The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-12-11
GIVING THANKS.
Or. Talmage Discourses on the
Subject Of Thanksgiving.
Examples OF the Goodness of the Lord-Au
Creation Guided BY the Great Creator
What We Should Be Thank
ful For.


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. "
The preacher said:
What a 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 min
ute before one o'clock that morning
and it set at four o'clock and thirty-five
minutes that evening. What a small
space of time in which to mediate up
on twelve months of benefactions So l
add to that day this Sabbath morning
service, and ask you to continue the re-
hearsal of the Divine goodness.
By a 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 hu-
man life as compared with the instances
of animal life, are not one to a million.
We shall enlarge our ideas of Gods
goodness and come to a better under
standing of the text if, before we come
TO look at the cup of our blessing, we
look at the goodness of God to the IRA
tional creation.
Although nature is out of joint, yet
even in its disruption l am surprised to
find almost universal happiness of the
animal creation. On a summer day,
avh hn nsy hn
populous with life, you will not hear a
sound of distress unless, perchance, a
heartless school boy has robbed birds
nest or a hunter has broken a birds
wing, or a pasture has been robbed of
4 lamb, and there goes up a bleating
from the focks- The whole earth is
filled with animal delight-joy feath-
cred, and sealed, and horned and
hoofed. The bee huns it, the frog
croaks it, the squirrel chatters ii, the
quail whistles it. the lark carols it, the
whale spouts it The snail, the rhi-
noceros, the grizzly bear, the toad, the
wasp, the spider, the shell fish, have
their hcmely 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 baslling in
tropical sun, seal putting on the ice, os-
trich 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 a drop of water under the
rnicrope, and you fiud that within it
there are millions of creatures that
swim in q halleluiah 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 a fsherman's hook trausfix a
worm, until by eternal decree, its time
has come.
Gods hand feeds all these broods,
and shepherds all these fiocks and tends
all these herds He sweetens the clover
tops for the oxen's taste and pours out
crystalline waters, in mossed cups of
rock, for the hind to drink out of on
his way down the crags, and pours
nectar into the cups of the honeysuckle
to refresh the humming bird; and
spreads a banquet of a 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
7iocl1S of heaven the choice of all the
grain fields. The sea anemone, half
animal, half flower, clinging to the
rocks in midocean, with its tentacles
spread tc catch its food, has the owner
of the universe to provide for it We
are repulsed at the hideousness of the
elephant, but God, for the comfort and
convenience of the monster, puts 10000
distinct muscles in its proboscis.
60 down on the barren sea shore
and say: "No animal can live in this
place of desolatioD;" but all through
the sands are myriads of little insects
that leap with happy life 1 go down
by the marsh and say: ''In this damp
place and in these loathsome pools of
stagnant water there will be the quiet
ness of death;" but 10! / see the turtles
on the rotten log summing themselves
and hear the bcgs quake with multi
tudinous life. When the unhedged
robbins are hungry, God shows the old
Robin where she can get food to put
into the open moatSa Winter is not
.,Ilou-a1 ~ ANNA Y,r.tf tho ante bara
granaried their harvest and the squir-
rels have filed their cellar with nuts
God shows the hungry ichneumon
where it may find the crocodile's eggs;
and in arctic climes there are animals
that God SO lavis1ly clothes that they
can afford 20 walk through snowstorms
In the finest sable and ermine and chin
chiliS, and no sooner is one set of furs
worn out that God gives them a new
one He helps the spider in its archi-
lecture of its gossamer bridge, and
takes care of the color of the butterfy's
wings, and tinges the cochi1eal and
helps the moth out of the chrysalis.
The animal creation also has its army
and navy. The most insignificant has
its means Of defense; the wasp its
sting, the reptile its tooth. the bear its
paw, the dog its muzzle. the elephant
its tusk, the fish its scale. the bird its
swift wing, the reindeer its antlers, the
roe its feet foot
We are repelled at the thought of
sting, and tusk. and hoof, but Gods
goodness provides them for the defense
of the animals rights Yea, God in
the Bible announces his care for these
orders of creation. He says that he has
heaved up Notifications for their de-
fense-Psalm civ, is: "The high hills
are refuge for. the wild goats, and the