Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-02-24
RBV. DIR. TALMACB.
The Eminent Divine's Suntay
Discourse,
Subject: "A King Eating Grass"

Subject "A King Eating Grass"
TEXT: '.The same hour was the thing full.
nlled upon Nebuchadnrzzar. and he was
driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen,
| and bis body was wet with the dew OF
heaven. till his hairs were grown like eagles
feathers, and his nails like birds claws.'-
Daniel iv., 33.
| Better shade your eyes lest they be put out
| with the spleador Of Babylon, as some morn.
ing you walk out with Nebuchadnezzar OF
the suspension bridges which hang from the
nouSetopS anu he shows you the vastnes5 oi
| his realm. As the sun kindes the domes
With glist nings almost insufrerable and the
| great streets thunder up their pomp into the
ear OF the monarch, and armed towers stand
around. adorned with the spoils of con-
| quered empires, Nebuchadnezzar waves his
hand above the stupendous scene AMI ex.
claims. rs not this great Babylon, that
have built for the house Of the kingdom by
the might of my power and tor the honor Of
| my majesty" But in an instan: all that
| sp!endor is gone from his vision, for a vo ce
| falls from the heaven, sayinS: 80 King
| NebuchadneZzar, to thee 1t is spoken. The
kingdom is departed from thee, and they
| shall drive thee from men, and thy twelling
shall be with the beasts OF the field. They
| shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven
| years shall pass over thee until thou know
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom Of
men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. !"
| One hour from the time that he made the
boast he is on the way to the fields a maniac,
| and rushing into the forests, he becomes one
| OF the beasts, covered with eagles feathers
Tor protection from the cold. and his nails
| rowing to birds claws in order that he
| might dig the earth for roots and climb the
| trees for nuts.
You see there is great variei y in the Grip
tural landscape. In several discourses we
| now We look down into a great, dark chasm
| OF wickedness as We come to speak OF Nebu-
| chadnezzar. God in His Word sets before us
the beauty Of self denial, of sobriety, of de-
| votion. OF courage, and then, lest We sh ould
! not thoroughly understand Him, ne intro
duced Daniel and Paul and Deborah as illus
tra:ions OF those virtues. God also speaks
| to US in His Word as to the hatefulness Of
| pride, of folly. of i'm piety and lest we should
| not thoroughly understand Him, introduces
| Nebuchadnezzar as the impersonation of
these forms of depravity. The former style
OF character is lighthouse, showing us q
way into safe hRrbor, and the latter style
Of character is a black buoy, swinging on
the rocks, to show where vessels wreck them
selves. Thanks unto God for both the buoy
and the lighthouse! The host of Nebuchad-
nezzar is laundering at the gates of Jerusa-
into the dust by the hand of Babylonish in
science. The vessels Of the temple, which
had never been desecrated by profane touch,
were ruthlessly seized for sacrilege and
transportation. Oh, what a sad hour when
those Jews, at the command OF the invading
army, are obliged to leave the home of theii
nativity? How their hearts must have been
wrung with anguish when, on the day they
departed, they neard the trumpets from the
top OF the temple announcing the hour for
morning sacrifice and saw the smoke of the
affairs ascending around the holy hill of Zion.
for well they knew that in far distant land
| they would never hear that trumpet call noi
behold the majestic ascent of the sacrificed
Behold those captives on the road from
Jerusalem to Babyloni Worn and weary,
they dare not halt, for roundabout are armed
men urging them on with hoot and shout
and blasphemy.
Aged men totiered along on their slaves,
weeping that they could not lay their bones
IN the sleeping place of their fathers and
children, wondered at the length Of the way
aa.1 so55ed themselves % siSep when the
| night had fallen. 1t seemed as il at every
step heart broke. But at turn of the road
Babylon suddenly springs upon the view Of
the captives, with its gardens and palaces.
shout goes up from the army as they be-
| hold their native city, but not ono huzza Is
heard from the cap:ives. These exiles saw
no splendor there, for il was not home The
Euphrates did not have the water gleam of
tho brook kedron or the pool of Sloan The
| willows of Babylon. on which they hung
! their untuned harps, were not as graceful as
the trees which at the foot of Mount Moriah
seemed 10 weep at the departed glory of
judah, and all the fragrance that descended
from the hanging gardens upon that great
city was not SO sweet as one breath of the
acacia aud frankincense that the high priest
kin lied in the sanctuary at Jerusalem.
On a certain night, a little while after
these captiyeS had been bYOu0hf 70 hia titv
Nabuchadnezzar is scared with night vision.
bad man s pillow is apt to be stuffed with
deeds and forebodings which keep talking in
the night. He will find that the eagles down
In his pillow will stick him like porcupins
quills. The ghosts of old transgressions are
sure to wander about in the darkness and
beckon and hiss. Yet when the morning
came he found that the vision had entirely
ned from him. Dreams drop no anchors,
and therefore are apt to sail away before We
can fasten them. Nebuchadn. zzar calls all
the wise men of the land into his presence
demanding that by their necromaucy they
explain his dream. They of course fail.
Then their faithful king issues an edict with
as little sense rs mercy, ordering the Staying
Of all the learned men OF the country But
Daniel the prophet comes In with the inter-
probation just in time to save the wise men
and the Jewish captives.
Ny friends, do you not see that pride and
ruin ride in the same saddle? See Nebuchad-
nezzar on the prcudest throne of all the
earth, aud then see him Craze with the sheep
and the cattle! Pride Is commander, we'll
plumed and comparisoned, but 1t leads forth
u dark and frowning host. The arrows from
the Almighiy's quiver are apt to strike q
man when OH the wing. Goliath shakes his
great spear in defiance, but the smooth
stones from the brook make him staggcr and
| fall like an OK under butchers bludgeon.
He who ia down cannot fall. Vessels scud-
ding under bare poles do not feel the force
OF the storm, while those with all salts set
capsize at the sudden descent of the tempest.
Remember that we can be as proud of our
humility Is anything eise Antisthenes
walked the streets OF Athens with q ragged
| cloak to demonstrate his humility. but So
crates declared he could see bis hypocris =
through the holes in his cloak. We would
| all see ourselves smaller than we are IL we
were as philosophic as Severus, the Emperor
OF Rome, who said at the close OF his life,
II have seen everything, and everything is
nothing" And when the urn that was to
contain his ashes was at his command
brought 10 him. he said, Little urn, thou
shalt contain one for whom the world was
| too little
Do you not also learn from the misfortune
| OF this king OF Babylon what terrible thing
| Is the loss of reason. There IL no calamity
| that can possibly befali US in this world so
| great as arrangement of intellect; 10 have
the body OF man and yet to fall even below
| the instinct OF brute. In this world of hor.
rible sights, the most horrible is the idiots
! most horrible is the maniac's laugh. ves-
Sci driven on the rocks, when hundreds &c
| down never 10 rise and other hundreds drag
their manglei and shivering bodies upon he
| winters beach, ls nothing compared to the
laundering of intel'ects full OF vast hopes