The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-01-24
Or. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Blythe NOTED
DIVINE.

-
DIVINE.
Subject: New Year ThousIts-we Should
Make the Most of Our Brief Lives
Inhdelity the Source OF Much Woe
Christs Matchless Stories.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch 1891
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse DR..
Talmage takes the opportunity Of Offering
some very practical and useful suggestions:
text, Psalms xc., Q, eve spend our wears
as tale that is told"
The Israelites were forty years In the
wilderness, and during thirty-eleht years
OF the forty nothing Is recorded OF them.
and, suppose, no other emlgrants had a
duller or more uninteresting time than
they had. So they got to telling storles-
stories concerning themselves or concern.
Ing others; stories about the brick kIlns OF
Egypt, where they had toiled In slavery;
stories about how the waters Of the Red
Sen piled up into palisades ut their cross
Ing; story OF the lantern hung In the heav-
ems to guide them by night; story OF ibises
destroying the reptiles OF the wilderness;
stories OF personal encounter. 1t must
have been an awful thing to have had moth
Ing to dc for thirty-sight years except to
get lost every time they tried to escape
from the wilderness. So they whiled away
the time In story telling. Indeed, there
were persons whose one business was to
narrate stories, and they were paid BY
such trldas as they could pick up from the
surrounding listeners. To such instances
our text refers when 1t says, "We spend
our years ds tale that is told"
At this tremendous passage from the
year 1899 sosthe year 1900 It will do US all
good to c6usider that our whole life Is q
story told-agood story or bad story,
tragic story or mirthful story, wise
story ora foolish story, a clean story or n
flthy story, story OF success or story OF
failure. I.We spend our years as tale
that is told"
In ths.irst place, I remark that every
PERSONS lie Is q very interesting story.
My text does not depreciate "a tale that Is
told" WAhave all OF US been entertained
by the stofy.teller when snow bound In the
rail train, or In the group winters night
In the farmhouse, or gathered around a
blazing hearth with some hunters at the
mountain inn. Indeed, II is praiseworthy
art to impersonate good story we'll. II
you doubt the practical and healthful aud
inspiring use OF such Q story, take down
from the library Washington Irving's
'Tales OF Traveller" or Nathaniel Haw.
thorne's ''Twice Told Tales. But as In
teresting as any OF these would abe the
story OF many an obscure life II the tals
biographies and autobiograpbies? Be-
cause they are stories OF eminent human
lives. But the story OF the life OF back
woo6sman, OF O man who looks stupid ,|0f
one about whom you never heard @ word,
must be Just as thrilling on a small scale
as on a large scale is q life OF Cyrus, Or e.
Cesar, or Pizarro, or Mark Antony, ox
Charlemagne.
II you get the confidence Of that yeryI
plain man just come out OF the backwoods
and can induce him to give the stirring exS
periences Of his life, he will tell you that
which will make your blood curdle and
your hair stand on end; that night when d
panther disputed his pathway on the way
home; that landslide; when the mountains
seemed about to come down on bis cabin;
that accident to his household and no sur.
geon within fifteen miles; that long storm
that shut them In ald the food was ex-
hausted; that contest at his doorway with
bandits, who thought thero might be with
In something worth taking; that.deathbsd, +,
with no one but himself to count the Apt-
tering pulses. j5s sss.
oh, yes, while "we spend our III IA
tale that is told" It Is an intefestt 4s
It Is the story OF aIstmm6x 11t
makes 1t interesting he h66s
ocean OF eternal sy N }}F41X5 H. -
will never ,terminat " ~
keynote ofan anti e. "A
never comesta its'3y - 4 {4eE
makes thed deFotf6 70 - ! 81 Il
times sosrnuth mo- tntll
used 10 be- They - 2ytot itl Y; sill.2 3
I fication ana W sasctt @ & dc.e eid {: MSist ~ X ~
than 70. the sodifyi1e. But Witl N
what God has done f6E the soul Z \
thing suddenly chang gdd; how. The
became balsamicS tines Of Iaqe (S
how he was pef60 hefna(7s pu
helped up and help 10 e 81
stand before such q storyQfs [6naE 25l
cue, personal transformations, betsB15f
illumination. The mightiest md m6st.
skillful argument against I" .ristf4nlty col-i
lupses under the upgramL- -atlcaff fbnt si4.
cere statement. The atheistic pro Tot
natural philosophy goes downApndt q
story OF that backwoodsman's scbn
All that elaborate persuasions the q
folks Of the folly OF giving up Iact
too soon means nothing asscDmpared xl
the simple incident you may relate ~
Lucul VI IuO LdCl th0Itx1OAlHthAht-.AtN AtNArNs
was Governor OF Pennsyiy yahla at; lehty-,
two years Of age andthat Dand ndoios YEN
ice. Mt ninety years ,of age, althG1fh his
eyesight had been destroyed ugh be-
Ing compelled By his se1aDi into
q polished metal basin 1nds all blazes
ofthe sun urti X total blin Aiss ighfzI
;less 9 e.! !! t!ii5
,siTf c66aGpp pbestege Cons 5tnopie&|
q hkHQ 5Qf3 3suc "a Jnntne !:
Z IL 3 ~ Tstorles: Tint OF the tr14
sub b9 fh6thieves md the Samarft ~
fng his board bill Mt the tavern; tha
biz dinner, to which the invhe&61
sent in fictitious regrets; that o{ ~
herd answering the bleat OF the 5oes
and all the rural nelghbors that nigh
ing him celebrate the fact that It was sateg4
the barnyard; that OF the bad boy, reducsdg
to the swines' trough, ggeetedshome VIII
such banqueting and jewelf hat It ctun
the older son with jealousy ydn9 1isgru ntt9ss
ment; that OF the Pharlsee full OF brag6a,
docio and the publican smiting hts breast
with stroke thut brought down t4&eay-
ers in commiseration; stories abg
rosy, about paralysis, about catAl4i,sgs
about dropsy, about opbthalmia-stbrtes
that He so well told that they have rolled Z
down to the present and will roll down
through the entire future.
I heard Daniel Baker, the wonderful
evangelist OF his time, preach what I sup
posed was great sermon, but I remem-
ber nothing OF 1t except story that he
told, and that, judge from the seeming
effect, may that afternoon have brought
hundreds into the kingdom OF God.
heard Truman Osborne preach several SER
mons, but remember nothing q what he
said In public or private except story
that he told, and that was, among other
things, the 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
eoroat h}o eforvnP Jnpl StrntOD tOuchfnr