Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-08-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S ~UN-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Worth Living"

Subject: worth I1VlDHs
TEXT "Whereforo doth a living man com
plain?'-Lamentations ill.,, 80.
If we leave to the cvo'utionists to guesS
where we came from, and 10 the theOiogianS
to prophesy where we are going to, We still
have left for consideration the important
fact that We arc here. There may be some
doubt nj out where The river rsea. an
some doubt about where the river empties,
but there can he no doubt about the fact
that we are sailing on if. SO am not snr-
pris ed that everybody asks tho question, ''Is
life worth livinZ2"
SO Omon III his unhappy moments says it
is not. "Vanity," "vexation of spirit" enc
goo J." are his estimate. The fact is that
Solomon was at one time n poly.amist. and
that sOured his disposition. One wife makes
man happy; moro than ono makes him
wrctchod. But Solomon was converted from
polygamytO mOnOgamy. and the last words
hC ever wrote. as far a we can read them,
were tho words "mOuntains OF Spices But
jeremiah says i'm my text life is worth living.
In n book supposed TO be doIefuI and
lugubrious and sepu!chral and entitled
"Lamentations' he plainly intimates that
the blessing Of merely living is so great and
grand n blessing that thcIgh q man have
piled on him all misfortuueS and disasters
ho has no right to complain. The author OF
my GrSt cries OUT IN startling ln1OnatlOn 10
all lands and to all centuries, "WherefOre
doth q liviD, man complainY A diversity
OF opinion In our time as we'll aS in Olden
time. Hero is young man of liCh, hair
and blue eyes AM sound digestion and
generous salary AMI happily afflanced and
in the wav TO become the partner in COM
mercial firm Of which be is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth living.
He will laugh in your face AMI say, Eyes,
yes, yes J" Here is n man who has come to
the fortirs. He is ut the tiptop OF the hill of
life. Every step has been stumble and Il
bruisn The people he trusted have turned
out deserters, AMI the money he has honestly
maie ho has been cheated out o.. His
nerves are out of tune. He has poor
appetite. and all the tool he doAg eat does
not assimiatc. Forty miles limbing up the
hill of life havo been TO him like climbing
the MatterhOrn. AMI there are forty miles
yet to go down. and descent is always more
dangerous shan ascent. Ask him whether
life is worth living, an he will drawl out IN
shiveriny and lugubriOuS and appalling
negative, "NO, no ,nOW
How arc we to decide this matter right
eOusiy and intpligently? You will find the
same man vacillatinr. Oscillating in his Opin-
ion from detection to eXuberancP. and if he
hc very mcrcurial in his temperament it will
depend very much upon which WAY the
wind blows. If the wind blow from the
northwest, and you ask him, he will say,
eyes" and if it blow from the northeast,
and you ask him. he will say "No." How
are we, then. to get the question righteously
answered? Suppose we call all nations to-
gcther in great convention on eastern or
western hemisphere an | let all those who
are in the affirmative say "AyC," an all
those who are in the negative say "NO."
Whilo there would be hundreds of thou
sands who would answer in the affirmative,
thero would be moro millions who would
answer in the negative, AMI because OF tho
greater number who have sorrow and mis-
fortune and trouble the ''nOas would have
it. The answer | shall give will be different
from either. and yet it will commend itself
10 all who hear me this day as tho right an
swcr. If you ask me, SIS life worth living?"
| answer, it all depen Is upon the kin Oflife
you live.
Ill the first place, remark that life of
mere money getting is always Il failure, be-
cause you will never get as much as you
want. The poorest people in this country
are the richest, AMI tho next to them those
who arc half as rich. There is not a scs-
sOrs grinder on the streets Of New York or
Brooklyn who is 50 anxious to make money
as these men who have piled up fortunes
year after year in storehou5es, in govern
m"nt securities, i'll tenement houses, In
whole city blocks.
You ought to see them jump when they
hear the tireJell ring. You ought to SEQ
them in their excitement when some bank
cxplo les. You ought TO see their agitation
when there is proposal a reformation in
the tariff Their nerves tremblo like harp
strings, but no music in the vibration. They
read the reports from Wall street in tho
morning with Il cOncernment that threatens
paralysis or apOpleXy, or, moro probably.
they have a telegraph or telephone in their
hCus2, so they catch every breath of change
IL the money market The disease of accu-
mutation has eaten into tham-8aten into
their heart, into their lungs, into their
spleen. into their liver into their bones.
Chemists have sometimes analyzed the hui
man boly. and they say it is SO much mag
nasia, so much lime. SO much chlorate Of po-
tassium. If some Christian chemist would
anal yze one of these financial behemOthS, ile
would find he is ma1o up OF copper and gold
and silver and zinc and leal and coal and
iron. That is not Il life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes in it, too many
agOnies in it, too many perditiOns in it. They
build their castles. and they open their pict-
urc galleries. and they summon prima dom
happiness to come and live there, but happi-
ness will not come.
They send footmanned and postilionod
equtpage to bring her; she will not ride to
tneIr door. They send princely escort shs
will not take their arm. They make their
gateways triumphal arches she will not
ride under them. They set Il golden throne
before a golden plate she turns away from
the banquet. They call to her from up
holstered balcony she will not listen. Mark
you, this sthe failure OfthOse who have had
large accumulation.
And then you must take into consideration
that the vast majority of those who mako the
dominant idea of life money getting fall far
short of affiuencc. It is estimated that only
about two out of a hundred business men
have anything worthy the name of success
man who Spen Is his life with one domi-
iHn1 n financial CnnnHc n
life not worth living.
SO the idea Of worldly approval. If that
be dominant in mans life, he is miserable,
The two most unfortunate men in this couu-
try for the six months of next presidential
campaign will be the two men nominated
for the presidency. The reservoirs Of abuse
and diatribe and malediction will gradually
fill up. gallon above gallon, hogshead above
hOgShead. ami about autumn these two reser-
vOirs will be brimming full and a hose will
be attached to each one, and it will play
away on these nominees, and they will have
TO stand it and take the abuse, and the false
hood, and the caricature, and the anathema,
and the catCrwauliny, and the filth and they
will be rolled in it and rolled over and over
III /; until they are chOkei and submerged
and strangulated, and at every sign of re-
turning consciousness they will be barked
at by all the hounds of political parties from
ocean to ocean
And yet there are hundred men to-day
struS Sgling for that privilege, and there are
thousands Of meu who are helping them in
the struggle. Now. that is not u life worth
living. GCu can get s!andered and abused
cheaper than that! Take it on a smaller
scale. Do not be so ambitious to have q
whole reservoir rollel over on you. But
what you see in the matter OF high politi.
cal preferment you see in every com.
munity in the struggle for what is called
social position.
Tens of thousands of people trying to get
into that realm, AMI they are under terrific
tension. What is social poSition2 1t is u
difficult thing to define, but we all know
what it is. Good morals and intelligence are
not necessary. but wealth or the show of
wealth is absolutely Indispensable. There
are men to-day as notorious for their liber-
fnism rs the night is famous for its dark,
ness who move in what is called high socla
position. There are hundreds of out and out
rakes in American society whose n~mes arf