The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-03-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Seventh Sermon of the Series to the
Women OF America,
''Yhat Can and what Can Not Make 9
Woman Happy'-The Home Circle
Mere Social Position Does Not
Insure Happiness,

took for his subjects: "What Can and
What Can Not Make Woman Happy"
His text was:
She that liveth in pleasure is dead while abe
hveth.
lie said:
The editor of Boston news paper few
days ago wrote asking me the terse ques-
lions: "What is the road to happiness"
md: "Ought happiness be the chief aim Of
lifeYu Ny answer was: "The road to
happiness Is the continuous effort 30
make others happ The chief aim of
life ought to be usefulness, not happi-
ness; but happiness always follows use
fulness." This mornings text in a strong
way sets forth the truth that woman
who seeks In worldly advantage her chief
enjoyment, will come to disappointment
and death.
She that lveth in pleasure is dead while she
liveth-
Ny friends, You all want to be happy.
You have had great many recipes by
which It is proposed TO give you satisfac-
tion-soid satisfact on. At times you feel
n thorough unres.. 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 Ihave
Der. There are no deeper sighs breathed
by the grandma Their than by the grand
daughter. / correct the popular impress
sion that people are happier in childhood
and youth than they ever will be again.
II we live Alright, the older the happier.
The happiest woman that ever
knew was a Christian octogenarian;
her hair VII to a white could be; the
sunlight of Heaven late in the afternoon
gliding the peaks OF snow, | have to say
to a great many OF the young people that
the most miserable time lyou 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 / 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 tina, 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 pu pit
in Philadelphia, at seventy or eighty
years OF age, and said:
This world is so very attractive to me,
am very sorry l shall have to leave it,"
/ know that Solomon said some very
do'orous things about this world, and
three times declared: ''Vanity of vani.
ties, ali j; vanity" | suppose it was a
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 pleasantness,
and all hor paths are peace"
1t is reasonable to expect 1t will be
80. The longer the fruit hangs on the
tree, the ripper and more mellow it ought
to grow. You plant one grain of corn,
and il will send up a stalk with two ears,
each having 90 grains, so that one grain
planted will produce 1900 grains. And
ought not the implantatiou of grain of
Christian principle in a 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 l 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 af-
fluent pos ition, a little higher than that
In which God has called you to live, you
would be completely happy. Infinite
mistakel The palace floor of Ahasuerus
is red with the blood Of Vasht's broken
heart There have been no more scald.
ing tears wept than those which coursed
the cheeks of Josephine. II the sob of
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 l have heard
in the rustling of the robes on the city
pavement the hiss of the adders that fol-
lowed in the wake. You have come out
from your home, aud you have looked up
at the great house, and coyet a 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 oil
hell. / knew such an one. Her fathers
house was plain, most of the people who
came there were plain; but, by change
in fortune such as sometimes comes, q
- huA 1aH hap Inf 10 A
brilliant sphere. All the neighbors
congratulated her upon her grand
prospects; but what an ex
changed On her side it was
heart full of generous impulse and az
lection. On his side it was a soul dry
aud withsred as the stubble Of the field
On her side il was a fathers house, where
God was honored and the Sabbath light
flooded the rooms with the very mirth OIL
Heaven. On his sile il was a gorgeous
res ideuce and the coming Of mighty mer
to DO entertained there, but within 4
we're revelry and godlessness. Hardly
had the orange blossoms Of the marriag,
feast lost their fragrance, than the nigh
OF discomfort began to cast here anC
there its shadows. Cruelties and un'
kindnesses changed all those splendi K
trappiugs into n hollow mockery. tn,
platters OF sollu SILVER, tht cdskeb OF puI'
gold, the hend-dress Of cleaning dia
monds, were there; but no God n,
peace, no kind words, no Christian sym
pathy. The festal music that broke OF
the captive's ear turned out I,
be a dirge, and the wreath in the plush
was reptile col, and the upholstery
that swayed in tine wind was the wing o
a destroying angel, and the bead.dropi
on the pitcher were the sweat Of ever
lasting despair. how many rivalrie
and unhappinesses among those who seel
in social lite their chief happiness l
matters not how fine you have things
there are other people who have it finer
Taking out your watch to tell the hour o
the day, some one viii correct your time
pieces by pulling out watch more richly