Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-03-09
SAYINGS ON A HARP
DR.. Talmage breaches on the
Subject: Ozark Sayings
on a Harp"
A Sermon Full OF Observation-Disclosures
erent Phases or Everyday Life
Accurately Portrayed.

INC biOphllH ihDcludClC anu inc AuJOIu
ing lecture room and parlors today united
ia singing:
Sun of my SOUL Thou Saviour dear,
1t is not night IL Thou be near.
DR.. Talmage preached on the subject
Dark Sayings on Il Harp" Text
Xix Psalm Of David, verse a II will
open my dark sayings on "a harp"
The world IS full of the iaexplicable,
the impossible, the unfa,homablc, the
insurmouptable. We cannot go three
steps in any direction without coming Up
against a hard wall of mystery, riddles,
paradoxcs, ~profunditics, Iabyrinths, prob
lens that we cannot solve, hieroglyphics
that we cannot decipher, anagrams we
cannot spe out sphinxes hat will not
speak. For that reason. David in my
text proposed 10 tekc up some of these
somber and dark things and try TO Get
them 10 sweet music: Il will open my
dark sayings on a harp"
SO | look of upon society and find peo-
pie in unhappy conjunction Of circum-
stances and they 30 not know what it
means and they have Il right to ask, why
is this and Why is THAR and | think !
will be doing Il good work by trying to
explain some of these strange things and
make you more content with your lot,
and | shall only be answering questions
that have often been asked me, or that
we have all asked ourselves. while | try
TO set these mysteries to music and open
my dark sayings on a harp.
A QUESTION THAT Is oFTBS x
Interrogation the first: Whv does God
take out Of this world those who are use
full md whom we cannot spare, and
leave alive and in good health SO many
who are only q nuisance or "a positive in
Jury TO The woridr ! thought ! would
begin with the very toughest Of all the
seeming insCrutables. Many Of the most
useful men and women die at 30 or AZ
years Of are, while you often find useless
people alive at 90 and 20 and 50. John
Careless wrote to Bradford. who was
soon to be put To death, saying: why
doth God suffer ne and suCh other cater.
pillars to live that eau do nothing but
consume the aims of the church, and
take away 30 many worthy wOrkinen in
the Lords v~ineyard2 Similar questions
are often asked. Here arc two men.
The one ia q noble character and a Christ
ian man; he chooses for Il lifetime com
panion one who has been tenderly reared
and she is worthy of him and he is
worthy Of her; az merchant, or farmer, or
professional man, or mechanic. or artist.
he tolls (, educate and rear his children.
he is succeeding, but he has not yet esta6-
lished for his family u full competency
he seems absolutely indispensable To that
household, but one day before he has
paid off the mortgage on his house he il
coming home through a strong northeast
wind and a chill strikes through him, arc
four days Of pneumonia end his earthly
career, and the wife aud children go into
a struggle for shelter and food. HlS
next door neighbor is a man who. though
strong and well, let's bis wife supper,
him; he is round at the grocery store OI
some general loallng place IN the even
ings while his wife sews; his boys are
initiating his example and lounge anC
swagger and swear; all the use that mar
is in that house is 80 rave because The
coffee ia cold when he comes TO Il late
breakfast. or to say cutting things abou'
his wife's looks when he furnishes moth
Ing for her wardrobe. The best thing
that could happen 10 that family would
be thGt maa's funeral; but he declines tC
die; he lives on and on and on. 30 VIC
have ali noticed that many OF the useiu
are cut oil while the parasites OF society
have great vital tcnacity,
take up this dark saying on my harE
and rive three or four thrumS on the
string in the way Of slrmi,ing and nope
ful guess. Perhaps the useful man was
taken out Of iRn world, because he anC
his family We're 90 constructed that they
could not have endured some great pros
perity that might have been just ahead
and they altogether might have gone
down in the vortex If worldlInes8 Whlci
every wear swallows up ten thousant
households. And so he went while ht
WAS humble ard ConseCrated, n they
were bg the seventies of life kept close
to Christ and fitted for usefulness here
and high seats in heaven; and when they
meet at last before the Throne, they vii
ACKNOWLEDGE that though the furnace wa
hot. il purified them, and prepared Then
for on eternal career o. glory and reward
for which no other kind Of life coult
have fitted them. ON the othe
hand the useless man lived on to %, o
60. or 20 years, because all the ease h'
ever can have he must have in this world
and you ought not. therefore, begrudg'
him his earthly longevity. In all age
there HAS not a single loafer entered
heaven. There is no place for him Their
to hang around. Not in the temples, 70
they are full of the most vigorous, aier
and rapsarous worship. Not on he rive
oank, for that is the place wher the con
ouercrs ~reeline. Not in the gates, be
cause there are multitudes catering, al
we are told that at each o! the twelv
gates. there ia an angel, and that celestia
guard would not allow the place TO b
blocked up with idlers. If the good an
useful go early. rejoice for them tha
they have so soon got through with hu
man life. which at best is a struggle
And if the useless and the bad stay, RI
ioice that they may be out in the world
fresh air a good many years before thei
final incarceration.
Interrogation the second: Why d
80 many good people have SO muc
trouble; sickness, bankruptcy, pers'
cujion. the three black vultures som
times putting their fierce beaks into on
set of tangled nerves? think now OF
good friend l once had. He was a COZ
secrated Christ ian man, an elder IN
church. and as polished 8 Christian gel