The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-07-23
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
THROUGH THE PRESS He FURNISH
ES An INTERESTING DISCOURSE.
Is Life Worth Living forms the Subject of
His SermOn-It is the Kind of II Life
we 1.-Two, Says tho Doctor.

| bICOhIyH, July IA.-IeV. LIT. IalIIlaSe
| who is now touring in the Austrian cities,
| has chosen as the subject for todays aer-
| mon through the press: Worth Living.
| the text being from Lamentations, 1883
Wherefore doth living man complaint"
| If we leave to the evolutionists to guess
| wheue came from and to the theologans
to prophecy where we are going to, we still
have left for conSiderat ton the important
| fact that we are here. There may be soma
| doubt about where the river rises and some
! doubt about where the river emptics but
| there can be no doubt about the fact that
| we are still on it. So / am not surprised
| that everybody asks the question, SIS 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 a poly.y1mist and
that soured his disposition. One wife makes
a man happy; more than one makes him
wretched. But Solomon was converted from
polygamy to monogamy, and the last words
NJ ever wrote, as far as can read them,
were the words, mountains Of spices"
But jeremiah says in my text life is worth
living.
In a book supposed to be doleful, and lu-
gubrious, and sepulchral, and entitled Ia
mentations," he plainly intimars that the
blessing of merely living Is so great and
grand blessing that though man have
piled on him all msfortunes and disasters
he has no right to complain. The author of
my text cries out in startling intonaiton to
all lands and to all centuries, "Wherefore
doth a living man complaint A diversity
of opinion in our times well as in olden
time Here is a young man of light hair,
and blue eyes, and sound digestion, and
generous salary, and happily affianced, and
on the way to Hccome partner in COM
mercial firm of which he is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth liv-
Yes, yes, yes Here is a man who has
come to the fOrtieS. He is at the top of the
hill of life. Every step has been a STUN
bic and d 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 assmilate. Forty miles climbing
up the hill of life have been to him like
climbing the Matterhorn, and there are for
ty miles ys7t to go down, and descent Is al
ways more dangerous than ascent. ASK
him whether life is worth living, and he Will
drawl out in shivering and lugubrious and
appalling negative, "No, no. nor
How are we to decide this matter righte-
orsly and intelligently? You will find the
same vacillating, oscillating in his tempera-
ment 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, Yes" and if 1t blow from the north
east and you ask him, he will say, NO.
How are we then to get the question
righteously answered? Suppose we call all
natiouns together in a great convention on
Eastern or Western hemisphere, and let all
those who are in the affirmative say Aye
and all those who are in the negative say
NO" While there would be hundreds of
thousands who would answer in the afllrm-
ative there would be more mllilons VINO
would answer in the negative, and because
of the greater number who have sorrow
and misfortune and trouble the noes
would have it. The answer L SHAH give
will be different from either, and yet 1t
will commend itself to all who hear me
this day as the right answer. IL you ask
me- els life worth living| | answer, 1t
all depends upon the kind of life you 1--we.
In the first place, l remark, that HE
of mere money-getting is always failure,
because you will never get as much as you
want The poorest people in this country
are the richest, and next to them those
who are half rich. There is not a Scls-
sors grinder the streets OF New YORK
or Brooklyn who is so anxious to make
money as these men who have plled up
fortunes year after year in storehouses, IN
government securities, in tenement houses
in whole blocks. You ought to see them
iumD when they hear the fire bell ring.
You ought to see them in their eXclteneht
when some bank explOdeS. You ought 10
see their agitation when there is proposed
a 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 a con-
cernment that threatens paralysis or APP
poplexy or, more probably, they nave d
telegraph or a telephone in their own mousse
so they catch every breath OF chanSe III
the money market. The disease OF accu-
mutation has eaten into them-eaten into
inf al
spleen into their liver, into their bones.
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 Chrlstlah cheiiliSl
would analyZe one of these fnanc1al pc
bemoths he would find he is made up OF
copper. and gold, and silver, and zinc, ana
lead and coal and iron. That is not a Ire
worth living. There are too many earlh-
ouakes in it, too many agonles III H. Ioo
MANY perditions in it. They build their
castles and they open their picture Sal-
leries and they summon prlma uoniia''
and they offer every inducement TOT nap
pineSS to come ana I'VE theie' ""1 ff
ness will not come. 100
rrho,, cepd footmanned and postinoned
eouipage to bring her; she Will not rue 10
their door They send prncely escort Nhc
will not take their arm. They make 'ieli
gateways triumphal arches' she VIZ not
before golden plate; she turns away rom
the BANQUET They call to her from ulhoi-
stored balcony: she will not listen MARX
Won this is the failure of those VINO nave
had large accumulation.
And then you must take into conSloela-
ton that the vast majority OF those VINO
make the dominant idea of life money get
ting fail far short of affiuence. 1t is esll-
mated that only about two out oil a nun
dred business men have anything worthy
the name of socceSs. A man who spendS
his life with the one dominant idea OF imam
cial accumulation spends a life not worth
living.
So the idea of worldly approval. IL tIal
he dominant in a mans life he IS m1Sefaple.
The two most unfortunate men IN inns
country for the six months OF next pfeSi-
Dental campaign will be the two men
nominated for the presidency. Inc feSer-
yoirs of abuse and diatribe, and maledlc-
ton will gradually fill up, gallon above
gallon hogshead above hoSshead, anu
about autumn these two reservoirs Will pe
Drumming full, and a hose will be attached
to each one and it will play away on these
nominees and they will have to Stand II,
and take the abuse, and the falSehood, ana
the carcature, and the anathema, ana the
caterWauling. and the filth, and they Will
be rolled in it and rolled over and over III
it until they are choked and submerged
and strangulated, and at every sign OF re-
tirni ip1,SD 10