Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-06-22

BRooKIrS, June IS, 1893. Rev. DR.. Tai
mage, in selecting q theme Tor to-day S
sermon in the brooklyn Tabernacle, chose
one peculiarly suitable to the season OF
fruits, the tille being Grapes from Canaan"
and the text, Numbers Is 20, And they
came unto the brook of EschOl, and cut
! down from thence IA branch with one clus-
ter OF grapes an they bare 1t between two
| upon staff
The long trudge of the lsraelites
across the wilderness was almost
ended They had come u the borders
of the prom. sed land. OF the six hun
bred thousand adults who started from
/ Egypt for Canaan, how many DO you
suppose got there? Five hundred
thousand! Oh, 10. Not two hundred
thousand, not one hundred thousand,
not fifty, nor twenty, nor ten; but only
two men. Oh, it was ruinous march
that Gods people made; but their
! children were i,iug and they were on
! the march, and now that they had
! come up to the borders OF the promised
| land, they were very curious to know
what kind Of a place it was, AMI
| whether it would be safe to go over.
| 80 q scouting party is sent out to re-
cOnnoitrG, ana they examine the land,
and they come back bring ng speci-
mems OF its growths. just as you
came back from California, bringing
! to your family a basket of pears, or
! plumS, Or apples, to shc W what mon
! strous fruit they have there, so this
! scouting party cut OF the biggest
! bunch of grapes they could lind. 1t
was so large that one man could not
carry it, and they thrust pole through
! the cluster, and there was one man at
| either end of the pole, and 50 the bunch
OF grapes WAS transported. ! was,
some time ago, in luNuriant vine
ward. Tine vine-dresScr had done his
work. The vine had clambcrcd up
and spread its wealth all over the ar
( boz. The sun and sho"er had mixed
cup which the vine drank until with
flushed check t lay slum bcring in the
Light, cluster against the check OF
cluster. The rinds OF the grapes seemed
I 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 cnallce towards the cluster and
its life blood would begin to drip
away. But, my friends in these rig
nrous climcS, we know nothing about
! large grapes. SrabO states that in
Bible times and in Bible lands there
were grape-vines so large that it took
two men with oatStretched arms 10
reach roand 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
smitten with fever one grape would
Stake 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
IA cluster of hopes, u cluster OF pros
poets, cluster of Christian consola-
ton; and am expecting that one taste
of it will rouse up your appetite 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 scep,re. Men in mid-life came
! home from Office or shop, and did not
go back again. And the dear children,
| some of them, have been gathered in
! Christ arms. lie found this world
| too rough place for them, and SO he
! has gathered them in. And oh. how
many wounded souls there are
! wounds for which this world offers no
| medicamcHt, and unless from the
i gospel of oar Lord Jesus Christ there
| shall come consolation there
| will be no consolation at all. Oh
! that the God Of all comfort would help
| me while preach, and that the God
OF all comfort would hep you while
| loa hear.
/ First, I console you with the divine
! ly san ,tiOned idea that your departed
! friends are Us 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
ar" cut of from you, and they are no
| / niger yours; but the desire to have all
| cur lose ones in the same lot in the
| cemetery is natural desire. Il uuiver-
! sal desire, and, therefore, a GoI-im-
| planted desire, ana is nightly sugges-
! tive of the fact that death has no pow
or 10 break up the family relations. If
! our loved ones go away from our pos
! session, why put a fence around our
: lot in the cemetery? Why the gath
/ eng OF four or five name' on
! CnA family monument? Why the
| planting OF one cypgcss-vine so that it
cogers 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
| cbarge to the keepers of the ground TO
| 3 &c that the grass is cut, and the vine
| ATTENDED to, and the flowers planted?
, Why not put our departed friends in
! one common field or grave? Oh. it is
| because they are ours, That child. q
| stricken mother. is as much yours this
| morning as in the solemn hour when
| God put it against your hcarC and said
Us of old: Take this Guild and nurse
! it for me, and | will give thee thy
! wages" 1t is no mere within. 1t is a
diyinely-planted principle in the soul,
! and God certainly would not plant a
! lie. Abraham would not allow Sarah
J 10 be buried in strangers grounds
! although ONE very beautiful ground
was offered him free gift: hut he
/ pays four hundred shekels for Mach
/ rclah, tie cave, and the trees over
! shadowing it The grave has beer
welt kept, and to-day the Chris thar
! traveller stands in thoughtful and ad
ihlTlilS Hoou, gazing upon MacnDeldn
where Abraham and Sarah are
taking their long sleep of 1905
| years. Your father may be slum Der
ing under the tinlSling of the bell o.
the Scotch kirk. Your brother may
have gone down in the ship that found
| cred off Cape Hatteras. Your littl,
child may be sleeping on the verge o
the lowering Western prairie; yet Goo
will gather them all up, however
w dely the dust may be scattered
Nevertheless, it is pleasant to thinl
that we will be buried together. Whei
my father died, and we took him GU
and put him down in the graveyard o
Somerville, it did not seem so sad t,
leave him there, because right besid'
him was my dear, good, old, beautiful
Christian mother, and it seemed as
she said 81 was tired, and came t,
bed little early. | am glad you hav
come: it seems as of old" o, it is
consolation to feel that when mel
come, and with solemn tread carry yo,
out to your resting place, they will
open the gate through which some o