The Monitor-register., 1897-05-14

Achieve a L~ivelihood-The Ravens of
God.
j. WASHINGTON, May 9.-Dr. Talmage
has returned home after a most remark
ably successful tour through the west,
and in behalf of the famine struck of
India speaking in the great corn CEN
ters to vast multitudes of people and
raising many carloads of breadstuffs
and many thousands of dollars. His
subject is today to the last degree ap-
propriate to all who are trying to achieve
a livelihood. Text, I Kings xvii, 6,
t'And the ravens brought him bread and
flesh in the morning and bread and flesh
in the 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 recklessness 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,
a flake of the darkness; the night hawk,
the ossifrage, the cuckoo, the lapwing,
the osprey, by the command of God, in
Leviticus, flung out of the 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 vertebre 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's whistle,
and lark's carol, and the twitter of the
wren, called by the ancients the king
Of birds, because when the fowls of
u6dN6u W6lU 1ubO Il SOAttoU a. W WIN
should fly the highest, and the eagle
swung nearest the sun, a wren on back
of the 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 imperials. And listen to
49, I1o-n, I,rl3c oora,o1n IN tho nor
of the h~oneysuckle. Look at the belted
kingfsher, striking a 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 the 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 all the orn~ithological wonders of
the world. The grain crop had been cut
off. Famine was in the land. In a cave
by the brock Cherith sat a minister Of
God, Elijah, waiting for something to
eat. Why did he not go to the neigh
bors? There were no neighbors. 1t was
a wilderness. Why did he not pick some
of the berries? There were none. If
there had been, they would have been
dried up. Seated one morning at the
mouth Of his cave, the prophet sees a
flock of birds approaching. Oh, if they
were only cartridges, or if he only had
an arrow with which to bring them
down. But as they come nearer he finds
hat they are not comestible, but I'M
clean, and the eating of them would be
spiritual death. The strength of their
beak, the length of their wings, the
blackness CT their color, their loud,
harsh "cruck, crucki' 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 one of the ravens brings
bread, and another raven brings meat,
and after they have discharged Their
tiny cargo they wheel past, and 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 a whole year,
morning and evening, a breakfast and
a supper bell sounded as these ravens
rang out Oh the air their ''cruck,
cruck!' Guess where they got the food
from. The old rabbins say they got il
from the kitchen of King Ahab. Others
say that the ravens got their food from
pious Obadiah, who was in 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 the whole story is improbable, for
these were ~carnivorous 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 have been fit for the prophet. Some
say they were not ravens at all, but
that the work translated ravens" in
my text ought to have been translated
ARABS. SO it would have read, 1.-The
Arabs brought bread and flesh in the
morning, and bread and flesh in the
evening" Anything but admit the BIZ
BILE to be true.
law away ao tAlo lh41C Clt uhl11 al
the miracle is gone. Go on with the de-
plotting process, but know, my brother,
that you are robbing only one
and that is yourself-of one of the most
comforting, beautiful, pathetic and tri-
umphant lessons in all the ages. I can
tell you who these purveyors were
they were ravens. l can tell you who
froirhfo6 fbotn with nrovicionc Gol
/ can tell you who launched them
God. l can tell you who taught them
which way to fy-God. l can tell you
who tsld them at what cave to swoop
God. / can tell you who introduced
raven to prophet and prophet to raven
-Ged. There is one passage I will
whisper in your ear, for I would not
want to utter it aloud. lest some one
should drop down under its power, eff
any man shall take away from the words
of the prophecy of this book, God shall
take away his part out of the book Of
life and out Of the I.oly City"
While, then, we watch the ravens
feeding Elijah, let the swift dove of
Gods spirit sweep down the sky with
divine food, and ON outspread wing
pause at the lip of every soul hungering
for comfort.
On the banks of what rivers have been
the great battles of the world? While
you are looking over the map of the
world to answer that, I will tell you
that the great conflict today is on the
Potomac, on the Hudson, on the Missis-
sippi, on the Thames, on the Savannah,
on the Rhine, on the Nile, on the
Ganges, on the Hoang-Ho. 1t is a bat
tie that has been going on for 5000
years. The troops engaged in it are
1000, 600, 900, and those who have
fallen by the Way are yaster in number