The free press., 1893-07-06
'RENSDRs TALMAGE.
THEE-BROOKLYN D4EFSEss sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject y saGEapes ~,Frnn Canaan

one cluster Of grapes. and they bare Il be.Deen
tsoo upon st1F."-Numbers xiii, %.
The long trldge of the Israelites across the
wilderness was almost ended. They had
come to the borders of the promised land.
OF the coo 900 adults who started from Egypt
for Canaan. how many do you suppose got
fhere2 Five hundred thousandI On, no.
Not 200. .0OO not 100 900. nor 5O nor 90 nor
10, but only 2 men. Oh. j. was ruinous
march that Gods people made but their
children were living. and they were on the
march, and now that they had come up 20
the borders Of the promised land they were
very curious to know what kind OF q place it
was and whether it would be safe to 90 over.
80 a scouting party is sent out to recon-
noiter, and they examine the land. and they
come back bringing specimens OF its growth.
Just as you came back from California,
bringing to your family basket OF pears or
plums or apples to show what monstrous
fruit they have there, 50 this scouting party
cut of the biggest bunch Of grapes they could
find. 1t was 50 large that one man could not
carry 1t, and they thrust pole through the
cluster, and there was one man at either end
of the pole, and so the bunch OF grapes was
transported.
was some time ago in luxuriant vine
yard. The vine dresser had done his work.
The vine had clambered up and spread its
wealth all over the arbor. The sun and
shower had mixed a cup which the vine
drank until with flushed cheek it lay slum-
bering 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 chalice toward
the cluster and its lifeblood would begin to
drip away. But, my friends, in these rigor-
Gus climes we know nothing about large
grapes.
Starbo states that in Bible times and in
Bible lands there were grapevines so large
that it took two men with outstretched arms
TO reach round 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. Achaicus, 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, in
those 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 clus-
ter from the heavenly Eschol-a cluster of
hopes, cluster of prospects, a cluster of
Christian consultations, and | am expecting
that one taste OF it Will rouse up your appe-
tite for the heavenly Canaan, During the
past winter some Of this congregation have
gone away never to return. The aged have
put down their staff and taken up the scepter.
Men in midlife came home from Office or
shop and did not go back again and
never will go back again. And the dear
children, some Of them have been gathered
In Christ's arms He found this world too
rough place for them, and so He has gath
cred them in. And, oh, how many wounded
souls there are-wounds for which this world
offers no medicament-and unless from the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ there shall
come consolation there will be no consola-
tion at all. Oh. that the God of all comfort
would help me while l preach and that the
God of all comfort would help you while you
hear q
First, 1 console you with the divinely sane
toned 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 our
loved ones in the same lot in the cemetery is
natural desire, universal desire and there
fore God implanted desire and is mighty
suggestive of the fact that death has no
power 10 break up the family relations.
Ii our loved ones go away from our possess
sion, why put fence around our lot in the
cemetery? Why the gathering of four or five
names on one family monument? Why the
planting of one cypress vine SO that it covers
all the cluster of graves? Why put the hus-
band 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
10 see that the grass is cut and the vine at
tended to and the flowers planted? Why not
put our departed friends in one common
Held and grave2 Oh, it is because they are
ours.
That child 0 stricken mother is as much
yours this morning as in the solemn hour
when God put it against your heart and said
as of old ''rake this child and nurse it for
Me, and 1 will give thee thy wages" 1t is
no mere whim. 1t is a diYinely planted
principle in the soul, and God certainly
would not plant lie, and He would not
culture u lie Abraham would not allow
Sarah TO be buried in a strangers grounds,
although some very beautiful ground was
offered him free gift, but he pays 400
shekels for Machpelah, the cave, and the
trees overshadowing it. The grave hes been
well kept and to-day the Christian traveller
stands in thoughtful and admiring mood
gazing upon Machpelah, where Abraham
and Sarah are taking their long sleep Of
1000 years.
Yoar father may be slumbering under the
tinkling Of the bell OF the Scotch kirk. Your
brother may have gone down in the ship that
foundered OF Cape H4tteras Your little
child may be sleeping on the verge of the
noWerlnS western prairie. Yet God will
gather them all up, however widely the dust
may be scattered. Nevertheless it is pleasant
20 think that we will be buried together.
When my father died and we took him out
and put him down in the graveyard at Somer-
vile, it did not seem so sad to leave him
there, because right beside him was my dear.
good, old, beautiful Christian mother, and it
seemed as If she said 81 was tired, and
came to bed little early. I am glad you
have come; 1t seems as OF old"
Oh, ii is consolation to feel that when
men come and with solemn tread carry you
out to your resting place they will open the
gate through which some OF your friends
have already gone and through which many
OF your friends will follow. Sleeping under
the same roof, at last sleeping under the
same sod. The autumnal leaves that drift
across your grave viii drift across theirs, the
bird songs that drop on their mound will
drop on yours, and then in starless winter
nights, when the wind comes bowling
through the gorge, you will be company for
each other. The child close up to the bosom
OF its mother. The husband and wife remar-
ried on their lips the sacrament of the dust
Brothers and sisters who used in sport to
Ming themselves on the grass. now again re-
clining side by side in the grave, in lecks of
sunlight sitting through the long 1.-the will
lows Then at the trumpet OF the archangel
10 rise side by side, shaking themselves from
rhe dust OF ages. The faces that were ghastIy
and fxed when you saw them last all aflusn