New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-03-06
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
An Eloquent Sermon by DR.. Talmage
on Things That are Mysteries.

on Things That are Mysteries.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Feb. 24.-The audience
the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the adjoining
lecture-room and parlors to-day, united in
singing:
s'sun of my soul, thou Savior dear,
1t is not night if thou be near
DR.. Talmage preached on the subject,
dark Sayings on a Harp Text: xix,
Psalm Oh David, verse 4, Il will open my
dark sayings on harp.
The world is full OF the inexplicable, the
impossible, the unfathomable, the insur-
mountable. Wecan not go three steps in
any direction without coming up against a
hard wall of mystery, riddles, paradoxes,
profundities, labyrinths problems that we
decpher, anagrams we can not spell out,
sphinxes that will not speak. For that rea-
son David in my text proposed to take up
some of these somber and dark things and
try to set them to music: II will open my
dark sayings on harp"
So look upon society and find people in
unhappy conjunction of circumstances and
they do not know what it means and they
have right to ask, Why is this? and Why is
that? and I think I will be doing q good
work by trying to explain some Of these
strange things and make you more content
WIFI your lou, anu 1 SlldH Only De dISWCfluS
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 q harp.
Interrogation the first. Why does Gcd
take out of this world those who are useful
and whom we can not spare and leave alive
and in good health SO manyawbo are only
81 nuisance or a positive injury to the worlde
/ thought | would begin with the very
toughest of all the seeming inscruitables
Many of the most useful men and women
die at 80 or 40 years of age, while you often
End useless people alive at 60 and 70 land So
John Careless wrote to Bradford who
ing: why does God suffer me and such
other caterpillars to live that can do moth
ing but consume the aims of the church and
take away SO many worthy WOrkmen in the
Lords yineyard?' Similar questions are
often asked. Here are two men. The one is
q noble character and Il Christian man; he
chooses 1or LIFETIME companion one who has
been tenderly reared and she is worthy of
aim and he is worthy Of her; as merchant, or
farmer, or professional man. or mechanic, or
artist he tolls to educate and rear his chill
@dren: he is succeeding, but he has not yet es-
tabhshed for his family. a iull 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 Il strong northeast wind and a chill
strikes through him and four days of pneu-
monia end his earthly career. and the wife
and childr' go l?to a struggle for shelter
and food. His 7ext door-neighbor is
his wife support him; he is round at the gro
gerry store or some general loaf
ang 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 that house is to rave because
the coffee is cold when he comes to'a late break
fast, or to say cutting things about his wife's
looks when he1urnishes nothing for her ward
robe. The best thing that could happen to
that family would be that mans funeral; but
he declines to die; he lives on and on. So we
nave noticed that many of the useful are
early cut off while the parasites of society
have great vital tenacity
takeup this dark saying on my harp and
give three Or four thrums on the string in
the way of surmising and hopeful guess. Per
maps the useful man was taken out Of the
world, because he and his family were SO con-
.strueted that they could not have endured
some great prosperity that night have been
just ahead and they altogether might have
gone down in the vortex OF worldiness which
every year swallows up ten thousand house.
holds And SO he went while he was humble
and consecrated, and they were by the sever
tiles oflife 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 Tor 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 SO, or 60,
ror10 years, because all the ease he ever can
have he must have in this world, and you
oughtnot, therefore. begrudge him his earth
,iy longevity. In all the ages there has not
CT oIn Oafo a,,to 1,oo1
is no place for him 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 i'll the gates, be-
cause there are 1nnltitudes 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 II the good and useful go early,
rejoice Tor them that they have so soon got
through with human life, which at best;is a
struggle. And if the useless and the bad stay,
rejoice that they may he out in the worlds
fresh air good many years before ther final
incarceration
Interrogation the second: Why do so
many good people have SO much trouble,
sickness, bankruptcy. persecution, the three
black yultures sometimes putting their fierce
@beaks into one set Ofiangled nerves? / think
now ola good friend 1 once had. He was
church, and as polished Christian gentle
man as ever walked Broadway First his
general health gave out and he hobbled
around on a cane, an old man at 40. After
a while paralysis struck him. Having by
poor health been compelled suddenly to quit
business, he lost what property he had
Then his beautiful daughter died. Then a
son became hopelessly de1nented Another
son, splendid Of mind and commanding Of
preseace, resolved that he would take care of
his fathers household, but under the swoop
..of yellow fever at Fernandina, Fla, he sud
denly expired. So you know good men and
women who have had enough troubles you
think, to crush fifty people No worldly phil
osopher could take such trouble and set it
TO music, or play it on violin or flute or dull
elmer or sackbut, but dare to open that
dark saying on gospel harp.
You wonder that very consecrated people
3havetrouble? Did you ever know any very
.consecrated man or woman who had not had
great trouble? Never. twas through their
troubles sanctifed that they were made very
good. Ii you find anywhere in this city a
man who has now and always has had per-
feet health, and never lost a child, and has
always been popular and never had business
rb0 che