The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-12-15
.TALMAGE'S SERMON.

DARK SAYINGS ON a HARP.
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From Psalms XIX, 4, as Follows: IT
Will Open My Dark Sayings Upon the
e narp''-Some Pertinent Interrogations
s for Everyday Life.
E The world is full of the inexplicable,
the impossible, the unfathomable, the
insurmountable. We cannot 60 three
steps in any direction without coming
up against hard wall of mystery,
riddles, paradoxes, profundities, laby-
rinths, 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 up some Of these sombre and dark
things and try to set them to sweet
music. II will open my dark sayings up
on the harp" So I look off upon society
and find people in unhappy conjunc-
ton OF circumstances, and they do not
know what it means, and they have
right to ask, Why is this? Why is
that? and I think will be doing a
good work by trying to explain some
OF these strange things, and make you
more content with your lot, and I 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 a harp.
Interrogation the first: Why does
God take out of this world those who
are useful and whom we cannot spare,
and leave alive and in good health so
many who are only a nuisance to the
world? I thought I would begin with
the very toughest Of all the seeming
inscrutables. Many of the most use
ful 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 Bradford, who was soon to
be put to death, saying: "Why doth
God suffer me and such other cater
pillars to live, that can do nothing
but consume the aims of the church,
and take away so many worthy work
men In the Lords vineyard?" Similar
questions are often asked. Here are
two men. The one is a noble char
acter and Christian man; he chooses
Tor lifetime companion one who has
1yy
worthy of him and he is worthy of
her; as merchant, or farmer, or pro-
1esslonal man, or mechanic, or artist,
ne tolls to educate and rear his chill
dren; he is succeeding, but he has
not yet established for his family a
1uH competency; he seems indispen-
sable 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 earthly
career, and the wife and children 20
into a struggle for shelter and food.
HIS next-door neighbor is a man who,
though strong and we'll, lets his wife
Gerry store, or some general loafng-
place, in the evenings, while his wife
seWs; his boys are Initiating his exam
pie, and lounge and swagger and
swear. All the use that man is in that
mouse is to rave because his coffee
is cold when he comes to late break
fast, or to say cutting things about
VIII
nothing for her wardrobe. The best
thing that could happen to that fam
lily would be that mans funeral; but
ne declines to die; he lives on and on,
and on. So 20 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 use
full 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 thew
N'eo6oCASA A11SuL nave gone OOWn IN
the vortex of worldliness which every
year swallows up ten thousand house
holds. 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 furnace was hot, it purified them.
and prepared them for an eternal ca
: reer 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 fifty, or sixty, or sew
enty years, because all 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 him to hang around Not
even in the temples, for they are full
of vigorous, alert and rapturous wor-
ship. If the good and useful go early