Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-10
GODS CREATION OF EVE.
TALNIAGE TELLS THE STORY OF
ADANES RIB.

Eden Pictured in a Rhetorical Flight
A Lesson from the Results of Illegal
Inquisitiveness-The Bitterness of the
Wages of Sin Portrayed-WOman's
Great Influence.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Nov. 9.-At the
Brooklyn Tabernacle to-day DIR. Talmage,
after expounding appropriate passages of
scripture, gave out the hymn:
'He leadeth me! Oh, blessed thought!
Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Where'er go, where'er be,
Still tits GOu's hand that leadeth me-"
DR.. Talmage's text was taken from
Genesis H., %; "Of the rib which the
Lord God had taken from man made He
woman and brought her unto the man,
DR.. Talmage said:
1t is the first Saturday afternoon of the
worlds existence. Adam has since sunrise
been watching the pageantry of wings and
scales. and while taking his first lessons in
zoology and ornithology and ichthyology he
notices that the robins fly by twos, and the
fish swim by twos, and the lions walk by twos; /;
and in the warm redolence of that scene he
falls of into slumber, as if by allegory, to i'm
press all ages with the fact that sound and
healthful sleep is the grandest of all earthly
blessings. This Paradlsaical somnolence ended
in Woman's arrival on the new planet
OF the mother of all the living | TODAY dis
course Eve, the first, the fairest and the best.
| make me a garden. Its paths | inlay with
mountain moss, and border it with shells
from Java and pearls from Ceylon and dia-
fountains that toss in the sunlight and ponds
that glitter with golden scales and ripple un-
der the padding of swans. | plant me lilies
from the Amazon and orange groves from the
tropics and tamarinds from GOyaz. Woodbine
and honeysuckle climb over the wall and
starred spaniels sprawl upon the grass. Among
the tree branches l call doves and larks and
brown -threshers, that stir the air with infinite
chirp and carol. But this would be a desert
full of bowling and death compared with the
bright residence of the woman who is the sub
ject of my mornings story. Never since Eve
such skies looked down through such leaves
into such waters. Never since has river wave
known such curve or sheen or bank as adorned
PisOn, Havilah, GihOn and Hiddekel the very
pebbles being bdellium and onyx stone. What
fruits, with no curculo to sting the rind!
What flowers, with no slug to gnaW the root!
What atmosphere, with neither chill blast TO
frost nor heat to consume! Sunlight on the
waters, bright cOlOrs tangled in the grass.
perfume in the air, music in the sky. Birds
warble and trees hum and waters DASH 1t
was all gladness and life and song.
Under these bowers OF vine and leaf and
shrub, at an altar carpeted with flowers, was
the first marriage. Adam, as he takes the
hand of this immaculate daughter of God
prOnounces the ceremonial himself when he
says: 'BOne of my bone and flesh of my flesh"
A forbidden tree stands in the garden. Eve
strolling out alone one day comes under it,
She says to herself: "What beautiful fruit!
| wonder how it tastes? Let me just put my
hand upon it. Yes; ripe and beautiful; / will
take it down, but not to eat. Suppose / Just
break the rich tinted rind; that can do no
HARM" After a while she tasted. Calling to
Adam, he also came and tasted. Sin for the
first time is inside the gates of the world. Let
the heavens put on gloom, and the winds sob
on the bosom of the hills. and from cavern
and from ocean depth. and from deserts and
,1GtywT lot ft1nrsn
resounding how'll "The world is lost !" Beasts
before playful and harmless, growl upon each
other, and run out claw and tooth and tusk
Birds Whet their beak for prey. Wrathful
clouds troop in the sky. Sharp thOrns shoot up
through soft grass Blasting is on the leaves
The rivers ,riled and angry, rush between torn
banks. The chords of that great harmony are
snapped. Upon the brightest home that
earth ever saw our parents turned their back,
and led forth on a pilgrimage of sorrow the
broken-hearted myrlads of a ruined race.
See first the danger OF an illegal inquisitive-
ness. Healthful curiosity has doue much for
letters, art, science and religion. With the
geolOgist it has gone down into the earth. and
read the first chapter of Genesis in the book
of nature, illustrated with engravings on the
rock, and from its inspiration the antiquarian
hath blown the trumpet Of resurrection over
buried POmpeii's herculaneum until their
sepulchres have opened ami shafts and tow
ers and amphitheatres have arisen to the
worlds gaze. Curiosity hath attracted the tel
escopic vision of the astronomer until distant
WORLDS have come out of their hiding places
in the furtherest heaven to choir the praises
of God, while planet is weighed against planet
and widest meteors are lassoed of respondent
law. 1t has found traces OF the eternal God
in the pOlypi, and star fishes in the sea, and
the majesty of the great Jehovah encamped
under the gorgeous curtains of a dahla. 1t
hath examined the spots on the sun and the
Larvae hidden in leaf, the light under the
fre-ny's wing and the terrible glance of the
condor pitching from Chimborazo, the myri-
ads of anlmalcul8 that make the phOsphOres-
cent blaze in ships wake and the mighty
maze of suns and spheres and consultations
and galaXies that blaze on In the march of
God.
Curiosity hiss inspired the inventor until
forces that for ages lay hidden have come to
wheels and levers and shuttles and wings in
swimming through the waters,
cleaving through the Mountains, soaring
through the air, until the whole earth rattIes
and crushes and roars and rings with strange
mechanisms and lighCnings play kite with
philosophers and ships with nostrils of hot
steam and yoEe of fire draw together the
continents. We would not condemn the la
bors of human inquisitiveness, but we hope
that their Leyden jars and electric batteries
and yoltaic piles and magnifying glasses
might charge upon the barred castles of the
natural world until it should surrender the
last secret. Give 1t wider range and let new
discovery come down from the air and lean
up out of the aters ana rear from the earth
to crown human inquisitvencss. God be
praised for this geological curiosity of Prof.
HlLclCOck ana JDc ZOOlOTIc1L curiosity of
Agassiz and the chemical curiosity of Liebig
and the architectural curiosity of Christo-
pher Wren and the inventive curiosity of
Edison!
But the inquisitiveness of many have rush
ed them into predlcament. Eve wanted to
know how the fruit tasted, and she found out
but 5000 years of wretchedness and woe have
deplored her curiosity. Unlawful curiosity
has sent the theologian mad into the forbid
den systems of God and religion. He has
sometimes wrenched his whole moral nature
out of Joint in trying to pluck fruit from
branches beyond his reach, or yenturinp too far
on the limbs hath tumbled headlong without
remedy. There are 10000 trees from which
we may eat and get only good, but from the
forest OF mystery, divine election, Trinity
the resurrection, how many have plucked
their ruin? Thousands of men are not Chris
tians because they do not know who Mel
was.
There are many forms of unhealthful in
quisitiveness. Manv sit from morning to
night with the eye staring and mouth aga9e
of curiosity. They are the first to know who
told a lie, and build 1t another story high and
two wings to it. About other peoples houses
about other people, food, about other peoples
apparel, about other peoples financial condi-
ton, they are over anxious. No choice bit of
gossip floating in the community but stops at
their door. And they lHxuriate and grow fat
in the endless round of the great world of
tIttle-tattle. He invites and sumptuously en-
tertains at his fireside Col. Twaddle, Esduire
Chit Chat and Gov. Small-Taik. Whosoever
hath valuable secret, let item
come and offer it a sacrifice to this goddess of |
splutter. Multitudes of Adams and Ewes
spend their whole time in eating fruit that
does not belong to them. Some who are pro-
hcient mathematicians have never learned
this computation in moral algebra:
Good sense. Good breeding. Curiosity
Winding your own business.
Young people urged on by their inquisitive-
ness have ransacked the whole field of French
novels to find out whether they really are as
bad as moralists have pronounced them. just
coming to look over the parapets they have
lost their balance, and down they went
dashed into remedyless destruction. or. per
chance, crawling up on the rocks shattered
and bleeding and CHASTITY, gibbering with
sion is fiery courser, and driven along
dangerous places 1t may become unmanare-
able, and at the sudden sound of mirfh's
trumpet bit and pole break, and it lunges like |
a bolt into terrible Abyson.
Again learn from EYES career that sone
fruits that are pleasant to the taste afterward |
produce agony. The forbidden fruit was so |
pleasant to Ewes appetite she is not satisfied /
until her husband tastes it. But her Danish /
ment from Paradise, and the sufferings of an /
entire race were the price paid for the lux
ury. Eve is not the only one VINO has sold |
great happiness for temporary satisfaction. |
The cup of sin always sparkles at the top. but |
there is death at the bottom. IntoxicatiOn /
hath pleasant exhilaratiOns, makes man see |
Eve stars where others see one star puts
d axes poor man feel rich and cheeks white |
as snow and red as roses. But what about |
the dreams that come afterward. when they
seem falling from great heights and in effort |
to save themselves meeting with other fanced |
disasters till the sweat stands on the brow |
like the night deWs Of eternal darkness and |
they are ground under the hoof of horrid |
nightmares, shrlek1ng out with lips that