Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-10-18
WORLDLY TROUBLES.
Or. Talmage on the Accommodating
Troubles of Life.
Good Advice as to Surmounting Them
The Man Who Trusts in God Will Surely
Win the Victory-ReliefF From
All Miseries.

In a recent sermon on the subject,
''Trouble on Both Sides" DIR. Talmage
took for his text: There was sharp rock
on the one side and a sharp rock on the
other side"-l Samuel xiv. 4. He said:
The cruel army of the Philistines must
be taken and scattered. There is just one
man, accompanied by his body-guard, to
do that thing. Jonathan is the hero of the
scene. / know that David cracked the
skull of the giant with few pebbles well
slung, and that 800 Gideonites scattered
10000 Amalekites by the crash of broken
crockery, but here is a more wonderful
conflict. Yonder are the Philistines on the
rocks. Here is Jonathan with his body
guard ip 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 in modern times
are Plymouth Rock and Gibraltar. They
were precipitous, unscalable 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, l suppose, but
still ON and up first goes Jonathan and
then goes his body guard. BoZez on one
side, Seneh on the other. After sharp
tug and push and clinging see the head
of Jonathan above the ho!e in the
mountain. and there is challenge and
fight and a supernatural CONSERVATION.
These two men. Jonathan and his body
guard, drive back and drive down the
Philistines over the rocks and open CAM
paign which demolisheS the enemies of
Israel. l suppose that the overhanglng
and oversbadowing rocks on either side
did not baik or disheaIten Jonathan or his
body-guard. but only reused and filled
them with enthusiasm they went up.
''There was a sharp rock on the one side
and a sharp rock on the other side"
My friends. you have been, or are now,
some of you, in this crisis of the text. If
q man meets one trouble, h. can go through
with it. He gathers all his energies, con-
centrates them upon one point and in the
strength of God, or 10y 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 overshadowing misiortunes
are Bozez and Seneh. God pity him!
''There is sharp rock on the one side. and
q sharp rock on the other side"
In this crisis of the text is that man
whose fortune and health fail him mt the
same time Nine-tentbs of all our mer-
chants capsize in business before they
come to foTty-iive years of age. There is
some collision in commercial circles, and
they stop payment. 1t seems as if every
man must put his name on the back of a
note before he learns what a fool a man is
who risks all his own property on the
prospect that some man will tell the truth.
1t seems 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. 1t seems as if every
man must be completely burned out before
he learns the Importance of always keep
ing fully insured. 1t seems as if every
man must be wrecked in a financial tenn
pest 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 he tells his fam
lily: "We1l have TO 60 to the poor house."
He takes a dolorous view of every thing.
1t seems as if he never could rise. But a
little time passes and he says: 'Why,
am not so badly Off after all; l have my
family left"
Before the Lord turned Adam out of
Paradise he gave him Eve, so that when
he lost Paradise he could stand it. Permit
one who has never read but few novels
in his life, and who has not great deal of
romance in his composition, to say that if,
when a mans fortunes fail. he has good
Christian wife-he ought not to be
respondent. CO." you saw, that only in
creases the embarrassment, since you have
her also to take care Of" You are an in
CRATE, for the woman often supports the
man as the man supports the woman. The
man may bring all the dollars but the
woman generally brings the courage and
the faith in God.
Well. this man of whom am speaking
looks around and he finds bis family is left,
and he rallies, and the light comes to his
eyes, and the smile to his face, and the
courage to his heart. In two years he is
quite over it. He makes his financial
calamity the first chapter in new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble
conqueredit. He satl'iown for little while
under the grim shadow of the rock Bozez;
yet he soon rose and began, like Jonathan,
to climb.
But how often it is that physical ailment
comes with financial embarrassment. When
the fortune failed it broke the mans spirit.
stunned. | can show you hundreds of men
in New York whose fortune and health
failed at the same time. They came pre-
maturely to the staff. Their hand trem-
bled with incipient paralysis. They never
saw well day since the hour when they
called their creditors together for COM
promise. If such men are impatient and
peculiar and irritable, excuse them. They
had two troubles. either one of which they
could have met successfully. If when the
health went the fortune had been retained
it would not have been so bad. The man
could have bought the very best medical
advice, and he could have had the very
best attendance. and long lines of carriages
would have stopped at the trent door to
inquire a TO his welfare. But poverty on
the one side and sickness on the other are
the Bozez and Seneh. and they interlock
their shadows and drop them upon the
poor mans way. God help him! ''There
is sharp rock on the one side and sharp
rock on the other side"
Now, what is such man to do: In the
name of Almighty God, l will tell him
what to do. Do as Jonathan did-climbj
climb up into the sunlight of Gods favor
and consolation. l can go through the
churches and show you men who lost
fortune and health at the same time and
yet who sing all day and dream of Heaven