Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-09
1ALMAGE'S SERMON.
interesting Discourse On "The
Battle For Bread"

Battle FOL Bread"
T.. Ravens of Gods Providence-The In.
.,;tv of Divine R~esources-The Great
Home Question Not Home Rule
But Home Maintenance.
pev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
.,,on at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
his subject 1.-THE battle for bread.n The
ext was:
and the ravens brought him bread and
in the morning, and bread and nesh in
avening.-Kings, xvii.,6
Dr, Talmage said:
There is an incident to my text that BAT.
.as all the pathological wonders of the
,orld. The grain crop had been cut of,
anime was in the land. In the cave bv
ba Brook Cherith sat a minister of God.
liiah, waiting Tor something to eat.
rhv did he not go to the neighbours?
here were no neighbors 1t was a wilder.
ess. Why did he not pick some of the
There were none. If there had
cen they would have been dried IN.
Gated one morning at the mouth of his
ave the prophet looks into the dry
nd p~ittiless heavens, and sees a flock Of
irds approaching. Oh, if they were only
artridges, or if he only had an arrow
18th which to bring them down! But as
lev come nearer he finds they are not
,mestible, but unclean, and the eating of
lem would be spiritual death. The
Of their beak, the length of their
ings, the blackness of their color, their
harsh "cruck! cruck!" prove them to
e ravens. They whirr around about the
head, and then they come on
wing and pause on the level of
is lips, and one of the ravens brings
read, and another ave- brings meat,
nd after they have discharged their tiny
lrgo they wheel past, and others come
ntil after a while the prophet has enough,
nd these black servants of the wilderness
,ble are gone. For six months, and for a
hole year, morning and evening, the
and a supper bell sounded as
lese ravens rang u on the air their
rruck! cruck!" Guess where they got
lie food from. The old rabbins say thew
OF it from the kitchen of King Ahab.
theirs say that the ravens got their food
en- pious Obadiah, who was in the habit
feeding the prosecuted. Some say that
lie ravens brought the food to their young
the trees, and that Elijah had only to
imb up and get it. Some say the whole
DRY is improbable, for these were carniv-
-ous birds, and the food they carried
as the torn flesh of living beasts,
nd that ceremonially u%nclean, or it was
arrion, and it would not have been fit for
lie prophet. Some say that they were no
but that the word translated
in my text ought to have been
translated "Arabs," so it would have read:
The Arabs brought bread and flesh in the
and bread and flesh in the even
lg. Anything, but admit the Bible to be
uo.
Hew away at this miracle until all the
iracle is gone. Go on with the depicting
'ocess, but know, my brother, that you
robbing only n man-and that is
ourself-of one of the most comforting,
autiful, pathetic and triumphant lessons
all the ages. l can tell you who these
lrveyors were: they were ravens. l can
IL you who freighted them with pro-
sions: God. I can tell you who launched
'em: God. I car tell you who taught
lem which way to fly: God. l can tell
gu who told them at what cave to swoop:
l can tell you who introduced raven
prophet and prophet to raven: God.
is one passage 1 will whisper in
our ear, for I would not want to utter it
loud lest some ono should drop down
its power:
any man shall take away from the words
va y his part out of the book Of life and
1T Of the Holy City.
While, then, this morning we watch the
'vens feeding Elijah, let the swift dove
Gods spirit sweep down the sky with
food, and on outspread wing pause
the lip Of every soul hungering for COM
)rt.
On the banks of what rivers have been
lie great battles of the world? While you
re looking over the map of the world to
nswer that, 1 will tell you that the great
onfict to-day is on the Thames, on the
Ludson, on the Mississippi. on the Kenne-
on the Savannah, on the Rhine, on the
lie, on the Ganges, on the Hoang-Ho. 1t
a battle that has been going on for six
years. The troops engaged in it
re one billion four hundred million, and
aose who have fallen are vaster in num-
ers than those who march. 1t is a battle
bread. Sentimentalists sit in a cush-
'ned chair, in their pictured study, with
heir slippered feet on a damask ottoman,
say that this world is a great scene Of
and greed. It does not seem so to
If it were not for the absolute neces-
tiles of the cases, nine-tenths of the
torres, factories, shops, banking houses Of
he land would be closed tomorrow. Who
that man delving in the Colorado hills?
r toiling in a New England factory? or
DING through a roll of bills in the bank?
r measuring a fabric at the %counter9
1e Is a champion sent forth in
of some home circle that has
0 be cared for, in behalf Of some
nurch of God that has to be supported,
. behalf of some asylum of mercy that
as to be sustained. Who is that woman
ending over the se&ing-machine, or car
ylng the bundle, or sweeping the room,
: mending the garment, or sweltering at
ne washtub? That is Deborah, n OF the
'ord's heroines, battling against Amale-
lf1Sh wood --ls-I ------ &c., .-.sk1 s~ey,
marriott to crush her and hers.