The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-06
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISADVANTAGES OF SOME
PEOPLE.

PEOPLE.
Text: can these things are against me. "
Genesis, xiii, ST.
Father Jacob, you are wrong! You think
your son Joseph is dead, but he is Prime
Minister of Egypt aud has the keys of the
great corn crib. You think that circumstances
are all adverse, but they will turn out we'll
In all your life you never male greater
mistake than when you said: "All these things
are against me-"
A great multitude of people are under
seeming disadvantages, and will to-day, IN
the swarthiest Anglo-Saxon that can man.
age, treat their cases; not as nurse counts
out eight or ten drops of prescription, stlrs
them in half glass Of water, but as when
man has by mistake taken large amount or
opium, or Paris green, or belladonna, and the
patient is walked rapidly round the room and
shaken up and pounded until he gets wide
awake. Many OF you have taken large
draught of the poison of encouragement and
come out by the order of the Divine Physi-
clan to rouse you out Of that lethargy.
s'First, many people are under the disad-
vantage of an unfortunate name given them
by parents who thought they were doing
good thing. Sometimes at tie baptism OF
children while have held up one hand in
prayer I have held up the other hand in
ed the babe with such q dissonant and repul-
sive nomenclature. have not SO much Won
dered that some children should cry out at
the christening font as that others with SUCH
smiling face should take title that will be
the burden Of their lifetime 1t is outrageous
to afflict children with an undesirable name
because it happened to be possessed by
parent,o or rich uncle from whom fayors are
expei ted, or some prominent man OF the day
who may end his life in disgrace. 1t is no
excuse, because they are Scripture names, to
call q child Jehoiakim or Tiglath-Pileser.
at this very altar I baptized one by the
name of Bathsheba Why, under all the
circumambient heaven, any parent should
want to give to child the name of that loose
and Infamous creature of Scripture times l
cannot imagine I have often felt at the
baptismal altar, when names were announced
to me, like saying, as did Rev. DR.. Richards,
of Morristown, n. j., when child was
handed him for sprinkling and the name
given: Hadn't you better call itsomething
elseP'
Impose not upon that babe name sugges-
gestive Of fippancy or meanne:s. There lsno
excuse for such assault and battery on the
cradle when our language is opulent with
names musical in sound and suggestive in
meaning such as John, meaning 1.-THE gra-
cious gift of God',' or Henry, meaning "the
chief of q household" or Alfred, meaning
'sgood counselor" OF Joshua, meaning GOD
our salvation" or Nicholas, meaning 'vic-
tory of the people," or Ambrose, meaning
immortal" or Andrew, meaning manly"
or Esther, meaning "a STAR" or Abigail,
meaning my fathers JOY" or Anna, mean
ing sgrace," or Victoria, meaning victory"
or Rosalie, meaning beautiful as rose" or
Margaret, meaning "a PEARL" or Ida, mean
ing "Godlike." or Clara, meaning ''illustri-
Gus, or Amelia, meaning "busy,"or Bertha,
meaning beautiful" and hundreds of other
names Just as good. that are help rather than
hindrance
But sometimes the great hindrance in life
Is not in the given name but in the family
name. While legislatures are willing to lift
such incubus there are families that keep a
name which mortgages all the generations
with q great disadvantage. You say: Il
wonder If he is any relation to SO and So"
mentioning some family celebrated for crime
or deception. 1t is a wonder to me that in
all such families some spirited young man
does not rise, saying to his brothers and Sis
ters: IF you want to keep this nuisance or
standardization Of a name, I viii keep it no
longer than until by quickest course Of law
can slough off the gangrene." When the
general assembly of the Presbyterian church
Of the United States met in this building in
1876 two eStimable men of the sweetest dis
position stopped at the same house, and one
had the misnomer of being Mr.. Sour and the
other the misnomer of being Mr.. Pickle. And
your city directory has hundreds of names the
mere pronunciation of which has been life
long obstacle. If you have started life under
Q name which either through ridiculous or
typography or vicious suggestion has been an
encumbrance, resolve that the next genera
ton shall not be so weighted.
It is no bemeaning to change name. Saul
OF Tarsus became Paul the Apostle. Hadas-
sab "the myrtle" became Esther the star"
We have in America, and I suppose it is so
in all countries, names which ought to be abol-
ished and can be and will be abolished for
the reason that they are libel and SLAM
der. But if for any reason you are sub
merged either by given name or by FAM
ily name that you must bear. God will help
you to overcome the outrage by life conse-
Grated to the good and useful You may
erase the curse from the name. You may
somewhat change the significance. If once
1t stood for meanneSs you can make it stand
for generosity. If once it stood for pride you
can make it stand for humility. If it once stood
for fraud you can make itstand for honesty.
II once it stood for wickedneSs you can make
it stand for purity. There have been multi
tudes Of instances where men and women
have magniicently conquered the disasters
Of the name inflicted upon them.
Again, many people labor under the mis-
fortune of incomplete physical equipment.
We are by our Creator so economically built
that we cannot afford the obiteration of any
physical faculty. We want our two eyes,
our two ears, our two hands, our two feet,
our eight fingers and two thumbs. Yet how
many people have but one arm or but one
eye or but one foot The ordinary casual.
ties of life have been quadrupled, quintupled,
sextupled, aye centupled in our times by the
Civil War, and at the North and South a
great multitude that no man can number
are fighting the battle of life with half or
less than half the needed physical armament
do not wonder at the pathos OF soldier
during the war, who, when told that he must
have his hand amputated, said: Doctor,
can't you save it!' When told that it was
impossible, said, with tears rolling down his
checks: "Well, then, goodbye, old hand, l
good service for many years but seems you
must go. Good-bye?'
A celebrated surgeon told me of scene in
the clinical department Of one CT the New
York hospitals when a poor man with
wounded leg was brought in before the stu
dents to be operated on, and the surgeon was
pointing out this and that to the students and
handling the wounded Leg, and was about to
proceed to amputation. the poor man leapt
from the table aud hobbled to the door and
said: "Gent!emen, | am sorry to dlsappolnG
you, but by the help of God I will die with
my leg on" What a terrific loss is the loss
of our physical faculties! THE way the bat
tie of Crecy was decided against the Fren h
was by the Welshmen killing the French
horses and that brought their rider; to tho
ground. And when you cripple this body,
which is merely the animal on which the
soul rides, you may sometimes defeat the
soul. Yet how many suffer from this phys
ical taking off! Good cheer, my brothers!
I'D mill lya fn S0Nnphnw The