The Monitor-register., 1897-02-19
ATE GRASS AS AN OK.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE SHOWS HOW A
KING WAS INUNDATED.

tion Of Sacred Things-Use of the Sab
bath.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.-Dn Talmage
in this sermon uses weird and strange
scene Of ancient times to illustrate the
behavior of modern people who desecrate
sacred things, and for their arrogance
get bad tumble. His subject was ga
King Eating Grass and the text
Daniel iv, S3, "The same hour was the
thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar,
and he was driven from men, and did
eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet
with the dew of heaven, till his hairs
were grown like eagles feathers, and
his nails like birds claws"
Better shade your eyes lest they be
put out with the splendor of Babylon,
as some morning you walk out with
Nebuchadnezzar on the suspension
bridges which hang from the house tops
and he shews you the vastness of his
realm. As the sun kindles the domes
with glisterings almost insufferable and
the great streets thunder up their pomr
into the ear of the monarch, and armed
towers stand around, adorned with the
spoils of conquered empires, Nebuchad-
nezzar waves his hand above the stu
pendous scene and exclaims, "Is not
this great Babylon, that have built for
the house of the kingdom by the might
of my power and for the honor of my
majesty" But in an instant all that
splendor is gone from his vision, for a
voice falls from the heaven, saying: &C
King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is
spoken. The kingdom is departed from
thee, and they shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling 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 whom
soever he will" One hour from the
time that he made the boast he is on the
way to the fields, a maniac, and, rush
ing into the forests, he becomes one OF
the beasts, covered with eagles feathers
for protection from the cold, and his
nails growing TO birds claws in order
that he might dig the earth for roots
and climb the trees for nuts.
On the Road to Babylon.
You see there is great variety in the
Scriptural landscape. In several dis
courses we have looked at mountains of
excellence, but now we look down into
a great, dark chasm of wickedness as we
come to speak Of Nebuchadnezzar. God
in his Word sets before us the beauty of
self denial, of sobriety, of devotion, of
courage, and then, lest we should not
thoroughly understand him, he intro
duced Daniel and Paul and Deborah as
illustrations of those virtues. God also
speaks to us in his Word as to the hate
fitness of pride, of folly, of impiety
and lest we should not thoroughly un-
derstand him, introduces Nebuchadnez-
Ear as the impersonation of these forms
of depravity. The former style of char
acter is a lighthouse, showing us way
into safe harbor, and the latter style
of character is a black buoy, swinging
on the rocks, to show where vessels
wreck themselves. Thanks unto God
for both the buoy and the lighthousel
The host of Nebuchadnezzar is thunder
ing at the gates of Jerusalem. The
crown of that sacred city is struck into
the dust by the hand of Babylonish in
science The vessels of the temple,
which had never been desecrated by pro-
fame touch, were ruthlessly seized for
sacrilege and transportation. Oh, what
sad hour when those Jews, at the
command of the invading army, are
obliged to leave the home of their ma
tivity? How their hearts must have
been wrung with anguish when, on the
day they departed, they heard the trum-
pets from the top of the temple an
nouncing the hour for morning sacrifice
and saw the smoke of the affairs ascend
ing around the holy hill of Zion; for
we'll they knew that in a far distant
land they would never hear that trumpet
call nor behold the majestic ascent of
the sacrifice! Behold those captives on
the road from Jerusalem to Babylon
Worn and weary, they dare not halt,
for roundabout are armed men urging
them on with hoot and shout and bias
phemy.
Aged men tottered along Oh 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 and sobbed them
selves to sleep when the night had fall
en-. 1t seemed as if at every step heart
broke. But at turn of the road Baby
Ion suddenly springs upon the view of
the captives, with its gardens and pal
aces. A shout goes up from the army as
they behold their native city, but not
not one huzza is heard from the cap
tives. These exiles saw no splendor
there, for it was not home. The Eu-
pirates did not have the water CLEAN of
the brook Kedron Or the pool of Sloan
The willows of Babylon, Oh which they
hung their untuned harps, were not as
graceful as the trees which at the foot
Of Mount Moriah seemed to weep at the
departed glory of Judah, and all the
fragrance that descended from the hang
ing gardens upon that great city was
not SO sweet as one breath Of the acacia
and frankincense that the high priest
kindled in the sanctuary at Jerusalem.
On certain night, little while after
these captives had been brought to his
city, Nebuchadnezzar is scared with a
night vision. A bad mans 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 porcupine
quills. The ghosts of old transgressions
are sure to wander about in the dark
ness and beckon and hiss Yet when
the morning came he found that the
vision had entirely fed from him.
Dreams drop no anchors, and therefore
ere apt to sail away before we can fasten
them. Nebuchadnezzar calls all the wise
men Of the land into his presence, de-
handing that by their necromanoy they
explain his dream. They of course fail.
Then their wrathful king issues an
edict with as little sense as mercy, Or
dering the Staying of all the learned
men of the country. But Daniel the
prophet comes in with the Interpretation
just in time to save the wise men and
the Jewish captives.
Pride and Ruin.
NY irlehus, 40 you hoC see ehaU prloe
and ruin ride in the same saddle? See
Nebuchadnezzar on the proudest throne
Of all the earth, and then see him Craze
with the sheep and the cattlel Pride is
commander, well pinned and caparison-
ed, bat 1t leads forth dark and frown-
ing host. The arrows from the AL
nighty's culver are apt to strike man
when on the wing. Goliath shakes his
great spear in defiance, but the smooth
stones from the brook make him stag
ger and fall like an OK under butch
er's bludgeon. He who is down cannot
fall. Vessels scudding under bare poles