The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-06-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Disabled Hunters Bring Down
tho Most Game.
The Grand Achievements of Men Laboring
Under Disadvantages-TheB Blind. the
Lame, the Halt, Workingfr
the Glory Of God.

The subject OF recent sermon by Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle was sDisabled 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
unfavorable circumstances, yet making
grand achievements, getting great bless
ing for themselves, great blessing for the
world, great blessing for the church, and
so the flame take the prey"
Do you know that the three great poets
of the world were totally blind? Homer,
Ossian, John Milton. Do you know that
Mr.. Prescott, who wrote that enchanting
book, "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?"
Hou 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-
coed to prove it.
There are in all communities many in
valids. They never know we'll day.
They adhere to their occupations, but
they go painting along the streets with
exhaustions, 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 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.
step further: Through raised letters
the art OF printing has been brought to
the attention of the blind.
You take up the Bible for the blind and
you close your eyes and you run your fin.
ger over the raised letters, and you say:
why, never could get any information
In TINS way. What slow, lumbrOus way
OF reading! God help the blind"
And yet find among that class of per.
sons, among the blind, the deaf and the
dumb, the most thorough acquaintance
win GODS word. Shut out from all other
sources OF information, no sooner does
tnelr hand touch the raised letter than
they gather prayer. Without eyes, they
look Off upon the kingdoms of Gods love.
"1thout hearing, they catch the min.
strelsy OF the skies. Dumb, yet with pen
ell or with irradiated countenance thew
declare the glory of God.
"A large audience assembled in New
YORK at the anniversary Of the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, and one of the visitors
with chalk on the blackboard wrote this
question to the pupils:
DO you not find it very hard to be deaf
and dumb?" And one of the pupils took
the chalk and wrote on the blackboard
THIS sublime sentence in answer:
when the song of the angels shall
burst upon our enraptured ear, we will
scarce regret that our ears were never
marred with earthly sounds"
On, the brightest eyes in Heaven will be
tnose that never saw on earth. The ears
most alert in Heaven will be those that in
this world heard neither voice of friend.
nor thrum of harp, nor carol of bird. nor
doxology of congregations.
A lad who had been blind from infancy
was cured. The oculist operated upon the
Lad, and then put very heavy bandage
over the eyes, and after a few weeks had
gone by the bandage was removed, and
the mother said to her child:
willie, can you see?" He said:
'Oh! mamma, is this Heaven?n
The contrast between the darkness be-
fore and the brightness afterward was
overwhelming. And 1 tell you the glories
OF Heaven will be a thousand fold bright
or for those who never saw any thing on
earth. While many with good vision
closed their eyes in night and many who
mar good, artistic and cultured ear
went down into discord, these afflicted
ones cried unto the Lord in their trouhle
an He made their sorrows their adv.n'