The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-08-26
GREAT EXPLOITS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sermon at Ocean
Grove Camp Meeting.
Three Great Opportunities Open to Every
one to Do Heroic Thing-Old and
Young, Rich and Poor, Have
at Least One Chance
to Do Exploits.


preached from the text, Daniel II, 80:
''The people that do know their God
shall be strong and do exploits" He
spoke as follows:
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, aud sixty-two thousand
infantry, and six thousand cavalry
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 fash Of
their long banks of oars and demanded
that the siege be lifted. Aud Antiochus
Epiphanes said he wanted time to con-
suit with his friends about 1t, and Popil-
ius, one of the Roman ambassadors,
took staff and made circle on the
ground around Antiochus Epiphanes,
aud compelled him to decide before he
he came out of that circle; whereupon
he lifted the siege. Some Of the He
brews 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 define to be
heroic act brave feat, great achieve
ment swell" you say, II admire such
things but there is no chance for me;
mine is sort of hum-drum life. If
had an Antiochus Epiphanes to fight,
also could do exploits" You are right,
80 far as great wars are concerned.
There will probably be no Opportunity
to distinguish yourself in battle. The
most of the brigadier generals of this
country would have never been heard
OF had It not been for the war.
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 orr an Edison
or a Humphrey Davis or an Eli Whit
ney. There is not much probability that
you will be the one ont Of the hundred
who achieves extraordinary success in
commercial or legal or medical or liter
aryspberes. What then? Can you have
no opportunity TO do exploits? / am
going to show that there are three OPP
portunities open that are grand, thrill
ing, far-reaching, stnpendous and over
whelming. They are before you now.
In'one, II not all three Of them, you may
do exploits The three greatest things
on earth to do are TO save man, orsave
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. II may be a
financial or n moral or a domestic or a
social or a political exigency. You
sometimes see II in court rooms. A
young man gets into bad company and
he has offended the law, and he is ar
raigned. 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 dis
graced aud 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 say
word for him, because he can not
afford considerable fee; let the Judge
give no opportunity for presenting the
mitigating circumstances, hurry up the
case, and hustle him up to Auburn or
Sing Sing II he lived seventy years,
for seventy years he will be criminal,
and each decade OF his life win be black
er than its predecessor. In the inter
regnums of prison life he can get no
work, and he is glad TO break awindow-
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 himp She is
dead Where are all the ameliorating
and salutary influences OF societyP
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 whirlwind2 Why did not the dis
trict attorney take that young man into
his private Office and say: my son, l
see that you are the victim Of circum-
stances. This is your first crime. You
are sorry. will bring the person you
wronged into your presence, and you
win apologize and make all the repara-
tion you can, and will give you an
other chance" Or that young man Is
presented in the court room, and he has
no friends present, and the judge says:
"Who Is your counsel2" And be says:
II have none" And the Judge says:
who viii take this young mans case2"
And there is dead halt, and no one
offers. and after while the Judge
turns 70 some attorney who never had a
good case all his life, and never win,
and whose advocacy would be enough
TO secure the condemnation OF inno-
cence itself. And the professional In
competent crawls up beside the pris-
oner, helpless TO rescue despair, when
there ought TO be struggle among