The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-18
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON


Os ANGELES. CAL March 1l-Pe-
enliarly timely. in view of the great
L. Japanese famine, is this sermon, in
which the preacher shows how marvel
ously God cares for those who trust in
him. The text is l Kings xvii. IA, The
barrel of meal shall not waste, neither
shall the cruise of oil fall"
God grant that gaunt. haggard, parehed
skinned, death dealing famine may never
stalk through the streets of our fair
cities. Dore's most vivid conceptions Of
Dante's hell and Hogarth's most horri-
BILE caricatures of degradation and vice
and Vassilli Yereschagin's most realistic
scenes of the blood soaked battlehelds OF
the Turkish and Russian war cannot COM
pare In horror with the terrible sights
that have been witnessed when madden
ing famine gets in its work. Gould any
paintings be more awful than the simple
photographs We saw OF men and wo-
men and children huddled together In
slckening groups who were slowly starY-
ing to death In the awful Indian famines
of 1897 and 1900? Could any war be more
declares that in the famous Bengal fam
Inc of ITO out of sO000oOO of inhabitants
100000, or one-third of the whole pop
ulation, were dead within few months?
The same kind of "a fearful famine that
cursed Russia In the year 1892, that de-
vastated Ireland in 1879 and in 1916 and
1914 the same kind of a famine as that
which destroyed two-thirds of the in
habitants of the Cape Verde islands in
1880, the same kind of a famine which
blasted northern Africa during Joseph's
premiership and is now devastating the
land of Japan,-ywas depopulating Pales-
tine. 20 God, give us rain is crying the
rich man in his palace. 20 God, give us
rain" cries the poor peasant in his hut,
GIVE us rain Give us rain, or we diet.
were the universal pleadings. But no
rain came. On account of King Ahab's
sins God had decreed that no rain was
to descend upon Palestine hills and val
leys for three long years.
We leave the hills and the valleys Of
the interior. We come down toward the
Mediterranean shore. to the beautiful
city of zarephath, situated near to Tyre
and Sidons There we find the desolation'
appalling. The horses, cattle and sheep
died months ago. The drought has al
ready lasted two long years The cattle
had no food to live on. They had to die.
The grass and the wheat had long since
disappeared. Men and women and chill
dren were dying by the scores and the
hundreds Fever and scurvy were every
day adding to the death list. The whole
city was becoming one great charnel
house. The fields where once grew the
harvest were as hard as baked and
cracked clay. AS I stand In Imagination
upon the outskirts of the city, amid these
scenes of desoation and death, 1 see a
humble woman, weak and tottcring.
gathering a few sticks to build a fire.
Along comes a tall, gaunt, dignifed man..
He accosts the woman something like
this:
They Were Starving.
me, drink" She turns to do his bidding.
Then in matterof fact way this stranger
says; Bring me, ] pray thee, a morsel
of bread In thine hand" He practically
says, when you go for water bring a
little food too" The woman. weak and
lettering from starvation, turns and looks
at him in amazement Then she speaks
In this wise: Man, what are you talk
ing about? Are you mad? We are starv-
ing We are dying. The dead in our
streets lie unburied I have starved and
starved. l have cut the daily supply OF
food down and down. until now we are
at the end. 1 have but handful of meal
and little oil. I am going to cook this
for my son, and then we shall both lie
down and die" With that Elijah the