Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-03-04
Al PROTECTING WING.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE's SERMON ON THE
HEN AND CHICKENS.

REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON ON THE
HEN AND CHICKENS.
Why Christ Selected tho Homcly Compare
son--somc Familiar Stories-The World
IsJust. What We Make TIA Great Re-
sponsibiIity.
BROOKLYN. Feb. 96.-Previous to the
sermon III 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 hadsused his name as refer
ence in their advertisements and circu-
lars without his authority. Thousands
of letters CT 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 sIitthew xiii 81, LAS hen gath
ereth jheil chickens under her wings and
yewollld not
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
to to the crest of Mount Olivet, height
of 100 Ilet. The splendors of the reli-
gions capital of the whole earth irradi-
ated the landscape There is T. .,lrl-
ple- Yonder is the kings I palace.
Spread out before his eyes arc the pomp,
thewealth. 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,
"O'aJ Jerusalem. Jerusalem. how often
would have gathered thy children to-
gether. even as IL hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings and We would
not
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems as a silnile: Next to the Apostle
ness.of the comparison think it was to
heli5all public teachers in the matter of
illustration to get down off their stills
and use comparisons that all can under
stand. The plainest bird Oh earth is the
barnyard fowl. Its only adornments are
the red comb in its headdress and tho
wattles under the throat. 1t has no
grandeur of genealogy. All we know is
I that.its ancestors came from India, some
of them from Il height of 1000 feet on
| the sides of the Himalayas. 1t has no
pretension of nest like the eagles eyrie.
| 1t 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 us wing.
! Musicians have written out in musical
| scale the song OF lark and robin red
brelst and nightingale, yet the hen Of
my text hath nothing that could be taken
for song. but only cluck and cackle.
| 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
ens.a 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
! wba5gonll gain the ears of audiences,
: fne art. Of
ssss lsl EfiH a curse ITINERARY
EdSSfders wGhiidren course of phys
ical disorders. We come out of school
and college loaded down with Greek
mytholoies and out of the theological
seminary weighed down with what the
learned fathers said, and we fly with
wings of eagles and falningoes and alba
trosses. and it takes a good while before
we can come down to C!irist's simili-
tudes. the candle under the bushel, the
salt that his 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
INV 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 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 al
home to look after family affairs. She
does not swoop like the condor of the
CofdiIleras to transport a rabbit from
the valley 10 the top Of the crags, bu'
lust scratches for living. How vlgor
ously with her claws she pulls away tho
ground to bring up what is hidden be
! neath When the breakfast or dining
ho,.r arrives, she begins to prepare the
repast and calls all her young to partake
UNDER OLD DoAnNICK's WINGS.
am in sympathy with the unpreten
tious old fashioned hen, because, kk'
most of us, she has to scratch for Il hv
inc. She knows at the start the lessor
which most people of good sense ar
slow to learn-that the gaining OF live
lihood implies work. and that successe
do not lie on the surface, but are to b.
upturned by positive and continuous eft
fort. The reason that society, and tn
church and the world are so full Of fail
ures, SO full of loafers so full of dea'
beats. is because people are not WIS
enough to take the lesson which any hel
would teach them-that if they woul'
find i5r themselves and for those de
pendent upon them anything worth hav
ing they must scratch for it.
Solomon said, go to the ant, tho
sluggard::a say, go to the hen, tho
sluggArd In the Old Testament 90
cornuares himself to an eagle stirring u
her nest, and in the New Testament tn
Holy Spirit is compared to descendin
dove, but Christ, in u sermon that begin
with cutting sarcasm for hypocr1tes an
ends with the paroxysm of pathos IN tn
) text, compares himself to hen
/ One day i'll the country we saw sue
: den CONSERVATION in the behavior or Oh
: Don,inick. Why the hen should be
/ disturbed we could not understand. W
: looked about to see if a neighbours 90
were invading the farm. We looked u