Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-09-29
DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DlvINEss SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: -."supcrfluitics a Hinder
ance.'

TENT: I'D man of great stature, 'rhose
fingers and toes ,Cere four and twenty, sic
on each hand and sic on each foot; ana ne
also lr0s the son of the giant. But iohen ne
dcflcG Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shtntra,
Ddrid'S brother, sleU him.. Chronicles
Xxx, 5, 6 and Il.
Malformation photographed, and for what
reason! Did not this passage slip III by
mistake into the Sacred Scriptures. as some
times paragraph utterly obnoxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his ab-
sence! Is not this Scriptural errata! NO,
no; there is nothing haphazard about the
Billie. This passage of Scripture was as GER
tainly intended to be put in the Bible as the
passage: I'm tho beginning God created the
heavens and the earth or. God SO loved the
world that He gave his only beSotten son"
And select it for my text to-day because 1t
is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning
conquered, with the exception OF q few giants:
The race of giants is mostly extinct. am glad
to say. There is no use for giants now eN-
cept TO enlarge the income of museums But
there were many of them in o.den times.
Goliath was, according to the Bible, eleven
feet, four and u half inches high. Or. If
you do not believe the Bible, the famous
Pliny, a secular writer, declares That NJ
Crete by an earthquake a monument was
broken open, discovering the remains
Of q giant forty-Sx cubits long, or
sixty-nine feet high. So, whether
You prefer sacred or profane history, you
must come to the conclusion that there We're
i'll those olden times cases of human altitude
monstrous and appalling. David had
smashed the skull of ono of these giants, but
there were other giants that the Davidean
wars had not yet subdued and one of them
stands in my text. He was not only OF
Alpine stature, but had surplus OF digltS
To the ordinary fingers was annexed an
additional finger and the foot had also
superiuous addendum. He had twenty
four examinations to hands and feet
where others have twenty. 1t was
not the only instance OF the KIND.
Tavernier, the learned writer, says that the
Emperor of Java had a son endowed with
the same number Of eXtremiticS. NolcatiuS,
the poet, had six fingers on each hand. Matt
petiuS in his celebrated letters speaks OF two
families near Berlin, similarly equipped of
hand and foot. All OF which | can believe
for l have seen two cases of the same physi-
cal superabundance. But this giant of the
text is in battle. and David, the dwarf
warrior, had dispatched one giant, the
brother of David Stays this monster OF
my text. and there he lies after the
battle in Gath, a. dead. giant. His stature
dices of hand and foot did not save him.
The probability was that in the battle his
sixth finger on his hand made him clumsy IN
the use Of his weapon. and his sixth toe
crippled his gait. Behold the PROSTATE and
maltormated giant of the text: "A man
great of stature, whose fingers and toes were
four and twenty. six on each hand, ana SIN
on each foot: and he also was ths son of the
giant But when he deiiel Israel, Jonathan,
the son of Shimea, DaviGS brother, slew
him
Behold how superfuities are n hinderance
rather than q help, In all the battle at
Gath that day there was not man with
ordinary hand and ordinary foo: and
ordinary stature that was not better oil than
this physical curiosity OF my text. AS
physical size is apt to run in families the
probability is that this brother of David
who did the work was of an abbreviated
stature. A dwarf on the right side is
stronger than giant on the wrong side, and
all the body, and mind and estate, and oppor-
tunity that you cannot use for God and the
be;teiment OF the world is a sixth finger
and sixth toe. and Il terrific hnderance.
The most of tine good done in the world and
the most of those who win the battles for the
right, are ordinary people. Count the fingers
of their right hand and they have just five
no more and no less One Doctor Duh
among missionaries hut three thousand mis-
sionaries that would tell you they have only
common endowment. One Florence Night
ingale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places.
but ten Thousand women who are just rs
good nurses though never heard of. The
"Swamp Angel" was big gun that during
the war made a big noise, but muskets OF Or
binary calbre and shells of ordinary
heft did the execution. President Tyler
and his cabinet so down the Potomac one
day to experiment with the Peacemaker,
great iron gun that was to alright with its
thunder foreign navies. The gunner touches
it off and it eXplodeS and leaves cabinet min
listers dead OF the deck, while at that time all
up and down our coasts were cannon OF ordl-
nary bore able to he the defense of the nation
and ready at the first touch to waken to duty.
The curse OF the world is big guns After
the politicians who have made all tue noise
60 home hoarse from angry discussion on tho
evening of the first Monday in November,
the next day the people with the silent ballots
will settle everything, and settle 1t right.
million of the white slips of paper they drop
making about us much noise as the fall of
an apple blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers in pain apron, and shoes fashioned
on a rough last by the shoemaker ut the end
of the lane, rocking babies that are to be the
Martin 4uthers, and the Faradays, and the
Edisons. and the Bismarcks, and the Glad
stones and the Washingtons, and the George
White6elds of the year 1898, and who will
make the Goth century so bright that this
much lauded nineteenth in comparison will
seem like the dark ages. The longer
I live tine moro like common
folks They do the worlds work. bear
ing the worlds burdens, weeping the
worlds sympathies, carrying the worlds con-
ISOLATION. Among lawyers we see rise up
Rufus Choate, or William Writ, or Sam
uel Southland, but society would go to pieces
tomorrow if there were not thousands of
common lawyers to see that men anu women
get their rights. q Valentine Mott or a
Willard Parker rises up eminent IN the medl,
cal profession, but what an unlimited
sweep would pneumonia, and diphtheria,
and scarlet fever, have in the world
if it were not for ten thousand
common doctors. The old physician i'll his
gig rolling up the lane of the farmhouse, or
riding on horseback, his medicines in the
saddle-bags, arriving on the ninth day of the
fever, and coming in to take hold OF the
pulse of the patient, while the family. pale
with anxiety, are looking on and waiting for
his decision in regard to the patient, and
hearing him say: Thank God, l have
mastered the case. he is getting we'll, excites
in me an admiration quite equal to the men
tion of the names of the great metropolitan
doctors, Pancoast or Gross or Joseph c.
Hutchinson, of the past, or the illustrious
living men of the present
Yet what do we see in all departments?
People not satisfied with ordinary spheres of
work and ordinary duties. Instead of try
ing to see what they can do with hand
of five fingers they want six. Instead of
usual endowment of twenty manual and
pedal addenda they want tweuty-four. A
certain amount of money for livelihood and
for the supply of those whom we leave be-
hind us after we have departed this life is
important, for we have the best authority
for saying: "He that providet.ll.s for his
own, and especially those OF his >s~n
household is worse than an inliael'"
but the large an fabulous sums for which
many struggle, if obtained would be a hin
derance rather than an advantage. This
anxieties and anpoyances that those have
whose estates have become plethoric can only
be told by those who possess them. 1t will
and public prosperities you can own the
house in which you live. Eut suppose you
own fifty houses and you have ali hose rents