The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-28
CRIPPLES BAG THE GAME
TALMAGE PICTURES THE ROUT OF
THE ASSYRIAN HOST.

GrSaC ACnioTSn0nCS or Men LaDOrlng
| Under Great Disadvantages - Inti-
macy of the Invalid Glass with the
| Bible-Power of the Humble and
Lowly TO Do Good.
BROOKLYN, May 27.-At the Tabernacle
this morning the Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage,
D. D., read the account of the man helpless
at the Beautiful gate of the temple. He
then gave out the hymn beginning:
"a cloud of witnesses around
Hold thee in full survey;
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way"
| The subject of the eloquent doctors dis.
course was: Disabled Hunters Bringing
Down the Most Game" His text was from
Isaiah, xxxiii, %: 1.-The lame take the
prey" Following is the sermon:
The utter demolition of the Assyrian host
was here predicted. Not only robust men
should go forth and gather the spoils of con.
quest, but even men crippled OF arm and
crippled of foot should 90 out and capture
much that was valuable. Their physical
disadvantages should not hinder their great
| enrichment. So 1T has been i'll the past, so
it is now, 50 it will be in the future. So it
is in all departments. Men labor under
seemingly great disadvantages and amid
| the most unfavorable circumstances, yet
making grand achievements, getting great
blessing for themselves. great blessing for
the world, great blessing for the church,
and so 'the lame take the prey"
DO you know that the three great poets
of the world were totally blind: Homer.
Ossian, John Milton. Do you know that
Mr.. Prescott, who wrote that enchanting
book, "The Conquest of Mexico" never
saw Mexico, could not even see the paper
on which he was writing9 A framew ork
across the Sheet between which, up and
down. went the pen immortal. Do you
know that Gambasso, the sculptor, could
not see the marble before him, or the chisel
with which he cut it into shapes bewitch-
| ings Do you know that Alexander Pope,
whose poems will last cs long as the English
| language, was so much of an invalid that
he had to be sewed up every morning in
rough canvas in order to stand on bis feet
| at allg
Do you know that Stuart, the celebrated
painter, did much of his wonderful work
under the shadow of the dungeon, where he
had been unjustly imprisoned for debit Do
you know that Demosthenes by almost
| superhuman exertion first had to conquer
the lisp of his own speech before he con-
| Quered aSsemblages with lbs eloquence7
Do you know that Bacon struggled all
| through innumerable sickneSses, and that
Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott
went limping on club-foot through all their
lives, and that many of the great poets and
| painters and orators and historians and
heroes of the world had something to keep
them back, and pull them down, and i'm
| pede their way, and cripple their physical
or their intellectual mo ycment, and yet
| that they pushed on and pushed up until
they reached the spoils of worldly success,
| ana amid the huZza of nations and cen-
turies, 1.-THE lame took the preyp
| You know that vast multitude of these
men started under the disadvantage of OBJ
scure parentage. Columbus, the son of the
weaver Ferguson, the astronomer, the son
of the shepherd. America the prey of the
one; worlds on worlds the prey of the other.
But what is true in secular directions Is
more true in spiritual and religious direc-
tions, and | proceed to prove it.
| There are in all communities many in
| valids. They never know well day. They
adhere to their occupations, but they go
painting along the streets with exhaustion,
and at eventime they lie down ON the
| lounge with achings beyond all medicament.
| They have tried all prescriptions, they have
gone through all the cures which were pro
claimed infalhble, and they have come now
to surrender to perpetual ailments They
consider they are among many disad-
vantageS, and when they see those who are
buoyant in health pass by, they almost envy
their robust frames and easy respiration.
But have noticed among that invalid
class those who have the greatest knowledge
| of the Bible, who are in nearest intimacy
with Jesus Christ, who have the most glow
ing experiences of the truth, who have had
the most remarkable answers to prayer and
who have most exhilarant anticipations Of
heaven. The temptations which weary us
who are in robust health they have con-
Quered. They have divided among them
the spoils of the conquest. Many who are
alert and athletic and swarthy loiter in the
way. These are the lame that take the
prey. Robert Hall an invalid, Edward
Payson an invalid, Richard Baxter an in
valid, Samuel Rutherford an invalid. This
morning, when you want to call to mind
those who are most Christ-like, you think
of some darkened room in your fathers
house from which there went forth an influ-
ence potent for eternity.
A step further: Through raised letters the
art of printing has been brought to the at
tention of the blind.
You take up the Bible for the blind, and
you close your eyes, and you run your
| fingers over the raised letters, and you say:
"Why never could get any information in
| this way. What slow, lumbrous way Of
reading! God help the blind"
And yet find among that class Of per-
sons, among the blind, the deaf and the
dumb, the most thorough acquaintance
with Gods word. Shut out from all other
sources of information, no sooner does their
hand touch the raised letter than they
gather prayer Without eyes, they Look
| off upon the kingdoms of God'slove. With
out hearing. they catch the minstrelsy Of
the skies. Dumb, yet with pencil, or with
irradiated countenance, they declare the
glory Of God.
A large audience assembled in New York
at the anniversary Of the deaf and dumb
asylum, and one Of the visitors with chalk
on the blackboard wrote this question to
the pupils: "Do you not find 1t very hard
TO be deaf and dumbf' And one Of the pu-
pills took the chalk and wrote on the olnck-
| board this sublime sentence in answer:
| "When the song of the angels shall burst
upon our enraptured ear, we will scarce re-
| gret that our ears were never marred with
earthly sounds" OH the brighte eyes in
| Heaven will be those that never saw on
earth. The ears most alert in Heaven will
| be those that in this world heard neither
voice Of friend, nor thrum OF harp, nor
carol Of bird, nor doxology Of congrega-
| tions.
| A lad who had been blind from infancy
was cured. The oculist operated upon the
| lad and then put very heavy tandage
over tue ewes, and after a few weeks had
| gone by the bandage was removed, and the
| mother said TO her child: "Willie, can you
seep He said: "Oh mamma, is this