The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-01-01
TAIE TRAITS T0lD
REV pa IxLMAaE,s THovdHTs on
THE CLOSING YEAR.
Some Practisal and Timely suggss-
lions ~ to Right Living-Expesi-
ences ofths Past ~ Guides For the
Fixture. t--.- E q

Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1901
WASHINGTON. Dec. 31.-In this holiday
discourse DR.. Talmage takes the opportu-
nifty Of offering some very practical and
useful suggestions; text, Psalms &c, 8,
1--WE spend our years as tale that Is
toid.'
The Israelites were 40 years in the will
derness. and during 80 years of the 40
nothing is recorded Of them, and, sup
pose. no other emigrants had duller or
more uninteresting time than they had,
30 they got to telling stories-stories con-
corning themselves Or concerning others;
stories about the brick kilns 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 10 the heavens
to guide them by night; story Of ibises de-
. stroying the reptiles Of the wilderness;
/. stories Of personal encounter. It must
have been an awful thing to have had
nothing to do for 80 years except to get
lost every time they tried to escape from
the wilderness. 80 they whilcd away the
time in story telling. Indeed there were
persons whose one business was to mar
rate stories, and they were paid by such
trifes as they could pick up from the sur
rounding listeners. To such instances
our text refers when 1t says. I'VE spend
+, our years as tale that is told"
At this tremendous passage from the
year 1899 to the year 1900 It will do us
all good to consider that our whole life is
a story toid-a good story or bad sto-
~; tragic story or mirthful story;
wise story or foolish story; clean sto-
~ or filthy story; story Of success or
a story Of failure. 1--WE spend our years
a. tale that is told"
In the first place remark that every
persons life is very interesting story.
My text does not depreciate "a tale that
Is told" We have all of us been enter
tained by the story teller when snow
bound in the rail train: or In the group a
winters night in the farmhouse; or gath
cred around blazing hearth with some
hunters at the mountain inn. Indeed 1t
is q ipraiseworthy art to impersonate
good story we'll II you doubt the prac-
tical and heaIthful and inspiring use OF
such story, take down from the library
Washington Irving's "Talcs Of Travel
err" or Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Twice
Told Tales" But as interesting as any
vi lucSt WOulu US lue SloFy VI many uu
obscure life. II the tale were as well told.
Why do we all like biographies and auto
biographies? Because they are stories of
eminent human lives. But the story Of the
life of a backwoodsman, of a man who
looks stupid, of one about whom you
never heard word, must be just as
thrilling on a small scale as on q larger
scale Is life Of a Cyrus. or Cesar. or
a Pizarro, or Mark Antony. or Char
lemagne, or the late General Gordon,
who was upon parapet leading his SOL
diers with nothing but stick In his
hand, and his troops cried: "Gordon, come
down. You will be killed" But he did
not come down. and one Of the soldiers
said: ut Ia all right. He don't mind be-
ing killed. He is one Of those blessed
Christians"
Tho Experiences Of Life.
If you get the confidence of that very
plain man just come out of the back
woods and can induce him to give the
stirring experiences of his life, he will
tell you that which will make your blood
curdle and your hair stand on end. That
night when panther disputed his path
way on the way home; that landslide,
Wueu mUuHluluc beeulCu uDuut "
come down on his cabin; that accident to
his household and no surgeon within Is
miles; that long storm that shut them in
and the food was exhausted; that contest
at his doorway with bandits, who thought
there might be " lin something worth
taking; that deathbed, with no one but
himself to count the Huttering pulses.
As Oliver Cromwell on the anniversary
Ii k.,sn Rol1o So lnv-
ling daughter to the grave, SO in the hum
blest and most unpretending life there
has been commingling of gladness and
gloom, of triumph and despair. Nothing
that David Garrick ever enacted at Dru-
~ Lane theater in the way of tragedy or
Charles Matthews ever played in Coyent
Garden in the way Of comedy exeelled
things which on a small scale have been
seen in the life Of obscure men and wom-
en-. Many profound and learned SER
mon has put the audience to sleep. while
some man whose phrascology could not
be parsed and whose attire was cut and
fitted and made up by planest housewife
has told the story Of his life in way
that melted the prayer circle into tears as
easily as warm April sun dissolyes the
snow of the previous night.
Oh, yes, while 1--WE spend our years as
a tale that Is told" it is an interesting sto-
ny. 1t Is the story of an immortal. and
that makes it interesting. He is launch
ed on an ocean of eternal years, In voy-
age that will never terminate. He Is
striking the keynote Of an anthem or
dirge that will never come to it's last bar.
That is what makes the devotional meet
ings of modern times SO much more inter-
esting than they used to be. They are
filled not with discourses by laymen on
the subject Of justification and sanctifica-
ton. which lay discourses administer
more to the facetious than to the edify-
ing, but with stories of what God has
done for the soul-how everything sud
denly changed; how the promises became
baIsamic in times of laceration: how he
was personally helped out and helped up
md helped on. Nothing can stand before
such { story of personal rescue, personal
Transformation, personal illumination.
The mightiest and most skillful argument
against Christianity collapses under the
ungramma teal but sincere statement
The atheistjc professor of natural philos-
ophy goes down under the story of that
back woodsman's conversion.
All that elaborate persuasion of the old
folks of the folly Of giving up active life
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 at 81
years of age and that Dandolo of Venice
at 90 years of age, although his eyasight
had been destroyed through being COM
PEELED by his enemies to look into pol
ished 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 Constantine
pie! When an old man hears of such in.
cidents. he puts aside bis staff and ear
trumpet and starts anew.
The New Testament suggests the pow,
er of the tale that IL told" Christ was
the most effective story teller of all the
ages. The parallels are only tales well
told. Matchess stories: That Of the
traveller cut up by the thieves and the
Samaritan paying his board bill at the
tavern; that of the big dinner, to which
the invited guests sent in fictitious re-
grets; that of the shepherd answering the