The Bossier banner., 1894-01-18
THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Carries
Spiritual Encouragement
To Those Who Labor Under Disadvan-
uages, Either Physical or Mental
Their Affections a Means of Get
ting Nearer to Christ.

The following discourse was delivered
by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage at Nash
vile, Tenn, during his recent lecture
tour. 1t is based on the text:
The lame take the prey.-Isaiah xxxiii, %.
The utter demolition of the Assyrian
host was here predicted. Not only ro-
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 laboring under seemingly great
disadvantages and amid the most un-
favorable circumstances, yet making
grand achievements, getting great
blessing for themselves, great blessing
for the world, great blessing for the
church, and SO 1.-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, 1.-The Conquest
OF Mexico" 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 immortal. 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 Alex
ander Pope, whose poems will last as
long as the English language, was SO
much of an invalid that he had to be
sewed up every morning in rough can
vas in order to stand on his feet at all.
Do you know that Stuart, the cele-
brated painter, did much of his won.
derful work under the shadow of the
dungeon where he had been unjustly
imprisoned for debt? Do you know
that Demosthenes by almost superhu-
man exertion had to conquer the lisp
of his own speech before he conquered
assemblages by his eloquence? Do
you know that Bacon struggled all
through innumerable sicknesses, and
that Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott
went limping 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 physical or
their intellectual movement, and yet
that they pushed on and pushed up
until they reached the spoils of world
success, and amid the huzzah of nations
and centuries "the lame took the
prey"
You know that 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 one; worlds on
worlds the prey of the other But
what lis true in secular directions
is more true in spiritual and religious
directions, and proceed to prove it.
There are in all communities many
invalids. They never know we'll day.
They adhere to their occupations, but
they go painting along the streets with
exhaustions, and at eventide they lie
down on the lounge with achings beyond
all medieaments. They have tried all
prescriptions, they have gone through
all the cures which were proclaimed
infallible, and they have come now to
surrender to perpetual ailment. They
consider they are among many disad-
vantages; and when they see those
who are buoyant in health pass by,
they almost envy their robust frames
and easy respiration.
But Ihave noticed among that in
valid class those who have the great
est knowledge of the Bible, who are in
nearest intimacy with Jesus Christ.
who have the most glowing expert
ences OF the truth, who have had the
most remarkable answers to PRAYER.
and who have most exhilarant antici
pations of Heaven. The temptations
which weary us who are in robust
health they have conquered
Many who are alert and athletic and
swarthy, loiter in the way.-the lame
take the prey. Robert Hall an invalid.
Edward Payson an invalid, Richard
Baxter, an invalid, Samuel Rutherford
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 influ-
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.
lumbrous way of reading! God help
the blind!'
And yet, l 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
Without eyes, they look off upon the
Kingdoms of Gods love- Without
l. IL