The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-12-04
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
LET THE PEOPLE PRAISE THE
NAME OF THE LORD.

NAIVE VT TIE GOINOs
DR.. Talmage's Sunday sermon-He Call
the Attention of His Hearers to tn
BOuntiful Harvests of 1S91-Thanka
giving Decorations stiil In Place.
BROOKLYN, Nov. 9,-Dr Talmage'
sermon this morning had distinct.
Thanksgiving character. The appear
hnce of the Tabernacle was In keepin,
with it. The specimens of fruits an(
harvest products with which the pulpit
and galleries were decorated for thu
Thanksgiving day service were still
On their places Cotton, rice, wheat,
sugar cane, rye, oats, corn and fruits,
and products from north south, east
and west, put before the audience as
by an object lesson the abundance OF
the national harvest. The doctors
text was taken from Psalm cxlviii, 10, IL
and 13, 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 a scene 1t 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 seven o'clock that
morning, and it set four o'clock and
thirty five minutes that evening. What
small space of time in which to med
itate upon twelve months of benefac-
tons! So add to that day this Sab
bath morning service, and with the
fruits and harvests of the earth still
clarifying the pulpit and the galleries
ask you to continue the rehearsal 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 a
small minority The instances of hui
man life as compared with the in
stances of animal life are not one to
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 bless
ing, we look at the goodness of God to
the irrational creation.
HAPPINESS OF THE ANIMALS
Although nature is out of joint, yet
even in its disruption am surprised to
find the almost universal happiness of
the animal creation. On a summer day,
when the air and the grass are most
populous with life, you will not hear
sound of distress unless, perchance, a
heartless schoolboy has robbed birds
nest, or hunter has broken a birds
wing, or pasture has been robbed of
lamb, and there goes up bleating
from the focks.
delight-joy feathered and scaled and
horned and hoofed. The bee huns it.
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 climb
ing the rocks, anaconda crawling
through the jungle, buffalo plunging
across 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 go
moping or melancholy; they are not
only half supplied; God says they are
filled with good.
The worm squirming through the sod
upturned of plowshare and the ants
racing up and down the hillock are
happy by day and happy by night.
Take up drop of water under the mi
croscope and you find that within it
there are millions of creatures that
swim in hallelujah of gladness. The
sounds in nature that are repulsive to
our ears are often only utterances of
joy-the growl, the croak, the bark,
the howl. The good God made these
creatures, thinks of them ever and will
not let a plowshare turn up a mole's
nest or fisherman's hook transfix a
worm until, by eternal decree, its time
has come. Gods hand feeds all these
broods, and shepherds all these hocks,
and tends all these herds.
He sweetens the clover top for the
ox's taste, and pours out crystalline
waters in messed cups of rock for the
hind to drink out of on his way down
the crags, and pours nectar into the
cup of the honeysuckle to refresh the
humming bird, and spreads banquet
of hundred fields of buckwheat and
lets the honey bee put his mouth to any
cup of all the banquet. and tells the
grasshopper to go anywhere he likes,
and gives the flocks of heaven the choice |
of all the grain fields. The sea anem-
one, half animal, half flower, clinging |
to the rock in midocean, with its ten
tacles spread to catch its food, has the |
owner of the universe to provide for it.
We are repulsed at the hideousn ess of
the elephant, but God, for the comfort