The Globe-republican., 1894-05-11
STRUGGLES OF LIFE.
DR.. TaImage Says They Are Often
Angels of Blessing.
When the Day Breaketh the Futility OF
Our Contentious, Like Jacobs
Wrestle with the Angel
Can BE Seen.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached n
the spiritual conflicts of life. in a late
sermon at Brooklyn, taking MS text
from Genesis xxi. 24-26: 'And Jacob
was left alone; and there wrestled
man with him until the breaking of the
day. And when he saw that he pre-
vailed 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 60. for the day breaketh.' And he
said, I will not let thee go except
thous bless me-" Following is the
sermon:
The dust arose from a travelling herd
OF cattle. and sheep, and goats, and
camels They are the present that ia
cob 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 fierce COM
bat, that lasts until the morning, with
an unknown visitor. They each try to
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 CONDUCTORS 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 a
good man; but here he is left alone in
the midnight to wrestle with a ire
mendous influence by the brook Jab-
'bok. For Joseph. a pit; for Daniel, a
wild beast den; for David. dethrone
ment and exile: for John the Baptist, 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 Punishment; for
Mrs. Sigourney, the agony of
drunkard's wife: for John
Wesley, stones hurled by an infuri-
ated mob; for Cathrine the Scotch girl,
the drowning surges of the sea: for
Mr. Burns, the buffeting of the
Montreal populace; for John Brown. of
Edinburgh. the pistol shot of Lord
Clavenhouse; for Hugh McKail. 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: 1.-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 Lombard
street; this one on the Bourse. With
financial misfortune you have had the
midnight wrestle. Red-hot dis Isters
have dropped into your 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 un-
certain whether it will throw you or
you will throw it. Here is another
soul in struggle with some bad appe
tite. 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 be-
hold 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 hor-
ror 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 de-
stroy it. all Heaven draws itself out in
a long line of light. to look from a bOve.
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 lip. and clenched their fists, and
cried with a blood-red earnestness and
a rain of scalding tears: God help
me!"
From a wrestle with habits l have
seen men fall back defeated. Calling
for no help. but relying on their own
resolutions, they have come into the
struggle; and for a time it seemed as
if they were getting the upper hand of
their habit; but that habit rallied
against its Internal power and lifted a
soul from its standing. and with a
force borrowed from the pit hurled it
into utter darkness First I saw the
:auctioneers mallet fall on the pictures
and musical instruments. and the rich
upholstery of his family parlor. After
awhile l saw him fall into the ditch.
Then. in the midnight when the
children 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.
n