Connecticut western news., 1894-05-03
AN AWFUL STRUGGLE
REV. DR. TALMAGE BREACHES UPON llFE,S SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.


 REV. DR. TALMAGE BREACHES UPON
 LlFE,S SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.
 itor That Lasts Until Daybreak-when Waves of Trouble Almost Overwhelm.
 The Cry to God of a Dying Soul.
 BROOKLYN, April 29.-The Tabernacle was crowded this morning with the usu- al throng of eager listeners Dr. Tal- mage preached on the spiritual conflicts of life, taking for his text Genesis xxxii, 24-28: And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacobs thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, will not let thee go ex- cept thou bless me.
 The dust arose from travelling herd of cattle and sheep and goats and cam els They are the present that Jacob sends to gain the good will of his of tended brother. That night Jacob halts by the brook Jabbok. But there is no rest for the weary man, no shining lad der to let the angels down into his dream, but fierce combat, that lasts until the morning, with an unknown visitor. They each try to throw the other. The unknown visitor, to reveal his superi or power, by touch wrenches Jacobs thigh bone from its socket, perhaps maiming him for life As on the morning sky the clusters of purple cloud begin to ripen Jacob sees it is an angel with whom he has been contending, and not one of his brother s coadjutors. "Let me go," cries the angel, lifting himself up into increasing light, 'The day break ethp'
 Christian Struggles.
 You see, in the first place, that God allows good people sometimes to get into terrible struggle. Jacob was a good man, but here he is left alone ill the midnight to wrestle with tremen- dous influence by the brook Jabbok. For Joseph, pit; for Daniel, wild beast den; for David, dethronement and ex- ile; for John the Baptist, wilderness diet and tho executioner's s ax; for Peter, prison; for Paul, shipwreck; for John, desolate Patmos; for Vashti, most in sulting cruelty; for Josephine, banish a drunkard's wife; for John Wesley, stones hurled by an infuriated mob; for Catherine, the Scotch girl, the drown ing surges of the sea; for Mir. Burns, the buffeting of the Montreal populace; for John Brown of Edinburgh, the pis- tol shot of Lord Claverhouse; for Hugh McKail, the scaffold; for Latimer, the stake; for Christ, the cross. For whom the rocks, the gibbets, the guillotines, the thumbscrews? For the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty. Some one said to Christian reformer, .'The world is against you. :" Then, he replied, II am against the world '
 I will go further and say that every Christian has his struggle. This man had his combat in Wall street; this one on Broad street; this one on Fulton street; this one on Chestnut street; this one on State street; this one on Lom- bard street; this one on the bourse. With financial misfortune you have had the midnight wrestle. Redhot dis asters have dropped into your store from : loft to cellar. What you bought you could not sell. Whom you trusted fled. The help you expected would not come. Some giant panic, with long arms and grip like death, took hold of you in an awful wrestle from which you have not yet escaped, and it is uncertain whether it will throw you or you will throw it.
 Here is another soul in struggle with some bad appetite. He knew not how stealthily 1t was growing upon him. One hour he woke up. He said, "Fol the sake of my soul, of my family, and of my children, and of my God, I must stop thisr' And, behold, he found him. self alone by the brook Jabbok, and it was midnight. That evil appetite seiz- ed upon him, and he seized upon 1t, and, oh, the horror of the conflicti When once a bad habit has aroused itself up to destroy man and the man has sworn that, by the help of the eternal God, he will destroy it, all heaven draws itself out in long line of light to look from above, and hell stretches itself in myr- midons of spite to look up from beneath. I have seen men rally themselves for such struggle, and they have bitten their lip and clinched their fists and cried, with blood red earnestness and rain of scalding tears, ''God help meIo
 The Giant Habit.
 From a wrestle with habit I have seen men fall back defeated. Calling for no help, but relying on their own reso- lutions, they have come into the strug gle, and for time it seemed as if they were getting the upper hand of their habit, but that habit rallied again its internal power and lifted soul from it's standing, and with force borrowed from the pit hurled it into utter dark ness. First saw the auctioneer's mal- let fall on the pictures and musical in- struments and the rich upholstery of his family parlor. After awhile I saw him fall into the ditch. Then, in the midnight, when the children were dream ing their sweetest dreams and Christian households are silent with slumber, an- gel watched, heard him give the sharp shriek that followed the stab of his own poniard. He fell from an honored social position; he fell from family circle of which once he was the grandest attrac- tion; he fell from the house of God, at whose altars he had been consecrated; he fell-foreverl But, thank God, I have often seen better termination than that
 l have seen men prepare themselves for such @ wrestling. They laid hold of Gods help as they went into combat. The giant habit, regaled by the cup of many temptations, came out strong and defiant They, clinched. There were the writhings and distortions of a fearful struggle. But the old giant began to waver, and at last, in the midnight alone, with none but God to witness, by the '.rnok Jabbok, the giant fell. and the triumphant wrestler broke the dark ness with the cry, Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through