Connecticut western news., 1893-03-02
A PROTECTING WING.

A fhOlECIlNU WlNU. REV. DIR. TALMAeE's SERMON ON THE
 HEN AND CHICKENS.
 Why Christ Selected the Homely Compari-
 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 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 xxiii, 37, 'sAs hen gath ereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not"
 Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came to to the crest of Mount Olivet, a height of TOO feet. The splendors of the reli- gious capital of the whole earth irradi- atsd the landscapt. There is the tenn pie. Wonder 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 8 place that he would gladly have saved, and apostrophizes, saying, 70 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would have gathered thy children to- gether, even as hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye woulG not.
 Why did Christ select hen and chick ems as simile? Next to the opposite ness of the comparison think it was to hslp all public teachers in the matter of illustration to get down off their stilts 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 it's headdress and the wattles under the throat. It has no grandeur of genealogy. All we know is that it's ancestors came from India, some of them from height of 4,000 feet on the sides of the Himalayas. It 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 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 chuck 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 sns. 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 d1npkcity.
 We have to run a course of literary disorders as children 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 simili- tudes, the candle under the bushel, the salt that has lost it's savor, 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 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 8 priIna donna of the skies nor 8 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 look after family affairs. She does not swoop like the condor of the Oordilleras to transport rabbit from the valley to the top of the crags, but just scratches for a living. How vigor ously with her claws she pulls away the ground to bring up what is hidden be- nsathl 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 dow to learn-that the gaining of a live Hhood implies work, and that successes do not lie on the surface, but are to 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 hav- ing they must scratch for it.
 Solomon said, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard." say, "Go to the hen, thou sluggard." 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 descending dove, but Christ, in 8 sermon that begins with cutting sarcasm for hypocrites and ends with the paroxysm of pathos in the