28 chapters
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28 chapters
NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS
NEW TABERNACLE SERMONS
Author Of " Crumbs Swept Up ," " The Abominations Of Modern Society ," etc. Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. VOL. I New York: George Munro, Publisher, 17 To 27 Vandewater Street. 1886. T. De Witt Talmage T. De Witt Talmage Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by George Munro , in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C....
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BRAWN AND MUSCLE.
BRAWN AND MUSCLE.
ToC "And Samson went down to Timnath."— Judges xiv: 1. There are two sides to the character of Samson. The one phase of his life, if followed into the particulars, would administer to the grotesque and the mirthful; but there is a phase of his character fraught with lessons of solemn and eternal import. To these graver lessons we devote our morning sermon. This giant no doubt in early life gave evidences of what he was to be. It is almost always so. There were two Napoleons—the boy Napoleon and
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THE PLEIADES AND ORION.
THE PLEIADES AND ORION.
ToC "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."— Amos . v. 8 A country farmer wrote this text—Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and stuttered; but before the st
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THE QUEEN'S VISIT.
THE QUEEN'S VISIT.
ToC "Behold, the half was not told me."— I Kings x: 7. Solomon had resolved that Jerusalem should be the center of all sacred, regal, and commercial magnificence. He set himself to work, and monopolized the surrounding desert as a highway for his caravans. He built the city of Palmyra around one of the principal wells of the East, so that all the long trains of merchandise from the East were obliged to stop there, pay toll, and leave part of their wealth in the hands of Solomon's merchants. He m
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VICARIOUS SUFFERING.
VICARIOUS SUFFERING.
ToC "Without shedding of blood is no remission."— Heb. ix: 22. John G. Whittier, the last of the great school of American poets that made the last quarter of a century brilliant, asked me in the White Mountains, one morning after prayers, in which I had given out Cowper's famous hymn about "The Fountain Filled with Blood," "Do you really believe there is a literal application of the blood of Christ to the soul?" My negative reply then is my negative reply now. The Bible statement agrees with all
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POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY.
POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY.
ToC "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be."— Eccles. xi: 3. There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of this; that, if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palace; that, as a defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court, and carry it up to the Supreme Court or Court of
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THE LORD'S RAZOR.
THE LORD'S RAZOR.
ToC "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the King of Assyria."— Isaiah vii: 20. The Bible is the boldest book ever written. There are no similitudes in Ossian or the Iliad or the Odyssey so daring. Its imagery sometimes seems on the verge of the reckless, but only seems so. The fact is that God would startle and arouse and propel men and nations. A tame and limping similitude would fail to accomplish the object. While there are ti
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WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM.
WINDOWS TOWARD JERUSALEM.
ToC "His windows being open and his chamber toward Jerusalem."— Dan. vi: 10. The scoundrelly princes of Persia, urged on by political jealousy against Daniel, have succeeded in getting a law passed that whosoever prays to God shall be put under the paws and teeth of the lions, who are lashing themselves in rage and hunger up and down the stone cage, or putting their lower jaws on the ground, bellowing till the earth trembles. But the leonine threat did not hinder the devotion of Daniel, the Coeu
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STORMED AND TAKEN.
STORMED AND TAKEN.
ToC "And Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him, and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder.... And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women."— Judges ix: 48, 49. Abimelech is a name malodorous in Bible
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ALL THE WORLD AKIN.
ALL THE WORLD AKIN.
ToC "And hath made of one blood all nations of men."— Acts xvii: 26. Some have supposed that God originally made an Asiatic Adam and a European Adam and an African Adam and an American Adam, but that theory is entirely overthrown by my text, which says that all nations are blood relatives, having sprung from one and the same stock. A difference in climate makes much of the difference in national temper. An American goes to Europe and stays there a long while, and finds his pulse moderating and h
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A MOMENTOUS QUEST.
A MOMENTOUS QUEST.
ToC "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found."— Isa. lv: 6. Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of our Saviour's features. Some of them present, as it were, the side face of Christ; others a bust of Christ; but Isaiah gives us the full-length portrait of Christ. Other Scripture writers excel in some things. Ezekiel more weird, David more pathetic, Solomon more epigrammatic, Habakkuk more sublime;
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THE GREAT ASSIZE.
THE GREAT ASSIZE.
ToC Doctor Talmage's Sermon, Preached At Cork, Ireland, Sunday Morning, Sept 6th, 1885. "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."— Matthew xxv: 31, 32. Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon th
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THE ROAD TO THE CITY.
THE ROAD TO THE CITY.
ToC "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow an
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THE RANSOMLESS.
THE RANSOMLESS.
ToC "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom can not deliver thee."— Job xxxvi: 18. Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is
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THE THREE GROUPS.
THE THREE GROUPS.
ToC "And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties."— Mark vi: 40. The sun was far down in the west, night was coming on, and there were five thousand people tired, hungry, shelterless. You know how Washington felt at Valley Forge, when his army was starving and freezing. You may imagine how any great-hearted general would feel while his troops were suffering. Imagine, then, how Christ, with His great heart, must have felt as He saw these five thousand hunger-bitten people. Yes, I suppos
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THE INSIGNIFICANT.
THE INSIGNIFICANT.
ToC "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech."— Ruth ii: 3. The time that Ruth and Naomi arrive at Bethlehem is harvest-time. It was the custom when a sheaf fell from a load in the harvest-field for the reapers to refuse to gather it up: that was to be left for the poor who might happen to come along that way. If there were handfuls of grain scattered across the fi
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THE THREE RINGS.
THE THREE RINGS.
ToC "Put a ring on his hand."— Luke xv: 22. I will not rehearse the familiar story of the fast young man of the parable. You know what a splendid home he left. You know what a hard time he had. And you remember how after that season of vagabondage and prodigality he resolved to go and weep out his sorrows on the bosom of parental forgiveness. Well, there is great excitement one day in front of the door of the old farmhouse. The servants come rushing up and say: "What's the matter? What is the ma
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HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT.
HOW HE CAME TO SAY IT.
ToC "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."— I Cor. xvi: 22. The smallest lad in the house knows the meaning of all those words except the last two, Anathema Maranatha. Anathema, to cut off. Maranatha, at His coming. So the whole passage might be read: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cut off at His coming." Well, how could the tender-hearted Paul say that? We have seen him with tears discoursing about human want, and flushed with excitem
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CASTLE JESUS.
CASTLE JESUS.
ToC "Who have fled for refuge."— Heb. vi: 18. Paul is here speaking of the consolations of Christians. He styles them these "who have fled for refuge." Moses established six cities of refuge—three on the east side of the river Jordan, and three on the west. When a man had killed any one accidentally he fled to one of these cities. The roads leading to them were kept perfectly good, so that when a man started for the refuge nothing might impede him. Along the cross-roads, and wherever there might
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STRIPPING THE SLAIN.
STRIPPING THE SLAIN.
ToC "And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa."— I. Sam. xxxi: 8. Some of you were at South Mountain, or Shiloh, or Ball's Bluff, or Gettysburg, and I ask you if there is any sadder sight than a battle-field after the guns have stopped firing? I walked across the field of Antietam just after the conflict. The scene was so sickening I shall not describe it. Every valuable thing had been taken fr
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SOLD OUT.
SOLD OUT.
ToC "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money."— Isa. lii: 3. The Jews had gone headlong into sin, and as a punishment they had been carried captive to Babylon. They found that iniquity did not pay. Cyrus seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these poor captive Jews that, without a dollar of compensation, he let them go home. So that, literally, my text was fulfilled: "Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." There is enough G
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SUMMER TEMPTATIONS.
SUMMER TEMPTATIONS.
ToC "Come ye yourselves apart unto a desert place and rest awhile."— Mark vi: 31. Here Christ advises His apostles to take a vacation. They have been living an excited as well as a useful life, and He advises that they get out into the country. When, six weeks ago, standing in this place, I advocated, with all the energy I could command, the Saturday afternoon holiday, I did not think the people would so soon get that release. By divine fiat it has come, and I rejoice that more people will have
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THE BANISHED QUEEN.
THE BANISHED QUEEN.
ToC "Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti refused to
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THE DAY WE LIVE IN.
THE DAY WE LIVE IN.
ToC "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"— Esther iv. 14. Esther the beautiful was the wife of Ahasuerus the abominable. The time had come for her to present a petition to her infamous husband in behalf of the Jewish nation, to which she had once belonged. She was afraid to undertake the work, lest she should lose her own life; but her uncle, Mordecai, who had brought her up, encouraged her with the suggestion that probably she had been raised up of God for
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CAPITAL AND LABOR.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
ToC "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."— Matt. vii: 12. The greatest war the world has ever seen is between capital and labor. The strife is not like that which in history is called the Thirty Years' War, for it is a war of centuries, it is a war of the five continents, it is a war hemispheric. The middle classes in this country, upon whom the nation has depended for holding the balance of power and for acting as mediators between the two extremes, are diminis
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DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE.
DESPOTISM OF THE NEEDLE.
ToC "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter."— Eccles. iv: 1. Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered honorable for women to toil in olden time. Alexander the Great stood in his palace showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at Bayeux were made by the queen of William t
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TOBACCO AND OPIUM.
TOBACCO AND OPIUM.
ToC "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed."— Gen. i: 11. The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb. They preceded the brute creation and the human family—the grass for the animal creation, the herb for human service. The cattle came and took possession of their inheritance, the grass-blade; man came and took possession of his inheritance, the herb. We have the herb for food as in case of hunger, for narcotic as in case of insomnia, for anodyne as in cas
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WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED?
WHY ARE SATAN AND SIN PERMITTED?
ToC "Wherefore do the wicked live?"— Job xxi: 7, Poor Job! With tusks and horns and hoofs and stings, all the misfortunes of life seemed to come upon him at once. Bankruptcy, bereavement, scandalization, and eruptive disease so irritating that he had to re-enforce his ten finger-nails with pieces of earthenware to scratch himself withal. His wife took the diagnosis of his complaints and prescribed profanity. She thought he would feel better if between the paroxysms of grief and pain he would swe
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