The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-28
THE LORD is MY SHEPHERD.
GLOWING PASTORAL SERMON BY
REV. TALMAGE.

ture-Grounds, and the Shepherds
FIOcks.
washington. Feb. 27.-In this win
try season DR.. Talmage refreshes us with
this glowing pastoral until we can almost
hear the bleatirg of the Aoeks in green
pastures The text is Psalms PSI: The
Lord is My Shepherd"
What with post and rail fences, and
our pride in Southdown, AstraNhan, and
Flemish varieties Of sheep, there Is no use
now of the old-time shepherd such an
one had abundance of opportunity of be
coming a poet being out-of-doors twelve
hours the dav. ana oft-times waking up in
the night on the hills. II the stars, or the
torrents, or the sun, or the flowers mad
anything to say, he was very apt to hear
il. The Ettrick Shepherd of Scotland who
afterwards took his seat in the brilliant
circle of Wilson and Lockhart got his
wonderful poetic inspiration in the ten
years in which he was watching the iiocks
of Mr.. Laidlaw. There is often 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, 20
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-bl!nd NOR
tails L seemed to be most in need of it; and
how shall climb up the hill Of sorrow and
auld age without it, thou mayst ken but
I dinna."
David the shepherd-boy, is watching his
nh zinc on haA
very hills where afterward Lamb was
born of which you have heard much, 1.-The
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world" David, the shepherd-boy,
was beautiful, brave, musical, and poetic
1 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. 1.-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 off the nest to
find how many eggs were under her; and
when he became a man, he said, AS Tor
the stork the fir-trees are her house, In
boyhood he had heard the terrific thunder
storm that frightened the red deer into
premature sickness; and when he became
a man, he said 'rhe voice of the Lord
maketh the binds to calye" 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 fin
gers working in the threads of light and
the beads of stars; and he became a man
and wrote, when I 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 Bethlehem hills, and he cries out in
the text, The Lord is my shepherd"
If God win help me, I viii talk to you
of the shepherds plaid, the shepherds
crook. the shepherds dogs, the shepherds
pasture-grounds, and the shepherds
focks
And first: The shepherds plaid: II
would be preposterous for a man going
out to rough and besoiling work to put on
splendid apparel. The potter does not
work in velvet; the serving maid does not
put on satin while toiling at her duties.
the shepherd does not wear a splendid
robe in which to so out amidst the storms.
and the rocks, and the nettles he puts on
the rough apparel appropriate to his eX>
posed 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 pre-
tentious about it. know the old painters
represent a halo around the babe Jesus,
but l do not suppose that there was any
more halo about that child than about the
head of any other babe that was born that
Christmas-even in Judea. Becoming
man, he wore a seamless garment. The
scissors and needle had done nothing 10
make it graceful. / take it to have been
a sack with three holes in 1t; one for the
neck and two for the arms Although the
gamblers quarreled over it, that is no evil
dence of its value. l have seen two rag
pickers quarrel over the refuse of an ash
barrel. No; in the wardrobe of heaven
he left the sandals of light, the girdles. 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 il
badge of authority? Is II a royal coat
of-arms? No; it is a 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 recine at the
meal, and so Jesus washes their feet. ana
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 50 jostle him. the dust
was to sprinkle him, the mobs were 10
pursue him. Oh, Shepherd of Israeli leave
at home thy bright array 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 al the abnegation wraps around
him the shepherd plaid:
''Cold mountains and the midnight air.
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer"
Next l mention the shepherds crook.
This was a rod with curve at the end
which, when a sheep was going astray.
was thrown over it's neck and in that way
II was pulled back. When the sheep were
not going astray, the shepherd would Of
ten use il as a sort of crutch. leaning on
IL; but when the sheep were out of the
way. the crook was always busy pulling
them back. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray and had ii not been for the shep-
herds crook, we would have fallen long