Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-03-04
USEFUL LESSONS.
Dr. Talmage Draws Some From a
Simple Story.
Ghrist's Appeal to Jerusalem - Invisible
DanEers-Temptations of Life simile
of the Hens Protecting wing-A
shelter From the storms.

o
would not" He said;
Jerusalem was i'm sight as Christ came
20 the crest of Mount Olivet, a height
of 200 feet. The splendors of the re-
ligious capital of the whole earth IT.
sztdiatcd the landscape. There is the
temple. Wonder is the kings palace
Spcad ont before his eyes are the poinp,
the wiclscdncss and the coming destruc-
ton of Jerusalem. and he bursts into
tears ut the thought of the obduracy OF
u place that he would gladly have
saved, and apostrophized, saying: 'Oh.
Jerusalem, how often would ! have
gathered thy children together, even as
II hen gathercth her chickens under her
wings, and We would not"
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems Us n similc? Next to the Apostle
ness Of the comparison. think it was
20 help all public teachers in the mat
tcr of illustration TO get down off their
stills and use comparisons that all can
understand. The plaincst bird on earth
is the barnyard fowl. 1t has no gran
icur of genealogy. All we know is
that its ancestors came from India.
sumo of them from height 1000 feet
on the sides of the Himalayas. 1t has
40 prctention of nest like the eagles
eyrie II has no luster of plumage like
The goldfnch. Possessing anatomy
shat allows flight. yet about the last
thing il wants to do is to fly. and in re-
treat uses foot almost as much as wing
Musicians have written ont in musical
scale the song Of lark and robin rcd
breast and nightingale, yet the hen of
rny text hath nothing that could be
taken for song, but only clucls and
o-aekle. 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 chickens. Christ was
Tins simple in his teachings. and yet
how hard it is for MS, who are Sunday
school Instructors and editors and
r1rea and reformers, and those who
would gain the ears of audiences, to at
tain that heavenly and divine art of
simplicity. We have to run course OF
literary disorders. rs children course
come down to Christ's similitudcs. the
candle under the bushcl. the salt that
has lost its SAVIOR. the net thrown into
she sea, the spittle on the eyes of the
blind man. and the hcns 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
aud wear brighter colors.
lam in sympathy with the unpreten
1ious, old-fashioned hen, because, like
most of us, she has to scratch for Il liv-
ing. She knows at the start the lesson
which most people of good sense are
slow to lcarn-that the gaining of 4
livelihood implies work, and that sue
cesses do not lie on the surface, but are
70 be npturned by positive and contin-
-Gauns effort The reason that society
and the church and the world are SO full
of failures, so full of loafers. SO full of
Head 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
dependent upon them anything worth
having they must scratch for it. Solo
mon said: $50 to the ant, thou slug
gard
Ono day in the country we saw sud-
den CONSERVATION in the behavior of
Doyninick. Why the hen should be so
disturbed we could not understand.
We looked to see if neighbours dog
were invading the farm. We looked
ND 10 see if storm cloud were hover
sng. We could see nothing on the
ground that could terrorize, and we
see nothing in the air to rufiie the
feathers of the hen, but the loud, wild,
.affrighted cluck, which brought all her
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 u rapacious
bird wheeling round and round, and
down and down, and not seeing us as
we stood in the shadow, it came nearer
and lower, until we saw that its beak
was curved from base to tip. and it had
two flames of fire for eyes, and it was u
hawk. But all the chickens were I'M
der old Dominick's wings, and either
the bird of prey caught glimpse of us,
or not able to find the brood huddled un-
der wing, darted back into the clouds.
So Christ calls with great earnestness
to all the young. Why, what is the
matter!
It is bright sunlight and there can
lbe no danger. Health is theirs A
good home is theirs. Plenty Of food is
theirs. Prospect of long life is theirs.
But Christ continues to call, calls with
nnore emphasis and urges haste, and
,s,ys not second ought to be lost Oh,
do tell us what is the matter, All,
- o,a I,a ,yLc NJ tauptn,