The Penn's Grove record., 1897-06-18
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

unto her husband with her, and he did eat, ,
-Genesis ILL.,, 6.
II Is the first Saturday afternoon In the
worlds existence. Ever since sunrise Adam
mas been watching the brilliant p~ageantfy
O. wings and scales And clouds, and In his
nrst lessons In zoology and o~fnithology
and i~chthyology he has noticed that the
ROBINS ny the air In twos, and that the fish
swim the waters In twos, n that the lions
Walk the helds In twos, and In the warm
.e9oience OF that Saturday afternoon he
ians on mt slumber, and, as II by allegory
20 teacn all ages that the greatest Of earth
~ blessings is sound sleep, this paradisai-
cal somnoiepce ends with the discovery on
the part OF Adam of a corresponding in
.enheenee Just and on a new planet. or
me mother OF all the living / speak-Eve.
the nrst. the fairest and the best.
make me a garden. I inlay the paths
with mountain moss, and l border them
Win pearls from Ceylon and diamonds from
G~olconda. Here and there are fountains
tossing In the sunlight that ripple under
the padding Of the swans. / gather me
hlles from the Amazon, and orange groves
mom tine tropics and tamar:nds from Goyaz.
Inere are woodbine and honeysuckle climb
ing over the wall and starred s~paniels
spawning themselves on the grass. I in
vlte amid these trees the larks, and the
Drown thrushes, and the robins, and all the
brightest birds OF heaven, and they stiff the
IA tlu ChfOlt ANU Htl
the place Is a desert filled with darkness
and death rs compared 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
sheer and bank as adorned the Pison, the
Havilah, the Gihon and the Hiddekel, even
the PEBBLES being bdellitm and onyx stone.
what fruits, with no curculio to sting the
findl What flowers. with no slug to gnaw
the root What atmosphere, with no frost
to chill and with no heat to consumed
Bright colors tangled In the grass. Per
tune in the air. Music in the sky. Great
scene OF gladness and love and joy;
hight there under a bower of ledf and
vine n shrub occurred the first marriage.
Adam took the hand OF this immaculate
daughter OF God and pronounced the cere-
nony when no said, '.aBone of my bone. and
flesh Of my flesh" A forbidden tree stood
IN the midst Of that exquisite park. Eve,
sauntering out one day alone, looks up at
the tree and sees the beautiful fruit and
wonder IL 1t Is sweet n wonders IL it Is
sour, and standing there says: "I think 1
VIII Just put my hand upon the fruit. 1t
Will do no harm to the tree. / will not
take the fruit to eat. but 1 will just take 1t
down to examine it," She examined the
fruit. She said, 81 do not think there can
be n harm In my just breaking the find
tasted, she allowed Adam also to taste the
fruit, the door Of the world opened, and
the monster sin entered. Let the heavens
gather blackness, and the winds sigh on
the bosom Of. the hills, and cavern, and
desert, and earth, n sky join In one long,
deep, hell-rendlng howl, 1.-THE world Is
lostl'
Beasts that before were harmless and fuli
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 soft grass. Blastings
on the leaves, All tho 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 dan
ger OF a poorly regulated inquisitiveness2
She wanted to know how the fruit tasted.
She found out. but 5000 years have deplored
that unhealthful curiosity. Healthful curl
osity has done a 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 chap
ter OF Genesis written In the book OF nature
Illustrated with engraving on rock, and IL
stood with the antiquarian while he blew
the trumpet of resurrection over buried
Herculaneum and Pompeii, until from their
sepulcher there came up shaft and terrace
and amphitheater. Healthful curiosity has
ohiaiBoA VIC tSiSScOpic VISION OF tHe u.s.
tfonomer, until worlds hidden In the dis
tant heavens have trooped forth and have
Joined the choir praising the Lord: planet
weighed against planet and Widest comet
lassooed with Respondent law. Healthful
curiosity has gone down and found the
TRACKS Of the eternal God In the polypi
and the starlsh under the sea and the
majesty Of the great Jehovah enenmped
nnder the gorgeous curtains Of the dahlia.
1t has Studied the spots on the sun, and
the larva In a beech leaf, and the light I'M |
der q fireiy's wing, and the terrible eye
glance OF q condor pitching from Chin
borazo. 1t has studied the myriads Of ami
malcule that make up the phosphorescence
in a ships wake, and the mighty maze OF
gums and spheres and consultations and
g~alsxies that blaze on in the march of God. |
Healthful curiosity has stood by the inven- |
Tor, until forces that were hidden for ages
come to wheels and levers and shafts and
shuttles-forces that fly the air or swim
the sea or cleave the mountain until the
earth Jars n roars and rings and crackles
and booms with strange mechanism, and
ships with nostrils OF hot steam and Jokes
Of fire draw the continents together.
l say nothing against healthful Curl
osity. May 1t nave other Leyden jars, and
other electric batteries. and other voltaic
piles, and other magnifying glasses, with
which to storm the barred castles of the
natural world until 1t shall surrender its
last secret. we Thank dUu IOF tut kcOiOblcuh
curiosity Of Professor Hitchcock, and the
mechanical curiosity Of Ltebig, and the
geological curiosity of Cuvier, and the in
ventive curiosity Of Edison, but we must
admit that unhealthful n irregular in
quisitivenees has rushed thousands n
tens of thousands into ruin.
Eve Just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how 1t tasted, and that
curiosity blasted her and blasted all
nations. So there are ~elergymen In this
day, inspired bp unhealthful inquisitive-
ness, who have tried to look through the
keyhole Of Gods neutrality-suspicious. that
were barred and bolted from all human In
spection-and they have wrenched their
whole moral nature out ofjoint by trying
to pluck fruit from branches beyond their
reach, or AVE come out on limbs OF the
tree from which they have tumbled into
religious knowledge from which we may
eat and get advantage, but from certain
trees of mystery how many have plucked
their ruinl Election, free agency, trinity,
resurrection-in the discussion of these
subjects hundreds and thousands OF people
ruinxthe soul. There are men who actually
hay& been kept out OF the kingdom of
heaven because they could not understand
who Melchisedec was not.
oh. how many have been destroyed by
an unhealthful lnquisitivenessl 1t is seen
In all directions. There are those who
i HtHuO Wltu tuo p1t btoto "hu hNusH SNfNN
curiosity. They are the first to hear a
faisehood, build 1t another story high and
add two wings to 1t. Aboutother peoples
apparel, about other peoples business,
about other peoples financial condition,
about other peoples affairs, they are over
anxious. Every nice piece OF gossip
stops at theis door, and they iatten and
lnxuriate in the endless found OF the great
world Of little tattle. They invite and
sumptuously entertain at their house
Colonel Twaddle and Esquire Chitehat and
Governor smalltalk. Whoever hath an In
nnendo. whoever hath a scandal, whoever
hath a valuable secret, let him come and
sacrifice 1t to this goddess OF splitter
thousands Of Adams and Ewes do nothing
but eat fruit that does not belong &c
them. Men quite well known as mathema
tieians failing in this computation Of mora
minus curiosity, equals minding your owl
affairs.
Then. how many young men through
c~nriosiiy go through the whole realm o