Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-24
THE GOOD YOU CAN DO.
Opportunities in Everyone's Life to
Accomplish Noble Deeds.
NOT on THE RED FIELDS OF GLORY,
But in the Humber Walks of Every Day
Life in Acts of Kindness.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE TALKS on EXPLOITS


Campmeeting Sunday at Ocean Grove
This year the attractions of its observance
have been enhanced by the presence of DIR
Talmage, who preached this afternoon in the
Auditorium. His text was Daniel ii: 81:
''The people that do know their God shall
be strong and do exploits"
Antochus Epiphancs the old sinner,
came down three timessvith his army to des-
olate the Israelites advancing one time with
102 trained elephants swinging their trunks
this way and that and o. 900 infantry, and
5000 cavalry troops, and they were driven
back. Then, the second time, he advanced
with 10000 armed men, and had been again
defeated But the third time he laid sue
ccssful siege until the navy of Rome came
in with the fash of their long banks of oars
and demanded that the siege be lifted
THE WORD EXPLOIT DEFINED.
And Antiochus Epiphanes said he wanted
time 10 consult with his friends about it,
and Popilius, one of the Roman embas-
sadors, took a staff and made circle on the
ground around Antiochus Epiphanes, and
compelled him TO decide before he came out
of that circle; wbereupon ne lifted the
siege. Seine of the Hebrews had submitted
to the invader, but some of them resisted
valorouSly, 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, did exploits.
An exploit ! would defnesto be heroic
act, a brave feat, a great achievement.
''Well, you sav, ''I admire such things,
hut rlora &c oho for ms .
sort of hum-drum life. If had an Antio-
chus Epiphanes to fight, also could do ex-
ploitS. You are right, so far as great wars
are concerned. There will probably be no
opportunity to distinguish yourself in bat
tie. The most of the Brigadier Generals of
this country would never have been heard of
had ii not been for the war
Neither will you probably become great
inventor. Nineteen hundred and ninety
nine out of every 900 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.
THE ENIGENCIES OF LIFE.
During the course of his life, almost
every man gets into an eXigency, is caught
between two fires, is ground between two
millstOnes, sits on the edge of some preci-
pice, or i'll some other way comes near de-
molition. 1t NAV be a financial or do
mestic or a social or political exigency.
You sometimes 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 pres
ence Of Judge and jury and lawyers He
can be sent right on in the wrong direc-
tion. He is feeling disgraced, and
he is. almost desperate. Let the
District Attorney overhaul him
as though he were an old offender, let the
ablest attorneys at the bar refuse to saw
word for him, because he cannot afford
considerable fee; let the Judge give no OPP
portunity for presenting the mitigating CIR
cUmstances, hurry up the case and hustle
him up to Auburn or Sing Sing If he lives
40 years for 30 years he will be a 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 window glass, or blow up
safe, or play the highwayman, so as to get
back within the walls where he can get
something to eat, and hide himself from the
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
fuences of society? They do not touch
him.
SOME OPPORTUNITIES LOST.
Why did not some one long ago in the
case understand that there was an oppor-
tunity for the exploit which would be fam
GUS in heaven a quadrillion of years after
the earth has become scattered ashes in the
last whirlwind? Why did not the District
Attorney take that young man into his
o4f, nd +1o-
you are the victim of circumstances. This
is your first crime. You are sorry. 1 will
bring the person you wronged into your
presence, and you will apologize and make
all the reparation you can, and | will give
you another chance"
Or that young man is presented in the
court room, and he has no friends present,
and the Judge says: "Who is your coun-
sel?'' And he answers: 81 have none"
And the Judge SAYS: ''Who will take this
Young mans case?" And there is dead
halt, and no one offers, and after a while
the Judge turns to some attorney who
never had a good case in all his life, and
never Will, and whose advocacy would be
enough TO secure the condemnation of
innocence itself And the professional in
competent crawls up beside the prisoner,
helplessness to rescue despair, when there
ought to be a 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 attorney have
received as his fee for such an advocacy?
Nothing in dollars, but much every wav in
happy consciousness that would make his
own life brighter, and his own dying pillow
sweeter. and his own heaven happier-the
Consciousness that he had saved a mani
PREDICAMENTs IN BUSINESS
So there are commercial exIgencies. A
very late spring obliterates the demand for
spring overcOats and spring hats aud spring
apparel of all sorts. Hundreds of thousands
Of people say: ''It seems we are going to
have no spriRg, and we shall 60 straight out
of winter into warm weather, and we can
get along without the usual spring attire"
The young merchant with a somewhat
limited capital is in predicament. What
shall the old merchants do as they see the
young man in this awful crisis? Rub their
hands and laugh and say: Good for him.
He might have known better. When he
has been in business as long as we have, he
will not load his shelves in that way. Ha!
Ha! He will burst up before long. He had
no business to open his store so near to ours
anyhow"
The young man, broken-spirited, goes to
hard drinking. The young wife, with her
baby, goes TO her fathers house, and not
only is his store wiped out, but his home,
his morals and his prospects for two worlds
this and the next. And devils make a
banquet of fire and fill their cups of gall and
drink deep to the health of the old merchant
who swallowed up the young merchant who