The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-08-23
TROUBLE ON BOTH SIDES.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE RETURNS TO
THE TABERNACLE.

THE TABERNACLE.
The Combined Shadow of InvaIfdisnl and
Financial Embarrassment The World
Fattens the Horse 1t Wants to Drive.
Home TroubIes-Outside Persecution.
BROOKLYN, Aug. 19.-The Rev. DIR. T.
De Witt Talnlage's subject today was
''Trouble on Both Sides" and his text
''There was a sharp rock on the one side,
and sharp rock on the other side,'
| SAM, xiv, 4.
The cruel army of the Philistines must
be taken and scattered. There is just
one man, accompanied by his bodyguard,
to do that thing. Jonathan is the hero
of the scene. / know that David
cracked the skull of the giant with a
few pebbles well slung. and that 800
Gideonites scattered 10000 Amalekites
by the crash of broken crockery;
but here is more wonderful con-
flict. Yonder are the Philistines ON the
rocks. Here is Jonathan with his body
guard in the valley. On the one
side is a rock called Bozez; on the other
side is a-rock called Seneh These two
were as famous in olden times as in
modern times are Plymouth Rock and
Gibraltar. They were precipitous, un-
scalable and sharp. Between these two
rocks Jonathan must make his ascent.
The day comes for the scaling of the
height. Jonathan, on his hands and feet,
begins the ascent. With strain, and
slip, and bruise, suppose, but still on
and up, first goes Jonathan, and then
L LII
side, Seneh on the other. After
sharp tug, and push, and cling
ing, / see the head Of Jonathan
! above the hole in the mountain; and
there Is a challenge, and a fight, and a
| supernatural CONSERVATION. These two
men, Jonathan and his bodyguard, drive
back and drive down the Phihseines over
the rocks, and open campaign which
demohshes the eneniss of Israel. l sup
pose that the overhanging and over
shadowing rocks on either side did not
balk or dishearten Jonathan or his body
guard, but only reused and filed them
with enthusiasm as they went up.
''There was a sharp rock on the one side,
and sharp rock ON the other side
Ny friends, you have been, or are now,
|
If man meets one trouble, he can go
through with it. He gathers all his Ell
ergies, concentrates them upon one point,
and in the strength of God, or by his own
natural determination. goes through it.
But the man who has trouble to the right
of him and trouble to the left Of him is
to be pitied. Did either trouble come
alone, he might endure it, but two
troubles two disasters, two overshadow-
ing misfortunes, are Bozez and Seneh
God pity him! ''There is sharp rock
on the one side, and sharp rock on the
other side."
In this crisis of the text is that man
whose fortune and health fail Kim at the
same time. Nine tenths OF all our mer-
chants capsiZe in business before they
come to forty-five years of age. There
Is some collision i'll connpercial circles,
and they stop payment. 1t seems as il
every man must put his name on the
back of a note before he learns what a
fool man is who risks all his own prop
erty on the prospect that some man will
tell the truth. 1t seems as if a man must
have large amount Of unstable goods
on his own shelf before he learns how
much easier it is to buy than to sell. II
seems as if every man must be completely
burned out before he learns the import
ance of always keeping fully insured.
1t seems as if every man must be wrecked
in financial tempest before he
learns to keep things snug in case of a
sudden euroclydon. When the calamity
does come, it is awful. The man goes
home in despair, and lie tells his family:
"We1l have to go to the poorhouse. "
He takes dolorous view of everything.
1t seems as if he never could rise. But
a little time passes, and he says: ''Why,
am not so badly off after all; 1 have
my family left.'
Before the Lord turned Adam out ol
Paradise he gave him Eve, SO that wher
he lost Paradise he could stand it. Per
NIT one who has never read but few
novels in all his life, and who has not {
great deal Of romance in his composition
to say, that if, when mans fortune
fail, he has a good wife-a good Chris
tan wife-he ought not to be despondent
ooh" you say, ''that only increases tn,
embarrassment, since you have her alst
to take care Of" You are an migrate
for the woman as often supports the MAJ
as the man supports the woman. TIL
man may bring all the dollars. bu. tn
.. woman generally brings the courage ant
the faith in God.
, Well this man of whom I ana speak
ing looks around, and he finds his fanlil
, | is left, and he rallies, and the light come
> to his eyes, and the smile to his face, an,
the courage to his heart. In two yca1
2 he is quite over it. He makes his finar
cial calamity the first chapter in ne1
t era of prosperity. He met that on
, trouble-conquered it. He sat down fc
a little while under the grim shadow {
, the rock Bozez, yet he soon rose. and bt
y gan, like Jonathan, to climb, But hoy
often it is that physical ailment come
, with financial embarrassment. Whe
. the fortune failed it broke the man
. spirit. His nerves were shattered. II
= brain was stunned. l can show 20
- hundreds of men in New York who's
fortune and health failed at the sam
time. They came prematurely to tt
staff. Their hand trembled wit
d incipient paralysis. They never sa'
# well day since the hour whe
n they called their creditors t.
d gether for compromise. If such me
,. are impatient, and peculiar. and irrit;
n BILE, excuse them. They had two trouble
IS either one of which they could have mt
r successfully. If, when the health wen
u the fortune had been retained, it woul
= not have been SO bad. The man coJll
- - have bought the very best medical advit
= and he could have had the very best a
tendance, and long lines of carriag
would have stopped at the front door
,s inquire as to his welfare. But povert
10 on the one side and sickness or the otht
es are Rozez and Seneh, and they interloc
IN their shadows and drop them upon Il
,g poor mans way. God help him! ''Thel
Il is a sharp rock on the one side, and
lis sharp rock on the other side"
Now, what is such a man to do7
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