The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-02-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
q Homely Subject with a Spiritual
Application.
Mankind Lifted From the Brick KLIns Of
Wrong Doing to the Glorious Puli-
ty of the Religion of Jesus
and q Better Lie.

following text:
Though We 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. 49,
/ suppose you know what the Israelltes
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 begrimmed with the utensils OF cook
cry. 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-kilns into
the glorious emancipation for which God
had prepared them, he says: 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"
Miss Whately, the author Of q cele-
brated book, 0Life in Egypt" said she
sometimes saw people in the East cook
ing their food on the tops of houses, and
that she had often seen, just before sun
down, pigeons, doves, which had, during
the heat of the day, been hiding among
the kettles and the pans with which the
food was prepared, picking up the crumbs
that they might find, just about the hour
of sunset spread their wings and fly heav-
onward, entirely unsoiled by the region in
which they had moved, for the pigeon is a
very clearly bird. And as the pigeons
few away the setting sun would throw sill
yer on their wings and gold on thel1
breasts. So you see it was not a far
fetched smile, or an unnatural compari.
son, when David in my text says to these
emancipated Isaelites, and says to al
those who are brought out of any kind Of
trouble into any kind of spiritual joy
teThough We have lain among the pots, We
shall We 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
trudging in a most degrading service; bu
after awhile Christ comes, and He says
ssLet my people go,' and we pass out from
among the brick kilns of sin into the glo
rious liberty of the Gospel-we put on tn
clean robes of a Christian profession
and when at last we soar away to tn
warm nest which God has provided for u
in Heaven, we shall go fairer than dove
its wings covered with silver and il
feathers covered with yellow gold.
/ am going to preach something whic
some of you do not believe, and that il
that the grandest possible adornment
the religion of Jesus Christ. There are
great many people who suppose that ri
ligion is very different thing from whs
itreally is. The reason men condemn I'll
Bible is because they do not understan
the Bible; they have not properly exam
ined it. DR.. Johnson said that Hume to-
9 minister in the bishopric of Durha
that he had never particularly examine
it, yet all his life warning against it. Ha
ley, the astronomer, announced his ske
ticism to Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir lisa
Newton said: 'tNow, sir, have examin
the subject and you have not, and | a
ashamed that you, protesting to be
philosopher, consent to condemn thil
you have never examined" And so m
reject the religion of Jesus Christ becau
they really have never investigated
They think it something objectionab
something that will not work, somethi
Pecksnif1an, something hypocritic
something repulsiye, when it is so brig
and so beautiful you might compare it
a ohafinch, you might compare it to
Robin red -breast, You might compare
to dove, its wings covered with silv
and its feathers with yellow gold.
But how is it if q young man becomes
Christian? All through the club roo
where he associates, all through the bu
ness circles where he is known, there
commiseration. They say: "What a p
that young man who had such bris
prospects should so have been despoi
by those Christians, giving up all
worldly prospects for something which
of no particular present worth!' Here
young woman who becomes Christi
her voice, her face, her manners
charm of the dPawing-room. Now,
through the fashionable circles the VIII
per goes: "What pity that such bril-
light should have been extinguished, Il
such graceful gait should be crippl
that suah worldly prospects should be
Iterated!" All, my friends, it can
shown that religions ways are way;
pleasantness, and that all her paths
peace; that religion, instead of be
dark, and doleful, and lachrymose,
repulsive, is bright and beautiful, fai
than dove, its wings covered with sill
and its feathers with yellow gold.
See, in the first place, what religion
do for a mans heart. care not /
cheerful man may naturally be Def
conversion, conversion brings him up
q higher standard of eheerfulness.
not say that he viii laugh any louder
do not say but he may stand back fl
some forms of hilarity in which he o
INDUCED, but there comes into his soul
immense satisfaction. A young man
a Christian depends on worldly success
to keep his spirits up. Now he is prospe,
now he has large salary, now he
q beautiful wardrobe, now he has pleas
friends, now he has more money thai
knows how to spend; every thing s
bright and well with him. But trol
comes-there are many young men in
house this morning who can testify OF
their own experience that some time
ydung men trouble does eome-his frie
are gone, his salary is gone, his healtl
gone; goes down, down. He beco
sour, cross, queer, misanthropic, bla