A LESSON OF HOPE
Dr. Talmage Would Lift People
Out of Despondency.
Shown Some of the Future Joy Which
Sluy Be the Portion of Every
body—Amnirancei from
Heaven.
(Copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.]
Washington, Nov. 17.
In this discourse Dr. Talmage
would lift people out of despondency
and bring something of future joy
into earthly depression. The text is
Hebrews 6:19, “Which hope.”
There is an Atlantic ocean of depth
and fullness in the verse from which
my text is taken, and I only wade
into the wave at the beach and take
two words. We all have favorite
words expressive of delight or ab
horrence, words that easily find their
way from brain to lip, words that
have in them mornings and mid
nights, laughter and tears, thunder
bolts and dewdrops. In all the lexi
cons and vocabularies there are few
words that have for me the attrac
tions of the last word of my text:
“Which hope.”
there have in the course of our
life been many angels of God that
have looked over our shoulders, or
met us on the road, or chanted the
darkness away, or lifted the curtains
of the great future, or pulled us back
from the precipices, or rolled down
upon us the rapturous music of the
heavens, but there is one of these
angels who has done so much for us
that we w'ish throughout all time
and all eternity to celebrate it—the
angel of Hope. St. Paul makes it the
center of a group of three, saying:
“Now abideth faith, hope, charity.”
And, though he says that charity is
the greatest of the th^-ee, he does not
take one plume from the wing, or
one ray of luster from the brow, or
one aurora from the cheek, or one
melody from the voice of the angel
of my text: “Which hope.”
That was a great night for our
world when in a Bethlehem caravan
sary the Infant Royal was born, and
that will be a great night in the
darkness of your soul when Christian
hope is born. There will be chanting
in the skies and a star pointing to
the nativity. I will not bptlier you
with the husk of a definition and tell
you what hope is. When we sit down
hungry at a table, we do not want an
analytical discourse as to what bread
is. Hand it on; pass it round; give
us a slice of it. John speaks of
hope as a “pure hope.” Peter calls
it a “lively hope.” Paul styles it a
“good hope,” a “sure hope,” a “re
joicing hope.” All up and down the
Bible it is spoken of as an anchor,
as a harbor, as a helmet, as a door.
When we draw a check on a bank,
we must have reference to the
amount of money we have deposited,
but Hope makes a draft on a bank
in which for her benefit all Heaven
has been deposited. Hope! May it
light up every dungeon, stand by
every sickbed, lend a helping hand
to every orphanage, loosen every
chain, caress every forlorn soul and
turn the unpictured room of the
almshouse into the vestibule of
Heaven! How suggestive that my
thology declares that when all other
deities fled the earth the goddess
Hope remained!
No better medicine did a man ever
take than hope. It is a stimulant, a
febrifuge, a tonic, a catholicon. Thou
sands of people long ago departed
this life would have been living to
day but for the reason they let hope
slip their grasp. 1 have known peo
ple to live on hope after one lung
was gone and disease had seemed to
lay hold of every nerve and muscle
and artery and bone.
Alexander the Great, starting1 for
the wars in Persia, divided his prop
erty among the Macedonians. He
gave a village to one, a port to an
other, a field to another and all his
estate to his friends. Then Perdic
cas asked: “What have yon kept for
yourself?” He answered triumphant
ly, “Hope.” And, whatever else you
and I give away, we must keep for
ourselves hope—all comforting, all
cheering hope. In the heart of every
man, woman and child that hears or
reads this sermon may God implant
this principle right, now.
Is your health gone? Then that is
a sign that you are to enjoy a celes
tial health compared with which the
most jocund and hilarious vitality
of earth is invalidism. Are your for
tunes spent? ltemember you are to
.be kings and queens unto God and
how much more wealth ydii will have
when you reign forever and ever. I
want to see you when you g-et your
heavenly work dress on. This little
bit of a speck of a world we call
the earth is only the place where we
get ready to work. We are only jour
neymen here, but will be master work
men there. Heaven will have no loaf
ers hanging around. The book says
of the inhabitants: “They rest not
day or night.” Why rest when they
work without fatigue? Why seek a
pillow when there is no night there?
T want to see 3’ou after the pedes
trianism of earth has been exchanged
for powers of flight and velocities
infinite anil enterprises interstellar,
interworld.
I suspect that the telescope of that
observatory brings in sight constella
tions that may comprise ruined worlds
which need looking after and need
help saintly and missionary. There
may be worlds that, like ours, have
sinned and need to be rescued, per
haps saved by our Christ or by some
plan that God has sought out for
other worlds as wise, as potent, as
lovely, as the atonement is for our
world. The laziness which has cursed
us in this world will not gain the land
of eternal activities—so much tonic
in the air, so much inspiration in the
society, so much achievement after
w-e get the shackles of the flesh for
ever off. Do not dwell so much on op
portunities past, but put your empha
sis on opportunities to come. Do not
count the battles lost, but scour your
musket for victories to come.
Am I not right in saying that eter
nity can do more for us than can
time? What will we not be
able to do w'hen our powers of loco
motion shall be quickened into the
immortal spirit’s speed? Why should
a bird have a switness of wing when
it is of no importance how long it
shall take to make its aerial way
from forest to forest, and we, who
have so much more important errands
in the world, get on so slowly? The
roebuck outruns us, the hounds are
quicker in the chase, but wait until
God lets us loose from all limitations
and hinderments. Then we will fair
ly begin. The starting post will be
the tombstone. Leaving the world
will be graduation day before the
chief work of our mental and spirit
ual career. Hope sees the doors open
ing-. the victor's foot in stirrup for
the mounting. The day breaks—first
flush of the horizon. The mission of
hope will be an everlasting mission,
as much of it in the heavenly here
after as in the earthly now. Shall we
have gained all as soon as we enter
realms celestial—nothing more to
learn, no other heights to climb, no
new anthems to raise, a monotony of
existence, the same thing over and
over again for endless years? No!
More progress in that world than we
ever made in this. Hope will stand
on the hills of Heaven and look for
ever brightening landscapes, other
transfigurations of color, new glories
rolling over the scene, new celebra
tions of victories in other worlds,
Heaven rising into grander heavens,
seas of glass mingled with fire, be
coming a more brilliant glass ming
ling with a more flaming fire. “Which
hope.”
Do not have anything to do with
the gloom that Harriet Martineau ex
pressed in her dying words: “I have
no reason to believe in another
world. I have had enough of life in
one and can see no good reason why
Harriet Martineau should be perpet
uated.” Would you not rather have
the Christian enthusiasm of Robert
Annan, who, when some one said: “I
will be satisfied if I manage somehow
to get into Heaven,” replied, pointing
to a sunken vessel that was being
dragged up the River Tay: “Would
you like to be pulled into Heaven
with two tugs like that vessel yon
der? I tell you, I would like to go
in with all my sails set and colors
flying.”
Again, let me introduce the element
of hope to those good people who are
in despair about the world’s moral
condition. They have gathered up
appalling statistics. They tell of the
number of divorces, but do not take
into consideration that there are a
thousand happy homes where there
is one of marital discord. They tell
you of the large number in our land
who are living profligate lives, but
forget to mention that there are mil
lions of men and women who are do
ing the best they can. They tell you
the number of drunkeries in this
country, but fail to mention the
thousands of glorious churches with
two doors, one door open for all who
will enter for pardon and consolation
and the other door opening into the
Heavens for the ascent of souls pre
pared for translation.
Those pessimists do not realize
that two inventions of our times are
going to make it possible under God
to bring this whole world into salva
ble and millenial condition within a
few weeks after those two inventions
shall be turned into the service of
God and righteousness, as they will
be. I refer to the telegraph and the
telephone. If you think that God al
lowed those two inventions to .be
made merely to get rapid informa
tion concerning the price of railroad
stocks or to call up a friend and
make with him a business engage
ment, you have a very abbreviated
idea of what can be done and will
be done with those two instruments.
The intelligence of the world is to
be expanded, and civilization will
overcome barbarism, and illiteracy
will be extirpated, and the promise
will be literally fulfilled: “A nation
born in a day.”
Let Hope say to the foreboding:
Do all you can with Bible and spell
ing bopk and philosophic apparatus,
but toil with the sunlight in your
faces or your efforts will be a fail- '
ure. The pallor in the sky is not
another phase of the night, but the
first sign of approaching day, which
is sure to come as to-night will be
followed with to-morrow. Things
are not going to ruin. The Lord's
hosts are not going to be drowned in
the Red sea of trouble. Miriam’s
timbrel will play on the high banks
“Israel Delivered.” High hope for
the home! High hope for the
church! High hope for the, world!
I introduce the angel of Hope to
those who have through decease lost
Christian friends. “How could I find
them,” says a bereft soul, “up there
in the land of the multitudinous?”
You may find them by inquiry, 'by
heavenly escort and by unfailing
memory of the guard at the gate.
“And he carried me away in the spir
it to a great and high mountain,
and showed me that great city, the
holy Jerusalem, descending out of
Heaven from God, having the glory of
God, and her light was like unto a
stone most precious, even like a jas
per, clear as crystal, and had a wall
great and high, and had 12 gates and
at the gates 12 angels.” So, you see,
there will be an angel guarding each
gate. As you go in ask the armed
guard. He saw your loved one pass
through, and will know the direction
to take and by what fountain or in
what street of gold is the mansion
prepared. The blessed Christ knows
where your departed loved one is,
and He will tell you if no one else
will. Fifty ways of finding out the
whereabouts of your ascended one.
“But will I surely know Him when I
get there, for he will be so changed?”
Yes, for you will be just as much
changed, and the old affinity will as
sert itself. The soul will be as easily
distinguished oy soul there as on
earth the body is distinguished by
the body.
Open that closed instrument of mu
sic in your parlor that has not been
played on since the hand of the de
parted player forgot its cunning. Put
up before you on the music board the
notes of the hymn of Isaac Watts and
sing “There Is a Land of Pure Delight”
or James Montgomery’s hymn, “Who
Are These In Bright Array?” or Fil
more Bennett’s “Sweet Bye and Bye”
or “Jerusalem the Golden.” Take
some tune in the major key—“Ariel”
or “Mount Pisgah.” While you play
and sing the angel of Hope will stand
by you and turn the leaves and join in
the rapturous rendering. Reunion
with the loved and lost! Everlasting
reunion! No farewell at the door of
any mansion! No good-by at any of
the 12 gates! No more dark apparel
of mourning, but white robe of exal
tation! Hop now is on its knees, with
face uplifted, but Hope there will be
on tiptoe or beckoning you to follow,
saying: “Come and hear the choirs
sing! Come and see the procession
march! Come and see the river of life
roll! Come with me over the hills that
rise into everlasting heights.” Celes
tial Alps and Himalayas hoisted into
other Alps and Himalayas!
From this hour cultivate hope. Do
so by reading all the Scriptural prom
ises of the world’s coming Edenization
and doubt if you dare the veracity of
the Almighty when He says He will
make the desert roseate, and the leop
ard and the kid will lie down in the
same pasture field, and the lion, ceas
ing to be carnivorous, will become
graminivorous, eating “straw like an
ox,” and reptilian venom shall change
intoharralessness.so that the “weaned
child shall put his hand on the cocka
trice's den, and there shall be nothing
to hurt or destroy in all God’s holy
mountain, for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea.” So much for
the world at large.
Then cultivate hope in regard to
your own health, your own financial
prosperity, your own longevity, by
seeing how in other people God merci
fully reverses things and brings to
pass the unexpected, remembering
that Washington lost more battles
than he gained, but triumphed at the
last, and, further, by making sure of
your eternal safety through Christ
Jesus, understand that you are on the
way to palaces and thrones. This life
a span long, euding in durations of
bliss that neither human nor arch
angelic faculties can measure or esti
mate—redolence of a springtime that
never ends and fountains tossing in the
light of a sun that never sets. May
God thrill us with anticipation of this
ijnmortal glee! “Which hope.”
I said in the opening of this subject
that my text was only the wave on the
beach, while the whole verse from
which it is taken is an ocean. But the
ocean tides are coming in, and the sea
is getting so deep I must fall back,
wading out as I waded in, for what
mortal can stand before the mighty
surges of the full tide of eternal glad
ness? “Eye hath not seen nor ear
heard; neither hath entered into the
heart of man the things which God
hath prepared for them that love
Him.”
His Enjoyment Limited.
Mrs. Twaddle—Why, Dr. Jalap, it’s
ages since I saw you! How have you
been? Do you enjoy good health?
Dr. Jalap—Not in others, Mrs.
Twaddle—not in others.—Boston
Transcript.
Bit of Friendly Advice.
“I have a horror of being buried
alive,” said the easy-going store*
keeper.
“Well, for gracious’ sake, why don’t
you advertise?” said his friend.—
Yonkers Statesman.
BRAZIL’S FLYING MAN.
fteJolt'iiiK' in the Sooth American lit.
Iiiiblie Over the Success of
Suntos-Dumont.
In Brazil there is much rejoicing over
the success of M. Santos-Dumont with
his flying ship, and the reason is given
in a letter which has been sent to the
fortunate aeronaut by the minister of
public instruction in Brazil. In the
name of President Campos Salles, the
minister, in this letter, congratulates
M. Santos-Dumont on having added a
new luster to the glory of Brazil, and
on having completed the work inaug
urated by Bartholomew de Gusmao,
says the New York Herald.
Though his name andwork are now
known to few, Gusmao was a noted
scientist in his own day. A Brazilian
by birth and a Jesuit priest by pro
fession, he flourished during the first
years of the eighteenth century, and
his principal achievement was a fly
ing machine. The descriptions of this
machine, as found in old chronicles,
are not very clear, but it was evidently
shaped like a bird and had in the in
terior a series of tubes, through which
the wind passed and inflated an enor
mous pauch or balloon. The machine,
being buoyant, readily went aloft as
soon as the paunch was filled with air.
Father Gusmao took several trips
wnth this machine, and on August 8,
1709, he went in it from the turret
of Casa da India, in Lisbon, as far as
Terreire de Pace, which is at a con
siderable distance. An immense crowd
saw him perform this feat, and the
people of Lisbon from that moment
styled him “O Voador,” which means
“The Flying Man.”
Soon afterward the Inquisition
charged him with being a magician
and threw him into prison. Freed from
captivity by his friends, he went to
Spain and died in a short time, accord
ing to rumor, being hastened by his
chagrin at the indifference of the
world to his inventions.
Negro Extra vnernnce.
In some of these negro cabins of
the plantation districts I often found
sewing machines which had been
bought or were being bought, on in
stallments, frequently at a cost of
as much as $60; or showy frocks for
which the occupants of the cabin had
paid from $12 to $14. On one occa
sion I went into one of these cabins
for dinner. When I sat down to the
table I noticed that wnlle there were
five of us at the table, there was but
one fork for all of us to use. Natur
ally there was an awkward pause on
my part. In the opposite corner of
the same cabin was an organ for
which these people were paying $60
in monthly install ments. One fork
and a $60-organ! In most eases the
sewing machine was not used, the
clocks were so worthless that they
did not keep correct time—and if
they had, in nine cases out of ten
there would have been no one in the
family who could have told the time
of day—while the organ, of course,
was rarely used for want of a person
to play upon it.—Booker T. Washing
ton’s “Up From Slavery.”
newnre of flip Cold Itntti.
The cold bath in the morning- is not
so popular as it was formerly. There
is much energy expended in the reac
tion and just at the time of day
when this energy is at its lowest
ebb. Then, too, cdld water has very
little cleansing effect. Very hot wa
ter stimulates the perves, which is
the effect that wTe are seeking frorn
the cold w'ater, while it does not de
mand the energy of reaction of the
latter. The duration of the morning
bath should be as short as possible
—hardly longer than the mere appli
cation of the water to the skin, fol
lowed by a brisk rubbing. However,
many prefer a cool sponge bath in
the morning, and if this is followed
by a warm .glow and a feeling of
well-being, it certainly is beneficial.
Many people are not strong enough
to react well. A hot bath at, night is
most cleansing and restful. General
bathing must be regulated by indi
vidual peculiarities.—Emma E. Walk
er, M. D., in Ladies’ Home Journal.
“Curing;” Married Couples.
If every wife who is trying to cure
her husband, and every husband who
is trying to cure his wife, would stop
the operation, and all the husbands
would devote their energies to curing
themselves, and all the wives devote
their energies to curing themselves,
the homes would be a great deal hap
pier than they are to-day. There are
scolding wives who are bending all
of their energies to the task of cur
ing their husbands of habits far less
detrimental to the happiness of the
home than the habit of scolding.
There are husbands who have set
themselves the task of curing their
wives of imperfections of so much
less consequence than the infirmities
of character and temper possessed
by the husband himself.—Edinburgh
Scotsman.
No Moonshine Mildness.
Tess—He has proposed to Miss
Fassay.
Jess—For goodness’ sake! But
perhaps there is some excuse for
him.
“Not a bit. He did it in broad
daylight.”—Philadelphia Tress.
CANCER IS CONTAGIOUS
A Foot Tlint la llrroinlni; Subutna—
tinted l>y Well Authenticated
I n m tn nce«.
The theory that the disease of can*
cer may, through certain media,
prove itself infectious is one which,
is meeting with considerable atten
tion in non-medical as well as in med
ical circles, and the conviction is
gradually spreading that houses,
and more particularly individual
rooms, may become infected with the
germs of this fearful malady, says
the London Express.
Specific instances are constantly
being cited in support of such an as
sumption, and one of the most telling
which at present has come before our
notice is that of two women con
tracting the disease after occupying
a house wherein four or five years
previously a cancer patient had died.
The remarkable part of this story
is that a third lady who had resided
in the house between these two ten
ancies also developed the illness after
an interval of close upon two years.
To learn whether such instances
are commonly recognized in the med
ical profession, or whether they are
merely isolated examples to which no
particular importance may be at
tached an Express representative vis
ited several cancer specialists the
other day.
At the cancer hospital in Fulham
road the authorities were reticent on
the subject.
“I believe,” observed the house sur
geon, cautiously, “that cancer is
not regarded as contagious in med
ical circles.”
A well-known specialist, however,
who has devoted many years to an
exhaustive study of the subject, was
more inclined to wave the profession
al etiquette which disallows a con
versation with a layman upon mat
ters medical.
I should be only too pleased,” ho
said, “if this matter should receive
the attention at the hands of the
public which it undoubtedly deserves.
For my own part, I am fully con
vinced that cancer, without being’ es
sentially a contagious disease, may
under certain circumstances prove it
self infectious. Whether this view
is generally entertained I am not pre
pared to state. Nevertheless I have
no hesitation in asserting that before
many years have passed precaution
ary measures will be adopted in the
ease of cancer patients, as they un
doubtedly will in the case of ’ con
sumptives.
“There is nothing at all remark*,
able in the instances you refer to.
Only a few weeks back my attention
was directed to the case "of a young
and apparently healthy girl, who de
veloped cancerous troubles after
sleeping in a room wherein her
mother had some years back suc
cumbed to the disease. This might
possibly be an herditary case, though
the likelihood is considerably dis
counted by the fact that a third
woman who occupied the room also
contracted the malady.
Such instances are becoming far
too common to be disregarded. Thor
ough disinfection would probably be
an effective remedy, though it is nec
essary in the first instance to trace
the actual causes of infection.”
From a seaside resort comes a re
port of a family who stayed for a
few weeks at a house wherein a
woman had died from cancer about a
3 ear previously. A girl who occupied
the patient's bedroom subsequently
developed cancer, not a trace of
which had hitherto existed in th®
family.
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