The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-02-23
THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS.
DR.. TALMAGE SEVENTH SERMON TO
THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

Woman Happy His Subject-The Chief
Aim of Life Should BE Usefulness-SIis-
takes of Young People.
BROOKLYN, Feb 19.-This morning
the Rev. T. De Vita Talmage, DID,,
preached the seventh of his series OF
stSermons to the Women of America,
with Important Hints to Men, The
opening hymn begins:
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry,
We're marching through Immanue1s ground,
To fairer worlds on high.
DR.. Talmage took for his text the fol-
lowing words: s'She that liveth in pleas
ure is dead while she liveth." He said:
The editor of a Boston newspaper, a
few days ago, wrote asking me the terse
questions: ''What is the road to happi-
ness2" and, .'Ought happiness be the
chief aim of life2'' Ny answer was:
ssThe road to happiness is the continuous
effort to make others happy. The chief
aim of life ought to be usefulness not
happiness, but happiness always follows
usefulness This mornings text in
strong way sets forth the truth that
woman who seeks in worldly advantage
her chief enjoyment will come to disap-
pointment and death. 'sShe that liveth
in pleasure is dead while she hveth.''
Ny friends, you all want to be happy.
You have had great many recipes by
which it is proposed to give you salts
faction-solid satisfaction. At times you
feel thorough unrest. You know as
well as older people what it is to be de-
pressed. As dark shadows sometimes
fall upon the geography of the school
girl as upon the page of the specialized
philosopher. / have 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 childhood and youth than they
ever will be again. If we live Alright, the
older the happier. The happiest woman
that I ever knew was Christian octoge-
marian; her hair white as white could be;
the sunlight of heaven late in the afternoon
gliding the peaks of snow. I have to say
to great many of the young people
that the most miserable time you are
ever to have is just now. As you adj
vance i'll 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
thistledown 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 moth
ing short of the everlasting jubilee of
heaven VIII be able to express it.
Horatio Greenough, at the close of the
hardest life man ever lves-the life of
an American artist-wrote: Il don't
want to leave this world until I give
some sign that, born by the grace Of God
in this land, I have found life to be a
very cheerful thing, and not the dark and
bitter thing with which my early pros
poets were clouded. -
Albert Barnes, the good Christian,
known the world over, stood in his pull
pit in Philadelphia at 70 or so 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
dolorous things about this world and
three times declared: VANITY of vani-
ties, all is vanity | suppose it was
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 her paths are
peace" 1t is reasonable to expect it will
be so. The longer the fruit hangs ON the
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 1000 grains. And ought not
the implantation of grain of Christian
principle in youthful soul develop into
| a large crop of gladness on earth, to
harvest of eternal joy in heaven? Hear
| me, then, while I discourse upon some
of the mistakes which young people
| make in regard to happiness, and point
| out to the young women what I consider
| to be the source of complete satisfaction.
And, in the first place, I 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 ele-
waited and afduent position, little higher
| than that in which God has called you to
| live, you would be completely happy.
| Infinite mistake! The palace floor of
|
| It's broken heart. There have been no
more scalding tears wept than those
which coursed the cheeks of Josephine
If the sob of unhappy womanhood in
the great cities could break through
| the tapestried wall, that sob would
come along your streets today like the
| SIMEON of the desert. Sometimes have
| heard i'll the rustling of the robes on the
CITY pavement the hiss of the adders that
| followed i'll 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. I knew such one. Her
| fathers house was plain, most of the
| people who came there were plain; but,
| by a change of fortune such as some
| times comes, a 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 heart full
| of generous impulse and affection. On
his side it was soul dry and withered
| as the stubble of the field. On her side
| it was 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 en-
| tertained there; but within it were row.
elry and godlessness. Hardly had the
orange blossoms of the marriage feast
lost their fragrance than the night of dis
| content began to cast here and there its
shadow Crllelties and l1nkindueScaa