The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-10-25
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Suparauities a Hinderanca Rather
than Help.

The Possession of Too Much of the Worlds
Goods Not Conducive to Spiritual
Wealth-Divine Triumph In
the Human Anatomy.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject Of recent sermon in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle: s'Superiuities Hinder
ance." His text was:
man Of great 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 defied Israel, Jona-
than, the son of Shimea, Davids brother. slew
him. Chronicles, Xxx, CT.
Malformation photographed, and for
what reason? Did not this passage slip
in by mistake into the sacred Scriptures,
as sometimes a paragraph utterly OBJ
noxious to the editor gets into his news
paper during his absence? Is not this
Scriptural errata? No, no; there is moth
ing haphazard about the Bible. This
passage of Scripture was as certainly in
tended to be put in the Bible as the pas
sage, "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the EARTH" or, "God so
loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son."
And select it for my text to-day be-
cause it is charged with practical and
tremendous meaning. BY the people of
God the Philistines had been conquered,
with the exception of a few giants. The
race of giants is mostly extinct 1 am
glad to say. There is no use for giants
now except 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 one
quarter inches high. Or, if you do not
believe the Bible, the famous Pliny, a
secular writer, declares that at Crete. by
an earthquake, monument was broken
open, discovering the remains of giant
forty-s;x cubits long, or sixty mine 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. and
there were other giants that the Davidean
wars had not 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 an
nexed an additional finger, and the foot
had also superfuous addendum. He had
twenty -four examinations to hands and
feet where others have twenty. It was
not the only instance OF the kind. Taver-
nier, the learned writer, says that the
Emperor of Java had son endowed with
the same number of extremities Vol
catus the poet, had six fingers on each
hand. Maupetius, in his celebrated let
tors, speaks of two families near Berlin
similarly equipped of hand and foot. All
OF which / can believe, for I have seen
two cases of the same physical super
abundance.
But this giant of the text is in battle,
and as David, the dwarf warrior, had dis
patched one giant, tho brother of David
Stays 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 appendices of hand and
foot did not save him The probability
was that the sixth finger on his hand
made him clumsy in the use of his weap-
on, and his sixth toe crippled his gait.
Behold the PROSTATE and malformed
giant of the text:
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 def1ed Israel. Jona-
than, the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew
him.
Behold how super1uties are a hinder
ance rather than help. In all the battle
at Gath that day there was not man
with ordinary hand and ordinary foot
and ordinary stature chat was not better
off than this physical curiosity of my
text. As ply steal size is apt to run n
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 opportun that
you can not use for God and the BETTER
ment OF the world is a sixth finger and a
sixth toe, and terrible hind erance. The
most OF the 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 nvs, no more and no less. One DR..
Duff among missionaries, but three thou
sand missionaries that would tell Won
they nave only common endowment One
Florence Nightingale to nurse the sick in
conspicuous places, but ten thousand
women who are Just as good nurses
though never heard OF. The Swami
Angel was big gun that during the war
made big noise, but mu skets OF ordi-
nary caliber and shells of ordinary hett
did the execution President TYLER and
his Cabinet go dowa the Potomac on q
day to experiment with the peacem ak er.
great iron gun that was to alright with
its thunder foreign naviss. The gunner
touches it off and it explodes and leaves
Cabinet Minister'S dead on the deck.
while at the same time, all up aud down
our coasts, were cannon of ordinary 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 dis
cussion, on the evening of the first Mon
day in November, the next day the peo-
pie with the silent ballots will settle
every thing, and settle it right, million
of the white slips Of paper they drop
making about as much noise as the fall
OF an apple blossom.
Yet what do we SEQ in all departments?
People not satisfied with ordinary
spheres of work aud ordinary duties.
Instead of trying 20 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