The Iola register., 1890-08-22
FOOD FROM HEAVEN.
Or. Talmage Discourses to the
People at Long Branch.
The supply Of Mamma to the IsraeIites-
Provision Made BY the Lord For spe-
cial Emergencies-The Gospel
offered to All.

L. Dewitt Talmage discoursed on the
Gospel provision for ordinary and extra
ordinary needs. His text was Joshua
v IL: And the mama ceased on the
morrow after they had eaten of the old
corn of the land" He said:
Only those who have had something
to do with the commissariat of an army
know what a job it is to feed and clothe
five or six hundred thousand men.
Well, there is such host as that march
ing across the desert They are cut of
from all army supplies. There are nc
rail trains bringing down food or blank.
cts Shall they all perishP 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 be-
come 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 a
shower of bread, not sour and soggy,
for the rising of that bread is made in
Heaven and celestial fingers have
mixed 1t and rolled 1t into balls, light,
flaky and sweet as though they were
the crumbs thrown out from a 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 Is
raelites in the wilderness.
/ do not very much pity the Israelites
for the fact that they had only mamma
to eat 1t was, / suppose, the best food
ever provided. know that the ravens
brought food to hungry Elijah, but ]
should not so we'll have liked those
black walters. Rather would have the
fare that came down every morning in
buckets of dew-clean, sweet, God-pro-
vided edibles. But now the Israelites
have taken the last bit of it in their
fingers and put the last delicate morsel
Of 1t to their lips. They look out and
there Is no mamma. Why this cessation
of Heavenly supply2 1t was because the
Israelites had arrived in Canaan, and
they smelled the breath OF the har-
vest fields, and the crowded barns OF
the country were thrown open to them.
ALI the inhabitants had fed, and in the
name of the Lord of Hosts the Israelites
took possession of every thing.
Well, the threshing floor is cleared,
are brought around in lazy and perpetual
circuit until the corn is trampled 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 mama ceased on the
morrow after they had eaten of the old
corn of the land" e.. a.
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 heav-
emily bakeries there would first have
been 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 a long line of dead
men unburied, because there would have
been no one to bury them. 1t would
have been told in the history of the
world that a great company of good peo-
pie started out from Egypt for Canaan
and were never heard of, as thorough
ly 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? .".H. -''sr F1
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 yoR want.
The ordinary comfort, the, ordinary di-
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 1t.
Is 1t pain and physical distress through
which you must go? Does not Jesus
know all about pain? Did he not suf-
fer 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 paroxysr. 1t is the same
grace that soothed Robert Hall when,
after writhing on the carpet in physical
tortures, he cried out: 30! I suffered
terribly. but I didn't cry out while was
suffering, did II Did l cry outS' There
Is no such nurse as Jesus-his hand the
gentlest his foot the highest, his arm
the strongest For especial pang es-
pecial help.
Is 1t approaching sorrowe Is 1t 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 widow
hood or childlessness or disbanded
home, and cried: 81 can not endure it?"
o, worried soul, you win wake up
amidst all your troubles and find around
about you the sweet consolation of the
Gospel as thickly strewed as was the
mamma around about the Israelitish en-
campment, Especial solaee for especial
distress
Or is it trouble past yet PRESENT. A
silent nursery? A vacant chair opposite
you at the table? A nusing upon a
broken family circle never again to be
reunited7 A choking sense of loneli-
nesse A blot of grief so large that it
extinguishes the light of the sun, and
puts out bloom of flower, and makes
you reckless as to whether you live or
die9 Especial comfort for that especial
trial. .i Your appetite has failed for
every thing else o, try little of this
wilderness mama: 81 will never lsave
thee, Twill never forsake thee" Like
As q father pitieth his children, 50 the
Lord pitieth them that fear him." ''Can
. woman forget her sucking child that
she should not have compassion On the
SON of her womb2 yea they may yforget