Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-05-17
SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Says that Every
Christian Has His Struggle
Al Some Point In His Life. but OFTEN it Is
With an Angel of B essing in Dis guiss
- - Prosperity that Kills
and Trouble that Saves

Rev. DR. Talmage preached at the
Brooklyn tabernacle recently on the
spiritual conflicts of life, taking for his
text Genesis xxi, 1926:
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 b-eaketh And he said: i will
not let thee go except thou bless me =
The dust arose from travelling herd
of cattle, and sheep, and goats and
camels They are the present that
Jacob sends to gain the good will of his
offended brother. That night Jacob
halts by the brook Jabbok. But there
Is no rest for the weary man. No
shining ladder to let the angels down
into his dream; but a fierce combat,
| that lasts until the morning, with an
unknown visitor. They each try to
/ throw the other. The unknown Wis.
| itor, to reveal his superior power by
| touch wrenches Jacobs thigh bone
! from its socket perhaps manning him
for life. As on the morning sky the
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Jacob sees it is an angel with whom
he has been contending, and not one of
his brothers conductors. Let me go"
cries the angel lifting himself up into
increasing light the day breaketh.
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 in
the midnight to wrestle with "A ire
mendous influence by the brook Jab-
box. For Joseph pit; for Daniel,
wild beast den; for David. dethrone-
ment and exile; for John the Baptist,
wilderness diet and the ececutioner's
ak; for Peter, prison. for Paul, ship
wreck; for John, desolate patmos; for
Vashti, most insulting cruelty; for
Josephine, Punishment; 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 drowning surges
of the sea; for Mr.. Burns, the buffeting
of the Montreal populaee; for John
Brown, of Edinburg, the pistol shot of
Lord Claverhouse; for Hugh McKeil.
the scaffold; for Latimer the stake:
for Christ, the cross. For whom the
rocks, the gibbets, the guillotines, the
thumb-screws? For the sons and
daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
Some one said to a Christian reformer;
The world is against you" Then,
he replied, 81 am against the world"
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. Red-hot
disasters 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 ii is un-
certain whether it will throw you, or
you will throw it, Here is another |
sOutf III NAAhE 10 NAAH .0lilE biAA a Dbt-
tite. He knew not how stealthily it |
was growing upon him. One hour he |
woke up. lie said: For the sake of |
my soul, of my family, and of my chill |
dren, and of my God l must stop thisr'
And behold he found himself alone, by /
the brook Jabbol1; and it was midnight. |
That evil appetite seized upon him, and
he seized upon it; and oh, the horror of
the conflict When once a bad habit
has aroused itself up to destroy a man
and the man has sworn that, by the
help of the eternal God, he will destroy
it, all heaven draws itself ont in long
line of light. to look from above, and
hell stretches itself in myrmidons of
spite to look up from beneath. / have
seen men rally themselves for such
struggle; and they have bitten their
lips, and clenched their fists, and cried
with a blood-red earnestness. and
rain of scalding tears God help me!'
From a wrestle with habit / have
seen men fall back defeated. Calling
for not help. but relying on their own
they have come into the
and for a time it seemed as
If they were getting the upper hand OF
their habit; but that habit rallied
again its internal power, and lifted a
soul from its standing, and with a
force borrowed from the pit. hurled il
into utter darkness. First, | saw the
mallet fall on the pictures
and musical instruments, and the rich
upholstery of his family parlor. After
a while ! saw him fall into the ditch
Then, in the midnight when the chill
lren were dreaming their sweetest
dreams. and Christian households are
silent with slumber, angel-watched ] =.
heard him give the sharp shrek that
followed the stab of his own poniard.
He fell from an honOred social posi-
lion. he fell from a family circle OF
which he was once the Qrandest at
traction: he fell from the house OF
God. at whose affairs he had been con-
,ecrated; he fell-forever. But thank
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