The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-03-14
TATMAGE'S SER MON
tha Weekly Diaorurses OF the G'Ha'
BROOKLYN Preacher
suhheci. "Renrls Sayings on a.
Harp"

TEXT, ~ wiu opM nv dark sayings ON
a harp."-Psalm Of David, Xix, L.
The world is full OF the inexplicabls,
the impossible, the unfathomable, the insur'
mountable, We cannot go three steps
in any direction without coming up
against a hard wall of mystery, rid.
dies, paradoxes, profuniitss, labyrinths,
problems that we caunot solve, |
hieroglyphics that we cannot decipher ana
grams we cannot spell out, sphinxes that will |
not speak. For that reason David in my |
text proposed to take up some of these somber
and dark things and try to set them to sweet |
music; II will open my dark sayings on
harp
So look of upon society and find people |
In unhappy con junction Of circumstances and
they do not know what ii means and they
have n right TO ask; why is thisi and why
Is thatl and think | will he doing a
good work by trying to explain some of
these strange things and make you more
content with your lot, and l shall only be
answering questions that have often been
asked me, or that we have all asked our
selves, 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 e. oil heat so many who are only
nuisance or a positive in ury to the worldi
! thought ! would begin with the very
toughest of all the seeming inscrutables
Many of the most useful men and women
die at thirty or forty years of age, while you
often find useless people alive at sixty and
seventy AMI 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 vineyardm Similar questions
are often asked. Here are two men. The
one is noble character and n Christian
man; he chooses for lifetime com.
panion 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 artist, he
tolls to educate and rear his children: he is
succeeding, but he has not yet established for
his family full competency; he seems
absolutely indispensable TO that household,
but one day before he has pad off the mort
| gage on his house he is coming home through
strong northeast wind and chill strikes
through him and four days of pneumonia
END MS 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, lets his wife
| support him; he is round at the grocery
tore or some c@n"rai lo1fng place in
tho evenings while lis wife sews,
ample 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 furnish
es 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
OIL while the parasites of society have great
vital tenacity.
l take up this dark saying on my harp and
give three or four thrums on the string in
the way of surmising and hopeful guess.
Perhaps the useful man was taken out OF the
world, hecat Sc 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 swal-
lows up ten thousand households. And so he
went while he was humble aud consecrated
and they were by the seventies of HE 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 acknowl-
edge 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 the other hand, the useless man
lived on to fifty or sixty, or seventy
years, Dtcduse All uHe eHse ne ever can
have he must have in this world, and
you ought not, therefore, begrude him
his earthly longevity. In all the ages
there has not a single loafer ever
! entered heaven. There is no place for
t. "fe for 70 .hs1 are rs0 full of the m sss
4 vigorous, alert .l.and rapturous wor-
ship. Not on the river bank, for that is
the place where the conguerors recline.
Not in the gates, because there are
multitudes 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
oilers. If the good and useful &c
early, rejoice for them that they
have so soon got through with
human life, which at best is a struggle. And
if the use IS and the bad stay, rejoice that
they NAV be out in the worlds fresh air a
good many years before their final incarcera-
ton.
Interrogation the second: Why do so many
} good people have so much trouble; sickness,
bankruptcy, persecution, the three black vul
lures sometimes putting their fierce beaks
into one set of iang ed nerves! l think
now of q good friend | once had. HI
was consecrated Christian man, an elder ir
, the church and as polished a Christian gen
, tleman as ever walked broadway. First hi,
general health gave out and he hobbled
around on cane, an old man at forty.
| by poor health been compelled sud
denly to quit business, lie lost what property
he had. Then his beautiful daughter died
Then son became hopelessly demented
Another SON. splendid of mind ane
/ commanding of presence, resolved that n
would take care of his fathers household
but under the swoop of yellow feve
at Fernandina, Fla, he suddenly OK
pired. So you know good men and womel
, who have had enough troubles you think, +
: crush fifty people. No worldly philosoph.
3 could take such a trouble and set it to music
4 or play it on violin or flute or dulcimer o
0 sackbut, but l dare to open that dark sayinl
3 on gospel harp,
You wonder that very consecrated peopl
have trouble? Did you ever know any yer.
consecrated man or woman who had not ha
r great trouble! Never. 1t was through thei
q troubles sanctifed that they were. mad
very good If you find anywhere IN thi
city man who has now and Away
4 has had perfect health and never lot
- child, ana has always been popular, an
never had business struggle or misfortune
who is distinguished for goodness, pull you
wire for telegraph messenger boy and sen
= me word and l will drop everything an
go right away to look at him. Their
! never has been a man like that, an
= never will be. Who are those arrogan
self-conceited creatures who NOV
a about without sympathy for others and WI
tnInk more OF o 81 BeTndTu uOR, OF I'LL "A
j. derney COW, or a Southdown sheep, or
:. Berkshire pig than OF mani They nevt
II hal any trouble, or the trcube YVES nevt
e sauctitiei Who are those MA WHO NJ te
: with moist eye as you te | them of sui!erin
l. and who have pathos in their voice an
:. kindness in their manner and an e!
. cuse or an alienation for those gone astray
They are the men who have gra iuated ct I'll
Il Royal Academy of Trouble an they hav
4 the diploma written in wrinkles on their ow
conferences My nv What heartacht
: they had! What tears they have wept! Wha
/ injustice they have suffered The mightie'
d influence for publication and salvatio
r. is trouble No diamond fiji for a crown III
til it is cut No wheat fit for bread till IT
ground. There are only three things thf
q can break of a cha'n-a hammer. file or
n fire; and trouble is all three of them III
Ia greatest writer's orators aud rctormers s.
y much of their forca from trouble. WIS
q gave to Washington Irving thu
Is exquisite tenderness and pathos which wi
t make his books favorites while the Englis
language continues to be written and Spoken
An early heartbreak that he never ono
IS mentioned; and when, thirty Years ate
b the death of Matilda Hoffman, who we