Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-10-12
SERMONS OF THE DAY
Subject: Enough Better Than Too Much"
Certain Superhuities, Both Physical
and Mental, Are . Hindrance Rather
Than = Help In Life.

Certain Superhuities, Both Physical
and Mental, Are . Hindrance Rather
Than q Help In Life.
TEXT: "a man OF great stature, whose
fingers and toes were four and twenty. six
IN each hand, and six ON each foot; and he
also was the son OF giant. But when he
iefied Israel, Jonathan, the son Of Shimea,
David's brother, slew him. Chron. XIX,
), Z.
Malformation photographed, and for
what reasonf Did not this passage slip In
by mistake into the sacred Scriptures, rs
sometimes paragraph utterly obnoxious
to the editor gets into his newspaper dur
Ing his absenoe2 Is not this ScripturRl er-
rata? No, no; there Is nothing haphazard
about the Bible. This passage of Scripture
was as certainly intended to be put In 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 begottcn Son."
And / select 1t for my text to-day because
1t is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning. by the people of God the Philis-
tines had been conquered, with the excep-
tion of a few giants. The race of giants is
mostly extinct, l 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. Goliath was, ac-
cording to the Bible, eleven feet four and
half inches high. Or, II you doubt this,
the famous Pliny, declares that at Crete,
by On earthquake, monumentwaS broken
open, discovering the remains of a giant
forty-six cublts 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
n N nv taV
He was not only Of Alpine stature but had
q surplus of digits. To the ordinary fingers
was annexed an additional finger, and the
foot had also a superfluous addendum.
and feet, where others have twenty. 1t was
not the only instance OF the kind. Taver-
nier, the learned writer, says that the En-
perOr of Java had a son endowed with the
same number Of extremities. Volcatius,
the poet, had six fingers on each hand.
Maupertuis, m his celebrated letters, speaks
Of two families near Berlin similarly
equipped Of hand and foot. All Of which I
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, n dead giant. His stature
did not save him, and his superluous ap-
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 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 giant. But when he dened Israel,
Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David'a
brother. slew him.
Behold how superhuities are q hin
dtance rather than help! In all the bat
tie at Gath that day there was not a man
with ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
ordinary stature that was not better off
than this physical curiosity Of my text. 4
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 afor God and the better
mont Of the world is sixth finger and
sixth toe, and terrible hindrance. 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 five-no more and no less. One Doc
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
conspicuous places. but tan thousand
though never heard Of. The "Swamp
Angel" was a 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
day to experiment with the peace
maker" great iron gun that was to
alright with its thunder foreign navies.
The gunner touches 1t off, and it expiodes,
and leaves Cabinet Ministers dead on the
deck, while at that time, all up and down
our coast, were cannon Of ordinary bore,
nhI 90 hnt thn dot - Ako
ready at the first touch to waken to duty.
The curse Of the world is big guns. After
the politicians, who have made all tho
noise, go home hoarse from angry discus
sion on the evening of the first Monday in
November, the next day the people, with
and settle 1t right, million OF tho white
slips Of paper they drop making about as
much noise as the fall Of IN apple-blossom.
Clear back In the country to-day there
are mothers In plain aprons, and shoes
fashioned on a rough last by a shoemaker
at the end of the lane, rocking babies that
are to be the Martin Luthers and the Fara-
days and the Edisons and the Bismarcks
and the Gladstones and the Washingtons
and the George Whiteflelds Of the future.
The longer live the more like common
folks. They do the worlds work, bearing
the worlds burdens, weeping the worlds
sympathies, carrying the worlds consoln-
tfon. Among lawyers we see rise up a
Rufus Choate, or William Writ, or n Sam
uel L. Southard, but society would go to
pieces tomorrow II there were not thou
sands of common lawyers to see that men
and women get their rights. A Valentine
Mott or q Willard Parker rises up eminent
in the medical profession; but what an un-
limited sweep would pneumonia and diph-
iberia and scarlet fever have in the world
IL 1t were not for ten thousand common
doctors! Tho old physician in his gig,
driving up the lane Of the farmhouse, OF
riding on horseback, his medicines in the
saddle-bags, arriving on the ninth day OF
the fever, and coming In to take bold Of the
pulse Of the patient, while the family, pale
for his decision in regard to the patient
and hearing him say, "Thank God, l have
mastered the case, he is getting welli' ex-
cites In me an admiration quite equal to
the mention Of the names Of the great
metropolitan doctors of the past or the H.
lustrious living men OF the present.
Yet what do we see In all Departmental
People not satisfied with ordinary spheres
Of work and ordinary duties. Instead OF
trying to see what they can do with hand
of five fingers, they want six. Instead CT
usual endowment OF twenty manual and
pedal addenda. they want twenty-four a
certain amount of money for livelihood q
and for the supply Of those whom we leave
behind US after We have departed this life
is important, for we have the best authority /
own, and especially those OF his own house. |
hold, Is worse than an inadel;" but the |
large and fabulous sums fof which many
struggle, II obtained, would be a hindrance |,
rather than an advantage.
The anxieties and annoyances Of those
whose estates have become plethoric can
only be told by those who possess them. II
will be good thing when, through your
industry and prosperity, you can own the
house in which you live. But suppose you
own fifty houses, and you have all those
rents to collect, and all those tenants to
please. Suppose you have branched out In
business successes until in almost every di.
rection you have investments. The fire
bell rings at night, you rush upstair to loob
ont OF the window, to see If 1t is any OF
your mills. Epidemic Of crime comes, and
there are embezzlements and absconding
In all directions. and you wonder whether
any Of your bookkepers will prove re-
A nm The fin N pia1 world