The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-02
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The impossible, the Unfathomable,
the Insurmountable.
Questions Which Neither Science Nor Dis
CusslOn Can Answer, But All VIII
Be Made Clear Amid the Beau
tIful Music of Heaven.


lyn Tabernacle spark Sayings on the
Harp" His text was:
will open my dark sayings on harp
Psalm xix, 4.
The world is full of the inexplicab1e, the
impossible, the unfathomable, 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: ST will open my dark say
ings on harp"
So look off upon society, and find peo-
pie in unhappy conjunction Of eircum-
stances, and they do not know what it
means, and they have right to ask: Why
is this? and why is thatl And 1 think I
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
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 positive injury to the
world? thought would begin with the
very toughest Of all the seeming inscru-
tables. Many Of the most useful men and
women die AZ 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 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
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 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 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 man
who, though strong and well, let's 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 tc
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 tC
die; ne lives on, and on, and on. So We
have all noticed that many of the usefu
are early cut off while the parasites of So
ciety have great vital tenacity.
take up this dark saying on my harI
and give three or four thrums on tn,
strings in the way of surmising and hope
full guessing. Perhaps the useful mai
was taken out of the world because he anc
his family were so constructed that the,
could not have endured some great pros
perity that might have been just ahead
and they altogether might have gone dow
In the vortex of worldliness which ever,
year swallows up ten thousand house
holds. And so he went, while he wa
humble and consecrated, and they were
by the seventies of life kept close t,
Christ and fitted for usefulness here an
high seats in Heaven, and when they NEE
at last before the throne, they will &C
knowledge that, though the furnace wa
hot, it purified them, and prepared Their
for an eternal career of glory and rewar
for which no other kind of life could hav
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 ca
have he must have in this world, and 20
ought not, therefore, begrudge him hi
earthly longevity. In all the ages ther
has not single loafer entered HEAVIER
There is no place for him there to han
around. Not in the temples, for they ar
full Of the most vigorous, alert and rar
turous worship. Not on the river banl
for that is the place where the conqueror
recline. Not in the gates, because ther
are multitudes entering, and we are toll
tA1s ess SoOAA Va tLo bN01f6 gates IQ6r6
an angel, and that celestial guard woul
not allow the place to be blacked up wit
idlers. If the good and useful go earl,
rejoice for them that they have so 500
got through with human life, which q
best is struggle. And If the useles
and the bad stay, rejoice that they ma
be out la the worlds fresh air a goo
many years before their final incarcers
ton.
Interrogation the second: Why do s
many good people have so much trouble
sickness, bankruptcy, persecution, tt
three black vnltnres sometimes putin
their fierce beaks into one set of jangle
nerves? / think now of a good friend
once had. He was consecrated Christia
man, an elder in the church and as pol
ished Christian gentleman as eve
walked Broadway. First his gener,
health gave out and he hobbled around o
cane, an old man at forty. After awhil
paralysis struck him. Having by poo
health been compelled suddenly to aut
business, he lost wha property he had
Then his beautiful daughter died. Then
son became hopelessly demented. AT
other son, splendid of mind and com
handing of presence, resolved that b
would take care of his fathers househol,