489. The Balance-Sheet

The Balance-Sheet

1Co_3:22 : ’93All are yours.’94

The impression is abroad that religion puts a man on short allowance; that when the ship sailing heavenward comes to the shining wharf it will be found out that all the passengers had the hardest kind of sea-fare; that the soldiers in Christ’92s army march most of the time with an empty haversack; in a word, that only those people have a good time in this world who take upon themselves no religious obligation.

I want this morning to find out whether this is so, and I am going to ’93take account of stock’94 as the merchants say; I am going to show what are the Christian’92s liabilities, and what is his income, and what are his warranty deeds, and what are his bonds and mortgages, and I shall find out just how much he is worth, and I shall spread before you the balance-sheet in time to warn you all against the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, if indeed it be a failure; and in time for you all to accept it, if indeed it be a success.

I turn first to the assets, and I find there what seems to be a roll of government securities’97the Empire of Heaven promising all things to the possessor. The three small words of my text are a warranty-deed to the whole universe when it says, ’93All are yours.’94

In making an inventory of the Christian’92s possessions, I remark, in the first place, that he owns this world. My text implies it, and the preceding verse asserts it’97’94whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world.’94 Now, it would be an absurd thing to suppose that God would give to strangers privileges and advantages which he would deny his own children. If you have a large park, a grand mansion, beautiful fountains, stalking deer, and statuary, to whom will you give the first right to all these possessions? To outsiders? No; to your own children. You will say: ’93It will be very well for outsiders to come in and walk these paths and enjoy this landscape; but the first right to my house, and the first right to my statuary, the first right to my gardens, shall be in the possession of my own children.’94 Now, this world is God’92s park, and while he allows those who are not his children and who refuse his authority the privilege of walking through the gardens, the possession of all this grandeur of park and mansion is in the right of the Christian’97the flowers, the diamonds, the silver, the gold, the morning brightness, and the evening shadow. The Christian may not have the title-deed to one acre of land as recorded in the clerk’92s office, he may never have paid one dollar of taxes; but he can go up on a mountain and look off upon fifty miles of grain field and say, ’93All this is mine; my Father gave it to me.’94 ’93All are yours.’94

A lawyer is sometimes required to search titles, and the client who thinks he has a good right to an estate puts the papers in his hands, and the attorney goes into the public records, and finds everything right for three or four or five years back; but after a while he comes to a break in the title, to a deficit, to a diversion of the property; so he finds out that the man who supposed he owned it owns not an acre of the ground, while somebody else has the full right to the entire estate. Now, I examine the title to all earthly possessions. I go back a little way, and I find that men of the world’97bad men, selfish men, wicked men’97think they have a right to all these possessions; but I go further back, and I trace the title from year to year, and from century to century, until I find the whole right vested in God. Now, to whom did he give it? To his own children! ’93All are yours.’94

The simple fact is, that in the last days of the world all the architecture, all the cities, all the mountains, all the villages will be in the possession of the church of Christ. ’93The meek shall inherit the earth.’94 ’93Ships of Tarshish shall bring presents.’94 ’93The earth is the Lord’92s and the fulness thereof.’94 ’93All are yours.’94 ’93But,’94 you say, ’93what satisfaction is there in that when I have not possession of them?’94 These things will come before the Supreme Judge of the Universe, and he will regulate the title, and he will eject these squatters upon the property that does not belong to them, and it shall be found that ’93All are yours.’94

So, again, the refinements of life are the Christian’92s right. He has a right to as good apparel, to as beautiful adornments, to as commodious a residence as the worldling. Show me any passage in the Bible that tells the people of the world they have privileges, they have glittering spheres, they have befitting apparel that are denied the Christian. There is no one who has so much a right to laugh, none so much a right to everything that is beautiful and grand and sublime in life as the Christian. ’93All are yours.’94 Can it be possible that one who is reckless and sinful, and has no treasures laid up in heaven, is to be allowed pleasures which the sons and daughters of God, the owners of the whole universe, are denied?

So I remark that all the sweet sounds of the world are in the Christian’92s right. There are people who have an idea that instruments of music are inappropriate for the Christian’92s parlor, or for the Christian church. When did the house of sin or the bacchanal get the right to music? They have no right to it. God, in my text, makes over to Christian people all the pianos, all the harps, all the drums, all the cornets, all the flutes, all the organs. People of the world may borrow them, but they only borrow them; they have no right or title to them. God gave them to Christian people in my text, when he said, ’93All are yours.’94

David no more certainly owned the harp with which he sounded the praises of God than the Church of Christ owns now all chants, all anthems, all ivory key-boards, all organ diapasons; and God will gather up these sweet sounds after a while, and he will mingle them in one great harmony, and the Mendelssohns and the Beethovens and the Mozarts of the earth will join their voices and their musical instruments, and soft south wind and loud-lunged Euroclydon will sweep the great organ pipes, and you shall see God’92s hand striking the keys, and God’92s foot trampling the pedals in the great oratorio of the ages!

So all artistic and literary advantages are in the Christian’92s right. I do not care on whose wall the picture hangs, or on whose pedestal the sculpture stands, it belongs to Christians. The Bierstadts and the Churches are all working for us. ’93All are yours.’94 The Luxembourgs, the Louvres, all the galleries of Naples and Rome and Venice’97they are all to come into the possession of the Church of Jesus Christ. We may not now have them on our walls, but the time will come when the writ of ejectment will be served and the church will possess everything. All parks, all fish-ponds, all colors, all harvests’97all, ’93all are yours.’94

Secondly, I remark that the right to full temporal support is in the Christian’92s name. It is a great affair to feed the world. Just think of the fact that, this morning, twelve hundred millions of our people breakfasted at God’92s table! The commissary department of a hundred thousand men in an army will engage scores of people; but just think of a commissary department of a world! Think of the gathering up from the rice-swamps and the tea-fields and the orchards and the fisheries! No one but God could tell how many bushels it would take to feed five continents.

Then, to clothe all these people’97how many furs must be captured and how much flax broken and how much cotton picked. Just think of the infinite wardrobe where twelve hundred million of people get their clothes! God spreads this table first of all for his children. Of course, that would be a very selfish man who would not allow other people to come and sit at his table sometimes; but, first of all, the right is given to Christian people, and therefore it is extreme folly for them ever to fret about food or raiment. Who fed the whales sporting off Cape Hatteras this morning? Out of whose hand did the cormorant pick its food? Whose loom wove the butterfly’92s wing? Who hears the hawk’92s cry? If God takes care of a walrus and a Siberian dog and a wasp will he not take care of you? Will a father have more regard for reptiles than for his sons and daughters? If God clothes the grizzly bear and the panther and the hyena, will he not clothe his own children? Come, then, this morning, and get the key of the infinite storehouse. Come and get the key to the infinite wardrobe. Here they are’97all the keys. ’93All are yours.’94

So all the vicissitudes of this life, so far as they have any religious profit, are in the right of the Christian. You stand among the Alleghany mountains, especially near what is called the ’93Horseshoe,’94 and you will find a train of cars almost doubling on itself, and sitting in the back car you see a locomotive coming as you look out of the window, and you think it is another train, when it is only the front of the train in which you are riding; and sometimes you can hardly tell whether the train is going toward Pittsburg or toward Philadelphia; but it is on the track, and it will reach the depot for which it started, and all the passengers will be discharged at the right place. Now, there are a great many sharp curves in life. Sometimes we seem to be going this way, and sometimes we seem to be going that way; but if we are Christians we are on the right track and we are going to come out at the right place. Do not get worried, then, about the sharp curve. A sailing vessel starts from New York for Glasgow. Does it go in a straight line? Oh, no! It changes its tack every little while. Now, you say, ’93This vessel, instead of going to Glasgow, must be going to Havre, or it is going to Hamburg, or it is going to Marseilles.’94 No, no! It is going to Glasgow. And in this voyage of life we often have to change our tack. One storm blows us this way, and another storm blows us that way; but he who holds the winds in his fist will bring us into a haven of everlasting rest just at the right time. Do not worry, then, if you have to change tack. One of the best things that ever happened to Paul was being thrown off his horse. One of the best things that ever happened to Joseph was being thrown into the pit. The losing of his physical eyesight helped John Milton to see the battle of the angels. One of the best things that ever happened to Ignatius was being thrown to the wild beasts in the Colosseum, and while eighty thousand people were jeering at his religion he walked up to the fiercest of all the lions and looked him in the eye, as much as to say, ’93Here I am, ready to be devoured for Christ’92s sake.’94

All things work together for your good. If you walk the desert, the manna will fall and the sea will part. If the feverish torch of sickness is kindled over your pillow, by its light you can read the promises. If the waves of trouble dash clear high above your girdle, across the blast and across the surge you can hear the promise, ’93When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.’94 You never owned a glove or a shoe or a hat or a coat more certainly than you own all the frets and annoyances and exasperations of this life, and they are bound to work out your present and your eternal good. They are the saws, the hammers, the files by which you are to be hewn and cut and smoothed for your eternal well-being.

Here is a vessel that goes along the coast; it hugs the coast. The captain of that vessel seems chiefly anxious to keep the paint on his ship from being marred, or the sails from being torn. When that vessel comes to the ’93Narrows,’94 nobody looks on it with any interest. But here is a vessel that went across the sea with vast wealth of cargo, and comes in with vast importation’97sails patched, masts spliced, pumps all working to keep out the water; it has come through the hurricane which has sunk twenty steamers. The bronzed men are cheering among the rigging. Now the men-of-war anchored in the harbor boom forth their welcome through the port-holes.

So there are some Christians who are having an easy time. It seems to them smooth sailing all the way. When they get into heaven there will be no excitement, there will be very few people who will ever find out they are there; but those Christians who have gone through a thousand midnight hurricanes’97storm to the right of them, storm to the left of them, storm all the way’97when they come up the harbor of heaven, all the redeemed will turn out to greet them, and bid them hail and welcome.

I go further, and tell you that the Christian owns not only this world, but he owns the next world. No chasm to be leaped, no desert to be crossed. There is the gate of heaven. I have shown you that he owns all on this side. Now, I am going to show you that he owns all on the other side. Death is not a ruffian who comes down to burn us out of house and home, so that we shall be homeless forever. Oh, no! He is only a black messenger who comes to tell us it is time to move; to tell us to get out of this hut, and go up into the palace. The Christian owns all heaven. ’93All are yours.’94 Its palaces of beauty, its towers of strength, its castles of love. He will not walk in the eternal city as a foreigner in a strange city, but as a farmer walks over his own premises. ’93All are yours.’94 All the mansions yours. Angels your companions. Trees of life your shade. Hills of glory your lookout. Thrones of heaven the place where you will shout the triumph. Jesus is yours. God is yours. You look up into the face of God, and say, ’93My Father.’94 You look up into the face of Jesus, and say, ’93My brother.’94 Walk out on the battlements of heaven and look off upon the city of the sun. No tears. No sorrow. No death. No smoke of toiling warehouse curling on the air. No voice of blasphemy thrilling through that bright, clear Sabbath morning. No din of strife jarring the air. Then take out your dead, and remember that from throne to throne, and from wall to wall, and from horizon to horizon, ’93all are yours.’94

Then get up into the temple of the sun, worshipers in white, each with a palm branch, and from high gallery of that temple look down upon the thousands of thousands, and the ten thousand times ten thousand, and the one hundred and forty and four thousand, and the great ’93multitude that no man can number,’94 and louder than the rush of the wheels, louder than the tramp of the redeemed, hear a voice saying, ’93All are yours!’94 See the great procession marching around the throne of God. Martyrs who went up on wings of flame. Invalids who went up from couches of distress. Toilers who went up from the workhouse and the factory and the mine. All the suffering and the bruised children of God. See the chariots of salvation; in them those who were more than conquerors. See them marching around about the throne of God forever and forever, and know that ’93all are yours!’94

O ye who have pains of body that exhaust your strength and wear out your patience, I hold before you this morning the land of eternal health and of imperishable beauty, and ’93all is yours!’94 O ye who have hard work to get your daily bread, hard work to shelter your children from the storm, I lift before you the vision of that land where they never hunger and they never thirst, and God feeds them and robes cover them and the warmth of eternal love fills them, and all that is yours. O ye whose hearts are buried in the grave of your dead at Greenwood, Laurel Hill, or Mount Auburn’97O ye whose happiness went by long ago’97O ye who mourn for countenances that never will light up, and for eyes closed forever’97sit no longer among the tombs, but look here. A home that shall never be broken up. Green fields never cleft of the grave. Ransomed ones parted from you long ago, now radiant with a joy that shall never cease, and a love that shall never grow cold, and wearing garlands that shall never wither, and know all that is yours. Yours the love. Yours the acclaim. Yours the transport. Yours the cry of the four-and-twenty elders. Yours the choiring of cherubim. Yours the Lamb who was slain.

In the vision of that glorious consummation I almost lose my foothold, and have to hold fast lest I be overborne by the glory. The vision rose before St, John on Patmos, and he saw Christ in a blood-red garment, riding on a white horse, and all heaven following him on white horses. What a procession! Let Jesus ride. He walked the way footsore, weary and faint. Now let him ride. White horse of victory, bear on our Chief. Hosanna to the son of David! Ride on, Jesus! Let all heaven follow him. These cavalry of God fought well and they fought triumphantly. Now let them be mounted. The pavements of gold ring under the flying hoofs. Swords sheathed and victories won, like conquerors they sit on their chargers. Ye mounted troops of God, ride on! ride on! ten thousand abreast, cavalcade after cavalcade. No blood dashed to the lips. No blood dripping from the fetlocks. No smoke of battle breathed from the nostril. The battle is ended’97the victory won!

Oh, if there be any who are yet enemies of the cross of Christ, I beseech them at once to be reconciled to God! Remember that if you are not found among that white-robed army who follow the Saviour in his victorious march, your part must be with those concerning whom it is said, ’93The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage