The Great Dr. Talmage

Never before did so large a eoncourse of people assemble in TTiiiveraity Hall as came Sunday night to hear the celebraied Brooklyn preacher. By seven o'clock e t-ery seat was ful), the aisles were paeked and hundreds were stand" ing. The number of persons actually in the hall could not have been less than 4,000, while many hundreds failed to enter at all. Dr. Talmage was introduued to the audience by the president of the Students' Christian Association. He annonnced as his text the following pas' sage frorc Proverbs, i., 17: "Surely in vaiu the net i6 spread iu the sight of any bird." Uüing the figure of the fowler who attempts to ensnare a fl ck of birds, he introduces Ue subject of temptation and sin. A few passages from the sermon wiil uonvey a good idea oí what it containeil. "There are two classes of temptations -the superficial and the subterraneous - those above ground, those underground. If a man could see sin as it is, he would no more embrace it than he Yfiuld embrace a leper. Sin is a daughter of heil; yet she is garlanded and robed and trinkete.l. Her voice is a warblc. Hercheekis the setting sun. Her forehead is an aurora. She says to roen' 'Come, walk this path with me. Ii is thymed and primrosed, and the air is bewitched with the odors of the hanging gardens of heaven. The rivers are rivers of wiiie, and all you have to do ie to drink them up in chalices that sparkle with diamond and amethyst and chrysoprasus. See! It is all bloom and roseate cloud and heaven.' "Oh, my friends, if for one moment tb cboiring of ah these concerted voices of sin could be hushed, weahould see that orchestra of the pit with hot breath blowing through fiery flute, and the ekeleton arms on drums of thunder aud dirkness beating the chorus, 'The end thereof is death.' "I want to point out the insidious temptations that arê assailing more especially our young men. The only kiud of nature comparatively free from temptation, so far as I can judge, is the cold, hard, stingy, mean temperament. What would Satan do with such a man if he got him? Satan is not anxious to get a man who after awhile may dispute with him the realm of everlasting meannesR. It is the generous young m.iD, the ardent young man, the warm h ..rted young man, the social young m n that is in especial peril. SKEPTICtSM. "The first class of temptations that a aults a young man is led on by the skeptic'. He wi'l not admit that he is an infidel or atheist. Oh, no ! he is a 'free thinker;' he is oue of your 'liberal' men; he is free and easy in religión. 01), howjliberal he is; he is so 'liberal, that he willgiveaway his Bible; he isso 'liberal' that he will give away the throne of eternal justice, he la so 'liberal' that he would be willing to give God out of the universe; he is so 'liberal' that he would give up his own soul and the souls of all his friends. Now what more could you ask in the. way of liberalitv ? "Ou Baturday the skeptic says to him, 'Well, what are you going to do tomorïow ?' Hejsays, 'I am going to church.' it possible?' saya the skeptic. 'Well, I used to do those things; I was brought up, I suppose, as you were, in a religious family, and 1 believed all tbose things, but I got over it; the fact is, since I came' to t,owi3,I have read a great deal, and I have found that there are a great many things in the Bible that are ridiculous. Now, fór instance, all that about the serpent being cursed to crawl in the Garden of Edeu because it had tempted our first parents; why, you see how absurd it is; you eau teil from the very organization of the serpent that t had to crawl; t crawled before if cursed just as well as it crawled afterward ; you can teil from its organizaüon that it crawled. Then all that story about the whale swallowin; Jonah, or Jouah swallowing the whale, which was it? It dou't, uiake any difference; the thing is absurd; it is ridiculous to suppose that a man could have gone down through thejawsof a sea monster and yet keep his life; why, his respiration would have been hindered; he would have been digested, the gastric juioe would have dissolved the fibrine and coagulated albumen, and Jonah wouW have been changed from prophet inlo chyle. Then all that story about the miraculous conception - why, it is perfectly disgraceful. Ob, sir! I beheve in the light of nature. This is the nineteenth century. Progress, sir; progrese. I tlon't blame you, but after you have been in town as long as I have you will think just as I do.' ';Thou6and8 of young men are going down ander the procesa day by day, and there is only here and tbere a yonng man who can endure this artillery of scorn. They are giving up their Bibles. The light of naturel They have the light of nature in China; they have it in Hindostán; they have it in Ceylon. Flowers there, stars there, waters there, winds there, but no civilization, no homes, no happiness. Lanceta to cut and juggernauts to fall under and hooks to swing on, but no happiness. iELF BIGHTE0U8NESS. "There is a mistake we make about young men. We put them in two classes; the one class is moral, the other dissolute. The moral are safe. The dissolute cannot be reclaimed. I deny both propositioDS. The moral are not safe unless they havelaid hold of God, and the dissolute may be reclaimed. I suppose there are self righteous men in this house who feel no need of God, and who will noteeek after Him, and they will go out in the world, and they will be tempted,and they will be fliing down by misfortune, and they will go down, down. Oh ! self-righteous man, without God we are in peril. Seek 'after Him today. Amid the ten thousand temptations of life there is no safety for man without God. "But I may be addressing some who have gone astray, and so I assault the other proposition that the dissolute cannot be reclaimed. While I speak, are you troubled? Is there a voice within you saying "What did you do that foi? Why did you go there? Wlutt did you mean by that?" Is there a memory in your soul that makes you tremble? God only knows all our hearte. Yes, if you have gone so far as to commit iniquities and have gone through the whole catalogue, I invite vou back this hour. The Lord waits for you. 'R-yoice ! O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.' "