The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-05
A TALE THAT IS TOLD.
REV. Or. TALMAGES THOUGHTS ON
THE CLOSING YEAR.
Some Practical and Timely sugges-
tions as to Right Living Experiences
of the Past as Guides for the Future.


Copyright, Louis K1opsch, 1892
In this holiday discourse DR.. Taimage
takes the opportunity of offering some
very practical and useful Suggestions;
text, Psalms &c, 9. I'VE spend our
a as a.taIe that is told"
The Israelites were 40 years in the will
derness. and during 50 years Of the 40
nothing is recorded Of them, and, 1 sup
pose, no other emigrants had a duLer
or more undressing time than they
had. So they got to telling stories
stories concerning themselves or con-
corning others; stories about the brick
kiins of Egypt, where they had toiled
IN slavery; stories about how the waters
OF the Red sea piled up into palisades
at their crossing; story of the lantern
hung in the aver to guide them by
night; story of fbises destroying the
reptiles of the wilderness; stories OF
personal encounter. 1t. must nave been
an awful thing to have had nothing 10
do for 3S years except to get .Jst every
time they tried TO escape from. he will
derness. So they whiled way the
time in story telling. Indeed here
were persons whose one business was
to narrate stories, and they were paid
by such tTiits as they u PICK u
from the surrounding listeners TO
such instances our text refers when II
says, we spend our a as a iale
that is told.
Al this tremendous passage from the
year 1899 to the year 1900 it will do US
all Sc % consider that our w1CIe lie
Is a story tOId-a good story or a pad
story: a tragic story or a mlrth1ul
story; a wise story or a foolish story;
a clean story or a filthy story, a story
Of success or a story OF failure we
spend our years as tale that is told.
In the first place I remark that every
persons life is a very interesting story.
NV text does not ~depreciate "a tale that
Sc told" We nave all Of us been enter
tanned by the story teller when snow
bound in the rail- urain; or in the group
a winters night in the farmhouse; or
gathered around o blazing hearth WIN
some hunters at the mountain inn. IN
deed it is a praiseworthy art OF lmper-
senate a good story we'll. If you doubt
fhe nracticaq and healthful and inspir-
ing use of such a story, take down from
fine library Washington Irving's rallies
of a Traveller" or Nathaniel HaW-
thorne's Twice Told Tales" But as
interesting as any of theSe would De
the story of many an obscure HE, IL
the tale were as we'll told. why DO we
all like BIOGRAPHIES and auto-biograph-
les? Because they are stories OF eml-
nent human lives. But the story OF
+ba life of a backWoodsman, of a mar
who looks stupid, of one about Whom
Won never heard a word, must be just
as thrilling on a small Scaie as oh d
larger scale is a life of a cyrus, OF d
Caesar, or a PiZarrO, or a Mark Antony
or a Charlemagne, or the Fate Generdl
Gordon, who was upon a parapet Ieau-
ing his soldiers with nothing but a SUCK
in his hand, and his troops cried: Cor
Sop come down. You will be killed.
Rut he did not come down, and one OF
the soldiers said: lit is all right. He
don't mind being killed. He is one on
those blessed Christians
TT EXPERIENCES OF LIFE.
IF YOU get the confidence Of that very
plain man just come out OF the Oach-
woods and can induce him to give the
stirring experiences Of his life, he VIII
resI YOU that which will make your plood
eurdle and your hair stand on enc.
That night when a panther rSputeo MS
pathway on the way home; that lano-
slide. when the mountains seemed about
to come down on his cabin; that accl-
dent to his household and no surgeon
within Is miles; that long storm that
shut them in and the food was eX-
hausted: that contest at his doorway
with bandits, who Thought there mnsht
be within something worth taking;
THAT aeathbed, with no N u hllnselI
TO count the fluttering pulses
As Oliver Cromwell on the ann4Ver-
sary of mis- greatest victory followed
his darling daughter to the crave, 50
in the humblest and most unpretend1ng
Efe there ha been a commlnSllnS oI
sladness and gloom, OF triumph anu
despair. Nothing that David Garrlck
sver enacted ait Drury Lane theater
m the way Of tragedy or Charles Mat
shews ever played in Covent Garden IN
the way of comedy excelled Things
which on q small scale ave been seen
m the life of obscure men and m
Many a profound and harmed sermon
has put the audience TO Sleep While
some man whose p~hraseology could not
he parsed and whose attire was cut
fitted and made up by plainest house
wife has told the story Of his life in a
way Nat melted the prayer crc9e lnlo
hears as easily as a warm Apr sun
~lissoIves the snow OF the previous
night
On. YES, while I'VE spend years as
q tale that is told it is an interesting
story. 1t is the story Of an immortal
and that makes 1T interesting. He is
launched on an ocean of eternal years,
in a voyage that will never terminate.
He Is striking the keynote Of an anthem
Or a dirge that will neve come ID its
last bar. That is what makes the de-
yotfonaI meetings OF modern times so
much more interesting than they used
70 be. They are filled not with dis
courses by laymen on the subject OF
justification and sanctification. when
lay administer more To the
facetiOus than to the edifying, but with
stories OF what God has done for me
soui-how everything suddenly ohans-
ed; how the promises became balsam.c
IN times of laceration; how he was per-
sonally helped out helped up and
helped on. Nothing can stand before
such a story of personal rescue, per-
sonal transformation, PERSONA illuinl-
nation. The mightiest and most ski l.
full argument against Christianity c'l-
Iapses under the ungrammatical out
FAncere statement. The atheistic pro-
gessor Of naturel philosophy goes down
under the story Of that backwoodsman's
conversion.