Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-08-28
CHANCE FOR EXPLOITS.
SUNDAY AT
OCEAN GROVE
Affords Dr. Talmage an Opportunity TO
Preach 90 $4,000 PeOpIe--Pathcttc
stories Taken from Lire-iniersst-
ing and Eloquent Discourse.

garded as the great event of the year
at this famous religious watering
place. This year the attractions OF its
o servance have been enhanced by the
presence of DR.. Ialmage, who preach
ed this afternoon in the Auditorium.
Every seas was filed and every inch OF
standing room in the aisles was occu-
pied, and the greatest enthusiasm pre-
val ell. II is estimated that fully If
teen thousand persons were able To
hear the doctor, and many others
were deprived OF that privilege.
His text was Daniel 1852
1.-The people that do know their
God shall he strong and do exploits.
Antiochus Eliphanes, the old sinner,
came down with his army to desolate
the Israelites, ADJ ancing one time with
lO2 trained elephants, swinging their
trunks tins way and that, and $4,000
infantry, and u, 900 cavalry troops, and
they were driven back. Then, the second
time he anced with 10000
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 Epiph-
anes said he wanted time to consult
with his friends about it, and Pop
illus, one of the Roman embassa-
doris, took staff and made n
circle on the ground around Antiochus
Epiphanes, and compelled him TO de-
eide before he came out of that circle;
whereupon he lifted the siege. Some
OF the Hebrews had submitted the
invader, but some of them resisted VII
orously. as did Eleazer when he had
swine S flesh forced into his mouth,
spit 1t ont, although he knew he must
die for it, ank did die for it, and others,
as my text says, did exploits.
An exploit i would define to be a
heroic ACT, brave feat, great achieve
ment. "Well," you say, IL admire
such things. but there is no chance for
me; mine is a sort of hum-drum life.
If | had an Antiochus Epiphanes to
fight, i also could do exploits You
are right, so Tar as great wars are con-
cerned. There will probably be no
opportunity to distinguish yourself in
battle. The most or the brigadier-
generals of this country would never
have been heard of had it not been
for the war
Neither will you probably become a
great inventor Nineteen hundred and
ninety-nine out of every 1000 inven-
tions 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 lie Morse, or
and Edison, or a Humphrey Davy,
or an Eli Whitney. There is
not much probability that you
will be the one out of the hundred who
achieves extraordinary success in com
rnercial or legal CT medical or literary
spheres. What then? Can you have no
opportunity TO do exploits? l am going
to show that there are three opportun-
tiles open that are grand, thrilling, far
reaching, stupendous, and overwhelm-
ing. 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 a man, or save
woman, or save a child.
During the course of his life, almost
every man gets into an eXigencv, is
caught between two fires, is ground be-
tween two milLtones, sits on the edge
of some precipice, or in some other way
comes near demolition. 1t may be a
financial or q moral or a domestic or q
social or a political exigency. You
sometimes see it N court rooms. A
young man has got into bad company
and ne has offended the law, and he is
arraigned. All bluShing and confused,
he is in the presence of judge and jury
and lawyers. lie can be sent right on
in the wrong direction. He is feeling
disgraced, and he is almost desperate.
Let the Di trict Attorney overhaul him
as though he were an old offender, let
the ablest attorneys at the bar refuse to
say a word for him, because he cannot
afford considerable fee; let the Judge
give no opportunity for presenting the
mitigating circumstances, hurry up the
case, and hustle them up to Auburn or
Sing Sing. II he live seventy years, for
seventy years he will be criminal,
and each decade of his life will be
blacker than it's predecessor. In the
interregnums of prison life he can get
no work, and he is glau to break
windowglass, or blow up safe, or
play the highway-man, 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 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 ameliorat-
ing and salutary influe noes 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 ex-
plot which WOULD be famous 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
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 m Ike all the reparation
you can, and will give you another
chance" coz that young man is pre-
sen,ed in the courtroom, and he has
no friends present, and the judge says:
"Who is your counsel?" And ne ans-
wers: II have none" And the
judge says: "Who viii lake this
young mans case?" And there is
dead halt, and no one offers, and after
a while the judge turns TO some attor-
ney, who never had a good case in all
his life and never will, and whose adj
vccacy would he enough to
secure the condemnation of in
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