Connecticut western news., 1898-03-03
HERDlNG THE SHEEP.
A SPRING PASTORAL FROM THE REV
 DR. TALMAGE.


 He Prays That His Flock May Listen to
 the Piping of the Good Shepherd, Bid
 ding Them to Renounce Sin and Accept
 His Pardon-A Refreshing Sermon.
 TCopyright. 1898. by American Press Asso-
 ciationl
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.-In this win- try season Dr. Talmage refreshes us with this glowing pastoral until we can almost hear the bleating of the flocks in green pastures. The text is Psalms xiii, l, "The Lord is my shepherd"
 What with post and rail fences and our pride in Southdown, Astrakhan and Flemish varieties of sheep, there is no use now of the old time shepherd. Such a one had abundance of opportunity of becoming poet, being out of doors 12 hours the day and ofttimes waking up in the night on the hills. If the stars or the torrents or the sun or the flowers had anything to say, he was very apt to hear it. The Ettriok Shepherd of Scot land, who afterward took his seat in the brilliant circle of Wilson and Lock hart, got his wonderful poetic inspira- tion in the ten years in which he was watching the flocks of MT. Laidlaw. There is often 8 sweet poetry in the rugged prose of the Scotch shepherd. One of these Scotch shepherds lost his only son. and he knelt down in prayer and was overheard to say, 70 Lord, it has seemed good in thy providence to take from me the staff of my right hand at the time when to us sand blind mortals seemed to be most in need of 1t, and how shall climb up the hill of sorrow and auld age without 1t thou mayst ken, but dinnaP'
 David. the shepherd boy, is watching his fathers sheep. They are pasturing Lamb was born of which you have heard much. "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" David, the shepherd boy, was beautiful, brave, musical and poetic. I think he often forgot the sheep in his reveries- There in the solitude he struck the harp string that is thrilling through all ages. David the boy was gathering the material for David the poet and David the man. Like other boys, David was fond of using his knife among the saplings, and he had noticed the exuding of the juice of the tree, and when he became a man he said, "The trees of the Lord are full of sap" David the boy, like other boys, had been fond of hunting the birds nests, and he had driven the old stork of the nest to find how many eggs were under her, and when he became a man he said, ''As for the stork, the fir trees are her house." In boyhood he had heard the terrific thunderstorm that frightened the red deer into premature sickness, and whan he became a man he said. "The voice of the Lord maketh the minds to calve." David the boy had lain upon his back looking up at the stars and examining the sky, and to his boyish imagination the sky seemed like piece of divine embroidery, the divine fingers working in the threads of light and the beads of stars, and he became man and wrote, "When consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. !" When he became an old man, thinking of the goodness of God, he seemed to hear the bleating of his fathers sheep across many years and to think of the time when he tended them on the Beth lehem hills. and he cries out in the text, ''Tbe Lord is my shepherd.
 If God will help me. will talk to you of the shepherds plaid, the shep- herds crook, the shepherds dogs, the shepherds pasture grounds and the shepherds flocks.
 The Shepherds Plaid.
 And first the shepherds plaid. It would be preposterous for man going out to rough and besoiling work to put on splendid apparel. The potter does network in velvet; the serving maid does not put on satin while toiling at her duties; the shepherd does not wear splendid robe in which to go out amid the storms and the rocks and the nettles; he puts on the rough apparel appropriate to his exposed work. The Lord our Shepherd, coming out to hunt the lost sheep, puts on no regal apparel, but the plain garment of our humanity. There was nothing pretentious about it. I know the old painters represent halo around the babe Jesus, but do not SUD- pose that there was any more halo about that child than about the head of any other babe that was born that Christ mas eve in Jud@a. Becoming man, he wore a seamless garment. The scissors and needle had done nothing to make 1t graceful. l take it to have been sack with three holes in it-one for the neck and two for the arms. Although the gamblers quarreled over it that is no evidence of it's value. 1 have seen two ragpickers quarrel over the refuse of an ash barrel. No. in the wardrobe of heav- en he left the sandals of light, the gir- dles of beauty, the robes of power and put on the besoiled and tattered raiment of our humanity. Sometimes he did not even wear the seamless robe. What Is that hanging about the waist of Christ? Is 1t a badge of authority? Is it royal coat of arms? No, it is towel. The disciples feet are filthy from the walk on the long way and are not fit to be put upon the sofas on which they are to re- cline at the meal, and so Jesus washes their feet and gathers them up in the towel to dry them. The work of saving this world was rough work, rugged work, hard work, and Jesus put on the raiment, the plain raiment, of our flesh. The storms were to beat him, the crowds were to jostle him, the dust was to sprinkle him, the mobs were to pursue him. O Shepherd of Israel, leave at home thy bright arrayl For thee, what streams to ford, what nights all unshel- tered. He puts upon him the plain raj ment of our humanity, wears our woes, and while earth and heaven and hell stand amazed at the abnegation wraps around him the shepherds plaid:
 Cold mountains and the midnight air
 Witnessed the fervor of his prayer.
 Next I mention the shepherds crook. This was a rod with a curve at the end, which, when sheep was going astray, was thrown over its neck, and in that way it was pulled back. When the Shpep xvara u0t pnin0 astrav tba shou.