Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-11-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
URGES A LIFE OF HELPFuLNEss
TO OTHERS.
Practical Lessons Drawn From tho Cap
tivity of job, Who Prayed for ais
friends-rhe Enaeacy OF Prayer--U.e-
iessness of Anger.


Copyright. 1900. Louis Klopsch, N. "
Washington, Nov. lin this dis
course DR.. Talmage wars on narrow
ness OF view and urges a 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 por-
trayed, of awful ailments and terrific
disaster, of domestic infelicity, of STAG
cato passage, of resounding address, of
omnipotency proclaimed, OF utterances
showing Job to have been the greatest
scientist of his day, an expert In min
ing and precious stones, astronomer
and geographer and zoologist and cleo
trician and poet. that most readers
stop before they get to my text which,
strangely and mysteriously, announces
that the Lord turned the captivity of
Job when he prayed for his friends"
Now, will you please explain to me
now Jobs prayer for his friends halted
his eatastrophes? Give me some good
reason why Job, on his knees in behalf
OF the welfare of others, arrested the
long procession of calamitles. Mind
you, 1t was not prayer for himself for
then the cessation Of his troubles
would have been only another instance
or prayer answered. But the portfolio
of his disaster was rolled up while he
duplicated God in behalf of Eliphaz
and Temanite, Bildad the Shuttle and
Zophar the Naamathite. | must con-
fess to you that had to read the text
over and over again before | got its
full meaning-"And the Lord turned
the captivity of Job when he prayed
for his friends"
\ Too Much Self Concen tration.
The fault with most of us is too
much Observation-Disclosures health,
our fortunes, our advancement, our
social position, our achievements, our
losses, our defeats, our sufferings, our
persecution, our life, our death, our
Immortality or course there is a law
tul and righteous selfishness. In a
world and in time of such activities
and 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 prosper
ity II we enlarge the sphere Of our
wishes and prayers so as to take In
others. The law in the natural world
would do well for the moral and spir-
itual world. The centripetal force in
nature would throw everything in to-
ward the center and the centrifugal
force in nature would throw every
thing out from the center. But the
centripetal and the centrifugal work
beautifully together. The one force
that would throw everything toward
the center is balanced by the force
that would throw everything outward.
Our world, with its own interests,
feels hepull 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 soliloquy about
the enlargement of his prayers so as to
take in his friends, and he put into ex-
ecution his good resolution, was the
hour when he felt tonic, sedatlve,
a nervine, a cataplasm that helped to
cure his body and revived his fortunes
till they were hundred per cent bet
ter than ever before, for the record is
THE Lord gave Job twice as much as
he had before" and tended to make
him wonder of longevity, for he lived
140 years after his troubles were gone.
Oh, what mighty medicament Is the
contemplation of and the effort for the
welfare OF others!
The Prayer of job.
After the three friends had COM
pleted their infamous silence of week
they began to lecture Job. First, Eli
phaz the Temanite opens with a long
story about dream which he had in
the night and irritates the sufferer
with words that make things worse
instead of better and sets him in an
attitude of defense against the lecturer.
Then comes Bildad the Shuttle, who
gives the invalid round scolding and
calls him garrulous and practically
tells him that he deserved all that ne
got and that IL he had behaved him
self Alright he would not have lost his
house or his children or his estate He
practically says: Job, will tell you
what is the matter with you. You are
bad; you are hypocrite; you are nov
getting paid for your wickedness." No
wonder that there came from Job an
outburst of indignation which calls
out the other quondam friend, Zophar
the Naamathite, who begins denounc-
ing Job by calling him liar and keeps
on the discourse until Job responds to
all three of them in the sarcastic
words. mo doubt but we are the peo-
pie, and wisdom shall die with YOU"
The Trial of job.
Notice that this flagellation by the
three friends was premeditated. They
did not merely happen in and come
suddenly upon trouble for which they
could not offer compound. The Bible
says. They had made an appointment
together" The interview was prear-
ranged. They had agreed as to what
they would say to the sick man. You
can see that their remarks were not
extemporaneous. What they said was
sublimely poetic. They rose In style
into what III later times we would call
the Homeric or Dantesque. But JOB
was not in need OF poetry so much as
salve for his eruptive disorder. He
was not dying for lack OF a paragraph
in blank verse. He was not so much
In need Of didactic lecture about the
Justice of God as an assurance Of the