News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-12-27
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: Lifted from the Brick
kiinS."

kiIns."
TEXT: although ye haze lain among the
/ pots, get shall ne be as the t0lngS o. doUe
| covered tCith SiLUer, and her feathers t0tth
yeIlotV gold. Psalms. xviii, Is.
Isuppose you know what tie Israelites did
| down in Egyptian slavery. They made
| bricks. Amid the utensils of the brick-kln
| there were also other utensils of cookery
| the kettles, the pots, the pans, with which
| they prepared their daily food-and when
these poor slaves, tired of the days work, lay
| down to rest, they lay down amid the inn
PIGMENTS of cookery and the mple'
ments of hard work. When they arose
| in the morning they found their
| garments covered with the clay and
the smoke and the dust, and besmirched and
! begrimed with the utensils CT cookery. But
after while the Lord broke up that slavery,
| and He took these poor slaves into land
where they had better garb, bright and clean
| and beautiful apparel. NO more bricks Tor
| them to make Let TharOah make his own
bricks When avid in my text comes to
describe the transition of these poor Israelites
| from their bondage amid the bric&-kins into
| the glorious emancipation for which God
| had prepared them, he says: Though We
have lain among the potts. yet shall we he as
| the wings of dove covered with silver, and
her feathers with yellow gold.
Miss Whately, the author of a cele-
brated Look, life in Egypt" said
| cooking their food on the tops of
houses and that she had often seen, just be-
fore shutdown, pigeons and doves which had,
| during the heat of the day, been hiding
among the kettles and the pans with which
the food was prepared, picking up the crumbs
| that they might find-just about the hour
of sunset would spread their wings and fly
! heavenward, entirely unsoiled by the
region in which they had moved, for
the, pigeon is a very Clearly bird.
setting sun would throw silver on Their
wings and gold on their breast So you see
| it was not q far fetched simile or an I'M
natural comparison, when David in my text
says to these emancirated lsraelites, and
| says to all those who are brought out of any
| kind of trouble into any kind of spiritual
| joy: Though we have lain among the
| pots, yet shall We be as the wings of dove
! covered with silver, and her feathers with
/ yellow gold.n
Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters.
| Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps US trudging,
| trudging in a most degrading service; but
| after while Christ comes, and He says: Let
my people gon and we pass out from among
| the brick-kilns of sin into the glorious liberty
| of the Gospel; we put n the clean robes of
| Christian profession, and when at last We
| soar away to the warm nest which God has
| provided for US III heaven, we shall 60 fairer
| q
and its feathers covered with yellow gold.
l am going to preach something which some
| of you do not believe, and that is that the
| grandest possible adornment is the religion
of Jesus Christ. y There are great many
| people who suppose that religion IS very
| different thing from what it really is. The
| reason men condemn the Bible is because
they do not understand the Bible; they have
| not properly examined 1T. DIR. johnson SAID
| that Hume told a minister i'll the b!ShOprIc
| of n11rb hot 1p had
| examined the New Testament. yet all h life
warning against it. Haley, the astronomer,
| announced his skeptiCism to Sir Isaac New
| ton, and Sir Isaac Newton said: ''Now, sir, L
have not, and l am ashamed that you,
protesting to be a philosopher, consent
to condemn thing you never have ex-
amiTed." And so men reject the relig on
of Jesus Christ because they really have
never investigated it. They think it some
thing impractical something that wi not
work, something Pecksniffian, something
hypocritical, something repulsive, when it Is
so bright and so beautiful you might COM
pare 1t to chatfinch you might compare it
to a robin redbreast you might comlare it
to dove, its wings covered with silver, and
its feathers with yellow gold.
But how Is it if a young man becomes
Christ an! All through tie c.uU rooms there
he associates, all through the business circl,s
where he is known, there is commiseratiOn
They say: what pity that young man
who had such bright prospects should so
have been despoiied by those Christians, Civ
ing up al his worldly prospects for some
thing which is of no particular present
Comes e HITS is yfung woman who be
manners the charm of the drawing room.
| Now all through the fashionable circles the
| whisper goes: Nv nat a pity that such bright
| light should have been extnguished, that
| such graceful gait should lie CT ppled, that
| such worldly prospects should be obiterated!'
| All, my friends, it can le- shown that re-
J ligion's WAYS ways of lleaSantneSS and
instead of being dark, al do'erul. and
lachrymoSe, and repulsive is bright and beau
tiful, fairer than dove. its wings covered
with silver and its feathers with yellow
gold.
See, in the first place, what religion will
do for a mans heart. l care not how cheer
full man may naturally be before CONVEX
sion, conversion brings him up to higher
standard of cheerfulness. / do not say tie
will laugh any louder, | do not say but he
may stand back from some forms of hilarity
in which he Cnce INDUCED; but there comes
into his soul an immense satisfaction. y
young man, not Chr stan, depends upon
worldly successes 20 keep his Its up Now
he is Prospered, now he has large salary, now
he has beautiful wardrobe, now
ne has pleasant friends, row he
has more money than he knows how
TO spend; everything goes bright
and well with him. But trouble Genes
there are many young men in the house this
morning W no can ties lfy out of their own eX-
perlence that sometimes to young men
trouble does Come-hiS friends are gone, his
salary is gone, his health is gone; he goes down,
down. lie becomes sour, cross queer, mis-
anthropic, bames the word, blames society,
b:nmes the church, flames everything
PUSHES perhaps to the intoxicating cup to
Arown ms trouble but instead OF drowning
his trouble browns his body and browns his
soul.
- But here is a Christian young man.
Trouble comes to him. Does he give up2
No. He throws himself back on the re-
sources of heaven. He says: 'God is my
father. Out of all these disasters [ shall
pluck advantage for my soul. All the
promises are mine, Christ is mine, Christian
companionShip is mine, heaven is mine
w hat though my apparel be worn
out! Christ gives Inc robe OF Righteousness.
What though my money be gone! have a
title deed to the whole universe in the prom
lse: An are yours What though my
worldly friends fal away? Ministering
angels are my bolYguard What though
my fare be poor and my bread be scant! l
sit at the Kings banquet
Oh, what a shallow stream is worldly en-
joyment compared with the deep, broad,
overfowing river of Gods peace, rolling
midway in the Christian heart! Sometimes
you have gone out on the iron bound beach
of the sea when there has been u storm on
the ocean, aud you have seen the waves dash
INTO white foam at your feet. They did not
of the chapter written by the Psalmist, and
perhaps you recited it to yourself while the
storm was making commentary upon the
passage: God is our refuge and strength
a very present help in time of trouble
Therefore will | not fear though the earth be
removed, and though the mountains lie
carried into the midst Of tie sea; though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with tie swelling
thereof Selahm Oh how independent the
religion of Christ makes a man of worldly
success and worldly circumstances! Nelson,
the night before his last battle, said: ITO
morrow shall win either peerage or a grave
i'll Westminster Abbey" And it does not make
much difference to the Christian whether
he rises or falls in worldly matters; he has
everlasting rehown any way. Other pIu-
mage may be torn in the blast, but that soul
adorned with Christian grace, is fairer than
the dove its wings covered with silver and
its feathers with yellow gold.
y GU and | have found out that people who
pretend to be happy are no5 always happy.
LOOK at that young man CarIcaturing the
Christian religion scoffing at every
thing good, going into registering drunken
ness, dashlng the champagne bottle TO
the floor, rolling the glasses from the bar
room counter, laughing, shouting, stamping
the floor, shrieking. Is he hap1yf | will 90
to his midn. ght pillow. ] viii see him turn
the gas OF. | will ask myself if the How
on which he Scoops is as soft as the pillar on
which that pure young man sleeps All no.
" hen he opens his eyes in the morning, VIII
the world be as bright to him as to that
young man who retired at night saying his
prayers, invoking Gods blessing upon his