Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-03-08
Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sou. OF THE QUESTIONS THAT MEN
ARE ALWAYS ASKING.
,v,,v Do Useful Human Beings Die Younr.
WHY DO SO Many Good People Have So
Much Trouble?-why Is There Sin in the
world?-Other Problems.

xVorld?-Other Problems.
The audience that crowded the i'm.
,,ense auditorium of the Brooklyn Tab
nrnacle and the adjoining lecture room
and parlors on Sunday last united in
singing:
Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear.
II is not night if thou be near.
DIR. Talmage preached on the subject:
park Sayings on Harp" Text Xix
psalm of David, verse A: Il will open INV
dark savings on harp"
The world is full of the inexplicable.
+be impossible, the unfathomable. the
nsurmountable. We cannot 90 three
steps in any direction without coming
mo against q hard wall of mystery, rid.
IIes. paradoxes, profundities, laby.
1inths. problems that we cannot solve.
hieroglyphics that we cannot decipher,
nnagrams We cannot spell out, sphinxes
that will not speak. For that reason,
David in my text proposes to take up
some of these somber and dark things
and try to set them to sweet music: Il
will open my dark sayings on harp"
So look of upon society and find
people in unhappy conjunctare of cir
cumstances and they do not know what
il means and they have right to ask,
vhy is this? and why is that? and think
] will be doing good work by trying to
explain some of these strange things
and make you more content with your
lot, and shall only be answering ques-
tions 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 harp.
Interrogation the first: Why does
God take out of this world those who
are useful and whom we cannot spare
and leave alive and in good health so
many who are only nuisance or pos
tive injury to the world? I thought I
would begin with the very toughest of
all the seeming inscrutables. Many of
the most useful men and women die at
30 or 40 years of age, while you often
find useless people alive at 60 and 70 and
So John Careless wrote to Bradford,
who was soon to be put to death, say
ing: why doth God suffer me and such
other caterpillars to live that can do
church. and take away SO many worthy
workmen in the Lords vineyard?" Sim
liar questions are often asked. Here
are two men. The one is noble char
acter and Christian man; he chooses
for lifetime companion one who has
been tenderly reared aud she is worthy
of him and he is worthy of her; as mer
chant, or farmer, Or professional man,
or mechanic, or artist, he tolls to edu-
cate and rear his children; he is sue
ceeding, but he has not yet established
for his family full competency; he
seems absolutely indispensable to that
household, but one day before he has
paid off the mortgage on his house he is
coming home through strong north
east wind and chill strikes through
him and four days of pneumonia end his
earthly career and the wife and children
60 into struggle for shelter and food.
His next door neighbor is a man who,
though strong and we'll, let's his wife
support him; he is round at the grocery
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 that house is to rave
because the coffee is cold when he comes
to a 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 society have great
vital tenacity.
| take up this dark saying on my harp
and give three or four thrums on the
string in the way of surmising and hope
ful guess. Perhaps the useful man was
taken out of the world, because he and
his family were SO constructed that they
could not have endured some great
prosperity that might have been just
ahead and they altogether might have
gone down in the vortex of worldliness
which every year swallows up ten thou
sand households. Andso he went while
he was humble and consecrated, and
they were by 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 will acknowledge 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 fitted them.
On the other hand, the useless man
lived on to fifty, or sixty, or seventy
Years, because all the ease he ever can
nave he must have in this world, and
you ought not, therefore, begrudge him
ms earthly longevity. In all the ages
mere has not single loafer ever en-
tered Heaven. There is no place for
hin there to hang around. Not in the
temples, for they are full of the most
vigorous, alert, and rapturous worship.
Not on the river bank, for that is the
place where the conquerors recline.
Not In the gates, because there are null
tltudes 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 blocked up
with idlers. If the good and useful 60
early, rejoice for them that they have so
soon got through with human life, which
at best is struggle. And if the useless
and the bad stay, rejoice that they may
oe out in the worlds fresh air good
ton.
Interrogation the second: Why do so
many good people have so much trouble;
SICKNESS, bankruptcy, persecution, the
.hree black vultures sometimes putting
enelr fierce beaks into one set Of tangled
nerves? think now of a good friend I
once had. He was consecrated Chris
'lan man, an elder in the church and as
poilshed Christian gentleman as ever
walked Broadway. First his general
health gave out and he hobbled around