Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-02-27
A PROTECTING WING.
REv.DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON THE
HENANDCHlCKENS.

WHY Christ SeIecteds6he Home1y Compare
son-Some Familiar Stories-The World
sponsibility.
BROOKLYN, Feb 20 -Previous to the
sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning Rev DR.. Talmage, in giving
out a number of notices, dwelt upon the
fact that certain picture makers of
Brooklyn had used his name as refer
@ence in their advertisements and circu-
lars without his authority. Thousands
of letters of complaint have come to him
in this respect, and: he wanted it distinct
ly understood that he knew nothing of
these people or their business methods.
The text selected for the morning sermon
was Matthew xiii, 81, LAS hen gath
iereth her chickens under her wings. and
we would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
to to the crest of Mount Olivet. height
of 700 feet The splendors of the reli
igious capital of the whole earth irradi-
ated the landscape. There is the tenn
ple. Yonder is the kings palace.
Spread out before his, eyes are the pomp,
ing destruction of Jerusalem, and he
bursts into tears at the thought Of the
-lobduracy of place that he would gladly
have saved, and apostrophizes, saying,
80 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft II
would have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings. and ye would
not"
II fcyf hn7, o1n6 oh 1Cl--
ems as simile? Next to the opposite
mess of the comparison think 1t wa3 to
help all public teachers in the matter of
illustration to get down off their stills
and use comparisons that all can under
stand. The plainest bird on earth is the
iaarnyard fowl. Its only adornments are
the red comb in it's headdress and the
wattles under the throat. 1t has no
grandeur of genealogy. All we know is
that its ancestors camel from India, some
of them from a height Of 1000 feet on
the sides of the Himalayas. 1t has no
pretension of nest like the eagles eyrie.
1t has no luster. of plumage like the gold
finch. Possessing anatomy that allows
flight, yet about the last thing it wants
to, do is to fly, and in retreat uses foot
almost as much as wing.
Musicians have written out in musical
scale the song of lark and robin red
breast and nightingale, yet the hen of
my text hath nothing that could be taken
for Il song, but only cluck and cackle.
Yet Christ in the text uttered, while
looking upon doomed Jerusalem, declares
that what he had wished for that city
was like what the hen does for her chick
ems. Christ vas thus simple in his teach
ings, and yet how hard it is for us, who
are Sunday school instructors and editors
and preachers and reformers, and those
who would gain the ears Of audiences
to attain that heavenly and divine art of
simplicity.
We have to run a course of literary
disorders as children a course of phys
ical disorders. We come out of school
and college loaded down with Greek
mythologies and out of the theological
seminary weighed down,with what the
learned fathers said, and we fly with
wings of eagles and famingoes and alba
trosses. and it takes q good while before
we can come down to Christ's simili-
tudes, the candle under the bushel. the
salt that has lost it's SAVIOR, the net
thrown into the sea. the spittle on the
ewes OF the blind man and the hen and
chickens.
There is not much poetry about this
winged creature of God mentioned il
my text, but she is more practical and
more motherly and more suggestive OF
good things than many that fly higher
and wear brighter colOrs. She is not Il
prima donna of the skies nor a strut Of
beauty in the aisle of the forest. She
does not cut circle under the sun like
the Rocky mountain eagle, but stays at
home to look after family affairs. ST.
does not swoop like the condor of the
.Cordilleras to transport Il rabbit from
the valley to the top of the crags. bu+
Just scratches for a living. How vigOr
ously with her claws she pulls away the
ground TO bring up what is hidden be
meath! When the breakfast OF dining
hour arrives, she begins to prepare the
repast and calls all her young to partal1e.
UNDER OLD DOMINICK'S WINGS
am in sympathy with the unpreten-
tious old fashioned hen, because, Like
most of us, she has to scratch for liv-
ing. She knows at the start the lesson
which most people of good sense are
slow to learn-that the gaining Of a live
1ihood implies work, and that successes
do not lie on the surface, but are to be
;upturned by positive and continuous eff
fort. The reason that society, and the
ichurch, and the world are so full of fail
ures, so full of loafers, so full Of dead
beats, is because people are not wise
enough to take the lesson which any hen
would teach then-that if they would
find for themselves and for those de
pendent upon them an, thing worth hav-
ing they must scratch for it.
Solomon said, $50 to the ant, thou
sluggard." l say, -+Go to the hen, thou
s1uggard'' In the Old Testament God