Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-12-14
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON,
THE DIVINE AND THE MATER
NAL TRIBUTES COMPARED.
DR.. Talmage Believes We Should Think
of God Our Mother as Well as Our
Father-Mercy, Patience, Love for the
Weak and Gentle Teaching
AT The Tabernacle.

| are many who see chiefly the severel
| passages. AS there may be fifty or sixty
| nights OF gentle dew in one summer thai
| will not cause as much remark as one
| hailstOrm of half an hour, so there are
| those who are more struck by those
| passages Of the Bible that announce the
Indignation of God than by those that
| announce His affection. There may come
to household twenty or fifty letters oil
| affection during the year, and they will
not make as much excitement in that
home as one Sheriffs writ and so there
are people who are more attentive tC
| those passages which announce the judg
| meuts of God than to those which an
nounce his mercy and his favor.
God is lion, John says in the book Of
| Revelation. God is q breaker, Micah an.
nounces in his prophecy. God is rock.
God is king. But hear also that God
| is love. A father and his child are
walking out in the fields on a summers
| day, and there comes up thunderstorm,
and there is a flash OF lightning that
startles the child, and the father says,
"My dear. that is Gods eye" There
comes peal Of thunder, and the father
| says, "My dear, that is Gods voice. u
| But the clouds go off the sky, and the
|
| heavens and floods the landscape, and
the father forgets to say ''That is Gods
smile.''
The text of this morning bends with
| great gentleness and love over all who
are PROSTATE in sin and trouble II
| lights up with compassion, 1t melts
with tenderness. 1t breathes upon us
the hush of an eternal lullaby, for it an
nounces that God is our mother. "As
| one whom his mother comforteth, so will
l comfort YOU"
| l remark, in the first place. that God
has mothers simplicity of instruction.
father does not know how to teach a
child the A B g. Men are not skillful in
| the primary department., but mother
| has so much patience that she will tell a
| child for the hundredth time the differ
| ence between and G. and between l and
| j. Sometimes it is by blocks; sometimes
! by the wOrsted work; sometimes by the
| slate; sometimes by the book. She thus
| teaches the child and has no awkward
ness of condescension in so doing. So
| God, our Mother, stoops down to our in
| fantile minds.
Though we are told thing Thousand
| times and we do not understand it, our
| heavenly Mother goes on, line upon line,
| precept upon precept, here little and
| there a little God has been teaching
some of US thirty years and some Of lis
| sixty years one word of one syllable, and
we do not know it vet = faith, faith.
| When we come to that word we Stun Ole,
we halt, we lose our place, we pronounce
| it wrong.
Still Gods patience is not exhausted.
| God our Mother, puts us in the school Of
of
! shine, and we cannot spell them. God
| puts us in the school of adversely, and
the letters are black, and we cannot spell
| them. If God were merely q king He
would punish us; if He were simply a
father He would whip Us; but God is 4
mother, and so we are borne with and
helped all the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly by
pictures. If she wants so set forth to
her child the hideousneSS of a quarrel
some spirit, instead of giving lecture
upon that subject she turns over a leaf
and shows the child two boys in wran-
gle, and says, docs not that look hor-
rible?' If she wants to teach her child
the awfulness or war she turns over the
picture book and shows the war charger,
the headless trunks of butcheredi men,
the wild, bloodsh0t eye OF battle rolling
under lids of flame. and she says, THAT
is war;" The child understands it,.
In great many books the best parts
are the pictures. The style may be in
Sipid, the type poor, bat a picture al
ways attracts 4 chi]d'S attention. Now
God. our Mother, teaches us almost
everything by pictures. Is the divine
goodness to be set forth? How does God,
| QUE Mother, teach us2 BY all autumnal
hor f,,I
stacks are rounded The cattle are
chewing the cud lazisy in the sun. The
| orchards are dropping the ripe pippins
into the lap of the farmer. The natural
| world that has been busy all summer
| seems now to be resting in great abun.
i dance.
We look at the picture and say, '"Fhou
crewnest the year with Thy goodness,
| and Thy paths drop fairness" Our fam
! lily comes around the breakfast table: II
| has been a very cold night but the chill
! drRn are all bright because they slept
| under thick cOverlets, and they are EoW
| in the warm blast of the open register,
| and their appetiteS make luXuries out Of
the plainest fare, and we look at the pic
tGre and say, ''B!ess the Lord, o my
sGulp'
God wishes to ses forth the facs tina
| In the judgment the good will be divided
from the wicked. How is it done2 BY
a picture; by parable-a fishing scene
A group of hardy men, long bearded
geared for standing to the waist il
water; sleeves rolled up. Long GA
sun gilt: boat battered as though it haC
been a playmate of the storm. A full
net humping about with the fish
which have just discovered their captiv
ity, the worthless mossbunkers and TIN
useless founders all in the same net
The fisherman puts his hands down annie
the sqnirming fms takes out the moss
bunkers and throws them into the waite
and gathers the good fish into the pail
SO. says Christ, it shall be at the end o
the world. The bad He will cast away
and the good He will keep. Anothe
picture.
God, oar Mother. wanted to set fortl
the duty Of neGhborly love, and it i
done by a picture. A heap of wound
on the road to Jericho A traveller ha
been fighting a robber The robbie
stabbed him and knocked him down
Two ministers come along They loo
at the poor fellow, but do not help him