Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-02-15
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
the BROoKLYS DIvISE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: opportunity"

Trxr. "As We have therefore opportuni-
/ ty, let rs 10 good. "-Galatians vi, 10.
At Denver years ago an audience had as
! semhled for divine worship. The pastor OF
I the church for whom / was 90 preach that
. night. interested in the seating OF the peo-
pie. stood In the pulpit looking from side 20
| side. and when no more people could pe
| crowded within the walls he turned 10 me
and said. with startling emphasis. what an
opnortunitv," Immediately tina tWord hegah
10 enlarge. and while a hymn was beng sung
al every zfanzA the word opportunity
swiftly and nightly unfolded. and whilethe
opaujng PRAYER was being made the Wotu
piled M into Alps and EimalaNas OF mean,
inc and spread out into other latltudes ana
longituaes Of significance until II became
hemisphere. and il still grew in altitude and
.irsum ference until IL encircled other words
and svrsut out aud on and around until IL
was as big as eternity Never since nave
read or heard that word without being
thrilled with its magnitude and momentum.
Opportunity! Although in the text to some
IL NAV seem a mild and quiet note, in the
great gospel harmony ii is staccato pas
sage. 1t is one of the loveliest and awfulest
words i'm our language of more than 100000
words of English vocabulary. "As we have
opportunity, let us do good"
What is an opportunity? The photographer
/
favorable circumstances for accomplishing
purpose but words cannot tell what II is.
! Take 1000 wears to manufacture a 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 line
hand under hand and lower down and lower
down and for quintillion Of years let 1t
sink, and the lead will not strike bottom. OPP
portunity But while | do not attempt to
measure or define the word WILL God help
Ing me, take the responsibility of telling you
something about opportunity.
First, II is very swift in It's 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 it fulfilled its
mission.
In the second place, opportunity never
comes back. Perhaps an opportunity very
much like 1t may arrive, but that one never.
Naturalists tell us OF insects which are born,
fulfill their mission and 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. l have seen things as bad or worse,
but we got out. and we will get ont of this.
The brightest days that this country ever saw
are vet to come" The young man to whom
you said that was ready for suicide or some
thing worse-namely, a fraudulent turn to
,f 10 II
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 I have taken to rehearse 1t.
In yonder third gallery you sit, a man Of
the world but you wish everybody we'll.
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 1t is being talked
over you say: "Well, I 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. I 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, bu,
you decided them not to so. 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.
cided 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 fiuug them over the
precipice? o man Of the world, why did you
not say in that noon spell of conversation
"Good! I am glad that man has got re-
ligion. l wish had 1t myself. Let US all &C
tonight. Come on. will meet you at the
church door at o'clock" 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 I sale
nothing that implied how felt. But there
are hundreds of men here who from their
own experience know how I felt. At such
time young man must be hopeful and ever
impatient to get into the battle of life fol
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 YOU
mother always around when you got the cole
with mustard applications for the chest OF
herb tea to make you sweat off the fever ant
sweet mixtures in the cup by the bed to stoI
the cough. taking sometime too mnch OF i
because it was pleasant to take. and then K
go out, with no one to stand between yor
and the world, gives one choking sensation
at the throat and home sickness before yor
have got three miles away from the old folks
There was on the day spoke of a silence fol
a long WHILE and then my father began t.
4 tell how good the Lord had been to him IL
sickness and in health, and when times o
hardship came how Providence had alway
provided the means of livelihood for thu
large household, and he wound up by say
ing, "De Witt, / have always found it safe tt
t trust the Lord" My father has been deaC
, thirty years, but in all the crises of my life
and there have been many of them-I hav'
1 felt the mighty boost of that lesson in thu
d, farm wagon. ode Witt, I have always founC
: it safe to trust the Lord" The fact was my
father saw that was his opportunity, and h
= improved 1t.
This is one reason why am an enthusas
tic friend of all Young Mems Christian AS
sociations. They get hold of so many youn.
men Just arriving in the city and while the
are very lLlpTeSSiOHhple. anu IL is tno DeSt W
portunity. Why, how big the houses locke,
to us as we first entered the great city. and s.
many people! 1t seemed some meeting mus
have just closed to fill the streets in that way
and then the big placards announcing al
4 styles of amusements and so many of them o.
ii the same night and every night, after our boy
Y, hood had been spent in regions where onl
q once or twice in whole year there had bee
n an entertainment in school-house or church
is That is the opportunity. Start that innocen
L young man in the right direction. Six week
y after will be too late. Tell me what such
II young man does with his first six weeks in tn
great city, and will tell you what he will b
| hn11 ia ri nd Hyhara