The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-03-17
ANYONE CAN COME.
"Birds Of Every Feather" Will Make
Up the Heavenly King
dom.
There Will Be White, and Black and
Red, in Fact Every Cline and
Race Will Be Represented.
Brooklyn, NY. Special. The con
gregation at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
sang with fervor the hymn beginning;

Es-
gregation at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
sang with fervor the hymn beginning;
-:~ My faith looks up to thee
Thou Lamb of Calvary
DR.. Talmage's subject was the refuge
offered by the Christian religion to
people OF all ages and every variety OF
character. His text was: Ezekiel, XVII,
20; IA goodly cedar and under it shull
dwell all fowl of every wing"
The cedar of Lebanon is royal
tree. 1t stands 5000 feet above the
level OF the sea. A missionary count
cd the concentric circles, and found
one tree 800 years old-longr rooted,
broad branches, all year in luxuriant
foliage. The same branches that bent
in hurricane that David saw sweep
ing over Lebanon, rock to-day over
the head of the American traveller. This
monarch OF the forest, with it's leafy
fingers, plucks the honors of thou
sand years, and sprinkles them upon
it's own uplifted brow, as though
some great hallaluiah of heaven had
been planted upon Lebanon, and it
were raising up with all of it's long
armed strength to take hold of the
hills whence it came. Oh! what a 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, q
complete facination in the structure
and habits OF birds. They seem
NOT MORE OF EARTH THAN HEAVEN.
ever vaccillating between the two.
No wonder that Audubon, with his
gun, tramped through all the Amer
lean forests in search of new speci-
mems. biologists have spent years in
finding the track OF birds claw in
the red sandstone. There is enough
OF Gods architecture in a snipe's bill
or a grouse's foot to confound all the
universities. Musicians have, with
cleft and bars, tried to catch the
sound OF the nightingale and robin.
Amongthe first things that child no.
tices is swallow at the caves; and
grandfather goes out with a handful of
crumbs to feed the snow-birds. The
Bible is full OF pathological illusions.
The birds of the Bible are not dead
stuffed, like those of the museum, but
living birds, with futtering wings and
plumage. "Behold the fowls of the
air." says Christ. ''Though thou ex-
alt thyself as the eagle, and though thou
set thy nest among the stars, thence
will l bringthee down." exclaims Oba-
diah: "Gavest thou the goodly wings
to the peacock" says Job. David
describes his 'desolation by saying, 'sI
am like a pelican of the wilderness; I
am like an owl of the desert; watch,
and am as the sparrow alone upon
the housetop." "Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed time;
and the turtle, and the crane, and the
swallow observed the time of their
coming; but my people know not the
Judgment OF the Lord"-So says Jere-
miah.
Ezekiel in my text intimates that
Christ is the cedar, and the people
from all quarters are the birds that
lodge among the branches. "It shall
be a goodly cedar, and under it shall
dwell all fowl of every wing" AS in
Ezekiels time, so now
CHRIST is AGOODLY CEDAR,
and to him are flying all kinds of
people-young and old, rich and poor;
men high-soaring as theleagle, those
fierce as the raven, and those gentle
as the dove. "All fowl of every
wing"
First, the young may come. Of the
!, 1871 years that have passed since
Christ came, about 1000 have been
wasted by the good in. misdirected ef-
forts. Until Robert Raikes came,
there was no organized effort for
saving the young. We spend all our
strength trying to bend old trees,
when a little kpressure would have
been sufficient for the sapling. We
let men 60 down to the very bottom
of sin before we try to lift them up. It
is a great deal easier to keep train
on the track than to get it on when it
is off. 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 bit between his teeth, his mo-
mentum is irresistible. 1t is said that
the young must be allowed to SOW
their "wild oats" I have noticed
that those who SOW their wild oats
seldom try TO raise any other kind OF
crop. There are two opposite destin-
les. If you are going to heaven you
had better take the straightroad, and
not try to- 60 to Boston by the way of
New Orleans. What is to be the his
tory of this multitude Of young peo-
pie around me to-day? I will take
you by the hand and show you aglor-
ious sunrise. I will not whine about
this thing, nor groan about it;
but come, young men and maid
ems, Jesus wants you. His hand is
love; his voice is music; His smile is
heaven. Religion will put no hand
cuffs on your wrist, no hobbies on
your feet,
NO BRAND ON YOUR FOREHEAD.
Again: ri remark that the old may
come. You say: Suppose man
has to 60 on crutches; suppose he is
blind, suppose he is deaf; suppose that
nine-tenths OF his life has been vast
ed" Then answer, Come with
ID. L Y. -