Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-10-08
lR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DISADVANTAGES OF SOME
PEOPLE.

Genesis, xiii, 81
Father Jacob, you are wrougl You think
your son Jt ssph 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 a greater
mistake than when you said: Gan these things
are against me"
great multitude Of people are under
seeming disadvantages, and will to-day, in
the sw arthiest Ang O. Saxon that | can man
age, treat their cases not as q nurse counts
out eight or ten drops of a prescription. stirs
them an half glass of water but as when a
man has by mistake taken a large amount Of
opium, or Iaris green, or belladonna, and the
phtient Is walked rapidly round the room and
shaken up. and pounded until he gets wide
awake Many OF you have taken a 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.
First, many people are under the disad-
vantage OF an fortunate name given them
by parents who thought they were doing a
good thing. sometimes at tie baptism Of
children while have held up one hand in
prayer l have held up the other hand in
amazement that parents should have weight
ed the Eabe with such dissonant aud repul-
sive nomenclature. ! have not so much won
deret that some children should cry out at
the christening font as that others with such
smiling face SHOULD take title that will be
bho OulNSu VI buCtI llIeUlul6s III Is QUIZ ag0OuS
TO a.tiict Children with an undesirable name
because 1t happened to be possessed by a
parent, or rich uncle from whom favors are
expe, 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
cal a chill Jehoiakim or Tiglath- Pileser.
AT this very altar / baptized one by the
mare of Bathsheba Why, under all the
circumambient heaven, any parent should
want to give to a child the name of that loose
aNAI 1f0NrN
cannot imagine. l have often felt at the
bapt!smal altar, when names were announced
TO me, like saying, as did Rev. Dr. Richards
of Morristown, n. j., when child was
handed him for sprnkling AMI the name
given: Hadn't you better call it something
elsep
Impose not upon that babe q name sugges-
gestlve OF hippan y or meanre s. There is no
excuse for such assault and battery on the
cradle when our language is opulent with
names musical in sound and sugge tive in
meaning such as John, meaning Tho gra-
oious gilt of God, or Henry, meaning "ths
chief of q household or Alfred meaning
good counselor" or Joshua, meaning Col
our salvation" or Nj holas, 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 grace, or Victoria, meaning victory
or Resale, meaning beautiful as a rose" or
Margaret, meaning "a pearl" or Ida, mean
ing "GodliEe," on Clara meaning ''illustri-
Gus" or ArGlia, meaning "busy, " or .rtha.
meaning "bea .tiful,' and hundreds OF other
names Just as good that aIe a help rather than
hindrance.
But sometimes the great hindrance In life
Is not in the given name but in the family
name. While ie TiSlatures are willing to lift
such incubus the are families that kesp a
name which me tgageS all the generations
with great Oh advantage. You say: ~
wonder If he is any relation to so and So
mentioning some fam ly celebrated for crime
or deception. 1t IS wonder to me that in
al such families some spirited young man
does not rise, saying to his brothers and s.
tiers: IF you want to keep this nuisance or
scandalizatlon OF a name, l wi keep it no
longer than unit! by quickest course of law
can soIgh off the gangrene" When the
general assembly of the Presbyterian church
OF the United States met in this building in
1S76 two estimable men of the sweetest dis
position stopped at the same house, and one
had the nlisnomer of being Mr.. Sour and the
other the misnomer OF being MIR. 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
tion shall not be SO weighted.
1t is no bemeaning to change name Saul
OF Iarsus became Paul tho Apostle Hadas.
sab the myrt e. became Esther the star"
We have in America, and l suppose it is so
In ell countries names viii Il ought to be abol-
tshed and can lie and will be abolished for
the reason that they are a libel AMI a Sian.
der But II for any reason you are SUBJ
merged either by given name or by fam
lily nane that you must bear, God will helm
you to overcome the outrage by life couse-
Grated to the good and useful You may
erase the curse from the name. You NAV
somewhat change the significance If o"ce
1t stood for meanneS3 you eau make it sta ID
ror generosity. IL once it stood for nlide you
can make 1t stand for humility II it once stood
sor fraud you can make itstand for honesty.
al once IL stood for wickeineSS YOU can make
at stand for purity. There have been multi
Suoes OF Instances whore men and women
have magni IDENTITY conquered the disasters
OK the name inEi tel upon them
Again, many PEG ID labor under the mis-
fortune OF 'ncom lee rhy>i al Equipment
We are ly cur Great II SO 'onomit ally built
that We cannot afford the obliteration OF any
physical faculty. We went cur two eyes
or Two ears, our two mis-, our two eet
our oight fingers and two thumbs Yet low
many people have but one arm or but on,
eye or but one foot The ordinary casual
yes OF life have been quadrupled, quintupled
sextufled, aye lentupled in our times by tbs
Civil War, aud at the North and South q
great multitude that no man Gun number
are lighting the battle of life with half OF
10 8 than half the needed PHYSICAL armament
DO not wonder at the ! athos of soldier
during the wa, who, when told that he must
nave his hand amputated, said: Doctor
can't you save itfh \, hen told that il was
impossible, said, with t,ars rolling down his
cheeks: well, then, goodbye, old hand, |
nate to part with you You have done me a
good service for many years but it seems you
must go. Good-byeH
celebrated surgeon told me of scene In
the clinical department of one of the New
York hospitals wh'n 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 stud ents and
handling thu wounded leg. and was about to
proceed to ampu;ation, the poor man leept
from the table AID hobbled to the door and
said: 'GentemeU. am sorry to dsaopoint
you. but by tue help of God will die with
my leg on" W. a terrific loss is the loss
OF our physical l., iltes! The way the bat
Tie or Crecy wa led against the Fren h
was ny the We.'hmen killing the French
horses and that brought their rider, to the
ground. And when you cripple this body,
winch Is merely the animal on which the
soul rides, you may sometimes defeat the
SOUL Yet how many suffer from this phys
zeal taxing Off Good cheer, my brothersi
Gcd Will make 1t mp to you somehow The
grace, the sympathy of God will be more to
you than anything you have lost. II God
allows part OF your resources to be cut OF in
one place, He win add 1t on somewhere else
AS Augustus, the emperor, took Off q day
from February making it the shortest month
in the year, and added it to August the
month named after h mself, so advantages
taken from one part OF your nature will be
added on to another part
but 1t is amazing how much OF the worlds
work has been done by men of subtracted