The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-06-19
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sv THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. Q. O.


 without a return. If they want spending money they must earn 1t by painting the fences or cutting the wood or gathering the walnuts. If they want a gun or a riding horse they. must buy it with their own money which they have earned. I have not told them that eaen year they have an $500 income, which was left them by a dead relative, and that at 21 years of age they will be independ- ently rich. l know that knowledge would ruin them. I make them work for every cent they spend. In their working I am | developing two of the finest boys in all this part of the country"
 Dead Heart Led On.
 That earthly parent Is developing his children by work. Cannot we realize l God is developing us spiritually, men tally and physically by work, and. hard | work2 Why were the old Yankees born amid the New England hills and the old highlanders. born amid the Scottish heather, of the same heroic mold? We have read that in the chivalric times the | Scottish crusaders were being driven back, when an old highland chief took from his girdle the leathern bag which | incased the heart of the dead Bruce He | flung it far into the ranks of the enemy as he cried Thou brave heart of a mighty Bruce, lead us on to victory, Lead us on! Lead us onr' Then the flee ing highlanders turned and charged where the dead Bruce would have led them. Oh, how we thrill at the story of that mighty deedl But why did the Scotchmen and Yankees of old belong to races of giants and the Latin people of Central America and of the southern parts of Portugal and Spain degenerate Into race of pigmles? Difference of blood perhaps But l believe it was not so much a difference of blood as diff ference of geographical surroundings
 In the southern parts of Europe all that the inhabitants had to do for cen turies was to tickle the soil and it would laugh with plenty. While among those northern snow-clad hills not only did the inhabitants have to fight human en- emes, but climatic ones. Any man who wrested harvest from the New Hamp- shire valleys or from the Scottish high lands had by necessity to be strong of brain and powerfully muscled of arm It was the climatic obstacles which made the New Englanders and the Scottish clans the mighty men they were and are. ana It Is trouble. great trouble, which al- ways develops men. The old parental eagle pushes her fiedglings off the nest to teach her young how to fly. God pushes us one and all out into the abyss or fatnomless trial to teach us how to take care of ourselves God does not want to run a perpetual nursery. He wants 10 make of us men and women of lully developed powers. He disturbs us rom our places of comfort and ease and thrusts us forth into scenes of con lllct and difficulty in order that me may iearn to use the spiritual powers with which we are endowed. and to teach us in are extremity what infinite resources there are in him for every one of his children who looks confidently up to him and cries. Our Father"
 God again stirs up our nests and pushes us on our eyries, as the eagle does it's young, to show us our limitations as well as our possibilities The eaglet has to learn what it cannot do as well as what It can do. It must be taught in one sense how to depend upon itself. it must be taught in another sense how It must depend upon the parent bird The Blhle In the beautiful figure or my text pictures the old eagle, when the right | time comes stirring up the nest and pushing her young off the cliff Oh. yes. that is beautiful, but the next statement or the verse is just as beautiful When the young bird drops down ana down 1 and the fiutterlng wings grow weaker and weaker, then the hedglings give A faint, frightened call for help. Then what happens? Why. the old bird at ! once starts to the rescue Swifter than any sea gull ever dropped into the wa ters to clutch a fish. swifter than ever hawk bounced upon a chicken in the barnyard, the old mother bird starts to save her young How? She sWoops down below the fiuttering eaglet and rising with outstretched wings, receives it on her shoulders and bears 1t aloft Into safety. Is not this beautiful sym bo of Gods care for his children? The psalmlst says, He wallleth upon the wings of the wind" Yes: that is like the eagle. He pushes us off the nest. but he does not leave us to perish. He Is near and underneath us are the ever lasting arms When we are losing our strength and cry to him he bears us up. Do you not see the beautiful teachings of my text? As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fiuttereth over her young, spread eth abroad her wings, taketh tnem bear eth them on her wings"
 Lesson of Dependence.
 | The words of the text teach us that we must learn our limitations and how to trust God. and to depend upon God, as well as to learn how to depend upon ourselves. We must learn to trust selves 10 the 1teaVeniy fhlner strength and care, as the eagle trusts the mother ! bird. It is a lesson of dependence as well | as of effort l had lesson of this kind when, with my Arab guides, some years ago, l climbed the Egyptian pyramid of | Cheops. Each stone of that pyramid is about five feet high and two feet wide. | You give your outstretched hands to your dusky guides. They pull and push you up. Your head is dizzy with the awful abyss you can see beneath, but still they keep on pulling and pushing you up. You help them as much you can. Without your help they could do nothing, but if you did not have their help you woulG ! be doomed. Like that of the EnglNh 1 tourist who. a few years ago, tried to | climb the pyramid alone, your body would soon be a mangled corpse below. As we must learn from the text the duty of dependence upon ourselves so we must also learn the duty of absolute depend | ence upon God.
 | But there is still another great lesson | from the figure of an old parent eagle 1 stirring up her nest. After the young | birds have once been pushed off the eyrie | and learned their own limitations, and | also learned to trust the parent, then | they are ready to be taught by the parent birds by object lessons. When the eagIet once learns that if 1t does not obey the parent bird it will be punished then 1t will not only willingly, but after awhile | gladly, obey what the mother and fath- | CT bird teach it to do First comes fear,