Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-07-27
WHAT'S LIFE WORTH
REV DIR. TALMAeE SAYS 1T DEPENDS
UPON CIRCUMSTANCES.

,.,. or.rs IN a Life That Shall Never End,
Then 1t Is Worth Living-A Strong
Hreezy and Optimistic Discourse by the
Great Preacher.
Brooklyn, July 22.-Rev. DIR. Tai
mage. who is now touring in the Aus
traiian 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"
If we leave to the evolutionlsts to
oness where we came from and to the
tbeologians to prophesy where we are
going to, 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
arc sailing on it, So am not surprised
that everybody asks the question: is
life worth living?"
Solomon in his unhappy moments says
it is not. Vanity" "vexatlon OF
spirit" mo good" are his estimate
,Tbe fact is that Solomon was at one
time a polygamist, and that soureaa IN
disposition One wife makesos him
baDpv; more than one r..S converted
wretched. But Solonns9SSSogamy, and the
from polygamy r. wrote, as far as we
last words D.. d. were the words ''moun-
can reeS5pfces. " But jeremiah says in
..ii'sssext 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 a blessing that though
man have piled on him oil 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 q
living man complaint" A diversity OF
oDinion in our time as well as in olden
time. Here is a young man Of light hair
and blue eyes and sound digestion and
generous salary and happily afiianced
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, yesV Here Is
a man who has come to the forties. he
is at the tiptop of the hill Of life. Ev-
cry step has been stumble and a
bruise. The people he trusted have
turned out deserters, and the money he
has honestly made he has been cheated
ont of. His nerves are out OF tune. dc
has poor appetite and all the food he
does eat does not assimilate. Forty miles
climbing up the hill Of life have been
TO him like climbing the Matterhorn,
and there are 40 miles yet to 60 down.
and descent is always more dangerous
than ascent Ask him whether life Is
worth living, and he will drawl out in
shivering and lugubrious and appalling
negative, mo, no, no''
Depends Upon the Kind OF Life.
How are we to decide this matter
righteously and intelligently? You will
find the same man vacillating, oscillat'
ing in his opinion from detection to ex'
uberance, and if he be very mercurial 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, Yes,
and if it blow from the northeast, and
YOU ask him, he will say mo. u
How are we, then, to get the question
righteously answered? Suppose we cal
all nations together in great con
vention on eastern or western heml'
sphere and let all those who are IN the
affirmative say aye" and all those
who are in the negative say mo. d
While there would be hundreds Of
thousands who would answer in the al
frmative, there would be more millions
who would answer in the negative, anC
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 vet it will commend itself to al
who hear me this day as the right an
swer. If Won ask me, us life worth liv
ing:" l answer, it all depends upon The
kind Of life YOU live
In the first place, I remark that lif'
of mere money getting is always fail
ure. because you will never get as mucl
as you want. The poorest people IN this
country arc the richest, and the next t
them those who are half as rich. There
is not a scissors grinder on the streets O
/ New York or Brooklyn who is so anx
ious to make money as these men VIII
have piled up fortunes year after yea
in storehouses, in government securities
in tenement houses, in whole cit
blocks.
You ought to see them jump whel
they hear the firebell ring. You ough
to see them in their excitement whel
some bank explodes. You ought to Sc
their agitation when there is proposed
reformation in the tariff Their nerve
tremble like harp strings, but no must
in the vibration. They read the report
from Wall street In the morning with
Government that threatens paralysis o
apoplexy, or, more probably, they have
telegraph or a telephone in their house
so they catch every breath Of change Il
the money market. The disease Of &C
emulation has eaten into them-eatel
into their heart, into their lungs, int
their spleen, into their liver, into thei
bones
Dominant Ideas.
Chemists have sometimes analyze'
the human body, and they say 1t Is S
much magnesia, so much lime, so mucl
chlorate Of potassium. If some Christian
chemist would analyze one Of thes
financial behemoths, he would find h
is made up of copper and gold and sil
yer and zinc and lead and coal an
iron. That is not life worth living
There are too many earthquakes in il
too many agonies In it, too many PEI
ditions in it. They build their castles
and they open their picture galleries
and they summon pIima donnas, an
they offer every inducement for happi
ness IN como and live there. mt happj