Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-24
Rev. DR.. Talmage'S Sermon is a Con-
tinuatiOn of His Remarkably
REALISTIC VIEWS OF PALESTINE.
Even Jesus Influenced BY the Surround
ingS of Early Youth.
TIE SCRIPTURAL AND MODERN WINES

gested by mis- theme, increases from week to
week. There was never so large a crowd al
any one Of the previous eight sermons as
there was to-day around the Brooklyn
Academy of Music in the morning and at
the service in the evening to hear the ninth
sermon, the subject OF which was:
Among the Holy Hills" and the text,
Luke 4: 1t. 'He came to Nazareth, where
be was brought up" Following is the SER
mon:
What a splendid sleep l had last night In a
Catholic convent, my first sleep within doors
since leaving Jerusalem, and all of us as kindly
treated as though we had been the Pope and
his college of cardinals passing that way Last
evening, the genial sisterhood OF the convent
ordered a hundred bright-eyed Arab children
brought out TO sing for me. and it was glorious!
Tins morning l come out on the steps of the
convent and look upon the most beautiful WI
laCe OF all Palestine, its houses OF white lime
stone Guess its namei Nazareth, historical
Nazareth, one of the trinity Of places that all
christian travellers must see or feel that they
nave not seen Palestine, namely. Bethlehem,
Jerusalem, Nazareth. BabyboOd boyhood,
manhood of Him for whom believe there are
50,OO00OO people who would now, if it were re-
qured, march out and die whether under AK.
or down in the floods or straight through the
fire.
NOTED FOR CLEANLINESS.
Grand old village is Nazareth, even putting
aside its sacred associations. First of al. ii is
clean; and that can be said of few of the Orien-
tai villages. Its neighboring town of Nablous
Is the flthieSt town L ever saw, although its
chief industry is tine manufacture of soap.
They export all of it. Nazareth was perhaps
unusually clean the morning speak of, for, as
we rode into the village the afternoon before,
The showers which had put our mackintoshes
TO the test had poured floods through all the
alleys under command OF the clouds, those
thorough street commissioners
Besides that Nazareth has been the scene of
battles passing II from the lsraelite to Moham-
meddn and from Mohammedan to Christian,
the most wonderful OF the battles being that in
which > 900 Turks were beaten by 2 100 French,
Napoleon Bonaparte commanding, that greatest
Of Frenchmen walking these very streets
through which Jesus walked for nearly 80 years,
the morals of the two the antipodes, the SHOWS
Of Russia and the plaques of Egypt approprl-
ately following the one, the doxologies of earth
and the hallelujahs of heaven appropriately
following the other. And then this town is so
beautifully situated in 4 great green bowl, the
sides Of the bowl, the surrounding 10 hills.
The Goo of nature who is the God of the
Bible evidently scooped out this valley for
privacy and separation from all the world dur
Ing three most important decades, the 80 years
ol Chrlsts boyhuod and youth. for of the 50
years OF Christs stay on earth, he spent 30 of
them in this town in getting ready-a startling
reNuke to those who have no patience with the
long wears of preparation necessary when they
enter on any special mission for the Church or
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 frs cyclone. Stay in the
store as a subordinate until you are thoroughly
equipped. Be good employe in your trade
until you are qualified to be employer Be
content with Nazareth until you are ready for
the bufetlngs of Jerusalem.
INFLUENCES OF YOUTH.
All Christs boyhood was spent in this village
and its surroundings There is the very well
called The Fountain of the Virgin" to which
hv fE side 10 ad ali
her hand. No doubt about it; it is the only
well in the village, and it has been the only well
for q, 900 years. This morning we visit it, and
the mothers have the children with them now
as then. The work of drawing water all
ages in those countries has been women's work
Scores Of them are waiting for their turns at
il. three great and everlasting springs rolling
out into that well their barrels. their hogsheads
of water in floods gloriously abundant. The
well is surrounded by olive groves and
wide spaces. in which people talk and chill
dreu, wearing charms on their heads as pro-
lection against the ''eyil eye are playing, nd
women with their strings of coin on either side
OF their face and in skirts of blue and scar
let aud white and green move on with water
iars on their heads. Mary, L suppose, almost
always took Jesus the boy with her, for she
had no one she could leave Him with. being in
humble circumstances and having no attend
ants do not believe there was one of the
surrounding 10 hills that the boy Christ did not
range from bottom TO top or one cavern in
their sides he did not explore, nor one species
of bird tiying across the tops that he could not
call bE name, one Oi all the species oil fauna
browsing those sleeps that He had not re-
coCnized.
You see it all through His sermons. If a man
becomes public speaker. in his orations or
dIsCOuTseS YOU discover his early whereabouts
What boy sees between and Il always sticks
20 hIm. When the Apostle Peter breaches you
see the fishing nets with which he had from
his earliest DAYS been familiar. And when
Amos delivers his prophecy you hear in it
tile bleaUEg of the herds which he had in
b0yhood attended. And in our Lords sermons
OF village life and the mountainous life sur
rounding it. They raised their own chickens
in Nazareth. and in after time He cries: 40
JPTuSalCmi Jerusalem! how often would have
gathered thee a hen gatheTeth her chickens
under her Wings He had seen his mother
uDCu the family wardrobe at the close of sum-
mer and the moth mlieTs hyIng out. having de-
-Iroyed the garments, and IN after years he
says: Lay not up for yourselves treasures on
earth where moth doth corrupt" In childhood
lie had seen mile of flowers white as the
snow or red as the flame or blue as the sea or
green as the tree-tops, and no wonder in His
rluhood sermon He said, Consider the
lilies
SOME ILLUSTRATIONS.
Streaks of nature all through Christ's ser.
nous and conversations When a pigeon de-
scended upon Chrst's head at His baptism in
the Jordan it was not the first pigeon He had
seen. And then He has such wide sweep Of
discourse as you may imagine from one who
has stood on the hills that overlook Nazareth.
Eerranean Sea only once, but any clear morn
ing lie could run up on hill near Nazareth
and look on 10 The west and see the Mediter-
ranean. while there in the north is snowy
Mount Lebanon, clad in white robe of as
CenslOn. and wonder on the east and southeast
Mount GilbOa, Mount Tabor and Mount Gilead
and yondeT In the south is the Plain of Esdra-
elon over which We rode yesterday on our way
10 Nazareth Those mountains of His boyhood
in HIS memory. do you wonder that Christ when
He wanted a good pulpit made it out of a
mOuutaln-'seeIng the multitudes He went up
into the mountain" And when He wanted
especial communion with God. He took James
and John ana Peter into "a mountain apart
- Oh, TINS country boy of Nazareth, come forth
to atone for the sins Of the world and to cor.
rect the follles Of the world and to stamp out
the Crueltles OF the world and to illumine the
darkness OF the world and 20 transhgure the
hemspheresi So II has been the mission of the
country boys IN all ages to transform and in
spIrc and rescue. They come into our mer.
Cuandlse ana our court rooms and our healing
art and our studios and our theology They
lived in Nazareth before thev entered Jerusa-
lem. And but for that annual influx our cities
would have e1nervated and sickened and slain
the race. Late hours and hurtful apparel and
overUaxed digestive organs and crowdiug
environments of city life would have
halted the world, but the valleys and
mountains of Nazareth have given fresh sup
Div of health and moral invgoration to Jerusa.
lem, and the country saves the town From
the hills of New Hampshire and the hills
of Virginia aDd the hills of Georgia come
into our national eloquence the Websters and
the Clays and the Henry W. Gradys From
the plain homes Of Massachusetts and Mary-
land come into our national charities the
George Peabodvs and the William Corcoraps
From the cabins of the lonely country regions
fha A