The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-05-26
THE RELIGION OF JESUS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Contrasts It with
the Blight Of Infldelity.

True Religion Productive of Cheerful Con
fentment, While Unbelief Is
Continual Source or Misery
and Despair.
The following sermon on 1.-THE Sus
tanning Power of Religion" was deliv
cred by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in tn,
Brooklyn tabernacle, being based or
the text:
Though ye have lain among the pots We
shall We be as the wings OF a dove covered
with silver. and her feathers with yellow gold
Psalms. xviii. i3
suppose you known what the Is
raelites did down in Egyptian slavery,
The men made bricks. Amid the uten
sis of the brick-kiln 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 day
work, lay down to rest. they lay down
among the implements of cookery and
| the implements 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-
SIN irched 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 bondage amid the brickkilns in
to the glorious emancipation which
God had prepared them, he says:
| 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"
Miss Whately, the author of a cele-
brated book, Life 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 pre-.
pared. 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 sill
yer on their wings and gold on their
breasts So you see it is not a far |
fetched smile, or an unnatural
comparison, 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 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 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 when, at
last, we soar away to the warm nest
which God has provided for us in
Heaven. we shall go fairer than dove,
its wings covered with silver, and its
feathers with yellow gold.
/ am going to preach something
which some of you do not believe, and
that is that the grandest possible or
is the religion of Jesus Christ.
There are great many people who
suppose that religion is very differ
snt thing from what it really is. The
reason men condemn the Bible is be-
cause they do not understand the
Bible; they have not properly exam
ned it. DIR. johnson said that Hume
old minister in the bishopric of
Durham that he had never particularly
the New Testament, yet all
lis life warning against it. HALEY. the
announced his skepticism
20 Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir Isaac
Newton said: Now, sir, have exam
ned the subject and you have not; and
am ashamed that you, protesting to ,
De philosopher, consent to condemn ,
! thing you never have examined" ,
Ind SO men reject the religion of Jesus
,hrist because they really have never ,
it. They think it some ,
hing undesirable, something that will {
lot work, something Pecksniffian.
omething hypocritical, something re-
'ulsive, when it is SO bright and so
'eautiful You might compare it to a 1
haffinch, you might compare it to a ,
obin-redbreast, you might compare it q
o dove, its wings covered with sill /
er and its feathers with yellow gold. s
But how is it if a young man becomes I
Christian? All through the club
ooms, where he associates, all through 8
he business circles where he is known, c
here is com miseration. They say: !
What pity that a young man who ]
ad such bright prospects should so '
ave been despoiled by those Christians, il
living up all his worldly prospects for n
which is of no particular +
resent WORTH Here is young f
roman who becomes a Christian; d
er voice, her face, her manners t
ne charm of the drawing-room il
ow, all through the fashionable cir |,
les the whisper goes: "What pity v
nat such a bright light should have /,