The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-07-27
BE CONTENT.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, d. D.
True Happiness Consists in Having the
Heart Right Toward God and Man
The Grand Influence of the Re-
IIg1On of jesus Christ.


"In Good Humor with Our Circum-
stances" was the subject of DIR. Talmage's
recent sermon. His text was taken from
the fifth verse of the thirteenth chapter
Of Hebrews: "Be content with such
things as We have" He said;
If l should ask some one (; "Where is
Brooklyn to-day4" he would say: "At
Brighton Beach, or East Hampton, or
Shelter Island" "Where is New York to-
dayTn "At Long Branch" "Where is
Philadelphia" "At Cape May" Where
is Bostonl" "At Martha's Vineyard"
Where Is VirginiaP' "At the Sulphur
Springs" "Where the great multitudes
from all parts of the landl" Z" At Sara
togs," the modern Bethesda, where the
angel of health is ever stirring the wa
terA But my friend, the largest multi
tuds ara at home, detained by business or
circumstances. Among them all newspa-
per men, the hardest worked and the least
compensated; city railroad employees, and
the ferry masters, and the police, and the
tens of thousands of clerks and merchants
waiting for their turn Of absence, and
households with an invalid who can not be
moved, and others hindered by stringent
circumstances, and the great multitude OF
well-to-do people who stay at home be
cause they like home better than any other
p4dGot EG4uSluB W 30 away SAAAp4y bOS@ASS
it is the fashion to go.
When the express wagon, with it's
mountain of trunks directed to the Cats
kills or Niagara, goes through the streets,
we stand at our window envious and i'm
patient, and wonder why we can not go as
we'll as others. Fools that we are, as
though one could not be as happy at homo
as any where else. Our grandfathers and
grandmothers had as good a time as we
have, long before the first spring was
bored at Saratoga or the first deer shot in
the Adirondacks. They made their we'd
ding tour to the next farmhouse, or, iv-
ing in New York, they celebrated the event
by an extra walk on the battery.
Now, the genuine American is not happy
until he is going somewhere. and the pas
sion is 50 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 un-
secured 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 ninetyi My
friends, if it is best for US to 60 let US go
and be happy. If 1t is best for US to stay
at home, let US stay at home and be happy.
There is great deal of good common sense
In PauTs advice to the Hebrews: "Be
content SuCA JnlnBS AS yb nave 40
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 mention as leading
to this spirit devised in the text, is the
consideration 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 Of
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 stat
uary. These people sleep sounder on
straw mattress than fashionable invalids
on a couch of ivory and eagles down. The
dinner of herbs tastes better to the appe-
tite sharpened on a woodman's ak or
reaper's scythe than wealthy indigestion
experiences seated at table covered with
partridge, and venison, 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 Tuilleries if with
them we had been obliged to take his goutl
stOh," says some one, ''it isn't the grosser
pleasures covet, but it is the qualification
of an artistic and intellectual taste" Why,
my brother, you have the original from
which these pictures are copied.
What is a sunset on a wall compared with
a sunset hung in loops of fire in the heav-
ensl What is a cascade silent on canvas
compared with a cascade that makes the
mountain tremble, its spray ascending like
the departed spirit of the water slain on
the rocksl Oh, there is a great deal of
hollow afFectation about a fondness for
pictures on the part of those who never
appreciate the original from which the
Dictures are taken As though a parent
should have no regard for a child, but go In
to ecstasies over its photograph. Bless the
Lord to-day, oh, man oh, womani that
though you may be shut out from the
works of a Church, a Bierstadt, a Rubens
and a Raphael, you still have free access
to a gallery grander than the Louvre or
the Luxemburg or the Vatican-the royal
gallery of the monday heavens, the Kings
gallery of the midnight sky.
Another consideration leading us 20 q
spirit of contentment is the fact that our
happiness is not dependent upon outward
circumstances. You see people happy and
miserable amid all circumstances. In q
family where the last loaf is on the table,
and the last stick of wood on the fire, you
sometimes find a cheerful confidence in
God while in a very fine place you will
see and hear discord sounding the war
whoop, and hospitality freezing to death
in the cheerless 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. l
Judged from their looks the happiest peo-
pie 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 cqui-
page, for they met carriage finer than
theirs. The happiest person in all that
crowd, judging from the countenance was
the woman who sat at the apple-stand
knitting. believe real happiness oftener
looks out OF the window of an humble homo
than through the opera glass Of the giIded
box Of a theater.
hnd Nero growing on a throne. find
Paul singing in dungeon. find King
Ahab going to bed at noon through melan-
choly, while near by is Naboth contented
In the possession of a vineyard. Haman,
Prime Minister Of Persia, frets himself al
most to death because a poor Jew will not
tip his hat; and Ahithophel, one Of the
greatest lawyers Of Bible times, through
fear Of dying, hangs himself. The wealth
lest man, forty years ago, In New York,
when congratulated over his large estate,
replied: "Aht you don't know how much
trouble have in taking care of it." Byron
declared In his last hours that he had new
OF seen more than twelve happy days In all
his life. / do not believe ne had seen
twelve minutes Of thorough satisfaction.
Napoleon I. said: al turn with disgust
from the cowardice and selhshness Of man.
hold life horror, death is repose. What
have suffered the last twenty days 10 be-
yond human comprehension:
While on the other hand, to show how
one may be happy amid the most disad-
circumstances, Just after the