The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-03-02

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Mere Social Position Docs Not
Insure Happiness,
For the seventh discourse Of his series
to the women of America, at the Brook.
lyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
took for his subject: "what Can and
What Can Not Make a Woman Happy"
His text was:
She that liycth in pleasure is dead while she
liveth.
He said:
The editor of Boston newspaper few
days ago wrote asking me the terse ques-
tions: "What is the road to happiness!"
and: "Ought happiness be the chief aim Of
life?" My answer was: 'sThe road to
happiness is the continuous effort to
make others happy. 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 q woman
who seeks in worldly advantage her chief
enjoyment, will come to disappointment
| and death.
| She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she
livett.
| NV friends, you all want to be happy.
|
which it is proposed to give you satisfac-
| tion-solid satisfaction. At times you feel
a thorough unrest You know as we'll 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
| seen as cloudy days in May as in Novem-
| Der. There are no deeper signs breathed
| by the grandma Their than by the grand
| daughter. I correct the popular impress.
| sion 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 1 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 say
to a great many of the young people that
the most miserable time iyou 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
| will be able to express it.
Horatio Greenough, ut 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 that, 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 pulpit
in Philadelphia, at seventy or eighty
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
dolorous things about this world, and
three times declared: "Vanity of vani.
ties, all is vanity" I 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 des cription he gave after his
conversion, when he says in another
place:
I1or ways fUT0 ways VI pit6SAutueSSe
and all her paths are peace"
1t is reasonable 70 expect it will be
so. The longer tho fruit hangs on the
tree, tho ripper and more mellow it ought
to grow. You plant one grain Of corn,
and it will send up stalk with two ears,
each having $50 grains, so that one grain
planted will produce 1900 grains. And
ought not the implantatiou of agrain of
90 rs,~1- e,,1
develop into large crop of gladness on
earth and to a 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 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
some stroke of what is called good luck,
you could arrive in an elevated and af.
fluent 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 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 tapestried walls,
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 fol-
lowed in the wake. You have come out
from your home, and you hAee looked up
at the great house, and covet q life under
| those arches, when, perhaps, st 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 an one. Her fathers
house was plain, most of the people who
came there were plain; but, by a change
| in fortune such as sometimes comes, a
hand had been offered that led her into q
brilliant sphere. All the neighbors
congratulated her upon her grand
prospects; but what an ex-
change! On her side it was a
heart full of generous impulse and az
lection. 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 q gorgeous
res idence, and tho coming of mighty men
to be entertained there, but within it
| were rsvelry AMI godlessness. Hardly
had the Grange bl blossoms of the marriage
feast lost their fragrance, than the night
of discomfort began to cast here and
there its shadows. Cruelties and un.
| kindnesses changed all those splendid
| trappings into a hollow mockery. The
pl atters Of solid silver, the casket of pure