Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-25
VANITY OF VANITIES.


Timely Thoughts Eloauently and Impress
lively Expressed by Rev. w. II. Davis.
An eloquent sermon was preached at the
House of Hope Presbyterian church yester
day morning, by the Rev. w. r. Davis, of
the Madison avenue church, New York
City, and brother of Auditor s. Lee Davis, of
this county. His remarks were based on
Ecclesiastes, III: "Vanity of vanities: all-is
vanity
He said that paramount thought with a
majority of mankind today, is the leading
question of how to live. Man was placed in
world of marvellous surroundings, and
ended with susceptibilities sof thought that
cached the stars.
and the beauties of life are unfolded at
morning, evening and glittering night, in the
quieter and lonely moods of nature, the
sweeping tempest and rushing rivers with
their sands of gold. Alongside of these, and
overshadowing all things else with its beau
tilul ami wonderful significance, came the
idea conveyed to the word, home. In this
life there sometimes came moments when
the soul said it is enough, now let me go
hence, and an English review had published
a learned dissention as to whether after all,
life was worth the living.
Alongside of this question, as to whether
the struggles and triumphs of life are worth
battling for. came the lamentation of
Israel's wisest king, vanity OF vanities, all
is vanity. Instead of giving utterance to q
profound truth, significant of all the ages, it
seemed that the standpoint from which
Solomon viewed life, was false one, and
that his deductions were wrong and erro-
reous. The great man had lived a life of un-
parrelled magnifieence. The Lord asked
for profound gift, the gift of wisdom.
Iu the life and teachings Of the monarch,
We saw the priceless gift of wisdom isolated
from the promptings of the heart. In Solo
mons life could he seen the possibilities
of wonderful intellectual ability, allied to a
moral existence of the most despicable and
degenerate quality. He had exhausted all
the grand faculties with which he was gifted
in a career Of self indulgence, aud in looking
back over life Of wasted possibilities, he
had uttered the memorable proverb about
vanity. 1t someties happened that in view
ing life from q mistaken standpoint, even
ministers translated the text in its literal
meaning.
Because Solomon had been satiated with
the worlds vanities and grown weary of life
they, forsooth, must puzzle their brains for
analogies. Solomon was vain OF life; he had
that affectation peculiar to the nineteenth
century, WEAKNESS of life that feeling so
frequently noticed i'll certain young men
passing out of their teens. They
spoke in such cynical tones
of the weariness of life-a WEAKNESS grow
ing out of false and mistaken estimates of
life. Solomon's book of Ecclesiastes was
the most marvellous picture Of brilliant, and
of sad, sour things in the whole Bible. Con-
templating the heavens from an earthly
standpoint he could see no affinity between
nature, the heart of man and mans God.
Working from another standpoint Caperni-
Gus had given us the grand truth of world
working in harmony and fine accord With
millions of other worlds, obedient to the d.
vine order of love and wisdom. In study
ing this system man had grown acquainted
with the symbols of beatitude that en-
dured forever.
Hamlet had said how weary, stale and I'M
profitable are all the uses of this world. BY
virtue of the Imagination he had become dis
easod, cynical and misanthropio. In this
wonderful creation Shakespeare had given
US a picture of the longings that
throbbed in the souls around him
of people who built their castles way out to
the stars with no foundation. Those who
always dream of doing, but never accom-
plished anything. Men should como to the
work that is near at hand, and in bringing
their faculties to the active accomplishment
of some good, they would find the
heaven that was everywhere around them.
Among the men of enduring genius none
hud written so touchingly of this great spir-
itual longing that found vent in the hearts
of all men, as Goethe and Byron. In the
wonderfully pathetic creation of Faust,
Goethe calls US to listen to his great spirit
want. In hearing the voices of women from
his easement he says, 81 hear their voices
sweet and tender, but to my desolate heart
they only bring Sadness" In the great intel
lectual production of Childe Harold, Byron
had Swallowed the abiding and unsatisfed
longings of great, loving heart. He went
into the conflict and came out victor, be-
cause he had not known the
love of an everlasting father.
We had fallen ON a time that had grown
dyspeptic by virtue of want of faith in the
living God. There was mistaken idea
about God. Men had abandoned the idea OF
personal, omniscent, tender and sympa-
thetic God. God had not promised happi-
ness irrespective of certain conditions. He
had promised good always. But the way OF
good was often by way of the fu mace, the
path of the whirlwind, or the blisterina
desert sand.
Since man breathed, who was SO taken uI
with life's royalty as Burns who so rich in
the glsdness of life as he? Still, "He had
closed his eyes in WEAKNESS, and opened
them without hope" No matter how mar.
velous the intellectual powers if man re.
ceived this life from the standpoint of q
dreamer, they will stand at last, shoulder te
shoulder with Israers king, with only his
word to back them-"all is vanity"
German philosopher had summed ur
the laws of life in three questions: What
can be? What ought to be? What may
hope for? 70 answer the first question
comes the old Jewish thoughts about Life
Nothing SO rich as the promise conveyed
in the idea of life. The universe and
all nature were open to life. The key to the
coming time was given to man in life. The
the centuries were all open to life. Growing
heart and the possibilities for usefulness
love and heaven.
God was above, and conscience was the
shadow of him. There was in each heart ar
image of the universal father, by which mar
climbed to destiny. In mind or fact God hae
given each man gift, and the law was il
the gift, by all the possibilities of labor and
honest growth. What may hope for ? Eternity
is the answer. Man went from here to fear
full rise or fearful fall When man went
hence there was no shadow on his eyes. II
looking at the King of Israel, his hands
were filled with ashes, the purple and crown
had grown wearisome, and from his lip!
came the sentence of vanity" The speak
er closed with an eloquent alegory of the
happy termination of q life that had beer
shaped after that of the great Master.
SCHREfL'S SENSATION