The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-01-04
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject; New Year Thoughts--we should
Make the Most of Oor lsrier LIVES
Infldelity tho Source of Much Woe
Christ's MatchIess Stories.

NhFtsth natCntets Stofiess
copyright, Louis Klopsch lssel
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse DR..
Talmage takes the opportunity OF Offering
some very practica, and useful suggestions;
text, Psalms xc., q, 1--WE spend our years
as n tale that Is told"
The Israelites were forty ycars in the
wilderness, and during thirty-eig years
OF the forty nothing Is recorded OF them,
and, suppose, no other emlgrants had u
duller or more unintcresting time than
they had. SO they got to telling storIes--
stories concerning themselves or concern
Ing others; stories about the brick kins OF
Egypt, where they had toiled in slavery:
stories about how the waters OF the Rod
Sea piled up Into palisades Mt their cross
ing; story OF tho lantern hung in the heav-
ems to guide them BY night; story OF ibiseH
destroying tho reptiles 81 the wilderness;
stories OF personal encounter. 1t must
have been an awful thing to have had moth
ing to do for thirty-eight years except to
get lost every time they tried to escape
from the wilderness. SO they whlled away
tho lime In story telling. Indeed there
were persons whose Que business was to
narrate stories and they were paid by
such trillos ns they could pick up from the
surrounding listeners. To such instances
our text refers when it -nys I'VE spend
our years as II tale that Is told"
AZ this tremendous passage from the
year 1899 10 the year 1909 Il viii 10 us all
good to consider that our whole life Is n
story told-u good story or bad story a
tragic story or mirthful story, wise
story or n foolish story, Il clean story or n
filthy story. n story of success or n story OF
failure. Owe spend our years as tale
that ia told"
In the first place, l remark that every
persons life is very interesting story.
My text does not dcpreclate "a tale that il
told" We have NIL OF us been entertained
L. A. 80. N..lt
rail train, or in the group winters night
IN tho farmhouse, or gathered around u
blazing hearth with somo hunters at tho
mountain mn. Indeed It is praiseworthy
artto impersonate good story well. II
you doubt the practical and healthful and
inspiring use OF such story, take down
from the library Washington Irving's
'Tnles Oh Traveller" or Nathaniel Haw-
thorne's "Twlce Told Tales" But as in.
terestlng as any OF these would be the
story OF many AN obscure life II the tale
wore as well told. Why 10 we all like
biographies and autobiographies? Be
cause they nre stories OF eminent human
lives. But the story OF the life OF IA back
woodsmaD. OF n man who looks stupid, OF
one about whom you never heard word
must be just ms thrilling on n small scale
ms on large scale Is n life OF n Cyrus. or n
Cesar, or II Pizarro, or II Mark Antony, or
Charlemagne.
II you get tho confidence OF that very
plain man just come out OF the backwoods
and can induce him TO give the stirring ex-
periences OF his life, he will tell you that
which Will make your blood curdle and
your hair stand ON end; that night when Il
panther disputed his pathway on tho way
home; that landslide, when the mountains
seemed about to come down on his cabin;
that accident to his household and no sur
geon within fifteen miles; thnt long storm
that shut them In and the food was OK.
lnt ulA1 NhuN 90 l., a
bandits, who thought there might be with
In something worth taking; that deathbed,
with no one but himself to count the flut-
tering pulses.
Oh, yes while "wo spend our years as q
tale that Ia told It is nn interesting story.
1t is the story OF an immortal, and that
makes It interesting. He is launched on an
ocean OF eternal years, in a voyage that
will never terminate. He Is striking the
keynote OF nm anthem or dlrge that will
never come to its last bar. That is what
makes the devotional meetings OF modern
times so much more interesting than they
used to be. They are filed not with dis
courses by lnymen on the subject Of justi-
ficatlon and sanctlilcation, which lay dis.
courses administer more to tho facetious
than to the edifying, but with stories OF
what God has done for the soul-how every
thing suddenly changed; how the promises
became balsnmic In times OF laceration;
helped up and helped on. Nothing can
stand before such story OF personal res
cue, personal Transformation, personal
illumination. The mightiest aud most
skillful argument against Christianity col
lapses under the ungrammatical but sim
cere statement. The atheistic professor OF
natural philosophy goes down under the
story OF that backwoodsman's conversion.
All that elaborate persuasion OF the old
folks OF the folly OF giving up active lifo
too soon means nothing as compared with
the simple incident you may relate to
them OF the fact that Benjamin Franklin
was Governor OF Pennsylvania ut eighty
two years OF age and that Dandolo, OF ven-
Ice, Mt ninety years of age, although his
eyesight had been destroyed through be-
Ing compelled by his enemies to look into
polished metal basin under the full blaze
OF the sun until totally blind, yet this sight
less nonagenarian leading an army to the
successful besiegement of Constnntinoplel
When an old man hears of such incidents,
he puts aside his staff and ear trumpet and
starts anew.
The New Testament suggests the power
OF the tale TINT is told" Christ was the
most effective story teller OF all the ages.
The parallels are only tales well told.
MRtchless stories; That OF the traveller cut
up by the thieves and the Samaritan pay.
ing his board bill ut the tavern; that OF the
big dinner. to which the invited guests
sent In fictitious regrets; that OF the shep.
herd answering the bleat OF the lost sheen
and all the rural neighbors that night help.
Ing him celebrate the fact that II was safe In
the barnyard; that OF the bad boy, reduced
TO the swines' trough. greeted home with
such banqueting and jowelry that II rtuffed
the older son With jealousy and disgruntle.
ment; that OF the Pharisee full OF bragga.
docio and the publican shifting his breast
with stroke that brought down the heny.
ers In commiseration; stories about lep-
rosy, about paralysis, about catalepsy,
about dropsy, about ophthalmia-stores
that lie so we'll told that they have rolled
down to the present and will roll down
through the entire future.
l heard Daniel Baker, tho wonderful
evangelist OF his time, preach what sup.
posed was n great sermon, but / remem.
ber nothing OF II except story that ha
told, and that, | judge from tho seeming
effect, may that afternoon have brought
hundreds into the kingdom of God.
heard Truman Osborne preach several sor.
mons, but remember nothing of what he
said in public or private except Il story
that he told, and that was, among other
things, tho means of my salvation. The
lifelong work OF John b. Cough, the great
est temperance reformer OF all time, was
the victory OF anecdote, and WHO can ever
forgot his story Of Joel Straton touching
him on the shoulder or OF Deacon Moses
Grant at Hopkinson, or OF the outcast
woman nicknamed 'Hell Fire" but re-
med by the thought that she twas one