The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1902-04-08
A CHEERFUL SPIRIT
Or. Talmage Says Is Causes for Thanks.
giving That Are Seldom Recognized
Remember the Daily Blessings - Comforts
Of Friendship.

VI iiiSnuohlF
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
DIR. Ialmage calls attention % causes OF
Thanksgiving that are seldom recognized,
and shows how to cultivate a cheerful
spirit; text, Psalms NN:.ii, y, Sing unto
MIN with psaltery and an instrument OF
ten strings"
a musician as well as poet and con-
quer0r and king was David, the author
OF my text. lie first composed nc sacred
rhythm and then Played 1T upon harp.
striking and p,ucl,ing the strings with his
fingers and thumbs. The harp is the old
est OF musical instruments Jubal invent
cd 1T, and he was the seventh descendant
from Adam. Its music was suggested by
the twang Of the bowstrng. Homer re-
fer5 TO the harp in the "Iiad." 1t Is the
most consecretcd OF all instru cnts The
flute is more mellow, the buglc more mar
tial, the cornct more incisive the trumpet
moro resonant, the organ more mighty. but
the harp has tenderness and sweetness
belonging to no other instrument that 1
know OF. 1t enters into the richest sym
bolism OF the Holy Scriptures. The cap
tves IN their sadness hung their harps
upon the willows" In other ages it had
eight strings. David's harp had ten
strings, and when his great soul was afre
with the theme his sympathetic voice ac-
companicd by exquisite vibration of the
chords, must have been overpowering.
w III tlS IlduN lUluES 60 complain ABOUT
as any man ever had David wrote more
anthems than any other man ever wrote.
lie PUTS even the frosts and hailstorms
and tcmpests and creeping things and fy-
ing fowl and the mountains and the hills
and day and night into a chorus. Absu-
Ions plotting and Ahithophes treachery
and hosts of antagonists and sleepless
nights and running sore could not hush
his psclmody. Indeed the more his trou-
bles the mightier his sacred poems. The
IL ~ 4
repeated in his psalms that one would
think the typesetter's case containing the
letters with which those words are spelled
would be exhausted.
In my text David calls upon the people
to praise the Lord with an instrument of
ten strings, like that which he was accus-
toned to finger. The simple fact ia that
the most OF us, IL 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 or being grateful
for here and there a blessing we happen
to think of, We ought to rchcarse all our
blessings so far as we can recall them and
obey the injunction OF my text to sing
unto Kim with an instrument OF ten
strings.
Have you ever thanked God for delight
some food? What vast multitudes are a.
hunge'cd from day to day or are obliged
to take food not toothsome or pleasant TO
VIZ tdeAt. " lldL ulillOuS are III struggle
Tor bread! A Confederate soldier went to
the front, and his family were on the
verge OF starvat ton, but they were kept up
by the faith of a child of that household,
who, noticing that some supply was sure to
come, eXcla ned Mother L think God
hears when we scrapc the bottom Of the
barrel
Have you appreciated the fact that on
most OF your tables are Injuries that do
not come to all? Have you realized what
2eretieS OF flavor often touch yoCr tongue
ana now the saccharin and the acid have
been afforded your palate? What fruits.
what nuts, what meats regale your appc-
ute, while many would be glad to get the
errst5 and rinds and pee.ings that fail
from your table.
For the fine flavors and the luxurious
Vland5 you Rave enjoyed for lifetime per-
haps you have never expressed to God a
word o. thanksgiving. That is one of the
ten 'trinGs that you ought to have
thrun-ned In praise to God, but you have
never yet put it in vibration.
Have you thanked God for eyesght as
originally given to you or, after It was
dlmned by age, for the glass that brought
the page OF the book within the compass
OF the vision Have you realized the pri-
vatol those suffer to whom the day is as
black as the night and who never see the
tScc OF father or mother or wife or child or
friend? Through what painful surgery
many have gone to get one glimpse of the
HBnI! ne eye so de-lcate and beautiful
a1d useful that one OF them is inValuab,ei
And most of us have two of these won
der5 or divine mechanism. The man of
millions of dollars who recently went blind
from otrophy Of optic nerve would have
been willing to give all his millions and be-
come day laborer if he could have kept
OH the blindness that gradually crept over
his vision.
You may have noticed how Christ's SYM
palmcs were stirred for the blind. Oph-
thGImla has always been prevalent in Pal
cStlnc, the custom of sleeping on the house
tops, exposed TO the dew and the flying
dust OF the Or season, inviting this dread
iul disorder. a large percentage of the in
habitant5 could not tell the difference be-
tween II o'clocl, az noon and u o'clock at
NIGHT. We crc told of six Of Christ's mir
aclcs Tor the cure OF the-e sightless ones
but | suppose they were only specimens of
hundreds of restored visions
What pitiul spectacle Saul OF Tarsus
mighty man, three days led about i'm Dhvs-
zeal az wei az spiritual darkness, he who
o!tcrward made Felix trcmblc by his e!o.
uurncc and awed the Athenian philoso-
piers on Mars Hill and was the only cool
headed man in the Ale audria corn shin
that went to pieces on the rocks of Mile
tus, once ,hc mighty prosecutor of Saul
altcrward tho glorious evangelist Paul. for
three days not able to take a safe step
without guidance
Have you ever given thanks for two
oycs-media between the sorl inside and
the world outside, redia that no one but
The infinite Cod could create? The eve,
the window Of our immortal nature. The
gate through which all colors march the
pict1rc gallery of the soul Without the
eye this world is q big dungeon. fear
that many OF u9 have never given one
hearty oppression OF gratitude FOR treasure
OIL eight, tho loas of which is the greatest
cis11tCr possible. unless IL be the loss of
The mind. Those wondrous seven muscles
Chat turn tho eye up or down. to right or
lcit on orould. No one but God could
have created Che rctina IF we have ever
appreciated what God did when lie gave
u3 two eyes it was when we saw others
with obiitcratcd vision
Alas. chat only through Che privation Of
others we c1mc to n realization of orr own
blessing! If YOU had harp i'm hand and
rwept oll the strings of gratitude. vor
would nave struck th.s. which is ono of
the most dulcet OF The ten strings
further. notice how many pass through
life in silence because the car refuses 10
DO lts office. They never hear music. vo.
cal CO. Instrumental The thunder that
rolls IT'S full diapason through the hpav.
ems docs not startlc the prolonged silence.
Ihc air. That has for us 500 many melodies
has mo- sweet sound for them They live i'm
70 uuICiulp taal will NOT lac brrtor, t,,.f.1