The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-12-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "An Obnoxious Diet"

hdte in abominatton among the fouls: the
o,cl, the vulture end the bat. These also
shau 90 ,nc!ean TO you among TIE creeping
things that creep upon The earth; The chame'
lon and the snail. "-Leviticus XII, 1890.
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, II it is only the
clear, pure water God gave the ancients a
list Of the animals they might eat, and
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 scrofu-
lous disorders, depraved their appetites, and
bemeaned their souls. A mans food, when
he has the means and opportunity of select
ing it, 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 food to correspond with theirs,
his temperament was entirely changed. There
are certain forms of food that have tend
ency to affect the moral nature Many
Christian is trying to do by prayer
that which cannot be done except through
corrected diet. For instance, he who uses
swines flesh for constant diet will be dis
eased in body and polluted of soul-all his
liturgies and catechisms notwithstanding.
The Gadarene swine were possessed OF
buc uSNh anu tau uOWH u sooVP
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.
But, higher than this physical reason, there
was a spiritual reason why God chose certain
forms of food for the ancients. God gave
peculiar diet to his people, not only because
he wanted them to be distinguished from
the surrounding nations. but because GER
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 vulture, the bat
the chameleon, and the snail, He meant to
drive out of His people ali the sins that were
thus emblemiZed.
| 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. It matches out whole broods
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 ows 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" That is because ''you are
lazy" Go actively to work in Christ's
cause, and your doubts will vanish.
pr eq sSy' but reply spEs You hav s
infinite treasures laid UP in Heaven" You
say 81 am weak ard 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: 20, man.
ma, have swallowed spoonful of sum
shinen Would God that we might all in
dulge in the same beverage! Cheerfulness;
it makes the homeliest face handsome; it
makes the hardest mattress soft; it
tercups, and rainbows, and, auroras;
God made the grass blacka 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 be led to a subdued cheerful
ness Read yolr Bible in 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 histor.
rian records that by the sounds of great
laughter in Rome, Hannibals assaulting
army was frightened away in retreat.
And there is in the great outbursting joy
back any internal besiegement. Rats love
dark closets, and Satan loves to burrow in
gloomy soul. "Rejoice in the Lord, o We
righteous! and again say, reioice!'
Hoist the window OF your soul in this the
twelve O'Clock of your spiritual night. Put
black Jungle from which the hooting comes,
pull the trigger. and drop that croaking,
loathsome, hideous owl of religious melan
choly 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 carcasses; it fattens among the dead:
with leaden wing it circles about battle
fields. Wilson, the American ornithologist,
counted two hundred and thirty seven
vultures around one carcass, If crossing
the desert when there is no sign of wing in
the air, camel perish out OF the caravan,
Immediately the air begins to darken with
vultures. There are many professed Chris
tians who have vuture in thor souls They
prey upon the character and feelings OF
others A 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: az told you son
They rush into some store, and say "Have
you heard the pewsl Just as / expected!
Our neighbor has gone all to pieces Good
for him!'
That professedly Christian woman, having
heard of the wrong-doine of some sis er in
the church, instead Of hiding the sin with a
mantle of charity, pebbles it all along the
streets. She takes the afternoon to make
her long neglected calls. She tells
the story ten times before SUM-
down, and every time tells it larger She
rushes into the parlors to tell it, and into the
nursery TO tell it, and into the kitchen to tell
it. She SAYS: Would you have thought
ita Well, I always said there was
something wrong about her. Why, I
should not sneak to her if | saw her in the
street. Is it not horriblea But better not
say any thing about it. because there
may be some mistake I do not want
my name involved in the matter.
guess will just go over and ask them at No.
263 whether they have heard it, Guess it
must be so, for Mary Ann says that her hus-
band saw man who heard from his business
partner that his blind old grandmother hal
seen something that looked very suspicious!"
The most loathsome, miserable, God for
saken wretch on earth lisa gossip. l can tell
her on the street, though | have never seen
her before. She walks fast. and has her
bonnet-strings loose, for she has not had time
to tie them sinceeshe heard that last scandal.
She looks both ways as she passes hoping to
see new evidences of depravity in the windows.
l think that when Satan has job so in
finitely mean that in all the pit he cannot
find devil mean enough to do it, and all
brides and threats have failed to Get one
willing for the informal crusade he saws to
one of his sergeants: eco up to BROOKLYN and
in such street. on such a corner get that
gossiDing woman. and she will be glad to
DO it" And sure enough. like a hungry
fish, she takes the hook in her mouth, and
Satan slackens the line, and lets her run out
farther and farther. until after awhile he
says: at is time to haul in that lnen and
with n few strony pulls, he brings her to
the beach of fire. What do YOU say!
That she was member of the church? I
can not help that. When Satan goes fish.
fng, he does not care what school the fish be-
long to. whether it is Presbyterian mack
erel or an Observation-Disclosures. Amidst the
thunder crash Of Sinai God said: 'Thou
shalt not bear false witness againgt thy neigh.
bor." And in Leviticus he saws: sThou shalt
not go up and down rs tale-bearer'' Take
not into vour ear that scum Of hell that
people call TITLE tattle Whosoever willingly
listens to SANDER is equally guilty with the
one who tells it. and an old writer say,
I-AI b. L.