Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-12-05
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: among the Holy Hills"

TEXT: He came to Nazareth, 1chere He
uos brought up."-Luke iv., 16
What a splendid sleep had last night in
a Catholic convent. my first sleep within
doors since leaving Jerusalem, and all OF
US as kindly treated as though we had been
the Pope and his college of Cardinals pass
ing that way! Last evening the genial Sis
terhood of the convent ordered hundred
bright-eyed Arab children brought out to
sing for me- and it was glorious! This
morning come out on the steps Of the con-
vent and look upon the most beautiful vii
1age of all Palestine, its houses OF white
limestone. Guess its name Nazareth. his
torical Nazareth, one of the trinity of places
that all Christian travellers must see or feel
that they have not seen Palestine-namely,
Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth Baby
hood boyhood, manhood of Him for whom l
believe there are fifty million people who
would now. if it were required, march out
and die, whether under ak or down in the
foods or straight through the fire
Grand old village is Nazareth, even putting
aside its sacred associations. First or all, 1t
is clean, and that can be said OF few OF the
oriental villages. It's neghboTing town or
Nab!ouf is the filthiest town | ever saw,
although it's chief industry is the manufac-
ture of soap. They export all Of it. Naza-
reth has been the scene of battles passing it
from Israelite to Mohammedan and
from M0hammedan to Christian the
most wonderful of the battles be-
lng that in which twenty-five thou
sand Turks were beaten Oy twenty-one
hundred French, Napoleon Bonaparte
commanding the greatest of Frenchmen
walking these very streets through
which Jesus walked for nearly thirty years,
the morals of the two the antipodes, the
SHOWS of Russia and the plaques of Egypt
appropriately following the one, the doxolo-
g!es of earth and the halleluj ahs Of heaven
appropriately following the other. And then
lis town is SO beautifully situated IN great
1Ieen bowl, the sides of the bowl surround
ing fifteen hills. The God of nature who is
the God OF the Bible evidently scooped out
this valley for privacy and separation from all
the world during three most Important de-
-cades, the thirty years of Christs boyhOod
and youth, for of the thirty-threa years OF
.Christ's stay on earth he spent thirty of
them in this town in getting ready-a start
ling rebuke to those who have no patience
with the long years Of preparation necessary
when they enter Oh any special mission for
the church or the world The trouble is with
most young men that they want to launch
their ship from the drydOck before it is ready,
and hence so many sink in the first cyclone.
All Christs boyhood was spent in this vii
lage and its surroundings. There is the very
we'll called The Fountain of the Virgin" to
which by His mothers side He trotted along
holding her hand. No doubt about it; it is
the only we'll in the village, and it has been
the only well for three thousand years. This
their children with them now as then. The
work of drawing water in all ages
IN those countries has been wO-
mems work. Scores of them are
waiting for their turn at it, three great and
everlasting springs rolling out into that we'll
their barrels, their hogsheads of water in
floods, gloriously abundant. The well is sur
rounded by olive groves and wide spaces in
which people talked and children wearing
charms on their heads as protection against
the evil eye" are playing, and women with
their stings of coin on either side of their
face, and in skirts Of blue and scar
let and white and green move on with
water jars on their heads Mary, /
suppose, almost always took Jesus
the boy with her, for she had no one she
could leave Him with, being in humble cir
cumstances and having no attendants. I do
not believe there was one of the surrounding
fifteen hills that the boy Christ did not range
from bottom to top, or one cavern in their
sides He did not explore, or one species Of
bird flying across the tops that He could not
call by name, one of all the species of
fauna browsing on those sleeps that He had
not recognized.
You see it all through His sermons. IF a
man becomes a public speaker, in his ora
tons or dIscourseS you discover his early
whereabouts. W hat boy sees between seven
and seventeen always sticks to him. When
the apostle Peter breaches you see the
fishing nets with which he had from his
earliest days been familiar. Aud when Amos
delivers his prophecy you hear in it the
bleatlng OF the herds which he had i'll boy
hood attended. And in our Lords sermons
and conversations you see all the phases of
village life and the mountainous life sur
rounding it.
He had i'll boyhood seen the shepherds get
their fockS mixed up, and to one not familiar
with the habits Of shepherds and their focks,
hoplessly mixed up. And sheepstealer ap-
pears on tie scene and dishonesty demands
some OF those sheep, when he owns not one OF
them. We'll" says the two honest shep-
herds, 1--WE will soon settle this matter" and
one shepherd goes out in one direction and the
other shepherd goes cut in the other direction,
and the sheepstealer in another direction,
and each one calls, and the fochs of each
of the honest shepherds rush to their
owner. while the sheepstealer calls and
calls AGAIN, but gets not one of the fOcn. No
wonder that Christ years after, preaching
on great occasion and illustrating His own
shepherd qualities, says: ''When He putteth
forth His own sheep He coeth before them.
ami the sheep follow Him, for they know His
voice, and tie stranger they will not fellow,
tor they know not the voice of the stranger"
The sides OF these hills are terraced for
grapes. The boy Christ had often stood with
great round eyes watching the trimming OF
the gTapevineS. Clip. goes the knife and off
falls branch. The child Christ says to the
farmer. What do you do that forg'
Oh says the farmer, that is
a lead branch and it is doing
nothing and is only in the way, so I cut it
on Then the farmer with his sharp knife
pruneS from living branch this and that
teudrll and the other tendril. But" says
the chilu Christ. these twigs that You cut
off HOW are not dead; what 40 you do that
for" 'Oh" says the farmer, we prune
off these that the main branch may have
more of the sac and SO be more fruitful"
No wonder in after years Christ said in His
am fhn flrno rrinnn ~ IT.