Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-12-12
LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
DR.. TALMAGE COMFORTS THE SICK
AND HELPLESS.

From Outside Periis = Shut I'm by
the Lord For an All Wise Purpose.
The @.yVithouts" nnd "githins."
ECopyright. 1888. by American Press Asso-
ciation-l
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11.-This dis
course of DR.. Talmage, which is helpful
TO all who find life a struggle, Is es-
peeially addressed to a class of persons
probably never before addressed in a
sermon. The text is Genesis vii, 16,
''The Lord shut him in"
Cosmogony has no more interesting
..Chapter than the one which speaks of
that catastrophe of the ages, the submer-
sion of our world in time of Noah, the
first ship carpenter. Many of the nations
who never saw Bible have a flood
stCry-Egyptian food story, Grecian
food story, of which Ducalion was the
Noah; Hawaiian flood story, New Tea
land food story, Chinese flood story,
American Indian food story-all of
which accounts agree in the immersion
of the continents under universal rains,
and that there was ship floating, with
a select few of the human family and
with specimens of geological and or
astrological and reptilian worlds, al
though l could have wished that these
last had been shut out of the ark and
drowned.
All of these food stories represent the
ship thus af1oat as finally stranded on a
mountain top. Hugh Miller, in his
Testimony of the Rocks, thinks that
all these flood stories were infirm tradi-
lions of the Biblical account, and I be-
Iieve him The worst thing about that
great freshst was that 1T struck Noah's
Great Eastern from above and beneath.
The seas broke the chain of shells and
crystal and rolled over the land, and
the heavens opened their clouds for fall
ing columns of water which roared and
thundered on the roof of the great ship
for a month and ten days. There was
one door to the ship, but there were
three parts to that door. one part" for
each of three stories. The Bible account
gays nothing about parts of the door be-
longing to two of the stories, and do
not know on which floor Noah and his
family voyaged, but my text tells US
that the part of the door of that partic-
ular floor on which Noah staid was
closed after ne had entered. 1.-THE Lord
shut him in. - So there are many peo-
pie now in the world who are as thor
oughly shut in, some by sickness, some
by old age, some by special duties that
will not allow them to go forth, some
surrounded by delUges of misfortune
and trouble, and for them my sympatkies
are aroused, and from them [ often re-
ceive messages, and this sermon, which
] hope may do good to others, is more
especially intended for them. Today |
address the shut in. 1.-The Lord shut
him in.
. The Divine Hand.
Notice, first Of all, who closed the
door so that they could not get out
Noah did not do it, nor his son Shem,
nor did Ham, nor did Japheth, nor did
either Of the four married women who
were On shipboard, nor did desperadoes
who had scoffed at the idea of peril
which Noah had been preaching close
that door. They had turned their backs
on the ark and had in disgust gone
away. l will tell you how it was done.
A hand was stretched down from heaven
TO close that door. 1t was a divine land
as we'll as kind hand. "The Lord shut
him in"
And the same kind and sympathetic
being has shut you in, my reader or my
dent, ascribabl to the carelessness or
misdoings of others, or mere happen
So" No, mol God had gracious design
for your betterment, for the cultivation
of your patience, for the strengthening
of your faith, for the advantage you
might gain by seclusion, for your eter-
nal salvation He put you in school
room where you could learn in six
months or year more than you could
have learned anywhere else in life
time. He turned the lattice or pulled
down the blinds of the sickroom, or put
your swollen foot on an ottoman, or
held you amid the pillows of couch
which you could not leave, for some
reason that you may not now under
stand, but which he has promised he
will explain to you satisfactorily, if not
in this world, then in the world tos
come, for he has said, "What do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know
hereafter %
The world has no statistics as to the
number of invalids. The physicians
know something about it, and the
apothecaries and the pastors, but who
can tell us the number of blind eyes,
and deaf ears. and diseased lungs, and
congested livers, and tangled nerves.
and neuralgia temples, and rheumatic
feet, or how many took no food this
morning because they had no appetite
to eat, or digestive organs to assimilate,
or have lungs so delicate they cannot
go forth when the wind is in the east,
or there is fog rising from the river,
or there is a dampness on the ground or
pavement because of the frost coming
out? 1t would be easy to count the peo-
pie who every day go through street,
or the number of passengers carried by