The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-09-20
THE OPEN WINDOW.
DR.. Talmage Draws Lessons From
the Life OF Daniel
Keeping the windows Open Toward the
kInal Haven and Holding in sight
the GIories and Pleasures
NJ HeATcn-

ward Jerusalem. Daniel VI. 10
The scoundrelly princes Of Persia.
urged on by political jealousy against
Daniel. have succeeded la getting a
law passed that whoever prays to God
shall be put under the paws and teeth
OF the lions, who are flashing them
selves Ina rage and hunger up and
down the stone cage, or putting their
lower jaws on the ground, believing
til the earth trembles- But the leo
nine threat did not hinder the devotions
Of Daniel, the CRur-de-Lion of the
ages. His enemies might as well have
q law that the sun should not draw
water, or that the south wind should
not sweep across a garden of magnO-
las or that God should be abolished.
They could not scare him with the
red-hot furnaces, and they cannot now
scare him witS the lions. As soon as
Daniel hears of this enactment he
leaves his Office Of secretary of state,
with it's upholstery of crimson and
gold, and comes down the white mar
bls 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 toward the
sHcred city of Jerusalem, and then
prays.
suppose the people in the street
gathered under and before his win
dow. and said: "Just see that man
defying the laws he ought TO be ar
rested" 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 kheeling Daniel As
the constables open the door of the
cavern to thrust in their prisoner,
they see the glazing eyes of the mon
sters. But Daniel becomes the first
lion-tamer, and they lick his hand and
fGwn at his feet, and that night he
sleeps with the shaggy name of wild
beast for his pillow, while the king
that night, sleepless in the palace, has
on him the paw and teeth of a lion
he can not tame-the lion of a re-
morseful 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 see what had become of
his prime minister what, no soundl"
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 cav
ern." With trembling voice Darius
calls out: DanielF No answer, for.
the prophet is yet in profound slum-
Der. But lion, more easily awalx-
ened, advances, and, with hot breath
blown through the crevice, seems
angrily to demand the cause of this in
terruption, and then another wild
beast lifts his name from under
Daniels head, and the prophet waking
up comes forth TO report himself all
unhurt and we'll
But our text stands US at Daniels
window, open toward Jerusalem. Why
In that direction open2 Jerusalem was
his native land, and all the pomp Of
his Baby lonish successes could not
make him forget it. lie came there
from Jerusalem at eighteen years of
age, and he never visited it, though he
lived to be eighty-fve years. Yet,
when he wanted to arouse the deepest
emotions and grandest aspirations of
his heart, he had his window open to-
ward his native Jerusalem. There are
many of you to-day who understand
that without any exposition. This is
getting TO be a nation of foreigners.
They have come into all occupations
and professions. They sit in all
churches. 1t may be twenty years
ago since you got naturalization pa
pers, and you may be thoroughly
Americanized, but you can't forget
the land of your birth, and your warm
est sympathies go out toward it. Your
windows arc open toward Jerusalem.
Your father and mother are bur-
led there. 1t may have been
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 place so
sacred, the door from which 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 faces of
your childhood. and how in awful
crises Of life you would like to have
caught glimpse of the old, wrinkled
face that hent 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 may
have come into properties which You
never could have reached If you had
stayed there, and you may have many
windows to your neutrality-suspicious..
and slxylight windows, and windows
of conservatory. and windows on all
sides-but you have at least one win
dow open toward Jerusalem
When the foreign steamer comes to
the wharf you see the long line of
sailors, with shouldered mail bags.
coming down the planks, carrying as
many letters as you might suppose to
be enough for years correspondence.
and this repeated again and again
during the week. Multitudes of them
are letters from home, and at all the
post Offices Of the land people will 60
10 the windows and anxiously ask for
them. hundreds of thousands of per-
sons finding that window of foreign
mails the open window toward Jerusa-
lem. Messages that say: when are
You coming home to see Us? Brother
has gone to the army. Sister is dead.
Father and mother are getting very
feeble. We ere having a great strug-
gle to get on here. Would you advise
US to come TO you, or will you come to
us2 All join in Lore. and hope TO meet
you, If not in this world, then in bet.