The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-03
pEV. DR.. TALMAGE
III BROOKLYN DIVIEE'S SUN
DAY SERa0N.

-~r EUVkSHtHSft 10 NftON fCEtGUICOG NOtD
e 10 sncanp IN the wilderness. Mum.
< 81
asfins, There are large villages of Bedou-
@sfboIt a house. and for three thousand
INA people of those places have lived i'm
q tauts made out of dyed skins. and
tho winds and storms wore out and tore
.hose coverings others of the same kind
,s3k their places.
Ngaab lived in a tent; Abraham in a tent.
II nitched his tent on the mountain.
80 naitched his tent in the valley. Lot
ssAsd his tent toward Sodom. In a tent
4 ] woman Jael nailed Sisera. the general, to
ssrCund, first having given him SOU milk
ma sTebena as q soporific to make him
- s,undIy, that being the effect of such
sAafion. as modern travellers can testify.
~ Syrian army in a tent. The ancient
s<ttie shout was TO your tents, O Israeir'
IA vas d tent maker. Indeed, Isaiah. mag
sMeentIv poetic, indicates that all the human
IN i've under a blue tent when he says God
t~tTstcheth out the heavens as a curtain and
~padeth them out as a tent to dwell in, ''and
EmsEiah compares death to the striking of a
ss, saying, my age is removed from me
washspherd'st tent
ii chr tent in Palestine tonight I hear
snethiug | never heard before and hope
aver TO hear again. 1t is the voice of a
Irena amid the rocks near by. When you
maY have seen this monster putting his
mnath between the iron bars of d menagerie
i Is q captive, and he gives a Inundated
III suppressed cry. But yonder in the mid
right On a throne of rocks he has nothing to
Sssr. and he utters himself in a loud, re-
sounding, terrific, almost supernatural
sound, splitting up the darkness into a
dpeper midnight. 1t begins with a howl and
MS with a sound something like a horses
whining. In the hyena's voice are defiance
md strength and bloodthirstiness and crunch
II broken bones and death.
an glad to say that for the most part
Palestine is clear of beasts of prey. The
aopardS. which jeremiah SAYS cannot
! change their spots, have all disappeared, and
lie ions that once were common all through
ibis land, and used by all the prophets for
Aiagtrations Of cruelty and wrath, have re-
rested before the discharges of g%unpowder,
" Fhich they have an understandable fear. But
hi the most part Palestine is what il origi-
BsHy was. With the one exception Of a
S1s thread reaching from Joppa to Jeru-
mlem and from Jerusalem TO Nazareth and
from Nazareth to Tihsrias and from tt
bsFias to Damascus, that one nerve of civili-
ntiou, the t~elegraphic wire for we found
ourselves only few minutes off from Brook
an and New York while standing by Lake
@Galileal, with that one exception Palestine
rust % it always was.
Nothing surprised me so much as the per-
dsteElce of everything. A sheep or horse
tss dead, and though the sky may one min
us before be clear Of all wings in five min
uis after the slies are black with eagles
szWing, screaming, plunging, fighting for
Ya0aa, c0ntending for largest morsels of the
atinct quadruped. All. now / understand
the force of ChrisS's illustration when He
aid NWheresoever the carcass is there will
hesagacs be gathered together The long,
sFity of those eagles is wonderful. They
hyaafty and sixty and sometimes a hundred
TeaTgs All, that explains what David meant
when be said: ssThy youth is renewed like the
hglss.D / saw q shepherd with the folds of
hBeoat far bent outward, and I wondered
what was contained in that amplitude of APP
pMal, and / said to the dragoman: what
hssthat shepherd got under his coatgs And
tie dragoman said: ut is very young lamb
No j carrying; it is too young and too weak
and too cold to keep up with the flock" At
tbat moment I saw the lamb its head out
rom the shepherds bosom and I said. There
kisnOH. Isaiah's description of the tender
Aas Of God-he shall gather the lambs with
big arm and carry them in bis bosom.n
Passing by q village home, in the Holy
Land, about noon [ saw a great crowdi in
AnG around q private house, and / said to the
tragoHan: David, what is going on there?n
he said: Somebody has recently died there,
aud their neighbors go in for several days
alter to sit down and weep with the be-
reared" There it is, | said, the old scrip
tnral custom, And many of the Jews came
p Martha and Mary, to comfort them con-
cerning their brother Early in the morn.
hg passing by a cemetery in the Holy Land
saW among the graves about fifty women
dressed in black, and they were crying. ''Oh,
my chiidf' "Oh, my husbandp aOh, my
fatlaerP 'Oh, my motherw Our dragoman
told us that every morning, very early for
TIRES mornings after a burial, the go
% the sepulcher, and after that every week
geFy early for a year. As / saw this group
aast after daybreak l said: There til again,
the same old custom referred to in Luke, the
Tnlcn were early in the sepulcher.'n
bat here we found ourselves at Jacobs
veil the most famous well in history, most
distinguished for two things, because it be-
lqaged to the old patriarch after whom it
Nas named, and for the wonderful things
witch Christ said. seated On this well curb,
y fhe Samaritan woman. We dismount
lTent our horses in a drizzling rain, and our
sgAgoman, climbing up to the well over
sAe slippery stones, stumbles and fright
'HSus all by nearly falling into il. ] meas
&EAA SaAR Uu III WI GAAA CNAAA ~ Ae&CO
lssia edge to edge. Some grass and weeds
Isa thorny growtrs overnang i. In one
MAee the roofis broken through. 6arge stones
gabank the wall on all sides.
NhT dragoman took pebbles and dropped
hem in, and from the time they left his
hand To the instant they clicked on the bot
tau you could hear it was deep, though not
lbs deco ag once. for every day travellers are
applying the same test, and though in the
time Of MaundrelI, the traveller, the well was
AhHndred and sixty-fve feet deep, now 10 rs
eniy seventy-fye. So great is the curiosity
q the world to know about that well tnaC
ssnring the dry season q Captain anderson
descended into this well, at one place the
has SO close he had to put his hands over his
bed IN order 10 get through, and then he
tainted away and lay at the bottom OF the
vel as though dead, until hours after reeoV-
frg bio came to the surface.
y Is not like other wells digged down 10 q
5Eeuntain that fills it, but q reservoir to eaten
sAe falling rains, and to that Christ refers
Nhen speaking to the Samaritan woman about
= spiritual supply He said He Would.i if asked.
aase given her living water that Is, wafer
Mom a flowing spring in distinction from the
water Of the well, which was rain water. But
Mag tiid Jacob make q reservoir there when
HlaFe il plenty of water all around and
asaiiaance Of springs and fountains and sesm-
lnglg no need Of that reservoir? Why did
saeoh 80 to the vast expense of boring and
algging q wen perhaps two hundred feet deep
q nrst completed, when, by going little
way OK he could have water from other
s~ezSttains at little or 60. expenses Alb, Jacob
MAS wise. He wanted his own well. Quarrels
Naa wars might arise with other tribes and
sAs supply of water might be cut Of, SO the
Nuvals and pickaxesand boring instruments
Sefs ordered, ard the wen Oh nearly four
Mssssana years ago was sunk through the
Nalla rock.
= han Jacob thus wisely Insisted on having
AMqgn well he taught MS not TO be unnecess
AzaF dependent on others. Independence
Il saslness~ character, undergraduates of moral