Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-10-18
THE SIX-FINGERED GIANT
DR.. Talmage Tells Why Superflui-
ties are a Hindrance.
10 Use for Giants In Those Days-The
Common People are the Ones
Who Make the World
What 1t Is.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage. d. D., breaches
| in the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday OF
the subject, "Superfuities "a Hindrance.
His text was: l Chronicles, ch. Xxx, v. Cane
Z: "A man of great stature, whole finger
and toes were four ana twenty six on eacl
hand and six on each soot, and he also wa
the son of the giant But when he deiiet
Israel. Jonathan the son of Shimea David
brother, slew him." Following is the ser
mon
Malformaton photographed, and for whai
reasonl Did not this passage slip in by mis-
take into he sacred Scriptures, as some
times paragraph utterly obnoxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his
absencel Is not this Scriptural erratai No
no; there is nothing haphazard about the
Bible. This passage of Scripture was as
certainly 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 begot-
ten SON.
And | select it for my text to-day, because
It is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning. By the people of God the Philis-
tines had been conquered with the excep-
ton of few giants The race of giants is
mostly extinct ! am glad to say. There is
no use for giants now except TO enlarge the
income of museum'. But there were many
of them in olden times. Goliath was ac-
cording 10 the Bible, eleven feet, four and a
half inches high. Or, if you do not believe
the Bible, the famous Pliny, a secular wri-
ter declares that at Crete by an earthquake
monument was broken open, discovering
the remains Of a giant forty six cubits long,
or sixty-nine fee. high. So, whether you
prefer sacred or profane history, you must
come TO the co Inclusion 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 adj
dltional finger and the foot had also a super
fiuous addendum. He had twenty-four ter
limitations to hands and feet where others
have twenty. Ii was not the only instance
of the kind. Tavernier. the learned writer,
says that the Emperor of Java had a son en-
dowed with the same number Of eXtremities.
Volcatius, the poet had six fingers on each
hand. Maui etius 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 physical superabundance But this ri
ant of the 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 superfiuous appendices OF
hand and foot did MT save him. The prob
ability was that IN the battle his sixth finger
on his hand made him clumsy in the use of
his weapon, aud his sixth toe crippled his
gait Behold the PROSTATE and malformated
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 Shimea, David's brother, slew him"
Behold how superfluities are hindranoe
rather than a help. IN all the battle Mt Gath
that day there was not man with ordinary
hand and ordinary foot and ordinary stature
that was not better of 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
tbs right side is stronger than giant on
the wrong side, and all tho body and mind.
and estate, and opportunity that YOU can
not use for God aud the bettermeut Of the
world is a sixth finger and sixth toe, and
a terrific hindranae The most Of the good
done in tho world. and the most Of those
who win the battles for the right are ordi-
nary people. Count the fingers of their
right hand and they have Just Eve. no more
and no less. One Doctor Dun among
but three thousand mission.
aries that would toll you they have only
common endowment One Florence Night /
ingale TO nurse the sick in conspicuous
places but ten thousand women who are
just as good nurses as though never heard /
Of. The Swamp. Angel was big gun that
during the war made big noise, but mus
kets of ordinary liber and shell of ordi |
nary heft did the execution. President /
Tyler and his Cabinet go down the Potomac /
one day TO experiment with the Peace /
maker, great iron gun that was TO alright 1
with its thunder foreign navies The 1
gunner touches it off and it explodes /
and leaves Cabinet ministers dead on the
deck. while at that time all up and |
down our coasts were cannon of ordinary |
bore able to be the defense of the Nation,
aud ready at the first touch to waken TO
iuty. The curse Of the world is big guns
After the politicians who have made ali the
noise go home hoarse from an.ry discussion
IN the evening of the first Monday in No
Tember the next day the people with the
ilent ballots viii settle everything. and
ettle it right, million of the white slips
If paper they drop making about as much
loise as the fall Of an apple blossom
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers in plain apron and shoes fashioned
m rough last by the shoemaker at the
md Of the lane rocking babies that are
o be the Martin Luthers, and the
'aradays, and the Edisons and the
and the Gladstones. and
he Washingtons, and the George White
ield, of the year 1898 and who win
make the twentieth century so bright that
his much Landed nineteenth in comparison
viii seem part Of the dark ages. The
onger live the more | like common folks.
they do the worlds work, bearing the
worlds burdens, weeping the worlds SYM
'athies, carrying the worlds consolation.
Among lawyers we see rise up a Rufus
'hoate, or William Writ, or a Samuel l..
but society would go to pieces
o-mOrrOW il there were not thousands Of