The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-12-16

The following Discourse was delivered
ty Rev. DR.. Talmage at the Brooklyn
Tabernacle last Sunday. The text
was taken from Psalm cxlviii., 10, -
and IL:
Beasts and all cattle; creeping things and
flying fowl; both young men and maidens; old
men and children; let them praise the name OF
the Lord"
What scene it was when. last Thurs
day, at the call of the president and
governors, this nation assembled to
chant the praises OF God, But the day
was too short to celebrate the divine
goodness of such year. The sun did
not rise over Brooklyn until one minute
before Z o'clock that morning, and it
set at 4 o'clock and thirty-ive minutes
that evening. What small space OF
time in which to mediate upon twelve
months of benefactions So l add to
that day this Sabbath morning service,
and with the fruits and harvests of the
earth still clarifying the pulpit and the
galleries, ask you to continue the re-
hearsal Of the divine goodness.
BY sublime egotism man has come
to appropriate this world to himself,
when the fact is that our race is in q
small minority. The instances of
human life, as compared with the in
stances of animal life, are not one to a
million. We shall enlarge our ideas of
Gods goodness and come to better
understanding of the text If, before we
come to look at the cup of our blessing.
we look at the goodness of God to the
irrational creation
Although nature is out Of joint, yet
even in its disruption I am surprised to
find the 'almost universal happiness of
the animal creation. On summer
day, when the air and the grass are
most populous with life. you will not
hear sound of distress unless, per-
chance, a heartless schoolboy has
robbed birds nest, or a hunter has
broken birds wing, or pasture has
been robbed Of lamb and there goes
up bleating from the focks. The
whole earth is filed with animal de.
light-joy feathered, and scaled, and
horned and hoofed. The bee huns il;
the frog croaks it; the squirrel chatters
1t; the quail whistles it; the lark carols
It; the whale spouts it. The snail. the
rhinoceros, the grizzly bear, the toad,
The wasp, the spider, the shellfish. have
their homely delights-joy as great to
them as our joy is to us. Goat climbing
the rocks: anaconda crawling through
the Jungle; buffalo plunging ocross the
prairie; crocodile basking in tropical
sun: seal putting on the ice; ostrich
striding across the desert, are so many
bundles of joy; they do not 60 moping
or melancholy; they are not only hall
supplied; God says they are filled with
good.
The worm squirming through the sod
upturned Of plowshare, and the ants
facing up and down the hillock, are
happy by day and happy by night
Take up drop Of water under the
microscope, and you find that within il
there are millions of creatures that
swim in hallelujah of gladness. The
sounds of nature that are repulsive te
our ears are often only utterances o.
joy-the growl, the croak, the bark, the
howl. The good God made these crea
lures, thinks of them ever, and will mo-
let a plowshare turn up moles nest
or fisherman's hook transtix worm
until, by eternal decree, its time ha!
come. Gods hand feeds all these broods
and shepherds all these focks, ant
tends all these herds He sweetens thu
| clover top for the oxen's taste, ant
pours out crystalline waters in mosset
cups of rock, for the hind to drink GU
of on his way down the crags, and pour
nectar into the cup of the honeysuckl'
torefresh the humming bird; and spread
a banquet of a hundred fields of buck
wheat, and let's the honey bee put hi
mouth to any cup of all the banque
and tells the grasshopper to go any
where he likes, and gives the flocks o
heaven the choice of all the grain fields
The sea anemone, half animal, hal
flower, clinging to the rock in nit
ocean, with its tentacles spread to catcl
its food, has the Owner Of the univers
to provide for it? We are repulsed a
the hideousness of the elephant, blu
God, for the comfort and convenienc,
Of the monster, puts forty thousand dis
tinct muscles in its proboscis.
l go down or the barren sea shor
and say, mo animal can live in thi
place of desolation," but all through
the sands are myraids of little insect
that leap with happy life. 60 dow
by the marsh and say, ''In this dam
place and in these loathsome pools O
stagnant water there will be the quie,
ness of DEATH" but 10! l see the turtle
On the rotten log summing themselves
and hear the boys quake with multi
tudinous life. When the unfledged rot
ms are hungry, God shows the old robi
where she can get food to put into thei
open mouths. Winter is not allowed t
come until the ants have granarie
their harvest, and the squirrels hav
filled their cells with nuts. God show
the hungry ichneumon where it ma
find the crocodile's eggs; and in arcti
climes there are animals that God s
lavishly clothes that they can afford t
walk through snow storms in the fines
sable, and ermine, and chinchilla, an
no sooner is one set of furs worn OF
than God gives them new one. II
helps the spider in its architecture of i,
gossamer bridge, and takes care of til
color of the butterfy's wing, and tinge
the cochineal, and helps the moth o,
of its chrysalis The animal creatio
also has its army and navy. The mo.