The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-20
LIES TRUE HAPPINESS.
TALMAGE'S SERMON TO THE
WOMEN OF AMERICA.


to Live For-Personal Attractions Do
Not Fill the Vod-Flattery Very
Shaky Foundation to Stand On
Happiness Found Only in Freedom
From Sin.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 19.-This morning the
Rev. t. Dewitt Talmage, ID. D., preached
the seventh of his series of Sermons 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 Immanuels ground
70 fairer worlds on high"
DR.. Talmage took for his text the follow
ing words: "She that liveth in pleasure is
| dead wnile she liveth.n He said:
The editor of Boston newspaper few
days ago wrote, asking me the terse ques-
| tiOnS: "What is the road to happinessm
and, Ought happiness be the chief aim of
| lifeN My answer was: 'The road to hap
pineSs is the continuous effort to make 9TH
ers happy. The chief aim of life ought to
be usefulness, not happiness, but happiness
always follows usefulness This mornings
| text in a strong way sets forth the truth
that woman who seeks in worldly advan-
tage her chief enjoyment, will come to dis
appointment and death. "She that llveth
in pleasure is dead while she liveth."
My friends, you all want to be happy.
You have had great many recipes by
which 1t is proposed to give you satisfac-
tion-solid satisfaction AT times you feel
a thorough unrest You know as well as
older people what it is to be depressed. As
dark shadows sometimes fall upon the geo
graphy of the school girl as on the page of
the speCtacled philosopher. / have seen as
cloudy days in May as i'll November. There
are no deeper sighs breathed by the grande
mother than by the granddaughter. |
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
ever knew was a Christian octogenarian;
her hair white as white could be; the sun
| light 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 advance in life, as you come
out into the world and have your head and
heart all full of good, honest, practical Chris
tian 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
BILE to express it
Horatio GreenOugh at the close of the
| hardest life 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,
have found life to be a very cheerful thing,
and not the dark and bitter thing with
i,,l, lN- alO al
Albert Barnes, the good Christian, known
the world over stood in his pulpit in Phila-
delphia, at seventy or eighty years of age
and said: "This world isso very attractive to
me, am very sorry l shall have to leave
it."
know that Solomon said some very dolo-
rous things about this world, and three
times declared: Vanity of vanities, all is
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 de-
scription 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 nine hundred and fifty grains, so
| that one grain planted will produce nine
teen hundred grains. And ought not the
| implantation of grain of Christian prin
ciple in youthful soul develop into large
crop of gladness on earth and to harvest
of eternal JOY in heaven9 Hear me, then,
while | discourse upon some of the mistakes
which young people make In regard to hap
piness and point out to the young women
what consider to be the source of complete
satisfaction.
And, in the first place, l advise you not
to build your happiness upon mere social
position. Persons at your age, looking off
uDOn life, are apt to think that If, by some
stroke of what is called good luck you
could arrive in an elevated and affiuent
position, little higher than that i'll 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 Vashtis broken heart. There have
been no more scalding 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 wall that sob would come along
your streets to-day like the simeon of the
desert Sometimes 1 have heard in the
rustling of the robes on the city pavement
the hiss of the adders that followed in the
wake You have come out from
your home, and you have looked up
at the great house, and covet 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 of hell.
| 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 exchange! On her
side il was a heart full of generous impulse
| and affection. 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 a gorgeous residence, and
the coming Of mighty men TO be entertained
there; but within il were revery and god
lessness. Hardly had the orange blossoms
of the marriage feast lost their
fragrance, than the night Of discomfort be-
gan TO cast here and there its shadow.
Cruelties and unkindnesses changed all
those splendid trappings into a hollow
mockery. The platlers Of solid silver, the
caskets Of pure gold, the head dress Of
| cleaning diamonds, were there; but no
| God, no peace, no kind words, no Christian
sympathy. The festal music that broke on
the captive's ear turned out 20 be dirge,
and the wreath in the Flush was reptile
coil, aud the upholstery that swayed in the
wind was the wing Of a destroying angel,
/ aud the bead-iirOps on the pitcher were tho