Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-05-15
A MATTER OF BREAD.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE ON A MISSION FOR
HUMANITY.

HUMANITY.
He Takes For His Subject n Thought Most
Interesting to All Who Arc Trying to
Achieve q LIvelihood-The Ravens of
God.
WASHINGTON, May 9.-Dr. Talmage
has returned home after most remark
ably successful tour through the west,
and in behalf of the famine struck Of
India speaking in tho great corn cen
ters to vast multitudes of people and
raising many carloads of breadstutfs
and many thousands of dollars. His
subject is today to the last degree ap-
propriatc to all who are trying to achieve
livelihood. Text I Kings xvii, 6,
"And the ravens brought him bread and
flesh in the morning and bread and flesh
in tho evening.
The ornithology of the Bible is a very
interesting study the stork which
knoweth her appointed time; the COM
mon sparrows teaching the lesson of
Gods providence; the ostriches OF the
desert, by careless incubation, illustrat-
ing the reclilessness of parents who do
not take enough pains with their chill
dren; the eagle symbolizing riches
which take wings and fly away; the
pelican emblemizing solitude; the bat,
q flake of the darkness; the night hawk,
the ossifrage, the cuckoo, the lapwing,
the osprey, by the command of God, III
Leviticus. flung out of tho worlds bill
of fare.
would like to have been with Au-
dubon as he went through the woods,
with gun and pencil, bringing down
and sketching the fowls of heaven, his
unfolded portfolio thrilling all Chris
tendon. What wonderful creatures of
God the birds are. Some Of them this
morning, like the songs of heaven let
loose, bursting through the gates of
heaven. Consider their feathers, which
are clothing and Conveyance at the same
time; the nine vertebrn of the neck,
the three eyelids to each eye, the third
eyelid an extra curtain for graduating
the light of the sun. Some of these
birds scavengers and some of them or
chestra. Thank God for quail whistle,
and lark's carol, and the twitter of tho
wren, called by the ancients the king
of birds, Eecause when the fowls Of
heaven went into contest as to who
should fly the highest, and the eagle
swung nearest the sun, wren on back
of tho eagle, after the eagle was ex-
hausted, sprang up much higher, and so
was called by the ancients the king OF
birds. Consider those of them that have
golden CROWNS and crests, showing them
to be feathered impcrials. And listen to
the humming birds sercnade III the ear
| of the honeysucllle. Look at the belted
kingfsher, striking dart from sky to
water. Listen to the voice of the owl,
giving the keynote to all croakers. And
behold the condor among the Andes,
battling with tho reindeer. l do not
know whether an aquarium or aviary
is the best altar from which to worship
God.
An archaeological Wonder.
There is an incident in my text that
battles nll the ornithological wonders of
/ the world. The grain crop hnd been cut
off. Famine was in the land. In cavo
by the brock Cherith sat minister of
God, Elijah, waiting for something to
cat. Why did he not go to the neigh
boIs? There were no neighbors. 1t was
Wilderness Why did he not pick some
of Ito berries? There were none. If
there had been, they would have been
dried up. Seated enc morning at the
mouth of his cave, the prophet sees a
flock of birds approaching. Oh, if they
wero only cartridges, or if he only had
an arrow with which to bring them
down. But as they come nearer he finds
that they are not comestible, but IN
clean, and tho eating of them would be
spiritual death. Tho strength of their
beak, tho length Of their wings, the
blackness CT their color, their loud,
harsh "cruck, cruckl" prove them to
be ravens.
They whir around about the proph-
cts head, and then they come Oh fut-
tering wing and pause on the level OF
his lips, and ono CT the ravens brings
bread, and another raven brings meat,
and after they have discharged their
tiny cargo they wheel past, aud others
come, until after awhile the prophet
has enough, and these black servants OF
the wilderness table are gone. For SIX
months, and some say whole year,
morning and evening, Il breakfast and
q supper bell sounded as these ravens
rang cut Or the air their "cruck,
cruckl" Guess where they got the food
from. The old rabbins say they got it
from the kitchen of King Ahab. Others
say that the ravens got their food from
pious Obadiah, who was i'll the habit OF
feeding the prosecuted Some say that
the ravens brought the food to their
Young in the trees, and that Elijah had
only to climb up and get it. Some say
that tho whole story is improbable, tor
these were calniyorous birds, and the
food they carried was the torn flesh OF
living beasts, and therefore ceremonial,
ly unclean, or it was carrion and would
not havo been fit for the prophet Some
say they were not ravens at all, but
that the work translated ravens" III
my text ought to have been translated
"Arabs. +" so it would have read, "The
Arabs brought bread and flesh i'll the
morning, and bread and flesh IN the
evening" Anything but admit the BIZ
BILE to be true.
Hew away at this miracle until all
the miracle is gone. Go on with the de-
plotting process, but know, my brother,
that you are robbing only one man
4 that is yourself-of one of the most
con. eorting, beautiful, pathetic and tri-
umphant lessons in all the ages. l can