The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-14
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eY TAE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D. 9.
A HIcAGo. September 7.-Assur-
 ances and suggestions that will

ances and suggestions that will
 Sz4S help to console many mourning souls are given by the Rev, Frank De Witt Talmage in the discourse on the text Isaiah xl, Il, "IIe shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young
 What does the "empty cradle" of this mornings theme mean? Does 1t mean that the babies who once played in our nurseries have grown up into big boys and girls. who rush away every morning from the breakfast table to be in time to answer the call of the school bell2 Does 1t mean that our children have become young men and women and left the old homestead to go forth into the great bat tie of life? Oh, no. This morning l am going to preach upon the little white era dle which has oeen emptied in order to fill up the little white caslSet l am going to tell why Jesus. as the Good Shepherd often comes into the homes and gathers the little lambs into his arms and car ries them into the green pastures of heaven. We know he has always cared for them, as my text asserts while they still remained upon earth, but not till they reach heaven can they realize bis perfect love.
 Did you ever stop to think that the vast majority of the human race die in childhood and that over one-third die in infancy before the fourth year has been reached? Only the other day I preached funeral sermon in the house of 8 dear friend, in which lay little white casket As I was looking into the face of the little boy, whom l had well comed into the world and whom I had al- so baptized a sympathetic friend said: "Oh, MT. Talmage, this is awfully hard to bear! I know what 1t means to have the Divine Gardener come and pluck the blossoms out of the nursery. have had seven children during my life; six of them are dead. Only one boy Is alive of them all" As I left that home of mourn- ing and stood upon the street waiting for the pailbearers to place their precious burden in the white hearse by conversa- ton found out that the two mothers who were then standing nearest to my side each had two nurseries. The one nursery was for their living children within the four walls of the home. The second nur- sery was for the dead children within the four sides of the family plot.
 Balm For Borrowing Hearts.
 Now, my friends, what is the meaning of this wholesale immigration of our little ones to the heavenly shore? Are the life and death of the majority of children a failure? Is the empty cradle so empty that it can hold for us no inspiring les- sons of good cheer or is Christ today gathering the lambs into his arms and carrying them in his bosom so that he can the more safely lead the bereaved parents along the thorny and dangerous pathways of an earthly journey to the glorious destination prepared for them ahead? The marginal notes of my Bible affirm that this portion of my text may mean that the Good Shepherd may be carrying the little lambs in his bosom to the green pastures of heaven so that the mother sheep, with bleat and cry, will follow more anXiously and closely after the Divine Master. So today preach to thousands of sorrowing hearts. I want to tell them why their dead children were born and why God does not let the vast majority of the human race grow old and with bedimmed eyesight see the twilight of threescore years and ten.
 The empty cradle can be the sacred hearthstone of a purified matrimonial love. It can be the holy covenantal arR, the cherubim of which are made out of far more valuable material than those which were once nodded out of melted gold. These new cheruDlm may be the spiritual bodies of our redeemed children, who are lowering over us in perpetual benediction. It may be the trysting place where tired and care-worn men and wo- men meet to talk over the sweet memor- ies of the past.
 Some people do not believe this. They skeptically assert that a cradle, full or mo- Is a wedge which drives fathers and mothers apart rather than a golden link of love which clasps parental heart to parental heart. Lately a very dear fam fly friend, who had been a wife for many years, but not a mother, told me that she really believed her husband and herself were mere dependent upon each other and therefore loved each other the more because they had no children. l only laughed at her. why" I said, when you attempt to talk that way you are like a blind man feeling his way along tho streets with a staff, going step by step, who thinks he is getting along all right and who is attempting to prove that the sunlight Is useless merely because he has never seen a sunrise or sunset. having been born blind" Every true father knows that he never loved his wife as much the day before the first baby was born as the day after. Every true father knows that the happiest moment of his life was not the day he held his brides hand at the marriage altar but the day