Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-27
SLAVERY OF SIN.
Or. Talmage Discourses on the
Adornments Of Christian Faith.
Sin the Hardest of All Taskmasters-No
Happiness in Evil Ways-Living
Useful Liyes-The Better
World Above.

Al a LIZ
IMAGES subject was: Lifted From the
Brick Kilns," and his text, Though ye
have lain among the pots, yet shall We be
as the wings of dove covered with silver
and her feathers with yellow gold."-
Psalms xviii. IL. He said:
suppose you know what the Israelites
did down in Egyptian slavery. They
made bricks. Amid the utensils of the
brick kiln 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 implements of cookery and
the implements 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 of cookery.
But after awhile 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 for them to make. Let Pharaoh
make his own bricks. When David in my
text comes to describe the transition of
these poor Israelites from their bondage
amid the brick klns into the glorious
emancipation for which God had prepared
them, he says: Though We have lain
among the pots, yet shall We be as the
wings of a dove covered with silver and
her feathers with yellow gold"
Miss Whately. the author of celebrated
book, Life in Egypt" said she sometimes
saw people in the East cooking their food
on the tops of houses, and that she had
often seen, just before shutdown, pigeons
(doves) which had, during the heat of the
day, been hiding among the kettles and
the pans with which the food was pre-
pared, picking up the crumbs that they
might find-just about the hour of sunset
would spread their wings and fly heaven
ward, entirely unsoiled by the region in
which they had moved, for the pigeon is
very cleanly bird. And as the pigeons
few away the setting sun would throw
silver on their wings and gold on their
breast. So you see it was not a far
fetched simile, or an unnatural COMPARE
son, when David in my text says to these
emancipated Israelites 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 a dove covered
gold"
Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters.
Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps US trudaing,
trudging in most degrading service, but
after awhile Christ comes and he saws:
Let my people CO." and we pass out from
among the brick kilns of sin into the glori-
GUS liberty of the gospel; we put on the
clean robes of the Christian profession and
which God has provided for US in Heaven,
we shall go fairer than dove, its wings
covered with silver and its feathers COW
cred with yellow gold
l am going to preach something which
some of you do not believe, aud that is that
the grandest possible adornment is the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ There are a great
many people who suppose that religion is
a very different thing from what il really
is. The reason men condemn the Bible is
because they do not understand the Bible;
they have not properly examined it. Dr..
Johnson said that Hume told minister in
the bishopric of Durham that he never
particularly examined the New Testa-
ment, yet all his life warning against
it. HALEY, the astronomer, announced
his skepticisms to Sir Isaac Newton,
and Sir Isaac Newton said: Now, sir. l
have examined the subject and you have
not and | am ashamed that you. profess
ing to be n philosopher, consent to con-
denim thing you never have examined"
And so men reject the religion of Jesus
Christ, because they really have never in
vestigated it. They think it something I'M
tangible, something that will not work,
something Pecksniffian, something hypo-
critical, something repulsive. when it is so
bright and so beautiful you might compare
it to a robin redbreast you might compare
1t to dove, its wings covered with silver,
and its feathers with yellow gold. But
how is it if a young man becomes a Chris
tan: All through the club room where he
associates, all through the business circles
where he is known. there is commisera-
ton. They say: "What a pity that a
young man who had such bright prospects
should so have been despoiled by those
Christians, giving up all his worldly pros
poets for something which is of no par
ticular present worth"
Here is a young woman who becomes a
Christian-her voice, her face, her man
ners the charm of the 2-s7s ingroom. Now
all through the fashionable circles the
whisper goes: What pity that such a
fright light should be extinguished, that
suct = graceful gait should be crippled,
ihat such worldly prospects should be
All, my friends, it can be
shown that religions ways are WAYS of
and that all her paths are
peace; that religion, instead of being dark.
and doletul, and lachrymose, and re-
pulsive, is bright and beautiful, fairer
than dove its wings covered with silver
and its feathers with yellow gold.
See, i'll the first place, what religion will
do for mans heart. 1 care not how
cheerful man may be before conversion,
conversion brings him up to a higher
standard of cheerfulness. do not saw he
will laugh any louder. do not saw but
he may stand back from some forms
of hilarity in which he once in
dulged; but there comes into his soul
an immense satisfaction. A Young
man, not a Christian, depends upon
worldly successes to keep his spirits up.
Now he is prosperei, now he has large
salary, now he has a beautiful wardrobe.
now he has pleasant friends, now he has
more money than he knows how to spend;
every thing goes bright and we'll with
him. But trouble comes-there are many |
young men in the house this morning who |
can testify out of their own experience |
that sometimes to young men trouble |
does come-his friends are gone, his salary |
IS gone, his health is gone; goes down, |
down. He becomes sour, cross, queer, |
blames the world, blames !
society, oiames the church, blames every |
thing, rushes perhaps to the intoxicating |
cup to drown his trouble. but instead of /
drowning his'trouble browns his body and /
browns his soul
But here is Christian young man.
Trouble comes to him. Does he give up.