The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1895-03-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE NOTED DIVINES SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject. "opportunlty.'

night. interested in the seating OF the peo-
pie, stood I'm the pulpit looking from side 10
side and when no more people could be
crowded within the walls he turned 10 me
and said. with startling emphasis, "What an
opportunity" Immediately tina tword began
TO enlarge, and while a hymn was being sung
at every stanza the word Opportunity
swiftly and nightly unfolded, and while the
opening prayer was being made the word
piled up into Alps and Himalayas OF mean
ing and spread out into other ATTITUDES and
longltudes OF significance until II became
hemisphere and it still grew in altitude and
circumference until Il encircled other words
and swept out and on and around until Il
was aa big az eternity. Mover since have
read or heard that word without being
thrilled with it's magnitude and momentum.
Opportunity Although in the text to some
II may seem a mild and quiet note. in the
great gospel harmony it is a staccato pas
sage. IL Is one of the lOveliest and awfulest
words in our Language Of more than 100000
words Of English vocabulary. GAS we have
opportunity let US do good"
What Is an opportunity The photographer
would coolly tell you il is a conjunction Of
favorable circumstances for accomplishing
purpose, but words cannot tell what it Is.
Take 1000 years to manufacture definition,
and you could not successfully describe IT,
Opportunity The measuring rod with which
the angel Of the Apocalypse measured heaven
| could not measure this pivotal word of my
text. Stand on the edge Of the precipice OF
all time and let down the fathoming limo
| hand under hand and lower down and lower
| down and for a quintillion OF years let IL
sink, and the lead viii not strike bottom. OPP
| portunityl But while 1 do not attempt to
measure or define the word / will. God help
ing me- take the responsibility Of telling you
something about opportunity.
First 1t is very swift in its motions. Some
/ times within one minute it starts from the
throne Of God sweeps around the earth and
reascends the throne from which It started.
| Within less than sixty seconds 1t fulfilled its
| mission.
In the second place, opportunity never
| comes back. Perhaps an opportunity very
much like Ii may arrive, but that one never.
| Naturalists tell us Of insects which are born,
| fulfill their mission aud expire in an hour,
/ but many opportunities die so soon after
they are born that their brevity Of life is in
| calculable. What most amazes me is that OPP
/ portunities do such Overshadowing far
reaching and tremendous work in such short
/ earthly allowance. You are a business man
Of large experience. The past eighteen
months have been hard on business men. A
/ young merchant at his wits end came into
| your office or your house, and you said:
"Times are hard now, but better days will
come. have seen things as bad or worse,
but we got out, and we will get out Of this.
| The brightest days that this country ever saw
are yet to come" The young man to whom
you said that was ready for suicide or some
thing worse-namely, a fraudulent turn to
get out Of his despairful position. Your
hopefulness inspired him for all time, and
thirty years after you are dead he will be
reaping the advantage of your optimism.
Your opportunity to do that one thing for
that young man was not half as long as the
time have taken to rehearse it.
In yonder third gallery you sit, a man OF
the world but you wish everybody well.
| While the clerks are standing round in your
store, or the men In your factory are taking
their noon spell, some one says "Have you
| heard that one of our men has been con-
verted at the revival meeting in the
| Methodist church," While it is being talked
| over you say: 'Well, / do not believe in re-
vivals. Those things do not last. People
get excited and join the church and are no
better than they were before. wish our
men would keep away from those meetings"
Do you know, o man, what you did in that
minute of depreciation? There were two
young men in that group who that night
would have gone to those meetings and
been saved for this world and the next, but
you decided them not to 90. They are
social natures. They already drink more
than is good for them and are disposed to be
wild. From the time they heard you say
that they accelerated their steps on the down
ward road. In ten years they will be through
with their designations and pass into the
great beyond. That little talk Of yours de-
cdded their destiny for this world and the
next You had an opportunity that you mis-
improved, and how will you feel when you
confront those two immortals in the last
Judgment and they tell you of that unfortu-
nate talk Of yours that fluug them over the
precipicep man Of the world, why did you
not say In that noon spell Of conversation:
"Good! / am glad that man has got re-
lgion. Iwish had it myself Let US all 20
tonight. Come on. I will meet you at the
church door at 8 o'clock2" You see, you
would have taken them all to heaven, and
you would have got there yourself. Oppor-
tunity lost!
The day left our country home to look
after myself we rode across the country, and
my father was driving. OF course l said
nothing that implied how felt. But there
are hundreds OF men here who from their
own experience know how / felt. At such a
time young man must be hopeful and even
impatient to get into the battle Of life for
himself, but to leave the homestead where
everything has been done for you, your father
or older brothers taking your part when you
were imposed on by larger boys, and your
mother always around when you got the cold
with mustard applications for the chest OIL
herb tea to make you sweat off the fever and
sweet mixtures in the cup by the bed to stoI
the cough. taking sometimes too mnch Of Il
because it was pleasant to take. and then tc
go out, with no one to stand between you
and the world, gives one a choking sensation
at the throat and a home sickness before you
have got three miles away from the old folks,
There was on the day spoke of a silence for
a long while, and then my father began Il
tell how good the Lord had been to him IL
sickness and in health, and when times o
hardship came how Providence had Away
provided the means Of livelihood for tn,
large household, and he wound up by say
ing, ode Witt, / have always found 1t safe *
trust the Lord" My father has been deaC
thirty years, but in all the crises of my life