Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-06-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly DiseOurses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "Disabled Hunters
Bringing Down the Most
Came"


The utter demolition of the Assyrian hos
was here predicted. Not only robust mel
should go forth and gather the spoils of con
quest, but even men crippled of arm anc
crippled of foot should go out and capture
much that was valuable. Their physica
disadvantages should not hinder their greal
enrichment. So it has been in the past, so il
is now, so it will be in the future. So it is in
all departments. Men labor under seemingly
great disadvantages and amid the most un
favorable circumstances, yet making grand
achievements, getting great blessing for
themselves, great blessing for the world,
great blessing for the church, and so "thI
lame take the prey
Do you know that the three great poets OF
the world were totally blindi Homer, Os.
sian, John Milton. Do you know that Mr..
Prescott, who wrote that enchanting book,
1.-The Conquest of Mexico" never saw Mex.
leo, could not even see the paper on which he
was writingl A framework across the sheet,
between which, up and down, went the pen
immortal. Do you know that Gambassio, the
sculptor, could not see the marble before him
or the chisel with which he cut it into shapes
bewitchingi Do you know that Alexander
Pope, whose poems will last as long as the
English language was so mnch of an invalid
that he had to be sewed up every morning in
rough canvas in order to stand on his feet
at all!
10 you KNOW l0db STUART, G06 CeeDTaUeu
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 his eloquencel Do
you know that Bacon struggled all
through innumerable sicknesses, and that
Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott went
hmping on club feet through all their life
and that many of the great poets and paint
ers and orators and historians and heroes of
the world had something to keep them back,
and pull them down, and impede their way,
and cripple their physical or their intellectual
movement; and yet they that pushed on and
pushed up until they reached the spois of
worldly success, and amid the huzza of
nations and centuries, 1.-THE lame took the
preyp
You know that vast multitude of these
men started under the disadvantage of ob-
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 directions, and
proceed to prove it.
There are in all communities many inva.
lids. They never know q we'll day. They
adhere to their occupations, but they go
panUl09 along Uu0S bIT6BJS VIII eGuduSblOuS,
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 proclaimed infallible,
and they have come now to surrender
to perpetual ailments. They consider they
are among many disadvantages; and when
they see those who are buoyant in health
pass by they almost envy their robust
frames and easy respiration.
But l 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
ant anticipations of heaven. The tempta'
tions which weary us who are in
robust health they have conquered. They
have divided among them the spolls OF the
conquest. Many who are alert and athletic
and swarthy loiter in the way. These
are the lame that take the prey Rob-
bert Hall, an invalid; Edward Payson,
an invalid; Richard Baxter an invalid;
Samuel Rutherford an invalid. This morn
ing, when you want to call to mind those
who are most Christlke you think of some
darkened room in your fathers house from
which there went forth an influence potent
for eternity.
A step farther: Through raised letters the
art Of Brinting has been brough to the at
tention Of She blind,
You take up the Bible for the blind, and
YOU close your eyes, and you run your fin
gers over the raised letters, and you say
"Why, never could get any information In
this way. What a slow, cumbrous way oil
reading God help the blind"
And yet find among that class of persons
among the blind, the deaf and the dumb
iuta with Code
word. Shut out from all other sources oil
information, no sooner does their hand touch
the raised letter than they gather prayer.
Without eyes, they look off upon the kingdom
of Gods love. Without hearing they catct
Che minstrelsy of the Skies Dumb, yet with
pencil. or with irradiated countenance, they
declare the glory of God.
LARGE audience assembled in New York
at the anniversary of the Deaf and Dumt
asylum, and one Of the visitors with chalk OF
the blackboard wrote this question to the
pupils: ''Do you not find it very hard to b'
deaf and dumb?' And one of the pupils tool
the chalk and wrote on the blackboard thl
sublime sentence in answer: "When the SOM
OF the angels shall burst upon our enrapt
AIRED ear, we will scarce regret that our ears
were mover marred with earthly sounds.
Oh! the brightest eyes in heaven will be
those that never saw on earth. The ear
most alert in heaven will be those that ir
this world heard neither voice Of friend, nor
thrum of harp, nor carol of bird, nor doxol
ogy of congregations
4 lad who had been blind from infancy
was cured. The oculist operated upon the
lad, and then put very heavy bandage over
the eyes, sad after few weeks had gone by
the bandage was removed, and the mother
said to her child: "Willie, can you sees" He
said: "Ohl mamma, is this heavenW The
contrast between the darkness before and the
brightness afterward was overwhelming
And tell you the glories Of heaven will bt
thousandfold brighter for those who never
saw anything on earth. While many witt
good vision closed their eyes at night anC
many who had good artistic and cultured
ear went down into discord, these afflicted
ones cried unto the Lord in their trouble
and he made their sorrows their advantage
and 80 ''the lame took the prey"
In the Seventh century there was Legend
of ST. Modobert 1t was said that his mother
was blind, and one day while looking at hi
mother he felt so sympathetic for her blind
ness that he rushed forward and kissed bel
blind eyes, and, the legend says her vision
came Immediately. That was only legend
but it is truth, glorious truth, that kis'
of Gods eternal love has brought to many
blind eye eternal illumination.
A step further: There are those in all com
munites who toll nightly for livelihood
They have scant wages. Perhaps they arr
diseased, or have physical inirmities, so they
are hindeFed from doing continuous day.
work. A city missionary finds them up the
dark alley. with no fire, with thin clothing will
very coarse preaq, They never ride in tn
street cars; they cannot afford the five cent?
They never see any pictures save those i
the show windows on the street, from whie
they are often iostled, and looked at by som
one who seems to say in the look: 'Move on
what are you doing here looking at pictures?
Yet many Of them live on mountains 0
TRANSPORTATION. At their rough table b
who fed the five thousand breaks the bread
They talk often of the good times that ar
coming. This world has no charm for them
but heaven entrances their spirit They ofte
divide their scant crust with some forlor
wretch who knocks at their door at night am
an the blast of the night wind as the doc
To LOT kl,anN in, f, hoo, -