Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-21
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Transition of the lsraeIites
From Egyptian Slavery.
One Of David's Sublime Smiles Fur
nishes the Text for a Soulstirring
Discourse by the Famous Divine.
Though Ye Have Lain Among the Pots, Yet
Shall Ye Be As the Wings of Dove.
Prophecy Fulfilled.
Special to the Gazette.

BROOKLYN, N. Y. /, Dec. 16 The Rev
T. Dewitt Talmage's discourse to-day
was entitled, Lifted from the Brick
hlns. - His text was: "Though We
have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be
as the wings of dove covered with sill
yer, and her feathers with yellow gold. "
Psalms xviii, 49, He said:
Isuppose 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 day IS 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 begrimmed with the
utensils of cookery. But after a
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 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 bond
age amid the brick-kilns into the glorious
emancipation for which God had pre-
pared 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 a cele-
-. ,tn1 \ ,1lr %. -, J Oh,
sometimes saw people in the east cook
ing their food on the tops of
houses, and that she had often seen, just
before shutdown, pigeons, doves, which
had during the heat of day
been hiding among the kettles
and the pans with which the
food was prepared, picking up the crumbs
that they might find-iust 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 CLEANLY BIRD.
And as the pigeons flew away the set
ting 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 comparison, when David in
my text says to these emancipated Israel
lles, anu SuyS " luUst W are
out of any kind of trouble into any kind
of spiritual joy: "Though we have lain
among the pots, yet shall ye be as the
wings OF dove covered with silver, and
her feathers with yellow gold.
Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters
Worse than Pharaoh it keeps Us trudging,
gtrudging in a most degrading service;
but after awhile Christ comes, and he
says; "'Let My people 60 and we pass
out from among the brick-kilns of sin
into the glorious liberty of the Gospel;
we put on the clean robes of a Christian
profession, and when at last we soar
away to the warm nest which God has
provided for us in heaven we shall go
fairer than q dove, its wings covered
with silver and its feathers covered with
yellow gold.
am going to preach something which
some of you do not believe, and that is ;:
that the grandest possible adornment is.
the religion Of J esus Christ. There are a.
great many people who suppose, shat re-
ligion is very different thing from what
il really is. The reason men condemn
the Bible is because they do not under
stand the Bible; they have not prop
erly examined it. DR.. johnson said
that Hume told minister in the bishop
ric of Durham that he had never particu-
larry examined the new testament, yet
all his life warning against it. HALEY,
the astronomer, announced his skeptic-
Ism TO Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir Isaac
Newton said: Now sir, have exam
ined the subject and you have not, and
am ashamed that you, protesting to be
philosopher, consent TO condemn thing
younever examined. - And SO men re-
ject the religion of Jesus Christ because
they really have never investigated it.
They think it something impractical,
SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT WORK,
something Pecksniffian, something hypo-
critical, something repulsiye, when it is
SO bright and SO beautiful you might
compare 1t to chaffinch, you might COM
pare it to robin redbreast, you might
compare ii to dove, its wings covered
with silver, and its feathers with yellow
gold.
But how is it if O young man becomes a
Christian? All through the club-rooms
where he associates, all through the bust
ness circles where he is known. there is
commiseratiQn. They say: 'fWhat a
pity that a young man who had such
bright prospects should so have been
despoiled by those Christians, giving up
all his worldly prospects for something
which is of no particular present worth!''
Here is a young woman who becomes
Christian, her voice, her face, her man
ners the charm of the drawing room.
Now all through the fashionable circles
the whisper goes: "What a pity that
such q bright light should have been e1-
tinguished, that such n graceful gait
should be crippled, that such worldly
prospects should be obliterated!' All,
my friends, it can be shown that re-
ligion S ways are ways of pleasantpess
and that all her paths are peace; that
religion, instead of being dark,
and doleful, and lachrymose, and repul-
sive, is bright and beautiful, fairer than
a dove, its wings covered with silver and
its feathers with yellow gold.
See, in the frst place, what religion
will do for mans heart. L care not
how cheerful man may naturally be be-
fore conversion, conversion brings him
up to higher standard of eheerfulness.
/ do not say he will laugh any louder, 1 |
do not say, but he may stand back
from some forms of hilarity in which he |
once INDUCED; but there comes into his |
soul
AN IMMENSE SATISFACTION.
A young man not Christian depends |
upon worldly successes TO keep his spirits