The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-16
GOOD HUM0R.
Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sunday Sermon.
We Should Talk About Blessings
More Tnan Our Hardships.
Health the Grandest Luxury God
Has Given Man.
Happiness Is Not Dependent Upon
Outward Circumstances.
The Cultivation of the Spirit OF Cheer
fulness-Let Those Who Cannot
Go to Saratoga Try To Be
Content With Home.

BROOKLYN, N. Y, July l5.-The Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage, DID,, took for his
subject today: 'In Good Humor With
Our Circumstances. His text was
, Hebre, xiii, 8: "Be content with such
things as ye have" The great preachers
discourse was as follows:
II | should ask some one, where Is
Brooklyn today2" he would say, ''at
Brighton Beach, or East Hampton, or
Shelter Island" "Where is New York
today2" "At Long Branch" ''Where is
Philadelphia" Cape May" Where
Is Boston9" "At Mar,ha's Vineyard"
"Where is Virginia2" "At the Sulphur
Springs" "Where the great multitude
from all parts OF the land?" "At Sarato-
ga" the modern Bethesda, where the an-
= gel Of health is ever stirring the waters.
But my friends, the largest multitude are
at home, detained by business or circum-
stances Among them all newspaper men,
the hardest worked and least compensated;
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 households with an
invalid who cannot be moved, and others
hindcred by stringent circumstances, and
the great multitude OF well.to-do people
who stay at home because they like home
better than any other place, refusing TO 20
away simply because it is the fashion to
20. When the express wagon, with its
mountain Of trunks directed to the Cats
kills or Niagara, goes through the streets,
we stand at our window envious and im-
patient, and wonder why we cannot 60 as
well as others. Fools that we are, as
though one could not be as happy
at home as anywhere else. Our
grandia,hers and grandmothers had rs
-seod 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 10 the next farm
house, or, living in New York, they cele-
brated the event by an extra walk en- the
Battery"
Vow, :hc genuine American IL nothappy
until he Is going scmewhere, and 'he pas
sion isf, grta, thai there are Christian
people with their families detained In the
city. who come not 10 the house OF God,
irving 20 give people the idea that they
are ont of town; leaving the door-plate
unsecured for the same reason, and Tor
two months keeping the front shutters
closed while they sit in the back part OF
thc house, the thermometer at OOo. My
friends, IL IL Is best for us 30 90, let US 60
and be- happy. II II Is best for MS to stay
nj home, let us STAY at home and be happy.
There Is n great deal OF good common
sense In Paul's advice 10 the Hebrews:
''Be content with such things as ye have. "
To be content Is 10 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 ns we have.
The first reason that l mention as lead.
inc 10 this spirit advised In the text Is the
consideration that the poorest OF us have
nll that Is indispensable In life. We make
great ado about our hardships, but how
little VIC talk Of our blessings. Health oI
body, which Is given in largest quantity "a
those who have never been pctied, and
iondled, and spoiled by fortune, we tax,
as a matter OF course. Rather have this
luxury. and have II alone, than, without
IL, look out Of palace window upon park
of deer stalking between fountains and
statuary. These people sleep soundeI
on straw mattress than fashionable in
ynlids on couch OF ivory and eagles
- down. The dinner Of herbs tastes bottci
10 the appetite sharpenod on a woodman'
axe or reaper's scythe than wealthy In
digestion experiences seated nj tabl,
covered with partridge and venison and
pineapple. The grandest luxury Cos
ever gave a man Is health. He whC
trades that of for all the palaces Of th,
earth Il infinitely cheated. We look bacl
nj the glory Of the last Napoleon, but VIII,
would have taken his Versailles and Tuil
cries II with them he had been obligc,
10 take his gout? "0h," says some one
''it isn't the grosscr pleasures | covet
hut Il n the qualification Of an artistic an,
intellectual taste" Why, my brother
YOU have the original from which thcs'
pictures are copied.
What rs q sunset on q wall compare,
with a cascade that makes mountain
tremblo, its spray ascending like the dc
parted spirit of the water slain on th
rocks7 Oh, there Is great deal Of hollo'
aiTcctation about n fondnoss for picture
on the part OF those who never apprcciat
the original from which tho pictures ar
Nhcns ~ tuVufh putht hHVuih nav
no regard Cor his child, but 60 into eosta
cics over lis photograph. Bless the Lor
today, o mani q womanl that though yo
may DO shut out from the works Of
church, a Beniadt, a Rubeas and n Ra
phael, YOU still have free access 10 n gal
iery grandcr than the Louvre or the Lux
cmburg or the Natican-the royal CALLER
OF the MONDAY heavens, the Kings gal
lery oi tho midnight sky.
Another consideration leading ms 10
spirit Of contentlnent Is the fact that ou
happiness is not dependent upon outwar
circumstances. You see people happ
and miserable amid oil circumstances. i
family where the las, loaf Is on the tabl
and the last stick Of wood on the FIRE, yo
sometimes flld n cheerful confidence |
God, while In q very hno place you wi
Acc and hear discord sounding her wa
whoor, and hospitality freezing 10 deaf
iu a cosy parlor. ] stopped one day o
broadway at the bead Of Wall street, I
The foot Of Trinity church, 10 see VIII
toomod tue bappiest people passing.
Judged from their looks the bappiest pc,
,le wero not those who went down inI
tv.u sttaef Tor thav lal On ileif hro