Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1898-09-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
ENOUGH BETTER THAN TOO
MUCH" THE SUBJECT.
The Text Is I. Chror., 20 81, as Fol
lows: "A Man of Great stature,
Whose Fingers and Toes Were Four

what reason? Did not this passage
slip in by mistake into the sacred
Scriptures. as sometimes a 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, In the beginning
God created the heavens and the
earth or, God so loved the world
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 OF a lew
giants. The race of giants is mostly
extinct. | 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. GO
Hath was. according 10 the Bible, IL
feet AZ inches high. Or, if you doubt
this. the famous Pliny declares that al
Crete, By an earthquake, monument
was broken open, discovering the re-
mains of a giant &c cubits long, or 69
feet high. So, whe er you take sacred
or profane history, you must come 10
the conclusion that there were III 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 had not
yet subdued. and one of them stands III
my text He was not only of Alpine
stature but had surplus OF dlgits 10
the ordinary fingers was annexed an
additional finger, and the foot had also
a superfluous addendum. He had
twenty-four examinations to hands and
feet, where others have twenty. II was
not the only instance of the kind.
Tavernier, the learned writer, says that
the emperor of Java had a son endowed
with the same number of extremlties.
Volcatius, the poet, had six fingers on
each hand. Maupertuis. in his cele-
brated 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. has dis
patched one giant, the nephew of David
Stays this monster of my text, and
there he lies after the battle in Gath,
dead giant. His stature did not save
him, and his superfluous appendices 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 malformed 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 Re defed Israel
Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's
brother, slew him"
Behold how superfluities are a him
drance rather than help! In all the
battle at Gath that day there was not
a 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 a giant on
the wrong side, and all the body and
mind and estate and opportunity that
you cannot use for God and the bet
terment of the world is sixth finger
and sixth toe, and a terrible him
draDce. 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 you
they have only common endowment
One Florence Nightingale to nurse the
sick in conspicuous places, but ten
thousand women who are just as good
nurses, though never heard Of The
Swamp Angel was a big gun that
during the civil war made big noise
but muskets of ordinary caliber and
shells of ordinary heft did the execu-
ton. President Tyler and his cabinet
go down the Potomac one day to expe-
riment with the "Peacemaker." a great
iron gun that was to alright with it's
thunder foreign navies. 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 coasts, were cannon of Ordi-
nary bore, able to be the defense of the
nation, and ready at the first touch to
waken to duty. The curse of the world
is big guns After the politicians, who
have made all the noise, go home
hoarse from angry discussion on the
evening OF the first Monday in Novem-
Der. the next day the people. with the
silent ballots, will settle everything.
and settle it right, million of the
white slips of paper they drop making
about as much noise as the fall of an
apple blossom
Clear back in the country today there
are mothers in plain apron, and shoes
fashioned OH a rough last by a shoe
rrakor AT tho oud of the lane rockiny