Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-07-14
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE !. &HE NOTED
DIVINE.

Bereavements Fortify Our Spirit.
TEXT: "Aud now men see not the bright
light which Is In the clouds."-J xxxvti:,
Wind east. Barometer falling. Storm
signals out. Ship reeang maintopsaiil
Awnings taken In. Prophecies of foul
weather everywhere. The clouds congre-
gate around the sun, proposing to abolish
him. But after awhile he assails the TANKS
of the clouds with flying artillery OF light,
and here and there is u sign Of clearing
weather. Many do not observe 1t. 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 look
ing for storm, where there is one man look
ing for sunshine. My object is to get you
and myself into the delightful habit OF
making the best of everything.
You may have wondered at the statistics
that in India, in the year 1875, there were
wild beasts and that in the year 1875 there
were in India over twenty thousand peo-
pie destroyed by wild animals. But there
Is a monster in our own land which Is year
by year destroying more than that. 1t is
the old bear of melancholy, and with Cos
pei weapons propose to chase it back to
its midnight caverns. mean to do two
sums-a sum in subtraction and u sum in
addition-a subtraction from your days
of depression and an addition to your days
of Joy. IfGod 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 misfortunes.
During the panic years ago, or the long
years of neutrality-suspicious., you all lost
money. Some OF you lost it in most unac-
countable ways. For the question, "How
many thousands of dollars shall put aside
this year," you substituted the question,
Glow shall I pay my butcher, and baker,
and clothier, and landlord?" You had the
sensation of rowing hard with two oars,
and vet all the time going down stream.
You did not say much about 1t because
it was not polite to speak much OF finan-
cial embarrassment; but your wife knew.
Less variety of wardrobe, more economy
at the table, self-denial in art and tap
estry. Compression; retrenchment. Who
did not feel the necessity of itp 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 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 yet maintained their
simplicity and religious consecrationl Not
one man out of a hundred. There are glori-
GUS exceptions, but the general rule is that
in proportion as a man gets we'll Off for this
world he gets poorly off for the next. He
loses his sense of dependence on God. He
gets distaste for prayer meetings. With
plenty OF bank stocks and plenty of Gov
ernment securities, what does that man
know of the PRAYER, give me this day my
daily bread?' How few men largely sue
cessful in this world are bringing souls to
Christ, or showing SELF denial for Others, or
are eminent for piety? You can count
them all upon your eight fingers and two
thumbs.
1ll
was sick, and sick unto death, used to
have basiE brought ina basin filed
with gold, and his only amusement and
the only relief he got for his infiamed
hands was running them down through
the gold and turning 1t up in the basin.
Oh, what infatuation and what destroying
power money has for many a mani Now,
YOU were sailing at thirty knots the hour
toward these vortices of worldliness-what
n mercy it was, that honest defalcationl
The same divine hand that crushed your
store-house, your bank, your office, your
strucriou. The day you honestly sus-
pended in business made your fortune for
eternity.
''Oh,'' you say, 81 could get along very
well myself. but am SO disappointed that
1 cannot leave competence for nv chill
dren.'' My brother, the same financial mis-
fortune 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, "Well, there's no need Of
my working; my father will soon step out,
and then I'll have just what want" You
cannot 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 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
rheumatism and shortness of breath as you
are. The only fortune worth anything
that you can give your child is the fortune
you put in his head and heart, OF all the
young men who 9started life with seventy
thousand dollars capital, how many turned
out well2 do not know half dozen.
The best Inheritance young man can
have is the feeling that he has to fight his
'wn battle, and that life is a struggle into
which he must throw body, mind and soul,
)r be disgracefully worsted. Where are
phe burial places OF the men who started
life with a fortune? Some Of them in the
potter's field; some in the suicides grave.
But few OF these men reached thirty-five
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 fortunes. and went
through them. The vast majority OF them
did not live to get their Inheritance. From
the gin-shop or house of infamy they were
brought home to their fathers house, and
in delirium began to pick off loathsome
reptiles from the embroidered pillow, to
fight back imaginary devils. And then
they were laid out in highly upholstered
oarlor, the casket covered with fiowers by
'ulgent parents-howers suggestive of a
ERECTION with no hope.
you sat this morning at your break
able, and looked into the faces of your
ren, perhaps you said within yourself
-things How wish could start
in life with a competence! How I
been disappointed in all my expecta-
of what 1 would do for them!" Upon
cene of pathos break with paan
lgratulation, that by your financial
your own prospects for heaven and
aspect for heaven of fyourchildren are
lily improved. You may have lost a
1t you have won palace. Let me
Y, in passing, do not put much stress
'reasures of this world. You cannot
m along with you. At any rate,
1ot take them more than two or
les; you will have to leave them at
cry. Attila had three collins. So
he OF this life that he decreed that