Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-09-08
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: "People of MANY Troubles"-A
Certain Amount OF Persecution and
Tribulatton Arouses the Best That Is
in Man-wolnan in a Crisis.
TEXT: ''There was a sharp rock on the
one side and sharp rock on the other"
I Sam. XIV, 4.
The cruel army OF the Philistines must
be taken and scattered. There is just one
man. accompanied hy his bodvguard. to
do that thing. Jonathan is the hero OF the
scene. I know that David cracked the
skull Of the giant with a few pabbles we'll
slune, and that three hundred Gideonites
scattered ten thousand Amalekites bv the
crash OF broken crockery: but here Is a
more wonderful conflict. Wonder are the
Philistines on the rocks Here Is Jonathan
with his hodyguard in the valley. On the
one side is rock called Bozez; on the other
side is rock called Seneb. These two
were as famous in olden times as In modern
times are Plymouth Rock and Gibraltar.
They we're precintous, unscalable and
sharp. Between these two rocks Jon athan
must make his ascent. The day comes for
the scaling OF the height. Jonathan, on
his hands and feet, begins the ascent.
With strain and slip and bruise, suppose,
but still on and up, first goes Jonathan,
and then goes his bodyguard. Bozez on
one side Seneh on the other. After a sharp
tug. and push. and cinging, see the head
of Jonathan above the hole in the noun
tain, and there is a challenge and fight.
and a supernatural CONSERVATION. These
two men. Jonathan and his bodvguard,
drive back and drive down the Philistines
over the rocks, and open e campaign which
demolishes the enemies of Israel. 1 sun
pose that the overhauging and overshad-
owing rocks on either side did not balk or
dishearten Jonathan or his body0uard. but
only reused and filed them with ent husi-
asm as they went un. "There was sharp
rock on the one side, and sharp rock on
the other side"
MY friends YOU have been or are now,
some of you, in this crisis of the text, If a
man meets one trouble he can go through
with it. He gathers all his energies. con-
ceptrates them on one point. and In the
strength of God, or by his own natural de-
termination, goes through 1t. But the man
who has trouble to the right of him, and
trouble to the left of him, is to be pitied.
Did either trouble come alone, he might
endure it. but two troubles, two disasters.
two overshadowing misfortunes. are Bozez
and Seneh. God pity him! "There is a
sharp rock on the one side, and sharp
rock on the other side"
In this crisis of the text Is that man
whose fortune and health fail him at
the same time. Nine-tenths of all our mer-
chants capsize in business before they come
to forty-five years Of age. There is some
collision in commercial circles, and they
stop payment. 1t seems as If every man
must put his name on the back Of note
before he learns what fool "A man Is who
risks all his own property on the prospect
that some man WILL tell the truth. 1t seems
as IL a man must have a large amount of
unstable goods on his own shelf before he
learns how much easier it Is to buy than to
sell. 1t seems as II every man must be COM
pletely burned out before he learns the i'm
portance of always keeping fully insured.
1t seems as Ii every man must be wrecked
in financial tempest before he learns to
keep things snug In case of q sudden euro
clydon.
When the calamity does come, it is
awful. The man goes home in despair,
and he tells his family, "We'll have to go
to the poor house." He takes dolorous
view of everything. 1t seems as IL he never
could rise. But II little time passes, and
he says, ''Why, am not so badly off after
all: have my family left"
Before the Lord turned Adam out of
Paradise, He gave him Eve, SO that when
he lost Paradise he could stand it. Per-
NIT one who has never read but few
novels in all his life, and who has not a
great deal of romance in his composition,
to say, that IL, when mans fortunes fail,
he has good wife-a good Christian wife
he ought not to be respondent. "Oh,'
you say, "that only increases the embar-
rassment, since you have her also to take
care off, You are an migrate, for the
woman as often supports the man as the
bring all the dollars, but the woman gen.
orally brings the courage and the faith in
God
Well. this man of whom am speaking
looks around, and he finds his family is
left, and he rallies, and the light comes to
his eyes, and the smile to his face, and the
courage to his heart. In two years he is
quite over 1t. He makes his financial
calamity the first chapter in a new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble--con-
IInc cnf Iorryr fos Ia nrrvhf Tia
under the grim shadow of the rock Bozez;
yet he soon rose, and began, like
Jonathan, to climb. But how often
is it that physical ailment comes
with financial embarrassment When
the fortune failed 1t broke the mans spirit.
His nerves were shattered. His brain was
stunned. 1 can show you hundreds of men
In our cities whose fortune and health
failed at the same time. They came
prematurely to the staff. Their hand
trembled with incipient paralysis. They
never saw well day since the hour when
they called their creditors together for a
compromise. II such men are impatient,
and peculiar, and irritable, excuse them.
They had two troubles; either one OF which
they could have met successfully. If, when
the health went. the fortune had been re-
tanned, it would not have been so bad. The
man could have bought the very best
medical advice, and he could have had the
very best attendance, and long lines of
carriages WOulu nave stopped at the front
door to inquire as to his welfare. But
poverty on one side and sickness on the
other are Bozez and Seneh, and they inter-
lock their shadows, and drop them upon
the poor mans way. God help him!
"The-e is n sharp rock on the one side,
and n sharp rock on the other side.''
Now, what is such Il man to do? In the
name of Almighty God, I will tell him what
to do. Do as Jonathan did-climb; climb
up into the sunlight of Gods favor and
consolation. can go through the churches,
and show you men who lost fortune and
health at the sams time, and yet who sing
all day and dream OF Heaven all night. II
you have any idea that sound digestion,
and steady nerves, and clear eyesight, and
good hearing, and plenty of friends, are
necessary to make u man happy, you have
miscaleuated
1t is difficult thing for man to feel his
dependence upon God when he has ten
thousand dollars in the bank, and fifty
thousand dollars in Government securities,
and a block of stores and three ships.
well, the man says to himself, 'it is silly