New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-10-03
Superfluities A Hinder
anCe,
anCe
What DIR. Talmage had to Say on
Sunday About Giants and Other
Big Things.

Dig Things.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, September 23.-The Rev.
7. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached iii the
Brooklyn tabernacle this morning on the
subject, "Superfuities a hinderance." Sew
eEal ocean steamers arrive in port Sunday
mornings, and many of the passengers,
drowned by the sea, come directly from the
wharf to the Brooklyn tabernacle. The great
congregation led by Prof. Ali's cornet and
accompanied by the organ, at which Prof.
Browne presides, joined in the opening
hymn:
We are Thy people, we Thy care,
Our souls and all our mortal frame.
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker, to Thy name?
DR.. Talmage's text was: II Chronicles,
Chap. Xxx, V. 6 and 7.
A man of great stature, whose fingers and
toes we're four and twenty, six on each hand
and six on each foot; and he also was the son
OF the giant. But when he defied Israel,
Jonathan, the son ofShimea, David's brother,
slew him.
Malformation photographed and for what
reason? Did not this passage slip in by mis-
take into the sacred scriptures, as sometimes
a paragraph utterly obnoxious to the editor
gets INTO his newspaper during his absence?
Is not this scriptural error? No, no; there is
nothing haphazard about the Bible. This
passage of scripture was as certainly intended
TO be put in the Bible as the passage, SIN
the beginning God created the heavens and
the EARTH" or, "God SO loved the world that
He gave His only begotten son."
And l select it for my text today because
Et is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning. By the people of God the Philis-
tines had been conquered, with the exception
of few giants. The race of giants is mostly
extinct, | am glad to say. There is no use
'$or giants now except to enlarge the income
of museums. But there was many of them in
eoIden times. Goliath was, according to the
Bible, IL feet 312 inches high. Or, if you do
not believe the Bible, the famous Pliny, a
secular writer, declares that at Crete by an
earthquake a monument was broken open,
discovering the remains of a giant 46 cubits
long, Or 80 feet high So, whether you prefer
sacred or profane history, you must come to
the conclusion that there were in those
solden times cases of human altitude mon
gtrous and appalling. David had smashed
the skull Of one of these giants, but there
were Other giants that these Dayidean wars
had not get subdued, and one of them stands
I'm my text. He was not only of Alpine
stature, but had surplus of digits. TO the
ordinary fingers was annexed an additional
ginger, and the foot had also superfuous
,eddendum. He had "a examinations to
hands and feet where others have 20, it was
not the only instance of the kind. Tavernier,
the learned writer, says that the Emperor
OF Java had O son endowed with the same
number of extremities. Volcatius, the
poet, had six fingers on each hand.
Maupetius in his celebrated letters speaks
of two families near Berlin similarly
equipped on both hand and foot All of
which | can believe, for have seen two cases
of the same physical superabundance. But
this giant OF the text is in battle, and as
David, the dwarf warrior, had dispatched
one giant the brother of David, always this
monster ofmy text, and there he lies after
the battle in Gath, dead giant His stature
did not save him and his superfuous appen-
dices of hand and foot did not save him. The
probability was that in the battle his sixth
finger on his hand made him clumsy in the use
of his weapon, and his sixth toe crippled has
gait. Behold the PROSTATE and malformed
giant of the text: ga man great of stature,
whose fingers and toes were four and twenty,
elk on each hand, and six on each foot; and
he also was the son of the giant. But when
he defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea,
.Davids brot.er, slew him.
Behold how superfuities are a hinderance
rather than help! In all the battle at Gath
that day there was not a man with ordinary
hand and ordinary foot and ordinary stature
that was not better off than this physical
curiosity of my text. AS physical size is apt
20 run in families, the probability is that
this brother of David, who did the work, was
of an abbreviated stature. A dwarf on the
right side is stronger than a giant on the
wrong side, and all the body, and mind and
estate, and opportunity that you cannot use
for God and the betterment of the world is a
sixth finger and a sixth toe, and terrific
hindrance. The most of the good done in
the world, and the most of those who win the
battles for the right are ordinary people,
Count the fingers Of their right hand and
they have five, no more and no less. One DR..
Duff among missionaries. but 5000 mission
aries that would tell you they have only
common endowment. One Florence Night
eangale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places,
but 10000 who are just as good nurses
though never heard Of The Swamp Angel
was big gun that during the war made a
big noise, but muskets of ordinary calibre
and shells of ordinary heft did
the execution. President Tyler
end his cabinet go down the Potomac one
day to experiment with the Peacemaker, a
great iron gun that was to alright with it's
thunder, foreign natives. The gunner
touches it off and it explodes and leaves
cabinet ministers dead on the deck, while at
that time all up and down our coasts were
cannon of ordinary bore able to be the de
sfeuse of the nation, and ready at the first
touch to awaken to duty The curse of the
world is big guns After the politicians who
have made all the noise so home hoarse
Grom angry discussion on the evening Of the
rGrst Monday in November, the next7day the
people with the silent ballots will settle
everything and settle it right, million OF
the white slips paper they drop making
aJsF,IIf .Sc foil of
blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers in plain apron, and shoes on a rough
last by the shoemaker at the lane, rocking
babies that are to be the Martin Luthers,
and the Faradays. and the Edisons, and the
Basmarks, and the Gladstones and the
Washingstons, and the George Whitefelds,
of the year 1888 and who will make the
twentieth century SO bright that this much
&landed nineteenth in comparison will seem a
part of the dark ages. The longer live the
more l like common folks. They do the
worlds work, bearing the worlds burdens,
weeping the worlds sympathies, carrying the
the world'sconsolation. Among lawyers we
see rise up Rufus Chote, or William Vert,
cor q Samuel u. Southland, but society would
GO to pieces tomorrow if there were
not thousands of common lawyers to
see that men and woman crat