The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-10-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on "The Disadvan.
tages of Some People"
The Dead Weight of Unfortunate Names
The Strength ofWeakness-sugges-
tIons for Morally and Physical
ly Handicapped Men.

Rev T. Dewitt Talmage, in q recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, chose
for his suDjectl "The Disadvantages Of
Some PeoI le," taking for his text;
All these things are against me.-[Genesis
kill, So, and preached the following sermon,
Father Jacob, you are wrongl You
think your son Joseph is dead, but he is
Prime Minister of Egypt, and 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 made greater mistake than when
you said:
All these things are against me.
A great multitude of people are under
seeming disadvantages, and l will to-day,
in the swarthiest Anglo-Saxon that | can
manage, treat their cases; not as a nurse
counts out eight or ten drops OF a pre-
scription, and stirs them in half glass of
water, but as when a man has by mistake
taken a large amount of strychnine, or
paris green, or belladonna, and the pa
tient 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 discourage-
ment, and 1 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
by parents who thought they were doing
a good thing. Sometimes at the baptism
~ nii iIt1YaV 7 Ia, Ill ho.
In prayer, have held the other hand in
amazement that parents should have
weighted the babe with such dissonant
and repulsive nomenclature. I have not
SO much wondered that some children
should cry out at the christening font as
that others with such smiling face should
take title that will be the Lurden of their
lifetime. 1t is outrageous to afflict chill
with an undesirable name because 1t hap
pened to be possessed by parent or rich
uncle from whom favors are expected, 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
child Jehoiakim, or Tiglath -Pilesser. At
this very altar baptised one by the name
Bethsheba. Why, under the circumam-
bient Heaven, any parent should want to
give to child the name of that loose and
Infamous creature of Scripture times / can
not imagine. 1 have often felt at the bap-
tismal altar, when names were announced
to me, like saying, as did Rev. DR.. Rich
ards, of Morristown, N. J., when child
was handed him for sprinkling, and the
name given:
a1njt uoV hatfAr
else?"
Impose not upon that babe name sug-
gestive of hippancy or meanness. There
is no excuse for such assault and battery
on the cradle when our language is op-
ulent with names musical in sound and
suggestive In meaning, such as John.
meaning "the' gracious gift of Gods" or
Henry, meaning "the chief Of house,
hold;" or Alfred, meaning "good coun-
Sellor;" or Joshua, meaning "God, our
salvation;" or Nicholas, meaning "victory
Of the people;" or Ambrose, meaning
"immortal;" or Andrew, meaning
manly" or Esther, meaning "a star;'
Dr. Abigail, meaning "my fathers joys"
or Anna, meaning "grace;" or Victoria.
meanins "victory;" or Rosalie, meaning
beautiful as rose;" or Margaret, mean
ing '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 help
rather than 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 name which mortgages
all the generations with a great dis
advantage. You say:
81 wonder If he Is any rel tion to so and
soW mentioning some family celebra ted
for crime or deception. 1t is sawonder to me
that in all such families some spirited
young man does not rise, saying to his
brothers and sisters:
''If you want to keep this nuisance or
scandalization of a name, will keep it no
longer than until by quickest course ofIaw
I can slough off this gangrene."
When the General Assembly of the Pres
byterian Church Of the U nited States met
In this building in 1876, two estimable men
of the sweetest disposition stopped at the
same house, and one had the misnomer of
being Mr.. Sour and the other the mist
nomer of being Mr.. Pickle. And your city
directory has hundreds of names the mere
pronunciation of which has been life
long obstacle. II you have started life un-
der name which, either through rid icul-
Gus orthography or vicious suggestion,
has been an incumbrance, resolve that the
fiOn ahall ho
1t Is no bemeaning to change a name.
Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle
Hahassah, "the MYRTLE" became Esther,
''the star" We have in America, and l
suppose 1t is so In all countries, names
which ought to be abolished, and can be
and will be abolished for the reason that
they are a libel and slander. But IL for
any reason you are submerged either by
given name or by a 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. If 1t once stood for fraud, you
can make 1t stand for honesty. II once it
stood for wickedness, you can make IL
stand for purity. There have been multi.
tudes of instances where men and women
have magnifcently conquered the disas-
aters Of the name inflicted upon them.
2. Again, many people labor under the
misfortune Of incomplete physical equip
ment. We are by our Creator so economi-
i eally built that we can not afford the OBJ
Iteration Of any physical faculty. We
want our two eyes, our two ears, our
two hands, our two feet, our eight
2 fingers, and two thumbs. Yet what null