Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-14
HEROES OF COMMON LIFE
TALMAGE UNROLuS A NEW
SCROLL OF MARTYRS.

Heroes of Dome site Infelicity-He erOes
of Christian Charity-Heroes to the
Faith.
DETROIT, MICH, Dec. 15.-The Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, ID. D., the celebrated
Brooklyn preacher, arrived here yester-
day morning. The Jefferson Avenue
Presbyterian Church was crowded this
morning, when he delivered an eloquent
sermon. The hymn sung was:
"Jesus, lover of my soul.
Let me to thy bosom ty"
The subject Of DIR. Talmage's discourse
was: ga New Scroll of Martyrs" and
the text, III. Timothy, H., 8. ''Thou there
fore endure hardness" DR.. Talmage
said:
Historians are not slow to acknowledge
the merits of great military chieftains.
We have the fuil-length portraits OF the
Cromwells, the Washingtons, the NapO-
Icons and the WellingtOns OF the world.
History is not written In black ink, but
with red ink OF human blood. The gods
of human ambition do not drink from
bowls made out of silver or gold or pre-
ci0us stones, but out Of the bleached
skulls Of the fallen. But am now to un-
roll before you a scroll of heroes that the
world has never acknowledged; those
who faced no guns, blew no bugle blast,
conquered no clues, chained no captives
to their chariot wheels, and yet in the
great day of eternity will stand higher
than those whose names startled the ma
tions; and seraph and rapt spirit and
archangel will tell their deeds to a listen
ing universe. mean the heroes of COM
mon, everyday life.
In this roll, in the first place, find all
the heroes Of the sick room. When satan
had failed to overcome Job he said to God :
PUT forth thine hand now, and touch his
bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee
to thy face" Satan had found out what
we have all found out, that sickness is
the great test Of ones character. A man
who can stand that can stand anything
TO be shut in a room as fast as though It
were a bastile to be 80 nervous you can
not endure the tap of a child's foot; to
have luxuriant fruit which tempts the ap-
petite Of the robust and healthy
excite our loathing and disgust
when it appears on the platter; to have
the rapier ofpain strike through the side
or across the temples like razor; or to
put the foot into vice or throw the whole
body into PLACE Of fever. Yet there have
been men and women, mere women than
men, who have cheerfully endured this
hardness. Through years OF exhausting
rheumatisms and eXcruciating neural
gias they nave gone, and through bodily
distresses that rasped the nerves, and
tore the muscles, and paled the cheeks,
and stopped the shoulders. BY the dim
| light OF the sick room taper they saw on
their wall the picture OF that land where
the Inhabitants are never sick. Through
| the dead silence Of the night they heard
the chorus of the angels.
a,k l,,-I
to week, and from day to day, and she be-
came weaker and weaker, and every
''Good-night'' was feebler than the ssGood-
night before, yet never sad. The child
looked up into her face and saw suffering
transformed into a heavenly smile. Those
who suffered on the battlefield amid shot
and shell, were not so much heroes and
heroines as those who in the field hospital
and in the asylum had fevers which no ice
could cool and no surgery could cure. No
shout of comrade TO cheer them, but numb
ness and aching and hOmesickness; yet
willing to suffer, confident in God and
hopeful of heaven. Heroes Of rheum atism,
heroes Of neuralgia, heroes Of spinal COM
plant, heroes Of sick headache, heroes OF
lifelong invalidlsm, heroes and herOines,
they shall reign forever and ever. Hark! /
catch just one note OF the eternal anthem /:
"There shall be no more pain" Bless God
for thatl
In TINS roll also find the heroes of toll !.
who do their work uncomplainingly. 1t
is comparatively easy TO lead a regiment
into battle, when you know that the
whole nation will applaud the victory; it
is comparatively easy to doctor the sick,
when you know that your skill will be
appreciated by the large company OF
friends and relatives; il is comparatively
easy to address an audience, when in the
cleaning eyes and flushed cheeks you
know that your sentiments are adopted /;
but to do sewing where you expect that
the employer will come and thrust his
thumb through the work to show how
imperfect 1t is, or 10 have the whole gar
ment thrown back on you TO be done over
again; to build a well and know there
will be no one to say you did it well,
but only a swearing employer howl
ing across the scafOld; TO work
until your eyes are dim, and your
back aches, and your heart faints, and to
know that II you stop before night your
children will starve! An, the sword has
not slain so many as the needlel The
great battleiields Of our last war were not
Gettysburg and Shiloh and South Noun
tain. The great battlehelds of the last
war were In the arsenals and in the shops.
and in the attics, where women made
army jackets for sixpence. They tOlled
on until they died. They had no funeral
eulogium, but in the name Of my God this
morning / enroll their names among those
OF whom the world was not worthy. He
roes, OF the needle, heroes OF the sewing
machine. heroes OF the attic, heroes OF the
cellar, heroes and heroines, bless God for
them!
In this roll also find the heroes who
have uncOmplainingy endured domestic
injustice. There are men who for their
toll and anxiety have no sympathy In
their own homes. Exhaustlng applica-
tiOn 10 business gets them 2 livelihood,
but an unfrugal wife scatters IL. He Is
iretted at from the moment he enters the
door until he goes out Of II, the exaspera-
tion OF business life augmented by the
exasperatiOns Of domestic life. such men
are laughed at, but they have a heart
breaking trouble, andpthey would have
long ago gone Into appalling designations
but for the grace Of God. Society to-day
> stfewn with the wrecks Of men who,
under the northeast storm OF domestic in
felicity have been driven on the rocks.
'rhere are tens Of thousands Of drunkards
Ia this country to-day made such by their
wives. That IL not poetry; that is prose.
But the wrong Is generally IN the OppO-
site direction. You would not have 10 20
far 10 find a wife who Is a perpetual mar
tyr. Something heavier than the stroke
OF the flst--unkind words, etaggerlngs
home az midnight and constant maltreat-
ment, which have left her only wreck Of
what she was on that day when, in the
uafdat Of "A brilliant Assem- blago. the voWe