Connecticut western news., 1901-01-03
LIKE APPLES OF GOLD
AN APPROPRIATE WORD MAY DECIDE
 ONES DESTINY.

Dr. TaInage Calls Attention to the
 Power of Little Thtnx--The Door
 of I.efuiness Is Open to Aif-yaIue
 of Sympathy.
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 30.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage shows an open door for any one who desires to be use ful and illustrates how a little thing may decide one's destiny. The text is Proverbs XIV, II (revised versionl, "A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in baskets of Silver"
 X filigree basket loaded with fruit is put before us in the text. What is or dinarily translated pictures" ought to be "baskets.' Here is a silver network basket containing ripe and golden ap- ples, pippins or rennets. You know how such apples glow through the openings of basket of silver network. You have seen such basket of fruit on many table. It whets the appe- tite as well as regales the vision. Sol omon was evidently fond of apples be- cause he so often speaks of them. While he writes In glowing terms of pomegranates and figs and grapes and mundrakes. he seems to fad solace as we'll as lusciousness in apples, calling out for supply of them when he says in another place, Comfort me with ap- ples." Now you see the meaning of Thy text. "A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in baskets of silver.'
 You see. the wise man eulogizes just enc word. Plenty of recognition has there been for great orations-Cicero's arlaignment of Catiline. the philippics of Demosthenes, the five days argu- ment of Edmund Burke against War ren Hastings, Edward Irving's dis courses or the Bible and libraries full of prolonged utterance-but my text ex- tols the power of one word when it re- fers to "a word titly spoken"
 This may mean single word or small collection of words-something you can utter in one breath, something that you can compact into one sen- tence. "A word ftly spoken'-an en- couraging word, kind word a timely word, sympathetic word, an appro- priate word. can pass right down the aisle of any church and find be- tween pulpit and front door men whose temporal and eternal destinies have been decided by word.
 A Word of Sympathy.
 tell you what Is a great crisis in ev cry mans history. It Is the time when he Is entering an occupation or profes- sion. He is opposed by men in middle life because they do not want any more rivals and by some of the aged because they fear being crowded off and their places being taken by younger men. Hear the often severe and unfair ex- aminations of young lawyers by old lawyers, of young doctors by old doc tors, of young ministers by old minis ters Hear some of the old merchants talk about the young merchants. Trow- els and hammers and scales often are jealous of new trowels and new ham, mers and new scales. Then 1t Is so diff flcult to get introduced. How long time has many a physician had his sign out before he got a call for his services and the attorney before he got a case! Who wants to risk the life of his famiG to young physician who got his diploma only last spring and who may not know measles from scar latina, or to risk the obtaining of yer dict for $2O,OOO to an attorney who only three years ago read the first page of Blackstone?
 How Is the young merchant to com pete with his next door bargain maker, who can afford to undersell some things because he can more than make 1t up by the profit on other things or has failed three times and had more money after each failurey How is that mechanic to make livelihood when there are twice as many men in that trade as can in hard times find occupa- tion? There are this very moment thousands of men who are just start ing life for themselves, and they need encouragement-not long harangue, not quotation from profound book, not a page. not paragraph, but word, one word, fitly spoken.
 Why does not that old merchant, who has been 40 years in business, go into that young merchants store and say, "Couragew He needs only that one word, although, of course, you will H. lustrate 1t by telling your own expert ence and how long you waited for cus- toners, and how the first two years you lost money, and how the next year, though you did better, illness in your household swamped the surplus with doctors bills. Why does not that old lawyer go into that young lawyers of fec just after he has broken down in making his first plea before jury and say that word with only two syllables, 'Courager' He needs only that one word, although, of course, you will H. lustrate 1t by telling him how you broke down in one of your first cases and get laughed at by court and bar and jury, and how Disraeli broke down al the start and bow hundreds of the most successful lawyers at the start broke down. Why do not the success full men go right away and tell those who are starting what they went through and how their notes got pro- tested and what unfortunate purchases they made and how they were swim dled, but kept right on until they reached the golden milestone? Even some who pretend to favor the new be- ginner and say they wish him well put obstacles In his way.
 Lack of Courage.
 There are so many men who have all the clements of usefulness and power except one-courage. If you can only under God give them that, you give them everything. In illustrating that one word show them that every man that ever amounted to anything had terrific struggle. Show him what ships Decatur had to fight, and what noun tain Hannibal had to climb, and what a lame foot Walter Scott had to walk with, and that the greatest poet who ever rlived-Milton-was blind, that one of the grandest musicians of all the -Beethoyen-was deaf and that Stewart, in some respects the greatest merchant that America ever saw be-