Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-03-02
A PROTECTING WING.

stamp for book
DR.J. P. DBOMGOoLE & CO.. Louisville, BY.
A PROTECTING WING.
REV. DR.. TALMAee's SERMON ON TIE
HEN AND CHICKENS.
WHY Christ Selected the HomeIy Compare
son-Some Familiar Stories-The World
Is just What We Make It-A Great Re
sponSibiIity.
BROOKLYN. Feb 26.-Previous to the
sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning Rev Dr. Talmage. in giving
out number of notices. dwelt upon the
fact that certain picture msHerS of
Brooklyn had used his name rs 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
" understood that he knew nothing Of
these people or their business methods
Thetext selected for the morning sermon
was Matthew XIII, 81. 'As hen gath
ereth her chickens under her wings. and
We would not.
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
to 70 the crest of Mount Olivet. height
of 700 feet. The splendors of the reli-
gious capita! of the whole earth irradi-
ated the landscape. There is the tenn
pie. Yonder is the kings palace.
Spread out before his eyes are the pomp.
the wealth. the wickednesS and the COM
ing destruction of Jerusalem, and he
bursts into tears at the thought Of the
.obduracy of ,,ldce that he would gladla
have saved, and apostrophizes, saying,
80 Jerusalem. Jerusalem. how oft-n
would have gathered thy children TO
gether. even IS hen gathereth hei
chickens under her wings and ye would
not"
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems as q silnile? Next to the opposite
ness of the comparison think 1t was TO
help all public teachers in the matter of
illustration to get down of their stills
and use comparisons that all can under
stand. The plainest bird on earth is the
barnyard fowl. Its only adornmentS are
the red comb in its headdress and the
wattles under the throat. 1t has no
grandeur CO genealogy. All we know is
that its ancestors came 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 evrie.
It has no lnster. of piunage like the ~o.d-
finch. Possessing anatomy that CLOVIS
fight, 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 song but only cluck and cackie.
Yet Christ in the text altered, 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 was thus simple in his teach
ings, and yet how hard il 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 course OF literary
disorders as children course of phys
ical disorders. We come ont of scnool
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
srosses. and it takes good while before
we can come down TO Christ's sinlili-
tudes. the candle under the bushel. the
salt that has lost its SAVIOR, the net
thrown into the sea. the srittle on the
ewes of the blind man and the hen and
chickens.
There is not much poetry about this
winged creature of God mentioned in
my text. but she is more practical and
more motherly and more suggestive OF
goc' things than many that fly higher
ar. xear brighter colors. She is not a
prima donna of The skies nor a strut OF
beauty in the aisle of the forest. She
does not cut a circle under the sun like
the Rocky mountain eagle, but stays at
home to look after family affairs. She
does not swoop like the condor of the
Cordilleras to transport rabbit from
the valley to the top OF the crass. bu'
Just scratches for a living. How visor
ously with her claws she pulls away the
ground to bring up what is hidden be-
lleath. When the breakfast or dining
hour arrives. she begins to prepare the
repast and calls all her young to partake.
UNDER OLD DoMISIcE's WINGS.
am in sympathy with the unpreten-
tious old fashioned hen. because. ike
most of US, she has to scratch for lir-
ing. She knows at the start the lesson
which most people of good sense are
slow TO learn-that the gaining OF live
lihood 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
church, 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 them-that if they would
find for themselves and for those de-
pendent upon them anything worth hav-
ing they must scratch for it.
Solomon said, Go to the ant. thou
slr,coard" say. Go to the hen. thou
sluggard In the Old Testament God
compares himself to an eagle stirring up
her nest, and in the New Testament the
Holy Spirit is compared to descending
dove, but Christ. in sermon that begins
with cutting sarcasm for hypocrites and
ends with the paroxysm of pathos IN the
text, compares himself to hen.
One day in the country we saw sud
den CONSERVATION in the behavior Of old
Dominick. Why the hen should be so
disturbed we could not understand. We
looked about 20 see if neighbor's dog
were invading the farm. We looked up
to see if stormcioud were lowering.
We could see nothing on the ground that
could terrorize, and we could see nothing
in the air to rufae the feathers of the hen.
but the loud, wild. afnghted cluck which
brought all her brood as full run under
her feathers made Us look agai2 around
Us and above Us, when we saw that high
NJ and far away there was a rapaeleus
bird wheeling round and round. and