Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-05-31
THE CONTRARY WIND
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON OF ENCOUR-
AGEMENT TO STRUGGLING SOULS.

The Disciples on the Lake of Gali1ee-A
Draft OF Discouragement-Th Disad-
vantage of an Unfortunate Name-Early
Mistakes That Cloud the Life.
WASHINGTON, May 30.-Dr. Tai
IMAGES sermon this week is one of good
cheer. 1t will give encouragement to
many struggling souls. The subject is
"Contrary Winds, -" and the text Mathew
xiv, "a, ''The wind was contrary.
AS 1 we'll know by experience on
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 70 whether you will land on
the shore or on the bottom of the deep.
The disciples in the text were caught in
such a stress of weather and the sails
bent and the ship plunged, for 'the
wind was contrary" There is in one of
the European straits q place where,
whichever way you sail, the winds are
opposing There are people 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 disciples in my text
''the wind was contrary.
A great multitude of people are I'M
der seeming disadvantage, and / will
today, in the swarthiest Anglo-Saxon
shat can manage, treat their cases not
as a nurse counts out eight or ten drops
Of a prescription and stirs them in
half glass of water, but as when man
has by a mistake taken a'large amount
Of strychnine or paris green or BELLA
donna, and the patient is walked rapid
" round the room and shaken up until
he gets wide awake. Many of you have
taken large draught of the poison of
Encouragement, and come out by the
order of the Divine Physician to rouse
you out of that lethargy.
Il Handicapped by a Name.
First, many people are under the dis
advantage of an unfortunate name given
them by parents who thought they
We're doing a good thing. Sometimes at
the baptism of children while have
held up one hand in prayer 1 have held
up the other hand in amazement that
parents should have weighted the babe
with such a dissOnant and repulslve
nomenclature. I have not so much won
dered that some children should cry out
at the christening font as that others
with such smiling face should take til
tie that will be the burden of their life
time. 1t is outrageous to aff1ict children
with an undesirable name because it
happened to be possessed by a parent or
q 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 Scrip
ture names, to call child JehOlaklm
or Tiglath-Pileser. / baptized one by
the name Bathsheba Why, under all
the circumambient heaven, any parent
should want to give to a child the name
of that loose creature of Scripture times
I cannot imagine. I have often felt at
the baptismal altar, when names were
announced to me, like saying, as did the
Rev. Dr. Richards of Morristown, n.
J., when child was handed him for
baptism and the name given, Hadn't
you better call it something else?''
Impose not upon that babe a name
suggestive of fippancy or meanness.
There is no excuse for such assault and
battery on the cradle when our lam
guage is opulent with names musical
John, meaning "the gracious gift of
God," or Henry, meaning "the chief of
D household or Alfred, meaning
t'good counselor" or Joshua, meaning
"God, our salvation" or Ambrose,
meaning immortal" or Andrew,
meaning "manly," or Esther, meaning
'tstar," or Abigail, meaning ''my
fathers joy" or Anna, meaning
''grace," or Victoria, meaning 'vic-
tory" or Rosalie, meaning beautiful
as a rose,'' or Margaret, meaning ga
PEARL or Ida, meaning ''godlike, F." or
Clara, meaning Industrious, or Anne
liza, meaning busy or Bertha, mean
ing beautiful and hundreds of other
names just as good that are a help
rather than hindrance.
Names as Lifelong Obstacles.
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 a name which mort
cages all the generations with a great
disadvantage. You say, 81 wonder if he
is any relation to So-and-s - mention
ing some family celebrated for crime or
deception. 1t is a wonder to me that in
all such families some spirited young
man does not rise, saying to his broth
ers and sisters, eff you want to keep
this nuisance or standardization of
name, will keep it no longer than I'M
til by quickest course of law I can
slough off this gangrene." The city di-
rectory has hundreds of names the mere
pronunciation of which has been life
long obstacle. If you have started life
under name which either through ri
1iculous photography or vicious sugges-