News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-02-11
News and Citizen
MORRISVILLE and HYDE PARK,
Thursday. February II, 1892.
LIVING LIKE BRUTES
DR.. TALMAGE DRAWS MANY LES
SONS FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

ldieneSs, Luxury, GnDeIei.
BROOKLYN, Feb. with a mighty
acclaim the long meter DoXology rose
at the beginning of the service. The
inestimable value of Christianity as
IN elevating and ennobling influence
on the nature of man formed the sub
ject of DR.. Talmages sermon this
morning. The brilliant and original
preacher chose as his text the humii-
alton of the Babylonish king who be-
ing destitute of religion sank to the
level of the brute. Daniel iv, %,
''All this came upon the King Nebu-
chadnezzar.
Colonel Rawlinson, the oriental
traveller, says that the exhumed
bricks, not only of Babylon, but of a
hundred towns in an area of one hun
bred miles in length and thirty in
breadth, are inscribed with the name
of Nebuchadnezzar. He was a great
warrior and at the glance of his
sword nations FRUSTRATED themselves.
He was a great king and built a city
reservoir ninety miles in circumfer-
ence and one hundred and twenty
feet deep, and constructed hanging
garden four hundred feet square and
seventy-fve feet high, some say to
please Amuhia, his wife, who had
been born among the hills, and others
say to get a pleasure ground free
from the mosquitoes, which aflict
the levels.
l think from his character the lat
ter reason may have impelled him as
much as the former When he con
quered King Zedekiah, so as to have
no more trouble with him, he put
his eyes out-a most barbarous way
of incapacitating an enemy. But
Babylon was a great place, the houses
surrounded by gardens and the
housetops were connected with each
other by bridges. and one day Nebu-
chadnezzar walked out on those sus-
pension bridges and showed, per
haps to a royal visitor, the vastness
of his realm as the sun kindles the
domes with glistenings almost in
sufferable and the great streets thun-
der up their pomp into the ear of
the monarch, and armed towers
stand around adorned with spoils of
conquered empires.
Nebuchadnezzar waves his hand
above the stupendOus scene and ex:
claims, Is not this great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the
kingdom by the might of my power
and for the honor OF my majesty
In other words: what a great man
l am. Babylon was not anything
until I adorned it, See those water
works; see those gardens; see those
forts. l did all this. l shall never
be forgotten. Why, my name is on
every brick in all those walls. Just
look at me. | am more than man"
But in an instant all that splendOr
is gone from his vision, for a voice
falls from the heavens, saying, 20
King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is
spoken; the kingdom is departed
from thee, and they shall drive thee
from men and tiny dwelling shall be
with the beasts of the field; they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and seven times shall pass over thee,
until thou know that the Most High
r1lleth in the kingdom of men and
giveth it to whOmsoever he viii.
One hour from the time he made
the boast he is on his way to the
fields a maniac, and rushing into the
forests he becomes as one of the
beasts, and is after awhile covered
with eagles feathers for protection
from the cold, and his nails grow to
look like birds claws, in order that
he may dig the earth for roots and
climb the trees for nuts.
FORMS OF INSANITY.
The mental disaster that seized
him was what the Greeks called ly-
canthropy, by which man mag
ines himself a beast and prefers to go
out and mingle with brutes. He
who had been eating pomegranates
and apricots off of plates of gold ia
laid with amethyst and diamond,
and drinking the richest wines from
the royal watts, now browsing on grass,
and struck by the horn of the OZs as
he contends for a better tuft of the
pasturage, and instead Of an orches-
ira ON benches of ivory playing the
national airs, now listening to the
moan and below and g1~unt of the
beasts. This is not hard for me to
believe, for the forms of dementia
are innumerable.
A few years ago, arriving in city
on summer afternoon, while wait
ing for my engagement in the even
ing I sauntered forth into what
seemed to be a park in front of
large public building, the use of
which | knew not / met a gentle
man with whom I fell into delight
full conversation. and he seemed in
telligent ON all subjects. After
awhile / said, Let us sit down ON
this bench and rest awhile and enjoy
the scene Of verdure and fountains.
mo, said he You sit down, but l
cannot. / am made Of glass, and if /
should sit down ! would break to
pieces. Then l saw that he was in
sane and belonged to the large build
ing just behind us
After such an interview as that ]
can easily believe this account of my
text. Here Is Nebuchadnezzar on all
fours. He once prided himself on be
ing more than man, and now he
turns out less than a man. The cour-
4so,ar Lob o,,,4 o.f %ho vii, f1ovr-e, ,,,,c7,
him as he moves among the royal
herds and cry, "A beaStW Seven
years pass when suddenly his reason
returns, and he comes back to Baby
lon a humble worshiper of the God
of heaven.
What must have been the excite
ment in the royal court as this re
stored maniac emperor walks into
the palace. What a time they had
in cutting his nails and his hair,
which had grown for seven years
being interfered with by any
shears. What a scrubbing down must
have taken place in the imperial
baths. What a Transformation neces-
sary in order that he who had been
herding with camels and goats and
swine may be made fit to associate
with princes. What a change from
sty to throne room
While walking from his Babylo-
MAN palace down to the pasture field,
and from the pasture field back to |
the palace, the first thing that i'm
presses me is what an homogeneous
thing it is for a king to be eating