The Penn's Grove record., 1894-07-27
REV. DIR. TALMAGB.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Worth Living"

II we leave to the evo!utioI's's to 80 SO
where we lame from, and to the theo'o :; 'n4
to prophesy where we ara 20 NJ to, W. still
have left for consideration the iinpori mt
fact that we are here. There may he So le
doubt about where tho river rises, sud
some doubt about where the river emD'i -,
but there can be no 6oult about the fact
that we are sailing on it. 81 am not T.
prised that everybody asks tha question. 'Ts
life worth iiving2"
Solomon in his, unhappy moments y. it
is not. "Vanity." "vexation Of spirit, !" .'no
good" are his estimate. The fact IL that
Solomon was at one time q poly ,amist, an |
that soured his disposition. One wife makes
man happy more than one makes him
wretched. But Solomon was converted fro n
polygamy to mons2amy, and the last wor Is
he ever wrote, az far as we can real the n,
were the words "mountainS Of Spices" 1t
Jeremiah says in my text life Is worth l;y,nZ.
In a book supposed 10 be doleful and
lugubrlous and sepulchral AMI entitled
Lamentations he plainly intimates that
the blessing OF merely Twin , is so great and
grand n blessing that though a msa have
piled on him all mis'ortunes an disasters
be has no right to complain. Tho author OF
| my text cries out In startling intonation to
A all lands and to all centuries, 'Yherefore
I doth a living man complain?' A diversity
1 OF opinion in our time as well ms in ollen
| time. Here Is a young man OF light hair
\ and blue eyes an sound digestion and
| generous salary and happily amlnaed and
in the way to become the partner in a com-
1 mercial firm OF which he is an important
clerk. Ask him whether life is worth living.
He will laugh in your face AM say, "Yes,
| yes, yes Here is n man who has coma to
the forties. He is at the tiptop of the hi! of
life. Every step has been a stumble and II
| bru'sn. The people he trusted have turned
out deserters, and the money he has honestly
l rnnin ha hno ham nlnntal AtH 81 III,
nerves are out OF tune. He has poor
appetite, and all the fool he docs 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
| yet to go down, and descent is always more
dangerous than ascent. Ask him whether
| lille is worth living, and he will drawl out in
shivering and lugubrious and appalling
negative, ono, no, nor
How are we to decide this matter right.
eously and in~telligentlyf You will find the
same man vacillating. osclllating In his opin.
| ion from detection to exuberance, and If he
be very mercurial in his temperament il will
depend very much upon which wav the
wind blows. II the wini blow from the
northwest, and you ask him, he will say,
YES" and IL it blow from the northeast,
| and you ask him, he will say mo" How
are We, then. to get the question righteouslp
answered. Suppose We cali all nations to-
| kctner III u great convention on eastern or
| western hemisphere an 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, an bee iuse OF the
greater number who have sorrow and mis-
fortune and trouble the mo IS would have
1t. The answer / shall give will be different
from either, and yet it will commend itself
| TO all who hear me this day as the right an
swer. II you ask me, as life worth %livinc2"
l answer, it all depend Is upon the kind of I.te
you live.
In the first place, I remark that a life Of
mere money getting is always q 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, ~ govern
nent securities, in tenement houses, in
whole city blocks.
You ought to see them jump when they
hear the tirebell ring. You slght 10 see
them in their excitement when so ne bank
%eyplodes. 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 n concernment that threatens
paralysis or apoplexy, or, more probably,
they have a telegraph or q telephonei in their
house, so they catch every breath OF change
in the money market. The disease of accu-
mutation has eaten into them-eaten into
their heart, into their luhgs, into their
spleen. into their liver, into their bones.
emf have sometimes analysed the hui
man body. and they say it is SO much mag
nesia, so much lime. so much chIorate of po-
tassium. II some Christian chemist would
analyze one of these financial behemoths, he
would ind he is made up OF copper and gold
and silver and zinc and lead and coal AMI
iron. That is not a life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes in it, too many
agonies in it, too many perditions In 1t. They
bald their castles. and they open their pict-
urs galleries, and they summon prima dom
mas, and they offer every inducement for
happiness to come and live there, but happi-
ness will not come.
They send f~ootlnanned and postillioned
cquipage to bring her she will not ride to
their door. They send princely escort she
will not take their arm. They make their
gAteways triumphal arches. she will not
Tide under them. They set n golden throne
teforO a golden plato she turns away from
the banquet. They oGli to her from up
holstered balcony sho will not listen. Mark
yoI, this Is tho failure ofthose who have had
large accumulation.
And then you nlnst take into consideration
that the vast majority Of those who make the
dominant idea of life money getting fal! far
short OF afluencc. 1t is estimated that only
about two out of a hundred business men
have anything worthy the name OF success.
A man who spends his life with one don't
nant idea of financial accumulation spendsa
life not worth living.
So the idea OF worldly approval. If that
l In Inrntnnp In "a ...nN, ItTn h. il ~ fGnFo h1a
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 diatribe and malediction will gradually
oil up, gallon above gallon, hogshead above
hogshead, and about autumn these two reser-
Tolrs will be trimming full, and a hose will
Re 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 false
hood, and the caricatufe, and the anathena,
and the caterwauling, and the fifth, and they
will be rolled in 1t and rolled over and over
in 1t until they are choked and submerged
and strangulated, and at every sign of re-
turning consciousness they will be barEed
at by all the hounds OF political parties from
ocean to ocean,
And yet there are q hundred men to-day
struggling for that privilege, and there are
thousands of men who are helping them in
inc IuSRlt NOMt lhdl 10 hOt nv ""N',
living. You can get slandered and abused
cheaper than that! Take It on a smaller
scale. Do not be so ambitious to have u
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 tho struggle for what is called
social position.
Tens OF thousands OF people trying to get
into that realm, and they arc under terrible
tension. What is social position! II is n
dinicGlt thing to define, but We all know
what II is. Good morals and intelligence are
not necessary. hut wealth or the show o.
wealth is absolutely Indispensable. There
are mon to-day Ms notorious for their lih'r-
tinism as the night Is famous for its dark.
ness who move In what is called high social
position. There are hundreds Of out and out
rakes in American society whose names are
mentioned among the distinguished guests
at the great levees. They have annexed all
the known human vices and are longing foi
other worlds OF diabolism to conquer. Good
morals are not necessary in many Of the ex'
! allied circles OF ~o~ErL- -