The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-12-31
BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE
There Is Sunshine on Every Cloud
Says DR.. Talmage.
What We Consider Gods Affections
ON Us Are Always Influences for
Good-Why the Useful Are
Taken.

are usually accounted as inexpicable
in human experience ald shows US that
even trouble and affection may not be
wholly without their brighter side
Text, Psalm 49:4: Twill open my dark
saying upon the harp"
The world is full of the ineAplicabe
the impossible. the unfathomab Bile, the
insurmountable We cannot go three
steps in any direction without coming
up against a hard wall of mystery, rid
dies. paadoxes, profundities, aby
rinihs, problems that we cannot solve
heroglyphics that we cannot decipher.
anagrams we cannot spell out. sphinxes
that will not speak. For that reason
David in my text proposed to take up
some of these somber and dark things
and try to set them to sweet music
II will open my dark sayings on
harp" So | look off upon society and
find people in unhappy conjunction of
circumstances. and they do not know
what ii means. and they have right to
ask; Why is this? Why is that? And
think will be doing good work by
trying to explain some OF these strange
things and make you more content with
your lot. and shall only be answering
questions that have often been asked
me or that we have all asked ourselves
while | try to set these mysteries to
music and open my dark sayings on
harp
Interrogation the first: Why does
God take out of the world those who
are useful and whom we cannot spare
and leave alive and in good health so
many who are only nuisance TO the
world? | thought ! would begin with
the very toughest of all the seeming
inscrutables, Many of the most useful
men and women die at 30 or 40 years
| of age. while you often find useless peo-
| pie alive at 60 and 20 and So John
| Careless wrote TO Bradford. who was
soon to be put to death. saying: "Why
doth God suffer me and other such cat
erpillars to live that can do nothing but
| consume the aims of the church and
take away so many worthy workmen
in the Lords vineyard?" Similar ques.
tons are often asked. Here are two
men. The one Is noble character and
a Christian man. He chooses for
lifetime companion one who has been
| tenderly reared. and she is worthy of
him and he is worthy of her. AS mer-
chant or farmer or professional man
or mechanic or artist he tolls to edu
cate and rear his children. He is sue
ceeding. 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 northeast wind.
and chill strikes through him. and
four days of pneumonia end his earth
" career. and the wife and children go
into struggle for shelter and food
| His next door neighbor is a man who
though strong and well. let's his wife
support him. He is around at the gro
Gerry store or some general loafing place
in the evenings, while his wife sews.
His boys are initiating his example and
Lounge and swagger ard swear. All the
use that man is in that house is to rave
because the coffee is cold when he comes
to a 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 fu-
neral. but he declines to die He lives
on and on and on. So we have all no.
ticed 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 SO constructed that
they could not have endured some great
prosperity that might have been just
ahead and they all together might have
gone down in the vortex of worldliness
which every year swallows up 10000
households. And so he 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 acknowledge that. though the fur
mace was hot. it purified them and pre-
pared them for the 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 so or GO or 70 years because all
the ease he ever can have he must have
In this world. and you ought not there
fore begrudge him his earthly longev-
ity In all the ages there has not a
single loafer ever entered Heaven.
There is no place for him there to hang
around.
Interrogation the second: Why do
good people have SO much trouble, sick
ness, bankruptcy, persecution. the
three black vultures, sometimes put
ting their fierce bealls into one set of
tangled nerves? think now of good
friend I once had. He was a conse-
Grated Christian man, an elder in the
church. and as polished Christian gen.
tleman as ever walked Broadway
First his general health gave way, and
he hobb.ed around on cane. an old
man at 40. After awhile paralysis
struck him. Having by poor health
been compelled suddenly to quit bust
ness, he lost what property he had