Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-04-13
REV. DR., TALMAGE
Tie Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject. Sustaining rower of Religion

| pOtS. get S1OH re De OS me DtnQS OF q NOCt
covered ,oih SLIDER and he,. feathers 10Th yel-
| too gold. Psalms xviii, Is.
suppose YOU know what the Israeltes
did down in Egyptian slavery. They made
| bricks. Amid the utensils of the brckkiln
there were also other utensils Of cookery
the kettles, the pots, the pans, with which
they prepared their daily fool. AMI when
these poor slaves, tifei Of the days work, lay
down to Pest they lay down among the i'm
PIGMENTS Of cookery and the implements OF
hard work. When they arose in the morn
ing, 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 a while 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 thess poor Is
raelites from their bondage amid the brick
kilns into the glorious emancipation for
which God had prepared them, he says,
Though ye have lain among the pots, yet
shall we be as the wings of dove covered
with silver and her feathers with yellow
gold"
Miss Whately. the author of a celebrated
book, 'Iife In Egypt" said she sometimes
saw people in the East cooking their food on
the tops Of houses, and that she had often
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 prepared. picking
up the crumbs that they might find. Just
about the hour of sunset they would spread
their wings and fly heavenward, entirely
unsoied by the region in which they had
moved, for the pigeon is a very clearly bird.
And as the pigeons few away the setting
sun would throw silver on their wings and
gold on their breasts. So you see it is net q
farfetched smile or an unnatural COM
parison when David in my text. says to
these emancipated Israelites, 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 a 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 a most degrading service, but after awhile
Christ comes and He says, "Let My people
60" 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 when at last we
soar away to the warm nest which God has
provided for US Id heaven we shall go fairer
than dove, its wings covered with silver
ard its feathers with yellow gold.
I am going to preach something which
some of you do not believe, and that is that
the grandest possible adornment is the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ. There are great
many people who suppose that religion is
very different thing from what 1t really is:
10 mn ba 10 DC
they do not understand the Bible. They
have not properly examinedit. DR.. Johnson
said that Hume told minister in the bishop
tic of Durham that he had never particularly
examined the New Testament, yet all his life
warning against it. HALEY, the astronomer,
announced his skepticism 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, profess
ing to be philosopher, consent to condemn
L. thing you have never examined"
And so men reject the religion CT Jesus
Christ because they really have never in
yestigated it. They think it something un-
desirable. something that will not work.
something Pecksniffian, something hypocrit'
ical, something repulsive, when it is 80
bright and so beautiful you might compare
it tU chaffinch, you might compare it to
robin red breast, you might compare it to
dove-its wings covered with silver and its
feathers with yellow gold.
But how is it If u young man becomes
ChristiahY All THOUGH the clubrooms where
he associates, all through the business cir
Giles where he is known, there is commisera-
ton. They say, "What pity that young
man who had such bright prospects should
so have been despoilel by those Christians,
giving up all his worldly prospects for some.
thing which Is of no particular present
worth ~ Here is a young woman who be-
comes a Cbristian-her voice, her face, her
manners the charm of the drawing room.
Now all through the fashionable circles
the whisper goes, "What pity that such
bright light should have been extinguished,
that such graceful gait should be crippled,
that such worldly prospects should be
0bliteratedm All, my friends, it can be
shown that religions ways are ways of
pleasantness and that all her paths are
peace that religion, instead of being dark
and doleful and lachrynose and repusive,
is bright AMI beautiful, fairer than dove,
its wings covered with silver ami its feathers
with yellow god.
See. in the first place, what religion will
do for a mans heart. care not how cheer
ful a man may naturally be before conversion,
conversion brings him up to a higher
stan larl Of cheeriulness. | Go not SLY he
will laugh any louder. do not say but he
may stand back IRON some forms of hiIarity
in which he once indulge !, but there comes
into his soul an immense satisfaction, A
young man not Christian depends upon
worldly successes TO keep his spirits up.
Now he is prOsDered, now he has 4 large
salary, now he has Il beautiful wardro )e,
now he has pleasant friends now he has
more money than he knows how to spend
Everything goes bright and we'll with him.
But trouble comes. There are many young
men in the house this morning who can tes-
tify out of their own experience that some
times TO young men trouble comes-his
friends are gone, his salary is gone. his health
il gone. He goes down, down. He becomes
sour, cross, queer, misanthropic, blames the
world blanes society. blames the church,
blames everything, rushes perhaps to tho in
toxicating cup to drown his trouble, but in
stead of drowning his trouble he browns his
body and browns his soul.
But here is Christian young man.
Trouble comes to him. Does he give up?
No! He throws himself back on the re-
sources OF heaven. He says "God is my
Father. Dat of all these disasters l shall
pluck advantage for my soul. All the prom
ises are mine, Christ is mine, Christian com
panionship is mine. heaven is mine. What
though my apparel be worn out? Christ
gives me robe OF righteousness. What
though my money be gone? 1 have title
deed to the whole universe in the promise,
All are yours What though my worldly
friends fall away? Ministerng angels are
my body-guard What though my fare be
poor and my bread be scanl2 / sit at the
Kings banquet 20
Oh. what poor, shallow stream is worldly
enjoyment compared with the deep, broad
cverfiowing river OF Gods peace, rolling
midway in the Christian heart Sometimes
you have gone out on the iron bound beach
Of the sea when there has been q storm on