Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

THE WASHINGTON PREACHER ON THE DRAMA OF LIFE. f ' It Appears People Used to Go to the Theater in the Days of Job—'A Unique Peroration- Vindicating Shakespeare of Infidelity. ' '■* Causes of Failure. Rev. Dr. Talmage hi this discourse set? forth the causes of failure iq life, drawing on a Biblical reference to the theater for startling illustration. 11 is text was Job xxvti., 23, “Men sltHlUchtp their Haiufintt--him and shall hiss him out of his place.*’ This allusion seems to-be*dramatic. The Bible more than once mokes such allusions. Paul says,- “We are made a theater or spectacle to angels and to'roeu.” It is evident frourthe text that some of the habits of theater goers were known in Job’s time,! because he describes an actor hissed off the stage. The impersonator comes on the boards and,, either through lack of study ,o£ the part he is to take or inaptness. or other incapacity, the audience is offended and expresses jtta~disi>P--PJQ.hatiou and disgust by hlssTng. “Mon shall clap their bands at.hint tjnd shall hiss him out of his place.!’ " The Actors of Jdfe. 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 actors have undergone year after year that they might be perfected in their paVts you have often rend. Blit we, put on the stage of this life to represent charity and faith and humility and helpfulness—what little preparation wf ha ve made, although we have three galleries of spectators, earth and heaven and liell! Have we not lieen more attentive to the part taken by others than to the part taken by ourselves, and, while we heeded to he looking at home and concentrating on our own duty, we have been criticising the other performers, nnd saying, “that was too high,” or “too low,” or “too feeble,” or “to extravagant,” or “too tame,” or “too demonstrative,” while we ourselves were making a dead failure and preparing to be ignuminiously hissed off the stage? Muefi one is assigned a place, no supernumeraries hanging around the drama of life to take this or that or the other part, as they may he 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 one else than that which we eternally are. Many make a failure of their part in the drama of life through dissipation. They have enough intellectual equipment and good address and geniality unbounded. But they have a wine closet that contains all the forces for their social and business and normal overthrow. Sp far back as the year 959, King Edgar of England made 1 a law that the drinking cups .should have pins fastened at a certain point in the side, so that the indulger might be remiuded 'to'sK/ft before-ha-gat to tire bottom. But there are no pins projecting from the sides of the modern wine cup ort beer mug, ajtd the first poin{ at which miliiums 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 in 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 fake strong drink you take them into the stomach and then into your blood, and, getting into the crimson canals of life, they go into every 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 in exaggerated size. It is not a hallucination that the victim is suffering from. He only sees in the room what is actually crawling and rioting in his own brain. -Every time you take strong drink you swallow fliese maggots; aud every time the imhiher of alcohol in any shape feels vertigo or rheumatism or nausea it is only the jubilee of these maggots. Efforts are being made for the discovery of some germicide that can kill the parasites of alcoholism, but the only thiug that will ever extirpate them is abstinence from alcohol and teetotal abstinence-, to > which I would before God swear all these young men -and old. __ A =^-^-^Sageg!ag:;gtrqngDrink. —America is a fruitful’country, 'flfid~we raise large crops of wheat and corn and oats, but the largest crop we raise in this country is the crop of drunkards. With sickle made out of the sharp edges of the broken glass of bottle and demijohn they are cut down, and there are whole swathes of thorn, whole windrows of them, and it takes all the hospitals and penitentiaries and graveyards and cemeteries to hold this harvest of hell. Some of you are going down under this evil, and the never dying worm of alcoholism has wound around you one of its coils, ami fey ittxt New YearWajt-lt will have another coil around you, and it will after awhile put a coil around your tongue, and a coil around your brain, and a coil around your lung, nnd a coil around your foot, and a coil around your heart, and some day this never dying worm will with one spring tighten 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 ami queenly and princely natures staggering forward against the footlights of couspicuity 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 drama of life through indolence. They are always making calculations how little they can do for the compensations they get. 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 putHt out, to the-words when they speak. Out of Place. Two young men in a store. In the morning the one goes tu-his post the last minute or one minute behind. The other is ten minutes before the time and has hia bat and coat hung up aud 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 naked why. says he wanted to look over some entries he had made to he sure he was right, or to put up some goodsAhat 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 yqara of age than at 20. The other will jtf a merchant prince. Indolence la the cause of more failures In all occupations than you havener suspected. People are too lasy to do what they can do, and want to undertake that which they

cannot do. In the drama of life- they don’t want to be a common Bold ier, carrying a halberd across the stage, or a falconer, or a inere’attendnnt, ffnd so they lounge about the scenes tilj they shall, be. called to be something great. After awhile, by some accident of prosperity or .ciroumstances, they get into the place for which they have no qualification. Aml. very soon, if the man be a merchant, he is going around asking his creditors to compromise for Ttr cents on - the -dollar. ' Or, if a clergyman, he is making tirades against the ingratitude of churches. Or, if an attorney, by unskillful management he lose? a case by which widows and orphans are robbed of their'portion. Or, if a physician, he by malpractice gives his patient rapid transit from this world to ..IhjC- tirxt. Our incompetent friend would, have made a passable horse doctor! %us he wanted.to he professor of anntoiny in a university. He could have sold enough confectionery to have supported his family, but he wanted to have a sugar refill- _ pry like'the Hnvemeyers. He could have” mended shoes, hut he wanted to amend the constitution of the United States. Toward the end of life these people are out Of patience, out of money, our of friends, out Of everything. They go to the poorhouse, or keep out of it by running in debt to all the grocery and dry goods stores -that will trust them. People begin to wonder when the curtalnwill urOp onthe scene. After awhile, leafing nothing but their compliments to pay doctor, undertaker and Gabriel Grubb, the gravedigger, they disappear. Exeunt!- Hissed off the stage, r. ■

A Moral Nniaancc, Others fail in the drama of life through demonstrated! selfishness. They make all the rivers empty into their sea, all the rouds of emolument end aTtheir door, and they gather all the plumes of honor for their brow. They jtelp no one, encourage no OrfC, Vefcue no one. “How big a pile of money can I get?” and “How mueh-ot the world can I absorb?” are the chief 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 the 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 have on the money markets. After awhile he dies. —Gxeat_ 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 m 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 reuds of the resurrection, which makes the hearers fear that if the unscrupulous financier does come up in the general rising, he will try to get a “corner” on tombstones and graveyard fences. All good men nre glad that the moral nuisance has been removed. The Wall street speculators a{e glad because there is more room for themselves. Thp heirs are glad because they get possession of the long delayed inheritance. Dropping every feather of all his plumes, every eertifieate 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 all the pageantry of his interment, nnd all the exquisiteness of sarcophagus, and all the extravagance of cpitaphologv, cannot hide the fact that my text has come again to tremendous fulfillment, “Men shall clap their hands at him nnd shall hiss him out of his place.” You see the clapping comes before the hiss. The world cheers before it damns., ijo it is said the deadly asp tickles before it stiiigs. Going up, is he? Hurrah! Stand hack and let his galloping horse dash by, a whirlwind of plated harness and tinkling headgear and arched neck. Drink deep of his mndeira and cognac. Boast of how well you know him. All hats off as he passes. Bask for days and years in the sunlight of his 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 were 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 n long while.” Cross a different ferry from themne where you Jised to meet him lest he ask for financial help. .When you you at the bank. Talk down his credit now that his fortunes are collapsing. He put his name on two of your notes. Tell him that you have changed your mind about such things, and that you never indorse. After awhile his matters come to a dead halt, aud an assignment or suspension or sheriff’s sale takes place. You say: “He ought to have stopped sooner. Just as I expected. He made too big a splash in the world. Glad the balloon has burst. Ha, ha!” Applause when he went up, sibilant derision when he came “Ifew-shaH .ibeir haada 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 crashling on the rocks.

Consecrated to God. Now, compare some of these goings out of life with the departure of men and women who iq the drama of life take the part that God assigned them and then went away honored of men and applaud-s ed 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 bluest invited to that residence was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible given the bride on the day of her espousal was the guide of that household. Days of sunshine 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 and 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 nny time. But your home will be elsewhere. Prom long experience I find it is best to serve God. It is very bright with you now, my child, and you may think you can get along without religion, but the day will oome when you will want Ood, and my advice is, establish a family altar, and. if need be, conduct the worship yourself.” The counsel was taken, and that 1 yquug 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 tbey j 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 ahe sometimes worked! When the head of the household was unfortunate 1a business,

she sewed until hep Angers were numb andbleoding at the tips. Add what close calculation of economies and- what Ingenuity in refitting, the garments of the -elder children for the younger, and only God kept account of that mother’s sidenehes and headaches and heartaches and the tremulous prayers by the side of the sick child's cradle and; by the couch of this one fully grown. <The neighbors often noticed how tired she looked, and old acquaintances hardly knew her In thestreet. But without complaint she waited and toiled and endured and accomplished all 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 ope, for ahe is too weak to see more than one at a time. She runs her dying fingers lovingly through their hair and tells them not to cry, and that she is going now, hut 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 yon, my dear child.” The day of the obsequies ; comes, and the otficiating clergyman tells the story of wifely and motherly endurance, and many hearts oh 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 Cod' who watched her from first to last, saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; < enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!” The CBp ice* But what became of the father of that household? Jle started as a young man in business nnd had admail income, and having got, a little ahead sickness in the family swept it all away. He went through all-the business panics of forty years, met tnafty losses, and suffered many betrayals, but kept right on trusting in God, whether business was good or poor, setting his children a good example, and giving them the bent dt counsel, nnd 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 ail these scenes. But he is going to leave bis children an Inheritance of prayer and Christian principles which all the defalcations of earth can never touch, and as he goes him and the poor ring his doorbell to see if he is any better, and his grave ls surrounded by a multitude who went on'foot and stood there before the procession of carriages came up. and some say, “There will be no one to take his place,” and others say, “Who will pity me now?” and others remark, “He shall be held in everlasting remembrance.” And as the drama of his life closes, nil 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 eloHd of witnesses in the piled up gallery of the bOavens. Choose ye between the life that shall close by being hissed off the stage and the life that shall close ,amid acclamations supernal and nrchangelic. Oh, men and women on the stage of life,' many ofyotrin the first act of the drama, nnd others in the second, and mum of you in the third, and a few in the fourth, nnd here and there one hi the fifth, but all of you between entrance and exit, I quote to you as the peroration of this sermon the most suggestive passage that Shahspeare ever wrote, although you never heard it recited. The author has often been claimed as fhfidel and atheistic, so the quotation shall be not only religiously helpful to ourselvps, but grandly vindicatory of the grcai dramatist, t quote from his last will and testaipent;^ “In the name of God, Amen. I, William Shakspeare, of Stratford-upon-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 assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to he made partaker of life everlasting.”