Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-03-05

IAA barnyard IS employed in this dis
SS course by DR.. Talmage to show
the comfort and projections that heaven
affords to all trusting souls. The tex. is
Matthew xiii. 81. Even as a hen gath
ereth her chickens under her wings. and
ye would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
to the crest of Mount Oiivet, height of
700 Feet. The splendors of the religious
capita of the whole earth irradiated the
landsc ape There is the temple. lon-
der is the kings palace Spread out be-
fore his eyes are the pomp. the wealth,
the wickedness and the coming destruc-
ton of Jerusalem, and he bursts into
tears at the thought Of the obduracy of
a place that he would gladly have saved
and apostrophizes, saying. 20 Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would have gath
cred thy children together. even as
hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings and We would notr'
Why did Christ select hen and chick
ems as a simile? Next to the Apostle
ness of the comparison, l think it was TO
help all public teachers in the matter Of
illustration to get down off their stills
and use comparisons that all can I'M
derstand. The plainest bird on earth is
the barnyard fowl Its only adornments
are the red comb in its headdress and the
wattles under the throat 1t has no
grandeur of genealogy. All we know
is that its ancestors came from India.
some of them from a height of 1000
feet on the sides of the Himalayas. 1t
has no pretension of nest like the eagles
eyre. 1t has no luster of plumage like
ID a ton, hat
allows fight. yet about the last thing it
wants to do is to fly, and in retreat uses
foot almost as much as wing. Musicians
have written out in musical scale the
song of lark and robin redbreast md
nightingale, yet the hen of my text hath
nothing that could be taken for a song.
but only cluck and cackle. Yet Christ
in the text uttered while looking upon
doomed Jerusalem declares that what he
had wished for that city was like what
The hen does for her chickens.
Christ's Simple Teachings.
Christ was thus simple in his teach
ings, and yet how hard it is for us who
are Sunday school instructors and edi-
tors and preachers and reformers and
those who would gain the ears of audi
ences to attain that heavenly and di-
vine art of simplicity! We have to run
a course of literary disorders as children
a course OF physical disorders. We come
out of school and college loaded down
with Greek mythologies and out of the
theological seminary weighed down with
what the learned fathers said, and we
fly with wings of eagles and hamingoes
and albatrosses, and it takes good while
before we can come down to Christ's sim
Al. IL.
salt that has lost its SAVIOR. the net
thrown into the sea, the spittle on the
eyes of the blind man and the hen and
chickens.
There is not much poetry about this
winged creature of God mentioned in my
text, but she is more practical and more
motherly and more suggestive of good
things tuan many that fly higher and
wear brighter colors. She is not a prima
donna of the skies nor a strut of beauty
in the aisle of the forest She does not
cut circle under the sun like the Rocky
Mountain eagle, but stays at home TO
look after family affairs. She does not
swoop like the condor of the cordilleras
to transport a rabbit from the valley to
the top of the crags. but just scratches
for q living.
| am in warm sympathy with the nm
pretentious old fashioned hen because.
like most of u.s. she has to scratch for
a living. She knows at the start the
lesson which most people of good sense
are slow to learn-that the gaining of a
livelihood implies work and that sue
cesses do not lie on the surface, but are
to be upturned by positive and continu-
Gus effort. The reasons that society and
H. H., e,,n -,f
failures. so full of loafers, so full of dead
beats is because people are not wise
enough to take the lesson which any
hen would ach them that if they 'oud
find for themselves and for those d. pen
dent upon them anything worth having
they must scratch for it. Solomon said.
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard." l say,
Go TO the hen, thou sluggard. In the
Old Testament God compares himself to
an eagle stirring up her nest. and in the
New Testament the Holy Spirit is COM
pared to descending dove, but Christ
In a sermon that began with cutting sar-
casm for hypocrites and ends with the
paroxysm of pathos in the text compares
himself to a hen
Hawks of TEMPTATION.
One day in the country we saw sudden
CONSERVATION in the behavior of old Dom
mick. Why the hen should be so dis
turbed we could not understand We
looked about to see if a neighbours dog
were invading the farm. We looked
up to see if a stOrmcloud were lowering
We could see nothing on the ground that
could terrOriZe, and we could see moth
ing in the air to rufIie the feathers of
the hen. but the loud, wild, affrighted
cluck which brought all her brood at full
run under her feathers made us look
again around and above us. when we saw
that high up and far away there was A
rapacious bird wheeling round and round
and Town and down. and. not seeing MS
as we stood in the shadow, it came near
er and lower until we saw its beaE was
curved from base TO tip and it had two
flames of FIRE for eyes and it was hawk.
But all the chickens were under old Dom
inick's wings. and either the bird OF prey
caught a glimpse Of Us or, not able To
find the brood huddlcd under wing. dart
ed back into the clouds. SO Christ calls
with great earnestuess 10 ali the young
Why. what is the matter! II is bright
sunlight. aud there can be no danger.
Health Is theirs. \ good home is theirs.
Plenty OF food is theirs. Prospect Of
long life Is theirs Bat Christ continues
to call. calls with more emphasis and
urges haste and says rot second ought
to be lost On do tell as what is tBe
matter All, now ! see; there are hawks
of temptation in the air. there are Yu!-
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