St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-09-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"Troub1e on Both Sides'' and How
TO Meet It.
The Financial and Domestic Trtbulations
Which Beset Mankind-The Cos.
pei of Jesus a Sure Bull
wark OF Defense.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for his
subject of a recent sermon: ''Trouble
on Both Sides" His text was:
There was sharp rock on the one side, and
sharp rock on the other side.-L Samuel,
xiv, d.
The cruel army Of the Philistines must
be taken and scattered. There Is just one
man, accompanied by his body guard, te
do that thing. Jonathan is the hero OF
the scene. I know that David cracked the
skull Of the giant with few pebbles we'll
glung, and that three hundred Gideon1tes
scattered ten thousand Amalekites by the
crash of broken crockery; but here Is
more wonderful conflict Yonder are the
Philistines on the rocks. Here is Jonathan
with his body guard in the valley. On
the one side is a rock called BoZez, on the
other side is rock called Seneh. These
two were as famous In olden times as in
modern times are Plymouth Rock and Gil
braltar They were precipitous, unscal-
able and sharp. Between these two rocks
Jonathan must make his ascent. The day
comes for the scaling of the height. JON
athan, on his hands and feet, begins the
ascent. With strain and slip and bruise,
I suppose, but still on and up, first goes
! Jonathan, and then goes his body guard,
,Bozez on one side, Seneh on the other.
After a sharp tug, and push,
and clinging, I see the head of
Jonathan above the hole in the
mountain; and there is a challenge, and
q fight, and a supernatural CONSERVATION.
These two men, Jonathan and his body
guard, drive back and drive down the
Philistines over the rocks, and open a
1xy1i oh tbo iac
of Israel. I suppose that the overhang-
ing and overshadowing rocks on either
side did not balk or dishearten Jonathan
or his body guard, but only reused and
filled them with enthusiasm as they went
up.
There was sharp rock on the one side, and
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 it He gathers all his energies,
concentrates them upon one point, and in
the strength of God, or by his own natur-
al determination, goes through 1t. 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
he might endure it, but two troubles, two
unes, are Bozez and Seneh. God pity him!
There IS a sharp rock on the one side, and
bharp rock on the other side.
In this crisis of the text is that man
whose fortune and health fail him at the
same time. Nine tenths of all our mer-
chants capsize in business before they
come forty-fve years of age. There is
some collision in commercial circles, and
kfoTy ctr mi
man must put his name on the back Of q
note before he learns what fool man
Is who risks all his own property on the
prospect that some man will tell the
truth. 1t seems as If man must have
large amount of unstable goods On his
own shelf before he learns how much
easier 1t is to buy than to sell. It seems
as If every man must be completely
burned ont before he learns the impor.
tance of always keeping fully insured.
It seems as If every man must be wrecked
In a financial tempest before he learns to
keep snug in case Of sudden eurocly-
don. When the calamity does come, it is
awful The man goes home in despair
and he tells his family:
''We'll have to go to the poor-house."
He takes dolorous view Of every
thing. 1t seems as If he never could rise.
But a little time passes and he says:
"Why, am not SO badly off after all; /
have my family left"
Before the Lord turned Adam out Of
Paradise he gave him Eve, so that when
he lost Paradise he could stand it. Per-
NIT one who has never read but few
novels in all his life, and who has not
great deal of romance in his composition,
to say, that if, when mans fortunes fail.
he has good wife-a good Christian wife
The ought not to be respondent.
"Oh, - you say, ''that only increases the
embarrassment, since you have her also
to take care Of"
You are an migrate, for the woman as
often supports the man as the man sup
ports the woman. TIE man may bring all
the 6bllars, but the woman generally
brings the courage and the faith in God
Yell, this man of whom I am speaking
looks around, and he finds his family is
left, and he rallies, and the light comes
to his eyes, 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 new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble
conquered it. He sat down for a little
while under the grim shadow Of the rock
Bozez; yet he soon rose and began, like
Jonathan, to climb. But how often it is
that physical ailment comes with financial
embarrassment. When the fortune
failed 1t broke the mans spirit. His
nerves, were shattered. His brain was
stunned. can show you hundreds of
men in New York whose fortune and
health failed at the same time. Their
hand trembled with incipient paralysis.
They never saw well day since the hour
when they called their creditors together
for a compromise. II such men are inn
patient, and peculiar, and irritable, ex-
cuse them. They had two troubles, either
one OF which they could have met sue
cessfully. II, when the health went, the
fortune had been retained, it would not
have been SO bad The man could have
bought the very best medical advice, and
he could have had the very best attend
ance, and long lines If carriages would
have stopped at the front door to inquire
as to his welfare. But poverty on the
one side, and sickness on the other, are
Bozez and Seneh, and they interlock their
shadows and drop them upon the poor
mans way. God help himi
There is q sharp rock on the one side and
RharT nock on the other side.
NJ sAAv11 at is sunI a man m dop Tn fba