New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-12-05
DIET AND MORALITY.
God Gave the Ancients Food Whie b
Was Suggestive of Moral Quali-
ties.


BRooKLys, N. Y-,-Nov. 25-Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., preached. taking for
ms text: And these are they which We
snail have IN abomination among the fowls;
Jhe owl, the vulture, and the bat. These
also shall be unclean TO you among the
creeping things that creep upon the earth;
the chameleon and the snail. "-Leviticus, XII
1880 Following is the discoursein full.
Inc Bible offers every possible variety of
Theme, OF argument, and of illustration
we care notin what kind of pitcher the
water OF life is brought ifitis only the clear
pure water. God gave the ancients q list of
the animals that they might eat, aud list of
animals that they might not eat. These
people lived in a hot climate, and certain
forms of animal food corrupted their blood
and disposed them to scrofulous disorders,
deprayed their appetites and bemeaned their
souls. mans food, when he has the means
and opportunity of selecting it, 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 mis-
s1onary among the Indians says that, by
changing his style of food to correspond
with theirs, his temperament was entirely
changed. There are certain forms of food
that have tendency to affect the moral na-
ture. 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 diseased in body and polluted of soul-all
his llturgies and catechisms notwithstanding
The Gadarine swine were possessed of the
devil, and ran down steep place into the
. sea, and all the swine ever since seem to have
been similarly possessed. In Levitcus, 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 was spiritual reason why God chose
o certain forms Of food for the ancients God
gave q peculiar diet to his people, not only be-
cause he wantedthem to bedistinguished from
the surrounding nations, but because certain
birds and animals. by reason of their habits
nave always been suggestive of moral quail
ties. BY the list of things from which they
were to abstain God wished prejudice their
minds against certain evils; and in the list of
lawful things given, he wished to suggest GER
tain forms of good. When God soemly for
bade his people to eat the owl, the yulture,
the bat, the chameleon, and the snail He
meant to drive out of His people all the sins
that We're thus emblemized.
take the suggestion of the text, and say
that one of the first unclean things the Chris
tlan needs to drive out Of his soul is the OWL
The owl is the melancholy bird of night. 1t
matches out whole broods ofsuperstitions. Tt
is doleiul and hideous. When it sings, itsings
through its nose. 1t loves the gloom of
night better than the brightness ofday. Who
has not slept in the cabin near the woods,
and been awakened in the night by the dis
NAL "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 be driven
away. A man whose sins are pardoned and
who is on the road to heaven, has no right
to be gloomy. He says. II have SO many
DOUBTS That is because 'syou are lazy
Go actively to work in Christs cause, and
your doubts will vanish You say: II have
lost my property but reply: You have
Infinite treasures laid up in heaven" You
say: [ am weak and sickly and going to die"
Then be congratulated that you are so near
eternal health and perpetual gladness
Catch 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 out: 80,
mamma, have swallowed a spoonful of sun
shine!" Would God that we might all in
dulge in the same beverages! Cheerfulness-
it makes the homliest face handsome; it
makes the hardest mattress soft; it runs the
loom that weaves buttercups, and rainbows
and auroras. God made the grass, BLACK?
No; that would be too sombre. God made
the grass red? No; chat would be too gaudy
God made the grass green, that by this para
bic all the world might be led to a subdued
cheerfulness. Read your Bible in the sun
hn,, ],
is closely allied to your spiritual. The heart
and the liver are only few inches apart and
what affects one affects the other. A histori-
an records that by the sound of great laugh
ter in Rome, Hannibal's assaulting army was
frightened away in retreat. And there is in
the great outhursting joy of a Christian soul
that which can drive back any Internal be-
siegement Rats love dark closets, and Sat-
an loves to burrow in q gloomy soul. IRE
joice in the Lord, o We righteous! and again
l say, rejOicef'
Hoist the window of your soul in this the
II O'Clock of your spiritual night. Put the
gun to your shoulder, and aim at the black
jungle from which the hooting comes, pull
the tri gger, and drop that croaking, loath-
some, hideous owl OF religious melancholy
into the bushes
Again; taking the suggestion of the text,
drive out the vulture from your soul. God
would not allow the Jews to eat it, 1t lives
on earcasses; 1t tattens among the dead; with
leaden wing it circles about battle fields
Wilson, the American ornithologist, counted
237 voltures around one carcass. Ifcrossing
the desert when there is no sign of a wing in
the air, a camel perish out of the caravan
Immediately the air begins to darken with
vultures. There are many protested Chris
tians who have a yuture in their souls.
They pray upon the character and feelings
of others. A doubtful reputation is ban
quet for them. Some rival in trade or pro-
fession falls, and the vulture puts out it's
head These people revel in the details of u
mans ruin. They say: Il told you 500
They rush into some store and say; Have
you heard the news? just as | expected
Our neighbor has gone all to pieces! Good
for himl''
That professedly Christian woman, having
heard OF the wrong doing of some sister in
the church, instead of hiding the sin with the
mantle of charity, peddes it along the
streets. She takes the afternoon to make
her long neglected calls. She tells the story
20 times before shutdown. and every time
tells it larger. She rushes into the parlors to
tell it, and into thenursery to tell it, and into
the kitchen to tell it, She says: ''Would
you have thought it? Well, l always said
there was something wrong abouther. Why,I
should not speak to her if | saw her in the