Connecticut western news., 1897-02-18
ATE GRASS AS AN OK.
REV OR. TALMAGE SHOWS HOW A
 KING WAS AUM.llATEo.

NfN1 "AS 7OMtLiA EO. He Uses Weird and Strange Scene to
 Enforce . Ussful Lesson-rhe Desecrs-
 ton of Sacred Thmgs-Uss of the Sab
 sash.
 WASHINGTON. Feb. 14.-Dr 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 "A King Eating Grass and the text Daniel iv, S8, "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 shows you the vastness of his realm. As the sun kindles the domes with glisterings almost insufferable and the great streets thunder up their pomp 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: 70 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, 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 . 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 fulness of pride, of folly, of impiety and lest we should not thoroughly un- derstand him, introduces Nebuchadnez- gar as the impersonation of these forms of depravity. The former style of char acter is lighthouse, showing us way into safe harbor, and the latter style of character is black buoy. swinging on the rocks, to show where vessels wreck themselves. Thanks unto God for both the buoy and the lighthouse! 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- fane 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 na- tivityp 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 altars 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 sacrificei Behold those captives on the road from Jerusalem to Babylon! 1! Worn and weary, they dare not halt, for roundabout are armed men urging them on with boot and shout and blas- phemy.
 Aged men tottered 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 and sobbed them selves to sleep when the night had fall en- It 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 huxza is heard from the cap tives. These exiles saw no splendor there, for 1t was not home. The Eu- pirates did not have the water gleam of the brook Kedron or the pool of Siloam. 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 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 a 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 fled from him. Dreams drop no anchors, and therefore are apt to sail away before we can fasten them. Nebuchadnezzar calls all the wise Aen of the land into his presence, de- manding that by their necromancy they explain his dream. They of course fail. Then their wrathful king issues an edict with as little sense as mercy, or