News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-08-30
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGES
STERLING DIsCOURsEs.
Subject Trouble on Both Sides. -


one side, and a sharp rock on the othel
side. II Samuel, xiv, 4.
The cruel army of the Philistines must be
taken and scattered. There is Just one man
accompanied by his bodyguard to do that
thing. Jonathan is the hero of the scene.
know that David cracked the skull of the
giant with few pebbles well Sung, and that
Ihree hundred Gldeonites scattered ten thou.
sand Amalekites by the crash of broken crock
cry; but here Is a more wonderful conflict.
4onder are the PhilistineS on the rocks
Here Is Jonathan with his bodyguard in the
valley. On the one side is a rock called
Bozez; on the other side is a rock called
semen. These two were as famous in olden
times as in modern times are Plymouth Rock
and Gibralter. They were precipitous, un-
scaIeable, and sharp Between these two
rocks Jonathan must make his ascent The
gay comes for the scaling of the height.
Jonathan, on his hands and feet, begins the
ascent. With strain, and slip, and bruise
1 suppose, but still ON and UP, first goes
Jonathan, and then goes his bodyguard.
Bozez on one side, Seneh on the other After
sharp tug, and push, and clinging, see the
mead OF Jonathan above the hole in the
mountain; and there is a challenge, and
light, and a supernatural CONSERVATION
These two men, Jonathan and his BODY
guard, drive back and drive down the Philis-
times over the rocks, and open a cam
palgn which demolishes the enemies
OF israel. L suppose that the over
hanging and overshadowing rocks on either
side did not balk or dishearten Jonathan or
his bodyguard, but only reused aud filed
them with enthusiasm as they went ND.
There was 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 a
man meets one trouble, he can go through
with 1t. He gathers all his energies, con
centrates them upon one point, and in the
strength of God, or by 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, ne might
endure 1t, but two troubles, two disasters,
two overshadowing miSfortunes, are Bozez-
and Semen. God pity himI There is a
sharp rock on the one side and sharp rock
on the other side.n
In this crisis of the text is that man whose
fortune and health fail him at the same time
NIne-tenthS of all our merchants capsize in
business before they come to forty-five wears
OF age There Is some collision in CONNER
clal circles, and they stop payment. 1t seems
as II every man must put his name on the
back OF note before he learns what fool
man Is who risks all his own property on thu
prospect that some man will tell the truth II
seemsas If man must have a 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 keeping fully insured,
1t seems as if every man must be wrecked in
a financial tempest before he learns TO keep
things snug in case of a sudden curoclydon,
w hen the calamity does come it is awful
The man goes home in despair, and he tells
his family: well have to go to the poor
house" He takes dolorous view of every
thing. 1t seems as if he never could rise.
But little time passes, and he says: ''Why,
l am not so badly off after ALL have my
family leftn
Before the Lord turned Adam out of Para.
disc he gave him Eve, so that when he lost
Paradise he could stand it. Permit one who
has never read but few novels in all his life
and who has not great deal of romance in
bus composition, to say, that if, when a mans
fortunes fail, he has good wife-a good
Christian wife-he ought not to be despond-
ent "Oh," you say, that only increases the
embarrassment, since you have her also to
take care OF" lou are an migrate, for the
woman as 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 his family is left, |
and he rallies, and the light comes to his |
ayes, 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 a new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble-con-
Iuered it. He sat down for a little while
under the grim shadow of the rock Bozez:
yet he soon rose, and began, like Jonathan,
70 climb. But how often is it that physical
ailment comes with financial embarrassment.
When the fortune failed it broke the mans
;pirit. His nerves were shattered His brain
was stunned. | can show you hundreds of
men in New York whose fortune and health
allied at the same time. They came pre-
naturely TO the staff. Their hand trembled
With incipient paralysis. They never saw a
veil day since the hour when they called
heir creditors together for a compromise
If such men are inpatient, AMI
peculiar, and irritable, excuse them
They had two troubles; either one of which
hey could have met successfully If, when !
1he health went, the fortune had been re
tanned, it would not have been so bad. The |
man could have bought the very best melicat I
advice, and he could have had the very bSss
Tendance. and long lines OF carriages wOul:i
ave stopped at the front door to inquire as
o his welfare. But pc serty on the one side
nd sickness on the other, are BOzez and
eneh, and they interlock their shadows, AMI
rop them upon the poor mans way. GCi
elp him! There is a sharp rock on the one
ide, and a sharp rock on the other side"
Now, what is such a man to do! In the
lame of Almighty God 1 will tell him what
o do. Doas Jonathan did-climb; climb up
nto the sunlight of Gods favor and consola-
Ion. l can go through the churches, and |
how you men who lost fortune and health
" Tue SdtllS IlIiit, anu YET VINO sing all DAY |
md dream of heaven all night. If you have
my idea that sound digestion, and steady
leryes, and clear eyesight, and good hear
ng, and plenty Of friends are necessary to
make man happy, you have miscalculated.
suppose that these overhanging rocks only
made Jonathan scramble harder and the
aster to get up and out into the sunlight;
nd this combined shadow of invalidism and
financial embarrassment has often sent a man
p the quicker into the sunlight of Gods
avor and the monday ~ His glorious
rOmiseS. 1t is difficult for a man to
eel his dependence upon Coz when he has
en- thousand dollars in the bank and fifty
thousand dollars in Government securities.
nd block ofstores and three ships ''Weu'
be man says to himself, 1T is silly for me
o pray: Give me this day my. daily
read, when my pantry is full, and
he canals from the West are
rowded with breadstuffs destined for nv
torehouses" Oh, my friends, if the COM
ined misfortunes and disasters of life have
lade you climb up into the arms of a sym
athletic and compassionate God, through all
ternity you will bless Him that in this
7orld ''th ere was sharp rock on the one
de, and sharp rock on the other siden
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text |
Tho has home troubles and outside persecu-
on at the same time. The world treats a |
ian well just as long as it pays best to treat
i'm well As long as it can manufacture
IcceSS out of his bone and brain, and |
luscle, it favors him. The world fattens
he horse it wants to drive. But let a man |
,e it his duty to cross the track of the I
orld, then every bush is full of horns and |
lsks thrust at him. They will belittle him;
icy will caricature him; they will call his :
enerosity self ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and his piety
The very worst perSecu-
on will some time come upon him from r
lose who profess to be Christians
John MiIton-great and good John Milton z
so forgot himself as TO pray, in so many
ords, that his enemies might be eternally
lrown down into the darkest and deepest
ulf of he'll, and be the undermost and most ,
elected and the lowest down vasSals of per-
tion And Martin LIther so far forgot ]
mself as to say, in regard to his theological .
1ponents: Put them in whatever sauce you
ease, roasted, or fried, or baked, or stewed, J
boiled, or hashed, they are nothing but
sseSp All, my friends, if John Milton or
-artin Luther could come down to such
SIS elevated opponents: Now, the world
metimes takes after them; the newspapers
Ike after them; public opinion takes after ,
lem; and the unfortunate man is lied about
ltil all the dictionary of Bilingsgate is s
lhauSted on him You often see a mar
HON you know TO be good and pure and
Onest set upon by the world, and mauled by
hole communities, while vicious men take
a supercihous air in condemnation of him
though Lord JefTreys should write ar !
say on gentleness, or Henry VIII tall
bout purity, OF Herod take to blessing little
lildren. !
Now, a certain amount of persecution
buses a mans defiance, stirs his blood fol
lagnifcent battle, and makes him fifty timer I
lore a imam than he would have been with
ut the persecution. So it was with tn,
reat reformer when he said: II will :
OF be put down; 1 will be heard" And SC
was with Willard, the preacher, in the time I
Louis XI. When Louis XI. sent word t. I
i'm that unless he stopped preaching in that