Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-03-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
REFUGE OFFERED TO ALL PEOPLE
BY THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

The Faith Of Jesus Is LIkened to the
Cedar Of Lebanon, In the Shade OF
Whose Branches Fowl OF Every Wing
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.
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, %, "a goodly
cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowl Of
every wing"
The cedar of Lebanon is a royal tree. It
stands six thousand feet above the level of
the sea. A missionary counted the concen-
tric circles and found one tree thirty-five
hundred years old-long rooted, broad
branches, all the year in luxuriant foliage
The same branches that bent in the hur-
ricane that David saw sweeping over Leb-
anon rock today over the head of the Amer
lean traveller. This monarch of the for
est, with its leafy fingers, plucks the hon
ors of n thousand 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 grouse's foot to confound
all the universities. Musicians have, with
clefs and bars, tried to catch the sound of
the nightingale and robin. Among the
first things that a child notices is swal-
low at the caves, and grandfather goes out
with handful Of crumbs to feed the snow
birds.
The Bible is full of ornithological allu-
sions. The birds of the Bible are not dead
and stuffed, like those of the museum, but
living birds, with fluttering wings and
plumage. Behold the fowls of the air."
says Christ Though thou exalt thyself
as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest
among the stars, thence will / bring thee
down" exclaims Obadiah. "Gavest thou the
goodly wings unto the peacocks2" says Job.
David describes his desolation by saying,
81 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
crane, and the swallow observe the time Of
their coming; but my people know not the
Judgment Of the Lord"-so says jeremiah
GooDLY CEDAR
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. "It shall be goodly cedar, and
under it shall dwell all fowl of every
wing" AS in Ezekiel's time, so now
Christ is a goodly cedar, and to him art
flying all kinds of people-young and old
rich and poor, men high soaring as the
eagle, those fierce as the raven, and thost
gentle az the dove. "All fowl of every
wing"
First, the young may come. Of the
eighteen hundred and ninety-two years
that have passed since Christ came, about
sixteen hundred have been wasted by tn,
good in misdirected efforts. Until Robert
Raikes came there was no organized effor
for saving the young. We spend all oul
strength trying to bend old trees, when
little pressure would have been sufficient
for the sapling. We let men go down tt
the very bottom of sin before we try to lif
them up. 1t is great deal easier to keel
train on the track than to get it on whe1
it is off. The experienced reinsman check,
the fiery steed at the first jump, for whe1
he gets in full swing, the swift hoofs click
ing fire from the pavement and the bit be
tween his teeth, his momentum is IRE
sistible
1t is said that the young must be allowed
to SOW their wild oats" l have noticed
that those who SOW their wild oats seldom
try to raise any other kind of crop. Their,
are two opposite destinies. If you are go
ing to heaven, you had better take tn,
straight road, and not try to go to Bosto1
by the way of New Orleans. What is II
be the history of this multitude of young
people around me todayP Twill take yo1
by the hand and show you glorious sun
rise. / will not whine about this thing
nor groan about it, but come, young mel
and maidens, Jesus wants you. His hant
is love, his voice is music, his smile i
heaven. Religion will put no handcuff
on your wrist, no hopples on your feet, n,
brand on your forehead.
RELIGION MADE HER HAPPY.
IweH through the heaviest snowstorm
have ever known to see dying girl He
cheek on the pillow was white as the snov
ON the easement. Her large, round ey
had not lost any of its luster Loved one
stood all around the bed trying to hold he
, back. Her mother could not give her UP
and one nearer to her than either father o
mother was frantic with grief. I said
Fanny, how do you feel2' "Oh!' sh
said, happy, happyi Mr.. Talmage tel
all the young folks that religion will max
them happy"
AS came out Of the room, louder than al
the sobs and wailings of grief, heard th
clear, sweet. glad voice of the dying girl
''Good night; we shall meet again on tn
other side of the river" The next Sabbatl
we buried her. We brought white flower
and laid them on the coffin. There was il
all that crowded church but one reall
happy and delighted face, and that wa
the face of Fanny. Oh, wish that nov
my Lord Jesus would go through this au
dience and take all these flowers of you'll
and garland them on his brow. The ceda
is q fit refuge for birds of brightest plu
mage and swiftest wing See, they fly
they fly! "All fowl of every wing"
Again, remark that the old may come
You say, Suppose man has to go o.
erutches; suppose he is blind; suppose h
is deaf; suppose that nine-tenths of his lif
has been wasted" Then 1 answer: Com
with crutches. Come, old men, blind an
deaf. come to Jesus. If you would swee
your hand around before your blind eyes
the first thing you would touch would b
the cross. 1t is hard for an aged man O
woman to have grown old without religion
Their taste is gone. The peach and th
hox I1,ek bas, 1.