Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1894-07-27
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.

TEXT: Wherefore doth living man com
plain --IBmentHtions ill.,, 49,
II We leave To- the oyolutionists to guess
where We 'ama from, and TO the theologians
TO prOphesy where We are going to, We still
have left Cor consideration the important
fact that we are here. There may be some
doubt about where the river rises, and
some doubt about where the river empiies,
but there can he no toubt about the Tact
that We are sailing on II. So am not sur
pris "a that ev-rvlo iy asks tbs question, rs
life worth livng2'
Soomon in his unhappy moments saws II
Is not VANITY" "veXation OF spirit, mo
goo T." are his estimate. The fact Is that
solomon wns AT one time a polygamst, anu
that soured hts disposition. One wife makes
"A man happy moro than one makes him
wr.tchei. But solomon was converted from
polygamy TO monOgRmy, and the last worhS
he ever wrote. as far as we can read them,
were tho words "mountains OF spices. But
Jeremiah SAYS IN my text life is worth living.
In a hook supposed TO be doletul and
lugubrious an Srpulrhral and entitled
'InmpntaionS' he plainly intlmates that
the blessing o merely living IL so great and
grand "A blessing that though man have
piled on him all misfOrunes and disasters
he has no right 10 complain. The author OF
my text cries ont in startling information to
AL lNnuS anu 10 All ftnluTle~, - HtTtlOEe
doth living man complainY A diversity
OF opinion In our time as we'll rs in olden
time. Here is 4 young man Of light hair
and hluc eyes an sound digestion and
generous salary and happily aftianced and
in the way TO hpcome the partner In COM
mnrcial firm OF which he Is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth living.
He will laugh in your face AMI say, Eyes,
yes. yes q" Here Is a man who has come to
the ioHics. He is mt the tiptOp OF the hill OF
life. Every step has been stumble and u
hruiso. The people he trusted have turned
out descrers. and the money he has honestly
ma ie he has been cheated out of. His
nerves nro ont of tune. He has poor
appetite, and all the foo he does eat does
not assimilate. Forty miles climbing mp the
hill OF life have been 10 him like climbing
the Matterhorn, AMI there ARE forty miles
yet to 20 down, ami descent is always more
dangerous than ascent. Ask him whether
life Is worth living, AMI he will drawl out in
shiverng and luguhrious and appalling
negative, "No, no, nor
How arc we tn decide this matter right
cously and intelIlgently2 You will find the
same man vacillating, osciating in his opin'
ion from detection to eXlbrrancr. and IL no
he very mercurial in his temperament II will
depend very much upon which way the
wind blows. II the wind blow from the
northwest, and YOU ask him, he will say,
eyes" and il it blow from tho northeast
and you ask him he will SAY NO How
are we. then. to get the question rghteously
answered? suppose we call all nations to-
gether in great convention on eastern or
western hemisphere ant let all those who
are in the Affirmative say "Aye,' AMI all
those who are in the negative say NO
While there would be hundreds Of thou
sands who would answer in the Affirmative,
there would he more millions who would
answer in the negative, an because OF the
greater number who have sorrow and mis-
fortune AMI trouble tho "nOcs would have
il. The answer shall give will be different
from either. and yet 1t will commend itself
10 all who hear me this day as the right an
swer. II you ask me, is life worth living
| answer, 1t all depends upon the KIM Ollie
you live.
In the first place, l remark that life OF
mere money getting is always failure, be-
cause you will never get rs much as You
want The poorest people in this country
are the richest an the next to them those
who are half "a rich. There is not n scis
sors grinder on the streets Of New York or
Brooklyn who is SO anxious to make money
as these men who have piled up fortunes
year after year III storehouSes; in govern
ment securities, i'll tenement houses, in
whole city blocks.
You ought to see them jump when they
hear the hreheII ring. You ought to sea
them in their excitement when some bank
eXplo leg. You ought 10 see their agitation
when there is proposed a reformation in
the tariff. Their nerves trrmble like harp
| strings, but no music In the vibration. They
read the reports from Wall street in the
morning with n concernment that threatens
paralysis or apoplcxy, or, more probably.
they have telegraph or II telephone in their
he use, so they catch every breath of change
In the money market. The disease of accu-
mutation has eaten into them-0aten into
their heart, into their lungs, into their
spleen. into their liver, into their bones.
Chemists have sometimes analysed the hui
man body, and they say II Is 80 much mag
nesia, so much lime, so much chlorate OF po-
tassium. II some Christian chemist would
analyze one OF these financial behemoths, no
would find he is made up OF copper and gold
and silver and zine and lead and coal and
iron. That is not II life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes in 1t. too many
agonies in it, too many perditions In 1t. They
build their castles. and they open their pict-
ure galleries, and they summon prima dom
mas, and they offer every inducement for
happiness to come an 1 live there, but happl-
ness will not come.
They send footnannel and postillioned
equipage to bring her she will not ride to
their door. They sen princely escort she
will not take their arm. They make their
gateways triumphal arches she will not
ride under them. They set "a golden throne
| before golden plate she turns away from
| the banquet. They call TO her from up
| holstered balcony she will not listen. Mark
| you, this is the failure Ofthose who have had
| large accumulation.
And then you must take into consideration
that the vast ma jorlty OF those who make the
| dominant idea OF life money getting fall far
| short OF ailiuence. 1t is estimated that only
about two out OF hundred business men
have anything worthy the name OF success
A man who spends his life with one domi-
| nant Idea OF financial accumulation spends a
| life not worth living.
| SO the idea OF worldly approval II that
| be dominant In mans life, he Ia miserable.
| The two most unfortunate men in this coun-
| try for the six months OF next presidential
| campaign will be the two men nominated
! for the presidency. The reservoirs OF abuse
and dlatribe and maledictlon will gradually
| Ill up. gallon above gallon, hogshead above
, hogshead, and about autumn thesetwo reser.
voirs will be brimming full, and hose will
be attached to each one, and 1t will play
| away on these nominees, and they will have
| TO stand 1t and take the abuse, and the false
hood, and the carlcature, and the anathema
and the catorwauing. and the Nth, and they
| will be rolled In 1t and rolled over and over
IN 1t until they are choked and submerged
and strangulated, and mt every sign of re
| turning consciousness thOy will be barkel
at by all the hounds OF political parties from
| ocean TO ocean,
And yet there are n hundred men to-day
struggling for that privilege, and there are
thousands OF men who are helping them In
the struggle. Now, that is not II life worth
| living You can get slandcred and abused
cheaper than that Take 1t on smaller
scale. Do not be so ambitious to have II
whole reservoir rolled 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, and they are under terrific