The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-04
THE LIMITS OF LIFE
DR. TALMAGE TALKS ON THE DAN
III OF HAVING TOO MUCH.

The Symbol OF the 01ant-He Is Not Ale
ways the Strong Mantle Everyday
Man Does the work-The Worry Of
Useless Addenda.
Copyright, 1898, by American Press
A~ssociation.)
From a passage Of Scripture that
probably no other clergyman ever
preached from Rev. DIR. Talmage in
this discourse sets forth a truth very
appropriate for those who have I'M
healthy ambition for great wealth or
fame. The text is I Chron., Xxx, 6, Z:
"a man Of great stature, whose fin
gers and toes were o n twenty
six, six on each hand and six on each
foot, and he also was the son Of a
giant. But, when he defed Israel, JON
athan, the son Of Shimea, David's
brother, slew him."
Malformation photographed, and for
what reason? Did not this passage slip
by mistake into the sacred Scriptures,
as sometimes a paragraph utterly OBJ
noxious 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 GER
tainly intended to be put in the Bible
as the verse, I'm 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 and
tremendous meaning. By the people Of
God the Philistines had been conquer
ed, with the exception of a few giants.
The race of giants is mostly extinct,
] am glad to say. There is no use for
giants now except to enlarge the in
come of museums. But there were
man. Of them in Olden times. Goliath
was, according to the Bible, II feet Az
inches high, or, if you doubt this, the
famous Pliny declares that at Crete,
by an earthquake, a monument was
broken open, discovering the remains
of a giant 46 cubits long, or 50 feet
high. SO, whether you take sacred or
p~rOfane history, you must come to the
conclusion that there were in those
times cases of human altitude mon
strous and appalling.
THE GIANT IN HISTORY.
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
II lily ltAl. ne was HOI OIIy VI [AIEllc
stature, but had a surplus of digits.
To the ordinary fingers was annexed
an additional finger, and the foot had
also a superfluouS addendum. He had
"a examinations to hands and feet,
where others have 20. 1t was not the
only instance of the kind. Tavernier,
the learned writer, says that the en-
perOr of Java had a son endowed with
the same number of extremitieS. Vol
catius, the poet, had six fingers on
each hand. Maupertius, in his cele-
brated letters, speaks of two families
near Berlin similarly equipped of
hand and foot. All of which 1 can be-
lieve, for l 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
dispatched one giant the nephew of
David Stays this monster of my text,
and there he lies after the battle in
Gath, a dead giant. His stature did
not save him, and his superfluOus 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 mall
formed giant of the text: "A man Of
great stature, whose fingers and toes
were four and twenty-six, six on each
lCLllo III oiN oA S"SAA wv oANA AS ~Aoo
was the son of a giant. But when he
defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of
Shimea David's brother, slew him"
THE COMMON MAN.
Behold how superf1uities are a him
drance rather than a 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
curiosity of my text. A dwarf on the
right side rs 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 better
ment of the world is a sixth finger and
a sixth toe, and a terrible hindrance.
The most of the good done in the world
and the most of those who win the
battles for the right are ordinary peo-
pie. Count the fingers of their right
hand. and they have five-no more and
no less. One DR.. Duff among mission
aries, but 5000 missionaries that would
tell you they have only common en-
dowment. One Florence Nightingale
to nurse the sick in conspicuous places.
but $1,000 women who are just as good
nurses, though never heard of. The
Swamp Angel was a big gun that
during the civil war made a 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 eX-
pertinent with the "peacemaker," a
great iron gun that was to alright
with its 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 every thing
and settle it right, 1000, 900 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 on a rough last by a shoe