The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-11-20
THE WINGS OF LOVE.
An Interesting Discourse by Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage.
The SheIterIng Power of Gods Love,
TvpIfed by the Wide Spreading
Wings, Ample to Enfold All
Who Would Come to Him.

The following discourse was deliv-
cred by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music, the text
being:
The Lord God of Israel, under whose wings
thou art come to trust. Ruth, H., II
Scene: An Oriental harvest field.
Grain standing. Grain in swaths.
Grain in sheaves. At the side of the
field, white tent in which to take the
uooning, jars of vinegar or of sour wine
10 quench the thirst of the hot working
people, Swarthy men striking their
sickles into the rustling barley. Others
twisting the bands for the sheaves,
putting one end of the band under the
arm, and with the free arm and foot
collecting the sheaf Sunburned wom-
en- picking up the stray straws
and bringing them to the bind
ers Boaz, fine-looking ORR
entail, gray-bearded and bright
faced, the owner of the field, looking
on, and estimating tire value of the
grain and calculating SO many ephahs
to the acre; and, with his large, sympa-
thetic heart plying the overtasked
workmen and the women, with white
faces enough to faint, in the hot noon
day sun. But there is one woman who
especially attracks the mans attention.
She is soon to be with him the joint
owner of the field. Sneahas come from
distant land for the sole pur-
pose of being kind to an aged
woman. l know not what her features
were; but when the Lord God sets be-
hind a woman's face the lamp of cOur-
age, and faith, and self-sacrifice, there
comes out glory independent of feat
ures. She is to be the ancestress of
Jesus Christ BoaE, the owner of the
field, as soon as he understands that it
is Ruth, aceosts her with a blessing.
"a full reward be given thee of the
Lord God of Israel, under whose wings
thou art come to trust" Christ com
pares Himself to a hen gathering the
chickens under her wings. In Deuter-
onomy God is represented as an eagle
stirring up her nest. In a great many
places in the psalms David makes orni-
theological illusions while my text mem
lions the wings of God, under which a
poor, weary soul had come to trust
ask your attention, therefore, while,
taking the suggestion of my text. l
speak to you in all simplicity and love
of the Almighty.
First remark that they were swift
wings under which Ruth had come to
trust There is nothing in all the
handiwork of God more curious than a
birds wing. You have been surprised,
sometimes, to see how far it could fly
with one stroke of the wing; and, when
it has food in prospect or when it is
affrighted, the pulsations of the bird s
wing are unimaginable for velocity.
The English lords used to pride them
selves on the speed of their
falcons. These birds, when tanned,
had in them the dart of light
ming How swift were the carrier pig
cons in the time of Anthony and at the
siege of Jerusalem! Wonderful speed
A carrier pigeon was thrown up at
Rouen and came down at Client
ninety miles off-in one hour. The
carrier pigeons were the telegraphs
of the olden time. Swallows have been
shot In our latitude having the undi-
gested rice of Georgia swamps in their
crops, showing that they had come four
hundred miles in six hours. 1t has
been estimated that in the ten years of
p swallows life it flies far enough to
have gone around the world eighty
nine times, so great is its ve-
locity. And so the winds of the AL.
mighty, spoken of in the text, are
swift wings. They are swift when they
drop upon foe, and swift when thew
come to help Gods friends. If a father
and his son be walking by the way, and
the child goes too near a precipice, how
long does it take for the father to de-
liver the child from danger? Longer
than it takes God to swoop for the rescue
of His children. The fact is that Won
can not get away from the care of God
Ii you take the steamship, Or the swift
rail train, He is all the time along with
you Whittier shall l go from Thy
spirit, and whittier shall l flee from
Thy presence. If l ascend up into
Heaven Thou art there. I'll make nv
bed in hell, behold! Thou art there. II
! take the wings of morning and dwell
in the uppermost parts of the sea, even
there, Thy hand shall hold me-
The Arabian gazelle is swift as the
wind. If it gets but one glimpse of the
hunter it puts many erags between
Solomon, four or five times, compares
Christ to an Arabian gazelle, calling i
by another name, when he says: "My
Beloved is like roe" The difference
is, that the roe speeds the other way;
Jesus speeds this. Who but Christ
could have been quick enough to have
helped Peter when the water-pave,
ment broke? Who but Christ could
have been quick enough to help the
Duke of Argyle, when, in his DIV.
ing moment, he cried: Good
cheer! l could die like Roman,
but I mean to die like a Christian.
Come away gentlemen. He who goes
first, goes cleanest?" | had a friend
who stood by the rail track at Carlisle.
Pa, when the ammunition had given
out at Antietam; and he saw the train
from Harrisburg, freighted with shot
and she'll, as it went laundering down
toward the battlefield. He said that II