "Oh Lord! thou seest my business trouble. 
 There is that note at the bank. I have no money to 
 meet it. There is my rent, it has become due : what 
 shall I do about it? There are my unsalable goods at 
 the warehouse. Lord Jesus, help me out of this trou- 
 ble." God would have done it as certainly as he sits 
 upon the throne and offers help to men who want it. 
 You did not go for it, and you did not get it. If you 
 had made your religion do that, it would have been 
 w^orth something. Your religion, instead of being a 
 robe to wrap around you and keep you warm in the 
 chill blasts of trial, has been merely a string of beads 
 around your neck, very beautiful to look at, and that is 
 all. In the last panic in New York, amidst all the ex- 
 citement, there was a man found in Wall Street, in his 
 back office, with a loaded pistol lying on the table where 
 
154 THE FOURTH ANNIVMBSART. 
 
 he was writing a farewell letter to his family. What did 
 that man most need ? Was it the counsel of the brokers ? 
 The help of the note-shavers? No! He wanted the 
 comfort and the peace of Christ's religion. I have seen 
 a man in a business strait go through, sustained by the 
 grace of God. By disaster, in one night his fortune all 
 went. When I saw him before, he was worth hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars; now he was not worth a far- 
 thing. Yet he was counting up his heavenly treasures. 
 If God had knocked out the bottom of his earthly for- 
 tunes, that bottom was found to be the top of the chest 
 in which are the jewels of heaven ! And if his riches 
 took wings and flew away, in their flight they met the 
 ravens of God coming down to hungry Elijah ! That 
 man to-day, on a salary of twelve hundred dollars as a 
 clerk in the same store over which he had presided with 
 great dignity, is happier than Henry YIII. was on the 
 day when Anne Boleyn came to the palace — than Napo- 
 leon III., at the time of his coronation — than any man 
 who trusts in the wealth or honor of this world for his 
 chief satisfaction. I expect the day will come when I 
 can set the consolations of that Gospel on your counting- 
 room desk ; under its light the bank protests, and the 
 letters of angry creditors, reading like the full title-deed 
 to the thrones and principalities of heaven. That is 
 what I call an e very-day religion. 
 
 Again, I have tried in these four years in which I 
 have been your pastor, to disjyel the cojiventlonalities of the 
 Church. There is a tendency among Christian people to 
 walk in religious things on ecclesiastical stilts, instead of 
 coming down upon a plain, common-sense level. How 
 few people talk religion; they whine about it I What 
 
THE FOURTH ANNIVERSABT. 155 
 
 cbarm is there for a wide-awake, warm-hearted, enthu- 
 siastic man amidst the cold formalities of the Church of 
 God ? He sees through them ; he sees they are a sham. 
 Fiiday morning, you go into a merchant's store and buy 
 a bill of hosiery. How his face lights up ! How cheer- 
 ful he is! How fascinating he is while he is selling the 
 bill of goods ! You go away, saying, " That is one of the 
 most agreeable men I ever met in my life." That very 
 Friday evening you go into the prayer-meeting where 
 that same Christian merchant worships, and you find him 
 getting up and recommending the religion of Jesus Christ 
 with a funereal countenance and a doleful phraseology, 
 enough to make an undertaker burst into tears. How 
 few people there are who talk cheerfully about the relig- 
 ion of Jesus ! In other words, that man of whom I spoke 
 had more exhilaration when he was selling a bill of 
 goods than in recommending the religion which makes 
 ail heaven ring with the anthems of the free. Now, 
 ought that so to be? How many are driven from the 
 doors of the churches by the simple reason that they do 
 not want such a repulsive religion. They are afraid to 
 shake hands with a Christian man, lest they shall be re- 
 ligiously assaulted. I remember very well how it was 
 when I was a boy. I laid one hour and a half under the 
 raspberry-bushes in the garden, to escape from the min- 
 ister and the elder who came to my father's house on a 
 family visit; and my father came out on the back steps, 
 and cried, " De Witt, where are you ?" De Witt made 
 no answer! Ought our religion to repel or attract? My 
 little child, four years old, said to her mother: "Ma, ma, 
 I saw in a book a picture of a man and a picture of God, 
 and the man looked awfully frightened because he saw 
 
156 THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 God. Now," she says, "if I had been there and God had 
 come in, I would not have been frightened; I would 
 have just gone right up and put my arms around his 
 neck and kissed him." Well, I thought that was pretty 
 good theology. In other words, religion ought to in- 
 vite our caresses, instead of driving the world howling 
 away, as though it were something disagreeable, repul- 
 sive, and to be hated. 
 
 Again, I have, in these four years in which I have 
 ministered to you, tried to preach a Gospel of comfort to 
 the bereaved. This is the most delicate work to which the 
 preacher is ever called. If you do not know how to 
 treat a wound, you had better not touch it. How many 
 people come to the wounds of the soul with a spiritual 
 quackery, and they irritate and poison the wounds in- 
 stead of care. It may require no great skill to take a 
 sloop across the North Eiver, but it does to engineer a 
 steamship across the Atlantic ; and there may be no great 
 skill required to heal a little sorrow of the soul, but to 
 take one through the storms and tossing seas of tribula- 
 tion and trial does require some tact, and ingenuity, and 
 especial grace. I do not suppose that in the four years 
 in which I have ministered to you a single family has 
 escaped bereavement — if not in your immediate circle, 
 then in a near circle. Oh ! how many households have 
 been broken up by bereavement since I came among 
 you. From most other sorrows you can run away. You 
 can go home, but how if a part of the home itself is gone? 
 Then it is not so easy. Then every thing reminds you 
 of your loss. Suppose you should sit down at a piano, 
 put a piece of music on the rack, then put your foot on 
 the pedal and your fingers on the keys — the music would 
 
THE FOUBTH ANNIVEESART. 157 
 
 start off magnificently. But suppose you struck one key 
 and the chord did not respond, because it was broken. 
 Why, that ruins the entire accompaniment. Well, some- 
 times in life you have been going on in great joy and 
 hilarity, when suddenly you have thought of a voice, 
 just one voice, that has been hushed, of one heart that is 
 slill, and the silent key spoiled all the music. 
 
 Oh, if we could all die together I If we could keep 
 the lambs and the sheep of our family flock all together 
 until some bright spring day, the birds a-chant, and the 
 water a-glitter, and then we together could hear the 
 voice of the good Shepherd, and we could all go through 
 the flood, hand in hand ! If we only knew when we 
 were to die, and we could gather our family and say, 
 "Now Jesus calls us, and we must away ;" and then we 
 could put our little ones in the bed and straighten out ^ 
 their limbs, and say, " Sleep, now, the last sleep," and 
 then we could go to our own couches and lie down, and 
 say, " Master, we are all ready. The children have gone, 
 and we are ready." But it is not that way. It is one 
 by one — one by one. It may be in mid-wint«r, and the 
 snow comes down twenty inches deep above our fresh 
 grave ; or it may be in the dark, damp, chill March 
 midnight ; or it may be in a hotel, our arm too weak to 
 pull the bell for help ; or it may be so suddenly we can 
 not say good-bye. Oh, death is bitter — a racking, tre- 
 mendous curse ! The apple that our first parents pluck- 
 ed from the forbidden tree had in it two black seeds, one \ 
 called Sin, the other called Death. But I bless God that h 
 I have been able during these four years to preach to ' 
 you resurrection hope. A gale from heaven has blown 
 off the "white -caps" of the billow of sorrow, and the 
 
158 THE FOUBTH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 feet of Christ have trampled the waves to a level, until 
 over the glittering floor of the hushed waters have 
 marched all the consolations of God, troop by troop. 
 
 *' Oh, weep no more, 
 Your comfort slain ; 
 The Lord is risen, 
 He lives again." 
 
 So now I take the harp of Gospel comfort, and play 
 three tunes : ''Weeping may endure for a night, but joy 
 Cometh in the morning" — that is one ; "All things work 
 together for good to those who love God" — that is two; 
 "And 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" — and that is the 
 third. 
 
 Above all, during the past year I have tried to pre- 
 sent to you Christ the only Saviour from, sin^ and death^ 
 and hell. I have tried to show you that unless a man 
 be born again he can not get into heaven. If there be 
 any truth about God or Christ, or death or judgment, or 
 heaven or hell, that I have not presented, I wish you 
 would let me know what it is, that now I may declare it. 
 I have tried to show you that religion was an indispensa- 
 ble thing, not a mere adornment, but something that you 
 must have or die. I know that truth is not always con- 
 sidered popular at this day ; but somehow people have 
 continued to come and hear it. I feel it is a vital truth 
 of Christianity : "Believe in Christ and be saved — refuse 
 him and die." Christ has been so lovely to me that I 
 want all the world to love him, and I have, with all the 
 types and figures of God's word that I could find, pre- 
 sented this Jesus to you, and I am glad to know that 
 
THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 159 
 
 many of you have accepted the offer. The angels of 
 God have not stopped singing "Harvest Home." There 
 are scores and scores of souls who during this past year 
 have entered the Church on earth prepared, as I trust, 
 for the Church in heaven. 
 
 Now the year is done. If you have neglected any 
 duty, or if I have neglected any duty, it is neglected for- 
 ever. Each year has its work; if we do not do the 
 work during that year, we never do it. The year has 
 been to me one of great happiness — the happiest year of 
 my ministry, and the happiest year in my life. The 
 great calamity that put our Tabernacle in ashes has, 
 under the good hand of God, been the best blessing that 
 could possibly have come to us. I think we all feel that. 
 It has consolidated us as nothing could have done, and 
 it has gathered the sympathy and the good feeling of 
 Christians of all denominations in this country, and from 
 the other side of the seas. And it has shown me that 
 in this church there is a great band of Christian men and 
 women who will stop at no self-denial, and who will be 
 afraid of no hard work that is to be endured for Christ. 
 The success of the recent effort made in another room in 
 this building is significant of that, and the masons have 
 already begun the foundations of a grand, glorious, free 
 Christian church. While the best men and the best 
 newspapers in this land are in sympath}^ with us, you 
 know very well that there are some who are not in sym- 
 pathy with the work done by this church. They do not 
 understand it, and never will. In proportion as you are 
 faithful will you be abused ; in other words, the foster a 
 ship goes, the more angrily will the waters boil. So 
 there are some secular and religious newspapers of this 
 
 7* 
 
160 THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 day that are full of spite and full of venom. You say 
 you do not understand it. There is no mystery to me 
 about it. It is natural. It is the history of the Church 
 of God all the world over in all ages. I feel that our 
 church is on the right track, and I defy all earth and 
 hell ; for if God be for us, who can be against us ? If 
 God spared not his Son, but gave him up for us, shall he 
 not with him also freely give us all things? I am per- 
 suaded that neither height, nor depth, nor length, nor 
 breadth shall separate us from the love of God, which is 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our church will go up, and 
 Christ will appear in it, and he will save thousands and 
 thousands of souls. I see it coming, and I am in exul- 
 tation at the prospect. 
 
 We enter now upon another year. It will be an 
 eventful year. You and I may not live to see its close, 
 for God can spare you and me, and ten thousand better 
 persons than we are, and still carry on his work; but 
 his Church will be prospered. Having risen up as you 
 have to the work of giving the Gospel to the masses of 
 Brooklyn, nothing can put you to confusion. We need 
 no pillar of cloud by day to lead us, for God's angels 
 are sworn to defend us ; and success in the future is as 
 certain as though on that wall I saw coming out in let- 
 ters of fire, while I speak, "Lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world." I will live to see the 
 completion of the work undertaken. I know if God 
 calls me before that time, he will let me come out on the 
 battlements of heaven, and look oflP on the establishment 
 of that work for which my soul longed. Eoll on, sweet 
 days of the world's emancipation ! when the mountains 
 and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the 
 
THE FO URTH ANNIVEIiSAB F. 161 
 
 trees of the wood sliall clap tbeir bands; and instead of 
 the thorn shall come np the fir-tree, and instead of the 
 brier shall come up the myrtle-tree ; and it shall be to 
 the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall 
 not be cut off. 
 
162 MIGRATION HEAVENWARD. 
 
 MIGRATION HEAVENWARD. 
 
 "The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed time; and the turtle 
 and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming ; but my 
 people know not the judgment of the Lord." — Jeremiah \in., 7. 
 
 WHEN God would set fast a beautiful thought, he 
 plants it in a tree. When he would put it afloat, 
 he fashions it into a fish. When he would have it glide 
 the air, he moulds it into a bird. My text speaks of four 
 birds of beautiful instinct — the stork, of such strong af- 
 fection that it is allowed familiarly to come, in Holland 
 and Germany, and build its nest over the door-way ; the 
 sweet-dispositioned turtle-dove, mingling in color white, 
 and black, and brown, and ashen, and chestnut; the 
 crane, with voice like the clang of a trumpet; the swal- 
 low, swift as a dart shot out of the bow of heaven, fall- 
 ing, mounting, skimming, sailing — four birds started by 
 the prophet twenty -five centuries ago, yet flying on 
 through the ages, with rousing truth under glossy wing 
 and in the clutch of stout claw. I suppose it may have 
 been this very season of the year — autumn — and the 
 prophet out-of-doors, thinking of the impenitence of the 
 people of his day, hears a great cry overhead. 
 
 Now, you know it is no easy thing for one with or- 
 dinary delicacy of eye-sight to look into the deep blue 
 of the noonday heaven ; but the prophet looks up, and 
 there are flocks of storks, and turtle-doves, and cranes, 
 and swallows, drawn out in long lines for flight south- 
 
mighatiox he a venward. 163 
 
 ward. As is their habit, the cranes had arranged them- 
 selves into two lines making an angle, a wedge splitting 
 the air with v/ild velocity, the old crane, with command- 
 ing call bidding them onward ; while the towns, and the 
 cities, and the continents slid under them. The prophet, 
 almost blinded from looking into the dazzling heavens, 
 stoops down and begins to think how much superior the 
 birds are in sagacity about their safety than men about 
 theirs; and he puts his hand upon the pen, and begins 
 to write: " The stork in the heaven knoweth her appoint- 
 ed times ; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow 
 observe the time of their coming; but my people know 
 not the judgment of the Lord." 
 
 If you were in the field to-day, in the clump of trees 
 at the corner of the field, you would see a convention 
 of birds, noisy as the American Congress the last night 
 before adjournment, or as the English Parliament when 
 some unfortunate member proposes more economy in the 
 Queen's household — a convention of birds all talking at 
 once, moving and passing resolutions on the subject of 
 migration ; some proposing to go to-morrow, some mov- 
 ing that they go to-day, some moving that they go to 
 Brazil, some to Florida, some to the table-lands of Mex- 
 ico, but all unanimous in the fact that they must go soon, 
 for they have marching orders from the Lord, written on 
 the first white sheet of the frost, and in the pictorial of 
 the changing leaves. There is not a belted king-fisher, 
 or a chafiinch, or a fire-crested wren, or a plover, or a 
 red-legged partridge but expects to spend the winter at 
 the South, for the apartments have already been ordered 
 for them in South America, or in Africa; and after thou- 
 sands of miles of flight, they will stop in the very tree 
 
164 MIGRATION HEAVUNWABD, 
 
 "where they spent last January. Farewell, bright plum- 
 age! Until spring weather, away! Fly on, great band 
 of heavenly musicians! Strew the continents with mu- 
 sic, and whether from Northern fields, or Carolinian 
 swamps, or Brazilian groves men see your wings, or 
 hear your voice, may they bethink themselves of the 
 solemn words of the text: "The stork in the heaven 
 knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the 
 crane and the swallow observe the time of their com- 
 ing ; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." 
 
 I propose, so far as God may help me, this morning, 
 carrying out the idea of the text, to show that the birds 
 of the air have more sagacity than men. And I begin 
 by particularizing and saying that JJiey^ ^imgle ^nu^k^mitlL^^ 
 their ivorh. The most serious undertaking of a bird's life 
 is this annual travel from the Hudson to the Amazon, 
 from the Thames to the Nile. Naturalists tell us that 
 they arrive there thin, and weary, and plumage ruffled, 
 and yet they go singing all the way; the ground, the 
 lower line of the music, the sky, the upper line of the 
 music, themselves, the notes scattered up and down be- 
 tween. I suppose their song gives elasticity to their 
 wing, and helps on with the journey, dwindling a thou- 
 sand miles into four hundred. Would God that we were 
 as wise as they in mingling Christian song with our 
 every-day work ! I believe there is such a thing as tak- 
 ing the pitch of Christian devotion in the morning, and 
 keeping it all the day. I think we might take some of 
 the dullest, heaviest, most disagreeable work of our life, 
 and set it to the tune of "Antioch" or "Mount Pisgah." 
 
 It is a good sign when j^ou hear a workman whistle. 
 i\ }s V better sign when you hear him hum a roundelay. 
 
311 GH ATI ox HEAVENWARD. 155 
 
 It is a still better sign when you hear him wng the words 
 of Isaac Watts or Charles Weslej^ A violin chorded 
 and strung, if something accidentally sirike it, makes 
 music, and I suppose there is such a thing as having our 
 hearts so attuned by divine grace, that even the rough 
 collisions of life will make a heavenly vibration. I do 
 not believe that the power of Christian song has yet 
 been fully tried. I believe that if you could roll the 
 " Old Hundred" doxology through Wall Street, it would 
 put an end to the panic ! I believe that the discords, 
 and the sorrows, and the sins of the world are to be 
 swept out by heaven-born hallelujahs. Some one asked ^ 
 Haydn, the celebrated musician, why he always composed 
 such cheerful music. "Why," he said, '"I can't do oth- 
 erwise. When I think of God, my soul is so full of joy 
 that the notes leap and dance from my pen." I wish we 
 might all exult melodiously before the Lord. With God 
 for our Father, and Christ for our Saviour, and heaven for 
 our home, and angels for future companions, and eternity 
 for a lifetime, we should strike all the notes of joy. Go- 
 ins; throuo-h the wilderness of this world, let us remember 
 that we are on the way to the summery clime of heaven, 
 and from the migratory populations flying through this 
 autumnal air learn always to keep singing. 
 
 ** Children of the heavenly Eng, 
 As ye jouraey, sweetly sing ; 
 Sing your Saviour's worthy praise, 
 Glorious in his works and ways. 
 
 *' Ye are traveling home to God, 
 In the way your fathers trod ; 
 They are happy now, and we 
 Soon their happiness shall see." 
 
16d MIGRATION HEAVENWARD. 
 
 The Church of God never will be a triumphant church 
 until it becomes a singing church. 
 
 I go further, and remark that the birds of the air are 
 wiser than we, in the fact that, in their migration, they 
 fly very high. During the summer, when thej ar'e^-ift-. 
 the- fie-ldsj th^y often come within reach of the gun ; but 
 when they start for the annual flight southward, they 
 take their places mid-heaven, and go straight as a mark. 
 The longest rifle that was ever brought to shoulder' can 
 not reach them. Would to God that we were as wise as 
 the stork and crane in our flight heavenward! We fly 
 so low that we are within easy range of the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. We are brought down by tempta- 
 tions that ought not to come within a mile of reaching 
 us. Oh for some of the faith of George Miiller of En- 
 gland, and Alfred Cookman, once of the Church militant, 
 now of the Church triumphant 1 So poor is the type of 
 piety in the Church of God now, that men actually cari- 
 cature the idea that there is any such thing as a higher 
 life. Moles never did believe in eagles. But, my breth- 
 ren, because we have not reached these heights ourselves, 
 shall we deride the fact that there are any such heights? 
 A man was once talking^ to Brunei, the famous eno^ineer, 
 
 O ' 7 
 
 about the length of the railroad from London to Bristol. 
 The engineer said, "It is not very great. We shall have, 
 after a while, a steamer running from England to New 
 York." They laughed him to scorn ; but we have gone 
 so far now that we have ceased to laugh at any thing as 
 impossible for human achievement. Then, I ask, is any 
 thing impossible for the Lord? I do not believe that 
 God exhausted all his grace in Paul, and Latimer, and 
 Edward Pay son. I believe there are higher points of 
 
MIGRATION EEAVENWABD. 167 
 
 Christian attainment to be reached in the future ages of 
 the Christian world. You tell me that Paul went up to 
 the tiptop of the Alps of Christian attainment. Then I 
 tell you that the stork and crane have found above the 
 Alps plenty of room for free flying. We go out and we 
 conquer our temptations by the grace of God, and lie 
 down. On the morrow, those temptations rally them- 
 selves and attack us, and by the grace of God we defeat 
 them again ; but, staying all the time in the old encamp- 
 ment, we have the same old battles to fight over. Why 
 not whip out our temptations, and then forward march, 
 making one raid through the enemy's country, stopping 
 not until we break ranks after the last victory. Do, my 
 brethren, let us have some novelty of combat, at any rate, 
 by changing, by going on, by making advancement, trad- 
 ing off our stale prayers about sins we ought to have 
 quit long ago, going on toward a higher state of Chris- 
 tian character, and routing out sins that we have never 
 thought of yet. The fact is, if the Church of God — if we, 
 as individuals, made rapid advancement in the Christian 
 life, these stereotyped prayers we have been making for 
 ten or fifteen years would be as inappropriate to us as 
 the shoes, and the hats, and the coats w^e wore ten or fif- 
 teen years ago. Oh for a higher flight in the Christian 
 life, the stork and the crane in their migration teaching 
 us the lesson ! 
 
 "Dear Lord, and shall we ever live, 
 At this poor dying rate — 
 Our love so faint, so cold to thee, 
 And thine to us so gieat ?" 
 
 Again, I remark that the birds of the air are wiser 
 than we, because thoy know ivhen to start. If you should 
 
168 MIGRATION HEAVENWARD. 
 
 go out now and shout, "Stop, storks and cranes, don't be 
 in a hurrj !" tbey would say, " No, we can not stop; last 
 night we heard the roaring in the woods bidding us away, 
 and the shrill flute of the north wind has sounded the 
 retreat. We must go. We must go." So they gather 
 themselves into companies, and turning not aside for 
 storm or mountain top or shock of musketry, over land 
 and sea, straight as an arrow to the mark they go. And 
 if you come out this morning with a sack of corn and 
 throw it in the fields and try to get them to stop, they 
 are so far up they would hardly see it. They are on 
 their way south. You could not stop them. Oh that 
 we were as wise about the best time to start for God and 
 heaven ! We say, " Wait until it is a little later in the 
 season of mercy. Wait until some of these green leaves 
 of hope are all dried up and have been scattered. Wait 
 ■until next year." After a while we start, and it is too 
 late, and we perish in the way when God's wrath is kin- 
 dled but a little. There are, you know, exceptional cases 
 "where birds have started too late, and in the morning 
 you have found them dead on the snow. And there are 
 those who have perished half-way between the world and 
 Christ. They waited until the last sickness, when the 
 mind was gone, or they were on the express train going 
 at forty miles an hour, and they came to the bridge and 
 the " draw was up " and they went down. How long to 
 repent and pray? Two seconds! Two seconds! To 
 do the work of a lifetime and to prepare for the vast 
 eternity in two seconds! I was reading of an entertain- 
 ment given in a king's court, and there were musicians 
 there, with elaborate pieces of music. After a while Mo- 
 zart came and began to play, and he had a blank piece 
 
MIGRATION HEAVENWARD. 169 
 
 of paper before bim, and the king familiarly looked over 
 his shoulder and said, "What are you playing? I see 
 no music before you." And Mozart put his hand on his 
 brow, as much as to say, " I am improvising." It was 
 very well for him, but oh, my friends, we can not extem- 
 porize heaven. If we do not get prepared in this world, 
 we will never take part in the orchestral harmonies of 
 the saved. If we go out of this world unpardoned, we 
 secure for our souls a blasted residence. Oh that we 
 were as wise as the crane and the stork, flying away, fly- 
 ing away from the tempest ! 
 
 Some of you have felt the pinching frost of sin. Yoa 
 feel it to-day. You are not happy. I look into your 
 faces, and I know you are not happy. There are voices 
 within your soul that will not be silenced, telling you 
 that you are sinners, and that without the pardon of God 
 you are undone forever. What are you going to do, my 
 friends, with the accumulated trangressions of this life- 
 time? Will you stand still and let the avalanche tumble 
 over you ? Oh that you would go away into the warm 
 heart of God's mercy. The Southern grove, redolent 
 with magnolia and cactus, never waited for Northern 
 flocks as God has waited for you, saying, "I have loved 
 thee with an everlasting love. Come unto me, all ye 
 who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest." 
 
 Another frost is bidding you away — it is the frost of 
 sorrow. Where do you live now? "Oh," you say, "I 
 have moved." Why did you move ? You say, " I don't 
 want as large a house now as formerly." Why do you 
 not want as large a house ? You say, " My family is not 
 so large." Where have they gone to ? Eternity ! Your 
 
170 MIORA TION HE A VEN WARD. 
 
 mind goes back through that last sickness and through 
 the almost supernatural effort to keep life, and through 
 those prayers that seemed unavailing, and through that 
 kiss which received no response because the lips were 
 lifeless, and I hear the bells tolling and I hear the hearts 
 breaking — while I speak, I hear them break. A heart! 
 Another heart! Alone! alone! alone! This world, which 
 in your girlhood and boyhood was sunshine, is cold now, 
 and oh ! weary dove, you fly around this world as though 
 you would like to stay, when the wind and the frost and 
 the blackening clouds would bid you away into the heart 
 of an all-comforting God. Oh, I have noticed again and 
 again what a botch this world makes of it when it tries 
 to comfort a soul in trouble! It says, "Don't cry!" 
 How can we help crying when the heart's treasures are 
 scattered, and father is gone, and mother is gone, and 
 companions are gone, and the child is gone, and every 
 thing seems gone? It is no comfort to tell a man not to 
 cry. The world comes up and says, " Oh, it is only the 
 body of "your loved one that you have put in the ground !" 
 But there is no comfort in that. That body is precious. 
 Shall we never put our hand in that hand again, and 
 shall we never see that sweet face again? Away with 
 your heartlessness, oh world ! But come, Jesus ! and tell 
 us that when the tears fall they foil into God's bottle ; that 
 the dear bodies of our loved ones shall rise radiant in the 
 resurrection; and all the breakings down here shall be 
 liftings up there, and " 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." 
 
MIGIiA riOX HE A VEX^yA RD. 171 
 
 Yon may bave noticed that when the chaffinch or the 
 stork or the crane starts on its migration, it calls all those 
 of its kind to come too. The tree-tops are full of chirp 
 and whistle and carol and the long roll-call. The bird 
 does not start off alone. It gathers all of its kind. Oh 
 that you might be as wise in this migration to heaven, 
 and that you might gather all your families and your 
 friends with you! I would that Hannah might take 
 Samuel by the hand, and Abraham might take Isaac, and 
 Hagar might take Ishmael. I ask you if those who sat 
 at your breakfast-table this morning will sit with you in 
 heaven? I ask you what influences you are trying to 
 bring upon them, what example you are setting them? 
 Are you calling them to go with you ? Ay, ay, have 
 you started yourself? I say it in all love. I could not 
 stand here in any other spirit and say this. I ask you 
 what the prospects are that you will be united families 
 in heaven ? I have heard of whole fiimilies saved, and 
 so have you. I suppose there is such a thing also as a 
 whole family lost. Father lost, mother lost, sons and 
 daughters lost, the estate of wTetchedness going down 
 from generation to generation, the tide of blackness 
 deepening and swiftening into wilder rapids and might- 
 ier plunges of despair. Impenitent father, impenitent 
 mother! if you reject Christ, and your children come up 
 to years of discretion, and through your influence reject 
 him and are lost, it will be your fault. Oh, if there 
 should come throuofh the darkness of the lost w^orld 
 
 o 
 
 words from their own lips, saying, ''Father, you never 
 invited me to Christ; mother, your example led me away 
 from Jesus, and I am lost ; you got me here ; you can 
 not get me out!" 
 
1 72 MIGRA TION HE A VENWARD. 
 
 Start for heaven yourself, and take your children with 
 you. Come thou and all thy house into the ark. Tell 
 your little ones that there are realms of balm and sweet- 
 ness for all those who fly in the right direction. Heav- 
 en beckons from above ; hell gapes from beneath ; and 
 this is the only safe hour. Oh, make the best of it. 
 Swifter than eagle's stroke, put out for heaven. Like the 
 crane or the stork, stop not night nor day until you find 
 the right place for stopping. Seated to-day in Christian 
 service, will you be seated in the same glorious service 
 when the heavens have passed away with a great noise, 
 and the elements have melted with fervent heat, and the 
 redeemed are gathered around the throne of Jesus ? Oh, 
 is it impossible that the separating line goes through 
 any family in my beloved flock? Is the father on one 
 side and the mother on the other side of the line that 
 divides the two eternities? If you are saved, take 
 your friends with you. Invite all your children to 
 go along. Together on earth, may you be together in 
 heaven ! 
 
 It is strange how out of the same bell you may get 
 such different sounds — glad and sad — just as the janitor 
 rings it fast or slow. So when Independence-day comes 
 he rings the bell merrily, and every stroke seems to say 
 "Independence," "liberty;" and then, when the long 
 procession winds into the church-yard, that very same 
 bell tolls for the dead. So it is with this Gospel bell. I 
 lay hold the rope to-day, and offer you pardon, peace, and 
 heaven. How gladly the bell rings out I Free ! Free I 
 But there is another story to be told. Those who reject 
 God and wander away from him, go into perpetual sor- 
 row ; and so I lay hold the rope of the bell and give it 
 
MIORA TION HE A VENWARD. 1 73 
 
 slow, sad, solemn pull, and it rings out, through the dark- 
 ness of the destroyed spirit, Woe ! Woe ! 
 
 ** To-day the Saviour calls, 
 
 Ye wanderers come. 
 
 Oh, ye benighted souls, 
 
 Why longer roam ? 
 
 The Spirit calls to-day, 
 
 Yield to his power. 
 Oh, grieve Him not awaj, 
 
 'Tis mercy's hour." 
 
174 THE LAYER OF LOOKING- GLASSES. 
 
 THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 
 
 "And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the 
 looking-glasses of the women assembling." — Exodus xxxviii., 8. 
 
 "TTTE often hear about the Gospel in John, and the 
 ^ ^ Gospel in Luke, and the Gospel in Matthew ; but 
 there is just as surely a Gospel of Moses, and a Gospel 
 of Jeremiah, and a Gospel of David. In other words, 
 Christ is as certainly to be found in the Old Testament 
 as in the New. 
 
 When the Israelites were marching through the wil- 
 derness, they carried their church with them. They 
 called it the tabernacle. It was a pitched tent; very 
 costly, very beautiful. The frame-work was made of 
 forty-eight boards of acacia-wood set in sockets of silver. 
 The curtains of the place were purple, and scarlet, and 
 blue, and fine linen, and were hung with most artistic 
 loops. The candlestick of that tabernacle had shaft, and 
 branch, and bowl of solid gold, and the figures of cheru- 
 bim that stood there had wings of gold ; and there were 
 lamps of gold, and snuffers of gold, and tongs of gold, 
 and rings of gold; so that skepticism has sometimes ask- 
 ed, Where did all that precious material come from? It 
 is not my place to furnish the precious stones, it is only 
 to tell that they were there. 
 
 I wish now more especially to speak of the laver that 
 "was built in the midst of that ancient tabernacle. It was 
 
THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 175 
 
 a great basin from which the priests washed their hands 
 and_ieet. The water came down from the basin in 
 spouts and passed away after the cleansing. This laver 
 or basin was made out of the looking-glasses of the wom- 
 en who had frequented the tabernacle, and who had 
 made these their contribution to the furniture. These 
 looking-glasses were not made of glass, but they were 
 brazen. The brass was of a very superior quality, and 
 polished until it reflected easily the features of those 
 who looked into it. So that this laver of looking-glasses 
 spoken of in my text did double work: it not only fur- 
 nished the water in which the priests washed themselves, 
 but it also, on its shining, polished surface, pointed out 
 the spots of pollution on the face which needed ablution. 
 Now, my Christian friends, as every thing in that ancient 
 tabernacle was suggestive of religious truth, and for the 
 most part positivel}^ S3^mbolical of truth, I shall take that 
 laver of looking-glasses spoken of in the text as all-sug- 
 gestive of the Grospel, which first shows us our sins as in 
 a mirror, and then washes them away by divine ablution. 
 
 "Oh happy day, happy day, 
 When Jesus washed my sins away!" 
 
 I have to say that this is the only looking-glass in 
 which a man can see himself as lie- is*- There are some 
 mirrors that flatter the features, and make you look bet- 
 ter than 3^ou are. Then there are other mirrors that dis- 
 tort your features, and make you look worse than you 
 are ; but I want to tell you that this looking-glass of the 
 Gospel shows a man just as he is. When the priests en- 
 tered the ancient tabernacle, one glance at the burnished 
 side of this laver showed them their need of cleansing ; 
 
 8 
 
176 THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 
 
 BO this Gospel shows the soul its need of divine wash- 
 ing. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
 God." That is one showing. "All we, like sheep, have 
 gone astray." That is another showing. "From the 
 crown of the head to 'the sole of the foot there is no 
 health in us." That is another showing. The world 
 calls these, defects, imperfections, or eccentricities, or er- 
 ratic behavior, or " wild oats," or "high living;" but the 
 Gospel calls them sin, transgression, filth — the abomina- 
 ble thing that God hates. It was just one glance at that 
 mirror that made Paul cry out, " Oh wretched man that 
 I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" 
 and that made David cry out, "Purge me with hyssop, 
 and I shall be clean ;" and that made Martin Luther cry 
 out, "Oh my sins, my sins!" I am not talking about 
 bad habits. You and I do not need any Bible to tell us 
 that bad habits are wrong, that blasphemy and evil- 
 speaking are wrong. But I am talking of a sinftd na- 
 ture, the source of all bad thoughts, as well as of all bad 
 actions. The Apostle Paul calls their roll in the first 
 chapter of Romans. They are a regiment of death en- 
 camping around every heart, holding it in a tyranny 
 from which nothing but the grace of God can deliver it. 
 Here, for instance, is ingratitude. Who has not been 
 guilty of that sin ? If a man hand us a glass of water, 
 we say, " Thank you ;" but for the ten thousand mercies 
 that w^e are every day receiving from the hand of God, 
 how little expression of gratitude — for thirst slaked, for 
 hunger fed, for shelter, and sunshine, and sound sleep, and 
 clothes to wear — how little thanks ! I suppose there are 
 men fifty years of age who have never yet been down on 
 their knees in thanksgiving to God for his goodness. Be- 
 
/ THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 177 
 
 sides that ingratitude of our hearts, there is- pride (who 
 has not felt it?) — pride that will not submit to God, that 
 wants its own way — a nature that prefers wrong some- 
 times instead of right — that prefers to wallow instead of 
 to rise up. I do not care what you call that ; I am not 
 going to quarrel with anj^ theologian, or any man who 
 makes any pretensions to theology. I do not care wheth- 
 er you call it " total depravity," or something else ; I 
 simply make the announcement of God's word, affirmed 
 and confirmed by the experience of hundreds of people 
 in this house: the imagination of the heart of man is evil 
 from youth. "There is none that doeth good; no, not 
 one." We have a bad nature. We were born with it. 
 We got it from our parents ; they got it from their par- 
 ents. Our thoughts are wrong, our action is wrong; our 
 whole life is obnoxious to God before conversion ; and 
 after conversion, not one good thing in us but that which 
 the grace of God has planted and fostered. "Well," 
 you say, " I can't believe that to be so." Ah ! my dear 
 brother, that is because you have never looked into this 
 laver of looking-glasses. 
 
 If you could catch a glimpse of your natural heart be- 
 fore God, you w^ould cry out in amazement and alarm. 
 The very first thing this Gospel does is to cut down our 
 pride and selfrSufiQjciency. If a man does not feel his lost 
 and ruined condition before God, he does not want any 
 Gospel. I think the reason that there are so few conver- 
 sions in this day is because the tendency of the preach- 
 ing is to make men believe that they are pretty good 
 anyhow — quite clever, only w^anting a little fitting up — 
 a few touches of divine grace, and then you will be all 
 right; instead of proclaiming the broad, deep truth that 
 
178 THE LAVEB OF LOOKING-GLASSES, 
 
 Payson, and Baxter, and Whitefield thundered to a race 
 trembling on the verge of infinite and eternal disaster. 
 "Now," says some one, "can this really be true ? Have 
 we all gone astray ? Is there no good in us ?" In Hamp- 
 ton Court I saw a room where the four walls were cov- 
 ered with looking-glasses; and it made no difference 
 which way you looked, you saw yourself. And so it is 
 in this Gospel of Christ. If you once step within its full 
 precincts, you will find your whole character reflected ; 
 every feature of moral deformity, every spot of moral 
 taint. If I understand the Word of God, its first an- 
 nouncement is that we are lost. I care not, my brother, 
 how magnificently you may have been born, or what 
 may have been your heritage or ancestry, you are lost by 
 reason of sin. "But," you say, "what is the use of all 
 this — of showing a man's fliults when he can't get rid of 
 them?" Kone! "What was the use of that burnished 
 surface to this laver of looking-glasses spoken of in the 
 text, if it only showed the spots on the countenance and 
 the need of washing, and there was nothing to wash with ?" 
 Glory be to God, I find that this laver of looking-glasses 
 was filled with fresh water every morning, and the priest 
 no sooner looked on its burnished side and saw his need 
 of cleansing, than he washed and was clean — glorious 
 type of the Gospel of my Lord Jesus, that first shows a 
 man his sin, and then washes it all away !" 
 
 I want you to notice that this laver in which the priest 
 washed — the laver of looking-glasses — was filled with 
 fresh water every morning. The servants of the taberna- 
 cle brought the water in buckets and poured it into this 
 laver. So it is with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it has 
 a fresh salvation every day. It is not a stagnant pool 
 
THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES, 179 
 
 filled with accumulated corruptions. It is living water, 
 which is brought from the eternal rock to wash away 
 the sins of yesterday — of one moment ago. " Oh," says 
 some one, "I was a Christian twenty years ago!" That 
 does not mean any thing to me. What are you now? 
 We are not talking, my brother, about pardon ten years 
 ago, but about pardon now — a fresh salvation. Suppose 
 a time of war should come, and I could show the Govern- 
 ment that I had been loyal to it twelve years ago, would 
 that excuse me from taking an oath of allegiance now ? 
 Suppose you ask me about my physical health, and I 
 should say I was well fifteen years ago — that does not say 
 how I amLnow. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes and 
 demands present allegiance, present fealty, present moral 
 health ; and yet how many Christians there are seeking 
 to live entirely in past experience, who seem to have no 
 experience of present mercy and pardon ! When I was 
 on the sea, and there came up a great storm, and officers 
 and crew and passengers all thought we must go down, 
 I began to think of my life insurance, and whether, if I 
 were taken away, my family would be cared for; and 
 then I thought. Is the premium paid up? and I said 
 Yes. Then I felt comfortable. Yet there are men who 
 in religious matters are looking back to past insurance. 
 They have let it run out, and they have nothing for the 
 present, no hope nor pardon — falling back on the old in- 
 surance policy often, twenty, thirty years ago. If I want 
 to find out how a friend feels toward me, do I go to the 
 drawer and find some old yellow letters written to me 
 ten or twelve years ago? No; I go to the letter that 
 was stamped the day before yesterday in the post-office, 
 and I find how he feels toward me. It is not in regard 
 
180 THE LAYER OF LOOEWG-OLASSES. 
 
 to old communications we had with Jesus Christ, it is 
 communications we have now. Are we not in sympathy 
 with him this morning, and is he not in symjDathy with 
 us? Do not spend so much of your time in hunting in 
 the wardrobe for the old, worn-out shoes of Christian 
 profession. Come this morning and take the glittering 
 robe of Christ's righteousness from the Saviour's hand. 
 You say you were plunged in the fountain of the Sa^l- 
 iour's mercy a quarter of a century ago. That is nota- 
 ing to me; I tell you to wash now in this laver of look- 
 ing-glasses and have your soul made clean. 
 
 I notice also, in regard to this laver of looking-glasses 
 spoken of in the text, that the priests always washed hoih 
 hands and feet. The water came down in sp^outs^so that, 
 without leaving any filth in the basin, the priests wash- 
 ed both hands and feet. So the Gospel of Jesns Christ 
 must touch the very extremities of our moral nature. A 
 man can not fence off a small part of his soul, and say, 
 "]^ow this is to be a garden in which I will have all 
 the fruits and flowers of Christian character, while out- 
 side it shall be the devil's commons." No, no ; it will 
 be all garden or none. I sometimes hear people say, ''He 
 is a very good man except in politics." Then he is not 
 a good man. A religion that will not take a man through 
 an autumn election will not be worth any thing to him 
 in June, July, and August. They say he is a useful sort 
 of a man, but he overreaches in a bargain. I deny the 
 statement. If he is a Christian anywhere, he will be in 
 his business. It is very easy to be good in the prayer- 
 meeting, with surroundings kindly and blessed, but not 
 so easy to be a Christian behind the counter, when by 
 one skillful twitch of the goods you can hide a flaw in 
 
THE LA VER OF LO OEING- GLASSES. 181 
 
 the silk SO that the customer can not see it. It is very 
 easy to be a Christian with a psalm-book in your hand 
 and a Bible in your lap, but not so easy when 3'ou can 
 go into a shop, and falsely tell the merchant you can get 
 those goods at a cheaper rate in another store, so that he 
 will sell them to you cheaper than he can afford to sell 
 them. The fact is, the religion of Christ is all-pervasive. 
 If you rent a house, you expect full possession of it 
 You say, " Where are the keys of those rooms ? If I pay 
 for this whole house, I want possession of those rooms." 
 And the grace of God when it comes to a soul takes full 
 possession of a man, or goes away and takes no posses- 
 sion. It will ransack every room in the heart, every 
 room in the life, from cellar to attic, touching the very 
 extremities of his nature. The priests washed hands 
 and feet. 
 
 I remark, farther, that this laver^ of looking-glasses 
 spoken of in the text was ii^JverjL[Jmge_lcLver^^, I always 
 thought, from the fact that so many washed there, and 
 also from the fact that Solom.on afterward, when he 
 copied that laver in the Temple, built it on a very large 
 scale, that it was large; and so suggestive of the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ and salvation by him — vast in its pro- 
 visions. The whole world may come and wash in this 
 laver and be clean. 
 
 AVhen the last war had passed, the Government of 
 the United States made proclamation of pardon to the 
 common soldiery in the Confederate army, but not to 
 the chief soldiers. The Gospel of Christ does not act 
 in that way. It says pardon for all, but especially for 
 the chief of sinners. I do not now think of a single pas- 
 sage that says a small sinner may be saved, but I do 
 
182 THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 
 
 think of passages that say a great sinner may be saved. 
 If there be sins only faintly hued, just a little tinged, 
 so faintly colored that you can hardly see them, there is 
 no special pardon promised in the Bible for those sins; 
 but if they be glaring, red like crimson, then they shall 
 be as snow. Now, my brother, I do not state this to 
 put a premium upon great iniquity. I merely say this 
 to encourage that man in this house who feels he is so 
 far gone from God that there is no mercy for him. Ij 
 want to tell him there is a good chance. Why, Pau 
 was a murderer; he assisted at the execution of Stephen jA 
 and yet Paul was saved. The dying thief did everjx 
 thing bad. The dying thief was saved. Kichard BaxI 
 ter swore dreadfully ; but the grace of God met him, and 
 Eichard Baxter was saved. It is a vast laver. Go and 
 tell every body to come and wash in it. Let them come 
 lip from the penitentiaries and wash away their crimes. 
 Let them come up from the alms-houses and wash away 
 their poverty. Let them come up from their graves and 
 wash away their death. If there be any one so worn 
 out in sin that he can not get up to the laver, you will 
 take hold of his head and put your arms around him, 
 and I will take hold of his feet, and we will plunge him 
 in this glorious Bethesda, the vast laver of God's mer- 
 cy and salvation. In Solomon's Temple there were ten 
 lavers, and one molten sea — this great reservoir in the 
 midst of the temple filled with water — these lavers and 
 this molten sea adorned with figures of palm-branch, and 
 oxen, and lions, and cherubim. This fountain of God's 
 mercy is a vaster molten sea than that. It is adorned 
 not with palm-branches, but with the wood of the cross; 
 not with cherubim, but with the wings of the Holy 
 
THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 183 
 
 Gho&t; and around its great rim all the race may come 
 and wash in the molten sea. I was reading the other 
 day of Alexander the Great, who, when he was very 
 thirsty and standing at the head of his army, had brought 
 to him a cup of water. He looked off upon his host and 
 said, "I can not drink this, ni}^ men are all thirsty f and 
 he dashed it to the ground. Blessed be God! there is 
 enough water for all the host — enough for captains and 
 host. "Whosoever will may come and take of the 
 water of life freely " — a laver broad as the earth, high 
 as the heavens, and deep as hell. 
 
 But I notice also, in regard to this laver of looking- 
 glasses spoken of in the text, that the washing in it was 
 tm^eralive, and not optional. When the priests come into 
 the taBefrracte -(yotr-\vill find this in the thirtieth chapter 
 of Exodus), God tells them that they must wash in that 
 laver or die. The priest might have said, " Can't I wash 
 elsewhere? I washed in the laver at home, and now 
 you wapt me to wash here." God says, "No matter 
 whether or not you have washed before. Wash in this 
 laver or die.'' "But," says the priest, "there is water 
 just as clean as this — why won't that do?" "Wash 
 here," says God, " or die." So it is with the Gospel of 
 Christ — it is imperative. There is only this alternative : 
 keep our sins and perish, or wash them away and live. 
 But says some one, "Why could not God have made 
 more ways to heaven than one?" I do not know but he 
 could have made half a dozen. I know he made but 
 one. You say, "Why not have a long line of boats run- 
 ning from here to heaven ?" I can not say, but I simply 
 know that there is only one boat. You say, "Are there 
 not trees as luxuriant as that on Calvary? — more luxuri- 
 
 8* 
 
1 84 THE LA VER OF L OKIXG- GLASSES. 
 
 ant, for tbat had neither buds nor blossoms; it was strip- 
 ped and barked I" Yes, yes, there have been taller trees 
 than that and more luxuriant; but the only path to 
 heaven is under that one tree. Instead of quarreling be- 
 cause there are not more v^ays, let us be thankful to God 
 there is one — one name given unto men whereby we can 
 be saved — one laver in which all the world may wash. 
 So you see what a radiant Gospel this is I preach. I do 
 not know how a man can stand stolidly and present it, 
 for it is such an exhilarant Gospel. It is not a mere 
 whim or caprice; it is life or death ; it is heaven or hell. 
 You come before your child, and you have a present in 
 your hand. You put your hands behind your back and 
 say, "Which hand will you take? In one hand there is 
 a treasure, in the other there is not." The child blind- 
 ly chooses. But God our Father does not do that way 
 wdth us. He spreads out both hands, and says, "Now 
 this shall be very plain. In that hand are pardon, and 
 peace, and life, and the treasures of heaven ; in that hand 
 are punishment, and sorrow, and woe. Choose, choose 
 for yourselves!" "He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." 
 
 Oh, my dear friends, I wish I could this morning coax 
 you to accept this Gospel. If you could just take one 
 look in this laver of looking-glasses spoken of in the 
 text, you would begin now spiritual ablution. You will 
 not feel insulted, will you, when I tell you that you are 
 a lost soul without pardon? Christ offers all the gener- 
 osity of his nature to you this morning. The love of 
 Christ — I dare not, toward the close of my sermon, be- 
 gin to tell about it. The love of Christ! Do not talk 
 
THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 185 
 
 to me about a mountain ; it is higher than that. Do not 
 talk to me about a sea; it is deeper than that. 
 
 An artist in his dreams saw such a splendid dream of 
 the transfiguration of Christ that he awoke and seized his 
 pencil, and said, " Let me paint this and die." Oh, I have 
 seen the glories of Christ! I have beheld something of 
 the beauty of that great sacrifice on Calvary, and I have 
 sometimes felt I would be willing to give any thing if I 
 might just sketch before you the wonders of that sacri- 
 fice. I would like to do it while I live, and I would like 
 to do it when I die. " Let me paint this and die !" He 
 comes along, weary and worn, his face wet with tears, 
 his brow crimson with blood, and he lies down on Cal- 
 vary for you. No, I mistake. Kothing was as comfort- 
 able as that. A stone on Calvary would have made a 
 soft pillow for the dying head of Christ. Nothing so 
 comfortable as that. He does not lie down to die; he 
 stands up to die; his spiked hands outspread as if to em- 
 brace a world. Oh, what a hard end for these feet that 
 had traveled all over Judea on ministries of mercy! 
 What a hard end for those hands that had wiped away 
 tears and bound up broken hearts ! Very hard, oh dying 
 Lamb of God! and yet there are those here this morning 
 who do not love thee. They say, " What is that all to 
 me? What if He does weep, and groan, and die, I don't 
 want Him." Lord Jesus Christ, they will not help thee 
 down from the cross ! The soldiers will come, and they 
 will tear thee down from the cross, and put their arms 
 around thee and lower thee into the tomb; but they will 
 not help. They see nothing to move them. Oh dying 
 Christ! turn on them thine eyes of affection now, and 
 see if they will not change their minds! 
 
186 THE LAYER OF LOOKING-GLASSES. 
 
 "I saw One lianging on a tree, 
 In agony and blood, 
 Who fixed his languid eyes on me, 
 As near his cross I stood. 
 
 *' Oh, never till my latest breath 
 Will I forget that look ! 
 He seemed to charge me with his death, 
 Though not a word he spoke. " 
 
 And that is all for you ! Ob, can you not love him? 
 Come around this laver, old and young. It is so burnish- 
 ed, you can see your sins; and so deep, you can wash them 
 all away. Oh mourner, here bathe your bruised soul; 
 and, sick one, here cool your hot temples in this laver. 
 Peace! Do not- cry any more, dear soul! Pardon for 
 all thy sins, comfort for all thy afflictions. The black 
 cloud that hung thundering over Sinai has floated above 
 Calvary, and burst into the shower of a Saviour's tears. 
 
 I saw in Kensington Garden, London, a picture of 
 Waterloo a good while after the battle had passed, and 
 the grass had grown all over the field. There was a dis- 
 mounted cannon, and a lamb had come up from the pas- 
 ture and lay sleeping in the mouth of that cannon. So 
 the artist had represented it — a most suggestive thing. 
 Then I thought how the war between God and the soul 
 had ended ; and instead of the announcement, " The wages 
 of sin is death," there came the words, " My peace I give 
 unto thee ;" and amidst the batteries of the law that had 
 once quaked with the fiery hail of death, I beheld the 
 Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. 
 
 "I went to Jesus as I was, 
 
 Weary, and worn, and sad : • 
 I found in him a resting-place, 
 And he has made me glad." 
 
CMUMBIS UNDER THE TABLE. 187 
 
 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 "But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, 
 and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of 
 the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered 
 and said unto her, woman, great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as 
 thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. — 
 Matthew xv., 26-28. 
 
 IT was a Sabbatb afternoon in the Belleville parsonage. 
 I had been trying for two years to preach, but to me 
 the Christian life had been nothing but a straggle. I sat 
 down at the table, took up my Bible, and asked for di- 
 vine illumination, and it poured like sunlight upon my 
 soul through the story of the Syrophenician woman. 
 
 This woman was a mother, and she had an afflicted 
 daughter. The child had a virulent, exasperating, con- 
 vulsive disease, called the possession of the devil. The 
 mother was just like other mothers; she had no peace 
 as long as her child was sick. She was a Gentile, and 
 the Jews had such a perfect contempt for the Gentiles 
 that they called them dogs. Nevertheless, she comes to 
 Christ, and asks his help in her family troubles. Christ 
 makes no answer. The people are afraid there is going 
 to be a " scene " there, and they try to get the woman, 
 out of Christ's presence; but he forbids her expulsion. 
 Then she falls down and repeats her request. Christ, to 
 rally her earnestness, and to make his mercy finally more 
 conspicuous, addresses her, saying, "It is not meet to 
 take the children's bread" — that is, the salvation ap- 
 
188 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 pointed for the Jews — "and cast it to dogs" — the Gen- 
 tiles. Christ did not mean to characterize that woman 
 as a dog. That would have been most unlike him, who 
 from the cross said, "Behold thy mother." His whole 
 life so gentle and so loving, he could not have given it 
 out as his opinion that that was what she ought to be 
 called; but he was only employing the ordinary parlance 
 of the Jews in regard to the Gentiles. Yet that mother 
 was not to be put off, pleading as she was for the life of 
 her daughter; she was not to be rebuffed, she was not 
 to be discouraged. She says, "Yea, Lord, I acknowledge 
 I am a Gentile dog, but I remember that even the dogs 
 have some privileges, and when the door is open they 
 slink in and they crawl under the table, and when the 
 bread or the meat sifts through the cracks of the table, 
 or falls off* the edge of it, they pick it up, and the master 
 of the house is not angry with them. I don't ask for a 
 big loaf; I don't ask even for a big slice; I only ask for 
 that which drops down through the chinks of the ta- 
 ble — the dogs' portion. It is the crumbs I am after." 
 Christ felt the wit and the earnestness and the stratagem 
 and the faith of that woman. He turns upon her, and 
 says, "You have conquered me; your daughter is well 
 now. Go home, mother; but before you get there she 
 will come down, skipping out to meet you." 
 
 There I see the mother going. She feels twenty 3^ears 
 younger — getting on in life, but she goes with a half-run. 
 Amidst an outburst of hysterical laughter and tears they 
 meet. The mother breaks down every time she tries to 
 tell it; the daughter with cheeks as rosy as before she 
 fell in the first fit; the doctors of the village prophesy- 
 ing that the cure will not last, because it was not accord* 
 
CKUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 189 
 
 ing to their prescription. But I read in the oldest med- 
 ical journal of the world, " The daughter was made whole 
 from that very hour." 
 
 In the first place, I learn from my subject that sin 
 treats us like a dog — not as dogs are now treated. Land- 
 seer, in his pictures, makes princes of all the canine fam- 
 ily. You sometimes find the kennel lined and cushion- 
 ed. The St. Bernard dogs are admired all the woi'ld 
 over. There is one of them wnth a collar on his neck 
 inscribed with the names of twenty-five persons whose 
 lives he saved from the snow. The sagacity and faith- 
 fulness and kindness of the dog have conquered the re- 
 spect of the world. He dashes from the ship's deck to 
 save the life of the man overboard. He rushes into the 
 wild surf and brings ashore the exhausted bather. With 
 his wai'm tongue he licks into life the freezing wayfarer. 
 From the Liffy Bridge a child fell into the water. A 
 dog stood on the bridge and saw it fall, and leaped after 
 the child as it came to the surface, and seizing it gently 
 but firmly, brought it ashore. A gentleman stood on 
 the bridge, looking down at it, and said, "How very 
 sagacious that dog is — how very kind and faithful!'' 
 But he was thrilled through when he saw it was his own 
 child that had been saved. There is no way in which 
 you can so deeply offend a hunter as by maltreating his 
 hounds. The finest picture in the room of Dr. John 
 Brown, of Edinburgh, the celebrated author, is a picture 
 of "Rab," the dog immortal. Walter Scott sang his 
 praise. The mastiff, lying, toothless, and blind, and lame, 
 on the door-mat, is the pet of the whole household. 
 
 But it was not so in the time of Christ, nor is it so in 
 the East to-day. That whole land is filled with mean 
 
190 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 curs; they are foul and vermin-covered and snarly, and 
 the most significant thing tiiat a Jew could say about 
 a Gentile, in the way of depicting hatred, was to call 
 him a dog./ It seems as if the sagacity of the dog were 
 not discovered in those days. Job gives him a kick in 
 his thirtieth chapter. Abishai said, in regard to David, 
 " Shall this dead dog curse the king ?" Goliath said to 
 David, "Am I a dog, that thou comest out against me 
 with stones?" Hazael, wishing to depict his hatred for 
 some kind of sin, said, "Is thy servant a dog, that he 
 should do this great thing?" Paul, writing to the Phi- 
 lippians, tried to set forth the danger of consorting with 
 certain persons, and said, "Beware of dogs." John, in 
 Revelation, describing the fact that the abandoned and 
 the dissolute and the sinful shall finally be thrust out of 
 heaven, says, "Without are dogs." This I say to show 
 you what intense hatred the Jew of olden time had 
 against the Gentile. You must all admit that it must 
 have been a positively sinful hatred, and so through my 
 subject, the first lesson I learn is that sin treats us like a 
 dog. It may flatter you for a while ; it may caress you 
 for a while; but no Eastern traveler ever more merci- 
 lessly beat a whelp in the streets of Beirut or Damascus 
 than sin will beat you and me if it gets a chance. " The 
 way of the transgressor is hard." 
 
 Sill is a scarification of the soul. Sin comes to the 
 young man. It says, " Take a game of cards — it won't 
 hurt you. Besides that, it is the way men make their 
 fortune." It is only a small stake. See how easy it is. 
 The young man plays and wins a horse and carriage and 
 a house — wins a fortune! "See how easy it is," says 
 sin ; " it don't cost you any thing ! Look at those young 
 
CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 191 
 
 men who stick to their salaries, away down at the foot 
 of the ladder, while you are in great prosperity." The 
 young man is encouraged. He goes on, and plays larger 
 and larger; the tide turns against him; he loses the 
 horse, loses the carriage, loses the house, loses the for- 
 tune. Crack! goes the sheriff's mallet on the last house- 
 hold valuable. Down lower and lower the man falls, 
 until he pitches pennies for a drink, or clutches for dev- 
 ils that trample him in wild delirium. " The way of the 
 transgressor is hard." 
 
 Sin comes to a young man and says, "Take this glass 
 — it won't hurt you. It has a very fine flavor. Take a 
 glass in the morning; it will be an appetizer. Take a 
 glass at noon ; it will aid digestion. Take a glass at 
 night; it will make you sleep well." You are in a glow, 
 while others are chilly. How bright it makes the eye — 
 how elastic it makes the step! One day you meet him, 
 and you say, " What are you doing here at noon ? I 
 thought you were at business." "Oh, I lost my place." 
 "Lost your place?" God have mercy upon the young 
 man when, through misdemeanor, he loses his place! 
 Every temptation in hell takes after hmi. Hoppled and 
 handcuffed, at thirty years of age, by evil habit! Save 
 that young man; he is on the express train that stops 
 not until it tumbles over the embankment of perdition. 
 *' The way of the transgressor is hard." 
 
 Sin comes to a young man, and sa\^s, " Take a dollar 
 out of your employer's drawer; he won't miss it; you 
 can put it back after a -while. Take another! take an- 
 other! Don't you see how easy it is? Hundreds of 
 dollars added to your salary in a year!" One day the 
 police knock at the door, and say, "I want you.'* 
 
192 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 "What!" "I want you." Discovery has come; dis- 
 grace, imprisonment, loss of the soul. " The way of tlie 
 transgressor is hard." 
 
 But you need not look through the wicket of the 
 prison to learn this, and to find the frozen feet, and the 
 bruised brow, and to hear the coughing lungs, resulting 
 from crime. Every man has found out in his own expe- 
 rience that "The w^ay of the transgressor is hard." Sin 
 demeans us, sin is cruel, sin is desperate — it lacerates, it 
 mauls the soul, it chains you like a dog, it drives you out 
 like a dog, it throws refuse to you like a dog, it whips 
 you with innumerable stripes like a dog. There is a 
 legend abroad, of some one of whom it was foretold that 
 she would die of a serpent's bite. The father, to keep 
 her away from that, built a castle far out in the sea. He 
 said no serpent could crawl there; but one day a boat 
 came under the castle, and the daughter saw grapes in it, 
 and, letting down a rope, she got tlie grapes, and w^as eat- 
 ing them, when she found a serpent entwined in the clus- 
 ters. It stung her, and she died. Sin may seem luscious 
 and ripe, and to have all the wealth of the vineyard, but 
 at the last "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an 
 adder." Oh, have nothing to do with its approaches. 
 It promises you a robe ; it will cover you with rags. It 
 offers you a chalice of luxurious beverage; it will fill 
 you with wormwood. It promises you a throne ; it will 
 drive you into a kennel. 
 
 Again, my subject shows you Jesus with Ms hack turned. 
 That woman came to him and said, "Lord, spare the life 
 of my child; it will not cost you any thing." Jesus turns 
 his back. He throws positive discouragement upon her 
 petition. Jesus stood with his /ace to blind Bartimeus, 
 
CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 193 
 
 and the foaming demoniac, and the limping paralytic, and 
 the sea when he hushed it, and the grave when he broke 
 it ; but now he turns his back. I asked an artist, a day 
 or two ago, if he ever saw a representation of Jesus Christ 
 •with his back turned. He said, no. And it is a fact that 
 you may go through all the picture-galleries of London 
 and Dresden and Kome and Florence and Naples, and 
 you will find Christ with full-face and profile, but nev- 
 er with his back turned. Yet here, in this passage, he 
 turned away from the woman. And so, some of you 
 have come at times and found Jesus with his face away 
 from you. Here is somebody who is striving to be a 
 Christian. He has cried to God for mercy, and he has 
 been in as much anxiety about his soul as that Syrophe- 
 nician woman was about her dauohter. He has come to 
 Christ and said, " Lord, look this way." No answer. He 
 said, "Lord Jesus Christ, look this way. I come with a 
 soul sin-sick. Look this way." What did Christ say? 
 "You are a sinner, you are a vile sinner, you are a con- 
 demned sinner, you are a dying sinner. Do you expect 
 all the glories of heaven to be given to one as wayward 
 as you have been ?" But do not be discouraged, oh seek- 
 ing soul! put down the pack of thy sins at Jesus's feet 
 an3^how. If his face is turned away from thee, then put 
 down thy pack of sins at his heel. Then, if perchance 
 he step backward, he will fiill over it into thine out- 
 stretched arms, oh waiting^ sinner! Jesus will turn his 
 face at the right time. Eemember that mercy postponed 
 is mercy augmented. If the waters of thy soul come to 
 flood-tide, they will break away the dam. If the arrow- 
 head be drawn clear back to the bow, it is only that it 
 may be projected fiirther. If Christ turn his back to 
 
194 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 thee, it is only that the dawn on his face may be more 
 effulgent. Oh, what are a few days or hours of darkness 
 and struggle compared with the eternal illumination! 
 What were the five minutes in which this Syrophenician 
 woman stood in bitterness behind Jesus, compared with 
 the eighteen hundred years in which she has rejoiced 
 before him? Courage, oh sorrowing soul! "Weeping 
 may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 
 Many a man has put his hand over his shoulder to find 
 the cross, and lo! it was gone; but in bringing his hand 
 back again, he has struck the crown on his head, radiant 
 with pardon and glory. I see horses dashing down the 
 street. They draw a chariot. Who is in it? A man 
 with a bandage over his mouth, and his head wnipped in 
 folds. Who is it? Naaman, the leper. He drives up 
 in front of the place where the prophet lives. The char- 
 ioteer cries, "Whoa! Whoa!" They stop there. They 
 wait for the prophet to come out. He does not come. 
 He merely sends word, "Go wash in the Jordan, and thou 
 shalt be healed." And so we come for Christ's mercy. 
 That mercy may not have appeared as we expected, but 
 let us be willing to take it at any time and in any way 
 it shall come. Blessed are all they who put their trust 
 in him. 
 
 Again, I see in my subject Jesus conquered hy a human 
 soul. That woman said, " Take this disease away from my 
 daughter." Christ responded to her, "It is not meet to 
 take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs." Then she 
 roused her soul into an acuteness of expression seldom 
 equaled by poet or painter, or orator or satirist, when she 
 said, "Yea, Lord, but even the dogs eat of the crumbs 
 that fall from their master's table." Then he turned, and 
 
-CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 195 
 
 flung pardon and healing and help into her soul with 
 the words, " woman ! great is thy faith ; be it unto 
 thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made 
 whole from that very hour." I have talked to you some- 
 times of Jesus, the conqueror. Listen now about Jesus, 
 the conquered. You have seen him on the white horse 
 of victory, all heaven following him on white horses, in 
 his right hand the drawn sword of universal dominion ; 
 the moon under his feet, the stars his tiara ; the sun only 
 the rocket shot up in the signal - service of his great 
 host; burning worlds only the bonfires of his victory. 
 But now see him surrender — faith, humility, and prayer 
 triumphant. 
 
 There are some things which are impossible for Christ: 
 he can not break his oath ; he can not despise the hum- 
 ble ; he can not resist the cry of faith. Heaven sheathes 
 its sword. It seems as if the prayer of the Syropheni- 
 cian woman has conquered Omnipotence. The cavaliy 
 troop that John saw coming down the hills of heaven 
 fall back. Behold the victories of prayer ! History tells 
 us of Queen Caroline, who, in 1820, tried to get into West- 
 minster Abbey, at the coronation of George lY., her of- 
 fended husband. With six shining bays, and in a car- 
 riage of state, she rode up to the door. She tried this 
 door ; no admittance. She tried another door ; they de- 
 manded tickets. She came to another door, and said, 
 "Surely you will not keep out your queen;" but they 
 said, " We have no orders for your admittance." So she 
 mounted her carriage and rode away in derision. Let 
 me say that the attempt to get into the temple of Christ's 
 mercy will be fruitless if we come with pride and come 
 in pomp. We can not ride through the gates in state — • 
 
196 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 we can not come with plumes or pretension. Eichly- 
 robed Qaeen Caroline failed at Westminster Abbey with 
 George lY. ; but the Syrophenician woman of the text, 
 at the door of Christ's mercy, succeeded with the Lord 
 of earth and heaven. She wanted only the crumbs — she 
 is invited to sit up as a banqueter. Bitter Valley Forge 
 comes before victorious Yorktown. The kingdom of 
 heaven is large enough when you get into it, but the 
 gate is so low that you can not come in save on your 
 knees. man! woman out of Christ 1 push your 
 way this day into that kingdom. With earnest, im- 
 portunate, confident, persistent prayer conquer all the 
 obstacles in your way. I suppose that the people who 
 w^ere standing around about the woman and around about 
 Christ said, "Don't bother Jesus with that matter. You 
 can't make any impression on him. He has no medi- 
 cine. If the doctors of the village can't cure your daugh- 
 ter, Christ can't do it ; besides that, you can see, from 
 his looks, that he don't care any thing for you." The 
 woman knew better. With prayer she seized Christ, 
 and with omnipotent cure Christ seized the invalid, and 
 "she was made whole from that very hour." Oh, bring 
 the diseases of your body, bring the diseases of your soul, 
 to Christ I If his face be turned away from you, keep on 
 until he shall turn his face to you. Persevere, implore, 
 beseech, agonize, and conquer. 
 
 Why, my friends, you talk as though there were a 
 greater amount of perseverance to be used in the matter 
 of becoming a Christian than in any thing else. Let me 
 say, you have five hundred times in your life exerted 
 more perseverance and put forth more determination 
 than would have made you a Christian. You put it out 
 
CRU2IBS UNDER TEE TABLE. 197 
 
 in worldly directions. If you had taken a thousandth 
 part of your worldly earnestness, and with it gone toward 
 Christ, you would have found him. How men seek for 
 the wealth of this world ! Is any man utterly discour- 
 aged if he does not make a fortune this year? Does he 
 not keep on trying and trying? Who here, especially 
 among the young, has given up the idea of getting at 
 least a competency ? Not one. And yet how treasures 
 do fall out by the way! I was reading, a day or two 
 ago, of the fact that in 1861 there were in this country 
 failures in business amounting to two hundred millions 
 of dollars, and that in 1857 there were failures in this 
 country amounting to two hundred and ninetj^-seven mill- 
 ions of dollars. Yet who stopped seeking after money? 
 Let me tell you that if j^ou had sought with one-half of 
 the earnestness after Christ and eternal treasures which 
 characterized your search for earthly perishables, you 
 would long ago have had the joy and peace of the Gos- 
 pel. So it is with the honors of the world. How men 
 push out their energies in that direction, and toil and 
 drudge, and yet how little they are worth after they are 
 gotten! How mightily it was illustrated in the history 
 of William the Conqueror. The world bowed down be- 
 fore him, and yet, when he came to die, the rabble rush- 
 ed into the room and stole the pictures, and actually stole 
 the last shred of clothing off the corpse of William the 
 Conqueror. And then, when they came to bury him in 
 the chancel of the church, a man stood up with a strong 
 protest that actually staggered back the pall-bearers and 
 procession, and inquired why such a miserable carcass as 
 that should be let down into the church chancel ? All 
 the world honoring him a little while before — now al] 
 
198 CBVMBS UNDER TEE TABLE. 
 
 the glorj departed ! But the failure of the world's hon- 
 ors have not discouraged you ; you have pushed on after 
 them. When I see that one-half of that energy put out 
 in the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ would have 
 brought you into the peace and the life of the Gospel, I 
 do not ask you to exert any more energy in the divine 
 direction than you do in the worldly direction, but just 
 as much. Strive to enter into the straight gate. Take 
 the kingdom of heaven by violence. Come up to Christ 
 as this Syrophenician woman did, and refuse to be put 
 off, and pray, and pray, and pray again, until he shall 
 turn his face of benediction and mercy upon you. 
 
 Are you sitting here this morning unmoved while 
 your last opportunity of salvation is going away from 
 you? Spring is coming. Do you see the ice going out 
 of the river? You see the snow melting. Soon the 
 voice of the turtle will be heard in the land. Are there 
 any signs that the winter is breaking np in your soul? 
 Is the only sound there that of the bittern, and the owl 
 of the night, and the petrel crying through the ever- 
 lasting storm? When I think of the perils that hang 
 around those who have not secured the pardon of the 
 Gospel, I feel that I must leave the platform and take 
 you by the shoulder, and cry out in your ear, as the angel 
 did to Lot, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, 
 neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the mount- 
 ain, lest thou be consumed." I know that the critics 
 sometimes say I am too importunate in pleading with 
 men about their souls; but how can I observe formali- * 
 ties and oratorical proprieties when I see sitting before 
 me thousands within a short time of hell or heaven? 
 
 Will you be like the Syrophenician woman upon 
 
CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 199 
 
 whom Christ turned his back ? Oh, he will not turn it 
 for five minutes. But from those who finally reject 
 him Christ will tarn away; and no entreaty, no cry 
 for mercy, no groaning will win his favor. The har- 
 vest will be past, and the summer ended, and the day 
 of grace gone forever ! Can that be all true, or is this 
 a fable? Am I merely imagining it? Will there be 
 no great ordeal when you and I, my brethren, must 
 stand naked and hear our doom — Christ saying to some 
 on that day, "Come, ye blessed" — that invitation chim- 
 ing like the very bells of heaven ? Will there be a 
 cry, "Depart, ye cursed?'' Coming from the study of 
 the Bible this morning into your presence, I feel over- 
 whelmed by these truths, and I cry out, If the Lord 
 be God, follow him. Make up your mind whether the 
 Bible is right or not. If it is wrong, quit these assem- 
 blages ; they do not amount to any thing. If the Bible 
 is wrong, stop praying; it does not amount to any thing. 
 But if it is all truth, if I am an immortal man, and yet a 
 dying man, if this body must soon perish, and then my 
 soul rise up into the presence of Almighty God, and stand 
 before him in judgment, oh let me appreciate it, and let 
 me act upon it! By the crushed heart of the Son of 
 God, by the flaming throne of heaven, by the raging fur- 
 naces of hell, fly for thy life! "Let the wicked forsake 
 his way." I do not ask what sins you have committed. 
 I do not come with a partial Gospel. I do not say, 
 "This man may receive the Gospel, and for that man 
 there will be no mercy." I tell you Christ's arm of 
 mercy is stretched out for enough to take in all this 
 audience, saying, "Whosoever will, let him take the 
 water of life freel3^" Did you ever have a better offer 
 
 9 
 
200 CRUMBS UNDER THE TABLE. 
 
 than that? — pardon for all jour sins, comfort for all 
 your trouble, shelter in all your temptations, peace when 
 you die, and joy forever. And all " without money 
 and without price." May that Almighty Spirit, with- 
 out which the heart stays hard, and all Christian en- 
 treaty is unavailing — may that Spirit this morning set 
 before you the stupendous issue of this hour. Oh, eter- 
 nity ! where shall I spend it? Where will you spend 
 it? Oh, eternity! Joys that will never fade! sorrows 
 that never end! — which shall be mine? Which shall 
 be yours? 
 
ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 201 
 
 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 "Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; when I have 
 a convenient season, I will call for thee."' — Acts xxiv., 25. 
 
 A CITY of marble was Cesarea — wharves of marble, 
 houses of marble, temples of marble. This being 
 the ordinary architecture of the place, you may imagine 
 something of the splendor of Governor Felix's residence. 
 In a room of that palace, floor tesselated, windows cur- 
 tained, ceiling fretted, the whole scene affluent with 
 Tyrian purple, and statues, and pictures, and carvings, sat 
 a very darlv-complexioned man by the name of Felix, 
 and beside him a woman of extraordinary beauty, whom 
 he had stolen by breaking up another domestic circle. 
 She was only eighteen years of age, a princess by birth, 
 and unwittingly waiting for her doom — that of being 
 buried alive in the ashes and scoria of Mount Vesuvius, 
 which in sudden eruption, one day, put an end to her 
 abominations. Well, one afternoon, Drusilla, seated in 
 the palace, weary with the magnificent stupidities of the 
 place, says to Felix: "You have a very distinguished 
 prisoner, I believe, by the name of Paul. Do you know 
 he is one of my countrymen? I should very much like 
 to see him, and I should very much like to hear him 
 speak, for I have heard so much about his eloquence. 
 Besides that, the other day, when he was being tried in 
 another room of this palace, and the windows were open, 
 I heard the applause that greeted the speech of Lawyer 
 
202 OBDEBED BACK TO THE GUABD-BOOM. 
 
 Tertullus, as he denounced Paul. Now, I verj mucli 
 wish I could hear Paul speak. Won't you let me hear 
 him speak?" "Yes," said Felix, "I will. I will order 
 him up now from the guard-room." Clank, clank, comes 
 a chain up the marble stairway, and there is a shuffle at 
 the door, and in comes Paul, a little old man, premature- 
 ly old through exposure — only sixty years of age, but 
 looking as though he were eighty. He bows very courte- 
 ously before the Governor and the beautiful woman by 
 his side. They say : " Paul, we have heard a great deal 
 about your speaking ; give us now a specimen of your 
 eloquence." Oh ! if there ever was a chance for a man 
 to show off, Paul had a chance there. He might have 
 harangued them about Grecian art, about the wonderful 
 ■water-works he had seen at Corinth, about the Acropolis 
 by moonlight, about prison life in Philippi, about " what 
 I saw in Thessalonica," about the old mythologies ; but 
 "No!" Paul said to himself: "I am now on the way to 
 martyrdom, and this man and woman will soon be dead, 
 and this is my only opportunity to talk to them about 
 the things of eternity." And just there and then, there 
 broke in upon the scene a peal of thunder. It was the 
 voice of a judgment-day speaking through the words of 
 the decrepit apostle. As that grand old missionary pro- 
 ceeded with his remarks, the stoop begins to go out of 
 his shoulders, and he rises up, and his countenance is il- 
 lumined with the glories of a future life, and his shackles 
 rattle and grind as he lifts his fettered arm, and with it 
 hurls upon his abashed auditors the bolts of God's in- 
 dignation. Felix grew very white about the lips. His 
 heart beat unevenly. He put his hand to his brow, as 
 though to stop the quickness and violence of his thoughts. 
 
ORDERED BACK TO THE QUARD-ROOM. 203 
 
 He drew his robe tighter about him, as under a sudden 
 chill. His eyes glare and his knees shake, and, as he 
 clutches the side of his chair in a very paroxysm of ter- 
 ror, he orders the sheriff to take Paul back to the gu'ard- 
 room. ^' Felix trembled, and said. Go thy way for this 
 time ; when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
 thee." A young man came one night to our services, 
 with pencil in hand, to caricature the whole scene, and 
 make mirth of those who should express any anxiety 
 about their souls; but I met him at the door, his face 
 very white, tears running down his cheek, as he said, 
 " Do you think there is any chance for me?" Felix trem- 
 bled, and so may God grant it may be here to-night! 
 
 I propose to give you two or three reasons why I 
 think Felix sent Paul back to the guard-room, and ad- 
 journed this whole subject of religion. The first rea- 
 son was, he did not want to give up his si7is. He looked 
 around ; there was Drusilla. He knew that when he 
 became a Christian, he must send her back to Azizus, 
 her lawful husband, and he said to himself, "I will risk 
 the destruction of my immortal soul, sooner than I will 
 do that." How many there are now who can not get to 
 be Christians, because they will not abandon their sins! 
 In vain all their prayers and all their church-going. 
 You can not keep these darling sins and win heaven; 
 and to-night some of you will have to decide between 
 the wine-cup, and unlawful amusements, and lascivious 
 gratifications on the one hand, and eternal salvation on 
 the other. Delilah sheared the locks of Samson ; Salome 
 danced Herod into the pit ; Drusilla blocked up the way 
 to heaven for Felix; and unless some of you repent, you 
 shall likewise perish. Yet when I present the subject 
 
204 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 to-night, I fear that some of you will say, "Not quite 
 yet. Don't be so precipitate in your demands. I have 
 a few tickets yet that I have to use. I have a few en- 
 gagements that I must keep. I want to stay a little 
 longer in the whirl of conviviality — a few more guffaws 
 of unclean laughter, a few more steps on the road to 
 death, and then, sir, I will listen to what you sa}^. 'Go 
 thy way for this time ; when I have a convenient season, 
 I will call for thee.' " Do you know that your boat is 
 on the edge of the maelstrom, and that the foam on the 
 wave is the frothing lip of the destroj^ed ; and that the 
 gleam in the water is the glaring eyeballs of the ban- 
 ished ; and that the roar of the wave is the groan of the 
 damned ? Oh, I know that it is a great deal easier, when 
 you are in a boat, to pull ahead the same way you are 
 going; but if to-night you see that you are within a few 
 yards of the vortex, and that this may be your last hour 
 — aye, your last moment, you had better turn around 
 in the boat, you had better clutch with both hands the 
 handles of the oars, as with a death grip, and, putting 
 the blades down into the black waters, pull for your 
 eternal life, crying, "Lord, save me, I perish !" Can you 
 not offer such a prayer to-night, oh man ! long wander- 
 ing away from your God? Who is that I see running 
 up and down in the prison-house of the lost, now trying 
 to break through this gate, and failing, turning around 
 and rushing to the other gate, and beating against it, 
 and in despair crying, "Let me get out?" Who is it? 
 Some soul to-night that will not give up his indulgences; 
 some soul to-night that is bound hand and foot by the 
 powers of darkness ; some soul here that has a darling 
 sin that he will not sacrifice, and who says to me, when 
 
OMDEMED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 205 
 
 I present the great themes of God and eternity to his 
 soul, "Not yet; go thy way for this time; when I have 
 a convenient season, I will call for thee." 
 
 Another reason why Felix sent Paul back to the 
 guard-room and adjourned this subject was, he ivas so 
 very busy. In ordinary times he found the affairs of 
 state absorbing, but those were extraordinary times. The 
 whole land was ripe for insurrection. The Sicarii, a 
 band of assassins, were already prowling around the pal- 
 ace, and I suppose he thought, " I can't attend to religion 
 while I am so pressed by affairs of state." It was bus- 
 iness, among other things, that ruined his soul, and I sup- 
 pose there are three thousand people in this house to- 
 night who are not children of God because they have so 
 much business. It is business in the store — losses, gains, 
 unfaithful emploj-es. It is business in your law of&ce 
 — subpoenas, writs you have to write out, papers you 
 have to file, arguments you have to make. It is your 
 medical profession, with its broken nights, and the ex- 
 hausting anxieties of life hanging upon your treatment 
 It is your real estate office, your business with landlords 
 and tenants, and the failure of men to meet their obliga- 
 tions with you. Ay, with some of those who are here, 
 it is the annoyance of the kitchen, and the sitting-room, 
 and the parlor — the wearing economy of trying to meet 
 large expenses with a small income. Ten thousand 
 voices of " business, business, business," drown the voice 
 of the Eternal Spirit, silencing the voice of the advan- 
 cing judgment-day, overcoming the voice of an agoniz- 
 ing eternity ; and they can not hear, they can not listen. 
 They say, " Go thy way for this time." Some of you 
 look upon ypur goods, you look upon your profession, 
 
206 OMDEBED BACK TO THE QUARD-ROOM. 
 
 you look upon your memorandum-books, and you see 
 the demands that are made this very week upon your 
 time and your patience and your money; and while I am 
 entreating you about your soul and the danger of pro- 
 crastination, you say, "Go thy way for this time; when 
 I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Oh Fe- 
 lix, why be bothered about the affairs of this world so 
 much more than about the affairs of glory or perdition? 
 Do you not know that when death comes you will have 
 to stop business, though it be in the most exacting period 
 of it — between the payment of the money and the tak- 
 ing of the receipt. The moment he comes you will have 
 to go. Death waits for no man, however high, how- 
 ever low. Will you put your office, will you put your 
 shop in comparison with the affairs of an eternal world? 
 affairs that involve thrones, palaces, dominions eternal. 
 Will you put two hundred acres of ground against im- 
 mensity ? Will you put forty or fifty years of your life 
 against millions of ages? Oh Felix, you might better 
 postpone every thing else ! for do you not know that the 
 upholstering of Tyrian purple in your palace will fade, 
 and the marble blocks of Cesarea will crumble, and the 
 breakwater at the beach, made of great blocks of stone 
 sixty feet long, must give way before the perpetual wash 
 of the sea ; but the redemption that Paul offers 5^ou 
 will be forever? and yet, and yet, and yet you wave him 
 back to the guard-room, saying, " Go thy way for this 
 time ; when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
 thee." 
 
 Again, Felix adjourned this subject of religion and 
 put off Paul's argument, because he could not give up the 
 honors of the world. He was afraid somehow he would 
 
ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 207 
 
 be compromised himself in this matter. Eem.arks he 
 made afterward showed him to be intensely ambitious. 
 Oh how he hugged the favor of men ! 
 
 I never saw the honors of this world in their hollowness 
 and hypocrisy so much as I have seen them within the 
 last few days, as I have been looking over the life and 
 death of that wonderful man just departed, Charles Sum- 
 ner. Now that he is dead, the whole nation takes off the 
 hat. As he goes out toward the place of burial, even In- 
 dependence Hall, in Philadelphia, asks that his remains 
 may stop there on their way to Boston. The flags are at 
 half-mast, and the minute-guns on Boston Common throb, 
 now that his heart has ceased to beat. Was it always 
 so? While he lived, how censured of legislative reso- 
 lutions, how caricatured of the pictorials; how charged 
 with every motive mean and ridiculous; how all the 
 urns of scorn and hatred and billingsgate emptied upon 
 his head ; how, when struck down in Senate chamber, 
 there were hundreds of thousands of people who said, 
 "Good for him, served him right!" how, summer before 
 last, he had to put the ocean between him and his ma- 
 ligners, that he might have a little peace, and how, when 
 he went off sick, they said he was broken-hearted because 
 he could not get to be President or Secretary of State. 
 Oh Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! who is that man 
 that sleeps to-night in your public hall, covered with gar- 
 lands and wrapped in the stars and stripes? Is that the 
 man who, only a few months ago, you denounced as the 
 foe of republican and democratic institutions? Is that 
 the same man? You were either wrong then or you are 
 wrong now — a thing most certain, oh Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts! Ye American people, ye can not, by one 
 
 9^ 
 
208 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 week of funeral eulogium and newspaper leaders, wliicb 
 the dead senator can neither read nor hear, atone for 
 twenty-five years of maltreatment and caricature. When 
 I see a man like that, pursued by all the hounds of the 
 political kennel so long as he lives, and then buried 
 under great piles of garlands, and amidst the lamenta- 
 tions of a whole nation, I say to myself, What an un- 
 utterably hypocritical thing is all human .applause and 
 all human favor! You took twenty-five years in trying 
 to pull down his fame, and now you will take twenty-five 
 years in trying to build his monument. You were either 
 wrong then, or you are wrong now. My friends, was 
 there ever a better commentary on the hollowness of all 
 earthly favor? If there are young men in this house 
 who are postponing religion in order that they may have 
 the favors of this world, let me persuade them of their 
 complete folly. If you are looking forward to guberna- 
 torial, senatorial, or presidential chair, let me show you 
 your great mistake. Can it be that now in the presence 
 of these great national solemnities there is any young 
 man saying, "Let me have some political office, let me 
 have some of these high positions of trust and power, 
 and then I will attend to religion ; but not now. ' Go 
 thy way for this time ; when I have a convenient season, 
 I will call for thee!'" 
 
 And now my subject takes a deeper tone, and it shows 
 what a dangerous thing is this deferring of religion. 
 When Paul's chain rattled down the marble stairs of 
 Felix, that was Felix's last chance for heaven. Judg- 
 ing from his character afterward, he was reprobate and 
 abandoned. 
 
 It is eighteen centuries now since Felix lost his soul ; 
 
ORDEliED BACK TO THE GUAED-ROOM. 209 
 
 it is lost yet. I suppose that Drusilla went to the same 
 place. One d^y in Southern Italy there was a trembling 
 of the earth, and the air got black with smoke intershot 
 with liquid rocks, and Yesuvius rained upon her and 
 upon her son a horrible tempest of ashes and fire. They 
 did not reject religion ; they only put it off. They did 
 not understand that that day, that that hour when Paul 
 stood before them, was the pivotal hour upon which ev- 
 ery thing was poised, and that it tipped the wrong w^ay. 
 Their convenient season came when Paul and his guards- 
 man entered the palace: it went away when Paul and 
 his guardsman left. Have you never seen men waiting 
 for a convenient season? There is such a great fascina- 
 tion about it, that though you maj^ have come in here to- 
 tight, and may sit or stand with great respect to the truth 
 of Christ, yet somehow there is in your soul the thought, 
 " Not quite yet. It is not time for me to become a Chris- 
 tian." I say to a boy, "Seek Christ." He says, "N'o; 
 wait until I get to be a young man." I say to the young 
 Tuan, "Seek Christ." He says, "Wait until I come to 
 :nid-life." I meet the same person in mid-life, and I say, 
 "Seek Christ." He says, "Wait until I get old." I 
 meet the same person in old age, and say to him, " Seek 
 Christ." He says, " Wait until I am on my dying bed." 
 I am called to his dying couch. His last moments have 
 come. I bend over the couch and listen for his last 
 words. I have partially to guess what they are by the 
 motion of his lips, he is so feeble ; but rallying himself, 
 he whispers, until I can hear him say, "I — am — waiting 
 — for — a more — convenient — season " — and he is gone ! 
 
 I can tell you when your convenient season will come. 
 I can tell you the year — it will be 1874. I can tell you 
 
210 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 the month — it will be the month of March. I can tell 
 you what kind of a day it will be — it will be the Sab- 
 bath-day. I can tell you what hour it will be — it will 
 be between eight and ten o'clock. In other words, it is 
 noiv — a word of three letters ; but each one an anthem, 
 or a jubilee, or a coronation, or a dungeon, or a groan. 
 Do you ask me how I know this is your convenient sea* 
 son? I know it because you are here, and because the 
 Holy Spirit is here, and because the elect sons and daugh- 
 ters of God in this church are praying for your redemp- 
 tion, and because the women of the church, last Thurs- 
 day afternoon, especially implored the blessing of God 
 upon the morning and evening services of to-day. I 
 know it because this matter was up on Friday evening 
 at the prayer-meeting, and this morning in the prayer- 
 meeting, and in the preceding prayer-meeting this even- 
 ing. We prayed that God would come by his Holy 
 Spirit and save your souls, and so I know this is your 
 convenient season. I know it also from the fact that 
 two great national funeral bells, one from the East and 
 the other from the West, are tolling through all the val- 
 leys, and over all the mountains of the land — tolling, 
 tolling, "Put not your trust in princes, neither in the 
 son of man in whom there is no help ; their breath goeth 
 forth, in that very day their thoughts perish." Aj^ I 
 know it is your convenient season because some of you, 
 like Felix, tremble as all your past life comes upon you 
 with its sin, and all the future life comes upon you with 
 its terror. This night air is aglare with torches to show 
 you up or to show you down. It is rustling with wings 
 to lift you into light, or smite you into despair, and there 
 is a rushing to and fro, and a shouting, and a wailing, 
 
ORDER-ED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 211 
 
 and a leaping, and a falling, and a beating against the 
 door of your soul as with a great thunder of emphasis, 
 telling you, " Now, now is the best time, as it may be the 
 only time." 
 
 My friends, be quick. You have no time to waste. 
 Be quick, the days of your life are going. Be quick, the 
 hour of your death is coming. Be quick, the time of 
 grace has almost closed with some of you ; perhaps it 
 may be closed with some of you to-night. Be quick, lest 
 some paralysis seize upon you as upon our venerable ex- 
 President, just carried out, or you have no more time 
 than the illustrious senator who fell this week — only 
 time to say as he did, putting his hand upon his heart, 
 '^Oh! oh!" and you be gone! 
 
 May God Almighty forbid that any of you, my breth- 
 ren or sisters, act the part of Felix and Drusilla, and put 
 away this great subject. If you are going to be saved 
 ever, why not begin to-night? Throw down your sins 
 and take the Lord's pardon. Christ has been tramping 
 after you many a day. 
 
 An Indian and a white man became Christians. The 
 Indian, almost as soon as he heard the Gospel, believed 
 and was saved ; but the white man struggled on in dark- 
 ness for a long while before he found light. After their 
 peace in Christ, the white man said to the Indian, " Why- 
 was it that I was kept so long in the darkness, and you. 
 immediately found peace ?" The Indian replied, "I v/ill 
 tell you. A prince comes along, and he offers you a 
 coat. You look at your coat, and you say, ' My coat is 
 good enough,' and you refuse his offer ; but the prince 
 comes along and he offers me the coat, and I look at mj 
 old blanket and I throw that aw^ay, and take his offer. 
 
212 ORDERED BACK TO THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 Yon, sir," continued the Indian, "are clinging to your 
 own righteousness, you think you are good enough, and 
 you keep your own righteousness ; but I have nothing, 
 nothing, and so when Jesus offers me pardon and peace, 
 I simply take it." My hearer, why not now throw away 
 the worn-out blanket of your sin and take the robe of a 
 Saviour's righteousness — a robe so white, so fair, so lus- 
 trous, that no fuller on earth can whiten it? Oh, Shep- 
 herd, to-night bring home the lost sheep ! Oh, Father, 
 to-night give a welcoming kiss to the wan prodigal ! Oh, 
 friend of Lazarus, to-night break down the door of the 
 sepulchre, and say to all these dead souls as by irresisti- 
 ble fiat, "XiVe / LIVEl" 
 
FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED, 213 
 
 FKEE CHUECHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them 
 all." — Proverbs xxii., 2. 
 
 NO one class ia a community is independent of the 
 other classes. That is not a healthful condition of 
 society in which men stand aloof from each other. That 
 is a better state when people, moving in different circles, 
 at some time come upon a common platform. What is 
 true in the world is true in the Church: "the rich and 
 the poor ought to meet together: the Lord is the maker 
 of them all." I do not think that the Church of Christ 
 has kept pace with the enterprise of the world. Some 
 years ago, it took a long time to make a nail. The 
 blacksmith would take the bar of iron, thrust it into the 
 hot coals, move the bellows, bring the iron out on the 
 anvil, smite it, cleave it, round it, fashion it into nails. 
 It was a long and tedious process ; but now the iron is 
 put into a machine, and in a moment hundreds of nails 
 are showered upon the floor of the manufactory. Once 
 it required some time to thresh wheat from the straw. 
 The farmer would take the sheaf of wheat, tear off the 
 straw that bound it, scatter it on the floor of the barn, 
 and then the slow flail would pound the wheat out of 
 the straw; now the horses start, and the machine rum- 
 bles, and a sheaf of whe^at is threshed instantly. 
 
 In olden times that was considered a wonderful print- 
 ing-press which could make two hundred and fifty im- 
 
214 FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 pressions in an hour; now, by our modern steam print- 
 ing-press, thousands and tens of thousands are made in 
 the same length of time. The Post-office was formerly 
 a slow affiiir. Once in two weeks the mail would go 
 from London to Edinburgh, and at about the same dis- 
 tance of time go from New York to Boston; but now, 
 half a dozen times a day, you must look out or you will 
 be run over by the wagons that come down Nassau Street 
 with whole tons of United States mails, seven hundred 
 millions of letters and papers having passed through the 
 public post-offices of this country in one year. 
 
 So there has been an advance in jurisprudence. In 
 1846 the constitution of our State was changed, im- 
 provements were made in the criminal code, in the civil 
 code — law that would do very well in 1777, not doing at 
 all in 1873. Now, I ask if the Church of God has kept 
 pace with worldly enterprise? with the post-office? with 
 modern railroad transportation? with the arts? with the 
 sciences? with optics? with geology? with astronomy? 
 "Oh," you say, "there is no new principle in religion 
 to be developed." Well, I respond, there is no new 
 principle in science to be developed. They are only the 
 old principles that have come to light and demonstration. 
 There was just as much electricity in the clouds before 
 Benjamin Franklin played kite with the thunder-storms 
 as there has been since. The law of gravitation did not 
 wait for Newton to come. There was just as much pow- 
 er in steam before Fulton discovered it as since. The 
 carboniferous and Jurassic strata of the earth did not 
 wait to take their position until Hugh Miller planted 
 his crow-bar. So, in matters of religion, if a man comes, 
 and says, " I have now discovered an entirely new priu- 
 
FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 215 
 
 ciple in religion ;" I say, "I have no faith in what you 
 are going to say. I have but one standard, and that is the 
 Bible." But if he says, "I have an old Bible principle 
 that I wish to evolve and demonstrate," then, with all 
 the possible attention of my soul, I say, "Hear! hear!" 
 I propose to-night to argue on behalf of a Free Church. 
 There are a great many who do not quite understand the 
 pUms and policies of such a church. In the first place, 
 I believe in such a church because it seems to me to be 
 the Scriptural idea. The apostle James says: "If there 
 come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, in 
 goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in 
 vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth 
 the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a 
 good place; and say to the poor. Stand thou there, or 
 sit here under my footstool : are ye not then partial 
 in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?" 
 In other words, the apostle James draws a picture. It is 
 a meeting of Christian people; the usher stands at the 
 door; two people come to the door and ask for seats. 
 The usher looks at the one man, examines him from 
 head to foot, sees that his garments are dictated by the 
 recent fashion, and says, " Come here, sir, I'll give you 
 an excellent seat;" takes him far up in front, gives him a 
 seat, and says, "I hope you will be very comfortable." 
 Then the usher goes back, sees the other man, scrutinizes 
 him very thoroughly, and says, "Poor coat, worn shoes, 
 old hat. I think you will find a very good place to 
 stand in that corner." Now, the lightnings of that pas- 
 sage strike such an usher ; in other words, you have no 
 right to arrange a man's position in the house of God 
 according to his financial qualifications. Do you suppose 
 
216 FMEE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 that tlie seats in the tabernacle of olden time, the temple, 
 and the synagogue, were ever rented by worshipers? Oh 
 no; you tell me those were miraculous times. You say 
 in our times churches are such expensive institutions. 
 We want all this costly machinery. Let me tell you no 
 church of the day costs half so much as did the old tem- 
 ple, and yet that temple in olden times was supported by 
 voluntary contributions. When the farmer brought his 
 harvest in, he said, " These sheaves are for the Lord." 
 When the flocks were drawn up, he said, ''These lambs 
 are for God." When the birds were caught, he said, 
 " These pigeons, and these doves, are for sacrifice." The 
 temple, the tabernacle, all supported by voluntary contri- 
 butions. But you say men were more generous in those 
 times. No, no; the world has been advancing all the 
 time ; there has never been so much generosity on earth 
 as now. 
 
 Do you suppose it would have been possible for the 
 Christian and Sanitary commissions that we had during 
 the last war to have prospered in those ancient times? 
 No, they could not have been supported two thousand, 
 one thousand, or five hundred years ago. They are pro- 
 jected in this Christian age. Now, I say, if in those dark 
 times, and in that wicked city of Jerusalem, the temple 
 could be supported by voluntary contributions, can we 
 not in this Christian age, and in the full blaze of the Gos- 
 pel light, and when the doctrine of Christian beneficence 
 is so much inculcated, support a plain church ? The fact 
 is, that the modes of constructing church finances have 
 chilled the voluntary principle, and dammed back the 
 charities of the world ; when, if we had gone back to the 
 old Bible plan in all our churches, there would have been 
 
FEEE CHUHCHES ADVOCATED. 217 
 
 larger benevolence and a more extensive support of the 
 institutions of religion. So that I come back now with 
 more emphasis than ever, to say, "If there come into 
 your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly ap- 
 parel, and there come in also a poor man with vile rai- 
 ment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay 
 clothing, and say unto him. Sit thou here in a good 
 place, and say to the poor. Stand thou there, or sit here 
 under my footstool, are ye not then partial in your- 
 selves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?" Oh, 
 how different it would be in all our churches if, instead 
 of having them supported by a few men, we could have 
 the great masses of the people bring their mites into the 
 Lord's treasury. 
 
 I argue, farther, in behalf of a Free Church, because I 
 think it is the only practical common -sense mode for 
 city evangelization. The Church has tried scores of 
 ways. We have gone out with tracts, and with our Bi- 
 bles and religious books, among the people in the desti- 
 tute parts of the city. Some have refused to take them. 
 Some have burned them up. Some have read them and 
 tried to reform ; but as long as we leave them down 
 amidst the evil influences by which they are surrounded, 
 and do not bring them into some Christian church — if 
 you reform them fifty times, fifty times they will be un- 
 reformed. In other words, here is a man down by the 
 marshes with chills and fever. The physician comes 
 and gives him quinine, and stops the chills; but just as 
 long as that man continues to live down by the swamps, 
 he will be subjected to the same ailment. Bring him 
 out on the hill-top, where the atmosphere is clear, if you 
 want him to be permanently restored. Now, I say of 
 
218 FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 those people wlio live in the slums of city destitution, as 
 long as you leave them there they will fall into their old 
 sins ; but if you bring them into the healthy atmosphere 
 of a Christian church, then you may hope for their per- 
 manent reformation. If you can say to them, " There 
 is a free church, there is a free Bible, there is a free cross, 
 and yonder is a free heaven," they will accept the invi- 
 tation and come with you. 
 
 Mark this, my friends, that when you save the cities, 
 you save the world. When Pekin comes to Christ, all 
 China will come. When Paris surrenders to God, all 
 France will surrender. When London prays, England 
 will pray with her. When New York bows at the feet 
 of Christ, the United States will bow with her. Save 
 the cities, and you save the world. 
 
 I knew this city of Brooklyn eighteen years ago. 
 Since then there have been great efforts made for the 
 evangelization of the city, and yet you know as well as 
 I that there is more sin in the city to-day, more Sab- 
 bath-breaking, and a vaster population who come not 
 under any kind of religious influence. Where is Brook- 
 lyn to-day? In the churches? No! Where is New 
 York to-day ? In the churches ? No ! No ! No ! It 
 is the exception when people go to church. A vast ma- 
 jority of the masses are traveling on down toward death, 
 unassisted because uninvited. Now, if a surgeon goes 
 into a hospital, and there are three hundred patients, 
 and he cures twenty of them and the other two hundred 
 and eighty die, I call that unsuccessful treatment. If the 
 Church of God has saved some, when I compare the few 
 that have been redeemed with the vast multitude that 
 have perished, I say it has been a comparative failure ; 
 
FREE CHUMCHES ADVOCATED. 219 
 
 and if the old plan of conducting the Churcli of Christ 
 has failed, let us start the ship on another tack and try 
 another plan. In other words, come back to the Gospel 
 theory, and throw wide open the doors of our church and 
 tell the people to come in, w^ithout regard to their past 
 history or their present financial or moral condition. 
 
 Again, I argue in behalf of a Free Church, because 
 there are three or four classes of2:)eople that loill especially he 
 touched hy it. Among them will be men who were once 
 very influential in the churches, but who lost their prop- 
 erty, and consequently can not meet the pew-rents. I 
 am not speaking of imaginary cases. I have seen scores 
 of that kind of cases in the city of Brooklyn. In 1837, 
 or in 1857, or 1867, they lost their property. They 
 used to sit near the pulpit. The next year they went 
 farther back in the church. The next year farther back, 
 and farther back as their finances entirely failed them, 
 until at last they sat back by the door ; and when the 
 treasurer went down the aisle, he tapped the man's shoul- 
 der and said, " If you don't pay up, you will have to va- 
 cate this seat." What became of that man ? He went 
 out from the house of God. What becomes of the great 
 multitude who once were influential in the Church of 
 God, who, having lost their property, can not meet the 
 pew-rents in the churches ? They have gone — some to 
 infidelity — some into lives of dissipation — God only 
 knows where they have gone! Will men of any self- 
 respect go to church under such a state of circumstances ? 
 I tell you, nay. If it were my case, I would stay at 
 home and gather my children about me, and read to 
 them of Christ and a free heaven, out of which a man is 
 never pitched because he can not pay his pew-rent ! At 
 
220 FUEE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 the very time a man most needs the consolation of re- 
 ligion — when his earthly fortunes have failed — at the 
 very time that he needs most to be told about treasures 
 that never fail, in banks that never break — the Church 
 of God turns its back upon that man, and the work of 
 breaking down that the Wall Street gamblers began, the 
 Church of God finishes. It seems as if Christ, in the in- 
 finity of his foreknowledge, could not think of a Church 
 pretending to love him that would unanimously bar out 
 the destitute. He said, " The poor ye have always with 
 you." He made it not merely as a statement, but as a 
 prophecy and a promise ; and yet it does really seem as 
 if, in this respect, the Lord God had been thwarted. 
 
 There is another class of persons to whom a Free 
 Church will appeal, and that is the middle classes. And 
 let me say they are the suftering ones in religious things. 
 The wealthy may purchase religious advantages any- 
 where ; the positively beggared may feel so humiliated, 
 they will be willing to go into a mission chapel : but the 
 middle classes have not money enough to buy positions 
 in the wealthy churches, and they are too proud to go 
 gamon the beggared. So they stay at home. When I 
 say the middle classes, I mean those whose income just 
 about meets their outgo; and you will immediately see 
 that is the condition of nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 out of every thousand in this city and in every city. 
 The fact is, God does not trust us with money — I mean 
 the majority of us. Your son is at school. You do not 
 give him a large amount of money at the start. You 
 say to the teacher, ''Send in the bills." When the bills 
 come in, you pay for the tuition, you pay for clothing, 
 you pay for traveling expenses. ISTow God treats us 
 
FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 221 
 
 very mucli in that way. He clothes us, pays our travel- 
 ing expenses, shelters us, but never trusts us with a large 
 amount of money. Hence the middle classes are in the 
 majority — those men in a community are in the major- 
 ity who, when they have met the butcher's bill, and the 
 grocer's bill, and the gas bill, and the clothing bill, and 
 paid their house-rent, have nothing left. The wife says 
 to her husband, "My dear, I think we ought to go to 
 church somewhere. Why don't we take a pew in Dr. 
 Well-to-do's church ?" " Oh," he says, " we can't aiford 
 it. I have more now to pay than I can pay. We can't 
 go there. We've got to deny ourselves a little longer. 
 We'll get a little religion perhaps at home. We'll oc- 
 casionally read the Bible, and once in a while go to a 
 funeral, and that won't cost us any thing; and we will 
 pick up a little religion here and there ; and after a while 
 we may have good luck, and we will then rent a pew, 
 and go to heaven respectably." Many a husband and 
 wife have consulted with each other upon matters of 
 church economy, and before taking a pew, the husband 
 said to the wife, " Now, you know that our income only 
 meets our outgo. AVhat are you willing to deny your- 
 self? Will you have this old carpet another year ? Will 
 you v/ear that set of furs another winter ? Will you con- 
 sent to have no more dresses this season? "ISTo," she 
 says. "Then," he says, "we can't afford religion, and 
 we can't afford the church." And so they stay at home. 
 My friends, open the doors of a free church, where men 
 may meet together without invidious comparisons, and 
 they will pour in like the tides of the sea. We have 
 been barring out this class of men from the house of 
 God, and barring them out from the very gate of heaven. 
 
222 FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 The fact is, tliat the Church has become a sort of spir- 
 itual insurance company ; and the mail comes to get a 
 policy, and you take him into a private room and sound 
 the lungs, and listen to the beating of the heart, and then 
 practically — not literally, but practically — you ask him 
 if he is sound on the dollar question, and if he has been 
 afflicted with any thing like bankruptcy, and if there has 
 been any thing like financial sickness in the family ; and 
 if it is all right, you charge him a great premium, and 
 tell him to be very careful and pay it promptly, for if 
 the policy should run out, that very night he might die, 
 and so lose all the advantages of all the pew-rent he 
 had ever paid; and where his soul would go to would 
 be very uncertain. 
 
 There is another class of people to whom a Free Church 
 will appeal, and that is the rich. I am yet to find an 
 intelligent and rich Christian man who does not believe 
 in such an institution. He may doubt the financial suc- 
 cess of it ; but I am yet to find one such who does not 
 believe in the principle of it. In other words, our mon- 
 eyed men do not like to see the principles of Wall Street 
 applied to the Church of God. When I say a rich man, 
 I mean a man who has riches — not a man who has gained 
 a little money and who is very anxious lest he can not 
 sufficiently display it — but I mean a man who has a for- 
 tune, who masters it, and who has not allowed his for- 
 tune to master him. When you shall throw open the 
 churches of the living God as free churches, then I want 
 to tell you that the gold, and the silver, and the myrrh, 
 and the frankincense will come down to the feet of Jesus. 
 I am not merely theorizing. We demonstrated it in the 
 old Tabernacle. There were the poor there. Then we 
 
FMEE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 223 
 
 had the middle classes — men who toiled ; some with hand, 
 and some with brain — for brain-work is poorly paid in 
 this country. We had many of that class, and they had 
 a hard struggle. Then we had more rich men than we 
 ever had in the old city church — more than we ever ex- 
 pected — men who said, "I will pay for the Gospel not 
 only for myself and my family, but there is a man in that 
 pew who can not afford to pay any thing; I will pay 
 for him. There is another man ; I will pay for him. 
 And instead of sending my money to foreign lands, where 
 I have no doubt it does good, I will preach the Gos- 
 pel to all those in the same church who can not afford 
 to purchase religious advantages." So it was practically 
 demonstrated ; and we shall, God willing, on a larger 
 scale demonstrate it in the new Tabernacle. And if you 
 shall be afraid to come to such a place lest you be social- 
 ly contaminated, I hope yo\x will stay away, lest you con- 
 taminate us ! 
 
 I am in favor of a Free Church, further, because all 
 the Providential indications^ so far as we are concerned, are 
 in that direction. It has been the all-absorbing principle 
 in my soul ever since I entered the ministry. It was the 
 thing that brought me to this city. I had a comfortable 
 home in Philadelphia, but this was a Gospel principle 
 I thought I would like to see tried. I came here, and 
 it so happened that all the people who gathered around 
 me were of the same opinion, and so we have been 
 unanimous. "We were unanimous in the style of the 
 new church, and about the architecture of the second. 
 We were unanimous about having it free. When we 
 were burned down we were unanimous about reconstruc- 
 tion, and the principle we developed in the old church 
 
 10 
 
224 FBEE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 we will try to develop in the new. Where the old Tab- 
 ernacle stopped when it burned down, the new Taberna- 
 cle will begin when it rises up. 
 
 Again, I am in favor of the Free Church, because it ap- 
 peals to men of the world^ as no other kind of church does. 
 A prominent minister of New York said to me a week 
 or two ago, " There are no people who come into our 
 churches here in New York but Christian people. Some- 
 how, we do not get hold of the world." I said, " The 
 majority of those who come into my religious services 
 are of the world, and I think it must be that the free 
 Christian principle is attracting them. In other words, 
 men of the world can not understand the limitations and 
 the exclusiveness of the house of God. They say, 'If 
 you are brothers and sisters, why do not the rich and 
 poor meet together? the Lord is the Maker of them all.' " 
 " Oh," you say, " those men of the world do not do their 
 duty." I know they do not do their duty ; but if this 
 world is to be brought to Christ — if Bibles are to be 
 printed, if churches are to be built, if Christian institu- 
 tions are to be supported — I ask you are not the dollars 
 of the man of the world worth as much as the dollars of 
 the man of the church ? Besides that, we expect these 
 men of the world en masse to march after a while into 
 the kingdom of Christ. Having seen the frank, sympa- 
 thetic men of the world around me as my companions, 
 I expect they will be my companions when they and I 
 have crossed the flood into the great eternity. I have 
 lived with them in this city, and I expect they will be 
 my neighbors in the better city. I know all their trials 
 and temptations; I know all their business perplexities; 
 I know all their hardships ; and I want to stand before 
 
FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 225 
 
 them a few years, and tell them of that Christ who will 
 be their security in every financial strait and their bonds- 
 man in every crisis, and who, when the nations are in a 
 panic and the world ablaze, will declare everlasting divi- 
 dends of light, and joy, and triumph to all those who 
 have invested their affections in him. 
 
 Men and brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, are 
 you ready for such a work? That which three years 
 ago I talked to you as a mere theory has become a mat- 
 ter of practical demonstration. The night before the old 
 Tabernacle was burned down, the trustees of my church 
 met together, reviewed the finances, looked at the in- 
 come, looked at the outgo, and decided that the income 
 exceeded the outgo, proving a free church practicable. 
 That being demonstrated, it was enough for that church. 
 We will take that principle, and develop it on a larger 
 scale. God will this j^ear let you strike a blow that will 
 ring through eternal ages. The grandeur of the work to 
 which you have put your hand no language can describe, 
 no imagination can conceive, no plummet sound, no lad- 
 der scale. If you shall, in the strength of God, as I think 
 you will, rise up to this work of giving a free Gospel to 
 the masses of Brooklyn and the masses of this country, 
 it will take eternal ages for you to count up the rewards 
 of your faithfulness. If some may scoff at you, let them 
 scoff; remembering that they scoffed at Nehemiah, and at 
 Daniel, and at Christ, and pronounced them fools. Ee- 
 member, besides, that there are tens of thousands of good 
 people in this land, and in Britain, who are prajang for 
 our success as a Church. Above all, remember that we 
 are under the benediction of Him in whose word we trust 
 and in whose strength we go forward. The mountains 
 
226 FREE CHURCHES ADVOCATED. 
 
 may depart, the seas may burn, the stars may scatter, the 
 heavens may double up like parchment, the sun may 
 burn down in the socket, and all the worlds fly in the 
 Judgment-day like thistle-down in a tempest ; but God 
 will back out of his promises, and betray his discipleship, 
 and break his oath — never I never ! 
 
OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 227 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES AN- 
 SWERED. 
 
 "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them 
 all." — Proverbs xxii., 2. 
 
 LAST Sabbath I discoursed to you from these words, 
 arguing in behalf of a free Christian church. I 
 showed you, as well as I could, that it was a Scriptural 
 idea ; that it was the only practicable mode of city evan- 
 gelization ; that it appealed to a class of persons who 
 would not otherwise be met; that, so far as we ourselves 
 were concerned, all the Providential indications were in 
 that direction ; and then, lastly, that such an organization 
 would enlist the sympathies of men of the world, as no 
 other organization could. I resume the subject where I 
 then left it. 
 
 What do you suppose Christ thinks of the present 
 mode of conducting church finances? If Jesus were now 
 to alight upon earth and build a church and assume its 
 pastorate, would it be necessary for men to pay money 
 in order to have seats in that church? From what you 
 know of Christ's treatment of the widow with two mites, 
 and of Mary Magdalen, and of the poor man by the way- 
 side, do you think that a man's position in that particu- 
 lar church of Christ would be regulated according to the 
 number of dollars that he could pay ? No, says every 
 man, that idea would be abhorrent to Christ. Well, then, 
 I say it ought to be abhorrent to us. Do you wonder 
 
228 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 
 
 that there have been so many troubles in the churches — 
 that many of them have fought like beasts at Ephesus, 
 fought about the site upon which to build, fought about 
 the architecture, fought about the choir, fought about the 
 minister, fought before church, fought after church, fought 
 all the week ? Some of you know that the greatest con- 
 flicts of the last fifty years have been church troubles. 
 If our churches were all regulated by the principles of 
 Christ's religion, do you not believe that there would be 
 a cessation to such combat? " But," says some one, " we 
 must stick to the old plan, lest we shall not get on success- 
 fully in our finances," as though the present mode in the 
 churches of conducting church finances were a success. 
 Far from it. Three-fourths of the churches of Christ in 
 this land are in debt, and in three - fourths of them the 
 income does not equal the outgo, and, at the end of the 
 year, a few generous men have to come together and 
 make up the deficit, or some general effort is made on 
 the part of the congregation to regulate the indebtedness. 
 Ay, the regulation of church finances by the past mode 
 is a positive failure. Every body knows that churches 
 are the poorest pay, and that if a bank or an insurance 
 company were conducted in the same slip-shod manner, 
 so thoroughly inefficient — that it would be discredited 
 and wiped out of existence. If the old mode of conduct- 
 ing church finances in the religious organizations had 
 been thoroughly successful, then we might be on our 
 guard; but as the fact is, in nine cases out of ten, it has 
 been a failure ; I say there is no danger in floating off 
 from it. 
 
 But this brings me to answer the first objection which 
 can be made to a free church, and that is, that it can not 
 
OEJECTIOXS TO FMEE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 229 
 
 he financially snjiported. You say that there is a great 
 deal of expensive machinery in a church ; there is the 
 coal bill, and the gas bill, and the insurance bill, and the 
 expenses of sexton, and music, and minister, and, as free 
 churches ought to be conducted on a large and generous 
 scale, there will be extraordinary expenses. Ay, we ad- 
 mit all this. In a free church the music should be of the 
 very best possible character, every hymn storming the 
 very gates of heaven. The church architecture ought to 
 be plain but imposing, the people seated face to face in 
 the great congregation. The preaching ought to be ear- 
 nest. Indeed, it is a great deal easier to preach in such a 
 church than in any other. If a man has been for a long 
 time at a banquet, and five or six courses of food have 
 passed before him, then when plain bread is presented he 
 rejects it; but if you take that plain bread to men who 
 for forty-eight hours have had nothing to eat, how they 
 will clutch for it! Now I simply say that a vast majori- 
 t}^ of the people wdio have been attending our Christian 
 churches have been stuffed for these twenty years with 
 the confections of religion, and when we present them 
 the plain bread of the Gospel, they do not w^ant it ; but 
 if we should gather into our churches the outside masses 
 who are starving for this bread of life, w^ith what ear- 
 nestness and with what avidity they would seize upon it. 
 •'But," 3^ou say, " the support of a church witli such mu- 
 sic, and with such architecture, and earnest preaching, 
 would be very expensive, and how will you meet the in- 
 debtedness?" I answer: by annual subscription and by 
 Sabbath collections. "But," 3^ou say, "there will be 
 mean men who will come and occupy the pews and pay 
 nothing, and so the financial interests of the church will 
 
230 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 
 
 go overboard." I acknowledge tliat there are mean men 
 in churches. There are men with souls so small that 
 fifty of them might dance on the point of a needle and 
 have room to turn around without touching their elbows! 
 I had in mj church at Syracuse, New York, a man of 
 comfortable means who gave nothing for the support of 
 the Gospel; but Friday night after Friday night I heard 
 him pray that the pastor might be blessed in his basket 
 and store, while all the time I was thinking, if I were de- 
 pendent upon you, I would have a small basket and a 
 veiy" poor store! The man is gone to a better countrj^ 
 and where, I hope, he can live more economically. But 
 while there are mean men in the Church,! want you to 
 understand that the majority of people who come to the 
 bouse of God are not of that class. In our tabernacle, 
 which was conducted on the free principle, there were 
 only three or four such persons. 
 
 My observation is, that if you take a common-sense 
 principle and lay it before common-sense men, and say 
 that is for the improvement of society and the bettering of 
 the condition of the w^oi'ld, men will generously support 
 it; and as nine-tenths of the people in a community can 
 "understand the free church principle when it is plainly 
 set before them, I believe that plan may anj^where and 
 everywhere be developed. I have as much doubt of the 
 existence of God and of a future world, and of the bless- 
 edness of the Gospel, as I have of the willingness of the 
 people to support a free church in any town or city in 
 all this country ; in other words, I have no doubt at all. 
 Sa3'S some one, " Is it right to put ministers of the Gospel 
 in a way where they shall have an uncertainty of liveli- 
 hood?" I reply by saying that if a man have a million 
 
OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 231 
 
 dollars, and he give you a check for twenty-five dollars, 
 when you go to the bank and present that check you 
 know there is such a large margin between the man's 
 capacity and that small check, that you have no doubt 
 that it will be promptly cashed. ISTow Christ says to his 
 ministers, " Go and preach my Gospel ; I am able to take 
 care of you. I will take care of you. Lo, I am with 
 you alway — even unto the end of the world. The cat- 
 tle on a thousand hills are mine, all the treasures of the 
 universe are at my feet. Go, work in my vineyard, and 
 you shall want no good thing." Alas, then, if we who 
 are in the ministry fold our hands and begin to tremble 
 and say, "Dear Lord, that is a beautiful principle, but 
 where is my salary to come from?" Besides that, I want 
 you to remember that the young men who will be will- 
 ing to connect themselves with the free churches of this 
 country — though they may not have large means now 
 wnth which to help you — still they are, after a while, to 
 shoulder the great church enterprises. Who are your 
 poor men to-day? Largely, they who twenty years ago 
 w^ere in affluence. Who are your rich men to-day? 
 Those who twenty years ago were in poverty, struggling 
 up from the very foot of the ladder. I say these young 
 men who are clerks in our stores on five hundred dollars 
 a year, or a thousand dollars, or fifteen hundred, will after 
 a while, under God, be the mighty men on 'Change ; and 
 though now, w^hen they connect themselves with your 
 church, they may be of little or of no financial help, after 
 they have made their fortunes, as they will, every dollnr 
 of those fortunes will be consecrated to Christ. So that 
 we may look in that direction and feel that there will be 
 help. 
 
 10^ 
 
232 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED, 
 
 My friends, unless the great masses of the people can 
 be brought into our churches, what is to become of our 
 cities? Do you know the fact that crime, and debauch- 
 ery, and every sort of abomination are triumphing in our 
 great towns ? Just take out your pencils and make a cal- 
 culation ; it is only a question in common arithmetic — 
 How long, if evil influences continue to increase at the 
 same ratio, how long before the religion of Christ in our 
 cities will be discomfited and our churches destroyed? 
 In less than a century, as certain as two and two make 
 four, unless some other plan is tried. Yet we know that 
 religion is to triumph, and that sin is to go down, and 
 that Christ is to reign in all our cities; but it will be by 
 some other plan ; it will be when the churches of Christ 
 are thrown wide open, and the people told to come in, 
 "without any regard to their financial qualifications, and 
 hear the Gospel and get prepared for heaven. The pos- 
 sibility of establishing and sustaining such a church is 
 strengthened by the idea that men will support home 
 institutions rather than foreign. How many of you were 
 ever kept awake at night because the Gospel does not 
 prosper in Greenland? How many ever refused food 
 because there is heathenism in Guatemala? None! But 
 when you can bring before men the question. What is to 
 become of Brooklyn? will the people who live over the 
 ■way on our street, without the consolation of Jesus Christ, 
 ever have his sympatliy in their troubles? will those 
 children who play on the sidewalk come up under the 
 restraints of our holy religion ? Then it is a question 
 that appeals to every man's heart — it is a home question 
 — he can understand it, and will be willing to support it. 
 I will illustrate: During the last war, in my church in 
 
OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES AXSWEREB. 233 
 
 Philadelphia, one Sabbath we took up a collection for 
 foreign missions — a most important cause — and I urged 
 it with all my might, asking God for help. The collec- 
 tion was not as large as it ought to have been. The next 
 Sabbath night, while I was in the pulpit, a man handed 
 me a telegram. I opened it, and I read it to the people. 
 It was an appeal from the army before Richmond, saying, 
 "There are three thousand men down here bleeding to 
 death. Send us lint, send us bandages, send us cordials, 
 send us Christian men and women to bind up the wound- 
 ed." I had not long to speak. I read the telegram, and 
 then I said, " Men and women, these are your fathers, and 
 these are your brothers, dying before the gates of Rich- 
 mond. Will you send them cordials? will you send 
 them bandages? will you send them lint? Pass the 
 baskets." The collection was gathered, and the baskets 
 came back burdened with the trophies. People took off 
 tlieir gold rings and their breastpins, and threw them 
 into the contribution. It was a home question ; it struck 
 every man's heart, every woman's conscience, and the 
 treasures were poured forth. Now I say when you can 
 make the people of this country understand that the re- 
 ligious question is a home question ; when we can make 
 them feel that, while we have moral responsibility for the 
 salvation of Hong Kong, and Pekin, and Madras, and 
 Constantinople, we have a mightier responsibility for 
 Brooklyn ; when we can make them feel that in the sup- 
 port of a free church they not only contribute toward 
 the religious education of their own families, but of all 
 who come within the house of God — the generosity of 
 the people will exceed any thing you have ever antici- 
 pated. 
 
23i OBJEGTWXS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 
 
 Again, some have objected to a free church because it 
 destroys tlie home feeling^ and it is a forcible objection; it 
 is so mighty an objection, that if I can not meet it, I will 
 surrender the principle advocated. Destroy the home 
 feeling! Father sitting here in the church, mother sit- 
 ting there, children somewhere else ; or if the church be 
 crowded some Sabbath, you can not get in at all. "We 
 want our families beside us in the house of God. Seat- 
 ed with them here, we hope to worship with them in 
 heaven." To this objection my answer is. In every free 
 church let the pews be formally assigned without refer- 
 ence to the dollar question, priority of application giving 
 priority of choice, pew not to be forfeited except in the 
 event of bad behavior or non-attendance. Then a man 
 seated in it with his family has a home feeling — more so 
 than in the other style of church. If disaster come to 
 him, and his fortune is gone, and he can pay nothing, 
 and he has to bring his children home from the school, 
 and move from a fine house into a smaller one, and put 
 on plainer apparel, he sits down in the house of God, 
 and says, "Here is a house from which I am certain not 
 to be turned out; here we will be prepared for heaven." 
 If, in the one case, there is a home feeling when the pew- 
 rent system is in force, and men may be driven out be- 
 cause they lose their fortune and can not pay their pew- 
 rent, I ask you if there is not a better home feeling in 
 that church where a man feels that no earthly disaster 
 shall affect his occupancy? If home feeling is found in 
 any church on earth, it will be found in a free church — 
 the seats formally assigned and occupied. 
 
 But there are others who may oppose the free church 
 principle on the ground that it obliterates social distinction. 
 
OBJECTIOXS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 235 
 
 It is an objection oftener thought than spoken, but it is 
 a really solid objection. It is an important question, 
 "What shall be the social influences amidst which my 
 family will be placed if we go to that church?" I be- 
 lieve in good blood, and that there is such a thing as bad 
 blood. I believe in royal blood. In some families the 
 tide seems all in the wrong way ; in other families the 
 tide seems all in the right way. I have known a father 
 and mother mean, and their children mean, and their 
 grandchildren mean, and the rule going on to the tenth 
 generation — perhaps for all eternity. In another family 
 I have seen father and mother good, and their children 
 good, and their grandchildren good — the tide of virtue 
 and generosity going on through all generations. There- 
 fore, I believe in family blood. I admit that God nev- 
 er calls a man, if he is intelligent, to associate with ig- 
 norance, or if he be elegant, to associate with boorish- 
 ness, or if he be virtuous, to associate with vice. 
 
 " Wh3^,"says somebody, "I am afraid to go to such a 
 church as you are describing, because there may be some 
 that come to that church whom I would not like to as- 
 sociate with ; and how would I feel if some of my family 
 should marry a scavenger!" Ah, my friend, we might 
 have the Board of Trustees resolve that no one need 
 marry a scavenger unless she wants to ! In every free 
 church, just as in every pew-rental church, you will pick 
 your own society. While your Christian heart will dic- 
 tate kindness and courtesy to all whom you meet on 
 Sabbaths, you will not be obliged to run to those who 
 sit in the same church and tell them all your family 
 affairs, or invite them to your house. That is not req- 
 uisite. If there be in a pew -rental church fifty sociaJ 
 
236 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 
 
 circles, then in every free churcli there will be fifty social 
 circles. I can think of only one class of persons that 
 will be very much offended with that style of church. 
 I admire a man who has made a large fortune honestly, 
 and who holds it usefully. I admii^e the perseverance, 
 and the pluck, and the ingenuity, and the tact. I rejoice 
 in his success, and I pray to God that the hand of com- 
 mercial disaster may never dethrone him. But men 
 who, by some freak of good fortune, are thrown to the 
 top, and who use their means for the purpose of fatten- 
 ing their own vanity, and of wounding the feelings of 
 those who are not as fortunate as themselves, excite in 
 me such unbounded loathing and contempt that I dare 
 not trust myself to speak of them. They are in my nos- 
 trils like the stench of summer carrion, and if the hand 
 of commercial disaster shall tear off from them their gold 
 and their diamonds and their trinkets, it will take one 
 of M'Allister's best and most powerful microscopic appa- 
 ratus to make visible to the naked eye the noxious in- 
 sects. Their wealth equaled by their stupidity and their 
 iojnorance — such men will abhor the idea of a free Chris- 
 tian church ; but rich men and poor men, high and low 
 men, educated men and ignorant men, who believe in 
 the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, will 
 accept the principle laid down in the text, and rejoice 
 when in any church it is illustrated: "The rich and 
 the poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them 
 all." 
 
 Now, my friends, I have answered these objections to 
 a free church, not because my own congregation make 
 them — they do not make objections — but thinking that 
 there might be some who are about to connect them- 
 
OBJECTIOXS TO FREE CHUMCHES ANSWERED. 237 
 
 selves with us who do not know the principles upon 
 which our church is to be founded. I will saj that my 
 soul is absorbed in this idea. It has been a matter of 
 personal sacrifice to me that I have pleaded for it, and I 
 say to all ministers of the Gospel who may be in the 
 house to-night, if their idea is a large salary and mag- 
 nificent income, they had better never plead for a free 
 church; but if, on the other hand, their idea is to bring 
 the Gospel of Christ to the masses of the people who are 
 without Christ and without God in the world, then it is 
 a very satisfactory idea, and will give them a reward now 
 iu their own consciences and in the joys of heaven. I 
 commit the principle first to God, and then I commit it 
 to the masses of the people. I came out from among 
 them. I know them altogether. I am in sympathy 
 w^ith them. My father and mother toiled with their 
 hands until old age stooped their shoulders and made 
 their eye-sight very dim, and then they died, leaving us a 
 glorious legac}^, not in dollars and cents, but in prayers 
 and Christian example that this world will never rob us 
 of In the hand of the God that loved them, and that I 
 love, I trust this principle. I tell you plainly to-night 
 that I would rather fail in this attempt to give the Gos- 
 pel to the masses than to succeed in any thing else. 
 Living or dying, in prosperity or in sorrow, in good re- 
 port or in evil report, in the name of my Lord Jesus 
 Christ, my hope in life, my peace in death, my triumph 
 in eternity, I consecrate to-night, body, mind, and soul to 
 this one enterprise. Considering what God has done for 
 us in the past, we would be cowards now to distrust him. 
 Oh, young men of my church, buckle on the whole ar- 
 mor of God. Do you know that if you start life in the 
 
^238 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 
 
 service of Jesus Christ, you start well? I point you 
 to-nigbt to a field of usefulness than which God never 
 opened a grander. Do you know that into your hands 
 are to come the mighty destinies of Christ's kingdom 
 very soon ; and I look you in the eye and I ask you if, 
 when in this battle these older men shall fall, you will 
 catch up the standard ? Quit you like men ! Be strong! 
 
 Then I see in this audience men in middle life, from 
 thirty to fift}^ years of age. What think you of giving 
 a free Gospel to the masses? If you w\ant to make up 
 for lost time, here is the chance to do it. You have been 
 down in the world. You know what it is made of You 
 have deliberately concluded that it is a most unsatis- 
 factory portion. Fall into line, oh ye men in mid-life — 
 men between thirty and fifty j^ears of age. The battle 
 may be hot, but I am not afraid to lead you, and I wave 
 the sword in front of the host, crying. Forward ! Let 
 cowards fly ! Act ye like sons of God ! 
 
 But there arc others here who linger by the banks 
 of the river. They know that because of old age they 
 must soon go over. You have had many a good time. 
 Every wrinkle in your face ought to be a hallelujah. By 
 what blood you have been bought ! By what mercy you 
 have been defended! You can not sing these hymns with 
 as firm a voice as once you sang them; and you came 
 to this house to-night with trembling step — not as once 
 you came to a religious assemblage — and you look 
 around, and your comrades are gone, and your best 
 friends are on the other side of the river, and you feel 
 that soon you must go and join them. You feel just 
 like a farmer on a summer-day in the harvest-field, who 
 says, "Now, boys, it is almost night, and the wind is 
 
OBJECTIOXS TO FREE CHURCHES AXSWERED. 239 
 
 from the east, and it will storm before morning; let ns 
 get in a few miOre sheaves." For you the hoar is com- 
 ing in which no man can work, and what you do you 
 must do now. There are yet two or three or four sheaves 
 for you to reap for the Lord's garner. Oh, give us your 
 prayers, aged men. Give us what strength there may- 
 be still remaining in your arm; and then, when you are 
 gone, we will tell our children how well you served in 
 the temple, and, like Elisha, we will crj as when Elijah 
 went up, " My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, 
 and the horsemen thereof I" 
 
 What I say to one I say to all — from those who sit be- 
 neath to those who rise above me in the galleries — what 
 you do for Christ, do quickly. The field is white, the 
 sickle is sharp, the reward is grand, the time is short, 
 the judgment is near! What thy hand fiudeth to do, 
 do it now. 
 
 Let me say that you ought to toil with great buoy- 
 ancy. This whole earth is to be saved, and the cities 
 are to be evangelized. I sometimes hear Christian peo- 
 ple talk as though the Church of Christ is to be defeat- 
 ed ; as though it were to be like one of those steamers, 
 the City of Boston or the President^ that went out with a 
 large cargo and with many passengers, and has never 
 come to port, and never will come to port. Some of you 
 may have had friends on some of those steamers, and you 
 waited and watched, and said, "I wonder on what ice- 
 berg they shivered ! I wonder in what fire they burned ! 
 I wonder where they went down !" and you cried out 
 in your soul, "Oh, treacherous sea, give back that ship! 
 give her back! though it be with shivered mast and 
 scarred bulk-head, and pumps all working to keep out 
 
240 OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED: 
 
 the leak, and passengers with faces wan with hunger and 
 eyes hollow with woe. Give her back!" The ocean 
 answered not. It only moaned to the beach, and moan- 
 ed to the sky. "Ah!" says some one, "it will be just 
 like that with the Church. She will never come into 
 harbor." I deny it. She has had a rough time, and 
 been caught in many a hurricane, and driven against 
 many a rock, and sometimes her commanders have been 
 at their wits' end, and have cried out, " We shall go 
 down ! We shall go down !" Christ stands at the helm, 
 and she shall outride the gale; and when she drops an- 
 chor on the beach of pearl, all heaven will throw out 
 signals of delight, and the standards will wave and the 
 bells will ring because the voyage is over, and "the 
 "wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." 
 In that day of triumph, will you be one of the victors? 
 Are your sins pardoned? Are you ready for Christian 
 work? Will heaven be your home? As I was enter- 
 ing the gates of this building to-night, a man stopped me 
 and said, " That man you saw last night at eight or nine 
 o'clock is dead." I said, " It can not be possible." I 
 was there at nine o'clock, and said, "I will soon see you 
 again" — for he was here last Sabbath. Now they tell 
 me he is gone ! Are we all ready ? We can not alwa3'S 
 be here. It can not be that all these people will meet 
 each other again in this building. 
 
 When the Atlantic struck Mars Head, you read a good 
 many telegrams, going all over the country through the 
 associated press, but there was just one telegram that 
 struck me as no other telegram I ever saw. It was sent 
 by some man whose friends were in Detroit. He had 
 escaped from the wreck, and, amidst all that gloom, and 
 
OBJECTIONS TO FREE CHURCHES ANSWERED. 241 
 
 amidst the dead bodies that laid around him, he wrote 
 out a teleG^ram of one word, and it thrilled all throuo-h 
 this land. That word was " Saved !" Oh ! what good 
 news it must have been when the friends got it. And 
 I think there are some here to-night who have made 
 shipwreck of their earthly prospects, and they have been 
 driven against the rocks of disaster, and I cry out, Oh 
 that now the strong hand of Christ might be reached 
 down to pull them up on the eternal shore, and that the 
 tidings might thrill to the throne, Saved! and that watch- 
 men standing on the ramparts of heaven might cry to 
 people in the temple, ^^ Saved T^ and the news run from 
 street to street, until all the city of the sun shall ring 
 with the glorious announcement, ^^ Saved/ saved!" for 
 there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner 
 that repenteth. 
 
242 WOMAN'S WAR AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 WOMAN'S WAR AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 "Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake." — Judges v., 12. 
 
 A TEXT of five words, and four of them one and the 
 same. It seems that the men of Israel had lost 
 their courage. Trampled into the dust by their oppress- 
 ors, the cowards had not spirit to rise. Their vineyards 
 destroyed, their women dishonored, their children slain, 
 the land, was dying for a leader worth}^ of the cause. A 
 holy woman by the name of Deborah saw the desolation, 
 and, putting her trust in the Lord, sounded the battle- 
 cry, and by the help of General Barak launched into 
 the plain ten thousand armed men. The Canaanites, of 
 course, came out with a larger force. They came out 
 against Israel with nine hundred iron chariots, each of 
 these iron chariots having^ attached to the sides of it 
 long, sharp scythes, so that when these engines of war 
 were driven down to battle, each one of the nine hun- 
 dred was ready to cut two great swathes of death. But 
 when God gives a mission to a woman, he gives her 
 strength and grace to execute it. The nine hundred 
 chariots of the Canaanites could not save them. They 
 fly ! they fly ! horse and horseman, chariot and chariot- 
 eer, officers and troops, in one wild and terrific over- 
 throw. Sisera, their leader, is so frightened in the con- 
 riict, that he can not wait until his team turns round: 
 he leaps from the chariot and starts, full run, for the 
 
WOJIAX'S WAR AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 243 
 
 mountains. Then this epic of the text was composed, 
 to celebrate the grand womanly triumph: "Awake, 
 awake, Deborah : awake, awake !" 
 
 My friends, an army of Canaanitish and infernal influ- 
 ences has_i3Qme down to destroy this fair land. They 
 come on, armed with decanter, and demijohn, and legis- 
 lative enactment, and brewer's tank, and apothecary's 
 bitters, and distiller's "worm" that never dieth. To 
 meet these influences, some very brave men have gone 
 out in battle, and have tried to break to pieces these 
 iron chariots of destruction ; but for the most part the 
 land has slept. Indeed, it slept until a few weeks ago, 
 at the West, when the Lord God uttered his voice until 
 it rang through the churches, and the homes, and the 
 gin -palaces, and off upon the prairie, saying, "Awake, 
 awake, Deborah: awake, awake!" And now, while I 
 speak, this great Austerlitz goes on, and earth, and heav- 
 en, and hell await the stupendous issue. 
 
 Befoi-e I proceed to discuss the modes and policies by 
 which the great sin of drunkenness is to be assaulted, I 
 w.ant to tell you two or three things which I think will 
 bear me out in the statement that something radicnl 
 needs to be done. The first fact I want to put before 
 you is this: th[it there are coming up a vast multitude 
 of children in this countiy who have, from the day of 
 their birth, a thirst for strong drink. Whether it be de- 
 veloped in early life or not, it is there — they have in- 
 herited it. Eio'ht alono^ the ancestral line, how often 
 goes the river of death ! It seems as if their cradle is 
 rocked by the rum-fiend. The father sits down to make 
 his will. He says: "In the nariie of God, amen! I be- 
 queath to my children my houses, and lands, and all my 
 
244 WOMAN'S WAH AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 property. Share and share alike they must. Hereto 
 I affix my hand and seal, in the presence of witnesses." 
 But that father may at the same time be making a will 
 that he does not realize. He may be really saying: "In 
 the name of Disease, and Appetite, and Death, amen! 
 I bequeath to my children my thirst for strong drink. 
 My tankards shall be theirs, my condemnation shall be 
 theirs. In the ruin that I have wrought for tbem, let 
 them share and share alike. Hereto I put my hand and 
 seal, in the presence of all the astonished host of heaven 
 and all the jubilant harpies of hell." He does not know 
 that he is making two wills at the same time. There are 
 young men in this house to-day wlio have had two in- 
 heritances: one an inheritance of dollars — they have 
 nearly spent that; the other an inheritance of thirst for 
 strong drink — they have not spent that. 
 
 In addition to this, there is coming up from the lower 
 haunts of society an uncounted throng of children who ' 
 have been familiar with the odors of the whisky-jug and 
 the ale-pitcher from the time they started into life. In 
 every fibre of their soul they feel the sting of parental 
 indulgences, and while your children to-day will be in 
 the Sabbath -school singing "hosanna," there will be a 
 vaster multitude — vaster by millions and millions — of 
 little children, barefooted, imbruted in their counte- 
 nances, filthy and uncombed, who will be singing the 
 sons^ of the drunkard. Their swaddlin^i^-clothes were 
 torn off the winding-sheet of death. Their toy in infan- 
 cy was a gin-bottle. Tliey were baptized from the laver;/ 
 of woe. Obscene songs were their lullaby. Their in-* 
 heritance has been a father's curse and a mother's beast- 
 liness. Are you surprised that they turn out badly? 
 
WOMAN \S WAM AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 2-io 
 
 Aj, if one out of ten thousand turns out any thing but 
 badly, you ought to be surprised. 
 
 There is another fact I want to present, showing that 
 there is a need of something radical on this subject, and 
 that is the multiplicity of drinking-houses all over our 
 cities. There never has been any lack of these establish- 
 ments. There never has been much reason for a man's 
 being thirst}^ a great while. But it was once only like an 
 eruption on the body of the city ; now it has become a 
 multitude of carbuncles that threaten the very life of the 
 community. You go down a beautiful street and see 
 carpenters at work. You say, " I wonder what they are 
 going to make there?" You go along a few days after, 
 and you see they are painting an ale-pitcher on the sign, 
 and see the red and blue light in the lamp at the door, 
 as though kindled by a spark from the nether world to 
 which it will decoy very many victims. In those places 
 the villainies of your city are concocted. Those are the 
 places where men whet their courage for arson, and for 
 garroting, and for burglary, and for murder. I can re- 
 member the time when these saloons were chiefly on the 
 street corners. Now they flame out from the heart of 
 the block — a long line of fortifications leveling their 
 enginery of death. Sometimes they call them "hotels." 
 Sometimes they call them "wine-cellars." Sometimes 
 they call them " restaurants." Sometimes they call them 
 " retreats." Sometimes they call them " concert saloons," 
 where music plays the march of death. Sometimes they 
 call them " casinos," combining all the abominations of 
 the theatre, grog-shop, and brothel. Sometimes they call 
 them "lager-bier saloons," under which, I suppose, there 
 are more villainies and more obscenities than under any 
 
24:6 W03IAN'il WAH AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 Other name. These institutions are springing up all 
 around us. They come like some fabulous monster, 
 taking at one swallow a hundred victims. They are 
 plagues sweating on your great thoroughfares, and rot 
 ling away the hfe of Brooklyn and New York. The} 
 are on every avenue — Fulton Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, 
 Lafayette Avenue, Gates Avenue — girding the city with 
 a chain of eternal fire. 
 
 We can not even have the laws against them executed. 
 All through this country it is against the law to sell liq- 
 uor on the Sabbath-day. Where is the city that keeps 
 that law? Where are the police? Where are the may- 
 ors? Where are the common councils? Where are the 
 'legislative assemblies? The fact is, that when the Ee- 
 publicans are in power they dare not execute the law 
 lest they lose votes, and v/hen the Democrats are in pow- 
 er they dare not execute the law lest they lose votes. 
 Meanwhile, between these political parties who are strug- 
 gling for the spoils of office, the virtue and the religion 
 of the city die. 
 
 What chance is there for the morals of our city when 
 these places are so easy of access, and when, if you want 
 to get out of the smell of rum, you have to ride five or 
 six miles out of town, and even the outskirts of the city 
 are sometimes worse than the heart of it ? What chance 
 is there for that young man? Temptation before him, 
 temptation behind him, in the loft above him, and in the 
 cellar beneath him ; and when our very best citizens pat- 
 ronize such places! They are cold, and they must go in 
 and get something warm ; they are warm, and they must 
 get something to cool off. They lose money, and begin 
 to drink to keep up their spirits; they gain something, 
 
WOMAN'S WAJi AGAJX;ST THE BOTTLE. 247 
 
 and then they can afford to di-ink. And so the casks 
 are filled, and the strychnine is poured in, and the leaks 
 are stopped, and the faucets are drawn, and the intoxica- 
 tion is swilled down; and sometimes, standing before pro- 
 fessed Christian men, their breath is so foul with drink 
 that I feel tempted to bury my face in my pocket-hand- 
 kerchief 
 
 Look at another fact. Many of the drug-stores of our 
 country, that ought to be the agencies of health, are be- 
 coming the means of dissipation and death. There are 
 forms of disease that need a stimulus, and under a pru- 
 dent and skillful physician I think that alcohol has an 
 important work to do; but what have you to say about 
 the deceptions practiced upon people in this day by bit- 
 ters — bitters of all sorts — cordials, tonics, Hostetter Bit- 
 ters, Golden Bitters, Plantation Bitters — Bitters that 
 make a man's life bitter, and his death bitter, and his 
 eternity bitter. Bitters ! Now, I say, if you are going 
 to blast a man for time and eternity, give him a fair 
 chance. Put on the outside of the bottle what it is. But 
 a man, maintaining, as he thinks, his sobriety, goes and 
 gets a bottle of bitters and puts it on his desk. That 
 bottle is soon gone. After a while he gets another, and 
 another, and another; and one day, while he is seated in 
 his room, the cork flies out of the black bottle of bitters, 
 and with it a fiend that grapples the man by the throat, 
 and says: "Ah ! I have been chasing about for you fif- 
 teen years. I have got you now. Down with you to 
 perdition!" If you propose to destroy a man, give him 
 at least a fair fight. 
 
 Take two appalling statistics. In one year we spent 
 in this country many million dollars more monev in 
 
 n 
 
248 WOIIAN'S WAIi AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 making, and selling, and buying intoxicating drinks tban 
 for the woolen goods, and cotton goods, and flour, and 
 meal, and boots, and shoes, and clothing of the people. 
 In other words, we pay in this country much more to 
 kill the people than to make them live. Put that down 
 in your memorandum-books for one item. 
 
 Then the other item is this: If we should take all the 
 drunkards in this country and gather them in battle ar- 
 ray, five men abreast, they would make a line a hundred 
 miles long. So that, if you wanted to marshal that host, 
 and look at the companies, and the regiments, and the 
 battalions, and you wanted to review them, you would 
 have to mount one horse and ride until he was exhaust- 
 ed, and then mount another horse and ride until he was 
 exhausted, and another horse, until he was exhausted; 
 and then if you wanted to marshal that great host, and 
 had a voice loud enough to order them to "Forward, 
 march!" their step would make the earth shake and the 
 gates of hell tremble. That is the other item. 
 
 iSrow if all these things are so, is it not time that some- 
 thing great, something earnest, something radical be 
 done? Eevolution ! Eevolution ! In the light of these 
 things I come to consider this great movement which has 
 attracted the attention of this whole land toward the 
 West. You ask me, as I have often been asked in pri- 
 vate — you ask me silently two questions. You say, in 
 the first place, " Do you approve of that assault made by 
 the women of the West upon the liquor business?" And 
 in the second place, " Would you have the same assault 
 and the same scenes enacted here at the East?" I take 
 your questions separately and alone. I answer your first. 
 You say, "Do you approve of the assault that has been 
 
WOMAN'S WAR AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 249 
 
 made by the -women of the West upon the grog-shops 
 there?" I reply that there have been some things clone 
 there that I have no sympathy with, and I also assert 
 that, so long as we have so many fools masculine, we 
 ought to be willing to have a few fools feminine. Then 
 I go further on, and aver that the campaign waged at the 
 West by the women against the grog-shops of Ohio, and 
 Illinois, and Indiana, and Michigan, is the grandest and 
 most magnificent thing that has been on earth since the 
 day when Deborah in the name of the Lord God Al- 
 mighty hurled ruin and death on the armed oppressors 
 of Israel. Why, it seems that by the force of prayer — 
 certainly there can not be any thing wrong about that; 
 and by the force of Christian song — certainly there can 
 not be any thing wrong about that — there were in a lit- 
 tle while three hundred saloons shut up, and in some vil- 
 lages all the drinking-places were abandoned. You tell 
 me they will be open again very soon. I reply, is it 
 nothing to shut up the fires of hell for six weeks? 
 Why, it seems that these men engaged in that business 
 did not know how to cope with this kind of warfare. 
 They knew how to fight the Maine Liquor Law, and 
 they knew how to fight the National Temperance Socie- 
 ty, and they know how to fight the Sons of Temperance 
 and Good Samaritans; but when Deborah appeared upon 
 the scene, Sisera took to his feet and got to the mount- 
 ains. It seems that they did not know how to contend 
 against "Coronation," and "Old Hundred," and "Brattle 
 Street," and " Bethany," they were so very intangible. 
 These men found that they could not accomplish much 
 against that kind of warflire, and in one of the cities a 
 German regiment was brought out all armed to disperse 
 
250 WOMAN'S WAH AGAINST THE BOTTLE, 
 
 the women. They came down in battle array ; but, ob, 
 what poor success ! for that German regiment was made 
 ■up of gentlemen, and gentlemen do not like to shoot 
 women with hymn-books in their hands. Oh, they found 
 that gunning for female prayer-meetings was a very poor 
 business ! No real damage was done, although there has 
 been threat of violence after threat of violence all over 
 the land. Let us give fair warning to all military com- 
 panies, and to all mayors, and to all courts of law, that 
 on the day that one of these Christian women engaged 
 in this holy war shall, under the point of soldiers' bayo- 
 net, or under the stroke of police club, fall down wound- 
 ed or slain, on that day there will be a fire kindled in 
 this countr}^, a fire of indignation and national wrath, 
 that all the waters of the Mississippi and the Ohio and 
 the Hudson can not put out; and the influence will keep 
 on rolling over this whole country, until the last liquor 
 shop, and the last distillery, and the last gin store, and 
 the last brewery, shall be trampled out under the feet 
 of an indignant people. I tell you that the curse of the 
 Lord God Almighty is on that business forever and for- 
 ever, amen ! 
 
 They say that it was not dignified for these women— 
 they ought to have been home crocheting, or watching 
 the loaves of bread in the oven to see that they did not 
 get too brown and hard. Oh, my soul, which would 
 have been most dignified? to have staid in the homes 
 already desolated by rum, shivering amidst half- clad 
 children, waiting for the staggering step of the father, or 
 brother, or son, or to put on the only hat and shawl that 
 had not been pawned away by the companion, and go 
 out under the leadership of some great-souled Deborah, 
 
WOMAN'S WAIi AGAIXST THE BOTTLE. 251 
 
 and with the famished family at the back, attempt with 
 the artillery of prayer and song to put an end to those 
 institutions where the domestic ruin had originated? 
 Who are you, that, seated in your homes of plenty and 
 sobriety, you should be so severely critical of these 
 women of the West, who not for personal display, not 
 for a play spell, but because they wanted to get back 
 the homes of which they had been robbed, and the chil- 
 dren's inheritance, and the souls of the men who had 
 been imperiled by strong drink, went forth to do their 
 duty ? When my voice shall, through the printing-press, 
 reach those women at the West, I want to say to them, 
 "God speed you in the work!" "Awake, awake, Deb- 
 orah : awake, awake." Nine hundred chariots can not 
 do you any harm. The Lord of Hosts is with you, and 
 he is mightier than all that can be against you. 
 
 Now I come to answer the second question, "Would 
 you have the same kind of war upon the liquor estab- 
 lishments made at the East, and in our midst, as at the 
 West?" I say most emphatically, NO; but for different 
 reasons from what I have ever heard given. It is not 
 because I think that the women of the West were un- 
 dignified or unchristian, it is not because I think that 
 the women of Brooklyn are too good for such a holy 
 iconoclasm ; but it is because there seems to be no Deb- 
 orah with sufficient f;iitb in God to lead forth the host. 
 Here at the East we are all watching to see what some- 
 body else will say, and we are bound hand and foot by 
 the conventionalities of society more than at the West; 
 and at the flutter of a newspaper, we are so frightened 
 that we are not fit for any great warfare of the kind of 
 which I speak. I will, however, say, oh mothers, and 
 
252 W0MA2i'S WAE AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 sisters, and daughters of Brooklyn ! I really think if 
 3^ou had as nuich faith in God as your sisters at the 
 West have, and the same recklessness of human criti- 
 cism, I really believe that in one month three-fourths 
 of the grog-shops of Brooklyn would be closed, and there 
 would be running through the gutters of the streets Bur- 
 gundy, and Cognac, and Heidsick, and old Port, and 
 Schiedam schnapps, and lager-bier, and you would save 
 your fathers, and your husbands, and your sons, first, 
 from a drunkard's grave, and, secondly, from a drunk- 
 ard's hell ! 
 
 But the time has not come. I have read the reports 
 
 I of the women who have assembled in this city in differ- 
 ent churches, and I see that the time has not come. A 
 woman^ can not do, tjsat which she thinks she can not, 
 
 i and yoi\ €an hot. There is no Deborah with enough 
 faith in God and recklessness of human criticism to go 
 forth in the work. I really think that, perhaps, things 
 have got to be worse before they are any better. I do 
 not know but that there must yet be one dead in each 
 house, slain by this destroying angel, and that the piano 
 that you brought into your parlor last week will have 
 to go down under the sheriff's hammer, and some mid- 
 night your son be tossed into your front door dead- 
 drunk, and the rose on your daughter's cheek fade un- 
 der the breath of the rum-fiend as her father stoops over 
 to kiss her " good-night," and this tornado of domestic 
 desolation go on until our great cities shall be one 
 wreck of dissipation and crime^"'! do not know but it 
 will have to be that way before the women of the East 
 are as brave as the women of the West. 
 
 But since we are not ready for that war, there is some- 
 
 K 
 
W0MA2i\S WAIi AGALYST THE BOTTLE. 253 
 
 thing in whicli all the women of my church are ready 
 to engage, and in which all the women of this city are 
 ready to be marshaled, and that is in some kind of war 
 against the drinking usages of society. Oh, young wom- 
 an, never give your hand in marriage to a man who tam- 
 pers with strong drink, any more than you would take 
 hold of a basilisk! You would reform him by marriage, 
 would you? Never! I have seen the experiment tried 
 too often, and the w^omen who made the unsuccessful 
 experiment, by marriage, of reforming a man, some of 
 them are in suicides' graves, some are in the alms-house, 
 and all the rest are wretched, without one exception. 
 Eeform him, will you? Why, where one woman has 
 succeeded in that experiment, there are five hundred 
 women buried in the ruins. Young woman, if a young 
 man does not think enough of you to give up the wine- 
 cup, tell him plainly that you will not contest for his af-* i 
 fections with so vile a rival. Do not be hasty to leave ! 
 your father's house in such an unseaworthy craft. They { 
 say that Captain Williams was drunk when he drove the ' 
 Atlantic on Mars' Head, and look out how you trust your 
 voyage of life in the hands of an inebriate. The rocks! 
 the rocks I 
 
 Let the mothers teach their children from the very 
 start what an accursed thing rum is. Give the lesson 
 to them with "Brown's Shorter Catechism." Give ev- 
 ery emphasis to the truth, and then pray, morning, noon, 
 and night, and until the day of your death, that your 
 sons — ay, 3^our daughters, too, may be saved from these 
 overwhelming temptations. 
 
 Let sisters make the home every evening bright, make 
 it very bright You do not know the allurements that 
 
254 WOMAN'S WAE AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 are around your brother. You can not afford to stand 
 by his bruised brow when he is dead, as I knew a sister 
 who once did when the night before she had heard her 
 brother howhng in the dehrium, while three men could 
 not hold him down, for he arose in the couch and beat 
 back imaginary demons, crying, "Begone I begone!" 
 3Yii-are not ready for the crusade of the West here, but 
 I want to marshal every woman in this house in one of 
 three regiments. In the first place, we will have a regi-\ 
 ment of mothers, their step not so strong as once it was, 
 for they have come a great way ; but their faith in God, 
 mighty — the God who has never forsaken them. Alas! 
 for the mother who bends over the son scorched with 
 this fiery sirocco. God ! appease her agony for a little 
 while. 
 
 In the second regiment, we will have all the wives of 
 the country ; some of their homes already invaded by 
 this evil ; their domestic joy somewhat shaken ; the next 
 ten years charged with a good deal of uncertaintj^ 
 
 ^i'he third regiment will be made up of the daughters 
 of the land ; their comfort and their respectability de- 
 pendent upon the sobriety of their parents; their brow 
 not yet clouded; their lips unacquainted with the acrid 
 draught that a drunkard's chiUl always has to drink. 
 
 A man said to a little girl going along the street, 
 "Why, Jennie, I don't see you any more. You used to 
 come to my house begging for cold victuals. I haven't 
 seen you for weeks. Where have you been, Jennie?" 
 " Oh !" she replied, " we don't want cold victuals any 
 more. Papa don't drink now, and so we have warm vic- 
 tuals." God have mercy on the drunkard's child ! 
 
 Isow the three regiments are formed. Forward ! ye 
 
W0MA2i'S WAE AGAIXST THE BOTTLE. 255 
 
 women baptized of the Holy Ghost. Forward ! into- the 
 strife. Your ensigns shall not be stained with tears ot 
 blood. No skeleton will mark the line of your march ; 
 but in the wake of this great army there will smile a 
 liarvest of reformed inebriates, and there will be heard 
 the shout of children at the return of their fathers from 
 the captivity of the wine-cup. The mountains and the 
 liills will break forth into singing, and all the trees of the 
 wood will clap their hands. "Instead of the thorn shall 
 come the fir-tree ; instead of the brier shall come the 
 myrtle-tree ; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for 
 an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." — — I '^- 
 Postponing until next Sabbath morning what I have 
 to say to the men who are tampering with strong drinks, 
 postponing until next Sabbath morning my counsel to 
 all those who have already the shackles fastened upon 
 tliem, postponing until next Sabbath morning the com- 
 pletion of the discourse that I have begun now, I will 
 only say to the families of my congregation, banish the 
 wine -cup from your table, dash the beaker from your 
 lip, and in the strength of God resolve that you will no 
 more have any thing to do with strong drink ; for I tell 
 you now that there is a multitude of you kept away from 
 Christ by intoxicating liquor, and there are some of you 
 who profess to be followers of Jesus, members of my 
 church, who are drinking a little too much. Though 
 you have not gone far on in sin, though you may never 
 liave been intoxicated, as I suppose you have not, I 
 know some of you are drinking a little too much, and 
 so I ask you all to abstain. Come out on the side of so- 
 briety. Come out on the side of the Christian religion. 
 
 Let me tell you now, no drunkard hath eternal life, and 
 
 11* 
 
256 WOMAN'S WAR AGAINST THE BOTTLE. 
 
 that some of you are running an awful risk of being 
 drunkards. May the Lord God Almighty save you, and 
 me, and our families, and this whole country from the 
 scathing, scalding, blasting, damning influence of strong 
 drink! 
 
TEE PROUD RID EH UNHORHED. 267 
 
 THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there 
 shined round about him a light from heaven : and he fell to the earth, 
 and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 
 And he said, Who art thou. Lord ? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom 
 thou persecutest." — Acts ix., 3-5. 
 
 THE Damascus of Bible times still stands, with a 
 population of one hundred and thirty-five thousand. 
 It was a gay city of white and glistering architecture, its 
 minarets and crescents and domes playing with the light 
 of the morning sun; embowered in groves of olive, and 
 citron, and orange, and pomegranate; a famous river 
 plunging its brightness into the scene; a city by the an- 
 cients styled "a pearl surrounded by emeralds." 
 
 A group of horsemen are advancing upon that city. 
 Let the Christians of the place hide, for that cavalcade 
 coming over the hills is made up of persecutors; their 
 leader small and unattractive in some respects, as leaders 
 sometimes are insignificant in person : witness the Duke 
 of Wellington and Dr. Archibald Alexander. But there 
 is something very intent in the eye of this man of the 
 text, and the horse he rides is lathered with the foam of 
 a long and quick travel of one hundred and thirty-five 
 miles. He cries " Go 'long " to his steed, for those Chris- 
 tians must be captured and silenced, and that religion of 
 the cross must be annihilated. Suddenly the horses shy 
 off, and plunge until the riders are precipitated. Freed 
 
258 THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 from their riders, the horses bound snorting away. You 
 know that dumb animals, at the sight of an eclipse, or an 
 earthquake, or any thing like a supei-natural appearance, 
 sometimes become very uncontrollable. A new sun had 
 been kindled in the heavens, putting out the glare of the 
 ordinary sun. Christ, with the glories of heaven wrapped 
 about him, looked out from a cloud and the splendor was 
 insufferable, and no wonder the horses sprang and the 
 equestrians dropped. Dust-covered and bruised, Saul at- 
 tempts to get up, shading his eyes with his hand from 
 the severe lustre of the heavens, but unsuccessfully, for 
 he is struck stone blind as he cries out, "Who art thou, 
 Lord?" and Jesus answered him, "I am the one you 
 have been chasing. He that whips and scourges those 
 Damascine Christians, whips and scourges me. It is not 
 their back that is bleeding; it is mine. It is not their 
 heart that is breaking; it is mine. I am Jesus whom 
 thou persecutest." 
 
 From that wild, exciting, and overwhelming scene 
 there rises up the greatest preacher of all the ages — Paul, 
 in whose behalf prisons were rocked down, before whom 
 soldiers turned pale, into whose hand Mediterranean sea- 
 captains put control of their shipwrecking craft, and whose 
 epistles are the av ant courier oi \i resurrection-day. 
 
 I learn first from this scene that a ivorldly fall some- 
 times precedes a spiritual upVfiincj. A man does not get 
 much sympathy by falling off* a horse. People say he 
 ouoht not to have o;ot into the saddle if he could not ride. 
 Those of us who were brought up in the country remem- 
 ber well how the workmen laughed when, on our way 
 back from the brook, we suddenly lost our ride. At the 
 close of the war, when the army passed in review at Wash- 
 
THE PROUD KID E It UXHORSED. 259 
 
 ington, if a general had toppled from the stirrups it would 
 have been a national merriment. Here is Paul on horse- 
 back — a proud man, riding on with Government docu- 
 ments in his pocket, a gi-aduate of a most famous school 
 in which the celebrated Dr. Gamaliel had been a professor, 
 perhaps having already attained two of the three titles of 
 the school — Rab, the first ; Rabbi, the second ; and on his 
 way to Rabbak, the third and highest title. I know from 
 his temperament that his horse was ahead of the other 
 horses. But without time to think of what posture he 
 should take, or without any consideration for his dignity, 
 he is tumbled into the dust. And yet that was the best 
 ride Paul ever took. Out of that violent fall he arose 
 into the apostleship. So it has been in all the ages, and 
 so it is now. 
 
 You will never be worth any thing for God and the 
 Church until you lose fifty thousand dollars, or have your 
 reputation npset, or in some way, somehow, are thrown 
 and humiliated. You must go down before you go up. 
 Joseph finds his path to the Egyptian court through the 
 pit into w^hich his brothers threw him. Daniel would 
 never have walked amidst the bronzed lions that adorn- 
 ed the Babylonish throne if he had not first walked 
 amidst the real lions of the cave. And Paul marshals 
 all the sfenerations of Christendom bv fiillins^ flat on his 
 face on the road to Damascus. Men who have been al- 
 ways prospered may be efiicient servants of the world, 
 but will be of no advantage to Christ. You may ride 
 majestically seated on your charger, rein in hand, foot in 
 stirrup, but you will never be worth any thing spiritually 
 until 3'OU fall off. They vi^ho graduate from the school 
 of Christ with the highest honors have on their diploma 
 
260 THE PROUD RIDER UXH0R8ED. 
 
 the seal of a lion's mudd}^ paw, or tlie plash of an angry 
 wave, or the drop of a stray teai*, or the brown scorch of 
 a persecuting fire. In nine hundred and ninety -nine 
 cases out of the thousand there is no moral or spiritual 
 elevation until there has been a thorough worldly upset- 
 ting. 
 
 Again, I learn from the subject that the religion of 
 Christ is not a pusillanimous thing. People in this day 
 try to make us believe that Christianity is something for 
 men of small calibre, for women with no capacity to rea- 
 son, for children in the infant-ckiss under six years of age, 
 but not for stalwart men. Look at this man of the text! 
 Do you not think that the religion that could capture 
 such a man as that must have some power in it? He 
 was a logician, he was a metaphysician, he was an all-con- 
 quering orator, he was a poet of the highest type. He 
 had a nature that could swamp the leading men of his 
 own day, and, hurled against the Sanhedrim, he made it 
 tremble. He learned all he could get in the school of his 
 native village; then he had gone to a higher school, and 
 there mastered the Greek and the Hebrew, and perfected 
 himself in belles-lettres^ until in after years he astonished 
 the Cretans, and the Corinthians, and the Athenians, by 
 quotations from their own authors. I have never found 
 any thing in Carlyle, or Goethe, or Herbert Spencer, that 
 could compare in strength or beauty with Paul's Epistles. 
 I do not think there is any thing in the writings of Sir 
 "William Hamilton that shows such mental discipline as 
 you find in Paul's argument about justification and the 
 resurrection. I have not found any thing in Milton finer 
 in the way of imagination than I can find in Paul's illus- 
 trations drawn from the amphitheatre. There was noth- 
 
THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 261 
 
 ing in Robert Emmet pleading for his life, or in Edmund 
 Burke arraigning Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall, 
 that compared with the scene in the court-room, when 
 before robed officials Paul bowed and began his speech, 
 saj'ing, "I think myself happy. King Agrippa, because I 
 shall answer for myself this day." I repeat, that a re- 
 ligion that can capture a man like that must have some 
 power in it. It is time you stopped talking as though 
 all the brain of the world were opposed to Christianity. 
 Where Paul leads, we can afford to follow. I am glad 
 to know that Christ has in the different ages of the world 
 had in his discipleship a Mozart and a Handel in music ; 
 a Raphael and a Reynolds in painting ; an Angelo and a 
 Canova in sculpture; a Rush and a Harvey in medicine; 
 a Grotius and a Washington in statesmanship ; a Black- 
 stone, a Marshall, and a Kent in law; and the time 
 will come when the religion of Christ will conquer all 
 the observatories and universities, and Philosophy will 
 through her telescope behold the morning star of Jesus, 
 and in her laboratory see " that all things work together 
 for good," and with her geological hammer discover the 
 " Rock of Ages." Oh, instead of cowering and shivering 
 when the skeptic stands before you and talks of religion 
 as though it were a pusillanimous thing — instead of that, 
 take your New Testament from your pocket and show 
 him the picture of the intellectual giant of all the ages, 
 prostrated on the road to Damascus while his horse is 
 fljang wildly away ; then ask your skeptic what it was 
 that frightened the one and threw the other? Oh no, it 
 is no w^eak Gospel. It is a glorious Gospel. It is an all- 
 conquering Gospel. It is an omnipotent Gospel. It is 
 the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. 
 
262 THE FMOUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 Again, I learn from the text a man can not become a 
 Christian until he is unhorsed. The trouble is, we want 
 to ride into the kingdom of God, just as the knight rode 
 into castle gate on pal fry, beautifully caparisoned. We 
 want to come into the kingdom of God in fine style. 
 No kneeling down at the altar, no sitting on "anxious 
 seats," no crying over sin, no begging at the door of God's 
 mercy. Clear the road, and let us come in all prancing 
 in the pride of our soul. No, we will never get into 
 heaven that way. We must dismount. There is no 
 knight-errantry in religion, no fringed trappings of repent- 
 ance, but an utter prostration before God, a going down 
 in the dust, with the cry, " Unclean, unclean !" — a bewail- 
 ing of the soul, like David from the belly of hell — a going 
 down in the dust, until Christ shall by his grace lift us 
 up as he lifted Paul. Oh, proud-hearted sinner, you must 
 get off that horse. May a light from the throne of God 
 brighter than the sun throw you! Come down into the 
 dust and cry for pardon, and life, and heaven. 
 
 Again, I learn from this scene of the text that the grace 
 of God can overcome the persecutor. Christ and Paul were 
 boys at the same time in different villages, and Paul's an- 
 tipathy to Christ was increasing. He hated every thing 
 about Christ. He was going down then with writs in his 
 pockets to have Christ's disciples arrested. He was not 
 going as a sheriff goes, to arrest a man against whom he 
 has no spite, but Paul was going down to arrest those 
 people because he was glad to arrest them. The Bible 
 says, "He breathed out slaughter." He wanted them 
 captured, and he wanted them butchered. I hear the 
 click, and clash, and clatter of the hoofs of the galloping 
 steeds on the way to Damascus. Oh ! do you think that 
 
THE PROUD EIDER UXHORSED. 263 
 
 that proud man on horseback can ever become a Chris- 
 tian? Yes! there is a voice from heaven like a thun- 
 der-clap uttering two words, the second word the same 
 as the first, but uttered with more emphasis, so that the 
 proud equestrian may have no doubt as to who is meant, 
 ^^ Saul! Saul! That man was saved, and he was a per- 
 secutor; and so God can by his grace overcome any per- 
 secutor. The days of sword and fire for Christians seem 
 to have gone by. The bayonets of Napoleon I. pried 
 open the "Inquisition" and let the rotting w^retches out. 
 The ancient dungeons around Rome are to-day mere 
 curiosities for the travelers. The Coliseum, where w^ild 
 beasts used to suck up the life of the martyrs while the 
 emperor watched and Lolia Paulina sat with emerald 
 adornments worth sixty million sesterces, clapping her 
 hands as the Christians died under the paw and the tooth, 
 of the lion — that Coliseum is a ruin now. The scene of 
 the Smithfield fires is a hay-market. No emperor again 
 w^ill lead the pope's mule through St. Mark's Square. 
 The day of fire and sword for Christians seems to have 
 gone by; but has the day of persecution ceased? No. 
 Are you not caricatured for your religion? In propor- 
 tion as you try to serve God and be faithful to him, are 
 you not sometimes maltreated? That woman finds it 
 hard to be a Christian, as her husband talks and jeers 
 while she is trying to say her prayers or read the Bible. 
 That daughter finds it hard to be a Christian with the 
 whole family arrayed against her — father, mother, broth- 
 er, and sister making her the target of ridicule. That 
 young man finds it hard to be a Christian in the shop, 
 or factor}^, or store, when his comrades jeer at him be- 
 cause he will not go to the gambling-hell or the house 
 
26i THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 of shame. Oh no, the days of persecution have not 
 ceased, and will not until the end of the world. But, 
 oh ! you persecuted ones, is it not time that you began 
 to pray for your persecutors? They are no prouder, no 
 fiercer, no more set in their way than was this persecu- 
 tor of the text. He fell. They will fall, if Christ from 
 the heavens grandly and gloriously look out on them. 
 God can by his grace make a Renan believe in the di- 
 vinity of Jesus, and a Tyndall in the worth of prayer. 
 Robert Newton stamped the ship's deck in derisive in- 
 dignation at Christianity only a little while before he 
 became a Christian. "Out of my house," said a father 
 to his daughter, "if you will keep praying;" yet before 
 many months passed, the father knelt at the same altar 
 with the child. And the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to 
 look out from heaven upon that derisive opponent of 
 the Christian religion, and address him not in glittering 
 generalities, but calling him by name, "John! George! 
 Henry ! — Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest thou me ?" 
 
 Again, I learn from this subject that there is hope for 
 the worst offenders. It was particularly outrageous that 
 Saul should have gone to Damascus on that errand. 
 Jesus Christ had been dead only three years, and the 
 story of his kindness and his generosity and his love 
 filled all the air. It was not an old story as it is now. 
 It was a new story. Jesus had only three summers ago 
 been in these very places, and Saul every day in Jerusa- 
 lem must have met people who knew Christ, people with 
 good eyesight whom Jesus had cured of blindness, people 
 who were dead, and who had been resurrected by the 
 Saviour, and people who could tell Paul all the particu- 
 lars of the crucifixion — just how Jesus looked in the last 
 
THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 265 
 
 hour — just how the heavens grew black in the face at 
 the torture. He heard that recited every day by peo- 
 ple who were acquainted with all the circumstances, and 
 yet in the fresh memory of that scene he goes to perse- 
 cute Christ's disciples, impatient at the time it takes to 
 feed the horses at the inn, not pulling at the snafSe, but 
 riding with loose rein faster and faster. Oh, he was the 
 chief of sinners. No outbreak of modesty when he said 
 that. He was a murderer. He stood by when Stephen 
 died, and helped in the execution of that good man. 
 When the rabble wanted to be unimpeded in their work 
 of destroying Stephen, and wanted to take off their coats, 
 but did not dare to lay them down lest they be stolen, 
 Paul said, " I'll take care of the coats," and they put 
 them down at the feet of Paul, and he watched the 
 coats, and he watched the horrid mangling of glorious 
 Stephen. Is it a wonder that when he fell from the 
 horse he did not break his neck — that his foot did not 
 catch somewhere in the trappings of the saddle, and he 
 w^as not dragged and kicked to death ? He deserved to 
 die miserably, wretchedly, and forever, notwithstanding 
 all his metaphysics, and his eloquence, and his logic. 
 He was the chief of sinners. He said what was true 
 when he said that. And yet the grace of God saved 
 him, and so it will you. If there is any man in this 
 house who thinks he is too bad to be saved, and says, 
 "I have wandered very grievously from God, I do not 
 believe there is any hope for me," I tell you the story of 
 this man in the text who was brought to Jesus Christ in 
 spite of his sins and opposition. There may be some here 
 who are as stoutly opposed to Christ as Paul was. There 
 may be some here who are captive of their sins as much 
 
266 THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 SO as the young man who said in regard to his dissipa- 
 ting habits, "I will keep on with them. I know I am 
 breaking my mother's heart, and I know I am killing 
 myself, and I know that when I die I shall go to hell, 
 but it is now too late to stop." 
 
 The steed on which you ride may be swifter, and 
 stronger, and higher -mettled than that on which the 
 Cilician persecutor rode, but Christ can catch it by the 
 bridle, and hurl it back and hurl it down. There is 
 mercy for you who say you are too bad to be saved. 
 You say you have put off the matter so long. Paul had 
 neglected it a great while. You say that the sin you 
 have committed has been amidst the most aggravating 
 circumstances. That was so with Paul's. You say you 
 have exasperated Christ and coaxed your own ruin. So 
 did Paul. And yet he sits to-day on one of the highest 
 of the heavenly thrones ; and there is mercy for you, 
 and good days for you, and gladness for you, if you will 
 only take the same Christ which first threw him down 
 and then raised him up. It seems to me as if I can see 
 Paul to-day rising up from the highway to Damascus 
 and brushing off the dust from his cloak and wiping the 
 sweat of excitement from his brow, as he turns to us and 
 all the ages, saying, "This is a faithful saying, and wor- 
 thy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners, ofivhom I am chief P 
 
 Once more : I learn from this subject that there is a 
 tremendous reality in religion. If it had been a mere op- 
 tical delusion on the road to Damascus, was not Paul 
 just the man to find it out? If it had been a sham and 
 pretense, would he not have pricked the bubble? He 
 was a man of facts and arguments, of the most gigantic 
 
TEE PHOUB lilDER UNHORSED. 267 
 
 intellectual nature, and not a man of hallucinations. 
 x\nd when I see him fall from the saddle, blinded and 
 overwhelmed, I say there must have been something in it. 
 And, my dear brother, you will find that there is some- 
 thing in religion in one of three places — either in earth, 
 or in heaven, or in hell. We will wake up some- 
 where, somehow, sometime. The only question is, where ? 
 There was a man who rode from Stamford to London, 
 ninety -five miles in five hours, on horseback. Very 
 swift. There was a woman of Newmarket who rode on 
 horseback a thousand miles in a thousand hours. Very 
 swift. But there are those here, ay, all of us are speed- 
 ing on at tenfold that velocitj^, at a thousand-fold that 
 rate, toward a glad or a wretched eternity. That was a 
 fearful fall Paul got; but Christ raised him up. Yet 
 there is a fall from which there will be no rising. That 
 was the fall the man got who in his last moments turned 
 to his wife, who, by her worldliness, had kept him away 
 from Jesus, and said, with his expiring breath, "Rebecca, 
 you are the cause of my damnation !" That was the 
 fall the man got who said, in his last moments, "I have 
 sinned away my day of grace. Oh, I know when my 
 day of grace ended. It was at the close of that religious 
 service." That was the fall the man got who said, "I 
 am dying unprepared. Great God !" That was the fall 
 thousands have got. They perished while they were 
 speeding on in their career of sin and folly; and at the 
 moment they thought they were most firmly seated in 
 the stirrups, and the girdle most firmly buckled, and the 
 domes of future success were kindled before their vision, 
 they were suddenly flung into shame and everlasting 
 contempt. May Almighty God, from the opening heav- 
 
268 THE PROUD RIDER UNHORSED. 
 
 ens, flasli upon your soul this day the question of your 
 eternal destiny, and oh that Jesus, whom you have mal- 
 treated by your slights and your neglects, would this day 
 overcome you with his pardoning mercy, as he stands 
 here with the pathos of a broken heart and sobs into 
 your ear, " I have come for thee. I come with my back 
 raw from the beating. I come with my feet mangled 
 with the nails. I come with my brow aching from the 
 twisted bramble. I come with my heart bursting for 
 your woes. I can stand it no longer. /a7?2 Jesus whom 
 thou persecutestJ^ 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE-WOMAN, 269 
 
 THE CHKISTIAN" NEEDLE -WOMAK 
 
 "Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by 
 interpretation is called Dorcas." — Acts ix., 36. 
 
 THEEE is in Joppa, a sea-port town, a woman with 
 her needle embroidering her name ineffaceablj into 
 the charities of the world. I see her sitting in the vil- 
 lage home. In the door- way and around about the build- 
 ing, and in the room where she sits, are the pale faces of 
 the poor. She listens to their plaint, she pities their woe, 
 she maJ^es garments for them, she adjusts the manufac- 
 tured articles to suit the bent form of this invalid wom- 
 an, and to the cripple that comes crawling on his hands 
 and knees. She gives a coat to this one, she gives san- 
 dals to that one. With the gifts she mingles prayers 
 and tears and Christian encouragement. Then she goes 
 out to be greeted on the street corners by those whom 
 she has blessed, and all through the street the cry comes, 
 "Dorcas is coming!" The sick look up gratefully in 
 her face as she puts her hand on the burning brow, and 
 the lost and the abandoned start up with hope as they 
 hear her gentle voice, as though an angel had addressed 
 them : and as she goes out the lane, eyes half put out 
 with sin think they see a halo of light about her brow, 
 and a trail of glory in her pathway. That night a half- 
 paid shipwright climbs the hill and reaches home, and 
 sees his little boy well clad, and says, "Where did these 
 clothes come from?" And they tell him, "Dorcas has 
 
270 THE CHRIHTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 
 
 been here." In another place a woman is trimming a 
 lamp ; Dorcas brought the oil. In another place, a fixm- 
 ily that had not been at table for many a week are gath- 
 ered now, for Dorcas has brought bread. 
 
 But there is a sudden pause in that woman's ministry. 
 They say, "Where is Dorcas? Why, we haven't seen 
 her for many a day. Where is Dorcas?" And one of 
 these poor people goes up and knocks at the door and 
 finds the mystery solved. All through the haunts of 
 wretchedness the news comes, "Dorcas is sick!" Ko 
 bulletin flashing from the palace gate, telling the stages 
 of a king's disease, is more anxiously awaited for than 
 the news from this sick beneflictress. Alas for Joppa! 
 there is wailing, wailing. That voice which has uttered 
 so many cheerful words is hushed ; that hand which had 
 made so many garments for the poor is cold and still; 
 that star which had poured light into the midnight of 
 wretchedness is dimmed by the blinding mists that go 
 up from the river of death. In every God -forsaken 
 place in that town ; wherever there is a sick child and 
 no balm; wherever there is hunger and no bread; wher- 
 ever there is guilt and no commiseration ; wherever there 
 is a broken heart and no comfort, there are despairing 
 looks, and streaming eyes, and frantic gesticulations as 
 they cry, " Dorcas is dead !" They send for the apostle 
 Peter. He urges his way through the crowd around the 
 door, and stands in the presence of the dead. What ex- 
 postulation and grief all about him ! Here stand some 
 of the poor people, who show the garments which this 
 poor woman had made for them. Their grief can not 
 be appeased. The Apostle Peter wants to perform a 
 miracle. He will not do it amidst the excited crowd, 
 
THE CHRISTIAX NEEDLE -WOMAX. 271 
 
 SO he kindly orders that the whole room be cleared. 
 The door is shut against the populace. The apostle 
 stands now with the dead. Oh, it is a serious moment, 
 you know, when you are alone with a lifeless body ! The 
 apostle gets down on his knees and prays, and then he 
 comes to the lifeless form of this one all ready for the 
 sepulchre, and in the strength of him who is the resur- 
 rection, he exclaims, " Tahitha^ arise /" There is a stir in 
 the fountains of life ; the heart flutters ; the nerves thrill ; 
 the cheek flushes; the eye opens; she sits up ! 
 
 We see in this subject Dorcas the disciple; Dorcas 
 the benefactress ; Dorcas the lamented ; Dorcas the res- 
 urrected. 
 
 If I had not seen that word disciple in my text, I 
 would have known this woman was a Christian. Such 
 music as that never came from a heart which is not 
 chorded and strung by Divine grace. Before I show 
 you the needle-work of this woman, I want to show you 
 her regenerated heart, the source of a pure life and of all 
 Christian charities. I wish that the wives and mothers 
 and daughters and sisters of this congregation would im- 
 itate Dorcas in her discipleship. Before you sit with the 
 Sabbath -class, before you cross the threshold of the hos- 
 pital, before you carry a pack of tracts down the street, 
 before you enter upon the temptations and trials of to- 
 morrow, I charge yon, in the name of God, and by the 
 turmoil and tumult of the Judgment-day, oh women ! 
 that you attend to the first, last, and greatest duty of 
 your life — the seeking for Grod and being at peace with 
 him. Now, by the courtesies of society, you are de- 
 ferred to, and he were less than a man who would not 
 oblige you with kind attentions; but when the trumpet 
 
 12 
 
272 THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 
 
 shall sound, there will be an uproar, and a wreck of 
 mountain and continent, and no human arm can help 
 you. Amidst the rising of the dead, and amidst the 
 boiling of the sea, and amidst the live, leaping thunders 
 of the flying heavens, there will be no chance for court- 
 esies. But on that day, calm and placid will be every 
 woman's heart who hath put her trust in Christ; calm 
 notwithstanding all the tumult, as though the fire in the 
 heavens were only the gildings of an autumnal sunset, 
 as though the peal of the trumpet were only the har- 
 mony of an orchestra, as though the awful voices of the 
 sky were but a group of friends bursting through a gate- 
 way at eventime with laughter, and shouting "Dorcas 
 the disciple!" Would God that every Mary and every 
 Martha would this day sit down at the feet of Jesus! 
 
 Further, we see Dorcas the benefactress. History has 
 told the story of the crown ; the epic poet has sung of 
 the sword ; the pastoral poet, with his verses full of the 
 redolence of clover-tops, and a-rustle with the silk of the 
 corn, has sung the praises of the plow. I tell you the 
 praises of the needle. From the fig-leaf robe prepared 
 in the garden of Eden to the last stitch taken last night 
 on the garment for the Tabernacle fair, the needle has 
 wrought wonders of kindness, generosit}^, and benefac- 
 tion. It adorned the girdle of the high-priest; it fash- 
 ioned the curtains in the ancient tabernacle ; it cushioned 
 the chariots of King Solomon ; it provided the robes of 
 Queen Elizabeth ; and in high places and in low places, 
 by the fire of the pioneer's back-log and under the flash 
 of the chandelier, everywhere, it has clothed nakedness, 
 it has preached the Gospel, it has overcome hosts of pen- 
 ury and want with the war-cry of "Stitch, stitch, stitch !" 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE-WOMAN. 273 
 
 The operatives have found a livelihood by it, and 
 through it the mansions of the employer have been con- 
 structed. Amidst the greatest triumphs in all ages and 
 lands, I set down the conquests of the needle. I admit 
 its crimes: I admit its cruelties. It has had more mar- 
 tyrs than the fire ; it has butchered more souls than the 
 Inquisition ; it has punctured the eye ; it has pierced the 
 side; it has struck weakness into the lungs; it has sent 
 madness into the brain; it has filled the potter's field; 
 it has pitched whole armies of the suffering into crime 
 and wretchedness and woe. But now that I am talking 
 of Dorcas and her ministeries to the poor, I shall speak 
 only of the charities of the needle. 
 
 This woman was a representative of all those women 
 who make garments for the destitute, who knit socks for 
 the barefooted, who prepare bandages for the lacerated, 
 who fix up boxes of clothing for Western missionaries, 
 who go into the asylums of the suffering and destitute 
 bearing that Gospel which is sight for the blind, and 
 hearing for the deaf, and which makes the lame man 
 leap like a hart, and brings the dead to life, immortal 
 health bounding in their pulses. What a contrast be- 
 tween the practical benevolence of this woman and a 
 great deal of the charity of this day ! This woman did 
 not spend her time idly planning how the poor of Jop- 
 pa were to be relieved ; she took her needle and re- 
 lieved them. She was not like those persons who sym- 
 pathize with imaginary sorrows, and go out in the street 
 and laugh at the boy who has upset his basket of cold 
 victuals, or like that charity which makes a rousing 
 speech on the benevolent platform, and goes out to kick 
 the beggar from the step, crying, " Hush your miserable 
 
274 THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAK 
 
 howling!" The sufferers of the world want not so much 
 theory as practice; not so much tears as dollars; not 
 so much kind wishes as loaves of bread ; not bo much 
 smiles as shoes; not so much "God bless yons 1" as 
 jackets and frocks. I will put one earnest Christian 
 man, hard working, against five thousand mere theorists 
 on the subject of charity. There are a great many who 
 have fine ideas about church architecture w^ho never in 
 their life helped to build a church. There are men who 
 can give you the history of Buddhism and Mohammed- 
 anism, who never sent a farthing for their evangeliza- 
 tion. There are women who talk beautifully about the 
 suffering of the world, who never had the courage like 
 Dorcas to take the needle and assault it. 
 
 I am glad that there is not a page of the world's his- 
 tory which is not a record of female benevolence. God 
 says to all lands and people, come now and hear the 
 widow's mite rattle down into the poor-box. The Prin- 
 cess of Conti sold all her jewels that she might help 
 the famine-stricken. Queen Blanche, the wife of Louis 
 VIII. of France, hearing that there were some persons 
 unjustly incarcerated in the prisons, went out amidst the 
 rabble and took a stick and struck the door as a signal 
 that they might all strike it, and down went the prison 
 door, and out came the prisoners. Queen Maud, the 
 wnfe of Henry I., went down amidst the poor and wash- 
 ed their sores, and administered to them cordials. Mrs. 
 Eetson, at Matagorda, appeared on the battle-field while 
 the missiles of death were flying around, and cared for 
 the wounded. But why go so far back? Why go so 
 far away? Is there a man or woman in this house who 
 has forgotten the women of the Sanitary and Christian 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 275 
 
 Commissions, or the fact that, before the smoke had gone 
 up from Gettysburg and South Mountain, the women of 
 the North met the women of the South on the battle- 
 field, forgetting all their animosities while they bound 
 up the wounded, and closed the eyes of the slain? Have » • 
 you forgotten ? Dorcas the benefactress ! 
 
 I come now to speak of Dorcas the lamented. When 
 death struck down that good woman, oh, how much sor- 
 row there was in Joppa ! I suppose there were women 
 there with larger fortunes ; women, perhaps, with hand- 
 somer faces; but there was no grief at their departure 
 like this at the death of Dorcas. There w^as not more 
 turmoil and upturning in the Mediterranean Sea, dashing 
 against the wharves of that sea-port, than there were 
 surgings to and fro of grief in Joppa because Dorcas was 
 dead. There are a great many w^ho go out of life and 
 are unmissed. There may be a very large funeral ; 
 there may be a great many carriages and a plumed 
 hearse; there may be high-sounding eulogiums; the bell 
 may toll at the cemetery gate ; there may be a very fine 
 marble shaft reared over the resting-place 5 but the whole 
 thing may be a falsehood and a sham. The Church of 
 God has lost nothing, the world has lost nothing. It is 
 only a nuisance abated ; it is only a grumbler ceasing to 
 find fault; it is only an idler stopped yawning; it is only 
 a dissipated fashionable parted from his wine-cellar; 
 w4iile, on the other hand, no useful Christian leaves this 
 world without being missed. The Church of God cries 
 out like the prophet: "Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar has 
 fallen." Widowhood comes and shows the garments 
 which the departed had made. Orphans are lifted up 
 to look into the calm face of the sleeping benefactress. 
 
276 THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAK 
 
 Reclaimed vagrancy comes and kisses the cold brow of 
 her who charmed it away from sin, and all through the 
 streets of Joppa there is mourning — mourning because 
 Dorcas is dead. 
 
 I suppose you have read of the fact that when Jose- 
 phine was carried out to her grave there were a great 
 many men and women of pomp and pride and position 
 that went out after her ; but I am most affected by the 
 story of history that on that day there were ten thousand 
 of the poor of France who followed her coffin, weeping 
 and wailing until the air rang again, because, when they 
 lost Josephine, they lost their last earthly friend. Oh, 
 who would not rather have such obsequies than all the 
 tears that were ever poured in the lachrymals that have 
 been exhumed from ancient cities. There may be no 
 mass for the dead; there may be no costly sarcophagus; 
 there may be no elaborate mausoleum ; but in the damp 
 cellars of the city, and through the lonely huts of the 
 mountain glen, there will be mourning, mourning, mourn- 
 ing, because Dorcas is dead. " Blessed are the dead who 
 die in the Lord ; they rest from their labors, and their 
 works do follow them." 
 
 I speak to you of Dorcas the resurrected. The apostle 
 came to where she was, and said, "Arise; and she sat up." 
 In what a short compass the great writer put that — " She 
 sat up!" Oh, what a time there must have been when 
 the apostle brought her out among her old friends! 
 How the tears of joy must have started ! What clapping 
 of hands there must have been! "What singing! what 
 laughter! Sound it all through that lane! Shout it 
 down that dark alley! Let all Joppa hear it! Dorcas 
 is resurrected ! 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 277 
 
 You and I have seen the same thing many a time; 
 not a dead body resuscitated, but the deceased coming up 
 again after death in the good accomplished. If a man 
 labors up to fifty years of age, serving God, and then 
 dies, we are apt to think that his earthly work is done. 
 No! His influence on earth will continue till the world 
 ceases. Services rendered for Christ never stop. Here 
 is a Christian woman. She toils for the upbuilding of a 
 church through many anxieties, through many self-deni- 
 als, with prayers and tears, and then she dies. It is fif- 
 teen years since she went away. Now the Spirit of God 
 descends upon that church ; hundreds of souls stand up 
 and confess the faith of Christ. Has that Christian wom- 
 an, who went away fifteen years ago, nothing to do with 
 these things? I see the flowering out of her noble heart. 
 I hear the echo of her footsteps in all these songs over 
 sins forgiven, in all the prosperity of the church. The 
 good that seemed to be buried has come up again. Dor- 
 cas is resurrected. 
 
 After a w^hile all these womanly friends of Christ will 
 put down their needle forever. After making garments 
 for others, some one will make a garment for them: the 
 last robe we ever wear — the robe for the grave. You 
 will have heard the last cry of pain. You will have wit- 
 nessed the last orphanage. You will have come in worn 
 out from your last I'ound of mercy. I do not know 
 where you will sleep, nor what your epitaph will be ; but 
 there will be a lamp burning at that tomb and an angel 
 of God guarding it, and through all the long night no 
 rude foot will disturb the dust. Sleep on, sleep on! 
 Soft bed, pleasant shadows, undisturbed repose ! Sleep 
 on! 
 
278 THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 
 
 " Asleep in Jesus ! Blessed sleep ! 
 From which none ever wake to weep." 
 
 Then one day there will be a sky-rending, and a whirl 
 of wheels, and the flash of a pageant; armies marching, 
 chains clanking, banners waving, thunders booming, and 
 that Christian woman will arise from the dust, and she 
 will be suddenly surrounded — surrounded by the wan- 
 derers of the street whom she reclaimed, surrounded by 
 the wounded souls to whom she administered ! Daughter 
 of God, so strangely surrounded, what means this? It 
 means that reward has come, that the victory is won, that 
 the crown is ready, that the banquet is spread. Shout it 
 through all the crumbling earth. Sing it through all the 
 flying heavens. Dorcas is resurrected I 
 
 In 1855, when some of the soldiers came back from the 
 Crimean war to London, the Queen of England distributed 
 among them beautiful medals, called Crimean medals. I 
 think of it just now, as I recently had a book presented 
 me representing that beautiful Crimean medal. Galleries 
 were erected for the two Houses of Parliament and the 
 royal family to sit in. There was a great audience to 
 witness the distribution of the medals. A colonel who 
 had lost both feet in the battle of Inkermann was pulled 
 in on a wheel -chair; others came in limping on their 
 crutches. Then the Queen of England arose ' -efore them 
 in the name of her Government, and uttered words of 
 commendation to the officers and the men, and distributed 
 these medals, inscribed with the four great battle-fields, 
 Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, and Sebastopol. As the 
 Queen gave these to the wounded men and the wounded 
 officers, the bands of music struck up the national air, and 
 the people with streaming eyes joined in the song: 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NEEDLE -WOMAN. 279 
 
 " God save our noble Queen ! 
 Long live our gracious Queen ! 
 God save the Queen !'' 
 
 And then they shouted, " Huzza ! huzza!" Oh, it was a 
 proud day for those returned warriors! But a brighter, 
 better, and gladder day will come, when Christ shall gath- 
 er those who have toiled in his service, good soldiers of 
 Jesus Christ. He shall rise before them, and in the pres- 
 ence of all the glorified of heaven he will say, " Well 
 done, good and faithful servant!" and then he will dis- 
 tribute the medals of eternal victory, not inscribed with 
 works of righteousness which we have done, but with 
 those four great battle-fields, dear to earth and dear to 
 hesiV en ^ Bethlehem / Nazareth/ Oethsemane I Calvary! 
 
 12* 
 
280 EOEACE QBEELET, LIVING AND DEAD. 
 
 HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 
 
 "Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen." — Zechariah xi., 2. 
 
 WHEN the smaller growths of the forest topple, there 
 is bat little excitement in the wood. The stork 
 does not so much as flutter a wing, nor does the hart lift 
 it's mouth dripping from the w^ater-brooks. But when 
 a cedar that has been standing for ages, the glory of the 
 forest, touched with decay, or under the swoop of the 
 hurricane begins to weigh its anchorage of root, and falls, 
 the crash startles the eagle from its aerie, and sends the 
 stag in wild plunge from the rock, and shakes the very 
 foundation of the mountains. 
 
 A few hours ago a black and swarthy axeman went 
 into the forests of men. He had hewn down many a tall 
 and gigantic growth : he has been swinging his axe for 
 six thousand years, and he knows how to cut. He aimed 
 the sharp and fatal edge at one whom we all knew — 
 stroke after stroke, stroke after stroke, until the cedar 
 which had stood the blasts of trouble and trial, and abuse 
 and toil, drops into the dust, two hemispheres resounding 
 with the fall. " Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen !" 
 
 Horace Greeley is dead ! and the caricaturist drops his 
 pencil, the author his pen, the merchant his j^ard-stick, 
 the laborer his pickaxe, the child its toy, and the world 
 its eulogium. Taking it all in all, I think it is the sad- 
 dest death of any public man in our whole history. Let 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVIXG AND DEAD. 281 
 
 neither pen nor tongue, by useless review or unbrotherly 
 criticism, add one drop to the nation's cup of grief ; it is 
 brimful already. Be it ours the Christian duty of learn- 
 ing the lessons of this man, living and dead. 
 
 I think the life of this man ought to kindle hope and 
 enthusiasm in all the struggling. There are a great many 
 young men who tell me that they have no chance. They 
 say, "Yonder is a young man who started with a large 
 fortune, and here is a young man who married a fine 
 estate, and here is another who has been through our best 
 universities, and has finished his education in Edinburgh 
 or Germany ; but I have no education, I have no money, 
 I have no chance." You have as good a chance as Hor- 
 ace Greeley the hoy. See him in Vermont, in home- 
 spun, dyed with butternut-bark, helping his father get a 
 living for the family out of very poor soil. I tell you 
 that one who has, with bare feet and in tow shirt, helped 
 a father to get out of poor soil a living for mother and 
 sisters, has a right to publish fifty books concerning 
 "What he knows about farming." See the lad stepping 
 np from the Albany boat on the New York Battery, and 
 then coming and sitting down on the steps of a printing- 
 house, waiting for the boss to come in the morning. Then 
 look at him sitting in the foremost editorial chair of all 
 the world, and then tell me again you have no chance. 
 If a young man starts from a good, honest, industrious 
 Christian mother, he graduates from a universit}^ better 
 than that of Berlin or Edinburgh, with a diploma in each 
 hand. Every sound man staits life with a capital of at 
 least one hundred thousand dollars — I say every man. 
 You tell me to prove it. I will prove it. Your right 
 arm — will you take five thousand dollars, and have it 
 
282 HORACE OREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 
 
 cut off? "No," you say. Then certainly it is worth 
 five thousand dollars, and your left arm is worth as much, 
 and your right foot as much, and your left foot as much. 
 Twenty thousand dollars of capital to start with. Your 
 mind ; for how much would you go up and spend your 
 life in Bloomingdale Asylum? Twenty thousand dollars 
 for your intellect? You would refuse it. It is worth 
 that, anyhow — forty thousand dollars of equipment. 
 Then you have an immortal soul ; for how much would 
 you sell it? For sixty thousand dollars ? No! you say, 
 with indignation. Then certainly it is worth that much. 
 And there are your one hundred thousand dollars — the 
 magnificent outfit with which the Lord God Almighty 
 started every one of you. And yet there are young men 
 who are waiting for others to come and start them — to 
 make them ; waiting for institutions to make them ; wait- 
 ing for circumstances to make them. Fool ! go and make 
 yourself Columbus was a weaver; Halley a soap-boiler; 
 Arkwright a barber ; ^sop a slave ; the learned Bloom- 
 field was a shoe -maker; Hogarth was an engraver of 
 pewter-plate ; Sixtus Y. was a swine-herdsman ; Homer 
 was a beggar; and Horace Greeley started life in New 
 York with ten dollars and seventy-five cents in his pock- 
 et, as well off as if he had the eleven full round dollars. 
 But there are a great many young men who are waiting 
 for the other twenty-five cents before they begin. " Oh !" 
 you say, " it was his eccentricities that got him success." 
 A great many men have supposed that, and they have 
 aped him, and they got so far as the bad penmanship and 
 the slouched hat, but they never got to be Horace Gree- 
 leys. So it was in the days of Lord Byron. Excessive- 
 ly admired he was, and there were many people in En- 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 283 
 
 gland who resolved that they would be Lord Byrons, 
 and they got to be, so far as a very large shirt-collar went, 
 but no nearer. It was not eccentricity that made Horace 
 Greeley; it was hard work. Proverbs xxii., 29 : "Seest 
 thou a man diligent in his business ? he shall stand be- 
 fore kings." 
 
 Again, my friends, there comes from this providence 
 a luaming for all hrain-ivorkers. Mr. Greeley, at my own 
 table, ten days before his nomination at Cincinnati, told 
 me that he had not had a sound sleep in fifteen years! 
 I said to him, "Why do you sit in your room writing, 
 with your hand up at that elevation, on a board raised 
 to that point ?" " Well," he said, " I have so much work 
 to do that I must not have my chest cramped at all. I 
 must keep all my faculties of body and mind in full 
 play, or I can not get on." During the late war, in con- 
 nection with his editorial duty, almost every evening 
 you might have seen him on the rail-car going out to 
 meet a lecturing engagement. He was writing articles 
 for other journals besides his own. He was preparing a 
 history of the war, which history might have taken the 
 exclusive time of any other man for two or three years. 
 And now people say it is political disappointment that 
 killed him. I do not believe it, unless it is on the prin- 
 ciple that it is the last straw that breaks the camel's 
 back. A man with his magnificent cerebral develop- 
 ment would not have been overthrown in that way; it 
 was because for twenty years he had been giving the 
 death-blow with his own pen — extreme work, work 
 which he did conscientiously, but it was overwork. 
 Work is good, as I said in the former head of my dis- 
 course; but too much work is death. 
 
28-i HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 
 
 Now, brethren of literary toil, you had better hold up. 
 If you are going at the rate of sixty miles an hour, you 
 had better stop and go no more than thirty. The temp- 
 tations to overwork for literary men are multiplying all 
 the time in increased newspapers and magazines, and 
 lecturing platforms. The temptation to night -work is 
 especially great — that kind of work which is most ex- 
 hausting and ruinous. "When the sun goes down, God 
 puts his candle out, and says to the world, "My child, 
 you had better go to sleep ; I have put the candle out." 
 The brass-headed nails of coffins are made out of gas- 
 light! The money that a man makes by midnight toil 
 he pays toward the expenses of his own funeral. When 
 the devil can not stop a good man's work by making 
 him lazy, then he comes into the editor's room, or into 
 the minister's study, or into the artist's studio, and he 
 says, "Go it! you ought to be doing five times the work 
 you are doing. You ought to write two books this year. 
 You ought to send out twenty or thirty additional arti- 
 cles. You ought to deliver fifty lectures at two hun- 
 dred dollars a night." Then, when his health fails, there 
 is Satanic congratulation. The devil first tries to stop a 
 useful man by making him lazy. Failing in that, he 
 then puts on the lash and digs in the spurs, and drives 
 him to death. I say, therefore, to the men who are toil- 
 ing with their brain, you had better "slow up," as they 
 say on the railroad lines. I hear somebody say, "You 
 had better take your own advice." I will. I am being 
 converted under my own sermon. God gives to every 
 man a certain amount of work, and he does not want 
 him to do any more than that. "Do thyself no harm," 
 is advice no more appropriate to the jailer when the 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AJiD LEAD. 285 
 
 prison is tumbling around his ears, than it is appropri- 
 ate to those the wards of whose health and the fastnesses 
 of whose strength begin to tremble with the earthquake. 
 Paul was very careful of his body; long before the days 
 of expressage he sends hundreds of miles for his great- 
 coat to Troas. Oh, ye men of literary toil ! you have 
 been careful about keeping the candle snuffed and burn- 
 ing brightly; is it not almost time you began to look af- 
 ter the candlestick? The sharp sword will not make any 
 execution unless you have a handle to it. Through all 
 the editorial rooms, and through all the studies of this 
 country, let the warning reverberate ; let it come up to- 
 night from the graves of Kirke White, of Henry J. Eay- 
 mond, and of Horace Greeley. 
 
 Again, I have found since this calamity came to the 
 nation, the great laiu of brotherhood illustrated. Have you 
 not been surprised to see how every heart thrilled in sym- 
 pathy with this trial ? Take this in consideration of the 
 fact that we are now at the close of the meanest and most 
 dastardly chapter of personality, and vituperation, and 
 scorn, and political calumny that has ever been written. 
 It is most marvelous. If there is any word expressive 
 of contempt, and of hatred, and of disgust, and of defa- 
 mation that has not been used within the past six months, 
 it is because the dictionaries have made the word obso- 
 lete. Why, the cylinders of the printing-presses have 
 hardly cooled off from the fiery assault. But the very 
 moment this death is announced, how every thing is 
 hushed! And next Wednesday, when the nation fol- 
 lows Horace Greeley to his grave, in the vast procession 
 you will not be able to tell who were Republicans and 
 who were Liberal Republicans. All the States will vote 
 
286 HORACE QREELEY, LIVING AND LEAD. 
 
 for him now, and by the electoral college of the whole 
 world he will be proclaimed, unanimously, President of 
 the great reformatory movements of the last twenty 
 years. Oh, how quickly the nation grounded arms ! how 
 quickly the sword clanked back into the scabbard ! The 
 drums that were beating the victory of his political op- 
 ponent deepen now into the grand march for the dead ! 
 Oh, is it not beautiful! We are all brothers, after all. 
 The sorrow reveals it. It is just as when two brothers 
 have been fighting about father's property, and will not 
 speak to each other. Mother dies, and they go home to 
 the obsequies, and John stands on one side of the moth- 
 er's coffin, and George on the other side, and, for the first 
 time speaking in five years, say, " Wasn't she a good 
 mother?" And then hands clasp, and they say, "Oh, 
 we can't live this way any longer, can we?" And so 
 the two great parties, after long and bitter strife, now 
 clasp hands over the sepulchre of the dead, and promise 
 new exertion for the welfare of this country. If there 
 be in all this audience a base heart in which the serpent 
 of bad feeling against the renowned man still lingers, 
 next Wednesday let him take that serpent and fling it 
 under the hoofs of the black -tasseled horses that shall 
 draw out to their last resting-place this great man. But 
 I am lion-hunting to-night, and I have no ammunition to 
 waste on vultures that plunge their beaks into the bo- 
 soms of the dead. 
 
 I learn from this solemn providence that neiospaper 
 m.en^ like all other men^ will have to come to an account be- 
 fore God. Nothing could keep this man when the time 
 came for him to go. God called ; he went. The doc- 
 tors could not hold him back ; the prayers of a nation 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 287 
 
 could not hold him back ; even his own loving daughter, 
 her hand in his, could not hold him back. Surely she 
 had enough trouble. Mother gone, and father gone — 
 all within a few weeks. God comfort that double an- 
 guish, and be to her more than father or mother. I say 
 when God called him to meet his account, he had to go. 
 It is a vast responsibility that rests upon people that 
 set type or sit in editorial chairs. The audience is 
 so large, the influence is so great, the results are so 
 eternal, that I believe, in the day of judgment, amidst 
 all the millions of men who will come up to render 
 their account, the largest account will be rendered by 
 newspaper men; and I will tell you why. Here is a 
 paper that has, for instance, fifty thousand circulation. 
 We will suppose that each of those papers is read by 
 three men. There is an audience of one hundred and 
 fifty thousand people. Now, suppose that in one of the 
 issues of that paper there be a grand truth forcibly put, 
 how magnificent the opportunity ! Suppose there be a 
 wrong thing projected in that paper, who can estimate 
 the undoing of that one issue ! Oh, if there is any man 
 who needs to be a Christian, it is an editor! He needs 
 more grace, more help, more wisdom than any other 
 man. Now, in the columns, it is by custom that the 
 editor writes "we" and "us;" in the last great day it 
 will be "I" and "me." I congratulate you, newspaper 
 men, on the splendor of your opportunity ; but I charge 
 you before God, who will judge the quick and the dead, 
 that you be careful to use your influence in the right 
 direction. How grand will be the result in the last day 
 for the man who has consecrated the printing-press to 
 high and holy objects! God will say to such a one, 
 
288 HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 
 
 *' You broke off a million chains, you opened a million 
 blind eyes, you gave resurrection to a million of the 
 dead." But what shall become of those who have pros- 
 tituted their press to blackmailing and the advocacy of 
 that which is wrong, multiplying the numbers of their 
 papers by pandering to the tastes of bad men and worse 
 women, poisoning the air with a plague that killed a na- 
 tion? Why, God will say to such men in the last day, 
 "You w^ere destroying angels, smiting the first-born of 
 man and beast; you made the world horribly worse, 
 when you might have made it gloriously better. Go 
 down, and suffer with the millions you have damned ! 
 You knew your duty, and you did it not." 
 
 I remark, further, there ought to be, in consequence 
 of this providence, a great arousal on the part of men 
 engaged in temperance reform. Horace Greeley w^as the 
 champion of temperance in this country. His pen wrote 
 more and effected more than that of any other man. 
 You remember how he spoke last winter in the Lay 
 College on this subject. Pie was a hater of all intoxi- 
 cating drinks, from the rye whisky that pitches the sot 
 into the ditch, up to the wine-glass that makes a fool of 
 the fine lady in the parlor. He had seen so much devas- 
 tation of drunkenness amidst the brethren of his own oc- 
 cupation ; he had heard the snapping of the heart:Strings 
 of widowhood and orphanage, robbed by the fiend that 
 squats in the wine-cask and sweats in the brewery, the 
 smoke of its torment ascending up forever and forever. 
 I think that yesterday all the gin-bottles in the grog- 
 shop rattled with gladness when it was told that Horace 
 Greeley was dead, and that drunkenness, which "biteth 
 like a serpent and stingeth like an adder," hissed for joy. 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 289 
 
 But boast not, tliou demon of the pit! If Horace 
 Greeley is dead, the principles he advocated live. Eli- 
 sha may be buried, but we will keep his grave open, and 
 let down this inert cause until, touching his bones, it 
 shall spring np with tenfold power, and go forth for the 
 conquest of the world. Because Christ turned water 
 into wine, men turn the pure juice of the grape into 
 swill. Now that the standard-bearer of temperance has 
 fallen, who will catch up the colors and carry them on 
 to victory? I ask these fathers and mothers, before 
 their sons wither under this hot simoon of hell, to come 
 and join the standard. I ask men in all circumstances to 
 deny their palates and save their souls. When next 
 Wednesday the nation gathers around Horace Greeley's 
 grave, I would like to have the little children whose fa- 
 thers he redeemed from the cup, come and throw flowers 
 all over that grave, and the woman whom he lifted up 
 from the squalor of being a drunkard's wife come and 
 pour her tears on the resting-place of him who has spo- 
 ken his last word and written his last line in behalf of 
 the reformation of the inebriate. " Howl, howl, fir-tree, 
 for the cedar has fallen." 
 
 I learn, again, from this providence that the last hours 
 of a mans life are a i:>oor time to prepare for eternity. I 
 do not know about Mr. Greeley's experience ; I do not 
 know whether in life he thought much about the things 
 of eternity. I suppose he did ; I hope he did. I read 
 that in his last moments he said, " I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth ;" and a man who can say that is fit for 
 any thing in time or any thing in eternity. But it is 
 my belief, it is my hope that, in the daj^s of his life, he 
 thought much upon these great subjects, and did not 
 
290 HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD, 
 
 leave until the last hour consecration to God. The last 
 moments of his life were passed under mental aberration, 
 and it is always true that the last hours of a man's life 
 are a poor time in which to prepare for eternity. It is 
 either delirium or some trouble about property, or it is 
 the magnitude of world-changing, or it is bidding good- 
 bye to friends — making it a very poor hour to prepare 
 for heaven. The fact is, that if a man wants to get ready 
 for eternity, he must do it while he is well. I do not 
 suppose there were ten men in the United States with a 
 stronger natural constitution than Horace Greeley; but 
 Death is an old besieger, and he prides himself on the 
 strength of the castle he takes. Be ye also ready. Do 
 not wait until you see the flamheau of the bridegroom 
 coming through the darkness before you begin to trim 
 your lamps. You may wait for your last moment; but 
 when your last moment comes, it will not wait for you. 
 There are a great many doors through which you may 
 get out of this world, but there is only one door into 
 heaven. "/ am the doorj^ said One who threw out his 
 hands in the gesticulation, showing the sacrificial blood 
 clotted in the palm and dripping from the fingers. I 
 can only with my voice reach those who hear it now ; 
 but ye men of the press who take the words I utter to- 
 night, tell all the cities, tell all the world that Jesus died 
 to save men ; that the death-bed is a poor place to get 
 ready for eternity ; that it is appointed unto all men once 
 to die, but after that — the judgment! the judgment! 
 
 Hush, all ye people ! Let the nation uncover its head 
 and bow lowly, and carry out the illustrious dead. Along 
 the same streets where he trudged a poor boy, and after- 
 ward a weary man, let him be carried. Hang out sig- 
 
HORACE GREELEY, LIVING AND DEAD. 291 
 
 nals, white and black — black for the woe, white for the 
 resurrection. Bring him across the river into this city, 
 where he alwaj^s loved to come ; then out toward Green- 
 wood take him. Toll long and loud the bell at the gate. 
 Put him down under the snow to rest — the only good 
 rest he has had for thirty years ; his right hand closed, 
 for there are no more heroic words for it to write ; his 
 lips shut, for there are no more encouraging words for 
 them to speak ; his brow cool, for his head has stopped 
 aching now ; his heart quiet, for it never will break again. 
 I put upon his grave not a single wreath, not a single 
 daisy or a blossom ; but I put upon his grave a scroll, 
 plain and white, a scroll half open, that you may read it 
 from both sides: "I am the resurrection and the life: 
 he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live." " Howl, howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen." 
 
292 TEE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 THE AERIYAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 "The summer is ended." — Jeremiah viii., 20. 
 
 THE text was occasioned by the departure of the 
 glory of the Jews; but read on this first autumnal 
 Sabbath, starts up in my mind more thoughts than the 
 bang of a sportsman's gun ever routed quails out of the 
 grass. " The summer is ended." 
 
 The soul of the intelligent Christian reflects the nat- 
 ural world from all sides. While there are those who 
 have not enough beauty in their souls to speckle the 
 wing of an insect, nor enough music to drown the buzz 
 of a gadfly, to the intelligent Christian, river-wave, and 
 cloud-bank, and tree-branch, and bird-song, are so many 
 evangelists and apostles with their scroll of light to un- 
 wind, and their sermon to preach. He sees a cross in 
 every tree, and Christ in every lily; beholds death de- 
 scending on a falling leaf, and the resurrection foretold in 
 every bud bursting. The year is to him a great temple 
 of praise, on whose altar, as an offering, spring puts its 
 blossoms, and summer its sheaf of grain, and autumn its 
 branch of fruits; while winter, like a white-bearded priest, 
 stands at the altar praising God with psalm of snow and 
 hail and tempest. 
 
 The summer season is the perfection of JLhey ear. The 
 trees are in full foliage. The rose — God's favorite flower, 
 for he has made nearly five hundred varieties of it — flames 
 with divine beauty. I do not wonder that Nero once 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 293 
 
 paid one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for one 
 wreath of roses with which to adorn his supper-table. 
 The origin of the rose is suggested by the legend which 
 says in the East a holj^ woman was burned at the stake, 
 and when the executioner put the torch to the wood, it 
 kindled into roses instead of fire, and so the world has 
 had plenty of flowers ever since. Summer is the season 
 of beauty. The world itself is only one drop from the 
 overflowing cup of God's jo3\ All the sweet sounds ever 
 heard are but one tone from the harp of God's infinite 
 melody. When God made all things, he did not half try. 
 To the work of man there is a wrong side, but there is 
 no wrong side to the carpets which God hath nailed to 
 the earth, or to the curtains he hath hung to the heavens. 
 No thread ever snaps in God's loom. In your recent 
 wanderings you have seen the beauty of the Lord, and 
 the beauty of the summer. 
 
 The summe^i;us-«fe€)u-a^easo»"e^xposure. Excursion 
 trains come into collision, and the Waiuasset perishes on 
 the Potomac. The perils of the traveler were illustrated 
 by the conductor on the Mount Washington Eailroad 
 this summer. When on the steepest place of that steep- 
 est rail-track in all the earth, a man was frightened, and 
 said to the conductor: " Suppose the locomotive should 
 give out, where would we go to?" "Ah," said the con- 
 ductor, " there is a brake at the front of the car." " But," 
 said the traveler, '' suppose that should give out, where 
 then would we go to?" Said the conductor, "There is 
 another brake, you see, on the cars." "But," said the 
 affrighted passenger, " suppose that also should give way, 
 where then would we go to?" And the conductor replied, 
 significantly, " That depends upon how you have lived." 
 
294 T^E ABRIVAL OF AUTUMjV. 
 
 Summer, a season of exposure! Many yield to the 
 temptation, and eat' forbidden fruit, the sin of our first 
 parents, and die. Diseases that had their root in some 
 cough of the winter, in the summer put forth the white 
 blossom of death. Malaria floats on the August night 
 air. Every bill of mortality is increased. Epidemics 
 drive out their hundred hearses to Greenwood and Laurel 
 Hill. Old age sinks down from exhaustion under the 
 heat, and Death, like an old Herod, sends the messengers 
 to Bethlehem for the massacre of the infants. In the 
 week that ended last 19th of July, five hundred children 
 died in the city of New York. Summer is a season of 
 exposure as well as a season of harvest and a season of 
 beauty. 
 
 But that summer wave of beauty is receding. The 
 sap of the tree is halting in its upward current. The 
 night is fast conquering the day. The populations of our 
 great cities are flying homeward. Crowded rail-trains 
 are full of returning tourists. You and I are buckling 
 on the work of the cooler months. The sports of our 
 recreating days are gone. Summer with fever heats has 
 perished, and to-night we twist a wreath of scarlet sage 
 and china-asters for her brow, and bury her under the 
 scattered rose-leaves, while we beat amidst the woods and 
 by the water-courses this solemn dirge, " The summer is 
 ended r 
 
 There are three or four classes of persons of whom 
 the words of my text are descriptive. In the first place, 
 they are appropriate ■ to 4he aged. Those in this audi- 
 ence who are far advanced in years were once just like 
 ourselves. There was a time when they could hardly 
 bridle their exuberance. They laughed, they romped, 
 
THE ABFJVAL OF AUTUMN. 295 
 
 they shouted, they sang. The world was as bright to 
 them then as it is to us now. Though they are in 
 the October of life now, it was June with them once. 
 They take with placidity things that once would have 
 made them blaze with indignation. Sometimes they 
 may chide us because of our vivacity; but when two 
 or three of the aged get together, I have overheard them 
 talk in the next room about occurrences which make 
 me believe that v/hen they were of our age they were 
 just like us. How fast they did drive! What strong 
 wrestlers they brought to the earth ! In what a willful 
 mood they upset the sleigh, to see the victims crawl out 
 of the snow-bank! How many "frolics" there were, 
 and how many " quiltings !" The aged do not talk much 
 to us about these things. They wonder why we are not 
 as cool as they are. Ah ! the dear souls forget that July 
 is never as cool as November. Aged Christians used to 
 be a great discouragement to me, when I heard of their 
 great attainments, and viewed my own spiritual back- 
 wardness ; but now they are great encouragement to me ; 
 for since I have found that they were about as I am, I 
 have come to the conclusion that the same things which 
 have favored them will favor me, and I get some hint of 
 what a good man I will be in my ninetieth year. 
 
 But the aged feel life going away from them. They 
 stop at the top of the stairs, all out of breath, and say, "I 
 can't walk up stairs as well as I used to." They hold 
 the book off on the other side of the light when they 
 read. Their eye is not so quick to catch a sight, nor 
 their ear a sound. Instead of the strong stride with which 
 they once went along the street, they take short steps 
 now, as though about to stop in the journey. Their 
 
 13 
 
296 THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 voice is tremulous, and their hand, that failed not to sen 
 the bullet to the mark, has lost its steadiness. Too feebl 
 even to walk out, on pleasant days the cushioned chair 
 is wheeled to the veranda. The bloom and verdure of 
 their life have drooped. June has melted into Julj. 
 July has fallen back into August. August has cooled 
 into September. " The summer is ended." 
 
 I have noticed that in this climate, in the latter part of 
 October or the first of November, there is a season of 
 beautiful weather called Indian summer. It is the gem 
 of all the year. A haziness is in the atmosphere, but 
 still every thing is pleasant and mild. And so I see be- 
 fore me to-night some who have come to that season. 
 There is a haziness on their vision, I know, but the 
 sweetness of heaven has melted into their soul. I con- 
 gratulate those who have come to the Indian summer of 
 their life. Their grandchildren climb up on the back of 
 the chair, and run their fingers along the wrinkles which 
 time has for a long while been furrowing there. On sun- 
 ny afternoons, grandfather goes out in the church-yarc 
 and sees on the tombstones the names, the very names 
 that sixty years ago he wrote on his slate at school. Hg 
 looks down where his children sleep their last sleep, and 
 before the tears have fallen, says, "So much more in 
 heaven !" Patiently he awaits his appointed time, until 
 his life goes out gently as a tide, and the bell tolls him 
 to his last home under the shadow of the church that he 
 loved so long and loved so well. Blessed old age, if it 
 be found in the way of righteousness ! 
 
 But I remark again, that my text is appropriate for 
 all tJiose ivhose fortunes have jperished. If a man lose his 
 property attliirfy or-forty years of age, it is only a sharp 
 
m THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 297 
 
 i 
 
 "liscipline, generally, by whicli later he comes to larger 
 ■uccess. It is all folly for a man to sit down in mid-life 
 discouraged. The marshals of Napoleon came to their 
 commander, and said, " We have lost the battle, and we 
 are being cut to pieces." Napoleon took his watch from 
 his pocket, and said, "It is only two o'clock in the af- 
 ternoon. You have lost that battle, but we have time 
 enough to win another. Charge upon the foe !" Though 
 the meridian of life has passed with you, and you have 
 been routed in many a conflict, give not up in discour- 
 agement. There are victories yet for you to gain. But 
 sometimes monetary disaster comes to a man when there 
 is something in his age, or something in his health, or 
 something in his surroundings, which make him know 
 w^ell that he will never get up again. In 1857 it was es- 
 timated that for many years previous to that time, annu- 
 ally, there had been thirty thousand failures in the United 
 States. Many of those persons never recovered from the 
 misfortune. The leaves of worldly prosperity all scat- 
 Jteixd— the day-book, and the ledger, and the money-safe, 
 <and the package of broken securities crying out, "The 
 ■ summer is ended." But let me give a word of comfort 
 in passing. The sheriff may sell you out of many things, 
 but there are some things of which he can not sell you 
 out. He can not sell out your health. He can not sell 
 out your family. He can not sell out your Bible. He 
 can not sell out your God. He can not sell out your 
 heaven ! You have left more than you have lost. A 
 man of large wealth died ; two men were talking over 
 his death, and one said to the other, "How much did 
 he leave ?'' The other man thoughtfully replied, ''Every 
 dollar r So that if the ghost of Stephen Girard or John 
 
298 THE AMRIVAL OF AUTUMN: 
 
 Jacob Astor should come into a retail store on Canal 
 Street, thej could not get trusted for ten cents, and would 
 not have money enough to ride in a car on Fulton Ave- 
 nue! The poets always represent ghosts as walking. I 
 suppose they can not afiford to ride. Death is an auc- 
 tioneer which sells us out of all our earthly possessions, 
 and there is nothing left when once he drops his hammer 
 of stone on the coffin-lid, crying, "Gone! gone!" 
 
 But, sons and daughters of God, mourn not when your 
 property goes. The world is yours, and life is yours, 
 and death is yours, and immortality is yours, and thrones 
 of imperial grandeur are yours, and rivers of gladness 
 are yours, and shining mansions are yours, and God is 
 yours! The eternal God hath sworn it; and every time 
 you doubt it, you charge the King of heaven and earth 
 with perjury. Instead of complaining how hard you 
 have it, go home to-night, take up your Bible full of 
 promises, get down on your knees before God, and thank 
 him for what you have^ instead of spending so much time 
 in complaining about what you have not. 
 
 Again, the words of the text are appropriate to all 
 those who have passed through luxuriant seasons of grace 
 without improvement. I know there are those who do 
 not believe in revivals ; but I think that if there had 
 been no revivals there would not have been a single 
 church in England or America to-day. It would have 
 been impossible to withstand the flood of sin and wretch- 
 edness; had it not been for those large gatherings, the 
 Church of God could not have maintained its ground. 
 Suppose a foreign despotism should attack our coun- 
 try. Would we be afraid of having men come too plen- 
 tifully to our standard? No! We would say, "Let" 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 299 
 
 them come, a million men from the North, a million men 
 from the South, and a million men from the West, and 
 let us go out and fight the foe." The quicker they come 
 and the vaster the multitude, the gladder would be our 
 huzza. Yet there are Christians who, when they see a 
 sudden re-enforcement in the Church, are afraid. Alas! 
 that they are so unwise. A revival that would bring all 
 the twelve hundred millions of our race into the king- 
 dom of God in one day ought not to frighten any honest 
 Christian. But there are men in the house who have 
 gone through revivals, and been unsaved. There are 
 hundreds of men in this audience before me, to-night, 
 who ought to have been saved in 1857. You felt the 
 throb of that national upheaval. You remember the 
 time— many of you do, at any rate— when the engine- 
 houses were turned into prayer-meetings; when in one 
 day, to one of our ports, there came five vessels with sea- 
 captains, who had been brought to God in the last voy- 
 age. Eeligion broke out of church into places of busi- 
 ness and amusement. Christian songs floated into the 
 temple of mammon, while the devotees were counting 
 their golden beads. A company of merchants on Cham- 
 bers Street, New York, at their own expense, hired Bur- 
 ton's old theatre, and every day at twelve o'clock the 
 place was filled with men crying after God. The tele- 
 grams flashed backward and forward from Fulton Street 
 prayer-meeting, and Jaynes's Hall, in Philadelphia, "God 
 is here! Fifty souls to-day borne into the kingdom. 
 Seventy -five people stood up for prayers ! One hundred 
 souls rejoicing in the Gospel I" Oh, that was the health- 
 iest excitement the world has ever felt since the day of 
 Pentecost. Some of you went through all that, and are 
 
300 THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 not saved. It required more resolution and determina- 
 tion for you not to be saved than, under God, would 
 have made you a Christian. But all that process has 
 hardened your soul. Through all these seasons of re- 
 vival you have come, and you are to-night living with- 
 out God, on the way to a death without hope. "The 
 summer is ended !" 
 
 Again, the text is appropriate to all those who expire 
 after aivasted life. There are two things that I do not 
 want to bother me in my last hour. The one is, my 
 worldly affairs. I w^ant all those affairs so plain and 
 disentangled that the most ignorant administrator could 
 see what was right at a glance, and there could be no 
 standing around about the office of the surrogate de- 
 vouring widow's houses. The other thing I do not 
 want to be bothered about in my last hour, is the safety 
 of my soul. God forbid that I should crowd into that 
 last, feeble, languishing, delirious hour questions enough 
 momentous to swamp an archangel ! The saddest thing 
 on earth is a death-bed, with a wasted life standinsf on 
 one side of it, and an overshadowing eternity standing 
 on the other side of it, and no Jesus Christ anywhere 
 in the room. Pull from under my head that pillow 
 stinging with thorns, and put under it the hand of Jesus, 
 on which many of my loved ones have died. Though 
 the pillow may seem to the world as hard as the rock 
 on which Jacob slept, still there will be let down to that 
 Christian death -pillow a ladder reaching into the heav- 
 en, an angel on the lowest rung, an angel on the top 
 rung, and an angel on every rung between, so that the 
 soul ascending may mount upward, stepping from wing 
 to winoj into the skies. But the commonest thim? in the 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 301 
 
 world is for a man to die without hope. How we all 
 were stunned when last summer, or last spring, the At- 
 lantic struck a rock near Newfoundland ; but hark to 
 the crash of ten thousand immortal shipmates ! If you 
 have ever slept in a house on the prairie, where in the 
 morning, without rising from your pillow, you could 
 look off on the landscape, you could see it miles away, 
 clear to the horizon : it is a very bewildering scene. 
 But how much more intense the prospect, when from 
 the last pillow a soul looks back on life, and sees one 
 vast reach of mercies, mercies, mercies unimproved, and 
 then gets upon one elbow, and puts the head on the 
 hand to see bej^ond all that, but seeing nothing beyond 
 but mercies, mercies, mercies unimproved. The bells of 
 sorrow will toll through all the past, and the years of 
 early life and mid-life wail with a great lamentation. A 
 dying woman, after a life of frivolity, says to me : " Mr. 
 Talmage, do you think that I can be pardoned?" I say, 
 "Oh yes." Then gathering herself up in the concen- 
 tred dismay of a departing spirit, she looks at me, and 
 says, "Sir, I know I shall notT Then she looks up as 
 though she hears the click of the hoofs of the pale horse, 
 and her long locks toss on the pillow as she whispers, 
 " The summer is ended." 
 
 Again, the text is appropriate to all those loho wahe 
 up iii^jL^iScomfited eternity. I know there are those 
 who say, " It doh^t rnake any difference how we live or 
 what we believe. We will come out at the golden gate. 
 They are all there together in glory — the Pauls and the 
 Xeros, and the Abraham Lincolns and the John Wilkes 
 Booths, the Eobespierres and the men who were destroy- 
 ed by the guillotine, and the Court of Charles I. and 
 
302 THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 Louis XYI. — all together in glory. If I thought it were 
 true that, whatever our belief or behavior in this world, 
 w^e would go safely, I would preach that. It is a great 
 deal pleasanter to offer congratulation than to offer warn- 
 ing. But that Bible tells us differently, and our own 
 sense of what is right utters an overwhelming negative. 
 Do you believe that your sister and your mother, who 
 lived Christian lives and died holy deaths, are now in a 
 world in the companionship of all the unrepentant liber- 
 tines and debauchees that went out last year from Baxter 
 Street? My soul abhors the idea. Let me say, if your 
 belief leads you to that, so that you really do think that 
 your Christian mother and your Christian sister are in 
 such society, I want to tell you mine are not! mine are 
 not! 
 
 No! No! The good must go up, and the bad must 
 go down. I want no Bible to tell me that truth. There 
 is something within my heart that saj^s it is not possible 
 that a man whose life has been all rotten can, in the fu- 
 ture world, without repentance, be associated with men 
 who have been consecrated to Christ. What does the 
 Bible say ? It says that "As we sow we shall reap." 
 It says, "These shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment, and the righteous into life eternal." Does that look 
 as though they were coming out at the same place ? 
 "And there was a great gulf fixed." "And the smoke of 
 their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." If a man 
 rejects the Bible I am not surprised that he believes any 
 thing, or refuses to believe any thing; but how a man 
 can believe in that Bible, and yet believe that all the good 
 and all the unrepentant will go to the same place, I can 
 not understand. Ah ! you may ask me strange questions. 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMX. 303 
 
 YoQ may say, "Are the heathen lost?" I reply, God has 
 not given us supervisal of the heathen. I simplyknow 
 this, that if your soul and mine have had an offer of life 
 from Christ the Lord, and reject it, and continue to reject 
 it, we must go to the bad place, and not come out of it. 
 I am not now discussing the state of the heathen, but dis- 
 cussing the state of my soul and yours. 
 
 ISTow suppose a man goes out from Brooklyn, a city in 
 which there are as many religious advantages as in any 
 city under the sun, and suppose he wakes up in a dis- 
 comfited eternity — how will he feel? Having become a 
 serf of darkness, how will he feel when he thinks that he 
 might have been a prince of light? Tliere are no words 
 of lamentation sufficient to express that sorrow. You 
 can take the whole group of sad words — pain, pang, 
 convulsion, excruciation, torment, agony, woe — and they 
 come short of the reality. The summer of gracious op- 
 portunity is all gone. The last clock has struck. The last 
 bell rung. The last call has been rejected. Then look- 
 ing up to a heaven that it can never reach, and looking 
 down to a ruin it must always inhabit, and shivering with 
 the chill of an unending horror, the soul will wring its 
 hands and cry, " The summer is ended !" 
 
 I am glad that that hour of doom has not struck for 
 any body here ; and I mean to-night to launch a life-boat 
 large enough to take off all the passengers. Shove off, 
 my lads, and pull for the wreck! What is the use of 
 dying, when the ten thousand voices of heaven cry, Live ! 
 live ! Oh, there is enough mercy in the heart of my Lord 
 Jesus Christ, in the flash of an instant, to take all this 
 audience into the peace and the hope of the Gospel I If 
 I point you out the peril, it is only because I want to tell 
 
301 THE ARRIVAL OF AUTUMN. 
 
 you of the way of escape. Say ! bondmen of sin and 
 death, will you be free? Men and women bought out 
 of eternal serfdom by your own Brother's blood, will you 
 accept emancipation? The Lord Jesus waits for you. 
 He stands on two torn feet, spreading out two mangled 
 hands, with which He would press you to His broken 
 heart; while heaven bends over, watching and waiting to 
 see whether you will now repent and believe, lest the 
 night drop, and the last chance of mercy be gone, and the 
 door be shut, and the harvest is past, and the summer is 
 ended. 
 
BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 305 
 
 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 
 
 "And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in 
 mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" — 1 Samuel xv., 14. 
 
 THE Amalekites thought they had conquered God, 
 and that he would not carry into execution his 
 threats against them. They had murdered the Israelites 
 171 battle and out of battle, and left no outrage untried. 
 For four hundred years this had been going on, and they 
 say, " God either dare not punish us, or he has forgotten 
 to do so." Let us see. Samuel, God's prophet, tells 
 Saul to go down and slay all the Amalekites, not leav- 
 ing one of them alive; also to destroy all the beasts in 
 their possession — ox, sheep, camel, and ass. Hark! I 
 hear the tread of two hundred and ten thousand men, 
 with monstrous Saul at their head, ablaze with armor, 
 his shield dangling at his side, holding in his hand a 
 spear, at the waving of which the great host marched or 
 halted. The sound of their feet shaking the earth, seems 
 like the tread of the great God, as, marching in vengeance, 
 he tramples nations into the dust. I see smoke curling 
 against the sky. Now there is a thick cloud of it; and 
 now I see the whole city rising in a chariot of smoke 
 behind steeds of fire. It is Saul that set the city ablaze. 
 The Amalekites and Israelites meet; the trumpets of 
 battle blow peal on peal, and there is a death -hush. 
 Then there is a signal waved ; swords cut and hack ; 
 javelins ring on shields; arms fall from trunks, and 
 
306 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 
 
 heads roll into the dust. Gasli after gash, the frenzied 
 yel], the gurgling of throttled throats, the cry of pain, 
 the laugh of revenge, the curse hissed between clenched 
 teeth — an army's death-groan. Stacks of dead on all 
 sides, with eyes unshut and mouths yet grinning ven- 
 geance. Huzza for the Israelites! Two hundred and 
 ten thousand men wave their plumes and clap their 
 shields, for the Lord God hath given them the victory. 
 
 Yet that victorious army of Israel are conquered by 
 sheep and oxen. God, through the prophet Samuel, 
 told Saul to slay all the Amalekites, and to slay all the 
 beasts in their possession ; but Saul, thinking that he 
 knows more than God, saves Agag, the Amalekitish king, 
 and five drove of sheep and a herd of oxen that he can 
 not bear to kill. Saul drives the sheep and oxen down 
 toward home. He has no idea that Samuel, the prophet, 
 will find out that he has saved these sheep and oxen for 
 himself Samuel comes and asks Saul the news from the 
 battle. Saul puts on a solemn face, for there is no one 
 who can look more solemn than your genuine hypocrite, 
 and he says, " I have fulfilled the commandment of the 
 Lord." Samuel listens, and he hears the drove of sheep 
 a little way off. Saul had no idea the prophet's ear would 
 be so acute. Samuel says to Saul, "If you have done as 
 God told you, and slain all the Amalekites and all the 
 beasts in their possession, what meaneth the bleating of 
 the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen that 
 I hear?" Ah, one would have thought that blushes 
 would have consumed the cheek of Saul ! No, no ! He 
 says the army — not himself, of course, but the army — 
 had saved the sheep and oxen for sacrifice; and then 
 they thought it would be too bad anyhow to kill Agag, 
 
BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 807 
 
 the Amalekitish king. Samuel takes the sword and he 
 slashes Agag to pieces; and then he takes the skirt of his 
 coat, in true Oriental style, and rends it in twain, as much 
 as to say, "You, Saul, just like that, shall be torn away 
 from your empire, and torn away from your throne." In 
 other words, let all the nations of earth hear the story 
 that Saul, by disobeying God, won a flock of sheep but 
 lost a kingdom. 
 
 I learn first from this subject that God ivill expose liy- 
 'pocrisy. Here Saul pretends he has fulfilled the divine 
 commission by slaying all the beasts belonging to the 
 Amalekites, and yet at the very moment he is telhng the 
 story, and practicing the delusion, the secret comes out, 
 and the sheep bleat and the oxen bellow. 
 
 A hypocrite is one who pretends to be what he is not, 
 or to do what he does not. Saul was only a type of a 
 class. The modern hypocrite looks awfully solemn, 
 whines when he prays, and during his public devotion 
 shows a great deal of the whites of his eyes. He never 
 laughs, or, if he does laugh, he seems sorry for it after- 
 ward, as though he had committed some great indiscre- 
 tion. The first time he gets a chance, he prays twenty 
 minutes in public, and when he exhorts, he seems to im- 
 ply that all the race are sinners, with one exception, his 
 modesty forbidding the stating who that one is. There 
 are a great many churches that have two or three eccle- 
 siastical Uriah Heeps. 
 
 When the fox begins to pray, look out for j^our chick- 
 ens. The more genuine religion a man has, the more 
 comfortable he will be; but you may know a religious 
 impostor by the fact that he prides himself on the fact 
 that he is uncomfortable. A man of that kind is of im- 
 
308 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 
 
 mense damage to the Churcli of Christ. A ship may out- 
 ride a hundred storms, and yet a handful of worms in the 
 planks may sink it to the bottom. The Church of God 
 is not so much in danger of the cyclones of trouble and 
 persecution that come upon it as of the vermin of hy- 
 pocrisy that infests it. Wolves are of no danger to the 
 fold of God unless they look like sheep. Arnold was 
 of more damage to the army than Cornwallis and his 
 hosts. Oh, we can not deceive God with a church cer- 
 tificate! He sees behind the curtain as well as before 
 the curtain ; he sees every thing inside out. A man may, 
 through policy, hide his real character; but God will 
 after a while tear open the whited sepulchre and expose 
 the putrefaction. Sunday faces can not save him ; long 
 prayers can not save him ; psalm-singing and church-go- 
 ing can not save him. God will expose him just as 
 thoroughly as though he branded upon his forehead the 
 word " Hypocrite." He may think he has been success- 
 ful in the deception, but at the most unfortunate moment 
 the sheep will bleat and the oxen will bellow. 
 
 One of the cruel bishops of olden time was going to 
 excommunicate one of the martyrs, and he began in the 
 usual form — " In the name of God, amen." " Stop 1" saj^s 
 the martyr, " don't say, ' in the name of God !' " Yet 
 how many outrages are practiced under the garb of re- 
 ligion and sanctity ! When, in synods and conferences, 
 ministers of the Gospel are about to say something un- 
 brotherly and unkind about a member, they almost al- 
 ways begin by being tremendously pious, the venom of 
 their assault corresponding to the heavenly flavor of the 
 prelude. Standing there, you would think they were 
 ready to go right up into glory, and that nothing kept 
 
BLEATING SHEEP AXD LOWING OXEN. 809 
 
 them down but the weis:ht of their boots and overcoat, 
 
 when suddenly the sheep bleat and the oxen bellow. 
 
 Oh, my dear friends, let us cultivate simplicity of Chris- 
 tian character ! Jesus Christ said, " Unless you become as 
 this little child, you can not enter the kingdom of God." 
 We may play hypocrite successfully now, but the Lord 
 God will after a while expose our true character. You 
 must know the incident mentioned in the history of Ot- 
 tacas, who was asked to kneel in the presence of Ean- 
 dolphus I. ; and when before him he refused to do it, but 
 after a while he agreed to come in private when there 
 was nobody in the king's tent, and then he would kneel 
 down before him and worship ; but the servants of the 
 king had arranged it so that by drawing a cord the tent 
 would suddenly drop. Ottacas after a while came in, 
 and supposing he was in entire privacy, knelt before 
 Eandolphus. The servants pulled the cord, the tent 
 dropped, and two armies surrounding looked down on 
 Ottacas kneeling before Eandolphus. If we are really 
 kneeling to the world while we profess to be lowly sub- 
 jects of Jesus Christ, the tent has already dropped, and 
 all the hosts of heaven are gazing upon our hypocrisy. 
 God's universe is a very public place, and you can not 
 hide hypocrisy in it. 
 
 Going out into a world of delusion and sham, pretend 
 to be no more than you really are. If you have the 
 grace of God, profess it; profess no more than you. have. 
 But I want the world to know that where there is one 
 hypocrite in the Church there are five hundred outside 
 of it, for the reason that the field is larger. There are 
 men in all circles who will bow before you, and who are 
 obsequious in your presence and talk flatteringly, but 
 
310 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN 
 
 who all the while in your conversation are digging for 
 bait and angling for imperfections. In your presence 
 they imply that they are every thing friendly, but after 
 a while you find they have the fierceness of a catamount, 
 the slyness of a snake, and the spite of a devil. God 
 will expose such. The gun they load will burst in their 
 own hands ; the lies they tell will break their own teeth ; 
 and at the very moment they think they have been suc- 
 cessful in deceiving you and deceiving the world, the 
 sheep will bleat and the oxen will bellow. 
 
 I learn further from this subject how natural it is to 
 try to put off our sins upon other people, Saul was charged 
 with disobeying God. The man says it was not he ; he 
 did not save the sheep ; the army did it — trying to throw 
 it off on the shoulders of other people. Human nature is 
 the same in all the ages. Adam, confronted with his sin, 
 said, " The woman tempted me, and I did it." And the 
 woman charged it upon the serpent; and if the serpent 
 could have spoken, it would have charged it upon the 
 devil. I suppose the real state of the case was that Eve 
 was eating the apple, and that Adam saw it, and begged 
 and coaxed until he got a piece of it. I suppose that 
 Adam was just as much to blame as Eve was. You can 
 not throw off the responsibility of any sin upon the 
 shoulders of other people. 
 
 Here is a young man who says, "I know I am doing 
 wrong, but I have not had any chance. I had a father 
 who despised God, and a mother who was a disciple of 
 godless fashion. I am not to blame for my sins — it is 
 my bringing up." Ah no! that young man has been 
 out in the world long enough to see what is right, and 
 to see what is wrong, and in the great day of eternity he 
 
BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 811 
 
 can not throw his sins upon his father or mother, but 
 will have to stand for himself and answer before God. 
 You have had a conscience, you have had a Bible, and 
 the influence of the Holy Spirit. Stand for yourself, or 
 fall for yourself. 
 
 Here is a business man. He says, " I know I don't do 
 exactly right in trade, but all the dry-goods men do it, 
 and all the hardware men do this, and I am not respon- 
 sible." You can not throw off your sin upon the shoul- 
 ders of other merchants. God will hold you responsible 
 for what you do, and them responsible for what they do. 
 I want to quote one passage of Scripture for you — I 
 think it is in Proverbs : " If thou be wise, thou shalt be 
 wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt 
 bear it." 
 
 I learn further from this subject what God meant by 
 extennination. Saul was told to slay all the Amalekites, 
 and the beasts in their possession. He saves Agag, the 
 Amalekite king, and some of the sheep and oxen. God 
 chastises him for it. God likes nothing done by halves. 
 God will not stay in the soul that is half his and half the 
 devil's. There may be more sins in our soul than there 
 were Amalekites. We must kill them. Woe unto us 
 if we spare Agag! Here is a Christian. He says, "I 
 will drive out all the Amalekites of sin from my heart. 
 Here is jealousy — down goes that Amalekite. Here is 
 backbiting — down goes that Amalekite;" and what 
 slaughter he makes among his sins, striking right and 
 left ! What is that out yonder, lifting up his head? It 
 is Agag — it is worldliness. It is an old sin he can not 
 bear to strike down. It is a darling transgression he can 
 not afford to sacrifice. Oh, my brethren, I appeal this 
 
812 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 
 
 morning for entire consecration ! Some of tbe Presby- 
 terians call it the '' higher life." The Methodists, I be- 
 lieve, call it "perfection." I do not care what you call 
 it; without holiness no man shall see the Lord. I know 
 men who are living with their soul in perpetual com- 
 munion with Christ, and day by day are walking with- 
 in sight of heaven. How do I know ? They tell me 
 so. I believe them. They would not lie about it. Why 
 can not we all have this consecration ? Why slay some 
 of the sins in our soul, and leave others to bleat and bel- 
 low for our exposure and condemnation. Christ will not 
 stay in the same house with Agag. You must give up 
 Agag, or give up Christ. Jesus saj^s, "All of that heart 
 or none." Saul slew the poorest of tbe sheep and the 
 meanest of the oxen, and kept some of the finest and the 
 fattest, and there are Christians who have slain the most 
 unpopular of their transgressions, and saved those which 
 are most respectable. It will not do. Eternal war against 
 all the Amalekites ; no mercy for Agag. 
 
 I learn farther from this subject that it is vain to try 
 to defraud God. Here Saul thought he had cheated God 
 out of those sheep and oxen ; but he lost his crown, he 
 lost his empire. You can not cheat God out of a single 
 farthing. Here is a man who has made ten thousand 
 dollars in fraud. Before he dies every dollar of it will 
 be gone, or it will give him violent unrest. Here is a 
 Christian who has been largely prospered. He has not 
 given to God the proportion that is due in charities and 
 benevolences. God comes to the reckoning, and he takes 
 it all away from 3^ou. Do you suppose, if a man has an 
 income of ten thousand dollars, and he gives only five 
 hundred dollars of it to God, that God is going to let 
 
BLEATIXO SHEEP AXD LO^VIXG OXEX 318 
 
 him keep it? Ko. Do you suppose that if a man have 
 one hundred thousand dollars in capital or in estate, and 
 gives only two thousand of it to the Lord God in a year, 
 that God is going to let him keep any ? Or, keeping it, 
 it will curse him to the bone. You can not cheat God. 
 How often it has been that Christian men have had a 
 large estate, and it is gone. The Lord God came into 
 the counting-room and said, "I have allowed you to 
 have all this property for ten, fifteen, or twenty years, 
 and 3^ou have not done justice to my poor children. 
 When the beggar called upon you, you hounded him 
 off your steps; when my suffering children appealed to 
 you for help, you had no mercy. I only asked for so 
 much, or so much, but you did not give it to me, and 
 now I will take it all." 
 
 God asks of us one-seventh of our time in the way of 
 Sabbath. Do you suppose w^e can get an hour of that 
 time successfully away from its true object? No, no. 
 God has demanded one-seventh of your time. If you 
 take one hour of that time that is to be devoted to God's 
 service, and instead of keeping his Sabbath, use it for the 
 purpose of writing up your accounts or making worldly 
 gains, God will get that hour from you, if he chases you 
 into hell to get it. God says to Jonah, " You go to Nin- 
 eveh." He says, "No, I wont. I'll go to Tarshisb." 
 He starts for Tarshish. The sea raves, the winds blow, 
 and the ship rocks. Come, ye whales, and take this pas- 
 senger for Tarshish ! No man ever gets to Tarshish 
 "whom God tells to go to Nineveh. The sea w^ould not 
 carry him ; it is God's sea. The w^inds would not waft 
 him; they are God's winds. Let a man attempt to do 
 that which God forbids him to do, or to go into a place • 
 
814 BLEATING SHEEP AND LOWING OXEN. 
 
 ■where God tells him not to go, the natural world as well 
 as God is against him. The lightnings are ready to 
 strike him, the fires to burn him, the sun to smite him, 
 the waters to drown him, and the earth to swallow him. 
 Those whose princely robes are woven out of heart's 
 strings ; those whose fine houses are built out of skulls ; 
 those whose springing fountains are the tears of oppress- 
 ed nations — have they successfully cheated God ? The 
 last day will demonstrate — it will be found out on that 
 day that God vindicated not only his goodness and his 
 nierc}^ but his power to take care of his own rights and 
 the rights of his Church, and the rights of his oppressed 
 children. Come, ye martyred dead, awake ! and come up 
 from the dungeons where folded darkness hearsed you, 
 and the chains like cankers peeled loose the skin, and 
 wore off the flesh, and rattled on the marrowless bones. 
 Come, ye martyred dead, from the stakes where you were 
 burned, where the arm uplifted for mercy fell into the ash- 
 es, and the cry of pain was drowned in the snapping of the 
 flame and the howling of the mob ; from valleys of Pied- 
 mont and Smithfield Square, and London Tower, and the 
 Highlands of Scotland. Gather in great procession, and 
 together clap 3^our bony hands, and together stamp your 
 mouldy feet, and let the chains that bound 3^ou to dun- 
 geons all clank at once, and gather all the flames that 
 burned you in one uplifted arm of fire, and plead for a 
 judgment. Gather all the tears ye ever wept into a 
 lake, and gather all the sighs ye ever breathed into a 
 tempest, until the heaven-piercing chain-clank, and the 
 tempest-sigh, and the thunder-groan, announces to earth 
 and hell and heaven a judgment! a judgment! Oh, 
 on that day God will vindicate his own cause, and vin- 
 
BLEATISQ ISHEEP AND LOWIXQ OXEN. 315 
 
 dicate tlie cause of the troubled and the oppressed ! It 
 will be seen in that day that though we may have rob- 
 bed our fellows, we never have successfully robbed God. 
 My Christian friends, as you go out into the world, ex- 
 hibit an open-hearted Christian frankness. Do not be 
 hypocritical in any thing ; you are never safe if you are. 
 At the most inopportune moment, the sheep will bleat 
 and the oxen bellow. Drive out the last Amalekite of 
 sin from your soul. Have no mercy on Agag. Down 
 with your sins; down with your pride; down with your 
 worldliness. I know you can not achieve this work by 
 your own arm, but Almighty grace is sufficient — that 
 which saved Joseph in the pit; that which delivered 
 Daniel in the den ; that which shielded Shadrach in the 
 fire; that which cheered Paul in the shipwreck. 
 
,!(> LIFFKJULT BUWiyO. 
 
 DIPFICULT EOWIXa. 
 
 "The men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not; 
 wherefore thev cried uuto the Lord."' — Jonah i., 13, 1-t. 
 
 N 
 
 'AYIGATIOX in the Mediterranean Sea always was 
 -»-^ perilous, especially so in early times. Vessels were 
 propelled partly by sail and partly by oar. "VThen, by 
 reason of great stress of weather, it was necessary to reef 
 the canvas or haul it in, then the vessel was entirely de- 
 pendent upon the oars, sometimes twenty or thirty of 
 them on either side the vessel. You w^ould not venture 
 outside Sandy Hook with such a craft as my text finds 
 Jonah sailing in ; but he had not much choice of vessels. 
 He was running away from the Lord ; and when a man 
 is running away from the Lord, he has to run very fast. 
 God had told Jonah to go to Xineveh, to preach about 
 the destruction of that city. Jonah disobeyed. That 
 always makes rough water, whether in the Mediterra- 
 nean, or the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Caspian Sea, 
 or in the Hudson, or the East Eiver. It is a very hard 
 thing to scare sailors. I have seen them, when the prow 
 of the vessel was almost under water, and they w^ere 
 •walking the deck knee -deep in the surf, and the small 
 boats by the side of the vessel had been crushed as small 
 as kindling^-wood, w^histlins^ as though nothins: had hap- 
 pened ; but the Bible says that these mariners of whom 
 I speak were frightened. That which sailors call '' a 
 lump of a sea" had become a blinding, deafening, swamp- 
 
DIFFICULT HOWIXG. 317 
 
 ing fury. How mad the wind can get at the v/ater, and 
 the water can get at the wind, you do not know unless 
 you have been spectators. I have in my house a piece 
 of the sail of a ship, no larger than the palm of my hand : 
 that piece of canvas was all that was left of the largest 
 sail of the ship Greece, that went into the storm five hun- 
 dred miles off Newfoundland, last September a year. 
 Oh, what a night that was! I suppose that it was in 
 some such storm as this that Jonah was causht. 
 
 He knew that the tempest was on his account, and he 
 asked the sailors to throw him overboard. Sailore are a 
 generous -hearted race, and they resolved to make their 
 escape, if possible, without resorting to such extreme 
 measures. The sails are of no use, and so they lay hold 
 on their oars. I see the long bank of shining blades 
 on either side the vessel. Oh ! how they did pull, the 
 bronzed seamen, as they laid back into the oars. But 
 rowing on the sea is very different from rowing upon a 
 river; and as the vessel hoists, the oars skip the wave 
 and miss the stroke, and the tempest laughs to scorn the 
 flying paddles. It is of no use, no use. There comes a 
 wave that crashes the last mast, and sweeps the oarsmen 
 from their places, and tumbles every thing in the con- 
 fusion of impending shipwreck, or, as my text has it, 
 '•The men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they 
 could not: wherefore they cried nnto the Lord.'' 
 
 This scene is very suggestive to me, and I pray God I 
 may have grace and strength enough to represent it be- 
 fore this dying yet immortal auditory. Two years ago I 
 preached you a sermon on another phase of this very 
 subject, and I got a letter some weeks ago from Houston, 
 Texas, the writer saying that the reading of that sermon 
 
318 DIFFICULT ROWING. 
 
 in London had led him to God. And last night I re- 
 ceived another letter from South Australia, saying that 
 the reading of that sermon in Australia had brought sev- 
 eral souls to Christ. And then, I thought, why not now 
 take another phase of the same subject, for perhaps that 
 God who can raise in power that which is sown in weak- 
 ness may this night, through another phase of the same 
 subject, bring salvation to the people who shall hear, and 
 salvation to the people who shall read. Men and wom- 
 en, who know how to pray, lay hold of the Lord God 
 Almighty to-night, and wrestle for the blessing. 
 
 Bishop Latimer would stop sometimes in his sermon, in 
 the midst of his argument, and say, " Now, I will tell you 
 a fable ;" and to-night I would like to bring the scene of 
 the text as an illustration of a most important religious 
 truth. As those Mediterranean oarsmen trying to bring 
 Jonah ashore were discomfited, I have to tell you that 
 they were not the only men who have broken down on 
 their paddles, and have been obliged to call on the Lord 
 for help. I want to say that the unavailing efforts of 
 those Mediterranean oarsmen has a counterpart in the 
 efforts we are making to bring souls to the shore of safety and 
 set their feet on the Rock of Ages. You have a father, or 
 mother, or husband, or wife, or child, or near friend, who 
 is not a Christian. There have been times when you 
 have been in agony about their salvation. A minister of 
 Christ, whose wife was dying without any hope in Jesus, 
 walked the floor, wrung his hands, cried bitterly, and 
 said, "I believe I shall go insane, for I know she is not 
 prepared to meet God." And there may have been daj's 
 of sickness in your household, when you feared it would 
 be a fatal sickness ; and how closely you examined the 
 
DIFFICULT ROWING. 319 
 
 face of the doctor as he came in and scrutinized the pa- 
 tient, and felt the pulse, and you followed him into the 
 next room, and said, "There isn't any danger, is there, 
 doctor?" And the hesitation and the uncertainty of the 
 reply made two eternities flash before your vision. And 
 then you went and talked to the sick one about the great 
 future. Oh, there are those here who have tried to bring 
 their friends to God! They have been unable to bring 
 them to the shore of safety. They are no nearer that 
 point than they were twenty years ago. You think you 
 have got them almost to the shore, when j'ou are swept 
 back again. What shall you do? Put down the oar? 
 Oh no ! I do not advise that; but I do advise that you 
 appeal to that God to whom the Mediterranean oarsmen 
 appealed — the God who could silence the tempest and 
 bring the ship in safety to the port. I tell you, my 
 friends, that there has got to be a good deal of praying 
 before our families are brought to Christ. Ah ! it is an 
 awful thing to have half a household on one side the line, 
 and the other part of the household on the other side 
 of the line ! Oh, the possibility of an eternal separation ! 
 One would think that such a thought would hover over 
 the pillow, and hover over the arm-chair, and hover over 
 the table, and that each clatter at the door would cause a 
 shudder as though the last messenger had come. To 
 live together in this world five years, or ten years, or 
 fifty years, and then afterward to live away from each 
 other millions, millions, millions, millions of years, and to 
 know and feel that between us and eternal separation 
 there is only one heart-beat ! When our Christian friends 
 go out of this life into glory, we are comforted. We feel 
 we shall meet them again in the good land. But to have 
 
320 DIFFICULT liOWING. 
 
 two vessels part on the ocean of eternity, one going to 
 the right and the other to the left — farther apart, and far- 
 ther apart — until the signals cease to be recognized, and 
 there are only two specks on the horizon, and then they 
 are lost to sight forever ! 
 
 I. have to tell you that the unavailing efforts of these 
 Mediterranean oarsmen has a counterpart in the efforts 
 some of us are making to bring our children to the shore 
 of safety. There never were so many temptations for 
 young people as there are now. The literary and the 
 social influences seem to be against their spiritual inter- 
 ests. Christ seems to be driven almost entirely from the 
 school and the pleasurable concourse, yet God knows 
 how anxious we are for our children. We can not think 
 of going into heaven without them. We do not want 
 to leave this life while they are tossing on the waves of 
 temptation and away from God. From which of them 
 could we consent to be eternally separated ? Would it 
 be the son? Would it be the daughter? Would it be 
 the eldest? Would it be the youngest? Would it be 
 the one that is well and stout, or the one that is sick? 
 Oh, I hear some parent saying to-night, " I have tried my 
 best to bring my children to Christ. I have laid hold of 
 the oars until they bent in my grasp, and I have braced 
 myself against the ribs of the boat, and I have pulled 
 for their eternal rescue; but I can't get them to Christ." 
 Then I ask you to imitate the men of the text, and cry 
 mightily unto God. We want more importunate praj^- 
 ing for children, such as the flxther indulged in when he 
 had tried to bring his six sons to Christ, and they had 
 wandered off into dissipation. Then he got down in 
 his prayers, and said, " God I take away my life, if 
 
DIFFICULT BOWING. 321 
 
 through that means mj sons may repent and be brought 
 to Christ;" and the Lord startlinglj answered the prayer, 
 and in a few weeks the father was taken away, and 
 through the solemnity the six sons fled unto God. Oh, 
 that father could afford to die for the eternal welfare of 
 his children! He rowed hard to bring them to the 
 hmd, but could not, and then he cried unto the Lord. 
 There are parents here who are almost discouraged 
 about their children. Where is your son to-night? He 
 has wandered off, perhaps, to the ends of the earth. It 
 seems as if he can not get far enough away from your 
 Christian counsel. What does he care about the furrows 
 that come to your brow; about the quick whitening of 
 the hair; about the fact that your back begins to stoop 
 with the burdens? Why, he would not care much if 
 he heard you were dead! The black- edged letter that 
 brought the tidings he would put in the same package 
 with other letters telling the story of his shame. What 
 are you going to do? Both paddles broken at the mid- 
 dle of the blade, how can you pull him ashore? I throw 
 you one oar to-night with which I believe you can bring 
 him into harbor. It is the glorious promise: "I will be 
 a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." Oh, broken- 
 liearted father and mother, you have tried every thing 
 else, now make an appeal for the help and omnipotence 
 of the covenant-keeping God! and perhaps at your next 
 family gathering — perhaps on Thanksgiving-day, perhaps 
 next Christmas-day — the prodigal may be home ; and if 
 you crowd on his plate more luxuries than on any other 
 plate at the table, I am sure the brothers will not be 
 jealous, but they will wake up all the music in the house, 
 "because the dead is alive again, and because the lost is 
 
322 DIFFICULT ROWING. 
 
 found." Perhaps your prayers have been answered al- 
 ready. The vessel may be coming homeward, and by 
 the light of this night's stars that absent son may be pa- 
 cing the deck of the ship, anxious for the time to come 
 when he can throw his arm around your neck and ask 
 for forgiveness for that he has been wringing your old 
 heart so long. Glorious reunion ! that will be too sacred 
 for outsiders to look upon ; but I would just like to look 
 through the wnndow when you have all got together 
 again, and are seated at the banquet. 
 
 *' Though parents may in covenant be, 
 And have theii* heaven in view ; 
 They are not happy till they see 
 Their children happy too." 
 
 Again, I remark that the unavailing effort of the 
 Mediterranean oarsmen has a counterpart in the effort 
 which we are making to bring this ivorld hade to God^ his 
 pardon, and safety. If this world could have been saved 
 by human effort, it w^ould have been done long ago. 
 John Howard took hold of one oar, and Carey took 
 hold of another oar, and Adoniram Judson took hold of 
 another oar, and Luther took hold of another oar, and 
 John Knox took hold of another oar, and they pulled 
 until they fell back dead from the exhaustion. Some 
 dropped in the ashes of martyrdom, some on the scalp- 
 ing-knives of savages, and some into the plague-struck 
 room of the lazaretto ; and still the chains are not bro- 
 ken, and still the despotisms are not demolished, and 
 still the world is unsaved. What then ? Put down the 
 oars and make no effort? I do not advise that. But 
 I want you. Christian brethren, to understand that the 
 church, and the school, and the college, and the mission- 
 
DIFFICULT HOWIXG. 823 
 
 ary society are only the instrumentalities; and if this 
 work is ever done at all, God must do it, and he will do 
 it, in answer to our prayer. " They rowed hard to bring 
 it to the land ; but they could not : wherefore they cried 
 unto the Lord." 
 
 Again, the unavailing effort of those Mediterranean 
 oarsmen has a counterpart in every man that is trying to 
 roiu his oiun soul into safety. When the Eternal Spirit 
 flashes upon us our condition, we try to save ourselves. 
 We say, " Give me a stout oar for my right hand, give 
 me a stout oar for my left hand, and I will pull myself 
 into safety." No. A wave of sin comes and dashes you 
 one way, and a wave of temptation comes and dashes 
 you in another way, and there are plenty of rocks on 
 which to founder, but seemingly no harbor into which 
 to sail. Sin must be thrown overboard, or we must per- 
 ish. There are men in this house, in all these galler- 
 ies, who have tried for ten years to become Christians. 
 They believe all I say in regard to a future world. 
 They believe that religion is the first, the last, the infi- 
 nite necessity. With it, heaven ! Without it, hell ! They 
 do every thing but timst in Christ. They make sixty 
 strokes in a minute. They bend forward with all ear- 
 nestness, and they lay back until the muscles are dis- 
 tended, and yet they have not made one inch in ten 
 years toward heaven. What is the reason? That is 
 not the way to go to work. You might as well take a 
 frail skiff, and put it down at the foot of Niagara, and 
 then head it up toward the churning thunder-bolt of wa- 
 ters, and expect to work your way up through the light- 
 ning of the foam into calm Lake Erie, as for you to try 
 to pull yourself through the surf of your sin into the 
 
324 DIFFICULT ROWING. 
 
 hope, and pardon, and placidity of the Gospel. You 
 can not do it in that way. Sin is a rough sea, and 
 ]ong-boat, yawl, pinnace, and gondola go down unless 
 the Lord deliver; but if you will cry to Christ and lay 
 hold of divine mercy, you are as safe from eternal con- 
 demnation as though you had been twenty years in 
 heaven. 
 
 I wish I could put before this audience, unpardoned, 
 their own helplessness. You will be lost as sure as you 
 sit there if you depend upon your own power. You can 
 not do it. No human arm was ever strong enough to 
 unlock the door of heaven. No foot was ever mighty 
 enough to break the shackle of sin. ISTo oarsman 
 swarthy enough to row himself into God's harbor. The 
 wind is against you. The tide is against you. The 
 Law is against you. Ten thousand corrupting influences 
 are against you. Helpless and undone. Not so help- 
 less a sailor on a plank, mid- Atlantic. Not so helpless 
 a traveler girded by twenty miles of prairie on fire. 
 Prove it, you say. I will prove it. John vi., 44: "No 
 man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent 
 me draw him." 
 
 But while I have shown your helplessness, I want to 
 put by the side of it the power and willingness of Christ 
 to save you. I think it was in 1686 a vessel was bound 
 for Portugal, but it was driven to pieces on an unfriend- 
 ly coast. The captain had his son with him, and with 
 the crew they wandered up the beach, and started on the 
 long journey to find relief. After a while, the son faint- 
 ed by reason of hunger and the length of the way. The 
 captain said to the crew, " Carry my boy for me on your 
 They carried' him on ; but the journey was 
 
DIFFICULT ROWING. 325 
 
 SO long, that after a while the crew fainted from hunger 
 and from weariness, and could carry him no longer. Then 
 the father rallied his almost wasted energy, and took up 
 his own boy, and put him on his shoulder, and carried 
 him on mile after mile, mile after mile, until, overcome 
 himself by hunger and weariness, he too fainted by the 
 w\iy. The boy laid down and died, and the father, just 
 at the time rescue came to him, also perished, living only 
 long enough to tell the story — sad story, indeed! But 
 glory be to God that Jesus Christ is able to take us up 
 out of our shipwrecked and dying condition, and put us 
 on the shoulder of his strength, and by the omnipotence 
 of his Gospel bear us on through all the journey of this 
 life, and at last through the opening gates of heaven ! 
 He is mighty to save. Hear it, ye dying men and wom- 
 en ! Though your sin be long, and black, and inexcus- 
 able, and outrageous, the very moment you believe I will 
 proclaim pardon — quick, full, grand, unconditional, un- 
 compromising, illimitable, infinite. Oh the grace of God! 
 I nm overwhelmed when I come to think of it. Give me 
 a thousand ladders, lashed fast to each other, that I may 
 scale the height. Let the line run out with the anchor 
 until all the cables of earth are exhausted, that we may 
 touch the depth. Let the archangel fly in circuit of 
 eternal ages in trying to sweep around this theme. Oh 
 the grace of God ! It is so high. It is so broad. It is 
 so deep. Glory be to my God, that where man's oar 
 gives out, God's arm begins! Why will ye carry j^our 
 sins and your sorrows any longer when Christ offers to 
 take them? Why will you wrestle down your fears 
 when this moment you might give up and be saved? 
 Do you not know that every thing is ready? 
 
S26 DIFFICULT ROWING. 
 
 " See, Jesus stands with open armsj 
 He calls, he bids you come. 
 Sin holds you back, and fear alarms ; 
 But still there yet is room. " 
 
 Oh ! men and women, bought bj the blood of Jesus, 
 how can I give you up ? Will you turn away this plea, 
 as you have turned away so many ? Have you delibep 
 ately chosen to die? Do you want to be lost? Do you 
 turn your back on heaven because you do not want to 
 see Christ, nor your own loved ones whom he has taken 
 into his bosom? Can not some of these fathers and 
 mothers hear the voices of their children in glory calling 
 to-night, saying, 
 
 "Steer this way, father, 
 Steer straight for me ; 
 Here safe in heaven 
 I am waiting for thee." 
 
 Do you not see the hands of mercy, the hands of loved 
 ones, let down now from the skies, beckoning you to the 
 pardoning Jesus, beckoning you up to heaven and to 
 glory ? Can it be that it is all in vain ? Calvary in vain ? 
 Death -bed warnings in vain? Ministering spirits in 
 vain? The opening gates of heaven in vain ? The im- 
 portuning of God's eternal Spirit all in vain? To your 
 knees, oh dying soul] before it be too late to pray. I 
 hear the creaking of the closing door of God's mercy. 
 To some of you the last chance has come. The tongue in 
 the great bell begins to swing for the death-knell of thy 
 soul immortal ! And in an hour in which ye think not 
 your disembodied spirit may go shrieking out toward 
 the throne of an offended God, and — what then ? Has 
 not God been calling to you, my dear brother, during the 
 
DIFFICULT ROWING. 827 
 
 past week? In the shaking down of fortunes, has he 
 not shown you the uncertainty of this world's treasures? 
 Do you not feel to-night as if you would like to have 
 God and Jesus, and all the precious promises of his Gos- 
 pel ? I remember that after the great crisis of 1857, when 
 the whole land was rocked with commercial sorrow, the 
 Spirit of God descended, and there were two hundred and 
 seventy thousand souls in one year who found the peace 
 of Christ. Oh, I would that the rocking in New York 
 and Brooklyn to-day — the commercial rocking — might 
 rouse up men to the consideration of the interests of their 
 immortal souls! As I asked you this morning, I ask 
 3^ou now, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
 whole world, and lose his soul ?" Come back, oh wan- 
 derer! I do not ask where you came from to-night. 
 Though you may have come from places of sin, I shall 
 not be partial in my offer of salvation. I offer it to ev- 
 ery one who sits before me. "Whosoever will, let him 
 come," and let him come now. 
 
 Plenty of room at the feast. Jesus has the ring of his 
 love all ready to put upon your hand. Come now and 
 sit down, ye hungry ones, at the banquet. Ye who are 
 in rags of sin, take the robe of Christ. Ye who are 
 swamped by the breakers around you, cry to Christ to 
 pilot you into smooth, still waters. On account of the 
 peculiar phase of the subject, I have drawn my illustra- 
 tions, you see, chiefly, to-night, from the water. I re- 
 member that a vessel went to pieces on the Bermudas 
 a great many years ago. It had a vast treasure on board. 
 But the vessel being sunk, no effort was made to raise 
 it. After many years had passed, a company of advent- 
 urers went out from England, and after a long voyage 
 
 14*' 
 
828 DIFFICULT EOWING. 
 
 they reached the place where the vessel was said to have 
 sunk. Thej got into a small boat and hovered over 
 the place. Then the divers went down, and they broke 
 through what looked like a limestone covering, and the 
 treasures rolled out — what was found afterward to be, in 
 our money, worth one million five hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, and the foundation of a great business house. At 
 that time the whole world rejoiced ov^r - .-bat was called 
 the luck of these adventurers. Oh ^, e who have been 
 rowing toward the shore, and have not been able to reach 
 it, I want to tell you to-night that your boat hovers over 
 infinite treasure ! All the riches of God are at your feet. 
 Treasures that never fail, and crowns that never grow 
 dim. Who will go down now and seek them? Who 
 will dive for the pearl of great price? Who will be pre- 
 pared for life, for death, for judgment, for the long eterni- 
 ty? Many who hear my voice hear it for the last time, 
 and I shall meet them not again until the heavens be roll- 
 ed up as a scroll, and the books be open. Flee the wrath 
 to come ! The Lord help you ! I am clear of the blood 
 of souls. See two hands of blood stretched out toward 
 thy dying soul, as Jesus says, " Come unto me, all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABEIINACL.J^. §29 
 
 •fHE BUENING OF THE BROOKLYN TABER- 
 NACLE. 
 
 (.ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE.) 
 
 "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." — Mat- 
 thew iii., 11. 
 
 MEN had better listen when God speaks in wave, or 
 wind, or storm, or earthquake, or conflagration. 
 God spoke to Job out of the hurricane; to Lisbon, out 
 of the earthquake; to both continents by the burning of 
 the Austria in mid-ocean, the driving against Mars Head 
 of the Atlantic^ the awful going down of the Ville du 
 Havre; while he spoke to our own congregation last 
 December, through the burning of the Brooklyn Taber- 
 nacle. God's most vehement utterances are in flames of 
 fire. The most tremendous lesson he ever gave to New 
 York was in the conflagration of 1835 ; to Chicago, in 
 the conflagration of 1871 ; to Boston, in the conflagra- 
 tion of 1872 ; to our own congregation, in the fiery 
 downfall of our beloved place of worship. 
 
 The day was full of merciless frost. Things cracked 
 with the cold. Man and beast felt it was a day to have 
 warm shelter. The bell had rung for religious service, 
 and the families of our congregation had started for the 
 accustomed place of worship, some with thanksgivings 
 that they must needs offer, some with sorrows that they 
 must needs have healed, all of them with souls that 
 needed more preparation for the judgment- day. A 
 
830 THE BUliXING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 
 
 black flag of smoke against the sky, and the rush of the 
 hose-carriages made us ask, "Where is it? what ward? 
 Horrible to be turned out of house and home on such a 
 day as this 1" Some one says, " It is in the direction of 
 the Tabernacle. Ay, it is the church !" and there is a 
 rush past the streets crying, "Fire! fire!" And instead 
 of sitting down in placid worship that day, our congre- 
 gation, joined by other congregations on the streets, 
 stood in the presence of God before the altar of a burn- 
 ing church. Many wrung their hands and thought of 
 the sacred scenes in which there they had mingled — the 
 baptisms, the weddings, the burials, the communion-days, 
 the scenes of revival, the deliverances, and the victories. 
 All efforts at extinguishment seemed to fail. The great 
 organ, as the flames roared through its pipes, played its 
 own rea^uiem, and the walls came down with a crash that 
 made the earth tremble. Some saw in that nothing but 
 unmitigated disaster, while others of us heard the voice 
 of God as from heaven, sounding through the crackling 
 thunder of that awful day, saying, " He shall baptize you 
 with the Holy Ghost and with fire!" The Lord has ful- 
 filled the prophecy. That wdiich threatened to be entire 
 extinguishment has really been an unmistakable bene- 
 diction. 
 
 Through many self-denials, and through kindness and 
 practical help on all sides, our building hastens toward 
 completion. Through a panic that has staggered the 
 land, and made some of the noblest enterprises come to 
 a dead halt, the work has gone gradually but surely on, 
 and we shall soon have a house to dedicate to the Lord, 
 a house marvelous for capacity, and for beauty, and for 
 strength, in which men and women for many genera- 
 
TEE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 331 
 
 tloiis will assemble to worship God. Added to that, 
 while we were in the wilderness, the Lord has descended 
 mightily in a pentecostal blessing, and a great multitude 
 have cried out after God, and there has been a rush foi 
 the cross, and a wailing over sin, and a jubilant shout 
 over pardon such as you and I have never before heard. 
 " Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his 
 mercy endureth forever!" Out of darkness he brings 
 light. Out of trouble he brings assurance. Out of de- 
 feat he brings victory. Out of smoking, crackling, roar- 
 ing, devastating calamity, " he baptizes us with the Holy 
 Ghost, and with fire." 
 
 I propose this morning, so far as God may help me, 
 to draw out the analogy between these two baptisms — 
 the baptism of last December and the baptism of this 
 December. 
 
 First, I remark they were both sudden. We all felt 
 that whatever else might go down, that Tabernacle never 
 could. We thought it fire-proof When on that cold 
 December day that building was in flames, there was on 
 every countenance in the street amazement. Sudden as 
 sudden could be ! So has it been with the other bap- 
 tism — the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The spiritual 
 fire broke out here on Sabbath night, and, while hun- 
 dreds were rising and asking for prayers, there was a 
 look of amazement on the faces of the people, and some 
 aged Christians wondered what it all meant. The first 
 baptism — suddenly. The next baptism — suddenly. So 
 nearly always does the Spirit come. So it came when 
 Jonathan Edwards preached in Northampton, and John 
 Livingstone in Scotland, and William Tennant preached 
 in Monmouthj and Dr. Finlay preached in Baskinridge, 
 
882 THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 
 
 and JSTettleton, and Daniel Baker, and Truman Osborne, 
 and Mr. Earle, and Edward Payson HanQinond preached 
 everywhere. Almost always the blessing came sudden- 
 ly. It has been especially so in our midst. In a night 
 family altars have been reared in houses where before 
 there was no prayer; infidels persuaded of the truth of 
 Christianity in five minutes ; children going at three 
 o'clock to the Sabbath-schools unsaved coming home 
 Christians at five o'clock; men coming into these serv- 
 ices to make merry with the anxiety of those w^ho were 
 seeking after God, themselves at the close rising for 
 prayer; and many of the old passages of Scripture that 
 seemed to lie dormant in the hearts of God's people have 
 flashed up with unwonted and overwhelming power. 
 
 Whitefield was once preaching on Blackheath, and a 
 man and his wife coming from market saw the crowd 
 and went up to hear. Whitefield was saying something 
 about what happened eighteen hundred years ago, and 
 the man said to his wife, "Come, Mary, we will not stop 
 any longer. He is talking about something that took 
 place more than eighteen hundred years ago. What's 
 that to us?" But they were fascinated. They could 
 not get away. The truth of God came to their hearts. 
 When they were home, they took down the Bible and 
 said, "Is it possible that these old truths have been here 
 so long and we have not known it ?" Ah ! it was in the 
 flash of God's Spirit on Blackheath that they were saved 
 — the Spirit coming mightil}^, and suddenly, and over- 
 whelmingly upon them. So it was that God's Spirit 
 came to Andrew Fuller, and James Hervey, and the Earl 
 of Eochester, and Bishop Latimer — suddenly. So it 
 came to multitudes in this assemblage, both the baptism 
 
THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 'S'6'6 
 
 of fire and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. A father was 
 enraged whose child was interested in religious things 
 many years ago, because she would go to the place of 
 worship. He forbade her going; but she slipped out 
 when he was not watching. He said, "There now, she 
 has gone to the meeting;" and he went to the meeting. 
 She was kneeling at the altar. He put his arms around 
 her with indignation to carry her out, when she cried, 
 '' Father, you are too late ; I have found Jesus 1" And 
 so there have been those among us who would like to 
 have kept Christ out of their families, but they came not 
 soon enough to succeed. It is too late, father; your 
 child has already found Jesus. 
 
 But I remark again, the analogy between these two 
 baptisms — the baptism of fire and the baptism of the 
 Hol}^ Ghost — is in the fact that they were both irresistible. 
 IN'otwithstanding all our boasted machinery and organi- 
 zation for putting out fires, the efforts that were made did 
 not repulse the flames last December one single instant. 
 Having begun, they kept on more and more triumphantly, 
 clapping their hands over the destroyed building. There 
 was a great sound of fire-trumpets and brave men walk- 
 ing on hot walls; but the flames were balked not an 
 instant. So it has been with the Holy Spirit moving 
 through the hearts of this people. Why, there have 
 been aged men who for forty or fifty years resisted the 
 truth who have surrendered! There have been men 
 here who have sworn that the religion of Jesus Christ 
 should never come into their households; they and their 
 children kneel now at the same altar. We have all felt 
 it. Formalists trying to put out the spiritual fire have 
 only had their trouble for their pains. It has gone on. 
 
83-1 THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 
 
 It is going on now, conquering pride, and worldliness, and 
 sin ; and I pray it may keep on until it has swept every- 
 thing before it, and there shall be in every household an 
 altar, and in every heart a throne for the blessed Jesus. 
 Go on, great baptism of the Holy Ghost as with fire! 
 
 In the days of revival in England, when John Wes- 
 ley was preaching, everywhere scoffers would mimic his 
 preaching, and one man thought it was very smart to 
 gather an audience, and stand up with a Bible, and take 
 John Wesley's favorite text, " Except ye repent, ye shall 
 all likewise perish ;" and he preached — he, the scoffer — to 
 an audience of scoffers, until the truth rebounded on his 
 own heart and he cried for mercy, and the truth over- 
 whelmed the hearts of his hearers, and they cried for 
 mercy, and instead of being an audience of mockers it 
 became an audience of seekers. Oh ! this is the power 
 of God, this is the wisdom of God unto salvation. Both 
 baptisms — the one of fire and the one of the Holy Ghost 
 — irresistible. 
 
 I remark again, that I find the analogy in the fact that 
 both baptisms ivere consuming. Did you ever see any 
 more thorough work than was done by that fire last De- 
 cember ? The strongest beams turned to ashes. The iron 
 cracked, curled up, and was destroyed. The work of the 
 flames consummate. So it has been with the Holy Ghost :, 
 it has been a consuming fire amidst the sins and the hab- 
 its of those who despise God. How many have had their 
 transgressions utterly consumed ! Some who were vic- 
 tims of bad habits have had their chains broken off. 
 Down at the club-room and down at the saloon, they 
 wonder why these people do not come any more. Ah ! 
 instead of the laughter of fools, which is like the crack- 
 
THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 335 
 
 ling of thorns under a pot, they have come to that relig- 
 ion which is jo}^ here and hosanna forever; and after a 
 man has set down once at the Lord's banquet, he has no 
 more patience with the swine's diet. When the revival, 
 two years ago, swept through the OAiy of Lawrence, at 
 the West, it was stated to be a fact that the gin saloons 
 lost fifty per cent, of their business. So may it always 
 be — the Spirit of God consuming the dissipations of men ! 
 That Spirit has gone through the hearts and lives of many 
 who sit before me, like fire through stubble. They have 
 been swept by the purifying flames. Both baptisms have 
 been consuming. 
 
 Again, I find an analogy in the two baptisms, because 
 they both loere melting. If you examined the bars and 
 bolts, and plumbing work of the Tabernacle after it went 
 down, you know it was a melting process. The things 
 that seemed to have no relation to each other adjoined — 
 flowed together. So it has been with the Spirit of God, 
 melting down all asperities and unbrotherliness. Heart 
 has flowed out toward heart. It has been a melting proc- 
 ess. If there is any thing that our city churches need, 
 it is melting. There are a thousand icicles hanging to 
 the eaves of our city churches where there are two icicles 
 hanging to the eaves of the country churches. We are 
 so afraid we will get acquainted with somebody that will 
 not do us honor! The great want of the Church to-day 
 is a thaw — a thaw. Oh, that the Lord God would rise 
 up and melt down the freezing conventionalities of his 
 Church ! I think that that fire of last December and 
 this spiritual fire of this December have melted us un- 
 til we flow together in Christian sympathy, and har- 
 mony, and love, and that we can now join hands in one 
 
336 THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABEBNACLB-'. 
 
 great family circle as a cliurch, and sing as we never 
 sang before: 
 
 "Before our Father's throne 
 We pour our ardent prayers ; 
 Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, 
 Our comforts and our cares. 
 
 "The glorious hope revives 
 Our courage by the way, 
 While each in expectation lives, 
 And longs to see the day." 
 
 But I have, on this anniversary of the burning of the 
 Brooklyn Tabernacle, to say that we have not, as a 
 church, yet entered upon the mission for which God 
 has baptized us — first with fire, and now with the Holy 
 Ghost. We need to put forth on a more earnest mission 
 than we have ever entered upon. God evidently does 
 not intend us for smooth work. He has rocked us in a 
 very rough cradle. Ofttimes has this church been as- 
 saulted in various ways, and if there are any who expect 
 to have a smooth time and an easy pathway, they had 
 better wake up from the delusion and get out of this 
 church. If God baptized us with fire, it is because he 
 means to fit us for hot and tremendous work. If you are 
 afraid of fixtigue, and afraid of persecution, and afraid of 
 opposition, you had better not train in this battalion, for 
 I have no quiet encampment to offer you by still waters; 
 but rather to tell you of a forced march, hard fighting, 
 and a bayonet charge. I believe God means us to go 
 forth and proclaim an earnest, uncompromising, out and 
 out, straightforward, revolutionary, old-fashioned Gospel, 
 that believes in repentance and regeneration, in glory 
 and in perdition. But, my friends, in order to enter 
 
THE BUENING OF THE BUOOKLYX TABEMNACLE. 337 
 
 upon that work we want still more vigorous baptism 
 of the Holy Ghost. We want that Spirit to come down 
 in all our families with his arousing, melting, illumi- 
 nating, saving presence; and I believe that then the in- 
 fluences which we have already had in the way of a 
 blessing will be only as a spark compared with the great 
 conflagration of religious enthusiasm and zeal we shall 
 feel here. 
 
 But, my friends, when is this work to begin ? If you, as 
 a private Christian, and I, as a minister of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, have some work to do, when shall we begin it? 
 Kow, and here. Oh, men and women of the world ! do 
 you not feel to-day the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Is 
 there not something in the passing of the seasons, some- 
 thing in this last Sabbath of the year, something in the 
 tramp of your pulses, something in the solemn surround- 
 ings of this morning, something in the wave of influence 
 that comes in upon your soul, to make you realize that 
 this may be your last chance for heaven ? Miss it now, 
 and you miss it forever. Do you not see how swiftly 
 your Sabbaths are going? Do you not see how the 
 years of your life are rushing into a great eternity? 
 The year 1873 has already landed thousands and tens 
 of thousands of souls beyond the reach of all mercy. 
 The book with twelve chapters made up of the twelve 
 months is about finished by the recording angel, and he 
 has his hands on the lids of that book, about to close it 
 for the last reckoning. Oh, my hearer ! if you turn your 
 back upon your best interests, if your final opportunity 
 for redemption disappear, if the rushing wing that passes 
 us is the wing of the retreating spirit, if this be the mo- 
 ment of awful calamity — the downfall of an immortal 
 
338 THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 
 
 soul — then you will see a conflagration compared with 
 which that of last December was child's play. It will be 
 when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with flam- 
 ing fire, to take vengeance upon those who know not 
 God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! 
 From that conflagration of last December we shall re- 
 cover; but the soul that goes down into that final confla- 
 gration shall never recuperate. That fire in December last 
 continued only three or four hours, and on the following 
 day even the smoke ceased to curl up in the frosty air ; 
 but that soul that rejects Christ shall go into a fire that 
 shall never be quenched, " and the smoke of its torment 
 ascendeth up forever and forever." May God Almighty 
 through Jesus Christ keep us out of that ! Whatever 
 misfortune and disaster may come upon us in this world, 
 let it come ; but God forbid that any of us should lose 
 heaven ! We can not afford to lose our soul. Save 
 that, we have saved every thing. Lose that, we have 
 lost every thing. Instead of the baptism that consumes, 
 oh that we might this morning, penitently, believingly, 
 prayerfully, joyfully receive the baptism that saves! I 
 suppose that some of you know there were persons who 
 stood in the presence of that burning church last De- 
 cember who for the first time sought after God. They 
 said then to themselves ; indeed they arose in the prayer- 
 meetings afterward, and said it: "When I stood in the 
 presence of that building, I was reminded as never before 
 that there was nothing fire-proof, that there was nothing 
 on earth certain, and there and then, in the presence of 
 that devastation and ruin, I resolved that I would be the 
 Lord's, and I have kept my promise. I have given my 
 heart to Jesus." Oh ! if that was the result in some souls 
 
THE BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. 339 
 
 on that cold Sabbath day, now, when this morning I re- 
 hearse the scene, shall it not be, under God's Spirit, the 
 means of bringing some of you to Christ? You have 
 tried this world. You have been drinking out of the 
 fountains of its pleasure. You have tried in January, 
 February, March, April, May, June, Jul}^, August, Sep- 
 tember, October, November, and now nearly to the close 
 of December, and tell me frankly, oh man of the world! 
 is there any thing this side Christ and heaven that can 
 give solace, and peace, and contentment to your immor- 
 tal nature? No; you know there is nothing. You 
 have tried the world, and it has failed you. It is a cheat- 
 ing world. It is a lying world. It is a dying world. 
 Oh, seek after God to-day, and be at peace with him I 
 
340 THE bhiohtest of bats. 
 
 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 "And call the Sabbath a delight." — Isaiah Iviii., 13. 
 
 THERE is an element of gloom striking througli all 
 false religions. Paganism is a brood of horrors. 
 The god of Confucius frowned upon its victims with 
 blind fate. Moliammedanism promises nothing to those 
 exhausted with sin in this world but an eternity of the 
 same passional indulgences. The papacy prostrates its 
 devotees with fastings and kneelings and merciless tax- 
 ation of the poor man's wages, and tugs until it sweats, 
 from January to December, in trying to pull its dead 
 priests and archbishops out of purgatory. But God in- 
 tended that our religion should have the grand charac- 
 teristic of cheerfulness. St. Paul struck the key-note 
 when he said, "Rejoice evermore; and again I say, re- 
 joice." This religion has no spikes for the feet; it has 
 no hooks for the shoulder; it has no long pilgrimages to 
 take; it has no funeral-pyres upon which to leap; it has 
 no Juggernauts before which to fall. Its good cheer is 
 symbolized in the Bible by the brightness of waters, and 
 the redolence of lilies, and the sweetness of music, and 
 the hilarities of a banquet. A choir of seraphim chant- 
 ed at its induction, and pealing trumpet, and waving 
 palm, and flapping wing of archangel are to celebrate its 
 triumphs. It began its chief mission with the shout, 
 "Glory to God in the highest!" and it will close its 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 841 
 
 earthly mission with the ascription, "Hallelujah, for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth !" 
 
 But men have said that our religion is not cheerful, 
 because we have such a doleful Sabbath. Thev say, 
 "You can have your religious assemblages, and your 
 long faces, and your sniffling cant, and your psalm-books, 
 and your Bibles. Give us the Sunday excursion, and 
 the horse-race, and the convivial laughter. We have so 
 much joy that we want to spread it all over the seven 
 days of the week, and you shall not have one of our 
 days of worldly satisfaction for religious dolefulness." I 
 want to show these men — if there are any such in the 
 house this morning — that they are under a great delu- 
 sion, and that God intended the fifty-two Sundays of the 
 year to be hung up like bells in a tower, beating a per- 
 petual chime of joy and glory and salvation and heaven ; 
 for I want you to carry out the idea of the text, "and 
 call the Sabbath a delight." 
 
 I remark, in the first place, we are to find in this day 
 the joy of healthy repose. In this democratic country we 
 all have to work — some with hand, some with brain, 
 some with foot. If there is in all this house a hand that 
 has not, during the past year, been stretched forth to 
 some kind of toil, let it be lifted. Not one, not one. 
 You sell the goods. You teach the school. You doctor 
 in the sick-room. You practice at the bar. You edit a 
 newspaper. You tan the hides. You preach the Gospel. 
 You mend the shoes. You sit at the shuttle. You carry 
 the hod of bricks up the ladder on the wall. And tlie 
 one occupation is as honorable as the other, provided God 
 calls you to it. I care not what you do, if you only do 
 it well. But when Saturday night comes, you are jaded 
 
34.2 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 and worn. The hand can not so skillfully manufacture; 
 the eye can not see as well ; the brain is not so clear; the 
 judgment is not so well balanced. A prominent manufact- 
 urer told me tliat he could see a difference between the 
 goods which went out of his establishment on Saturday 
 from the goods that went out on Monday. He said, " They 
 were very different indeed. Those that were made in 
 the former part of the week, because of the rest that had 
 been previously given, were better than those that were 
 made in the latter part of the week, when the men were 
 tired out." The Sabbath comes, and it bathes the sore- 
 ness from the limbs, quiets the agitated brain, and puts 
 out the fires of anxiety that have been burning all the 
 week. Our bodies are seven-day clocks, and unless on 
 the seventh day they are wound up, they run down into 
 the grave. The Sabbath was intended as a savings- 
 bank ; into it we are to gather the resources upon which 
 we are to draw all the week. That man who breaks the 
 Sabbath robs his own nerve, his own muscle, his own 
 brain, his own bones. He dips up the wine of his own 
 life, and throws it away. He who breaks the Lord's day 
 gives a mortgage to disease and death upon his entire 
 physical estate, and at the most unexpected moment that 
 mortgage will be foreclosed, and the soul ejected from the 
 premises. Every gland, and pore, and cell, and finger- 
 nail demands the seventh day for repose. The respira- 
 tion of the lungs, the throb of the pulse in the wrist, the 
 motion of the bone in its socket declare, "Eemember the 
 Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." There are thousands of 
 men who have had their lives dashed out against the 
 golden gates of the Sabbath. A prominent London mer- 
 chant testifies that thirty years ago he went to London. 
 
THE BMIQHTEST OF DA YS. 343 
 
 He says, ^' I have during that time watched minutely, 
 and 1 have noticed that the men who went to business on 
 the Lord's day, or opened their counting-houses, have, 
 without a single exception, come to failure." A promi- 
 nent Christian merchant in Boston says, "I find it don't 
 pay to work on Sunday. When I was a boy, I noticed 
 cut on Long Wharf there were merchants who loaded 
 their vessels on the Sabbath-day, keeping their men busy 
 from morning till night, and it is my observation that 
 they themselves came to nothing — these merchants — and 
 their children came to nothing. It doesn't pay," he 
 says, " to work on the Sabbath." 
 
 I appeal to your own observation. Where are the 
 men who twenty years ago were Sabbath-breakers, and 
 who have been Sabbath-breakers ever since? Without 
 a single exception, you will tell me, they have come 
 either to financial or to moral beggary. I defy you to 
 point out a single exception, and you can take the whole 
 world for your field. It has either been a financial or 
 moral defalcation in every instance. Six hundred and 
 forty physicians in London petition Parliament, saying: 
 " We must have the Sabbath obeyed. We can not have 
 health in this city and in this nation unless the Sabbath 
 is observed." Those in our own country have given 
 evidence on the same side. The man who takes down 
 the shutters of his store on the Sabbath takes down the 
 curse of Almighty God. That farmer who cultures his 
 ground on the Sabbath-day raises a crop of neuralgia, 
 and of consumption, and of death. A farmer said, " I 
 defy your Christian Sabbath. I will raise a Sunday 
 crop." So he went to work and plowed the ground on 
 Sunday, and harrowed it on Sunday, and he planted corn 
 
 15 
 
844 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 on Sunday, and he reaped the corn on Sunday, and he 
 gathered it into the barn on Sunday. " There," he says, 
 "I have proved to you that all this idea about a fatali- 
 ty accompanying Sabbath work is a perfect sham. My 
 crop is garnered, and all is well." But before many 
 weeks passed the Lord God struck that barn with his 
 lightnings, and away went the Sunday crop. 
 
 So great is the moral depression coming upon those 
 who toil upon the Sabbath-day, that you may have no- 
 ticed (if you have not, I call your attention to the fact) 
 that in cases where the public interest demands Sabbath 
 toil the moral depression is so great that there are but 
 very few who can stand it. For instance, the police serv- 
 ice, without which not one of our houses would be safe 
 — there are very few who can stand the pressure and 
 temptation of it. In London, where there are five thou- 
 sand policemen, the statistic is given that in one year 
 nine hundred and twenty-one of that five thousand were 
 dismissed, five hundred and twenty -three were sus- 
 pended, and two thousand four hundred and ninety-two 
 were fined. Now, if the moral depression be so great in 
 occupations that are positively necessary for the peace 
 and prosperity of society, I ask you what must be the 
 moral depression in those cases where there is no neces- 
 sity for Sabbath work, and where a man chooses woi-ld- 
 ly business on the Lord's day just because he likes it, or 
 wants to add to his emoluments? During the last war, 
 it was found out that those public works which paused 
 on the seventh day turned out more war material than 
 those which worked all the seven days. Mr. Bagnall, a 
 prominent iron merchant, gives this testimon}^: "1 find 
 we have fewer accidents in our establishment and fewer 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 345 
 
 interruptions, now we observe the Lord's day ; and at the 
 close of the year, now that we keep the Sabbath, I find 
 we turn out more iron and have larger profits than any 
 year when we worked all the seven days." The fact is, 
 Sabbath-made ropes will break, and Sabbath-made shoes 
 will leak, and Sabbath-made coats will rip, and Sabbath- 
 made muskets will miss fire, and Sabbath occupations will 
 be blasted. A gentleman said, "I invented a shuttle on 
 the Lord's day. I was very busy, so I made the model 
 of that new shuttle on the Lord's day. So very busy 
 was I during the week that I had to occupy many Sab- 
 baths. It was a great success. I enlarged my buildings; 
 I built new factories, and made hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars ; but I have to tell you that all the result of 
 that work on the Sabbath has been to me ruin. I en- 
 larged my buildings, I made a great many thousands 
 of dollars, but I have lost all, and I charge it to the fixct 
 of that Sunday shuttle." I will place in two companies 
 the men in this community who break the Sabbath and 
 the men who keep it, and then I ask you who are the 
 best friends of society? Who are the best friends of 
 morals? Who have the best prospects for this world? 
 Who have the best for the world that is to come? 
 
 Sabbath morning comes in the household. I suppose 
 that the mere philosopher would say that the Sabbath 
 light comes in a wave current, just like any other light; 
 but it does not seem so to me. It seems as if it touched 
 the ej^elids more gently, and threw a brighter glow on 
 the mantel ornaments, and cast a better cheerfulness on 
 the faces of the children, and threw a supernatural glory 
 over the old family Bible. Hail! Sabbath light! We 
 rejoice in it. Eest comes in through the window, or it 
 
^46 ^IIE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 leaps up from the fire, or it rolls out in the old arm-chair, 
 or it catches up the body into ecstasy, and swings open 
 before the soul the twelve gates which are twelve pearls. 
 The bar of the unopened warehouse, the hinges of the 
 unfastened store - window, the quiet of the commercial 
 warehouse seem to say, " This is the day the Lord hath 
 made." Rest for the sewing-woman, with weary hands, 
 and aching side, and sick heart. Rest for the overtasked 
 workman in the mine, or out on the wall, or in the swel- 
 tering factory. Hang up the plane, drop the adze, slip 
 the band from the wheel, put out the fire. Rest for the 
 body, for the mind, and for the soul. 
 
 "Welcome, sweet day of rest, 
 That saw the Lord arise ; 
 Welcome to this reviving breast, 
 And these rejoicing eyes." 
 
 Again I remark, we ought to have in the Sabbath the 
 joy of domestic reunion and consecration. There are some 
 very good parents who have the faculty of making the 
 Sabbath a great gloom. Their children run up against 
 the wall of parental lugubriousness on that day. They 
 are sorry when Sunday comes, and glad when it goes 
 away. They think of every thing bad on that day. It 
 is the worst day to them, really, in all the week. There 
 are persons who, because they w^ere brought up in Chris- 
 tian fiimilies where there w^ere wrong notions about the 
 Sabbath, have gone out into dissipation and will be lost. 
 A man said to me, " I have a perfect disgust for the Sab- 
 bath-day. I never saw my father smile on Sunday. It 
 was such a dreadful day to me when I was a boy, I never 
 got over it, and never will." Those.parents did not " call 
 the Sabbath a delight ;" they made it a gloom. But there 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DA YS. JJ4.7 
 
 are houses represented here this morning where the chil- 
 dren say through the week, "I wonder when Sunday 
 will come !" They are anxious to have it come. I hear 
 their hosanna in the house; I hear their hosanna in the 
 school. God intended the Sabbath to be especially a 
 day for the father. The mother is home all the week. 
 Sabbath-day comes, and God says to the father, who has 
 been busy from Monday morning to Saturday night at 
 the store, or away from home, " This is your day. See 
 what you can do in this little flock in preparing them 
 for heaven. This day I set apart for you." You know 
 very well that there are many parents who are mere sut- 
 lers of the household ; they provide the food and rai- 
 ment; once in a while, perhaps, they hear the child read 
 a line or two in the new primer ; or if there be a case of 
 especial discipline, and the mother can not manage it, 
 the child is brought up in the court-martial of the in- 
 ther's discipline and punished. That is all there is of it. 
 No scrutiny of that child's immortal interests, no realiza- 
 tion of the fact that the child will soon go out in a world 
 where there are gigantic and overwhelming temptations 
 that have swamped millions. But in some households 
 it is not that way ; the home, beautiful on ordinary da3's, 
 is more beautiful now that the Sabbath has dawned. 
 There is more joy in the "good-morning," there is more 
 tenderness in the morning prayer. The father looks at 
 the child, and the child looks at the father. The little 
 one dares now to ask questions without any fear of being 
 answered, " Don't bother me — I must be off to the store." 
 Now the father looks at the child, and he sees not mere- 
 ly the blue eyes, the arched brow, the long lashes, the 
 sweet lip. He sees in that child a long line of earthly 
 
348 THE BRIGHTEST OF DA TS. 
 
 destinies ; he sees in that child an immeasurable eternity. 
 As he touches that child, he says, " I wonder what will 
 be the destiny of this little one? I wonder if on this 
 brow will come the coronet of God's redemption or the 
 iron crown of despair? I wonder if I will clasp this lit- 
 tle one after all my Sabbaths have passed, and the doom 
 of eternity has been announced? Will that little hand 
 at last wave a palm or rattle a chain ?" And while this 
 Christian father is thinking and praying, the sweet prom- 
 ise flows through his soul, " of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven." And he feels a joy, not like that which sounds 
 in the dance, or is wafted from the froth of the wine-cup, 
 or that which is like the " crackling of thorns under a 
 pot," but the joy of domestic reunion and consecration. 
 
 Have I been picturing something that is merely fanci- 
 ful, or is it possible for you and for me to have such a 
 home as that? I believe it is possible. If we can have 
 such a halo of grace and light and love and parental 
 faithfulness around about our homes, we can expect for 
 our little ones, when they go out in the world, a life of 
 great usefulness, and finally a home in heaven. 
 
 I have a statistic that I would like to give you. A 
 great many people, j^ou know, say there is nothing in 
 the Christian discipline of a household. In New Hamp- 
 shire there were two neighborhoods — the one of six 
 families, the other of five families. The six families dis- 
 regarded the Sabbath. In time, five of these families 
 were broken up by the separation of husbands and 
 wives; the other by the father becoming a thief Eight 
 or nine of the parents became drunkards, one committed 
 suicide, and all came to penury. Of some forty or fifty 
 descendants, about twenty are known to be drunkards 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DA YS. 3^9 
 
 and gamblers and dissolute. Four or five have been in 
 State-prison. One fell in a duel. Some are in the alms- 
 house. Only one became a Cliristian, and he after first 
 having been outrageously dissipated. The other five 
 families that regarded the Sabbath were all prospered. 
 Eight or ten of the children are consistent members 
 of the church. Some of them became ofl&cers in the 
 church; one is a minister of the Gospel; one is a mis- 
 sionary to China. ISTo poverty among any of them. The 
 homestead is now in the hands of the third generation. 
 Those who have died have died in the peace of the Gos- 
 pel. Oh, is there nothing in a household that remem- 
 bers God's holy day ? Can it be possible that those who 
 disregard this holy commandment can be prospered for 
 this life, or have any good hope of the life that is to 
 come ? 
 
 Again, we ought to have in the Sabbath the joy of 
 Christian assemblage. Where are all those people going 
 on the Sabbath ? You see them moving up and down 
 the street. Is it a festal day ? people might ask. Has 
 there been some public edict commanding the people to 
 come forth? Ko, they are only worshipers of God who 
 are going to their places of religious service. In what 
 delicate scale shall I weigh the joy of Christian convoca- 
 tion? It gives brightness to the eye, and a flush to the 
 cheek, and a pressure to the hand, and a thrill to the 
 heart. You see the aged man tottering along on his 
 staff through the aisle. You see the little child led by 
 the hand of its mother. You look around and rejoice 
 that this is God's day, and this'the communion of saints. 
 "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Some familiar 
 tune sets all the soul a-quiver and a-quake with rapture. 
 
850 THE BRIGHTEST OF DA YS. 
 
 We plunge into some old hymn, and all our cares and 
 anxieties are bathed off. The glorious Gospel transports 
 lis, the Spirit descends, Jesus appears, and we feel the 
 bounding, spreading, electric joy of Christian convoca- 
 tion. 
 
 I look upon the Church of God as one vast hosanna. 
 Joy dripping from the baptismal font, joy glowing in 
 the sacramental cup, joy warbling in the anthem, joy 
 beating against the gate of heaven with a hallelujah like 
 the voice of mighty thunderings. Beautiful for situa- 
 tion ! The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. It is 
 the day and the place where Christ reviews his troops, 
 bringing them out in companies and regiments and bat- 
 talions, riding along the line, examining the battle-torn 
 •flags of past combat, and cheering them on to future vic- 
 tories. Oh the joy of Christian assemblage ! 
 
 I remark also, we are to have in this day the joy of 
 eternal Sabhatism. I do not believe it possible for any 
 Christian to spend the Lord's day here without think- 
 ing of heaven. There is something in the gathering of 
 people in church on earth to make one think of the rapt 
 assemblage of the skies. There is something in the song 
 of the Christian Church to make one think of the song of 
 the elders before the throne, the harpists and the trumpet- 
 ers of God accompanying the haivnony. The light of a 
 better Sabbath gilds the tops of this, and earth and heav- 
 en come within speaking distance of each other, the song 
 of triumph waving backward and forward, now tossed 
 tip by the Church of earth, now sent back by the Church 
 of heaven. 
 
 " Day of all the week the best, 
 Emblem of eternal rest." 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DATS. 351 
 
 The Christian man stands radiant in its light. His 
 bereft heart rejoices at the thought of a country where 
 there is neither a coffin nor grave ; his weary body glows 
 at the idea of a land where there are no burdens to carry, 
 and no exhaustive journeys to take. He eats the grapes 
 of Eshcol. He stands upon the mountain top and looks 
 off upon the Promised Land. He hears the call of the 
 eternal towers, and the tramp of the numberless multi- 
 tLide with sins forgiven. This is the day which the Lord 
 hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Oh ye 
 who have been hunting for Sunday pleasures in the 
 street, and on the river-bank, and in the houses of sin, 
 I commend to you this holy day and holy service ! I do 
 not invite you to swallow a great bitterness, or to carry 
 a heavy yoke; but I invite you to feel in body, mind, 
 and soul the thrill of joy which God has handed down in 
 the chalices of the golden Sabbath. 
 
 With what revulsion and with what pity we must look 
 out on that large class of persons in our day who would, 
 by legislative enactment, and by newspaper and maga- 
 zine, and by their own personal example, throw discredit 
 upon the Lord's day. There are two things which Prot- 
 estants ought never to give up: the one is the Bible, 
 the other is the Sabbath. Take away one, and you take 
 both. Take either, and farewell to Christianity in this 
 country, farewell to our civil and religious liberties. 
 When they go, all go. He who has ever spent Sunday 
 in Paris, or Antwerp, or Eome, if he be an intelligent 
 Christian, will pray God that the day will never come 
 when the Sabbath of continental Europe shall put its 
 foot upon our shores. I had a friend in Syracuse who 
 lived to be one hundred vears of age. He said to me, 
 
 15* 
 
.352 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 in his ninety-nintli year, "I went across the mountains 
 in the early history of this country. Sabbath morning 
 came. ■, We were beyond the reach of civilization. My 
 comrades were all going out for an excursion. I said, 
 ' No, I won't go ; it is Sunday.' Why, they laughed. 
 They said, ' We haven't any Sunday here.' ' Oh yes,' 
 I said, ' you have. / brought it with me over the mount- 
 ains.''^'' 
 
 There are two or three ways in which we can war 
 against Sabbath-breaking usages in this day ; and the 
 first thing is to get our children right upon this subject, 
 and teach them that the Sabbath-day is the holiest of all 
 the days, and the best and the gladdest. Unless you 
 teach your child under the parental roof to keep the 
 Lord's day, there are nine hundred and ninety chances 
 out of a thousand it will never learn to keep the Sab- 
 bath. You may think to shirk responsibility in the 
 matter, and send your child to the Sabbath-school and 
 the house of God; that will not relieve the matter. I 
 want to tell you, in the name of Christ, my Maker and 
 my Judge, that your example will be more potential 
 than an}^ instruction they get elsewhere; and if you 
 disregard the Lord's day yourself, or in any wise throw 
 contempt upon it, you are blasting your children with 
 an infinite curse. It is a rough truth, I know, told in a 
 rough way ; but it is God's truth, nevertheless. Your 
 child may go on to seventy or eighty years of nge, but 
 that child will never get over the awful disadvantage of 
 having had a Sabbath-breaking father or a Sabbath- 
 breaking mother. It is the joy of many of us that we 
 can look back to an early home where God was hon- 
 ored, and when the Sabbath came it was a day of great 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DA YS. 853 
 
 consecration and joy. We remember the old faces 
 around the table that Sabbath morning. Our hearts 
 melt when we think of those blessed associations, and 
 we may have been off and committed many indiscretions 
 and done many wTong things; but the day will never 
 come when we forget the early home in which God's day 
 w^as regarded, and father and mother told us to keep hojy 
 the Sabbath. 
 
 There is another way in which we can war against the 
 Sabbath-breaking usages of the country at this time, and 
 that is by making our houses of worship attractive and 
 the religious services inspiriting. I plead not for a gor- 
 geous audience-chamber; I plead not for groined rafters 
 or magnificent fresco; but I do plead for comfortable 
 churches, home-like churches— places where the church- 
 going population behave as they ought to. Make the 
 church welcome to all, however poorly clad they may be, 
 or whatever may have been their past history ; for I think 
 the Church of God is not so much made for you who 
 could have churches in your own house, but for the vast 
 population of our great cities, who are treading on toward 
 death, with no voice of mercy to arrest them. Ah ! when 
 the prodigal comes into the church, do not stare at him 
 as though he had no right to come. Give him the best 
 seat you can find for him. Sometimes a man wakes up 
 from his sin, and he says, "I'll go to the house of God." 
 Perhaps he comes from one motive, perhaps from anoth- 
 er. He finds the church dark and the Christian people 
 fi-igid (and there are no people on earth who can be more 
 frigid than Christian people when they try), and the mu- 
 sic^is dull, and he never comes again. Suppose one of 
 these men enters the church. As he comes in he hears 
 
354 THE BRIGHTEST OF DAYS. 
 
 a song whicli his mother sang when he was a boy; he 
 remembers it. He sits down, and some one hands him a 
 book, open at 
 
 "Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 Name ever dear to me." 
 
 "Yes," he says, " I have heard that many times." He 
 sees cheerful Christian people there, every man's face a 
 psalm of thanksgiving to God. He says, " Do you have 
 this so every Sunday? I have heard that the house 
 of God was a doleful place, and Christians were lugu- 
 brious and repelling! I have really enjoyed myself!" 
 The next Sabbath the man is again in the same place. 
 Tears of repentance start down his cheek; he begins 
 to pray; and when the communion-table is spread, 
 he sits at it, and some one reaches over and says, " I 
 am surprised to find you here. I thought you didn't 
 believe in such things." "Ah !" he says, " I have been 
 captured. I came in one day, and found you were all 
 so loving and cheerful here that I concluded I would 
 come among you. Where thou goest I will go ; thy peo- 
 ple shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where 
 thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." 
 
 Ah ! you can't drive men out of their sins, but you 
 can coax them out — you can charm them out. 
 
 I would to God that we could all come to a higher ap- 
 preciation of this Sabbath heritage! We can not count 
 the treasures of one Christian Sabbath. It spreads out 
 over us the two wings of the archangel of merc}^ Oh, 
 blessed Sabbath! blessed Sabbath! They scoff a great 
 deal about the old Puritanic Sabbaths, and there is a 
 wonderful amount of wit expended upon that subject 
 now — the Sabbaths they used to have in New England. 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF DA YS. 355 
 
 I never lived in New England, but I would rather trust 
 the old Puritanic Sabbath, with all its faults, than this 
 modern Sabbath, which is fast becoming no Sabbath 
 at all. If our modern Sabbatism shall produce as stal- 
 wart Christian character as the old New England Puri- 
 tanic Sabbatism, I shall be satisfied, and I shall be sur- 
 prised. 
 
 Oh, blessed day ! blessed day ! I should like to die 
 some Sabbath morning when the air is full of church mu- 
 sic and the bells are ringing. Leaving my home group 
 with a dying blessing, I should like to look off upon 
 some Christian assemblage chanting the praises of God 
 as I went up to join the one hundred and forty and four 
 thousand and the thousands of thousands standing around 
 the throne of Jesus. Hark ! I hear the bell of the old 
 kirk on the hill-side of heaven. It is a wedding-bell, for 
 behold the Bridegroom cometh. It is a victor's bell, for 
 we are more than conquerors through Him who hath 
 loved us. It is a Sabbath-bell, for it calls the nations of 
 earth and heaven to everlasting repose. 
 
 ** Oh when, thou city of my God, 
 Shall I thy courts ascend ? 
 Where congregations ne'er break up, 
 And Sabbaths have no end." 
 
356 THE WORLD GOING. 
 
 THE WORLD GOING. 
 
 ** The fashion of this world passeth away." — 1 Corinthians vii.,31. 
 
 THERE are many who find in this subject only an 
 element of sadness. I find in it chiefly an element 
 of joy. As Paul sometimes used figures drawn from the 
 theatre, I think that I have a right to say that as the 
 shifting scenes at the end of an act do not indicate that 
 the play is ended, but only that it is developing, so all 
 the changes on earth are but the shifting scenes in the 
 great drama of God's providence, which will come to a 
 glorious and successful completion. I want, to-night, to 
 take a Christian and manly view of this subject, and not 
 the view of a sickly sentimentalist. I am glad that the 
 fashion of the world, and that the world itself, is passing 
 away, for it is only making room for something better. 
 In the same procession in which march the manners, and 
 the customs, and the institutions of the world, march the 
 dispensations of God's providence by which the Church 
 is to be made mightier, and society purer. Roll on, oh 
 wheel of the ages ! Though institutions fall, though gov- 
 ernments be crushed, though empires be depopulated, 
 though the world be destroyed, roll, great wheel of the 
 ages! Let all crowns melt, if our King gets his domin- 
 ions! Let all armies be routed, if from the ruins Christ 
 shall marshal his armies with banners ! Let this earth 
 burn, if out of the leaping flames there shall spring the 
 new heaven and new earth in which dwelleth righteous- 
 ness ! 
 
THE WOELD GOING. S67 
 
 I propose to talk to you about the transitory nature 
 of all earthly things, and then to guard you against some 
 wrong applications of the subject. 
 
 I suppose you have all noticed the changes -m families. 
 Where are the prominent families of forty years ago? 
 They ruled society as with a sceptre. The cut and the 
 style of their dress decided the apparel of the city. They 
 walked with an air of opulence, or dashed down be- 
 hind well-groomed steeds clattering on the pavements. 
 As they passed, all hats were lifted ; as they entered a 
 room, all conversation was hushed or turned upon them. 
 Poets, rulers, millionaires, sat at their table. They drank 
 their wine from chalices that had glittered in the ban- 
 quets of a centurj^ They sat in antique chairs, in which 
 lordly men had lounged, looking at the walls papered 
 with the many scenes of the chase, in which their an- 
 cestors had mingled with sounding horn, and baying 
 hounds, and broken antlers. They were praised — they 
 were sought after. Other vehicles halted to let theirs 
 pass, and to their haughty look men bowed obsequious- 
 ly, and danced around them with flattering attentions. 
 "Where are those families now ? Some of them, I am 
 glad to say, their name mighty on 'Change, and mighty 
 in social circles, untouched of disaster. But where are 
 the most of them? Shall I tell you the story? The 
 coat of arms is lost. The pictures and the golden urn. 
 long ago went to the auctioneer's room. Halls, so airy 
 and grand, have become a nest of brokers' shops. He 
 goes along the street, broken down with dissipations, 
 buttons off, and rum-blossoms on — the last relic of that 
 great house. In that old arm-chair, that went down 
 into the rookciy ; in the pictures, whose torn canvas was 
 
358 THE WORLD GOING. 
 
 pitched into the garret rubbish ; in those lialls tliat have 
 p?ichanged the lordly step of the proprietor for the shuf- 
 fling feet of bargain makers, I bear a voice, loud and 
 deep, sounding above cartman's dray and auctioneer's 
 mallet, "The fashion of this world passeth away !" 
 
 So, likewise, has it been with all human achievements. ■ 
 The bridge, that taxed the brain of the architect, no 
 more crosses the stream; but the romantic school-boy 
 sits on the crumbling abutments making rhymes about 
 the mutation of all earthly things. To the structure 
 that once caused the mill-wright many sleepless nights, 
 the farmer no more brings his grist. The old wheel, 
 broken and covered with weeds, no more dashes the 
 mountain stream to foam. The fine house, that over- 
 shadowed all the others on the block, now crumbles; 
 the small window-panes, and old-time roof, and outland- 
 ish stairs, seeming in sorrow to say, oh for those days 
 when people passing here would exclaim, " AVho lives 
 there?" Many of the books that were popular in the 
 libraries forty years ago are gone now — gone down into 
 the cellar, gone into the garret, or stand begging on the 
 book-stand on the street corner, or sleep their last sleep 
 in the antiquarian's library. Not knowing where they 
 tread, the Tennysons, and Longfellows, and Bancrofts, 
 walk over the graves of historians and poets, taking by 
 storm the libraries of the world ; mounting up on lad- 
 ders of shelves until they plant their batteries of light 
 and truth on the very heights of knowledge. The great 
 libraries at the Vatican, and in Munich and Dresden, are 
 only the AVestminster Abbeys in which royal books have 
 been buried. The tooth of Time is gnawing away at 
 reputations that it was supposed could never be damaged 
 
THE WORLD GOING, 359 
 
 or lost. Book-worms are boring down tbrougli tlie pas- 
 sage that was expected to be immortal, while those old 
 ambitious authors or their spirits seem wandering up 
 and down the aisles of the national library, unable to 
 find their way out into the sunlight, with skeleton fin- 
 gers fumbling the venerable pages, with trembling voice 
 seeming to say, " Gone and forgotten !" The old phi- 
 losophers, who spent much of their time in tinkering 
 with electricity, are mostly forgotten, while Morse las- 
 soes the lightning, and Cyrus W. Field with it lashes 
 fast two hemispheres. Time follows right after Old 
 Mortality, but with sharper chisel and stronger hand, 
 battering to pieces the monuments, and the sarcophagus, 
 and the Pyramids. Lord and squire, duke and duchess, 
 earl and viscount, baron and knight, are sharing the 
 same fate with- Lov^ell operative, and Nantucket whale- 
 man, and Scranton coal-heaver. Feather and crest, star 
 and epaulet, and cockade sharing the same fate with 
 shoe-maker's last and blacksmith's apron. 
 
 So has it also been with great cities. Where is Nin- 
 eveh, the blossoming splendor of the Assyrian empire, 
 all nations driving their caravans into her streets? City 
 of precious stones — jasper, and chrysoprasus, and chal- 
 cedony ; her fountains tossing up into basins of alabaster, 
 and amidst exquisite statuary ; the wealth and pomp of 
 the world passing through her streets, strolling through 
 her galleries of art, shouting in her amphitheatres, min- 
 gling in her scenes of splendor and triumph, Alas for 
 Nineveh ! The antiquarian plunges his crow-bar into 
 the grave of all that buried splendor, and the broken pil- 
 lars respond, and the slabs of gypsum speak out, and the 
 engraved cylinders break the silence, and all the ground 
 
360 2Tffi? WOULD Gomo. 
 
 sends up rumbling, rueful, and woeful voices: ''The 
 fashion of this world passeth away !" Where is Tad- 
 mor, the city of palms, built by the munificent hand of 
 King Solomon ? Warlike tribes dashed back from her 
 walls as a wave splits into foam upon a rocky beach. 
 Palm trees grew along all her streets, and overshadowed 
 many of her buildings, until the city was a bower of 
 beauty. The wealth of all nations unpacked and un- 
 rolled in her markets. Iler Temple of the Sun, with 
 three hundred and ninety columns, on double rows, 
 heaving up toward heaven, on shoulders of marble, the 
 worship, and the pomp, and the genius, and the wealth 
 of a great nation. Oh, Tadmor! the cup of mirth to 
 thy lip, the crown of greatness on thy brow, where art 
 thou? The huts that cluster around her ruins make no 
 answer. The broken tombs, and the defaced sculpture, 
 and the mutilated frieze respond not; but the sands of 
 the desert drift across the place, and in the low, mourn- 
 ful moan of the desert wind I hear it: "The fashion of 
 this world passeth away !" 
 
 So, also, my friends, has it been with all earthly au- 
 tliorily. Of how much worth now is the crown of Cassar? 
 Who bids for it? Who cares now any thing about the 
 Amphictyonic Council or the laws of Lycurgus? Who 
 trembles now because Xerxes crossed the Hellespont on 
 a bridge of boats? Who fears because ISTebuchadnez- 
 zar thunders at the gates of Jerusalem? Who cares 
 now whether or not Cleopatra marries Antony? Who 
 crouches before Ferdinand, or Boniface, or Alaric? Can 
 Cromwell dissolve the English Parliament now? Is 
 William, prince of Orange, king of the Netherlands? 
 No ; no I However much Elizabeth may love the Kus- 
 
THE WORLD GOIXG. 361 
 
 sian crown, she must pass it to Peter, and Peter to Cath- 
 ei'ine, and Catherine to Paul, and Paul to Alexander, and 
 Alexander to Nicholas. Leopold puts the German scep- 
 tre into the hand of Joseph, and Philip comes down off 
 the Spanish throne to let Ferdinand go on. House of 
 Aragon, house of Hapsburg, house of Stuart, house of 
 Bourbon, quarreling about every thing else, but agreeing 
 in this : " The fashion of this world passeth away." Bat 
 have all these dignitaries gone? Can t\iey not be called 
 back? I have been in assemblages where I have heard 
 the roll called, and many distinguished men have an- 
 swered. If I should call the roll to-night of some of 
 those mighty ones who have gone, I wonder if they 
 would not answer. I will call the roll. I will call the 
 roll of the kings first: Alfred the Great! William the 
 Conqueror! Frederick II. ! Louis XYI. ! No answer. 
 I will call the roll of the poets : Eobert Southey ! 
 Thomas Campbell! John Keats! George Crabbe! 
 Robert Burns! Lord Byron! No answer. I call the 
 roll of the artists: Michael Angelo! Paul Veronese I 
 William Turner! Christopher Wren! No answer. 
 Eyes closed. Ears deaf Lips silent. Hands palsied. 
 Sceptre, pencil, pen, sword, put down forever. In liter- 
 ature, in art, in government, "The fashion of this world 
 passeth away." 
 
 But I find a more striking illustration of my subject 
 (at any rate, it is more impressive to my own mind) 
 w^hen I look at the changing shape of this physical earth. 
 Do you know that even the mountains on the back of 
 a thousand streams are leaping into the valley? The 
 Alleghanies are dying! The dews, with crvstalline 
 mallet, are hammering away the rocks. (So when you 
 
862 THE WORLD GOING. 
 
 say any tiling is "as firm as a rock," you say nothing.) 
 Frosts, and showers, and lightnings are sculpturing 
 Mount Washington and the Catskills. Niagara every 
 year is digging for itself a quicker plunge. The sea all 
 around the earth on its shifting shores is making mighty 
 changes in bar, and bay, and frith, and promontory. 
 Some of the old sea-coasts are midland now. Oft' Nan- 
 tucket, eight feet below low-water mark, are found now 
 the stumps of trees, showing that the waves are conquer- 
 ing the land. Parts of Nova Scotia are sinking. Ships 
 to-day sail over what, only a little while ago, was solid 
 ground. Near the mouth of the St. Croix Eiver is an 
 island which, in the movements of the earth, is slowly 
 but certainly rotating. All the face of the earth changing 
 — changing. In 1831, an island springs up in the Medi- 
 terranean Sea. In 1866, another island comes up under 
 the observation of the American consul as he looks 
 oft' from the beach. The earth all the time changing, the 
 columns of a temple near Bizoli show that the water has 
 risen nine feet above the place it was when those col- 
 umns were put down. Changing! Our Colorado Eiv- 
 er, once vaster than the Mississippi, flowing through the 
 great American desert, which was then an Eden of lux- 
 uriance, has now dwindled to a small stream creeping 
 down through a gorge. The earth itself, that was once 
 vapor, afterward water — nothing but water — afterward 
 molten rock, cooling off through the ages until plants 
 might live, and animals might live, and men might live, 
 changing all the while, now crumbling, now breaking 
 off The sun, burning down gradually in its socket. 
 Changing! changing! an intimation of the last great 
 change to come over the world even infused into the. 
 
THE WOULD GOING. 363 
 
 mind of the heathen who has never seen the Bible. The 
 Hindoos believe that Bramah, the creator, once made 
 all things. He created the water, then moved over the 
 water, out of it lifted the land, grew the plants, and ani- 
 mals, and men on it. Out of his eye went the sun. Out 
 of his lips went the fire. Out of his ear went the air. 
 Then Bramah laid down to sleep four thousand three 
 hundred and twenty million years. After that, they say, 
 he will wake up, and then the world will be destroyed, 
 and he will make it over again, bringing up land, bring- 
 ing up creatures upon it; then lying down again to sleep 
 four thousand three hundred and twenty million years, 
 then waking up and destroying the world again — cre- 
 ation and demolition following each other, until after 
 three hundred and twenty sleeps, each one of these slum- 
 bers four thousand three hundred and twenty million 
 years long, Bramah will wake up and die, and the universe 
 will die with him — an intimation, though very faint, of 
 the great change to come upon this physical earth spoken 
 of in the Bible. But while Bramah may sleep, our God 
 never slumbers nor sleeps; and the heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat, and the earth and all things that are there- 
 in shall be burned up. 
 
 " \Yell," says some one in the audience, "if that is 
 so; if tlie world is going from one change to another; if 
 the fashion of this w^orld is passing away, then what is 
 the use of my toiling for its betterment?" That is the 
 point on which I want to guard 3^ou. I do not w^ant 
 you to become misanthropic. It is a great and glorious 
 world. If Christ could afford to spend thirty-three years 
 on it for its redemption, then you can afford to toil and 
 
364 THE WORLD G0IN9. 
 
 pray for tlie betterment of the nations, and for the bring- 
 ing on of that glorious time when all people shall see the 
 salvation of God. While, therefore, I want to guard you 
 against misanthropic notions in respect to this subject I 
 have presented, I want you to take this thought home 
 with you : This world is a poor foundation to build on. It 
 is a changing world, and it is a dying world. The shift- 
 ing scenes and the changing sands are only emblems of 
 all earthly expectation. Life is very much like this day 
 through which we have passed. To many of us it is 
 storm and darkness, then sunshine, storm and darkness, 
 then afterward a little sunshine, now again darkness and 
 storm. Oh, build not your hopes upon this uncertain 
 world ! Build on God. Confide in Jesus. Plan for an 
 eternal residence at Christ's right hand. Then, come 
 sickness or health, come joy or sorrow, come life or death, 
 all is well, all is well, though the fashion of this world 
 does pass away. 
 
WEAPONS CAPTURED. ^Qij 
 
 WEAPONS CAPTURED. 
 
 "There is none like that ; give it me." — 1 Samuel xxl., 9. 
 
 DAYID fled from his pursuers. The world runs very 
 fast when it is chasing a good man. The country 
 is trying to catch David, and to slay him. David goes 
 into the house of a priest, and asks him for a sword or 
 spear with which to defend himself. The priest, not be- 
 ing accustomed to use deadly weapons, tells David that 
 he can not supply him ; but suddenly the priest thinks 
 of an old sword that had been carefully wrapped up and 
 laid away — the very sword that Goliath formerly used, 
 and he takes down that sword, and while he is unwrap- 
 ping the sharp, glittering, memorable blade, it flashes 
 upon David's mind that this is the very sword that was 
 used against himself when he was in the fight with Go- 
 liath, and David can hardly keep his hand off of it until 
 the priest has unwound it. David stretches out his hand 
 toward that old sword, and says, "There is none like 
 that; give it me." In other words, "I want in my own 
 hand the sw^ord which has been used against me, and 
 against the cause of God." So it was given him. Well, 
 my friends, that is not the first or the last sword once 
 used by giant and Philistine iniquity which is to come 
 into the possession of Jesus Christ, and of his glori- 
 ous Church. I want, as well as God may help me, to 
 show you that many a weapon which has been used 
 against the armies of God is yet to be captured and used 
 
366 WEATONS CAPTURED. 
 
 on our side ; and I only imitate David when I stretch 
 out my hand toward that blade of the Philistine, and 
 cry^ " There is none like that; give it me !" 
 
 I remark, first, that this is true in regard to all scien- 
 tific exijloration. You know that the first discoveries in 
 astronomy, and geology, and chronology were used to 
 battle Christianity. Worldly philosophy came out of its 
 laboratory, and out of its observatory, and said, "Now, 
 we will prove, by the very structure of the earth, and by 
 the movement of the heavenly bodies, that the Bible is 
 a lie, and that Christianity, as we have it among men, is 
 a positive imposition." Good men trembled. The tele- 
 scope, the Leydenjars, the electric batteries, all in the 
 hands of the Philistines. But one day, Christianity, 
 looking about for some weapon with which to defend 
 itself, happened to see the very old sword that th^se 
 atheistic Philistines had been using against the truth, 
 and cried out, "There is none like that; give it me!" 
 And Copernicus, and Galileo, and Kepler, and Isaac 
 Newton came forth and told the world that, in their ran- 
 sacking of the earth and heavens, they had found over- 
 whelming presence of the God whom we worship ; and 
 this old Bible began to shake itself from the Koran, and 
 Shaster, and Zendavesta with which it had been covered 
 up, and lay on the desk of the scholar, and in the labor- 
 atory of the chemist, and in the lap of the Christian, 
 unharmed and unanswered, while the tower of the mid- 
 night heavens struck a silvery chime in its praise. 
 
 Worldly philosophy said, "Matter is eternal. The 
 world always was. God did not make it." Christian 
 philosophy plunges its crow-bar into rocks, and finds 
 that the v^orld was gradually made, and if gradually 
 
WJEAPOA^S CAPTURED. ^oi 
 
 made, there must Lave been some point at which the 
 process started; then, who started it? And so that ob- 
 jection was overcome, and in the first three words of 
 the Bible w^e find that Moses stated a n^agnificcnt truth 
 when he said, ^'In the heginningy 
 
 Worldly philosophy said, " Your Bible u a most inac- 
 curate book ; all that story in the Old Testament, again 
 and again told, about the army of the locusts — it is pre- 
 posterous. There is nothing in the coming of the locusts 
 like an army. An army w^alks, locusts fly. An army goes 
 in order and procession, locusts without order." " Wait!" 
 said Christian philosophy; and in 1868, in the south-w^est- 
 ern part of this country, Christian men went out to exam- 
 ine the march of the locusts. There are men right befoi-e 
 me who must have noticed in that very part of the country 
 the coming up of the locusts like an army; and it w\as 
 found that all the newspapers unwittingly spoke of them 
 as an army. Why ? They seem to have a commander 
 They march like a host. The}^ halt like a host. No ar- 
 row ever went in straighter flight than the locusts come 
 — not even turning aside for the wind. If the wand rises, 
 the locusts drop, and then rise again after it has gone 
 down, taking the same line of march, not varying a foot. 
 The old Bible right every time when it speaks of locusts 
 coming like an arni}^ ; w^orldly philosophy wrong. 
 
 Worldly philosopliy said, "All that story about the 
 light 'turned as clay to the seal,' is simply an absurd- 
 it3^" Old-time w^orldly philosophy said, "The liglit 
 comes straight." Christian philosophy says, "Wait a 
 little while," and it goes on and makes discoveries, and 
 finds that the atmosphere curves and bends the rays of 
 light around the earth, literally "as the clay to the seal." 
 
 16' 
 
3(>8 WFAFONS CAPTURED. 
 
 The Bible right again ; worldly philosophy wrong again. 
 "Ah," says worldly philosophy, "all that allusion in 
 Job about the foundations of the earth is simply an 
 absurditj^ ' Where wast thou,' says God, ' when I set 
 the foundations of the earth ?' The earth has no foun- 
 dation I" Christian philosophy comes, and finds that the 
 word as translated " foundations " may be better trans- 
 lated " sockets." So now see how it will read if it is 
 translated right : " Where wast thou when I set the 
 sockets of the earth?" Where is the socket? It is the 
 hollow of God's hand — a socket large enough for any 
 world to turn in. 
 
 Worldly philosophy said, "What an absurd story 
 about Joshua making the sun and moon stand still. If 
 the world had stopped an instant, the whole universe 
 would have been out of gear." " Stop," said Christian 
 philosophy, " not quite so quick." The world has two 
 motions — one on its own axis, and the other around the 
 sun. It was not necessary, in making them stand still, 
 that both motions should be stopped — only the one turn- 
 ing the world on its own axis. There was no reason 
 why the halting of the earth should have jarred and 
 disarranged the whole universe. Joshua right and God 
 right; infidelity wrong every time. I knew it would be 
 wrong. I thank God that the time has come when Chris- 
 tians need not be scared at any scientific exploration. 
 The fact is that Eeligion and Science have struck hands 
 in eternal friendship, and the deeper down geology can 
 dig, and the higher up astronomy can soar, all the bet- 
 ter for us. The armies of the Lord Jesus Christ have 
 stormed the observatories of the world's science, and 
 from the hiejhest towers have flungj out the banner of 
 
WEAFOxs captuhed. 369 
 
 the cross; and Christianity to-night, from the observa- 
 tories at Albany and Washington, stretches out its hand 
 toward the opposing scientific weapon, crying, " There 
 is none like that ; give it me I" I was reading this after- 
 noon of Herschel, who was looking at a meteor through 
 a telescope, and when it came over the face of the tele- 
 scope it was so powerful he had to avert his eyes. And 
 it has been just so that many an astronomer has gone 
 into an obseM'vatory and looked up into the midnight 
 heavens, and the Lord God has, through some swinging 
 world, flamed upon his vision, and the learned man cried 
 out, "Who am I? undone! unclean! Have mercy, 
 Lord God !" 
 
 Again, I remark that the traveling disposition of the 
 worlds which was adverse to morals and religion, is to 
 be brought on our side. The man that went down to 
 Jericho and fell amidst thieves, was a type of a great 
 many travelers. There is many a man who is very hon- 
 est at home who, when he is abroad, has his honor filch- 
 ed, and his good habits stolen. There are but very few 
 men who can stand the stress of an expedition. Six 
 wrecks at a watering-place has damned many a man. In 
 the olden times God forbade the traveling of men for the 
 purposes of trade, because of the corrupting influences 
 attending it. A. good many men now can not stand the 
 transition from one place to another. Some men who 
 seem to be very consistent in Brooklyn, in the way of 
 keeping the Sabbath, when they get into Spain, on the 
 Lord's day always go out to see the bull-fights. Plato 
 said that no city ought to be built nearer to the sea than 
 ten miles, lest it be tempted to commerce. But this trav- 
 eling disposition of the world, which was adverse to that 
 
370 WIJAPO^'S CAPTURED. 
 
 which is good, is to be brought on our side. These mail 
 trains, wh}^, they are to take our Bibles; these steam- 
 ships, they are to transport our missionaries; these sail- 
 ors, rushing from city to city all around the world, are to 
 be converted in Christian heralds, and go out and preach 
 Christ among the heathen nations. The gospels are in- 
 finitely multiplied in beauty and power since Kobinson, 
 and Thompson, and Burckhardt have come back and 
 talked to us about Siloam, and Capernaum, and Jerusa- 
 lem, pointing out to us the lilies about which Jesus 
 preached, the beach upon which Paul was shipwrecked, 
 the fords at which Jordan was passed, the Eed Sea bank 
 on which were tossed the carcasses of the drowned Egyp- 
 tians. A man said, "I went to the Holy Land an infi- 
 del ; I came back a Christian. I could not help it." 
 
 I am not shocked at the idea recently proposed, of 
 building a railroad to the Ilo^y Land. I wish that all 
 the world might go and see Golgotha and Bethlehem. 
 If we can not afford to pay for muleteers now, perhaps 
 when the rail train goes we can afford to buy a ticket 
 from Constantinople to Joppa, and so we will get to see 
 the Holy Land. Then let Christians travel ! God speed 
 the rail trains, and guide the steamships this night pant- 
 ing across the deep, in the phosphorescent wake — of the 
 shining feet of him who from wave-cliff to wave-cliff trod 
 bestormed Tiberius. The Japanese come across the wa- 
 ter and see our civilization, and examine our Christiani- 
 ty, and go back and tell the story, and keep that empire 
 rocking till Jesus shall reign 
 
 "Where'er the sun 
 Does his successive journeys run." 
 
 And the fire-arms, with which the infidel traveler brought 
 
WJ^'AI'Om CAFTURED. 371 
 
 down the Arab horseman and the jaclcals of the desert, 
 have been surrendered to the Church, and we reach forth 
 our hand, crying, "There is none like that; give it me!" 
 
 So it has also been with the learning and the eloquence 
 of the world. People say, "Keligion is very good for 
 women, it is very good for children, but not for men." 
 But we have in the roll of Christ's host Mozart and Han- 
 del in music; Canova and Angelo in sculpture; Ea- 
 phael and Reynolds in painting; Harvey and Boerhaave 
 in medicine; Cowper and Scott in poetry; Grotius and 
 Burke in statesmanship ; Boyle and Leibnitz in philos- 
 ophy; Thomas Chalmers and John Mason in theology. 
 The most brilliant writings of a worldly nature are all 
 aglow with Scriptural allusions. Through senatorial 
 speech and through essayist's discourse, Sinai thunderSj 
 and Calvary pleads, and Siloam sparkles. 
 
 Samuel L. Southard was mighty in the court-room and 
 in the Senate Chamber; but he reserved his strongest el- 
 oquence for that day when he stood before the literary- 
 societies at Princeton Commencement and plead for the 
 grandeur of our Bible. Daniel Webster won not his 
 chief garlands while he was consuming Hayne, nor when 
 he opened the batteries of his eloquence on Bunker Hil), 
 that rocking Sinai of the American Revolution; but on 
 that day when, in the fomous Girard Will case, he show- 
 ed his affection for the Christian religion, and eulogized 
 the Bible. The eloquence and the learning that have 
 been on the other side came over to our side. Where is 
 Gibbon's historical pen ? Where is Robespierre's sword ? 
 Captured for God. "There is none like that; give it 
 me!" 
 
 So, also, has it been with the picture -making of the 
 
872 WEAPONS CAPTURED. 
 
 ivorld. We are very anxious on this day to have the 
 printing-press and the platform on the side of Christianit}^ ; 
 but we overlook the engraver's knife and the painter's 
 pencil. The antiquarian goes and looks at pictured ru- 
 ins, or examines the chiseled pillars of Thebes, and Nine- 
 veh, and Pompeii, and then comes back to tell us of the 
 beastliness of ancient art ; and it is a fact now, that many 
 of the finest specimens — merely artistically considered — 
 of sculpture and painting that are to be found amidst 
 those ruins are not fit to be looked at, and they are lock- 
 ed up. How Paul must have felt when, standing amidst 
 those impurities that stared on him from the walls and 
 the pavements and the bazars of Corinth, he preached of 
 the pure and holy Jesus. The art of the world on the 
 side of obscenity, and crime, and death. 
 
 In later days the Vatican and the cathedrals were 
 crowded with religious pictures. The Titians, and Ea- 
 phaels, and Giottos of the world put on canvas and ca- 
 thedral walls the "Baptism of Jesus Christ," and the 
 "Last Supper," and the "Crucifixion," and the "Eesur- 
 rection," and the "Last Judgment;" but all those pic- 
 tures were prostituted by superstition. Poor devotees 
 come and cross themselves. They count their beads; 
 they take the wafers; they glance at the pictured walls, 
 and they go out unblessed and unsaved. What to un- 
 clean Henry YIII. was a beautiful picture of the Madon- 
 na ? What to Lord Jeffries, the unjust judge, the picture 
 of the " Last Judgment?" What to Nero, the unwash- 
 ed, a picture of the baptism in the Jordan ? The art of 
 the world still on the side of superstition and death. 
 But that is being changed now. The Christian artist 
 goes over to Eome, looks at the pictures, and brings back 
 
WUAPOyS CAPTCBED. 373 
 
 to bis American studio much of the power of those old 
 masters. The Christian minister goes over to Yenice, 
 looks at the "Crucifixion of Christ," and comes back to 
 his American pulpit to talk as never before of the suffer- 
 ings of the Saviour. The private tourist goes to Eome 
 and looks at Eaphael's picture of the " Last Judgment." 
 The tears start, and he goes back to his room in the ho- 
 tel, and prajs God for preparation for that day when 
 
 "Shriveling like a parched scroll, 
 The flaming heavens together roll." 
 
 Our Sunday-school newspapers and walls are adorned 
 with pictures of Joseph in the court, Daniel in the den, 
 Shadrach in the fire, Paul in the shipwreck, Christ on 
 the cross. Oh that we might, in our families, think more 
 of the power of Christian pictures ! One little sketch of 
 Samuel kneeling in prayer will mean more to your chil- 
 dren than twenty sermons on devotion. One patient face 
 of Christ by the hand of the artist will be more to your 
 child than fifty sermons on forbearance. The art of the 
 world is to be taken for Christ. What has become of 
 Thorwaldsen's chisel and Ghirlandajo's crayon? Cap- 
 tured for the truth. '• There is none like that ; give it 
 me!" 
 
 So, I remark, it is ivWi business acumen and tact. 
 When Christ was upon earth, the people that followed 
 him, for the most part, had no social position. There 
 was but one man naturally brilliant in all the apostle- 
 ship. Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man, risked noth- 
 ing when he offered a hole in the rock for the dead 
 Christ. How many of the merchants in Asia Minor be- 
 friended Jesus? I think of gnlv one. Lvdia. How- 
 
S74 WEAPONS CAPTURED. 
 
 many of the castles on the beach of Galilee entertained 
 Christ? Not one. When Peter came to Joppa, he 
 stopped with one Simon, a tanner. What power had 
 Christ's name on the Eoman Exchange, or in the bazars 
 of Corinth ? None. The prominent men of the day 
 did not want to risk their reputation for sanity by pre- 
 tending to be one of his followers. Now that is all 
 changed. Among the mightiest men in our great cities 
 to-day are the Christian merchants and the Christian 
 bankers; and if to-morrow, at the Board of Trade, any 
 man should get up and malign the name of Jesus, he 
 would be quickly silenced or put out. In the front rank 
 of all our Christian workers to-day are the Christian 
 merchants ; and the enterprises of the world are coming 
 on the right side. There was a farm willed away some 
 years ago, all the proceeds of that farm to go for spread- 
 ing infidel books. Somehow matters have changed, and 
 now all the proceeds of that farm go toward the mission- 
 ary cause. One of the finest printing-presses ever built 
 was built for the express purpose of publishing infidel 
 tracts and books. Now it does nothing but print Holy 
 Bibles. I believe that the time will come when, in com- 
 mercial circles, the voice of Christ will be the mightiest 
 of all voices, and the ships of Tarshish will bring pres- 
 ents, and the Queen of Sheba her glory, and the wise 
 men of the East their myrrh and frankincense. I look 
 off to-night upon the business men of this city, and re- 
 joice at the prospect that their tact, and ingenuity, and 
 talent will, after a while, be brought into the service 
 of Christ. It will be one of the mightiest of weapons. 
 " There is none like tliat ; give it me !" 
 
 Now, if what I have said be true, away with all down- 
 
W£JAPONS CAPTURED. 375 
 
 heartedness! If science is to be on the riglit side, and 
 the traveling disposition of the world on the right side, 
 and the learning of the world on the right side, and the 
 picture-making on the right side, and the business acu- 
 men and tact of the world on the right side — thine, O 
 Lord, is the kingdom ! Oh, fall into line, all ye people! 
 It is a grand thing to be in such an army, and led by 
 such a commander, and on the way to such a victor}^ 
 If what I have said is true, then Christ is going to gath- 
 er up for himself out of this world every thing that is 
 worth any thing, and there will be nothing but the scum 
 left. We have been rebels, but a proclamation of am- 
 nesty goes forth now from the throne of God, saying, 
 "Whosoever will, let him come." However long yoa 
 may have wandered, however great your crimes may 
 have been, " whosoever will, let him come." Oh, that 
 to-night I could marshal all this audience on the side of 
 Christ, and feel that there would go out of these doors 
 not one enemy of Jesus! Oh, he is a loving Jesus! He 
 is the best friend a man ever had. He is so kind — he is 
 so loving, so sympathetic. I can not see how you can 
 stay away from him. Come now, and accept his mercy. 
 Behold him as he stretches out the arms of his salva- 
 tion, saying, "Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, 
 and be ye saved; for I am God." Make final choice 
 now. You will either be willows planted by the water- 
 courses or the chaff which the wind driveth away. 
 
 16* 
 
376 THE FILE OF STONES SFEAKING. 
 
 Y 
 
 THE PILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 
 
 "What mean je by these stones?" — Joshua iv., 6. 
 
 OU are wiser than most people if you have not 
 mixed in your mind the passage of the Red Sea 
 and the passage of the Jordan. The scenery is differ- 
 ent, and the lessons to be learned from them are differ- 
 ent. The Jordan, like the Mississippi, has bluffs on the 
 one side and flats on the other. Here and there a syca- 
 more shadows it; here and there a willow dips into it. 
 In the months of April and May the snows on Mount 
 Lebanon thaw and flow down into the valle}^, and then 
 Jordan overflows its banks. Then it is wide, deep, ra- 
 ging, and impetuous. At this season of the year I hear 
 the tramp of forty thousand armed men coming down to 
 cross the river. You say, "Why do they not go up 
 nearer the rise of the river at the old camel ford ?" Ah! 
 my friends, it is because it is not safe to go around when 
 the Lord tells us to go ahead. The Israelites had been 
 going around forty years, and they had enough of it. 
 I do not know how it is with 3'ou, my brethren, but I 
 have always got into trouble when I went around, but 
 always got into safety when I went ahead. 
 
 There spreads out the Jordan, a raging torrent, much 
 of it snow-water just come down from the mountain top ; 
 and I see some of the Israelites shivering at the idea of 
 plunging in, and one soldier says to his comrade, "Jo- 
 seph, can you swim?" And another says, "If we get 
 
TUB PILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 377 
 
 across tbis stream we will get there with wet clothes and 
 with damaged armor, and the Canaanites will slash us 
 to pieces with their swords before we get np the other 
 bank." But it is no time to halt. The great host 
 marches on. The priests, carrying the ark, go ahead ; 
 the people follow. I hear the tramp of the great multi- 
 tude. The priests have now come within a stone's-throw 
 of the water. Yet still there is no abatement of the flood. 
 Now they have come within four or five feet of* the 
 stream ; but there is no abatement of the flood. Bad pros- 
 pect ! It seems as if these Israelites who have crossed 
 the desert are now going to be drowned in sight of Ca- 
 naan. But " Forward !" is the cr}^ The command rings 
 all along the line of the host. " Forward ]" JSTow the 
 priests have come within one step of the river. This time 
 they lift their feet from the solid ground and put them 
 down into the raging stream. No sooner are their feet 
 there than Jordan flies. On the right hand, God piles 
 up a great mountain of floods ; on the left, the water flows 
 off toward the sea. The great river, for hours, halts and 
 rears. The backwaters, not being able to flow over the 
 passing Israelites, pile wave on wave, until perhaps a sea- 
 bird would find some difiiculty in scaling the water cliff. 
 Now the priests and all the people have gone over on 
 dry land. The water on the left-hand side by this time 
 has reached the sea; and now that the miraculous pas- 
 sage has been made, stand back and see the stupendous 
 pile of waters leap. God takes his hand from that wall 
 of floods, and, like a hundred cataracts, they plunge and 
 roar in thunderous triumph to the sea. 
 
 How are they to celebrate this passage? Shall it j^ 
 with music? I suj^pose the trumpets and cymbals wsrs 
 
£78 THE PILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 
 
 all worn out before this. Shall it be with banners wav- 
 ing? Oh no, they are all faded and torn. Joshua cries 
 out, "I will tell you how to celebrate this: build a monu- 
 ment here to commemorate the event;" and every priest 
 puts a heavy stone on his shoulder, and marches out, and 
 drops that stone in the divinely-appointed place. I see 
 the pile growing in height, in breadth, in significance ; 
 and in after years men went by that spot and saw this 
 mon-ument, and cried out one to another, in fulfillment 
 of this prophecy of the text, " What mean ye by these 
 stones?" 
 
 Blessed be God, he did not leave our church — I mean 
 this particular church — down in the wilderness! We 
 wandered about for a while, and some people said we had 
 better take this route; and others, that route. Some 
 said we had better go back, and some said there were 
 sons of Anak in the way that would eat us up; and be- 
 fore the smoke had cleared away from the sky after our 
 Tabernacle had been consumed, people stood on the very 
 site of the place, and said, " This church will never again 
 be built." Our enemies laughed among themselves, and 
 said, "Aha, aha!" Meanwhile the rubbish was being 
 cleared away, the foundation was being laid, and the pil- 
 lars were being lifted; and instead of the temporary 
 structure in which we worshiped, we have this building, 
 in which we hope the people of God will worship him 
 for hundreds and hundreds of years. We came down to 
 the bank of the Jordan ; we looked off upon the waters. 
 Some of the sympathy that was expressed turned out to 
 be snowwater melted from the top of Lebanon. Some 
 said, ^''' You had better not go in; you will get your feet 
 wot But we waded in, pastor and people, farther and 
 
THE I'lLh OF STOXES SPEAK L\U. '^']\) 
 
 fnrther. and in some way, the Lord only knows Low, we 
 got tbrougb; and to- night 1 go all around about this 
 gi'cat house, erected by your prayers, and sympathies, and 
 sacrifices, and cr^^ out in the words of my text, " What 
 mean ye by tiiese stones?" 
 
 It is an outrage to build a house like this, occupying 
 so much room in a ci-owded thoroughfare, and with sucli 
 vast toil and outla}^, unless there be some tremendous 
 j't^asons for doing it; and so, my friends, I pursue you to- 
 night with the question of my text, and I demand of 
 these trustees, and of these elders, and of all who liave 
 assisted in the building of this sti'ucture, "What mean 
 ye by these stones?"' 
 
 In the first place, we mean that they shall be an earth- 
 ly residence fur Christ. Poor Jesus! He did not have 
 much of a home when he was here. Who and wdiere 
 is that cliild crying? It is Jesus, born in an outhouse. 
 Where is that hard breathing? It is Jesus, asleep on a 
 rock. Who is that in the back part of the fishing-smack, 
 with a sailor's rough overcoat thrown over him? It is 
 Jesus, the worn-out voyager. Oh Jesus! is it not time 
 that thou hadst a house? We give thee this. Thou 
 didst give it to us first, but we give it back to thee. It 
 is too good for us, but not half good enough for thee. 
 Oh, come in and take the best seat here ! Walk up and 
 down all these aisles. Speak through these organ-pipes. 
 Throw thine arm over us in these arches. In the flaming 
 of these chandeliers speak to ns, saying, "I am the light 
 of the world." King! make this thine audience-cham- 
 ])er. Here proclaim righteousness and make treaties. 
 We clap our hands, we uncover our heads, we lift our 
 ensigns, we cry with multitudinous acclamationj until the 
 
380 "^HE PILE OF ^TONm SPEAKING. 
 
 place rings, and the heavens listen, "0 King! live for- 
 ever!" 
 
 Is it not time that he who was born in a stranger's 
 house and buried in a stranger's grave should have an 
 earthly house? Come in, Jesus! not the corpse of a 
 buried Christ, but a radiant and triumphant Jesus, con- 
 queror of earth, and heaven, and hell. 
 
 "He lives, all glory to his name, 
 He lives, my Jesus, still the same ; 
 Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives : 
 I know that my Redeemer lives!" 
 
 Blessed be his glorious name forever! 
 
 Again, if you ask the question of the text, ^'What 
 mean ye by these stones?" I reply that we mean the 
 communion of saints. Do you know that there is not a 
 single denomination of Christians in Brooklyn that has 
 not contributed something toward the building of this 
 house? And if ever, standing in this place, there shall 
 be a man who shall try by any thing he says to stir up 
 bitterness between different denominations of Christians, 
 may his tongue falter, and his cheek blanch, and his 
 heart stop ! My friends, if there is any church on earth 
 where there is a mingling of all denominations, it is our 
 church. I just wish that John Calvin and Arminius, if 
 they are not too busy, would come out on the battle- 
 ments and see us. Sometimes in our prayer-meetings I 
 have heard brethren use phrases of a liturgy, and we knew 
 where they came from ; and in the same prayer- meetings 
 I have heard brethren make audible ejaculation, 'Amen!" 
 "Praise 3^e the Lord!" and we did not have to guess 
 twice where they came from. When a man knocks at 
 our church door, if he comes from a sect where they will 
 
THE PILE OF STONES SFEAKING. 381 
 
 not give him a certificate, we say, "Come in by confes- 
 sion of faith." While Adoniram Judson, the Baptist, 
 nnd John Wesley, the Methodist, and John Knox, the glo- 
 rious old Scotch Presbyterian, are shaking hands in heav- 
 en, all churches on earth can afford to come into close com- 
 munion. " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Oh, my 
 brethren, we have had enough of Big Bethel fights — 
 Fourteenth New York Eemment fii<htino- the Fifteenth 
 Massachusetts Regiment. Now let all those who are for 
 Christ, and stand on the same side, go shoulder to shoul- 
 der, and the church, instead of having a sprinkling of the 
 divine blessing, go clear under the wave, in one glorious 
 immersion, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost. I saw a little child once, in its 
 dying hour, put one arm around its father's neck, and 
 the other arm around its mother's neck, and brino- them 
 close down to its dying lips and give a last kiss. Oh, I 
 said, those two persons will stand very near to each oth- 
 er alwaj's after such an interlocking. The dying Christ 
 puts one arm around this denomination of Christians, and 
 the other arm around that denomination of Christians, 
 and he brings them down to his dying lips, while he gives 
 them this parting kiss : "Mj^ peace I leave with you, my 
 peace I give unto you." 
 
 "How swift the heavenly course they run, 
 "Whose hearts and faith and hopes are one!" 
 
 I heard a Baptist minister once say that he thought in 
 the millennium it would be all one great Baptist church; 
 and I heard a Methodist minister say that he thought in 
 the great millennial day it would be all one great Meth- 
 odist church ; and I have known a Presbyterian minister 
 
882 Tim PILE OF sKjyE.s sjuuking. 
 
 who thought that in the millennial day it would be all 
 one great Presbyterian church. Now I think they are 
 all mistaken. I think the Milleimial Church will' be a 
 composile church ; and just as you may tnke the best 
 parts of five or six tunes, and under the skillful hands 
 of a Handel, Mozart, or Beethoven, entwine them into 
 one grand and overpowering symphony, so, I suppose, 
 in the latter days of the world, God will take the best 
 parts of all denominations of Christians, and weave them 
 into one great ecclesiastical harmony, broad as the earth 
 and high as the heavens, and that will be the Church 
 of the future. Or, as mosaic is made up of jasper and 
 agate and many precious stones cemented together- 
 mosaic, a thousand feet square in St. Mark's, ov mosaic 
 hoisted into colossal seraphim in St. Sophia—so I sup- 
 })ose God will make, after a while, one great blending 
 of all creeds, and all faiths, and all Christian sentiment^ 
 the amethyst and the jasper and the chalcedony of all 
 different experiences and beliefs, cemented side by side 
 in the great mosaic of the nges; and while the nations 
 look upon the columns and architraves of that stupen- 
 dous Church of the future, and cry out, " What mean ye 
 by these stones?" there shall be innumerable voices to 
 respond, "We mean the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'' 
 I remai-k again, lue mean hij these stones the salvation 
 of the people. We did not build this church for mere 
 worldly reforms, or for an educational institution, or as 
 a platform on which to read essays and philosophical 
 disquisitions; but a place for the tremendous work of 
 soul -saving. Oh, 1 had rather be the means in this 
 church of having one soul prepared for a joyful eternity 
 than iive thousand souls prepared for mere "worldly sue- 
 
THE FILE OF STONES SFEAKIXG. 383 
 
 cess! All churches are in two classes, all communities 
 in two classes, all the race in two classes — believers and 
 unbelievers. Those going into light, these going into 
 darkness. To augment the number of the one and sub- 
 tract from the number of the other, we built this chuich ; 
 and toward that supreme and eternal idea we dedicate 
 all our sermons, all our songs, all our prayers, all our 
 Sabbath hand-shakings. We want to throw defection 
 into the enemies' ranks. We want to make them either 
 surrender unconditionally to Christ, or else fly in rout, 
 scattering the way with canteens, blankets, and knap- 
 sacks. We want to popularize Christ. We would like 
 to tell the story of his love here, until men would feel 
 that they had rather die than live another hour without 
 his sympathy and love and mercy. We want to rouse 
 up an enthusiasm for him greater than was felt for Na- 
 thaniel Lyon when he rode along the ranks — greater 
 than was exhibited for AYellington wdien he came back 
 from Waterloo — greater than was expressed for ISTapo- 
 leon when he stepped ashore from Elba. We really be- 
 lieve in this place Christ will enact the same scenes that 
 were enacted by him when he landed in the Orient; and 
 there will be such an opening of blind eyes and unstop- 
 ping of deaf ears, and casting out of unclean spirits — 
 such silencing bestormed Gennesarets, as shall make this 
 house memorable five hundred years after you and I are 
 dead and forgotten. Oh, my friends, we want but one 
 revival in this church : that beginning now and running 
 on to the day when the chisel of Time, that brings down 
 even St. Paul's and the Pyramids, shall bring this house 
 into the dust. We want the host of newly-converted 
 souls who shall next Sabbath morning pass in review 
 
384 THE FILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 
 
 by tbis sacramental table — we want them only the first 
 regiment of a great army that will take tbis place on 
 their way to glory. 
 
 But since there are so many uncertainties ahead, per- 
 haps we had better begin now the work of salvation. 
 Oh that this day of dedication might be the day of 
 emancipation to all imprisoned souls! My friends, do 
 not make the blunder of the ship-carpenters in Noah's 
 time, wlio helped to build the ark, but did not get into 
 it! God forbid that you who have been so generous in 
 building this church should not get under its saving in- 
 fluence! "Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." 
 Do you think a man is safe out of Christ? Wot one 
 day, not one hour, not one minute, not one second. 
 Three or four years ago, you remember, a rail train 
 broke down a bridge on the way to Albany, and after 
 the catastrophe they were looking around among the 
 timbers of the crushed bridge and the fallen train, and 
 found the conductor. He was dying, and had only 
 strength to say one thing, and that was, " Hoist the flag 
 for the next train." So there come up to us to-night 
 voices from the eternal chasm of darkness, and sin, and 
 death, telling us, "You can not save me, but save those 
 who come after me. Lift the warning. Blow the trump- 
 et. Give the alarm. Hoist the flag for the next train." 
 
 Oh that to-night my Lord Jesus would sweep his arm 
 around this great audience, and take you all to his holy 
 heart ! You will never see so good a time for personal 
 consecration as now. " What mean ye by these stones?" 
 We mean your redemption from sin, and death, and hell, 
 by the power of an omnipotent Gospel. Lord God Al- 
 mighty, with thy presence now shake this house from 
 
THE PILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 355 
 
 foundation to cap-stone I Stretch out thine arm. Here 
 is the sacrifice. Lord God of Elijah, answer as bj fire. 
 
 Well, the Brooklyn Tabernacle is erected again. The 
 Sabbath after the old Tabernacle was burned, in the 
 Academy of Music, in December, 1872, 1 prophesied this 
 building. I said it would be dedicated in 1873. I made 
 a mistake of only two months. Would God that had 
 been the largest mistake I had ever made! But now 
 that it is done, it more than pleases us. We came here 
 to-night not to dedicate it. That was done this morning 
 by an illustrious company of Christian ministers of ev- 
 ery name ; and that eloquent and thrilling sermon still 
 rings through and through our soul, telling us that " the 
 glory of the second house shall be greater than that of 
 the first." God grant it ! But I am here to preach the 
 dedication sermon of all your hearts. In the Episcopal 
 and Methodist churches they have a railing around the 
 altar, and the people come and kneel down at that rail- 
 ing and get the sacramental blessing. Well, mj^ friends, 
 it would take more than a night to gather you in circles 
 around this altar. Then just bow where you are for the 
 blessing. Aged men, this is the last church you. will 
 ever dedicate. May the God who comforted Jacob the 
 patriarch, and Paul the aged, make this house to you 
 the gate of heaven ; and when, in your old days, you 
 put on your spectacles to read the hymn or the Scripture 
 lesson, may you get preparation for that land where yo\x 
 shall no more see through a glass darkly! May the 
 warm sunshine of heaven thaw the snow off your fore- 
 heads! 
 
 Men in mid-life, do you know that this is the place 
 where you are going to get your fitigues rested, and 
 
386 THE FILE OF STONES SPEAKING. 
 
 your sorrows appeased, and your souls saved ? Do you 
 know that at this altar your sons and daughters will 
 take upon themselves the vows of the Christian, and 
 from this place you will carry out, some of you, your 
 precious dead? Between this baptismal font and this 
 communion-table you will have some of the tenderest 
 of life's experiences. God bless you, old and young 
 and middle-aged ! The money you have given to this 
 church to-day will be, I hope, the best financial invest- 
 ments you have ever made. Your worldly investments 
 may depend upon the whims of Wall Street or the hon- 
 esty of business associates; but the money you have 
 given to the house of the Lord shall yield you large per- 
 centage, and declare eternal dividends in the day when, 
 instead of being the story of one burning church, it shall 
 be the tragedy of a world on fire ' 
 
CHMIST OUR ISONfi. -357 
 
 CHEIST OUR SONG. 
 
 "The Lord is my strength and song." — Psalm cxviii., 14. 
 
 THE most fascinating theme for a heart properly at- 
 tuned is the Saviour. There is something in the 
 morning light to suggest him, and something in the even- 
 ing shadow to speak his praise. The flower breathes him, 
 the star shines him, the cascade proclaims him, all the 
 voices of nature chant him. Whatever is grand, bright, 
 and beautiful, if you only listen to it, will speak his praise. 
 So now, when I come in the summer-time and pluck a 
 flower, I think of Him who is "the Rose of Sharon and 
 the Lily of the Yalley." When I see in the fields a lamb, 
 I say, " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
 sin of the world." When, in very hot weather, I come 
 under a projecting cliff, I say, 
 
 " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in thee!" 
 
 Over the old-fashioned pulpits there vt^as a sounding- 
 board. The voice of the minister rose to the sounding- 
 board, and then was struck back again upon the ears of 
 the people. And so the ten thousand voices of earth ris- 
 ing up find the heavens a sounding-board which strikes 
 back to the ear of all the nations the praises of Christ. 
 The heavens tell his glory, and the earth shows his handy- 
 work. The Bible thrills with one great story of redemp- 
 tion. Upon a blasted and faded paradise it poured the 
 
888 CHRIST OUM SON(^. 
 
 light of a glorious restoration. It looked upon Abraham 
 from the ram caught in the thicket. It spoke in the 
 bleating of the herds driven down to Jerusalem for sac- 
 rifice. It put infinite pathos into the speech of uncouth 
 fishermen. It lifted Paul into the seventh heaven ; and 
 it broke upon the ear of St. John with the brazen trump- 
 ets and the doxology of the elders, and the rushing wings 
 of the seraphim. 
 
 Instead of waiting until you get sick and worn out be- 
 fore you speak the praise of Christ, while your heart is 
 happiest, and your step is lightest, and your fortunes 
 smile, and your pathway blossoms, and the overarching 
 heavens drop upon you their benediction, speak the 
 praises of Jesus. 
 
 The old Greek orators, when they saw their audiences 
 inattentive and slumbering, had one word with which 
 they would rouse them up to the greatest enthusiasm. 
 In the midst of their orations, they would stop and cry 
 out " Marathon !" and the people's enthusiasm would be 
 unbounded. My hearers, though you may have been 
 borne down with sin, and though trouble, and trials, and 
 temptation may have come upon you, and you feel to- 
 night hardly like looking up, methinks there is one grand, 
 royal, imperial word that ought to rouse your soul to in- 
 finite rejoicing, and that word is "Jesus!" 
 
 Taking the suggestion of the text, I shall speak to you 
 of Christ our Song. I remark, in the first place, that 
 Christ ought to he the cradle -song. What our mothers 
 sang to us when they put us to sleep is singing yet. We 
 may have forgotten the words; but they went into the 
 fibre of our soul, and will forever be a part of it. It is 
 not 50 much what you formally teach your children as 
 
CHRIST OUR SONG. 389 
 
 what you sing to them. A hymn has wings, and can fly 
 everywhither. One hundred and fifty years after you 
 are dead, and "Old Mortality" has worn out his chisel 
 in re-cutting your name on the tombstone, your great- 
 grandchildren will be singing the song which this after- 
 noon you sang to your little ones gathered about your 
 knee. There is a place in Switzerland where, if you dis- 
 tinctly utter your voice, there come back ten or fifteen 
 distinct echoes; and every Christian song sung by a 
 mother in the ear of her child shall have ten thousand 
 echoes coming back from all the gates of heaven. Oh, if 
 mothers only knew the power of this sacred spell, how 
 much oftener the little ones would be gathered, and all 
 our homes would chime with the songs of Jesus ! 
 
 We want some counteracting influence upon our chil- 
 dren. The very moment your child steps into the street, 
 he steps into the path of temptation. There are foul- 
 mouthed children who would like to besoil your little 
 ones. It will not do to keep your boys and girls in the 
 house and make them house -plants; they must have 
 fresh air and recreation. God save your children from 
 the scathing, blasting, damning influence of the streets! 
 I know of no counteracting influence but the power of 
 Christian culture and example. Hold before your little \ll 
 ones the pure life of Jesus ; let that name be the word 
 that shall exorcise evil from their hearts. Give to your 
 instruction all the fascination of music, morning, noon, 
 and night; let it be Jesus, the cradle-song. This is im- 
 portant if your children grow up ; but perhaps they 
 may not. Their pathway may be short. Jesus may be 
 wanting that child. Then there will be a soundless step 
 in the dwelling, and the youthful pulse will begin to 
 
890 CHMIST OUR SOKO. 
 
 flutter, and little hands will be lifted for help. You can 
 not help. And a great agony will pinch at your heart, 
 and the cradle will be empty, and the nursery will be 
 empty, and the world will be empty, and your soul will 
 be empty. No little feet standing on the stairs. No 
 toys scattered on the carpet. No quick following from 
 room to room. No strange and wondering questions. 
 No upturned face, with laughing blue eyes, come for a 
 kiss ; but only a grave, and a wreath of white blossoms 
 on the top of it ; and bitter desolation, and a sighing at 
 night-fall with no one to put to bed, and a wet pillow, 
 and a grave, and a wreath of white blossoms on the top 
 of it. The heavenly Shepherd will take that lamb safe- 
 ly anyhow, whether you have been faithful or unfliithful ; 
 but would it not have been pleasanter if you could have 
 heard from those lips the praises of Christ? I never 
 read any thing more beautiful than this about a child's 
 departure. The account said: "She folded her hands, 
 kissed her mother good-bye, sang her hymn, turned her 
 face to the wall, said her little prayer, and then died." 
 
 Oh, if I could gather up in one paragraph the last 
 words of the little ones who have gone out from all 
 these Christian circles, and I could picture the calm 
 looks, and the folded hands, and sweet departure, me- 
 thinks it w^ould be grand and beautiful as one of Heav- 
 en's great doxologies ! In my parish, in Philadelphia, a 
 little child was departing. She had been sick all her , 
 days, and a cripple. It was noonday when she went, 
 and, as the shadow of death gathered on her eyelid, she 
 thought it was evening and time to go to bed, and so 
 she said, "Good -night, papal Good -night, mamma!'' 
 And then she was gone! It was "good-night" to pain, ' 
 
CHRIST OUR SONG, 391 
 
 and " good-niglit " to tears, and "good-night" to death, | 
 and "good-night" to earth; but it was "good-morning" 
 to Jesus — it was "good-morning" to heaven. I can 
 think of no cradle-song more beautiful than Jesus. 
 
 I next speak of Christ as the old manh song. Quick 
 music loses its charm for the aged ear. The school-girl 
 asks for a schottisch or a glee ; but her grandmother asks 
 for " Balerma " or the " Portuguese Hymn." Fifty years 
 of trouble have tamed the spirit, and the keys of the 
 music -board must have a solemn tread. Though the 
 voice may be tremulous, so that grandfather will not 
 trust it in church, still he has the psalm-book open be- 
 fore him, and he sings with his soul. He hums his 
 grandchild asleep with the same tune he sang forty years 
 ago in the old country meeting-house. Some day the 
 choir sings a tune so old that the young people do not 
 know it; but it starts the tears down the cheek of the 
 aged man, for it reminds him of the revival scene in 
 which he participated, and of the radiant faces that long 
 since went to dust, and of the gray-haired minister lean- 
 ing over the pulpit, and sounding the good tidings of 
 great joy. 
 
 I was one Thanksgiving- day in my pulpit, in Syra- 
 cuse, New York, and Rev. Daniel Waldo, at ninety-eight 
 years of age, stood beside me. The choir sang a tune. 
 I said, "I am sorry they sang that new tune; nobody 
 seem.s to know it." " Bless you, my son," said the old 
 man, " I heard that seventy years ago !" 
 
 There was a song to-day that touched the life of the 
 aged with holy fire, and kindled a glory on their vision 
 that our younger eye-sight can not see. It was the song 
 of salvation— Jesus, who fed them all their lives long; 
 
 17 
 
392 CHRIST OUR SONG. 
 
 Jesus, who wiped away their tears ; Jesus, who stood by 
 them when all else failed; Jesus, in whose name their 
 marriage was consecrated, and whose resurrection has 
 poured light upon the graves of their departed. "Do) 
 you know me?" said the wife to her aged husband who! 
 was dying, his mind already having gone out. He said 
 "No." And the son said, "Father, do you know me?" 
 He said "No." The daughter said, "Father, do you/ 
 know me?" He said "No." The minister of the Gos- 
 pel standing by, said, "Do you know Jesus?" "Oh^ 
 yes," he said, " I know him, ' chief among ten thousand, | 
 the one altogether lovely!' " Blessed the Bible in which 
 spectacled old age reads the promise, "I will never leave 
 you, never forsake you !" Blessed the staff on which 
 the worn-out pilgrim totters on toward the welcome of 
 his Eedeemer ! Blessed the hymn-book in which the 
 faltering tongue and the failing eyes find Jesus, the old 
 man's song! When my mother had been put away for 
 the resurrection, we, the children, came to the old home- 
 stead, and each one wanted to take away a memento of 
 her who had loved us so long, and loved us so well. I 
 think I took away the best of all the mementoes; it was 
 the old-fashioned, round-glass spectacles, through which 
 she used to read her Bible, and I put them on, but they 
 were too old for me, and I could not see across the room. 
 But through them I could see back to childhood, and 
 forward to the hills of heaven, where the ankles that 
 were stiff with age have become limber again, and the 
 spirit, with restored eye-sight, stands in rapt exultation, 
 crying, " This is heaven !" 
 
 I speak to you again of Jesus as the night-song. Job 
 speaks of him who giveth songs in the night. John 
 
CHRIST OVB SONG. 893 
 
 Welch, the old Scotch minister, used to put a plaid 
 across his bed on cold nights, and some one asked him 
 why he put that there. He said, " Oh, sometimes in the 
 night I want to sing the praise of Jesus, and to get down 
 and pray; then I just take that plaid and wrap it around 
 me, to keep myself from the cold." Songs in the night! 
 Night of trouble has come down upon many of you. 
 Commercial losses put out one star, slanderous abuse 
 put out another star, domestic bereavement has put out 
 a thousand lights, and gloom has been added to gloom, 
 and chill to chill, and sting to sting, and one midnight 
 has seemed to borrow the fold from another midnight 
 to wrap itself in more unbearable darkness; but Christ 
 has spoken peace to your heart, and you can sing, 
 
 "Jesus, lover of my soul, 
 
 Let me to thy bosom fly, 
 While the billows near me roll, 
 
 While the tempest still is high. 
 Hide me, oh, my Saviour ! hide 
 
 Till the storm of life is past, 
 Safe into the haven guide ; 
 
 Oh, receive my soul at last." 
 
 Songs in the night! Songs in the night! For the 
 sick, who have no one to turn the hot pillow, no one to 
 put the taper on the stand, no one to put ice on the tem- 
 ple, or pour out the soothing anodyne, or utter one 
 cheerful word — yet songs in the night! For the poor, 
 who freeze in the winter's cold, and swelter in the sum- 
 mer's heat, and munch the hard crusts that bleed the sore 
 gums, and shiver under blankets that can not any long- 
 er be patched, and tremble because rent-day is come and 
 they may be set out on the sidewalk, and looking into 
 the starved face of the child and seeing famine there and 
 
394 CKRIST OUR SONO. 
 
 death there, coming home from the baker}^, and saying, 
 in the presence of the little famished ones, " Oh, my God, 
 flour has gone up !" Yet songs in the night ! Songs in 
 the night ! For the widow who- goes to get the back-pay 
 of her husband slain by the " sharp-shooters," and knows 
 it is the last help she will have, moving out of a com- 
 fortable home in desolation, death turning back from the 
 exhausting cough, and the pale cheek, and the lustreless 
 eye, and refusing all relief Yet songs in the night! 
 Songs in the night ! For the soldier in the field-hospital, 1/ 
 no surgeon to bind up the gun-shot fracture, no water 1) 
 for the hot lips, no kind hand to brush away the flies |\ 
 from the fresh wound, no one to take the loving fare- 1 ) 
 well, the groaning of others poured into his own groan,) • 
 the blasphemy of others plowing up his own spirit, the 
 condensed bitterness of dying away from home among 
 strangers. Yet songs in the night! Songs in the night! 
 "Ah !" said one dying soldier, "tell my mother that last J 1 
 night there was not one cloud between my soul and ' / 
 Jesus." Songs in the night! Songs in the night! 
 
 This Sabbath-day came. From the altars of ten thou- 
 sand churches has smoked up the savor of sacrifice. 
 Ministers of the Gospel preached in plain English, in 
 broad Scotch, in flowing Italian, in harsh Choctaw. 
 God's people assembled in Hindoo temple, and Mora- 
 vian church, and Quaker meeting-house, and sailors' 
 Bethel, and king's chapel, and high -towered cathedral. 
 They sang, and the song floated off amidst the spice 
 groves, or struck the icebergs, or floated oft' into the 
 "Western pines, or was drowned in the clamor of the 
 great cities. Lumbermen sang it, and the factory-girls, 
 and the children in the Sabbath-class, and the trained 
 
CHRIST OUR SONG. 395 
 
 choirs in great assemblages. Trappers, with the same 
 voice with which they shouted yesterday in the stag- 
 hunt, and mariners with throats that only a few days 
 ago sounded in the hoarse blast of the sea- hurricane, 
 they sang it. One theme for the sermons. One burden 
 for the song. Jesus for the invocation. Jesus for the 
 Scripture lesson. Jesus for the baptismal font. Jesus 
 for the sacramental cup. Jesus for the benediction. 
 But the day has gone. It rolled away on swift wheels 
 of light and love. Again, the churches are lighted. 
 Tides of people again setting down the streets. Whole 
 families coming up the church aisle. We must have one 
 more sermon, two prayers, three songs, and one benedic- 
 tion. What shall we preach? What shall we read? 
 Let it be Jesus, every body says; let it be Jesus. We 
 must have one more song to-night. What shall ij 
 be, children? Aged men and women, what shall it be?' 
 Young men and maidens, what shall it be? If you 
 dared to break the silence of this auditory, there would 
 come up thousands of quick and jubilant voices, crying 
 out, "Let it be Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" 
 ■ We sing his birth — the barn that sheltered him, the 
 mother that nursed him, the cattle that fed beside him, 
 the angels that woke up the shepherds, shaking light 
 over the midnight hills. We sing his ministry — the 
 tears he wiped away from the eyes of the orphans; the 
 lame men that forgot their crutches; the damsel who from 
 the bier bounded out into the sunlight, her locks shaking 
 down over the flushed cheek ; the hungry thousands who 
 broke the bread as it blossomed into larger loaves — that 
 miracle by which a boy with five loaves and two fishes 
 became the sutler for a whole array. We sing his sor- 
 
396 CHRIST OUR SOJ^G. 
 
 rows — his stone-bruisecl feet, his aching heart, his mount- 
 ain loneliness, his desert hunger, his storm-pelted body, 
 the eternity of anguish that shot through his last mo- 
 ments, and the immeasurable ocean of torment that 
 heaved up against his cross in one foaming, wrathful, om- 
 nipotent surge, the sun dashed out, and the dead, shroud- 
 wrapped, breaking open their sepulchres, and rushing 
 out to see what was the matter. We sing his resurrec- 
 tion — the guard that could not keep him ; the sorrow of 
 his disciples; the clouds piling up on either side in pil- 
 lared splendors as he went through, treading the path- 
 less air, higher and higher, until he came to the foot of the 
 throne, and all heaven kept jubilee at the return of the 
 conqueror. Oh ! is there any song more appropriate for 
 a Sabbath night than this song of Jesus? Let the pass- 
 ers-by in the street hear it, let the angels of God carry it 
 amidst the thrones. Sound it out through the darkness : 
 Jesus the night-song, appropriate for any hour, but es- 
 pecially sweet, and beautiful, and blessed on a Sabbath 
 night. 
 
 I say once more, Christ is the everlasting song. The 
 very best singers sometimes get tired; the strongest 
 throats sometimes get weary, and many who sang very 
 sweetly do not sing now ; but I hope by the grace of 
 God we will, after a while, go up and sing the praises of 
 Christ where we will never be weary. You know there 
 are some songs that are especially appropriate for the 
 home circle. They stir the soul, they start the tears, 
 they turn the heart in on itself, and keep sounding after 
 the tune has stopped, like some cathedral-bell which, long 
 after the tap of the brazen tongue has ceased, keeps throb- 
 bing on the air. Well, it will be a home song in heaven; 
 
CHRIST OUR SONG. 397 
 
 all the sweeter because those who sang with us in the 
 domestic circle on earth shall join that great harmony. 
 
 "Jerusalem, ray happy home, 
 Name ever dear to me ; 
 "When shall my labors have an end 
 In joy and peace in thee ?" 
 
 On earth we sang harvest songs as the wheat came 
 into the barn, and the barracks were filled. You know 
 there is no such time on a farm as when they get the 
 crops in ; and so in heaven it will be a harvest song on 
 the part of those who on earth sowed in tears and reaped 
 in jo}^ Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, and let 
 the sheaves come in ! Angels shout all through the 
 heavens, and multitudes come down the hills crying, 
 ^^Harvest-home ! harvest-home ! " 
 
 There is nothinor more bewitching: to one's ear than 
 the song of sailors far out at sea, whether in day or night, 
 as they pull away at the ropes — not much sense often in 
 the words they utter, but the music is thrilling. So the 
 song in heaven will be a sailor's song. They were voy- 
 agers once, and thought they could never get to shore, 
 and before they could get things snug and trim the cy- 
 clone struck them. But now they are safe. Once they 
 went with damaged rigging, guns of distress booming 
 through the storm ; but the pilot came aboard, and he 
 brought them into the harbor. Now they sing of the 
 breakers past, the light-houses that showed them where 
 to sail, tlie pilot that took them through the straits, the 
 eternal shore on which they landed. 
 
 Ay, it wnll be the children's song. You know very 
 well that the vast majority of our race die in infancy, 
 and it is estimated that sixteen thousand millions of the 
 
398 CHRIST oun song. 
 
 little ones are standing before God. When they shall 
 rise up about the throne to sing, the millions and the 
 millions of the little ones — ah! that will be music for 
 you ! These played in the streets of Babylon and Thebes; 
 these plucked lilies from the foot of Olivet while Christ 
 was preaching about them ; these waded in Siloam ; 
 these were victims of Herod's massacre ; these were 
 thrown to crocodiles or into the fire; these came up from 
 Christian homes, and these were foundlings on the city 
 commons — children everywhere in all that land; chil- 
 dren in the towers, children on the seas of glass, children 
 on the battlements. Ah ! if you do not like children, do 
 not go there. They are in vast majority; and what a 
 song when they lift it around about the throne ! 
 
 The Christian singers and composers of all ages will 
 be there to join in that song. Thomas Hastings will be 
 there. Lowell Mason will be there. Beethoven and Mo- 
 zart will be there. They who sounded the cymbals and 
 the trumpets in the ancient temples will be there. The 
 forty thousand harpers that stood at the ancient dedi- 
 cation will be there. The two hundred singers that as- 
 sisted on that day will be there. Patriarchs who lived 
 amidst threshing-floors, shepherds who watched amidst 
 Chaldean hills, prophets who walked, with long beards 
 and coarse apparel, pronouncing woe against ancient 
 abominations, will meet the more recent martyrs who 
 went up with leaping cohorts of fire; and some will 
 speak of the Jesus of whom i\\Qj prophesied, and others 
 of the Jesus for whom they died. Oh, what a song I It 
 came to John upon Patmos; it came to Calvin in the 
 prison ; it dropped to John Knox in the fire ; and some- 
 times that song has come to your ear, perhaps, for I really 
 
CHRIST OUR SONO. 399 
 
 do think it sometimes breaks over the battlements of 
 heaven. 
 
 A Christian woman, the wife of a minister of the Gos- 
 pel, was dying in the parsonage near the old church, 
 where on Saturday night the choir used to assemble and 
 rehearse for the following Sabbath, and she said, '*How 
 strangely sweet the choir rehearses to-night; they have 
 been rehearsing there for an hour." "No," said some 
 one about her, " the choir is not rehearsing to-night." 
 "Yes," she said, "I know they are; I hear them sing; 
 how very sweetly they sing I" Now it was not a choir of 
 earth that she heard, but the choir of heaven. I think 
 that Jesus sometimes sets ajar the door of heaven, and a 
 passage of that rapture greets our ears. The minstrels 
 of heaven strike such a tremendous strain, the walls of 
 jasper can not hold it. 
 
 I wonder — and this is a question I have been asking 
 myself all the evening — Will you sing that song? Will 
 I sing it? Not unless our sins are pardoned, and we 
 learn now to sing the praise of Christ, will we ever sing 
 it there. The first great concert that I ever attended 
 was in New York, when Julien, in the " Crystal Palace," 
 stood before hundreds of singers and hundreds of players 
 upon instruments. Some of you may remember that oc- 
 casion ; it was the first one of the kind at which I was 
 present, and I shall never forget it. I saw that one man 
 standing, and with the hand and foot wield that great 
 harmony, beating the time. It was to me overwhelming. 
 But oh, the grander scene when they shall come from the 
 East, and from the West, and from the North, and from 
 the South, "a great multitude that no man can number," 
 into the temple of the skies, host beyond host, rank be- 
 
400 CHRIST OUR SONG. 
 
 yond rank, gallery above gallery, and Jesus shall stand 
 before that great host to conduct the harmony, with his 
 wounded hands and his wounded foot ! Like the voice 
 of many waters, like the voice of mighty thunderings, 
 they shall cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
 receive blessings, and riches, and honor, and glory, and 
 power, world without end. Amen and Amen !" Oh, if 
 my ear shall hear no other sweet sounds, may I hear 
 that! If I join no other glad assemblage, may I join 
 that. 
 
 I was reading this afternoon of the battle of Agin- 
 court, in which Henry V. figured ; and it is said after the 
 battle was won, gloriously won, the king wanted to ac- 
 knowledge the divine interposition, and he ordered the 
 chaplain to read the Psalm of David; and when he came 
 to the words, "Not unto us, Lord, but unto thy name 
 be the praise," the king dismounted, and all the cavalry- 
 dismounted, and all the great host, officers and men, threw 
 themselves on their faces. Oli, at the story of the Sav- 
 iour's love and the Saviour's deliverance, shall we not 
 prostrate ourselves before him to-night, hosts of earth and 
 hosts of heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying, ".ZVbi 
 unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name he the glory T 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 401 
 
 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 "Oh that one would give me diink of the water of the well of Bethle- 
 hem, which is by the gate." — 2 Samuel xxiii., 15. 
 
 WAR, always distressing, is especially ruinous in 
 harvest-time. When the crops are all ready for 
 the sickle, to have them trodden down by cavalry horses 
 and heavy supply-trains gullying the fields, is enough to 
 make any man's heart sick. When the last great war 
 broke out in Europe, and France and Germany were 
 coming into horrid collision, I rode across their golden 
 harvests, and saw the tents pitched, and the trenches dug 
 in the very midst of the ripe fields, the long scj^the of 
 battle sharpening to mow down harvests of men in great 
 winrows of the dead. It was at this season of harvest 
 that the army of the Philistines came down upon Bethle- 
 hem. Hark to the clamor of their voices, the neighing 
 of their chargers, the blare of their trumpets, and the 
 clash of their shields ! 
 
 Let David and his men fall back! The Lord's host 
 sometimes loses the day. But David knew where to 
 hide. He had been brought up in that country. Boys 
 are inquisitive, and they know all about the region where 
 they were born and brought up. If you should go back 
 to the old homestead, you could, with your eyes shut, 
 find your way to the meadow, or the orchard, or the hill 
 back of the house, with which you were familiar thirty 
 or forty years ago. So David knew the cave of Adullam. 
 Perhaps, in his boyhood days, he had played " hide- 
 
402 THE WELL BT TEE GATE. 
 
 and-seek" with his comrades all about the old cave; 
 and though others might not have known it, David did. 
 Travelers say there is only one way of getting into that 
 cave, and that is by a very narrow path ; but David was 
 stout, and steady-headed, and steady-nerved; and so, 
 ■with his three brave staff- officers, he goes along that 
 path, finds his way into the cave, sits down, looks around 
 at the roof and the dark passages of the mountain, feels 
 very weary with the forced march ; and water he must 
 have, or die. I do not know but there may have been 
 drops trickling down the side of the cavern, or that there 
 may have been some water in the goat-skin slung to his 
 girdle ; but that w^as not what he wanted. He wanted a 
 deep, full, cold drink, such as a man gets only out of an 
 old well with moss-covered bucket. David remember- 
 ed that very near that cave of Adullam there was such 
 a well as that, a well to which he used to go in boyhood 
 — the well of Bethlehem ; and he almost imagines that 
 he can hear the liquid plash of that well, and his parch- 
 ed tongue moves through his hot lips as he says, "Oh, 
 that one would give me drink of the water of the well 
 of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" 
 
 It was no sooner said than done. The three brave 
 staff- officers bound to their feet and start. Brave sol- 
 diers will take even a hint from their commander. But 
 between them and the well lay the host of the Philis- 
 tines; and what could three men do with a great army ? 
 Yet where there is a will there is a way, and, with their 
 swords slashing this way and that, they make their path 
 to the well. While the Philistines are amazed at the 
 seeming fool-hardiness of these three men, and can not 
 make up their minds exactly what it means, the three 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 403 
 
 men have come to the well. They drop the bucket. 
 They bring up the water. They pour it in the pail, and 
 then start for the cave. " Stop them 1" cry the Philis- 
 tines. " Clip them with your swords ! Stab them with 
 your spears ! Stop those three men !" Too late. They 
 have got around the hill. The hot rocks are splashed 
 with the overflowing water from the vessel as it is car- 
 ried up the cliffs. The three men go along the danger- 
 ous path, and with cheeks flushed with the excitement, 
 and all out of breath in their haste, they fling their 
 swords, red with the skirmish, to the side of the cave, 
 and cry out to David, " There, captain of the host, is 
 what you wanted, a drink of the water of the well of 
 Bethlehem, which is by the gate." 
 
 A text is of no use to me unless I can find Christ in 
 it; and unless I can bring a Gospel out of these words 
 that will arouse and comfort and bless, I shall wish I had 
 never seen them; for your time would be wasted, and 
 against my soul the dark record would be made that this 
 day I stood before a great audience of sinning, suffering, 
 dying men, and told them of no rescue. By the cross of 
 the Son of God, by the throne of the eternal judgment, 
 that shall not be ! May the Lord Jesus help me to tell 
 you the truth to-day ! 
 
 As I was on the way down here this morning, I heard 
 some one say that carrier-pigeons had sometimes letters 
 tied under the wing, and they would fly hundreds of 
 miles — one hundred miles in an hour — carrying a mes- 
 sage. So I have thought I would like to have it now. 
 Oh, heavenly Dove! bring under thy wing to-da}^, to 
 my soul and to the souls of this people, some message 
 of light, and love, and peace ! 
 
404 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 It is not an unusual thing to see people gather around 
 a well in summer-time. The husbandman puts down 
 his cradle at the well curb. The builder puts down his 
 trowel. The traveler puts down his pack. Then one 
 draws the water for all the rest, himself taking the very 
 last. The cup is passed around, and the fires of thirst 
 are put out ; the traveler starts on his journey, and the 
 workman takes up his burden. 
 
 My friends, we come to-day around the Gospel well. 
 We put down our pack of burdens and our implements of 
 toil. One man must draw the water for those who have 
 gathered around the well. I will try and draw the water 
 to-day; and if, after I have poured out from this living 
 fountain for your soul, I just taste of it myself, you will 
 not begrudge me a "drink from the water of the well 
 of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." 
 
 This Gospel well, like the one spoken of in the text, 
 is a well of Bethlehem. David had known hundreds of 
 wells of water, but he wanted to drink from that particu- 
 lar one, and he thought nothing could slake his thirst 
 like that. And unless your soul and mine can get ac- 
 cess to the Fountain open for sin and uncleanness, we 
 must die. That fountain is the well of Bethlehem. It 
 was dug in the night. It was dug by the light of a lan- 
 tern — the star that hung down over the manger. It 
 was dug not at the gate of Caesar's palaces, not in the 
 park of a Jerusalem bargain -maker. It was dug in a 
 barn. The camels lifted their weary heads to listen as 
 the work went on. The shepherds, unable to sleep, be- 
 cause the heavens were filled with bands of music, came 
 down to see the opening of the well. The angels of God, 
 at the first gush of the living water, dipped their chalices 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 405 
 
 of joy into it, and drank to the health, of earth and heav- 
 en, as they cried, " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
 earth peace." Sometimes in our modern barns the water 
 is brought through the pipes of the city to the very 
 nostrils of the horses or cattle ; but this well in the Beth- 
 lehem barn was not so much for the beasts that perish 
 as for our race; thirst -smitten, desert - traveled and si- 
 moon-struck. Oh, my soul, weary with sin, stoop down 
 and drink to-day out of that Bethlehem well. 
 
 "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so my 
 soul panteth after thee, O God." You would get a bet- 
 ter understanding of this amidst the Adirondacks in sum- 
 mer-time. Here comes a swift-footed deer. The hounds 
 are close on the track ; it has leaped chasms and scaled 
 cliffs ; it is fagged out ; its eyes are rolling in death ; its 
 tongue is lolling from its foaming mouth. Faster the 
 deer, faster the dogs, until it plunges into Schroon Lake, 
 and the hounds can follow^ it no farther, and it puts down 
 its head and mouth until the nostril is clean submerged 
 in the cool wave, and I understand it: "As the hart 
 panteth for the water -brook, so panteth my soul after 
 thee, God." Oh, bring me water from that well! Lit- 
 tle child, who hast learned of Jesus in the Sabbath-school, 
 bring me some of that living water. Old man, who fifty 
 years ago didst first find the well, bring me some of that 
 water. Stranger in a strange land, who used to hear 
 sung, amidst the Highlands of Scotland, to the tune of 
 " Bonnie Doon," "The Star, the Star of Bethlehem," bring 
 me some of that water. Whosoever drinketh of that 
 water shall never thirst. " Oh, that one would give me 
 drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is 
 by the gate." 
 
406 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 Again, this Gospel well, like the one spoken of in 
 the text, is a captured well. David remembered the time 
 when that good water of Bethlehem was in the posses- 
 sion of his ancestors. His father drank there, his moth- 
 er drank there. He remembered how the water tasted 
 when he was a boy, and came up there from play. We 
 never forget the old well we used to drink out of when 
 we were boys or girls. There was something in it that 
 blessed the lips and refreshed the brow better than any 
 thing we have found since. As we think of that dear 
 old well, the memories of the past flow into each other 
 like crystalline drops, sun -glinted, and all the more as 
 we remember that the hands that used to lay hold the 
 rope, and the hearts that beat against the well -curb 
 are still now. We never get over these reminiscences. 
 George P. Morris, the great song-writer of this country, 
 once said to me that his song, "Woodman, spare that 
 Tree," was sung in a great concert-hall, and the memories 
 of early life were so wrought upon the audience by that 
 song that, after the singing was done, an aged man arose 
 in the audience, overwhelmed with emotion, and said, 
 "Sir, will you please to tell me whether the woodman 
 really spared the tree?" We never forget the tree un- 
 der which we played. We never forget the fountain at 
 which we drank. Alas for the man who has no early 
 memories! 
 
 David thought of that well, that boyhood well, and he 
 wanted a drink of it, but he remembered that the Philis- 
 tines had captured it. When those three men tried to 
 come up to the well in behalf of David, they saw swords 
 gleaming around about it. And this is true of this Gos- 
 pel well. The Philistines have at times captured it. 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 407 
 
 When we come to take a full, old-fashioned drink of 
 pardon and comfort, do not their swords of indignation 
 and sarcasm flash? Why, the skeptics tell us that we 
 can not come to that fountain ! They say the water is 
 not fit to drink anyhow. "If you are really thirsty 
 now, there is the well of philosophy, there is the well 
 of art, there is the well of science." They try to sub- 
 stitute, instead of our boyhood faith, a modern mix- 
 ture. They say a great many beautiful things about 
 the soul, and they try to feed our immortal hunger on 
 rose-leaves, and mix a mint-julep of worldly stimulants, 
 when nothing will satisfy us but " a drink of the water 
 of the well of Bethlehem, which is at the gate." They 
 try to starve us on husks, when the Father's banquet is 
 ready, and the best ring is taken from the casket, and 
 the sweetest harp is struck for the music, and the swift- 
 est foot is already lifted for the dance. They patronize 
 heaven and abolish hell, and try to measure eternity 
 with their hour-glass, and the throne of the great God 
 with their yard-stick ! I abhor it. I tell you the old 
 Gospel well is a captured well. I pray God that there 
 may be somewhere in the elect host three anointed men, 
 with courage enough to go forth in the strength of the 
 omnipotent God, with the glittering swords ot truth, to 
 hew the way back again to that old well. I think the 
 tide is turning, and that the old Gospel is to take its 
 })lace again in the family, and in the university, and in 
 the legislative hall. Men have tried worldly philoso- 
 phies, and have found out that they do not give any 
 comfort, and that they drop an arctic midnight upon 
 the death-pillow. They fail when there is a dead child 
 in the house ; and when the soul comes to leap into the 
 
408 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 fathomless ocean of eternity, they give to the man not 
 so much as a broken spar to cling to. Depend upon it, 
 that well will come into our possession again, though it 
 has been captured. If there be not three anointed men 
 in the Lord's host with enough consecration to do the 
 work, then the swords will leap from Jehovah's buckler, 
 and the eternal three will descend — God the Father, God 
 the Son, God the Holy Ghost — conquering for our dy- 
 ihg race the way back again to " the water of the well 
 of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." "If God be for 
 us, who can be against us?" "If God spared not his 
 own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, how shall 
 he not with him also freely give us all things?" "For 
 I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor an- 
 gels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
 nor things to come," shall take from us, into final captiv- 
 ity, the Gospel of my blessed Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Again, the Gospel well, like the one spoken of in my 
 text, is a loell at the gate. The traveler stops the camel 
 to-day, and gets down and dips out of the valley of the 
 East, some very beautiful, clear, bright water, and that 
 is out of the very well that David longed for. Do you 
 know that that well was at the gate, so that nobody 
 could go into Bethlehem without going right past it? 
 And so it is with this Gospel well — it is at the gate. It 
 is, in the first place, at the gate of purification. We can 
 not wash away our sins unless with that water. I take 
 the responsibility of saying that there is no man, woman, 
 or child in this house to-day that has escaped sinful de- 
 filement. Do yow say it is outrageous and ungallant for 
 me to make such a charge ? Do you say, " I have never 
 stolen — I have never blasphemed — I have never com- 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 409 
 
 mitted unchastity — I have never been guilty of mur- 
 der?" I reply, you have committed a sin worse than 
 blasphemy, worse than unchastity, worse than theft, 
 worse than murder. We have all committed it. We 
 have by our sin re-crucified the Lord, and that is deicide. 
 And if there be any who dare to plead " not guilty " to 
 the indictment, then the hosts of heaven will be impan- 
 eled as a jury to render a unanimous verdict against us; 
 guilty one, guilty all. With what a slashing stroke that 
 one passage cuts us away from all our pretensions : 
 "There is none that doeth good — no, not one." "Oh," 
 says some one, "all we want, all the race wants, is de- 
 velopment." Kow I want to tell you that the race de- 
 velops without the Gospel into a Sodom, a Five Points, 
 a Great Salt Lake City. It always develops down- 
 ward, and never upward, except as the grace of God lays 
 hold of it. What, then, is to become of our soul without 
 Christ? Banishment. Disaster. But I bless my Lord 
 Jesus Christ that there is a well at the gate of purifica- 
 tion. For great sin, great pardon. For eighty years 
 of transgression, an eternity of forgiveness. For crime 
 deep as hell, an atonement high as heaven ; that where 
 sin abounded, so grace may much more abound ; that as 
 sin reigned unto death, even so may grace reign through 
 righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 Angel of the Covenant, dip thy wing in this living fount- 
 ain to-day, and wave it over this solemn assemblage, 
 that our souls may be washed in "the water of the well 
 of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." 
 
 Further, I remark that this well of the Gospel is at the 
 gate of comfort Do you know where David was when 
 he uttered the words of the text? He was in the cavo 
 
410 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 of Adullam. That is where some of you are now. Has 
 the world always gone smoothly with you ? Has it nev- 
 er pursued you with slander? Is your health always 
 good? Have your fortunes never perished? Are your 
 children all alive and well? Is there one dead lamb in 
 the fold ? Are you ignorant of the way to the ceme- 
 tery ? Have you ever heard the bell toll when it seem- 
 ed as if every stroke of the iron clapper beat your 
 heart? Are the skies as bright when you look into them 
 as they used to be when other eyes, now closed, used to 
 look into them? Is there some trunk or drawer in 
 your house that you go to only on anniversary days, 
 when there comes beating against your soul the surf of 
 a great ocean of agony? It is the cave of Adullam! 
 The cave of Adullam ! Is there some David here whose 
 fatherly heart wayward Absalom has broken ? Is there 
 some Abraham here who is lonely because Sarah is dead 
 in the family-plot of Machpelah? After thirty or forty 
 years of companionship, how hard it was for them to part ! 
 Why not have two seats in the Lord's chariot, so that 
 both the old folks might have gone up at once ? My 
 aged mother, in her last moment, said to my father, 
 "Father, wouldn't it be nice if we could both go to- 
 gether?" No, no, no. We must part. And there are 
 wounded hearts here to-day; some have had trouble 
 since I have been gone. I thought I would say one 
 word of comfort to you to-day. The world can not com- 
 fort you. What can it bring you ? Nothing. Nothing. 
 The salve they try to put on your wounds will not stick. 
 They can not, with their bungling surgery, mend the 
 broken bones. 
 
 Zoppar the Naamathite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and 
 
THE WELL BY TEE GATE. 411 
 
 Eliphaz the Temanite, come in, and talk, and talk, and 
 tiilk, but miserable comforters are they all. They can 
 not pour light into the cave of Adullam, They can not 
 bring a single draught of water from "the well of Beth- 
 lehem, which is by the gate." But glory be to Jesus 
 Christ, there is comfort at the gate! There is life in the 
 well at the gate. If you give me time, I will draw up 
 a promise for every man, woman, and child in this house. 
 Ay, I will do it in two minutes. I will lay hold the 
 rope of the old well. What is your trouble? "Oh," 
 you say, " I am so sick, so weary of life — ailments after 
 ailments." I will draw you up a promise: "The in- 
 habitant shall never say ' I am sick.' " What is your 
 trouble? " Oh, it is loss of friends — bereavement," you 
 say. I will draw you up a promise, fresh and cool, out 
 of the w^ell: "I am the resurrection and the life; he 
 that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live." What is your trouble? You say it is the infirm- 
 ities of old age. I will draw you up a promise: "Down 
 to old age I am w^ith thee, to hoar hairs will I carry 
 thee." What is your trouble ? " Oh," you say, " I have 
 a widowed soul, and my children cry for bread." I 
 bring up this promise: "Leave thy fatherless children 
 • — I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust 
 in me." I break through the armed ranks of your sor- 
 rows to-day, and bring to 3'our parched lips " a drink of 
 the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." 
 Again, the Gospel well is at the gate of heaven. I have 
 not heard yet one single intelligent account of the future 
 world from any body who does not believe in the Bible. 
 They throw such a fog about the subject that I do not 
 want to go to the skeptic's heaven, to the transcendent- 
 
412 THE WELL BY THE OATE. 
 
 alist's heaven, to the worldly philosopher's heaven. I 
 would not exchange the poorest room in your house for 
 the finest heaven that Huxley, or Stuart Mill, or Darwin 
 ever dreamed of. Their heaven has no Christ in it; 
 and a heaven without Christ, though you could sweep 
 the whole universe into it, would be a hell ! Oh, they 
 tell us there are no songs there : there are no coronations 
 in heaven — that is all imagination. They tell us we will 
 do there about what we do here, only on a larger scale 
 — geometrize with clearer intellect, and with alpenstock 
 go clambering up over the icebergs in an eternal vaca- 
 tion. Eather than that, I turn to my Bible, and I find 
 John's picture of that good land — that heaven which 
 was your lullaby in infancy — that heaven which our 
 children in the Sabbath -school will sing about this after- 
 noon — that heaven which has a "well at the gate." 
 
 After you have been on a long journey, and you come 
 in, all bedusted and tired, to your home, the first thing 
 you want is refreshing ablution ; and I am glad to know 
 that after we get through the pilgrimage of this world — 
 the hard, dusty pilgrimage — we will find a well at the 
 gate. In that one wash, away will go our sins and sor- 
 rows. I do not care whether cherub, or seraph, or my 
 own departed friends in that blessed land places to my 
 lips the cup, the touch of that cup will be life, will be 
 heaven 1 I was reading of how the ancients sought for 
 the foantain of perpetual youth. They thought if they 
 could only find and drink out of that well, the old would 
 become young again, the sick would be cured, and every 
 body would have eternal juvenescence. Of course, they 
 could not find it. Eureka! I have found it ! " the water 
 of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." 
 
THE WELL BY THE GATE. 413 
 
 I think we had better make a bargain with those who 
 leave us, going out of this world from time to time, as to 
 where we will meet them. Travelers parting appoint a 
 place of meeting. Thej say, " We will meet at Kome, 
 or we will meet at Stockholm, or Vienna, or Jerusalem, 
 or Bethlehem." Now, when we come to stand by the 
 death-pillow of those who are leaving us for the far land, 
 do not let us weep as though we would never see them 
 again, but let us, there standing, appoint a place where 
 we will meet. Where shall it be? Shall it be on the 
 banks of the river? ISTo. The banks are too long. 
 Shall it be in the temple ? No ; no. There is such a 
 host there — ten thousand times ten thousand. Where 
 shall we meet our loved ones? Let us make an appoint- 
 ment to meet at the well by the gate. Oh heaven ! 
 Sweet heaven ! Dear heaven ! Heaven, where our good 
 friends are ! Heaven, where Jesus is ! Heaven ! Heaven ! 
 
 But while I stand here, there comes a revulsion of feel- 
 ing when I look into your eyes and know there are souls 
 here dying of thirst, notwithstanding the well at the gate. 
 Between them and the well of heaven there is a great 
 army of sin ; and though Christ is ready to clear a way 
 to that well for them, they will not have his love or in- 
 tercession. I suppose there may be some soul in this 
 house to-day that will never see heaven. I can not tell 
 by any pallor of cheek or gloom of brow where such a 
 one may sit or stand ; but God knows that that one soul 
 is lost. The grain is all gathered into barns, and it is 
 September now ; and for that soul in this house — if there 
 be such a one — the dirge would be appropriate in two 
 senses: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended." 
 
 But I am glad to know that you may come yet. The 
 well is here — the well of heaven. Come : I do not care 
 
414 THE WELL BY THE GATE. 
 
 how feeble you are ! Let me take hold of your arm, and 
 steady you up to the well-curb. " Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth, come." I would rather win one soul to Christ 
 this morning than wear the crown of the world's domin- 
 ion. Do not let any man go away and say I did not in- 
 vite him. Oh, if you could only just look at my Lord 
 once; if you could just see him full in the face; ay, if 
 you could only do as that woman did whom I read about 
 at the beginning of the services — just come up behind 
 him and touch his feet — methinks you would live. In 
 Northern New Jersey, three winters ago, three little chil- 
 dren wandered off from home in a snow-storm. Night 
 came on. Father and mother said, " Where are the chil- 
 dren ?" They could not be found. They started out in 
 haste, and the news ran to the neighbors, and before 
 morning it was said that there were hundreds of men 
 hunting the mountains for those three children, but 
 found them not. After a while a man imagined there 
 was a place that had not been looked at, and he went 
 and saw the three children. He examined their bodies. 
 He found that the older boy had taken off his coat and 
 wrapped it around the younger one, the baby, and then 
 taken off his vest and put it around the other one; and 
 there i\iQj all died, he probably the first, for he had no 
 coat or vest. Oh, it was a touching scene when that was 
 brought to light! I was on the ground about a week 
 ago, and it brought the w^hole scene to my mind ; and I 
 thought to myself of a more melting scene than that: it 
 is that Jesus, our elder brother, took off the robe of his 
 royalt}^, and laid aside the last garment of earthly com- 
 fort, that he might wrap our poor souls from the blast. 
 Oh, the height, and the depth, and the length, and the 
 breadth of the love of Christ ! 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 415 
 
 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 
 
 "Thou shalt see greater things than these." — John i., 50. 
 
 OX this, the fifth anniversary of my settlement as 
 your pastor, I desire to tell the story of this church 
 -—a stor}^ that has never yet been told. I tell it in an- 
 swer to American and European letters, so numerous 
 that, with the aid of a secretary, I have not been able to 
 answer them. I tell it in recognition of the goodness of 
 God. I tell it out of justice to the men and women who 
 sit before me; out of justice to some who have already 
 entered upon the white -robed congregations of heaven. 
 It is a story of escapes, deliverances, losses, self-sacrific- 
 ing achievement, wild tragedy, divine help, and of world- 
 wide sympathy, that I do not think belongs to any other 
 church of the century. There are passages that remind 
 me of the going of the Israelites through the Red Sea. 
 And yet it shall not be an epic, nor a lyric, nor a dithy- 
 rambic, but only a plain pastoral. 
 
 Seated in my Philadelphia home, the " call " came from 
 this church. The eldership deceived me in nowise. They 
 told me it was almost an extinct church. Nineteen mem- 
 bers were all that could be rallied to a congregational 
 meeting to make out the "call." It was accepted, for 
 the reason that the church was flat down ; and I said to 
 myself, "That will be just the place in which to try, on 
 a large scale, a free church, without any established hin- 
 derances in the way." And so, putting my trust in God, 
 
 18 
 
416 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 
 
 and confronting the derision of some of mj best personal 
 friends at what they called a " wild undertaking," I came 
 to this, the fairest city under the sun. Blessed be her 
 churches ! Prospered be her commerce ! Christianized 
 be all her schools ! 
 
 The first summer we enlarged the old chapel, and mul- 
 tiplied the seating capacity in every possible way. Ac- 
 cording to the most approved style, our pew-rents went 
 up ; and as the pew-rents went up, my heart went down. 
 The next spring the unanimous cry was for a new church, 
 and the trustees assembled to decide what it should be. 
 With a suppressed excitement, such as I never before or 
 since felt, I went into a neighbor's parlor to lay before 
 the trustees the plan of a free church. I tried to show 
 them in that conversation that it is ungospel and unchris- 
 tian to make a man's financial qualification the test of 
 pew-holding, and to show them that we had no right to 
 knock dov/n, under an auctioneer's hammer, to the high- 
 est bidder, a man's chances for heaven. There was a 
 long pause. After a while one of the brethren remarked, 
 "I have no doubt that a church on that plan would be 
 the highest style of Gospel church ; but where would we 
 get the money to carry on such a project ?" I replied, 
 "Put your trust in Grod, and depend upon the voluntary 
 subscriptions and contributions of the people. And since 
 my own salary may be in the way, I now here, and for 
 all time to come, discharge you of all financial responsi- 
 bility to me personally. Give me a free church, and if 
 you can not support me, then, by pen and lecturing plat- 
 form, I will take care of myself." " Well," said one of 
 the brethren, "if the dominie believes in the plan as 
 much as that, I think we can afford to believe in it, and 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 417 
 
 I move we have a free church " — a resolution that passed 
 with a unanimous "Aye." 
 
 Then there came around about me a band of conse- 
 crated men and women sworn to do this work ; and if I 
 ever forget their fidelity to Christ, and their adherence 
 to the good cause, may my tongue be forever still ! The 
 first question was to find a site for the building. Com- 
 mittees were appointed, and went up and down the city 
 looking for a place, they having decided that we must 
 have a place one hundred and fifty feet front by one hun- 
 dred feet deep ; and after weeks of searching, they found, 
 within three doors of the old chapel, just the place — one 
 hundred and fifty feet front by one hundred feet deep. 
 Although the lot is larger now than it was then, that 
 was the size of it then. The place was foreordained from 
 all eternity to be the place where we should build. I was 
 often asked, and I asked myself, " Why wasn't that lot 
 taken ?" God was keeping it for us. 
 
 The next question to be decided was, Who shall be the 
 architect? I went to one of the prominent architects of 
 New York, and said, " Give us a church in amphitheat- 
 rical shape." He figured on it a few weeks, and said, 
 "An amphitheatrical building is not churchlyy I went 
 to another distinguished architect, and said, ''Give us an 
 amphitheatrical building, where the people can see each 
 other's faces instead of the back of the head, and where 
 we can all be gathered as in a great home circle, and 
 where nothing shall be angular." He figured on it a 
 while, and at the end of four weeks said to me that an 
 amphitheatrical building would not be churchhj. One 
 day a young man came into my room, and said, "Have 
 you decided upon an architect for the building?" I re- 
 
4:18 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT, 
 
 plied, "No." Said he, "Would I have any chance?" 
 I replied, " Any man, young or old, who can give us an 
 amphitheatrical church, where the people can all be seat- 
 ed in sympathy with each other, will be our architect." 
 Then I drew out on the back of a letter, in twenty 
 strokes, the general idea, and said, "If you can bring 
 that out with architectural skill, you will be our man." 
 So this plan was developed. That it was a good one, 
 I take from the fact that there have been scores of 
 churches since built on the same plan. 
 
 Then the trowel began to click, and the hammer to 
 thump, and the building rose. As we were to build it 
 for a temporary structure, to last but two years, in three 
 months the whole affair was done ; but, mark you, with- 
 out having raised one dollar of contribution toward it. 
 We depended upon the sale of the old church for the 
 building of the new ; but the purchasers of that building 
 failed to meet their payments, and so the building came 
 back upon our hands. Then, after the new building was 
 done, we had to go through the work of attempting to 
 pay for a church entirely completed, and some of you 
 may know what tough work that is. Then we went on 
 organizing — making hundreds of experiments in hun- 
 dreds of things, because we had no precedent, no ante- 
 cedent. Yet the work all the time progressed. At our 
 very first communion in the old Tabernacle, more than 
 ninety souls professed faith in Christ; at the second 
 communion in the old Tabernacle, more than fifty souls; 
 at the third communion in the old Tabernacle, more than 
 forty souls; and that is the only way I know how to cal- 
 culate the advancement of a church. Though you build 
 a church as grand as St. Paul's, of London, and have a 
 
CESSATION OF EXFEBIMENT. 410 
 
 line of carriages, with resetted coachmen, reaching from 
 here to Prospect Park, I would abhor it if there were no 
 conversions. That church is an accursed thing which 
 knows nothing about soul-saving. Pull it down, and use 
 its timbers and its stones for bowling-alleys and theatres. 
 They are not so objectionable, because they pretend to 
 be what they are ; but a church which does nothing but 
 rock souls into an eternal sleep under a gilded canopy is 
 a gigantic hypocrisy, and defies the bolts of high heaven. 
 
 Well, the work went on. On the following summer 
 we found that our Tabernacle was too strait for us, and 
 so we enlarged it at an expense like building another 
 new church. Meanwhile our church had sailed down 
 into calm financial waters ; and one December night the 
 trustees of the church assembled to look over the affairs 
 of the church, and they examined the income and the 
 outgo, and saw that the next year they would have a 
 positive surplus. They clapped their hands, and sat up 
 very late that night talking the matter over, and they 
 said, " This project of a free church, which some have 
 caricatured and many have doubted, has proved to be a 
 success." It was about eleven o'clock at night when the 
 sexton shut the door of the old iron-clad. Alas! that 
 was the last night of the Tabernacle. That ark would 
 never float any more souls into glory. Its work was 
 done. And if, when a Christian man dies, the air is full 
 of spirits coming and going, when a Christian church is 
 about coming to its closing moments, I think that angelic 
 spectators move forward and backward in the scene. I 
 think that that night the air was full of them. 
 
 ^Yhen next morning, at ten o'clock, the cry of fire was 
 lifted, it was not a hoarse uproar, but it was a voice with 
 
420 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 
 
 tears in it. I said to a man the other day, "When did 
 you become a Christian?" He replied, "When the old 
 Tabernacle burned. I don't cry often, I want you to un- 
 derstand, but I cried that morning, and I cried all day. 
 Wasn't it awful?" Lord Jesus! great Head of the 
 Church! what a day that was when thy children stood 
 before their burning altar. Some sighed. Some wrung 
 their hands. Some fainted. Invalids with unnatural 
 strength got up from their couches and looked out at it. 
 It was the death-throe of a church, its departing spirit 
 spreading abroad wings of flame — its groan, the falling 
 timbers. Let the firemen take off their glazed hats, and 
 twenty thousand excited spectators bow down before the 
 catafalque of fire. Dead ! Dead ! Ashes to ashes ! 
 
 The loss was the more complete, because it was an iron 
 structure on which we had not been able to get adequate 
 insurance. So we were as thoroughly rubbed out as a 
 sponge rubs out a sum from a boy's slate at school. 
 Then there came S3^mpathetic letters. I never got so 
 many letters in one day in my life as I got on the fol- 
 lowing day. And then there came practical help. One 
 thousand dollars from Dresden, Germany, where they 
 make pictures. Help from Sheffield, England, where 
 they m^ake knives ; from Glasgow, Scotland, where they 
 make steamers; from Edinburgh, where they make 
 scholars; from Paris, where they make — revolutions; 
 from London, where they make every thing. It was not 
 so much the amount they gave as the way they gave it. 
 They said they had seen the fire in Yorkshire, and in old 
 Essex, and among the Trossacks. They told us we were 
 prayed for among the Manchester and Birmingham oper- 
 atives. You know how it was in our own city. Twenty- 
 
C£S;SATIOS OF EXPEEIMENT. 421 
 
 six churches in as many hours were offered for our oc- 
 cupation. They offered us their main audience -rooms; 
 they offered us their lecture-rooms ; and what they did 
 not offer us would not be worth mentioning. The dem- 
 onstration of Christian brotherhood was so magnificent, 
 that, as soon as I could get the cinders and the tears wiped 
 out of my eyes, I said, " Well, brethren, I am glad the 
 thing has burned up. We only built it for two years 
 anyhow, and it was not large enough. Now let us rise 
 up and have a larger and a better structure." 
 
 To make the one year of our exile the more bearable, 
 the Lord God came down with his spirit in the Academy 
 of Music. Some people said, "You had better not go 
 there ; it is a theatre — a secular place." But we went 
 there, and had it dedicated. We dedicated the Director's 
 Room in that building by a prayer-meeting twice every 
 Sabbath. We dedicated the "Greenroom" by cries of 
 "What must I do to be saved?" We dedicated the 
 platform by the story of a Saviour's love, and never any 
 thing else but that, morning and night. We dedicated 
 the boxes by men and women who rose asking for 
 prayers. We dedicated the main audience-room b}^ five 
 hundred and thirteen souls professing to have found the 
 peace of the Gospel — -three hundred and seven of them 
 connecting themselves with our church, the others go- 
 ing elsewhere, because we had as yet no home. And 
 though that Academy of Music may be the scene of sec- 
 ular entertainments for many a year, there shall be no 
 power in the voice o^ prima donna or in the blast of bra- 
 zen instruments to drown out " St Martin's " and " Cor- 
 onation," still rolling among those arches. 
 
 Meanwhile we selected a new architect — one who did 
 
42-2 CESSATION OF EXPERIMEXT. 
 
 not think that an amphitheatrical building would be un- 
 churchly ; one who, after long experience in putting up 
 some of the largest structures in England and the United 
 States, brought all his achievements to a culmination in 
 plans for this temple. The women — the Lord has writ- 
 ten the record on high: I can not read it until I come 
 up there — the women, by Fair, and by personal solicita- 
 tion, raised money. The Board of Trustees brooded, af- 
 ter many a midnight, over the plans. The work went 
 on, by what toil, by what hope deferred, by what anxiety, 
 I can not tell, until on the 22d of February the veil 
 was drawn from our eyes, and there rose before our vis- 
 ion this building, grander than our brightest anticipa- 
 tions, strong as the everlasting hills, and beautiful as a 
 midsummer's dream; offering seating capacity to sever- 
 al thousand more than any Protestant church in Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 There remained but two things to be tested : Can we 
 pay for it? Will it be occupied? The first question 
 you answered, when, on the opening day, you put in the 
 Lord's lap thirty-six thousand dollars, making a record 
 for yourselves which, while it has won the admiration of 
 Christendom, will be a page you will be glad of in the 
 great day when Christ shall say, " Well done, good and 
 faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few 
 things ; be thou ruler over ten cities." The other ques- 
 tion was. Will all the pews be assigned ? For, mind you, 
 though we are a free church, we are neither a mob nor 
 a rabble. Though the pews are all free from taxation, 
 yet they are formally assigned, that every father and 
 mother may have their family between them ; that this 
 Sabbath they may sit where they sat last Sabbath, and 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 423 
 
 next Sabbath where they sat this Sabbatb ; that a home 
 feeling may be cultured; that the church may be organ- 
 ized, disciplined for practical Chiistian work, as it could 
 not be if the pews were not assigned. We built the 
 church so large that the trustees said, and I said, that if in 
 one or two years we can assign all these pews to fomilies, 
 we shall be satisfied. The church has been open only 
 about six weeks; yet two weeks ago we completed the 
 assignment of all the pews — a work that would have 
 been done the night of the opening if there had been 
 time; and so we find that, instead of the building being 
 too large, it is already too small. Now, if this church 
 shall ever doubt God's goodness, or his willingness to 
 take us straight through any righteous undertaking, 
 then we deserve to have this building go down into the 
 ashes of a ruin from which it shall never be resurrected, 
 or swallowed of an earthquake that leaves not one brick 
 or shingle behind. "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for 
 his goodness, for his merc}^ endureth forever." "Not 
 unto us, not unto us, O Lord! but unto thy name be the 
 glory." If God ever defended a church, if God ever led 
 a church, if God ever blessed a church, if God ever saved 
 a church — this is the church. 
 
 And now I demand of all those who are here to-day, 
 and of all those to whom these words shall come, that 
 they take this free church out of the list of experiments, 
 and put it down in the list of accomplished facts.- There 
 are two or three things we have proved. 
 
 In the first place, we have proved that free churches 
 are a financial possibility. The reason that in like under- 
 takings, in most places, they have failed, has been be- 
 cause they have been on a small scale, or because they 
 
 18* 
 
424 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 
 
 have been in a mean structure, or because tbey have been 
 with poor singing, or in a repelling neighborhood. Give 
 a free church a fair chance, and the right kind of a neigh- 
 borhood, and you shall gather within its walls all classes 
 — the rich and the poor, the cultured and the ignorant. 
 Just the kind of a church our Lord Jesus would favor: 
 the rich and the poor meeting together, the Lord the 
 maker of them all. Do you know this — that nine-tenths 
 of the pew-renting churches in this country, at the end 
 of the year, depend upon a few rich men to come and 
 put their hands in their pockets up to the elbow, to meet 
 the deficit? Now I contend that that is not the way to 
 do. Throw the whole responsibility on the people, and 
 they will meet it. They love to be trusted. Was there 
 ever a grander illustration of the willingness of the peo- 
 ple of this country to support a free church than on the 
 twenty -second of February? Mind you, it was in the 
 midst of great financial depression. Mind you, it was 
 like the building of three churches in three years — the 
 first Tabernacle built in 1871 ; the enlargement of that 
 structure (which was almost like erecting another build- 
 ing, for expense) in 1872 ; then this structure in the 
 early part of 1874. Do you believe that a church con- 
 ducted on any other principle could have roused up 
 enough sympathy to be able to build three churches in 
 a little over three years ? I trow not. 
 
 Oh, we were tempted, again and again, to go back to 
 the old plan ! I was offered, as some of you know, 
 twenty thousand dollars per year salary, if I would allow 
 or consent to the selling of the pews in the old Tab- 
 ernacle ; but we had consecrated ourselves to the work 
 of building a free church, and we do not want any rest 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 425 
 
 from it until we rest in Greenwood, the pleasant bed 
 where I have a great many good friends sleeping this 
 morning. 
 
 We proved another thing, and that is, that a free 
 church can he made attractive to the refined and the cultured. 
 The stereotyped objection, all over the world, to a free 
 church has been, " You break down the barriers of so- 
 ciety, and then the cultured and the refined will not 
 come into such a place." We have put the falsehood 
 upon that objection to a free church. There is not any- 
 where — there is not in any church in this land or in 
 England — more educated men and women, more profes- 
 sional men, more lawyers, doctors, artists, teachers, more 
 men who can make an intelligent public address upon 
 every question of finance, politics, morals, and religion ; 
 so that when a man introduces his family in this Chris- 
 tian association, he introduces them into the highest 
 style of refinement. I have wandered up and down the 
 world — and I suppose I have seen as much of it as any 
 man of my age — and I now say that it is my highest 
 ambition to have my own children worthy of the Chris- 
 tian, elevated society in which I have here introduced 
 them. 
 
 Again, we have proved that the people ivill come to re- 
 ceive a literal and unvarnished. Gospel. The impression 
 is abroad that you must fix up the Gospel to suit the 
 age, instead of fixing up the age to suit the Gospel ; and 
 the young men coming out of our theological seminaries 
 have the impression that they must palliate the preju- 
 dices of society, and must cover over the natural rotten- 
 ness of the human heart, and that they must tell men 
 what very clever people they are, and that they only. 
 
1,26 CESSATION OF EXFERIMEXT. 
 
 need to be pressed in a little one way, and pulled out 
 a little the other way, and then they will be all right. 
 And they say, "All you want is development." Is it? 
 Development! You might as well go to a man bent 
 double with the cramps of Asiatic cholera, and tell him 
 that all he wants is development. It is a lie. He needs 
 to have his disease killed, so that he may get well. Un- 
 til our heart is changed by the grace of God, it is scab- 
 bed and ulcerous with a great leprosy; and it is not 
 development we want, but it is the cure of an eating, 
 loathsome, blasting, damning leprosy. Our whole na- 
 ture throughout, and throughout, and throughout wrong, 
 needs to be made over and over, and over again. I 
 wish that every word of that passage could come down 
 with five tons' weight of emphasis — "Except a man be 
 born again, he can not see the kingdom of God ;" though 
 he had given one hundred thousand dollars to religious 
 institutions, though he never used a bad word in his life, 
 though he paid all his debts, though he lived on the tip- 
 top round of respectability — "Except a man be born 
 again, he can not see the kingdom of God." But so lit- 
 tle do we hear about this doctrine of regeneration in this 
 day, that it is almost considered indelicate for a man to 
 read in a public assemblage the words of Christ to Nico- 
 demus about the new birth. And as to there being any 
 hell, if we make any allusion to that, it must be with 
 exquisite circumlocution, as "the place of high tempera- 
 ture," or "the world insalubrious," or, as a minister re- 
 cently called it, " the great elsewhere !" I say to the 
 young men who are studying for the ministry — and 
 there are thirty connected with this congregation — if 
 you have any idea that it is necessary to preach an 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 427 
 
 emasculated Gospel in order to get people to come and 
 hear it, you make a vast mistake. An eminent minister 
 of New York said to me some time ago, "I have a very 
 large audience, but they are all Christians. I can not 
 get the worldly people to come in and listen to me. I 
 hear that a good many worldly people come to hear you. 
 You must preach some very strange thing. What did 
 you preach about yesterday?" " Well," I replied, "I 
 preached yesterday morning on 'Seek ye the Lord 
 while he may be found ;' and in the evening I preached 
 about 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate.'" Said he, 
 " Is that all ?" " Yes," I replied, " that is all." Oh, my 
 friends, there is a judgmeyit-seai in every man^s heart, which 
 tells him that the Bible is true; and if it be true, the 
 wicked and the righteous can not go to the same place. 
 So I say, Young men who are entering the ministry, if 
 you really want a fresh theme, if you really want a nov- 
 el theme to preach about, preach the old Gospel. Do 
 not preach about "development" — that is hackneyed. 
 Do not preach about the Darwinian theory of the origin 
 of our race — that is worn out. But if you want some- 
 thing new, really new — so new that tens of thousands 
 of people in this day do not know any thing about it — 
 then give them "Eepentance" in the morning, and 
 "Faith" at night; and in order to variety, next Sabbath 
 give them "Faith" in the morning, and "Eepentance" 
 at night. 
 
 I believe that within the next twenty years there will 
 be an earthquake amidst the American and English pul- 
 pits, and that those which have adhered to the old Gos- 
 pel will stand, and that those which have preached any 
 thing else will go dowru Paul cries out, with great em- 
 
428 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT, 
 
 pbasis, " If any one, though he be an angel from heaven, 
 preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed." 
 
 Where is Theodore Parker's pulpit to-day? He was 
 the most fascinating man I ever heard — a mighty man ; 
 but he denied the divinity of Christ, and denied the in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures. Where is his pulpit to-day ? 
 Boston tried to patch it up and prop it up ; but when 
 Theodore Parker died, his pulpit died with him. Where 
 is the pulpit of Edward Irving, the most brilliant man 
 that ever stood in the pulpit of England ? He forsook 
 the simplicity of his father's faith, and when Edward 
 Irving died, his pulpit died with him. Bat while those 
 men were preaching, each in his day, the one in Boston 
 and the other in London, there were self-sacrificing men 
 in our Western wilderness preaching Jesus and the res- 
 urrection. They died of the malaria from the cancr 
 brakes ; but what became of their pulpit ? It multiplied 
 into five thousand other pulpits, and the song for which 
 Bishop Asbury, and George Reynolds, and Jacob Kru- 
 ber gave the pitch is still humming amidst the beech- 
 woods beyond the bluffs of the Mississippi. 
 
 Now this church has been gathered and built as an 
 exponent of a literal Gospel. So it shall stand. That 
 the Lord has approved our plan in the past, i have 
 only to state that eight hundred and ninety -two souls 
 have connected themselves with this church through 
 these five years; while by letters from all parts of this 
 land, and from England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, 
 and the islands of the sea, we have an intimation that 
 through your prayers, and the help that you have been 
 able to give your pastor, thousands of souls have been 
 brought into the kingdom of Christ. The old Gospel 
 
CESSATION OF EXFEIUMENT. 429 
 
 is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto sal- 
 vation. 
 
 But now five years are gone. God has closed the 
 fifth volume, never to be opened until the fiery fingers 
 of the judgment shall open it, amidst a flying heaven 
 and a burning earth. During those five years, a good 
 many have gone out from us into the eternal world. 
 Some of them, I fear, went unprepared. It is absurd 
 for a man to preach a sermon in which he implies that 
 all the dead are happy. Some of those who' went out 
 from us during the past five years into the eternal world 
 gave no evidence of repentance. There was in their last 
 struggle a look of terror about the face that I did not 
 like. They mentioned, in their last moments, the name 
 of father, or mother, or wife, or child, but they did not 
 mention the name of Jesus — 
 
 "Jesus, the name high over all 
 In hell, and earth, and sky." 
 
 They did not speak of him. I could not sleep nights, 
 asking myself the question, "Was it my fault? Did I 
 give them fair warning?" "God have mercy upon their 
 soul," would be an appropriate prayer this morning — if 
 it were not too late I 
 
 But oh, how many of our friends, during these five 
 years, have gone away in Christian peacefulness! The 
 evening came on them with the soft step of the dew. 
 There was sobbing in the room, and there were wailings 
 that made the heart ache, and cries of " What will we 
 do without father?" "How lonely the world will be 
 without mother!" " Speak, my darling, once more ! Do 
 you know me? Say, my child, do you know me?" 
 
4B0 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 
 
 Ah I no wonder they made no response. How could 
 they take your hand when Christ had it in both of his? 
 How could they hear your voice when the heavenly 
 escort, come to fetch them home, were in full chant? 
 How could they see you in the turned-down light of the 
 sick-room, when the morning of heaven was surging in 
 upon their soul at full tide? See! see! there are an- 
 gels in the room. Oh, those dying looks, those enchant- 
 ed faces, those closing expostulations! If I could, this 
 morning, bring those five years of Christian death-bed 
 triumphs before you, you would spring to your feet 
 shouting the glory; and those radiant ones who have 
 gone up from your homes would seem moving up and 
 down again through these yqtj aisles, and you would 
 see their brows garlanded with joy, and their necks jew- 
 eled with light ; and as they looked upon you, their 
 countenances sympathetic for your loneliness, you would 
 want to die too, so as to be with them. Do not Q,vy\ 
 Do not cry ! Parents, you will get back your child. 
 Sorrowful orphans, you will see father again — you will 
 see mother again. God will wipe away all tears from 
 your eyes. 
 
 During these five years, thirty -two of our members 
 have gone out of life, and they all went away in the sun- 
 rise. Blessed be God ! I knew them here, and I will 
 know them better there. 
 
 And now, as a church, we put out into a future un- 
 known, so far as particulars are concerned ; but we know 
 one thing about it : " Thou shalt see greater things than 
 these." We have only just built the fort out of which 
 we are going to fire upon the Lord's enemies. We have 
 only just planted the stake from which we are going to 
 
CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT. 431 
 
 swing out in the offing the Gospel net. We really be- 
 lieve that, where we have had hundreds brought to God, 
 we will have thousands. We mean to pray the church 
 through. To God be the glory for the past! In God is 
 our hope for the future. You and I may die — that will 
 not have any thing to do with the cause. The cause will 
 go on. The sorrowful will be comforted. The tempted 
 will be delivered. The dead will be raised. There are 
 going to be larger harvest- homes, and stronger doxol- 
 ogies, and more jubilant hallelujahs. 
 
 Oh, men and women ! impenitent, committed to my 
 charge, how can I give you up? If there be any power 
 in prayer, in tears, in heart-breaking solicitations, you 
 must come in. Oh, fire-crowned Sinai, unliraber now thy 
 batteries! Oh, quaking Calvary, now plead thy love! 
 Oh, Day of Judgment, now unsheathe thy glory ! Oh, 
 Heaven, display thy thrones! Oh, pit, flash forth thy 
 terrors! And amidst the rising, and the falling, and the 
 quaking, and the wailing, and the shouting, and the pray- 
 ing, as one billow of an aroused sea has been known to 
 pitch a steamer with a thousand passengers high and dry 
 upon the beach, so now this moment, with one great 
 surge of penitence and praN^er, let all this audience be 
 landed on the shore of eternal safety. 
 
 My heart overflows with emotion when I think that I 
 have another pastoral year less of work to do. I am not 
 tired. God has been very good to me all these years. 
 Notwithstanding the work I have been called to do here 
 in this church, and in the Lay College, and in the edito- 
 rial chair — a combined work that many supposed and 
 prophesied would crush me — I have never had a day of 
 real sickness in my life, and a headache is to me unknown, 
 
432 CESSATION OF EXPERIMENT, 
 
 save as some of my good friends, with their hands on 
 their hot temples, have described it. God has been very 
 good to me. I ascribe this health and prosperity first to 
 God, and then to the two facts that I have a very good 
 home, and a congregation who give me no annoyance. 
 They are in sympathy with me and my work. If any 
 of them do not like me, I have been too stupid to find it 
 out. I thank you for all your forbearances toward me. 
 I thank you for all the generosity with which you have 
 met my worldly necessities. Above all, I thank you for 
 the prayers that in public and private you have offered for 
 me and mine. I hope to live and die with you. It is 
 my highest ambition to be your servant for Jesus sake. 
 And when it is time for me to rest, then I want to be 
 carried out through these very streets by the men who 
 sit before me to-day. Their arms are good and strong, 
 and they will know how to let me gently down into the 
 last sleep. Many of them are my children in the Gospel. 
 They were good to me while I lived. I would not be 
 afraid to trust myself in their arms when I am dead. 
 And then, one by one, you will come out to the same 
 silent neighborhood; and when the morning of the res- 
 urrection dawns, in its holy light we will wake up togeth- 
 er, and as I cry, "Are you all here ?" you will know my 
 voice, for you have heard it so often, and you will an- 
 swer, "All here!" 
 
 "I believe in the communion of saints and the life 
 everlasting. Amen."v>;j 
 
 THE END. 
 
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