The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-04-27
LOOK AT THE BEST SIDE.
That is Rev. DR.. Talmage's Advice
to All Mankind.
CHEEKY Application of Melancholy
subject-The Dread of Death Mis-
take = Charming Glimpse of
the Future Life.

Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage will have a
tendency to dispel the gloom in the
lives of the sick and sorrowing by
stirring up healthful spirit of antici-
patton. The text is Job 81: 81: "And
now men see not the bright light
which is in the Clouds"
Wind east. Barometer falling. Storm
signals out. Ship reefing main topsail!
Awnings taken in. Prophecies of foul
weather everywhere. The clouds con-
gregate around the sun, proposing to
abolish him. But after while he as
sails the flanks of the clouds with fly
ing artillery of light, and here and
there is a sign of clearing weather.
Many do not observe it. 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 year 1875,
there were over $4,000 people slain by
wild beasts, and that in the year 1875
there were in India over 10000 people
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 gospel weapons | propose to
chase it back to it's midnight caverns.
l mean to do two sums-a sum in sub
traction and sum in addition-a sub
traction from your days of depression
and an addition to your days of joy. If
God will help me 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 mis-
fortunes. During the panic few years
ago You all lost money. Some of you
lost it in most unaccountable ways.
For the question, "How many thou
sands of dollars shall put aside this
year?" you substituted the question,
"How shall l pay my butcher, and
baker, and clothier, and landlord"
You had the sensation of rowing hard
with two oars, and yet all the time 60
icE down stream.
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,
more economy at the table, self-denial
in art and tapestry. Compression; re-
trenchment Who did not feel the ne
cessity of it? 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 toward
which you were rapidly going? What
then? You would have been as proud
as Lucifer.
How few men have succeeded largely
in financial sense andyet maintained
their simplicity and religious consecra-
ton. Not one man out of . hundred.
There are glorious exceptions, but the
general rule is that in proportion as a
man gets we'll off for this world he gets
oorly off for the next. He loses his
sense of dependence on God. He gets
a distaste for prayer meetings. With
plenty of bank stocks and plenty of
government securities, what does that
man know of the prayer, "Give me this
day my daily bread?" How few men
largely successful 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.
One of the old covetous souls, when
he was sick, and sick unto death, used
to have basin brought ina basin
filed with gold, and his only amuse-
ment and the only relief he got for his
infamed hands was running them
down through the gold and turning
it up in the basin. Oh, what infatua-
tion and what destroying power money
has for many man. Now, you were
sailing at 80 knots the hour toward
these vortices of worldliness-whata a
mercy it was, that honest defalcation!
The same divine hand that crushed
your store-house, your bank, your office,
your insurance company, lifted you out
of destruction. The day you honestly
suspended in business made your for
tune for eternity.
AS you sat this morning at your
breakfast table, and looked into the
faces of your children, perhaps you
said within yourself: "Poor things!
How l wish could start them in life
with competence! How have been
disappointed in all my expectations of
what would do for themw Upon that
scene of pathos 1 break with a paean
of congratulation, that by your fnan-
cial losses your own prospects for
Heaven, and the prospect for the Heav-
en- of your children is nightly i'm
proved. You may have lost toy, but
you have won a palace.
"How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of Godv'
ut is easier for camel to go through
a needles eye than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of Heaven" What
does that mean? 1t means that the
grandest blessing God ever bestowed
upon you was to take your money
away from You. Let me here say, in
passing, do not put much stress on
the treasures of this world. You can
not take them along with you. At
any rate, you cannot take them more
than two or three miles; you will
haveto leave them at the cemetery.
Attila had three coffins. So fond was
he of this life that he decreed that
first he should be buried in coffin