Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-25
GRADUATES OF WOE.
DR.. TalTage Takes His Text From
David's SOmber Psalm.
OPEN MY DARKSAYINGS ON AHARP
Reasons for the Good Suffering, While the
Wicked Prosper.
SOME ANSWERS TO AGENERAL QUESTION
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE prspArcx., /,

Brooklyn Tabernacle and the adjoining
lecture room and parlors to-day united in
singing:
Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear,
1t is not night if Thou be near.
DR.. Talmage preached on the subject
Ozark Sayings on a Harp" Text, xix
Psalm of David, verse 4: 81 will open my
dark sayings on q harp"
The world IS full of the inexplicable, the
impossible, the unfathomable, the insur-
mountable. We cannot 90 three steps in
any direction without coming up against a
hard wall of mystery, riddles, paradoxes,
profundities, labyrinths, problems that we
cannot solve, hieroglyphics that we cannot
decipher, anagrams 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: Il will
open my dark sayings on harp"
So look upon society and find people in un-
happy conjunction of circumstances and they
do not know what it means and they have a
right to ask why is this? and why is that? and
] think will be doing good work by trying to
explain some of these strange things and make
only be answering questions that have often
been asked me- or that we have all asked our
selves, while I try to set these mysteries to
music and open my dark sayings on harp.
A QUESTION THAT is OFTEN ASKED.
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
q nis,rz 70 41a I
would begin with the very toughest of all the
seeming fnscrutables. Many of the most use
full men and women die at 30 OF 40 years of
age, while you often find useless people alive at
81 and 20 and so. JOHN Careless wrote to Brad
ford who was soon to be put to death, saying:
why doth God suffer me and such other cater
pillars to live that can do nothing 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 a noble char
acter and Christian man; he chooses for life
time companion one who has been tenderly
reared, and she is worthy of him and ne is
worthy OF her; as merchant, or farmer, or pro-
fesSional 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 indlspen-
sable 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 through him, and four days
of pneumonia end his earthly career, and the
wife and children 90 into struggle for shelter
and food. bis neNt-door neighbor is a man
who, though strong and well, lets his wife sup
port him; he is round at the grocery store or
some general loatng place in the evenings
while his wife sews; his boys are initiating his
example, and lounge and swagger and swear;
all the use thai 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 hap
pen to that family would be that man 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 tenac1ty.
A HOPEFUL GUESS.
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 be-
cause 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 10000 households. 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 be-
fore 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 80 or so, or 20 wears, 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 ever entered heaven. There is
no place there for him to hang around. Not in
the temples, for they are full of the most Wig
orous, alert and rapturous worship. Not on the
river bank. for that is the place where the con-
querors recllne. Not in the gates, because
there are multitudes entering. and we are told
that at each Of the Il 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 90 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 be out
IN the worlds fresh air a good many years be-
fore their final incarceration.
SORROW UPON SORROW.
Interrogation the second: Why do so many
good people have so much trouble: sickness
bankruptcy, persecution, the three black
vultures sometimes putting their fierce beaks
into one set of tangled nerves? think now of
of good friend once had. He was a conse.
Grated Christian man, an elder in the church.
and as polished Christian gentleman as ever
walked Broadway. First his general health
gave out and he hobbled around on a cane, an
old man at &C. After a while paralysis struck
him. Having by poor health been compelled
suddenly to quit business, he lost what prop
erty he had. Then his beautiful daughter
died. Then a SOD became hopelessly demented.
Another son, splendid of mind and command
ing 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 80 people. No worldly philoso-
ply could take such trouble and set it to |
music. or play it on violin or flute or dulcimer |
or sackbut, but I dare to open that dark |
saying on gospel harp
You wonder that very consecrated people |
have troublef Did you ever know any very |
consecrated man or woman who had not had |
great tronble? Never. 1t was through their |
troubles sanctihed that they were made very /
good. If you find anywhere in this city man /
who has now and always has had perfect |
health, and never lost child, and has ALWAYS 1
been popular, and never had business struggle |
or misfortune, vino is distinguished for good /
ness, pull your wire for district messenger |
and send me word, and l will drop everything |
and go right away to look at him. There never |
has been a man like that, and never will be- |
lures who move about without sympathy for
others and who think more of a st. Bernard
dog or an Alderney COW, or a Southdown
sheep, or a Berkshire pig than of a man? They
never naQ any uouDIe OF the uouOie was never
sanctifeo.
GRADUATES OF WOE.
Who are those men who listen with moist eve
as you tell them Of suffering, and who have a
pathos in their voice and a kindness in their
manner and an excuse or an alienation for
those gone astray? They are the men who
have graduated at the Royal Academy of
Trouble and they have the diploma written in
wrinkles on their own countenances. Ny! myI
What heartaches they had! What tears they
have weptl What injustice they have suffered!
The mightiest influence for purifcation and