Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-10
BIRDS AND FLOWERS,
More Particularly Birds, the
Topic of the Sermon.
DELIVERED BY DR.. TALMAGE
a the Tabernacle Eagles, Pea
cocks, Doves and all the Other Menu
bers of the Feathered Tribe-The
Text and the Lesson in 1t
B1Rps on EyERY FELTHER.

BIRDS OF EVERY FEATHER.
Special 70 the Gazette
BROOKLYN, n. Y, March 6.-The con-
congregation at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
this morning sang with fervor the hymn
beginning
Ny faith ooks up to thee
Thou Lamb of Calvary.
DR.. Talmage's subject was the refuge Of
fered by the Christian religion to people of
all ages and every variety of character. His
text was Ezekiel II: %, "a goodly cedar
and under it shall dwell ali fowl of every
wing.n'
The cedar of Lebanon is a royal tree 1t
stands 6000 feet above the level of the sea.
A missionary counted the concentric Cir
cles and found one tree $500 years old
long-rooted, br DAD branches, all the year in
luxuriant foliage. The same branches that
bent in the hurricane that David saw
sweeping over Labanon rock to-day over
the head of the American traveller.
This monarch OF the forest, with its leafy
fingers, plucks the honorS of thousand
years, and sprinkles them upon its own up
lifted brow, as though some great halle
lujah of heaven had been planted upon
Lebanon and it were rising up with all its
long-armed strer 9Th to take hold of the
hills whence it came. OH what fine
place for birds to nest in! In hot days they
come thither-the eagle, the dove, the
swallow, the sparrow and the raven. There
is to many OF US a complete fascination in
the structure and habits of birds. They
seem not more of earth than heaVen-ever
vacillating between the two. No wonder
that Audubon, with his gun, tramped
through all of the American forests in
search of new specimens. Biologists have
spent years in finding the track of birds
claw in the new red sandstone. There is
enough of Gods architecture in snlpe'S
Sc. foot 20 nd oil ha
universities. Musicians have, with clefs
and bars, tried to catch the sound of the
nightingale and robin.
Among the first things that child notices
is a swallow at the caves; and grandfather
goes out with handful of crumbs to feed
the snow-birds. The Bible is full of orni-
biological illusions. The birds of the
Bible are not dead and stuffed, like those
of the museum, but living birds, with f1ut-
tering wings and plumage. Behold the
fowls of the air. says Christ. Though
thou exalt thyseh as the eagle, and though
thou set thy nest among the stars, thence
will l bring thee down" exclaims Obadiah.
"Gayest thou the goodly wings unto the
peacocks2n SAYS. Job. David describes his
desolation by saying, 81 am like pelican of
the wildRness; l am like an owl of the
desert; efgatch, and am as sparrow alone
upon the housetop." ''Yea, the stork in
the heaven knoweth her appointed time
and the turtle, and the crane, and the swal-
low observe the time of their coming; but
my people know not the Judgment of the
GOrd''-so says jeremiah.
Ezekiel in my text intimates that Christ
Is the cedar, and the people from all quar-
ters are the birds that lodge among the
branches sIU shall be goodly cedar, and
under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing. "
AS in Ezekief's tine, so now-Christ is a
goodly cedar, and TO him are flying all
kinds Of people-yonng and old, rich and
poor; men high-sosring as the eagle, those
fierce as the raven, and those gentle as the
dove 'sAll fowl of every wing"
First, the young may come. OF the eight
een hundred and ninety-two years that have
passed since Christ came about sixteen
hundred have been wasted by the good in
misdirected efforts. Until Robert Raikes
c2me there was no organized effort to save
the young. We spend all our strength try
ing to bend old trees, when little pressure
would have been sufficient to save the sap
ling. We let men go down TO the very bot
tom of sin before we try to lift them up.
II is a great deal easier to keep train on
the track than to get 1t on when 1t Is on.
The experienced reinsman checks the fiery
steed at the first jump, for when he gets in
full swing. the swift hoofs clicking fire
from the pavement and the DIT between his
teeth, his momentum is irresistible. 1t is
said that the young must be allowed to sow
their wild OATS
have noticed that those who SOW their
wild oats seldom try to raise any other kind
Of crop. There are two opposite destinies.
If you are going to heaven, you had better
take the straight road, and not try to go to
Boston by the way of New Orleans. What
Is TO be the history of this multi
tude of people around me to-daya
will take you by the hand and show
you a glorious sunrise. I will not whine
hbout this thing, nor grosn about it; but
come, young men and maidens, Jesus
wants you. His hand is love; his voice is
music; his smile is heaven. Religion will
put no handouts on your wrist, no hobbies
on your feet, no brand on your forehead.
l went through the heaviest snow-storm
/ have ever known to see dying girl. Her
cheek on the pillow was white as the snow
on the easement. Her large round eye had
rot lost any of its lustre. Loved ones stood
all around the bed trying to hold her back.
her mother could not give her up; and one
nearer 70 her than either father or mother
was frantic with grief. I said: 'tanuy,
how do you feell" oh she said, 'happyl
happyl Mr.. Talmsge, tell all the young
folks that religion will make them happy "
As came out of the room. louder than all
the sobs and wailings of grief heard the
clear. sweet, glad voice of the dying girl:
"Good night; we shall meet again on the
other side of the river" The next Sab
bath we buried her. We brought white
flowers and laid them on the coffin. There
was in all that crowded church but one
really happy and delighted face, and that
was the face of Fanny. OIL 1 wish that
now my Lord Jesus would go through this
audience. and take all these flowers of
youth and garland them on his brow. The
cedar is fit refuge for birds of brightest
plumage and swiftest wing. See, they hyI
they fyl ''All fowl Of every wing"
Again: I remark that the old may come.
You say, suppose man has to go on
crutcheS; suppose he is blind; suppose he
is deaf; suppose that nine-tenths of MS life
has been wasted" Then / answer, como
with crutches; come, old men, blind and
deaf, come 10 Jesus. If you would sweep
your hand around before your blind eyes.
the first thing you would touch would be
the cross 1t is hard for an aged man or
woman TO have grown old without religion.
Their taste is gone. The peach and the
grape have lost their flavor. They say that
somehow fruit does not taste as il used to.
Their hearing gets defective, and they miss
: great deal that is said in their presence.
Their friends have all gone, and everybody
seems so strange. The world seems TO go
AWAY from them, and they are left all
Alone They begin to feel in the way when
you come into the room where they are:
and they move their chair nervously, and
say, 81 hope l am rot in the wayn Alas
that father and mother should ever be in
the way. When you were sick, and they
sat up all night rocking you, singing 10
yoE. administering 70 you, did they think
vdl were in the VTRy2 Are you tired Of the