Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-30
BLESSINGS FOR ALL.
Even Dumb Creatures Have Their
Full Measure of Enjoyment.
OUR ABUNDANT NATURAL WEALTH
An Anatomy Capable of the Sublimest Of
Human Achievements.
DR.. TALMAGEs THANKSGIVING SERMON
rsPKcrAI rELEGRkNs TO THE pIsPATcH.1

BRooKIYN, Nov. 29.-Dr. Talmage's SER
mon this morning had distinctly Thanks
giving character. The Doctors text was
taken from Psalm 1870, IL and 13: Beasts
and all cattle; creeping things and flying
fowl; both Young men and maidens; old
meu and children; let them praise the name
of the Lord.
What q scene it was when last Thursday,
at the call of the President and Governors,
this nation assembled to chant the praises oil
God. But the day was too short to celebrate
the Divine goodness of such year
Bv a sublime egotism man has come to ap-
nropriate this world to himself, when the
fact is that our race is in n small minority.
The instances of human life, as compared
with the instances of animal life, are not one
20 a million. We shall enlarge our ideas OF
Gods goodness and come 10 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 irrational crea-
tion. Although nature is out Of joint, yet
even in its disruption am surprised to find
the almost universal happiness OF the animal
creation.
The World Filled With Animal Delight.
ON a summer day, when the air and the
grass are most populous with life, you will
not hear a sound of distress unless, per-
GIlalCF, Il nedGtlSSS sCuOOl-UOA udS l.Oppcu
birds nest. or a hunter has broken birds
wing. or pasture has been robbed OF a lamb,
and there goes up bleating from the flock.
The whole earth is filled with animal delight
joy feathered, and scaled, and horned, and
hoofed.
The worm squirming through the sod up
turned of plowshare, and the ants racing up
and down the hilIock are happy by day and
happy by night. Take up drop OF water
under the microscope, and you find that
within it there are millions of creatures that
swim in a 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 Goo made these creatures, thinks
OF them ever, and will not let a plowshare
turn up a mole's nest, or fisherman, s hook
transfi1 worm, until, by eternal decree.
its time has come. Gods hand feeds all
these broods and shepherds all those f1ocks,
and tends ali these herds. He sweetens the
clover-top for the o1en's taste: and pourS
out crystalline waters, in mossed cups OF
rock for the hind to drink out OF on his way
down the craSs, and pours nectar INTO the
cup of the honeySuckle to refresh the num-
ming-bird
GIadness in Every Waste Place.
go down on the barren sea-shore and say:
mo animal can live in this place of desola-
tion;r but all through the sands are myriads
of little insects that leap with happy life. 1
go down by the marsh and say: "1n this
damp place, and in these loathsome pools of
Sl22DanI water, IIeIS VIII Uc dulctiiCSS
OF DEATH but, To- l see the turtles on the
rotton log summing themselves, and hear the
bogs quake with multitudinous life.
When the unhedGed robins are hungry
God shows the old robin where he can get
food to put into their open mouths. Winter
is not allowed to come until the ants have
granaried their harvest and the SO uirrels
have filled their cellar with nuts.
The animal creation also has its army and
navy. The most Insignificant has its means
Of defense: the wasp its sting: tine reptile its
Hza, drNrri 10.
the elephant its tusk: the fish its scale: the
bird its swift wing: the reindeer its antlers;
the roe its fleet foot. We are repelled ut the
thought of sting and tusk and hoof, but Gods
goodness provides them for the defense of
the animals rights
Amid the thunders of Sinai God uttered |
the rights OF cattle and said that they should |
have sabbath. Thou shalt not do any /
work, thou nor thy cattle He declared |
with infinite emphasis that the OK on the |
thrcshing floor should have the privilege of |
eating some of the grain as he trod it out, |
and uuzzling was forbidden. If young birds |
were taken from the nest for food the de- |
spoilers life depended on the mother going |
free. God would not let the mother-bird |
suffer in one day the loss of her young and
her own liberty.
The Earth Full of Gods Business.
Why did God make all these, and why
make them so happy? How account for all
this singing and dancing, and frisking,
amid the irrational creation? Why this |
only one solution, one explanation, one |
answer-t1od is good. "The earth is full Of |
the goodness of the Lord.
take step higher, and notice the adapta. |
ness OF man. The sixth day Of creation had |
arrived. The palace of the world was made, |
but there was no king to live in it. A new |
style OF being was created. Heaven and /
earth were represented in his nature. His |
body from the earth beneath; his soul from |
the heaven above. The one reminding him |
OF bis origin. the other speaking OF his |
destiny-himself the connecting link be- /
tween the animal creation and angelic in /
1elligence. In him a strange commingling |
the in4inife' dust and eiorV' The earth for
Ills floor, and heaven for his roof; God for /
his Father; eternity for his lifetime.
Nolumes have been written OF the hand.
Wondrous instrument! With it we give |
friendly recognition, and grasp the sword, 4
and climb the rock, and write, and carve,
and build. 1t constructed the pyramids,
and hoisted the Parthenon. 1t made the 4
harp aud then struck out of it all the worlds /
minstrelsy. In it the white marble Of Pen
telicon mines dreamed itself away into inn
mortal sculpture. 1t reins in the swift |
engine: il holds the steamer to its path in /
tie sea: IL snatches the fire from heaven; if 4
feels the pulse OF the sick child with its
delicate touch. and makes the nations quake /
with its stuperdous achievements.
Mans Wonderful Anatomy.
Behold the eye, which, in its Photographic |
gallery, in an instant catches the mountain |
and the sea. This perpetual telegraphing of |
the nerves; these joints that are the only |
hinges that do not wear out; these bones and |
muscles OF the body, with 1900 different !
adaptations: these 100 900 glands; these 300
900 GNGpores;this mysterious heart contracting
1000 times every hour-this chemical process
of digestion; this laboratory, beyond the un-
delsta nding of the most sl1illful philosophy:
this furnace, whose heat is kept up from
cradle TO grave: this factory of life, whose
wheels and spin6les and bands are God-di-
rected.
II we could realize the wonders of our
physical organization, we would be hypo-
chrondTiacs, fearing every moment that
some part OF the machine would break
down. Bat there are men here who have
lived through 20 years, and not nerve has
ceased TO thrill.
l take step higher, and look at O mans
mental constitution. Behold the benevo-
faculty OF transporting this outside world |
into your own mind-gatherfng into your |
brain the majesty OF the storm, anc the
splendors of the day dawn. and lifting into
yoar mind the ocean rs easily as you might
put Il glass of water to your lips.
Watch the law of association, or the mys- |
terious linking together of all you ever |
thought OF knew. or felt, and then giving
YOU The power to take hold of the clewlire, |
and draw through your mind the long train
with indescribable velooity-one thought
starting up a hundred, and this again a
thousand-as the chirp Of one bird some
times wakes up n whole forest of voices, or
the thrum of one string will rouse an orches-
ira.
Human Memory and Understanding.
Watch your memory-that sheafbinder,
that goes forth to gather the harvest of the
past and bring it into the present. Your
power and velocity of thought-thought OF
a I,<xHk g, l