The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-13
IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?
DIR. TALMAGE TALKS ON THE
PROBLEM OF THE PRESENT.

NAV lie Subjects Of Speculative
philosophy Hut to Every Man the
Present Is a Practical Entity That
He Must Consider and in Its Prop
or Confederation VIII he Found
the Answer 10 the Question lis
Life worth Living"
Washington. Sept Fin this sermon,
Rev. DR.. Talmage discusses a subject vi
tai to all. aud, never more timely than
how. when the struggle for power, posi-
ton, wealth. and happiness is so absorb
ing. The text is. James 4:1i What is your
lfe?''
If we leave to the evoluuonists to guess
where we came from and to the theologi-
ans to prophecy where we are going TO- we
still have left for consideration the impor-
tant 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 are sailing on it. So am
not surprised that everybody asks the
question. lis life worth living2"
Solomon in his unhappy moments. says
IL is not. Vanity" "vexation of spirit
mo good" are his estimate. The fact IS
that Solomon was at one time polygam-
ist. and that soured his disposition. one
wife makes man happy; more than one
makes him wretched. But Solomon was con-
yerted 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 lugubrlous, and sepulchral and end-
fled Lamentations" he plainly intimates
that the blessing of merely living is SO
great and grand a blessing that though a
man have piled on him all misfortunes and
disasters he has no right to complain. The
ancient prophet cries out in startling in
donation TO all lands and 10 all centuries
ssWherefore doth a living man complaint"
A diversity of opinion 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 hap
ply afhaneed, and on the way to become
a 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,
yesr' Here is a man who has come TO
the forties. He is at the tip-top of the
hill of life. Every step has been a Stun
BILE and a bruise. The people he trusted
have turned out deserters, and the money
he has honestly made he has been cheat
ed out of. His nerves are out of tune
He has poor appetite, and the food he
does eat does not assimlate. 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 life is worth
living, and he will drawl out in shivering
and lugubrious and appalling negative:
mo, no, no.
How are we to decide this matter right
eously and intelligently? You will find the
same man Yacillating, oscillating in his
opinion from detection to exuberance,
and if he be very mercurial in his tenn
permanent it will depend very much on
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
viii say: No" How are we then to get
the question righteously answered? Sup
pose we call all nations together in a
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 thousands
who would answer in the affirma tive, there
would be more millions who would answer
in the negative, and because of the great
er number who have sorrow and misfor-
tune and trouble the Noes would have
il. The answer l shall give will be diff
ferent from either, and yet II will COM
mend itself to all who hear me this day
as the right answer. If you ask me: rs
life worth living?' 1 answer, 1t all de-
ponds upon the kind of life you live
In the first place. 1 remark that a life of
mere money getting is always a failure,
because you will never get as much as you
want. The poorest people in this country
are the millionaires 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
government securities, in tenement
houses, in whole city blocks. You ought
20 see them jump when they hear the fire
bell ring. You ought to see them in their
excitement when a bank explodes. You
ought 10 see their agitation when there
Is proposed a reformation in the tariff
Their nerves tremble like harpstrings,
but no music in the vibration. They read
the reports from Wall street in the morn
ing with Government that threatens
paralysis or apopleXy, or more probably
they nave a telegraph or a telephone in
their own house, so they catch every
breath of change in the money-market.
The disease of accumulation has eaten in
20 them-eaten into their heart, into their
lungs, into their spleen, into their liver,
into their bones.
Chemists have sometimes ana.yzed the
human body, and they say it is so much
magnesia, so much lime, so much chic
rate Of potassium. If some Christian
chemist would analyze one of these finan-
cial 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 life worth living. There
are too many earthquakes in it, too many
agonies in it, too many perdltions in it,
They build their castles, and they open
their picture galleries. and they summon
prima donuas. and they offer every in
ducement for happiness TO come and live
there, but happiness win not come. They
send foomanned and postillioned equip
age to bring her; she viii not ride to their
door. They send princely escort; she win
not take their arm. They make their
gateways triumphal arches; she will not
ride under them. They set golden
throne before a golden plate; she turns
away from the banquet They call TO her