The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-18
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
DOING EXPLOITS: THE THREE
GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS.
A Short Sermon by the Late IT. De
Witt TaImaGe, ID. ID, Presbyter-
ian, Washington, Id. c.

ne people Indl 90 KNOW JlelE GOQ snail
be strong and do explOits."-Danlel xi, -.
An exploit, 1 would define to be an heroic
act, a brave feat, a great achievement.
Well" you say. Il admire such things.
but there is no chance for me; mine is a
sort of hum-drum life. If I had an Antio-
chus Epiphanes to fight. I also could do ex-
ploits." You are right so far as great wars
are concerned. There will probably be no
opportunity for you to distinguish yourself
in battle. 1 think the last wars are being
fought and there is no probability that
you will ever be a Wellington or a Stone
wall Jackson or a Grant.
Neither will you probably become a great
inventor. Nineteen hundred and ninety
nine out Of every 1900 inventions found in
the Patent Office at Washington never
yielded their authors enough money to pay
for the expense of securing the patent. So
you will probably never be a Morse or an
Edison or a Humphrey Davey or an Hi
Whitney. There is not much probability
that you will be the one out of the hun
dred that achieve extraordinary success in
commercial or legal or medical or literary
spheres. What then? Can you have no
opportunity to do exploits? 1 am going TO
show that there are three opportunities
open that are grand, thrilling, far-reach-
ing, stupendous and overwhelming. They
are before you now. In one, If not all three
of them, you may do exploits. The three
greatest things on earth to do are TO save
a man and save a woman and save a
child.
CASE OF A YOUNG MAN.
A young man has got into bad company.
and he has offended the law and he is ar
raigned. All blushing and confused, he is
in the presence of judge and jury and law
yers. He can be sent right ol in the wrong
direction. He is feeling disgrace and he is
almost desperate. Let the district attorney
overhaul him as though he were an old Of
fender; let the ablest attorneys at the bar.
refused to say a word for him, because he
cannot afford a considerable fee; let the
judge give no opportunity for presenting
the mitigating circumstances and let him
hurry up the case, and hustle him up TO
Auburn or Sing Sing. If he live seventy
years, Tor seventy years ne VIII be q GRIM
mai, and each decade of his life will be
blacker than its predecessor. In the inter
regnums of prison life he can get no work,
and he is glad TO break a window glass or
blow up a safe or play highwayman SO as
TO get back again within the walls where
he can get something TO eat and hide him
self from the gaze OF the world. Why does
not his father come and help him? his
father is dead. Why does not his mother
come and help him? She is dead. Where
are all the ameliOrating and s~alutary infiu-
ences of society? They Go not touch him.
Why did not some one long ago, knowing
the case, understand that there was an op-
portunity for the exploit which would be
famous IN heaven a quadrillion of years
after the earth has become scattered ashes
in the last whirlwind? Why did not the
district attorney take that young man into
his private office and say: My son, L see
that you are the victim of circumstances.
This is your first crime. You are sorry. L
will bring the person you wronged into
your presence and you will make all the
PREPARATION you can. and will give you an
other CHANGER"
Or that young man is presented in the
courtroom and he has no friends present,
and the judge says, "Who is your coun-
sel?' And he nswer II have none and
the judge says, Who will take this young
mans caSe?' And there is a dead halt.
and no one offers, and after awhile the
judge turns TO some attorneys who never
had a good case IN all his life, and never
will, and whose advocacy would be enough
TO secure the of innocence it
self. And the professional incompetent
craWls up beside the Observation-Disclosures
TO rescue despair-when there ought 10 be
a struggle between all the best men of the
profession as 10 who should have the honor
or trying to help that unfortunate, How
much would such an attorney have re-
celved as his fee for such an advocacy?
Nothing In dollars, but much every way in
a happy consciousness that would make his
own lie brighter, and his own dying pillow
softer, and his own heaven happier-the
consciousness that he had saved a man!
A BUSINESS ILLUSTRATION.
So, there are commercial exegencies. A
very late spring obliterates the demand for
spring overcoats and spring hats and
spring apparel of all sorts. Hundreds of
thousands of people say: 1T seems we are
going to have no spring, and we shall go
| Sfrq iOhf ODf Of winter int
and we can get along without the usual
spring attire" Or there is no autumn
weather, the heat plunging into the cold,
n the usual clothing, which is a COM
promise between summer and winter, is not
required. II makes a difference in the
sale of millions and millions of dollars
of goods, and some over-sanguine young
merchant Is taught with a vast amount
OF unstable goods that will never be SAL
able again, except at prices ruinously re-
duced- The young merchant with a some
what limited capital is in a predicament.
What shall the old merchants do, as they
see that young man in this awful crisis?
Rub their hands and laugh, and say:
GOOD Tor him. He NIGH have known
better. When he has been in business as
long as we have he will not load his shelves
in that way. Ha! ha! He will burst up
before long. He had no business to open
up his store so near TO ours, anyhow"
Sherif's sale! Red flag in the window.
How much is bid for these Qut-of-the-
IaShlon spring oVercoatS and spring hats
or fall clothing out of date? What do
/ hear in the way of a bid? Four dollars.
Absurd; j cannot take that bid of 81
apiece. Why, these coats, when first put
upon the market, were offered at SIS each,
and now / am offered only 81. Is that all?
Five dollars do L hear? Going at that!
Gone at s." and he takes the whole lot.
This young merchant goes home that
night and says to his wife: We'll Mary,
We shall have to move out of this house
and sell our piano. That old merchant that
has had an evil eye on me ever since I
started has bought out all that clothing,
and he Will have il rejunevated, and next
year put il on the market as new, while
we will do well if we keep out OF the
poorhouse.' The young man, broken spir-
tied, goes to hard drinking. The young
wife. with her baby, goes TO her fathers
house, and not only is the store wiped out,
but his home, his morals, and his pros
poets for two worldS-this and the next.
And devils make a banquet Of fire and fill
their cups Of gall, and drink deep 10 the
health OF the old merchant, who swallowed
down the young merchant, who got stuck
on spring goods and went down. That is
one way, and some of you have tried il.
ANOTHER WAY.
But there is another way. That young
merchant who found that he had miscal-
culated in laying in too many goods Of one
kind, and being flung of the unusual season,
is standing behind the counter, feeling very
A1,,o 80 H;4;,- Ii &C., ill - 1ools--