The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-03-08
TALMAGE's SERMON.
me Impassabls, the Unfathomable
the InsurmOuntable.
Questions which Neither Science Nor Dig
cussiOn Can Answer, But All VIII
he Made Clear Amid the Beau
tiful RLuslc OF Heaven.

BE Made Clear Amid the Beau
tlful Music OF Heaven.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of a recent sermon at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle ozark Sayings on the
Harp" His text was:
will open my dark sayings ON q harp
Psalm xix, 4.
The world is full of the inexplicable, the
impossible, the uRfathOmable, the insur-
mountable. We can not go three steps in
any direction without coming up against
hard wall of mystery, riddles, paradoxes,
profundities, labyrinths, problems that
we can not solve, hieroglyphics that we
can not decipher, anagrams we can not
spell out, sphinxes that will not speak.
For that reason, David in my text pro-
poses TO take up some of these somber
and dark things, and try to set them to
sweet music: 81 viii open my dark say
1ngs on harp.0
So I look of upon society, and find peo-
pie in unhappy conjunction of circum-
stances, and they do not know what 1t
means, and they have right to ask: Why
IS this? and why is that And 1 think
will be doing good work by trying to eX-
plain some of these strange things, ald
make you more content with your lot;
and shall only be answering questions
I1db nave OIU6n D66n asked me, or Lna6 we
have all asked ourselves, while try to
set these mysteries to music and open my
dark sayings on harp.
Interrogation the first: Why does God
take out of this world those who are use-
full and whom we can not spare and leave
alive and in good health so many who are
only nuisance or a positive injuryto the
world? thought would begin with the
very toughest Of all the seeming inscru-
A1h Nf ff1iaV cf YJca aft nd
women die at thirty or forty years OF age,
while you often find useless people alive
at sixty and seventy and eighty. John
Careless wrote to Bradford, who was soon
to be put to death, saying: "Why doth
God suffer me and such other caterpillars
to live that can do nothing but consume
the aims of the church, and take away
so many worthy workmen in the
Lords vineyaFd?'' Similar questions are
often asked Here are two men. The one
is noble character and a Christian man:
he chooses for lifetime companion one
| who has been tenderly reared, and she is
| worthy of him and he is worthy of her; as
merchant, or farmer, or professional man,
or mechanic, or artists, he tolls to educate
and his children; he is succeeding, but
/ he has not established for his family a
competency; he seems absolutely indis-
| pensable to that household, but one day,
! before he has paid off the mortgage on
his house, he is coming home through q
/ strong northeast wind, and chill strikes
through him, and four days of pneumonia
end his earthly career, and the wife and
| children go into struggle for shelter and
/ food. His next-door neighbor is a man
| who, though strong and well, let's his wife
support him; he is round at the grocery
store or some general loafing place in the
/ evenings while his wife sews; his boys
are initiating his example, and lounge,
and swagger, and swear; all the use
that man is in the house is to rave be-
cause the coffee is cold when he comes to
= late breakfast, or to say cutting things
about his wife's looks when he furnishes
/ nothing for her wardrobe. The best thing
/ that could happen to that family would be
| that mans funeral; but he declines to
die; he lives on, and on, and on. So we
have all noticed that many of the useful
are early cut off while the parasites Of So
ciety have great vital tenacity.
! 1 take up this dark saying on my harp
and give three or four thrums on the
strings in the way Of surmising and hope
full guessing. Perhaps the useful man
was taken out of the world because he and
his family were 50 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 of worldliness which every
year swallows up ten thousand house
| holds. And so he went, while he was
humble and consecrated, and they were
by the severities 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 will ac-
knowledge that, though the furnace was
hot, it purified them, and prepared them
for an eternal career of glory and reward
| for which no other kind Of life could have
/ ~ he
less man lived to fifty, or sixty, or seven
| ty years, because all the ease he ever can
have he must have in this world, and you
| ought not, therefore, begrudge him his
earthly longevity. In all the ages there
has not a single loafer entered Heaven.
There is no place for him there to hang
around. Not in the temples, for they are
full of the most vigorous, alert and rap
turous worship. Not on the river bank,
for that is the place where the conquerors
recline. Not in the gates, because there
are multftudes entering, and we are told
that at each of the twelve gates there is
an angel, and that celestial guard would
not allow the place to be blacked up with
idlers. If the good and useful go early
4 rejoice for them that they have so soor
got through with human life, which at
best is a struggle. And if the useless
and the bad stay, rejoice that they may
be out in the worlds fresh air q good
many years before their final incarcera.
ton.
Interrogation the second: why do sC
many good people have SO much trouble
sickness, bankruptcy, persecution, tbs
three black vultures sometimes putting
their fierce beaks into one set Of tangled
nerves? think now Of a good friend
once had. He was a consecrated Christian
man, an elder In the church and as poll
ished Christian gentleman as evel
walked Broadway. First his genera
health gave out and he hobbled around OF
q cane, an old man at forty. After awhile
paralysis struck him. Having by poor
health been compelled suddenly to quiz
business, he lost what property he had
Then his beautiful daughter died Then
son became hopelessly demeDted. An
other son, splendid of mind and com.
manding of presence, Resolved that ht
would take care Of his fathers household
but under the swoop Of yellow fever al
FeTnandina, Fla, he suddenly expired
s. you know good men and women VIII
have had enough troubles, you think, Il
crush fifty people. No worldly philosoph,
could take such a trouble and set it +
music,s or play it on violin, or flute, o
dulcirner, OF sackbut, but dare to opei
that dark saying on Gospel harp.
You wonder that very consecrated peo
pie have trouble? Did you ever kno1
any very consecrated man or woman VIII
had not had great trOubley Never. 1t wa
through their troubles sancifed that the
were made very good. If you hnd an
where in this city a man who has now AM
always has had perfect health, and neve
lost a child, and has always been popular
and never had business struggle or mis-
: fortune, who is distinguished for good
mass, pull your wire for telephone mes
senger boy and send me word and wi
drop every thing and 60 right away