The Iola register., 1886-10-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on "The Disadvan-
tages Of Some People"

/ a OJSCOUrS0 ON Inc O1S6QV80s
tages Of Some People"
The Dead Weight Of Unfortunate Names
II" Strength Of fweakness-suRges-
] tions for Morally and Physical-
ly Handicapped Men.
! Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage. In q recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, chose
fer his subject: 1.-THE Disadvantages Of
Some People" taking for his text:
All these things are against me.-TGenesis
kill. 30. and preached the following sermon
Father Jacob. you are wrong! You
think your son Joseph is dead, but he is
Prime Minister of Egypt, and has the keys
| CT the great corn crib. You think that
circumstances are all adverse, but they
will turn out we'll. In all your life v,u
| 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 siirs 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 come out by the order of the
Divine Physician to rouse you out Of that
letbargy.
i. Many people are under the disadvan-
tage of an un ortunate name, given them
by parents who thought they were doing
| \ good thing. Sometimes at the baptism
II 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 a dissonant
and repulsive nomenclature. / have not
so much wondered that scme children
should cry out at tho christening font as
that others with such smiling face should
lake q title that will he the urden of their
lifetime. II is outrageous to afflict chill.
with an undesirable name because It hap.
pened to he possessed by parent or a 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
a 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 l 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 child
was handed him fer sprinkling, and the
name given:
"Hadn't you better call it something
,lsew
Eestive o: flippancy or meanness. There
Is no excuse for such assault and battery
pn the cradle when our language is OPP
nlent 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-
sellor;" or Joshua, meaning "God, our
salration;"o or Nicholas, meaning "victory
Of the peoples" or Ambrose, meaning
"immortal;" or Andrew, meaning
"manly;" or Esther. meaning ga star;'
or Abigail, meaning tiny fathers joy:"
or Anna, meaning "grace;" Or Victoria,
meaning "victOry:" or Rosalie, meaning
"beautiful as q 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 a 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 a name which mortgages
all the generations with . great dis.
advantage. You say:
~ wohder il he is any rel,tion to 40 and
so?" mentioning some family celebra ted
for crime or deception. 1t is awonder 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
rehabilitation of a name, 1 will keep it no
longer than until by quickest course OIL
l can slough off this gangrene."
When the General Assembly of the Pres
byterian Church Of tho 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 mis-
nomer of being Mr.. Pickle. And your CITY
directory has hundreds Of names the mere
pronunciation OF which has been a life-
long obstacle. lfyou have started life un-
der a raMe which, either through ridicul.
Gus orthogra ply or vicious suggestion,
has been an incumbrance resolve that the
next generation shall not be so weighted.
tits 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, names
which ought to be abolished, and can be
and will be abolished for the reason that
they are libel and a slander. But il for
any reason you are submerged either by
given name or by q 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.
II once it stood for meanness, you can
make it stand for generosity. II once it
stood for pride, you can make it stand for
humility. II it once stood for fraud, you
can make it stand for honesty. II once it
stood for wickedness, you can make it
stand for purity. There have been multi.
tudes Of instances where men and women
have magnidcently conquered the disas.