The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-11-20

| Eo<4eEN A4RfA Ao|M Tue HO1lOH VA hio
| tSs kSHkHAAI1f85thigh; and the ho!-
<ssssa AH10 Flow OF Jacobs
7. DEWITT TALAAeE- thigh WIS out Of
joint as be wrestled with him And he
said: Let me go, for the day breaketh'
and he said, will not let thee go ex-
cept thou bless me-" DIR. Talmage
said:
There Is a cloud of dust from trav'
cling herd OF cattle, and the sheep,
and the goats, and camels. They are
the present that Jacob sends to gam
the good will of his offende l
brother. That night Jacob halts by
the brook Jabbok. But there is no
rest for the weary man. No shining
ladder to let the angels down into his
dream; but a severe struggle that lasts
until morning, with an unknown
visitor. They each try 10 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 ripen, Jacob sees it is an
angel with whom he has been contend
ing, and not one of his brothers coad-
tutors. 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 to get
into a terrible struggle. Jacob was
good man, but here he is left alone In
the midnight to wrestle with a ire
mendous influence by the brook Jab-
box. For Joseph, pit; by Daniel.
wild beast den; for David, dethrOne-
ment and exile; for John the Baptist,
wilderness diet and the executioner's
ak: for Peter, a prison; for Paul, ship
wreck; for John, desolate Patmos; for
Christ, the cross. For whom the racks,
the gibbets, the prisons, the thumb
screws? For the sors and daughters
of the Lord Almighty. Some one said
10 a Christian reformer: THE world
is against YOU" Then" he said, 81
am against the world"
will go further, and say that every
Christian has his struggle. With imam
cial misfortune some OF you have had
the midnight wrestle. Red-hOt disas-
ters 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 wrestls,
from which you have not vet
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 stsRlthily it was grow
ing upon him. One hour he woke Mp
He said, for she sake Of my soul, OF
my family. Of my children and Of my
God, must stop this" And behold,
he found himself alone, by the brook
lof Jabbok; and it was midnight That
evil appetite seized upon him, and he
seized upon it; and oh, the horror Of
the conflict When once q bad habit
hath reused itself up to destroy q man,
and the man has sworn that, by She
help of the eternal God, he will de-
stxOy 1t, ell Heaven draws itself out in
a long line Of light, to look from above,
and all hell stretches itself IN myrmf-
dons of spite to look mp from beneath.
II have seen men rally themselves for
q struggle; and Ghey have bitten their
lip, and clenched their hsts, and cried
with a blood-red earnestness, and q
rain of scalding tears: GOD help meP
From a wrestle with the habit, have
seen men fall back defeated. Calling
for no help, but relying on their own
resolutions. they have come into the
struggle; and for time it 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 a
force borrowed from the pit, hurled 1t
into outer darkness
But. thank God, have often seen a
better termination than this. 1 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 clenched. There
were writings and distortions of a
earful struggle. But the old giant
began to waver; and at last, in the
midnight, alone, with none but God to
witness, by the brook of Jabbok, the
giant fell; and the triumphant wrestler
broke the darkness with the cry.
Thanks be unto God. who giveth Us
the victory, through our Lord Jesus
Christ"
There is a widows heart, that first
was desolated by bereavement. and
since, by the anxieties and trials that
came in the support of family. 1t is
sad thing to see man contending
for a livelihood under disadvantages;
but to see delicate woman, with help
less little ones at her back, fighting
the giants of poverty and sorrow, is
more affecting. 1t was humble home;
and passers-by knew not that within
those four walls were displays of cour'
age more admirable that of Hannibal
crossing the Alps, or in the Pass OF
Thermopylae, or at Balaklava, where
into the jaws of death rode the 600"
These heroes had the whole world to
cheer them on; but there were none to
an laud the struggle in that hum ole
home She fOupht for bread for cloth.