Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-02-07

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage calls attention to
causes of thanksgiving that are seldom
recognized and shows how to cultivate
cheerful spirit; text, Psalms xxxiii, 2,
"Sing unto him with psaltery and an
instrument of ten strings"
A musician as well as poet and con-
aueror and king was David. the author
of my text. He first composed the sa-
cred rhythm and then played it upon q
harp, striking and plucking the strings
with his fingers and thumbs. The
harp is the oldest of musical instru-
ments. Jubal invented it, and he was
the seventh descendant from Adam.
Its music was suggested by the twang
of the bowstring. Homer refers TO the
harp in the 'Iliad." 1t is the most con-
secrated of all instruments. The flute
is more mellow. the bugle more mar
tial, the corpet more incisiye the trum-
pet more resonant, the organ more
mighty, but the harp has a tenderness
and sweetness belonging to no other
instrument that 1 know of. 1t enters
into the richest symbolism of the Holy
Scriptures. The captives in their-sad-
ness chung their harps upon the will
lows" The raptures of heaven are
represented under the figure Of 'harp-
ers harping on their harps." We learn
from coins and medals that in the Mac
cabean age the harp had only three
strings. In other ages IL had eight
strings. David's harp had ten strings,
and when his great soul was afire with
the theme his sympathetic voice, ac-
companied by exquisite vibration OF
the chords, must have been overpower-
ing.
With as many things to complain
about as any man ever had David
wrote more anthems than any other
man ever wrote. He puts even the
frosts and hailstorms and tempests
and creeping things and flying fowl
and the mountains and the hills and
day and night into a chorus. Absa-
lom's plotting and Ahithophers treach-
cry and hosts of antagonists and sleep
less nights and a running sore could
not hush his psalmody. Indeed, the
more his troubles the mightier his sa-
cred poems. The words praise and
song" are so often repeated in his
psalms that one would think the type
settlers case containing the letters with
which those words are spelled would
be exhausted.
In my text David calls upon the peo-
pie to praise the Lord with an instru-
ment Of ten strings. like that which he
was accustomed to finger. The simple
fact Is that the most of us. If we praise
the Lord at all, play upon one string
or two strings or three strings when
we ought to take n harp fully chorded
and with glad fingers sweep all the
strings Instead of being grateful for
here and there a blessing we happen
to think OF. we ought to rehearse all
our blessings so far as we can recall
them and obey the injunction OF my
text to sing unto him with an instru-
ment of ten strings.
Remember Daily BlcxsfnEs.
Have You ever thanked God for de-
llghtsome food? What vast multitudes
are a-hungered from day to day or are
obliged to take food not toothsome
or pleasant to the taste! What mil
lions are In struggle for bread, A Con-
federate soldier went to the front, and
his family were on the verge OF star
walton. but they were kept up by the
faith OF child OF that household, who.
noticing that some supply was sure to
come. exclaimed. Mother. think God
hears when we scrape the bottom OF
the barrel"
Have you appreciated the fact that
on most OF your tables are luxuries that
do not come to all? Have you realized
what varieties OF flavor often touch
your tongue and how the saccharin
and the acid have been afforded your
palate? What fruits. what nuts, what
meats regale your appetite. while many
would be glad to get the crusts and
rinds and Feelings that fall from your
table. For the fine fiavors and the lux
urious viands you have enjoyed for q
lifetime perhaps you have never ex-
pressed to God word of thanksgiv-
Ing. That is one OF the ten strings that
you ought to have thrummed in praise
to God, but you have never yet put IL In
vibration.
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?
Through what painful surgery many
have gone TO get one glimpse OF the
light! The yes so delicate and beau
tful and useful that one of them is
invaluablei And most of us have two
OF these wonders of divine mechanism.
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
laborer If he could have kept off the
blindness that gradually crept over his
vision.
You may have noticed how Christ's
sympathies We're stirred for the blind.
Ophthalmia has always been prevalent
In Palestine, the custom of sleeping on
the housetops. exposed TO the dew and
the flying dust OF the dry season, invit-
Ing this dreadful disorder large per-
centage OF the inhabitants could not
tell the difference between IL o'clock
ut noon and u o'clock at night. We
are told OF six of Christ's miracles for
e~~ >eAS VA SACoC ones, Dut Il
suppose they We're only specimens of
hundreds Of restored visions. What a
pitiful spectacle Saul Of Tarsus, the
mighty man, three days led about in
physical as well as spiritual darkness.
he who afterward made Felix tremb,e
by his eloquence and awed the Atheni-
an philosophers on Mars hill and was
the only cool headed man in the Alex
andria cornship that went to pieces on
the rocks OF Miletus, once the mighty |
prosecutor of Saul, afterward the glori- !
Gus evangelist Paul, for three days not /
able TO take safe step without guild
ANGEL
Two Strings of Gratitude.
Have you ever given thanks for two |
eyes-media between the soul inside
and the world outside, media that no !