The age-herald., 1902-02-09
Dr. Talrmage's Sermon.

Washington. February 2-In this dis course Dr. Talmage calls attention to causes of thanksgiving that are seldom recognized and shows how to cultivate a cheerful spirit; text, Psalms xHxiii, ?, .'Sing unto him with a psaltry and an instrument of ten strings
 musician as well as poet and con- queror and king was David, the author of my text He first composed the sa- cred rhythm and then played it upon harp. striking and pIucking the strings with his fingers and thumbs. The harp is the oldest of musical instruments. Ju- bal invented it, and he was the seventh descendent from Adam. Its music was suggested by the twang of the bowstring' Homer refers to the harp in the 'llad' It is the most conseerated of all instru- ments The flute Is more mellow, the bugle more martial the oornet moro in- cisive. the trumpet more resor4Ssr. the organ more mighty but the harp has a tenderness and sweetness belopg3s-s to no other instrument that know of. It en- ters into the highest symbolism Of the Holy Scriptures. The captives in thelr GaQneSS lows" The raptires of heaven are rep resented under the figure of "harpers harping on their harps We learn from coins and medals that in the Maccaoean age the harp had only three strings. Da- vid's harp had ten strings, and when ms great soul was afire with the theme his sympathetic voice, accompanied by ex- auisite vibration of the chords must have been overpowering.
 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 ny ing fowl and the mountains and the hllls and day and night Into a chorus. Absa- loms plottin and Ahithophefs treachery and hosts of antagonists and sleepiess nights and running sore could not hush his psalmody Indeed. the more his trou- bles the mightier his sacred poems. The words. praise" and song are so often repeated in his psalms that one would think the typesetters case containing the letters with which those words are spell ed would be exhausted.
 In my text David calls upon the peo- ple' 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 nest of us. if we praise
  or two strings pr three strings when we ought to take a harp fully chorded and with glad fingers sweep all the strings. Instead of being graceful Tor 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 instrument of ten strings.
 Remember Daily Blessings.
 Have you ever thanked God for delight- some food? What vast multitudes are a-hungered from day to day or are oblfG- ed to take food not toothsome or pleas ant to the tastei What millions are in struggle for bread, A Confederate soldier went to the front, and his family were on the verge of starvation. but they were kept up by the faith of a child of that household, who noticing that some sup ply was sure to come exclaimed, Moth- CT, 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 palatei What fruits, what nuts, what meats re- gale your appetite, while many would be glad to get the crusts and rinds and peelings that fall from your table Fol the fine flavors and the luxurious viands you have enjoyed for a lifetime perhaps you have never expressed to God a word of thanksgiving. That is one of the ter strings that you ought to have thrummed in praise to God, but you have never yet put in vibration.
 Have you thanked God for eyesighi as originally given to you or, after it was dimmed by age. for the glass that brought the page of the book within the com pass of the vision? Have you realized tht 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 ono glimpse of the light The eyes so delicate and beautiful and useful that one of them is invaluable! And most or us have two of these wonders of divine mechanism The man of millions of dollars who re- gently went blind from atrophy of optic 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 crep over his vision.
 You may have noticed how Christ g sympathies were stirred for the blind. Ophthamia has always been prevalent in Palestine. the custom of sleeping on the nOuSelOpS, exposed 10 the dew ana the flying dust of the dry season. inviting this dreadful disorder. A large percent age of the inhabitants could not tell the difference between 12 o'clock at noon and F o'clock at night. We are told of six of Christs miracles for the cure of these sightless ones. but l suppose they were only specimens of hundreds of restored visions What a pitfu spectacle Saul of Tarcus, the mighty man, three days led about In physical as well as spiritual darkness. he who afterward made Felix tremble by his eloquence and awed the
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