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About The Rockdale banner. (Conyers, Ga.) 1888-1900 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1896)
REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE NOTED DIVINE’S SUNDAY DISCOURSE. Subiect: “All Men Are Astray.** Text: "All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have . turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”—Lsaiah liii., 6. Once more I ring the old gospel bell. The first half of my next text is an indictment, All we, like sheep, have goDe astray. Some one says: “Can’t you drop that first word? That is too gonoral; that sw^6ps too great a circle.” Some man rises in the audience. and ho looks over on the opposite side of the house and says: “There is a blasphemer, and I understand how he has gone astray. And there in another part of the house is a defaulter, and be has gone astray. And there is an impure person, andhehasgoneastray.” Sit down, rav brother, and look at home. My text takes us all in. It starts behind the pulpit, sweeps the circuit of tbo room, and eomes back to the point where it started, when it says, All we, like sheep, have gone ’ astray. 1 can very easily understand why Martin Luther threw up his hands after he had found the Bible and cried out, “Oh, mysins, my sins! ’aud why the publican, according .to the custom to this day in the East, when fhey have auy great grief, began to beat himself and cry, as he smote upon his breast, “God bo merciful to me. a sinner.” I was. like many of you, brought up in the county . and I know some of the habits of sheep, ai. 1 how they get astray and what my text means when it says, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray.” Sheep get astray in two ways— either by trying to get into other pasture, or from being scared by dogs. In the former way some of us got ustrav. We thought the religion of Jesus Christ put us on short com mons. We thought there was better pastur age somewhere eise. We thought if we could only lie down on the banks of a distant stream, or under great oaks ou the other side of some hill, we might be better fed. We wanted other pasturage than that which God, through Jesus Christ, gave oursoul. and we wandered on and we wandered on and we were lost, We wanted bread, and we found garbage. The farther we wandered. instead of finding rich pasturage, we found blatted heath and sharper rocks aud more stinging nettles. No pasture. How was it in the club house when you lost your child? Did they come around and help you very much? Did your worldly associates console you very much? I)i i not the plain Christian man who came into your house and sat up with your darling child give you more com fort than all worldly associates? Did all the convivial songs you ever heard comfort you in that day of bereavement so much as the song they saug to you?—perhaps the very song that was sung by vour little child the lost Sabbath afternoon of her life: There is a happy land Where Far, far away, immortal saints reign Bright, bright as day. Did your business associates in that day of darkness aud troublogiveyou anv especial condolence? Business exasperated you, business wore you out, business left you limp as a rag, business made you mad. You got dollars, but you got no peace. God have mercy on the man who has nothing but business to comfort him! mo world afforded you no luxuriant pasturage. AfamousEng lish actor stood on the stage impersonating, aud thunders of applause came down from the galleries, and many thought it was the proudest moment of all his life, but there was a fact mau asleep just in front of him, and the that that man was indifferent and somnolent spoiled all the occasion for him, and ho orted, “Wake up, wake up!” So one little annoyance in life has been more per¬ vading to your mind than all the brilliant congratulations and success. Poor pastur¬ age for your soul you find in this worid, Tlie world has oheated you, the world has belied you. the world has misinterpreted you, the world has persecuted you. it never comforted you. Oh, this world is a good rack from which a horse may plok his food. It Is a good trough from which the swiue may crunch their mess, but it gives but little food to a soul blood bought and immortal. What is a soul? It is a hope high as the throne of God. Whftt is a man? You say, “It is only a man." K is only a man gone overboard in sin. It is only What a man gone overboard in business life. is a man? The battleground of three worlds, with his hands taking hold of des¬ tinies of light or darkness. A man! No line can measure him. Notlimitcan bound him. The archangel before the throne cannot out¬ live him. The stars shall die, but he will watch their extinguishment. The world will burn, but he will gaze at the conflagration. Eudless ages will march on. He will watch the procession. A man! The masterpiece of God Almighty. Yet you say, “It is only a man.” Can 11 nature like that be fed on husks of the wilderness? Substantial O nature’s comforts barren soil: will not grow 11 » All we can boast till Christ we know Is vanity and toil. Some of you got astray by looking for bet¬ ter pasturage; others by being soared by the dogs. The hound gats over int .0 the pasture field. The poor things tty in every direc¬ tion. In a few moments they are torn ot the hedges and they are splashed of the ditch, aud the lost sheep never gels home unless the farmer goes after it. Ttiere is nothing so have thoroughly been lost as a lost sheep. It may in 1857, during the financial panic, or during the financial stress in the fall of 1873 when you got astray. You almost: beoame an atheist. You said, “Whereis God that honest men go down and thieves pros¬ per?" You were dogged of creditors, you were dogged of the banks, you were dogged of worldly disaster, and some of you went into misanthropy aud some of you took to strong driuk anil others of you fled out of Chrislian association, and you got astray. Oh, mau, that was the last time when you ought to have forsaken God. Standing amid the foundering of vour early failures, how could you get along without a God to comfort you and a God to deliver you and a God to help you and a God to save you? You tell me you have been through enough business trouble al nost to kill you. I kuow it. I caunot understand how the boat could live one hoar in that chopped sea. But I do not know by what process you got astray; some in one way and some in another, and if you could really see the position some of you occupy before' God your soul would burst into an agony of tears and you would pelt the heavens with the cry, “God have mercy!” Sinai’s batteries have been unlimbered above your soul, and at times you have heard it thunder, “The wages of sin is death.” “AU have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” “By one mau sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for (hat all have sinned.” “The soul that einneth, it shall die.” When Sevastopol was being bombarded, two Russian frigates burned alt night in the haroor,* throwing a glare upon the trembling fortress, and some of you. from what you have told me your¬ selves, some of you are standing in the night of your soul’s trouble, the cannonade, and the conflagration, aud the multiplication. and the multitude of your sorrows and troubles I think must make the wings of God’s hovering angles shiver to the tip. But the last part of my text opens a door wide enough to let us all out and to Jet all heaven in. Sound it on the organ with all the stops out. Thrum it on the harp with all the strings aiune. With all the melody pos¬ sible let the heavens sound it to the earth and let the earth tell it to the heavens. “The Lord hath laid onHim theiniquity of usall.” I am glad that the prophet did not stop to explain whom he meant by “Him.” Him of the manger, Him of the bloody sweat. Him of the resurrection throne. Him of the eruci fixion agony, “On Him the Lord hath laid theiniquity of us all.” “Oh!" says some man, “that isn’t generous; that isn’t fair, Let every man ^arry his own burden and ps__ ms own debts.** That sounds reasonable. It 1 have an obligation, and I have the means to meet it, and I come to you and ask you to settle that obligation, you rightly say. ‘Pay your own debts.” If you and I, walking down the streeet—both hale, hearty and well —I ask you to carry me, you say rightly, “Walk on your own feet!” But suppose you and I were in a regiment, and I was wound ed in the battle, and I fell unconscious at your feet with gunshot fractures and dislo cations, what would you do? You would call to your comrades, saying: ‘ Come and help; this man is helpless. Bring the ambu lance. Let us take him to the hospital, and I would be a dead lift in your arms, and you would lift me from the ground ambulance, where I had and fallen, and put me in the take me to the hospital, and have ail kind hiss shown me. Would there be anything 1 ’meaning in my accepting that kindness? Gh, no. You would be mean not to do it. That is what Christ does. If we could pay °ur debts, then it would be better to go up ;ln d pay them, saying: ‘Here, Lord, here is m 7, obligation. Here are the means with which I mean to settle that obligation. Now fttve me a receipt. Cross it ail out. -the debt is paid. Hut the fact is we have fallen in the battle, we have gone down under tue hot file of our transgressions, we have been wounded by the sabers of sin, we are helpless, loud clang we are heard un done. Christ comes. Ihe in the sky on that Christmas night was only the bell, the resounding boll of the ambu lance. Clear the way for the Son of God. comes down to bind up the wounds, and to scatter the daikness, and to save the lost, Clear the way for the Son of God. comes down to us, and we are a deadlift, H® does not lift us with the tips of His fln gers. He does not lift us with one arm. Ho comes down upon His knee, and then with a dead lift He raises us to honor and glory and immortality. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Why, then, will a man carry his sins? You cannot carry suc cessfully the smallest sin well you put ever the Apen- com initted. You might as nines on one shoulder and the Alps on the other. How much less can you carry all the mu 3 of your lifetime? Christ comes and looks down in your face and says: “I hftve come through all the lacerations of these days, and through all the tempests of these nights. I have come to bear your burdens, and to pardon your sins, and to pay your debts. Put them on My shoulder put them on My heart.” “On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Sin has almost pest¬ ered the life out of some of you. At times it has made you cross and unreasonable, and it has spoiled the brightness of your days aud the peace of your nights. There are men who have been riddled of sin. The world gives them no solace. Gossamery' and volatile the world, while eternity, as they look forward to it, is black as midnight. They writhe under the stings of a conscienee which proposes to give no rest hero and no rest hereafter, and yet they do not repent, they do not pray, they do not weep. They do not realize that just the position they oc¬ cupy is the position occupied by scores, hundreds and thousands of men who never found any hope. If this meeting should be thrown open and the people who are here could give their testimony, what thrilling experiences we should hear on all sides! There is a man who would say: “I had brilliant surround¬ ings; I had the best education that one of the best collegiate institutions of this coun¬ try could give and I observed all the morali¬ ties of life, and I was self-righteous, and I thought I was all right before God as I am ail right before man, but the Holy Spirit cams to me one day and said, ‘You are a sinner;’the Holy Spirit persuaded me of the fact. While I had escaped, the sins against the law of the land, I had really committed the worst sin a man ever commits, the driving back of the Son of God from my heart’s affections, and I saw that my hands ware red with the blood of the Son of God, and I began to pray, and peace came to my heart and I know by experience that what you say is true." “On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all!" Yonder is a man who would say, “I was the worst drunkard in the city; I went from bad to worse; I destroyed myself; 1 destroyed my home; my children cowered wh«n I entered the house; when they put up their lip to be kissed, I struck them; when my wife pro¬ tested against the maltreatment, I kicked her into the street. I know ail the bruises and all the terrors of a drunkard’s woo. I went on farther and farther from God until one day I got a letter, saying: “>ly Dear Husband—I have tried every way, done everything and prayed earnestly and fervently for your reformation, bet it seems of no avail. Since our little Henry died, with the exception of those few happy weeks when you remained sober, my life had been one of sorrow. Many of the nights I have sat by the window, for with my fac9 bathed in tears, watching your coming. I am broken hearted, I am sick. ■Mother and father have been here frequently love and begged me to come home, but my for you aud my hope for-brighter days have always made me refuse them. That I hope seems now beyond realization, and have re¬ turned to them. It is hard, and I battled long before doing it. May God bless and preserve you, and take from you that ac¬ cursed appetite, and hasten the day when we shall be again llviug happily together. This will be my daily prayer, knowing that He has said, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' From your loving wife, Map.y. “And so I wandered on and wandered on,” siys that man, “until one night I passed a Methodist meeting house, and I said to my¬ self. ‘I’ll go in and see what they are doing,’ and I got to the door, aud they were singing: “All may come, whoever will— This man receives poor sinners still. “And I dropped right there where I tras. and I said, ‘God have mercy!’ and He had sings merev all on day me. My home is restored, my wife long during work, my children come out a long way to greet me home, and my household is a little heaven. 1 will tell you what did all this for me. It was the truth that you this day proclaim, “On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Youder is a woman who would say, “I wan¬ dered off from my father’s house’ I heard ihe storm that pelts on a lost soul. My feet were blistered on the hot rocks, I went on and on, thinking that no one cared for my soul, when one night Jesus met me and He said, ‘Poor thing, go home! Your father is watting for you, your mother is waiting for you. Go home, poor thing!’ And, air, I was too week to pray, and I was too weak to repent, but I just cried out—I sobbed out my sins and my sorrows on the shoulders of Him of whom it is sai 1, 'the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’” There is a young man who would say: I had a Christian bringing up; I came from the country to city life; I started well; I had good position—a good commercial position —but one night at the theater I met some young men ail who did ma no good. They dagged me through the sewers of ini¬ quity, and I lost my morals, and I lost my position, and I was shabby and wretched. I was going down the street, thinking that no one cared for me, when a young man tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘George, come with me, and I will do you good.’ I looked at him to see whether he was joking or not. t saw he was in earnest, and I 6aid, ‘What do you mean, sir?’ ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘I mean that if you wilt come to the meeting to¬ night I will be very glad to introduce you. I will meet you at the door. Will you come?’ Said I, ‘I will.’ I went to the place where 1 was tarrving. I fixed myself up as well as I could. 1 buttoned my coat over a ragged vest, and I went to the door of the church, and the young man met me, and we went in. and as I went in I heard an old man praying and he looked so much like my father I sobbed right out, and they were all around, so kind aud so sympathetic, that I just theie gave my heart to God, and I know that what you sav is true; I know it in my own experi¬ ence.” ‘‘On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Oh. my brother, without stopping to look whether your hand trem¬ bles or not. without stopping to look whether vour hand is bloated with sin or not, put it in my hand and let me give you om warm, brotherly, Christian grip aud invb you right up to the heart, to the compassion, to the sympathy, to the pardon of Him on ■whom the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all. Throw away your sins. Carry them no longer, I proclaim emancipation to all who are bound, pardon for all sin and eternal life for all the dead. Some one comes here to-day and I stand aside. He comes up three stops. He comes to this place. I must stand aside. Taking that place He spreads abroad His hands, and they were nailed. You see His feet; they were bruised. He pulls aside the robe and shows you His wounded heart. I say, ‘‘Art Tbou weary?” “Yes.” He says, “weary with the world’s woe,” Isay, “Whence contest Thou?” He says, “I came from Calvary.” I say, “Who comes with Thee?” Re says, “No one; I have trodden the winepress alone.” I say, “Why contest Thou here?” “Oh,” He says, “I came here to carry all the sins and sorrows of the people!” My And He kneels. He says, “Put on shoulders all the sorrow and all the sins.” And, conscioits of my own sms first, I take them and put them on the shoul¬ ders of the Son of God. I say, “Canst Thou bear any more, O Christ?” He says, “Yes, more.” And I gather up the sins ofallthose who serve at these altars, the officers of the church of Jesus Christ—I gather up all their sins and I put them on Christ’s shoulders, and I say, “Canst Thou bear any more?” He says, “Yes, hundred more,” Then I gather up all the sins of a people in this house aud I put them on the shoulders of Christ, and I say, “Canst Thou bear more?” He says, “Yea, more.” And I gather up all the sins of this assembly and put them on the shoulders of the Son of God, and I say, “Canst Thou bear them?” “Yea,” he says, “more.” But He is departing. Clear the way for Him, the Son of God. Open the door and let Him pass out. He is carrying shall our sins and bearing them away. We never see them again, He throws them down into the abysm, and you hear the long reverberating echo of their fall. “On Him the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all.” Will you let Him take your sins to-day? or. do you say. “I will take charge of them my¬ self. I will fight my own battles, I will risk eternity on my own account?” I know not how near some of you have come to crossing the line. A clergyman said in his pulpit one Sab¬ bath, “Before next Saturday night one of this audience will have passed out of life.” A gentleman said to another seated next to him: “I don’t believe it. I mean to watoh, and if it doesn’t oome true by next Saturday night I shall tell that clergyman his false¬ hood.” The man seated next to him said. “Perhaps it will be yourself.” “Oh. no,” the other replied. “I shall live to be an old man.” That night he breathed his last. To¬ day the Saviour calls. All may come. God never pushes a man off. God never d estroys anybody. The man jumps off, he jumps off. It is suicide—soul suicide—if the man per¬ ishes, for the invitation is, “whosoever will, let him come,” whosoever, whosoever, who¬ soever! While God invites, how blest the day, How sweet the gospel’s charming sound! Come, sinner, haste, oh, haste away While yet a pardoning God Is found. In this day of mercitul visitation, while many are coming into the kingdom of God, join the procession heavenward. Seated in my church was a man who came in who said, “I don’t know that there is any God.” That was on Friday night. I said, “We will kneel down and find out whether there is any God.” And in the second seat from the pulpit we knelt. He said: “I have found Him. There is a God, a pardoning God. I feel Him here.” He knelt in the darkness of sin. He arose two minutes after¬ ward in the liberty of the gospel. While an¬ other sitting under the gallery, on Friday night said: “My opportunity is gone. Last week I might have been saved. Not now. The door is shut.” “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” “Now is the accepted time. Now is the day ot salvation.” “It is appointed unto all men anee to die, and after that the judgment!” 3U C’UliOU LINK HEBE. Baptist Young People’s Union Makes No Distinction Because of Race. The executive committee of the Baptist Young People’s Union, at Chicago, has issued a declaration that any young people’s society in a Bap¬ tist church, or any Baptist church haviug such society, is entitled to rep¬ resentation in the international con¬ vention. In malting up the programs they neither invite nor ignore any person on account of race, or color or sex, the sole object being the promotion of Christ’s kingdom, they believing that no intelligent Baptist would con¬ sider au invitation based solely upon color or sex as anything less than an affront. PROSPECTIVE NEW ROAD. One May Be Built From Cleveland, Tenn., to Tunnell Hill, Ga. A movement has been set on foot at Cleveland, Tenn., by leading citizens for the construction of a line of rail¬ way from that city to Tunnell Hill, Gal, on the line of the Western and Atlantic railway. The line would only be 22 miles long and is a compara¬ tively easy line to build. A mass meeting has been called to farther consider the matter. GEORGIA RAILROAD SCHEDt OFFICE GENER4t felAPIACER Commencing Jan. 5th, 1896, the following scWhu, ' trains run by 90th Meridian Time. The 9 Wl be without notice the public. schednl e „ are object °per to ti READ DOWN. Train No. 3. No. 1. Train No. 11 N’t Exp Day m’1 No. 27 STATIONS. No 28 - °ay 4 OOp 10 30p 12 lOp 7 15a Lv Augusta Ar 810 piooiT : 4 24p 10 58p 12 36p Belair •••■•12 36p iS 1 4 37p 11 09p 12 46p 7 42a Grovetown 7 44p 12 ^ ^ 4 51p 11 21p 12 58p Berzelia l 27 5 OOp 11 29p 1 05p 7 57a Harlem 7 25pL !2l6pU 1 Ar. 7 10p 112 09 Pj 4 jj 5 lOp 11 38p 1 14p 8 03a Dearing 7 03p 12 5 5 28p 42p 11 12 58p 08a 1 1 30p 42p 8 19a Thomson Mesena 6 50p ;; 5a' 3 3 5 50p 12 16a 1 50p 8 35a Camak 11 33a 3 38 5 58p 6 34p 11 26a- 3 2 m 12 25a 1 57p 8 40a Norwood 6 27p 11 19a 2lJ 6 14p 12 42a 2 12p 8 53a Barnett »>• 3 6 26p 12 56a 2 24p 9 04a Crawfordville 11 Ooa 3 Oh N— 10 54 a; 2 48j 6 45p 1 22a 2 45p 9 25a Ar Union Point 5 45p 10 34a 2 2 l| 1 38a 3 04p 9 38a Greensboro 5 52p 10 21 a! 2 01 2 05a 3 30p 10 00a Buckhead 5 09p 10 00a 1 ! 2 22a 3 46p 10 12a Madison 4 55p 9 1 37 2 41a 4 05p 10 28a Rutledge 40a - 1 20 4 08p 9 20a 1 01 2 56a 4 25p 10 40a Social Circle 4 25p 9 05a 12 45 3 19a 4 44p 10 58a Covington 4 06p 8 43a 12 22 3 41a 5 04p 11 15a Conyers 3 4 8p 8 22a 1200b 3 54a 5 15p 11 26a Lithonia 3 37 P 8 10a II45 4 15a 5 31p 11 42a Stone Mountain 3 22p 7 53a 1124 4 28a 5 41p 11 51a Clarkston 3 13p 7 43a 11 lj 4 39a 5 49p 12 m Decatur O 7 3ia 11 00 5 00a 6 lOp 12 15p Ar Atlanta Lv Of Of 7 Sun. Only 1 50p 1 15a 1 50p 8 40a Lv Camak Ar 6 30pTl 25a 11 45 1 59p 1 31a 2 03p 8 47a Warrenton 6 00p| 11 17a 1132 2 18p 2 06a 2 34p 9 02a Mayfield 5 20p 11 01a 11 03 2 32p 2 30a 2 54p Culverton 4 55p 10 49a 10 44 2 43p 2 50a 3 12p 9 22a Sparta 4 34p 10 40a 10 27 3 OOp 3 22a 4 00p 9 36a Devereux 4 OOp 10 26a l 0 07 3 lOp 3 37a 4 15p 9 43a Carrs 3 44p 10 18a! 9 48 3 32p 4 16a 5 OOp 10 00a Milledgeville 3 06p 10 00a 1 ; 9 16j 3 50p 4 48a 5 30p Browns 1 52p 9 46a; 8 50] 4 OOp 5 07a 5 49p 10 24a Haddocks 1 38p 9 37a 8 34] 4 12p 5 28a 6 07p James 1 24p 9 28a : 8 18] 4 45p 6 30a 7 OOp 11 00a Ar Macon Lv 12 40p 9 00a 7 30) 6 15p 11 08a 2 15p Lv Barnett Ar 1 50p 8 50a 5 5| 6 6 23p 30p 11 11 21a 31a 2 2 27p 35p Hillman Sharon 1 1 40p 31 8 8 37a 27a 5 Jij fl 04p*Ar p 5 jl 6 55p 12 03p 3 Washington Lv 1 05p 7 55a 4 6 05p 2 45p Lv Union Point Ar 9 20ai 5 451 6 15p 2 55p Woodville 9 08a 5 35] 6 19p 2 59p Bairdstown 9 04a 5 31 6 32 p 3 lip Maxeys 8 51a 5 19j 6 38p 3 17p Stephens 8 44a 5 13] 6 50p 3 29n Crawford 8 30a 5 01] 7 06p 3 45p Dunlap 8 12a 4 45] 7 lOp 3 49p Winters 8 07a 4 41] 7 25p 4 05p Ar Athens Lv 7 50a 4 25] 10 50a Lv Union Point Ar to *p 11 30a Siloam —1 i 11 50a Ar White Plains Lv >-* hs all above trains run daily, except 11 and 12 on mam line, and 31 and 35ou Mid which do not run on Sunday. No. 28 supper at Harlem. Sleeping Care between A! Charleston, Augusta and Atlanta, Augusta and Macon, on night expre«. Sleq between Atlanta and New York on train 27, aud train leaving Atlanta at 7:15 o’clock, a. THOS. K. SCOTT, JOE W. WHITE, A. G. JACK General Manager. Traveling Passenger Agent. General Freight Augusta, Ga, W. HARDWIC1 J. W. KIRKLAND, W. Pass. Agt., Atlanta, Ga. Pass. Agt., Ma l? IH u m v m sag SEND US YO JOB V 7 A I Nice Work » --AND Cheap Pric
