Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1898-05-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
STORM CLOUDS BRIGHTENEp"
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From the Text Job 37:a1 as Follows:
And Now Men Soc Not the Bright
Light Which Is in tho Clouds"-Com-
fort of Christian Teachings.

1'~AA' sAo AdAho VI IAc CAOuuS Will Ivy
ing artillery Of light, and here and
there is sign of clearing weather.
Many do not observe it. Many do not
realize it. "And now men see not the
bright light which is in the Clouds"
In other words there are hundred men
looking for storm where there is one
man looking for sunshine. My object
will be to get you and myself into the
delightful habit of making the best of
everything.
You may have wondered at the sta
tistics that in India, in the year 1875,
there were over $4,000 people slain by
wild beasts, and that in the year 1876
there were in India over 10000 people
destroyed by wild animals But there
is monster in our own land which is
year by year destroying more than
that. 1t is the old bear CT melancholy,
and with gospel weapons propose to
chase it back to it's midnight caverns.
l mean to do two sums-a sum in sub
traction and a sum in addition-a sub
traction from your days of depression
and an addition to your days of joy. If
God will help me I will compel you to
see the bright light that there is in the
clouds, and compel you to make the
best of everything.
In the first place, you ought to make
the very best of all your financial mis-
fortunes. During the panic few years
ago you all lost money. Some of you
lost it in most unaccountable ways.
For the question, "How many thous-
ands of dollars shall put aside this
year," you substituted the question,
How shall pay my butcher, and
baker, and clothier, and landlord?"
You had the sensation of rowing hard
with two oars, and yet all the time
going down stream.
You did not say much about it be-
cause it was not polite to speak much
Of financial embarrassment; but your
wife knew. Less variety Of wardrobe,
more economy at the table, self-denial
in art and tapestry. Compression; re-
trenchment. Who did not feel the ne
cessity of it? My friend, did you make
the best of this? Are you aware of
how narrow an escape you made? Sup
pose you had reached the fortune to-
ward which you were rapidly going?
What then? You would have been as
proud as Lucifer.
How few men have succeeded largely
in financial sense and vet maintained
their simplicity and religious consecra-
ton! Not one man out of hundred,
There are glorious exceptions, but the
general rule is that in proportion as
man gets well off for this world he gets
poorly off for the next. He loses his
sense of dependence on God. He gets a
distaste for prayer meetings. With
plenty Of bank stocks and plenty of
government securities, what does that
man knows of prayer, "Give me this
day my daily bread?" How few men
largely successful in this world are
bringing souls to Christ, or showing
self-denial for others, or are eminent
for piety! You can count them all up
On your eight fingers and two thumbs
One of the old covetous souls, when
he was sick, and sick unto death, used
to have a basin brought ina basin
filled. with gold, and his only amuse-
ment and the only relief he got for his
lnf1amed hands was running them down
through the gold and turning it up in
the basin. Oh, what infatuation and
what destroying power money has for
many a man! Now, you were sailing
at thirty knots the hour toward these
vortexes of worldliness-what a mercy
it was, that honest defalcation! The
same divine hand that crushed YOUR
store-house, your bank, your office,
your insurance company, lifted you out
of destruction. The day you honestly
suspended in business made your for
tune for eternity.
oh" you say, II could get along
very we'll myself, but 1 am so disap-
pointed that I cannot leave a compe-
tence for my children" My brother,
the same financial misfortune that is
going to save your soul will save your
children. With the anticipation of
large fortune, how much industry
would your children have?-without
which habit of industry there is no
safety. The young man would say,
We'll, there's no need of my working;
my father will soon step out, and then
I'll have just what want" You can
not hide from him how much you are
worth. You think you are hiding it;
be knows all about it. He can tell you
almost to dollar. Perhaps he has
been to the county Office and searched
the records of deeds and mortgages,
and he has added it all up, and he has
made an estimate of how long you will
probably stay in this world, and is not
as much worried about your rheumat-
ism and shortness of breath as you
are. The only fortune worth anything
that you can give your child is the for
tune you put in his head and heart
Of all the young men who started life
with $4,000 capital, how many turned
out well? do not know half dozen.
Again, remark, you ought to make
the very best of your bereavements.
The whole tendency is to brood over
these separations, and to give much
To hov