The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-03-04
HERDING THE SHEEP.
A SPRING PASTORAL FROM THE REV
DR.. TALMAGE.

the Piping of the Good Shepherd, Bid
ding Them to Renounce Sin and Accept
His Pardon-A Refreshing Sermon.
copyright, 1898, by American Press Asso-
citation.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.-ln this win
try season DR.. Talmage refreshes US
with this glowing pastoral until we can
almost hear the bleating of the fiocks in
green pastures. The text is Psalms
xiii, 1, 1.-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
q one had abundance of opportunity OF
becoming poet, being out OF doors IL
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 Ettrick 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 focks 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, 80 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 it thou
mayst ken, but 1 dinnaW
David, the shepherd boy, is watching
his fathers sheep They are pasturing
on the very hills where afterward
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. l 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 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
off the nest to find how many eggs were
under her, and when he became a man
he said, GAS 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 when he became man he
said 1.-THE voice of the Lord maketh
the kinds 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
q 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,
1.-THE Lord is my shepherd. J"
If God will help me. l 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. 1t
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 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.
know the old painters represent halo
around the babe Jesus, but do not sup
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 Judaa. Becoming man, he
wore a seamless garment. The scissors
and needle had done nothing to make it
graceful. l take it to have been a 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. l 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 CIR
dies 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 it 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 IesuS mt on the