News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-12-06
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: "An Obnoxious Diet"

TEXT: "ARd these are they t0hich ye shall
hare IN G~bOminGti3n among the fouls: tn
OlCi, the uuitUre end the bat. These GIsc
shall be unc!edn TO you anon the creeping
thtngS that creep upon the earth, the cdGnIe
Ion and the snaiL"-Leviticus XII, 1880.
The Bible offers every possible variety OF
theme, of argument and of Illustration. We
care not much in what kind of a pitcher the
water of life is BROUGHT, if it is only the
clear, pure water. Col gave the ancientS a
list of the animals they might eat, and a
list of animals that they might not
eat. These people lived in a hot climate,
and certain forms of animal oo1 corrupted
their bloOl, and disposed them to scrofu-
louS disorders, depraved their appetites, and
bemeaned their souls. A mans food, when
he has the means and opportunity of select
ing 1t, suggests his moral nature. The rea-
son 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 fOJd to correspond with theirs,
his temperament was entirely changed. There
are certain forms of food that nave a tend
ency to affect the moral nature. Many a
Christian is trying to do by prayer
that which cannot be done except through
corrected diet. For instance, he who uses
swine's flesh for constant diet VII be dis
eased in body and polluted of soul-all his
hturgies and catechisms Notwithstanding.
The Gadarene swine were possessed of
Iu6 Q6Nl ana ran Town q SC6aD
place into the sea, and all the swine ever
since seem to have been similarly possessed.
In LeviticuS, God struck this meat off the
table of His people, and placed before them
a bill of fare at once healthful, nutritious
and generous.
was a spiritual reason why God chose certain
forms of food for the ancients. God gave a
peculiar diet to his people, not only because
ne wanted them to lie distinguished from
the IN TrnTlDlFnU nations hYnf ha~an-a oar
tain birds and animals, by reason
OF their habits, have always been
suggestive of moral qualities. By the list of
things from which they were to abstain. God
wished to prejudice their minds against Ger
tain evils; and in the list of lawful things
given, he Wi he'd to suggest certain forms of
good. When God solemnly forbade His peo-
pie to eat the owl, the ~vuIture, the bat,
the chameleon, and the snail, He meant to
drive out of His people all the sins that were
thus emblemized.
l take the suggestion of the text, and say
that one of the first unclean things the
Christian needs 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 sings, it sings through its
nose. 1t loves the gloom of night better
than the brightness of the day. Who has
not slept in the cabin near the woods, and
been awakened in the night by the dismal
''too-hoo' of the owl: Melancholy is the
owl that is perched in many a Christian
soul. 1t is an unclean bird, and needs to lie
d~rivenaway. Aman whose sins are pardoned,
and who 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, and your doubts will vanish.
You say; 81 have lost my
property;f but I reply: ''You have
infinite treasures laid up in Heaven" You
81 am weak and sickly, and going to
die" Then be congratulated 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 a little girl was eating, the sun dashed
upon her spoon, and she cried: 20, man.
ma, I have swallowed a spoonful of sun
shine!" Would God that we might all in
dulge in the same beveragel Cheerfulness;
it makes the hOmeliest face handsome; it
makes the hardest mattress soft; it
runs the loom that weaves but
God made the grass black! No; that would
be too sombre. God made the grass red!
No, that would be too gaudy- God made the
grass green, that by this parable all the
world might he led to a subdued cheerful
ness. Read your Bible in the sunshine.
that your physical health is
closely allied to your spiritual. The heart
and the liver are only a few inches apart,a and
what affects one affects the other. A histor-
rian records that by the sounds of great
44u5AlCA III AAOANSr
army was frightened away in retreat.
And there is in the great o1tbursting JOY
of a Christian soul that which can drive
back any Internal besiegement. Rats love
lark closets, and Satan loves to burrow III a
gloomy soul. Rejoice in the Lord, 0 We
righueousl and again | say, r%ejoicel
Hoist the window of your soul in this the
twelve o'clock of your spiritual night. Put
the gun TO your boulder, and ann at the
black jungle from which the hooting comes,
pull the trigger. and drop that croaklng,
loathsome, hideous owl of religious melan-
choly into the bushes
drive oa6 the VHIrGre rom your soul God
not allow the Jews to eat it. 1t lives
on carcasses; it fattens among the dead;
leaden wing it circles about Eattle-
Wilson, the American ornIthologist,
two hundred and thirty seven
vultures around one carcass. If crossing
the desert when thereis no sign of wing in
the air, a camel perish out of the caravan.
the air begins to darken with
There are many profesTel Chris
& ans who have a vuiture in thor souls. They
prey upon the character and feelings of
Others. \ doubtful reputation is a
banquet for them Some rival in trade or
profession falls, and the vulture puts out his
head. These people revel in the details of a
mans ruin. They say: 81 told you So
They rush into some store, and say: Have
you heard the neWs3 Just as l expected
Our n~eighbor has gone all to pieces! Good
for him!'
That professedIy Christian woman, having
heard of the w~rong-doing of some sis'er 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 sun
down, and every time tells it larger. She
ruSheS into the DariOrs to tell it, and into the
nursery to tell it, and into the kitchen to tell
It. She says: Would Won h. thought
ii! Well, L ALWAYS said ,Lare was
something wrong about he. Why, L
should not sneak TO her if [ saw her in the
Is it not horrible2 But better not
ay any thing about it, because there
nay be soma mistake. / do not want
ny name involved in the matter. L
yuess | will Just go over and ask them at No.
'j3 whether they have heard it. Guess 1T
must be so, for Mary Ann says that her hus-
and saw a man who heard from his business
PARTNER that his blind oil grandmother had
cen something that looked very suspiciousi"
The most loathsome, miserable. Godfor-
AIKEN wretch on earth isa gossip. I can tell
Ter on thu street, though l have never seen
Ter before. She walks fast. and has her
'onnet-strings loose, for she has not had time
o tie them since she heard that last scandal.
he looks both wavS as she passes hoping TO
ee new evidences Of depravitv in the windows.
think that when Satan has n job so in
nitely mean that in all the pit he annot
a devil man enough to do it, and all
ribeS and threats have failed to get one
Killing for the informal crusade. he saws to
ne of his serEeants: eco up to Brooklyn. and
I such a street. on such a corner, get that
woman. and she will be glad to
o it, And sure enOu IN. like a hungry
she takes the hook in her mouth, and
atan s'ackens the llle. and lets her run out
and farther. until after awhile he
at IS time TO haul in that line" and
18th n few strong pulls. he brings her to
IA beach of fire. What do YOU say2
hat she was n membar of the churchl /
IN not help that. When Satan goes a. fish
~, he does not care what school the fish be-
!. ~E,tNer sc is "A Presbyterian mack
feior an Etnscopahansalmnn. Amidst the
nunGer crash or Sinai. God said SsThOu
halt not bear false witness againgt thv neigh
)or." And IN Leviticus he says: Thou shalt
rot 90 up and down as a tale-bearer.n Take
lot into your ear that scum of hell that
call titule-tattle. Whosoever willingly
listens to n SANDER is equally guilty with the
)ne who tells it. and an old writer says
they ought both to be hung, the one
the tongue and the other by the
Do not smile upon such a spaniel, lest,
ike a pleased dog. he put his dirty paw upon
you. Throw back the shutter of your soul,
Oh, Christian mon and women, and sae IL
there be within you a vulture with filthy
talOns and cruel beak. Let not his unclean
thing roost in your sOul. for my text saws:
Y shall hold in abomination among the
the vulture."
Again: taking the suggestion of the text,
drive out the hat from your soul. No wonder
set this bird among the u1clean. It is
an Ofensa TO every one. Let it nv into the
window of a summer night. and all the
hands, young and oil, are against it. 1t is
half bird and half mouse. 1t seems made
partly to walk and partly to fiy. and does
neither well; and becomes an emblem Of