Marshall County independent., 1900-07-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE MARRIAGE FEAST" LAST
SUNDAYS SUBJECT,
The Christian Religion. When Properly
PractIced. the Refuge of the Forlorn
The World Invited to a Feast of
EOly Joy.


A remarkable illustration OF tie ubi-
quity of English speaking people is
furnished by the requests that have
reached DR.. Talmage in northern Eu-
rope for a sermon in and out of the
way places where he did not expect to
find a single person who could under
stand him. There, as here, he pre-
sents religion as festivity and invites
all the world to come as guests and
join in its holy merriment: text. John
ii. 10. Thou hast kept the good wine
until now
This chapter invites US TO mar
riage celebration. 1t is a wedding in
common life two plain people having
pledged each other, hand and heart,
and their friends having come in for
congratulation. The joy is not the
less because there is no pretension.
In each other they find all the future
they want The daisy in the cup on
the table may mean as much as
score of artistic garlands fresh from
the hothouse. When a daughter goes
off from home with nothing but n
plain fathers blessing and a plain
mothers love. she is missed as much
as though she were a princess. 1t
seems hard after the parents have
sheltered her for eighteen years. that
n few short months her affections
should have been carried off by anoth-
er. but mother remembers how it was
Epr ho
and so she braces up until the we'd
ding has passed and the banqueters
are gone. and she has cry all alone.
Well. We are today at the wedding
in Cana of Galilee. Jesus and his
mother have been invited. 1t is evil
dent that there are more people there
than were expected. Either some peo-
pie have come who were not invited
or more invitations have been sent out
than IL was supposed would be ac-
cepted. Of course there is not suf-
ficient supply OF wine. You know that
there is nothing more embarrassing to
a housekeeper than a scant supply.
Jesus sees the embarrassment. and he
comes up Immediately to relieve it. He
sees standing six water pots. He or
derS the servants to fill them with
water. then he waves his hand over
the water. and Immediately it is wine
real wine. Taste of ii and see for
strychnine in it, but first rate wine.
will not now be diverted to the
question so often discussed in my own
country whether it is right to drink
wine. | am describing the scene as 1t
was When God makes wine he
makes the very best wine. and 130
gallons OF il standing around in these
water pots-wine so good that the
ruler of the feast tastes it and says:
Why. this is really better than any
thing We have had. Thou hast kept
the good wine until now" Beautiful
miracle. A prize was offered to the
person who should write the best es-
say about the miracle in Cana. Long
manuscripts were presented in the
competition. but a poet won the prize
by just this one line descriptive of the
miracle: The conscious water saw
its God and blushed"
Hides His Own CRIES
Jesus does not shadow the joys of
others with his own griefs He might
have sat down in that wedding and
said: Il have so much trouble, so
much poverty, so much persecution,
and the cross is coming. | shall not
rejoice, and the gloom of my face and
L,I -
this group" So said not Jesus. He
said to himself: Here are two per-
sons starting out in married life Let
1T be joyful occasion. / will hide my
own griefs. | will kinde their joy"
There are many not SO wise as that
know a household where there are
many little children. where for two
years the musical instrument has
been kept shut because there has been
trouble in the house Alas for the
folly, Parents saying: I'VE will
have no Christmas tree this coming
holiday because there has been trou-
BILE in the house. Hush that laughing
u stairs! How can there be any Joy
when there has been so much trou-
Die. Anu SO lAcy MAKE everything
consistently do,eful and send their
cons and daughters to ruin with the
gloom they throw around them.
Oh. my dear friends. do you not
know those children will have trouble
enough of their own after awhile? Be
glad they cannot appreciate all yours.
Keep back the cup Of bitterness from
head is down in the grass of the tomb.
poverty may come to her. betrayal to
her. bereavement to her. Keep back
the sorrows as long as you can. Do
you not know that that son may after
awhile have his heart broken? Stand
between him and all harm. You NAV
not fight his battles long. Fight them
while you may. Throw not the chill
of your own dependency over his
sO:ll Rather. be like Jesus. who came
to the wedding hiding his own grief
and kindling the joys of others. So I
have seen the sun on a dark dav.
struggling amidst clouds, black. rag
ged and portentOus. but after awhile
the sun. with golden pry. heaved back
the blackness. And the sun laughed
to the lake and the lake laughed to
the sun ard from horizon to horizon.
under the saffron sky, the water was
Ill turned into wine
The Right to laugh.
think the cm.dren Of God have
more right TO laugh than any other
| people, ard to clap their hands as