bE. TALHAGES SERMON. SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED DIVINE. Subject: "Cling to the Cross"—Tlie Mul tiplicity of Opportunities For IJoins Good Tliat Men of Talent Have Within Their Reacli—-Bravo Stay-at-Hoines. TEXT: "Thou art worth 10.0C0 of us."— II Samuel xvlil., 8. One of the most wondrous characters of his time was David. A red haired boy, he could shepherd a flock or carry "ton loaves and ten slices of milk cheese to his brothers in the regiment," or with leathern thong, stone loaded, bring down a giant whose armor weighed two hundredweight of metal, or cause a lion which roared at him in rage to roar with pain as he flung it, (lying, to the roadside, or could marshal a host, or rule an empire, or thumb a harp t o skillfully that It cured "Saul's dementia —a harp from whose Strings dripped pas torals, elegies, lyrics, triumphal marches, benedictions. Now, this man, a combina tion of music and heroics, of dithyrambs and battle fields, cf country quietudes and statesmanship, is to (It out a military ex pedition. Four thousand troops, accord ing to Josephus, wore sent into the field. The captains were put In command of the companies, and the colonels in com mand of the regiments, which were dis posed Into right wing, left wing and center. General Jonb, General Abishai and General Ittai are to lead these three divisions. But who shall take the field as commander in chief? David offers his services and proposes togo to the front. He will lead them in the awful charge, for he has not a cowardly nerve in all his body. He did not propose to have Ills troops go into perils which ho himaelf would not brave t , ajjd the battlefield re quired as mnch courago then as now, for the opposing forces must, In order to do any execution at all, come up to within posi tive reach of saber and spear. But thero came up from the troops and from civilians a mighty protest against David's taking the field. His life was tt>o important to the nation. If he went down, the empire went down; whereas, if the whole 4000 of the ranks were slain another army might be marshaled and the defeat turned into victory. The army and the nation practi cally cried out: "No! No! You cannot goto the front! We estimate you as 10,000 wen! 'Thou art worth 10,000 of us!' " That army and that nation then and there reminded David md now remind us of the fact which we forget or never ap preciate at all that some people are moral ly or spiritually worth far more than others, and some worth far less. The cen sus and statistics of neighborhoods, or churches, of nations, serve their purpose, but they can never accurately oxpress the real state of things. The practical subjeat that I want to present to-day is that those who have especial opportunity, especial graces, espoeial wealth, especial talent, especial eloquence, ought to make up by especial assiduity and consecration for those who have less opportunities and less gifts. You ought to do ten times mora for God and human uplifting than those who have only a tenth of your equipment. The rank and the file of the 4000 of the text told the truth when they said, "Thou art worth 10,000 of us." In no city of its size are there so many men of talent as are gathered la the capital of the American nation. Some of the States ore at times represented by men who have neither talents nor good morals. Their political party compensates them for parti san services by sending them to Co»gross or by securing for them position in the war or navy or pension or printing depart ments. They were nobodies bf-fore they left home, and they are nobodies here, but they are exceptional. AH the States of tho Union generally send their most talented men and men of exemplary lives and noble purposes. Some of them have the gifts and qualifications of ten men, of a hundred men —yea, of a thousand men—and their con stituents eould truthfully employ tho words of my text and say, "Thou art worth 10.000 of 11s." With such opportunity, are they aug menting their usefulness in every possible direction? Many of them are, some of them are not. It is a stupendous thing to have power—political power, social power, of ficial power. It has orten been printed and often quoted as one of the wise sayings of tho ancients. "Knowledge is power." Yet it may as certainly be power for evil as for good. The lightning express rail train has power for good if it is on the track, but horrible power for disaster if it leaves the track and plunges down the embankment. The ocean steamer has power for good, sailing in right direction and in safe waters and under good helmsman aud wide awake watchman on the lookout, but indescrib able power for rfvil if under lull head way It strikes tha breakers. As steam power or electricity or water forces may Iw stared in boilers, la dynamos, in reser voirs, to be employed all over a town or city, BO God sometimes puts in one man enough faith to supply thousands of men with courage. If a man happens to.be thus •ndowed, let him realize his opportunity and improve it. At this time millions of men are a-tremble lest this nation make a mistake and enter upon some policy of government for tho islands of the sea that will founder the republic. God will give to a few men on both sides of this question faith and courage for all the rest. There are two false positions many are now tak ing, false as false aan be. The one is that if we decllno to take under full charge Cuba and Porto 8100 and tho Philippines we make a declination that will be disas trous to our nation, and other nations will take control of those Brchipelagoes and rule them, and perhaps to our humiliation and destruction. The other theory is that if we take possession of those once Spanish colonies we invite foreign interference and enter upon a career that will finally be the demolition of this government. Both posi tions are immeasurable mistakes. God has set apart this continent for free govern ments and the triumphs of Christianity, and wo may take either the first or the second course without ruin. Wo may say to those islands, "We do not want you, but we have set you free. Now stay free, while we see that the Spanish panther never again puts Its paw on your neck." Or we may invite tho annexation of Cuba and Porto Bico and say to the Philippines, "Get ready by edu cation and good morals for free govern ment, and at the right time you shall be ono of our Terrttorierj, on the way to be one of our States." And there is no power In Europe, Asia or Africa, or all combined, that could harm this nation in its world-wide endeavor. God is on the side of the right, and by earnest imploratlon for divine guidance on the part of this nation we will be led to do the right, Ytfe are on the brink of nothing. There is no frightful orlsis. This train of Republi can and Democratic institutions is a through train, and all we want Is to have the engineer and the brakemen and the conductor attend totheir business and the passengers keep their places. A vast majority of men have no surplus of confidence for others and hardly enough confidence for themselves. They go through life saying depressing things and doing depressing things. They chill prayer meetings, discourage charitable In stitutions, injure commerce and kill churches. They blow out lights when they ought to be kindling them. They hover around a dull flro on their own hearth and take up so much room that no one can catch the least caloric, Instead of stirring the hearth into a blaze, the crackle of whosf backlog would Invitfb the whole neighborhood to come Into feel the abounding warmth and see the transfigur ation of the faces. As we all have to guess a great deal about the future, let us guess something good, for it will be more encouraging, and the guess will be just as apt to come true. Wnat a lot of lngrates tfie Lord has at His tablel People who have had three meals a day for fifty years and yet fear that they will soon have to rattle their knife and fork on an empty dinner plate. How many have had—win ter and spring and summer and fall— clothing for sixty years, but expect an *mpty'wardrobe shortly! How many have lived under free Institutions all their days, but fear that the United States may be telescoped In some foreign collision! Oh, but tho taxes have gone up! Yes, but thank God, It Is easier with money to pay the taxes now that they are up than it was without money to pay the taxes when they were down. We want a few men who have faith in God and that mighty future which holds several things, among them a millennium. Golumbanus said to his friend, "Detcolus, why are you al ways smiling?" The reply was, "Booauseno one can take my God from me!" We want more men to feel that they have a mission to cheer others and to draw up the corners of people's mouths which have a long while been drawn down, moro Davids who can shepherd whole flocks of bright hopes, and can play a harp of encouragement, and strike down a Goliath of despair, and of whom we can say, "Thou art worth 10.- 000 of us." I admit that this thought of my text fully carried out would change many of the world's statistics. Suppose a village is said to have 1000 inhabitants, and that 'one-half of them—namely, 500—have for years been becoming less In body, and through niggardliness and grumbling less in soul. Each one of those is only one-half of what he once was or one-half of what she once was. That original 500 have been reduced one half in moral quality and are really only 250. Suppose that the other 500 have maintained their original status and aro neither better nor worse. Then the entire population of that village is 750. But suppose another village of 1000, and 500 of them, as tho years go by, through mental and spiritual culture, augment themselves until they aro really twice the men and women they originally were, and the other 500 remain unchanged and are neither bottemor worse, then the pop ulation of that village is 1500. Meannosi is subtraction and nobility is addition, According as you rise In the scale of holi ness and generosity and consecration, yon are worth five or ten or fifty or 100 or iOOO or 10,000 others. Notice, my friend, that this David, war rior, strategist, minstrel, master of Idaalc verse and stone slinger at the giant, whom the soldiers of the text estimated clear up into the thousandfold of usefulness on this particular occasion, staid at home orin his place of temporary residonoe. General Joab, Ooneral Ablshal and General Ittal, who commanded the boys in tho right wing and left wing and centre, did their work bravely and left 25,000 of the Lord's ene mies dead on the field, and many of the survivors got entangled in the woods of Ephraim and mixed up in the bushes and stumbled over the stumps of trees and fell into bogs and were devoured of wild beasts which seized them in the thickets. But Dnvid (lid his work at home. We all huzza for heroes who have been in battle and on their return what processions we form and what triumphal arches we spring and what banquets we spread and what garlands wo wreatho and what ora tions we deliver and what bells we ring and what cannonades we fire! But do we do justice to the stay at homes? David, who was worth 10,000 of those who went out to meet the Lord's enemies in the woods of Ephraim, that day did his work in retire ment. Won. the world needs a day of judgment, to give many of the stay at "homes proper recognition. Iu tho different wars the sons went to the front and on ship's deck or battlefield exposed their lives and earned the admiration of the country, but how about the mothers and fathers who through long years taught those sons the noble sen timents that inspired them togo and then gave them up when perhaps a few words of earnest protest would have kept them on the farin and in the homestead? The day of llnal reward will reveal the self sacrifice and t'ce fidelity of thousands who never in all their livos received one word of praise. Oh, ye unknown, ye faithful and Christlnn and all enduring stay at homes! I have 110 power now to do you justice, but I tell you of one who has the power aud of the time when the thimble, and tho ladle, and tho darning needle, and the washtub, and the spinning wheel, and the scythe, aud the thrashing machine, aud tho hammer, and the trowel, aud the plow, will come to as high an appreciation as a seventy-four pouuder, or the sword, or thaiattering ram that pounded down the wail or tho flag that was hoisted on tho scaled parapets. The warrior David of my text showed more self control and moral prowess in staying at home than ho could have shown commanding in the field. He was a na tural warrior. Martial ilrs stirred him. The glitter or opposing shields llred him. He was one of those men who feel at home iu the saddle, patting the neck of a paw ing cavalry ho*so. But he suppressed him self. He obeyed the command of the troops whom ho would like to have commanded. Some of the greatest Sedans and Aus terlltzes have keen In backwoods kitch ens or In nursery, with three children dowu with scarlet fever, soon to join the two already in the churchyard, or amid domestic wrongs and outrages enough to transform angels into devils, or In commercial life within their own count ing rooms in time of Blaok Friday panics, or in mechanical life in their own oarpen ter shop or on the scaffolding of the walls swept by cold or smitten by heat. No tele graphic wires reported the crisis of the conflict, no banner was ever waved to cele brate their victory, but God knows, and God wilt remember, and God will adjust, and by Him the falling of a tear is as cer tainly noticed as the burning of a world, and the flutter of a sparrow's wing as the flight of the apocalyptic archangel. Oh, what a God we have for small things as well as big things! David no more helped at the front than helped at home. The four regiments mobilized lor tho de fense of the throne of Israel were right in protesting against David's expose of his life at the front. Had he been pierced of an urrow or cloven down with a battleax or fatally slung for snorting war charger, what a disaster for the throne of Israol! Absalom, his son, was a low fellow and unfit to reign; his two chief characteristics were his handsome face and his long hair—so long that when he had it out that which was scissored off weighed "200 shekels, after the king's weight, 't and when a man has nothing but a handsome face and an exuberance of hair there is not much of him. The oapture or slaying of David would have been a calamity irreparable. Unnecessary exposure would have been a crime for Davia, as tt Is a crime for you. Some people think It Is a brl« kt thing to put themselves in unnecessary peril. They like to walk up to the edge of a precipice and look off, defying vertigo, or go among contagions when they can be of no use but to demonstrate thetrown bravado, or with glee drive horses which are only harnessed whirlwinds, or see how can walk in front of a trolley oar without being crushed, or spring on a rail train after it has started, or leap off a rail train before it has stopped. Their life is a series of narrow escapes, careless of what predica ment their family would suffer at their sudden taking off or of the misfortune that might ooine to their business partners or the complete failure of their life work, if a coroner's jury must be called into de cide the style of tjieir exit. They do not take Into consideration what their life is worth to others. Taken off through such recklessness they go orimlnals. There was not ono man among those four full regiments of four thousand Israelites that would have so much enjoyed being in the fight as David, but he suw that he could serve his nation best by not putting on helmet and shield and sword, and so he took tbeadvioeof th« armed men and said, "What seemeth tq you best I will do." I warrant that you will die tiooa enough, without teasing and bantering casualty to see if it can launch you into the next world. A TEMPERANCE COLUMN. THE DRINK EVIL MADE MANIFEST IN MANY WAYS. Take a Drink?—Whiit Alcohol Does to the User—lt is Foolish to Boy an Ounce of Present Pleasure With a Pound of Future Pain—.Abstinence is Saiest. Take a drink? No, not I! Reason's taught me better Than to bind my very soul With a galling fettor. Water, sweet and cool and free, Has no cruel chains for me. "Blteth Like a Serpent." l'ew things are so much dreaded as ser pents. They ore so stealthy, and, except the rattlesnake, so silent, and some of them, at least, are so deadly. There ia no cure known for the bite of somo snakes; the only chance is to cut out the piece of ilesli which has been bitten or to burn it out with n red-hot iron, and even this will bo of no use unless it 1« don# directly after the bite is received. Now, this is very like what alcohol does to the drinker, who has only a very faint chance of getting rid of his thirst for drink when that thir3t has once been formed in him. His only chance is to get the drink out, and keep It out of his body. He cannot cut It out or burn it out; he has patiently to abstain from It until he has ceased to long for it. Some times it is many years before this can be done, and sometimes the thirst comes back time after time for the whole of a man's life, and keeps him in danger and anxiety. What good reason we have to avoid being bitten by this serpent of strong drink. The mischief comes at last like many other bad things, tho drink comes to ub with a smiling face; it is pretty to look at as it sparkles in the glass; we see some of our friends taking it; we know that many good people not only take it, but even praise It. If we wore to take some, very likely at first it would seein to be doing us good, and we might think it a useful thing to take. But it would all be a mistake; overy kind of stroDg drink is "a mocker," and soon after wo had got into the habit of taking it we should find that we had mora or loss diffi culty in leaving it oil. The first prick of the serpent's tooth would be felt, and if we had wisdom enough left we should cast the habit awny from us in fear and horror. If we did not the tooth would enter more deeply and the poison would flow through our veins; we should become the prey of the serpent. Wise men look well ahead, and so do wise boys and girls; they do not ask whether a thing is pleasant or unpleas ant just now; they want to kuow how it will be in tho end. They know better than to buy an ounce of present pleasuro with a pound of future pain. It is because the worst of drink comes at the last instead of at the first that we so hate and fear it. I It must bo terrible to feel the poison I spreading through one's body after tlie bite I of n snake. In some casus iu about n quar ; tor of an hour it is all over, and death has | (J| Cj who were predisposed to I 25 the disease. In such cases F [U th . e Boys of '9B may take |M I 1 \5) ty a lesson ftom the expert* i\ ■ \ V *s cnce of the J \ J V 1 « § Heroes of the W JK;) t Civil War. \f.\l 112 Hundreds of the Boys \ y~/ \ «)i of' 63 have testified to the \in V V efficacy of Dr. Williams" jT'J ¥.■ 112 fZ Pink Pills for Pale People /fll 5 L;/S Pa Win driving out rheumatism and other diseases contracted during their d*ys of hardship ton 4 ic pr ,:v h , rcii h . , ." m> '- Th< » *** ««*•«•«« | C? Asa Robinson, of Mt. Stirling, IM., is a veteran of the Civil war, having (ff* * served in the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. He went to the war a vigor fs ous farmer's boy and carae back brokeu in health, a victim of sciatic rheu- jj» U matism. Most of the time he was uufitted for manual labor of any kind. and his sufferings were at all times intense. He says : "Nothing seemed *if to give me permanent relief until three vears ago, when my attention was 1 called to some of the wonderful cures effected by Dr. Williams' Pink Pills £* for Pale People. I had not taken more than half a box when I noticed an fl* CO improvement in my condition, and I keep on improving steadily. To them Jjr I owe my restoration to health. They are a grand remedy."— Aft. Stirling jf L Democrat-Message. IX S At &U druaaiit*. or sent,postpaid, on receipt of price .50 ctv. ecr eS 7} bo*, by th« D«. rtcOiiirt* Co., B«« V,ScW«r\«ct»dy.H.Y. The Pot Called the Kettle Black Because the Housewife Didn't Use SAPOLIO f 112 mm ■ Sure Cure for I Colds When the children get their feet wet and take cold give them a hot foot bath, a bowl of hot drink, a dose of Ayer's Cheny , Pectoral, and put them to bed. The chances are they will be all right in the morning. Con tinue the Cherry Pectoral a few days, until all cough has dis appeared. Old coughs are also cured; we mean the coughs of bron chitis, weak throats and irritable lungs. Even the hard coughs of consumption are always made easy and frequently cured by the continued use of Am Cfterrg Every doctor knows that wild cherry bark is the best remedy known to medical science for soothing and healing inflamed throats and lungs. Put one of Dr. Ayer's Cherry Pectoral Plasters over your lungs Tha Dost Medical Advice r rso / We now have some of the moat emi nent physicians in the United States. Unusual opportunities and long experi ence eminently fit them for giving you medical advice. Write freely all the particulars in vour case. Address, Dr. J. C. AYER, Lowell, Mass. rfHiVdJml * ■ FLORIDA, CUBA i J MEXICO and CALIFORNIA. J ' Southern Railway.' J SHORTEST AND QUICKEST ROUTE. J w Knr luforiaftUon a;>plr to 112 A GEO. C. DANIELS, Trav. Pass. Agent, i \ 22S Washington S»., Buxton. " ALEX. S.THWEATT, East. Pass. 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