Democratic messenger., 1894-07-28
Highest of all in Leavening Poweaest T. Govt Report
Re-! q! Bssi9g BsM5sgz
ABSOLUTELY PURE
WHAT Is LIFE WORTH
REV. Or. TALMAGE SAYS 1T DEPENDS
UPON CIRCUMSTANCES.

NJ II Opens To Life That Shall Never End,
Then IL Is Worth Living-A Strong.
Breezy and Optimistic Discourse by the
Great Preacher.
BROOKLYN. July 22.-Rev. DIR. Tai
mage. who is now touring in the Aus
tralian cities, has chosen as the subject
for today's sermon through the press
Worth Living" the text being taken
from Lamentations iii, 80, Wherefore
doth living man complaint"
II we leave to the evolutionists 10
guess where we came from and TO the
theologians to prophesy where we are
going 10, we still have left for consider
alton the important fact that we are
here. There may be some doubt about
where the river rises and some doubt
about where the river empties, but there
can be no doubt about the fact that we
are sailing on il. So am not surprised
that everybody asks tho question, us
life worth living"
Solomon in his unhappy moments says
it is not Vanity" ''vexation of
spirit. " mo good" are his estimate
The fact is that Solomon was at one
time polygamist, and that soured his
disposition. One wife makes q man
happy; more than one makes him
wretched. But Solomon was converted
from polygamy TO monogamy. and the
last words he ever wrote, as far as we
Gan read them, We're the words ''moun-
49,, - - n,,t Toxa,..snl. So,
my text life is worth living.
In book supposed to be doleful and
lugubrious and sepulchral and entitled
''Lamentations" he plainly intimates
that the blessing of merely living is so
great and grand n blessing that though
a man have piled ON him all misfor-
tunes and disasters he has no right to
complain. The author of my text cries
out in startling intonation to all lands
and to all centuries, Wherefore doth
living man complaint" A diversity of
opinion in our time rs well rs in olden
time. Here is young man of light hair
and blue eyes and sound digestion and
generous salary and happily affianced
and in the way to become the partner
in a commercial firm Of which he is an
important clerk. Ask him whether life
is worth living. He will laugh in your
face and say, Yes, yes. yes"' Here is
n man who has come to the forties. He
Is at the tiptop of the hill of life Ev-
cry step has been stumble and n
bruise. The people he trusted have
turned out deserters, and the money he
has honestly made he has been cheated
out Of. His nerves are out of tune. He
has poor appetite. and all the food he
does eat does not assimilate. Forty miles
climbing up the hill Of life have been
20 him like climbing the Matterhorn,
and there are 40 miles vet to go down,
and descent is always more dangerous
than ascent Ask him whether life is
worth living, and he will drawl ont in
shivering and lugubrious and appalling
negative, mo, no. nor
It Depends Upon the Kind of Life.
How are we to decide this matter
righteously and intellig gently? You will
find the same man vacillating, oscillat-
ing in his opinion from detection 10 ex-
uberance, and il he be very mercurial in
his temperament it will depend very
much upon which way the wind blows.
II the wind blow from the northwest,
and you ask him, he will say, Yes"
and if it blow from the northeast. and
you ask him. he will say mo.
How are we. then. to get the question
righteously answered: Suppose we call
all nations together in great con-
vention ON eastern or western hemi-
sphere and let all those who are in the
affirmative say AYE" and all those
who are in the negative say mo.
While there would be hundreds of
thousands who would answer in the af-
firmative. there would be more millions
who would answer i'll the negative, and
because Of the greater number who have
sorrow and misfortune and trouble the
''noes" would have it. The answer /
shall give will be different from either,
and yet it will commend itself TO all
who hear me this day as the right an
swer. II you ask me. us life worth liv-
ing?" answer, it all depends upon tho
kind Of life you live.
In the first place, l remark that a life
OF mere money getting is always fail
ure, because You will never get rs much
as you want. The poorest people in this
country are the richest, and the next to
them those who are half as rich. There
is not n scissors grinder on the streets Of
New York or Brooklyn who is so anx-
ious to make money as these men who
have piled up fortunes year after year
In storehouses. in government securities,
in tenement houses, in whole city
blocks
You ought to see them jump when
they hear the firebell ring. You ought
20 see them in their excitement when
some bank explodes. You ought TO see
their agitation when there is proposed
reformation in the tariff Their nerves
tremble like harp strings. but no music
in the vibration. They read the reports
from Wall street in the morning with
concernment that threatens paralysis or
apoplexy, or. more probably, they have a
telegraph or a telephone i'll their house.
SO they catch every breath Of change i'll
the money market The disease Of ac-
cumulation has eaten into them-eaten
into their heart, into their lungs, into
their spleen, into their liver, into their
bones
Dominant Ideas.
Chemists have sometimes analysed
the human body. and they say it is so
much magnesia, so much lime, so much
chlorate Of potassium. If some Christian
chemist would analyze one of these
financial behemoths. he would find he
is made up of copper and gold and sill
yer and zinc and lead and coal and
iron That is not u life worth living
There are too many earthquakes in it,
too many agonies in it. too many per
ditions in il. They build their castles.
and they open their picture galleries,
and they summon prima donnas, and
they offer every inducement for happi-
II you want hrst-class Job
can oet II at the MESSENGER of