Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-11-12
WELFARE OF OTHERS
DR. TALMAGE SAYS WE SHOULD BAN
18Th SELFISHNESS.


Delivered From EVIL when He
Prayed For His Friends-Happiaes
Comes From Doing Good.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage wars on narrow
ness of view and urges n life helpful to
others; text. Job xiii, 10, And the
Lord turned the captivity of Job when
he prayed for his friends"
Comparatively few people read this
last chapter of the book of Job. The
earlier chapters are so full of thrilling
incident, of events so dramatically
portrayed. of awful ailments and ter
rifle disaster, of domestic infelicity, of
staccato passage. of resounding ad-
dress. of omnipotency proclaimed, OF
utterances showing Job to have been
the greatest scientist of his day, an ex-
pert in mining and precious stones,
astronomer, and geographer. and zoolo-
gist. and electrician, and poet that
most readers stop before they get to
my text, which, strangely and mys-
teriously, announces that ''the Lord
turned the captivity of Job when he
prayed for his friends"
Now. will you please explain to me
how Jobs prayer for his friends halted
his catastrophes? Give me some good
reason why Job on his knees in behalf
of the welfare of others arrested the
long procession of calamities. Mind you,
it was not prayer for himself. for then
the cessation of his troubles would
have been only another instance OF
prayer answered, but the portfolio Of
his disaster was rolled up while he
supplicated God in behalf of Eliphaz
the Temanite. Bildad the Shuttle and
Zophar the Naamathite. / must con-
fess to you that l had to read the text
over and over again before l got it's
full meaning-"And the Lord turned
the captivity of Job when he prayed
for his friends
Well, if you will not explain it to me,
L will explain it to you. The healthiest.
the most recuperatiye thing on earth
TO do is to stop thinking so much about
ourselves and go to thinking about the
welfare of others. Job had been study
ing his misfortunes, but the more he
thought about his bankruptcy the poor
Ell he seemed. the more he thought OF
his carbuncles the worse they hurt, the
more he thought of his unfortunate
marriage the more intOlerable became
the conjugal relation, the more he
thought of his house blown down the
more terrific seemed the cyclone. His
misfortunes grew blacker and black
er, but there was to come Il reversal of
these sad conditions. One day he said
to himself: Il have been dwelling toe
much upon my bodily ailments and my
wife's temper and my bereavements.
1t is time l began to think about others
and do something for others. and [ will
start now by praying for my three
friends" Then Job dropped upon his
knees, and as he did so the last Shackle
OF his captivity of trouble snapped and
fell Off Hear it, all We ages of time
and ali We ages of eternity, the Lord
turned the captivity of Job when he
prayed for his friends
A Mighty Medicament.
The fault with most of us is too
much self concentration-our health.
our fortunes. our advancement, our So
cial position, our achievements. our
losses. our defeats. our sufferings. our
persecution, our life, our death, our i'm
mortality. Of course there is q lawful
and righteous selfishness. In a world
anu III lluIS VI SuCu dClINllicS anu
rivalries and temptations we must look
after our own interests and our own
destiny or we will go under. Do not
wait for others to take care of you.
Take care of yourself. But it will not
hinder our preservation and prosperity
If we enlarge the sphere of our wishes
and prayers so as to take in others.
The law in the natural world would do
we'll for the moral and spiritual world
The centripetal force in nature would
throw everything in toward the center,
and the centrifugal force in nature
would throw everything out from the
center. but the centripetal and the cen
trifugal work beautifully together. The
one force that would throw everything
toward the center is balanced by the
force that would throw everything out
ward.
Our world. with its own interests.
feels the pull of other worlds No
world. no nation. no community. no
man, no woman, can afford to exist
only for itself or himself or herself
The hour in which Job has that solilo-
guy about the enlargement of his pray
erS SO as to take in his friends and he
put into execution his good resolution
was the hour when he felt O tonic, q
sedative. nervfne. a cataplasm, that
helped to cure his body and revived his
mortunes till they were a hundred per
cent better than ever before, for the
record is 1.-The Lord gave Job twice as
much as he had before" and tended to
make him a wonder of longevity. for
he lived 40 years after his troubles
were gone. Oh. what u mighty medical
Inent is the contemplation of and the
effort for the welfare of others!