Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-08-20
A POOR INVESTMENT.
you HAVE eAReAINED YOUR SOUL
AWAY FOR NAUeHT.

DR.. TaImsgs shows How the Foolish Sale
Il Made and How 10 May he Reme-
disd-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 well
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 Iii, s, "Ye have sold yourselves
for naught; and ye shall be redeemed with
out money"
The Lords people had gone headlong
into sin, and rs a punishment they had
been carried captive to Babylon They
found that iniquity did not pay. Cyrus
seized Babylon, and felt so sorry for these
poor captives that, without dollar of COM
pensation, he let them 90 home So that
literally, my text was fulfilled. aye 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 tia
devil, but the purchaser never paid up.
"Ye have sold yourselves for naught."
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 a man, and ne be.
lieves it. He wants two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. That will be horses and
houses, and a summer resort and jolly
companionship. To get it he parts with
his physical health by oyerwork. He parts
with his conscience. He parts with much
HCmestic enjoyment. He parts with oppor.
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
..swn the first installment and one-fourth
ohis 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. | have delivered to you the
goods. l 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 dollarsP" says the world
what do you mean2" "Well," you say,
'I come to collect the money you owe me,
and I expect you to fulfill your part of the
contract" "But," says the world, II have
failed. lam 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. can
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."
TIE WORLD is A LIAR.
Itell you the world is liar. 1t does not
keep it's promises. 1t is cheat, and it
deeces everything it can put it's hands on.
It is bogus world. 1t is a 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
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 farthing to you a
thousandth part of a second after you are
dead "Oh," you say, ''it 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 emoluments 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 your existence beyond which
all earthly values fail, and many man
has Weakened 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, as 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 gratifed at
one and the same time, and he expended
thousands of dollars on each sense. He
entered a 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 nostrils, and there were the richest
meats and wines and fruits and confec-
tions pleasing the appetite and there was
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'll Ah that was the rubl He did
lose his soul by It'll Cyrus the conqueror
thought for little while that he was max
ing fine thing out of this world, and yet
before he came to his grave he wrote out
this pitiful epitaph for his monument: Il
am Cyrus. l occupied the Persian empire.
was king over Asia. Begrudge me not
this monument" But the world in after
years plowed up his sepulcher.
The world clapped it's hands and stamped
its feet in honor of Charles Lamb; but
what does he sayS II walk up and down,
thinking l am happy, but feeling | am
not" Call the roll, and be quick about it.
Samuel johnson, the learnedl Happy?
"No. l am afraid | shall some day get
crazy" William Hazlitt, the great essay
lett Hanpvs ,HNo 7 hava haen for two