News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-10-04
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: Superfuities a Hinder
ance."


on each hand, and SiJ on each foot; and he
also tCGS the son Of the giant. Bat ICleR he
defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of ShimeG,
Ddrid'S brother, sLelO him. u. Chronicles
Xxx, ). 6 and Z.
Malformation photographed, and for what
reason! Did not this passage slip in by a
mistake into the Sacred Scriptures, as some
times a paragraph utterly obnoxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his alb
sence! Is not this ScriptuTal errata! No,
no; there is nothing haphaZard about the
bltle. This passage of Scripture was as GER
talnly intended to be put in the Bible as the
passage: I'm the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth, " or, "God so loved the
world that He gave his only begotten SON.
And / select it for my text to-day because it
Is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning.
By the people of God the Philistines had been
conquered, with the exception of few giants.
The race of giants is mostly extinct, am glad
to say. There is no use for giants now eX-
cept TO enlarge the income of museums. But
there were many of them in Oden times.
Goliath was, according to the Bible, eleven
feet, four and a half 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 forty-siX cubits long, or
sixty-nine feet high. So, whether
you prefer sacred or pTofane history, you
must come to the conclusion that there were
IN those oiden times cases of human altitude
monstrous and appalling. David had
smashed the skull of one of these giants, but
there were other giants that the Davidean
wars had not yet subdued, and one of them
stands in my text He was not only of
Alpine stature, but had surplus of digits.
To the ordinary fingers was annexed an
additional finger and the foot had also a
superiuous addendum. He had twenty
four examinations to hands and feet
where others have twenty. 1t was
not the only instance of the kind
Tayernier, the learned writer, says that the
Emperor of Java had a son endowed with
the same number of eEtremitieS. VolcatiuS,
the poet had six fingers on each hand Maui
petius in his celebrated letters speaks of two
families near Berlin, similarly equipped of
hand and foot All of which l can believe
Tor have seen two cases of the same phySi-
cal superabundance. But this giant of the
text Is in battle, and as David, the dwarf
warrior, had dispatched one giant the
brother OF David Stays this monster of
my text, and there he lies after the
battle in Gath, a dead giant. His stature
did not save him, and his SuperfluouS 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 his gait. Behold the PROSTATE and
maltormated giant of the text: "A man
great of stature, whose fingers and toes were
four and twenty. six on each hand, and six
giant. But when he defied Israel, Jonathan,
the son of Shimea, Davids brother slew
him :"
Behold how superfuities are hinderance
rather than help In all the battle at
Gath that day there was not 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 to run in families the
probability is that this brother of David
who did the work was of an abbreviated
stature. dwarf on the right side is
stronger than giant on the wrong side, and
all the body, aud mind. and estate, and oppor-
tunity that you cannot use for God and the
betterment of the world is a sixth finger
and sixth toe, and a terrific hinderance.
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 just five |
no more and no less One Doctor Duff |
among missionaries but three thousand mis- |
sionaries that would tell you they have only |
common endowment. One Florence Night |
ingale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places,
but ten thousand women who are Just as
good nurses though never heard of. The
Swamp Angel was big gun that during
the war made big noise but muskets of or
binary calbre and shells of ordinary
heft did the execution. President Tyler
and his cabinet go down the Potomac one
day to experiment with the Peacemaker, a
great iron gun that was to alright with its
thunuer Foreign naVleS. The gunner touches |
1t OFF and il explodes and leaves cabinet min
listers dead OF the deck, while at that time all |
up and down our coasts were cannon of ordi- |
nary bore able TO lie the defense of the nation, |
and ready at the first touch to waken to duty. |
Tie curse OF the world Is b z guns After
the politicians who have made all the noise |
go home hOarse from angry discussion on the |
evening of the first Monday in November, |
the next day the people with the silent ballots /
viii settle everything, and settle it right, a |
million of the white slips of paper they drop
making about as much noise as the fail of
an apple blossom.
Clear back in the country to-day there are
mothers in plain apron, and shoes fashioned
on rough last by ths shoemaker at the end
of the lane, rocking babies that are to be the
Martin Luthers, and the Faradays, and the
EdiSons. and the bismarcks, and the Glad
stones ami the Washin gtOns and the George |
WhitefeldE Of the year 1888, and who viii |
make the Goth century 50 bright that this
much lauded nineteenth in omparison will |
seem like tho dark ages. Tho longer
l live tho moro l like common
folks They do the worlds work bear
ing the worlds burdens, weeping the
worlds sympathies, carrying the worlds con-
ISOLATION Among lawyers we see rise up a
Rufus Choate, or William Writ, or a Sam
uel Southland, but society would go to pieces
tomorrow if there were not thousands of
common lawyers to see that men and women
get their rights. a Valentine Mott or a
Willard Parker rises up eminent in the medi-
cal profession, but what an unlimited
sweep would pneumonia, and diphtheria,
and scarlet fever, have in the world
II 1t were not for ton thousand
common doctors. The old e. ,ician in his
gig rolling up the lane of &c I.rmhouse, or
riding on horseback, his medicines in the
addle-bags, arriving on the ninth day of the
fever, and coming in TO take hold of the
pulse OF the patient, while the family, pale
with anxiety, are looking on and waiting for
his decision IN regard to the patient, and
hearing him say: Thank God, | have
mastered the case, he is getting we'll " excites
IN me an admiration quite equal to the men,
ton of the names of the great metropolitan
doctors, Pancoast or Gross, or Joseph c.
of the past, or the illustrious
living men of the present
Yet what do we see in all departments7
People not satisfied with ordinary spheres of
work and ordinary duties. Instead of try
ing TO see what they can do with a hand
OF five fingers they want six. Instead of
pedal addenda they want twenty-four A
certain amount of money fo- livelihood and
for the supply of those whom we leave be.
hind US after we have departed this life is
important, for we have the best authority
for saying: He that prOvideth not for his
own, and especially those of his own
household is worse than an infiiel"
but the large AMI fabulous sums for which
many struggle, if obtained would be a him
derance rather than an advantage. The
|
whose estates have become plethOric can only
be told by those who possess them. 1t will
be good thing when through your industry
and public properties you can own the
house in which you live. But suppose YOU
own fifty houses and you have all those rents
to collect and all those tenants to please
Suppose You have branched out
In business successes until in almost
every direction You have investments. |
The ire bell rings at night; you rush up
stairs to look out of the window to see if it is
in any of your mills. Epidemic of crime
comes and there are embellishments AMI alb
scondings in all directions, and You wonder
whether any of your bookkeepers will prove
A panic strikes the financial
world, and you are like hen un Ter sky |
full of hawks and trying with anxious cIuck
to get your Overgrown chickens safely under
wing. After a certain stage of sue
cess has been reached YOU have to trust
so many important things to others
that you are apt to become the prey OF
others, and you are swindled and defraudel.
and the anxiety you had on v1u- brow when |
you were earning your first thOus and dollars
is not equal to the anxiety on your brow now
that you have won your three hundred thou
sand. The trouble with such O1e is he is |
spread out ike the unfortunate one IN my |
text You have more fingers and toes than Won
know what to do with Twenty were useful
twenty four is a hindering suDerfuity Dis
raell says that King of Poland abdicated his
throne AMI joined the people and became a
porter to carry burdens. And some one
ASKED him why he did so and ne replied:
I. Upon my honor, gentlemen. the load which
quit is by far heavier than the one YOU see
me carry. The weightiest Is hut a straw
labored. I have slept more in four nights
than In We durinr all my raipn I bnriu IN |