The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-10-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on "The Disadvan.
tages of Some People.
The Dead Weight of Unfortunate Names
The Strength of Weakness-Sugges-
tions for Morally and PHYSICAL
ly Handicapped Men.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, chose
for his subject: "The Disadvantages OF
Some People," taking for his text:
All these things are against me.-[Genesis
kill, SO, and preached the following sermon:
Father Jacob, you are wrong! GU
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 well. 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 will to-day,
in the swarthiest Anglo-Saxon that can
manage, treat their cases; not as nurse
counts out eight or ten drops OF pre-
scription, and stirs them in a half glass OF
water, but as when a man has by mistake
taken 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 come out by the order of the
Divine Physician to rouse you out Of that
lethargy.
1. Many people are under the disadvan-
tage of an unfortunate name, given them
by parents who thought they were doing
good thing. Sometimes at the baptism
of children, while have held up one hand
in prayer, have held the other hand in
amazement that parents should have
weighted the babe with such dissonant
and repulsive nomenclature. 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. It is outrageous to aff1ict chill
with an undesirable name because it 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 a child the name of that loose and
infamous creature of Scripture times can
not imagine. have often felt at the bap-
tismal altar, when names were announced
to me, like saying, as did Rev. DIR. Rich
ards, of Morristown, N. j., when a child
was handed him for sprinkling, and the
name given:
"Hadn't you better call it something
slse?"
Impose not upon that babe name sug-
gestive Of flippancy 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 God;" OF
Henry, meaning "the chief of house.
hold" or Alfred, meaning "good coun.
sellers" or Joshua, meaning "God, oul
salvation;" or Nicholas, meaning 'victory
of the peoples" or Ambrose, meaning
"immortal;" or Andrew, meaning
manly" or Esther, meaning "a starr
or Abigail, meaning "my fathers joy;'
or Anna, meaning "grace;" or Victoria
meaning victory" or Rosalie, meaning
"beautiful as a rose;" or Margaret, mean
like;" or Clara, meaning "illrstrious;" o.
Amelia, meaning "busy;" or Bertha
meaning beautifully" and hundreds O
other names just as good, that are a he'll,
rather than a hinderance.
But sometimes the great hinderance il
life is not in the given name, but in tn
family name While Legislatures ar
willing to lift such incubus, there are fam
lilies that keep a name which mortgage
all the generations with a great dis
advantage. You say:
II wonder if he is any relation to so an,
sop mentioning some family celebra tie,
for crime or deception. 1t is awonder to m
that in all such families some spirite,
young man does not rise, saying to hi
brothers and sisters:
"f you want to keep this nuisance o
standardization of name, will keep it n
longer than until by quickest course oflay
can slough off this gangrene."
When the General Assembly of the Pres
byterian Church of the United States me
in this building in 1876, two estima bic me,
of the sweetest disposition stopped at tn
same house, and one had the misnomer O
being Mr.. Sour and the other the mis-
homer of being Mr.. Pickle, And your cit,
directory has hundreds of names the mer
pronunciation of which has been a life
long obstacle. If you have started life un
der a name which, either through ridicul
GUS photography or vicious suggestion
has been an incumbrance, resolve that til
next generation shall not be so weighted
It's 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
suppose it is so in all countries, name
which ought to be abolished, and can b
and will be abolished for the reason tina
they are libel and Islander. But if fo
any reason you are submerged either by
given name or by family nam
that you must bear, God wi
help you to overcome the outrage by lif
consecrated to the good and useful. 70
may erase the curse from the name. Yo
may somewhat change the significanc,
If once it stood for meanness, Won ca
make it stand for generosity. If once
stood for pride, you can make it stand &c
humility. If it once stood for fraud, yo
can make it stand for honesty. If once