The Penn's Grove record., 1900-11-16
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subjects: The Welfare Of Others W.
Should Banish Selfshness-Job Deliv'
cred From Evil When He Prayed Fol
Triends-Happy From Doing Good.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-1n this discourse
DIR. Talmage wars on narrowness 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 portrayed, OF
awful ailments and terrific disaster, Of
domestic infelicitv, Of s~taccato passage,
of resembling address, Of o~mnipotency
proclaimed, of utterances showing Job to
have been the greatest scientist of his
day, an expert in mining and precious
stones. astronomer, and geoqrapher, and
zoologist. and electrician, and poet. that
most readers stop before they get to my
text, which. strangely and mysteriously,
that "the Lord turned the cap
tivity of Job when he prayed for his
friends"
Now, will you please explain to me how
Jobs prayer for his friends halted his
catastroDhes? Give me some good reason
whv Job on his knees in behalf Of the
welfare of others arrested the long pro-
cession of calamities. Mind you. it was
not PRAYER for himself, for then the cessa-
ton of his troubles would have been only
another instance of prayer answered. but
the portfolio of his disaster was rolled up
while he duplicated God in behalf of Eli
phaz the Temanite, BiIdid the Shuttle,
and Zophar the Naamathite. I must con-
fess to you that / had to read the text
over and over again before I got it's full
meaning-"And the Lord turned the cap
tivity of Job when he prayed for his
friends"
Well. if you will not explain II to me. I
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. Jeh had been studying his misfor-
tunes, but the more he thought about his
bankruptcy the poorer he seemed, the
more lie thought of his carbuncles the
worse they hurt. the more he thought
of his unfortunate marriage the more in
to,erable became the coniural relation,
the more he thought of his house blown
down the more terrific seemed the cyclone.
His misfortunes grew blacker and blacker,
but there was to come a reversal Of these
sad conditions. One day he said to him
self: II have been dwelling too mnch
upon my bodily ailments and my wife's
temper and nv b~ereavements. 1t is time
/ BEGAN to think about others and do
something for others. and l will start now
by + lying for my three friends" Then
job dropped upon his knees, and as he
did 90 that last shackle of his captivity of
trouble sna-,ed and fell off. Hear it. all
We ages of time and all We ages of eternity.
"the Lord turned the captivity of Job
whom he prayed for his friends"
The fault with most of us is too much
self concentration-our health, our for
tunes, our advancement, our social posi-
tion, our achievements, our losses. our de-
teats, our sufferings, our persecution, our
life, our death, our Immortality. OF course
there is a lawful and righteous %selfishness.
In a world and in a time of such activities
rivalries and temptations we must
look after our own interests ara our own
destiny o we will go under. Do
not wait for others to take care
of yon. 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 9TH
ers. The law in the natural world would
well fer 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 centrifugal work
beautifully together. The one force that
would throw everything toward the CEN
ter is balanced by the force that would
throw everything outward.
Our world, with it's own interests. feels
the pull of other worlds. No world, no
no community, no man, no
can afford to exist only for itself or him
self or herself. The hour in which Job
has that %soliloquy about the enlargement
his PRAYERS so as to take in his friends
and he put into execution his good resolu-
ton was the hour when he felt a tonic.
a sedative, a n~ervine, a cataplasm. that
helped to cure his body and revived his
fortunes till they were a hundred per
cent. better than ever before, for the
record is "the Lord gave Job twice as
as he had before" and tended to
make him a wonder of longevity, for he
lived l40 years after his troubles were
gone. Oh, what a mighty medicament 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
whom we are obligated for years of
kindness. They stand so close to us in
sympathy and Renaissance and antici-
patton that it is easy for us to pray for
their welfare" Well, I see you do not
that these friends of job were
the most tantalizing and exasperating
trends a man ever had. Look at their
behavior. When they heard of his be-
reavements and the accidents by whirl-
wird and lightning stroke. they came in
and sat down by him a whole week. sew
en- days and seven nights. and the record
Is none spake a word to him." What
a ~disreputable and wicked ~siIencei Mind
you. they professed to be religious men.
they ought to have been able to offer
religious consolation. Instead of that
they were dumb as the sphinx which at
that time stood in the African desert and
stands there still. Why did they not saw
something ahont reunion in the heaven
ly realms with his children. who had been
Why did they not talk to him
about the satisfactory explanations in the
future world of things we do not under
stand in this world? Why did they not
so to the apothecary and buy a noultice
that would have soothed the carbuncles.
or some q~uieting potion that would calm
his nerves. or a few drops of febrih,gc
that would cool his heated frame? Mo-
For seven days and seven nights they did
nothing and said nothing for his relief.
They must have almost bored him to
death,
After these three friends had completed
their infamous silence of a week thew be-
can to lecture Job. First Eliphaz the
Temanite opens with a long story about
a dream which he had in the night and ir-
rttates 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 a round scolding and
calls him ~garrulous and practically tells
him that he deserved all that he had got
and that if he had behaved himself Alright
he would not have lost his house or his
children or his estate. He practically
said: "Job, I will tell you what is the
matter with you. You are bad. You are
a hypocrite. You are now getting paid for
your w~ickedness." No wonder that there
came from Job an outburst of indigna-