CLING TO THE CROSS. OR. TALMAGE PREACHES A POWER FUL SERMON. Meat of Talent Hare Special Oppor taaltlee For Doings Good Heroes at Home a Well as on the Battlefield. Tke Greatest Warrior of All. ' fCopyrlrht, 1839. by American Press Asso- "i elation- WAEHncaTON, Jan. a From a teil ; probably never before discouried upon .Dr. Talmago in this sermon sbows how some peoplo multiply their resources for neefulness and in a norel way urges the patting forth of more energy in right directions; text, II Samuel xriii, S, "Thou art worth 10,000 of us." One of the most wondrous characters of his time was David. A red haired boy, he could sbepbertLa flock or carry "ten loaves and ten slices of milk cheese to his brothers in the regiment," or with lathern thong, stone loaded, bring down a giant whose armor weighed two hun dredweight of metal, or cause a Hon which roared at him in rage to roar with pain as be flung it, dying, to the roadside, or could marshal a host, or rule an em pire, or thumb a harp so skillfully that it cored Saul's dementia a harp from whose strings dripped pastorals, elegies, lyrics, triumphal marches, benedictions. Now, this man, a combination of musio and heroics, of dithyrambs and battle fields, of country quietudes and states manship, is to fit outla military expedi tion. Four thousand troops, acoording to Josephus, were 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 Joab, ueneral Abisnai 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 tor go 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 his troops go into perils which he himself would not brave, and the bat tlefield required as much courago then as now, for the opposing forces must, in order to do any execution at all, come up to within positive reach of saber and spear. But there came up from the troops and from civilians a mighty protest against David 'a. taking the field. His life was too important to the nation. If he went down, the em pire went down; whereas, if the whole 4,000 of the ranks were slain another army might be marshaled and the de feat turned into victory. -The army andv the nation practically cried out: "No! , No f Yon cannot go to the front I We estimate you as 10,000 men! 'Thou art worth 10,000 of usl'" That army and that nation then and there reminded David and now remind as of the fact which we forget or never appreciate at all that some people are morally or spiritually worth far more than others, and some worth far less. The census and statistics of neighbor hoods, of churches, of nations, serve their purpose, but they can never ac curately express the real state of things. The practical subject that I want to present todayis jthat those who have especial opportunity, especial- graces, especial wealth, especial talent, espe trial eloquence, ought to make up by especial assiduity and consecration for Ihoae who have less opportunities and less gifts. You ought to do ten times more for God and human uplifting than those who have only a tenth of your equipment. The I rank and the file of the 4,000 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 in this capital of the American nation. Some of the states are at times repre sented by men who have neither talents nor good morals. Their' political party compensates them for partisan services by sending them to congress or by se curing for them position in the war or navy or pension or nrintins denart- menta. They were nobodies before they Melt Home, and they are nobodies here, but they are exceptional. All the states -of the 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 thou sand men and their constituents oould truthfully employ the words of my text and say. "Thou art worth lo.noo nf us. s Power For Good. With such opportunity, are they aug menting their usefulness in every pos sible direction? Many of them are, some of them are not) It is a stupendous thing to have power political power, social power, official power. It has of ten been printed jand often quoted as one of the wise sayings of the 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 em bankment The ocean steamer has power for good, sailing in right direction and in safe waters and under good helms man and wide, awake watchman on the lookout, but indescribable power for vil if under full headway it strikes the Breakers. As steam power or electricity or water forces may be stored in boil ers, in dynamos, in reservoirs, to be employed all over a town or city, so God sometimes puts fn one man enough faith to supply thousands of men with ourage. If a man happens to be thus -endowed, let him realize his opportune ly, and improve it I At this time-millions of men are a-fremble lest this na tion make a mistake and enter upon aome policy of government for the is lands 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 taking, falise as false can be. The one ia tht v IX we decline to take under full charge Cuba and Porto Bico and the Philip pines we make a declination that will be disastrous to our nation, and other nations will : take control of those ar chipelagoes and rule them, and perhaps to our humiliation and destruction. The other theory is that if we take posses sion of those once Spanish colonies we invite foreign interference and enter upon a career that will finally bo the demolition of this government. Both positions are immeasurable mistakes. God has set apart this continent for free government and the triumphs of Christianity, and we may take either the first or the second 'course without ruin. We 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 the annexation of Cuba and Porto Rico and say to the Philippines, "Get ready by education and good mor als for free a government, f and at the right time you shall be one of our terri tories, on the way to be one of our states." ' - . - j, x ' 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 imploration for divine guidance on the part of this nation we will be led to do the right We are on the brink of nothing. There ii no frightful crisis. This train of Re publican and Democratic institutions is a through train, and all we want is to have the engineer and the brakemen and the conductor attend to their busi ness . and ' the passengers keep their places. , We want men in this nation with faith enough for all. We want here and there a David worth 10,000 men. Confidence Lacking;. A vast majority of men have no sur plus 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 institutions, injure commerce and kill churches. They blow out lights when tbey ought to be kindling them. They hover around a dull fire on their own hearth and take up so muoh room that no one can catch the 'least caloric, in stead of stirring the hearth into a blaze, the crackle of whose backlog would in vite the whole neighborhood to come in to feel the abounding warmth and see the transfiguration 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 jutt as apt to come true. What a lot of ingrates the Lord has at his table ! People who have had three meals a day for 50 years and yet fear that they wilt soon have to rattle their knife and fork on ah empty dinner plate. How many have had winter and spring and summer and fall cloth ing for 60 years, but expect an empty wardrobe shortly ! How I many have lived under free institutions all their days, but fear, that the United States may be telescoped in some foreign col lision 1 Oh, but the taxes have gone up I 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 jwere down. We want a few men who nave faith in God and that mighty . future which holds several things, among them a millennium. , Oojumbanus: said to his friend, "Deicolns, why are you always smiling?" The reply was, j" Because no one can take ' my God from me 1" 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, more 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 eay, "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 vil lage is said to have 1,000 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 these is only one-half of what he once was or one-half of what sne once was. That original 500 have been reduoed one-half in moral quality and are really only 250. Suppose that the other 500 have maintained their original status and are neither better nor worse. Then the entire population of that village is 750: But suppose another village of 1,000, and 500 of them, as he years go by, through mental and spiritual cul ture, augment themselves! until they are really twice the men and women they originally were, and the other 500 remain unchanged and are neither better nor worse, then the population of that village is 1,500. Meanness I is subtrac tion and nobility is addition. Accord ing as you rise in the scale of holiness and generosity and consecration, you are worth 5 or 10 or 50 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 others. . II amble Heroes. Notice, my friend, that this David. warrior, strategist, minstrel) master of blank verse and stone slinger at the giant, whom the soldiers of the text es timated clear up into the thousandfold of usefulness on this particular occasion, staid at home or in his place of tem porary residence. General Joab, Gen eral Abishai and General! Ittai, who commanded the boys in the right wing and left wing and 'Center, did their work bravely and left 25,000 of the Lord's enemies dead on the field, and many of the survivors got entangled in the woods of Ephraim and mixed up in the boshes and stumbled over the stumps of trees and fell into bogs and were, devoured of wild beasts which seized them in the thickets. But David did 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 arohes we pring and what banquets we spread and what garlands we wreathe and what craticas we deliver and what belli 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 Ephra im, that day did his work in retirement Oh, the world needs a day of judg ment, to give many of the stay at homes proper recognition. In the 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 sentiments that inspired them to go and then gave them up when perhaps a few words of earnest protest would have kept them on the farm and in the homestead? The day of final reward will reveal the self sacrifice and the fidelity of thousands who never in all ' their lives received one word of praise. Oh, ye unknown, ye faithful and Christian and all endur ing stay at homes! I have no power now to do you justice, but I tell you of one who has the power and of the day when he will put it forth.- It will be the day when the thimble, and the la dle, and the darning needle, and the wasbtub, and f the spinning wheel, and the scythe, and the thrashing machine, and the hammer, and th trowel, and the plow, will . come to as high an ap preciation as a 74 pounder, or the sword, or the battering ram that pounded down the wall or the flag that was hoisted on the scaled parapets. A Great Soldier. -; The warrior David of my text showed more self control and moral prowess in staying at home than he could have shown commanding in the field. He was a natural warrior. Martial airs stirred him. The glitter of opposing shields fired him. He was one of those men who feel at home in the saddle, patting the neck of a pawing cavalry horse. But he suppressed himself. He obeyed the command of the troops whom he would like to have commanded. Some of the greatest Sedans and Aus terlitzes have been in backwoods kitch ens or in nursery, with three children down 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 counting rooms in time of Black Friday panics, or in mechanical life in their own carpenter shop or on the scaffold ing of walls, swept by cold or smitten by beat. ; No telegraphic wires reported the crisis of the conflict, no banner was ever waved to 'celebrate their victory, but God knows, and God will remem ber, and God will adjust, and by him the falling of a tear is as certainly no ticed 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 for the defense of the throne of Israel were right in protesting against David's j exposure of his life at the front. Had he been pierced of an arrow or cloven down with a battleax or fatally slung from snorting war charger, what a dis aster for the throne of Israel ! 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 cut that which was scissored off weighed "200 shekels, after the king's weight," and when a man has nothing but a hand some face and an exuberance of hair there is not much of him. The capture or slaying of David would have been a calamity irreparable. Unnecessary ex posure would have been a crime for Da vid, as it is a crime for you. Some people think it is a bright 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 tbey can be of no use but to demonstrate their own bravado, or with glee drive horses which are only harnessed whirlwinds, or see how close tbey can walk in front of a trolley car 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 pre dicament their family would' suffer at their sudden taking off or of the mis fortune that might 1 come to their busi ness partners or the complete failure of their life work, if a coroner's jury must be called in to decide the style of their exit Tbey do not take into considera tion what their life is worth to others. Taken off through such recklessness they go criminals. There was not one man among those four full regiments of 4,000 Israelites that would have so much enjoyed being in the fight as Da vid, but he saw that he could serve his nation best by not putting on helmet and shield and sword, and so he took the advice of the armed men and said, "What seemeth to you best I will do." I warrant that you will die soon enough, without teasing and bantering casualty to see if it can launch you into the next world. - v Keep Out of Peril. f In nine cases out of ten the fatalities every day reported are not the fault of engineers or brakemen or conductors or cab drivers, but of the stupidity and recklessness of people at street or rail road crossing. They wculd like to have the Chicago limited express train, with 300 passengers and advertised to arrive at a certain hour in a certain city, slow, jap to let them get two minutes sooner to their destination, not one farthing of their own or any one else's welfare dependent on whether they arrive one minute before 12 o'clock or one minute after. You ought to ge.t permission from a railroad superintendent to mount be side the engineer on a locomotive to re alize how many evils of recklessness there are in the world funeral proces sions whipping up to get across before the cowcatcher strikes the hearse; man of family, with wife and children' be side him in a wagon, evidently having made close calculation as to whether a m This is the season for bargains ! All the merchants are advertising bar gains, all the people are looking for bargains, and if you don't know a bargain when you see if, you might have to suffer for laok of proper knowledge in such things. WE HAVE BARGAINS, WE ALWAYS KEEP BARGAINS, WE GIVE YOU BARGAINS EVERY TIME YOU COME TO SEE US. If we did not you would not come back. You do come back, and the reason you come back is that you know from experience that we have carried fair with you. We are going to continue to be fair not possibly because we are more honest than any one else because' we believe that "honesty is the best policy." We do not wish to imDress you with the idea that we will sell you $10.00 for $5.00. But if the Suit you buy of us at any price is not equal or superior to the bargain counter Suit at same price, we want our Suit back; you want your money, you can get - hews, 300 SALESMEN : J. R. stroke from the locomotive would pnt them backward or forward in the jour ney to the village grocery ; traveler on a railroad bridge, hoping that he ooald get to the end of the bridge before the train reaches it. Yon have no light to pnt your life in peril unless by such exposure something is to be gained for otheiB. What imbecility in thousands of Americans during our recent Ameri-so-Spanish war, disappointed because the surrender came so soon and tbey could not have the advantage of being shot at San Juan hill or brought down with the yellow fever and carried on a litter to- traneport steamers already so many floating lazarettos instead of thanking God that tbey got no nearer to the slaughter than Tampa or Chatta nooga or the encampment at their own state capital ; mad at the government, mad at Qod, because they could not get to the front in time to join the 4,000 corpses that are now being transported from the'tropioe to the national ceme teries of the United States. Exposure and dating are -admirable when duty calls, but keep out of peril when noth ing practical and useful is to be gained for your family or your country or your God. I admire the David of my text as he suppresses himself and enters the gate of his castle as much as I admire him. when with his four fingers and thumb clutched into the grisly locks of Goliath's head, which he had decapi tated, and Saul admiringly asks, "Whose son art thou, young man?" and David, blushing with genuine modesty, responds, I am the son of thy servant, Jesse, the Bethlebemite." Help Others. Now, here is another important point. As there are so many people in the world who amount to little or nothing yon ought to augment yourielf, and if not able, like David, to be worth 10,000 times more than others, ybu can com mand God's re-enforcing grace to make yourself four times or three times or twice as much as some others. ' Pray twice as ruucb, read twice aa much, give twice as much, go to church twice as much. Instead of spending your time finding fault with others, substitute your superior fidelity for their derelic tion and default. In any church there are ten members worth all the other thousand. In every great business firm there is one man worth the other three partners. In every legislative hall, state or national, there are five men worth all the other 50 or 100. Take the sug gestion of my text and augment your self. Make your one talent do the work of two, or your five talents do the work of ten, or your ten talents do the work of 20. Multiply your words of encour agement. Multiply the number of boosts yon can give to those who are trying to climb. Instead of being one man in a battalion by your faith in God and new consecration be a whole regiment. I like the question of a general of a email army, when some one was counting the number of officers and soldiers of the opposing forces and the small number of tbeir own army, and the general cried out in indignation, "How many do yon take me to be?" David was 10, 000 men. You ought to be at least two men in this battle for God and right eousness. Ther daily papers say that my old friend Jeremiah G. Lanpnier of New York is dead at 90 years of age. But tbey are mistaken. That man can never die. He will live as long as heaven lives. He was the father of vitalized, vivified and arousing prayer meetings. He established the noonday Fulton street prayer meeting, famous through out Christendom and more honored of Qod than any devotional meeting since the world began. He introduced the lit tle bell on the prayer meeting table which .always tapped when prayers Continued on Third Page. la I mm. .1 it.! dishlm, Stroud SOUTH ELM STREET. GREENSBORO. Crawford, W . II. Rets, Harry S. roanell. Will. B. A Travelling Postoffi.ee. The first real "travelling post office" is expected to start on its rounds this month in Maryland. It is a stout covered wagon; man ned by a driver and a postal clerk, which will leave the town of West minster every week-day morning, make a circuit of more than thirty miles through the surrounding .country, and return to Westminster a t night. There are eight village postofflces on the wagon's route. The travel- t a ling postmaster will' carry mail to tbem and receive it from them. His wagon is fitted with cases and pigeonholes, so that he can assort mail while be travels; and he will eliver mail to all residents along he road vi ho will take the trouble to put up letter-boxes or to, "wait or-tbe wagon." He wilh be au- horized, moreover, to .sell, stamps, egister letters and issue money rders; and a railroad town being be terminal of bis circuit, the onjunction of the traveling post ffice and the railway mail car will ring the farmer and the outside world very near together. I This travelling postoffice is, we peed hardly add, one of the experi ments by which the government is trying to solve an. imperative prob lemthat of rural mail delivery. It the plan succeeds a long step rill have been taken toward the doption of a reform which every one approves, and which is delayed merely because no one baa devised a practicable way to carry it out. "Her Face Was Her Fortune. it This has been truly said f many women. Tet no face can lone retain iU beautj unless health 19 behind it. woman is snbjeet to so many dis tressing complaints that health and beauty are often prematurely Impaired or lost. Fortunate it; is that she has at home so inraluable a; friend as Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription. .Multi tudes of women throughout the land can per sonally testify, that it affords the only posttiTe cui e for the aire legion of "female weaknesses." Suffer and fade away no longer, when this rem edy will bring you sure relief. It is the great restorer of health and therefore the best possible restorer of beauty. Ail druggist I j UHTOlf.IOWt. I PR.R. V. Pikrcx: Sir -My wife improved in health gradually from the time she commenced taking "Favorite Pnmcnption" until now. hbe has been doing her own housework for the paH four months When she began taking it. she was scarcely able to be on her feet, sne sunerea so from uterine debility. 1 can heartily recom mend it for such cases. - II. 1L Smypce. It is probable that the dispensary question will come up before the legislature, as some towns in the itate consider the system very fav orably. - " . ' T Mr. 8. A. Fackler, Editor of the Mlcanopy (Fla.) Hustler, with his! wife and children, suffered terribly jfrom La Grippe. One Minute Cough Cure waa the only remedy that helped them. It acted quickly. Thousands of others use this renedy as a specific for La Grippe, and its exhausting after effects. Howard Gardoer. The Assabet Woolen Mills, at Is, Boston, Mass., has made an assign ment for the benefit of its creditors. The liabilities amount to $3,013,161. Chamberlain's Colic.1 Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy can always be de- pehded upon and is pleasant and safe to take, sold ny u. i. iioiton. i I : I Great Britain has demanded that Spain sell her a coaling I eta tion in the Balearic Islands and also other strategic points. BearitU Iba Kri Vm Bart Ahrayi Est Etaatart cf I rx. ' VJ 9 I 4 t iM & 1 Rankin, W. II. Matthews. A CTIVE SOLICITORS WANTK1) KV t Jt where fo The Btory of the .Philippine .br Morat llalstead, commission bjHe i. eminent aa Official Historian to tLUrU partment. The book was written in irt camps at 8an Fratfcisco, on the Ttu iic . neDftw Aiernm in tne nospitau at Uodi in Hoog Konar, in the American trrnrhr i Manila, in the insurrent ramps with Agiur.! on the deck or the Oiym pi a with lwr. r.c j the roar of battle at tbe fall of Manila. ' xa for agents, linrafnl of original, pwtf, taken by gOYernment photographer u spot Larre book: Low price. Hi jr Ireitrht paid. Credit RiTsn. !mp a, 4rv , unofficial war books. Ontflt frw A'Mn-uf T. Barber, Sec'y, Star Insurance hlg.. cth i- r VrcQINIArOHIO, or WcsTVTGiniA, i r .LUA'AI ROTTOCS NATURAL BRIDGE MOUNTAIN UKC "DRISTCt KNo'xviuf CHATTANOCCi Lookout Mountaii BIRMINGHAM r - : NO ROANOKE KEN OVA .new: ORLEANS CHILLICOTHE COLUMBUS, CHICAGO i AND THE NORTHWEST. JRejeroaticniDtttriUimFsmaHrtt. t VBBCVILL.1 ALLEN MullI CcNtuiFus AscT. I Pmttom Pam Act mi nn UuJ i Easily,QuIck!yf Permanently Restore-piamir-Tin iirnilltir "'. hlAbl liiu Mcnw It writ'" 1 ante lo Cure Insomnia, Fits, lixxms. Nervous Debility, Lost Vitality. S-mi'.: FailinK-Memorythe resulissf Ovr-wrk " Sicknw. Errors ol You h or Over i- - if' Price 50c. ana II : 0 Doitt .. . . - For quick, positive and lasting reu ! 4 Weakness, ImtKHency, Nervous L)ebi:.t .4 Vitality, use BLUE LABEL SPECIAL . 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