The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-12
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
REV. T. De WITT TALMAGE'S DIS
COURSE LAST SUNDAY MORNING.

REV. T. De WITT TALMA0E'9 DIS
COURSE LAST SUNDAY MORNING.
The Three Greatest Things to DO-AlmOst
Every Man and Woman Il Some Time
Near neutrality-suspicious. for Eek.
pioits
BROOKLYN, Oct. Z. Although no
building has been large enough to hold
the audiences attracted by the Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., in any part Of
this country or Great Britain for the last
twenty years, the throngs in and around
the Brooklyn Tabernacle seem to be in
creasing as the years 60 by. The OPEN
ing hymns this morning were heartily
sung by the congregation. DR.. Talmage
chose for his subject: "The Three Great
est Things to Do" His text was Daniel
ii, 80: "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 hundred and two trained ele-
plants, swinging their trunks this way
and that, and sixty-two thousand in
fantry and six thousand 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 Anti
ochus Epiphanes said he wanted time
to consult with his friends about it, and
Popilius, one of the Roman ambassadors,
took a 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 SUBJ
mitted to the invader, but some of them
resisted vigorously, 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 text says, were enabled to
do exploits.
An exploit I would define to be
heroic act, brave feat, great achieve
ment. ''Well," you say, II admire such
things, but there is no chance for me;
mine is a sort of humurum life. If l
had an Antiochus Epiphanes to fight I also
could do exploits" You are right so far
as great wars are concerned. There will
probably be no opportunity to distinguish
yourself in battle. The most of the brig
adler generals in this country would
never have been heard of had it not
been for the war. General Grant would
have remained in the useful work of tan
ming hides at Galena, and Stonewall
Jackson would have continued the quiet
college professor in Virginia. And what
ever military talents you have will prob
ably lie dormant forever. Neither will
you probably become a great inventor.
Nineteen hundred and ninety nine out Of
every two thousand inventions found in
the patent office at Washington never
yielded their authors enough money to
pay for the expenses of securing the
patent. So you will probably never be
Morse or an Edison, or a 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
opportunity to do exploits? I am going
to show you today that there are three
opportunities open that are grand, thrill
ing, far reaching, stupendous and over
whelming. They are before you now.
In one, if not all three of them, you may
do exploits. The three greatest things
on earth to do are to save man, or save
a woman, or save child.
During the course Of his life almost
every man gets into an exigency, is
caught between two fires, is ground be-
tween two millstones, sits on the edge of
some precipice, or in some other way
comes near demolition. 1t may be
financial or moral or domestic or
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 blushing and confused, he is in the
presence Of judge and jury and lawyers.
He can be sent right on in the wrong
direction. Heis feeling disgraced, and he
is almost desperate. Let the district at
torney overhaul him as though he were
an old offender, let the ablest attorneys
at the bar refuse to say word for him
because he cannot afford a considerable
fee, let the judge give no opportunity for
presenting the mitigating circumstances,
hurry up the case and hustle him up to
Auburn or Sing Sing. If he live seventy
years, for seventy years he will be
criminal, and each decade of his life will
be blacker than its predecessor. In the
interregnums of prison life he can get
no work, and he is glad to
break a window glass or blow
up safe, or play the highwayman, 80 as
to get back again within the 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 himp
His father is dead. Why don't his mother
come and help him9 She is dead. Where
are all the ameliorating and salutary in
Auences of society," They do not touch
him. Why did not some one long ago
in the case understand that there was an
opportunity for the exploit which would
be famous in heaven quadrillion of years
after the earth has become scattered