The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-07-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Practical Lessons Taught ey Ewes
DisObedience.
"A Poorly Regulated Inquisitivencss DAN
gerous-The Sweetest of Fruits some
times Productive of the
Greatest Agony.

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And when the woman saw that the tire, vas
| good for food and that it was pleasant to the
| eyes, ana a tree to be desired to make 1e wise
she took of the fruit thereof and did eat ar d
| gave also unto her husband with her, and he
| did eat.-Gencsis ill., e
1t is the first Saturday afternoon in
| the worlds existence. Ever since sun
rise Adam has been watching the bril-
liant pageantry of wings and scales
| and clouds, and in his first lessons in
zoology and orthodoxy and technology
he has noticed that the robins fly the
air in twos, and that the fish swim the
waters in two, and that the lions walk
the fields in twos, and in the warm
redolence of that Saturday afternoon
he falls off into slumber; and as if by
allegory to teach all ages that the
greatest of earthly blessings is sound
sleep, this paradisaical somnolence
ends with the discovery on the part of
Adam of a corresponding intelligence
just landed on a new planet. OF the
mother of all the living l speak Eve,
the first. the fairest, and the best.
l make Inc a garden. | inlay the
paths with mountain moss, and | bor-
der them with pearls from Ceylon and
diamonds from Golconda. Here and
there are fountains tossing in the sun
light and ponds that ripple under the
padding of the swans. | gather lilies
from the Amazon, and orange groves
from the tropics, and tamarids from
GOyaz. There are woodbine and
honeysucllles climbing over the wall,
and starred spaniels sprawling them
selves on the grass. l invite amid
these trees the larks and the brown
thrushes, and the robins, and all the
brightest birds of heaven, and they
stir the air with infinite chirp and
carol. And yet the place is a desert
filled with darkness and death as COM
pared with the residence of the woman
of the text, the subject of my story.
Never since have such skies looked
down through such leaves into such
waters! Never has river wave had
such curve and heen and bank as
adorned the Pison. the Havilah, the
Gihon, and the Iiddekcl even the peb-
bles being bdellium and onyx stone.
What fruits, with no curculio to sting
the rind. What flowers, with no slug
to gnaW the root. What atmosphere,
with no frost to chill and with no heat
to consume. Bright colors tangled in
the grass. Perfume in the air. Music
in the sky. Great scene of gladness
and joy.
Right there under a bower of leaf
and vine and shrub occurred the first
marriage. Adam took the hand of this
immaculate daughter of God and pro-
nounced the ceremony when he said:
Bone of my bone, and flesh of my
hesh.' a forbidden tree stood up in
the midst of that exquisite park. Eve
saunterlng out alone one day looks up
at the tree and sees the beautiful fruit
and wonders if it is sweet, and won
ders if it is sour, and standing there,
says: 81 think l will just put my hand
upon the fruit; it will do no damage to
the tree; | will not take the fruit to
eat. but | will just take it down to ex-
anime it, She put the fruit to her
teeth, she tasted, she allowed Adam
also to taste the fruit, the door of the
world opened, and the monster Sin
entered. Let the heavens gather black
ness, let the winds sigh on the bosom of
the hills, and cavern, and desert, and
earth, and sky join in one long, deep,
hell-rending howl-"The word is lost.'
Beasts that before We're harmless and
full of play put forth claw, and sting,
and tooth, and tusk. Birds whet their
beak for prey. Clouds troop in the
sky. Sharp thorns shoot up through
the short grass Blasting on the leaves.
All the chords of that great harmony
are snapped. Upon the brightest home
this world ever saw our first parents
turned their back and led forth on a
path of sorrow the broken-hearted
myriads of a ruined race.
Do you not see, IN the first place. the
danger of poorl CIRCULATED inquisi-
tiveness? She wanted to know how
the fruit, tasted. She found out, but
5000 years have deplored that I'M
healthful curiosity. Healthful cur
iosity has done great deal for letters,
for art, for science, and for religion.
1t has gone down into the depths of
the earth with the geologist and seen
the first chapter of Genesis written in
the book of nature illustrated with en-
craving on rock, and il stood with the
antiquarian while he blew the trumpet
of resurrection over buried Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii, until from their
sepulcher there came up shaft and ter
race and amphitheater. Healthful
curiosity has enlarged the telescope
vision of the astronomer until worlds
hidden in the distant heavens have
trooped forth and have joined the choir
pralsing the Lord Planet weighed
against planet and widest comet las
sooed with respondent law. Healthful
curiosity has gone down and found the
tracks of the eternal God in the polypi
and the starfsh under the sea and the
majesty of the great Jehovah encamp-
ed under the gorgeous curtains of the
dahlia. 1t has studied the spots on the
sun, and the larva on beech leaf. and
the light under tirehy's wing, and
the terrible eye-glance of a condor
pitching from Chimbora5o4 1t has
studied the myriads of aninrculae that
make up the phosphoresoence of
ships wake, and the mighty maze of