The times., 1901-05-06
MANS CHANCES TO DO GOOD
Sermon of DR.. Talmage at the
Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Time of Universal Peace Drawine q
Ncar-Few Opportunities for Mar
tinI Grentness-A Crisis in Every
Life-The Making of Criminals.
Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage preached yes
terday morning at the Fourth Presbyfe-
rian Church At the opening of the ser
vice he spoke in eulogy of the twenty
| seven years work done for the church
and for Christ by the pastor, the Rev.
| Joseph T. Kelly. who is now confined to
his home with a mild attack of typhoid
fever. For the Scripture lesson of the
| day DR.. Talmage took the parable of the
| prodigal son, translating it from its words
| and deeds of olden time to words and
| deeds of today. God is the father in this
! parable" he said and ! and you are
the SON" He took his text from Daniel,
| xi:2: The people that do know their
God shall be strong and do exploits" He
| said in part:
'Antiochus Epiphanes came down many
| times to destroy the Jews and Jerusalem
| First he came with swaying cohorts of
! elephants, but he was driven back Then
| he came with great army. Again and
again he came. and one time he was near
! taking the city. when there appeared the
! flashing legions of the Romans with Pom
| pilius in command. And Antiochus was
| in doubt whether he should surrender
when Pompilius came to him. Pompilius
was man of great exploits. He drew
a circle around Antiochus and said I'm
til you have surrendered you shall not de-
part out of that circle
We all like eXploits-and we all worship
the men who do them We like heroes
A Is a hra for
benefit of the world | hear some of you
say that you live hum-drum life and
you have no opportunity to do exploits.
1t may seem so. and I dare say not one of
you would ever get an opportunity to be-
come famous. | think that wars are at
an end and that you and 1 will see the
last gun spiked. The dove is going to take
the place of the vuture.
There is no probability that you-even
the youngest of you-will become a great
inyentor-a Sir Humphrey Davy. They
tell me at the Patent Office that but one
out Of every hundred patents pays for
the cost Of taking il out. Yet you may
say, I have no field in which TO do ex-
pIoits l say that you have You have
three of the greatest fields that ever
were-fields that cover the whole world.
You can be a savior-you can save the life
man. you can save the life of child.
There comes time in each mans life
when he must choose. and when he is
ground between the upper and the neither
milestone There comes a time when he
must choose. There are times when he
must size up the eXigency of the circum-
stances with all the Christ spirit there is
in him. Let young man be brought be
fore a judge The boy has committed
under stress of circumstance and tempta-
ton, his first crime. Shall the judge rush
him to prison, there to become a hardened
criminal, and to soak in crime that shall
make him a worse evil-doer every day of
his life if he live to be sixty? The young
man has no mother or father to help him.
Why does not the District Attorney take
him aside, tell him he has done wrong,
advise him rightly. and set him free?
Why is there not a rivalry among the at
torneys at the bar to take the case and
defend the boy? There is an opportunity
offered to do an exploit that win live
quadrilnons of years after the last whirl-
wind has swept out of the armament the !
ashes Of the encindered earth. Yet as a
rule q man steps forward to take the
case whose advocacy itself would be
enough to condemn the poor boy.
Il do not believe that men are all |
wrong but they are not all so thoughtful |
as they might be- or so self-denying. !
Seeing this poor boy going into the mire, |
a self-righteous man passing by would !
look at him and say. There's a man in |
the ditch, passing on. man more |
Christian would say. There's a poor ras- !
cal in the ditch, l wish l had my working /
clothes on, I'd pull him out. The true |
man, who wants to do exploits, kneels
fIa .Ft ~
pull. lands the poor unfortunate on the |
brink
In commercial exigencies there are ex-
ploits to be done A young merchant |
stocks up with spring goods There is
no spring, and the season jumps from
winter TO summer As he looks at his
shelves the stock of clothing seems to
grow larger and larger. The old business
men on the block shake their heads and
say he has been foolish. Soon he is
Obliged to sell out everything in an auc-
tion at a sacrifice. The merchants come
in and buy at prices that mean ruin to
him. He was foolish, they say, and be-
sides he had no business coming TO To-
cate here near us. So ne is ruined But
there is another way of treating this |
thing Suppose the old business men had
said, We Will give you the advantage of
our experience, and had helped him out |
a HJtle--tided him over the difficulty by |
endorsing him among the wholesalers. |
The prospects OF the young man would |
have gone from 10 degrees below zero |
10 80 in the shade. and the roses would |
come back into his wife's cheeks and he !
y ould De- a new man again. That would /
DE- an exploit for the merchants, and they
would have saved "A man.
You can save men from the ternptatfon
lf drink. and from the temptation OF other
vices ] am sure many people |
have saved men from these things and |
1no~ what a wonderful joy It is 90 havej
saved life.
There are eXigencies where a helping !
hand can save the life Of a woman They |
are everywhere. / remember seeing in a |
le Wspapcr in the early months OF last |
winter an advertisement that young |
Woman had lost purse containing $50
al that she had I'M the world In Was |
,ase that not only asked, but demanded |
for she had no place 70 go and I
40 friends II you were employing peo- |
be, and this woman came TO you, would ! {
-Ou say that YOU had nothing for her to |
TO. that women are worthless anyhow,
lEd YOU did not want her. Would Won |
ay 10 her things for which you would | 9
lli any man II he said them 10 your | l
lsterf Would you turn her out into the |
yOrtdy Or would you give ner place and | I
{ you had no place in your own shop | J
end her with a recommendation to some /
lie else? What a grinding thing the city I
s. All these battered women could be J
aVed If a hand were stretched to them |
nd they were given something to do
he life of the poor little seamstress | q
angs upon the thread OF her needle If | 4
breaks. she drifts away with the lost | q
neS. What is woman Let me define | y
er. Direct from God, she is a delicate | 4
lift OF affection, vast that nothing | h
ut the infinite bounds or the God him ,
L.