News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-07-15
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
DIR. TALMAGE'S LAST DISCOURSE BE-
FORE lie TAKES HIS SUMMER VA
CATION.
The Story of the Prophet Elijah and the
Ravens.

The Story of the Prophet Elijah and til
Ravens.
Rev. DR.. Talmage preached Sunda,
Tor the last time prior to his summer va
cation, and at each service the Taber
nacle was literally packed. He preache.
on he battle for bread. His text wa
the story of Elijah and the ravens, an(
among other things he said:
The great question of this day is no
| the question of home rule, but whethe
there will be any home to rule not
question of tariff, but whether ther,
shall be anything to tax. With the vas
ma .ority of people it is question O.
"How shall support my family; how
shall | meet my wants; how shall pa,
my rent; how shall clothe and shelte
and educate those dependent upon me p
If God will help me to assist you in thu
solution of that question, the happies
man in this house will be your preacher
have gone out on a cold morning with
expert sportsmen to hunt for pigeons;
have gone out on the meadow to hun
for quail; l have gone down with some
of my friends on the marshes to hunt fol
reed birds; but this morning 1 am out
for ravens. Notice, in the first place
in regard to these winged caterers, thai
they were sent directly from God tc
Elijah: 81 have commanded the ravens
to feed thee," says God, in an adjoining
passage. They did not come out o.
some other cave; they did not just hap
pen to fly that way; they did not just
happen to meet Elijah, they did not just
happen to drop the food into his mouth
They came directly from God. The
Bible says so. The same God who is
going to supply you. He is your Father.
1t would take q great while to make cal,
culation of how many yards of cloth you
will require during your life, even
though you knew how many years you
were to live. A very elaborate calcula-
tion. God can tell without any calcula-
ton. lie has great family and He has
everything methodized, and there is a
plate for each of us if we do not act like
naughty children and kick and scramble
and try to upset things plate for each
one of us, and we will be served in our
turn. God has already ordered all the
suits of clothes you will ever wear, down
to the last one in which you will be laid
out. God has already ordered all the
food you will ever eat, down to the last
crumb that will be put into your mouth
in the dying sacrament. l do not say
He will always give us just what we
would like. A parent must decide for
a child. The child might say: "Oh
give me sugar and confections and moth
ing else" The parent would say: ''Oh,
thet wouldn't be good; that wouldn't be
well for you. You must take something
palmer first" The child might say !:
"Give e nothing but great blotches Of
color in my garments" "Oh," the
parent would say, "that wouldn't be
appropriate; that wouldn't be beauti-
full" The parent decides for the child
what is best for him to eat and what is
best for him to wear. Now, God is our
Father and we are minors of the family
and He is going to feed us and clothe
us, although he may not always crafty
our infantile wishes for sweets and gilt
ter. These ravens did not bring pome-
granates from the silver platter of King
Ahab for Elijah. They brought bread
and meat; the very best thing, the very
best food. Elijah was going to have a
hard time and God wanted him to be
stout and strong and he gives HIM stout
food. They did not bring cake or pie
or custard, but bread and meat, sub
stantial diet. And God is going to
supply us. He does not promise us the
luxuries which sometimes kill the body,
b t He promises us food, and you have
a right to take courage. God has no
hard times in His history. His ships
never break on the rocks. His banks
never fail. He not only has the food,
but he has the mode of conveyance; not
only the bread, but the ravens; and if,
in order to satisfy you, it were necessary,
God would send out of the heavens
great flock of ravens reaching from His
gate beyond, so that the food could be
flung down the sky from beak to beak
and from talon to talon.
Notice also, in regard to these winged
these black servants of the
sky, and in regard to this whole ques-
tion brought before us, and nothing that
Elijah could hoard up as a surplus.
The ravens did not bring enough one
morning to last month. They did not
bring enough one morning to last until
the next morning. They brought
enough in the morning to last uutil the
evening, and they brought enough in
the evening to last until the morning.
Twice a day. "And they brought
bread and flesh to him in the morning,
and bread and flesh to him in the even
ing" In other words, they brought
just enough. Oh, l wish we could all
learn that lesson. You know the great
of the world is for surplus.
1t is not merely enough for this week or
this year, but it IS for fifty years; it is
for a lifetime. You have more faith in
the Nassau Bank, the Fulton Bank, the
Bank of England, than in the royal
bank of Heaven. You say: THAT is
lll very poetic; you can take the black
ravens; give me the gold eagles" If in
the morning the food be exhausted, do
not sit down after breakfast and say 81
don't know where the next meal is to
rome FROM" but go out. look up into
he sky, and you will see two ravens,
not like the insane raven of Edgar A.
Poe alighting on his chamber door,
''Only this aud nothing more" but
Elijah's two ravens, tn Lords two ra-
vens, the one bringing bread, the other
meat. Plumed butcher and
baker. Oh, how good God is, and how
great are His rcsourcesl My subject
llso gives to me more striking and i'm
Drcssive lesson; and that is, that relief
s apt to come in an unexpected and
impossible conveyance. If it
lad been robin redbIeast, if it had
0een a musical meadow lark, it it had
been meek turtle dove, if it had been
| sublime albatross that brought food to
Elijah, | would not have been so sur.
Drised; but no, it was fierce and in
luspiCCate bird, out of which we make
)ne of the most fOrceful and repulsive
words in our language 'ravcnOus."
You get in some business trouble and
you think some great hearted man will
;ome around and put his name on the
pack of your note, or he will stand by
you in some great enterprise. No, he
will not; no, he will not. God will
end some old Shylock to help you, a
nan who never helped any body. lie
Will be wrought upon in such way that
le will come and help you. Circum-
stances most OmniOus will turn out most
1t will not be a chatfinch,
is wings and feathers dashed with
white and chestnut. 1t will be q raven.
Oh, here is where we all make the mis-
axe, and that is in regard to the color
If Gods providences. A white provld-
nee comes to us. We say, ''That is a
Mercy" A black providence comes to
is, and we say, ooh, that is disaster"
\ white providence comes to us, and we
nave plenty of money, plenty of friends,
arge Government securities, plenty of
Mortgages, 500, 900, everything bright,
beautiful and fair, and that petition,
Give me this day my daily bread"
-.. - ,-o,, ;,o,>,1ro,,r;ota hacouca vnu |