The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1902-03-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
sabjecti Temptations For the ronng-The
Assaiisnts of Virtue and Honesty Are
Numerous-Need For Divine Protection
-God's Grace Rringeth salvation.

sration from the barnyard Is employed IN
this discourse by DIR. Talmage 10 show
the comfort and protection that heaven at
fords 20 al trusting sous The text rs
Matthew xNil. b. Even a. hen gather
eth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not"
Jerusalem was in sight as Christ came
10 the crest OF Mount Olivet, a height OF
700 feet. The splendors of the religious
capital Of the whole earth irradiated the
landscape. There is the temple. Nonder
is the kings palace. Spread out before
His eyes are .he pomp, wealth, the wick
edness and the coming destruction OF Je-
rusalem, and He bursts into tears az the
thought of the obduraey of a pace that
| He would gladly have saved and apostro-
phizes, saying. 20 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
| how often would | 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 simileg Next 20 the apposteness OF
the comparison, think It was TO help all
| public teachers IN the matter OF ilustra-
! ton 20 get down off their stills and use
comparisons that all can understand. The
| plainest bird on. earth is the harnyard
! fowl. It's only adornments are the red
comb IN its head-dress and the wattles un.
der the throat. IL has no grandeur OF
| genealogy. All we know Is that its ances
tors came from India, some OF them from
height of 1000 feet on the sides of the
| Himalayas. IL has no pretenson OF nest
! like the eagles eyrie. Ii has no lustre OF
| plumage like the godhnch Possessing
! anatomy that allows flight, yet about the
/ last thing it wants TO do Is 10 fly, and IN
4 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 herfa~A4n my text
| L.a ~ n
song, but only cluck and cackle. frt
| 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-sshool instructors and editors
and preachers and reformers and those
who would gain the ears of audiences TO
I. attain that heavenly and divine art Of sim
| plicityl We have to run course of lit
| erary disorders as children a course OF ply
sical disorders. We come out Of school
aud college loaded down with Greek my
thologies and out of the theological semin.
, airy weighed down with what the learned
fathers said, and we fly with wings of
eagles and namingoes and albatrosses, and
IL takes a good while before we can come
down 10 Chrst's simiitudes the candle
under the bushel. the salt that has lost It's
SAVIOR, 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 10 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 inn
| 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
world are so full of failures, so full OF loaf
ors, 50 full OF deadbeats is because people
| are not wise enough 20 take the lesson
which any hen would teach them that II
they would find for themselves and for
those dependent upon them anything worth
having they must scratch for It. Solo.
mon said, Go 90 the ant, thou sluggard. y
saw. Go 10 the hen, thou sluggard. In
the Old Testament God compares Himself
90 an eagle stirring up her nest, and IN
the New Testament the Holy Spirit is
compared 20 q descending dove. but Christ
in a sermon that began with cutting sar'
casm for hypocrites and ends with the
parozysm of pathos in the text compares
! Himself - a hen
One day in the country we saw sudden
CONSERVATION in the behavior Of I'D Dom
mick. Why the hen should be so dis
turbcd we could not understand. We
/ looked about 10 see II neighbor's dog
were invading the farm We looked up 20
sec il storm cloud were lowering We
could sec nothing on the ground that could
tcrrorize, and we could see nothing IN the
cir 20 rufle the feathers Of the hen, but
the loud, wild, affrighted cuck which
1 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 9 rapacious bird
wheeling round and round and down and
down, and not seeing Us az we stood IN
the shadow. it came nearer and lower un
I'll we saw It's beak was curved from base
70 tip and It had two flames OF fire for
eyes, and it was n hawk. But all the
chickens were under old Dominick's wings
and either the bird OF prey caught a
glimpse Of us or not able 10 find the brood
huddled under wing, darted back into the
clouds.
So Christ calls with great earnestness 10
all the young. Why, what Is the matter
II 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 call, calls with more emphasis
and urges haste and SAYS not second
ough. TO be lost. Oh. DO tell US what is
the matter. All, now / see; there are
hawks Of temptation IN the air, there arc
vulturcs wheeling for their prey, there
ire beaks Of 6-ath ready to plunge, there
are claws OF -lurement ready 60 clutch.
Now / see e., peril Now ] understand
the urgency. Now / sec the only safety.
Would that Christ might this day take
cur sons and daughters into EiJ shelter
'as a hen ga'hcrcth her chickens under
her wing
fhe fact il that the mos; Of them will
never mird the shelter unless while they
are chickens. IL IL simple matter ci m
exorable statistics that most Of those who
do aot come 90 Christ IN youth never come
at all. What chance is there Tor the
young without divine protection There
are the grOglhOps, there are tn gamO.
ling hclls. there are the inhdoitios and
inmoralitics Of spirituaiism, there are the
had books, there arc the ILIpurties, there
are the buslnesJ ra-coiities, and 20 nuner'
Gus are these assli.aIts that u ~ wonder
that honesty and virtue are not lost arts.
The birds Of prey diurnal and nocturnal,
cf the natural world are ever on the alert.
They are assascins Of the sky; they. have
varieties Of taste. TIE eagle prefers the
flesh Of tlc living animab; tb2 vu.ture
prefers the carcass; the falcon kills with
one stroke. while other styles of be1E
give pr0lOacatiCn II torture And - the
tempt ltious ci this life arc various.
Fathers, mothers. oder brothers and
sisters and Sabaath-e-h0ol taacEers, be
quick and ear1css 1ld p..y-r.ul aad im.
Fortunate and get the chickens under wing
May th~ Sabbath schCJ.s OF fmcrica and
Great Britain within 'be nest three months
sweep AT their scholars into the Kingdom.
Whom they have nov u1Lcr charge j. an.
certain. Concerning that scrawDy puay
child that lag "a th- cradle many years
ago, the father Celd. many remarked.
What a mercy if the Lord would take