The Bossier banner., 1894-06-14
TALMAGES SERMON.
The Struggles of Life Are Often
Angels in Disguise.
Like Jacobs Wrestle with the Celestial
Visitor, When the Light Breaks
the Futility of Our Conten-
tions Becomes Manifest.

Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon on ''The Spirit
ual Conflicts of Life" in the Brooklyn
tabernacle, taking for his text:
| And Jacob was left alone: and there wres-
| tied 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 except thou bless me
Genesis xxi, 1896
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 ia
cob halts by the brook Jabhok. But
there is no rest for the weary man. No
shining ladder 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 Wis
itor, to reveal his superior power, by a
touch wrenches Jacobs thigh bone
from its socket, perhaps manning 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 brothers coadjutors LET me
CO." cries the angel, lifting himself up
into increasing light, ''the day break
eth"
You see, in the first place, that God
| allows good people sometimes to get
into terrible struggle. Jacob was
good man; but here he is left alone in
the midnight to wrestle with tre-
mendous influence by the brook Jab-
box. For Joseph, a pit; for Daniel, a
wild beast den; for David, deth~ one
ment and exile; for John the Bapt st, a
wilderness diet and the executioner's
ak; for Peter, prison; for Paul, ship
wreck; for John desolate Patmos; for
Vashti, most insulting cruelty;
for Josephine, banishment; for
Mrs Sigourney, the agony of
a. drunkard's wife; for John
Wesley, stones hurled by an infuriated
mob; for Catherine, the Scotch girl,
the drowning surges of the sea; for
Mr.. Burns, the buffeting of the Mon
treal populace; for John Brown, of
Edinburgh, the pistol-shot of Lord
Claverhouse; for Hugh McKall, 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 ito Christian reformer: "The
world is against you" "Then." he re-
piled, 81 am against the world"
l 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 yonr store
from loft to cellar. What you bought
you could not sell. Whom you trusted
fed. 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 it was grow
ing upon him. One hour he woke up
He said: For the sake of my soul, of
my family, and my children, and of my
God must stop this!' And behold he
found himself alone by the brook of
Jabbok; 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 out in
long line of light, to look from above,
and hell stretches itself in myrmidons
of spite to look up from beneath l
have seen men rally themselves for
snch struggle; and they have bitten
their lip, and clerched their fists, and
cried with blood-red earnestness and
ram of scalding tears: GOD help
mel"
Frvn wrestle with habit have
seen men fall back defeated Calling
for no help, but relying on their own
resolutions, they have come into the
struggle; 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 its standing, and with
force borrowed from the pit, hurled
it into utter darkness. First, saw
the auctioneer's mallet fall on the pic
lures and musical instruments, and
the rich upholstery of his family par
lor. After awhile I saw him fall into
the ditch. Then, in the midnight,
when the children were dreaming their
sweetest dreams, and Christian house
holds 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 position; he fell from a family
circle of which one he was the grand.
est attraction; he fell from the house