The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-01-12
BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE
There Is Sunshine on Every Cloud
Says DR.. Talmage.
What We Consider Gods AfnictiOns
o.. Is Are Always Influences for
l:Ood-Nhy the Useful Are
AIKEN.

ICopyright. 1881 Washington, Dec. I.
In this discourse DR.. Talmage takes
an optimistic view of many Things that
are usually accounted as ineNplicable
in human experience aad shows us that
even trouble and atiiiction may not lie
wholly without their brighter side.
Text, Psalm 49:4: Il will open my dark
saying upon the harp.
The world is full of the ineNpicable
the impossible, the unfathomable, the
insurmountable. We cannot go three
steps in any direction without coming
up against hard wall of mystery, rid
dies, paradoxes, profundities, labv
rinths, problems that we cannot solve
hieroglyphics that we cannot deciphcr,
anagrams we cannot spell out. sphinNe:
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 a
harp" So look off upon society and
find people in unhappy conjunction of
circumstances. and they do not know
what it means. and they have right to
ask: Why is this? Why is that? And
l 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 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 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? l thought . would begin with
the very toughest of ali 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 GO 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.
tions are often asked. Here are two
men. The one is a noble character and
Christian man. He chooses for a
lifetime companion one who has been
tenderly reared. an6 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
1or his family full competency He
seems indispensable to that household.
out one day, before he has paid off the
mortgage on his house, he is coming
nome through strong northeast wind,
and a 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.
MS next door neighbor is man who.
though strong and we'll. lets his wife
support him. He is around at the gro
Gerry store or some general loafing place
N the evenings, while his wife sews.
MS boys are initiating his example and
lounge and swaeger ard swear. All the
use that man is in that house is to rave
because the coffee is cold when he comes
10 late breakfast or to say cutting
.n'ngs about his wife's looks, when he
furnishes nothing for her wardrobe.
ahe best thing that could happen to
mat family would be that mans fu-
neral, but he declines to die. He lives
% and on and on. So we have all no.
''ced that many of the useful are earlv
cut OIL, while the parasites have great |
vital tenacity.
'ake up this dark saying on my harp
snd give three or four thrums on the
s'r'ng in the way of surmising and
"opeiui guess. Perhaps the useful man
vas 'aken out of the world because he
.uu !. us FAMILY were 50 constructed that
ney could not have endured some great
prosperity that might have been lust
.ueao. and they all together might have
sv.e down in the vortex of worldIiness
en every year swallows up 10000
-o'seholds. And so he went while he
"as humble and consecrated, and they
!. v =, ov the severitics of life kept close
:" enrlst and fitted for usefulness here
= .aa nigh seats in Heaven, and when
.n; .as meet at last before tn, throne they
""' acknowledge that. tho agh the fur
.s.e was hot, it purified tbs m and pre-
faieo them for the eternal career of
s.o.y and reward for which no other
az uo OF life could have fitted them, On
.se ~ other hand. the useless man lived
~. ~ 70 81 or 60 or 20 years because all
i ~ as. ease he ever can have lie must have
- ~ 'n,s world. and you ought not there
a. e Cegrudge him his earthly lonpev.
~ ~ IN all the ages there has not a
rs'e ioafer ever entered Heaven
ercuni. ''sie 20 nang
49, n.serrogation the second: Why do
soo peopls have SO much trouble s,cl
,aa ~. bankruptcy. persecution. the :
In. o'aeh vultures, sometimes out a:
sr. 'ne'r fierce beaks into one Sc, of
ir;s.s iu nerves? think now of good
: once had. He was a conse-