Milford chronicle., 1892-03-11
TALMAGE'S SEThQN.
REFUGE OFFERED TO ALL PEoPns
BY THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

p The Faith Of Jesus Is Likened to tn
/, Cedar Of Lebanon, in the shaf o
/. Whose Branches Fowl of Every wini
Shall Dwell.
BROOKLYN, March 6.-The congregation
! At the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning
sang with fervor the hymn beginning
+ Ny faith looks up to thee
Thou lamb Of Calvary.
DIR. 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, %, "a goOdly
cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowl OF
every wing"
The cedar Of Lebanon is a royal tree. Il
stands six thousand feet above the level of
the sea. A missionary counted the concen-
tric circles and found one tree thirty-ive
hundred years old-long rooted, broad
branches, all the year in luxuriant foliage
The same branches that bent in the hur-
ricane that David sav sweeping over Leb-
anon rock today over 3he head of the Amer
lean traveller. This monarch of the for
est, with its leafg fingers, plucks the hon
Ors of thOusard years and sprinkles them
upon its own uplifted brow, as though
some great hallelujah Of heaven had been
planted upon Lebanon and it were rising
up with all its long armed strength to take
| hold of the hills whence it came.
] Oh, what fine place for birds to nest inl
| 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 for
ests in search of new specimens. Biologists
have spent years in finding the track Of a
birds claw in the new red sandstone
There is enough of Gods architecture in a
snipe's bill or a grouse's foot to confouud
all the 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 swal-
low at the caves, and grandfather goes out |
with a handful of crumbs to feed the snow
birds.
The Bible is full of pathological allu-
sions The birds of the Bible are not dead !
and stuffed, like those of the museum, but |
living birds, with futtering wings and |
plumage. "Behold the fowls of the air." |
says Christ. Though thou exalt thyself 1
as the eagle, and though thou set thy ncst |
among the stars, thence will / bring thee
down, exclaims Obadiah. "Gavest thou the
goOdly wings unto the peacocks?" says OBJ
David describes his desolation by saying
II am like pelican of the wilderness; /
am like an owl of the DESERT watch and
am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop,"
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her
appointed time; and the turtle, and the
. -. IL.
their coming; but my people know not the
judgment Of the Lord"-sO says Jeremiah.
A GOODLY CEDAR.
Ezekiel in my text intimates that Christ
Is the cedar, and the people from all quar-
5ers are the birds that lodge among the
1T shall be gOodly cedar, and
lnder it shall dwell all fowl of every
wing" AS in Ezekiel's time, so now .
Christ is a goodly cedar, and to him are
lying all kinds of people-young and old,
ich and poor, men high soaring as the z
agle, those fierce as the raven, and those G
,entle as the dove, "All fowl of every
wing"
First, the young may come OF the
ighteen hundred and ninety-twO years
hat have passed since Christ came, about
ixteen hundred have been wasted by the :
oOd in misdirected efforts. Until Robert y y
takes came there was no organized effort y
Dr. saving the young. We spend all our
5rength trying to bend old trees, when a d
tile pressure would have been sufficient
1r the sapling. We let men go down to "
he very bottom of sin before we try to lift
lem up 1t is a great deal easier to keep :,
train on the track than to get it Oh when u
is off. The experienced reinsman checks q q
ie fiery steed at the first jump, for when u
g gets in full swing, the swift hoofs click y
g fire from the pavement and the bit be Il Il
veen his teeth, his momentum is ire ?,
stible "
1t is said that the young must beallowed II II
sow their wild oats" l have noticed T,
lat those who SOW their wild oats seldom y y
y to raise any other kind of crop. There ~
Q two opposite destinies. If you are go Sn
G to heaven, you had better take the
raight road, and not try to go to Boston
the way of New Orleans. What is to pr
the history Of this multitude of young bc
Ople around me today will take you on
the hand and show you glorious sun tn
ie. / will not whine about this thing, M
T groan about it, but come, young men it
d maidens, Jesus wants you. His hand no
love, his voice is music, his smile is Co
aven. Religion will Eat no handcuffs 90
your wrist, no hopples on your feet, no th
and on your forehead. tel
RELIGION MADE HER HAPPY. sea
went through the heaviest snowstormI I 81 81