Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-02-11
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
LESSONS DRAWN FROM NEBU-
CHADNEZZAR.
The Many Ways in Which Men and
Women Degrade Themselves to the
Level of acknowledgements Drugs,
IdIeness, Luxury, Unbeiief
Living Like Brutes.

level of the brute. Daniel iv. 20, ''All
this came upon the King NebuchadneZ-
zar''
Col. Rawlinson, the oriental traveller.
says that the exhumed bricks, not only
of Babylon, but of 100 towns in an area
of 100 miles in length and thirty in
breadth, are inscribed with the name of
Nebuchadnezzar. He was great war
rior and at the glance of his sword ma
lions Frustrated themselves. He was a
great King and built a city reservoir
ninety miles in circumference and120 feet
deep, and constructed hanging garden
400 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 atf1ict
the levels.
I think from his character the latter
reason may have impelled him as much
as the former. When he conquered King
Zedekiah, so as to have no more trouble
with him, he put his eyes out-a most
barbarous way of incapacitating an enc
my. But Babylon was great place, the
houses surrounded by gardens and the
housetOps were connected with each
other by bridges, ard one day Nebuchad-
nezzar walked out on those suspension
bridges and showed, perhaps to a royal
visitor, the vastness of his realm as the
sun kindles the domes with glistenings
almost insufferable and the great streets
thunder up their pomp into the ear OF
the monarch, and armed towers stand
around adorned with spols of conquered
empires.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT waves his hand above
the stupendous scene and eXclaims, SIS
not this great Babylon that 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
great man | am. Babylon was not
anything until l adorned it, See those
water works; see those gardens; see
those forts. l did all this I shall
never be forgotten. Why, my name is
on every brick in all those walls. just
look at me. l am more than a man."
But IN an instant all that splendor is
gone from his vision, for a voice calls
from the Heavens, saying, 80 King Neb-
uchadnezzar, to thee il is spoken; the
Kingdom is departed from thee, and they
shall drive thee from men and thy
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 ruleth in the kingdom of men and
giveth it to whomsoever he WILL
One hour from the time he made the
boast he is on his way to the fields ma
Mac, and rushing into the forests he be-
comes as one of the beasts and is after
awhile covered with eagles feathers for
protection from the cold, and his nails
T. L. ,Ioe Il ,SJo
that he may dig the earth for roots and
climb the trees for nuts.
The mental disaster that seized him
was what the Greeks called lycanthropy,
by which man imagines 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 inlaid with amethyst and dla-
mond, and drinking the richest wines
from the royal watts, now browsing on
grass, and struck by the horn of the OK
as he contends tor better tuft of the
pasturage, and instead OF an orchestra
on benches of ivory playing the national
airs, now listening to the moan and bel
low and grunt Of the beasts. This is
not hard for me to believe, for the forms
of dementia are innumerable.
l look over the pasture fields of folly
and sin and find many grovelng who
ought to be erect. Oh. men and women,
60 back to your thrones! A young man
ran away from home and broke his
widowed mothers heart. Fourteen years
passed, and he returned and came to the
window where his old mother was sitting.
She looked up and immediately recog
nized him and said: sob. Robert,
Robert! Come in!'' 'sNo!' said he.
ssMother. / shall never come in till l hear
you say you forgive me-" Her answer
was: s'Robert l have forgiven you long
ago. There is nothing to forgive now
except that you staid away so long,
NV hearers, forgiveness has been ready
for YOU good while. With more than
a mothers tenderness God will take you
back. They are waiting for you up in
the palace ACKNOWLEDGMENT was the
son of Nabopolassar, who ruled before
him, and you are the child of King!
The next thought that presses into my
mind from the contemplation OF this in
cident is that conviction is not CONVEX
sion. Who is this monarch that makes
the boast about Babylon? The very
man who, under the revelation of dreams
that Daniel made from Heaven. deeply
humbled himself, while he confessed that
God is God OF Gods and Lore OF
Lords, yet behold that that humbling
and arousing which he before felt did not
result in radical change.
There is no mistake more frequent
than of supposing conviction synonym
for conversion. Conviction is merely
sight of sin: conversion is view OF
pardon. Conviction is merely alarm;
conversion is confidence. Conviction is
dissatisfaction with depravity: con-
version is turning away from it. Con-
viction is sword wound: conversion is
the healing Conviction is the fever of
thirst: conversion is the shaking of that
thirst. Conviction is the pain: CONVEX
sion is the medicine that cures it. Thou
sands have experienced the former and
never experienced the latter.
There are multitudes who think that
as soon as a man is serious he is fit for