Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-10-13
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE's SUNDAY
SERMON.


TX, 5. 6 and z.
Malformation photographed, and for what
reason Did not this passage slip in by
mistake into the Sacred Scriptures as some
times paragraph utterly obnoxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his alb
sence. Is not this Scriptural erratas 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: ''ln the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth, or, i'God so loved the
world that He gave his only begotten SON."
And / select it for my text to-day because it
is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning.
BY the people of God the Phlistines had been
conquered, with the exception of a few giants.
The race of giants is mostly extinct, lam 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 a half inches high. Or. if
You do not believe the Bible, the famous
Pliny, q secular writer, declares that at
Crete by an earthquake monument was
broken open, discovering the remains
of a 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 a
superiiuous 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 son endowed with
the same number of extremities. 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-
cal superabundance But this giant of the
text is in battle, and as 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
did not save him, and hssuperfiuous appen-
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
mathematical giant Of the text: "a man
great 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 when he defed Israel. Jonathan,
the son of sShimea, David's brother, slew
him"
Behold how superfuities are hinderance
rather than a help. In all the battle at
Gath that day there was not man W. tn
ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
ordinary stature that was not better OIL than
this physical curiosity Of my text As
physical size is aps to run in familiesstae
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 Col and the
beiternent of the world is a sixth finger
and a sixth toe, and terrific hinderauce.
The most OF the good done in the world, and
the most of those who win the battles for the
right, ere 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
inee q 70 nurse the sick in conspicuous places,
but ten thousand women vino are gust as
good nurses though never heard of. The
''Swamp Anger was big gun that during
the war made big noise, but muskets of or
binary cal.bre and shells of ordinary
helt did the execution. President Tyler
and his cabinet go down the Potomac one
day to eXpsr ment with the Peacemaker, a
great iron gun that was to alright with its
thunder foreign naTies. The gunner touches
it of and it explodes and leaves cabinet min
listers dead or he deck. while at that time all
up and down cur coasts were cannon OF ordi-
nary bore able 10 lie the defense OF the nation,
and ready at the first touch TO walSen to duty.
The curse of the world is big guns After
the politicians who have made all the noiss
90 EOme hoafse from angry dis uss on on the
evening of the first Monday in November,
the next day the people with the silent ballots
will settle everything, and settle it right. a
million OF the white slips of paper they drop
making about as much noise as the fail cf
an apple blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers IN plain apron, and shoes fashioned
on rough last by the shoemaker at the end
OF the lane. rocking babies that are to be the
Martin Luthers, and the Faradays. and the
Edisons. and the hsmarcks, and the Glad
stones, ami the Washingtons. and the George
Whftetelds OF the year 1888, and who viii
make the Goth century SO bright that this
much lauded nineteenth in comparison will
seem like the dark ages The longer
live the more l 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 sec rise up a
Rufus Choate, or a William Writ. or a Sam
uel Southland, but society would go to pieces
tomorrow If there we're not Thousands OF
common lawyers 10 see that men and women
get their rights. A Valentine Mott or q
Willard Parker rises tp eminent in the medi
sweep would pneumonia, ard diphther.0.
rnd scarlet fever. have III the world
Il it were not for tn 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 10 take hold OF the
pulse Of the patient, while the family pale
with anxiety, arc looking on and waiting for
bis decision in regard TO the patient, and
hearing him say: Thank God, | have
mustered the case he il getting well" excites
in me an admiration quite equal 10 the M n.
ticn Of the names Of the great metropolitan
doctors, Pancoast or Gross. or Joseph q.
Hutchinson. Of the past. or the illustrious
living men OF the present.
Yet what do we see in all Departmental
People not satisfied with ord nary spheres Of
work and ordinary duties Instead Of try
ing TO see what they can do with a hind
Of Eve fingers they want six Instead oi
usual endowment OF twenty nanuu and
Pedal nsdsnda they want tweDty-fonr 4
certain amount Of money Tor livelihood and
for tie supply u those whom we leave be-
hind rs after we have departed this LIE is
important, Tor we have tho best authority
for saying: -He that providath not for :
Own. and especially thos8 OF his own