The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-01-02
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent DiyInc's Sermon Des
,ivered In Washington.
subject; "WrestIing With the Su.
pcrnatural.n

thou tless me. "-Genesis xxi, %, &c.
There is a cloud OF dust from a traveline
herd OF cattle and sheep and goats and
camels. They are the present that Jacot
sends 10 gain the good will of his offended
brother. That night jacob hats 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 lests until morning with an I'm.
known 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
bin for life. AS on the morning sky The
clusters Of purple cloud begin to ripen,
Jacob sees it is On Angel with whom he has
been contending aud net one of his brothers
CONDUCTORS. SLet mo go" cries the angel,
lifting himself up into increasing light; "the
day breakeih."
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 wreste
with tremendous influence by the brook
Jabbok. For Joseph, pit; for Daniel, a
wild beasts den; for David. Reinforcement and
exile; for John the Baptist, q wilderness diet
and the executioncr's AK; for Peter, n prison;
for Paul, shipwreck; for John. deso,ate Pat
mos; for Christ, the cross. For whom the
racks, the gibbets. the prisons, the thumb
screws2 For the sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty. Some one said TO n Christian
reformer, 1.-THE world is against YOU. y
''Then." no replied, II am against the
world"
I will so further ano say that every Chris
tan has his struggle. With financial mis-
fortune some of you have had the midnight
wrestie. 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 wrestlo, from which you have not
yet escaped, and it is uncertain whether
it Will throw you or you will
throw 1t. Here is another soul
in struggle with some bad appetite. He
knew not how stealthily 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 l 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 h seized upon it, 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 lire OF light 10 look from
above, and all he'll stretches itself in
myrmidons OF spite to look up from beneath
l have seen men rally themselves for n
struggle. and they have bitten their lip, and
clinched their fist, and cried with blood
red earnestness and rain scalding tears,
"God help mel"
From wrestle with habit Ihaye seen men
fall back delicate 1. Calling for no help, but
relying on their own resolutions, they have
come into the struggle ami for q time 1t
seemed rs if they were getting the upper
hand OF their habit. But that habit rallied
again its internal power and lifted the soul
from its standing, aud with force borrowed
from the pit hurled it into darkness.
But, thank God. / have often seen better
termination than this. 1 have seen men
prepare themselves for such a wrestling.
They laid hold OF Gods help rs 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
fu struggle. But the old giant began to
wayer, 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,
Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ"
There is n Widows heart that first was
desoated by bereavement and since by the
anxieties and trials that came in the support
OF family. 1t is u sad thing to see a man
contending for livelihood under disadyan-
tages, but to see delicate woman, with
helpless little ones ut. her back, fighting the
giants OF poverty and sorrow is moro
affecting. 1t was humble home, and
passersby knew not that within those four
walls were displays OF courage moro admir-
able than that OF Hannibal crossing
the Alps, or in the pass of Thermopyl@, or
at Balaklava, where tint 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 and 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 gracious? 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.
"Thy fatherless children, will preserve
them alive, and let thy widows trust IN mel"
Some one said to a very poor woman, "How
is ii that in such distress you keep cheerful?"
She said: II do ii by what call cross pray
ers. Wien had my rent to pay and moth
ing to pay Ii with and bread to buy and moth
Ing to buy 1t with, l used to sit down and
cry. But now 1 do not get discouraged. II
go along the street, when come TO q cor
ner OF the street, say 'The Lord help mel!
then go on until come to another cross
ing OF the street, and again Isay, The Lord
help mel And so utter a prayer at every
crossing, and since have got into the habit
OF saying these cross prayers | have been
able to keep up my courage"
Learn again from this subject that people
sometimes are surprised to find out that
what they have been struggling with in the
darkness is really an 'angel OF blessing"
Jacob found in the morning that this
strange parsonage vas not an enemy. but a
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 are a
Christian man, / will go back in your his
tory and find that the grandest things that
have ever happened to you have been your
trials. Nothing short of scourging, I'm
prisonment and shipwreck could have made
Paul what he was. When David Was fleeing
through the wilderness, pursued by his own
son, 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 Ito ethe subject of the
magnificent poem that las astoundei thf
ages. There is no way to get the wheat out
OF the straw but 10 thrash ii. There is no
way to purify the gold but to burn it, Look
at the people who have always had it their
own way. They are proud, Disseminated,
useess and unhappy. II you want TO find
cheerful folk, 90 among those who have been
purified by the fire. After Rossini had rem
dered "William Tell the five hundreItb
time company OF musicians came under his
window in Paris and serenaded him. They