The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-04
A PR OTECTING WING.
Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sermon on the
Hen and Chickens.

Hen and Chickens.
WHY Christ Selected the HomeIy Compare
son-Some Familiar Stories-The World
Is Just What We Make It-A Great Re-
sponsibility.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 26.-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 a 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, Gas a hen gath
ereth her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
Ito to the crest of Mount Olivet, height
of 700 feet. The splendors of the reli-
gious capital 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 place that he would gladly
have saved, and apostrophizes, saying,
10 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
would / have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would
not
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems as sin1ile? Next to the Apostle
ness Of the comparison think it was 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
barnyard fowl. Its only adornments are
the red comb in its headdress and the
wattles under the throat. It has no
grandeur of genealogy. All we know is
that its ancestors came from India, some
of them from height Of 1000 feet on
the sides Of the Himalayas. It has no
pretension of nest like the eagles eyrie
It 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 song, but only cluck and caclle.
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 was 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 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 good while before
we can come down to Christ's sinaili-
tudes, the candle under the bushel, the
salt that has lost its 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 in
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 a
prima donna of the skies nor 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 crags, but
lust scratches for living. How vigoT
ously with her claws she pulls away the
ground to bring up what is hidden be-
meath! When the breakfast or dining
hour arrives, she begins to prepare the
repast and calls all her young to partake.
UNDER OLD DoMINIcK's WINGS.
I 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
lihood implies work, and that successes
do not lie on the surface, but are 20 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 hay
ing they must scratch for it.
Solomon said, $50 to the ant, thou
Il r 81 In 10 hpy, thO51