Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-10-19
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
THE REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE's
DISCOURSE.

DR.. Talmage chose for his subject
The Three Greatest Things to Do.
His text was Daniel xi, -. The people
that do know their God shall be strong,
and do exploits" Following is the SER
mon:
Antiochus Epiphanes came down three
times with his army to DIES olate the Jews.
advancing one time with hundred and
two trained elephants swinging their
trunks this way and that, and siXty-two
thousand infantry and six thousand
cavalry troops, and they We're driven
back. Then the second time he adj
yanced with seventy thousand armed
men and had been again defeated. But
the third time he laid successful siege
until the navy of Rome came in with
the flash of their long banks of oars and
demanded that the siege be lifted. And
Antiochus Epiphanes said he wanted
time to consult with his friends about it,
and Popilius, one of the Roman en-
bassalors, took staff and made circle
on the ground around Antiochns Epiph-
anes and compelled him to decide before
he came out of that circle; whereupon
he lifted the siege. Some of the Jews
had submitted to the invader. but some
of them resisted valorously, as did
Eleazer when he had swines flesh forced
into his mouth, spit it out. although he
knew he must die for ii and did die for
it. and others, as my text says. were en-
abled to do exploits.
An exploit l would define to be a
heroic act, a brave feat. a great achieve
ment. We'll, you say, i admire such
things, but there is no chance for me;
mine is sort of humdrum life. If l
had an Antiochus Epiphanes to fight l
also could do exploits. You are right
SO far as great wars are concerned.
There will probably be no opportunity
to distinguish yourself in battle. 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. and Stone
wall Jackson would have continued the
quiet college professor in Virginia
And whatever military talents YOU have
will probably lie dormant forever
Neither will you become n great in
ventor. Nineteen hundred and ninety
nine out of every two thousand inven-
tions found in the patent Office at Wash
ington never yielded their authors
enough money to pay the expenses of.
securing the patent. SO you will prob
ably never be a Morse or an Edison or
v.
There is not much probability that YOU
will be the one out of hundred that
achieve extraordinary success in COM
mercial or legal OF medical OF literary
spheres. What then? Can YOU have no
opportunity to do exploits? l anu 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,
OF save woman. OF save q child.
! During the course Of his life alomst
every man gets into an exigency, is caught
between two fires, is ground between
twomill-stones, sits on the edge of some
precipice, or in some other way comes
near demolition. 1t may be financial
Or a moral or domestic or social or a
political exigency. You sometimes sec
it i'll court-rooms. A young man has got
into bad company and he has offended
the law. and he is arraigned. All blush
ing and confused he is in the presence
be sent right on in the wrong direction.
He is feeling disgraced, aud he is almost
desperate. Let the district attorney
overhaul him as though he were an old
offender. let the ablest attorneys at the
bar refuse to say word for him because
he cannot afford a considerable fee, let
the Judge give no opportunity for pre-
senting the mitigating circumstances,
hurry up the case and hustle him up to
Auburn or Sing Sing. If he live sew
enty years, for seventy years he will be
a criminal, and each decade of his life
will be blacker than it's predecessor. In
the interregnums of prison life he can
get no work, and he is glad to break a
window glass, OF blow up a safe, or play
the highwayman, SO as to get back again
within the walls where he can get some
thing 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 in
fuences of society? They do not touch
him. Why did not some one long ago
in the case understand that there was an
opportunity for the exploit which would
be famous i'll Heaven Il quadrillion of
years after the earth has become seat
tered ashes in the last whirlwind? Why
did not the district attorney take that
young man into his private office and
say: My son, [ see that you are the
victim of circumstances. This is your
first crime. You are sorry. will bring
the person you wronged into your pres
ence. and you will apologize and make
all the reparation 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 says: Who is your connsel?"
And he answers. y have none" Andthe
judge says: Who will take this young
mans case?" And there is dead halt
and no one offers, and after while the
judge turns to some attorney who never
had good case in all his life and never
will. and whose advocacy will be enough
to secure the condemnation of innocence
itself. And the professional incompe-
tent crawls up beside the prisoner. help
lessness to rescue despair. when there
ought to be struggle among all the best
men of the profession 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 i'll dollars,
but much every way in happy con-
seriousness thatiwould make his own life
brighter and his own dying pillow
sweeter and his own heaven happier
the consciousness that he had saved a
man!