The Grenada sentinel., 1893-06-24
GRAPES FROM CANAAN.
Eev. DR.. Talmage Presents the
Heavenly Esohol
A Cluster Of Hopes. = Cluster OF Pro"'
pects, and y Cluster Of Christian Con-
sOlatlOnS Straight from the
Land Of prOMise.

Land Of Promise.
The following discourse was delivered
by Rev. +. Dewitt Talmsgc in tn
brooklyn tabernacle ON recent Sab
bath, from the text:
And they came unto tho brook OF Eschol. an'
cut down from thence branch with one clus
ter OF grapes. and they hare IL between tW'
upon a stan-Numbers xiii q -
The long trudge Of the lsraelite'
across the wilderness was almost ended
They had come to the borders of the
promised land. OF the six hundred
thousand adults who started from
Egypt from Canaan how many do you
suppose got there? Five hundred thou
sand? Oh, no. Not two hundred thou
sand, not one hundred thousand
nor fifty. nor twenty, nor ten. but
only two men. Oh, it was . ruin.
ous march that Gods people made;
but their children were living,
and they We're on the march,
and now that they had come up to the
borders of the promised land they were
curious to know what kind of place
it was. and whether it would be safe to
go over. So a scouting party is sent
out to rcconnoiter. and they examine
the land. and they come back bringing
specimens Of its growths. just rs you
came back from California, bringing to
your family basket ofpears. or plurns.
or apples, to show what monstrous
fruit they have there, SO this scouting
party cut off the biggest bunch of
grapes they could find. twas so large
that one man could not carry it, and
they thrust pole through the clus-
ter. and there was one man at
either end of the pole, and so the
bunch OF grapes was transported. l
was, some time ago. in luXuriant
vineyard. The vine-dresser had done
his work. The vine had clambered up
and spread its wealth all over the ar
Dor. The sun and shower had mixed a
cup which the vine drank until with
flushed cheek it lay slumbcring IN the
light. cluster against the cheek Of
cluster. The rinds Of the grapes
seemed almost bursting with the juice
in the warm lips of the autumnal day.
and it seemed as if all you had to do
was to lift Il chalice toward the cluster
and its life blood would begin to drip
away. But. my friends, in these rig
orous c'ime> we know nothing about
large grapes Strabo states that in
Bible times and in Bible lands there
were grape vines SO large that it took
two men with outstretchcd arms to
reach around them. and he says there
were clusters two cubitS in length, or
twice the length from the elbow to the
tip of the long finger. And Achaicus,
dwelling in those lands tells us that
during the time he was s,nitten with
fever one crap" would slake his thirst
for the whole day. No wonder. then.
in these Bible times two men thought
it worth their while to put their
strength together to carry down one
cluster of grapes from the promised
land.
But this morning bring you a larger
cluster from the heavenly Eschol--a
cluster of hopes. cluster of prospects,
II cluster of Christian consultations; and
am expecting that one taste of it will
rouse up your appetite for the heavenly
Canaan. During the past winter some
of the congregation have gone away !
never to return. The aged have put |
down their staff and taken up the
sccpter. Men in mid-life came home
from office or shop, and did not go
back again. and never will go back
again. And the deas children. some
of them. have been gathered in Christ's
arms lie found this world too rough
a place for them. and so lie has gath
cred them in. And oh, how many
wounded souls there arc--wounds for
which this world offers no medicant,
and unless from the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ there shall come consola-
tion, there will be no consolation ata all.
Oh, that the God Of comfort would hep
ne while preach, and that the God of
Ill comfort would help you while you
near.
First. console you with the divinely
sanctioned idea that your departed
friends are as much yours now AZ they
.ver were. know you sometimes get
he idea in your mind, when You have
his kind Of trouble, that your friends
ire cut off from you, and they are no
onger yours: but the desire to have all
,ur loved ones in the same lot in the
cemetery is natural desire. univer-
'al desire, and therefore God-im-
planted desire, and is nightly sug-
FESTIVE Of the fact that death has no
power to break upthe family relations.
f our loved ones go away from our
why put fence around our
OF in the cemetery? Why the gather
ng of four or five names on one family
monument? Why the planting of one
cypress vine so that it covers all the
'luster Of graves? Why put the hus-
'and beside the wife. and the
children at their feet? Why
he bolt on the gate OF our
OF, and the charge to the keepers of
he ground to see that the grass is cut,
md the vine attended to. and the flow-
RS planted? Why not put our de-
parted friends in one common field or
rave? Oh, it is because it is ours.
That child, o! stricken mother, is ~
much yours this morning ~ in the SOL
l