The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-03-15
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
CHE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON.
< Subject: IA Protecting Wing"

Atnder her 1UtngS ana ne tD0utd not
Matthew xiii, 81.
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came to
the crest Of Mount Olivet, height of 700
eset. The splendors OF the religious capital
bf the whole earth irraiiated the landscape
There is the temple. Yonder is the kings
palace. Spread out before His eyes are the
Pomp. the wealth, the wickeduess and the
coming destruction of Jerusalem. and he
burst into tears at the thought Of the OBJ
huracy of place that He would gladly have
eave5. and aposCophigss, saying. "Ob.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem. how often would l
have gathered thy children together. even
as hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings. and ye would not"
Why did Christ select hen and chicken as
. simile, Next to the oppositsuess Of the
comparison I tnink it was tn help all public
teachers in the matter of illustration to get
down of their stills and use comparisons
that all can understand. The plainest bird
ON earth is the barnyard fowl. Its only
Rdornments are the red comb in its head
rirecs and the wattles under the throat. It
has no grandeur Of gensalogy. All we know
fs that it's ancestors came from India, some
Of them from O height OF 1000 feet on the
hdes OF the Himalays. It has no pretention
Of nest like the eagles eyrie. It has no luster
of plumaee like the goldfnch. Possessing
anatomy that allows flight yet about the
last thing that it wants to do is to fly, and
In retreat uses foot almost as much as wing.
Mus clans 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 a song.
but only cluck and cackle. Yet Christ in
the ext.uttsred, while looking upon doomed
Jerusalem, declares that what He had
wished for that city was like what the hen
does for her chickens. Christ was thus SIM
ple in His teachings. aud 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 audi
euces, to attain that heavenly and divine
art Of simplicity.
, We have to run a course Of literary dis.
orders as children course Of physical dis
orders 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 famin-
goes and albatrosses, and it takes q good
while before we can come down to Christ's
imilitudes, the candle under the bushel, the
salt that has lost its SAVIOR, the net thrown
into the sea, the spittle on the eyes Of the
blind man and the hen and chickens.
, There is not much poetry about this
winged creature o; 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
brightsr colors. She is not q prima donna
of the skies nor strut Of beauty in the
aisle of the forest. She does not cut circle
under the sun like the Rocky Mountain
eagle, but stays at home to loUk after family
affairs. She does not swoop like the condor
of the Cordilleras to transport a rabbit from
the valley to tho top of the crags. but Just
scratches for a living. How vigorously
with her claws she pulls away the ground
to bring up what is hidden beneath! When
the breakfast or dining hour arrives, she
begins to prepare the repast and calls all her
young to partake.
am in sympathy with the unpretentious
old fashioned hen. because, like most OF u.s.
Bhe has to scratch for living. She knows
at the start the lesson which most people Of
good sense are slow to learn-that the gain
Ing Of livelihood implies work, and that
successes do not lie on the surface, but are to
be upturned BY positive and continuous
effort. The reason that society, and the
phurch, and the world are so full Of failures,
10 full OF loafers so full OF dead beats, is be-
cause people are not wise enough to take the
lesson on which any hen would teach them
that If they would find for themselves aud
worth having they must scratch for it.
s'SoIomon said. ''Go to the ant thou slug
gard" say, 'Go to the hen, thon slug
gard" 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 q descending dove but Christ,
In sermon that begins with cutting sar-
casm for hypocrites and ends with the
paroxySm Of pathos in the text, compares
Himself to hen.
One day in the country we saw sudden
CONSERVATION in the behavior o. old Dom
fnick. Why the hen should be so dist urbed
to see if a neighbor's dog vera invading the
tarm. We looked up to see if storm cloud
were lowering. We could see nothing on
the ground that could terroriza, and we
could see nothing in the air to rutfls the
feathers Of the hen. but the loud, wild, af-
frighted cluck which brought all hsr brood
at full run under her feathers made US look
again around US and above us, when we saw
that high up and far away there was a ra-
pacious bird wheeling round and round, and
down and down, and not seeing us as we
ptooi in the sha low it cams nearer and
lower until We saw its heak was curved from
base to tip, and it had two flames o. FIRE for
eyes, and it was hawk.
But all the chickens were under old Dom
hicks wing, and either the bird OF prey
caught glimpse OF US or not able to fnd
che brood bundled under wing dartei back
into the clouds. So Christ calls with great
barnesrness to the young Why, what is the
matter. It is bright sunlight. and there can
b. no danger. Health is there. A good
home is theirs. Plenty of food is theirs.
Prospect Of long life is theirs. But Christ
continues to cali, calls with more en-
phasis and urges haste and saws not a
second ought to be lost. Oh, do tell us what
hawks OF temptation in the air: there are
cultures wheeling for their prey; there ara
beaks of death ready to plunge; there are
claws Of allurement ready to clutch. Now
I see the peril. Now I understand the
urgency. Now I see ths only safety. Would
that Christ might this day take our sons and
daughters into His shelter, ''as q hen gath
Hreth her chickens under her wing"
The fact is that toe most of them will
never find the shelter unless while they are
chickens. It is simple matter OF inexor.
able statistics that most Of those who do not
come t. Christ in youth never come at all.
What chance is there for the young without
divine protection? There are the grog
shops. There ara the gambling bells. There
are the infldelities and immoralities of
epiritualisn. There ara bad books. Thers
are impurities. Thers are the business ras-
calities. And so numerous are these assail
ments that it is wonder that honesty aud
virtue are not lost arts.
The birds Of prey, diurnal and nocturus |,
of the natural world ars ever oa the alert.
They are the assassins Of the sky. They have
varieties OF taste. The eagle prefers the
Aesh OF the living animal. The vulture pre-
fers the carcass. The falcon Kills with one
stroke, while other styles Of beaks give pro
longation Of torture. And so the tempta-
lions Of this life are various. Some make
quick work Of death, and others agonize the
mimi and body for nanv years. and SONS
Ike the living blood Of great souls, and