Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-05-02
AN AWFUL STRUGGLE
REV. DR.. TALMAeE breaches UPON
LIFE's SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.

waves of Trouble Almost Overwhelm
The Cry to God of Dying Soul.
BROOKLYN, April 80. The Tabernacle
was crowded this morning with the usu
al throng of eager listeners. DIR. Tai.
mage preached on the spiritual conflicts
of life, taking for his text Genesis xxi,
1926: "And Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a 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 brealeth
And he said, will not let thee go ex-
cept thou bless me- I"
The dust arose from a travelling herd
of cattle and sheep and goats and cam
els They are the present that Jacob
sends to gain the good will of his Of
Tended brother. That night Jacob halts
by the brook Jabbok But there is no
rest for the weary man, no shining lad
der 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 visitor, to reveal his superb
or 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
60, cries the angel, lifting himself up
into increasing light, 1.-THE day break
ethl"
Christian Struggles.
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 tremen-
dous influence by the brook Jabbok. For
Joseph, pit; for Daniel, wild beast
den; for David, dethronement and ex-
lie; for John the Baptist, wilderness
diet and the executioner's AK; for Peter,
prison; for Paul, shipwreck; for John,
desolate Patmos; for Vashti, most in
sulting cruelty; for Josephine, banish-
ment; 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 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 Claverhouse; 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 Christian reformer,
1.-THE world is against you. " 'Then,
he replied, ST 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. Redhot dis
asters 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 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, l must
stop thisl" And, behold, he found him
self alone by the brook Jabbok, and 1T
was midnight. That evil appetite seiz-
ed upon him, and he seized upon it, and,
oh, the horror of the conflict When
once bad habit has aroused itself up
to destroy man and the man 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 myT-
midons of spite to look up from beneath.
have seen men rally themselves for
such struggle, and they have bitten
their lip and clinched their fists and
cried, with blood red earnestness and q
rain of scalding tears, God help mel"
The Giant Habit.
From a wrestle with habit / have
seen men fall back defeated. Calling for
no help, but relying ON their own reso-
iutions, they have come into. the strug-
gle, and for a time it seemed as if they
We're getting the upper hand of their
habit, but that habit rallied again its
Internal power and lifted sOnl from
It's standing, and with force borrowed
Hom the pit hurled it into utter dark
ness First | saw the auctioneer's mall
let fall ON the pictures and musical in.
struments and the rich upholstery OF
his family parlor After awhile saw
MN fall into the ditch. Then, in the
midnight, when the children were dream
ing their sweetest dreams and Christian
households are silent with slumber, an
gel watched. heard him give the sharp
hrlek that followed the stab Of his own
poniard. He fell from an honored social
posltlOn; he fell from a family circle of