The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-11-26

REV. r. DE WITT TALMNGE'5 DRN-
MATIC DISCOURSE


BnooKLYN, N. y, Nov -, isS5.-Dr
Talmagc preached this morning in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle on the subject:
"Illsscd OF the Stage Before the SER
mon he cxpouudcd the twcuty-nlth chap
ter Of Acts, concerning paurs appeal unto
Cusar. The opening hymn was!
our God. our help In ngcs past,
our hope for years 10 come.
The text was from job xvii, %: "Mon
shall clap their hands at him and shall hiss
him out Of his place. Following is the
sermon in full:
This nlusion seems to be dramatic. The
Bible more than once makes such allusiou.
Paul says awe are made theater (or
spcctacle) to angels and to lien. Tho the
atcr is so old that no one can llX the date Of
its birth Archiochus, Simonides, aud
Solon, who wrote for 1t dithyrambics, lived
about COO or zoo years before Christ. 1t is
evident from the text that some OF the
habits Of the thcater- 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 are offended and express their
disapprobation and disgust-irst by over
applause, attempting by great clapping OF
| hands to drown out what he says, and, that
failing to stop the performer, they put their
tongue against their teeth and make terrific
! sihlation until he disappears behind the
| curtain. "Men shall clap their hands at
him and shall hiss him out his place.
My text suggests that cacn one OF us is
| put on the stage of this world to take some
! part. Mccullough, the actor recently
buried, was 10 more certainly appointed on
any occasion to appear as Spartacus, or
Edwin Forrest us King Lear or Charlotte
Cushman as Meg Morrlies, or John KEN
blc as Macbeth, or Cooke as Richard III, or
Kcan as Othello, than you and | are eS-
| pectcd to take some especial and particular
part In the great drama of human and i'm
mortal life Through what hardship and
suffering and discipline these artists went,
year after year, that they might be per-
fectcd in their parts, you have often read.
But we, put on the stage of this life to rcp-
resent charity and faith and humility and
| helpfuluCss-what little preparation we
have made, although we have three gal
lerics of spectators-earth and heaven ard
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
| he looking at home and concentrating on
our own duty, we have been critcsing the
other performers and saying ''that was too
| highn or "too low or "too feeblen or
| 'tUo extravagautn or "too tamen or "too
dcmonstrative," while we were making our
selves a dead failure and preparing to be
| ignominiously hissed off the stage? Each
| one is assigned place, no supcrnumCrarics
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, 1t is not
the impersonation Of another, we ourselves
arc the real Merchant of Venice or the
real Shylock, the real liial Cordclia or the
real cruel Regau, the real Portia or the real
Lady Macbeth. The tragedian of the play
house, at the close OF the third scene OF the
fifth act, takes Off the attire of GonZalor
Edward Mortimer or Henry V, and resigns
the character In which for three hours he
appeared. But we never put of our char
aCter and no change OF apparel can make
us any one else than that which we eternally
are.
Many make failure of their part in the
drama Of life through dissipation. They
have enough intellectual equipment and
good address and genlality unbounded.
But they have 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 n law that
the drink cup should have pins fastened Mt
certain point in the side so that the in
dulgcr might be reminded to stop before he
got TO the bottom. But there are no pins
projecting from the sides of the modern
wine cup or beer mug, and the first point at
which millions stop is at the gravclly bot
tom of their own grave.
DIR. Sax, of France, has recently dscov-
cred something which all drinkers ought to
know. lie has found out that alcohol in
every shape, whether of wine or brandy or
Lcer, 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 get
ting into the crimson canals of life they &c
into every tissue of your body, and yUui
entire organism is taken possession of by
these noXious intinitesimals. When In dc
| lirium tremens man sees every form OF
Icptilian life, it is only these parasites OF
the brain in exaggerated size. 1t is not @
halluclnation that the victim is suffering
from. lie only sees in the room what Is
actually crawling and rloting in his own
brain. Every time you take strong drink
you swallow these maggots, and every time
the imbiber Of alcohol In any shape feels
vertigo or rheumatism or nausea, IL Is only
the jubilee of these maggots. Efforts are
being made for the discovery Of some germi
eide that can kill the parasites of alcohol
ism, but the only thing that VIII ever eX
iirpatc them is abstinence from alcohol an(
, teetotal abstinence, to which would befor,
God swear all these young men and old.
, America is fruitful country, and We
, raise large crops Of wheat and corn ant
r cats, but the largest crop we raise in tni
country IL the crop Of drunkards. VIII
sickle made out of the sharp edges OF tn,
broken glass of bottle and dcmijohn they
are cut down, and there are whole swathe
Of them, whole wlnrows of them, and 1
takes all the hospitals, and penitentiaries
and graveyards, and cemeteries TO hold th
harvest OF hell. Some of you are golns
down under this evil, and the never-dyinS
l worm OF alcoholism has wound around yol
one Of its coils, and by next New Year
S Day it will have another coil around you
and it will after awhile put coil arounC
your tongue, and coil around your brain
and coil around your lung, and n col
around your foot aud coil around you
heart, and some day this neverdying worn
will with one spring tighten all the coils Il
once, and In the last twist Of that awfu
God - and be gone. The. greatest o
dramNtists, in the tragedy of "The TEN
pest,h sends staggering across the stag
l Stcphano, the drInken butler; but acros
the stage Of human life strong drink send
G kingly aud queenly and pTlncely nature
+ staggering forward against the footlights o
conspicuity, and then staggering back int
Q failure, till the world be impatient for thei
5 disappearance, and human and diabol
voices Join IN Kissing them OF the stage
f Many also make a failure in the drama o
S life through indolcnce. They are Away
making calculation how little they can ii
Q for the compensation they get. There ar
+ more lazy ministers, lawyers, doctors, mel
chants, artists and farmers than have eve
s been counted upon. The community Is ful
Y Of luggards and shirkers. | can tell It fror
a the way they crawl along the street, fror
their tardiness In meeting engagements
9 from the lethargles that seem to hang TIA
!, foot when they lift it, to the hand whe
they put 1t up, TO the words when the
speak.
II Two young men In n store. In the morn
!, ing the one goes 10 his post the last minut