The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-09-16
REV. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
NOTED WASHINGTON DIVINE'S
SUNDAY DISCOURSE.

Are Successful and Others Fail A Life
of Sin and Worldly Indulgence is n
Dire Failure-The Life Worth Living.
TEXT: "What is your life?"-James iv.,
IA.
II We leave TO the evolutionists to guess
where we came from and to the theologians
to prophesy 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 empties, hut
there can be no doubt the fact that We are
sailing on it. So am not surprised that
everybody asks the question, "Is life worth
lfving?"'
Solomon, in his unhappy moments, says
1t is not, Vanity" ''veSation OF spirit" !"
''no good" are his estimate. The fact Is
that Solomon was at one time polygamist
and that soured his disposition. One wife
makes man happy; more than one makes
him wretched. But Solomon was converted
from polygamy to monogamy, and the last
words he ever wrote, as far as We can read
them, were the words mountains OF spices" !"
But jeremiah says life is worth living. In
a book supposed to be doleful and lugu-
brious and sepulchral and entitled "Lamen-
tations," he plainly intimates that the
blessings o; 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 ancient
prophet cries out in startling intonation to
all lands and to all centuries, Wherefore
doth living man complaint"
diversity Of opinion in our time as well
as in olden time. Here is young maa OF
light hair and blue eyes and sound diges-
tion and generous salary and happily
afiauced and on the way to become part
ner in q 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 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 Of. His nerves are out of
tune. He has poor appetite, and 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 forty miles yet to go down, and
descent is always more dangerous than as
cent. Ask him whether life is worth living,
and he will drawl out in shivering and
lububrious and appalling negative, 'No,
no, nor
How are we to decide this matter right
eously and intelligently? You will find the
same man vacillating, oseillating in his
opinion from detection to eSuberance, and
IL he be very mcrcurial in his temperament
IL will depend very much on which way the
wind blows. II the wind blow from the
/. northwest and you ask him, he will say
Eyes" and il it blow from the northeast
andyou ask him he will say, ''No." How
are we, then, TO get the question righteous
iy answered? suppose We call all nations
l., o-fn
or western hemisphere, and let all those
vho are il the affirmative say, aye" and
all those VINO are in the negative say, No"
While there would be hundreds Of thou
sands OF those who would answer in the af-
armative, there would be more millions
who 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 shall give
VIII be different from either, and yet it will
commend itself to all who hear me this day
as the right answer. II YOU ask me, ''1s
life worth living?" 1t answer, 81 all depends
upon the kind Of life you live"
In the first place, remark that life OF
mere money getting is always failure, be-
canse you will never get as much as you
want The poorest people in this county
are the millionaires. There is not scissors
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 fire bell ring.
You ought to see them in their excitement
when a bank explodes. You ought to see
their agitation when there is proposed
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 concern
ment that threatens paralysis or apolexy,
or more probably they have telegraph or
telephone in their own houses, so they
catch every breadth Of change in the money
market. The disease Of accumulation has
eaten into them-eaten into their Ecart,
into their lungs, into their spleen, into
their liver, into their bones.
Chemists have sometimes anaiyzed the
human body, and they say it Is 50 much
magnesia, so much lime, so much chlorate
of potassium. II some Christian chemist
would analyze one of these financial be-
hemoths, he would find he is made up Of
copper and gold and silver and zinc and
lead and coal and iron. That Is not life
worth living. There are too many earth
quakes in il. too many agonies in it, too
many perditions in it. They build their
CASTLES, anu lucy Opcu luSh pNtuI0 Soi-
leries, and they summon prima donnas,
and they offer every inducament for happi-
ness to come and live there, but happiness
will not come. They send footmanned and
postilioned equipage TO bring her. She
will not ride to their door. They send
princely escort. She will not take their
arm. They make their gateways trium-
phal arches. She will not ride under them.
They set golden throne before golden
plate. She turns away from the banquet.
They call to her from upholstered balcony.
She will not listen. Mark you, this is the
failure Of those who have had large accum-
ulation.
And then you must take into considera-
tion that the vast majority OF those who
make the dominant idea Of life money get
ting fall far short of aff1uence. 1t is esti-
mated that only about two out OF hun
dred business men have anything worthy
the name Of success. A man who spends
his life with one dominant idea OF financial
accumulation spends life not worth liv-
ing.
, So the idea Of worldly approval. II that
be dominant in a mans life he is miserable.
Every four years the two most unfortunate
men in this country are the two men NOM
!. mated for the Presidency. The reservoirs
of abuse and diatribe and malediction
gradually fill up, gallon above gallon. hogs
head above hogshead, and about midsnm-
mer these two reservoirs will be brimming