The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-08
GLORY OF SOUL-SAVING.
REV TALMAGB SAYS ANY ONE
ON BECOME GREAT.

C+N BECOME GREAT.
The Rescue of Single Person on the
Wrong Road Enough to Entitle One
60 the Title-Chances in Life to Do
Good Deeds Which Should be
Improved.
BROOKLYN, Oct. Although no build
ing has been large enough to hold tie audi
ences attracted by the Rev. I. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. d., in any part of this country or
Great Britain for the last twenty years, the
throngs in and around the immense audi
ence room Of Brooklyn tabernacle seem to
be increasing as the years go by. The open
ing hymns this morning were heartily sung
by the congregation. DR.. Talmage chose
for his subject. 1.-The Three Greatest Things
to Do" His text was Daniel XII, 32: "The
people that do know their God shall be
strong and do exploits Following is the
sermon:
Antiochus Epiphanes, the old sinner,
came down three times with his army to
desolate she Jews, advancing one time with
hundred and two trained elephants swing
ing their trunks this way and that, and
slxty-two thousand infantry, and six thou
sand cavalry troops, and they were driven
back. Then the second time he advanced
with seventy thousand armed men aud had
been again defeated. But tho third time
he laid successful siege until the navy of
Rome came in with the fash Of their long
banks of oars aud demanded that the siege
be lifted. And Antiochus Epiphanes said
he wanted time to consult with his friends
about it, and Pompllius, one Of the Roman
ambassadors, took a staff and made circle
on the ground around Antiochus Epiphanes
4 Il. InH-
out of that circle; whereupon he lifted the
siege. Some of the Jews had submitted to
the invader but some of them resisted valor-
ously, as dill EleaZer when he had swine's
flesh forced into his mouth, spit it out,
although he knew he must die for it, and did
die for it, and others, as my text says, were
enabled to do exploits.
An exploit l would define to be heroic
act, a brave feat, a great achievement.
but there is no chance for me; mine is
sort of humdrum life. II had an Antio-
chus Epiphanes TO fight also could do ex-
ploits." You are right so far as great wars
are concerned. There will probably be no
opportunity to distinguish yourself in bat
tie. The most Of the brigadier generals Of
this country would never have been heard
Of had it not been for the war. Gen. Grant
would have remained in the useful work OF
tanning hides at Galena, Stonewall Jack
son would have continued the quiet college
professor in Virginia. And whatever mili-
tary talents you have will probably
lie dormant forever. Neither will
you probably become a great inven-
tor. Nineteen hundred and ninety-nine
out of every two thousand inventions found
in the patent office at Washington never
yielded their authors enough money to pay
for the expenses of securing
the patent. So you will probably
never be Morse or an Edison or a Hum
phrey Davy or an Eli Whitney. There Id
not much probability that you will be the
one out of hundred that achieves extra
ordinary success in commercial or egal or
medical or literary spheres. What thenf
Can you have no opportunity to do exploitsa
| am going to show you to-day that there
are three opportunities open that are grand,
thrilling. far-reaching stupendous and
overwhelming. They are before you now.
In one, if not all three of them, you may do
exploits. The three greatest things on earth
to do are TO save man, or save a woman,
or save child.
During the course of his life almost
every man gets into an exigency, is caught
between two fires, is ground between two
millstones, sits on the edge Of some preci-
pice, or in some other way comes near
demolition. 1t may be financial, or a
moral, or domestic, or social, or a
In court rooms. A young man has got into
had company and he has offended tae law,
and he is arraigned. All blushing and con-
fused, he IL in the presence Of judge and
jury and lawers. He can be sent right on
in the wrong direction. He is feeling dis
graced, and he is almost desperate. Let the
district attorney overhaul him as though
he were an old offender, let the ablest at
torneys at the bar refuse to say a word for
him because he cannot afford considerable
fee, let the judge give no opportunity for
presenting the mitigating circum-
stances, hurry up the case and hustle
him up TO AuoLrn or Sing Sing.
IL he live seventy years, for seventy years
he will be a criminal and each decade Of his
life will be blacker than its predecessor. In
the interregnuns Of prison life he can get
no work, and he is glad to break window.
glass, or blow up safe, or play the hight
wayman, so as to get back again within the
walls where he can get something to eat
and hide himself from the cruel gaze Of the
world. Why don't his father come and
help him His father Is dead. Why don't
his mother come and help him She is
dead. Where are all the ameliorating and
salutary influences Of society," They do not
touch him. Why did noJ some one long
age in the case understand that there was
an opportunity for the exploit which would
be famous In heaven quadrillion Of years
after the earUn mas become scattered asneS
in the last whirlwind2 Why did not tha
district attorney take that young man into
his private office and say: "My son, l SEQ
that you are the victim of circumstances.
This Is your first crime. You are sorry.
| will bring the person you wronged into
your presence, and you will apologize and
make all the repara ion you can, and will
give you another chance" Or that young
man Is presented in the court room, and he
has no friends present, and the judge sayst
"Who is your counselp And he answerst
~ have none.n And the judge says: "Whd
will take this young mans casep And
there is dead halt, and no one
offers, and after awhile the judge
turns to some attorney who nevet
had good case in all his life and never will.
and whose advocacy would be enough to
secure the condemnation OF innocence
itself And the professional incompetent
crawls up beside the prisoner, helplessness
To rescue despair: when there ought to be q
struggle among all the best men Of the pros
fesslon as to who should have the honor OF
trying to help that unfortunate How
much would such an attorney have received
as his fee for such an Advocacy Nothing
in dollars, but much every way in a happy
consciousness that would make his own lifa
brighter. and his own dying pillow sweeter.
and his own heaven happier-the conscious
SO there are commercial exigencies. A
very late spring obliterates the demand
for spring oyercoats, aud spring hats, and