Milford chronicle., 1888-07-20
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DlscoURsEs Al
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

HIan-Happiness Not Dependent on Out
ward Circumstances-''God with
Cohtentment Is Great Cain"
BROOKLYN, July 15.-The Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, d. D., took for his subject today:
"In Good Humor with Our Circumstances" D."
His text was Hebrews xiii, 3: "Be content
with such things as ye have" The great
/ preachers discourse was as follows;
If / should ask some one, ''Where is Brook
( lyn todayF he would say, AT Brighton
I Beach, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island.n
"Wherc is Now York todayg" "At Long
Branch "Where Philadelphia" "At Cape
Mayr 'Whore is Bostonr AT Martha's
Vineyard where is Virginia." "At the
Sulphur Springs "Where the great multi
tude from all parts Of the landg' AT Sara
toga,n 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 tho least compensated; city rail
road employees, and ferry masters, and the
police, and tho 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 b do people who stay at home
because they like home better than any other
place, refusing to so away simply because it
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 Us
well as others. Fools that we are, as though
one could not be as happy at homo as any
where else Oar 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
until he is going somewhere, and tho passion
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 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
ninety Ny friends, if it is best for us to go,
let us so and be happy If it is best for us to
stay ut home, let us stay at home and be
happy There is a great deal Of good conf
mon sense in Paul's advice to the Hebrews:
"Be content with such things as ye have. :"
To be content is to be il 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
I 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 a 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
4 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 woOdmnn's AK or reaper's scythe
than wealthy Indigestion experiences seated
at table covered with partridge, and veni-
son, and pineapple The grandest luxury
God ever gave n man is health. lie 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
/, huve taken his Versailles and his Tuileries if
( with them we had beca Obliged to take his
] goutl "Oh,n says some one, lit isn't the
/ grosser pleasures / covet, but it is the gratif-
cation of an artistic and intellectual taste. -
Why, my brother, you have the original
from which these pictures are copied.
What is n sunset on a wall compared with
a sunset hung in loops Of fire on the heavens!
/ What is a cascade silent on a canvas COM
/ pared with a cascade that makes the noun
| tain trcmble, its spray ascending like the
departed spirit Of the water slain on the
/ rockss Oh, there is great deal of hollow
4 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 10 regard
for his child, but so into ccstasies over its
! photograph. Bless the Lord today, oh, mani
4 oh, womanl that though you may be shut
out from the works Of Church, Bierstadt,
Rubens and Raphael, you still have free
access to n 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 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-
erablo amid all circumstances. In a family
I where the last loaf is on tine table, and the
/ lasr stick Of wood on the fire, you sometimes
find a cheerful confidence in God, while in a
very fine place you will sec 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 she foot Of Trinity church, to
see who seemed the happiest people passing.
! I Judged from their looks the bappiest
people were not those who went down
into Wall street, for they had on thcir 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
mot n carriage that was finer than theirs.
The happiest person in all that crowd, judg-
| ing from the countenanee, was the woman
who sat at the apple stand knitting be
lieve real happiness oftener looks out Of tho
window Of an humble homo than through
the opera glass Of tho gilded box of theater
l find Nero growing on throne. find
Paul singing in a dungeon. l find King Ahab
going to bed at noon through melancholy,
while near by Is Naboth contented in the pos
session OF a vineyard. Haman, prime minis
ter Of Persia, frets himself almost to death
because a poor Jew will not tip his hat; and
Ahithophcl, one of the greatest lawyers Of
Bible times, through fear Of dying, hangs
himself. 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
cnrn Of IT. Byron declared in bis last