286. A Momentous Quest

A Momentous Quest

Isa_55:6 : ’93Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.’94

Isaiah stands head and shoulders above the other Old Testament authors in vivid descriptiveness of Christ. Other prophets give an outline of our Saviour’92s 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; but when you want to see Christ coming out from the gates of prophecy in all his grandeur and glory, you involuntarily turn to Isaiah. So that if the prophecies in regard to Christ might be called the ’93Oratorio of the Messiah,’94 the writing of Isaiah is the ’93Hallelujah Chorus,’94 where all the batons wave and all the trumpets come in. Isaiah was not a man picked up out of insignificance by inspiration. He was known and honored. Josephus and Philo and Sirach extolled him in their writings. What Paul was among the apostles, Isaiah was among the prophets.

My text finds him standing on a mountain of inspiration, looking out into the future, beholding Christ advancing and anxious that all men might know him; his voice rings down the ages: ’93Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.’94 Some one says, ’93That was for olden times.’94 No. If you have traveled in other lands you have taken a circular letter of credit from some banking-house in New York, and in St. Petersburg or Venice or Rome or Antwerp or Brussels or Paris, you presented that letter and got financial help immediately. And I want you to understand that the text, instead of being appropriate for one age, or for one land, is a circular letter for all ages and for all lands, and wherever it is presented for help, the help comes: ’93Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.’94

I come, today, with no hair-spun theories of religion, with no nice distinctions, with no elaborate disquisition; but with a plain talk on the matters of personal religion. I feel that the sermon I preach will be the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. In other words, the Gospel of Christ is a powerful medicine; it either kills or cures. There are those who say: ’93I would like to become a Christian. I have been waiting a good while for the right kind of influences to come;’94 and still you are waiting. You are wiser in worldly things than you are in religious things. If you want to get to Albany, you go to the Grand Central Depot, New York, or to the steamboat wharf, and, having got your ticket, you do not sit down on the wharf or sit in the depot; you get aboard the boat or train. And yet there are men who say they are waiting to get to heaven’97waiting, waiting, but not with intelligent waiting, or they would get on board the line of Christian influence that would bear them into the Kingdom of God.

Now you know very well that to seek a thing is to search for it with earnest endeavor. If you want to see a certain man in New York, and there is a matter of ten thousand dollars connected with your seeing him, and you cannot at first find him, you do not give up the search. You look in the directory, but cannot find the name, you go in circles where you think, perhaps, he may mingle, and, having found the part of the city where he lives, but perhaps not knowing the street, you go through street after street, and from block to block, and you keep on searching for days and weeks. You say: ’93It is a matter of ten thousand dollars whether I see him or not.’94 Would that men were as persistent in seeking for Christ! Had you one-half that persistence you would long ago have found him who is the joy of the forgiven spirit. We may pay our debts, we may attend church, we may relieve the poor, we may be public benefactors, and yet all our life disobey the text, never seek God, never gain heaven. Oh, that the spirit of God would help while I try to show you, in carrying out the idea of my text, first, how to seek the Lord, and in the next place, when to seek him.

I remark, in the first place, you are to seek the Lord through earnest and believing prayer. God is not an autocrat or a despot seated on a throne with his arms resting on brazen lions, and a sentinel pacing up and down at the foot of the throne. God is a father seated in a bower, waiting for his children to come and climb on his knee, and get his kiss and his benediction. Prayer is the cup with which we go to the ’93fountain of living water,’94 and dip up refreshment for our thirsty soul. Grace does not come to the heart as we set a cask at the corner of the house to catch the rain in the shower. It is a pulley fastened to the throne of God, which we pull, bringing the blessing. I do not care so much what posture you take in prayer, nor how large an amount of voice you use. You might get down on your face before God, if you did not pray right inwardly, and there would be no response. You might cry at the top of your voice, and unless you had a believing spirit within, your cry would not go farther up than the shout of a plowboy to his oxen. Prayer must be believing, earnest, loving. You are in your house some summer day, and a shower comes up, and a bird, affrighted darts into the window, and wheels around the room. You seize it. You smooth its ruffled plumage. You feel its fluttering heart. You say: ’93Poor thing, poor thing!’94 Now a prayer goes out of the storm of this world into the window of God’92s mercy and he catches it and he feels its fluttering pulse and he puts it in his own bosom of affection and safety.

Prayer is a warm, ardent, pulsating exercise. It is the electric battery which, touched, thrills to the throne of God! It is the diving-bell in which we go down into the depths of God’92s mercy and bring up ’93pearls of great price.’94 There was an instance where prayer made the waves of Gennesaret solid as Russ pavement. How many wonderful things prayer has accomplished! Have you ever tried it? In the days when the Scotch Covenanters were persecuted, and the enemies were after them, one of the head men among the Covenanters prayed: ’93O Lord, we be as dead men unless thou shalt help us. O Lord throw the lap of thy cloak over these poor things.’94 And instantly a Scotch mist enveloped and hid the persecuted from their persecutors’97the promise literally fulfilled: ’93While they are yet speaking I will hear.’94 O impenitent soul, have you ever tried the power of prayer? God says: ’93He is loving and faithful and patient.’94 Do you believe that? You are told that Christ came to save sinners. Do you believe that? You are told that all you have to do to get the pardon of the Gospel is to ask for it. Do you believe that? Then come to him and say: ’93O Lord, I know thou canst not lie. Thou hast told me to come for pardon, and I could get it. I come, Lord. Keep thy promise, and liberate my captive soul.’94

Oh, that you might have an altar in the parlor, in the kitchen, in the store, in the barn, for Christ will be willing to come again to the manger to hear prayer. He would come in your place of business, as he came to Matthew, the tax commissioner. If a measure should come before Congress that you thought would ruin the nation, how you would send in petitions and remonstrances. And yet there has been enough sin in your heart to ruin it forever, and you have never remonstrated or petitioned against it. If your physical health failed, and you had the means, you would go and spend the summer in Switzerland, and the winter in Italy; and you would think it a very cheap outlay if you had to go all ’91round the earth to get back your physical health. Have you made any effort, any expenditure, any exertion for your immortal and spiritual health? Would that you might now begin to seek after God with earnest prayer. Some of you have been working for years and years for the support of your families. Have you given one-half day to the working out of your salvation with fear and trembling? You came here this morning with an earnest purpose, I take it, as I have come hither with an earnest purpose, and we meet face to face, and I tell you, first of all, if you want to find the Lord, you must pray and pray and pray.

I remark, again, you must seek the Lord through Bible study. The Bible is the newest book in the world. You say, ’93It was made hundreds of years ago, and the learned men of King James translated it hundreds of years ago.’94 I confute that idea by telling you it is not five minutes old, when God, by his blessed Spirit retranslates it into the heart. If you will, in the seeking of the way of life through Scripture study, implore God’92s light to fall upon the page, you will find that these promises are not one second old, and that they drop straight from the Throne of God into your heart.

There are many people to whom the Bible does not amount to much. If they merely look at the outside beauty, why it will no more lead them to Christ than Washington’92s farewell address or the Koran of Mahomet or the Shaster of the Hindus. It is the inward light of God’92s Word you must get or die. I went up to the Church of the Madeleine, in Paris, and looked at the doors which were the most wonderfully constructed I ever saw, and I could have stayed there for a whole week; but I had only a little time, so, having glanced at the wonderful carving on the doors, I passed in and looked at the radiant altars, and the sculptured dome. Alas, that so many stop at the outside door of God’92s Holy Word, looking at the rhetorical beauties, instead of going in and looking at the altars of sacrifice and the dome of God’92s mercy and salvation that hovers over every penitent and believing soul!

If you merely want to study the laws of language, do not go to the Bible. It was not made for that. Howe’92s Elements of Criticism will be better for that. If you want to study metaphysics, better than the Bible will be the writings of William Hamilton. But if you want to know how to have sin pardoned, and at last to gain the blessedness of heaven, search the Scriptures, ’93for in them ye have eternal life.’94

When people are anxious about their souls, there are those who recommend good books. That is all right. But I want to tell you that the Bible is the best book under such circumstances. Baxter wrote, A Call to the Unconverted, but the Bible is the best call to the unconverted. Philip Doddridge wrote, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, but the Bible is the best rise and progress. John Angell James wrote Advice to the Anxious Inquirer, but the Bible is the best advice to the anxious inquirer.

I remark, again, we must seek God through church ordinances. ’93What!’94 say you, ’93cannot a man be saved without going to church?’94 I reply, there are men, I suppose, in glory, who have never seen a church; but the church is the ordained means by which we are to be brought to God; and if truth affects us when we are alone, it affects us more mightily when we are in the assembly’97the feelings of others emphasizing our own feelings. The great law of sympathy comes into play and a truth that would take hold only with the grasp of a sick man, when you are alone, beats mightily against the soul with a thousand heart-throbs when you come into the religious circle, come only with one notion, and only for one purpose’97to find the way to Christ. When I see people critical about sermons, and critical about tones of voice, and critical about sermonic delivery, they make me think of a man in prison. He is condemned to death, but an officer of the government brings a pardon and puts it through the wicket of the prison, and says: ’93Here is your pardon. Come and get it.’94 ’93What! Do you expect me to take that pardon offered with such a voice as you have, with such an awkward manner as you have? I would rather die than so compromise my rhetorical notions!’94 Ah, the man does not say that; he takes it! It is his life. He does not care how it is handed to him. And if, this morning, that pardon from the Throne of God is offered to our souls, should we not seize it, regardless of all criticism.

But I come now to the last part of my text. It tells us when we are to seek the Lord. ’93While he may be found.’94 When is that? Old age? You may not see old age. Tomorrow? You may not see to-morrow. To-night? You may not see to-night. Now! Oh, if I could only write on every heart in three capital letters, that word N-O-W’97Now!

Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and with a trivial manner: ’93Oh, yes, I’92m a sinner.’94 Sin is an awful disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your family. Sometimes the physician has called, and he has looked at the patient and said: ’93That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had called me yesterday, or this morning, I could have cured the patient. It is too late now; the crisis has passed.’94 Just so it is in the spiritual treatment of the soul’97there is a crisis. Before that, life! After that, death! O my dear brother, as you love your soul do not let the crisis pass unattended to!

There are some who can remember instances in life when, if they had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. They refused them. Afterward a large village or city sprang up on those acres of ground and they see what a mistake they made in not buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never came back again. And so it is in regard to a man’92s spiritual and eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go, perhaps it never comes back. Certainly, that one never comes back.

A gentleman told me that at the battle of Gettysburg he stood upon a height looking off upon the conflicting armies. He said it was the most exciting moment of his life; now one army seeming to triumph, and now the other. After a while the host wheeled in such a way that he knew in five minutes the whole question would be decided. He said the emotion was almost unbearable. There is just such a time today with you, O unforgiven soul’97the forces of light on the one side, and the siege-guns of hell on the other side, and in a few moments the matter will be settled for eternity. There is a time which mercy has set for leaving port. If you are on board before that, you will get a passage for heaven. If you are not on board, you miss your passage for heaven. As in law courts a case is sometimes adjourned from term to term, and from year to year, till the bill of costs eats up the entire estate, so there are men who are adjourning the matter of religion from time to time, and from year to year, until heavenly bliss is the bill of costs the man will have to pay for it.

Why defer this matter? Have you any idea that sin will wear out? that it will evaporate? that it will relax its grasp, that you may find religion as a man accidentally finds a lost pocket-book? Ah, no! No man ever became a Christian by accident, or by the relaxing of sin. The embarrassments are all the time increasing. The hosts of darkness are recruiting, and the longer you postpone this matter the steeper the path will become. I ask you men whether, in the ten or fifteen years you passed in the postponement of these matters, you have come any nearer God or heaven? Your hearts, you are willing frankly to tell me, are becoming harder and harder, and that if you come to Christ it will be more of an undertaking now than it ever would have been before. The Throne of Judgment will soon be set; and, if you have anything to do toward your eternal salvation, you had better do it now, for the redemption of the soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever. If men could only catch just one glimpse of Christ, I know they would love him. Your heart leaps at the sight of a glorious sunrise or sunset. Can you be without emotion as the Sun of Righteousness rises behind Bethlehem, and sets behind Joseph’92s sepulcher? He is a blessed Saviour! Every nation has its type of beauty. There is German beauty and Swiss beauty and Italian beauty and English beauty; but I care not in what land a man first looks at Christ, he pronounces him ’93chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely.’94 O Christ! Light in darkness! The Rock on which I build! The Captain of Salvation! My joy! My strength! How strange it is that men cannot love thee!

The diamond districts of Brazil are carefully guarded, and a man does not get in there except by a pass from the government; but the love of Christ is a diamond district we may all enter, and pick up treasures for eternity. There is a way of opposing the mercy of God too long, and then there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary. My friends, my neighbors, what can I say to induce you to attend to this matter’97to attend to it now? Time is flying’97the city clock joining my voice this moment, seeming to say to you, ’93Now is the time! Now is the time!’94

Why should I stand here and plead, and you sit there? It is your immortal soul. It is a soul that shall never die. It is a soul that must soon appear before God for reviewal. Why throw away your chance for heaven? Why plunge off into darkness when all the gates of glory are open? Why become a castaway from God when you can sit upon the throne? ’93Come, for all things are now ready.’94 Christ is ready, pardon is ready! The Church is ready. Heaven is ready. You will never find a more convenient season, if you should live fifty years more, than this very one.

Why do I say this? Is it to frighten your soul? No, it is to persuade you. I show you the peril. I show you the escape. Would I not be a coward beyond all excuse, if, believing that this great audience must soon be launched into the eternal world, and that all who believe in Christ shall be saved, and that all who reject Christ will be lost’97would I not be the veriest coward on earth to hide that truth or to stand before you with a cold, or even a placid manner? Now is the day of your redemption. It is very certain that you and I must appear before God in judgment. We cannot escape it. The Bible says: ’93Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.’94 On that day all our advantages will come up for our glory or for our discomfiture’97every prayer, every sermon, every exhortatory remark, every reproof, every call of grace; and while the heavens are rolling away like a scroll, and the world is being destroyed, your destiny and my destiny will be announced.

But I want you to take the hint of the text that there is a time when the Lord cannot be found. There was a man in New York, eighty years of age, who said to a clergyman, who called to see him in his home: ’93Do you think that a man at eighty years of age can get pardoned?’94 ’93Oh, yes,’94 said the clergyman. The old man said: ’93I can’92t; when I was twenty years of age’97I am now eighty years’97the Spirit of God came to my soul, and I felt the importance of attending to these things, but I put it off. I rejected God, and since then I have had no feeling.’94 ’93Well,’94 said the minister, ’93wouldn’92t you like to have me pray with you?’94 ’93Yes,’94 replied the old man, ’93but it will do no good. You can pray with me if you like to.’94 The minister knelt down and prayed, and commended the man’92s soul to God. It seemed to have no effect upon him. After a while the last hour of the man’92s life came, and through his delirium a spark of intelligence seemed to flash, and with his last breath he said: ’93I shall never be forgiven!’94 ’93O seek the Lord while he may be found.’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage