The Grit-advocate., 1900-06-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
COMMON DUTIES AND REWARD
THE SUBJECT
Addressed to the Toilers and Strugglers
on LIES DInicuIt Highway - Heroes
and Heroines of Our Times-The He
rOes of Heaven.


Text, II Timothy ii, 8, Thou there
fore endure hardness"
Historians are not slow to acknowl-
edge the merits of great military chief
tains. We have the full length por-
traits of the Cromwells, the Washing
tons, the Napoeons and the yelling
tons of the world. History is not
written In black ink, but red ink of
human blood. The gods of human
ambition do not drink from bowls
made out Of silver or gold or precious
stones, but out of the bleached skulls
of the fallen. But am now to unroll
before you scroll of heroes that the
world has never ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
who faced no guns, blew no ibusle
blast, conquered no cities, chained no
captives to their chariot wheels and
yet in the great day of eternity will
stand higher than some of those whose
names startled the nations, and ser
aph and rapt spirit and archangel will
tell their deeds to listening universe.
! mean the heroes OF common, every
day life.
In this roll, in the first place, find
all the heroes of the sickroom. When
satan had failed to overcome Job, he
said to God, Put forth thy hand and
touch his bones and his flesh, and he
will curse thee to thy face" Satan
had found out that which we have all
found out, that sickness is the great
est test Of ones character. A man
who can stand that can stand any
thing. To be shut in room as fast
as though 1t were bastile; to be SO
nervous you cannot endure the tap
of child's foot; to have luscious fruit,
which tempts the appetite Of the ro-
bust and healthy, excite our loathing
and disgust when it first appears ON
the platter; to have the rapier Of pain
strike through the side or across the
temples like razor or to put the
foot into wise or throw the whole
body into a blaze of fever, yet there
have been men and women. but more
women than men, who have cheerful
ly endured this hardness. Through
years Of exhausting rheumatisms and
excruciating neuralgias they have gone
and through bodily distress that
rasped the nerves and tore the muscles
and paled the cheeks and stopped the
shoulders. By the dim light Of the
sickroom taper they saw on their wall
the picture Of that land where the
inhabitants are never sick. Through
the dead silence of the night they
heard the chorus of the angels.
Heroes in Sickness.
In this roll also find the heroes of
toll who do their work uncomplaining-
ly. 1t is comparatively easy to lead
regiment into battle when you know
that the whole nation will applaud the
victory; 1t is comparatively easy to
doctor the sick when you know that
your skill will be appreciated by
large company of friends and rela-
tives; 1t is comparatively easy to ad
dress an audience when in the gleam-
Ing eyes and the flushed cheeks you
ed. But to do sewing when you ex-
pect the employer will come and thrust
his thumb through the work to show
how imperfect 1t is or to have the
whole garment thrown back on you,
to be done over again; to build q wall
and know there will be no one to say
you Md Il we'll. but only swearing
employer bowling across the scaffold;
to work until your eyes are dim and