The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-09-03
LIVES WORTH LIVING
THOSE THAT LEAD TO AN EXISTENCE
THAT NEVER ENDS.
Rev. Dr. Talmage Discusses IA Topic of Uni
versal Intcrcst--An Optimistic aud En-
couraEipg Sermon-wasted Lives and
Useful Lives--Gate to Paradise.

couraEipg sermon-Wasted Lives ana
Useful Lives--Gate to Paradise.
BRooKLYN, July 22.-Rev Dr. Talmage.
who is now touring in theAustralian cities,
has chosen us the subject for todays ser
mon through the press Worth Living "
the text being taken from Lamentations
| iii, 80, Wherefore doth n living man
| complaint"
II we leave to the evolutionists to vueg,,
where we C0mc from and to the thcnlc pians
| to prophesy where we are going to, We still
have left for consideration the important
fact that we are here. There may ho
| some doubt about where the river rises
and some doubt about where the river
einpties, bat there can be no doubt about
the fact that we are sailing on it, so l am
not surprised that everybody asks tho
| question, Is life worth living9"
Solomon in his unhappy moments saws
II Is not. VANITY, " "vexation of spirit -
mo good, are his estimate. The fact is
that Solomon was at one time a polvu-
amist, and that soured his disposition.
One wife makes u man happy; more than
one makes him wretchcd. But Solomon
was converted from polygamy to ronog,
amy, and the last words he ever wrote.
as far as we can read them, were the words,
Mountains of spices But jeremiah
says in my text life is worth living.
In book supposed to bJ dolcful 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 man
have piled on him all misfortunos and dis
astors 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 times as well
as in oldcn time. Here is young man of
light hair and blue eyes and sound digcs
tion and generous salary and happily afii-
anced and on the way to become partner
In n 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 man
who has come to the forties. He is ut the
tiptop of the hill of life. Every step has
been a stumble and "A bruise The people
he trusted have turned out desorters, 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. For.
ty miles climbing up the hill of life have
IL,
and there are 40 miles yet to go down, and
descent Is always more dangerous than
ascent. Ask him whether life is worth
living, and he will drawl out in shiverlng
and lugubrious and appalling negative,
NO no. mol"
How are we to decide this matter right.
eously and intclligcntly? You will find
the same man vacillating, oscillating in
his opinion from detection to exuberance.
and If he be very mercuIial in his temper
anent 1t will depend very much upon
which way tie wind blows. If the wind
blow from the northwest, and you ask
him, he viii say Yes" and If it blow
from the northeast, and you ask him, he
will say No" How arc we, then, to get
the question riehteoilsly answered. Sup
pose we call all nations together in great
convention on eastern or western hcmi
sphere and let all those who are in the af.
flrmative say Aye" and all those who
are in the negative say "No."
While there would be hundreds of thou
sands who would answer in the affirm
ative there would be more millions who
would answer in the negative, and he
cause Of the greater number who have sor.
row and misfortune and trouble the
noes would have it. The answer !
IT,
and yet 10 will commend itself to all who
hear me this day as the right answer. II
you ask me, is life worth living?" | an
swer it all depends upon the kind of life
you live.
A Life of Avarice.
In the first place, l remark thata life 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 as rich. There is not a 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 in storchouses, in
government securities, in tenement houses,
in whole city blocks You ought to see
them jump when they hear tho fire bell
ring. You ought to see them in their cx
citement when some bank cXplodcs. You
ought TO 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 tho morning
with concernment that threatens paraly
sis or apoplcxy, or more probably they
have "a telegraph or II telephone in their
own house, so they catch every breath of
change In the money market, The disease
of accumulation has eaten into them
eaten into their heart, into their lungs,
into their spleen, into their liver into
their bones.
Chemists have sometimes analysed the
human body, and they say 1t is SO much
magnesia, so much time, SO much chlorate
Of potassium. If some Christian chemist
would analyze one II these financial behe.
L., A..
per and gold and silver and zinc and lead
and coal and iron. That is not "A life worth
living. There are too many earthquakes in
1t; two many agonies In It; too many per
ditions in it, They build their castles,
and they open their picture galleries, and
they summon prima donnas, and they offer
every inducement for happiness to come
and live there, but happiness will not
come.
They send footnanned and postillioned
equipage to bring her. She will not ride
to their door. They send princely escort.
She will not take their arm. They make
their ghteways triumphal arches. She will
not ride nnder them They set golden
throne before golden plate. She turns
away from the banquet. They call to her
from upholstered balcony. She win not
listen. Mark you, this Is the failure OF
those who have had large accumulation.
And then you must take into considera
tion that the vast majority Of those who
make the dominant idea of life money
getting fall far short of afllucnce. 1t is
estimated that only but two out of hun
dred business men have anything worthy
the name of success, A man who spends
his life with the one dominant idea of
financial accumulation spends life not
worth living.
So the idea OF worldly approval. If that
be dominant in n mans life, he is misora
BILE. The two most unfortunate men in
this country for the six months of next
presidential campaign win be the two
men nominated for the presidency. The
rsoryoirs of abuse and diatribo and male.
diction will gradually fill up, gallon above
| gallon, hogshead above hogshead, and
about autumn these two reservoirs will be