Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-09-18
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE?
REV. DIR. TALMAee DISCUSSES THIS
MoMeNToUS QUESTION.

The Kind Of Life That Is Not Worth Liv-
ing and the Kn,! That Opens Into Eter-
nity-The Struggle For Wealth, Position
and Happiness.
WASHINGTON, Sept. l2.-In this ser
mon Rev. DR.. Tulmage discusses sub
ject vital to all, and never more timely
than now, when the struggle for power,
position, wealth and happiness is so alb
sorbing The text is James iv, IA,
What is your life?"
If we leave to the cvolutionists to
guess where we came from and to the
theolcgians to prophesy where we are
going to, we still have left for consid-
Grafton the important fact that we are
here There may be sCme doubt about
where the riyer rises and some doubt
about where the river empties, but
there can lie no doubt about the fact that
We are sailing Gil it. So am not sur
prised that everybody asks tho ques-
tion, is life worth living?"
7S Life worth LivlnGT
Solomon, in his unhappy moments,
says it is not VANITY, " "ycxation OF
spirit, " mo good, )" are his estimate.
The fact is that Solomon was at one
time Il rolygamist and that soured his
dispositions One wife makes man
happy; moro than one makes him
wrrtrhcd Rut Solomon was converted
from polygamy to monogamy, ard the
last words lie ever wrote, us far as we
can read tEcm were the words "moun-
talns of spices ;" But jeremiah says life
is worth living In Il book supposed to
be dolefuland luGubrious and sepulchral
and entitled Lamentations, he plain
" intimatcs tl.at the blessing of merely
living is so great and grand bless
ing that Though man have piled on
him all Hi; fortunes and disasters he
has 10 right to complain. The ancient
prophet cries cut III startling information
TO all lands ard to all centuries,
Wherefore doth living man CON-
plain"
y diversity of opinion i'll 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 ;nj ply aflianced and OIL the way
TO bccCMe Il partner i'll a commercial
firm OF which lie is an important clerk.
Ask him whether life is worth living.
He will laugh in your face and say,
"Yes, yes, ycs!" Hero is a man who
has come to the fortics. He is at the
tiptcp Of the hill OF life Every step
has been Il stumble ard Il bruise. The
people he trusted have turned out de
serters, and the money he has honestly
made he has Ecen cheated out of. His
nerves arc out CT tune. Hc has poor ap-
petite, ard the feed he does cat does
not assimilate. Forty miles climbing
mp thc hill of life have been to him like
climbing tho Matterhorn, and there are
10 miles yet to go down, and descent Is
always morc dangerous than ascent.
Ask him whether life is worth living,
and he will draw cut in shivcring and
lugubricus and appalling negative,
mo, 10, Do!''
How are we to decide this matter
rightcously and intelligently? You will
find the same man vacillating, oscillat-
ing III his opinion from detection to ez-
uberance, and if Eo lie very mercurial
in his temperament it will depend very
much on which way the wind blows.
If the wind blow from the northwest
and you ask Kim, he will say, Yes, "
and if it Elow from the northeast and
you ask him lie will say, "No. y How
are we, then, to get the question right
eously answered: Suppose we call all
nations together in great convention
OH eastern or western hemisphere, and
lot all those who alo-in the affirmative
say, Aye" and all those who are in
the negative say, No" While there
would be hundreds of thousands who
would answer i'll tic affirmative, there
would lie moro millions who would an
swer in the negative, and because OF
the greater number who have sorrow
and misfortune ard trouble the noes
would have it. The answer | shall give
will be different from either, and yet 1t
will commend itself to all who hear me
this day as the right answer. If you
ask NE, lis life worth livins?" l an
swer, sit all depends upon the kind CT
life you live. "