Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1898-10-07

aud Mental. Are IIinlrancs Rather
Than a Help in Lie.
TEXT: a man Of great stature. whose
fingers and toes were four and twenty. sis
ON each hand. aud six ON each foot: and h..
also was the son Of giant. But when he
irlled Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea,
Dayid's brother, slew him. - Chron. ny,
4, Z.
Malformation photographed. aud for
what rcasung Did not this passage slim in
Nv mistake into the sacred Scriptures. as
sometimes paragraph utterly obnoxious
TO the editor gets into his newspaper dur
ing his ahscnceg l. not this Scriptural err
rata No, no; there is nothing haphazard
ahnut the Bible. This passage of Scriptur,.
was rs certainly intended to be put in liz.
Bible ~ the verse, In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth" or.
"GOd So loved the world that He gave His
only hrgotten SON.
And select il for my text to-day because
It is churged with practical and tremendous
meaning. BY the people of God the Philis-
tines had been conquered, with the rNcri.-
ton of a few giants. The race of giants is
mostly extinct, | am glad to say. There is
Ho use for giants now except to enlarge he
income of museums. But there were many
of them in olden times. Goliath was. ac-
cordinE to the Bible, eleven feet four and u
half inches high. Or, II you doubt this.
the famous Pliny, declares that at Crete,
by an earthquake. a monument was broken
open, discovering the remains of giant
f0rty-siX cubits long, or siXty-nine feet
high. So. whether You TAKE sacred or pro-
fame history, you must come to the cOnclu-
sion that there were in those times cases of
human altitude monstrOus and appalling.
David had smashed the skull of one OF
these giants, but there were other giants
that the Davidean wars had not yet sub
dued and one of them stands in my text.
He was not only of Alpine stature, but had
a surplus of digits. To the ordinary fingers
was annexed an additional finger, aud the
foot had also Il superlluouS addendum.
He had twenty-fOur examinations to hands
and feet, where others have twenty. It was
not the only instance of the kind. Tavrr-
nicr the learned writer, says that the En-
peror of Java had a son endowed with the
same nun Der of eXtremities. NOlcatius,
the poet, had six fingers on each hand.
Naupcrtuis in his celebrated letters. speaks
of two families near Berlin similarly
equipped of hand and foot. All Of which
can believe, for have seen two cases of the
same physical superabundance. But this
giant of the text is in battle, and as David,
the STRIPPING warrior, had despatched one
giant. the nephew of David slays this mon
ster of my text, and there he lies after the
battle in Gath, a dead giant. His stature
did not save him, and his suVerfluous a9-
pendices Of hand and foot did not save him.
The probability was that in the battle his
sixth finger on his hand made him clumsy
in the use of his weapon. and his sixth toe
crippled his gait. Behold the PROSTATE
and uniformed giant OF the text: "A man
of great stature. whose fingers and toes
were four and twenty six on each hand
and six on each foot; and he also was the
son of giant. But when he dehed Israel,
Jonathan the son of Shimea, David :
brother, slew him.
Behold how supcrAuities are hin
drance rather than a help! In all the bat
tie ut Cath that day there was not Il man
with ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
ordinary stature that was not better OF
than this physical curiosity of my text. A
dwarf on the right side IS stronger than a
giant on the wrong side, and all the body
and mind and estate and opportunity that
you cannot use for God and the better
ment of the world is sixth finger and a
sixth toe, and Il terrible hindrauCe. The
most of the good done in the world and
the most Of those who win the battle for
the right are ordinary people. Count the
| fingers of their right hand, and they have
| Just tlve-nO more and no less. One D oc-
tor Duff among missionaries, but three
| thousand missionaries that would tell you
| they have only common endowment. One
| Florence Nightingale to nurse the sick in
cons picuOus places, but ten thousand
women who arc just as good nurses,
though never heard of. The "Swamp
Angel was Il big gun that during the Civil
! War made big noise, but muskets OF Ordi-
nary calibre and shells of ordinary heft
! did the execution. President Tyler and
and his Cabinet go down the Potomac one
| dav to experiment with the peace
maker" Il great iron gun that was to
alright with its thunder foreign nGvies.
The gunner touches it off, and it eXPlodes,
and leaves Cabinet Ministers dead on the
deck, while at that time, all up and down
our coast, were cannon OF ordinary bore
able to he the defense Of the nation, and
ready at the first touch to wakeA to duty.
The curse of the world is big guns. After
the politicians, who have made all the
! noise, go home hOarSe from angry discus
| sion on the evening of the first Monday in
| November the next day the people, with
the silent ballots, will settle everything
and settle it right, Il million of the white
slips of paper they drop making about rs
much noise as the fall OF an apple blossom
Clear back in the country to-day there
are mothers in plain aprons, and shoe.
fashioned on II rough last by Il shoemakeI
at the end of the lane. rocking babies that
are to be the Martin Luthers and the Fara
days and the Edisons and the Bismarck,
and tx Gladstones and the Washingt0ni
and the George Whitenelds of the future
The longer live the more / like common
folks. They do the worlds work, bearing
the worlds burdens, weeping the world.
symputhies, carrying the worlds consola
ton. Among lawyer, we see rise up
Rufus Choatc, or William Writ, or Sam
ueI L. Southland, but society would go tt
pieces tomorrow If there were not thou
sands of common lawyers to see that me!
and women get their rights. A Valentino
Mott or Willard Parker rises up eminen
IN the medical profession; but what an un
limited sweep would pneumonia and diph
theria and scarlet fever have in the worlt
II 1t were not for ten thousand common
doctors! The old physician in his gig
driving up the lane of the farmhouse, o
riding on horseback, his medicines in tn
Saddle-baSs, arriving on the ninth day 0
the fever, and coming in to take hold of TIL
pulse of the patient, while the family, pail
with anxiety and looking on and waiting
for his decision in regard to the patient
and hearing him say, "Thank God, | hay
mastered the case, he is getting well.' ey
cites in me ain admiration quite equal t
the mention Of the names of the grea
metropolitan doctors of the past or the il
iustrious living men Of the present.
Yet what do we see in all departments
People not satisfied with ordinary sphere
of work and ordinary duties. Instead {
trying to see what they can do with han
of five fingers, they want six. Instead {
usual endowment Of twenty manual an
pedal addenda they want twenty-lour.
certain amount of money for livelihood
and for the supply Of those whom we lepy
| behind us after we have deDarted this IiPi