The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-08-21
CORN AND MANNA.

Dr.. Talmage Eoquently Dis.
courses on the Spiritual
Needs Of Man.
He Tells us ALI How They can
Be Abundantly Sup
piled.
Lone BRANoH, Special The great Brook
Ign preacher, ut present staying here, dis
courses on the gospel provision for ordl-
nary and extraordinary needs. His text is
Joshua ", 10: "And the mama ceased on
the morrow after they had eaten OF the
old corn, of the land. =
Only those who have had something to do
with the commissariat of an army know
what q job it il to feed and clothe five or six
hundred men. Well, there is such host as
that marching across the desert They are
cut off from all army supplies There are no
rail trains bringing down food or blankets.
Shall they all perish? No. The Lord comes
from heaven to the rescue and he touches
the shoes and the coats, which in O year or
two would have been worn to rags and tat
tiers, and they become storm-proo and
time.proof so that, after forty y ears Of wear
ing, the coats and the shoes are as good az
new. Besides that, every morning there
is showerof bread, not sour and soggy, Tor
the rising OF that bread is made in heaven,
and celestial fingers have mixed it, and
rolled it into balls, light daly and sweet, as
though they were tho crumbs thrown out
from q heavenly banquet. Two patches of
bread made every day in the upper mansion
lone for those who sit at the table with the
King, and the other for the marching Israel
ties in the wilderness.
4 / do not very much pity the Israelites for
the fact that they had only mama to eat.
1t was, Isuppose, the best food ever pro-
vided. know that the ravens brought food
to hungry Elijah; but Ishould not SO we'll
have liked those black walters. Rather
would have the fare that came down every
morning in buckets otdew-clean, sweet, God
provided edibles. But now the 1sralites
have taken their last bit of it in their fingers,
and put the last delicate morsel Of it to their
ply? It was because the Isralites
had arrived in Canaan, and they
smelled the breath Of the harvest fields, and
the crowded barns of the country were
thrown open to them. All the inhabitants
had fled, and in the name Of the Lord OF
thing Well, the threshing floor is cleared,
the corn is scattered over it, the oxen are
brought around in lazy and perpetual cir
cult until the corn is trampled loose; then it
is Winnowed with q fan, and it is ground and
it is baked, and. lo there is enough bread
for all the WORD out host. And the mamma
ceases on the morrow after they had eaten
of the old corn of the land. Z
From among the mummies ofEgypt and
Canaan have been brought grains ofcorn,
exactly like our Indian corn, and recently
planted, they have produced the same kind
of corn with which we are familiar. So /
am not sure which kind Of grain my text re-
fers to. but all the same is the meaning.
The dissection of this sub: ect leads me, first,
to speak Of especial relief for especial emer-
gency; and, secondly, o. the old corn ofthe
gospel tor ordinary circumstances.
Ii these Israelites crossing the wilderness
had not received bread from the heavenly
bakeries, there would, first, have been a long
line of dead children hall buried in the sand;
then, there would have been a long line ot
dead women waiting for the jackals; then,
there would have been o long line Of dead
men unbnried. because there would have
been no one to bury them. It would have
been told in the history of the world that 9
great company Of good people started out
heard Of. as thoroughly lost in the wilder
ness of sand as the city of Boston and the
President were lost in the wilderness OF
waters. What use was it to them that there
was plenty OF corn in Canaan, or plenty o.
corn in Egypt.
What they wanted was something to eat
right there, where there was not 50 much as
a grassblade In other words, an especial
supply for an especial emergency. That is
what some of you want. The ordinary com
fort, the ordinary direction, the ordinary
counsel, do not seem to m0et your case.
There are those who feel that they must
have an omnipotent and immediate su pply,
and you shall have it,
Is 1t pain and physical distress through
! which you must go? Does not Jesus know
all about pain? Did he not suffer it in the
most sensitive part of head and hand and
drop of which shall cure the worst parox-
t ysm. tits the same grace that soothed Rob-
ert III all when, after wrjthing on the carpet in
physical tortures he cried out: Oil i suffer
ed terribly, but didn't cry out while / was
suffering, did !? Did l cry out?' There is
no such nurse as Jesus-his hand the gentlest,
his foot the lightest, his arm the strongest.
For especial pang especial help.
Is it approaching sorrow? Is it long
Swallowed bereavement that you know is
coming, because the breath is short, and the
voice is faint. and the cheek is pale? Have
you been calculating your capacity or inca.
pacity to endure widowhood or childlessnesa
or disbanded home, and cried, Il cannot
endureit?" Oh. troubled soul, you will wake
up amidst all your troubles, and find around
about you tho sweet consolation of the Cos.
4 pei as thickly strewed as was the mama
around about the Israelitish encnm pment
Especial solace for especial distress.
Or is it a troubled past? A silent nursery
/ A vacant chairo opposite You at the table?
musing upon a broken family circle never
again to be reunited? choking sense O
loneliness? "A, blot Of grief SO large that it ex.
4 tinguishes the light OF sun, and puts out
bloom of flower, and makes you reckless az
A to,whether you live.o die? Especial comfort
|sfor that especial trial Your appetite has
failed for every thing else. Oh. try a little o
this wilderness mamma: 81 will never leay,
thee, will never forsake thee" Like as {
father pitleth his children, so the Lord pitietf
them that fear him. = ..Can a woman forge
4 her sucking child that she should not hay,
compassion on the son Of her womb? yea
!, they may forget, yet will not forget thee
q Or is it the grief Of a dissipated compan
1 ion? There are those here who have it, 30
i am not speaking in the abstract, but to tn
Il point, You have NOT whispered IT. perfaDs