The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-26
YULTURES OF THE SOUL.
TALMAGB POINTS OUT SOME OF
LIFL'S ABOMINATIONS.

clean Things That Need to be Driven
Out.
BROOKLYN, Nov 25 AT the Tabernacle
this evening, the great congregation sang
the hymn beginning;
awake. my soul, to joyful laws,
And sing the great Redeemer's praise"
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached,
taking for his text: "And these are thew
which ye shall have in abomination among
the fowls-the owl, the vulture and the bat.
These also shall be unclean to you among
tie creeping things that creep upon the
earth-the chameleon and the suail."-
Levitcus, xi., 13, 80. Following is the dis
course in FULL
The Bible offers every possible variety OF
theme, OF argument, and of illustration.
We care not much in what kind of pitcher
the water of life Is brought, If it is only the
clear, pure water. God gave the ancients
list of the animals that they might eat, and
a list of animals that they might not eat.
These people lived in q hot climate, and
certain forms of animal food corrupted
their blood, and disposed them to scrofulous
disorders, depraved their appetites, and be-
meaned their souls. A mans food, when
he has the means and opportunity of selec5-
ing it, suggests his moral nature. T9
reason tho wild Indian is as cruel as the lion
is because he has food that gives him tEe
blood of the lion. A missionary among the
Indians says that by changing his style of
food to correspond with theirs, his tempera-
ment was entirely changed There are
certain forms Of food that have a tendency
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 will be dis
eased in body and polluted of soul--all his
lturgies and catechisms notwithstanding.
The Uadarene 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 a bill of
fare at once healthfu!, nutritious and gem
erOus.
But, higher than this physical reason,
there was IA spiritual reason why God chose
certain forms of food for the ancients. God
gave peculiar diet to his people, not only
because no 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 thoy were 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
cat the owl. the vulture, the bat, the cham
eleon, and the snail, he meant to drive out
of his people all the sins that were thus em-
blemized.
| 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 by the dismal ''too-hoo" of the
owli 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 pardoned, and who is on the
road to heaven, has no right to be gloomy.
He says: 81 have so many doubts.n 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" but reply: "You have infinite
treasures laid up in heaven" You say: II
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 a little girl was eating, the sun dashed
upon her spoon; and she cried: 80, mamma,
/ have swallowed a spoonful Of sunshineln
Would God that we might all indulge in
the same beveragei Cheerfulness; 1t makes
the homeliest face handsome; IL makes the
hardest mattress soft; it runs the loom that
weaves buttercups, and rainbows. and au-
roras. God made the grass black?No; that
would be too sombre. God made the grass
redo No, that would too gaudy. God made
the grass green. that by this parable all the
world might be led to subdued cheerful-
ness. Read your Bible ia the sunshine
Remember that your physical health Is
closely allied TO your spiritual. The heart
and the liver are only few inches apart,
and what affects one affects the other. A
historian records that by the sound of great
laughter in Rome, HannibaPs assaulting
army was frightened away in retreat And
there is in the great outbusting joy of a chris
tian soul that which can drive back any in
fernal besiegement. Rats love dark closets,
and Satan loves TO burrow in a gloomy
soul. "Rejoice in the Lord, 0 yerighteousi
and again l say, rejolce"
Hoist the window OF your soul in this the
12 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 trigger, 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 livos
on carcasses; its fattens among the dead,
with leaden living il circles about batte-
fields. Wilson, the American ornitholo-
gst, counted two hundred and thirty seven
vultures around one carcass II crossing
the desert, when there dno sign of wing in
the air, camel perish out of the caravan.
che air begins TO darken with
vultures. There are many professed chris
tians who have a vulture In their souls
They prey upon the character and feelings
Of others A doubtful reputation Is q
banquet for them. Some rival In trade or
profession falls, and the vulture puts out
lts head. These people revel In the details
Of mans ruin. They say: II told you
so." They rush into some store, and say:
Have you heard the newsa Just as ! ex-
pectedi Our neighbor has gone all to
pieces Good for himp
That professedly christian woman, having
heard Of tho ong-doing of some sistor in
The church, instead Of hiding the sin with d
mantle of charity, peddles It all along the
streets She takes the afternoon to mako
her long neglected calls. She tells the story
ten times before sundown, and every time
tells it larger. She rushes into the parlors
10 tell IL, and into the nursery to tell It, and
into the kitchens TO tell it, She saws,
Would you have thought iti Well. / al.
ways said there was something wrong about
her. Why, should not speak 70 her IL I
Jaw her In the street. Is It not horriblet
Il..AL LzSa