The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-10-16
BREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Talraage
at Long Branch, N. j.
The Mamma of the IsraeIites and the Bread
of the Gospel COmpared-Divine Help
in Observation-Disclosures
That Never Pals.


by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage at Long
Branch, n. j., from the text:
And the mamma ceased on the morrow
after they had eaten of the old corn of the
land.-Joshua ", L.
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 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 year or two would
have been worn to rags and tatters, and
they become storm proof and time
proof, so 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 ris-
ing of that bread is made in Heaven,
and celestial fingers have mixed it and
rolled it into balls, light f1aky and
sweet, as though they were the crumbs
thrown out from 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
wilderness.
do not very much pity the Israelites
for the fact that they had only mama
to eat. 1t was, suppose, the best food
ever provided. know that the ravens
brought food to Elijah; out l should
not SO well have liked those black wait
ers. Rather would have the fare that
came down every morning in buckets of
dew-clean, sweet, God-provided edi-
bles. But now the Israelites have taken
their last bit of it in their fingers, and
put the lastdelicate morsel OF it to their
lips. Nhey look out, and there is no
mama. Why this cessation of heaven
ly supply? 1t was because the Israelites
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
she inhabitants had fed, and in the
e4ame of the Lord of Hosts the IsraeIites
took possession of every thing. Well,
the threshing floor is cleared, the corn
is scattered over it, the oxen are
brought around in lazy and perpetual
circuit until the corn is tfampled loose:
then it is winnowed with fan, and it
is ground and it is baked, and 10! there
IS enough bread for all the worn out
nost. 'And the mamma 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 pro-
dnced the same kind of corn with
which we are familiar. So l am not
sure which kind of grain my text re-
fers to, but all the same in the meaning
The dissection of this subject leads
me, first to speak of especial relief for
especial emergency; and, secondly, of
the old corn of the Gospel for ordinary
circumstances.
II these Israelites crossing the wilder
ness had not received bread from the
heavenly bakeries, there would, first
have been a long line of dead children
half buried in the sand; then, there
would have been long line of dead
women waiting for the iackals; then.
there would have been long line of
dead men unburried, because there
would have been no one to bury them.
1t would have been told in the history
OF the world that great company of
good people started out from Egypt for
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 ofcorn 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 d.
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 paraxysm. It is
the same grace that soothed Robert |
Hall when, after writhing on the car
pet is physical fortunes, he cried ont.
'oh! suffered terribly, but / didn't
cry out while | was suffering, did 70
Did cry out?" There is no such
nurse as Jesus-His hand the eentIest
His foot the lightest His arm the
strongest For especial pang especial
help
Is it approaching sorrow? Is it lone
shadowing bereavement that YOU know
is coming, because the breath is short
and the voice is faint. and the cheek Is
pale2 Have you been circulating vonr
capacity or incapacity to endure widow
hood or childlessness or a disbanded
home, and cried: II can not endure it9o
Oh, worried soul, you will wake nm
So 1