The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-01
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "In Good Humor With Our
Circumstances"


ye haze. Hebrews xiii, 5.
III should ask some one: "Where is Brook
!yn today" he would say, Eat Brighton
Beach, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island" D."
Branch" "Where Philadelphia "At Cape
May" Where is BostonY' cat Martha's
Vineyard" "Where is Virginias' SAT the
SULPHUR Springs" "Where the great multi
tude from all parts of the landpT SAT Sara
toga," the modern Bethesda, where the angel
Of health is ever stirring the waters. But,
my friends, the largest multitude are at home,
detained by business or circumstances.
Among them all newspaper men, the hardest
worked and the least compensated; city rail-
police, and the tens Of thousands of clerks
and merchants waiting for their turn Of ab-
sence, and households with an invalid who
cannot be moved, and others hindered by
stringent circumstances, and the great null
titude Of well to do people who stay at home
because they like home better than any other
place, refusing to 60 away simply because it
Is the fashion to 60. When the express
wagon, with its mountain of trunks directed
to the Catskills or Niagara, goes through the
streets, we stand at our window envious and
impatient, and wonder why we cannot 60 as
well as others Fools that we are, as though
one could not be as happy at home as any
where else. Onr grandfathers and grand
mothers had as good time as we have, bong
before the first spring was bored at Sara
toga, or the first deer shot in the Adiron-
dacks They made their wedding tour to
the next farmhouse, or, living in New York,
the celebrated they event by an extra walk on
the Battery.
Now, the genuine American is not happy
until he is going somewhere, and the passion
is 80 great that there are Christian people
with their families detained in the city who
come not to the house Of God, trying togive
people the idea that they are out Of town;
leaving the door plate unsecured for the
same reason, and for two months keeping the
front shutters closed while they sit in, the
ninety! My friends, if it is better for us to 60,
let us 60 and be happy. If it be best for us
to stay at home. let US stay at home and be
happy There is great deal Of good COM
mon sense in Paurs advice to the Hebrews:
BE content with such things as ye have"
To be content is to be in good humor with
our circumstances, not picking a quarrel
with our obscurity, or our poverty, or our
social position. There are four or five grand
reasons why we should be content with such
things as we have.
The first reason that mention as leading
to this spirit devised in the text, is the con-
sideration that the poorest Of us have all that
is indispensable in life. We make a great.
ado about our hardships, but how little we
talk of our blessings Health and body,
which is given in largest quantity to those
who have never been petted, and fondled, ,and
spoiled by fortune, we take as matter Of
course. Rather have this luxury, and have
it alone, than, without it, look out of a
palace window upon parks Of deer stalking
between fountains and statuary. These peo-
pie sleep sounder on a straw mattress
than fashionable invalids on a couch
Of ivory and eagles down. The dinner
of herbs tastes better to the appetite sharp
ened on q woodman's Ak or reapers scYthe
than wealthy indigestion experiences seated
at table covered with partridge, and yani-
son, and pineapple. The grandest luxury
God ever gave man is health. He who
trades that off for. all the palaces Of the earth
Is infinitely cheated. We look back at The
glory of the last Napoleon, but who would
have taken his Versailles and his Tuileries If
with them we had been obliged to take his
gouti "Oh," says some one, sit isn't the
grosser pleasures covet, but it is the gratih-
cation of an artistic and intellectual TASTE"
Why, my brother, you have the original
from which these pictures are copied
What is sunset on wall compared with
q sunset hung in loops Of fire on the hsavensl
What is a cascade silent on canvas COM
pared with a cascade that makes the ncnn-
tain tremble, it's spray ascending like the
departed spirit of the water slain on the
rocks? Oh, there is great deal OF hollow
affectation about fondness for pictures on
the part Of those who never appreciate the
original from which the pictures are taken.
As though parent should have no regard
for his child, but 60 into ecstasies over its
photograph. Bless the Lord to-day, oh, man!
oh, woman! that though you may be shut
out from the works Of Church, q Bierstadt,
a Rubens and a Raphael, You still have free
or the Luxembourg or the Vatican-the royal
gallery of the monday heavens, the Kings
gallery of the midnight sky.
Another consideration leading us to
spirit of contentment is the fact that our hap
piness is not dependent upon outward cir
cumstances You see people happy and mis-
erable amid all circumstances In family
where the last loaf is on the table, and the
last stick of wood on the fire, you sometimes
find cheerful confidence in God, while in
very fine place you will see and hear discord
sounding her war whoop, and Hospitality.
freezing to death in the cherries parlor
stopped one day on Broadway at the head OF
Wall street, at the foot Of Trinity church, to
see who seemed the happiest people passing.
I Judged from their looks the happiest peo,
pie were not those who went down into wal
street, for they had on their brow the ankle
ty of the dollar they expected to make; nor
the people who came out Of Wall street. fnl
they they had on their brow the anxiety
of the dollar they had lost; nor the people
who swept by in splendid equipage, for they
met carriage that was finer than theirs
The happiest person in all that crowd, JudS
ing from the countenance, was the woman
who sat at the apple stand knitting be-
lieve real happiness oftener looks out or tine
window Of an humble home than through
the opera glass of the gilded box of theatre;
l find Nero growing on the throne. hno
Paul singing in dungeon. l find King Anar
going to bed at noon through melancholy,
while near by is Naboth contented in the pos
session of vineyard. Haman, Prime Minis
ter of Persia, frets himself almost to death
because poor Jew will not tip his hat; and
Ahithophel, one Of the greatest lawyers OF
mself The wealthiest man, forty years
ago, in New York, when congratulated over
his large estate, replied: 'Ah! you don't
know how much trouble have in taking
care of it," Byron declared in his last
hours that he had never seen more thantwelve
happy days in all his life. / do not believe
he had seen twelve minutes Of thorough sat
isfact;on. Napoleon I. said: II turn with
disgust from the cowardice and seltshness OF
men; l hold life horror; death IS repose.
What have suffered the last twenty days is
beyond human comprehension" While, on
the other hand, to show how one may be
happy amid the most disadvantageous cir
cumstances, just after the Ocean Monarch
had been wrecked in the English channel,
steamer was cruising along in the darkness,
when the captain heard song, sweet song,
coming over the water. and he bore down
toward that voice, and found it was Chris;
tian women on plank of the w wrecked
steamer, singing to the tune OF "St. MAR
tin's:h
Jesus, lover OF my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the biows near me roll.
While the tempest still is high.