Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-03-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discusses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject; ''VVhat Can and What
Cannot Make N Woman
Happy"

NNHo SIC uceh.
The editor of Boston newspaper a few
days ago wrote, asking me the terse ques-
lions: What is the road to happiness" and
Fought happiness be the chief aim of lifen
My answer was: fThe road to happiness is
the continuous effort to make others happy.
The chief aim Of life ought to be usefuless,
not happiness. but happiness always follows
usefulness This mornings text in a strong
way sets forth the truth that a woman who
seeks in worldly advantage her chief enjoy
ment will come to disappointment and death.
She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she
iveth.n
My friends, you all want to be happy.
You have had great many recipes by which
1t is proposed to give you satisfaction-Solid
satisfaction. At times you feel thorough
Unrest. You know as well 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. lhave seen as cloudy days in
May as in November. There are no deeper
signs breathed by the grandmother than by
the granddaughter, i correct the popular
Impression that people are happier in child
hood and youth than they ever will be again.
If we live Alright, the older the happier The
happiest woman thst ever knew was a
Christian octogenarian; her hair white as
white could be; the sunlight of heaven, late
In the afternoon, gliding the peaks of snow.
have to soy to great many of the yonng
people that the most miserable time you 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 Chistian 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 thistledown 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 moth
ire short OF the everlasting jubilee of heaven
will be able to express it.
Horatio Greenough, at the close of the
hardest life man ever ives-the life of an
American artst-wrote 81 don't want to
born by the grace of God in this land, have
found life to be a very cheerful thing, and
not the dark and bitter thing with which my
garly prospects were clouded."
Albert Barnes, the good Christian, known
the world over, stood in his pulpit i'll Phila-
delphia, at 20 or 50 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 dolo-
rous things about this world, and three times
declared: VANITY Of vanties, all is van
ity." | suppose it was q reference to those
times in his career when his seven hundred
wives almost pestered the life out Of him. But
would rather turn to the description he gave
after his conversion, when he says in another
place: Her ways are ways of p,easantness,
and all her paths are peacen 1t is reason
able to expect it will be SO. The longer the
fruit hangs on the tree, the ripper and moro
mellow it ought to grow. You plant one
grain of corn and it will send up stalk with
two ears, each having nine hundred and fifty
grains, so that one grain planted will pro-
Huce nineteen hundred grains. And ought
not the implantat;on of a grain of Christian
principle in a youthful soul develop into a
large crop of gladness on earth, and to har-
vest of eternal joy in heaven2 Hear me,
then, while discourse upon some OF the mis-.
takes which young people make in regard to
happiness, and point out to the young women
what consider to be the source of complete
satisfaction.
And in the first place, advise you not to
build your happiness upon mere social posi-
tion. Persons at your age, looking off upon
life, are apt to think that, if by some stro Ike
of what is called good luck, you could arrive
at an elevated and atfluent position, little
higher than that in which God has called you
to live, you would be completely happy. In
finite mistake! The palace floor of Ahasuelus
is red with the blood of Vashti's broken heart.
There have been no more scalding tears wept
than those which coursad the cheeks of
Josephine. If the sob of unhappy WON au-
hood in the great cities could break through
the tapestried wall, that sob would come
along your streets to-day like the simeon of
the desert. Sometimes have heard in the
rustling of the robes on the city pavement
the hiss of the adders that followed
in the wake. You have come out
from your home, and you have looked
up at the great house, and covet
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.
knew slIph a Har fatbap'-
plain, most of the people who came there
were plain; but, by change in fortune such
as sometimes comes, a hand had been offered
that led her into brilliant sphere All the
neighbors congratulated her upon her grand
prospects; but what an exchanged On her
side it was heart full of generous impulse
and affection. On his side it was a 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 gorgeous residence, and
the coming of mighty men to be enter.
tanned there; but within it were revelry and
godlessness. Hardly had the orange blossoms
ofthe marriage feast lost their fragrance, thar
the night of discomfort began to cast here and
there its shadow. Crueltes and unkindnesses
changed all those splendid trappings into g
hollow mockery. The platters of solid silver
the caskets Of pure gold, the head dress OF
cleaning diamonds were there; but no God,
no peace, no kind words, no Christian sym.
pathy. The festal music that broke on the
captives ear turned out to be dirge, and
the wreath in the plush was reptile coil,
and the upholstery that swayei in the wind
was the wing of a destroying angel, and the
bead drops on the pitcher were the sweat Of
everlasting despair. Oh, how many rival
ries and unhappinesses among those who seek
in social life their chief happiness 1t mat
tiers not how fine you have things there are
other people who have them finer. Taking out
your watch to tell the hour of the day; some
one will correct your timepiece by pulling
out watch more richly chased and jeweled
Ride in carriage that cost you $500, and be
fore you get around the park you will meet
with one that cost $4,000 Have on YOU
wall picture by Copley, and before nigh
you will hear Of some one who has picture
fresh from the studio Of Church or Bier
stadt
All that this world can do for you in sill
yer, in gold. in Administer plush, in Gobelin
tapestry, in wide halls, in lordly acauaint
anceship, will not give you the ten-thou
sandth part of a grain of solid satisfaction
The English lord, moving in the very highes
sphere, was one day found seated will
his chin on his hand and his elbow on tn
window sill, looking out and saying; "Oh,
wish could exchange places with that dog 7
Mere social position will never give happi
ness to woman's soul have had wide anC
continuous observation, and tell the youns
women that they who build on mere socia
position their souls immortal happiness ar.
building on the sand
Suppose that young woman expends thu
brightness of her early life in this unsatisfac
tory struggle and omits the present oppor
tunity of usefulness in the home circle; what
mistake!
So surely as the years roll around thai
home in which you now dwell will become
extinct. The parents will be gone, the prop
erty will go into other possession. YOU your
self will be In other relationships, and tha
home which, only q year ago, was full O.
congratulation, will be extinguished. Wher
that period comes you will lool, back to SCI
what you did, or what you neglected to do il