Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-05-05
AN AWFUL STRUGGLE
REV. DIR. TALMAGG breaches UPON
LIFE's SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.

tiEE'g SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.
-
u... .r.,m ~.
"o' Aha' A"s.
waves OF iroupie limos "'sf"he
The Cry to God Of a Dying soul.
ppoortx w Anil 90 The TIA arnaclo
,raD orov-dod this morni,g u,;tb ~ rsn.
!, throna ~ aaoe, listeners Nv Isl.
maaa nresched an the snirif,al conflicts
~ i;fa .ak;po Cor bis tevt Genesis vyxii
oa-oe. ..A,I Jacoh xyas ,aft alone ana
thayo prraetlad a man with hi,, nutil
tho broab;no of tba d,v Aud x~be, bo
sav fiat he nreyailod not against him
10 to,ohad ,ha hoI,ov of bis lbigb aud
H. l,al1an-a . T.aol,,s 4,,;rL r-os ~ 80
io;nt ~ he xvrestled with him And he
said LET me go. for thc dav h~reaketh.
Aud bc said. / win not let thoo 90 ex.
cena tbon Hess me.n
The dust arose from n travelling herd
If cattle and sheen and poats and cam.
els They are tbc present that Jacob
sends to gaiu tha good viii of his Of
Tended brother. That night Jacob halts
nv tbe brook .Jabbok. Bnt there is no
rest for tbe weary man. no shining lad
der TO let the angels down into his
dream. but a fierce combat. that lasts
until Tho morning. with N unknown
visitor They each trv to throw the other.
The unl,nownyisitor TO reveal his superi-
or newer. by a touc, wrenches jacobs
thigh bone from its socket, perhaps
manning him for life. As on the morning
sky tho clusters of purple cloud begin to
ripen Jacob sees it is an angel with
whom he has been ~contendine. and not
one of his brothers. coadiutors. sLet me
60" cries the angel. lifting himself IN
into increasing light, ssTho day break
ethr'
Christian Struggles.
4 You see. in the first place, that God
allows good people sometimes to get
INFO a terrible struggle. Jacob was a
good man. but here he is left alone in
the midnight to wrestle with a tremen-
dous influence by the brook Jabbok. For
Joseph. a nit; for Daniel. a wild beast
den: for David, d~ethronement and ex-
lie; for John the Baptist. a wilderness
diet and the executioner's ak; for Peter.
a prison; for Paul. shipyreck; for John.
desolate Patmos: for yashti, most in
sulting cruelty; for Josephine. Danish
ment; for Mrs. Sigourney, the agony of
a drunkard's wife; for John Wesley.
stones hurled by an Infatuated mob; for
Catherine. the Scotch girl. the drown
ing surges of the sea; for Mr.. Burns,
the buffeting of the Montreal populace;
for John Brown of Edinburgh. the pis-
tol shot of Lord Clayerhouse; 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 a Christian reformer.
1.-The world is against you. s.Then,"
he repIied, 81 am against tho world"
will 90 further and saw 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 Won have
had the midnight wrestle. Redhot dis.
asters have dropped into your store from
loft to cellar. What YOU bought Won
| could not sell. Whom Won Trusted fled.
The help Won 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 it was growing upon him.
One hour he woke up. He said, ''For
the sake of my soul, of my family, and
of my children, and of my God, | must
stop this!" And, behold, he found HIM
self alone Ly the brook Jabbok, and it
was midnight. That evil appetite seiz-
ed upon him, and he seized upon it, and,
oh, the horror OF the conflict! When
once 4 bad habit has aroused itself up
to destroy aman and the MAJ has sworn
that, by the help of the eternal God, he
will destroy it, all heaven draws itself
out in a long line of light to look from
above, and hell stretches itself in myr-
midous of spite to look up from beneath.
| have seen men rally themselves for
such a struggle, and they have bitten
their lip and clinched their fists and
cried, with q blood red earnestness and
rain Of scalding tears, "God help me!'
The Giant Habit.
From a vrcstle with habit 7 have
seen men fall back defeated. Calling for
II o help, but relying on their own reso-
l%utions, they have co,no into the strug-
Gle. aud for a time it seemed as if thev
were getting the upper hand of their
habit. but that habit rallied again its
internal power and lifted n sonl from
its standing, and with a force borrowed
from the pit hurled it into utter dark
ness. First l saw the a~nctiopner's NAL
let fall m tbo mixtures and musical in.
hin, fail into 90, tbo ditcb Tben IN 9 tho
mo thpl. GNvpntpEt Hraq1aG Nlfl Christian ]