The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-12-10
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Among the Holy Hills"

Subject: "Among the Holy Hills"
TEXT: He came to Nazareth, aUhere He
uas brought up."-Luke iv., 16.
What splendid sleep had last night in
Catholic convent, my first sleep within
doors since leaving Jerusalem, and oil OF
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,
terhood Of the convent ordered a hundred
bright-eyed Arab children brought out to
sing for me, and it was gloriousl This
morning I 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 l
believe there are fifty million people who
would now, if it were required, march out
and die, whether under ak or down in the
foods or straight through the fire.
Grand old village is Nazareth, even putting
aside its sacred associations. First 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 l ever saw,
although it's chief industry is the manufac-
ture of soap. They export all of it. Naza-
reth has been the scene Of battles passing it
from Israelite to Mohammedan and
from Mohammedan to Christian, the
most wonderful Of the battles be-
ing that in which twenty-five thou
hunurod French, Napoleon Bonaparte
commanding, the greatest of Frenchmen
walking these very streets through
which Jesus walked for nearly thirty years,
he morals of the two, the antipodes, the
.nows of Russia and the plaques Of Egypt
appropriately following the one, the do1olo-
gies of earth and the hallelujahs of heaven
appropriately following the other. And then
his town is so beautifully situated in great
reen bowl. the sides of the bowl surround
ng fifteen bills. 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 Christs 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 OF 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 Christ's boyhood was spent in this viii
lage 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 hand. No doubt about it; it is
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 are
waiting for their turn at it, three great and
everlasting springs rolling out into that we'll
their barrels, their hogsheads Of water in
floods, gloriously 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
water jars on their heads. Mary,
suppose Almost 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. l do
not believe there was one of the surrounding
fifteen hills that the boy Christ did not range
from bottom to top, OF one 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 a public speaker, in his ora
tions 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 familia- And when Amos
delivers his prophecy you hear in it the
bleating Of the herds which he 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, and to one not familiar
with the habits Of shepherds and their focks,
hoplessly mixed up. And sheepstealer ap-
pears on the scene and dishonesty demands
some of those sheep, when he owns not one Of
them. "Well," says the two honest shep-
herds, 1--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 each one calls, and the focks of each
of the horest 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 and illustrating His own
qualities, says: "When He putteth
forth His own sheep He goeth before them.
and the sheep 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 for
grapes. The boy Christ had often stood with
great round eyes watching the trimming of
the grapevines. Clip goes the knife and off
falls branch. The child Christ says to the
farmer. What do you do that for:"
"Oh," says the farmer, that is
a t.ead branch and it is doing
nothing and is only in the way, so cut it
off. :" Then the farmer with his sharp knife
prunes from living branch this and that
tendril and the other tendril. but" says
the child christ. ''Unese rwigs that you cut
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 moro fruitful"
No wonder in after years Christ said in His
sermon: II 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 a country boy
would have said that.
Oh, this country boy of Nazareth, come
forth to atone for the 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 worM,
and to transfgure the hemispheres! So it
has been the mission of the country boys
in all ages to transform and inspire and
rescue. They come into our merchandise
and our court rooms and our healing art
and and our studios studios - and n our theology. They