The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1894-04-07
TRUTH WILL RETURN
AND THE RELIGION OF CHRIST
WILL LEAD I HE PEOPLE,.
DR.. Talmage breaches Sermon of
Special Interest just Now-POverty
Comes in at the Window When Re
ligion Goes Out at the Door

fence, on a subject of unusual interest,
as illustrating the sustaining power of
religion to those who are in daily con-
tact with the world, its trials and
temptations. The text chosen was
Psalms IS : xiii.
"lhough We have lain among the
pots, yet shall We be as the wings of Il
dove covered with silverand her feath-
ers with yellow gold. -
suppose you know what the Israel
ties did down in Egyptian slavery.
They made bricks. Amid the utensils
of the brick kiln there were also other
utensils of cookery -the kettles the
pots, the pans, with which they pre-
pared their daily food; and when these
poor slaves, tired of the days work,
lay down to rest, they lay down among
the implements of cookery and the i'm
plemcnts of hard work. When they
arose in the morning they found their
garments covered with the clay and
the smoke and the dust, and be-
smirched and begrimed with the uten-
sis of cookery. But after awhile the
Lord broke up that slavery, and he
took these poor slaves into a land
where they had better garb, bright
and clean and beautiful apparel. No
more bricks for them to make. Let
Pharaoh make his own bricks. When
David, in my text, comes to describe
the transition of these poor Israelites
from their bondage amid the brick
kilns into the glorious emancipation
for which God had prepared them, he
says: "Though We have lain among
the pots, yet shall We be as the wings
of a dove covered with silver, and her
feathers with yellow gold"
Miss Whately, the author of a cele-
brated book, Life in Egypt" said she
sometimes saw people in the east cook
ing their food on the tops of houses,
and that she had often, seen, Just be-
fore shutdown, pigeons and doves which
had, during the heat of the day, been
hiding among the kettles and the pans,
with which the food was prepared
picking up the crumbs that they might
find; just about the hour of sunset
they would spread their wings and fly
heavenward, entirely unsoiled by the
region in which they had moved, for
the pigeon is very clearly bird. And
as the pigeons flew away the setting
sun would throw silver on their wings
and gold on their breasts. SO you see
it is not far-fetched smile, or an I'M
natural comparison, when David in my
text says to these emancipated Israel
ties, and says to all those who are
brought out Of any kind of trouble
into any kind of spiritual joy:
Though We have lain among the pots,
yet shall We be as the wings of dove
covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold"
Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters.
Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps us
drudging in most degrading service;
but after a while Christ comes and he
says: Let my people CO." and we
pass out from among the brick-kilns of
sin into the glorious liberty of the
gospel; we put on the clean robes of a
Christian profession, and whenat last
we soar away to the warm nest which
God has provided for us in heaven, we
shall go fairer than aadove, it's wings
covered with silver, and it's feathers
with yellow gold,
| am gong to preach something
which some of you do not believe, and
that is, that the grandest possible
adornment is the religion Of Jesus
Christ There are great many peo-
pie who suppose that religion is very
different thing from what it really is.
The reason men condemn the Bible
is because they do not under
stand the Bible; they have not
properly examined it. Doctor
Johnson said that Hume told minis
ter in the bishopric of Durham, that
he had never particularly examined
the New Testament, yet all his life
warning against it HALEY the as
tronomer announced his skepticism to
Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir Isaac New
ton said: Now, sir, have examined
the subject and you have not; and l
am ashamed that you, protesting to be
philosopher, consent to condemn a
thing you never have examined" And
so men reject the religion of Jesus
Christ because they really have never
investigated it, They think it some
thing undesirable, something that will
not work, something Pecksniffian,
something hypocritical, something re-
pulsive, when it is so bright and so
beautiful you might compare it to
chaffinch, you might compare it to a
robin redbreast. you might compare it
to dove, it's wings covered with sill
yer and its feathers with yellow gold,
But how is it if young man be-
comes a Christian? All through the
club rooms, Were he associates all
through the business circles where he
is known, there is commiseration.
They say: What pity that young
man who had such bright prospects
should so have been despoiled by those
Christians, giving up all his worldly
prospects for something which is of no
particular present WORTH Here is