The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-05-04
STRUGGLES OF LIFE.
DR.. Talmage Says They Are Often
Angels of Blessing.
when the Day Bresketh the Futfltfy o
Our Contentious, Like Jacobs
wrestIe with the Angel,
Can BE Seen.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached on
the spiritual conflicts of life. in a late
sermon at Brooklyn, taking his text
from Genesis xxxii 1926: 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 go, 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 travelling herd
of cattle, and sheep, and goats and
camels They are the present that Ja-
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
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
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, 1.-The day break
eth"
You see, in the first. place, that God
allows good people sometimes to get
into a terrible struggle. Jacob was a
good man; but here he is left alone in
the midnight to wrestle with tre-
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 executioner's
ak; for Peter, a 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 infuri-
ated mob: for Catbrine, 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: 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 disasters
have dropped into your store from loft
to cellar. What you bought you could
not sell. Whom you trusted fed The
:ielp 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 uu-
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 l must stop thisw And be-
hold he found himself alone by the
brook of Jabbolx; 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 above,
and hell stretches itself in myrmidons
of spite to look up from beneath. 1
have seen men rally themselves for
such a 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 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. | saw the
auctioneer's mallet fall on the pictures
and musical instruments, and the rich
upholstery of his family parlor After
awhile 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, l
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
once he was the grandest attraction;
he fell from the house of God, at
whose affairs he had been consecrated;
he fell-forever! But, thank God,
have often seen a better termination
than that l have seen men prepare
themselves for such wrestling. They
laid hold of Gods help as they
went into combat The giant habit,
regaled by the cup of many tempta-
tions, came out strong and defiant.
There were the writings and distor-
tions of fearful struggle But the
old giant began to waver and at last,
in the midnight. alone. with none but