Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-06-29
FROM CANAAN.
THE THEME OF DIE. TALMAGE'S
SUNDAY DISCOURSE.
Hopes. Prospects and Christisn Con-
solations which Give One mn APP
petite for the Heavenly Eschol-
The Glorics of the Resurrection.

Brooklyn, N. Y. S~pecial.-Rey. DR..
Talmage, In selecting a theme for his
sermon in the Brooklyn Tabernacle,
chose one peculiarly suitable TO the
season Of fruits, the title being
Grapes from Canaan and the text
Numbers Kill. %, "And they came un-
to the brook OF Eschoi, and cut down
from thence a branch with one cluster
Of grapes, and they bare 1t between
two upon a staff
The long trudge of the ~Isrealites
across the wilderness was almost end
ed. They had come to the borders of
the promised land. OF the 10000
adults who started from Egypt for Ca
naan how many do you suppose got
there? Five hundred thousand? Oh,
no, Not two hundred thousand. not
100000, not fifty, nor twenty, nor ten,
but only wv men. Oh, Ii was a ruin
GUS march that Gods people made;
but their children were living, and they
were on the march, and row that they
had come up to the borders of the
promised land they were curious TO
know what kind of a place 1t was, and
whether it would be safe to go over.
So a scouting party is sent out to re-
connoiter, u they examine the land,
and they come back bringing speci-
mems of its growths. Just as you came
back from California. bringing TO your
family a basket of pears, or plums, or
apples, 10 show what monstrous fruit
they have there, SO this scouting party
cut off the biggest bunch of grapes
they could find. 1t was so large that
one man could not carry it, and they
thrust a pole through the cluster, and
there was one man at either end of
the pole. and so the bunch of grapes
was transported. I was, some time
ago, in a l~uxuriant vineyard. The vine
dresser had do-. his work. The vine
had clambered up and spread it's
wealth all over the arbor. The sun
and shower had mixed a cup which the
zine drank until with flushed check Ii
lay slnmbering in the light. cluster
AGAINST h cheek of cluster. The rinds
or the grapes seemed almost bursting
WIFE the juice in the warm lips of the
autumnal day, and 1t seemed as IL all
you nad TO do was to lift a chalice to-
ara The cluster and it's life-blood
would begin to drip away. But. M
friends, In these rigorous Chimes we
knoY nothing about large grapes.
Strabo states that in Bible times and
IN Bieie lands there were crapeyinas
so large that it took two men with
outstretched arms to reach around
them, and ne says there were clusters
two eubits in length, or twice the
length from the elbow TO the tin of the
long finger. And Achaieas, dwelling in
those lands, tells us that during the
time he was smitten with fever one
grape would slake his thirst for the
whole day. No wonder. then. i'm these
Bible times 1--WE men thought it worth
their TO put their strength toge-
ther To carry down one cluster of
grapes fom h promised land.
But this morning l bring you a large
cluster from the heavenly Eschol-a
cluster of hopes, a cluster of prospects.
O cluster OF Christian consultations: and
i am expecting that one taste of il
VIII rouse up your appetite for the
heavenly Canaan. During the past
winter some of the congregation have
gone away never TO return. The aged
nave put down their staff and taken
up the scepter. Men in mid-life came
home kom office or shop, and did not
go back again. and never will 90 back
again. And the dear children. some
OF them, have been gathered in CLrist's
arms. He found this world too rough
a place for them, and so he gathered
them in. And oh, how many wounded
souls there are-wounds for this world
offers no medicament, and unless from
tho gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
there shall come no consolation, there
will be no consolation ut all. oh. that
tho Enl 81 ncyafn,.f xxtn,,1I laI,x 49,.
while, i preach, and that the God of
all comfort would help you while you
hear.
First, I console you with the divinely
sanctioned idea that your departed
friends are as much yours now as they
ever were. / know you sometimes get
the idea in your mind. when you have
this kind of trouble. that your friends
are cut off from you. and they are no
longer yours; but the desire to have all
oui loved ines in the same lot in the
cemetery is n natural desire, a miver-
sal desire. and, therefore. n God-im-
planted desire. and is nightly sugges-
tive of the fact that death has no
power to break up The family relations.
If our loved ones 90 away from our
possession, why put a fence around
our lot in the cemetery? Why the
gathering of four or five names on
n family monument? Why the plant
ing of one cypress vine so that it cor
ers all the cluster of graves? Why
put the husband beside the wife. and
the children at their feet? Why the
bolt on the gate OF our lot, and the
charge to the keepers of the ground
to see that the grass is cut. and the
vine attended To, and the flowers plant
ed? Why not put our departed friends
in one common field or grave? Oh,
it is because they are ours. That child,
o. stricken mother. is as much yours
this morning as in the solemn hour
when God put 1t against your heart,
and said rs of old: Take this child
and nurse IL for me, and | will give
thee thy wages" 1t is no mere whim.
1t is n divinely planted principle in the
soul. and God certainly would not
plant a lie, and he would not culture a
lie: Abraham would not allow Sarah
10 be buried In n strangers grounds.
although some very beautiful ground
was offered him n free gift: but he
pays 400 shekels for Machpelah, the
.fx~ f,.nas p-hatnxtvi n if