Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1891 — THANKSGIVING [ARTICLE]

THANKSGIVING

The Sutuect of Dr. Talmage’s Sunday Sermon. What Maa Em to Be Thankful for—Kings that Have Placed rhelr Thrones . on American Soil. . Rev. Dr. Talmage preached Brooklyn last Sunday. Text: Psalm cxlviii, 10-12-13. He said: What a scene it was when, last Thursday, at the call of the President and Governors, this Nation assembled to chant the praises of God. But the day was too short to celebrate the Divine goodness of such a year: The sun did not rise over Brooklyn till one minute before 7 o’clock, that morning, and it set at 4:35 o’clock that afternoon. What a small space of time in ’ which to meditate upon twelve months of benefactions! So I add to that day this Sabbath morning service, and, with the fruits and harvests of the earth still glorify!ng the pulpit arid the galleries. ask you to continue the rehearsal of the Divine goodness. a sublime egoti&ffFJHati has come to appropriate this world to himself, when the fact is that our race is m a small minority. The instances of human life, as compared with the instances of animal lite, are not one to 1,000,000.- We shall enlarge pur ideas of God's goodness and come to a better understanding of the text-if, before we come to look at the cup of our blessing, we look at the goodndss of God to the irrational creation. Although nature is out of joint, yet even in its disruption I am surprised to find the almost universal happiness of the animal creation. On a summer day, when the ah' and the grass Tare most populous with life, you will not hear a sound of distress unless, perchance, a heartless Schoolboy has robbed a bird’s nest, or a hunter has broken a bird's wing, ora pasture has been robbed of a lamb and there goes up a bleating from the flocks. The whole earth is filial with animal delight—joy feathered, and scaled, and, horned, and hoofed. The bee hums it, the frog croaks it, the squirrel chatters .it, the quail whistles it, the lark carrols It. the whale spouts it. The snail, - the rhinoceros, the grizzly bear, the toad, the wasp, the spider, the shellfish, have their homely delights—joy is great to them as our joy is to us. beat climbing the rocks; anaconda crawling through the jungle, buffalo plunging across the prairie; crocodile baskihg in the tropical sun: seal Euffing on the ice.;-.ostrich striding cross the desert, are so many bunflies of joy ; they do not go moping or nielai|choiy; they are not only half supplied; God savs they are filled with good. The worm squirming through the lod upturned by the plowshare, ind the ants racing up and down the hillock, are happy by day and happy by night. Take, up a drop of water onder the microscope, and you find that within it there are millions of Creatures that swim in a hallelujah “jF jnidriFss. Tlie sounds in nature that are repulsive to our ears are inly evidences of joy—the growl, the croak, the bark, the howl. The good nod luade these creatures, thinks of them ever, and will not let a plowihare turn up a mole's nest, or a fisherman's hook transfix a worm, until, by eternal decree, its .time has come. God s band feeds all .those broodstand shepherds all these Hoicks and tends all these herds. He sweetens the clover top for the oxmi's taste; and pours out crystalline waters in mossed cups of rock, for the hind to drink out of on his way down the crags, and ppurs nectar into the cup of the honeysuckle to refresh the humming bird; and spreads a banquet of a hundred fields of buckwheat, and lets the honey-bee put bis mouth to any cup of all the banquet. and tolls the grasshopper togb anywhere he likes, and gives the flocks of heaven the choice of all the grain fields. The sea anemone, half animal half flower, clinging to the rock in mid-ocean, with its tentacles spread to catch its food, has the Owner of the universe to provide for it. We are repulsed at the hideousness of the elephant, but God, for the comfort and convenience •of the monster, puts forty thousand distinct muscles in its proboscis. I go down to the barren sea shore nnd say “No animal can live in this place of’ desolation;” but. all through the sands are myriads of little insects that leap with happy life. Igo down by the marsh and say “In this damp place and in these loathsome pools of stagnant water there will be the quietness of death;” but 10l see the turtles on the rotten log sunning themselves and hear the bogs quake with multitudinous life* When the unfledged robins are hungry God shows the old robin where she can get the food to'put into their mouths. Winter is not allowed to come until the ants havegranaried their harvest and the squirrels have filled their cellars with nuts. God shows the "hungry ichneumon where it can find the crocodile’s eggs; and in the arctic ifelimes there animals that God so lavishly clothes that they can afford to walk through snow storms in the finest sable and ermine, and chinchilla, and no sooner is one set of furs worn out than God gives him a .new one. He helps the spider in its architecture of its gossamer bridge, ju»d takes care of the color of the butterfly's wiugs, and tinges the ccchinegl and helps the moth out of itho ehjrysalis. The animal creation also has its army and navy. The ’most insignificant has its means of defense; the wasp its sting, the reptile its tooth, th® bear its paw, the

dog its muzzle, the elephant its task, the fish its scale, the bird its swift wing, the reindeer its antlers, the roe its fleet foot. We are repelled at the thought of sting and tusk and hoof, but God’s goodness provides them for the defense of the animal’s rights. Yes, God in the Bible announces His care for these orders of creation. He says that He has heaved up fortifications for their defense —Psalm civ., 18: ‘ 'The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats and the rocks for the conies.” He watches the bird’s nest —Psalm civ., 87: “As for the stork, the fir trees are her house.” He sees that the cattle have enough grass—Psalm civ., 14: “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle.” He sees to it that the cows, and sheep, and horses have enough to drink—Psalm civ,, 10-11: “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field, the wild asses quench their thirst. Amid the thunders of Simai God uttered the rights of cattle, and said that they should have a Sabbath. “Thou sfialt not do ariy work, thou, nor thy cattle.” He declared with infinite e-mpliasis that the ox on the threshing-floor should have the privilege of eating some of the grain as he trod it out, and muzzling was forbidden. If young birds were taken from the nest for food the despoiler’s life depended on the mother going free. God would not let the mother-, bird suffer in one day the loss of her’ young and- her owi liberty. And He<vho regarded in olden times the conduct of man toward the brutes today looks down from heaven, and is interested in every minnow that swims the stream, and every rook that cleaves the air, and every herd bleats, or neighs, or lows in the. pasture. Why did God make all these, and why make them so happy? How account for all this singing and dancing, and frisking amid the irrational creation? Why this heaven for the animalcule in a dew drop? Why for the condor a throne on Chimeorazo? Why the glitter of the phosphorus in the ship's wake on the sea, which is said to be only the frolic of millions of insects? Why the perpetual chanting of so many voices from the irrational creation in earth, and air, and ocean —beasts, and all cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl, permitted to join in the praise that goes up from seraph and arch-angel? Only one solution, one explanation, one answer—God is good. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” » I take a step higher, and notice the adaptation of the world to the comfort and happiness of man. The sixth day of creation had arrived. The palace of the world was made, but there was no king to live in it. Leviathian ruled the deep; the eagle the air; the lion the field; but where was the scepter which should rule all? A new style of being was created. Heaven and earth were represented in his nature. His body from the earth beneath; his soul from the heaven above. The one reminding him of his origin, the other speaking of his destiny—himself the connecting link between theanimal creation and angelic intellience. In Kim a strange commingling of the temporal and eternal, the finite and the infinite; dust and glory. The earth for his floor, and heaven for his roof; Ged for his father; eternity for his life-time. The Christian anatomist, gazing I upon the conformation of the human I bottle, ekclaims: “Fearfully, andwonderfully made." No embroidery so elaborate, no gauze so delicate, no color so exquisite, no mechanism so graceful, no hand wbrk so divine. So quietly and mysteriously does the human body perform its functions, that it was not until 5,000 years after the creation of the race" that the circulation of the blood was discovered; and though anatomists of all countries and ages have been so long exploring this cattle of life, they have only begun to understand it. Volumes have been written of the hand. Wondrous instrurhent! With it we give friendly recognition, and grasp the sword, and climb the rock, and write and carve and build. It constructed the pyramids, and hoisted the Parthenon. It made the harp and then struck out of it all the world's minstrelsy. In it the white marble of Pentelicon mines dreamed itself away into immortal sculpture. It reins in the swift engine; it holds the steamer to its path in the sea; it j snatches the fire from heaven; it feels the pulse of the sick child with its delicate touch, and makes the nations quake with its stupendous achievements. What power brought down the forests, aud made the marshes blossom, and burdened the earth with all the cities that thunder on with enterprise and power? Four fingers and a thumb. A hundred million dollars would not purchase fqr you a machine as exquisite -and *7onderful as your own hand. Mighty hand! In all its bones and muscle’s and joints, I learn that God is good. Behold the eye, which, in its photographic gallerj, in an instant catches the mountain and the sea. This perpetual telegraphing of the nerves; these joints, that are Jhe only hinges that do not wear out; these bones and muscles of the body, with 14,000 different adaptations; these 100.OOp glands; these 2,000,000 pores; this mysterious heart, contracting 4,000 times gpvery hour—this chemical process of digestion; this laboratory, beyond the understanding of the most skillful philosophy; this furnace, whose heat is kept up from cradle to grave; this factory of life, whose wheels and spindles and bands are God-directed. If we could realize the wonders of our physical organization, we would become

... . ’ . • ■ I -• • hypochondriacs, fearing every moment that some part of the machine would break down. But there are men who have lived through seventy years, and not a nerve has ceased to thrill, or a muscle to contract, or a lung to breathe, or a hand to manipulate. r • .. I take a step higher and look at man’s mental constitution. Behold the beriovolence of God in powers of perception, or the. faculty of transporting this outside world into your own mind— gathering into your brain the majesty of the storm and the splendors of the day dawn and lifting into your mind the ocean as easily as you might put a glass of water to your lips. Watch the law of association, or the mysterious linking together of all you ever thought, or knew, or felt, and then giving you the power to take hold of the clew line and draw through your mind the long train with indescribable velocityone thought starting a hundred apd this again a thousand —as the chirp of one bird sometimes wakes a whole forest of voices, or the thrum of one string-wilLrouse an orchestra. Watch your memory—that sheafbinder that goes forth to gather the harvest of the past and bring it into the present. Your pjwer and velocity of thought-—thought of the swift wing and the lightning foot; thought that outspeeds the star, and circles through the teavens, and weighs worlds, and, from poising amid wheeling constellations, coirie*r down to count the blossoms in a tuft of mignonette, then starts again to try the fathoming of the bottomless, and the scaling of the insurmountable, to be swallowed up in the incomprehensible and lost in God! In reason and understanding, man is alone. The ox surpasses him in strength, antelope in speed, the' hound in keenness of the ev.gle in far-reaching sight, the rabbit in quickness of hearing, the honeybee in delicacy of tongue, the spider in fineness of touch. Man’s power, therefore, consisteth not in what he can lift, or how fast he can run, or how strong a wrestler he can throw —for in these respects the ox, the ostrich, and the hyena are his superior—but by his reason he comes forth to rule all; through his ingenious, contrivance to outrun, outlift, outwrestle, outsee, outhear, butdo. At his all-conquering decree, the forest that stood for ages steps asfde to let himTmild his- cabin and cultivate his farm. The sea which raved and foamed upon the f race has become a crystal pathway for commerce to march on. The thunder-cloud that slept lazily above the mountain is made to come down and carry mail-bags. Men, dissatisfied with his slowness of advancement shouted to the Water and the Fire, “Come and lift!” “Come and drawl” “Come and help!” And they answered “Ay; Tsy^wß—eo^e;” 1 and the hands —the Fire and the Water —and the shuttles fly, and the rail-train rattles on, and the steamship comes coughing, panting, flaming across the deep. lie elevates the telescope, to the heavens, and, as easily as through the stethoscope the physician hears the movement of the lung, the astronomer catches the pulsation of distant systems of worlds throb- j ing with life. He takes the microscope and discovers that there, are hundreds of thousands of animalcule living, moving, working, dying within a circle that could be covered with the point of a pin—animals to which a raindrop would be an ocean. A Tose-leaf a hemsphere, and the flash of a fire fly lasting enough to give them light to several generations.

I take a stop higher and look at man’s moral nature. Made in the image of God. Vast capacity for enjoyment; capable at first of eternal joy, and, though now disordered, still, through the recuperative force of heavenly grace, able to mount up to more than its original felicity; faculties that may blossom and bear fruit inexhaustibly. Immortality written upon every capacity; a soul destined to range in unlimited spheres of activity long after the world has put on ashes and the so'ar system shall have snapped its axle, and the stars that, in their course, fought against Siser’a, shall have been slain and buried amid the tolling thunders of the last day. You see that God has adapted everything to our comfort and advantage. Pleasant things for the palate; music for the ear; beauty for the eye; aroma for the nostril; kindred for our affections; poetry for our t®ste; religion for our soul. We are j>ut in a garden, and told that from all the trees we may eat except here and there a forbidden one. He gives the sun to shine on uS; and the waters to refresh us; and food to strengthen' us; and the herbs yield medicines when we are sick, and the forest lumber when we would build a house or cross the water in a ship. The rocks are transported for our foundations, and metals upturned for our currency; and wild beasts must give us covering; and the mountains must be tunneled to let us pass, and the fish of the sea come up in our net; and the birds of the air drop at the flash of our guns, and the cattle on thousand hills come down to give us meat. For us the peach-orchards bend down their fruit, and the vineyards their purple clusters. To feed and refresh our intellect, 10.000 wonders in nature and providerce—wonders of mind and body, wonders of earth and air, and deep analogies and antithness; all colors arid sounds; lyrics in the air; idyls in the field; conflagrations in the sunset; robes of mist of the mountains; and the “Grand March” of God in the storm. * But for the soul still higher adaptation; a fountain in 1 which it may wasbf a ladder by which it may

climb; a song of endless triumph that it may sing; a crown of unfading light that it may wear. Christ cams to save it—came with a cross on his back; came with spikes in his feet: came when no one else. would come, to do a work which no one else would do. See how suited to man’s condition is what God has done for him! Manis a sinner, here is pardon.He has lost God’s image; Christ retraces it. He is helpless; Almighty grace is proffered. He is a lost wanderer; Jesus brings him home. He is blind; and at one touch of Him who cured Bartimeus, eternal glories stream into his soul. Jesus, I §ihg Thy grace! Cure of worst disease! Hammer to smite off heaviest 6hain! Light for thickest darkness. Grace divine! Devils scoff at it. and men reject it, but heaven celebrates it! I wish,you good cheer for the National harvest. Reaping machines never swathed thicker rye and cornhusker’s peg never ripped fuller ear, and mow poles never bent down under sweeter hay, and the wind mill’s hopper never shook out larger wheat. Long trains of white-covered wagons have brought the wealth down to the great thoroughfares. The garners are full, the storehouses are overcrowded, the canals are blocked with freight pressing down to the market. The cars rumble all through the darkness and whistle up the flagman at the dead of night to let the Western harvests came down, to feed the mouths of ths great cities. A race oFkingshas taken possession of’tins; land—King Cotton. King Corn, King Wheat, King Rice, King Grass, King Coal. I wish you good cheer for civil and religious liberty. No official spy watches bur entry here, nor does an armed soldier interfere with honest utterance of truth. We stand here to-day with our arms free to work and our tongues free to speak. This Bible, it is all unclasped. This puljSSjZZjffiere Is ~noZ chamZZMonnd about it. There is ho snapping of musketrvH4p=*4he street. * Blessedbe God that to-day we are free men, with the pro spect and determination of always being free. No established religion; Jew and Gentile, Armenian and Calvinist, Trinitarian and Unitarian, Protestant and Roman Catholic, on the same footing. If persecution should come against the most unpopular of all the sects, I believe that ali other denominations would band together and arm themselves, and hearts would be stout, and blood would be free, and the right of men to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences would be contested at the point of the bayonet and with blood flowing up to the bits of the horses’ bridles. For mercies temporal and spiritual let consecrated lives ba offered. Wherever God’s light shines, and God’s rain descends, and God’s mercy broods, let the thanksgiving arise.