The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-02
TALMAGE's SERMON.
An Interesting Discourse On "The
Battle For Bread"
The RaveNs of Gods Providenoe-Tho In.
Anfty OF Divine Resources-The Great
Home Question Not Home Rule
But Home Maintenance.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmsge, in recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
for his subject ''The battle for bread The
text was:
And the ravens brought him bread and
flesh In the morning, and bread and flesh in
the evening.-Kings, xvii, 6.
DR.. Talmage said:
The ornithology of the Bible is a very in.
teresting study. The stork, which know
eth her appointed time; the common SPAR
rows, teaching the lesson of Gods provi-
dence; the ostriches of the desert, by care
less incubation, illustrating the reckless
ness Of parents who do not take enough
pains with their children; the eagle, SYM
bolizing riches which take wings and fy
away; the pelican, emblemizing solitude /:
the bat, flake of the darkness; the night
hawk, the essifrage, the cuckoo, the lap
wing, the osprey, by the command of God
in Leviticus, flung out Of the worlds bill of
fare. I would like to have been with Au-
dubon as he went through the woods with
gun and pencil bringing down and sketch
ing the fowls of heaven, his unfoIded port
folio thrilling all Christendom. What
wonderful creatures of God the birds are I
some of them, this morning. like the
songs of Heaven Leu loose, bursting throu gh
ers, which are clothing and conveyance at
the same time; the nine vertebrse of the
neck, the three eyelids to each eye, the
third eyelid an extra curtain for GRADUATE
ing the light of the sun.
Some of these birds scavengers and some
of them orchestra. Thank God for the
quail's whistle and lark's carroll and the
twitter of the wren-caGed by the ancients
the king of the birds, because when the
fowls Of heaven went into contest as to
who could fly the highest, and the eagle
swung nearest tn sun, a wren on the back
of the eagle, after the ca Fle was exhausted,
sprang up much higher, and so was
called by the ancients the king of birds.
Consider those Of them that have golden
crowns and crests, showing them to be
feathered imperials. And listen to the
humming birds serenade in the ear of the
honeysuckle. Look at the beIted king
fisher, striking like dart from sky to
water. Listen to the voice of the owl,
giving the keynote to all croakers. And
behold the condor among the Andes, bat
fling with the reindeer. I do not know
whether an aquarium or aviary is the best
altar from which TO worship God.
There is an incident to my text that BAT
hes all the ornithological wonders OF the
world. The grain crop had been cut off.
Famine was in the land. In the cave by
the Brook Cherith sat a minister of God,
Elijah waiting for something to eat
Why did ne not go to the neighbors2
There were no neighbors; it was a wilder
ness. Why did he not pick some of the
berries? There were none. If there had
been they would have been dried up.
Seated one morning at the mouth of his
cave the prophet looks into the dry
and pittiIess heavens, and sees a flock of
birds approaching. Oh, if they were only
partridges, or if he only had an arrow
with which to bring them down. But as
they come nearer he finds they are not
comestible, but unclean, and the eating of
them would be spiritual death. The
strength of their beak the length of their
wings, the blackness of their color, their
loud, harsh ''cruck! cruczv' prove them to
be ravens. They whirr around about the
prophets head, and then they come on
futtering wing and pause on the level of
his lips, and one of the ravens brings
bread, and another raven brings meat,
and after they have discharged their tiny
cargo they wheel past, and others come
until after while the prophet has enough,
and these black servants of the wilderness
table are gone. For six months. and for a
whole year, morning and evening, the
breakfast and a supper bell sounded as
these ravens rang out on the air their
"cruck cruck!" Guess where thev got
she food from. The old rabbins say they
got It from the kitchen of King Ahab
Others say that the ravens got their food
fsom pious Obadiah. who was in the habit
of feeding the prosecuted. Some say that
the ravens brought the food to their young
in the trees, and that Elijah had only to
-Us L
story is improbable, for these were carniv-
orous birds, and the food they carried
was the torn flesh of living beasts,
and that ceremonially unclean, or it was
carrion, and it would not have been fit for
the prophet. Some say that they were no
ravens, but that the word translated
ravens" in my text ought to have been
translated "Arabs," so it would have read:
''The Arabs brought bread and flesh in the
morning, and bread and flesh in the even
ing. Anything, but admit the Bible to be
true.
Hew away at this miracle until all the
miracle is gone. Go on with the depicting
process, but know, my brother, that you
are robbing only one man-and that is
yourself-of one of the most comforting,
beautiful, pathe6ic and triumphant lessons
in all the ages. can tell you who these
purveyOrs were: they were ravens. can
tell you who freighted them with pro-
visions: God. I can tell you who launched
them; God. I can tell you who taught
them which way to fly: God. can tell
you who told them at what cave to swoop:
God. I can tell you who introduced raven
to prophet and prophet to raven: God.
There is one passage [ will whisper in
your ear, for I would not want to utter it
alOmH last nua GhonlH drOv1
under its power:
If any man shall take away from the words
of the prophecy of this book, Go shall take
away his part out of the book of life and
out Of the Holy City.
While, then, this morning we watch the
ravens feeding Elijah, let the swift dove
of Gods spirit sweep down the sky with
divine food, and on outspread wing pause
at the lip of every soul hungering for com
fort.
On the banks of what rivers have been
the great battles Of the world? While you
are looking over the map of the world to
answer that, win tell YOU that the great
conflict to-day is on the Thames, on the
Hudson, on the Mississippi, on the Kenne-
bee, on the Savannah, on the Rhine, on the
Nile, on the Ganges, on the Hoang-Ho. 1t
is a battle that has been going on for six
thousand years. The troops engaged in it
are one billion four hundred million, and
those who have fallen are vaster in num-
bers than those who march. 1t is battle
for bread. Sentimentalists sit in a cush-
toned chair, in their pictured study, with
their slippered feet on a damask ottoman,
and say that this world is a great scene of
avarice and greed. II does not seem so TO
me. If it were not for the absolute neces-
stiles of the cases, nine-tenths of the
stores, factories, shops, banking houses OF
the land would be closed tomorrow. Who
is that man delving in the Colorado hillsI
or toiIing in q New England factorYf or