Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-02-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
OUR CAUSES FOR THANKSGIVING TO
THE GOD OF LOVE.
Text from Psalms: Sing Unto Him
with Psaltery and Instrum ent
OF Ten Strings'' - Favors LavishIy
Bestowed Received with IngratItude.


Bestowed Received with IngratItude.
Copyright. 1902, by Louis Klopsch. n. Y.)
Washington, Feb. 2.-In this dis
course DIR. Talmage calls attention to
causes of thanksgiving that are sell
dom recognized and shows how to cul-
tivate a cheerful spirit; text, Psalms
xxxiii, 2, @'Sing unto him with psal-
terry and an instrument of ten strings -
A musician as well as poet and con-
queror and king was David, the au-
thor of my text. He first composed
the sacred rhythm and then played it
upon a harp, striking and plucking the
strings with his finger and thumbs.
The harp is the oldest of musical in
struments. Jubal invented it, and he
was the seventh descendant from
Adam. Its music was suggested by the
twang of the bowstring. Homer re-
fers to the harp in the '.Iliad.' 1t is
the most consecrated of all instru
ments, it has a tenderness and sweet
ness belonging to no other instrument
that / know of. 1t enters into the
richest symbolism of the Holy Scrip
lures The raptures of heaven are rep
resented under the figure of ''harpers
harping on their harps.'' We learn
from coins and medals that in the
Maccabean age the harp had only
three strings. In other ages it had
eight strings. David's harp had ten
strings, and when his great soul was
afire with the theme his sympathetic
voice, accompanied by exquisite vi
bration of the chords, must have been
overpowering
Have you ever thanked God for de-
ichf .
are a-hungered from day to day or are
Obliged to take food not toothsome or
pleasant to the taste, What millions
are in struggle for bread,
Have you thanked God for eyesight
as originally given to you or. after it
was dimmed by age, for the glass that
brought the page of the book within
the compass of the vision? Have you
realized the privation those suffer to
whom the day is as black as the night
and who never see the face of father or
mother or wife or child or friend !?
The man of millions of dollars who re-
Gently went blind from atrophy of op-
tic nerve would have been willing to
give all his millions and become a day
+ faborer if he could have kept off the
blindness that gradually crept over his
vision.
Have you ever given thanks for two
eyes-media between the soul inside
and the world outside, media that no
one but the infinite God could create i?
The eye, the window of our immortal
nature, the gate through which all COL
ors march, the picture gallery of the
soul! Without the eye this world is a
big dungeon. l fear that many of us
have never given one hearty express
sion of gratitude for treasure of sight.
the loss of which is the greatest dis
aster possible unless it be the loss of
the mind.
Further, notice how many pass
through life in silence because the ear
refuses to do its Office. They never
hear music, vocal or instrumental.
The thunder that rolls its full diapason
through the heavens does not startle
the prolonged silence. The air that
has for us SO many melodies has no
sweet sound for them. They live in a
quietude that will not be broken until
heaven breaks in upon them with its
harmonies. The bird voices of the
springtime, the chatter of the children,
the sublime chant of the sea, the solo
of the cantatrice and the melody of
the great worshiping assemblies mean
thanked God for these two wonders of
our hearing, with which we can now
Iut oui selves under the charm of sweet
sound and also carry in our memories
the infantile song with which our
mothers put US to sleep, and the voices
of the great prima donnas like Lind
and Patti and Nelson, and the sound
of instruments like the violin of the
Swedish performer, or the cornet of
Arbuckle, or the mightiest of all in
struments, with the hand of Morgan
ON the keys and his foot on the pedal,
or some Sabbath tune like Corona
tion,' in the acclaim of which you
could hear the crowns of heaven COM
ing down at the feet of Jesus? Many
of us have never thanked God for this
hearing apparatus of the soul. That is
one of the ten strings of gratitude
that we ought always to thrum after
hearing the voice of a loved one or
the last strain of an oratorio, or the
clang of a cathedral tower.
recognize how much God gives them
when he gives them sleep. Insomnia
is calamity wider known in our land
than in any other. Sleeplessness is an
American disorder. If it has not touch
ed you and you can rest for seven OF
eight hours without waking=if for
that length of time in every twenty
four hours you can be free of all care
and worriment and your nerves are