The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-08-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
rne Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: ''In Good Hum or With
Our Circumstances.'

| SuDJeCu: I'm GOO0 HumOr WIFI
Our Circumstances."
Txr:-"Be content soith such thinos a
W haue."-Hebrews xiii, 6.
III should ask some one: "Where 10 Brook
iyn to-dayw he would say, "At Brighton
D,easn, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island.
Branch" "Where Philadelp6iai' cat Can
Vineyard" "Where is VirriniaW 0At IN,
SULPHUR Springs" "Where the great multi
tude from all parts of the landpT cat Sara
toga," the modern Bethesda, where the ange
OF heaith 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
ponce, and the tens of thousands of clerks
and merchants waiting for their turn of ali.
sehce, ana households with an invalid who
cannot be moved, and others hindered by
stringent circumstances, and the great mul.
titude OF well to do people who stay at home
because they like home better than any other
pace, refusing to go away simply because II
Is the fashion to go. When the express
wagon, with its mountain of trunks directed
70 tne Catskills or Niagara, goes through the
streets, we stand at our window envions and
impatient, and wonder why we cannot 90 as
well as othera 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, long
before the first spring was bored at Sara.
toga, or the first deer shot in the Adiron-
| uacks. They made their wedding tour to
Cne 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 SO great that there are Christian people
WIN their families detained in the city who
come not to the house of God, trying to give
People tne 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
oack part OF the house. the thermometer at
ninety My friends, if it is better for us to 90.
let us go and be happy. If it be best for e, us
70 stay at home, let us stay at home and be
nappy. There is great deal of good COM
mon sense in Pauls advice to the Hebrews:
BE content with such things as We haye.n
10 be content is to be in good humor with
our circumstances, not picking a ouarreI
WIN our obscurlty, or our poverty. or our
social position. There are four or FIVE grand
reasons why we should be content with such
things az we have
Ihe frst reason that / mention az LEADING
TO this spirit devised in the text is the con.
eideratlon that the poorest of us have all that
IS Indispensable in life We make a great
ADO about our hardships but how little wa
Talk OF our blessings Health and body.
which is given in largest quantity to those
VINO have never been petted, and fonded and
spolied 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
petween fountains and statuary. These peol
PIE sierp sounder on 5 straw mattress
than fashionable invaHds en- a couch
OF ivory and eagles down. The dinner
oI nerps tastes better to che appetite sharp
eneo on woodman's ak or reaper's scythe
than wealthy indigestion experiences seated
az taDie covered with partridge, and veni-
son, and pineapple The grandest luxury
1od ever gave man is health He who
trades that off for all the palaces Of the earth
IS infinitely cheated. We look back at Lhe
glory OF The last Napoleon but who would
have taken his Versailles and his Tuileries Fl
with them we had been Obliged to take his
gouts oh" says some one, "it isn't the
grosser pleasures covet, but it is the gratifi-
c1Ilon OF an artistic and intellectual tasten
why, my brother, you have the original
IRON pm, which these pictures are copied.
Wnat IS sunset on wall compared with
e sunset hung IN loops of fire ON the heavensl
What is cascade silent on a canvas com.
pared with cascade that makes the monn.
tam tremble, its spray ascending like the
departed spirit of the water slain on the
IOcks: On, there is great deal of hollow
nHectatlon about fondness for pictures on
tne part OF those who never appreciate the
original from which the pictures are taken
"a As tnougn parent should have no regard
Tor his child, but go into ecstases over its
photograph. Bless the Lord to-day, oh. mani
on, woman that though you may be shut
ouI from the works Of Church, Bierstadt,
huoens and Raphael, you still have free
access to gallery grander than the Louvre
or Gne Luxemburg or the Vatican-the royal
gallery OF the monday heavens, the Kings
gallery OF the midnight sky.
Another consideration leading us To A
spirit OF contentment is the fact that our 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
ma 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
gee who seemed the happiest people passing.
Judged from their looks the happiest peo-
PIE were not those who went down into Wall
street, for they had on their brow the ankle.
y Of the dollar they expected to make: nor
We people who came out Of Wall street. foy
they they had on their brow the anxiety
OIL the dollar they had lost; nor the people
VINO swept by in splendid equipage, for they
me met carriage that was finer than theirs.
Inc happiest person in all that crowd, judg.
ing from the countenance, was the woman
VINO sat at the apple stand knitting. be.
heve real happiness oftener looks out of the
window of an humble home than through
the opera glass of the gilded box of theatre.
ma Nero growing on the throne. find
raul singing in a dungeon. / find King Ahab
gong 70 bed at noon through melancholy,
while near by is Naboth contented in the DOS
session OF vineyard. Haman Prime Minis
Ger OF Persia, frets himself almost to death
because poor Jew will not tip his hat; and
A1hithophel, one of the greatest lawyers of
Bible times, through fear of dying, hangs
mseH: The wealthiest man, forty years
ago, in New York, when Congratulated over
his large estate, replied: "Ahl YOU don't
Know how much trouble have in taking
care OF it." Byron declared in his last
nours that he had never seen more than twelve
happy days in all his life. do not believe
ne had seen twelve minutes of thorough sat-
lsfaction. Napoleon l. said: II turn with
disgust from the cowardice and selhshness OF
men; 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 NAV be
happy amid the most disadvantageous cir
cumstances, just after the Ocean Monarch
had been wrecked in the English channel, q
steamer was cruising along in the darkness,
when the captain heard song, a sweet song,
coming over the water. and be bore down
toward that voice, and found il was Chris.
tan women on q plank Of the wrecked
steamer, singing to the tune Of "St Mar
Nns:n
Jesus, lover OF my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom ny,
While the pillows near me roll,
While the tempest still 10 high.
The beart right toward God and man, we
are happy. The heart wrong toward God
and man, we are unhappy.
Another reason why we should come to
this spirit inculcated in the text ls the fact
that all the differences of earthly condition
are transitory. The houses you build. the
land you culture, the places in which Won
barter, are soon to go into other hands
However hard you may have it now, if YOU
are a Christian the scene will soon end.
Pain, trial, persecution never knock at the
ioor Of ihe grave. A coffin made out Of pine