The St. Mary banner., 1902-04-26
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eY the NOTED
DIVINE.
,ubject, Temptations For the Young-The
Assailants of Virtue and Honesty Arc
Nunerous-Need For Divine Protection
.God's Grace Bringeth Salvation.

WASHINGTON, D. CA familiar illu
tration from the barnyard is employed ]
this discourse by Dr. Talmage to sho
the comfort and protection that heaven a
fords to all trusting souls. The text
Matthew XIII, 81, Even as hen gathel
eth her chickens under her wings, and y
would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ cam
10 tlic crest of Mount Olivet, height G
100 feet. The splendors of the religion
capital Of the whole earth irradiated tn
landscape. There is the temple. Yonde
is the kings palace. Spread out befor
lis eyes are ,.he pomp, wealth, the wick
edness and the coming destruction of Je
thought of the obduracv of place tha
lie would gladly have saved and apostrc
Jhizes, saying, 90 Jerusalem, Jerusalem
how often would l have gathered tn
children together, even as hen gatheretl
her chickens under her wings, and y
would not?"
Why did Christ select hen and chicken
as simi!e? Next to the appositeness o
the comparison, l think it was to help al
public teachers in the matter of ilustra
ton to get down off their stills and us,
comparisons that all can understand. Th'
p'aircst bird on earth is the barnyarC
fowl. Its only adornments are the rec
comb in its head-dress and the wattles un
der the throat. 1t has no grandeur O
genea'ogy. All we know is that its ances
tors came from India, some of them from
height of 1000 feet on the sides of th.
sl'ma layas. 1t has no pretension of nes'
like the eagles eyrie. 1t has no lustre OF
p.umage like the goldfnch. Possessing
anatomy that allows flight, vet 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
sea'e the song of lark and robin redbreast
and nightingale. yet the hen Of my text
hath nothing that could be taken for a
sotg, but only cluck and cachle. 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 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
VINO would gain the ears of audiences to
attain that heavenly and divine art of sim
rIicitv! We have to run course of lit
erary disorders as children course of ply
seal disorders. We come out OF school
nd college loaded down with Greek my
tholn-ies and out of the theological semin-
aiy weighed down with what the learned
flthers said, and we fly with wings OF
ages and famingoes and albatrosses, and
iown 10 Christ's similitudes, the candle
lnder the bushel the salt that has lost its
'avor, the net thrown into the sea, the
'nitt,e on the eyes of the blind man and
he hen and chickens.
! am in warm sympathy with the unpre-
entious old fashioned hen because. like
most Of us, she has to scratch for living.
>hc knows at the start the lesson which
most people of good sense are slow to
the gaining of livelihood i'm
lies work. and that successes do not lie
N the surface, but are to be upturned by
ostive and continuous effort. The rea-
on that society and the church and the
vor'd are so full of failures, so full of loaf
rs, So full Of deadbeats is because people
re not wise enough to take the lesson
rbich any hen would teach them that if
hey would find for themselves and for
ayirg they must scratch for it. Solo
,on said, Go to the ant. thou sluggard."
say. Go to the hen, thou sluggard In
he O,d Testament God compares Himself
D an eagle stirring up her nest. and in
be New Testament the Holy Spirit is
ompared to descending dove, but Christ
, a sermon that began with cutting saT-
asm for hypocrites and ends with the
aroxysm of pathos in the text compares
Himself to hen.
One day in the country we saw sudden
,nsterration in the behavior of cd Dom
lick. Why the hen should be so dis
iroed we could not understand. We
'o':el about to see il neighbor's dog |
ere in:ading the farm. We looked up to |
e j storm cloud were lowering. We |
'n!d see nothing on the ground that could
rrorize. and we could see nothing in the |
I 10 rpifie TIE feathers Of the hen. but |
re loud wild, affrichted cluck which |
ought III her brood at full run under
= feathers made us look again around |
- abo:e US, when we saw that high IN
'd far away there was rapacious bird
hee.ing round and round and down and
'Wn. and not seeing us as we stood in
e shadow, it came nearer and lower un-
we saw its beak was curved from base
tip end it had two flames of fire for
es, ard it was hawk. But all the
ic!lens were under old Domirick's wings,
d either the bird of prey caught a
mDse of us or not able to find the brood
cd.cd under wing, darted back into the
'uds.
20 Christ calls with great earnestness to
The Young. Why, what is the matter?
is bright sunlight, and there can he no
l'@Hr. Health is theirs. A good home
theirs. Plenty of food is theirs. Pros
It OF long life is theirs. But Christ con-
ues to call, calls with more emphasis
! urges haste and says not second I.
III. to h lost. Oh. do tell us what is
matter. All, now l see; there are
Fks Of temptation in the air, there are
lures wheeling for their prey, there
beaks OF death ready to plunge, there
claws of allurement ready to clutch.
W | see the peril. Now l understand
urgency. Now l see the only safety.
uld that Christ might this day take t
sons and daughters into His shelter +
a nen!, ga'hereth her chickens under a
wing" n
he fact is that the most of them will n
er mind the shelter unless while they
chickens. 1t is a simple matter of in "
liable statistics that most of those who "
|ot come to Christ in youth never come d
u. What chance is there for the \
without divine protection? There h
le grogshops, there are the gamb- s;
els. there are the infdelities and A
litics of spirituahsm, there are the p
ks, there are the impurities, there | 81
hoihCsS AdSSdALlcS, anu 30 uumer- | il
re these assailants that it is a wonder G
honesty and virtue are not lost arts. m
birds of prey, diurnal and nocturnal, W
~ aa tural world are ever on the alert. O
niRs Of the sky; they have az
prefers the st
&