Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-03-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Seventh Sermon of the Series to the
Women of America.
"What Can and What Can Not Ma he .
Won an Happy"-The Homo Circle
Mere Social Position Does Not
Insure Happiness.

For the seventh discourse OF his series
to the women Of America, at the Brook.
Ign Tabernacle. Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
took for his subject: "What Can and
What Can Not Make a Woman Happy"
His text was:
She that liveth in pleasure is dead vahle she
liveth.
He said:
The editor of Boston newspaper a few
days ago wrote asking me the terse ques-
tions: "What is the road to happiness!"
and: sought happiness be the chief aim of
life:" My answer was: 1.-THE road to
happiness Is the continuous effort TO
make others happy. The chief aim of
life ought to be usefulness, not happi.
ness; but happiness always follows USE
fulness." This mornings text in strong
way sets forth the truth that a woman
who seeks in worldly advantage her chief
enjoymen will come to disappointment
and death.
She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she
livett.
NY friends, you all want to be happy.
You have had a great many recipes by
which it is proposed to give you satisfac-
ticn-solid satisfaction. At times you feel
thorough unrest You know as we'll as
older people what it is to be depressed.
AS dark shadows sometimes fall upon the
geography of the school girl as on the
page of the specialized philosopher. 1have
seen as cloudy days in May as in Novem-
Der. There are no deeper signs breathed
by the grandma Their than by the grand
daughter. l correct the popular impress.
sion that people are happier in childhood
and youth than they ever will be again.
Ii we i've Alright, the older the happier.
The happiest woman that I ever
knew was Christian octogenarian;
her hair VIII te as white could be; the
sunlight of Heaven late in the afternoon
gliding the peaks of snow. l have to say
to great many Of the young people that
the most miserable time Iyou are ever to
have is just now. AS you advance in life, as
you come out into the world and have
your head and heart all full Of good,
honest, practical Christian work, then
you will know what it is to begin to be
happy. There are those who would have
us believe that life is chasing thistle
down and grasping bubbles. We have
not found it so. To many of US it has
been discovering diamonds larger than
the Kohinoor, and l think that our joy
will continue to increase until nothing
short of the everlasting jubilee of Heaven
VIII be able to express it.
Horatio Greenough, at the close Of the
hardest life a man ever lives-the life of
an American artist wrote:
81 don't want to leave this world until
! give some sign that, born by the grace
of God in this land, Ihave found life to be
a very cheerful thing, and not the dark
and bitter thing with which my early
prospects were clouded."
Albert Barnes, the good Christian,
known the world over, stood in his pulpit
in Philadelphia, at seventy or eighty
years Of age, and said.
''This world is so very attractive to me,
am very sorry shall have to leave it,"
know that Solomon said some very
dolorous things about this world, and
three times declared: "Vanity of vani.
ties, all is vanity" l suppose it was a
reference to those times In his career when
his seven hundred wives almost pestered
the life out of him. But l would rather
turn to the des cription he gave after his
conversion, when he says in another
place:
'.Her ways ARE ways Of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace"
It is reasonable 20 expect 1t will be
80. The longer the fruit hangs on tho
tree, the ripper and more mellow it ought
to grow. You plant one grain Of corn,
and it will send up a stalk with two ears,
each having $50 grains, so that one grain
planted will produce 1900 grains. And
ought not the implantatio1 Of gra in of
Christian principle in youthful soul
develop into large crop of gladness on
earth and to harvest of eternal joy in
Heaven? Hear me, then, while l dis.
course upon some of the mistakes which
young people make in regard to happi-
ness, and point out to the young women
what consider to be the source of com.
plete satisfaction.
And, in the first place, advise you not
to build your happiness upon mere social
position. Persons at your age, looking
off upon life, are apt to think that if, by
some stroke of what is called good luck,
you could arrive in an elevated and at
fluent pos ition, a little higher than that
in which God has called you to live, you
would be completely happy. Infinite
is red with the blood of Vashti's broken
heart. There have been no more scald-
ing tears wept than those which coursed
tAc CuCOhS VI OOSCPuiACs IL Gu0 SUI VI
unhappy womanhood in the great cities
could break through the tapes tried walls,
that sob would come along your streets
to-day like the simeon of the
desert. Sometimes have heard
pavement the hiss of the adders that fol-
lowed in the wake. You have come out
from your home, and you have looked up
at the great house, and covet q life under
those arches, when, perhaps, at that very
moment, within that house, there may
have been the wringing Of hands, the
start of horror and the very agony of
hell. 1 knew such an one. Her fathers
house was plain, most of the people who
came there were plain; but, by a change
in fortune such as sometimes comes, q
hand had been offered that led her into
brilliant sphere. All the neighbors
congratulated her upon her grand
prospects; but what an ex-
change! On her side it was a
heart full of generous impulse and af-
lection. On his side it was soul dry
and withered as the stubble Of the field.
On her side it was a fathers house, where
God was honored and the Sabbath light
flooded the rooms with the very mirth Of
Heaven. On his side it was a gorgeous
res idence. and the coming of mighty men
to be entertained there, but within it
were revelry ami godlessness. Hardly
had the orange blossoms of the marriage
feast lost their fragrance, than the night
of discomfort began to cast here and
there its shadows. Cruelties and un.
kindnesses changed all those splend id
trappings into a hollow mockery. The
pl alters of solid silver, the casket Of pure
gold, the head-dress of cleaning dia-
monds. were there; but no God, no
neaca no kind words no Christian sym.