The Brookhaven leader., 1888-10-18
TALNAGE'S SERMON.
a Discourse on "The Three Great
est Things to Do"
TIE ENigencics Of Life and the Way TO
Meet Nhem-Salvation Must Come
in Gods Own Way, Not by -
the Ways of Man.


Greatest Things to Do" His text wac:
Tho people that 10 know their cod sh oil be
strong and do exploits. IDap.tl. XII. b.
AnhOchus Epiphares, the old sinner,
came down three times with his army
20 desolate the jews, advancing one time
with one hundred and two trained ele-
phants, swinging their trunks this way
ana that and siXty-two thousand In =
fantry, and six thousand cavalry troops,
md they were driven back. Then, the
second time, he advanced with seventy
thouS and armed men, and had been
again defeated. But the third time he
laid successful siege until the navy of
Rome came in with the fash of their long
banks @! onrs, and demanded that the
siege DO lifted AID Autiochus Epip-
hanes sand he wanted time to consult
with his friends about il, aud Popil lus,
one OF the Roman ambassadors,
took n staff and made circle on the
ground around Antiocus Epiphanes, and
compelled him TO decide before he came
out Ut that circle, wLereupan he lifted
the siege. Some Of the Jews had sub
mitted To the invader, but some Of them
resisted valoroUsly, rs did Eleazer when
he hal >wine's flesh forced into his
mouth, spit Il out, although he knew he
must die for it. and did dio for it, and
others, Us my text shows, were enabled ~
do exploits.
An exploit l would define 70 be heroic
act, brave feat q great achievement.
well You say, ii admire such things,
but there Is no chance for me; mine is q
sort q hAmlrum life. II had an An
tiochus EpiphaucS to fight | also could
do exploits" You are right 30 far as
probably be no opportunity to dis tiugui>h
yourself in battle. The most of the
Brig1iiAr Generals of this country would
never have been heard Of had it not been
FOR the war. General Grant would have
renamed in the useful work of tanning
hides at Galena, and Stonewall Jackson
would have continued the quiet college
professor in Virginia Aud whatever
military talents you have Will probably
lie dormant forever. Neither will you
probably become great inventor. Nine
teen hundred and ninety nine ont ofievery
two thousand inventions found in the
Patent Office at Washington never yield
ed their authors enough money to pay for
the expenses Of securing the patent. So
you will probably never be q Morse, or an
Edison, or q Humphrey Davy, or an Fl
Whitney. There is not much probability
that you will be the one out Of the hum
dred that achieves extraordinary success
in commercially or legal, or medical, or
literary spheres. What then! Can you
have no opportunity to do exploits? l am
going to show you to-day that there are
three opportunities open that are grand,
thrilling, far reaching, stupendous and
overwhe Inning. 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
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 miIlstones, sits on the edge of
some precipice, or in some other way
comes near demolition. 1t may be fin
ancial, or a moral, or g domestic, or a.
social, or political exigency. You sonnet
times see it in court rooms. A young man
has got into bad company and he has Of
Tended the law, and he is arraigned. All
bluShing and confused he Is in the pres
ence Of judge and jury and lawyers. He
can be sent right on in the wrong direc-
ton. He is feeling disgraced, and he is
almost desperate Let the district -attOr-
ney overhaul him as though he were an
old offender, let the ablest attorneys at
the bar refuse to say word for him be-
cause he can not afford a considerable
fee, let the Judge give no opportunity for
presenting the mitigating circum-
stances, hurry up the case and
hustle him up to Auburn or Sing Sing.
II he lives for seventy years he will
still be criminal, and each decade Of
his life will be blacker than its predeces-
sOr. In the interregnums Of prison life
he can get no work, and he is glad to
break window glass, or blow up a safe,
or play the highwayman, 50 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 him? His
father is dead. Why don't his mother
come and help him? She is dead. Where
are all the ameliorating and salutary in
duences 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 becom 9
scattered ashes in the last whirl-
wind? Why did not the district attOr-
ney take that young man into his private
office and say, "My son, l see tha
you are the victim of circumstances. This
is your first crime. You are sorry. l will
bring the person you wrOnged into your
presence and you will apologize and make
all the roparatiOn you can, and | will give
you another chance" or that young man
is presented in the court room and he h as
no friends present, and the judge says:
'Who is your counsel%" And he answers
al have none" And the judge says:
''Who will take this young mans caseD'
And there is q dead halt, and no one
offers, and after awhile the judge turns
to some attorney who never had good
case in all his lite and never will, and
whose advocacy would be enough to Sc
cure the condemnation of innocence
itself. Aud the professional competent
crawls up beside the prisoner, helpless
ness to rescue despair, when there ought
to be struggle among all the best men
of the profession as to who should have
the honor of trying to help that un-
fortunate. How much would such an at.
torney have received as his fee for such
an advocacy: Nothing in dollars,
but much every way in a happy con
seriousness that would make his own life
brighter, and his own dying pillow sweet
er, AMI his own Heaven brighter-the
consciousness that lie had saved man.
So there are commercial exigencies. A
very late spring obliterates the demand
for spring Overcoats and spring hats and
spring apparel of all sorts. Hundreds OF
Thousands of people say: at seems we
are going 10 have no spring aud we shall
go straight out of winter into warm
weather, and we can get along without the
Us ual spring attire" Or there is no au-