The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-10-09
MISSION OF HORNETS
SERMON sy REV. 7. De WITT tai
MAGE ON SMALL ANNoyAkcEs.

1
The Minor Troubles of Life whicl
Test Christian FOrtitude and Pa
tience-The Lesson of Trivial Irri
tations.
copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, Oct 8.-This sermon b.
Dr. Talmage deals with subject which
appeals to all classes and conditions O
men. His text is Deuteronomy vii, 20
"The Lord thy God will send the hornet.
1t seems as IL the insectile world wer,
determined to extirpate the human race
1t bombards the grainfelds and the or
chards and the vineyards. The Colorado
beetle, the Nebraska grasshopper. tn,
New Jersey locnst. the universal potato
beetle, seem to carry on the work which
was begun ages ago when the insects bux
zed out Of Noah's ark as the door wal
opened "a. ~, -
In my text the hornet flies out on its
mission. 1t is species of wasp, swift il
its motion and violent In its sting. Ita
touch Ii torture to man or beast. We
have all seen the cattle run believing I'm.
der the cut of Its lancet. In boyhood We
used to stand cautiously looking at the
globular nest hung from the tree branch,
and while we were looking at the wonder.
full covering we were struck with some.
thing that sent us shrieking away. The
hornet goes in swarms. 1t has captains
over hundreds, 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 burning and nox-
ious 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"
My friends, when we are assaulted by
great behemoths Of trouble we become
chiyalric, and we assault them. We get
on the high melted steed Of our coura Re,
and We make cavalry charge at them,
and II God be with us we come out
stronger and better than when we went
in. But alas for these insectile annoy
ances of life, these foes too small to
shoot, these things without any avoirdu-
pois weight, the gnats and the midges
and the flies and the wasps and the hor-
nets! In other words, 1t is the small
singing annoyances Of our life which
drive us out and use us up. In the best
conditioned life for some grand and glori-
GUS purpose God has sent the hornet.
7 arb w thr MA hal
small singing annoyances may come in
the shape of a nervous organization.
People who are Frustrated under typhoid
fevers or with broken bones get plenty Of
sympathy, but who pities anybody that is
nervous? The doctors say and the fam
lily say and everybody says, "Oh, she's
only little nervous; that's alp The
sound Of heavy foot the harsh clearing
of throat, discord in music, want of
harmony between the shawl and the
glove on the same person, a curt answer,
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
stefan that If he did not stop working
while he was in such poor physical
health he would die, responded, doctor,
whether l live or die, the wheel must
keep going round" These sensitive per-
sons of whom 1 speak have a bleeding
constituencies. The flies love to light on
anything raw, and these people are like
the Canaanites spoken Of In the text or
In the context-they have very thin
covering and are vulnerable at all points. |
"And the Lord sent the hornet"
The Retailers Of Gossip.
! Again, the small insect annoyances may
come to us in the shape of friends and
acquaintances who are always saying dis |
agreeable things. There are some people |
you cannot be with for half an hour but |
you feel cheered and comforted. Then |
there are other people you cannot be |
with for Eve minutes before you feel mis-
cradle. 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 1t. They gather up all
the adverse criticisms about your per-
son, about your business, about your
home. about your church, and they
make your ear the funnel into which they
pour 1t. They laugh heartily when they
tell you, as though 1t were good joke,
and you laugh, too-outside.
These people are brought to our atten-
ton 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
nd cto nd |
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, "Is this .Naomi2" as much as to
say, "How awful bad you do look!'
When entered the ministry, looked
very pale for years, and every year, for
four or FIVE years, many times year
was asked il had not consumption, and,
passing through the room, would some
times hear people sigh and say, "A-ah,
not long for this world" l resolved in
those times that never in any CONVERSE
ton would say anything depressing, and
by the help of God have kept the reso-
luton. These people of whom l speak
reap and bind in the great harvest field
of discOuragement. Some day you greet
them with a hilarious Good morning"
and they come buzzing at you with some
depressing information. THE Lord seat
the hornet"
1t is astonishing how some people pre-
fer to write and TO say disagreeable
things. That was the case when Henry
NJ. Stanley returned after his magnificent
exploit of finding David Livingstone.
When Mr.. Stanley stood before the sa-
wants of Europe and many of the small
critics of the day, under pretense of get
ting geographical information, put to him
most insolent questions, he folded his
firms and refused to answer At the very
time when you would suppose all decent
men would have applauded the heroism
Of the man there were those to hiss "The
Lord sent the hornet" And when after
ward that man sat down on the western
coast Of Africa, sick and worn out, with :,
perhaps the grandest achievement of the
age in the way of geographical discovery,
there were small critics all over the world /
to buzz and buzz and caricature and de-
ride him, and when after awhile he got
the London papers, as he opened them,
out flew the hornet. When l see that !
lIuuH L. To- h., ,1u1l