The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1902-02-07
A GRATEFUL SPIRIT.
Should Be Cultivated by One and
All, Says DR.. Talmage.
we should Rehenrse All Our Bless
tngs and Give Praise to God
for Them-The Gospel of
Good Morals.
TConvright, 1902, by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
Washington Feb. 2

Washington, Feb. 2.
In this discourse DR.. Talmage calls
attention to causes of Thanksgiving
that are seldom recognized and shows
how to cultivate cheerful spirit; text,
Psalms 1872: Sing unto him with
psaltery and an instrument OF ten
strings
A musician as well a poet and con-
uueror and king was David, the authoF
of nv text. He first composed the sa-
cred rhythm and then played 1t upon
harp. striking and plucking the strings
with his fingers and thumbs. Inc
harp is the Oldest of musical lnslru-
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 "Ilad" 1t is the most con
secrated of all instruments. The nut
is more mellow, the bugle more mar
tial, the cornet more incisive, the trum-
pet more resonant, the organ more
mighty, but the harp has a tenderness
and sweetness belonging to no other
instrument that | know of. 1t enters
into the richest symbolism of the Holy
Scriptures The captives in their sad
ness "hung their harps upon the Will
lows" The raptures of Heaven are
represented under the figure of harp
ers harpng on their harps.' We learn
from coins and medals that in the Mac
cabean age the harp had only three
strings. In other ages it had elgh'
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 foW
and the mountains and the hills and
day and night into a chorus. Absa-
Ions plotting and Ahithophel's treach-
cry and hosts of antagonists and sleep
less nights and 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 these 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 a harp fully chorded
and with glad fingers sweep all the
strings. Instead Of being grateful for
here and there 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.
Have You ever thanked God for de-
lightsome 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! \ 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 + all? Have you real
lied what varieties of flavor often
touch your tongue and how the sac
charm 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 flavors and
the luxurious viands you have enjoyed
for lifetime perhaps you have never
expressed to God a word of thanllsgiv-
ing. That is one of the ten strings that
you ought to have thrummed in praise
to God but you have never yet put it 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 eyes so delicate and beau
tiful and useful that zone of them is
invaluable! And most of us nave two
of these wonders of Divine mechanism.
The man of millions of dollars who re-
Gently went blind from atrophy of OPP
tic nerve would have been willing to
rive all his MILLIONS and become day
laborer if he could have kept off the
blindness that gradually crept over his
vision.
You may have noticed how Christ's
svmpathies were 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. A large per-
centage of the inhabitants could not
tell the difference between 10 o'clock
at noon and - o'clock at night. We
are told of six of Christ's miracles for
III, cure of these sightless ones, but l
suppose they are only specimens of
hundreds Of restored visions. What
bitiful spectacle Saul of Iarsus, the
mighty man, three days led about in
physical as well as spiritual darkness,
he who afterward made Felix tire mble