News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-08-27
GREAT EXPLOITS FOR Us.
Or. TALkiAGE POINTS OUT WHAT
WE MAY DO.


A Deed of Greater Worth than Leading
an Army to Victory in Battle Is the
Leading of a Human Soul to God.
OCEAN GROVE, N. j., Aug. 23.-This
is camp meeting Sunday at Ocean
Grove. Its celebration is always re-
garded as the great event of the year at
this famous religious watering place.
This year the attractions of its observ-
ance have been enhanced by the pres
ence of DIR. Talmage, who preached
this afternoon in the Auditorium. Every
seat was filed and every inch of stand
ing room in the aisles was occupied,
and the greatest enthusiasm prevailed.
1t is estimated that fully fifteen thou
sand persons were able to hear the doc
tor, and many others were deprived of
that privilege. His text was Daniel xi,
80, 1.-THE people that do know their
God shall be strong and do exploits.
Antiochus Epiphanes, the old sinner,
came down three times with his army
to desolate the Israelites, advancing
one time with a hundred and two
trained elephants, swinging their trunks
this way and that, and sixty-two thou
sand infantry, and six thousand calvary
troops, and they were driven back.
Then, the second time, he advanced
with seventy thousand armed men, and
had been again defeated. But the
third time he laid successful siege until
the navy of Rome came in with the
flash of their long banks of oars and
demanded that the siege be lifted.
And Antiochus Epiphanes said he
wanted time to consult with his friends
about 1t, and Popilius, one of the Ro-
man ambassadors, took a staff and
made circle on the ground around
Antiochus Epiphanes, and compelled
him to decide before he came out of
that circle, whereupon he lifted the
siege. Some of the Hebrews had sub
mitted to the invader, but some of
them resisted vigorously, 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 define to be an he
role act, brave feat, a great achieve
ment "Well," you say, II admire
such things, but there is no chance for
me; mine is sort of humdrum life. If
l had an Antiochus Epiphanes to fight
i also could do exploits" You are
right, SO far as great wars are concerned.
There will probably be no opportunity
to distinguish yourself in battle The
most of the bfigadier generals of this
country would never have been heard
of had it not been for the war.
THREE GRAND OPPORTUNITIES.
Neither will you probably become
great inventor. Nineteen hundred and
ninety-nine out of every two thousand
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 Edi-
son or a Humphrey Davy or an Eli
Whitney. There is not much probable
ity that you will be the one out of the
hundred who achieves extraordinary
success in commercial or legal or medical
or literary spheres. What then9 Can
you have no opportunity to do exploitsl
am going to show that there are three
opportunities open that are grand,
thrilling, far reaching, stupendous, and
Overwhelming. They are before you
now. In one, if not all three of them,
-you-n7sr rfU err rJfUfrs-- The three great-
est things on earth TO do are to save a
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 millstones, sits on the edge
of some precipice or In some other way
comes near demolition. 1t may be a
financial or u moral or a domestic or
social or u political exigency You
sometimes see it In courtrooms 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 presence of judge and jury
and lawyers. He can be sent right on
in the wrong direction. 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 re-
fuse to say word for him, because he
cannot afford a considerable fee; let the
judge give no opportunity for present
ing the mitigating circumstances, hur-
ry up the case, and hustle him up to
Auburn OF Sing Sing. If he live seven
ty years, for seventy years he will be a
criminal, and each decade of his life
will be-hiacker than It's predecessor. In
the fnterregnums Of prison life he can
get no work, and he Is glad 30 break a
window glass, or blow up a safe or
play the highwayman, 50 as to get back
within the walls where he can get
something to eat and hide himself from
the gaze of the world
HOPELESS oUTCAST.
Why don't his father come. and help
him2 His father is dead. Why don't
his mother come and help him2 She is
dead. Where are all the ameliorating
and salutaE influences of society?
They do not touch him Why did not
some one long ago In the case under
stand that there was an opportunity
for the exploit which would be famous
in heaven quadrillion of years after
the earth has become scattered ashes
in the last whirlwind2
Why did not the district attorney
take that young man into his private
Office and say: MY son, see that you
are the victim of circumstances This
is your first crime. You are sorry.
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 |
courtroom. and ne has no friends pres
ent, and the judge says, who is your
counselT And he answers, II have
none" And the judge says, ''Who will
take this young mans case"
And there is dead halt, and no one |
offers, and after awhile the Judge turns |
to some attorney who never had 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 incompe-
tent crawls up beside the prisoner,
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 unfortunate. How much
would such an attorney have received