Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-08-15
CORN AND THE GOSPEL.
Talmage Talk, Plainly to tbs Summer
Soiournsrs at Long Branch.
The Celebrated Brooklyn Preacher Gays Corn
Has t. 'Ne Place Of Manna-But it is
the ern OF Gospel that is the Bread CT

mastery ana clog uent DISCOURSE Dy rev l..
De Witt Talmage of Brooklyn last Sunday.
His text was Joshua, 5:12;
"And the mamma 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 commssariat of an army know
what Job it Is to feed and clothe five or six
hundred thousand men. Well, there is such
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 persist No. The
Lord comes from heaven to the rescue, and
he touches the shoes and coats which in a
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 q shower of bread, not sour and
soggy, for the rising of that bread is made
in heaven, and celestial fingers have mixed
it, and rolled it into balls, light, flaky and
sweet, as though they were crumbs thrown
out from heavenly banquet. Two patches
of bread made every day in the upper man
sion-onc 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 mamma to eat
1t was, suspose, the very best food ever
provided. / know that the ravens brought
| food to hungry Elijah; but should not so
well have liked those black walters. Rath-
er would have the fare that came down
every morning in buckets of dew-clean,
sweet, God-provided edibles. But now the
Israelites have taken their last bit of it in
their fingers, and put the last delicate NOR
sci of it TO their lips. They look out, and
there is no mamma. Why this cessation
of heavenly supplyl 1t was because the
Israelites had arrived in Canaan, and they
smelled the breath of the harvest-felds,
and the crowded barns of the country were
thrown open to them. All the inhabitants
had fled, and in the name Of the Lord of
Hosts the Israelites took possession Of
| everything. Well, the threshing-loor is
cleared, the corn is scattered over it, the
oxen are brought around in lazy and per-
petual circuit until the corn is trampled
! loose; then it is winnowed with a fan, and
it is ground and it is baked, and lol there
is enough bread for all the worn-out host.
Sand the mamma ceased on the morro/
after they had eaten of the old corn & -
land.n
From among the mummies of EC/ Il, and
Canaan have been brought grair~ Of corn,
exactly like our Indian coz @Id recently
planted, they have prodco~c she came kind
of corn, with which 10 ERE familiar. So |
am not sure which kind of grain my text
refers to- but all the same is the meaning.
The dissection Of this subject leads he,
first, to speak of especial relief for especial
emergency; and, secondly, of the old corn
of the Gospel for ordinary circumstances.
If these Israelites crossing the wilderness
had not received bread from the heavenly
bakeries, there would, first, have been a
long line of dead women waiting for the
jackals; then, there would have been long
line Of dead men unburied, because there
would have been no one TO bury them. II
! would hare 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 wilder
ness Of waters. What use was it to them
that there was plenty Of corn in Canaan, OF
plenty of corn in Egypt
What they wanted was something to cat
right there, where there was not so much
as n grass-bladc In other words, ar
especial supply for an especial emergency
That is what some Of you want. The or
binary comfort, the ordinary direction, tho
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 1t.
Is it pain and physical distress through
which you must gol Does not Jesus know
all about paint Did he not suffer it in tn,
most sensitive part of head and hand ant
footi He has a mixture of comfort, on,
drop of which shall cure the worst parox
ysm. 1t is the same grace that sootheC
Robert Hall when, after writing on tn,
carpet in physical tortures, he cried out
"Oh / suffered terribly but didn't or,
out while l was suffering, Did II Did
cry outl" There is no such nurse as Jesus
his hand the gentlest, his foot the light
est, his arm the strongest. For especia
pang especial help.
Is it approaching sorrows Is it long
shadowing bereavement that you know i
coming, because the breath is short, ant
the voice is faint, aud the cheek is pale
Have you been calculating your capacity o
incapacity to endure widowhood or child
lessness or disbanded home, and cried
az can not endure itl" Oh, worried soul
and find around about you the sweet con
ISOLATION of the Gospel as thickly strewot
as was the mama around about tn
Israelitish encampmenti Especial solac
for especial distress.
Or Is it a trouble past, yet PRESENT. !
silent miseryl A vacant chair opposit
you at tho tablet A musing upon broker
! family circle never again to be reunited
A choking sense Of lonelinessi A blot o
, grief so large that it extinguishes the ligh
of sun and puts out bloom of flower, an
makes you reckless as TO whether you lv
or diet Especial comfort for that especia
l trial. Your appetite has failed for every
thing else. Oh, try little of this wilder
ness mamma: II will never leave thee,
will never forsake thee" Like as
father ptieth his children, so the Lor
pitch them that fear Him" "Can
woman forget her sucking child, that sh
should not have compassion on the son o
her womb, yea, they may forget, yet will
not forget thee"
Or is il the grief of dissipated compar
r !onl There are those here who have it, s
3 am not speaking in the abstract, but {
the point. You have not whispered IL, pei
hama 20 xoOr ", n.t 70 frfand lint W,