Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-05-12
JEREMIAH'S QUERY.
Wherefore Doth a Living Man
Complain?
DIR. TALMAGE'S ssRm o NJ
Lives That are Disastrous Faiure---What
Makes Them sO--The Worry and Dis
appointments of Sociallife--Ihe
Possibilities Of Time,

ingH' The hymn before the serLuoh ""'
"Come We disconsolate where er ye languish'
Come 10 the mercy seat, feryently kneel.'
For the lesson DR.. Talmage read and eX-
pounded the story of Sobs accumulated
misfortunes The text was Lamentations
3. 80: Wherefore doth living man COM
plain?
If we leave to Eyolutionists said DIR.
Talmage, to gusss where We came from and
10 the theologans to prophesy where we are
going TO, we have still left for consideration
the fact that we are here. There may be
doubts about where the river rises and about
where it emptieS, but there can be no doubt
of the fact that we are sailing on 1t. SO
| wondernot that everybody is asking the ques-
tion. rs life worth livingY solomon, IN
| his isunhappier moments says II is not. Vanity,
veyation no good are his estimate DE was
| a polyramist and that soured his disposition
One wife will make man happy more
than one will make him wretched. But
Solomon was converted from pOIygamy to
mcporamv. and the last line OF his last
| hook leaves him on the mountains OF spices.
| But jeremiah in my text says life IS worth
| living, In book supposed 10 be dirgetul
| and sepulchraI and called "LamentlonS he
SETS forth the fact that the blessing of mere
" living is so grand and exalted a bless,
ing that, though all miSIort9n'ss ana
| disasters were piled on a man he has no
right to complain. The author OF our text
1rcaks out in startling intonation to ASK all
III. centuries and ages "Why should living
man complaint?
| A Great Diversity of Opinion.
| \ great diversity of opinion now as well
as in olden times Here is a young man,
light hair, blue eyes, sound digestion, gener-
Gus salary, popular in society, atfianced
happily, on the way to become partner IN
| commercial firm Of which he is now amin
| portant clerk. Ask him the question. is
| life worth liviug?' and he will laugh in
| your face at the question, SAYING Yes.
| But here is a man Who somewhere in the
| forties has come to the top of the hill and
| every step has been stumble and hruise.
| He has been cheated out of what money he
made Those whom he trdSted have proved
| dcserters His nervous system is out Ot
tune and his appetite is poor, and what he
| does eat is not assimilatcd. Forty miles TO
| the top of the Hill of life have been
! like ascending the MatterhOrm, and
he has vet to travel forty miles down
again 10 the foot of the hill, descent always
more dangerous than ascent Ask him
whether life is worth living and he drawlS
out u shivering, lugubrious and appalling
"No. no; no." Indeed sometime YOU will
find man oscillatiug between opinions on
this subject. As his circumstances change
| his theories change. If of very
mercurial temperament his opinion
about the worth or wortheSsneSS Of life
may depend upon the direction Of the wind.
Suppose we gather the human race IN great
convention in Eastern or Western hcml-
sphere and put the question to vote, re-
quiring that all who believe in the atlirma-
tive say ave, and all who believe in the
negative say no. While hundreds of
thousands will vote in the affirmative more
millions would vote in the negative and be-
cause of the fact that more people are in
ANNOYANCE and trouble than in unalioyel
prosperity, the noes would have it.
The answer ! give today is different from
eilher answers. | think it will commend
itself to all who hear me as the right an
Swcr lfvOu ask me whether life is worth
living answer with all the emphasis of
body, mind and soul: 1t alldepends upon
the kind.
Upon What II Depends.
First, life that sets out with the one
idea of mOney-getting never pays for the
| reason you will never get enough to satisfy
you. The poorest men are those who have
a million dollars and the next poorest are
those who have half million. There is
not a Or-grinder on the streets of New
York or Brooklyn that is so absorbingly
anxious to make money as those men who
have for many years piled it up in stocks
or government securities or tenement
houses or city blocks You ought to see them
| jump when the fire beQ rings You ought
to see their excitement when the Marine
hank explOdcs. Iou ought to Scrutinizc
their feelings when reformation in tariff is
proposed They read the morning report
of Wall street doings with conccrnment that
threatens paralysis or apoplexy. More
probably they have private telegraph in
their house, or telephone, through which
they catch every breath of change in the
money market They are eaten up with
the disease OF accumulation. Chemists
have analvzed the human body and found
il to be,, made upof so much lime and so much
magneSia and so much chloride of POTASH
um. If these financial behemoths were
analvzed by some moral chemist they would
be found to be made up Of copper and gold
| and silver and zinc and lead and coal and
iron. That style of life is not worth lv-
ing. There are so many earthquakes in
it. There are so many ship
wrecks in it. There are so many
perditions in it. They build their castles
and open their picture galleries and summon
the prima donnas, and make every induce
ment for Happiness to come, but she will
not. They send foOtmanned and postil-
ioned equipage to fetch her, but she will
not ride to their doors. They send person
to escort her thither, but she will not take
their arm. However, this is the failure of
| those who have largest accumulation. The
most of those who make the one idea of life
moneymaking die far short of affuence 1t
is estimated, in all parts of this land, that
only two out of a hundred business men are
successful A life with the idea of money
making dominant is not worth living
Not Worldly Approval.
So also life that chiefly strives for worldly
approval is a failure. The two most unfor-
tunate men for the next six months viii be
the two men who secure the nominations for
the Presidency The two reservoirs of NAL
ediction are gradually filing up, and hose
will be attached to each of these two reser-
voirs, and they will begin to play on the two
nominees aud they will have to stand and
take it, the falsehood, the sarcasm, the carri-
cature, the venom, the caterwaulings, the
anathema, the filth, and they will be thrown
down into it and rolled over and choked,
and submerged, and strangled and at every
sign of returning animation bsrted at BY all
the hounds Of political party, from the st.
Lawrence to Mobile BAY To win thar great
privilege hundred candidates today with
their thousands of friends are Struggling.
But the misery of life aiming FOX Politi-
ical preferment IS seen on q small scale in