The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-12-19
WHAT THE LAME DO.
As IT IS WRITTEN IN ISAIAH, THEY
TAKE THE PREY.
DR.. Taimage Points Out Many Instances
Where tho Blind and the Halt
Have Made Great Success.

CouFdSeineht Tor tiiCSe VINO laDoI uiueh
disadvantage in the struggle of life. The
text chosen was Isaiah XXXiii :23. 'The lame
take the prey
The utter demolition of the Assyrlan most
was here predicted. Not only robust men
should go forth and gather the spolls Oh
conquest, but even men crippled of arm
and crippled of foot should go out ana
capture much that was valuable. Their
physical disadvantages should not hihder
their great enrichment. So it has been in
the past. SO it is now, SO it will be III the
future. So it is in all departments. Men
laboring under seemingly great diSadNdn-
tageS,' ana amid the most unfdVofdpie Gil
cumstances, Yet making grand achieVe-
mentS, getting great blessings ior thehi-
selves, great blessings for the world, great
blessings for the church, ana SO the iaiAe
take The prey
Do you know that the three great poets
of the world We're totally blind! Homer,
Ossian, John Milton. Do you know that
Mr.. Prescott, VINO wrote the encEdntiis
book, The Conquest Of Mexico, never
saw Mexico couid not even see the paper
on which he was writing? n framework
across the sheet, between which, UP ana
down. went The pen immortal. DO you
know that CiambaSSio, the sculptor, could
not see the marble before him, or the chlSei
with which he cut 1t into shapes beWitch-
ing? Do you know that Alexander Pope,
whose poems viii last as long as the Eng
lish language was so much of an Invalid
that he had TO be SeUed up every morning
in roUgll canvas, in order to stand on has
feet at all?
DO YOU know that Stuart, the celebrated
paintar. did much of his wonderful work
under ,he shadow Of the dungeon where he
had been unjustly imprisoned for debt? DO
YOU know that Demosthenes by almost ST.
perhuinan eXerti0n. first had to conquer the
- = before
assembI9RCs with his clo4uence" DO you
know thai Bacon struggled all through in
nunlCra BE s;ckneS SeS, and that Lord Byron
and Sir Waiter Scott went linping on club
foot through all their life, ana 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
OF worldly success, and amid the huzZa of
nations and centuries. tine lame took the
prey"
You know that vast multitude OF these
men started under the disadvantages of OBJ
ECure parcntage. Columbus, the son of the
weaver; Ferguson, the astronomer, the son
OF the shepherd. America the prey of the
one; worlds on Wort IS the prey of the other.
ut what is true in secular directions is
more true in spiritual ami religious direc-
tionS, and l proceed to prove it.
There are in all communities many inval-
ids. They never know well day. They
adhere TO their occupations. but they so
painting 2loGG the streets with exhaustioDs
and a. evCutime they lie down on the
lounge with achnss beyond all medical
TacHts. Iucy have tried all prescriptions
they have gone through all the cures which
were proclaimed infallihie, and they have
come now to surrender to perpetual all
ments. They consider they are among
,
e vino are buoyant in health pass by.
Almost envy their robust frames and
~ respiration.
i}Gt / have noticed among that invalid
class those Wlo have the greatest knoWl-
edge of the Bible who are in nearest intl-
macy with Jesus Christ, who have the
most glowing experiences of the truth, who
have had the most remarkable answers to
prayer. and who have most eXhiiarant an
ticipauons of heaven. The temptations
which weary us who are in robust health
they have conquered.
Many who are alert and athletic and
e7.arthy, Ioiter in the way-the lame take
the prey. Robert Hall. an invalid. Edward
IaTS0n, an invalid. Richard Baxter, an in
vGIa, Samuel Rutherford, an invalid. This
morning, when you want to call to mind
those VINO are most Christlike. you think
of some darkened room in your fathers
house from which there went forth an in
fuence potent Tor eternity.
i step farther: Through raised letters the
art Of printing has been brought to the at
ten5ion Of the blind
You take up the Bible for the blind, and
you close your eyes, and you run your fin
gers over the raised letters, and you say:
why, l never could get any Information
in this way. What n SLOW. lunbrOus way
OF reading. God help the blind"'
And vet, l lind 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 letter than they gath
CT n prayer. without eyes, they look off
upon the kingdom Of Gods love. Without
hearing they catch the minstrelsy of the
skies. Dumb, yet with pencil or with IRA
dated coUntenance, they declare the glory
OF Cod.
A large audience assembled IN New York
ri the anniversary Of the deaf and dumb
asviltm, and one Of the visitors with chalk
on the blackboard wrote this question to
she pupils: DO You find it very hard
20 he deaf and dUmb?' And one of the
y,uuils took the chalk and wrote on the
blacIboarI this sublime sentence in answer:
'sVben The song Of the angels shall burst
ul1on our cnraptured ear we will scare re-
fsret that our ears were never marred with
earthly sounds" oh! the brightest eyes
r. heaven Will be those that never saw on
ear.h Tire ears most alert in heaven viii
he those that in this world heard neither
voice Of friend, no. thrltTn OF harp. nor carol
of bird nor slc-,ciogy of congregations.
lad who had been blind from infancy
y-as cured. The oculs- operated upon the
tad and then put a very heavy bandat5e
o,.er the ewes and after a few weeks had
VOC Nv the bandage was removed, and the
1,otl7or said to her child: Nv nile, can you
co., Ffa said "Oh! mamma, is this heav
on 2' The contrast between the darkness
before and the brightness afterward was
o,.ar,vhelming And l tell You the glories
of heaven will be a thCusandfOld brighter
fo,. those who never saw anything on earth.
white many with good vision closed their
eves in eternal night and many who lad
- good artistic and cultured ear went down
info eternal discord, these afflicted ones
criea unto the Lord in their trouble, and
Ne made their sorrows their advantage, and
So ..fhe lame took the prey.
In the seventh century there was legend
ne g AIodobert 1t was said that his moth
~ ryas hind and one day while looking at
&c mother he felt SO sympathetic for her
tlfndnass that he rushed forward and kiss
sd her hind eyes and, the legend says, her
-irio,7 came Immediately. That was only q
Iayend hit il is a truth, a glorious truth,
49, tra kiss of Gods eternal love has
brought 10 many blind eye eternal illu-
TniudtiOn. .
A step farther: There are those in all