The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-10-13
OUR MINOR TROUBLES
Sermon by DR.. Talmage on Small
Annoyances.
lie Says 1t Is These which Test Chris
tIan Fortitudc and Patience
The Lesson of Trivial
Irritations.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopsch.
Washington,

Washington,
This sermon by DR.. Talmage deals
with subject which appeals to all
classes and conditions of men. His text
is Deuteronomy 1920, The Lord thy
God will send the hornet"
1t seems as if the insectile world
were determined to extirpate the hu-
man race 1t bombards the grainfelds
and the orchards and the vineyards.
The Colorado beetle, the Nebraska
grasshopper, the New Jersey locust,
the universal potato beetle, seem to
carry on the work which was begun
ages ago when the insects buzzed out
of Noah's ark as the door was opened.
In my text the hornet flies out on its
mission. 1t is a species of wasp, swift
in its motion and violent in its sting.
It's touch is torture to man or beast.
We have all seen the cattle run below
ing under the cut of its lancet. In boy
hood we used to stand cautiously look
ing at the globular nest hung from the
tree branch, and while we were looking g
at the wonderful covering we were
struck with something that sent us
shrieking away. The hornet goes in
swarms. 1t has captains over hun
dreds, and 20 of them alighting on one
man will produce certain death.
The Persians attempted to conquer
a Christian city, but the elephants and
the beasts on which the Persians rode
were assaulted by the hornet, so that
the whole army was broken up, and the
besieged city was rescued. This burn
ing and noXious insect stung out the
Hittites and the Canaanites from their
country. What cleaning sword and
chariot of war could not accomplish
was done by the puncture of an insect
''The Lord sent the hornet"
Ny friends, when we are assaulted
by great behemoths of trouble we be-
come chivaIric and we assault them
We get on the high mettled steed OF
our courage, and we make a cavalry
charge at them, and if God be with us
we come out stronger and better than
when we went in. But alas for these
insectile annoyances of life, these foes
too small to shoot, these things with
out any avoirdupois weight, the gnats
and the midges and the flies and the
| "dSDS anu l1e uOIuGlS! III OluCl
words, it is the small stinging annoy
ances of our life which drive us out and
use us up. In the best conditioned
life for some grand and glorious pur-
| pose God has sent the hornet.
| remark, in the first place, that these
small stinging annoyances may come
in the shape of a nervous organization
| People who are prostrated under ty-
| phcid fevers or with broken bones get
plenty of sympathy, but who pities
anybody that is nervous? The doctors
say and the family say and everybody
says: cob, she's only little nervous;
that's ALL" The sound of heavy foot
! the harsh clearing of throat, a discord
in music, a want of harmony between
the shawl and the glove on the same
person, a curt answer, a passing slight
| the wind from the east, any one of ten
! thousand annOyances, opens the door
| for the hornet. The fact is that the
vast majority of the people in this
country are overworked, and their
nerves are the first to give out. A great
multitude are under the strain of Ley
| den who, when he was told by his ply
sician that if he did not STOP
working while he was in such
| poor physical health he would
die, responded: Doctor, whether
! live or die, the wheel must keep going
round" These sensitive persons OF
whom I speak have a bleeding sensi-
| tiveness. The flies love to light on any
thing raw, and these people are like
the Canaanites spoken of in the text OF
| in the conteX-they have a very thin
covering and are vulnerable at al
| points. "And the Lord sent the hornet
Again, the small insect annoyances
may come to us in the shape of friends
| and acquaintance who are always say
| ing disagreeable things. There are
some people you cannot be with for hall
an hour but you feel cheered and com
| forted. Then there are other people
| you cannot be with for five minutes be-
fore you feel miserable. They do not
mean to disturb you, but they sting you
| to the bone. They gather up all the
yarn which the gossips spin and retail
it. They gather up all the adverse crit
icisms about your person, about your
business, about your home, about your
| church, and they make your ear the
funnel into which they pour it. They
| laugh heartily when they tell you, as
though it were good joke, and you
| laugh, too-outside.
These people are brought to our at.
tention in the Bible, in the book OF
Ruth. Naomi went forth beautiful and
with the finest worldly prospects into
another land, but after awhile she
came back widowed and sick and poor
What did her friends do when she came
to the city? They/all went out, and
instead of giving her common sense
consolation, what did they do? Read
| the book of Ruth and find out. They
threw up their hands and said: SIS this
| Naomi?' as much as to say: "How
awful bad you do look!" When | en-
tered the ministry. looked very pale
for years, and every year, for four OF
five years, many times a year 1 was
asked if l had not consumption, and
| passing through the room, 1 would
sometimes hear people sigh and say:
| "A-ah, not long for this world!" re-
any conversation would say anything
depressing, and by the help of God
! have kept the resolution. These peo-
PIE of whom I speak reap and bind in
| the great harvest field of discourage
ment. Some day vou greet them witt
hilarious Good morning." and they
come buzzing at you with some depress'