The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-09
DIR. TALMAGFS SERMON.

Washington, March "A familiar illus ration from the barnyard is employed In this discourse by Dr. Talmage to show the comfort and protection that Heaven affords to all trusting souls. The text-is Matthew xxiii, s7. Even as a hen gath ereth her chickens under her wings, and ys would not"
 Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came to the crest of Mount Ohvet, height of 700 feet. The splendors of the religious capital of the whole earth irradiated the landscape. There is the temple. Wonder IS the kings palace. Spread out before his eyes are the pomp. the wealth, the wickedness and the coming destruction of Jerusalem. and he bursts into tears at the thought of the obduracy of place that He would gladly have saved ana apostrophixes, saying. 70. Jerusalem. Je- rusalem, how often would l nave gath- cred thy children together, even as nen gathereth her chickens under her "ihss' and ye would not!
 Why did Christ select hen and chick ems as a simile? Next to the appositeness of the comparison. tnink It was 'of. to iiims. tration to get down on their sIIts anu use comparisons that all can understano' The plainest bird on earth Is the parh- yard fowl. Its only adornments are the red comb in its headdress and the wattles under the throat. It has no granoeur ol genealogy. All we know IS that us an- cestors came from India some or them from a height of 4,000 feet on the sides of the Himalayas. It has no pretension of nest like the eagles. eyrie IL mas no luster of pIumage like the goldhnch: Eos. sessing anatomy that allows ngnt. yes about the last thing 1t wants 10 DO IS to fv and in retreat uses foot almost as much as wing. Musicians nave wrlt- ten out in musical scale the song 0I lar an1 robin redbreast and nghtingale' 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 ut- tered while looking upon doomed Jeru, salem declares that what He had wished for that city was like what the nen ooes
 Christ's Simple Teachings.
 Christ was thus simple fin His teachings. and yet how hard it is for us who are Sunday School instructors and editors who would gain the ears of audiences to attain that heavenly and divine art or simplicity! We have to run @ course or literary disorders as children a course school and college loaded down with Greek mythologies and out of the theo. logical seminary weighed down with what the learned fathers said, and we ny witn wings of eagles and famingoes and al- batrosses, and it takes a good while be- fore we can come down to Christs simil- itudes, the candle under the bushei. the salt that has lost its savor. the net net
  eyes of the blind man and the hen ana 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 than many that fly higher and wear brighter colors. She is not prima donna of the skies nor 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 swoor like the condor of the cordiiieras to M the top of the crags. but just scratches for a living.
 am in warm sympathy with the un' pretsntious old fashioned hen because ike most of us. she has to scratch lol . living. She knows at the start the lesson which most people of good sense are slow to learn-that the gaining of { livelihood implies work and that successe: s: upturned by positive and continuous CT fort. The reason that society and tht church and the world are so full of fall ures. so full of loafers, so full Of dead beats is because people are not wis' enough to take the lesson which any her would teach them that if they would fine sor themselves and for those dependent upon them anything worth having they must scratch for it. Solomon said, "Gc to the ant, thou sluggard." l say, e to the hen, thou sluggard. In the Olc Testament God compares himself to ar eagle stirring up her nest, and in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is compared to a descending dove, but Christ III sermon that began with cutting sarcasm for hypocrites and ends with the par. oxysm of nathos in the text compares himself to q hen.
 Hawks of Temptation.
 One day in the country we saw sud. denly consternation in the behavior oi old Dominick Why the hen should bt disturbed We could not understand. We looked about to see if neighbours dos were invading the farm. We looked IT to see if a stormcloud were lowering We could see nothing on the ground thai could terrorize, and we could see nothing tn the air to ruffle the feathers of the