The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-06-12
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Comfort for Those Who Battle
with Adversely.
Physical or Mental or Moral Disadvantages
Which Handicap One In This
Life, But VIII Not In the
Lie to Come.

ject Contrary Winds" It's based OF
the text:
The Ind was contrary Matthew xiv. "a
AS l we'll know by experience OF
Lake Galilee, one hour all may be calm
and the next hour the winds and waves
will be SO boisterous that you are In
doubt as to whether you will land OF
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, foi
1.-THE wind was contrary" There is in
one of the European straits place
where, whichever way you sail, the
winds are opposing. There are peo-
pie who all their life seem sailing in
the teeth of the wind. All things
seem against them. 1t may be said OF
their condition as of that OF the dis
ciples in my text: THE wind was con-
trary."
A great multitude of people are I'M
der seeming disadvantage, and L will
to-day, in the swarthiest Anglo-Saxon
that l can manage, treat their cases
not as nurse counts out eight or ten
drops of a prescription and stirs them
in a half glass of water, but as when a
man has by mistake taken a large
amount of strychnine or paris green
or belladonna, and the patient is
walked rapidly round the room and
shaken up until he gets wide awake.
Many of you have taken large
draught of the poison of discourage
ment, and l come out by the order of
the Divine Physician to rouse you out
of that lethargy. g.
First, many people are under the dis
advantage of an unfortunate name
given them by parents who thought
they were doing good thing. Some
times at the baptism of children while
have held up one hand I'm prayer l
have held up the other hand in amaze
ment that parents should have weight
ed the babe with such dissonant and
repulsive nomenclature. have not 80
much wondered that some children
should cry out at the christening font
as that others with such smiling face
should take a title that will be the
burden of their lifetime. 1t Is out
yageous to afflict children with an I'M
desirable name because it happened to
be possessed by parent or a rich I'M
Gle from whom favors are expected 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 a child Jehoiakim or
Tiglath- Pileser. baptized one by the
name Bathshcba- Why, under all the
circumambient heaven, any parent
should want to give to a child the
name of that loose creature of Scripture
times can not imagine. have often
felt at the baptismal altar, when names
were announced to me, like saying, as
did Rev. DR.. Richards, of Morristown,
n. j., when a child was handed him for
babtism and the name given: Hadn't
you better call it something else?"
Impose not upon that babe a name
suggestive OF flippancy or iueanness.
There it no excuse for such assault and
battery on the cradle when our Ian
guage is opulent with names musical
and suggestive in meaning, such as
John, meaning 1.-THE gracious gift Of
God" or Henry, meaning "the chief of
a 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, meaning grace" or Victoria.
meaning victory" or Rosalie, mean
ing beautiful as a rose" or Margaret,
meaning "a pearl" or Ida, meaning
''godlike," or Clara, meaning Ill
lustrious," or Amelia, meaning busy"
or Bertha, meaning beautiful" and
hundreds 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 which keep name which
mortgages all the generations with a
great disadvantage. You say: II won
der IL he is any relation to "So-and-
So" mentioning some family celebrat-
ed for crime or deception. 1t is a won
der to me that in all such families some
spirited young man does not rise, say
ing to his brothers and sisters: IF you
want to keep this nuisance of scandal
ization of a name, l will keep it no
longer than until by quickest course
Of law can slough off this
gangrene. 1.-THE city directory has
hundreds of names the mere
pronunciation of which has been
a lifelong obstacle. II you have started
life under name which, either through
ridiculous photography or vicious sug-
gestion, has been an incumbrance,
resolve that the next generation shall
not be so weighted. It Is not demean-
ing to change name. Saul of Tarsus
became Paul the Apostle. Hadassah,
"the myrtle became Esther, "the
star" We have in America, and sup
pose 1t Is so in all countries, names
which ought to be abolished, and can
be and will be abolished, for the
reason that they nre q libel and a
Islander. But II ror any reason you
are submerged either by given name
or by family name that you must bear,
God will help you to overcome the out
rage by life consecrated to the good
and useful. You may erase the curse
from the name. II IL once stood for
meanness You can make IL stand for