Connecticut western news., 1900-11-15
WELFARE OF OTHERS
DIR. TALMAGE SAYS WE SHOULD BAN
 lSA SELFlSHNESS.

DR. TALMAGE SAYS WE SHOULD BAN
 iSA SELFlSHNESS. Cites the Example of Job, Who Was Delivered From Evil When He Prayed For His Friends-Happiness Comes From Doing Good. WASHINGTON, Nov. 11.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage wars on narrow ness of view and urges a life helpful to others; text, Job 0lii, 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 rife 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 te my text, which, strangely and mys- terlously, 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 or prayer answered, but the portfolio of his disaster was rolled up while he supplicated God in behalf of Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. I must con fess to you that had to read the text over and over again before 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 1t to me, will explain it to you. The healthiest, the most recuperative 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 CT he seemed, the more he thought of his carbuneles 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. Ills misfortunes grew blacker and black CT, but there was to come reversal of these sad conditions. One day he said to himself: q have been dwelling too much upon my bodily ailments and my wife's temper and my bereavements It is time I 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 of. Hear 1t, all ye ages of time and all ye ages of eternity, .'the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends"
 Mighty Medicanent.
 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 im- mortality. Of course there is lawful and righteous self1shness In n 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 1t 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 it's 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- quy about the enlargement of his pray CTS so as to take in his friends and he put into execution his good resolution was the hour when he felt tonic, a sedative, nervine. a cataplasm, that helped to cure his body and revived his mortunes till they were hundred per cent better than ever before, for the record Is "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 a mighty medica- ment Is the contemplation of and the effort for the welfare of others!
 But" says some one, ''it was easy enough for Job to pray for his friends. Anybody can do that. There are those to whom we are obligated for years of kindness. They stand so close to us in sympathy and reminiscence and an- ticipation that 1t Is easy for us to pray for their welfare" Well, I see you do not understand that these friends of Job were the most tantalizing and ex- asperating friends man ever had. Look at their behavior. When they heard of his bereavements and the ac- cidents by whirlwind and lightning stroke, they came in and sat down by him a whole week, seven days and seven nights. and the record Is "none spake a word to him." What a dis reputable and wicked silencel Mind you. they professed to be religious men and they ought to have been able to offer some religious consolation. In. stead of that they were dumb as the sphinx which at that time stood In tho African desert and stands there still Why did they not say something about