The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Superfiuities a Hinder.
ance.n

TEXT: "a man of great stature, tcfos,
fingers and toes ,vere four and t,oenty, sta
on each hand, and sic on each foot; and h
also ,cas the son of the giant. But auhen he
defled Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shtmca
Dauid's brother. slesU htm."-l. Chronicle:
xx., 5, 6 and Z.
Malformation photographed, and for what
reason! Did not this passage slip in by G
mistake into the Sacred Scriptures. as some
times q paragraph utterly obnoxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his ab-
sence: Is not this Scriptural elrata! 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: In the beginning God created the
heavens and the EARTH, or, God so loved the
world that He gave his only be-otten SON."
And select It for my text to-day because it
Is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning.
By the people of God the Philistines had been
4 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 eX-
cept to enlarge the income of museums. But
there were many of them in olden times.
Goliath was, according to the Bible, eleven
feet, four and half inches high. Or. if
you do not believe the Bible, the famous
Pliny, a secular writer, declares that at
Crete by an earthquake a monument was
broken open, discovering the remains
Of giant .forty-six cubits long, or
sixty-nine feet high. So, whether
you prefer sacred or profane history, you
must come to the conclusion that there were
in those olden times cases of human altitude
monstrous and appalling. David had
smashed the skull Of one 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 digits.
To the ordinary fingers was annexed an
additional finger and the foot had also
supertuous addendun. He had twenty
four examinations to hands and feet
. where others hers, have s twenty. ~ 1t iva was
Tavernier, the learned writer, says that the
Emperor of Java had son endowed with
the same number of extremties. VolcatiuS,
the poet, had six fingers on each hand. Maui
petius in his celebrated letters speaks of two
Families near Berlin, similarly equipped of
hand and foot. All of which l can believe
for have seen two cases of the same physi-
text is in battle, and as David the dwarf
warrior, had dispatched one giant, the
brother of David slays this monster of
my text, and there he lies after the
battle in Gath, dead giant. His stature
did not save him, and his superfuous appen-
flices of hand and foot did not save him.
The probability was that i'll the battle his
Fsixth finger on his hand made him clumsy In
the use Of his weapon, and his sixth toe
crippled his gait. Behold the PROSTATE and
Ilmalformated giant Of the text: "A man
Rgreat of stature, whose fingers and toes were
four and twenty, six on each hand, and six
on each foot; and he also was the SON of the
giant But wien he defed Israel Jonathan,
he son Of Shimea, David's brother, slew
him"
Behold how superHuities are hinderance
rather than help! In all the battle at
Gath that day there was not a man with
ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
this physical curiosity of my text AS
7Iphysical 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
betterment Of the world is a sixth finger
and q sixth toe, and terrific hinderance.
The most of the good done in the world, and
the most of those who win the battles for the
light, are ordinary people. Count the fingers
of their right hand and they have just five
mo more and no less One Doctor Duff
= emong missionaries, but three thousand mis-
sionaries that would tell you they have only
common endowment. One Florence Night
fugale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places,
but ten thousand women who are just as
.ood nurses though never heard of. The
Swamp AngeP' was big gun that during
binary calibre and shells of ordinary
heft did the execution. President Tyler
hnd his cabinet 60 down the Potomac one
lay to experiment with the Peacemaker, a
great iron gun that was to alright with its
thunder foreign navies. The gunner touches
ft off and it eXplodes and leaves cabinet min
sters dead OF the deck, while at that time all
md 1prpp nnoSfc Of Ordi.
nary bore able to be 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 the noise
go home hoarse from angry discussion on the
evening of the first Monday in November,
Che next day the people with the silent ballots
will settle everything. and settle it right,
million of the white Slips of paper they drop
making about as much noise as the fail Of
hn apple blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers in pain apron, and shoes fashioned
on rough last by the shoemaker ct the end
pf the lane, rocking babies that are to be the
Martin Luthers, and the Faradays, and the
LEdisons. and the Bismarcks, and the Glad
Stones, and the Washingtons and the George
fWhitefelds of the year l!EiS, and who will
make TIE Doth century so bright that this
much lauded nineteenth in comparison will
seem like the dark ages, The longer
I live the more l like common
folks. They do the worlds work. bear
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 and women
get their rights. A Valentine Mott or a
Willard Parker rises up eminent in the medi.
co1 r,rnfoccnn h1t Jvhot unlimited
sweep would pneumonia, and diphtheria,
ana scarlet fever, have in the world
if it were not for ten thousand
common doctors. The old physician in 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 WELL" excites
q 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 llustrious
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 twenty, four. A
certain amount Of money for livelihood and
Tor the supply OF those whom we leave be-
hind US after we have departed this life is
Important, for we have the best authority
Tor saying: HE that provideth not for his
bwn, and especially those Of his own
household is worse than an infiel."
but the large and fabulous sums for which