Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-04-05

faction Than In Rivers of sinful Delight.
Napoleon, voltaire and the Apostle Paul.
Danger In Delay.
BROOKLYN, April In the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. DR.. Tai
mage preached to a crowded audience on
a subject of unusual interest M illustrat-
ing tho sustaining power of religion to
those who are in daily contact with the
world, its trials and temptations. The text
chosen was Psalms xviii, 10, Though We
have lain among the potts. yet shall We he
as the wings of dove covered with silver
and her feathers with yellow gold"
suppose yoo know what the Israelites
did down In Egyptian slavery. They made
bricks. Amid the utensils of the brickkiln
there were also other utensils Of cookery
the kettles, the pots, the pans, with which
they prepared 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 mple-
ments of hard work When they arose in
the morning, they found their garments
covered with the clay, and the smoke, and
the dust, and besmirched and begrimed
with the utensils of cookery. But after
awhile the Lord broke mp that slavery,
duu ue luOh lucSS poor sltNCs lntO u -IUi
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 Israeltes from their bondage
amid the brick kilns into the glorious eman-
cipation for which God had prepared them,
he says, Though ye have lain among The
of Gbn1 Va a ~ l,e win Of Il
covered with silver and her feathers with
yellow gold"
slN A HARD TAsKMAsTER.
Miss Whately. the author of a celebrated
book, Life In Egypt" said she sometimes
saw people in the east cooking their food
on the tops of houses, and that she had of
ten seen, just before 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 prepar-
ed, picking up the crumbs that they might
find. Just about the hour Of sunset they
would spread their wings and fly heaven
ward, entirely unsoiled by the region in
which they had moved, for the pigeon 10 a
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 farfetched similc or
an unnatural comparison when David in
my text says to these emancipatcd 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, vet shall We be MS the
wings of a dove covered with silver and
her feathers with yellow gold"
Sin il: the hardest Of all taskmasters.
Worse than Pharaoh, ii keeps us drudging
in y most degrading service, but after
awhile Christ comes and he says, LET my
people go, - and we pass out from among
the brickkilns of sin into the glorious lib
erty of the gospel. We put on the clean
robes of Il Christian profession. and when
at last we soar away to the warm nest
which God has provided for US in heaven
we shall go farer than a dove, its wings
covered with silver and its feathers with
yellow gold
l am going 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 people who suppose that reli-
gion is a very different thing from what it
really is. The reason men condemn the
Bible is because they do not understand
the Bible; they have not properly exam
ined it. DR.. johnson said that Hume told
a minister in the biehopric of Durham
that he had never particularly examined
the New Testament, yet all his life was
warning against it. HALEY, the astronomer,
announced his skeptcism to Sir Isaac New
ton, and Sir Isaac Newton said: "Now,
sir, have examined the subject, and you
have not, and am ashamed that you, pro-
Tossing to be a philosopher consent to con
demn thing you never have examined"
And so men reject the religion of Jesus
Christ because they really have never in
vestgated it. They think it something I'M
desirable, something that will not work,
something Pecksniiiian, something hypo-
critical, something repulsive, when it is
so bright and so beautiful you might com
pare it to chafiinch, you might compare it
to robin redbreast, you might compare
it to dove, its wings covered with silver,
and its feathers with yellow gold.
PATHS OF PEACE.
But how is it if young man becomes "A
Christian? All through the clubrooms
where he associates, all through the bust
ness circles where he is known, there il
commiseration. They say: "What pity
that young man who had such bright
prospects should so have been despoled bv
lu'St 'hTIstldnS, giving up Ill his WOTlulN
prospects for something which is of nu
particular present worth!' Here il
young woman who becomes a Christian
her voice, her face, her manners the charl
Of the drawing room. Now all thrnugt
the fashionable circles the whisper goes
What a pity that such a bright ligh1
should have been eYtinguished, that su,i
graceful gait should be crippled thai
such worldly prospects should be oblitcr
atedP All, my friends, it can be show
that religions ways are ways of pleasant
ness, and that all her paths are peace
that religion, instead of being dark and
doleful and lachrymose and repulsive, j.
bright and beautiful, fairer than a dove
its wings covered with silver and its featl
ers with yellow gold.
See, in the first place, what religion Wi
do for mans heart care not how cheer
full a man may naturally be before CONVEX
sion, conversion brings him up TO a highel
standard of cheerfulness. do not say he
will laugh any louder; l do not say bui
he may stand back from some forms of bi
larity in which he once indug ed, but there
comes into his soul an immense satisfac
ton. A young man not a Christian de
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