A WORD OF MIGHT.
Great Meaning Contained in Text
Lof Dr. Talmage’s Sermon.
la Composed of But Four Letters Hot
Is the Queen of Words—Solace
of Christian Faith—Two
Tliini&'s to Believe.
[Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.]
Washington, Oct. 20.
In this discourse Dr. Talmage calls
all people to gladness and opens all
the doors of expectancy; texts, Gen
esis vi., 18, “Come;” Revelations xxii.,
17, “Come.”
Imperial, tender and all persuasive
is the word “Come.” Six hundred and
seventy-eight times it is found in the
Scriptures. It stands at the front
gate of the Bible as in my first text,
inviting antediluvians into Noah’s ark,
and it stands at the other gate of the
Bible as in my second text, inviting
the postdiluvians of all later ages
into the ark of a Saviour’s mercy.
“Come” is only a word of four let
ters, but it is the queen of words,
and nearly the entire nation of Eng
glish vocabulary bows to its scepter.
It is an ocean into which empties 10,
000 rivers of meaning. Other words
drive, but this beckons. All moods of
feeling hath that word “Come.”
Sometimes it weeps and sometimes it
laughs. Sometimes it prays, some
times it tempts, and sometimes it de
stroys. It sounds from the door of
the church and from the seraglios of |
sin, from the gates of Heaven and
the gates of hell. It is confluent and
accrescent of all power. It is the heir
ess of most of the past and the al
moner of most of the future. “Come!”
You may pronounce it so that all the
heavens will be heard in its cadences
or pronounce it so that all the woes
of time and eternity shall reverberate
in its one syllable. It is on the lip
of saint and profligate. It is the
mightiest of all solicitants either for
good or bad.
To-day I weigh anchor and haul in
the planks and set sail on that great
word, although I am sure I will not
be able to reach the farther shore.
1 will let down the fathoming line
into this sea and try to measure its
depths, and, though I tie together all
the cables and cordage I have on
board, I will not be able to touch bot
tom. All the power of the Christian
religion is in that word, “Come.” The
dictatorial and commendatory in re
ligion are of no avail. The impera
tive mood is not the appropriate
mood when we would have people sav
ingly impressed. They may be
coaxed, but they cannot be driven.
Our hearts are like our homes; at
a friendly knock the door will be
opened, but an attempt to force open
our doors would land the assailant
in prison. Our theological seminaries,
which keep young men three years in
their curriculum before launching
them into the ministry, will do well
if in so short a time they can teach
the candidates for the holy office how
to say with right emphasis and into
nation and power that one word,
“Come!” That man who has such
efficiency in Christian work and that
woman who has such power to per
suade people to quit the wrong and
begin the right went through a series
of losses, bereavements, persecutions
and the trials of 20 or 30 years be
fore they could make it a triumph of
grace every time they uttered the
word “Come.”
You must remember that in many
cases our “Come” has a mightier
“Come” to conquer before it has any
effect at all. Just give me the accu
rate census, the statistics of how
many are clown in fraud, in drunken
ness, in gambling, in impurity or in
vice of any sort, and I will give you
the accurate census or statistics 'of
how many have been slain by the
word “Come.” “Come and click wine
glasses with me at this ivory bar.”
“Come and see what we can win at
this gaming table.” “Come enter
with me this doubtful speculation!”
“Come with me and read those in
fidel tracts on Christianity.” “Come
with me to a place of bad amuse
ment.” “Come with me in a gay bout
through the underground life of the
city.” If in this city there are 20,000
who are down in moral character,
then 20,000 fell under the power of
the word “Come.” I was reading of
a wife whose husband had been over
thrown by strong drink, and she went
to the saloon where'he was ruined,
and she said: “Give me back my
husband.” And the bartender, point
ing to a maudlin and battered man
drowsing in the corner of the bar
room, said: “There he is. Jim, wake
up; here’s your wife come for you.”
And the woman said: “I)o you call
that my husband? What have you
been doing with him? Is that the
manly brow, is that the clear eye,
is that the noble heart, that I mar
• ried? What vile drug have you given
him that has turned him into a fiend?
Take your tiger claws off of him.
Uncoil those serpent folds of evil
habit that are crushing him. Give me
back my husband, the one with whom
I stood at the altar ten years ago.
Give him back to me.” Victim was
he, as many millions of others have
been, of the word “Come!”
Now we want all the world over
to harness this word for good as
others have harnessed it for evil, and
it will draw the five continents and
the seas between them—yea, it will
draw the whole earth back to God
from whom it has wandered. It is
that wooing and persuasive word that
will lead men to give up their sins.
Y\ as skepticism ever brought into
love of the truth by an ebullition of
hot words against infidelity? Was
ever the blasphemer stopped in his
oaths by denunciation of blasphemy?
Was ever the drunkard weaned from
his cups by the temperance lecturer’s
mimicry of staggering step and hic
cough? No. It was: “Come with
me to church to-day and hear our|
singing;” “Come and let me intro- !
duce you to a Christian man whom
you will be sure to admire;” “Come
with me into associations that are
cheerful and good and inspiring;”
“Come with me into joy such as you
never before experienced.”
With that word which has done so i
much for others I approach you to- j
day. Are you right with God? “No,” \
you say, “I think not; I am sometimes '
alarmed when I think of Him; I fear !
i will not be ready to meet Him in ,
the last day; my heart is not right with
God.” Come, then, and have it made
right. Through the Christ who died
to save you, come! What is the use j
in waiting? The longer you wait the
farther off you are and the deeper you
are down. Strike out for Heaven! You
remember that a few years ago a
steamer called the Princess Alice, with
a crowd of excursionists aboard, sank
in the Thames, and there was an awfu!
sacrifice of life. A boatman from the
shore put out for the rescue, and he
had a big boat, and he got it so full it
would not hold another person, and as
he laid hold of the oars to pull for the
shore, leaving hundreds helpless and
drowning, he cried out; “Oh. that I
had a bigger boat!” Thank God that 1
am not thus limited and that I can
promise room for all in this Gospel
boat. Get in; get in! And yet there
is room. Room in the heart of a par
doning God. Room in Heaven.
What we all need, whether up or
down in life or half way between, is
the infinite solace of the Christian reli
gion. And so we employ the word
“Come!” It will take all eternity to
find out the number of business men
who have been strengthened by the
promises of God, and the people who
have been fed by the ravens when other
resources gave out, and the men and
women who, going into this battle
armed only with the needle or saw or
ax or yardstick or pen or type or shovel
or shoe last, have gained a victory that
made the heavens resound.
Hut the word “Come” applied to
those who need solace will amount to
nothing unless it be uttered by some
one who has experienced that solace.
That spreads the responsibility of giv
ing this Gospel call among a great
many. Those who have lost property
and have been consoled by religion in
that trial are the ones to invite those
who have failed in business. Those
who have lost their health and been
consoled by religion are the ones to
invite those who are in poor health.
Those who have had bereavements and
been consoled in those bereavements
are the ones to sympathize with those
who have lost father or mother or
companion or child or friend. What
multitudes of us are alive to-day and
in good health and buoyant in this
journey of life who would have been
broken down or dead long ago but for
the sustaining and cheering help of our
holy religion! So we say, “Come!”
The well is not dry. The buckets are
not empty. The supply is not exhaust
ed. There is just as much mercy and
condolence and soothing power in God
as before the first grave was dug, or
the first tear started, or the first heart
broken, or the first accident happened,
or the first fortune vanished. Those
of us who have felt the consolatory
power of religion have a right to speak
out of our own experiences and say:
“Come! ”
What dismal work of condolence the
world makes when it attempts to con
dole! The plaster they spread does
not stick. The broken bones under
their bandage do not knit. A farmer
was lost in a snowstorm on a prairie
I of the far west. Night was coming on,
and after he was almost frantic from
not knowing which way to go his
sleig'li struck the rut of another sleigh,
and he said: “I will follow- this rut,
and it will take me out to safety.” He
hastened on until he heard the bells
of the preceding horses; but, coming
up, he found that that man was also
lost, and, as is the tendency of those
who are confused in the forest or on
the moors, they were both moving in
a circle, and the runner of the one lost
sleigh was following the runner of
the other lost sleigh round and round.
At last it occurred to them to look at
the north star, which was peering
through the night, and by the direction
of that star they got home again.
Those who follow the advice of this
world in time of perplexity arc in a
fearful round, for it is one bewildered
soul following another bewildered
soul, and only those who have in such
time got their eye on the morning star
of our Christian faith can find their
way out or be strong enough to lead
I others with an all-persuasive invita
tion.
“But,” says some one, “you Christian
people keep telling us to ‘conn,' yet
you do not tell us how to come.” That
charge shall not be true on this occa
sion. Come believing! Come repent
ing! Come praying! After all that God
has been doing for six thousand years,
sometimes through patriarchs and
sometimes through prophets and at
last through the culmination of all the
tragedies on Golgotha, can anyone
think that God will not welcome your
coming? Will a father at vast outlay
construct a mansion for his son and
lay out parks white with statues and
green with foliage and all a-sparkle
with fountains and then not allow his
son to live in the house or walk in the
parks? Has God built this house of
Gospel mercy and will He then refuse
entrance to His children? Will a gov
ernment at great expense build life
saving stations all along the coast and
boats that can hover unhurt like a
petrel over the wildest surge and then,
when the lifeboat has reached the
wreck of a ship in the offing, not allow
the drowning to seize the life line or
take the boat for the shore in safety?
Shall God provide at the cost of His
only Son's assassination escape for a
sinking world and then turn a deaf
ear to the cry that comes up from the
breakers?
“But,” you say, “there are so many
things 1 have to believe and so many
things in the shape of a creed that I
have to adopt that I am kept back.”
Xo, no! You need believe but two
things—-namely, that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners
and that you are one of them. “But,”
you say, “I do believe both of those
things.v Do you really believe them
with all your heart? “Yes.” Why,
then, you have passed from death into
life. Why, then, you are a son or a
daughter of the Lord Almighty. Why,
then, you are an heir or an heiress of
an inheritance that will declare divi
dends from now until long after the
stars are dead. Halleluliah! Prince of
God, why do you not come and take
your coronet? Princess of the Lord
Almighty, why do you not mount your
throne? Pass up into the light. Your
boat is anchored, why do you not go
ashore? Just plant your feet down
hard, and you will feel under them the
Rock of Ages. I challenge the uni
verse for one instance in which a man
in the right spirit appealed for the sal
vation of the Gospel and did not get it.
Man alive, are you going to let all the
years of your life go away with you
without your having this great peace,
this glorious hope, this bright expect
ancy? Are you going to let the pearl
of great price lie in the dust at your
feet because you are too indolent or
too proud to stoop down and pick it
up? Will you wear the chain of evil
habit when near by you is the hammer
that could with one stroke snap the
shackle? Will you stay in the prison of
sin when here is a Gospel key that
could unlock your incarceration?
As the one word “Come” has some
times brought many souls to Christ, I
will try the experiment of piling up
into a mountain and then send down
in an avalanche of power many of
these Gospel “Comes.” “Come thou1
and all thy house into the ark.” “Come
unto me all ye who labor and are heavy
laden, and 1 will give you rest.” “Come,
for all things are now ready.” “Come
with us, and we will do you good.”
“Come and see.” “The Spirit and the
bride say ‘Come,’ and let him that hear
eth say ‘Come,’ and let him that is
athirst come.” The stroke of one bell
in a tower may- be sweet, but a score
of bells well tuned and rightly lifted
and skillfully swung in one great
chime fill the heavens with music al
most celestial. And no one who has
heard the mighty- chimes in the towers
of Amsterdam or Ghent or Copenhagen
can forget them. Now, it seems to me
that iu this Sabbath hour all Heaven
is chiming, and the voices of departed
friends and kindred ring down the sky,
saying: “Come!” The angels who
never fell, bending from sapphire
thrones, are chanting: “Come!” Yea,
all the towers of Heaven, tower of
martyrs, tower of prophets, tower of
apostles, tower of evangelists, tower
of the temple of the Lord God and the
Lamb, are chiming: “Come! Come!”
Pardon for all and peace for all and
Heaven for all who will come.
When Russia was in one of her great
wars the suffering of the soldiers had
been long and bitter, and they were
waiting for the end of the strife. One
day a messenger in great excitement
ran among the tents of the army,
shouting: “Peace! Peace!” The sen
tinel on guard asked: “Who says
peace?” And the sick man turned on
his hospital mattress and asked: "Who
says peace?” and all up and down the
encampment of the Russians went the
question: "Who says peace?” Then
the messenger responded: “The czai
says peace.” That was enough. That
meant going home. That meant the
war was over. No more wounds and
no more long marches. So to-day, as
one of the Lord’s messengers, I mov*
through these great encampments of
souls and cry: "Peace between earth
and Heaven! Peace between God and
man! Peace between your repenting
soul and a pardoning Lord!” If you
ask me: “Who says peace?” I an
swer: “Christ our King declares it.”
“My peace l give unto you!” "Peace
of God that passeth all understand
ing!” "Everlasting peace!”
The Largest Insect Known.
The largest insect known is the
elephant beetle of Venezuela. One
was found that weighed 7 ounces.
NOTES OF THE FASHIONS
N»w Notion* In Feminine Finery
Tlmt Are Noticed In the l.atest
Costume*.
Many long capes and cloaks are of
smooth or rough-faced cloth, with
revers and collars of fur.
Long capes of mink cut away in front
and lined with some handsome Dres
den silk are to be fashionable for mid
dle-aged women.
Muffs are a trifle larger. Later on it
is predicted that the fancy muff of fur,
lace and velvet will be worn with vel
vet costumes, says a fashion author
ity.
Velvet Louis V2C. jackets are finished
off with some dark fur. Russian and
Hudson bay sable, mink, Persian lamb
and stone marten will be used for sep
arate fur trimming.
Rough, loosely-woven black goods,
striped or dotted in white or sprinkled
with camel’s hair, seem likely to be
much in vogue, and several models are
shown by tailors make use of this ma
terial, with touches of blue ciel in the
trimming'.
Crepe de chine promises to be a con
tinued favorite, and all delicate colors,
with much white will be used. The
waists are tucked or plain, with shirt
or bishop sleeves, just as one chooses.
Yokes have appeared on some of the
heavy waists, but these will not be
come generally popular until later in
the season.
Hand work in tucks, herringbone,
embroidery and applique still holds its
own on soft materials. Stitctings and
stitched bands are also stylish, but
stitching in contrasting color is now
considered a bit odd. Silk in the color
of the goods or a shade lighter or
darker should be used for stitching.
Bands of broche and Dresden silks are
also used to trim many swagger fall
gowns.
Some very attractive effects are ob
tained in the less conspicuous of the
zibelines, and for severe street gowns
they are used quite successfully. Yar
row stripes in red and black, green and
black or blue and black, thickly sprin
kled with white hairs, are among the
most effective and least conspicuous of
-these rough roads. Plain greens and
reds with the hairy effect in black are
acceptable, too.
Since velvet is to be stylish in many
uses, it will appear often in modified
Louis XV. coats. One exquisite model
gown had a flounced skirt and a coat
that suggested the Louis model in its
outlines and length, but it was simpler
and with fewer frills than is usual.
The garment was snug-fitting, with
the familiar skirt that is slightly cut
away at the front, and included a nar
row vest of embroidered white satin
with plain, slightly bell sleeves, while
the neck was finished with a high
straight collar.
FOR THE HOUSEKEEPER.
Articles of I’tlllty and Ornamenta
tion for the Home That Are
Now Popular.
Interest in tapestrj- has been revived
and conch cushions with tapestry cov
ers are included in the season's collec
tion, and are something' of a relief
from the. silk and satin and embroid
ered linens that have held sway for
some time. The Gibson sofa pillows in
etching tints are as popular as ever,
says the Brooklyn Eagle.
In the new silverware designs fa
miliar flowers are conspicuous, carna
tion pinks and poppies appearing on
spoons and forks. In a spoon show
ing the poppy design the bowl is of
gold, while the handle is enameled in
the red and green tints of the natural
blossom and leaves.
The fall souvenir spoons are orna
mented with carefully sculptured rep
resentations of the buffalo, bear, wolf,
fox, moose and rabbit.
Odd jardinieres are preferred by fas
tidious women to the regulation types
found in the shops. Japanese jars in
dull red coloring decorated with fig
ures in relief are favorite plant hold
ers, and Indian baskets have been
cleverly utilized for the same purpose.
Cracker crumbs are suggested as a
cleansing agent for tan suede kid
gloves. But on the gloves and manipu
late the cracker crumbs as though
washing the hands.
Orange peel allowed to smolder on
a red-hot shovel or iron will destroy
odors of cooking.
A mixture for polishing si eel sur
faces is made from emery powder
blended with equal parts of sweet oil
and turpentine. The article to be pol
ished should be covered with this mix
ture. rubbed vigorously and afterward
dusted slightly with dry emery pow
der.
Among the new serving trays are
basswood designs beautifully polished
and inlaid with fine woods in floral de
signs tinted in imitation of the nat
ural flower.
Zinc may be kept burnished like sil
ver by rubbing it hard with a mixture
of soft soap and fine sand, afterward
polishing it with a little oil on a soft
rag, adding sometimes a drop or two
of methylated spirit to the oil. Tiv .•
secret of keeping this metal bright is
regular and daily hard rubbing.
Recent floods in Tennessee have
washed away soil near Chuck City,
Green county, and revealed the ruins
if the old home of Davy Crockett.
The Sliiffvard.
At considerable length the superintendent
of the Sunday school had set forth the cul
pability of the sluggard, who, he said, need
ed only the spur of a worthy motive to be
come a useful member of society. “Now,
then, boys,” he asked, in a more animated
manner, “what is the matter with the slug
gard?” "He’s all right,” yelled the boys, in
chorus.—Montreal Star.
MISS LAURA HOWARD,
President South End Ladies’
Golf Club, Chicago, Cured by
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable
Compound After the Best Doc
tors Had Failed To Help Her.
“ Deab Mrs. Pinkham : —I can thank
Jrou for perfect health to-day. Life
ooked so dark to me a year or two
ago. I had constant pains, my limbs
swelled, I had dizzy spells, and never
® w/jy - *1/0 '•/
MISS LAUKA HOWARD, CHICAGO,
knew one day how I would feel the
next. I was nervous and had no ap
petite, neither could I sleep soundly
nights. Lydia E. Pinkham’s Veg
etable Compound, used in con
junction with your Sanative Wash, did
more for me than all the medicines
and the skill of the doctors. For eight
months 1 have enjoyed perfect health.
I verily believe that most of the doc
tors are guessing and experimenting
when they try to cure a woman with
an assortment of complications, such as
mine ; hut you do not guess. IIow I
wish all suffering women could only
know of your remedy ; there would be
less suffering I know.”—Laura How
ard, 113 Newberry Ave., Chicago, 111.
—$5000 forfeit if above testimonial is not genuine.
Mrs. Pinkham invites all wo
men who are ill to write her for
advice. Address Lynn, Mass.*
giving full particulars.
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