Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-11-27
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington pivine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "WrestIing with the Super.
natural"

out Of joint as he wrestled with him. And
he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.
And he said, will not let thee go except
thou tless me. Genesis Exxii., %, 26.
There is a cloud of dust from travelling
herd of cattle and sheep and goats and
camsls. They are the present that Jacob
sends 20 gain the good will of his offended
brother. That night Jacob halts by the
brook Jabbok. But there is no rest for the
weary nan, no shining ladder to let the
angels down into his dream, but severe
struggle that lasts until morning with an un-
;nown visitor. They each try to throw the
other. The unknown visitor, 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 rlpen,
Jacob sees it is an angel with whom he has
been contending and net one OF his brothers
coadjutors. "Let me co." cries the angel,
lifting himself up into increasing light; "the
day breaketh."
You see, in the first place, that God allows
good people sometimes 10 get into terrible
struggle. Jacob was good man, but here
he is left alone IN the midnight to wrestle
with tremendous influence by the brook
Jabbok. For Joseph, a pit; for Daniel, a
wild beasts den; for David, dethronenent and
exile; for John the Baptist, q wilderness diet
and the executioner's ak; for Peter. a prison;
for Paul, shipwreck; for John. desoate Pat
mos; for Christ, the cross. For whom the
racks, the gibbets, the prisons, the thumb
screws? For the sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty. Some one said to Christian
reformer, 1.-THE world Is against you"
"Then." he replied. II am against the
world"
will 90 further and say that every Chris
tan has his struggle With financial mis-
fortune some OF you have had the midnight
wrestle. Redhot disasters 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
throw it. Here is another soul
in struggle with some bad appetite. He
knew not how stealthly it was growing
upon him. One hour he woke up. He said,
"For the sake OF my soul, OF my family, OF
my children and of my God / must stop
thisl" And behold he found himself alone
by the brook of Jabbok, and it was mid
night That evil appetite seized upon him,
and , seized upon 1t, and, oh, the horror Of
the conflict! When once bad habit hath
reused itself up to destroy man, and the
man has sworn that by the help Of the eter-
nal God he will destroy It, all heaven draws
itself out In long line OF light to look from
above, and all hell stretches itself In
myrmidons of spite to look up from beneath.
/ have seen men rally themselves for
struggle, and they have bitten their lip, and
clinched their fist, and cried with blood
red earnestness and rain O scalding tears,
"God help mei'
From vrestle with habit Ihave seen men
fall back defeated. Calling for no help, but
relying on their own resolutions, they have
come into the struggle, and for time 1t
seemed as II they were getting the upper
hand of their habit. But that habit rallied
again its internal power and lifted the soul
from Its standing, and with force borrowed
from the pit hurled it into darkness.
But, thank God. have often seen better
termination than this. I have seen men
prepare themselves for such a wrestling.
They laid hold Of Gods help as they went
into combat. The giant habit, RECALLED by
the cup of many designations, came out
strong and defiant. They clinched. There
were the writings and distortions OF fear
full struggle. But the old giant began to
waver, and at last, in the midnight alone,
with none but GOD to witness, by the brook
Jabbok, the giant fell, and the triumphant
wrestler broke the darkness with the cry,
"rhanks be unto God, who glveth us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ"
There is q widows heart that first was
desolated by bereavement and since by the
anxietles and trials that came IN the support
of family. It is sad thing to see man
contending for livelihood under disadvan-
tages, but to see a delicate woman, with
helpless little ones at her back, fighting the
giants OF poverty and sorrow is more
affecting. 1t was a humble home, and
passersby knew not that within those four
walls were displays OF courage more admir-
able than that Of Hannibal crossing
the Alps, or in the pass OF Thermopyl@, or
at Balaklava, where ''lnto the jaws OF death
rode the six hundred" These heroes had
the whole world to cheer them on, but there
was no one to applaud the struggle In that
humble home. She fought for bread. for
clothing, for fire, for shelter. with aching
head aud weak side and exhausted strength,
through the long night by the brook Jabbok.
Could 1t be that none would give her help!
Had God forgotten to be gracious2 No, con-
tending soul. The midnight air Is full OF
wings coming to the rescue. She hears 1t
now, in the sough of the night wind, in the
ripple OF the brook Ja0bok, the promise
made so long ago, ringing down the sky,
them alive, and let thy widows trust in meP'
Some one said to very poor woman, "How
is it that In such distress you keep cheerful?"
She said: II do it by what 1 call cross pray
ers. When had my rent to pay aad moth
Ing to pay it with and bread to buy and moth.
ing to buy it with. l used to cit down and
cry. But now do not get discouraged. II
60 along the street, when l come 10 cor
nor of the street, say The Lord help me!
I then go on until come to another cross
ing OF the street, and again say, The Lord
help mep And so utter prayer at every
crossing, and since have got into the habit
of saying these cross prayers l have been
able to keep up my courage"
Learn again from this subject that people
sometimes are surprised to fud out that
what they have been struggling with in the
darkness is really an "angei OF blessing. !"
Jacob found In. the morning that this
strange parsonage vas not an enemy, but Il
God dispatched messenger to promise pros
perity for him and for his children. And so
many a man at the close OF his trial has
found out that he has been trying 10 throw
down his own blessing. II you arc a
Christian man, will 20 back in your his
tory and find that the grandest things that
have ever happened to you have been your
trials Nothing short of scOurglng, i'm
prisonment and shipwreck could have made
Paul what he was. When David was fleeing
through the wilderness, pursued by his own
SOC, he was being prepared to become the
sweet singer of Israel. The pit and the
dungeon were the best schools at which
Joseph ever graduated The hurricane that
upset the tent and killed Jobs children pre-
pared the man Of " to be the subject of the
magnificent poem that has astoundei the
ages. There is no way to get the wheat out
OF the straw but 10 thrash it. There is nc
way to purify the gold but to burn it. Look
at the Deonle who have ALWAYS had it their