The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-08-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Worth Living"

TEXT: "Wherefore doth living mGn COM
plain?"-Lamentation Ill, 80.
II we leave to the evolutionists to gness
where we came from, and to the theoiogians
to prophecy where we are going to, we still
have left for 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 emptles,
but there can be no doubt about the lact
that we are sailing on it. So am not sur
prised that everybody asks the question, rs
life worth living?"
Solomon in his unhappy moments says 1t
is not. ssvanity," "veXation OF spirit, "no
gooj." are his estimate. The fact Is that
Solomon was at one time a polygamist, and
that soured his disposition. One wife makes
q man happy; more than one makes him
wretched. But Solomon was converted from
polygamy to monoSamy, and the last words
he ever wrote. as far rs we can read them,
were the words "mountains OF Spices But
jeremiah says in my text life is worth living.
In ok supposed to be doleful and
Iuyubzssrs and sepulchral and entitled
sIamentations'' he plainly intimates that
the blessing OF merely living Is so great and
grand blessing that though man have
piled on him all miSfortuneS 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 living man complain| diversity
OF opinion in our time as we'll rs in olden
time. Here is young man OF light hair
and blue eyes AMI sound digestion and
generous salary and happily affianced and
IN the way 20 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 and say, "4es,
yes, yesr' Here is man who has come to
the forties. He is at the tiptop OF the hill OF
life. Every step has been stumble and
bruise. The people he trusted have turned
out deserters, and the money he has honestly
made he has been cheated out o. His
nerves are out of tune. He has poor
appetite, and all the food he dos eat does
not assimilate. Forty miles climbing up the
hill OF life have been to him like climbing
the Matterhorn, and there are forty miles
vet to 30 down, and descent Is always more
dangerous than ascent. Ask him whether
life is worth living, and he will drawl out IN
shivsring and lugubrious and appalling
negative. "No, no, no"
eously and intelligentiy? You will find the
same man vacillating. oscillating in his opin-
ion from detection to eHuoerance, and II he
be very mercurial in his temperament 1t 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 II 1t blow from the northeast,
and you ask him, he will say "No." How
are we, then. to get the question righteously
pether In 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 thou
sands who would answer IN the affirmative,
there would be more millions who would
answer In the negative, and because OF the
greater number who have sorrow and mis-
fortune and trouble the "noss' would have
from either, and yet it will commend itself
to all who hear me this day as the right an
swer. II you ask me, sis life worth living"
answer, 1t all depends upon the kind oflite
you live.
In the first place, remark that life OF
mere money getting Is always failure, be-
cause you will never get as much as you
want. The poorest people in this country
are the richest, and the 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 storehouses, in govern.
ment securities, in tenement houses, In
whole city blocks.
You ought to see them jump when they
hear the firebell ring. You ought TO sea
them in their excitement when some bank
explodes. You ought to see their agitation
when there is proposed reformation lu
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 concernment that threatens
paralysis or apoplexy, or, more probably.
they have telegraph or telephone in their
house, 80 they catch every breath OF change
. In the money market. The disease Of accu-
mutation has eaten into thsm-eaten into
their heart, into their lungs, into their
spleen. into their liver, into their bones.
Chemists have sometimes analysed the hu-
man body. and they say 1t is so much mag
nesla, so much lime. so much chlorate OF po-
tassium. II some Christian chemist would
analyze one Of these financial behemoths, he
would find he is made up OF copper and gold
and silver and zinc and lead and coal and
iron. That is not n life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes In it. too many
agonies In il, too many perditions IN it. They
build their castles. and they open their pict-
ure galleries, and they summon prina don.
mas, and they offer every inducement for
happiness 10 come and live there, but happi-
ness will not come.
They send footmanned and postillionej
equipsge to bring her she will not ride tc
their door. They send princely escort shs
will not take their arm. They make their
gateways triumphal arches; shs will not
ride under them. They set q 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 isthe failure ofthose who have had
large accumulation.
And then you must take into consideration
. thu. ,hN = tha
dominant idea OF life money getting fall far
short OF atfiuence. 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-
Eant idea Of financial accumulation spends L
life not worth living.
So the idea OF worldly approval. II 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 diatrihe and maIediction will gradually
fill up. gallon above gallon, hogshead above
hogshead, and about autumn thesetwo reSer-
voirs will be brimming full, and hose will
be attached 10 each one, and it will play
away on these nominees, and they will have
. to stand II and take the abuse and the false
hood, and the caricature, anu the anathema.
and the caterwauling, and the filth, and they
will be rolled In it and rolled over and over
in Il until they are choked and submerged
and strangulated. and ut 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
struggling for that privilege, and there are
thousands Of men who are helping them in
the struggle. Now, that is not u life worth
living. Ycu can get slandered and abused
cheaper than that! Take 1t on smallei