Connecticut western news., 1893-12-21
FAINT YET PURSUING
GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS MADE UNDER NATURAL DISADVANTAGES.


 sermon It Nashville- His Picturesque
 Text Spiritual Encouragement For the
 Weak and Humble-A Breezy Discourse.
 NASHVILLE. Dec. 17.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage, who is now in this city on his western lecture tour, selected as his topic for today text full of spiritual encouragement for those who laboH der disadvantage in the struggle of life. The text chosen was Isaiah xxxiii, 23, .Thei lame take the prey"
 The utter demolition of the Assyrian host was here predicted. Not only TO- bust men should go forth and gather the spoils of conquest, but even men crip- pied of arm and crippled of foot should go out and capture much that was valu- able. Their physical disadvantages should not hinder their great enrich ment. So it has been in the past; so it is now; 30 it will be in the future. So it is in all departments. Men laboring up der seemingly great disadvantages and amid the most unfavorable circum- stances, yet making grand achievements, getting great blessing for themselves, great blessing for the world, great bless ing for the church, and so "the lame take the prey"
 CASES IN POINT.
 Do you know that the three great poets of the world were totally blind Homer, Ossian, John Milton? Do you know that Mir. Prescott, who wrote that enchanting book. 1.-The Conquest of Mex ico," never saw Mexico, could not even see the paper on which he was writing? A framework across the sheet, between which, up and down, went the pen inn mortal Do you know that Gambassio, the sculptor, could not see the marble before him or the chisel with which he cut it into shapes bewitching? Do you know that Alexander Pope, whose po- ems will last as long as the English lan- guage, was so much of an invalid that he had to be sewed up every morning in rough canvas in order to stand on his feet at all?
 Do you know that Stuart, the cele- brated painter, did much of his wonder full work under the shadow of the dun geon where he had been unjustly impris toned for debt? Do yon know that Demosthenes, by almost superhulnan ex- ertion, first had to conquer the lisp of his own speech before he conquered as- semblages with his eloquenceS Do you know that Bacon struggled all through innumerable sicknesses, and that Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott went limp ing on clubfoot 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 phys ical or their intellectual movement, and yet that they pushed on and pushed up un- til they reached the spells of worldly suc- cess, and amid the huzza of nations and centuries "the lame took the prey"
 You know that vast multitude of these men started under the disadvan- tage of obscure percentage Columbus, the son of the weaver; Ferguson, the as- tronomer, 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 directions, and I proceed to prove it.
 There are in all communities many in- valids. They never know well day. They adhere to their occupations, but they go panting along the streets with exhaustions, and at eventime they lie down on the lounge with achings beyond all medicaments. They have tried all prescriptions, they have gone through all the cures which were proclaimed in fal1ible, and they have come now to sur render to perpetual ailments. They con- slider they are among many disadvan- tages; and when they see those who are buoyant in health pass by, they almost envy their robust frames and easy respi- ration. N
 But have noticed among that inva- lid class those who have the greatest knowledge of the Bible, who are in near est intimacy with Jesus Christ, who have the most glowing experiences of the truth, who have had the most remarkable an- swers to prayer and who have most ex- hilarant anticipations of heaven. The temptations which weary us who are in robust health they have conquered.
 1.-THE LAME TAKE THE PREY"
 Many who are alert and athletic and swarthy loiter in the way-s'the lame take the prey" Robert Hall an invalid, Ed ward Payson an invalid, Richard Baxter an invalid, Samuel Rutherford an in- valid. This, morning, when you wantto call tonfid those who are most Christ like, you think of some darkened room in your fathers house from which there went forth an influence potent for eter- nifty. ,
 A step farther: Through raised letters 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, .lumbrous way of reading! God help the blindp'
 And yeti find among that class of per sons, among the blind, the deaf and the dumb, the most thorough acquaintance with Gods word. Shut out from all other sources of information, no sooner does their hand touch the raised letterS than they gather a prayer. Without 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 counte- nance, they declare the glory of God.
 A large audience assembled in New York at the anniversary of the Deaf and Dumb asylum, and one of the visitors with chalk on the blackboard wrote this question to the pupils, "Do you not find it very hard to be deaf and dunbr'' And one of the pupils took the chalk and wrote on the blackboard this sublime sentence in answer, "When the song of the angels shall burst upon. our enrap tured ear, we will scarce regret that our ears were never marred with earthly sounds" Oh, the brightest eyes in heaven will be those that never saw on earth. The ears most alert in heaven will be those that in this world heard