Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-11-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject. "Among the Holy Kills."

w ndt cBAtlulu citCD Hdu laob III
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 wayl Last evening the genial sis.
terhood of the convent ordered a hundred
bright-eyed Arab children brought out to
sing for me, and il was gloriousl 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, boyhood, 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 ths
floods or straight through the fire.
Grand old village is Nazareth, even putting
aside its sacred associations. Firss Of all. it
is clean, and that can be said of few Of the
oriental villages Its neighboring town Of
Nablouf is the filthiest town ever saw,
although its chief industry is the nanufac-.
ture OF soap They export all Of it. Naza-
reth has been the scene of battles passing it
from Jsraelite to Mohammedan and
from Mohammedan to Christian, the
most wonderful of the battles be-
ing that in which twenty-five thou
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 tive, the antipoies, the
SHOWS Of Russia and the plaques of Egypt
appropriately following the one, the doxo.o-
gies Of earth and the halelujahs of heaven
appropriately following the otner. And then
this town is 50 beautifully situated in great
green 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 Christ's boyhood
and youth, for of the thirty-three years of
Christs 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 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 drydock before it is ready,
and hence so many sink in the first cyclone
All Christs bOyhOod was srent in this VIII
llge and its surroundings. There Is the very
well called 1.-THE Fountain OF the Virgin to
which by His mothers side He trotted along
holding her hand. No doubt about il; it is
the only well in the village and it has been
the only well Tor 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 are
waiting for their turn at IT, three great and
avarlo roIlfpos int that xvnii
their barrels, their hogsdeads of water in
floods, giorously 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 snd white and green move on with
water Jars Oh their heads Mary, |
suppose, most 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. do
not believe there was one Of the surrounding
fifteen rills 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
gall by name or one of all the species Of
ldAhd OAOh OAt lAlDa- oe-llio NiAAb liz AAA
not recognized.
You see it ali through His sermons. IL a
man becomes a public speaker, in his ora
tions or discourSes you discover his early
WHEREABOUTS. What a 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 this
beating of the herds which lie 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 il.
He had in boyhool seen the shepherds get
their aocks mixed up, and to one not familiar
with the habits of shepherds and their hocSs,
hOplessly mixed up. Aud a sheepstealer APP
pears OF the scene and dishonesty demands
some o. those sheep, when he owns not one Of
them "Well," says the two honest shep-
herds, I'VE will soon settle this matter" and
one shepherd gees out in one direction and tho
other shepherd goes out in the other direction,
and the sheepstealer in another direction,
and each ore calls and the fiocks OF each
Of the hOrest shepherds rush 70 their
owner, while the sheepstealer calls and
calls again but gets not one OF the dock. No
wonder that Christ. Years after, preaching
on great occasion and Illustrating tbs own
shepherd qualities, cays "When He putteth
fOrth his own sheep He goeth before them.
and the sheen follow Him. 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 terraced TO-
grapes. The boy Christ had often STOOD Win
great round eyes watching the trimming OF
the grapevines Clip goes the knife and OF
falls branch. The child Christ says 70 the
farmer. What do you do that forf
''Oh.' saws the farmer. that IS
cead branch and it is doing
nothing and is only in the way 50 cut 1t
off =" Then the farmer with his sharp knife
prlmes from living branch this and that
iendril and the other tendril. "bui, says
the child christ "tbsse twigs that you cut
off now are nos dead; what do you do that
forn. "Oh," says the farmer, we prune
off these that the main branch may have
more OF the sap and 50 be more fruitful"
No wonder in after years Christ said in His
sermon: IL am the true vine and My Father
Is the husbandman; every branch in Me that
beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every
branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it,
that it may bring forth more fruit" Capital
No one who had not been country boy
would have said that.
TN, TINS country DOy OF Nalarctns COul5
forth to atone for the sins Of the world,
and to correct the follies Of the world, AMI
10 stamp out tho crueltIes Of tho world,
and to illumine the darkness OF the WORLD,
and to transfgure the beniSphereSl SO IT
has been the mission OF the country boys
in all ages to transform end inspire AM
rescue. They come into our merchan lis'
and our court rooms and our healing ar
and cur studios and our theology. They
! lived in Nazareth before they e>'ered Ieru
salem. And but for that annual inaux onr
cities would have enervated and sickened and
slain the race. Late hours and hurtful ap-
parel and overtaxed digestive organs an'
crowding environments OF city life would
have halted the world; but the valley
and mountains of Nazareth have glvei
fresh supply OF health and moral invigora
ton TO Jerusalem and the country save
the town. From the hills OF New Hamp
shire and the hills Of Virginia and tn
hills of Georgia come in our nationa
eloduence the Websters and the Clays and tn
Henry w. Gradys. From the plain home
of Massachusetts, and Maryland come int
our national charities the George Peabody
and the William Corcorans. From tn
cabins of the lonely country regions com
into our national destinies the Andre'
Jacksons and the Abraham Lincolns. Fror
plow boys furrow and village counte
and blacksmith's forge come most o
our city giants. Nearly all the Mes
siahs in all departments dwelt in Naz