The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-02-07
LIFE OF USEFULNESS.
DR.. Talmage Points the Way to It
in q Sermon.
The Power of One Word-Destiny May
Be Changed by n Fifty Spoken
Sentence - Sympathy for
the Troubled.

copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
Washington.
In this discourse DR.. Talmage shows
an open door for anyone who desires to
be useful, and illustrates how a little
thing may decide ones destiny. The
text is Proverbs 25:11 (revised ver-
sion): "a word fitly spoken is like ap-
piles of gold in baskets of silver"
A filigree basket loaded with fruit is
put before US in the text. What is ordi-
narily translated pictures ought to
be baskets" Here is silver network
basket containing ripe and golden ap-
Piles, pippins or rennets. You know how
such apples glow through the openings
of a basket of silver network. You
have seen such basket of fruit on many
table. 1t whets the appetite as well
as regales the vision. Solomon was evil
IDENTIFY fond of apples. because he so
often speaks of them. While he writes
in glowing terms of pomgranates and
figs and grapes and mandrakes, he
seems to find solace as well as luscious
ness in apples, calling out for supply
of them when he says in another place:
Comfort me with apples" Now you
see the meaning of my text, "A word
fifty spoken is like apples of gold in
baskets of silver"
You see the wise man eulogizes just
one word. Plenty of recognition has
there been for great orations. Cicero's
arraignment of Cataline, the philippics
of Demosthenes. the five days argu-
ment of Edmund Burke against War
rem Hastings, Edward Irying's dis
courses on the Bible, and libraries full
of prolonged utterance, but my text
controls the power of one word when it
refers to "a word fitly spoken"
This may mean a single word or a
small collection of words-something
you can utter in one breath, something
that you can compact into one sentence
"a word fitly spoken"-an encourag-
ing word. kind word, timely word,
a sympathetic word, an appropriate
word. l can pass right down the aisle
of any church and find between pulpit
and front door men whose temporal and
eternal destinies have been decided by
a word
l tell you what is great crisis in
every mans history. It is the time
when he is entering an occupation or
profession. 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 examinations of young law
yers by old lawyers, of young doctors
by old doctors, of young ministers by
old ministers. Hear some of the old
merchants talk about the young mer-
chants. Trowels and hammers and
scales often are jealous of new trowels
and new hammers and new scales.
Then it is SO difficult to get introduced.
How long time has many physician
had his sign out before he had got
call for his services, and the attorney
before he got case? Who wants to
risk the life of his family to a young
physician who got his diploma only
last spring, and who may not know
measles from scarletina, or to risk the
obtaining of verdict for $4,000 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 underse,l
some things because he can more
than make it up by the profit on other
things, or has failed three times and
had more money after each failure?
How is that mechanic 10 make liveli-
hood when there are twice as manv
men in that trade as can in hard times
find occupation? There are this very
moment thousands of men who are
just starting life for themselves, and
they need encouragement. Not long
harangue. not quotation from pro-
found book, not page, not a para
graph, but word, one word fitly
spoken.
There are SO many men VINO have
all the elements of usefulness and
power except one-courage. If you
can only under God give them that
you give them everything. In illus
trating that one word show them that
every man that ever amounted to any
thing had terrific struggle. Show
him what ships Decatur had to fight,
and what a mountain Hannibal had to
climb, and what lame foot Walter
Scott had to walk on, and that the
greatest poet who ever ived-Milton
was blind, that one of the grandest
musicians of all the ages-Beethoven
was deaf, and that Stewart, in some
respects the greatest merchant that
America ever saw, began in his small
store, dining on bread and cheese be-
hind the counter in snatched inter-
regnum between customers, he OPEN
ing the store and closing it, sweeping
it out with his own broom and bein~
his own errand boy. Show them that
within ten minutes walk there are
stores, shops, and factories, and homes
where as brave deeds have been dcne
as those of Leonidas at Thermopylae,
as that OF Horatius at the bridge, as
that OF Colin Campbell at Balaklava.
Tell them what Napoleon said to his