The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-10-25
TALMAGB'S SERMON.
Tie Weeklv Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
SuSjccss .'Ehe Ekrcc Greatest
EhfnIs 10 U0."

TExT-"Ths people thu, do k~o,o their
Daniel XII, SO.
Antiochus Epiphanes, the old sinner, came
down three times with his army to desolats
the jews, advancing one time with hun.
dred and two trained elephants swinging
their trunks this way and that, and sixty,
two thousand infantry, and six thousand
cavalry troops, and they were driven back
Then the second time he advanced with sew,
enty thousand armed men and had been again
defeated. But the third time he laid success
full 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 il, and Popi-
Illus, one of the Roman ambassadors, took a
stair and made circle on the ground around
Antlochus EpiphaDes, and compelled him to
decide be ore re came out Of that circle;
wherepon he Ii ted the siege. Some of the
Jews had submitted to the invader, but some
OF them resisted va'orously, as did Eleazer,
when he had swine's flesh forced into his
mouth, spit it out, although he knew he must
die for it, and did die for it, and others, as
my teStsays, were enabled to do exploits.
An exploit l would define to be a heroic
pioNc icut, u STSdt dCnleNelleIt.
well" YOU say, II admire such things but
there is no chance for me; mine is a sort of
humdrum life If had,an Antochus Epiph-
anes to fight also could do exploits" You
are right so far as great wars are concerned.
There will probably be no opportunity to dis
tingush yourself in battle. The most
OF the hr!Sadier-aenerals of this country
wou never have been heard OF had
It rot been for the war General
Grant would have remained in the
useful work Of tanning hides at Galena, and
Stnnews' J'~kson would have continued the
qri' ce;' 60 professor in Virginia. And
N..t: er military talents you have will
probably lie dormant forever. Neither will
You probably become a great inventor
Nih..een hundred and ninety-nine out OF
every two thousand inventions found in the
patent Office OF Washington never yielded
their authors enough money to pay for the
expenses OF securing the patent. So you will
probably never be a Morse or an Edi-
son, or Humphrey Davy or an Eli
Whitney. There is not much probability
that you will be the one out Of the hundred
that achieves extraordinary success in COM
mercial or legal or medical or literary
spheres. What then! Can YOU have no op-
portunity to do exploitsl l am going to
show you to-day that there are three oppor-
tun ties open that are grand, thrilling, far
reaching, stupendous and overwhelming.
three of them, you may do exploits. The
three greatest things on earth to do are to
save man, or save q 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 precpice, or in some
other way comes near demolition. 1t may be
a financial, or moral, or domestic or a
social, or political exigency. You some-
times see it in 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 pres.
ence of judge and jury and lawyers.
He can be sent right on in the
wrong direction. He is feeling disgraced,
and he is almost desperate. Let the District
Attorney overhaul him as though he were an
old offender; let the ahlest attorneys at the
bar refuse to say word for him because he
cannot afford considerable fee; let tie
judge give no opportunity for presenting the
mitigating circumst ances, hurry up the case
and hustle him up to Auburn or Sing Sing.
If he liveseventy years. for seventy years he
will be a criminal and each decade
of his life will he blacker than
its predecessor. In the interreg-
NUNS of prison life he can get no
work, and he is glad to break window glass,
or blow up safe, or play the highwayman,
6S W SeU pdch dsulH Wllill0 Tile walls
Where he can get something 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
GENE and help him3 She is dead. Where
are all the amellorating and salutary in
fuences of society! They do not touch
him. Why did not some one long
there was an opportunity tcr tho exploit
which would be famous in heaven quadrill-
ion of years after the earth has become
scattered ashes in = ? laS+ whirlwind. Why
did not the District Attorney take that young
man into his private Office and say: my
son, l sec that you are the victim of circum-
stances. This is your first crime. You are
sorry. I will bring the person you
wronged into your presence and you
will apologize and make all the
PREPARATION you can, and | will give
you IN Their chance" Or the young man is
presented in the court room and he has no
friends present, and the judge SAYS "Who is
your counselM And he saws: 81 have none"
And the judge says: who will take this
young mans case" And there is a 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 would be enough
to secure the condemnation of inno-
ccence Itself. And the professional
hen'essneSs to rescue despair. when there
ought TO be struggle among all the pesU
men of the profession as to who should have
the honor of trying to help that unfortunate.
How much would such an attorney have re-
reived as his fee for such an advocacy:
Nothing in dollars. but much every way in
a happy consc BUSINESS that would make his
own life brighter and his own dying pillow
sweater and his own heaven happier-the
consciousness that he had saved mn!
So there are commercial exigences. A
very late spring obiiterates the demand for
spring overcoats and spring hats and sprins
apparel Of all sorts. Hundreds of thousands
Of people say: 'it seems we are going to
have no sprng and We shall go straight out
OF winter into warlD weather, ami we can
get along without the usual spring attire"
Or there is nv autumn weather, the beat
plunSlng into the d, and the usual cloth
ing, which is compromise between sum
mer and winter, is not required. 1t
makes q d ference in the sale of
millions and m lions of dollars OF goods, and
some oversanguine young merchant is
caught with vast amount of unstable
goods that never will be salable again ex-
cept at prices ruinously reduced That
young merchant with a somewhat limited
capital Is in 4 predicament. What shall the
Old merchants do as they see that young man
in this awful crisiss Rub their hands
anu IauSn ana say: "Good for him. He
might have known better. When he has
been in business as long as we have, be
will not load his she yes in that way. Hal
Hal He will burst up before long. He had
no business to open his store SO near to ours
anyhow" Sherff's sale! Red flag in the
window: How much is bid for these out
Of -the-fashfon spring overcoats and spring
hats or fall clothing out OF datel What DO /
hear in the way of a bid'" -Four dollars"
"Absnrd l cannot take that bid of four dol
lars. Why, these coats when first put upon the
market were offered at fifteen dollars each,
and now am offered only four dollars. Is
that alll Five dollars do heara Going at
that! Gone at five dollars and he takes the
whole lot. The young merchant goes home
That night and says to his wife: "Well, Mary,
we VIII have to move out of this house and
sell our piano. That old merchant that has
mad an evil eye on me ever since started
has bought out all the clothing, and he will
have 1t rejuvenated, and next year put it on
tine market as new, while we will do we'll il we
keep out of the poor-house The young man,
broken-snirited, goes to hard drinking. The
Young wrre with her baby goes to her fathers
mouse, and not only is his store wiped out.
nuo ms nome, his morals and his prospects
Tor two works, this and the next. And
devils make BANQUET Oh fire and fill their
cups OF g'-.l and drink deep to the health of
the o'd merchant who swallowed I'D the
young merchant who got stuck on spring
goods and went down. That is one way and