Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-07-25

DRooKLYN, July 15,-The Rev. T. De-
ID Witt Talmage, ID, took for his sub
iect to-day: s'ln Good Humor With
Our Circumstances. His text was He
brews, ch. 13, V. s.: s'Be content With such
things as you have" The great preachers
discourse was as follows:
Brooklyn to-day? ?" he would say, cat
Brighton Beach, or East Hampton, or Shell
ter island" Where is New York to-day ?'
CAT Long Branch" +" ''Where is Philadel-
phia?" "Cape May" "Where is Boston 81
aMartha's Vineyard" Where is Virginia."
''At the Sulphur Springs" "Wbere the
great multitude from all parts of the land?''
'tAt Saratoga" the modern Bethesda,
where the angel of health is ever stirring
the water. But, my friends, the largest
multitude are at home, detained by busi-
ness or circumstances. Among them all
ne wspaper men, the hardest worked and the
least mpensated; city railroad employees
and ferry masters, and the police, and the
tens of thousands of clerks and merchants
waiting for their turn of absence, and house
holds with an invalid who cannot be moved,
and others bindered by stringent circum-
stances, and the great multitude Of well to-
do people who stay at home because they
like home better than any other place, re-
fusing to go away simply because it is the
fashion to go. When the express wagon,
with it's mountain Of trunks directed to the
Catskills or Niagara, goes through the
streets, we stand at our window envious
and impatient, and wonder why we cannot
90 as well as others. Fools that we are, as
though one could not be as happy at home
as anywhere else. Our grandfathers and
grandmothers had rs 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 wedding
tour to the first farmhouse, or living 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 peo
pie with their families detained in the city
who come not to the house of God, trying
| to give people the idea that they are cut O.
town; leaving the door-plate unsecured fol
| the same reason, and for two months keep
ing the front shutters closed while they si
in the back part of the house, the ther
mometer at ninety My friends, if it is bes
for US to GO, let us go and be happy. If
is best for US to stay at home, let US stay a
home aud be happy. There is great dea
of good common sense in PauPs advice tt
the Hebrews: "Be content with such thing
as 70 have" To be content is to be IN goot
humor with our circumstances, not picking
quarrel with our obscurity, or our poverty
or our social position. There are four o
five grand reasons why we should be con
tent with such things as we have.
The first reason that mention as LEADING
to this spirit advised in the text is the con
sideration that the poorest of us have al
that is indispensable IN life. We make
great ado about our hardships, but how lit
tic we talk of our blessings Health @
body, which is given in largest quantity t
those who have never been petted, and for
died, and spoiled by fortune, we take as
matter of course. Rather have the luxury
and have it alone, than, without it, look ou
of a palace window upon parks of dee
stalking between fountains and statuary.-
These people sleep sounder on straw mai
+ tress, than fashionable invalids on couc
of ivory and eagles down. The dinner
herbs tastes better to the appetite sharper
ed on woodman's axe or reaper's scytht
, than wealthy indigestion experiences seat
ed at table covered with partridge an
venison and pineapple. The grandest luz
ury God ever gave man is health. lie wn
trades that off for all the palaces of sarth
infinitely cheated. We look back at tn
glory Of the last Napoleon, but who woul
have taken his Versailles and the Tuilerie
if with them we had been obliged to tax
bis gout9 "ob," says some one, 'ft ism
the grosser pleasures L covet, put IL Is u
qualification of an artistic and lnteileetui
tastg.'' Why, my brother, you have tt
original from whioa these pictures al
What is a sunset on wall compared wit
sunset hung in loops of fire on the hea
ems ? What is a cascade silent on a canvi
compared with cascade that makes tt
mountain tremble, its spray ascending lii
the departed spirit Of the water slain on tt
rocks Oh, there is great deal of hollo
affectation about fondness for pictures {
= the part of those who never appreciate Il
l original from which the pictures are taxa
As though parent should have no regal