Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-11-29
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.


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
terEood OF tire convent ordered a 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
lage 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, bovhood, manhood of Him for whom
believe there are fifty million people who
would now, if it were required, march out
and die whether under ak or down in the
floods or straight through the ire
Grand old village IS Nazareth. even putting
ASIDE its sacfel associations. First of all. it
is c,ean, and that can be said of few of the.
oriental villages. It's neighboring town of
Nab.oGf is tGe filthiest town I ever saw,
although its chief industry is the manufac-'
ture of soap. They export all of it. Naza-
reth mas been the scene of battles passing it
from Israelite to Moaammedan and
from aohanmedan to Christian, the
most woncer.ul of the battles be-
ing THAT in which twenty-five thou
sand Turks were beaten by tVenty-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 doxo. o.
gies OF earth aud the halle,ujahs of heaven
appropriately following the otter. And then
this town is so beautifully situated i'll a great
green bowl. the sides of the bowl surround
ing fifteen hills. The God of nature VINO 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 Christ's boyhood
and youth, for Of the thirty-thres years OF
Chrlsts stay on earth he spent thirty of
them in this town in getting ready-a start
ing reouke to those who have no patience
with the long years of preparation necessary
Hhen tney enter on 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 drytiock before it sready,
and hence so many sink in the first cyclone.
ell Cnrist's boyhood was spent in this vii
iage and ITS surroundings. There Is the very
well called THE Fountain of the Virgin to
which by His mothers side He trotted along
holding her band. No doubt about it; it is
the ONT well IN the village, and it has been
the only well for three thousand years. This
morning we visit it, and the mothers have
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 ara
waiting for their turn at it, three great and
everlasting springs rolling out into that well
thelr barrels. their hogsheads of water in
floods, gioriously abundant. The well is sur
rounded by olive groves ami 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, a most always took Jesus
the boy with her, for she had no one shs
could leave Him with, being in humble cir
cumstanceg and having no attendants I 60
not believe there was one of the surrounding
fifteen hills that the boy Christ did not range
from bottom to top, or ons cavern in their
sides He did not explore, or one species of
bird flying across the tops that He could not
call by name, or one of all the species of
fauna browsing on those sleeps that He had
not recognized.
You see it all through His sermons. If
man becomes public speaker, in his ora.
tons Or discourses you discover his early
whereabouts What 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. And when Amos
delivers his prophecy you hear in it the
bleating OF the herds which hs had in 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 in boyhood seen the shepherds get
their hocks mixed up, aud to one not familiar
with the habits of shepherds and their hocks,
hoplessly mixed up And a sheepstealer APP
pears on the scene and dishonesty demands
some OF those sheep when he owns not one of
them. We'll, says the two honest sheps
herds, we will soon settle this matter" and
one shepherd goes out in one direction and the
other shepherd goes out in the other direction,
and the sheepstealer in another direction,
and each one calls, and the fiocks Of each
of the honest shepherds rush TO their
owner, while the sheepstealer calls and
calls again, but gets not one of the flock. No
wonder that Christ, years after, preaching
On great occasion ami illustrating His own
shepherd qualities, says: when He putteth
forth His own sheep He goeth before them.
and the sheep follow Hin, for they know His
voice, and the stranger they will not follow,
for they know not the voice Of the stranger"
The sides OF these hills are teTraced for
grares. The boy Christ had often stood with
great round eyes watching the trimming of
the gra1ev.nes Clipl goes the knife and off
falls branch. The child Christ says to the
farmer. ''IYhat do you do that forY'
''Ob,' SAYS the farmer, that is
cad branch and it is doing
nothing and is only in the way, 50 | cut it
off - Then the farmer with his sharp knife
prunes from living branch this and that
iendril and the o,her tendril. But says
ha chif,t . vt.is L,.i. y,
off now are not dead; what do you do that
for" "Oh," SAYS the farmer, we pruue
off these that the main branch may have
more of the sap aud so be more fruitful
No wonder III after years Christ said in His
sermon; II am the true vine and My Father
is the husbandinan; every branch in Me that
beareth not fruit He Isseth away, and every
branch that besreth fruit He pargeth it,
that it may bring forth more fruit" Capital
No one who had not been a country boy
would have said that.
Oh, this country boy Of Nazareth, come
forth to atone for tho sins of the world,
and to correct the follies of the world, and
to stamp out the crueltles of the world,
and to illumine the darkness of the woria,
and to transigure the hemispheresi So it
has been the mission OF the country boys
in all ages to transform ead inspire and
rescue. They come into our merchan hsa
ui4h Oui NOhib lOJIlS anu bul uedtttlZ dlb
ana cur studios and our theology. They
lived in Nazareth before they e.. cred Ieru-
salem. And but for that annu1i influx orr
cities would have eneTvated ana sicSened and
slain the race Late hours sud hurtful ap-
parel and overtaxed digestive organs and
crowding environments OF city life would
have hated the word. but the valleys
and mountains of Nazareth have given
fresh supply OF health and moral invigors-
l.. ~.
the town From tbs hills of New Hamp-
shire and the hills of Virginia and the
hills of Georgia come in our nationa
eloquenee the Websteis and the Claws and the
Henry w. Graiys. From the plain homes
of Massachusetts and Maryland come into
our national charities the George Peabodys
and the William Corcorans. From the
cabins of the lonely country regions come
into our national destinies the Andrew
Jacksons and the Abraham Lincolns. From
pillow boys furrow and village counter
our city giants. Nearly all the Mes
slabs in ell departments dwelt in Naz-
areth before they came TO Jerusalem. l send
this day thanks from these cities, most
~ made prosperous by country boys, to the
farmhouse and the prairies and the noun
tain cabins, and the obscure homesteads of
north and south and east and vest, TO the
fathers and mothers in plain homespin if they
be still alive or the hillocks under which they
sleep the long sleep. Thanks from Jerusa-
lem to Nazareth
But alas! that the city should so often
treat the country boys as of old the one from
was treated at Jerussleml Slain
not by hammers and spikes, but by instr1-
ments just as cruel On every street of every
city the crucitixion goes on. Every year
shows its ten thousand of the slain. Oh, how
we grind them up Under what wheels, i'll
what mills and for what an awful gristi
Let the city take better care of these