Connecticut western news., 1892-03-10
A GOODLY CEDAR.
CHRIST THE ONLY REFUGE FOR
 PEOPLE OF EVERY SORT.

Taimage, D. D., nt the Tabernacle in Bpook1yn on Sunday. March o-Te1t, Eekiei xvii. as.
 BROOKLYN, March 6.-The congre- gation at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning sang with fervor the hymn beginning
 My faith looks up to thee,
 Thou Lamb of Calvary.
 Dr. Talmage's subject was the ref uge offered by the Christian religion to the people of all ages and every variety of character. His text was Ezekiel xvii, g, "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 mis- sionary counted the concentric cir cles, and found one tree thirty-five hundred years old-long rooted, broad branches, all the year in luxu- riant foliage. The same branches that bent in the hurricane that David saw sweeping over Lebanon rock, to- day over the head of the American traveller.
 This monarch of the forest, with its leafy fingers, plucks the honors of 8 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 a 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 forests in search of new specimens. Geol- ogists have spent years in finding the track of birds claw in the new red sandstone. There is enough of
 
 a 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 child notices is a swallow at the caves {; and grandfather goes out with a handful of crumbs to feed the snow birds. The Bible is full of ornitholog- ical allusions. The birds of the Bible are not dead and stuffed, like those of the museum, but living birds, with fluttering wings and plumage. Be hold the fowls of the air." says Christ. Though thou exalt myself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down." exclaims Obadiah. "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks2" says Job.
 David describes his desolation by saying, II am like pelican of the wilderness; am like an owl of the desert; watch, and am as sparrow alone upon the housetop." 'Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her ap- pointed 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 50 says Jeremiah.
 Ezekiel in my text intimates that Christ is the cedar, and the people from all quarters are the birds that lodge among the branches. ''Itshall be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing" AS in Ezehel's time, so now-Christ is a goodly cedar, and to him are flying all kinds of people, young and old, rich and poor; men high soaring as the eagle, those fierce as the raven and those gentle as the dove-"All fowl of every wing"
 THE YOUNG MAY COME. 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 the good in mis- | directed efforts 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 pressure would have been sufficient for the sapling. We let men go 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 wher it is off. The experienced reinsmaI 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 momentum is irresistible. | It 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 arC two opposite destinies. If you art going to heaven, you had better take the straight road and not try to go tt Boston by the way of New Orleans What is to be the history of this null titude of young people around me to day! will take you by the hant and show you a glorious sunrise.
 will not whine about this thing, no groan about it; but come, young men and maidens, Jesus wants you His hand is love; his voice is music his smile is heaven. Religion vii put no handcuffs on your wrist, m hopples on your feet, no brand ol your forehead.
 Iwent through the heaviest snow storm I have ever known to see
 dying girl. Her cheek on the pilloy was white as the snow on the case ment. Her large, round eye had no lost any of its luster. Loved one stood all around the bed trying t | held hn,- honlr Hnr- rnnnthnI. cO11l