Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-11-08
GREAT EXPLOITS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks About
Great Things to Do.
The Three Exploits Which Are Bound to
Win Renown for the Doer-To Save
Man, or to Save Woman, or
to Save a Child.


Man, or to Save Woman, or
to Save a Child.
''The Three Greatest Things to Do" was
the subject of Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage'i
recent sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
His text was Daniel XII, 49, 1.-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 the Jews, advancing one time with
a hundred and two trained elephants swing
! ing their trunks this way and that, and
! sixty-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 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
ambassadors, took staff and made circle
on the ground around Antiochus Epiphanes
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 vigorously, as did Eleazer
when he had swine's flesh forced into his
mouth, spit il out although he knew he
must die for IT, aud did die for it, and others,
as my text SAYS, We're enabled TO do exploits.
An exploit would define to be a heroic
act brave feat great achievement.
'Well.n YOU say II admire such things, but
a. f.s ~
humdrum lif If | hal an Antiochus
Epiphanes o fight also could do exploits.n
You are right so far as great wars are
concerned There will probably be no OPP
portuuity to distinguish yourself in battle.
The most of the Drigadier generals of this
country would never have been heard of had
it not been for tie war General Grant
would have remained in the useful work Of
tanning hides at G ilena, aud Stonewall jack
son would have continued tho quiet college
professor in Virginia Aud whatever nlii-
tary talents you have viii PROBABLY lie dor
mant forever. Neither will you probably
become great inventor. Nineteen hundred
and ninoty-nine out of every two thousand
inventions 70 nd In the Patent ONCE at
Washington never vie ded their authors
enough money to pay for the expense Of
securing the patent So you will probably
never be Morse, or an Edison, or Hum
phrey Davy. or an Eli Whitney There is
not much probability that YOU will be the
one out of the hundred that achieves extra
ordinary success in commercial, or legal, or
medical or literary spheres. What theni
Can you have no opportunityto do exploits
| am going to show you to-day that there
are three opportunities open that are grand,
thrilling, far-reaching stupendous and over.
whelming. They are before YOU now In
one, il not in all three of them YOU may do
exploits.
The three greatest things on earth TO do
are TO save a man or TO save woman, or
save a 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 precipice, or in some
other way comes near demolition. IL may
be inancil Il, or moral, or domestic. or
social, or a political exigeucy. You some
times see it in court rooms. A young mar
mas got INTO bad company and he has Of.
Tended the law, and he Is arraigned All
bushine aud confused he is in the presence
Of judge and jury and lawyers. He can
be sent right or in the wrong direction. lie
is feeling disgraced aud he is almost des
perate. Let the district attorney overhaul
him as though he were an old offender, let
The ablest attorneys at the bar refuse 10 say
word for him because he eau not afford a
considerable fee, let the Judge give no oppor
tunity for presenting the mitigating circum.
stances, hurry up the case and hustle him up
70 Auburn or Sing Sing. II he live seventy
years for seventy years he VIII be crimi-
lal and each decade Of his life will be black
err than its predecessor. In the interreg-
nuns Of prison life he can get no work, and
ne is glad 10 break IA window glass, or
GLOW up a safe. or PLAY the highwayman. SO
as TO get back again within the walls where
ne can get something TO eat aud hide himself |
from the cruel gaze of the world. Why
DOESN'T his father come and help him. His |
father is dead. Why don't his mothercome |
and help him. She is dead Where are all the |
lmeliorating aud salutary Influences Of so
,ietyl They do not touch him Why did |
not some one long ago in the case u lerstand |
that there was an opportunity for the ex-
)loit which would be famous in heaven |
luadrillion of years after the earth |
has become scattered ash-s in the last |
whirlwindl Why did not the district at
Jorney take that young man into his private
office and say my son, | see that you are !
the victim OF Giro instances This is your |
first crime. You are sorry. | will bring |
the person you wrouged into your presence |
and you win apologize and make all the |
separation You can. and viii give you an
other chance Or that young man is pre-
sented in the court room and he has no
friends present and the judge says: Who is 4
your cOunselw And he answers, II have
none.n And the Judge says. "Who will |
take this young mans casegn And there /
Is a dead halt, aud no one offers, and after
a while the judge turns to some at
torney who never had a good case in
all his life, and never will. and whose ad- 4
vocacy would be enough to secure the con-
1emnation of innocence itself. And the
professional incompetent crawls up beside
The prisoner. helplessness to rescue despair,
when there ought to be a 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 advocacyi Nothing in dollars but much
every way in a happy consciousness that
would make his own life brighter and his