The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-02-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Opportunity One OF the Versatile
Words In Our Language.
~ Osee Ono of the Loveiiest and One 81
the Most Awful-Tho scrlpturAl
Significance of the Word
Expounded.

the following sermon on Opportunity
In the Academy of Music, New Yorl
city, basing II on the text:
As we have therefore opportunity, lot US d.
aGood.-Galatians VI, 10.
Al Denver, COL, years ago, an au
-diencc had assembled for divine
worship. The pastor of the church
for whom was to preach that night
interested in the seating Of the people
stood in the pulpit looking from side
to side, and when no more people could
be crowded within the walls he turned
TO me and said, with startling emphasis
"What an opportunityp Immediately
that word began to enlarge, and while
q 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 meaning, and spread out into other
ATTITUDES and longitudes of significance
until it became hemisphere, and II
still grew in altitude and circumfcr-
ence until II encircled other worlds,
and swept out, and on, and around un-
til it was as big rs eternity. Never
since have read or heard that word
without being thrilled with its magni-
tude and momentum. Opportunity!
Although in the text to some it may
seem a mild and quiet note, in the
great Gospel harmony it is n staccato
passage. 1t is one of the loveliest and
awfulest words in our language OF
more than one hundred thousand words
of English vocabulary.
"As we have opportunity, lot us dc
good"
What is an opportunity? The lexi-
cographer would coolly tell you it is a
conjunction of favorable circumstances
for accomplishing purpose; but
words can not tell what it is. Take a
thousand years to manufacture q def
milton, and you could not successfully
describe it. Opportunity! The meas
uring 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 preci-
pice of all time and let down the faith
oming line hand under hand, and
lower down and lower down, and for
N quintillion of years let it sink, and
the lead will not strike bottom. OPP
portunity! But while do not attempt
to measure or define the word, will,
God helping me, take the RESPONSE
bility of telling you something about
opportunity.
First, it is very swift in its motions
Sometimes 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 it fulfilled it's mis-
sion. In the second place opportunity
never comes back Perhaps an oppor-
tunity very much like it may arrive,
but that one never. Naturalists tell
us of insects which are born, fulfill
heir mission and expire in an hour,
but many opportunities die so soon
after they are born that their brevity
of life is incalculablc. What most
amazes me is that opportunities do
such overshadowing, far-reaching and
tremendous work in such short earth
ly 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
~ 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
something worse, namely, n fraudulent
turn to get out Of his despairful posi-
ton. Your hopefulness inspired him
for all time, and thirty years after you
are dead he will be reaping the adj
vantage of your optimism. Your OPP
portunity 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, man of
the world, but you wish everybody
well. While the clerks are standing
Found in your store, or the men in
your factorys-nre taking their noon
spell, some one says: "IIave you heard
that one OF our men has been inverted
at the revival meeting in the Metho-
dist church," While it is being talked
over you say. wei, 40 not DclleVe
in revivals. 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, oh 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 meet
ings and been saved for this world and
the next, but you decided them not to
go. 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
road. In ten years they will
be through with their designations, and
pass into the Great Beyond. That lit
tie talk of yours decided their destiny
for this world and the next. You had
an opportunity that you misimproved,
and how will you feel when you con-
front those two immortals in the last
Judgment, and they tell you of that
unfortunate talk of yours that flung
them over the precipice? Oh, man OF