Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE WASHINGTON PREACHER ON THE DRAMA OF LIFE. It Appears that People Used to Go to the Theater ia the Lay* of Job — A Unique Peroration Vindicating Shakespeare of Infidelity. Caaaes of Failure. Ret. Dr. Talrnage in this discourse seta forth the causes of failure in life, drawing on a Biblical teference to the theater for •tartling illustration. His text was Job xxtii., 23, “M«» shall cftl’p their hands at him and shall hiss him out of bis place.” This allusion seems to be dramatic. The Bible more than once makes such allusions. Paul says, “We are made- a theater or spectacle to angels and to men." It is evident from the text that some of the habits of theater goers were known in Job's time, because he describes Our iletor hissed off the st»ge. » The impersonator eornos on the boards and. either through lack of study of the part he is to take or Inaptness or other incapacity, the audience- is offended ami expresses its disapprobation and disgust by hissing. “lien shall dap their hs-nds at him and shall hiss him out of his place:” The Actons of Life. My text suggests that each one of us-is-put on the stage of this world to take some part. What hardship and suffering and discipline great aetots have undergone year after year that they might be perfected in their parts you have often read. But we, put on the- stage of thislife to represent charity and faith and htrmility and helpfulness—what little preparation we have made; although we have three galleries of spectators, earth and heaven and he!!! Have we not been more attentive to the part taken by others than to-the part taken by ourselves, and, whilewe needed to be looking at home and concentrating on our own:dnty,.we have been criticising the other performers, and saying, “that was too highs”'or “too low,” or “too feeble.” or “to extravagant,” or “tpotame,” or “too demoirttrative,” while we ourselves wore making aulbad failure and preparing to be ignominibusly hissed off the stage? Each one is assigned a place, no supernumeraries hanging arouud tiledrama of life to take this or that or theother part, as they may be-called upon, No one can take our place: We can take no other place. Neither can- we put off our character; no change* of apparel can make us any 0110 else than) that which we eternally are.

Many make it failure-of their part: in the drama of life through dissipation. They have enough intellectual equipment and good address and geniality unbounded. Rut they have a wine closet that contains all the forces for their social and business and normal overthrow. So far back as the year 939, King Edgar of England made a law that the drinking cups should have pins fastened at a certain point in the side, so that the indiilger might be reminded to stop before he got to the bottom. But there are no pins projecting from the sides-of the modern wine cup or beer mug, and the first point at which millions stop is at the gravity bottom of their own grave. Dr. Sax of France has discovered something which all drinkers ought to know. He has found out that alcohol iu every shape, whether of wine or brandy or beer, contains parasitic life called bacillus potumaniae. By a powerful microscope these living things are discovered, and when you take strong drink you take them into the stomach and then into your blood, and, getting into the crimson canals of life, they go into evory tissue of your body, and your entire organism is taken possession of by these noxious infinitesimals. When in delirium tremens, a man sees every form of reptilian life*it seems it is only these parasites of the brain iu exaggerated size. It is not a hallucination that the victim is suffering, from. He only secs- in. the room what is actually crawling and rioting, in his own brain. Every time you take strong drink you swallow those maggots, and every time the imbiber of alcohol in, any shape feels vertigo or rheumatism or nausea it is only the jubilee of those maggots. Efforts are being made for the discovery, of some germicide that can kill the parasites of alcoholism, but the only thing: that will ever extirpate them is abstinence- from, alcohol and teetotal abstinence,, to which 1 would before God swear ail: these young men and old:

Dangers, o£ Strong Drink. America is a fruitful country, and we raise large crops of wheat and corn and oats, but the largest crop we raise ia this country is the crop: of drunkards. With sickle made out of the- sharp, edges of the broken glass o£ bottle and! demijohn they are cut down, and there are whole swathes of them, whole windrows of them, and it takes dill the hospitals and penitentiaries and graveyards and cemeteries to. hold this harvest of helL Some of you are going dawn under this evil, and the never dying worm of alcoholism has wound around you one of its coils and by next New Year's day it will have another coil around you, and it will after awhile put a coil around your tongue, and a coil around your hrain, and a coil around your lung, and a coil around your foot, and a coil around your heart, and some day this never dying worm will with one. spring tjghten all the coils at once, and in the, last twist of that awful convolution you will cry out, “Oh, my God!” and be gone. The greatest of dramatists in the tragedy of “The Tempest” sends staggering across the stage Stephano, the drunken butler; but across the stage of human life strong drink sends kingly and queenly and princely natures staggering forward against the footlights of conspicuity and then staggering back into failure till the world is impatient for their disappearance, and human and diabolic voices join in hissing them off the stage. Many also make a failure in the dratna of life through indolence. They are always making calculations how little they can, do for the compensations they get. Thqre are more lazy ministers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, artists and farmers than have ever been counted upon. The community is full of laggards and shirkers. I can tell it from the way they crawl along the street, from their tardiness in meeting engagements, from the lethargies that seem to hang to the foot when they lift it, to the hand when they put it out, to the words when they speak.

Oat of Place. Two young men in a store. In the morning the one goes to his post the last minute or one minute behind. The other is ten mlnntes before the time and has his hat and coat hung up and is at his post waiting for duty. The one is ever and anon in the afternoon looking at his watch to see if it is not most time to shut up. The other stays half an hour after he might go, and when asked why, says he wanted to look over some entries he had made to be sure he was right, or to put up some goods that had been left out of place. The one is very' touchy about doing work not exactly belonging to him. The other is glad to help the other clerks in their work. The first will be a prolonged nothing, and he will be poorer at 60 years of age than at 20. The other will be a merchant prince. Indolence Is the cause of more failures in all occupations th%n yon have ever suspected. People are too la*y to‘do what they -can do, and want to'undertake that wbkh they

cannot do. In the dram* of life they don't want to be a common soldier, carrying a halberd across the stage, or a fal-" 1 coner, or a mere attendant, and so they lounge about the scenes till they shall be 1 called to be something great. After awhile, by some accident of prosperity or circumstances, they get into the place for which they have nO qualification. And very soon, if the man lie a merchant, he Is going around asking bis creditors to 1 compromise for 10 cents on the dollar. Or, if a clergyman, he is making tirades against the ingratitude of ebwrebe*.«:,Or, if an attorney, bj unskillful management fee lose* a cgse.br which widows and orphan* are robbed of their portion. Or. if | a physician, he by. malpractice gives his patient rapid transit from this world to flic next. Our incompetent friend would have made a passable horse doctor, but be wanted to be professor of anatomy in a nniversity. He could have soid enough confetTionery to have supported his famil.v, but be wanted to have a .sugar refinery like the Hnvemeyers. He could have mended shoes, “but fit? wanted to amend the constitution of the United States. Town rrl the end of life these people are out of patience, out of mouey, out of friends, ont of everything. They go to the poorhouse, or keep ont of it by running in debt to all ,tlie grocery and dry goqds stores wUI Trust them. People begin to wonder when the enrtnin will drop on the scene. After awhile, leaving nothing but tlieir compliments' to pay doctor, undertaker irnrf GabfiePt,rubb, the gravedigger, they disappear. Exeunt! Hissed off the stage;. * A Moral Nuisance. Others fall in the drama of life through demonstrated selfishness. They make all the rivers empty into their sea, all the ; roads of emolument end at their door, and they gather all the plumes of honor for their brow. They help no one, encourage no one, rescue no one. “How big a pile of mtney eaa I get?” and “How much of the world can I absorb?” are the chief i questions. They feel about the common people as the Turks felt toward the Asapi, or common soldiers, considering them of no use except to fill up the ditches with their dead bodies while Abe other troops .walked over them to take the fort. After awhile this prince of worldly success is sick. The only interest society has in his illness- is the effect that his possible decease may ha:ve on the mouey markets. After awhile fie- dies. Great newspaper capitals announce how he started with nothing and ended with everything. Although for sake of appearance some people put handkerchiefs to the eye, there is not one genuine tear shed. The heirs sit up all night when he lies in state, discussing what the old fellow has probably done ■with his money. It takes all the livery stables within two miles to furnish funeral equipages, and' all the mourning stores are kept busy in selling weeds of grief. The stone cutters send in proposals for a monument. The minister at the obsequies reads of the resurrection, which .makes the hearers fear that if the unscrupulous financier does come up in the general, rising, he-wilLtry to get a “corner” on tombstone* and graveyard fences. All good men are-glad that the moral nuisance has- been removed. The Wall street speculators are glad because there is more room for themselves. The heirs are glad because they get possession of the long delayed inheritance. Dropping every feather of all his plumes, every certificate of all his stock, eve-y bond of all his investments, every dollar of all his fortune, he departs, and all the rolling of “Dead March” in “Saul," and nil the pageantry of his interment, and nil the exqnisiteness of sarcophagus, and all the extravagance of epitapbology, cannot hide the fact, that my text has come again to tremendous fulfillment, “Men shall clap their hands at him and shall hiss him out of his place.”’ You see the clapping comes before the hiss. The world cheers before it damns. So it is-said the deadly asp tickles before it stings. Going up, is he? Hurrah! Stand back, and let his galloping horse dash by, a whirlwind of plated harness and tinkling headgear and arched neck. Drink deep of his madeira and cognac. Boast of how well you know him. All hats off as he- passes. Bask for days and years in the sunlight of bis prosperity. Going.down, is he? Pretend to be nearsighted so that you cannot see him as he walks, past. When men ask you if you know, him, halt and hesitate as though you vuere trying to call up a dim memory and say, “Well, y-e-s, yes, I believe I once did know him, but have not seen him for a long while.” Cross a ditferent ferry from the one where you used to meet him lest he ask for financial help. When you started life, he spoke a good word for you at the bank. Talk down his credit now. that his fortunes are collapsing. He put his name on two of your notes. Toil him* that yon have changed your mind about such things, and that you never indorse. After awhile his matters, coipe to a dead halt, and an assignment or suspension or sheriff’s sale takes place. Yo* say: “He ought to have stopped sooner. Just as I expected. IJe made too big asplash in the world. Glad the balloon has burst HA, ha!” Applause when he" went up, sibilant derision when he came down. ‘(‘Men shall clap their, hands at him and hiss him out of his place.” So, high up amid the crags, the eagle flutters dust into the eyes of the roebuck, which then, with eyes blinded, goes tumbling over the precipice, the great antlers crashing on tKfe rocks. <, i Consecrated to God.

Now, compare some of these goings, out of life with the departure of men and women who in the drama, of life take the part that God assigned, l them and then went away honored of men and applauded of the Lord Almighty. It is about fifty years ago that in a comparatively small apartment of the. city a newly married pair set up a home. The first guest invited to that residence was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible given the bride on {he day of her espousal was the guide of that household. Days of aunshine were followed by days of shadow. Did you ever know a home that for fifty years had no vicissitude? The young woman who left her father’s house for her young husband’s home started out with a paternal benediction aqd good advice she will never forget. Her mother said to her the day before the marriage: “Now, my child, you are going away from us. Of course, as long as your father and I live you will feel that you can come to us at any time. But your home will be elsewhere. From long experience I find it is best to serve God. It is very bright with you now, my child, and you may think yon can get along without religion, but the day will come when you will want God, and my advice is, establish a family altar, and, if need be, conduct the worship yourself.” The counsel was taken, and that young wife consecrated every room in the house to God. Years passed on and there were in that home hilarities, but they were good and healthful, and sorrows, but they were comforted. Marriages as bright as orange blossoms could make them, and burials in which all hearts were riven. They have a family lot in the cemetery, but all the place is illuminated with stories of resurrection and reunion. The children of the household that lived have grown up, and they are all Christians, the father and mother leading the way and the children following. What care the mother took of wardrobe and education, character and manners! How hard she sometimes worked! When the head of the household Was unfortunate in business,

Ae fnrrf gntD her finger* were mnmlr ■*d bleeding at the tip*. And what close calculation of economies and what ingenuity in refitting the garments of the elder children for the younger, and only Gorf kept account of that mother’s sideaches sad headaches *nd heartaches and the rremrsloßs prayers by the side of the sick child’s cradle and by the couch of this one- fofly grown. The neighbors often noticed bow tired she looked, and old acquaintances hardly knew her in the street. But without complaint she waited and toiled and’ endured and accomplished aH these years. The children are out in the world —an honor to themselves and their parents. After awhile the mother’s last sickness- comes. Children and grandchildren, summoned from afar, come softly into the room one by one, for she is too weak to see more than one irt a time. She runs her dying finger* lovingly through their hair and tells them not to cry, and that she is- going now, but they will meet again in a little while in a better world, and then kisses them good-by and says to each, “God bless and' keep you, my dear child." The day of the obsequies comes, and the officiating clergyman tells the story of wifely and motherly endurance, and many hearts on earth and in heaven echo the sentiment, and as she is carried off the stage of this mortal life there are cries of “Faithful unto death," “She hath done what she could,” while overpowering all the voices of earth and heaven is the plaudit- of the God who watched her from first to last, saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will mak-ethee ruier over many things; enter thou into .the joy of thy Lord!”

The Choice. But what became of the father of that household?-* He started as a young man in business and had a small income, and having got: a little ahead sickness in the family swept it all away. He went through aIL the business panics of forty years, met many losses, and suffered many betrnpls, but kept right on trusting in God, , whether business was good or poor, setting his children a good example, and giving them the best of counsel, and never, a prayer did he offer for all those years but they, were mentioned in it. He is old now and realizes it cannot be long before he must quit all these scenes. But he, is going .to leave his children an inheritance of prayer and Christian principles which all the defalcations of earth can never touch, and as he goes out of the world the church of God blesses him and thfe poor ring his doorbell to see if he is any better, and his grave is surrounded by. a .multitude who went on foot and stood there 1 before the procession of' carriages came up, and some say, “There will be no- one to take his place, ’’ and others gay, “Who will pity,me now?’.’ and others remark, “Fie shall be held in overlasting remembrance.” And as the drama of his life closes, all the vociferation and bravos and encores that ever shook the amphitheaters of earthly spectacle were • tame and feeble compared with the long, loud thunders of approval that shall break from the cloiid of witnesses in the piled . up gallery of the heavens. Choose ye between the life that shall close by being.hissed off the stage and the life that shall, cloie amid acclamations supernal and - archangelic.Oh, men. and women on the stage of life, many of you,in the first act of the druma, nnd others in the second, and some-/of r you in the third, and a few in the fourth, and here and there one in the fifth, but all of you between entrance and exit, Ilquote to you as the peroration of this sermon the most suggestive passage that Shakspeare ever wrote, although you never heard it, recited. The author has often been claimed as infidel and atheistic, so the quotation shall be not only religiously helpful to ourselves, but grandly vindicatory- of. the great dra,matist. I quote from -hie last will and testament:

“In the name of God, Amen. I, William Shakkpeare, of Stratford-upon-i Avon, in the county of Warwick, gentleman, in perfect health and memory (God be- praised), do make this my last will and testament, in manner and form following: First, I commend my soul into the. hands of God; my. Creator, hoping and-assured-ly believing through the only merits- of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to, be,-made partaker of life everlasting.”