The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-03-01
The ROAD TO HAPPINESS.
DR.. Talmages Seventh Sermon to the Wo-
men of America.


man Happy" His subJeCt-The Chief Aim
of Life should BE Usefulness Mistakes OF
Young People.
fs. BROOKLYN, Feb. 19.-This morning the
\ Rev. I. De Witt Talmage, D. D., preached
the seventh of his series of Sermons tc
the Women of America, with Important
Hints to Men," The opening hymn be-
gins:
Then let our songs abound
Ana every tear be dry
We're marching through Immanuel'a ground
o 10 fairer worlds on high
DR.. Talmage took for his text the follow
ing words "She that liveth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth." He said:
The editor of Boston newspaper, a few
days ago, wrote asking me the terse ques-
tons: What is the road to happiness?"
and, Ought happiness to be the chief aim
of lite?" My answer was: "The road to
happiness is the continuous effort to make
others happy. The chief aim of life ought
TO be usefulness, not happiness, but happi-
ness always follows usefulness" This
mornings text in a strong way sets forth
The truth that a woman who seeks in
worldly advantage her chief enjoyment will
come to disappointment and death. "She
that iveth in pleasure is dead while she
lVeth"
My friends, you all want to be happy.
Hor nave great many recipes by which it
is proposed to give you satisfaction-so
satisfaction. AT times you feel thorough
unrest, You know as well as older people
it is 10 be depressed. AS dark shad-
ows sometimes fall upon the geography of
the schoolgirl as upon the page of the
specialized philosopher. 1 have seen as
CLOUDY days in May as in November.
Tnere are no deeper signs breathed by the
grandmother than by the granddaughter.
l correct the popular impression that peo-
pie are happier in childhood and youth
than they ever will be again. If we live
Alright, the older the happier. The happi-
est woman that l ever knew was Chris
tian octogenarian; her hair white as white
could be; the sunlight of Heaven late in
the afternoon gliding the peaks of snow.
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 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 thstledown
and grasping bubbles. We have not found
II so. To many of us it has been dis
covering diamonds larger than the Kohl
uOOLg anu lulnh JuuJ 10y Will commune
to increase until nothing short of the ever
lasting jubilee Of Heaven will be able to
express it.
Horatio Greenough, at the close of the
hardest life man ever liVes-the life of
an American artist-Wrole: IL don't want
to leave this world until give some sign
that. born by the grace of God in this land,
1 have found life to be a very cheerful
thing, and not the dark and bitter thing
with which my early prospects were
cloudej."
Albert Barnes, the good Christian,
known the world over, stood in his pulpit
in Philadel lphia at seventy or eighty years
of age, and said:
"This world is so very attractive to me, I
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 yanities,
all is vanity" [ suppose it was reference
10 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" The longer the fruit hangs on
the tee, 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 900 grains. !
And ought not the implantation Of grain
of Christian principle in youthful soul .
develop into a large crop of gladness on
earth, to a harvest of eternal Joy in
Heaven? Hear me, then, while l discourse
upon some of the mistakes which young
people make in regard to happiness, and
point out to the young women what con-
slider to be the source of complete satisfac-
tion.
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 at an elevated and afliuent
position, little higher than that in which .
God has called you to live, you would be
completely happy. Infinite mistake The
palace floor of Ahasuerus is red with the
blood of Vashti's broken heart. There
have been no more scalding tears wept than
those which coursed the cheeks of jose
phine. If the sob of unhappy womanhood ,
in the great cities could break through the |
tapes,ried wall, that sob would come along .
your street to day like the simeon OF the .
desert. Sometimes I have heard in the /,
tustliug of the robes on the city pavement
the hiss OF the addeTs 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 wiring
ing OF hands, the start of horror and the |
very agony of hell. | 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 sometimes |
comes, a hand had been offered thNtle her |
into brilliant sphere. All the neighbors !
congratulated her upon her grand pros
poets; but what an exchange! 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 a gorgeous
residence, and the coming of mighty men
to be entertained there; but within it were
revelry and 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 shadow.
Cruelties and unkindnesses changed all
these splendid traIpings into q hollow |
mockery. The platters Of solid silver, the
caslets of pure gold, the head-dress of |
cleaning diamonds, we're there; but no
God, no peace, no kind words, no Chris
tian sympathy. The festal music that
broke on the captives ear turned out to be |
a dilge, and the wreath in the plush was a
reptile coil, and the upholstery that swayed
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 rivalries and unhappinesses
among those who seek in social life their
chief happiness! It matters not how fine
you have things; there are other people
who have it finer. Taking out your watch