St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-05-28
A CHEERING SERMON.
Rev. Dr.. Talmage Points to the
Light Ahead.
Words OF Cheer for the Max
ing the Best or Financial Nisfor-
tunes, OF Sickness and
NJ Death.


ing the Best OF Financial Misf0r-
tunes, OF Sickness and
or Death.
In the following discourse Rev. T
Dewitt Talmage endeavors to poin'
out the rift in the cloud and the igh'
beyond to those whose lives are trou
BLEED. The text is:
And now men see not the bright light which
1 is in the clouds--Job xxxvii, 81
/ Wind east. Barometer falling. Storm
signals out. Ship reefing main top
sails. Awnings taken in. Prophetic.
of foul weather everywhere. The
clouds congregate around the sun, pro
posing to abolish him. But after
awhile he assails the TANKS of the
clouds with flying 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 1878,
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 of melancholy,
and with gospel weapons propose to
chase it back to its midnight cayerns.
mean to do two sums-a sum in sub
traction and sum in addition sub
traction from your days of depression
and an addition to your days of joy.
If God will help me 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 thou
sands of dollars shall put aside this
year?" you substituted the question::
How shall l pay my butcher, and
baker, and clothier, and landlord?-
You had the sensation of rowing hard
with two oars and yet all the time GO
ing down stream.
You did not say much about it be-
cause it was not polite to speak of
financial embarrassment; but your wife
knew. Less variety of wardrobe, more
economy at the table, self-denial in art
and tapestry. Compression; retrench-
ment. Who did not feel the necessity
Of it? My friend, did you make the
best of this? Are YOU aware of how
narrow an escape you made? Suppose
you had reached the fortune toward
which You were rapidly going? What
then? You would have been as proud
as I.ucifer.
How few men have succeeded largely
in a financial sense and yet retained
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 a
man gets well off for this world he
gets poorly off for the next. He loses
his sense of dependence on God. He
gets dictate for prayer meetings.
With plenty of bank stocks and plenty
OF government securities, what does
that man know Of the prayer: Give
me this day my daily bread?" How few
men largely successful in this world
are bringing souls to Christ, or show
ing sclf-denial for others, or are emf
nent to piety? You can count the m
all upon your eight fingers and two
thumbs.
One of the old coyetous souls, when
he was sick, and sick unto death, used
to have basin brought ina basin
filled with gold. and his only amuse-
ment and the only relief he got for his
intlamed hands was running them down
through the gold and turning it up in
the basin. On, what infatuation and
what destroying power money has for
ut 80 knots the hour toward these vor-
tees of worldliness-whata mercy it
was, that honest defalcation! The
same Divine hand that crushed your
storehouse, 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, Il could get along
very well myself, but l am so disap-
pointed that can not leave compe-
tcnce 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 have2-without
which habit of industry there is no
safety. The young man would say:
well. there's no need of my working;
my father will soon step out, and then
Ill have just what l want" You can
not hide from him how much you are
worth. You think you are hiding it; he
knows all about it. He can tell you
almost to a dollar. Perhaps he has
been 10 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
rs much worried about your rheuma-
tism and shortness of breath as you
are. The only fortune worth anything
that you can give your child is the
fort lIe you put in his head and heart.
of all the young men who started life
with $4,000 capital, how many turned
out well? l do not know half dozen.
The best inheritance a young man
can have is the feeling that he has to-
fight his own battle, and that life is
struggle into which he must throw
body, mind and soul. or be disgrace
fully worsted. Where are the burial
places of the men who started life with
fortune? Some of them in the pot
ter's field; some in the suicides grave
But few of these men reached 81 years
Of age. They drank, they smoked,
they gambled. In them the beast de-
stroyed the man. Some of them
lived long enough to get their for
tunes, and went through them. The