The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-22
FOR COMMON PEOPLE.
REV, DIR, TALMAGE'S WORDS OF
CHEER FOR THE LOwLY.

The Rank and File of the Lords SoldIery
Need Especial HeIp-Let us be Content
With Gods Gifts-The Penalty of Great
ness Outweighs the JOY.
DIR. Talmage in this discourse calls
the roll Of faithful men and noble wo-
men in all departments who are unre-
cognized and unrewarded and sounds
announcement for those who do work
in spheres inconspicuous; text, Ro-
mans xvi, IA, Is, Salute Asyncritus,
Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes,
Philologus and Julia"
Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes,
Adam Clark, Thomas Scott and all the
commentators pass by these verses
without any special remark The
other twenty people mentioned in the
chapter were distinguished for some
thing and were therefore discussed by
the illustrious eXpositors, but nothing
is said about Asyncritus, Phlegon,
Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, Philologus
and Julia. Where were they born?
No enc knows. When did they die?
There is no record of their decease.
For what were they distin guished?
Absolutely nothing, or the trait of
character would have been brought
out by the apostle. If they had been
intrepid or Opulent or hirsute or must
cal of cadence or Grass OF style or in
any wise anomalous, that feature
would have been caught by the apos-
tolic camera. But they were good peO-
pie, because Paul sends to them his
high Christian regards. They were
ordinary people, moving in ordinary
sphere, attending to ordinary duty and
meeting ordinary responsibilities.
FOR THE RANK AND FILE.
. What the world wants is a religion
for ordinary people. If there be in the
United States 10000, 600 people, there
are~certainly not more than 10000 0
extraordinary, and then there are Co.
O00, 600 ordinary, we do we'll to
turn our backs for a little while upon
the distinguished and conspicuous peO-
pie of the Bible and consider in our
tex the seven ordinary. We spend too
much of our time in twisting garlands
for remarkables, and building thrones
for m%agnates, and sculpturing war
riOrs, and ~apOtheOsizing philanthropy
lists. The rank and file of the Lords
sOldiery need especial help.
The vast majority of people will
never lead an army, will write a
state constitution, will never electrify
a senate, will never make an impOr-
tant invention, will never introduce a
new philosophy, will never decide the
fate of a nation. You do not expect
to, o do not want to. You will not
be a Moses to lead a nation out of
bondage. You will not be a Joshua to
prolOng the daylight until you can
shut five kings in a cavern. You Will
not be q st. John to unrOll an ApOca-
lypse. You will not be a Paul to pre-
side over an apostolic college. You
will not be a Mary to mother a Christ.
You will more probably be Asyncritus,
or Phlegon, or Hermas, or PatrObas,
or Hermes, or PhilolOgus, or julia.
Many of you are N at the head
of households. Every morning you
plan for the day. The culinary depart
ment of the household is in your do
minion. You decide all questions of
diet. All the sanitary regulations Of
your house are under your supervision.
To regulate the food and the apparel
and the habits and decide the thousand
questions of home life is a tax upon
brain and nerve and general health
absolutely appalling if there be no di-
vine alienation.
NEEDS OF THE HOME RACE.
1t does not help you much to be told
+I,D+ INl;.nlo+I IN,x, Ala -r~-1arfrl
Things amid the criminals at NeWgate.
1t does not help you much to be told
that Mrs. JudsOn was very brave
among the BOrnesian cannibals. 1t
does not help o very much to be told
that Florence Nightingale vas very
kind to the wounded in the Crimea.
1t would be better for me to tell you
Lat the divine friend Of Mary and
Marcia is your friend, and that he sees
all the ~annOyances and disappOint-
mentS and abrasiOns and ~eXaspera-
tions of an ordinary housekeeper from
morn till night, and from the first day
of the year until the last day of the
year, and at your call he Is ready with
help and reinforcement. !
They who provide the food of the |
world decide the health of the world. |
You have only to go on some errand |
amid the taverns and hotels of the |
United States and Great Britain to ap-
preciate the fact that a vast multitude |
of the human race are slaughtered by |
incompetent cookery. Though a
yaung woman may have taken lessons
in music and may have taken lessons
in painting and lessons in astronomy, |
she is not we'll educated unless she has
taken lessons in dough. They who de- |
eide the apparel of the world and the |
food of the world decide the endurance |
of the world.
An unthinking man may consider it |
a matter of little Importance, the cares
Of the household and the economies of
domestic life, but l tell you the earth
is strewn with the martyrs of kitchen
and nursery. The health shattered