The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-09-13
OPEN WINDOWS.
Latest Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage.
The Eminent Preacher Draws Instructive
Lessons from the story of Daniel In
the Den of Lions-Power of
Earnest Prayer.

ed was from Daniel vi 10: ''His win
dows being open in his chamber tC
ward Jerusalem" The sermon fol
lows:
The scoundrelly princes of Per
STA, urged on by political jealous
against Daniel, have succeeded in get
ting law passed that whosoever pray
to God shall be put under the paw
and teeth of the lions, who are lash
ing themselves in rage and hunge
up and down the stone cage, o
putting their lower jaws on tn
ground, believing till the earth trem
bles. But the leonine threat did no
hinder the devotions of Daniel, tn,
Ceur-de-Lion of the ages. His enc
mics might as well have a law that the
sun should not draw water, or tina
the south wind should not sweep across
a garden of magnolias or that Goo
should be abolished. They could no
scare him with the red-hot furnaces
and they cannot now scare him will
the lions. AS soon as Daniel hears o.
this enactment he leaves his office o.
secretary of state, with its upholstery
of crimson and gold, and comes dowr
the white marble steps and goes to his
own house. He opens his window and
puts the shutters back and pulls the
curtain aside so that he can look to
ward the sacred city of Jerusalem, and
then prays.
l suppose the people in the street
gathered under and before his window.
nj ~n;l. L
the law; he ought to be arrested -
And the constabulary of the city rush
to the police headquarters and report
that Daniel is on his knees at the wide
open window. You are my prisoner -
says the officer of the law, dropping a
heavy hand on the shoulder of the
lzneeling Daniel. AS the eonstables
open the door of the cavern to thrust
IN their prisoner, they see the glaring
eyes of the monsters. But Daniel be-
comes the first lion-tamer, and they
lick his hand and fawn at his feet, and
that night he sleeps with the shaggy
name of a wild beast for his pillow,
while the king that night, sleepless in
the palace. has on him the paw and
teeth of lion he cannot tame-the lion
of remorseful conscience.
What picture it would be for some
artist Darius, in the early dusk of
morning, not waiting for footmen or
chariot, Fastening to the den. all
flushed and nervous and in dishabille.
and looking through the crevices of
the cage to sec what had become of
his prime minister. What, no soundr'
he says. Daniel is surely devoured.
and the lions are sleeping after their
horrid meal. the bones of the poor man
scattered across the floor of the cavern
With trembling voice Darius calls out:
Daniel Noanswer. for the prophet is
vet in profound slumber. But lion,
more easily awakened. advances, and,
with hot breath blown through the
crevice, seems angrily to demand the
cause of this interruption, and then
another wild beast lifts his name from
under Daniels head, and the prophet,
waking up. comes forth to report him
self all unhurt and well.
But our text stands us at Daniels
window. open toward Jerusalem. Why
in that direction open? Jerusalem was
his native land, and all the pomp of
his Babylonish successes could not
make him forget it. He came there
from Jerusalem at Is years of age, and
he never visited it, though he lived to
be s. years. Yet. when he wanted to
arouse the deepest emotions and grand
est aspirations of his heart, he had his
window open toward his native Jerusa-
lem. There are many of you to-day
position. This is getting to be a ma
ton of foreigners. They have come
into all occupations and professions.
They sit in all churches. 1t may be
twenty years ago since you got your
naturalization papers, and you may
be thoroughly Americanized, but
you can't forget the land of
your birth. and your sympathies
20 out toward it. Your windows
are open toward Jerusalem. Your
father and mother are buried there.
1t may have been n very humble home
in which YOU were born, but your
memory often plays around it, and you
hope some day to go and see 1.-THE
hill. the tree, the brook, the house, the
you started off with parental blessing
to make your own way in the world;
and God only knows how sometimes
you have longed to see the familiar
places of your childhood. and how in
awful crises of life you would like to
have caught a glimpse of the old,
wrinkled face that bent over you as
you lay on the gentle lap twenty or
forty or fifty years ago. You may
have on this side of the sea risen in
fortune. and, like Daniel, have become
great, and many have come into pros
perities which you never could have
reached if you had stayed there, and
you may have many windows to your
house-bay windows and skylight win
dows, and windows of conservatory.
and windows on all sides-but YOU
have at least one window open toward
Jerusalem.
When the foreign steamer comes to
the wharf. you see the long line of
sailors, with shouldered mailbags.
coming down the planks, carrying as
many letters as you might suppose to
be enough for a years correspondence,
and this repeated again and again dur
ing the week. Multitudes of them are
letters from home. and at all the post
Offices of the land people will go to the
window and anXiously ask for them.
of thousands of persons find
ing that window of foreign mails the
open window toward Jerusalem. Mes
sages that say: when are you coming
home to see us? Brother has gone
into the army. Sister is dead. Father
and mother are getting very feeble.
We are having a great struggle to get