The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-03-13
THE FOOD OF ANGELS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on a
Seraphic Diet.
1t Is Abundant and Nutritivo and Some
times Does Wonders-Christ's Invita-
tiOn to the Celestial banquet Is
Full and Free-The Mamma
OF the Israellies.

Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage delivered
his latest sermon to an enormous audi
ence in the New York Academy of
Music, taking for his subject "A Sc
raphic Diet" the text selected being
Psalms lXXviii, 25 "Man did eat an
gels food" He said:
Somewhat risky would be the under
taking to tell just what was the mama
that fell to the Israelites in the wilder
ness: of what it was made, how it was
made and who made it. The mama
was called angels food, but why so
called? Was it because it came from
the place where angels live; or because
angels compounded it; or because an
gels did eat it; or because it was good
enough for angels? On what crystal
platter was it carried to the door of
Heaven and thrown out? How did it
taste? We are told there was in it
something like honey, but if the sac
charine taste in it had been'too strong,
many would not have liked it, and so
it may have had q commingling of
havors-this delicacy of the skies 1t
must have been nutritious, for nation
lived on it for forty years. 1t must
have been healthful for it is so in
spiringly applauded. Itmust have been
abundant, because it dismissed the
necessity of a sutler for great army.
Each person had a ration of three
quarts day allowed him, and so if
teen million pounds were necessary
every week. Those were the times of
which my text speaks, when man did
eat angels food" If the good Lord,
who has helped me so often, will help
me now, will first tell you what is
angels food, and then how we may get
some of it for ourselves. In our mortal
state we must have for mastication,
and digestion and assimilation, the
products Of the earth. Corporeity, as
we'll as mentality, and spirituality,
characterizes us. The style of diet has
much to do with our well-beng Light
and frothy food taken exclusively re-
suits in weak muscle and semi-in-
validism.. The taking of too much ami
NAL food produces sensuality. Vege-
tarians are cranks. Reasonable selec-
tion of the farinaceous and the solid
ordinarily produces physical stamina.
But we have all occasionally been in
an ecstatic state where we forgot the
necessity of earthly food. We were fed
by joys, by anticipations, by discover
cries, by companionships that dwin-
died the dining hour into insignif-
cance, and made the pleasures of the
table stupid and uninviting. There have
been cases where from seemingly in
visible sources the human body has
been maintained as in the remarkable
case of our invalid and Christian neigh
bor Mollie Fancher known through
out the medical and Christian world
for that she was seven weeks without
earthly food, fed and sustained on
heavenly visions. Our beloved DIR. Ire
naeus Prime, editor and theologian,
recorded the wonders concerning this
girl. Prof. West, the great scientist,
marveled over it, and Willard Parker,
of worldwide fame in surgery, threw
up his hands in amazement at it. There
are times in all our lives when the soul
asserts ITSELF and says to the body:
Hush! Stand back! Stand down!
! am at a banquet where no chalices
CLEAN, and no viands smoke, and no
culinary implem cnts clatter. l Iam feed
ing on that whic h no human hand has
mixed, and no earthly oven baked. l
am eating angels food" If you have
never been in such an exalted state,
eommiserate your leaden temperament,
and dismiss you from this service as
incompetent to understand the thrill
ing and glorious suggestiveness of my
text when it US: Man did eat an
gels food"
Now, what do the supernaturals live
on? They experience none of the de-
mands of corporeity, and have no him
drance or environment in the shape'of
bone, and muscle, and flesh, and hence
that which may delecCate our palate
or invigorate our poor dying frames
would be of no use to them. But thew
have food of their own. My text saws
so. There may be other courses of
food in the heavenly menu that | am
not aware of, but | know of five or six
styles of food always on celestial tables
when cherubim, and seraphim, and
archangel gather for heavenly repast:
the mystery of redemption; celestial
music; the heavenly picturesque; sub
lime colloquy; eternal enterprises;
sanity association; divine companion
ship; celebrative jubilance.
There is one subject that excites the
curiosity and inquisitiveness of all
those angels. st. Peter says: (Which
thing the angels desire to look into;'
that is, why did Christ exchange a
palace for barn? Why did he drop a
scepter from his right hand to take a
spear into his left side? Why quit the
anthem of the worshiping heavens to
hear the grooming of a weary mothers
voice? Was straw better than gar
land? "Could it not have been done in
some other way?" says angel the first.
WAS the human race worth such a sac
rifce?" says angel the second. "How
could Heaven ge0 along without him
for thirty-three years?" says angel the
third. Through that assassination
may sinful man rise into our eternal
companionship!" says angel the fourth.
And then they all bend toward each
other and talk about it, and guess about
it, and try to fathom it, and prophesy /
concerning it. But the subject is too
big, and they only nibble at it. They