The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-07
UNCLEAN THINGS.
DR.. Talnage on the Relation Be-
tween Diet and Moral Nature.
The Owl, tho vuiture and the Bat In Chris
titan Observation-Disclosures the Nuitures
in Society-worldly Fortunes
Best Brief.

In a receny sermon preached in the Tab.
ernacle at b. ookiyn Rev. I. Dewitt Tai
image took fer his text: "And these are
they which ye shall have in abominatior
among the fowls: the owl, the vultRrc and
the bat. These also shall be unclean &c
YOU among the creeping things that CREEP
upon the earth: the chameleon and the
snail. "-Leviticus Xxi. 1880. Following
is the discourse:
The Bible offers every possible variety OF
theme, of argument and of illustration.
We care not much in what kind of pitch
or the water of life is brought, il it is only
the clear, pure water. God gave the an
clients list of the animals that they might
eat, aud list of animals that they might
not eat. These people lived in hot eli
mate. and certain forms of animal God
corrupted their blood and disposed them to
scrofulous disorders, depraved their appe-
tites and bemeaned their souls. A mans
food, when he has the means and oppor-
tunity. of selecting il, suggests his moral
nature. The reason the wild Indian is as
cruel as the lion is because he has food
that gives him the blood of the lion. A
missionary among the Indians says that,
by changing his style of food to cores
pond with theirs, his temperament was en-
tirely changed.
There are certain forms of food that have
tendency TO affect the moral nature.
Many Christian is trying to do by prayer
that which can not be done except through
corrected diet For instance, he who uses
swine's flesh for constant diet will be dis
eased in body and polluted of soul, all his
Ii;urgies and catechisms Notwithstanding.
The Gadarene swine Were possessed of the
devil and ran down a steep place into the
sea, and all the swine ever since seem to
have been similarly possessed. In Levitt
Gus God struck this meat off the table of
His people and placed before them bill
Of fare at once healthful, nutritious and
generous.
But higher than this physical reason,
there Yves a spiritual reason why God
chose certain forms of food for the an
clients. God gave a peculiar diet to His
people, not only because He wanted them
TO be distinguished from the surrounding
Nations, but because certain birds and
animals, by reason of their habits, have
always been suggestive of moral qualities
BY the list of things from which they We're
to abstain God wished to prejudice their
minds against certain evils, and in the
list OF lawful things given He wished to
suggest certain forms of good. When God
solemnly forbade his people to eat the owl,
the vulture. the bat, the chameleon and
the snail, He meant to drive out of His
people all The sins that were thus emblem
lied.
| take the suggestion of the text and say
that one OF the first unclean things the
Christian re ads TO drive out of his soul is
the owl. The owl is the melancholy bird
of night. 1t matches out whole broods OF
superStitions. 1t is doleful and hideous.
When it sing, it sings through its nose. 1t
loves he gloom of night better than the
brightness of the day. Who has not slept
in the cabin near the woods and been awak
ened in the night by the dismal 'too-
hoo" of the owl: Melancholy is the owl
that is perched in many Christian soul.
1t is an unclean bird and needs to be
driven away. A man whose sins are par
doned and is on the road to Heaven, has
no right to be gloomy. He says: 81 have
so many doubts" That is because you
are lazy" Go actively to work in Christ's
cause aud your doubts will vanish. You
say: & have lost my property; but re-
ly: "You have infinite treasures laid up
in Heaven" You say: 81 am weak and
sickly and going to die" Then be con-
graduated that you are so near eternal
health and perpetual gladness. Catch a
few morning larks for your soul and stone
this owl off your premises.
As little girl Was eating the sun dashed
Upon her spoon and she cried: 30 mamma,
have swallowed a spoonful of sunshinew
Would God that we might all indulge in
the same beverage! Cheerfulness; it
makes the homelisst face handsome: it
q
the loom that weayes buttercups and rain
BOWS and auroras. God made the grass
black: No. that would be too somber.
God made the grass red: No, that would
be too gaudy. God made the grass green,
that by this parable ell the world might be
led to a subdued cheerfulness. Read your
Bible in the supsEine. Remember that
your physical health is closely allied to
the spiritual The heart and the liver are
only few inches apart and what affects
one affects the other.
historian records that by the sound OF
great laughter in Rome Hannibal's as
sauliiEg army was frightened away in re-
treat And there is in the great outburst-
ing icy of a Christian soul that which can
drive back any internal besiegement.
Rats love dark closets and Satan loves to
burrow in a gloomy soul. REJOICE in
the Lord, o We righteous! and again say.
Reioicew Hoist the window of your soul
in this the twelve O'Clock of your spiritual
night Put the gun 10 your shoulder and
aim at the black jungle from whence the
hooting comes, pull the trigger and drop
that croaking, loathsome, hideous owl of
religious melancholy into the bushes.
Again. taking the suggestion of the text
drive out the vulturs from your soul. God
would not allow the Jews to eat it. II
lives on carcassss; it fattens among the
dead: with leaden wing it circles about
battle fields. Wilson. the American
ornithologist, counted 23I vutures around
one carcass. If crossing the desert when
there is no sign of wing in the air, a camel
perish out of the caravan, Immediately the
air begins to darken with vultures. There
are many professed Christians who have a
vulture in their souls They prey upon
the character and feelings of others. A
doubtful reputation is banquet for them.
Some rival in trade or profession fails and
the vulture puts out its head. These peo-
pile revei in the details of q mans ruin.
They say: 81 told you So" They rush
into some store and say: Have you heard
the news? Just as l expected! Our neigh
Dor has gone to pieces! Good for him.
That professedly Christian woman, hav-
ing heard of the wrong doing of some sis
ter in the church, instead Of hiding the sin
with a mantle Of charity, peddles it all
along the streets. She takes the afternoon
TO make her long neglected calls. She tells
the story ten times before shutdown. and
every time tells il larger. She rushes into
the parlors TO tell it, and into the nursery
TO tell, and into the kitchens to tell it.
he :.
att Well. | always said there was some
thing wrong about her. Wby + should