National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-09-20

subject, Disadvantages OF Some People,"
The opening hymn was:
Blow ye the trumpet Blow
Tho gladly solemn sound
Let all the nations know
To earth's remotest bound"
After expounding appropriate passages
of Scripture DIR. Talmage took his text from
Genesis xiii: 3s-'All these things are
against me"-and preached the following
sermon:
Father Jacob, you are wrong You think
your son 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 tn ali when you said "All these
things are against me.n
A great magnitude Of people are under
seeming disadvantages, and will to-day,
in the swathiest Anglo.Saxon that can
manage, treat their cases; not as nurse
counts out eight or ten drops OF q pre-
EcTiption and stlrs them In half-glass Of
water, but as when man has by mistake
taken a large amount OF strychnine, or
Paris grepn, 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 q large
draueht Of the poison OF encouragement,
and come out by the order OF the Divine
Physician to rouse you out OF that lethargy.
/. Many people are under the disad-
vontage Of an unfortunate name given
them by parents who thought they were
doing good thing. Sometimes at the bap-
tism OF children, while have held up one
hand In prayer have held up the other
hand In amazement that parents should
have weighted the babe with such disso-
Dant and repulsive nomenclature. have
not so much wondered that some children
90, hat
Others with such smiling face should take
title that will be the burden OF their life
time. IL is outrageous to aflllct children
with an undesirable name because II hap
N-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. II Is no excuse,
because they are Scripture names, to call
child Jehoiakim, or Tiglath- Plleser. AT
this very altar baptized one by the name
Bathsheba. Why, under all the circumam-
bent heaven, any parent should want to
give to u child the name OF that loose and
Infamous creature Of Scripture times can
not imagine. / have often felt at the
baptismal altar, when names were au-
nounced to me, like saying, as did Rev. Dr.
Richards, OF Morristown, N. j., when a
child was handed to him for sprinkling, aud
the name given, tHadn't you better call 1t
something elsep"
IulDObt uDOi bhub
gestive OF hippancy or meanness. There Is
no excuse for such assault and battery on
the cradle when our language Is opuleut
with names musical In sound aud suggest
i've meaning, such us John, meaning "the
gracious gift Of God;'' or Henry, meaning
.'the chief Of a households" or Aired, mean
ing l'''good counselor;n' or Joshua, mean
ing "God, our salvation" or Nicholas,
meaning "vlctory Of the peoples" or Am
brose, meaning "immortal;" or Andrew,
meaning ''manly;" or Esther, meaning "a
starr or Abigail, meaning "my fathers
1oy;" or Anna, meaning "gracen or Vic
toria, meaning "victory;" or Rosalie, mean
ing "beautifuI as a rose;' or Margaret,
meaning "a pearl; or Ida, meaning "god-
ike;n or Clara, meaning "illustrious;n or
Amelia, meaning "busy" or Bertha, mean
ing "beautiful," and hundreds Of other
names just as good, that are help rather
than hindrance.
But sometimes the great hindrance in life
Us not In the given name but In the family
name White legislatures arc- willing to
lift such incubus there are families that
keep a name which mortgages all the gen.
erations with great disadvantages. You
say: ~ wonder II he is any relation to so
and so," mentioning some family celebrated
for crime or deception. IL is q wonder 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 name
/ will keep 1t no longer than until by
quickest course OF law can slough off this
gangrene.n When the general assembly
Of the Presbyterian Church OF the United
States met In THE building In 1875 two estl-
mable men, Of the sweetest disposition,
stopped at the same house, and one had
the mlsnomer of being Mr.. Sour and the
other had the misnomer OF being Mr..
Pickle. And your city directory has hun
dreds Of names the mere pronunciation Of
which has been life long obstacle. IL you
have started life under aname which, either
through ridiculous photography or vicious
suggestion, has been an incumbrance, re-
solve that the next generation shall not be
so weighted.
II is no bemeaning to change name.
Saul Of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle.
Hadaseah, "the myrtle,n became Esther,
''the starr We have In America, and
suppose it is SO In all countries, names
which ought TO be abolished, and can be and
will be abolished, for the reason that they
are libel and a Islander. But II, for any
reason, you are submerged either by given
Iame or bya family name that you must
bear, God will help you to overcome the
outrage by life consecrated to the good
and useful. You may erase the curse from
the name. You may somewhat change the
Significance. III once 1t stood for meanness,
you can make 1t stand for generosity. II
once It stood for pride, you can make 1t
stand for humility. II It once stood for
fraud, you can make 1t stand for honesty.
II once 1t stood for wickedness, you can
make 1t stand for purity. There have been
multtudes OF instances where mon and
women have magnihcently conquered the
disasters Of the name inflicted upon them.
Ii. Again Many people labor under the
misfortune OF incomplete physical equip
ment. We are by our Creator so economl'
cally built that we cannot afford the oblit-
Grafton 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 multitudes of people
have but ono eye, or but one foot, The
ordinary casualties OF life have been quad
Iupled, quintupled, sextupled, aye centu-
pied, in our time by the civil war, and at
the north and south great multitude that
no man can number are fighting the battle
OF life with half, or less than half, the
needed physical ornaments. | 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 II ~ and when told that 1t was
Impossible, said, with tears rolling down
bis cheeks swell, then, good-bY, old
hand; hate to part with you. You have
done me good service for many years, but
II seems you must go. Good-by"
A celebrated surgeon told me Of scene
in the clinical department OF one OF the
New York hospitals, when poor man with
wounded leg was brought In before the
Btudenis to be operated on. The surgeon
was pointing out this and that TO the
students, and handling the wounded leg,
and was about to proceed to amputation,
when the poor man leaped from the table, and
hobblel TO the door, and said "Gentle.
men, am sorry to dissppoiDt you, but, by
the help OF God, | will die with my leg on. y
What terrible loss is the loss of our physi-
cal faculties
The way the battle of CrecY was decided
against the French was by the Welshmen
killing the French horses, and at brought
their riders to the ground. And when you
cripple this body, which Is merely the
animal on which the soul rides, you may
sometimes defeat the soul