The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-05-06
LIGHT In YHE CLOUDS
DIT TALMAGE SAYS WE MUST
LOOK FOR SUNSHINE.

@ortunc--Weaith Often D~esfroys--Thc
Young Wan'- Hest fferitase--vfews
Of Heaveu.
This sermon OF DR.. Talmage will
have a tendency to take the gloom out
Of many lives and stir up a spirit of
h%ealthful anticipation; text, JOB
xxxvii, q, And now men see not the
bright light which is in the clouds"
Wind east. Barometer falling. Storm
signals out. Ship reeing maintop-
sail. Awnings taken in. Prophecies
Of foul weather everywhere. The
clouds congregate 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 a 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 a 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 yea 1875,
there were over 10000 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 a monster in our own and which is
wear by year destroying more than
that. It is the old bear of melancholy,
- ,y;+L rOCno1 Toan0nC nrOnOSp 10
chase it back to it's midnight caverns.
mean to do two sums-a sum IN SUD-
traction and a sum in additional
subtraction from your days OF depres-
sion and an addition to yOur days OF
iov. II God will help me, | will COM
mel YOU to see the clouds and compel
YOU to see the bright light that there
lis in the clouds and compel you TO
make the best of everything.
In the first place, you ought to make
the very pest of all your financial mis-
fortunes. During the panic a re"
years ago you all lost money. Some
of you lost it in most unaccountaDie
ways. For the question, How many
thousands of dollars shall L put aslde
this year?' you substituted the ques-
ton. How shall l pay my butcher n
baker and ClOthier n landloru!
You had the sensation of rowing nara
with two oars and yet all the time 60
ing down stream.
A DESTROYING POWER.
You did not say much about it be
cause it was not polite to speak much
of financial embarrassment, but your
wife knew. Less variety of wardrobe,
80 tIn Z nh1n Golf dpn11l
in art and tapestry. Compression; re-
t%renchment. Who did not feel the ne
c~essity of it? My friend, did you
make the best of this? Are you
aware of how narrow an escape you
made? Suppose you had reacheo the
fortune toward which you were rapidly
going? What then? You would nave
been as proud as Luclfer.
How few men have succeeded large
" in a financial sense and yet nam
tanned their simplicity n religious
conservation. Not one man out OF a
hundred. There are glorious excep-
tions. but the general rule is that IN
proportion as a man gets well on lor
this world he gets poorly off for the
next. He lOOses his sense OF depeh-
dence OF God. He gets distaste for
nrayer meetings. With plenty OF bank
stocks and plenty of government secu-
rites. what does that man knoW OF
nraver. Give me this day my daily
bread?' How few men largely sue
cesful in this world are bringing souls
to Christ, or showing self denial 1or
others or are eminent for plety! YOU
can count them all upon your myers
and two thumbs.
One of the old covetOus souls, when
he was sick and sick unto death used
10 have a basin brought ina DaSln
filled with gold-and his only amuse-
ment and the only relief he got Tor MS
infamed hands was n them
down through the gold and turning It
ND in the basin. Oh, what l~nfatuatlOn
and what destroying power money mas
for many a man! Now, you were
sailing at 80 knots the hour toward
these worthless of worldliness-what a
mercy it was, that honest defalcatlon!
The same divine hand that crushed
your s~torehouse, your bank, your Of
flee. your insurance company, lifted
YOU out of destruction. The day you
honestly suspended in business made
your fortune for eternity.
oh YOU say, Il could get along
yerv we'll myself, but l am so disap-
pointed that | cannot leave a compe-
tence for my children" My brother,
the same financial misfortune that Is
going to save your soul will a v you
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:
We'll there's no need of my working.
My father will soon step out, and then
I'll have just what / 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 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 now