Milford chronicle., 1889-03-01

/ Why Do Useful Human Beings Die
Young?-why Do So Many Good People
Have So Much TroubIe?-why Is There
Sin in the world9 Other Problems.
BRooKLYN, Feb 24-The audience that
crowded the immense auditorium Of the
Brooklyn tabernacle and the adjoining lee
ture room and parlors today united in sing
ing;
Sun Of my soul, thou Saviour dear,
Il is not night II thou be near.
DR.. Talmage preached on the subject;
Ozark Sayings on a Harp" Text-Xlix
| Psalm Of David, verse 4; II will open my
dark sayings on harp"
The world is full of the inexplicable, the
impossible, the unfathomable, the insur-
mountable We cannot go three steps in any
direction without coming up against hard
wall of mystery, riddles, paradoxes, profun-
dities, 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: II will open my dark say
ings on a harp"
So | look of upon society and find people
In unhappy conjunctions Of circumstances,
and they do not know what it means and
they have a right to ask, Why is thisi and
Why is thatl and l think win be doing a
good work by trying tooxplain 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 a 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 nui-
sance or a positive injury to the worldl
thought l would begin with the very tough
est 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 and
eighty. John Careless wrote to Bradford,
1 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
vineyardp Similar questions are often
asked. Here are two men. The one is a
noble character and Christian man; he
NlDDaSo AOA a AAAGlAAAG DllI WIZ
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 a full 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 strong northeast wind and a chill
strikes through him and four days Of pneu-
monia end his earthly career and the wife and
children go into a 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 store or some general
leating 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 be 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 mans fu-
neral; but he declines to die; he lives on and
on and on. So we have ell noticed that
many of the useful are early cut OF while
the parasites Of society have great vital te-
nacity.
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 because 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 tho 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 sever
tiles 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 acknowledge that though the fur
mace 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 fifty, or sixty, or
seventy 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 a
single loafer ever 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 rapturous worship Not
on the river bank for that is the place where
the conquerors recline. Not in the gates, be-
cause 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 Ii 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 good many years before their final
incarceration.
AN ESsCRUTABLE MYSTERY, But IT HAS AD-
vANTAGES
Interrogation the second: Why do so many
| good people havo 50 much trouble sickness,
| bankruptcy, persecution, the three black vul-
/ lures sometimes putting their ierco bealss
! into ono set Of tangled nervesi l think now
of good friend l once had. He was n col-
/ secrated Christian man, an elder in the church
and as polished q 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 while paralysis
struck him. Having by poor health been
| compelled to suddenly quit business, no lost
/ what property he had. Then his beautiful
| daughter died. Then a son became hopelessly
| demented. Another son, splendid Of mind
and commanding Of presence, resolved that
1 he would take care of his fathers household
1 but under the swoop Of yellow fever at Fer
nandiua, 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 - open that dark saying on a gos
| pei harp.
Yon wonoer that very eonsecrated people
have troublel Did you ever know any very
! consecrated man OF woman who had not had
/ great troublol Never 1t was through their
troubles sanctified 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 child, and has al