Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-11-22
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

|
| Subject: The Welfare of Others We
| Should Banish Selfishness-,Job Deliv-
| cred From Evil When He Prayed For
| Friends-Happy From Doing Good.
tCopyrieht 1901
| WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
/ DR.. Talmage wars ON narrowncss 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 infelicity, of staccato passage,
| of resounding address, of omnipotency
proclaimed, of utterances showing Job to
have been the greatest scientist of his
day, an expert in mining and precious
stones, astronomer, and geographer, and
zoologist, and electrician, and poet, that
most readers stop before they get to my
text, which, strangely and mysteriously,
announces 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
! catastrophes? Give me some good reason
/ why Job on his knees in behalf of the
welfare of others arrested the long pro-
cession of calamties. 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 supplicated God in behalf of Eli
| phaz the Temanite, Bildid the Shuhite,
and Zophar the Naamathite. l must CON
| fess to you that l had to read the text
! over and over again before | 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 it to me, 1
| 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 studying his msfor-
! 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
/ tolerable became the conjugal 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 much
upon my bodily ailments and my wife's
temper and my bereavements. 1t is time
| | began to think about Others and do
something for others. and l will start now
/ by T aging for my three friends. Then
Job dropped upon his knees, and as he
did so that last shackle of his captivity of
trouble snGrped and fell off. Hear it, all
ye ages of time and all ye ages of eternity,
/ ~the Lord turned the captivity of Job
when he prayed Tor his friends"
| The fault with most of us is too much
self concentration-our health, our for
tunes, our advancement, our social posi-
ton, our achievements, our losses, our de-
| feats, our sulferings, our persecution. our
life, our death. our immortality. Of course
there is a lawful and righteous seltishness.
In world and in a 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
prosperity ii we enlarge the sphere of our
wishes and prayers so as to take in 9TH
ers The law in the natural world would
do well for the moral and spiritual world.
The centripetal force in nature would
throw everything in toward the center,
aud 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 bal need by the force that would
throw everything outward.
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 him
I self 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 execution his good resolu-
ton was the hour when he felt a tonic,
sedative, a nervine, cataplasm, that
helped to cure his body and revived his
fortunes 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 medicament is
the contemplation of and the effort for
the welfare of othersl
But" says some one, at was easy
enough for job to pray for his friends.
i 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 reminscence and antici-
patton that it is easy for us to pray for
their welfare" Wen. | see you do not
understand that these friends OF Job were
the most tantalzng and cXasperating
friends a man ever had. Look at THEN
behavior, When they heard OF his be-
reavements and thc accidents by whirl-
wind and lightning stroke. they came in
and sat down by him whole week sev.
en- DAYS and seven nights. and the record
is none spake word to him." What
a disreputable and wicked silence. Mind
you, they professed to he religious men,
and they ought to have been able to offer
some religious consolation. Instead OF that
they We're dumb as the sphinx which at
that time stood in the African desert and
stands there still. Why did they not say
something about reunion in the heaven
| " realms with his children, who had been
slainy Why did they not talk to him
/ about the satisfactory explanations IN the
| future world OF things we do not under
stand in this worldy Why did they not
I go to the apotheeary and buy noultiee
| that would have soothed the oarhnneles,
or some quicting potion that would calm
| his nerves. or few drops OF tehrlhnge
- 4 A fran y ~