St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-23
KISSED OFF THE STAGE.
A Dramatic Discourse by DR.. Talmage
Upon the Basis That Every One
Plays Part.
he Gives the Subject Of Intemperance Due
Attention and States a Few
Plain Truths.
Henry Ward Beecher breaches Il
Young Men Upon the Power
OF Example.
The Life of Horace E. Claflin Used
to Illustrate the Theme of
His Sermon.
DIR. TaImage's Sermon.

mage preached TINS morning III the Brook
lyn tabernacle on the subject: Kissed Off the
Stage. Before the sermon he eXpounded
the twenty-fifth chapter of Acts, concern
ing PaulS appeal unto Caesar. The text
was from job xvii, %: Men shall clan
their hands at him and shall hiss him out OF
his place Following is the sermon: This
allusOn seems to be dramatic. The Bible
more than once makes such allusiOn. Paul
says: I'VE are made theater Tor Specta-
cle) TO angels and to men," The theater is
50 old that no one can fix the date of its
birth. ArchilocuS. SimonideS and Solon,
who wrote for it dithyrambics, lived about
six or seven hundred years before Christ.
II IS evident from the text that some of the
habits of the theater-goers were known in
Jobs time, because in the text he describes
an actor hiSsed off the stage. The imper-
senator comes on the boards and either
through lack of study of the part he is to
take or happiness or other incapacity. the
audience is offended and express their dis
appreciation and disgust. first by Over-ap-
plauSe, attempting by great clapping of
hands to drown out what he says: and that
failing to stop the performance they put
their tongue against their teeth and make
terrific SibillatiOn
UNTIL HE DISAPPEARS
behind the curtain. Men shall clap their
hands at him and shall hiss him out Of his
place" My text suggests that each one of
rs is put on the stage OF this world to take
some part Mccullough. the actor re-
Gently buried. was no more certainly APP
pointed on any occasion to appear as Spart-
acus. or Edwin Forrest as King Lear,
or Charlotte Cushman as Meg MerrIles,
or John Kemble as Macbeth, or Cooke as
Richard Ill, or Kean as OtheIlo, than
you or | are expected 10 take some especial
and particular part in the great drama of
human and immortal life. Through what
hardship and suffering and discipline these
artists went year after year that they might
be perfected in their parts, you have often
read. But we. put on the stage of this life
to represent charity and faith and humility
and helpfulneSs, what little preparation we
have made, although we have three gal
leries of spectators, earth and heaven and
hell. Have we not been more attentive to
the part taken by others than to the part
taken by ourselves. and while we needed to
be looking at home and concentrating on
our own duty, we have been criticiSing the
other performers and saying that was too
high or too low or too demOnStratiye, 4"
while we were making ourselves
a DEAD FAILURE
and preparing to be ANONYMOUSLY hisssd
off the stage? Each one is assigned place,
no Supernumeries hanging around the drama
of life to take this or that or the other part.
as he may be called upon. No one can take
our place. We can take no other place.
Aye, it is not the imperSOnatioD of another
We ourselves are the real Merchant of Ven
ice or the real Shylock, the real fiIial Cor
della or the real cruel Regan, the real Por-
tia or the real Lady Macbeth. The trage-
dian of the playhouse at the close of the
fifth act takes off the attire of GOnzalO, or
Edward Mortimer or Henry v. and resigns
the character in which for three hours he
appeared. But we never put off our char
acter and no change of apparel can make us
any one else than that which we eternaly
are. Many make failure of their part in
the drama of life through dissipation. They
have enough intellectual equipment and
good address and geniaiity unbounded, but
they have a wine closet that contains all the
forces for their social and business and
Moral overthrow. So far back as $50 King
Edgar OF England made a law that the
drink cup should have pins fastened at a
certain point i'll the side 50 that the indulger
might be reminded to stop before he
GOT TO THE BOTTOM.
sides OF the modern wine cup or beer mug,
i and the first point at which millions stop is
J at the grayelly bottom Of their own graves.
+, DR.. Sax of France has recently discovered
something which all drinkers ought to
know. He has found out that alcohol in
F, every shape, whether of wine or brandy or
beer contains parasitic life called bacillus
potumanie. BY powerful microscope
these living things are discovered. and
when you take strong drink YOU take them
into the stomach, and then into your blood,
and getting into the crimson canals Of life
they go into every tissue of your body, and
your entire organism is taken possession of
bS these intintesimalS. When in delerium
tremenS man sees every form of reptilian
life it is only these parasites of the brain
in exaggerated size. 1t is not a halucina-
ton that the victim is suffering from. He
only sees in the room what is actually crawl
ing and rioting in his own brain. Every
time you take strong drink you swallow
these maggOtS; and every time tie imbiber
of alcohol in any shape feels vertigo OF
rheumatism or nausea, it is only the jubilee
of these maggotS. Efforts are being made
for the discovery of some germicide that
can kill the parasites of alcoholism, but the
only thing that will
ENER EAIlRPAIE THEM
Is abstinence from alcohol and teetOtal alb
stinence. to which | would before God
swear all these young men and old. Amer
lea is a fruitful country, and we raise large
crops of wheat and corn and oats. but the
largest crop we raise in this country is the
crop of drunkardS. With sickle made out
OF the sharp edges of the broken glass of
bottle and demiiohn they are cut down, and
there are whole SWatheS of them. whole
WIndrows OF them. and it takes all the hos
pltalS ana penltentarieS, and graveyardS
and cemeteries to hold this harvest of hell.
Some of you are going down under this
evil. and the neYer-dying worm of alcohol
ism has wound around you one of its coils
and by next New Years day it will have
another coil around you, and it will after a
while put coil around your tongue, and a
coil around your brain. and a coil around
your lung, and a coil around your foot and
q coil around your heart, and some day this
never-dying worm will with one spring
tighten all the coils at once. and in the last
twist of that awful convolutiOn you will
cry out, 'Oh my GodI' and be gone. The
greatest of dramatists, in the tragedy of the
Tempest, sends staggering across the stage
Stephano,
THE DRUNKEN BUTLER:
but across the stage of human life strong
drink sends kingly and queenly and princely
natures staggering forward against the foot
lights of conspicuity, and then staggering
back into failure. till the world is Impatient
for their disappearance, and human and
diabolcal voices join in Kissing them of
the stage. Many also make failure in the
drama of life through Incidence. They are
always making calculation how little they
can do for the compensation they get
There are more lazy ministers. LAWYERS
doctors, merchants, artists and farmer;
than have ever been counted upon. The