The Bossier banner., 1892-02-04
THE GOODNESS OF GOD.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Delivers
Thanksgiving Discourse.
Tho Wonderful Goodness of God in Max
Ing Provision for the Sustenance
and Comfort of All of
His Creatures.


Brooklyn tabernacle, from the text:
Beasts and all cattle; creeping things and fly
ing fowl; both young men and maidens old
men and children; let them praise the name OF
the Lord-Psalm cxiviii., lG, u and 13.
What scene it was when last Thurs
day at the call of the president and gov
ernors, this nation assembled to chant
the praises of God. But the day was
too short to celebrate the Divine good
ness of such year. The sun did not
rise over Brooklyn until one minute be-
fore seven o'clock that morning, and it
set four o'clock and thirty-five minutes
that evening What a small space of
time in which to mediate upon twelve
months of benefactions. So | add to
that day this Sabbath morning service,
and with the fruits and harvests OF the
earth still glorifying the pulpit and the
galleries, ask you to continue the re-
hearsal of the Divine goodness.
Ry 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 instances
of animal life, are not one to a million.
We shall enlarge our ideas of Gods
goodness and come to 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 ir-
rational creation.
Although nature is out of joint, yet
even in its disruption | am surprised to
I'D a, 90
the animal creation. On summer
day, when the air and the grass are
most populous with life, you will not
hear a sound of distress unless, per-
chance, a heartless school boy has
robbed birds nest, or hunter has
broken birds wing, or a pasture has
been robbed of a lamb and there goes
up bleating from the flocks. The
whole earth is filled with animal de-
light-joy feathered and scaled, and
horned. and hoofed The bee huns it,
the frog croaks it, the squirrel chatters
it, 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
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 squirrning through the soc
upturned of plowshare and the ant:
racing up and down the hillock nrt
happy by day and happy by night
Take up drop of.water under the mi
croscope, and you find that within il
there are millions of creatures thai
swim in hallelujah of gladness. The
sounds in nature that are repulsive tx
our ears are often only utterances O
joy-the growl. the croak, the bark
the howl. The good God made thes.
creatures, thinks of them ever, ant
will not let a plowshare turn up
mole's nest or fisherman's hook trans
fix a worm until, by eternal decree, it.
time has come. Gods hand feeds al
these broods and shepherds all these
1ocks and tends all these herds. II.
sweetens the clover top for the oxen
taste; and pours out crystalline water
in mossed cups of rock, FOR the kind t.
drink out of on his way down tn,
crags, and pours nectar into the cup O
the honeysuckle to refresh the hum
ming bird; and spreads banquet of
hundred fields of buckwheat, and let
the honey-bee put his mouth to any cu1
OF all the banquet, and tells the grass
hopper to go anywhere he likes, an,
give the 1ocks of Heaven the choice O
all the grain-felds The sea anemone
half animal, half flower, clinging t.
the rock in mid-ocean, with it's ten
tacles spread to catch it's food, has tn
owner of the universe to provide for il
We are repulsed at the hideousness O
the elephant, but God. for the comfor
and convenience of the monster, put
forty thousand distinct muscles in it
proboscis
go down on the barren seashore an,
say: No animal can live in this plac
of desolation;" but all through tn,
sands are myriads of little insects tha
leap with happy life, go down by tn,
marsh and say: "fn this damp place
and in these loathsome pools of stag
nant water, there will be the quietnes
of DEATH" but, 10! see the turtles OF
the rotten log summing themselves, an,
hear the bogs quake with multitudin
GUS life. When the unfedged robin
are hungry God shows the old robir
where she can get food to put into thei
open mouths. Winter is not allowed t,
come until the ants have granariec
their harvest, and the squirrsls hav,
filled their cellars with nuts. Coz
shows the hungry ichneumon where i
may find the crocodile's eggs, and il
arctic cliE,es there are animals tina
God so lavishly clothes that they can af
ford to walk through snow storms in tn,
finest sable, and ermine, and chinchilla
and no sooner is one set of furs worr
out than God gives them new one
He helps the spider in its architectur,
of its gossamer bridge, and takes car,
of the color of the butterfy's wing
and tinges the cochineal, and helps tn,
moth out of the chrysalis. The anima