The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-06-01
THE LAME TOOK THE PREY
LAST SUNDAYS SERVICES IN THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

#.
Dn. Talmage Says That IN the Army Of
Christ Too MANY Want 10 BE Com
handlers = The Church Needs More
Earnest workers I'm the Ranks.
BROOKLYN. May 2a.-At the Tabernacle
this morning the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage,
D. D., read the account of the man helpless
at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. He
then gave out the hymn beginning:
A cloud Of witnesses around
Hold thee In fun survey;
Forget the steps already trod.
And onward urge thy way.
The subject Of the eloquent doctors dis
course was: Disabled Hunters Bringing
Down the Most Came His text was from
L.. xxxiii, 90, ..Tha lame take the prey"
Following is the sermon;
The utter demolition of the Assyrian host
was here predicted. Not only robust men
should go forth and gather the spoils OF con-
quest, but even men crippled Of arm n
crippled Of foot should 60 put and capture
much that was valuable. Their physicaldis
advantages should not hinder their great en-
richment 80 1t has been in the past, 30 it is
now, so It will be In the future. 30 1t is In
all departments Men labor under SEEM
ingly great disadvantages, and amid the
most unfavorable circumstances, yet making
grand achievements, getting great blessing
for themselves, great blessing for the world,
great blessing for the church, n 30 "the
lame take the prey"
Do you know that the three great poets Of
tho world were totally bhndi Homer, Os-
sian, John Milton. Do you know that MI.
Prescott, who wrote hat enchanting book,
"The Conquest of Mexico" never saw Mex
ico, could not even see the paper on which
he was writingi A framework across the
sheet, between which, up and down, went
the pen immortal. Do you know that Gam
bassio, the sculptor, could not see the marble
before him, or the chisel with which he cut
It INTO shapes bewtchingi Do you know
that Alexander 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 I've In order to
stand on his feet at alla
Do you know that Stuart, the celebrated
painter, did much of his wonderful work un-
der the shadow Of the dungeon, where he had
been u~njustly imprisoned for debit Do you
know that Demosthenes by almost superhu-
man exertion first had to conquer the lisp of
his own speech before he conquered assem-
blages with his eloquencei Do you know
that Bacon struggled all through innumera-
BILE sicknesses, and that Lord Byron and Sir
Walter Scott went llmping 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
preyT
You know that a vast multitude of these
men started under the disadvantage Of OBJ
scure parentage. Columbus, the son of the
weaver; Ferguson. the astronomer, the son
Of the shepherd America the prey Of the
one. worlds on worlds the prey of the otler.
But what is true in secular directions is more
true in spiritual and religious directions, and
I proceed to prove it
There are in all communities many inva-
lids. They never know a we'll day. They
adhere to their occupations, but they 90
painting along the streets with exhaustion,
and at eventime they lie down ON the lounge
with achings beyond all ~medicament. They
nave tried all prescriptions, they nave gone
through all the cures which were proclaimed
infallible, n they nav COM now to sur
render to perpetual ailments. They consider
they are among many disadvantages; and
when they see those who are buoyant In
health pass by they almost envy their robust
frames n easy respiration.
But | have noticed among that invalid
class those who have the greatest knowledge
Of the Bible, who are In nearest intimacy
with Jesus Christ, who have the most glowing
experiences of the truth, who lave had the
most remarkable answers to prayer, and who
AVE the most exhilarant authorizations Of
heaven. The temptations which weary US
who are IN robust health they nave con-
quered. They nave divided among them the
spoils of the conquest Many who are alert
and athletic and swarthy loiter In the way.
These are the lame that take the prey. Rob
ert Hall an invalid, Edward Payson an in
valid, Richard Baxter an invalid, Samuel
Rutherford an invalid. This morning, when
you want to call to mind those who are most
Christlike, you think of some darkened room
In your fathers house from which there went
forth an influence potent for eternity.
A 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 YOU eyes, and you run your
fingers over the raised letters, and you say:
"Why, | never could get any information in
this way. What a slow, Humorous way of
readingi God help the blind"
Aud yet I find among that class of persons,
among the blind, the deaf and the dumb, the
most thorough acquaintance. with Gods
word. Shut out from all other sources of
information, no soone does their hand touch
the raised letter than they gather a prayer.
Without eyes, they look Off upon the king
dom of Gods love. Without hearing, they
catch the minstrelsy of the skies. Dumb,
yet with pencil, or with irradiated counte-
nance, they 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: ID you not find it very hard to be
deaf and dumbf" 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" Oil the
brightest eyes In heaven will be those that
never saw on earth. The ears most alert in
heaven will be those that Ia this world heard
neither voice Of friend, nor thrum Of harp.
nor carol OF bird, nor doxology Of congrega-
tions.
A lad who had been blind from infancy
was cured The oculist operated upon the
lad and then put a very heavy bandage over
the eyes, and after a few weeks had gone by
the bandage was removed and the mother
said to the child: willie, can you seef" He
said: "Oh, mamma, is this heavenF" The
contrast between the darkness before and the
brightness afterwerd was overwhelming.
And | tell you the glories OF heaven will be
q th~ousandfold brighter for those who never
saw anything on earth. While many with
good vision closed their eyes In night, and
many who had a good, artistic and cultured
ear went down into discard, these afflicted
ones cried unto the Lordts their trouble. and
he made their sorrows their advantage, and
90 'the lame Dol the prey"
In the Seventh century there was a legend
Of St Modobert Il was said that his
mother was blind, and one day while looking
at his mother be felt so sympathetic for her
blindness that he rushed forward and kissed
her blind eyes, and, the legend says, her Wis
ion came Immediately. That was only a
legend, but it is q truth, a glorious truth,
that a kiss of Gods eternal love has brought
to many a blind eye eternal illumination.
A step further: There are those In all
communities who toll nightly for a hvcli-
hood They have scant wages Perhaps
they are diseased, or have physical infirm-
titles, 90 they are hindered from doing q con-
tinuous days work. A city missionary finds
them up the dark alley, with no fire, with
thin clothing, with very coarse bread. They
never ride In the street car; they cannot
afford the Eve cents They never see any pict
ures nave those In the show window on the
street, from which they are often jostled