The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-01-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Drudgery in the Bondage OF
Sin,
With the Devil rs Hard Task MASTER
A Degrading Service From which
There il NO Relief

SUNDAY was enIiIiou Aiiscu 'Aon Vs."
Brick .kilns." His text was: "rhough 70
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. 10 He said:
lsuppose you know what the lsraelites
did down in Egyptian slavery. They made
bricks. Amid the utensils Of the brick.
kiln there were also other Utensils Of cook
ery-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 bard work. When
they arose in the morning they found
their garments covered with the clay and
the smoke and the dust and besmirched
and begrimed with the utensils Of cook
cry. But after 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 APP
parel. No more bricks for them to make.
Let Pharaoh make his own bricks. When
David in my text comes to describe the
translation Of these poor lsraelites 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 We shall be as the
wings Of dove covered with silver, and
her feathers with yellow gold"
Miss Whately. the author Of celebrated
book, "Lifc in Egypt" said she sometimes
saw people in the East cooking their food
| ON the top Of houses, and that she had
often seen, just before shutdown, pigeons.
doves, which bad, 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 would
| spread their wings and fly heavenward,
entirely unsoiled by the region in which
they had moved, for the pigeon is very
clearly bird. And as the pigeons flew
| away the setting sun would throw silver
| on their wings and gold on their breasts.
| So you can see it was not far.
| fetched smile or an unnatural COMPARE
son when David in my text says to these
emancipated Israelites. and says to all
| those who are brought out of any
kind OF trouble into any kind of spiritual
| 10Y: Though We have lain among the
| potts. yet shall yc 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 most de-
grading service; but after while Christ
comes and He says: "Let my people co."
1 4 hvs, IL
kilns of sin into tina glorious liberty Of the
gospel; we put on the clean robes Of a
Christian pro, ession, and when at last we
soar away to the warm nest which God has
provided for us in Heaven, we shall go
fairer than dove, its wings covered with
silver. and its feathers covered with yell
low gold.
l am going to preach something which
some of you do not believe, and that is that
the grandest possible adornment is the re-
ligion Of Jesus Christ. There are a great
many people who suppose that religion is
a very different thing from what it really
is. The reason mon condemn the Bible Is
because they do not understand it; they
have not properly examined it. DR.. John.
son said that Hume told minister in the
bishopric Of Durham that he had never
particularly examined the New Testa-
ment, yet all his life warning against it
HALEY, the astronomer, announced his
skepticism to Sir Isaac Newton and Sir
Isaac Newton said: "Now, sir, have ex.
amined the subject and you have not and
l am ashamed that you, protesting to be a
philosopher, consent to condemn q thing
you have never examined" And so men
reject the RELIGION of Jesus Christ because
they really have never investigated it
They think it something equivocal, some-
thing that will not work, something Peck
snifllan, something hypocritical, some-
thing repulsive, when it is so bright and so
beautiful you might compare it to chat
finch, you might compare it to robin
redbreast, you might compare it to dove,
Its wings covered with silver and its
feathers with yellow gold.
But how = it if a young man becomes a
Christian? All through the club-rooms
where he associates, all through the bus
mess circles where he is known there Is
commiseration. They say: "What a
pity that 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 a
Chri 'tian, her voice. her fare her manners
the charm of tho drawing.fsorn. Now, all
through the fashionable circles the whisper
goes: 'What a pity that such bright
light should have been extinguished, that
such graceful gait should be crippled,
that such worldly prospects should be OBJ.
literatedw All, my friends, it can be
shown that religious ways are ways of
pleasantness, and that all her paths are
peace; that religion, instead Of being dark,
and doleiul, and ,achrymose. and repuls-
i've. is bright and beautiful, fairer than a
dove. its wings covered with silver and its
feathers with yellow gold.
See, in the first place, what religion will
do for a mans heart l care not how
cheerful a man may naturally be before
conversion; conversion brings him up to
higher standard Of cheerfulness. do
not say he viii laugh any louder, do not
say but he may stand back from some
forms Of hilarity in which he once in.
dulged but there comes into his soul an
immense satisfaction. A young man, not
a Christian, depends upon worldly sue
cesses to keep his spirits up. Now he Is
prospered, now he has large salary, now
he has beautiful wardrobe, now he has
pleasant friends, now he has more money
than he knows how to sp nd; every thing
goes bright and vel. with him. But trcu.
BILE comes-there are many young men in
! the bouse this morning who can testify of