The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-09-05
A POOR INVESTMENT.
YOU HAVE eARGAINED YOUR SOUL
AWAY FOR NAUGHT.

rs made and How II May iSe tSeIne-
died-Christ's Blood Will Buy You
Back.
Topeka, Kan. Aug 9.-Dr. Talmage
reached this city yesterday in the course of
his western trip. He was warmly wei
coined by the citizens, who came in large
numbers to hear the famous Brooklyn di /,
vine. The subject of the sermon for this
week is, "A Poor Investment" and the
text. Isaiah lii. 3, .'Ye have sold yourselves
for naught; and ye shall be redeemed with
out money"
The Lords people had gone headlong
into sin. and as a punishment they had
been carried captive to Babylon. They
found that iniquiJy did not pay Cyrus
seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these
poor captives that, without dollar of COM
pensation, he let them go home. So that,
literally. my text was fulfilled. 'Ye have
sold yourselves for naught. and ye shall be
redeemed without money"
SOLD FOR NAUGHT.
There is enough Gospel in this text for
fifty sermons. There are persons here who
have, like the people of the text, sold out.
You do not seem to belong either to your
selves or to God. The title deeds have been
passed over to "the world, the flesh, and the
devil" but the purchaser never paid up.
When a man passes himself over to the
world he expects to get some adequate COM
pensation He has heard the great things
that the world does for man, and he be
lieves it. He wants two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. That will he horses and
houses, and a summer resort and jolly
companionship. To get it he parts with
his physical health by overwork. He parts
with his conscience He parts with much
a firo low Ha xuif
tunities for literary culture. He parts with
his soul. And so he makes over his entire
nature to the world
He does it in four installments. He pays
down the first installment, and one-fourth
of his nature is gone. He pays down the
second installment, and one-half of his
nature is gone. He pays down the third
installment, and three-quarters of his ma
ture are gone, and after many years have
gone by he pays down the fourth Install
ment, and lol his entire nature is gone. Then
he comes up to the world and says: Good
morning. l have delivered to you the
goods. have passed over to you my body,
my mind and my soul, and have come
now to collect the two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars" 1.-TWO hundred and
fifty thousand dollars?" says the world.
What do you mean?' well" you saw
Il come to collect the money you owe me,
and expect you to fulfill your part of the
contract" But" says the world, 81 have
failed. am bankrupt. | cannot possibly
pay that debt. have not for long time
expected to pay it, WELL" you then
say, "give me back the goods" "Oh, no."
says the world, they are all gone. | cam
not give them back to you" And there
you stand on the confines of eternity, your
spiritual character gone, staggering under
the consideration that ''you have sold your
self for naught."
THE WORLD Is LIAR.
tell you the world is a liar 1t does not
keep its promises. 1t is cheat, and it
fieeces everyth hing it can put it's hands on.
1t is n bogus world. 1t is six-thousand-
year-old swindle. Even if it pays the two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
which you contracted, it pays them in
bonds that will not be worth anything in
a little while. Just as a man may pay
down ten thousand dollars in hard cash
and get for it worthless scrip-so the world
passes over to you the two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars in that shape which
will not be worth a farthing to you a
thousandth part of a second after you are
dead. oh" you say, lit will help to bury
me, anyhow" Oh, my brotherl you need
not worry about that. The world will
bury you soon enough from sanitary con-
siderations.
Post mOrtem em0luments are of no use
TO you. The treasures of this world will
not pass current in the future world, and
if all the wealth of the Bank of England
were put in the pocket of your shroud and
you in the midst of the Jordan of death
were asked to pay three cents for your fer
riage, you could not do it. There comes a
moment in yopE existence beyond which
all earthly values fail, and many a man
has wakened up in such time to find that
he has sold out for eternity and has moth
ing to show for it. ] should as soon think
of going to Chatham street to buy silk
pocket handkerchiefs with no cotton in
them, to go to this world expecting to
find any permanent happiness. 1t has de
ceived and deluded every man who has
ever put his trust in it,
NOT TRUE HAPPINESS.
History tells us of one who resolved that
he would have all his senses gratified at
one and the same time, and he expended
thousands of dollars on each sense He
entered room, and there were the first
musicians of the land pleasing his ear and
there were fine pictures fascinating his
eye, and there were costly aromatics regal
ing his uostrils, and there were the richest
meats and wines and fruits and confec-
tions pleasing the appetite, and there was
a soft couch of sinful indulgence OF which
he reclined, and the man declared after
ward that he would give ten times what he
had given if he could have one week OF
such enjoyment, even though he lost his
soul by it, Ah that was-the rub. He did
lose his soul by it, Cyrus the conquerol
thought for little while that he was max
ing a fine thing out of this world, and yet
before he came to his grave he wrote out
this pitiful epitaph for his monument: 81
am Cyrus. | occupied the Persian empire
1 was king over Asia. Begrudge me moi
this monument" But the world in after
years plowed up his sepulcher.
The world clapped its hands ~ d stamped
its feet in honor of Charles Lamb; bua
what does he sayS II walk up and down
thinking | am happy, but feeling | an
not" Call the roll. and bequicl about it
Samuel johnson, the learned Happy
L f-.,id 1 In rrn