The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-10-01
qALMAGE's SERMON.
A Discourse on 'The Disadvan-
tages Of Some People"
The Dead Weight OF Unfortunate Names
The Strength of WeaBSness-suEEes-
lions for Morally and Physical
~ Handicapped Men.

sermon az the Brooklyn Tabernacle, chose
Tor his subject; siThs Disadvantages of
Some People," taking for his text;
al these things are against me.--IGenesis
Kill. s6s and preached the following sermon;
FntheE Jacob. you are wrongI You
think your son Joseph is dead, but he is
Prime Minister of Egypt, and has the keys
% the great corn crib. You think that
circumstances are all adverse, but they
will turn out well. In all your life you
never made greater mistake than when
you said:
An these things are against me.
great multitude Of people are under
seeming Disadvantages. and will to-day,
in the swHrthiest Anglo-Saxon that can
manage, treat their cases; not as a nurse
counts out eight or ten drops or pre-
scription, and stirs them in "A half glass Of
water, but as when a man has by mistake
tahen large amount Of strychnine, or
paris green, or belladonna, and the pa
tient Is walked rapidly round the room,
end shaken up, and pounded until he gets
wide awake. Many Of you have taken a
large drnuRht OF the poison Of discourage
ment, ana come out by the order OF the
Divine Physician to rouse you out Of that
lethargy.
L Many people are under the disadvan-
tage OF an un' ortunate name, given them
ny parents who thought they were doing
good thing. Sometimes at the baptism
~ children, while have held up one hand
ia prayer, have held the other hand in
Hmnzement that parents should have
weighted the babe with such a dissonant
and repulsive nomenclature. I have not
70 much wondered that some children
should cry out at the christening font as
that others with such smiling face should
take a tile that will be the urden of their
lifetime. II is outrageous to affiict chill
with an undesirable name because It hap
pened to be possessed by parent or a rich
uncle from whom favors are expected, or
some prominent man OF the day who may
end bis life in disgrace. 1t is no excuse,
because they are Scripture names, TO call
q child Jehoiakim, or Tiglath- Pilesser. At
this very altar / bRptised one by the name
Bethsheha. Why, under the circumam-
bient Heaven, any parent should want to
give TO a child the name Of that loose and
Infamous creature Of Scripture times l can
not imagine. ] have often felt at The hap
ti-mal altar, when names were announced
10 me, like saying, as did Rev. DIR. Rich
0rds, Of Moristown, N. j., when a child
was banded him for sprinkling, and the
name given:
''Hadn't you better call it something
else?"
Impose not upon that babe a name sug-
gestive Of hppancy or meanness. There
is no excuse for such assault and battery
on the cradle when our language is OPP
ulent with names musical in sound and
suggestive in meaning, such as John,
meaning 'the gracious gift Of God;" or
Henry, meaning "the chief Of a house.
hold;" or Alfred, meaning good coun-
scllor;" or Joshua, meaning SC cd, our
salvation;" or Nicholas, meaning victory
of the peoples" or Ambrose, meaning
"immortal;" or Andrew, meaning
"nonly;" or Esther. meaning "a stare"
or Abigail, meaning "my fathers joy;"
or Anna, meaning "grace;" or Victoria.
mcaniu "victory;" or Rosalie, meanin o
beautiful as a rose;" or Margaret, mean
ins "a pearl;" or Ida, meaning "god-
like;" or Clara, meaning "illustrious;" or
Amelia, meaning "busy;" or Bertha,
meaning "beautiful;" and hundreds Of
other names just as good, that are a help
rather than n hinderance.
But sometimes the great hinderance in
life is not in the given name, but in the
family name. While Legislatures are
willing to lift such incubus, there are fam
lilies that keep a name which mortgages
all the generations with great dis
advantage. You say;
"I wonder II he is any relation to so and
SOP" mentioning some family celebra ted
for crime or deception. 1t is awonder to me
that i'm al such families some spirited
young man does not rise, saying to his
brothers and sisters:
"lf you want to keep this nuisance OF
scandalization Of a name, viii keep il nc
longer than until by quickest course oflav
can slough off this gan CREME"
When the General Assembly OF the Pres.
byterian Church of the U nited States met
in this building in 1876, two estimable m en-
Of the sweetest disposition stopped at the
same house, and one had the misnomer OF
being Mr.. Sour and the other the mis-
homer 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 un-
der name which, either through ridicul-
Gus photography or vicious suggestion,
has been an incumbrance resol We that the
next generation shall not be so weighted.
1t Is no hemeaning TO change name.
Saul Of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle.
Hahassah, "the myrtle" became Esther.
''the starr We have in America, and l
suppose IL is so in all countries, names
which ought TO be abolished, and can be
and viii be abolished for the reason that
they are a libel and Islander. But IL for
any reason you are submerged either by a
given name or by family name
that you must bear, God will
help you to overcome the outrage by a life
consecrated to the good and useful. You
may erase the curse from the name. You
may somewhat change the significance.
If once it stood for meanness, you can
make it stand for generosity. If once it
stood for pride, you can make it stand for
humility. II IL once stood for fraud, YOU
can make Il stand for honesty. II once it
stood for wicl1edness, you can make il
stand for purity. There have been multi
tudes Of instances where men and women
have magnihcently conquered the disas-
ters Of the name inflicted upon them.
2. Again, many people labor under the
misfortune Of incomplete physical eouip-
ment. We are by our Creator so economi-
cally built that we can not afford the OBJ
liberation 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 what null
titudes OF people have but one eve or but
one foot. The ordinary casualties OF life
have been quadrupled, quintupled, sex
tupled-aye, centupled, in our time by the
civil war, and at the North and South a
great multitude that no man can number
are lighting the battle OF lie with half, or
less than half, the needed, physical arma-
mont do not wonder at the pathos OF a
soldier during the war, who when told
that he must have his hand amputated,
said
"Doctor, can't you save it?"
And when told that il was impossible,
said, with tears rolling down his cheeks
well, then, goodbye, old hand; I hate
10 part with YOU. You have done me a
nrafsN aayvfrn for h.,e "a