The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-03-19


Nunerous-Need For Divine Protection
-God's Grace BrinEeth Salvation.
WASHINGTON, D. CA familiar illus
tration from the barnyard IS employed IN
this discourse by DR.. Taimage to show
the comfort and protection that heaven at
fords to all trusting. souls. The text Is
Matthew xiii, 81, Even as 4 hen gather
eth hes chickens under her wings, and ye
would not"
Jerusalem was in sight rs Christ came
to the crest of Mount Clivet, q height OF
700 feet. The splendors of the religious
capital of the whole earth irradiated the
landscape. There is the temple. ionder
is the kings palace. Spread out before
His eyes are :he pomp. wealth, the wick
edness and the coming destruction OF DE-
rusalem, and He bursts into tears at the
thought of the obduracy OF a place that
phizes, saying, 20 Jerusalem. Jerusalem,
how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not?"
Why did Christ select hen and chickens
as a simi,e? Next to the appositeness OF
the comparison, I think it was to help all
public teachers in the matter of illustra.
ton to get down of their stills and use
comparisons that all can understand. The
plainest bird on earth is the barnyard
fowl. Its only adornments are the red
comb in its head-dress and the wattles I'M:
der the throat. It has no grandeur OF
genealogy. AL we know is that its ances-
tors came from India, some OF them from
a height of 1000 feet on the sides Of the
Himalayas. 1t has no pretenslon OF nest
like the eagles eyrie. It has no lustre OF
plumage like the gold6nch. Possessing
anatomy that allows fight, yet about the
last thing il 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
and 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 hike what
the hen does for her chickens.
Christ was thus simple in His teach
ings, and yet how hard it is for US who
are Sunday school instructors and editors
and preachers and reformers and those
who would gain the ears OF audiences to
attain that heavenly and divine art OF sim
plicity! We have to run q course OF lit.
erary disorders as children course OF ply.
sicai disorders. We come out OF school
! and college loaded down with Greek my.
thologies and out of the theological semin.
ary weighed down with what the learned
fathers said. and we fly with wings OF
eagles and famingoes and albatrosses, and
it takes q good while before wc can come
down to Christ's simihtudes, the candle
under the bushel. the salt that has lost its
| savor, the net thrown into the sea, the
spittle on the eyes of the blind man and
the hen and chickens.
am in warm sympathy with the unpre.
tentious old fashioned hen because. like
most of us, she has to scratch for living.
| She knows at the start the lesson which
most people Of good sense are slow to
learn-that the gaining OF livelihood i'm.
plies work. and that successes do not lie
| on the surface, but are to be upturned BY
positive and continuous effort. The. rea.
son that society and the church and the
ers, so full OF deadbeats is because people
are not wise enough to take the lesson
which any hen would teach them that il
they would find for themselves. and for
those dependent upon them anything worth
having they must scratch for it. Solo:
| mon said, "Go to the ant. thou s!uggard.
I say, Go to the hen, thou slugsard. In
| the Old Testament God compares Himself
| to IN eagle stirring up her nest: and IN
the New Testament the Holy Spirit is
| compared to descending dove, but Christ
in a sermon that began with cutting sar'
casm for hypocrites aad ends with the
paroxysm' Of pathos in the tex: compares
Himself to hen. =,
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 i: ncighbors dog
were invading the farm. We looked up to
see il q storm cloud were lowering. We
could zee nothing on the ground that could
terrorize, and we could see nothing IN the
air to rrffie the feathers OF the hen, but
the loud, wild. affrighted cluck which
brought all her brood a. full run under
her feathers made Us look again around
and above US, when we saw that high up
and far away there was \ rapacious bird
wheeling round and round and down and
down. and not seeing US as wc stood IN
the shadow. it came nearer and lower un.
til we saw its beak was curved from base
20 tin and it had two flames of fire for
ewes. and it was a hawk. But all the
chickens were under old Dominick's wings,
and either the bird Of prey caught a
| glimpse Of us OF not able to find the brood
! huddled Under wing, dartcd back into the
clouds.
So Christ calls with great earncstness to
all the young. Why, what is the matter! !
It is bright sunlight. and there can be no
danger. Health is theirs. A good home
is theirs. Plenty of food Is theirs. Pros.
pect OF long life is theirs. But Christ con-
tinucs to cali. calls with more emphas:ss
and urges haste and says not second
! ough. to b. lost Oh. 60 tell US what is
the matter. All. now see: there arc
hawks Of temptation id the a.. thcve arc
vulturcs wheeling for their prey, Hhere
are beaks OF death ready to p.unge. there
are claws OF allurcment ready to clutch.
Now I see the peril. Now ! understand
! the urgency. Now see the only safety.
! Would that Christ might this day. take
our sons and daughters into His shelte:
"as men ga!hereth her chickens under
her wing" -,
Ihe fact is that the most Of them Wi
never mird the shelter unless while they
are chickens. II is simple matter OF In
exorab!c STATISTICS tast most OF those VINO
do not come to Christ in youth never come
at ALL What chance is there for the
young without divine protection? There
arc the grogshops. there are the gamb.
ling hells. there are the iafdelities and
immoralities of spiritua.ism, there are the
bad books, there are the impurities. there
are the business rasSali.ics, and Sd numer'
ous are these assai!arts that it is a wonder
that honesty and virtue are not lost arts
The birds Of prey. diuraai and nocturnal,
Of the natural world are ever Oh the alert
They are assassins OF the sky; they have
varieties OF taste. The eagle prefers the
hesn Of the hvins animals: the vuiture
prefers the carcass; the falcon kills with
one stroke, while other styles of bcat
Give proiongation OF torture. And so the
temptations OF this lie are various.