The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-11
WHY Dc THE WICKED LIVE?
DR.. Talmage Discourses of the Long,
Suffering Patience Of God,
And Tells Why He Permits Satan and Sin
To Exist, When With One Blow lie
Might Exterminate Them.
Special to tho Indianapolis journal.

Special to tho Indianapolis Journal.
BROOKLYN N Y, May 1O.-Six thousand peo
pie, as usual. thronged the pews. the aisles, the
corridors and the adjoined parlors of theimmense
audience room of the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning DIR. Talmage read passages Of Scrip
ture in which good and bad character were set
of in vivid contrast and gave out the hymn:
"ArT Of the Lord awake awakel
Put on thy strength, the nations shake!'
The subject discussed was: "WhyAoes God
permit Satan and sin to exist when with one blow
He might annhate themp The text was Job
xxi 7: wherefore DO the wicked live?" Fol
lowing is the sermon:
Poor Job with tusks with stings. with horns
with hoofs, all the misfortunes of life came
him at once. Bankruptcy bereavements, scan
dalzation, eruptive disease so irritating that he
had to reinforce his ten finger nails by piece of
earthenware to scratch himself withal. His wife
took the diagnosis of his complaints and pre-
scribed for him profanity. She thought he would
feel better if, between the paroxysms of pain and
grief. he would swear little. For each boil
plaster of ohjurgation. Probably no man was
ever more tempted to take this bad advice than
was Job, when at last his three exasperating
friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar came to
comfort him, saying in substance: ''You old
sinner this serves you right. All this is because
you are bypocrite. What a sight you arel
God has chastised you for your wickedness.
The disfgured invalid lifts his swollen eyelids
and puts down the piece Of broken saucer with
which ne had been rubbing his arms, and tells
his garrulous group Of friends that it is often
the wicked who have the best health and the
most prosperity, and in this connection hurls the
question, which every man and woman that ever
existed has at some coniuncture of events asked,
"Why do the wicked live?'
They build up fortunes that overshadow the
earth and confound all the life insurance tables
on the subject of longevity, some of them dying
octogenarians, or perhaps nonagenarians,
possibly centenarians. Ahab in the palace and
Naboth in the cabin, unclean Herod on the
throne and Paul, the consecrated, twisting ropes
for tent making. Manasseb, the worst of al
the kings of Judah. lived the longest While the
general rule is that the wicked do not live out
half their days, there are instances where they
live to great age in paradises of beauty and
luxury, and die with whole college of physi
clans expending its skill in the attempt for
further prolongation and then have funeral
with casket under mountains of Gala lily and a
procession with all the finest equipage Of the
city flashing and jingling into line, taking the
poor ange-worm of the dust out to its hole in
the ground, with pomp that might make the
passing spirit from some other world thlnNsthat
the archangel Michael was dead. 20 up among
the great residences Of our cities and read the
door plates, and see how many of them hold the
names of men mighty for commercial social
lniquity. Vampires of the nineteenth century
Goreons of the ages Every wheel of their car
riage is q juggernaut wet with the blood of
those sacrificed to their avarice and evil design.
Men who are like Caligula. who wished that all
people were neck that he might cut it off
at one blow Oh, the slain! the slain! What a
procession of libertines, of usurers of Infamous
quacks, of legal charlatans, of world grabbing
monsters. What apostles of despoliation. What
demons incarnate. Thousands of men who
have concentered all their energies of body,
mind and soul into prolonged and ever
intensified and unrelenting effort to sacrifice
and blast and consume the world. / do not
blame you for asking the quivering, throbbing.
burning. resoundng, appalling question of the
text: 'Why do the wicked livel"
First. they live to demonstrate beyond contro-
versy the long suffering patience of God. You
rouse up and say: II win not stand it any Ion
GER But perhaps you are compelled to stand it.
God, with all the batteries Of omnipotence loaded
with thunderbolts, stands it century after CEN
tury. Sometimes 1 have no doubt an angel
comes up and begs that he may nnlimber the
batteries, crying: Nov is the time to strike"
'No.' says God, wait year. "wait twenty
years" wait a century," swat 500 years"
What God does is not so wonderful as what He
does not do. He has enough reserve corps to
sweep from the earth Mormonism, Mohammedan-
ism, Paganism in one day. He could take all
the frauds OF New York city on the westside of
Broadway and in an hour pitch them into the
Hudson. and all the frauds of New York on the
east side of Broadway and in hour pitch them
into the East river. He understands the combin-
alton lock of every dishonest money safe in
Christendom. and could blow it UP quicker than
by any earthly explosive. Written all over the
earth, from east to west and from north to south.
aud all over history, are the words: divine pa
tience, divine forbearance, divine long-sufering
II is wonder to me that God did not burn up
the world 1000 years ago, and scatter the ashes
through immensely, its aerolites dropping into
other worlds and kept in their museums as speci-
mems of defunct planet. People talk of God as
though He were hasty with His judgments, and
SNAPPED man up quick. No! Before the an
Gent delugc the people were warned l2O years to
get aboard Noah's ark. The Anchor line gives
only months notice of the sailing of the Cir
cassia the White Star line only months no.
tice of the sailing of the Britannia. the Cunard
line only months notice of the sailing of the
Oregon, but of the sailing Of that first ship under
Noah, the commander, God, gave l20 years of
notice Patience antediluvian. Patience post
diluvian Patience in times Adamic, Mosaic,
Davidic, Pauline, Lutheran, Wh;tsieldian. Pa
tience with men. Patience with nations. Pa
tience with barbarisms and civilizations. Six
tl,onsand wears Of natience. OYertoMering at