The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-09-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"ENOUOH BETTER THAN TOO
MUCH" THE SUBJECT.
The Text is /. Chron., 20 CT, as FOL
lows; "a Man of Great Stature
Whose Fingers and Toes Were -Four
and Twenty, Six oil Each Hand" etc.

and uenty, Six oil Each HAND ETC.
Malformation photographed, and tor
what reason? Did not this passage,
slip in by mistake into the sacred
Scriptures, as sometimes paragraph
utterly obnoxious to the editor gets
into his newspaper during his absence!
Is not this Scriptural errata? NO, no.
there is nothing haphaZard about the
Bible This passage of Scripture was
as certainly intended to be put into the
Bible as the verse. I'm the beginning
God created the heavens and the
earth" or, God so loved the worid
that he gave His only begotten Son.
And select it for my text today be-
cause it is charged with practical ana
tremendous meaning. BY the people
of God the Philistines had been con-
quered, with the exception oil Few
giants. The race Of giants IS mostly
extinct. 1 am glad to say. There IS no
use for giants now except to enlarge
the income of museums. But there
were many of them in olden times. 90
Hath was. according to the Blplle, IL
feet Az inches high. Or, IL you uoupt
this the famous Pliny declares that at
Crete by an earthquake, monument
was broken open, discovering the re-
mains of a giant 46 cubits long, or %
feet high. So, whether you take sacred
or profane history, you must come 10
the conclusion that there were IN those
times cases of human altitude mon
strous and appalling.
David had smashed the skull OF one
Of these giants, but there were other
giants that the Davidean wars mad not
yet subdued, and one of them stands III
my text. He was not only OF Alpine
stature, but had surplus of digits. 10
the ordinary fingers was annexed an
additional finger, and the foot had also
a superfluous addendum. he hau
twenty-four examinations to hands anu
feet where others have twenty. 1t was
not the only instance Of the KIM.
Tavernier, the learned writer, says that
the emperor of Java had son endowed
with the same number Of extremltles.
Volcatius, the poet, had six fingers on
each hand. Maupertuis, in his cele-
brated letters, speaks of two famllles
near Berlin similarly equipped OF hand
and foot. All of which l can believe
for I have seen two cases of the same
physical superabundance. But TINS
giant of the text is in battle, ana as
David, the stripping warrior, has ais
patched one giant, the nephew OF DAVID
Stays this monster Of my text, and
there he lies after the battle in Cain,
a dead giant. His stature did not save
him, and his superduous appendices OF
hand and foot did not save him. Inc
probability was that in the battle his
sixth" finger on his hand made MIN
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
a giant. But when he defied Israel
Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David
brother, slew him."
Behold how superfluities are a him
drance rather than a help! In all the
battle at Gath that day there was not
man with ordinary hand and ordi-
nary foot and ordinary stature that was
not better off than this physical GU
riosity of my text. A dwarf on the
right side is stronger than giant on
the wrong side, and all the body and
mind and estate and opportunity that
YOU cannot use for God and the bet
torment of the world is a sixth finger
and a sixth toe, and terrible him
drance. The most of the good done In
the world, and the most of those who
win the battles for the right, are ordi-
nary people. Count the fingers of their
right hand, and they have just five-no
more and no less. One Doctor Duff
among missionaries, but three thou
sand missionaries that would tell yor
thew have only common endowment
One Florence Nightingale to nurse the
sick in conspicuous places, but ter
thousand women who are just as good
nurses. though never heard Of. The
"Swamp Angel" was a big gun thai
during the civil war made big noise
but muskets of ordinary caliber ant
shells of ordinary heft did the execu'
ton. President Tyler and his cabinet
90 down the Potomac one day to expe
riment with the "Peacemaker," a great
iron gun that was to alright with its
thunder foreign navies. The gunner
touches it off, and it explodes, ant
leaves cabinet ministers dead on the
deck. while at that time, all up and
down our coasts, were cannon OF ordi
nary bore, able to be the defense of thu
nation. and ready at the first touch tt
waken to duty. The curse of the world
; Is big guns. After the politicians, wht
have made all the noise, go hom'
hoarse from angry discussion on thu
evening of the first Monday in Novem
her. the next day the people, with thu
silent ballots will settle everything
and settle it right, million of thu
white slips of paper they drop making
about as much noise as the fall OF al
apple blossom