The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-07-27
Be CONTENT.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.

Sermon by Rev. 7. De witt Tall
mage, D. D.
rrue Happiness Consists in Nsv'ng the
Ksart Right Toward God and Man
The Grand influence Of the re.
liG,on Of Jesus Christ
"ln Good Humor with Our Circum-
stances was the subject of DR.. Ts,mage's
recent sermon. His text was taken from
the fifth verso of the thirteenth chapter
VI Hebrews: "Be content with such
things as We have" He said:
II should ask some one "Where Is
Brooklyn to-dayo' he would say: "At
Brighton Beach, or East Hampton, OF
Shelter Island" "Where is New York to-
days" AT Long Branch" Where is
Philadelphiap AT Cape May" "Where
is Boston!" "At Martha's Vineyard"
Where Is virginiai' at the Sulphur
Springs "Where the great multitudes
from all parts Of the land!" AT Sara
toga," the modern Bethesda, where the
angel Of health is evor stirring the wa
ters But, my friend, the largest multi
tndc are ut home, detained by business or
circumstances. Among them all newspa-
per men, the hardest worked and the least
compensated; city railroad employees, and
the ferry masters, and the police, and the
tens of thousands Of clerks and merchants
waiting for their turn of absence, and
households with an invalid who can not be
moved, and others hindercd by stringent
circumstances. and the great multitude OF
well-to do people who stay at home be
cause they like home better than any other
place, refusing to 90 away simply because
it is the fashion to go.
When the express wagon, with its
.aountain of trunks directed to the Cats
kills or Niagara, goes through the streets,
we stand at our window enyious and i'm
patient, and wonder why we can not go as
well as others. Fools that We are, as
though one could not be as happy at home
as any where else. Our grandfathers and
grandmothers had as good time as we
have, long before the first spring was
bored at Saratoga or the first deer shot in
the Adirondacks They made their wed
ding tour to the next farmhouse, or, liv-
ing in New York, they celebrated the event
by An extra walk on the battery.
Now, the genuine American is not happy
until he is going somewhere. and the pas
sion is so great that there are Christian
people with their fanilies detained in the
city who come not to the house Of God,
trying to give people the idea that they
are out of town; leaving the door plate I'M
secured for the same reason. and for two
months keeping the front shutters closed
while they sit in the back part OF the
house, the thermometer at ninetyi Ny
friends, if it is best for us to so. let us 50
and be happy. II it is best for us to stay
at home, let us stay at home and be happy.
There is y great deal OF good common sense
in Paul's advice to the Hebrews: "Be
content with such things IS we have" To
be content is to be in good humor with our
circumstances, not picking quarrel with
our obscurity. or our poverty, or our social
position. There are four or five grand
reasons why we should be content with
such things as we have.
The first reason that mention as leading
to this spirit devised in the text, Is the
consideration that the poorest Of us have
IL that is Indispensable in life. We make
q great ado about our hardships, but how
little we talk of our blessings. Health of
body, which is given in largest quantity to
those who have never been petted, and
fondled, and spoiled by fortune, We take
as matter Of course. Rather have this
luxury and have it alone, than, without it,
look out Of palace window upon parks Of
deer stalking between fountains and stat
uary. These people sleep sounder OH q
straw mattress than fashionable invalids
on couch Of ivory and eagles down. The
dinner Of herbs tastes better TO the appe-
tite sharpened on woodmau's AK or q
reapcr's scythe than wealthy indigestion
experiences seated at a table covered with
partridge, aud venison, and pineapple.
The grandest luxury God ever gave q
man is health. He who trades that of for
all the palaces of the earth is infinitely
cheated. We look back at the glory Of the
last Napoleon, but who would have taken
his Versailles and his Tuileries if with
them we had been obliged to take his govt!
''Oh,' says some one, cit isn't the grosser
pleasures covet, but il is the qualification
of an artistic and intellectual taste" Why,
my brother, you have the original from
which these pictures are copied.
What Is sunset on a wall compared with
sunset hung in loops Of fire in the heav-
ems! What is cascade silent on canvas
compared with q cascade that makes the
mountain tremble, its spray ascending like
the departed spirit of the water slain on
the rocks! Oh, there ~ great deal Of
hollow affectation about fondness for
pictures on the part Ct those who never
appreciate the original from which the
pictures are taken. As though a parent
should have no regard for child, bu: go in
10 ecstasies over its photograph. Bless the
Lord to-day, oh. man oh, woman! that
though you may be shut out from the
works Of a Church. Bierstadt, a Rubens
and Raphael, you still have free access
to gallery grander than the Louvre or
the Luxembourg or the Vatican-the royal
gallery of the MONDAY heavens, the Kings
gallery Of the midnight sky.
Another consideration leading us to
spirit Of contentment is the fact that our
happiness is not dependent upon outward
circumstances. You see people happy and
miserable amid all circumstances. In q
family where the last loaf is on the table,
and the last stick Of wood on the fire. you
sometimes find a cheerful confidence in
God while in avery fine place you will
see and hear discord sounding the war
whoop, END hospitality freezing to death
in the cherries par!or. i stopped one day
on Broadway at the head of Wall street, at
the foot of Trinity Church, to see who
seemed the. happiest people passing l
jwogcd from their looks tine happiest peo-
pie were not those who went down into
Wall street. for they had Oh tbe:I. brow
the anxiety Of the dollar they expected to
make: nor the people who came out Of
Wall street, for they had CT their brow the
anxiety of the dollar they had lost; nor
the people who swept BY in splendid equi-
page, for they met a carriage finer than
theirs. The happiest person in all that
crowd, Judging from the ccuntcHance. was
The woman who sat At the apple stand
Knitting. ] believe rea! happiness oftercr
looks out Of the window Of an humble home
than through the epera-gixss of the gilded
boz OF . theater.
find Nero growing Cd q throne. I fad