The Progress., 1898-12-17
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE DELIVERED
BY THE ABLE DIVINE.
Subject: "Iife's Minor Chord"-Tria's and
Tribulations Are Necessary For the
Proper Development of Character
Mans CONDENSATION For Suffering.


the harp. Psalm Xix, 4.
The world Is full of the inexplcable, the
impassable. the unfathomable, the insur.
m0untable. We cannot go three steps in
any direction without coming up against
hard wall Of mystery, riddles, parado1es
profundties, labyr1ths; problems that We
cannot solve, hieroglYphics that we cannot
decipher, anagrams We cannot spell out
sphinxes that will not speak. For that
reason David in my text proposed to take
I'D some Of these sOmber and dark things
and try to set them to sweet music, II
will open my dark sayings on a harp
SO I look off upon society and find people
in unhappy conjunction of circumstances
and they do not know what it means, and
they have a right to ask, Why is this? Why
is that? and think will be doing a good
work by trying TO explain some Of these
strange things and make you m ore content
with your lot and shall only be answer
ing questions that have often been asked
me, or that we have ali asked ourselves,
while I try to set these mysteries to music
and open nv dark savings on harp.
Interrogation the first: Why does God
take out of this world those who are use.
full and whom we cannot spare and leave
alive and in good health 90 many who are
only nuisance to the world? 7 thought
would begin with the very toughest Of all
the seeming inscrutables. Many OF the
most useful men and women die at thirty
or forty years Of age, while you often find
useless people alive at sixty and seventy
and eighty. John Careless wrote to Brad
ford, who was soon to be put to death,
saying: "Why doth God suffer me and such
other caterpilllars to live, that can do
nothing but consume the aims Of the
church, and take away so many
worthy workmen in the Lords vine
yard?" Similar questions are often
asked. Here are two men. The one is
noble character and a Christian man.
He chooses for lifetime com panion one
who has been tenderly reared and she
is worthy of him and he is worthy Of her.
As merchant or farmer or professional man
or mechanic or artist he tolls to educate
and rear his children. He is succeeding,
but he has not yet established for his family
full competency. He seems indispensable
to that household; but one day. before he
has paid off the mortgage on his house, he
is coming home through strong north
east wind and q chill strikes through
him, and four days of pneumonia end
his earthly career, and the wife and
children go into a struggle for shelter
and food. His next door neighbor is a
man who though strong and we'll, lets his
wife support him. He is around at the
grocery store or some general loafing place
in the evenings while his wife Sews. His
boys are initiating his example, and lounge
and swagger and swear. All the use that
man is In that house is to rave because the
coffee Is cold when he comes to late
breakfast, or to say cutting things about
his wife'S looks when he furnishes nothing
for her wardrobe. The best thing that
could happen to that family would be that
mans funeral, but ne declines TO die. He
lives on and on and on. SO we have all
noticed that many of the useful are early
cut off, while the parasites have great vital
tenacity.
take up this dark saying on my harp
and give three or four thrums on the string
in the way Of surmising and hopeful guess.
Perhaps the useful man was taken out of
the world because he and his family were
50 constructed that they could not have
endured some great prosperity that might
have been just ahead, and they altogether
might have gone down in the vortex of
worldliness which every year swallows up
10000 households. And 80 be went while
he was humble and consecrated, and they
were by the seventies of life kept close to
Christ and fitted for usefulness here and
high seats In heaven, and when they meet
at last before the throne they will ac-
knowledge that, though the furnace
was hot, 1t purified them and pre-
pared them for an eternal career OF
glory and reward for which no other kind
OF life could have fitted them. On the
other hand, the useless man lived on to
hffV r
the ease he ever can have he must have In
this world, and you ought not, therefore
begrudge him his earthly longevity. In
all the ages there has not single loafer
ever entered heaven. There is no place for
ain there to hang around; not even in the
temples, for they are full of vigorous,
alert and rapturous worship. If the good
and useful go early, rejoice for them that
they have so soon got through with human
Life, which at best is a struggle. And il
the useless and the bad stay rejoice that
they may be out In the worlds fresh air a
good many years before their final incar-
ceratiOn.
Interrogation the second: Why do good
people have so much trouble, sickness,
bankruptcy, persecution, the three black
vuitures sometimes putting their fierce
beaks into one set Of tangled nerves? I
think now of good friend I once had. He
was consecrated Christian man, an elder
In the church, and as polished Christian
gentleman as ever walked Broadway. First
his general health gave out and he hobbled
around on cane, an old man at forty.
After awhile paralysis struck him. Having
by poor health been compelled suddenly to
quit business, he lost what property he
had. Then his beautiful daughter died;
then son became hopelessly demented.
Another son, splendid of mind and COM
handing of presence, resolved that he
would take care of his fathers household,
put under the swoop of yellow fever at
Fernandina, Fla, he suddenly expired. SO
you know good men and women who have
had enough troubles, you think, to crush
1fty people. No worldly philosophy could
take such trouble and set it to music, or
play It on violin or flute, but Idare to open
that dark saying on a gospel harp.
You wonder that very conseerated people
nave trouble? Did you ever know any
very consecrated man or woman who had
not had great trouble? Neveri 1t was
through their troubles sanctified that they
were made very good. II you find any
whera in this city man who has now, and