The age-herald., 1902-03-30
Dr. Talmage's Sermon.


 and are beaten and banged about when I would have taken them In the arms of my affection?" You say, Any other trial
 but this" Your trial perhaps may be a dis1gured countenance or face that is easily caricatured. and you say, 'I could endure anything if only I was good look ing" And your trial perhaps is a violent temper and you have to drive 1t like six unbroSen horses amid the gunpower ex- plosions of a great holiday, and ever and anon 1t runs away with you. Your trial is the asthma You say, If 1t were rheu- matlsm or neuralgia or erysipelas, but it is this asthma, and it Is such an exhaust ing thing to breathe" Your trouble Is a husband. sharp. snappsh and cross about the house, and raising a small riot be- cause a button is off. How could you know the button is off? | our trial is a
 wife in contest with the servants, and she is a sloven. Though she was very care ful about her appearance in your pres
 ence once, now she is careless, because. she says. her fortune is made! Your trial
 is hard school lesson to learn, and you
 have bitten your finger nails until they
 are sight to behold.
 Complaining Against God.
 Everybody has some veXation or annoy auce or trial, and he or she thinks 1t is
 the least one adapted. Anything but
 this,' all say; anything but this" My
 nearer, you are not ashamed to be com
 blaming all this time against God? Who
 manages the affairs of this world, any
 how? Is it an infinite Modoc or a Sitting Bull savage or an omnipotent Mana Sa-
 hib? No; it Is the most merciful and glo- rious and wise being fin all the universe.
 You cannot teach omnopotence anything.
 You have fretted and worried almost
 enough. Do you not think so? Some of you are making yourselves ridiculous in
 the sight of angels, Here is naval arch itect, and he draws out the plan of a ship
 of many thousand tons. Many workmen
 are engaged on it for a long while. The ship Is done and some day, with the
 flags up and the air gorgeous with bunt- ing, that vessel is launched for South ampton. At that time a led six years of age comes running down the dock with toy boat which he has made with his own jackknife, and he says: Here, my
 boat Is better than yours. Just look at ] this jibboom and these weather cross | jack braces" And he drops his little | boat beside the great ship and there i5
 a roar of laughter on the decksl An, my | friends, that great ship is your life as | God planned it-va5t million tonned. 1 ocean destined, eternity bound! That lit- | tie boat is your life as you were trying | to hew 1t out and fashion 1t and launch l It. Do not try to be a rival of the great | Jehovah. God Is always right and in
 nine cases out of ten you are wrong He
 sends Just the hardships, just the bank | ruptcies, just the cross that 1t is best l for you to have. He knows what kind | of grain you are and he sends the right | kind of thrashing machine, It will be rod
 or staff or iron wheel just according 1 as you are fitchee or cummin or corn. Again, my subject teaches that God | keeps trial on us until we let go. The 1 farmer shouts "Whoal" to his horse as soon as the grain is dropped from the | stalk The farmer comes with his fork
 and losses up the straw and he sees that
 the straw has let go the grain and the
 grain is thoroughly thrashed. So God.
 Smithing rod and turning wheel both | cease as soon as we let go. We hold on | to this world, with its pleasures and l riches and emoluments, and our knuckles | are so firmly set that it seems if we 1 could hold on forever God comes along
 with some thrashing trouble and beats
 us loose. We started under the delusion | that this was a great world. We learn
 ed out of our geography that 1t was so
 many thousand miles in diameter and so many miles in circumference, and we said, "Oh my, what a world! Trouble came in after life, and this trouble sliced off one part of the world, and it has got to be a smaller world and in some esti-
 nations very significant world. and 1t is depreciating all the time as a spiritual property. Ten per cent off, 50 per cent off, | and there are those who would not give 10 cents for this world-the entire world as a soul possession.
 The Friendship That Endures. We thought that friendship was a grand thing In school we used to write compositions about friendship and per- haps we made our graduating speech on | commencem ent day on friendship. Oh, it was a charming thing! But does it mean
 as much to you as 1t used to? You have gone on in life and one friend has be-
 trayed you, and another friend has mis- | interpreted you, and another friend has
 neglected you, and friendship comes now sometimes to mean to you merely anoth- CT axe to grind! So with money. We 1 thought if man had a competency he
 was safe for all the future, but we have learned that a. mortgage may be defeat ed by an unknown previous incumbrance: | that signing your name on the back of
 a note may be your business death war
 rant; that a new tariff may change the
 current of trade; that a man may be rich today and poor tomorrow. And God, by all these misfortunes, Is trying to loosen our grip, but we still hold on. God smites with a staff, but we hold on. And he strikes us with rod, but we hold on. And he sends over us the iron wheel of
 misfortune. but we hold on. There are
 men who keep their grip on this world
 until the last moment, who suggest to
 me the condition and conduct of the Indian in ha 10
 rapids. coming on toward the fall. See
 ing that he could not escape, a moment or two before he got to the verge of the plunge he lifted a wine bottle and drank 1t off and then tossed the bottle into the air. So there are men who clutch the world, and they go down through the rapids of temptation and sin, and they hold on to the very last moment of life, drinking to their eternal doom as they | go over and go down Oh, let go! Let | go! The best fortunes are in heaven. 1 There are no absconding cashiers from | OG'hT TnEC Tn GarAt