Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-07-16
HAPPINESS AT HOME.

REV. DR.. TALMAeE olScouRses At
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Health the Grandest Luxury Given 10
Man-Happiness Not Dependent on Out
ward Circumstances-"Godlin With
Contentmeut Is Great Gain"
BROOKLYN, July l5.-The Rev. 7. De Witt
Talmsge, d. D., took for his subject today:
"In Good Humor with Our Circumstances"
His text was Hebrews xiii, S: "Be content
with such things as ye have" The great
preachers discourse was as follows;
If should ask some one. ''Whers Is Brook
lyn todayr' he would say, ."At Brighton
Beach, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island. T"
"where is New York todayF "At Long
Branch "Where Philadelphia" "At Cape
Mayr' "Where is Bostong" "At Marthss
Vineyard" "Where is virginiaT "At the
Sulphur Springs" "Where the great multi
tude from all parts Of the landr' AT 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-
road employees, and ferry masters, and the
police, and the tens Of thousands Of clerks
and merchants waiting for their turn Of alb
sence, and households with an invalid who
cannot be moved, and others hindered BY
stringent circumstances, and the great null
titude Of well 70 do people who stay at home
because they like home better than any other
place, refusing to go away simply because is
is the fashion to go. 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 go as
well as others. Fools that we are, as though
one could not be as happy at home as any
where else. Our grandfathers and grand
mothers had as good time as we have, long
before the first spring was bored at Saratoga,
or the first deer shot in the Adirondacks.
They made their wedding tour to the next
farmhouse, or, living in New York, they cele-
brated the event by an extra walk on the
Battery.
Now, the genuine American is not happy
uEIl ut 70 kORuk oOiucVucfc3 dIu VIC pnookosA
is SO great that there are Christian people
with their families detained in the city who
come not to the house Of God. trying to give
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
back part Of the house, the thermometer at
ninetyl Ny friends, if it is best for us to go,
let US go and be happy. If it is best for US to
stay at home, let us stay at home and be
happy. There is a great deal Of good COM
mon sense in Paulis advice to the Hebrews:
"Be content with such things as ye have.n
To be content is to be in good humor with
our circumstances, not picking 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 I 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 q 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
/. alone, than, without it, look out Of .
palace window upon parks Of deer stalking
between fountains snd statuary. These peo-
pie sleep sounder on q straw mattress
than fashionable invalids on q couch
of ivory and eagles down. The dinner
Of herbs tastes better to the appetite sharp
ened on woodmsn's az or reaper's scythe
than wealthy indigestion experiences seated
at a table covered with partridge, and veni-
son, and pineapple. The grandest luxury
God ever gave q man is health. He who
is infinitely cheated. We look back at the
glory of the last Napoleon, but who would
have taken his Versailles and his Tuileries il
with them we had been obliged to take his
gout! "Oh," says some one, ''it isn't the
grosser pleasures covet, but 1t is the gratifi-
cation of an artistic and intellectual taste.
Why, my brother, you have the original
from which these pictures are copied
What is a sunset on q wall compared with
a sunset hung in loops Of fire on the heayensi
What is cascade silent on canvas COM
pared with cascade that makes the noun
tain tremble, its spray ascending like the
departed spirit of the water slain on the
rocksi 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 a parent should have no regard
for his child, but go into ecstasies over its
photograph Bless the Lord today, oh, mani
oh, womani that though you may be shut
out from the works of Church, q Bierstadt,
g Rubens and a Raphael, you still have free
access to a gallery grsnder than the Louvre
or the Luxembourg or the Vetican-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 thatour hap
piness is not dependent upon outward cir
cumstances You see people happy and mis-
cradle 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 a
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
zee who seemed the happiest people passing.
/ judged from their looks the happiest
people were not those who went down
into Wall street, for they had on their brow
the anxiety Of the dollar they expected to
make; nor the people who came out Of Wall
street, for 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 a carriage that was finer than theirs.
The happiest person in all that crowd, judg-
ing from the countenance, was the woman
who sat at the apple stand knitting. be-
lieve real happiness oftener looks out OF the
window of an humble home than through
the opera glass of the gilded box Of theater.
| find Nero growing on q throne find
Paul singing in a dungeon. l find King Ahab