Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-08-14
SUBSTITUTE FOR MAMMA
If A MAN EAT THEREOF HE
WILL NEVER HUNGER.
DE-. Talmage breaches = Magnificent Ser
mon Of Comfort for the weary-GOd
Will Feed the Famishing II They win
Accept Him.

Rev. DIR. Talmage preached at Long
Branch on Sunday, August 10. His text
was Joshua v, IL: '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 Job it is TO feed and clothe
five or six hundred thousand men. Well,
there is such a host as that marching
across the desert. They are cut of 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 year or two would have been worn
to rags and tatters, and they become
storm proof and time proof, 80 that after
forty years of wearing the coats and the
shoes are as good as new. Besides that,
every morning there is shower Of
bread, not sour and soggy, for the rising
Of that bread is made in Heaven, and
celestial fingers have mixed 1t and rolled
1t into balls, light, flaky and sweet, as
though they were the crumbs thrown
out from q heavenly banquet. Two
patches Of bread made every day in the
upper mansion-one for those who sit at
the table with the king, and the other
for the marching Israelites in the wilder
ness.
do not very much pity the Israelites
for the fact that they had only mama to
eat. 1t was, l suppose, the best food
ever provided. know that the ravens
brought food to hungry Elijah, but 1
should not so well have liked those black
walters. Rather would have the fare
that came down every morning in
buckets of dew-clean, sweet, God pro-
vided edibles. But now the Israelites
have taken their last bit of it in their
fingers, and put the last delicate morsel
of it to their lips. They look out, and
there is no mama. Why this cessation
of heavenly supply? 1t was because the
Israelites had arrived in Canaan, and
they smelled the breath of the harvest
fields, the crowded barns of the country
were thrown open to them. All the in
habitants had fled, and in the name of
the Lord of Hosts the Israelites took
possession of everything. Well, the
threshing floor is cleared, the corn is
scattered over it, the oxen are brought
around in lazy and perpetual circuit un-
til the corn is trampled loose; then it is
winnowed with fan, and it is ground
and 1t is baked, and 10! there is enough
bread for all the worn out host. "And
the mama ceased On the morrow after
they had eaten Of the old corn of the
land"
From among the mummies of Egypt
and Canaan have been brought grains
Of corn 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 refers to, but the mean
ing is all the same.
If these Israelites crossing the wilder
ness had not received bread from the
heavenly bakeries there would, first,
been long line of dead children half
buried in the sand; then there would
have been long line of dead women
waiting for the jackals; then there would
have been long line of dead men I'M
buried, because there would hayc been
no one to bury them. 1t would have
been told in the history of the world that
a great company of good people started
out from Egypt to Canaan, and were
never heard of, as thoroughly lost in the
wilderness 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 of corn in Egypt?
What they wanted was something to
eat right there, where there was not so
much as grass blade. In other words,
an especial supply for an especial emer-
gency. That is what some of you want.
The ordinary comfort, the ordinary di-
rection, the ordinary counsel, do not
seem to meet your case. There are
those who feel that they must have an
omnipotent and immediate supply, and
you shall have it.
Is it 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 foot? He has a mixture of
comfort, one drop of which shall cure
the worst paroxysm. 1t Is the same
grace that soothed Robert Hall when,
after writhing on the carpet in physical
torture, he cried out, "Oh! / suffered
terribly, but didn't cry out while I was
suffering, did I? Did cry out?" There
is no such nurse as Jesus-His hand the
gentlest, His foot the lightest, His arm
the strongest. For especial pang cspe-
cial help.
Is it approaching sorrow? Is it long,
shadowing 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 incapacity to endure widow
hood or childlessness or a disbanded
home, and cried, 81 cannot endure it?''
Oh, worried soul, you will wake up amid
all your troubles, and find around about
you the sweet consolation of the gospel
as thickly strewed as was the mama
around about the Israelitish encamp-
ment! Especial solace for especial dis
tress.
Or is it q trouble past, yet present? A
silent nursery? A vacant chair opposite
you at the table? A musing upon q
broken family circle never again to be
reunited? A choking sense of loneliness?
A blot of grief so large that it ex-
tinguishes the light of sun, and puts out
bloom of flower, and makes you reckless
as to whether you live or die? Especial
comfort for that especial trial. Your APP
petite has failed for everything else. Oh,
try little Of this wilderness mama: ~
will never leave thee, will never forsake
thee" Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. ssCan woman forget her
sucking child, that she should not have
compassion ON the son of her womb? yea,
they may forget, yet will not forget
thee"