The Princeton union., 1891-09-03
E EXPLOITS.
DR.. Talmage Says Their Performance
Is Open to All, and Their
4. Reward Sure.
The Exigencies Of Life He Says
Makes Their Performance
Possible.

camp meeting Sunday at Ocean
Grove. It's celebration is always re-
garded as the great event OF the
year at this famous religious water
ing place This year the attractions
OF it's observance have been enhanced
by the presence Of DR.. Talmage, who
preached in the Auditorium. Every
seat was filled and every inch OF
standing room in the isle was occu-
pied, and the greatest enthusiasm pre-
vailed. 1t is estimated that fully
Is, 900 persons were able to hear the
Doctor, and many others were de-
prived of that privilege. His text
was Daniel xi., 80: '"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 1O2 trained elephants,
swinging their trunks this way and
that, and $4,000 infantry, and six
thousand cavalry troops, and 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 flash of their long
banks Of oars and demanded that the
siege be lifted. And Antiochus Epiph-
anes said that he wanted time to con-
suit with his friends about it, and
Popilius, one Of the Roman embassa-
dors, took a staff and made 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 to the
invader, but some OF them resisted
valorously, as did Eleazer when he
had swine flesh forced into his mouth,
spit it out, although he knew he must
die for it, and did die for it; and 9TH
ers, as my text says, did exploits.
AN EXPLOIT WOULD DEFINE
to be a heroic act, a. brave feat, a
great achievement. 'sWell," you say,
b II admire such things, but there is no
chance for me; mine is sort Of hum
drum life. II I 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 dis
tlnguish yourself in BATTLE The
most of the brigadier- generals of this
country would never have been heard
Of had itnot been for the war.
Neither will you probably become a
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 a Morse or an 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
commercial Or legal or medical or
literary spheres. What then? Can
you have no opportunity to do
exploits? I 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 may do exploits.
The three greatest things on earth to
90 are to save a man, or save a
woman, or save q child.
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 precipice, or in. some
other way comes near demolition. 1t
may be a financial or moral or a
domestic or a social.
.a .I OR A POLITICAL EFFICIENCY.
You sometimes see it in court rooms.
A young man has got into bad COM
pany 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 al
most desperate. Let the district at
torney overhaul him as if he were an
old offender, let the ablest ATTORNEYS
at the bar refuse to say word for
him, because he cannot afford a con-
siderable fee; let the Judge give no op-
portunity for presenting the mitigat-
ing circumstances, hurry up the case,
and hustle him to Aburn or Sing Sing.
If he lives 70 years, for 70 years he
will be q criminal, and each decade of
his life will be blacker than it's prede-
cessor. In the interregnums OF prison
life he can get no work, and he is glad
to- break q windoW-glass, or blow up
a 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 saluatary 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 a quadrillion Of years after
the earth has become scattered ashes
in the last whirlwind7 Why did not
4hn 81, o44 A. - Ii -