The Sioux County Journal,
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'I
VOLUME VI.
HAKMSON, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1803.
NUMBER 16.
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE PREACH
ES AT BIRMINGHAM.
ffca Mlranuloa Coormloo of tha (irrat
Peram-ator Butli an Kuroaracamrnt and
a Waralag Out si Ureat Tribulation
Caaaa ZeaJ and Clear Vtam of Truth.
Talks In tha South.
Rev. Dr. Taimage durinjj his South
ern tour laul week spoke at Nashville,
Memphis, and other cities, and on
Sunday forenoon preached to a large
audiance at Birmingham, Ala., under
the auspices of the Baptist Church.
The subject was "Unhorsed," and the
text chosen was Acta ix. .'-": "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 sayinjr
unto him, Saul, Saul, whv persei-utest
thou me? And he said, vVhoart thou,
Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus
whom thou perneeutost. "
'I he Damascus of Bible times still
lands, with a population of 13.1,000. It
was a gay city of white and glistening
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
it brightness into the scene; a city by
the ancients styled "a pearl surrounded
by emeralds."
Tha Coming- Terror.
A group of horsemen are advancing
upon that city. Let the Christians of
the place hide, for that cavalcade com
ing over the hills Is made of persecu
tors; their leader small and unattrac
tive in Homo respects, as leaders some
times are insignificant in person wit
ness 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 ho
rides is lathered with the foam of a
long and quick travel of 1.1.1 miles. He
urges on his steed, for thone Christians
must be captured and silenced, and
that religion of the crow must lie an
nihilated. Suddenly the horses shy off and
plunge until the riders are precipi
tated. Freed 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 supernatural appearance,
i sometimes becomes very uncontroll
I able. A new sun has been kindled in
i the heavens, putting out the glare of
the ordinary sun. Christ, with ihe
glory or Heaven wrapped alxjut Him,
looked out from a cloud, and the splen
dor was insulTurablo, and no wonder
the homes sprang and the equestrians
drop,od.
Dust covered and bruised, Saul at
tempts to get up, shading his eyes with
bis hands from the severe luster of the
heavens, but unsuccessfully, for he is
struck stone blind as he cries out,
"Who art thou, Lord'" and Jesus an
swered him: "I am the one you have
been chasing. He that whips and
scourges those Damascene Christians
, wniiw anil scourges ino. it is not their
-J back that is bleeding: it is mine. It is
I nn th..i. v.. tu..t !., i. ...... !,;.. .,
iiu. Kuu.i iit.ni i. kiia. in in caning, j i, jn
mine. 1 am Jesus whom thou perse
cutest." The Deformed Transformed.
From that wild, exciting and over
whelming scene there rise up the
greatest preacher of all the ages
l'aul in whose Ix-half prisons were
rocked down, before whom soldiers
turned pale, into whose hands Medi
terranean sea captains put control of
their shipwrecking cralt, and whose
epistles are the avant courier of a res
urrection day. i
I learn from this scene that a worldly
fall sometimes precedes a spiritual up- i
lifting. A man does not get much sym-'
pathy by falling on a horse, i'eoplo ;
lay he ought not to have got into the
saddle if ho could uot ride. Those of j
us who were brought up in the conn-,
try remember well how the workmen '
laughed when, on our way buck from '
the brook, we suddenly lost our ride, j
When in a grand review a general 1
toppled from the stirrups, it became a '
national merriment.
Here is l'aul on horseback a proud ;
man, riding on with government docu- !
ments in his pocket, a graduate of a '
most famous school, in which the cele- '.
brated Dr. Gamaliel had been a pro
fessor, perhaps havingalready attained
two of the three titles of the school
rab, the first: rabbi, the second, and
on his way to rabbuk, the third and
highest title. I know from his tem-1
pemrent that his horse was ahnad of!
the oilier horses. But without time to
think of what posture he should take,
or without consideration for his dig- ,
nity, ho is tumbled into the dust. And
yet that was the ls:st ride l'aul ever l
took. Out of that violent fall ho arose
into the axHtleshlp. So it haslxien in
all ages, and so it is now. j
Tunned By Buffering !
You w ill never be worth much for
God and the church until you lose your '
fortune, or have your reputation upset, i
or in some way, somehow, are thrown j
and humiliated. You must go down
before vou go up. Joseph finds his,
, oath to the F.gyptian Court through i
j ? the pit Into which his brothers threw
him. Daniel would never have walked '
among the bronzed lions that adorned
the Babylonish throne if he had not
tirst walked among the real lions of
the cave. And l'aul marshals all the
fenerations of Chrintendom by falling
flat on hid face on the road to Da-
masons.
Men who havo boon always pros
pered may he efficient servants of the
world, but will be of no advantage to
Christ. You may ride majestically
eated on your charger, rein In hand,
foot In stirrup, but you will never be
worth anything spiritually until you
fall off They who graduate from the
tehool of Christ with the highest
honor have on their diploma the aeal
f a lion' muddy paw, or the plash of
an angry wave, or the drop of a stray
tear, or the brown Moron of a perse
cuting fire. In cases out of 1.000
there is no moral or spiritual elevation
until there has been a thorough
worldly ujjsetting.
The Hrare Christian.
Again. I learn from the subject that
the religion of Christ is not a pusillan
imous thing. People in this day try to
make us believe that Christianity is
something for men of small caliber,
for women with no capacity to reason,
for children in the infant class under
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 conquering 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 sanhedrin he made it tremble.
He learned all that he could get in
the school of his native village: then
he had gone to a higher school and
there mastered the Greek and Hebrew
and perfected himself in belle 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 Goeth or Herbert
Spencer that could compare in strength
or beauty with Paul's epistles. I do
not think there is anything in the writ
ings of Sir William Hamilton that
shows such mental discipline as you
find in Paul's argument about justifi
cation and the resurrection. I have
not found anything in Milton finer in
the way or imagination than I can find
in Paul's illustrations drawn from the
ampnithcater.
There was nothing in Ilo!crt Kmmet
pleading for his life, or in Kdmund
Burke arraigning Warren Hastings in
Westminster Hall, that compared with
the scene in the courtroom when, be
fore robed olllcials, l'aul Isiwed and be
gan nis speech, saying. "I think my
self happy. King Agrippa. because I j
shall answer for myself this day." I
rejeat that a religion that cn capture I
a man like that must have some power
in it. It is time you stopped talking
as though all the brain in the world
were opposed to Christianity. Where
l'aul leads, we can afford to 'follow.
Tulented C'lirintlMim.
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 Itaphael and a Reynolds in
painting, an Angelo and a Canova in
sculpture, a Hush and a Harvey in
medicine, a Grotitis and a Washington
in statesmanship: a Blaekstone. a Mar
shall, and a Kent in law. And the
time will come when the religion of
Christ will conquer all the oliserva
tories and universities, and philosophy
will through her telescope behold the
morning star of Jesus, and in her lab
oratory see "that all things work to
gether for good," und with her geo
logical hammer discover the "Hock of
Ages."
Oh. instead of cowering and shiver
ing when the skeptic stands before you
and talks of religion a though it were
a pusillanimous thing - instead of that,
take your New Testament from vour
pocket and show him the picture of the
intellectual giant of all the uges pros
trated on the road to Damascus while
his horse is flying wildly uway. Then
ask your skeptic what it was that
frighlened the one and threw the
other. Oh, no, it is no weak gospel.
It Is a glorious gospel. It is an all
conqiioring gospel. It is an omnipo
tent gospel. It is the power of God
und the wisdom of God unto salvation.
lie Must lie llunihlrd.
Again, I leurn from the text a man
cannot become a Christian until he is
unhorsed. The trouble is, we want to j
ride into the kingdom of God just as
the knight rode into castle gate on j
palfrey, beautifully caparisoned. We I
want to come into the kingdom of God :
in fine style. No kneeling down at the
altar, no sitting on "anxious scats," j
no crying over sin, no begging at the1
door of God's mercy. Clear the road i
and let us come in ull prancing in the '
pride of our soul. No. wo will never;
get into Heaven that way. We must i
dismount. j
There is no knight errantry in re-
Ilgion, no fringed trappings of rejH'nt- !
ance, but an utter prostration before i
itou, a going uuwn tu uiu uusi, wim
the cry, "Unclean, unclean!" a be-
wailing of the soul, like David from ;
the lieliy of hell a going down in the j
dust until Christ shall by his grace !
lift us up as he lifted Paul. Oh, proud I
hearted hearer, you must get off that 1
horse! May a light from the throne
of God brighter than tne sun throw
you! Come down inU) the dust and
cry for pardon and life and Heaven.
Again, I learn from this sceno of the
text that the grace of God can over- j
come the persecutor. Christ and l'aul !
were ltys at the same time in differ- j
ent villages, and Paul's antipathy to j
Christ was increasing. Ho hated I
everything about ( hrUt. He was go- j
ing down then with writs in his pockets
to have Christ's disciples arrested. I
He was not going as a sheriff goes to
arrest a man against whom he had no
spile, but Paul was po ng dowVi to ar-'
rest those people because ho was glad '
to arrest them. I
The Bible says. "He breathed out I
slaughter." He wanted them cap- j
lured, and ho wanted them butchered, j
I hear the click and clash and clatter j
of the hoofs of the galloping steeds on I
the way to Damascus. Oh, do you j
think that proud man on horseback j
can ever Iweome a Christian? Yes!
There is a voice from Heaven like a j
thunderclap uttering two words, the j
second word the same as the first, but j
uttered with more emphasis, so that
the proud equestrian may have no i
doubt as to who is meant: "Saul!
Haul!" That man was saved, and ho j
was a persecutor, and so God can ny ;
His grace overcome any persecutor. j
Still Nome feneration.
The days of sword and fire for Chris-:
tians seem to have gone by. The bayo-
nets ot Napoleon I pried open the "In
quisition" and let the rotting wretches
out. The ancient dungeons around
Home are to-day mere curiosities for
the travelers. The Colisenm, where ;
wild beasts used to suck up the life o'
the martyrs while the Emperor watched
and Lolia Paulina st with emerald
adornments worth 60,000,000 sesterces,
clapping her hands as the Christians
died under the paw and tooth of the
lion that Coliseum is a ruin now. The
scene of the Sinithfield fires is a hay
market. 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 re
ligion? In projKrtion 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, brother, and
sister making her the target of ridi
cule. That young man finds it hard to
be a Christian in the shop or factory
or store when his comrades jeer at
him because he will not go to the
gambling hell or other places of
iniquity.
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 tiegan to
pray for your persecutors? They are
no prouder, no fiercer, no more set in
their way than was this persecutor of
the text. He fell. They will fall if
Christ from the heavens grandly and
gloriously looks out on them. God can
by His grace make a Kenan believe in
the divinity of Jesus and a Tyndall in
the worth of prayer.
Robert Newton stamped the ship's
deck in derisive indignation at Chris
tianity 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 be
fore many months passed the rather
knelt at the samo altar with the child.
And the Ixird Jesus Christ is willing to
look out from Heaven upon that
derisive opponent of the Christian
religion and address him, not in glit
tering generalities, but calling him
by name: "John! George! Henry!
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
llO for the WorKt.
Again, 1 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
ugo been in these very places, and Saul
every day in Jerusalem snust have met
people who knew Christ, iieople of
good eyesight whom Jesus had cured
of blindness, people who had been dead
and who had l'cn resurrected by the
Saviour, and people who could tell
all the particulars of the crucifixion
just how Jesus looked in the last hour,
just how the heavens grew black in
the face at the torture.
He heard that recited every day b
fitn"
the people who were acquainted w
all the circu mstances, and yet in the
fresh memory of that scene be goes to
persecute Christ's disciples, impatient
at the time it takes to feed the horses
at the inn, not pulling at the sna!Ue,
but riding with loose rein faster and
faster. Oh, he was the chief of sin
ners! No outbreak of modesty when
he said that. Ho was a murderer. He
stood by when Stephen died and helped
in the execution of thatgood man.
When the rabble wanted to bo un
impeded in their work of destroying
Stephen anil wanted to take on ttieir
coats, hut did not dare to lay them
down lest they be stolen, Paul said,
"I'll take care of tho 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 sad
dle, and he was not dragged and kicked
to death? Ho deserved to die miser
ably, wretchedly, and forever. notwith
standing all his metaphysics, and his
eloquence, and his logic.
The Chief of Mlniier.
He was the chief of winners. He said
what was true when ho said that. And
yet the grace of God saved him, and so
I. ! 1 1 , i. I
lb win yuu. ll umrt) is tuiy uttui tu :
this bouse who thinks he is too bad to !
be saved and says, "I have wandored
very griovously from God; I do not bo
live there is any hojw 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 so as the young man
who said in regard to his dissipating
habits: "1 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 1 die 1 shall go
to hell, but it is now too late to stop."
Tho steed on which you ride may bo
swifter and stronger and higher met
tled than that on which the Cilieian
persecutor rode, but Christ can catch
it by tho bridle and hurl it back and
hurl it down. There is mercy for yo.i
who say y ou are too bad to be saved.
on say you havo put off the matter so
long; Paul had neglected it u great
while. You say that the sin you have
committed haaoeen among the most
aggravating circumstances; that was so
with Paul's.
You say you havo exasperated Christ
and coaxed your own ruin; so did Putil.
And yet ho sits to-day on one ol tho
highest 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 high
way to Damascus, and brushing off the
dust from his cloak, and wining the
sweat of excitement from his brow, as
ho turns to us and all the ages, saying,
"This a faithful saying and worthy of
all acceptation that Christ Jesus came
into the world to aave sinners, of
whom I am chief."
Tha Sabllme Kealitr.
Once more, I learn from this subject
tnat there is a tremendous reality in
religion. If it had been a mere optical
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 intellectual nature,
and not a man of hallucinations. And
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 something in religion some
where. The only question is. Where?
There was a man who rode from
Stamford to London 95 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 aye, all of
us are speeding on at tenfold that
velocity, at a thousandfold that rate to
ward eternity. May Almighty God,
from the opening heavens, . flash upon
your so ll this hour the ouestion of
your eternal destiny, and oh, that
Jesus would this hour overcome you
with His pardoning mercy as He stands
here with the pathos of a broken heart
and sols into your ear: "I have come
for thee. 1 come with my back raw
from the beating. I come with my
feet mangled with lh nails. I come
with my brow achirg from the twisted
bramble. I come with my heart burst
ing for your woes. 1 can stand it no
longer. I am Jesus whom thou perse
cutest." Almost Infallible.
A well-known contractor walked
into a bank in this city the other day
to cash a check for 40 The paying
tcller looketl at the check a few min
utes, then, counted out $100, and
handed it to the contractor, who, al
though ho noticed the error, said not
a word, but rolled up the bills and
wadded them d iwn into his pocket.
Th s happened in the morning, and
about 2 o clock the s:ime afternoon,
before the officials of the bank had
an opportunity to discover the error,
tho contractor walked Into the office
of the President of the bank.
"1 this bank responsible for the
errors of its clerks-" he asked the
President
"If it can be proved that any of
our clerks have erred." replied the
President, in a very chilly manner,
"we will make the correction."
"Well, nobody saw this error made
but myself," continued the con
tractor, "and my word ought to be
sufficient proof. I think."
"I am sorry, sir," said the bank
president, "but we shall have to have
additional proof. We require this in
order to protect ourselves: that is
all."
"Very well, sir." replied the con
tractor, rising to leave, "1 am sorry
I cannot furnish what you demand.
The error, I referred to was the pay
ment of f too for a check that called
for o::ly $40: but, as no oue saw me
receive the extra :iiiO, I suppose you
will not want to correct the mistake.
Good day, sir."
"Hold on! Come backl" shouted
tho bank President, who, by this
time, was very wide awake to the
abyss to which ho had been led.
The matter was soon adjusted
; satisfactorily, and now when any
j nersori reports an error at that bank.
tho first que tion asked is: "In whose
favor?" Washington Post
j Astonished Savages-.
I The author of "Where Three Era
. pires Meet" took sonic Kafirs from
; their desolate island home in the
Himalayan gorge beyond the nioun
I tain ranges to the more civilized
i south.
I They were descending a road when
' one of them chanced to remark that
i he was hungry, and the English "sa
; hib" bought him some food at a way-
! side shop. I he waiir saw the money
j change hands.
i i.ii :,. t.
'How is this? Do you have to pay
for food in this country?" ho inquired
in surprise.
"Certainly."
"What a country!'' cried the man
in amazement. Then, ponderinf? a
while he continued doubtfully. "Sup
pose a man had no money in this
country; he might starve!"
"It Is quite possible."
The Kafir shook with uncontrolla
ble laughter. It was the best joke
he had ever heard. He then ex
plained the ridiculous system to his
j companions ana they roared in
j chorus.
Balloon Photography.
Some of the finest photographs
I from a balloon have recently been
1 made by a Philadelphia photographer.
; The use of such pictures must event
ually be recognized. Their value In
map-making or In constructing a
i railway must not bo under-estimated,
j In the next great war there is no
i doubt but that aerial photography
. will play an Important part in sccur
j Ing photographs from above the
.enemy, and thus obtaining Infocc
i (nation regarding their strength,
i posit on, and movements. To avoid
loss of life the camera can be at
tached to a captive balloon and the
plats changed and shutters rel ascd
by means of elcctiiclty from the
ground. An arrangement for a some
what similar purpose has been re
cently tried with success. In this a
kite is used, to which a camera Is at
tached, and the exposure Is made by
a fuse, which burns until It reaches
a certain point and then releases the
hatter.
THE-
COMMERCIAL BANK.
ESTABLISHED 1888.
Harrison,
B. E. Brswstkr,
President.
D. H. GRISWOLD, Cashisr.
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL. $50 000.
Transacts a General Banking Business.
CORRESPONDENTS:
American Exchange National Bank, New York,
U.vted States National Bank. Omaha,
First National Bank, Chadroa.
Interest Paid on Time Deposits.
WDRAFTS SOLD ON ALL PARTS OF EUROPE.
THE PIONEER
Pharmacy,
J. E. PHINNEY, Proprietor.
Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints,
Oils and Varnishes.
ty ARTISTS' MATERIAL.
School Supplies.
Prescriptions Carefully Compounded
Day or Night.
SU.S&SUEY,
Harrison, Nebraska,
Real Estate Agents,
Have a number of bargains in
choice land in Sioux county.
Parties desiring to
estate should
call on
School Lands
leased, taxes paid for
non-residents; farms rented, etc.
CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED.
Nebraska.
C. F. Cora,
Vice-Pretideal
BTTBRU8HES
buy or sell real
not fail to
them.
Us
i'3;
-r-v l
a i
