Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-05-11
REV. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
WHEREFORE DO THE WICKED
LIVE" THE TEXT.

TWood's Life--Wicked Deeds Allowed
by God for Contrast with Good Ones.
BROOKLYN, n. y, May 1O.-Six thou
sand people, as usual, thronged the pews,
the aisles, the corridors and the adjoined
parlors of the immense audience room of
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning.
DR.. Talmage read passages Of Scripture
in which good and bad characters were
set of in vivid contrast, and gave out the
hymn:
Arm OF the Lord, 81 awake
Put on thy strength, % nations snake"
The subject discussed was "Why does
God permit Satan and Sin TO exist when
with one blow He might annihilate them p
The text was Job xxi, 7: "Wherefore do
the wicked liveY Following is the SER
mon:
Poor Job! With tusks, with stings,
via horns, with hOOfs all the misior-
tunes of life came on him at once Bank
ruDtcv, bereavements, standardization.
eruptve disease so irritating that he had
to reinforce his ten finger nails nv piece
of earthenware TO scratch himself withal.
His wife took the diagnosis OF his COM
plants and prescribed for him profanity.
She thought he would feel better if be-
tween the paroXysms of pain and grief he
would swear little. For each boil
plaster Of Ohiurgation, Probably no man
was ever more tempted TO take this bad
advice than was job, when a last his
three eXasperating friends, Elpheg, Bill
dad and Zophar, came to comfort him,
saving in substance: "YOu Old sinner,
this serves YOU right. All this is because
you are a hypOcrite. What sight you
arel God has chastised you for your
Vyickpdpess," The disfieured invalid lifts
10 farrf1 In
piece of broken saucer with which he had
been rubbing his ms and tells his gar
rulOus group of friends that it is often
the wicked who have the best health and
the most prosperity, and in this cOnnec-
tiOn hurls the question which every man
and woman that ever existed has at some
cOuiuncfurn OF events asked, "Why do
she wicked liyer
They build up fortunes that OvershadOw
the earth and confOund all the life insur-
ance tables on the subject of longevity,
some of them dying OctOgenarians or per-
haps nonagenarIans or possibly centena-
riaDs. Ahab in the palace and Naboth in
the cabin. Unclean HerOd on the throne,
and Paul, the cOnsecrated, twisting ropes
for tent making. Manasseh, the worst of
all the kings of Juda, 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 physicians ex-
pending IFS skill in the attempt for fur
Their prOlOngatioD, and then have funeral
with casket under mountains of Gala liz
and procession with all the finest equip
are of the city flashing and juggling into
line. taking the poor angle-wOrm Of the
dust out 10 it's hole in the ground with a
pomp that might make the passing spirit
from some other world think that the
archapgel Michael was dead. Go 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 COM
mercial or social iniquity. Vampires Of
the nineteenth century! GorgOns of the
ages. Every wheel of their carriage is a
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 in one neck that he
might cut il 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 despOilatiOnl
What demons incarnate! Thousands of
men who have cOncentered all their ener-
giles OF body. mind and soul into one pro-
longed and ever-intensifed and unrelent-
ing effort to sacrifice and blast ana con-
sumo the world. l do not blame you for
asking the quivering, throbdng, burning,
resOunding, appalling question of the
text: "Why do the wicked live?''
First, they live to demonstrate beyond
controversy the long suffering patience
of God. You rouse up and say, 81 Will
not stand it any longer" but perhaps you
are compelled to stand it. God, with all
the batteries of cmnipotence loaded with
thunderbOlts. staads it century after CEN
fury. Sometimes, l have no doubt. an
angel comes up and begs that be may
-unlimber the batteries, crying: "NOw is
the time to strike" ono" saws God:
swat year, wait twenty years, wait
century, wait five hundred years"
What Goa does is not so wonderful as
what he does not do. He has enough re-
serve corps to sweep from the earth Nor
monism, Mohammedanism, Paganism, in
one day. He could take all the frauds of
New York city on the west side of Broad
way and IN an hour pitch them INTO the
Hudson, and all the frauds of New York
on the east side Of Broadway and in an
hour pitch them into the East river. He
understands the combination lock of
every dishonest money safe in Christen-
dom and could blow il up quicker than by
any earthly explosive. Written all over
the earth from east to west and from
north TO south, and all over history, are
the words Divine Patience, Divine For
Dearance, DIVINE LOng-sunerlng. IL iS
wonder to me that God did not burn
up the world two thousand years
ago and scatter the ashes through immen-
sity. its aerolites cropping into other
worlds except in their museums as speci-
mems Of defunct planet. People talk
of God as though he were hasty with his
judgments and snapped a man up quick.
MOI Before the ancient deluge the
people were warned 100 years to get
aboard Noah's ark. The Anchor Line
gives only a months notice of the sailing
OF the Circassia, the White Star Line ONLY
a menth's notice 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 1870 years Of
notice. Patience ante-diluvian. Pa
tience post.diuvian. Patience in
times Of Adamic. Mosaic, Dayidic, Paul
inc. Lutheran, Whitfeldian. Patience
with man. Patience with nations. Pa
thence with barharisns and civilizations.
Six thousand years Of patience. Over.
towering attribute of a God all of whose
attributes are Unreasonable.
Why do the wicked liveY To make the
overthrow OF sin more climacterie. They
must pile up their mischief very high so
that whole communities may see 10; very
high so that all continents may see II:
very high so that all fhe world NAV 400 IL