New Tabernacle SermonsTalmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Religion
New Tabernacle Sermons
Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Presbyterian Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
I go still further, and show you how suicidal it is for a man not to
love Christ. If a man gets in trouble, and he can not get out, we have
only one feeling toward him--sympathy and a desire to help him. If he
has failed for a vast amount of money, and can not pay more than ten
cents on a dollar--ay, if he can not pay anything--though his
creditors may come after him like a pack of hounds, we sympathize with
him. We go to his store, or house, and we express our condolence. But
suppose the day before that man failed, William E. Dodge had come into
his store and said: "My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come
to help you. If ten thousand dollars will see you through your
perplexity, I have a loan of that amount for you. Here is a check for
the amount of that loan." Suppose the man said: "With that ten
thousand dollars I could get through until next spring, and then
everything will be all right; but, Mr. Dodge, I don't want it; I won't
take it; I would rather fail than take it; I don't even thank you for
offering it." Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. You
would say: "He had a fair offer; he might have got out; he wants to
fail; he refuses all help; now let him fail." There is no one in all
this house who would have any sympathy for that man.
But do not let us be too hasty. Christ hears of our spiritual
embarrassments, he finds that we are on the very verge of eternal
defalcation. He finds the law knocking at our door with this dun: "Pay
me what thou owest."
We do not know which way to turn. Pay? We can not pay a farthing of
all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says: "Here
is My name; you can use My name. Your name would be worthless, but My
red handwriting on the back of this obligation will get you through
anywhere." Now suppose the soul says: "I know I am in debt; I can't
meet these obligations either in time or eternity; but, oh, Christ, I
want not Thy help; I ask not Thy rescue. Go away from me." You would
say: "That man, why, he deserves to die. He had the offer of help; he
would not take it. He is a free agent; he ought to have what he wants;
he chooses death rather than life. Ought you not give him freedom of
choice?" Though awhile ago there was only one ardent man who
understood the Apostle, now there are hundreds in the house who can
say, and do say within themselves: "After all this ingratitude, and
rejection, and obstinacy, 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be Anathema Maranatha.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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