The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, November 10, 1898, Image 5

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., NOVEMBER 10, 1898. 5 THE POWfiti TO FIGHT DR. TALMAGE TELLS HOW TO WRES TLE WITH EVIL. We Mart He Trained Fop the Strnx- Klc —Silence and Olneipline — One 1* nil 1m Not the Fnt!—'i'lie Strength That Come* From God. iCopyrlght. by American Press Asso ciation.! Washington, Nov 0.—In this dis course Dr. Talmage selects one of the boldest figures of the Bible to present most practical and encouraging truths; text Ephesians vi, 12, ‘‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ” Squeamishness and fastidiousness were never charged against Paul’s rhet oric. In tho war agaiust evil he took tho first weapon ho could lay his hand on. For illustration, ho employed the theater, tho arena, the foot race, and there was nothing in the Isthmian game, with its wreath of pine leaves, or Pyth ian game, with its wreath of laurel and palm, or Nemean game, with its wreath of parsley, or any Homan circus, but be felt ho had a right to put it in sermon or epistle, and are you not sur prised that in my text he calls upon a wrestling bout for suggestiveuess? Plutarch says that wiestlingis tho most artistic and cunning of athletic games. We must make a wide difference be tween pugilism, the lowest of spectacles, and wrestling, which is an effort in ' sport to put down another on floor or ! ground, and we, all of us, indulged in ■ it iu our boyhood days if we were healthful and plucky. The ancient wrestlers were first bathed iu oil and thou sprinkled with sand. The third throw decided the victory, and many a man who went down in the first throw or second throw iu the third throw was on top and his opponent under. The Romans did not like this game very lunch, for it was not savage enough, no blows or kicks I cing allowed in the j game. They prefem d tho foot of hun gry panther on tho breast of fallen martyr. In-wrestling tho opponents would bow iu apparent suavity, advance face to face, put down both feet solidly, take each ether by tho arms and push each other backward and forward until tho work began in real earnest, and there were contortions and strangulations and violent strokes of tho foot of one con testant against tho foot of the other, tripping him up, or, with struggle that threatened apoplexy or death, tho de feated fell, and tho shouts of tho spec tators greeted tho victor. I guess Paul had seen sozno such contest, and it re minded him of tho struggle of tho soul with temptation, and tho struggle of heavenly forces against Apollyonic port ers, and ho dictates my text to an amanuensis, for all his letters, save tho 0110 to Philemon, seem to have been dic tated, and as tho amanuensis goes on with his work I hear tho groan and laugh and shout of earthly and celestial belligerents, “Wo wrestle not agaiust flesh and blood, hut against principali ties, against powers, against tho rulers of tho darkness of this world, agaiust spiritual wickedness iu high places.” The Amenities of I.ife. I notice that as these wrestlers ad vanced to throw each other they bowed one to tho other. It was n civility, not only in Grecian and Homan games, hut in later day, in all tho wrestliug bouts at Clerkenwell, England, and in tho fa mous wrestling match during the reign of Henry III iuSt. Giles’Field between men of Westminster and people of Lou don. However rough a twist and hard a pull each wrestler contemplated giving his opponent, they approached each oth er with politeness and suavity. The genuflexions, tho affability, tho courtesy in no wish hindered -the decisiveness of tho contest. Well, Paul, I see what you mean. In this awful struggle between right and wrong wo must not forgot to be gentlemen and ladies Aff ability nev er hinders, bat always helps. You are powerless as soon as yon get mad. Do not call rr.msellers murderers. Do not call infidels fools. Do not call higher critics reprobates. Do not call all card players aud theater goers children of the devil. Do not say that tho dance breaks through into hell. Do not deal in vitu peration aud billingsgate and contempt and adjectives dynamitic. The other side can beat us at that. Their diction aries have more objurgation aud brim stone.* We aro in the strength of God to throw flat on its back every abomina tion that curses tho earth, but let us approach our mighty antagonist with suavity Hercules, son of Jupiter aud Alcmeua, will by a precursor of smiles bo helped rather than damaged for tho performance of his *‘ 12 labors. ’’ Let us be as wisely strategic in religious cir cles as attorneys iu courtrooms, who are complimentary to each other iu the opening remarks, before they como into legal straggle such ns that which left Rulus Choate or David Paul Brown triumphant or defeated. People who get into a rugo iu relormatory work accom plish nothing bnt tho depletion of their own nervous system. There is such a thing ns having a gun so hot at tho touchholo that it explodes, killing tho one that sets it off There aro some re formatory meetings to which I always decline to go ami tako part, because they aro apt to bccomo demonstrations of bad temper. I never like to hear u man swear, oven though ho swear on tho right side. Tho very Paul who in my text employed iu illustration the wrestling match, behaved on n memora ble occasion as wc ought to behave. Tho translators of the Bible made an unin tentional mistake when they represent ed Paul as insulting tho people of Ath ens hy speaking of ‘‘the unknown god whom ye ignorantly worship. ’* Instead ofl charging them with ignorance, the original indicates he complimented them by suggesting that they were very religious, but as they confessed that there wore some things they did not un- G Tstaud about God, ho proposed to say some things concerning him, beginning where they had left off. Tho same Paul who said in one place, ‘‘Be courteous,” aud who had noticed the how preceding tho wrestling match, hero exorcises suavities before ho proceeds practically to throw down tho rocky side of tho Acropolis the whole Parthenon of idola tries, Minerva and Jupiter smashed up With the rest of them. Iu this holy war polished rifles will do more execution than blunderbusses. Let our wrestlers bow as they go into tho struggle which \vill leave all perdition under and all heaven on top. StrcnKth From Diaciiiline. Remember also that these wrestlers went through severe aud continuous course of preparatiou for their work. They were put upon such diet as would best develop their muscle. As Paul says, ‘‘Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate iu all things." The wrestlers were pot under complete discipline—bathing, gymnastics, strug gle iu sport with each other to develop strength and give quickness to dodge of head aud trip of foot; stooping to lift each other off tho ground; suddenly rushing forward; suddenly pulling backward; putting the left foot behind the other’s right foot aud getting his opponent off his balance; hard training for days and weeks and months so that when they met it was giant clutching giant. And, ray friends, if we do not want ourselves to ho thrown in this wrestle with tho sin and error of tho world, we had better get ready by Christian discipline, by holy self de nial, by constant practice, by submit ting to divine supervisal and direction. Do not begrudge the time and the money for that young man who is iu prepara tion for tho ministry, spending two years in grammar school and four years in college and three years iu theological seminary. I know that nine years are a big slice to take oft’ of a man’s active life, but if yon realized tho height aud strength of tho archangels of evil in nur time with which that young man is going to wrestle, you would not think nine years of preparation were too much. An uneducated ministry was ex cusable in other days, but not in this time, loaded with schools and colleges. A man who wrote me tho other day a letter asking advice, us ho felt called to preach the gospel, began tho word ‘‘God” with a small “g.” That kind of a man is not called to preach tho gospel. Illiterate men, preaching tho gospel, quote iur their own encourage ment the Scriptural passage, “Open thy mouth wide and 1 till it.” Ye.-l IIo will (ill it with wind. Preparation for this wrestling is absolutely necessary. Many years ago Dr. Newman and Dr Sunderland, on tho platform of Brigham Young’s tabernacle at Salt Lake City gained tho victory because they had so long been skillful wrestlers for God. Otherwise Brigham Young, who was himself a giant in some things, would have thrown them out of the window. Get ready in Diblo classes. Get ready in Christian Endeavor meetings. Get ready by giving testimony in obscure places, bcfoie giving testimony in con spicuous places. The Silent Worker. Your going around with a Bagster’s Bible with flaps at tho edges under your arm does not qualify you for tho work of an evangelist. In this day of profuse gab remember that it is not merely capacity to talk, but the fact that you have some tiling to say that is going to fit you for the struggle into which you are-n go with a smile on your face and illumination on your brow, hut out of which you will not como until all your physical and men tal and moral aud religious energies have been taxed to the utmost aud you havo not a nerve left, or a thought un expended, or a prayer unsaid, or a sym pathy unwept. Iu this struggle between right and wrong accept no challenge on platform or iu newspaper unless you aro prepared. Do not misapply tho story of Goliath tho great, and David tho lit tle. David had been practicing with a sling on dogs and wolves and bandits, and 1,000 times had lie swirled a stone around his head before he aimed at tho forehead of tho giant and tumbled him backward, otherwise the big foot of Go liath would almost have covered up tho crushed form of the son of Josso. Notice also that the success of a wrestler depended on his having his feet well planted before he grappled his opponent. Much depends upon the way the wrestler stands. Standing on an uncertain piece of ground or bearing all his weight on right foot or all his weight on left foot, ho is not ready. A slight cuff of his antagonist will capsize him. A stroke of the heel of tho other wrestler will trip him. Aud iu this struggle for God aud righteousness, us well as for our own souls, wo want our feet tirmlj^plautod iu the gospel—both feet on tho Hock of Ages. It will not do to believe tho Bible iu spots, or think some of it true and some of it untrue. Yon just make up your mind that tho story of the garden of Eden is an al legory, and the epistle of James an in terpolation, and that tho miracles of Christ can be accounted for on natural grounds, without any belief iu the su pernatural, and the first time you are interlocked in a wrestle with sin and satan you will go under and your feet will be higher than your head. It will not do to have one foot on a rock and the other on tho sand. Tho old book would long ago havo gone to pieces if it had been vulnerable. But of tho mil lions of Bibles that have been printed within the last 25 years not one chap ter has been omitted, and the omission of one chapter would have been tho causo of the rejection of the whole edi tion. Alas for those who, while trying to prove that Jonah was never swallowed of a whale, themselves get swallowed of the whale of unbelief, which digests, but never ejects its victims. The inspi ration of the Bible is not more certain than tho preservation of the Bible in its present condition After so many cen turies of assault on tho book would it not bo a matter of economy, to say the least—economy of brain aud economy of stationery and economy of printer’s ink —if the batteries now assailing tho book would change their aiuraud be trained agaiust some other books, and the world shown that Walter Scott did not write ‘‘The Lady of the Lake,” nor Homer “The Iliad,” nor Virgil "The Georgies, ” nor Thomas Moore "Lalla Rookh,” or that Washington’s fare well address was written by Thomas Paine, aud that tho war of the Ameri can Revolution never occurred. That at tempt wonld be quite as successful as this longtimeu ittackauti-Biblical, aud then it would 1 3 uew. Oh, keep out of this wrestliug aout with the ignorance and the wretchedness of the world un less yon feel that both feet aro planted iu tho eternal veracities of the book of Almighty God! The Fallen May Rise. Notice also that in this science of wrestliug, to which Paul refers iu my text, it was tho third throw that decid ed the contest. A wrestler might be thrown once aud thrown twice, hut tho third time ho might recover himself, aud by an unexpected twist of arm or curve of foot gain the day. Well, that is broad, smiling, unmistakable gospel. Some whom I address through ear or eye, hy voice or printed page, have been thrown iu their wrestle with ovil habit. Aye, yon havo been thrown twice, hut that does not mean, oh, worsted soul, that you are thrown forever! I have no authority for saying how many times a man may sin and be forgiven or how many times he may fall and yet rise again, but I have authority for saying that ho may fall 490 times and 490 times get up. Tho Bible declares that God will forgive 70 times 7, and if you will employ the rule of multiplica tion you will find that 70 times 7 is 490. Blessed be God for such a gospel of high hope and thrilling encouragement and magnificent rescue! A gospel of lost sheep brought homo on Shepherd’s shoulder, and the prodigals who got in to tho low work of putting husks into swiues’ troughs brought home to jewel ry and banqueting aud hilarity that made the rafters ring! Three sketches of* the same man: A happy home, of which he aud a lassie taken from a neighbor’s house are tho united head. Years of happiness roll on after years of happiness. Stars pointing down to nativities. Aud whether an nounced iu greeting or not every morn ing was a ‘‘Good morning” and every night a "Goodnight.” Christinas trees aud May queens, and birthday festivi ties aud Thanksgiving gatherings around loaded tables. But that husband and father forms an unfortunate ac quaintance who leads him iu circles too convivial, too late houred, too scandal ous. After awhile, his money gone and not able to bear his part of the expense, ho is gradually shoved out and ignored and pushed away. Now, what a di lapidated home ishis! A dissipated life always shows itself iu faded window curtains, and impoverished wardrobe, and dejected surroundings, and in I keu palings of the garden fence, and toe unhinged gate, and the dislocated door bell, and the disappearance of wife and children from scenes among which they shone the brightest aud laughed the gladdest. If any man was ever down, that husband and father is down. Tho fact is, lie got into a wrestle with evil that pushed and pulled and contorted and exhausted him worso than any Olympian gamo over treated a Grecian, ami ho was thrown. Th rowu on r of pros perity into gloom. Thrown out of good association into bad. Thrown out of health into invalidism. Thrown out of happiness into misery; but one day, while slinking through ono of tho hack streets, not wishing to bo recognized, a good thought crosses his mind, fur he has heard of men flung flat rising again. Arriving at his house, he calls his wife in and shuts tho door and says: "Mary, I am going to do differently. This is not what I promised you when wo were married. You have been very patient with me aud havo borne everything, al though I wonld havo had no right to complain if yon had left me and gnno home to your father’s house. It seems to mo that onco or twice, when I was not myself, I struck you, and several times, I know, I culled you hard names. Now I want you to forgive mo. I am going to do better, and I want y»u to help mo." “Help youy” she says. “Bless your soul! Uf course I will help you! 1 kuew you didn’t mean it when you treated mo roughly x\ll that is iu tho past. Never refer to it again. Today let us begin anew. ” Sympathizing friends come around and kind business people help tho man to something to do, so that he can again earn a living. The children soon havo clothing so that they can go to school. Tho old songs which tho wife sang years ago come hack to hot memory, and she sings them over again at the cradle or while preparing the noonday meal. Domestic resurrection I He comes homo earlier than he used to, and he is glad to spend tho evening playing games with tho children or helping them with arithmetic or grunimar lessons which are u little too hard. Time passes on, and some outsider suggests to him that he is not getting as much out of life as ho ought and proposes an occasional visit to scenes of worldlings aud dissi pation. He consents to go onco, and after much solicitation twice. Then his old habit cotnes back. Ho says bo has been belated aud could not get back un til midnight. He had to see some west ern merchant that had arrived and talk of business with him before ho got out of town. Kindness and geniality again quit tho disposition of that husband and father. The wife’s heart breaks iu a new place. That man goes into n second wrestle with evil habit and is flung, and all hell cackles at tho moral defeat. "I told you so." say many good people who have no faith iu the reformation of a fallen man. "I told you sol You inado a great fuss about his restored home, but 1 kuew it would not Iwt. You can’t trust those fellows who havo once gouo wrong. ” So with this unfor tunate, things get worse and worse, aud his family have to give up tho house, and the last valuable goes to the pawn broker’s shop. But that unfortunate man is sauntering along the street one Sunday night, and he goes up to a church doer, aud the congregation aro singing tho second hymn, the one just before sermon, aud it is William Cowper’s glorious hymn: There is a fountain fillccl with Mood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Ami sinners tdnn^ed beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains. Wavering; at the Iloor. He goes into tho vestibule of tho church and stojis there, not feeling well enough dressed to go among the wor shipers, aud he hears the minister say, "Yon will find the words of my text in Luke, the nineteenth chapter aud tenth verse, ‘Tho Ison of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost.’ ” The listener in tho vestibule says: "If any man was ever los<, I am lost, aud tho Sou of Man came to savo that which is lost, and he has found me and ho will tako mo out of this lost condition. Ob, Christ, havo mercy on me!" The poor man has courage now to enter tho main audience room, and he sits down on tho first seat by the door, aud when at tho close of the service the minister comes down tho uislo tho poor man tells bis story, and be is encouraged and invited to come again, and the way is cleared for him for membership in a Christian church, and ho feels tho omnipotence of what Peter, the apostle, said when ho spoko of those "kept by tho power of God through faith unto complete salva tion.” Yet he is to havo one more wrestle before he is free from evil habits aud he goes into it, not in’ his own strength, fer that has failed him twice, but iu tbo strength of tho Lord God Almighty. Tho old habit seizes him, and he seizes it, and the wrestlers loud backward and forward and from side to side, iu awful struggle, until tho mo ment comes for his liberation and, with both arms infused with strength from God, ho lifts that habit, swings it in air and hurls it into the perdition from which it came and from which it never again will rise. Victory, victory,through our Lord Jesus Christ! Hear it, all yo wrestlers! It throw him twice, but the third time ho threw it, aud, by the grace of God, threw it so hard be is as safe now as if he Lad been ten years in heaven. Oh, I am so glad that Paul iu my text suggests the wrestler aud tho power of tho third throw! But notice that my text suggests that tho wrestlers on tho other side in tho great struggle for tho world’s redemp tion have all tho forces of demonology to help thorn, "Wo wrestle not against flesh and blood, but agaiust principali ties, against powers, against the ruleis of tho darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” All military men will tell you that thero is nothing more unwise than to underestimate an army. In estimating what wo have to contend with, tho most of the reformers do not recognize the biggest opposers. They talk about tho agnosticism, and tho atheism, and the materialism, and tho nihilism, and tho pantheism, aud the. iJraiimmii. m, and tho Mohammedanism as well as the more agile and organized aud endowed wickednesses of our day. But these are only a part of tho hostilities arrayed agaiust God and the host interests of humanity. Tho invisible hosts aro far more numerous than tho visible. It is not so much tho bottle; it is tho demon of tho bottlo. It is not so much tho rou lette table; it is the demon of tho rou lette table. It is not so much tbo act of stock gambling as it is tho demon of stock gambling. It is the great host of spiritual antagonists led on by Aziel or Lucifer or Beelzebub or Asmodeus or Ahrimanes or Abaddon, just as you please to call tho leader infi realistic. Gan you doubt that the human agencies of evil arc backed up by Plutonic agen cies? If it were only a common war steed, witn panting nostril and flaunt ing maim and cluttering hoof, rushing upon us, perhaps wo might clutch him by the hie and hurl him hack upon his haunches, but it is tho black horse cav alry of perdition who dash down and their riders swing swords which, though invisible, cleave individuals and homes aud nations. 1 tell you, Paul was right when ho suggested that wo wrestle, not with pygmies, but with giants that will down us, unless the Lord Almighty is our coadjutor. Blessed be God that wo havo now, aud further on will havo iu mightier degree, that divine help! The Overthrow of tfvil. Tho time is coming—I know it will quicken your pulses when 1 mention it —when tho last mighty evil of tho world will bo grappled hy righteousness and thrown. Which of the great evils will survive all tho others I know not, whether war, or revenge, or fraud, or lust, or intemperance, or gambling, or Sabbath desecration. Itwilluot ho‘‘the survival of the fittest,” but tho survival of the worst. It will bo tho evil tho most thoroughly intrenched, most com pletely re-enforced, most patronized hy wealth and fashion and pomp, most ap plauded hy all the principalities aud powers and rulers of darkness. It will stand with grim visage looking down upon the graves of all tho other slain abominations—graves dug by tho hot shovels of despair and surmounted by such epitaphiology as this, "It bitoth like a serpent mid stiugeth like an ad der,” "The wages of sin is death," "Her house inclincth unto death und her paths unt^ tho dead,” "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is death." Yes, I imag ine we havo arrived nt tbo time when we may say, Yonder stands tho last aud only great evil of all tho world to he wrestled down. It stands not only look ing upon tho graves of all tho entombed and epituphod iniquities of the world, hut ever and anon gazing upward iu defiance of the heavens aud shaking its fist at tho Almighty, saying: "Nothing can put me down. 1 have seen all the other enemies of tho human race wres tled down aud destroyed, but there iu no arm or foot, human or angelio or deific that cau throw me. I havo rained whole generations, and I swear by all tho thrones of diabolism that I will ruin this generation. Come on, all ye churches aud all ye reformatory insti tutions und all ye legislatures and all ye thrones. I challenge you. I plant my feat on this red hot rock of tho . world’s woo. I stretch forth my arms for tho mightiest wrestle any world has ever seen. Como on. Come on." Then righteousness will accept tho | chplleugo, and the two mighty wrestlers will grapple, while all the galleries of earth and heaven lo^k down from one ' side and all the fiery chasms of perdi tion look up from tho other side. The ; two wrestlers sway to aud fro and turn this way aud that, and now the mon ster, evil, seems the mightier of tho two, aud now righteousness seems about to triumph. The prize isw’orth a strug gle, for it is not a chaplet of laurel or palm, but the rescue of a world, and a wreath put on tho brow by him who promised, "Be thou, faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown. ’’ Three worlds—earth, heaven and hell —hold their breath while waiting for the result of this struggle, when with ; ono mighty swing of an arm muscled j with omnipotence righteousness hurls n tho last ovil, first cu its knees and then j on its face, aud then rolling off and down, with a crash wilder than that ! with which Samson hurled the temple i of Dagon when ho got hold of its two chief pillars, but more like tho throw ing of satan out of heaven, as described by John Milton: Him tho Almighty power flnng Headlong flaming from the ethereal sky. With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal lire Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. Nino times tho space that measures day and night To mortal man he, with his horrid crew. Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf. Confounded, though immortal. The StrenK'tli of Rinrht. Aye, that suggests a cheering thought —that if all tho realms of demonology are on tho other side, all tho realms of angelology aro on our side, among them Gabriel, and Michael tho archangel, and tho angel of tho new covenant, and they aro now talking over the pres ent awful struggle aud final glorious triumph, talking amid tho alabaster pillars and in tho ivory palaces, and along tho broad ways aud grand avenues of tho great capital of tho universe, and amid the spray of fountains with rain bows liko tho "rainbow round the throne, "and as they tako their morn ing rido in the chariots with white horses bitted with gold that were seen by John in vh-icn apo alyptic, aud while waiting in temples for the one hundred and forty and four thou sand to chant, accompanied hy harpers and trumpeters, and thumlorings and halleluiahs like the voico of many wa ters. Yes, all heaven is on our side, and tho "high places of wickedness” spoken of in my text aro not so high as tho high places of heaven, where thero aro enough reserve forces if our earthly forces should bo overpowered, or iu cowardice fall back, to sweep down snmo morning at daybreak and tako all this earth for God before tho city clocks could strike 12 for noon. And tho cab inet of heaven, tho most august cabinet in the universe, made up of three—God the Father, God tho ISou and God tho Holy Ghost—aro row in session in tho King’i palace, and they aro with us, ami they are going to sco us through, and they invito us, as scon as wo havo done our share of tho work, to go up aud see them aud celebrate tho final victory, that is more sure to como than tomor row's sunrise. While I think of it, the Scotch evangelistic hymn comes upon mo ami stirs tho strong tide of Scotch blood that rolls through my arteries: Its a bonric, bunnio warl’ that vvu’ro liviu in th») t.oo, An sunny is the Inn* that noovvenfton traivTl throo, But in vain wo look for something here to which oor In arts may cling, For its beauty is us naothing tno the palaco o tho Kintf. Wo like the gilded eumniur, wi‘ Us murry. merry tread, An we Kitffi when hoary winter lays its beau ties wi* tho dead, For. tile’ bonnie uro tho snawflukes an tho doon on winter’s wing, | It’s fine to ken it duurna touch tho palaco o tho King. Nun nlcht shall be in heaven mi nuu desolatin sea, An nae tyrant hoofs shall trample 1’ the city o’ the free; There’s nmevorlastin daylicht na a never fudin spring, Where (he Limb Isa’ tho glory 1’ tho palaco o' tho King Wo see oor fmin’s await us ower youner at his gato; Then bit us a’ bo ready, for yo ken it’s gettin late; Let oor lamps bo briohtly burnin, let us raise oor voice an sing, For suno we'll meet, to pairt nao mair, 1’ tho palaco o’ tho King. ^URE rheumatism by taking 1 iood’s Sarsaparilla,which by neu tralizing the acid in the blood perma nently relieves aches and PAINS. You should kt'ej) posted on the issues of tin 1 day. Don't worrv your neighbor hy borrow ing his paper when you can j^et The Lkim.ek for $1 a year, r>0c for si? months, or 2oe for thro* months. It will keep yoi posted, so order it ai once. Don’t delay. Foul-Smelling Catarrh. Catarrh is one of the most obstinate diseases, and hence tho most difficult to get rid of. There is but one way to cure it. The disease is in the blood, and all the sprays, washes and inhaling mixtures in the world can have no permanent effect whatever upon it. Swift’s Spe cific cures Catarrh permanently, for it is the only remedy which can reach the disease and force it from the blood. Mr. B. P. McAllister, of Harrodsburg, Ky., had Catarrh for years. He writes; “I could see no improvement whatever, though I was constantly treated with spray! and washes, and differ ent inhaling remedies— in fact. I could feel thal each winter I wasworsl than the year previous “Finafly It wnl brought to my n o t i c < that Catarrh was a blood disease, and after think ing over the matter. I saw it wasunreasonablt to expect to be cured bj remedies whi eh only reached the surface. 1 then decided to try 8. S. 8*., and after a few bottles were used. 1 no ticed a perceptible improvement. Continuing the remedy, the disease was forced out of my system, and a complete cure was the result I advise all who have this dreadful disease t; abandon theirlocal treatment.which hasnevei done them any good, and take 8. 8. 8.. a rem edy that can reach the disease and cure It.” To continue the wrong treatment foi Catarrh is to continue to suffer. Swift’.! Specific is a real blood remedy, and cures obstinate, deep-seated diseases, which other remedies have no % effect whatever upon. It promptly renche! Catarrh, and never fails to cure even the most aggravated cases. S.S.S.%Blood is Purely ’\ egetable, and is the jinly rflood remedy guaranteed to contafn no dangerous minerals. 'Books mailed free by Swift Specific Company, Atlanta, Georgia. A. N. WOOD* BANKER, does a general Banking and Exchange business. Well secured with Burglar- Proof safe ami Auloinatic Time Lock. Safety Deposit Boxes at moderate rent. Buys and sells Stocks ami Bond... Buys County’ and School Claims. 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