Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-04-21
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY THF
REV. Or. HOWARD DuFFvELD.
Subject: Footmen and Horses ',-Every
Man Hears at Times in His Soul a
Resounding Cry Which Beckons Him
to His Highest Destiny.

Man Hears at Times in His Soul a I
Resounding Cry Which Beckons Him |
to His Highest Destiny.
New York Cry. = DR.. Howard Duff
field, pastor Of the Old First Presbyterian
Church, aa h, Fifth avenue and Twelfth street;
Sunday on 'FOotmen and |
Horses" He took his text from jeremiah !
Kills. DIR. .Dufield said:
1t IS thealthful for us to test our hopes
to-day as experience shall test them for us
tomorrow. Squarely, individually and inn
mediately let us face the challenge of Jer-
emy, the prophet: IF thou runnest with
then how canst thoucontend with horses"
Let us first study the pursuit of happi-
ness. The pursuit Of happiness is intense
and universal and rightful The pursuit
of happiness has enlisted tho unwearied
energy of the most of men throughout all
time. Pleasure surely cannot be a very
hard problem to solve. Certainly it can be
no difficult thing to win happiness Brave
and bonny is this pleasure house of an
earth IN which we live. Dazzling bright is
this Vanity Fair of world in which the
lot OF mortals is cast. It's booths are most
allurlng. Its wares are most seductive:
skillful are its traders, and eager faced its
throngs of buyers Behold the simmer
ing flash of its gems and the rich rustic of
lts SolC SILKS: nedEken TO lac sweet nOCeS
OF It's music and the golden chink of its
coin! Lend your ear to the rhythmic beat
Of its dance and the gladstone rapture Of
its revel. Mark the gleam Of it's flashing
eyes! Heed the spell of its silvery laugh
ter! The idea that this world is not
minister of happiness is hermit logic; is
the grabbed fruit OF cloistered seclusion;. is
the harsh inference of Puritanic prejudice
The siren voices of the world are ever
m roQ1 fC of nj
pleasures of the palate pleasures OF the
passions, pleasures of the intellect The
blaring. trumpets of the world are ever
heralding the triumph of it's votaries as
crowned with laurels and clasping the
brlmmlng cup Of its satisfaction. one and
another ascends the throne Of its dominion.
Very WE'LL point me out the happy ones.
Those smlle-wreathed lips repress a rising
sigh. Those laughter-'ighted eyes but mask
wearied heart. The glitter IS tinsel. The
trapplngs are fustian. The ornament is
stucco. The mirth is hollow hearted Do
you not know that those men who have
filled all of fortunes Golfers are the most
brain wearied and heart burdened of the
children OF the earth, In their effort to fill
one more? Have you never learned that
the man who has climbed the throne is
smitten with heart sickness because there
IS some Naboth's vineyard unpossessed9
Has it never been told you that a man may
wear the jeweled tokens of kings favor
and yet writhe under the pang Of disap-
pointment because some beggar Mordecai
stands in the palace gate? If not, let me
put in evidence the testimony OF competent
witnesses. Listen to that pampered pet of
fortune, bedecked with the insignia of
English nobility, and standing upon the
pinnacle of earth-given happiness. In the
swiftest swing of pleasures whirlpool, in
the very heyday Of life, upon his thirty
sixth birthday. Lord Byron wrote:
My days are in the yellow leaf,
-. The flowers and fruits of love are gone,
The worm, the canker and the grief
Are mine alone"
Recall the words of Chesterfield, who
reduced the pursuit of happiness to a fine
art, and had taken every degree in the
freemasonry Of human pleasure: Il have
been behind the scenes, have seen all the
coarse pulleys and the dirty ropes which
move the gaudy, machinery, and l have
smelled the tallow candles which illumin-
ate the hollow decorations to the astonish-
ment of an ignorant audience Listen to
gifted poet, critic and master thinker who
wrote in his diary: s'What lists it 20 me
that at banquets my health is drunk out of
golden goblets and in the best Of wine. ii
[, myself, separated from all the JOY of the
world, can only moisten my lips with the
physicians potion? What lists it to me
that enthusiastic youths and damsels
crown my marble bust with laurels. when
On my real head blister is being clapped
by my old sick nurse? What lists it to me
that the roses Of Shiraz glow and smell
never so sweetly? Alas, Shiraz is 600 miles
from Rue PAmsterdam, where L get moth
ing to smell in the melancholy solitude of
my sick room but the aroma OF warm poul-
tices." Behold the trophies of the world
441l l., 0H
verberating plaudits which greet the
worlds successes only serve to waken the
wailing echo, Vanity of vanity, it all is
vanity"
The works of earth are frail It's jewels
lose their fire. The luster of its gold viii
tarnish. Its garlands will wither and their
bloom and fragrance will vanish away.
delight in the midst of his pleasures, when
the lights of the revel begin to grow dim,
and sorrow as with harpy's hand, sweeps
bare the banquet board, and amid the
gathering shadows the fingers of destiny
begin to write doom sentences upon the
wall? What is that man to do who cannot
pack single hour with unalloyed pleasure,
when he crosses the threshold of long,
long eternity? Do not blinl. the question.
Meet its thrust fairly. II you cannot run
with footmen how will you intend with
horses?"
Apply another test. There is deeper
longing in many minds than the thirst for
pleasure. It is the craving for truth.
There is genuine grandeur in the achieve
ments of the intellect The coronet Of cul-
ture is brighter far than kings diadem.
The robes Of mental royalty are more inn
perial than the mantle of Caesar.
It would seem as though the mind mon
archs of the present age had realized that
dream Of the Hebrew boy in the olden
time, when sun and moon and stars bowed
down to do obesiance. It would seem as
though the princely thinkers of the pres
ent day wore the signet ring of Solomon,
in obedience to which all elemental powers
yield ready response. They say to the
genii of the electric fluid, 'go,' and they
render a ready service. They becison to
the coal and to the iron, to the silver and
to the gold, and from the secret caverns OF
the earth they hasten to do their bidding.
They say to the veriest vapors, ':do this -
and they do it.
But, after all, what is the sum tota, OF
human knowledge? Behold we know not
anything" We have mapped few square
miles Of space, and immensities lie around
We have numbered a few odd centuries of
time, and eternities lie beyond We have
garnered stray stalk or two from the
mighty harvest fields of fact. and ilimit-
able sheaves are nodding in the breeze un-
sickled. Within the horizon of observed
fact we On1v know how THINGS annear to