The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-10-20
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SABBATH DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

TEXT: "The wind was contrary" Mathew
xiv, "a.
As we'll know by experience on Lake
Galiee one hour all may be calm and the
next hour the winds and waves will be 80
boisterous that you are in doubt rs to
whether you will land on the shore or on
the bottom Of the deep. The disciples in
the text were caught in such stress OF
weather and the sails bent and the ship
plunged, for "the wind was contrary"
There is in one OF the European straits
place where, whichever way you sail, the
winds are opposing. There are people who
all their life seem sailing in the teeth OF
tho wind. All things seem against them.
It may be said of their condition as Of that
OF the disciples in my text, "the wind was
contrary"
A great multitude Of people are under
seeming disadvantage, and I will to-day,
in the swarthiest Anglo-SaTon that can
manage, treat their cases not as nurse
counts out eight or ten drops OF prescrip-
tion and stirs them in O half glass Of water,
but as when man has by mistake taken
q large amount Of strychnine or paris green
or belladonna, and the patient is walked
rapidly round the room and shaken up un-
til he gets wide awake. Many Of you have
taken O large draught of the poison OF dis
couragement, and come out by the order
OF the Divine Physician to rouse you out OF
that lethargY.
First, many people are under the disad-
vantage Of an unfortunate name given
them by parents who thought they were
doing good thing. Sometimes at the
one hand in prayer I have held up the
other hand in amazement that parents
should have weighted the babe with such
a dissonapt and repulslVe Nomenclature.
have not so much wondered that sope
children should cry out at the christening
font as that others with such smiling face
should take title that will be the burden
OF their lifetime. It is outrageous to afhict
children with an undesirable name because
It happened to be possessed by parent or
a rich uncle from whom favors are ex-
pected or some prominent man OF the day
who may end his life in disgrace. 1t Is no
excuse, because they are Scripture names,
to call child Jehoiakim or Tiglath-Pil-
eser. I baptized one by the name Bath
sheba. Why, under all the circumambient
heaven, any parent should want to give to
a child the name Of that loose creature OF
Scripture times cannot imagine. have
often felt ut the baptismal altar, when
names were announced to me. like saying,
as did the Rev. DR.. Richards, OF Morris
town, N. J., when child was handed him
you better call it something else2"
Impose not upon that babe name sug-
gestive OF flippancy or meanness. There Is
no excuse for such assault and battery on
the cradle when our language Is opulent
with names musical and suggestive In
meaning, such as John, meaning "the gra-
cious gift of God" or Henry, meaning "the
chief Of household" or Alfred, meaning
'good counselor" or Joshua, meaning
"God, our salvation" or Ambrose, meaning
Immortal" or Andrew, meaning manly"
or Esther, meaning "star," or Abigail,
meaning "my fathers JOY" or Anna, mean
ing grace" or Victoria, meaning "vjc-
tory" or Rosalie, meaning beautiful as
rose" or Margaret, meaning SO pearl" or
Ida, meaning "godlike," or Clara, meaning
'illustrious," or Amelia, meaning busy"
or Bertha, meaning beautiful" and hun
dreds Of other names just as good that are
help rather than hindrance.
But sometimes the great hindrance In life
Is not in the given name, but in the family
name. While legislatures are willing to
lift such incubus, there are families that
keep name which mortgages oil the gen.
erations with a great disadvantage. You
say, II wonder If he is any relation to So
aHd-so," mentioning some family celebra-
ted for crime or deception. 1t Is wonder
to me that in all such families some spirited
young man does not rise, saying to his
brothers and sisters, "If you want to keep
this nuisance or standardization Of a name,
I will keep it no longer than until by
quickest course Of law can slough off this
gangrene." The city directory has hun
dreds of names the mere pronunciation OF
which has been lifelong obstacle. Hyou
have started life under aname which either
through ridiculous photography or vicious
suggestion has been An incumbrance, re-
solve that the next generation shall not
be so weighted. It is not demeaning to
change name. Saul Of Tarsus became
Paul the Apostle. Hadassah, "the myrtle"
became Esther, "the star" We have In
America, and suppose 1t Is 50 in all coun-
tries, names which ought to be abolished
and can be and will be abolished for the
reason that they are libel and slander.
But If for any person you are submerged
either by given name or by family name
that you must bear, God will help you to
overcome the outrage by life consecrated
to the good and useful. You may erase
the curse from the name If it once stood
for meanness, you can make 1t stand for
generosity. II once it stood for pride, you
can make It stand for humanity. If it once
stood for fraud, you can make 1t stand Tor
honesty. II once 1t stood for wickedness,
you can make 1t stand for purity There
have been multitudes of instances where
men and women have magnincently con-
quered the disasters OF the name inflicted
upon them
Again, many people labor under the mis-
fortune Of Incompetent physical equipment.
We are by our Creator so economically
built that we cannot afford the obliteration
OF any physical faculty. We want our two
feet, our eight fingers and two thumbs.
Yet what multitudes of people have but
one eye or but one FOOT The ordinary
casualties of life have been Guadrupled,
quintupled, sextupled, aye, centupled, In
our time BY the Civil War, and at the North
and South great multitude are fighting
the battle Of life with half, or less than half,
the needed physical armaments. DO not
wonder at the pathos OF a soldier during
the war, who, when told that he must have
his hand amputated, said, Doctor, can't
YOU save it?" and when told that It was i'm
possible, said, "Well, then, goodby, old
hand. hate to part with you. You have
done me good service for many years, but
1t seems you must 60. Goodby."
A celebrated surgeon told me Of a scene
In the clinical department OF one Of the
New York hospitals, when poor man with
wounded leg was brought in before the
students to be operated on. The surgeon
was pointing out this and that to the stu
dents and handling the wounded leg, and
was about to proceed to amputation when
the poor man Ieaped from the table and
hobbled to the door and said, "Gentlemen,
am sorry to disappoint you, but by the
help Of God will die with my leg on"
What a terrific loss Is the loss Of our phys
ical facultiesl'
The way the battle Of Crecy was decided
against France was by the Welshmen kill
ing the French horses, and that brought
their riders to the ground. And when you
cripple this body, which Is merely the
animal on which the soul rides, you may
sometimes defeat the soul.
Yet how many suffer from this physical
taking off! Good cheer my brother! God