The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-29
WINNING THE BATTLE.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Triumphs Of Men.
The Physicaliy and Mentally AFFLICTED
Who Get Closer to Christ Than
Others-Ths Piety Of the Poor
Getting to Heaven.

Others-The Piety OF the Poor
Getting to Heaven.
In late sermon at Nashville, Tenn.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage selected as
his topic text full of spiritual encour.
agement for those who labor under dis
advantage in the struggle of life. The
text was from Isaiah xxxiii %: 'The
lame take the prey" The noted preach
er said:
The utter demolition of the Assyrian
host was here predicted. Not only 70
bust men should go forth and gather
the spoils of conquest, but even men
crippled of arm and crippled of foot
should go out and capture much that
was valuable. Their physical disad.
vantages should not hinder their great
enrichment So it has been in the past,
so it is now, so it will be in the future.
So it is in all departments Men labor
ing under seemingly great disad-
vantages and amid the most unfavora-
BILE circumstances, yet making grand
achievements, getting great blessing
for themselves, great blessing for the
world, great blessing for the church,
and so 'the lame take the prey"
Do you know that the three great
poets of the world were totally blind?
Homer, Ossian, John Milton. Do you
know that Mr.. Prescott, who wrote
that enchanting book, "The Conquest
of Mexico" never saw Mexico. could
not even see the paper on which he was
writing? Do you know that Gambas-
sio. the sculptor, could not see the mar
BILE before him or the chisel with which
he cut it into shapes bewitching? Do
you know that Alexander Pope, whose
poems will last as long as the English
that he had to be sewed up every morn
ing in rough canvas in order to stand on
his feet at all? Do you know that
Stuart, the celebrated painter, did much
of his wonderful work under the shad-
ow of the dungeon where he had been
unjustly imprisoned for debt? Do you
know that Demosthenes, by almost
superhuman exer ton, had to conquer
the lisp of his own speech before he
conquered assemblages by his elo-
quence? Do you know that Bacon
struggled all through innumerable
sicknesses, and that Lord Byron and
Sir Walter Scott went limping club
foot through all their life, and that
many of the great poets and painters
and orators and historians and heroes
of the world had something to keep
them back, and pull them down, and
impede their way, and cripple their
physical or their intellectual movement,
and yet that they pushed on and pushed
up until they reached the spoils of
worldly success, and amid the huzzah
of nations and centuries ''the lame
took the prey?"
You know that a vast multitude of
these men started under the disadvan-
tage of obscure parentage. Columbus,
the SON of the weaver. Ferguson, the
astronomer, the son of the shepherd.
America, the prey of the one; worlds
on worlds the prey of the other. But
what is true in secular directions is
more true in spiritual and religious d.
rections, and proceed to prove it.
There are in all communities many
invalids- They never know a well day.
They adhere to their occupations, but
the go painting along the streets with
and at eventide they lie
down on the lounge with aching be-
yond all medicaments.
But / have noticed among that inva-
lid class those who have the greatest
of the Bible, who are in
nearest intimacy with Jesus Christ,
who have the most glowing experiences
markable answers to prayer, and who
have most exhilarant anticipations of
Heaven. The temptations which weary
us who are in robust health they have
Many who are alert and athletic and
swarthy loiter in the way-the lame
take the prey. Robert Hall an inva-
lid, Edward Payson an invalid, Rich
ard Baxter an invalid, Samuel Ruther-
ford an invalid. This morning, when
you want to call to mind those who are
most Christlike. you think of some
darkened room in your fathers house
from which there went forth an inhu-
ence potent for eternity.
A step farther: Through raised let
ters the art of printing has been
brought to the attention of the blind.
You take up the Bible for the blind,
and you close your eyes and you run
your fingers over the raised letters,
and you say: ''Why, never could get
any information in this way. What
slow, Humorous way of reading! God
help the blind!
And yet 1 find among that class of
persons, among the blind, the deaf and
the dumb, the most thorough acquaint-
ance with Gods word. Shut out from
all other sources of information, no
sooner does their hand touch the raised
letter than they gather prayer.
eyes, they look off upon
the kingdoms of Gods love. Without
hearing, they catch the minstrelsy of
the skies. Dumb, yet with pencil, or
with irradiated countenance, they de-
clare the glory of God.
A large audience assembled in New
York at the anniversary of the deaf
md dumb asylum, and one of the visit
,rs with chalk on the blackboard wrote
his question to the pupils: do you
ind it very hard to be deaf and dumb?"
And one of the pupils took the chalk
md wrote on the black board this sub
ime sentence in answer: "When the
'ong of the angels shall burst upon our
ear. we will scarce regret
hat our ears were never married with
earthly sounds"
A lad who had been blind from in
ancy was cured. The oculist operated
ipon the lad, and then put a very