Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-08-22
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Food in Gods Gospel

Only those who have had something to do
with the commissiariat of an army know
what a job it Is to feed and clothe five or six
hundred thousand men. Well, there is such
ahost 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 perish?
No. The Lord comes from heaven to the
rescue, and He touches the shoes and the
coats which in a year or two would have
been worn TO rags and tatters, and they be-
come stormproof and timeproof, 80 that
after forty years of wearing the coats and
the shoes are as good as new. Besides that
every morning there is a shower of bread,
not sour or soggy, for the rising of that
bread is made in heaven, and celestial fin
gers have mixed it and rolled it into balls,
light, faky 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 wilder
neSs.
I do not very much pity the Israelites for
the fact that they had only mama to eat.
It was I suppose, the best food ever pro-
vided. I know that the ravens brought
food to hungry Elijah, but I should not SO
well have liked those black walters, Rather
would l have the fare that came down every
morning in buckets of dew-clean, sweet
God provided edibles But now the Israel
nave TAKEN the laSG OIL It In UAGlF
fingers, and put the last delicate morsel of it
to their lips, They look out, and there is no
mamma. Why this cessation Of heavenly
supply? 1t was because the Israelites bad
arrived in Canaan, and they smelIed the
breath of the harvest fields, and
were thrown open to them. All the
Inhabitants had fed, and in the name of the
Lord of Hosts, the Israelites took possession
of everything. 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 tranpled 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 host. "And the
mamma ceased on the morrow after they had
eaten of the old corn of the land"
From among the mummies of z sYpt and
Canaan have been brought grains of corn.
exactly like our Indian corn, and recently
planted, they have produced the same kind
Of corn with which we are familiar. So
am not sure which kind of grain my text re-
fers to, but all the same is 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.
If these Israelites crossing the wilderness
had not received bread from the heavenly
bakeries there would first have been q long
line of dead children half buried in the sand.
Then there would have been 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. It would have
been told i'll the history of the world that
great company of good people started out
from Egypt To- 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 of corn in Egypt?
What they wanted was something to eat
right there, where there was not SO much as
a grass bladc-in other words an especial
supply for an especial emergency. That is
what some of you want. The ordinary COM
fort, the ordinary direction, 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 mixture of comfort, one drop
of which shall cure the worst paroxysm. 1t
is the same grace that soothed Robert Hall
when, after writing ON the carpet in phys
ical fortunes, he cried out, 20! I suffered
terribly, but didn't cry out while l was
suffering, did 1? Did 1 cry outY' There is
no such nurse as JesuS-His hand the gentlest,
His foot the ightest, His arm the strongest.
For especial pang especial help.
Is it approaching sorrow? Is it long.
shadowing bereavement that you know is
coming because the breath is short, and
the voice is faint, and the cheek is pale?
Have you been calculating your capacity or
incapacity to endure widowhood or child
lessness or disbanded home and cried: II
cannot endure it,? Oh, worried SOUL YOU
will wake up amidst all your troubles and
lind around about you the sweet consolation
of the Gospel as thickly strewed as was the
mamma around about the Israelitish encamp-
ment Especial solace for especial distress
Or Is 1T q trouble past, yet present? A
silent nursery? A vacant chair opposite you
at the table? A musing upon broken fam
lily circle never again to be united? A chOk-
ing sense of loneliness2 A blot OF grief SO
large that it eXtinguishes the light of sun,
and puts out bloom of hover, and makes you
reckless as to whether you live or die? Es-
pecial comfort that especial trial. Your ap-
petite has failed for everything else. Oh,
try little of this wilderness mama: st vii
never leave thee, l will never forsake thee .
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pltleth them that fear Him." Can 6
woman forget her sUcklng child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of hel
womb? yea they may forget, yet will MOI
form thee"
Or is it the grief of dissipated co,npan
ion? There are those here who have it so
am not speaking in the abstract, but to the
point. You have not whispered it, perhaps
to your most intimate friend; but you SEE
your home going away gradually from you
and unless things change soon it will be en-
trely destroyed. Your grief was we'll de
plcted by woman, presiding at a woman
meeting in Ohio, when her intoxicated hus
band staggered up to the platform, to he
overwhelming modification and the disturb
ance of the audience, and she pulled pro
truding bottle from her husbands poke
and held itup before the audience and erie,
OUT: There Is the cause of my woe! Their