The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-06-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Disabled Hunters Bring Down
the Most Game.
The Grand Achievements of Men Laboring
Under Disadvanta ges-The Blind. the
Lame, the Halt, working far
the Glory of God


Under Disadvanta ges-The Blind. the
Lame, the Halt, working far
the Glory of God.
The subject OF a recent sermon by Rev.
I. Dewitt Talmage at the Brooklyn Taber-
naole was tsDisabled Hunters Bringing
Down the Most Came" His text was:
The lame take the prey Isaiah, xxxiii, %.
The utter demolition of the Assyrian
host was here predicted. Not only ro-
bust men should go forth and gather the
spoils of conquest, but even men crippled
of arm and crippled of foot should go out
and capture much that was valuable
Their physical disadvantages should not
hinder their great enrichment So it has
been in the past, so it is now, and so it
will be in the future. So it is in all de-
partments. Men labor under seemingly
great disadvantages, and amid the most
unfavOrab1e circumstances, yet making
grand achievements, getting great bless
ing for themselves, great blessing for the
world, great blessing for the church, and
30 the 'lame take the prey"
Do you know that the thres great poets
of the world were totally blind? Homer,
Ossian, John Milton. Do you know that
Mr.. Prescott, who wrote that enchanting
book, 1.-THE Conquest of Mexico" never
saw Mexico, could not even see the paper
on which he was writing? 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
bewitching? Do you know that Alexan-
der Pope, whose poems will last as 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 his feet at all?
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 debt?
| Do you know that Demosthenes, by al
| most superhuman exertion, first had to
conquer the lisp of his own speech before
| he conquered assemblages with his elo-
quence? Do you know that Bacon strug-
| gled all through innumerable sicknesses,
and that Lord Byron and Sir Walter
| Scott went limping on clubfoot through
| all their life, and that many of the great
| poets and painters and orators and his
torians and heroes of the world had some
thing to keep them back, and pull them
| down, and impede their way, and cripple
| their physical or their intellectual move
| ment, and yet that they pushed on and
| pushed up until they reached the spoils of
| worldly success, and amid the huzza of
nations and centuries ''the lame took the
| prey?"
| You know that vast multitude of these
| men started under the disadvantage of
| obscure parentage. Columbus, the son
of the weaver. Ferguson, the astrono-
| mer, 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 spir-
itual and religious directions, and pro-
ceed 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 witt
exhaustions, and at eveatime they lie
down on the lounge with achings beyond
all medicament. They have tried al
prescriptions; they have gone through al
the cures which were proclaimed in
| fallible, and they have come now to sur
render to perpetual ailments. They con-
slider they are among many disadvan-
tages, and when they see those who are
buoyant in health pass by they almost
envy their robust frames and easy respi-
ration.
But have noticed among that invalid
class those who have the greatest knowl-
edge of the Bible, who are in nearest in.
timacy with Jesus Christ, who have the
most glowing experiences of the truth
who have had the most remarkable
answers to prayer, and who have the mos
exhilarant anticipations Of Heaven. The
temptations which weary us who are il
robust health they have conquered. They
have divided among them the spoils o.
the conquest. Many who are alert anC
athletic and sWarthy lOiter in the way
These are the lame that take the prey
Robert Hall an invalid, Edward Payso1
an invalid, Richard Baxter an invalid
Samuel Rutherford an invalid. Thii
morning when you want to call to minC
those who are most Christ-lilze, you thinl
of some darkened room in your father
house from which there went forth an in
fuence potent for eternity.
A step further: Through raised letteri
the art of printing has been brought t.
the attention Of the blind
You take up the Bible for the blind anC
you close your eyes and you run your fin
| ger over the raised letters, and You say
"Why, I never could get any information
in this way. What a slow, lumbrous wa,
OF reading! God help the blind"
And yet find among that class of per
sons, among the blind, the deaf and tn
dumb, the most thorough acquaintance
with Gods word. Shut out from all othe
sources Of information, no sooner doe
their hand touch the raised letter thai
they gather prayer. Without eyes, the,
look off upon the kingdoms Of Gods love
Without hearing, they catch the min
Gil or with irradiated countenance the
declare the glory of God.
A large audience assembled in Ney
York at the anniversary Of the Deaf ant
Dumb Asylum, and one Of the visitor
with chalk on the blackboard wrote thi
question to the pupils:
''DO you not find it very hard to be dea
and dumb2" And one of the pupils tool
the chalk and wrote on the blackboari
3 this sublime sentence in answer:
r ''When the song of the angels sha1
burst upon our enraptured ear, we viii
scarce regret that our ears were neve
: marred with earthly sounds"
I Oh, the brightest eyes in Heaven will b
those that never saw on earth. The ear
most alert in Heaven viii be those that il
this world heard neither voice of friend
nor thrum of harp, nor carol of bird, mol
2 doxology OF congregations.
: A lad who had been blind from infanc
was cured The oculist operated upon tn
3 lad, and then put very heavy bandag
over the eyes, and after a few weeks haC
s gone by the bandage was removed, AM
the mother said to her child:
D ''Willie, can you see?' He said:
! ''Ohl mamma, is this Heaven?"
3 The contrast between the darkness be
{ fore and the brightness afterward wa
: Overwhelming. And tell you the glorie
= of Heaven Will be a thousand-foId bright
0l AoA e1oSp WIZ AOfCi %" any t1AlAS -
earth. While many with good visiOl
closed their eyes in night, and many VIII
had a good, artistic and cultured ca
went down into discOrd, these Athlete
r ones cried unto the Lord in their trouble
. and II g made their sorrows their advan
Q tage, and so ''the lame took the prey"
3 In the seventh century there was
9 legend of st. Modobert. 1t was said tina
D his mother was blind, and one day Will
9 looking at his mother he felt so sym
, pathetic for her blindness that he rushe
forward end kissed her blind eyes, an
q the legend says her. vision came immedi