The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-11-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Keep Your Windows Always Open
Toward Jerusalem.
4 Discourse Astounding In Christian Cheer
fulness and Encouragement-The
Homesick Alien-Lessons
from Daniel.


Homesick Alien-Lessons
from Daniel.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage selects as
! the theme for this weeks sermon The
! Open Window" basing it on the text:
His windows being open In his chamber to-
| ward Jerusalem. Daniel vi. 10.
The scoundrelly princes OF Persia,
urged on by political jealousy against
Daniel, have succeeded in getting q
law passed that whoever prays to God
shall be put under the paws and teeth
4 of the lions, who are flashing them
selves in rage and hunger up and
down the stone cage, or putting their
lower Jaws on the ground, believing
| till the earth trembles. But the leo
nine threat did not hinder the devotions
| OF Daniel, the Ceur-de-Lion of the
| ages. His enemies might as well have
| law that the sun should not draw
water, or that the south wind should
not sweep across 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 with 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
BILE 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
sacred 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 law; he ought to be ar
rested" And the consta bulary of the
city rush to the police headquarters
and report that Daniel is on his knees
ut the wide-open window. lyon are
my PRISONER" says the officer of the
law, dropping heavy hand on the
shoulder OF the kneeling Daniel. As
the constables open the door of the
cavern to thrust in their prisoner,
they see the glaring eyes of the mon
sters. But Daniel becomes the first
lion tanner, and they lick his hand and
fawn at his feet, and that night hc
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 lion
he can not tame-the lion of q re-
morseful conscience.
What picture it would be for some
artist: Darius, in tho 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 oil
his prime minister "What. no soundP
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: Danielv' No answer, for
the prophet is yet in profound slum
ber But lion, more easily awsk
ened, advances, and. with hot breath
blown through the crevice, seem:
angrily to demand the cause of this In
: terruption, and then another wilc
, beast lifts his name from under
Daniels head, and the prophet waking
up comes forth to report himself al
l unhurt and we'll
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 o.
his Babylonish successes could no
: make him forget it. He came ther'
from Jerusalem at eighteen years O.
Q age, and he never visited it, though b.
lived to be eighty-five years. Yet
n when he wanted to arouse the deepes
r emotions and grandest aspirations o
: his heart, he had his window open to
% ward his native Jerusalem. There ar
!, many Of you to-day who understan'
that without any exposition. This
Y getting to be a nation of foreigners
They have come into all occupation
n and professions. They sit in al
d churches. 1t may be twenty year
d ago since you got naturalization pa
pers, and you may be thorough
v Americanized, but you can't forge
o the land of your birth, and your warm
est sympathies go ont toward 1t. You
t windows are open toward Jerusalem
d Your father and mother are bur
5, led there. 1t may have bee
l. a very humble home in which 20
d were born, but your memory ofte
y plays around it, and you hope som
day to go and see 1.-THE hill, til
i tree, the brook, the house, the place s
sacred, the door from which 20
n started off with parental blessing
is make your own way in the world; an
II God only knows how sometimes yo
lie have longed to sec the familiar faces
o. your childhood, and how in awfl
> crises of life you would like to ha'
IS caught glimpse of the old, wrinkle
face that bent over you as you lay c
1T the gentle lap twenty or forty or fiji
le years ago. You may have on this sit
w of the sea risen in fortune, and. Ill
Daniel, have become great, and ms
10 have come into properties which "
e! never could have reached if yon hi
t. stayed there, and you may have mai
10 windows to your neutrality-suspicious.
and skylight windows. and windoy
IL of conservatory. and windows on 9
If sides-but You have at least one wi
er dow open toward Jerusalem,
When the foreign steamer comes
Il the wharf you see the long line
he sailors, with shouldered mail bag