The Russellville Democrat., 1889-03-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Impossible, the Unfathomable,
 the Insurmountable.
Questions Which Neither Science Nor Dis cussIon Can Answer, But All VIII He Made Clear Amid the Beau
 tiful Music of Heaven.

cussIon Can Answer, But All VIII
 Re Made Clear Amid the Beau
 tiful Music of Heaven.
 Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the subject of recent sermon at the Brook lyn Tabernacle .sDark Sayings on the Harp" His text was:
 r will open my dark sayings on harp Psalm xix, 1.
 The world is full of the inexplicable, the impossible, the unfathomable, the insur- mountable. We can not go three steps in any direction without csming up against a 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: 'I will open my dark say ings on harp"
 So look off upon society, and find peo- pie in unhappy conjunction of circum stances, and they do not know what it means, and they have right to ask: Why is this? and why is that! And I think l will be doing good work by trying to ex- plain 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 harp.
 Interrogation the first: Why does God take out of this world those who are use f,,l 1xxy1, ,S.@ alive and in good health so many who are only nuisance or positive injury to the world? l thought would begin with the very toughest of all the seeming inscru- tables. 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 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 tho Lords vineyard" Similar questions are often asked. Here are two men. The one is noble character and Christian man; :; he chooses for lifetime companion one who has been tenderly reared, and she is |, merchant, or farmer, or professional man, or mechanic, or artists, he tolls to educate and rear 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 a strong northeast wind, and a chill strikes r0l, ,,,d f1,,,r do Af nfa 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 we'll, lets his wife support him; he is round at the grocery store or some general loafng 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-
 
 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 so 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 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 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 fitted them. On the other hand, the use 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 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 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 blacked up with idlers. If the good and useful go early, rejoice for 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 be out in the worlds fresh air a good many years before their final incarcera- tion.
 Interrogation the seoond. Why do so many good people have so much trouble; sickness, bankruptcy, persecution, the three black vultures sometimes. putting their fierce peaks into one set of tangled nervesy think now of good friend l once had. He was a consecrated Christian man, an elder in the church and as pol ished Christian gentleman as ever walked Broadway. First his general health gave out and he hobbled around on a cane, an old man at forty. After awhile 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 O son became hopelessly demented. An other son, splendid of mind and com manding of presence, resolved that he would take care of his fathers household, but under the swoop of yellow fever at Fernandina, Fla, he suddenly expired. So you know good men and women who have had enough troubles, you think, to crush fifty people. No worldly philosophy could take such a trouble and set it to music, or play it on violin, or flute, or dulcimer, or sackbut, but dare to open that dark saying on Gospel harp.
 You wonder that very consecrated peo- pie have troubleg Did you ever know any very consecrated man or woman who had not had great troubley Never. It was through their troubles sancified that they were made very good. If you find any where in this city man who has now and always has had perfect health, and never