Pike County Democrat, Volume 25, Number 11, Petersburg, Pike County, 27 July 1894 — Page 7

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? Rev. Dr. Talmage Answers the Momentous Question. 1* Depend* Very Materially Upon thi Kind of life One Lend*—If In Qeel Works cand Preparation for Kteralty, Yea. The following1 discourse was selected by Kev. T. DeWitt Talmage, who is now touring the cities of Australia, for presentation to his reading congregation this week. It #is based on the test: Wherefore doth a living man complain?— Lamentations ill., 89. • If we leave to the evolutionists to guess where we came from and to the theologians to prophesy where w»s. are going to, we still have left for consideration the important fact that we are here. There may be some doubt about where the river rises and some doubt about where the river empties, but there can be no doubt about the fact that we are sailing on it. So I am not surprised that everybody asks the question: “Is life worth living?” Solomon, in his unhappy moments says it is not. “Vanity,” “vexation of spirit,” “no good,” are his estimate. The fact is that Solomon was at one time a polygamist, and that soured his disposition. One wife makes a man happy; more than one makes him wretched. But Solomon was converted from polygamy to monogamy, and the last words he ever wrote, as far »>s we can read them, were the words “mountains of spices.” But Jeremiah »snys in my-text life is worth living. In a book supposed to be doleful, and lugubrious, and sepulchral, and entitled “Lamentations,” he plainljr intimates that the blessing of merel y living is so great and grand a blessing

that though a man have piled on mm all misfortunes and disasters he lias no ^ right to complain. The author of my text cries out iu startling intonation, to all lands %and to all centuries: “Wherefore doth a living man complain?” A diversity of opinion in our time as well as in olden time. Here is a young man of light hair and blue eyes, and generous salary, and sound digestion, and happily affianced, and on the way to become a partner in a commercial firm of which he is an important .clerk. Ask him whether life is worth living. He will laugh in your face and say: “Yes, yes, yes!” Here is a man who has come to the forties. He is at the tip- top of the hill of life. Every step has tieen a stumble and a bruise. The people he trusted have turned out deserters, and the money he has mostly made lie has been cheated out of. His nerves are out of tune. He has poor appetite, and all the food he does eat does not assimilate. Forty miles climbing up the hill of life have been to him like climbing the Matterhorn, and there are forty miles yet to go down, and descent is always more dangerous than ascent. Ask him whether life is worth living, and he will drawl out in shivering and lugubrious and appalling negative: “No. no, no!” In the first place, I remark that a life of mere money-getting is always a failure, because you will never get as much as you want. The poorest people in this country are the richest, and next to them thbse who are half as rich. There is not a scissors-grinder on the streets of New York or Brooklyn who is so anxious to make money as these men who have piled up fortunes year after year in storehouses, in government securities, in tenement houses, in whole city blocks. You ought to see them jump when they hear the fire bell ring. You ought to see them in their excitement when some bank explodes. You ought to see their agitation when there is proposed a reformation in the tariff. Their nerves tremble like harp-strings, but no music in the vibration. They read the reports frorfl Wall street in the morning, with a concernment that threatens paralysis or apoplexy, or more probably they have a telegraph or a telephone in their own house, so they catch every breath of change in the money market. The disease -of accumulation has eaten into them— eaten into their heart, into their lung&, into their spleen^ into their liver, into their bones.

! Chemists have sometimes analyzed the human body, and they say it is so much magnesia, so much lime, so much chlorate of potassium. If some Christian chemist would analyse one of these financial behemoths he would find he is made up of copper and gold, and silver, and zinc, and lead, and coal and iron. , That is not a life worth living. There are too many earthquakes in it; too many agonies in it; to many perditions in it. They build their castles, and they open their picture galleries, and they summon prima donnas, and they offer every inducement for happiness to come and live there, but happiness will not come. J And then you must take into consideration that the vast majority of those who make the dominant idea of life money-getting fall far short o:f affluence. It is estimated that only about two out of a hundred business men have anything worthy the name of success. A man who spends his life with the one dominant idea of financial accumulation spends a life :pot worth living. So the idea of worldly approval. If that be dominant in a man's life he is miserable. The two most unfortunate men in this country for the six months of next presidential campaign will be the two men nominated for the presidency. The reservoir% of abuse, and diatribe, and malediction will gradually fill up, gallon above gallon, hogshead above hogshead, and about autumn these two reservoirs will be brimming full, and a hose will be attached to each one, and it will play away on these nominees, and they will have to stand it, and take the abuse, and the falsehood, and the caricature, and the anathema, and' the caterwauling, and the filth, - and they will be rolled in anc rolled

over and orer in it until they are choked, and submerged, and strangulated, and at every sign of returning consciousness they will be barked at by all the hounds of political parties from , ocean to ocean. And yet, there are a -hundred men to-day struggling for that privilege,, and there are thousands of men who are helping them in the struggle. Now. that is not a life worth living. You can get slandered and abused cheaper than that! Take it on a smaller scale. Do not be so ambitious to have a whole reservoir rolled over you. But what you see in the matter of high political preferment you see in every community in the struggle for what is called social position. Tens of thousands of people trying to get into that realm, and they are under terrific tension. What is social position? It is a difficult thing to define, but we all know what it is. Good morals and intelligence are not necessary, but wealth, or the show of wealth, is absolutely indispensable. There are men to-day so notorious for their libertinism as the night is famous for its darkness who move in what is called high social position. There are hundreds of out-and-out rakes in American society whose names are mentioned among the distinguished guests at the great levees. They have annexed all the known vices, and are longing for other, worlds of diabolism to conquer. Good morals are not necessary in many of the exalted circles of society. A life of sin, a life of pride, a life of indulgence, a life of worldliness, a life devoted to the world, the flesh and the devil is a failure, a dead failure, an infinite failure. I eare not how many presents you send to that cradle, or

how many garlands you send to tnat grave, you need to put right under the name on the tombstone the inscription: “Better for that man if he had never been born.*’ But I shall show you a life that is worth living. A young man says: “I am here. 1 am not responsible for my aneestry; others decided that. I am not responsible for my temperament; God gave me *that. But here I am in the afternoon of the nineteenth century, at twenty years of age. I am here, and I must take $n account of stock. Here I have a body which is a divinely constructed engine. I must put it to the very best uses, and I must allow nothing to damage this rarest of machinery. Two feet, and they mean locomotion. Two eyes, and they mean capacity to pick out my own way. Two ears, and they are telephones of communication with all the outside world, and they mean capacity to catch sweetest music and the voices of friendship—the very best music. A tongue, with almost infinity of articulation. Yes, hands with which to welcome, or resist, or lift, or smite, or wave, or bless—hands to help myself and help others. “Here is a world which, after six thousand years of battling with tempest and accident, is still grander than any architect, human or angelic, could have drafted. I have two lamps to light me—a golden lamp and a silver lamp—a golden lamp set on the sapphire mantel of the day, a silver lamp set on the jet mantel of the night. Yea, I have that at twenty years of age which defies all inventory of valuables—a soul, with capacity to choose or reject, to rejoice or to suffer, to love or to hate. Plato says it is immortal, Seneca says it is immortal, Confucius says it is immortal. An old book among the family relics—a book with leathern eover almost worn out, and pages almost obliterated by oft perusal, joins the other books in saying I am immortal. I have eighty years for a lifetime, sixty years yet to live. I may not live an hour, but then I must lay out my plans intelligently and for a long life. Sixty years added to the twenty I have already lived, that will bring me to eighty. I must remember that these eighty years are only a brief preface to the five hundred thousand millions of quintilKons of years which will be my chief residence and existence. Now 1 understand mv opportunities and my responsibilities.

“If there is any being in the universe all wise and all beneficent who can help a man in such a juncture, I want him. The old book found among the family relics tells me there is a God, and that for the sake of His Son, one Jesus, He will give help ‘to a man. To Him I appeal. God help me! Here I have yet sixty years to do for myself and to do for others. I must develop this body by all industries, by all gymnastics, by all sunshine, by all fresh air, by all good habits, And this soul I must have swept, and garnished and illumined, and glorified by all that I can do for it and all that I can get God to do for it. It shall be a Luxembourg of fine ! pictures. It shall be an orchestra of grand harmonies. It shall be a palace for God and righteousness to reign in. I wonder how many kind words I can utter in the next sixty years? I will k*y. I wonder how many good deeds I ! can do in the next sixty years? 1 will j try. God help me!” That young man enters life. He is j buffeted, he is tried, he is perplexed. | A grave opens on this side and a grave I opens on that side. He falls, but he | rises again. Ho gets into a hard battle, but he gets the victory. The main course of his life is in the right direction. He blesses everybody he comes in contact with. God forgives his mistakes, and makes everlasting record of his holy endeavors, and at the close of it God says to him: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joys of thy Lord.” My brother, my sister, I do not care whether that man dies at thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty years of age; you can chisel right under his name on the tombstone these words: “His life was worth living.” Amid the hills of New Hampshire, in olden times, there sits a mother. There are six children in the household—four boys and two girls. Small farm. Very rough, hard work to coax a living out of it. Mighty tug ,to make the two ends of the year meet. The boys go to school in winter and work the farm in

summer. Mother is the ehief peesiding- spirit. With her hands she knits all the stockings for the little feet, and she is the mantnamaker for the boys, and she is the milliner for the girls. There is only <me musical instrument in the house—the spinning wheel. The food is very plain, but it is always well provided, The winters are very ©old, but are kept out by the blankets she quilted. On Sunday, when she appears in the village church, her children around her, the minister looks down, and is reminded of the Bible description of a good housewife: “Her children arise up am! call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Some years go by, and the two eldest boys want a collegiate education, and the household economies are severer, and the calculations are closer, and until those two boys get their education there is a hard battle for bread. One of these boys enters the university, stands in a pulpit widely influential, and preaches righteousness, judgment and temperance, and thousands during his ministry are blessed The other lad who got the collegiate education goes into the law, and thence into legislative halls, and after awhile he commands listening senates as he makes a plea for the down-trodden and the outcast. One of the younger boys becomes a merchant, starting a ft he foot of the ladder, but climbing on up until his success and his philanthropies are recognized all over the land. The other son stays at home because he prefers farming life, and then he thinks he will be able to take care of father and mother when they get old. Of the two daughters, when the war broke out one went through the hospitals of Pittsburg Landing and Fortress Monroe, cheering up the dying and homesick, and taking the last message to kindred far away. So that every time Christ thought of her He said, as of old: “The same is my sister and mother.” The other daughter has a bright home of her own, and in the afternoon of the forenoon when she has been devoted to her household, she goes forth to hunt up the sick and encourage the discouraged, leaving smiles and benediction all along the

way. But one day there start five telegrams from the village for these five absent ones, saying: “Come, mother is dangerously ill.” But before they can be ready to start they receive another telegram, saying! **Come, mother is dead.” The old neighbors gather in the old farm house to do the last offices of respeet. But as that farming son, and the clergyman, and the senator, and the merchant, and the two daughters stand by the casket of the dead mother, taking the last look, or lifting their children to see once more the face of dear old grandma, I want to ask that group around the easket one question: “Do you really think her life was worth living?” A life for God, a life for others, a life of unselfishness, a useful life, a Christian life, is always worth 1 bring. would not find it hard to persuade you that the poor lad, Peter Cooper, making glue for a living, and then amassing a great fortune until he could build a philanthropy which has had its eeho in ten thousand philanthropies all over the country—I would not find it hard to persuade you that his life was worth living. Neither would I find it hard to persuade you that the life of Susannah Wesley was worth living. She sent out one son to organize Methodism and the other son to ring his anthems all through the ages. I would not find it hard to persuade you that the life of Frances Leere was worth liming, as she established in England a school for the scientific nursing of the sick, „ and when the war broke out between France and Germany, went to the front, and with her own hands scraped the mud off the bodies of the soldiers dying in the trenches with her weak arm-standing one night in the hospital—pushing back a German Soldier to his couch, as, all frenzied with his wounds, he rushed toward the door and said: “Let me go, let me| go to my ‘liebe mutter.’” Major-generals standing back to let pass this angel of mercy. Neither would I have hard work to persuade you that Grace Darling lived a life worth living—the heroine of the lifeboat. You are not wondering that the duchess of Northumberland came to see her, and that people of all lands asked for her lighthouse, and that the proprietor of the Adelphi theater in London offered her one hundred dollars a night just to sit in the lifeboat while some shipwreck scene was being enacted.

But I know the thoughts m the minds of hundreds who read this. You say: “While I know all these lived lives worth living, I don’t think my life amounts to much.” Ah! my friends, whether you live a life conspicuous or inconspicuous, it is worth living, if you live aright. And I want my next sentence to go down into the depths of all your souls. You are to be rewarded, not according to the greatness of your work, but according to the holy industries with which you employed the talents you really possessed. The majority of the crowns of Heaven will not be given to people with ten talents, for most of them were tempted only to serve themselves. The vast majority of the erowns of Heaven will be given to. people who had one talent, but gave it all to God. And remember that our life here is introductory to another. It is the vestibule to a palace; but who despises the door of the Madeline because there are grander glories within? Your life, if rightly lived, is the first bar of an eternal oratorio, and who despises the first note of Haydn’s symphonies? And the life you live now is all the more worth living because it opens into a life that shall never end, and the last letter of the word “time” is the first letter of the word “eternity.” Tub worst robbers are not those who carry dubs,—Ram's Horn.

MARRIAGE MAXIMS. Nim taunt with a pat mistake. Nktxb both be angry at the same time. Nrm meet without a loving welcome. Nktxb allow a request to be repeated. Lrr self-denial be the daily aim and practice of each. NktKb let the sun go down upon any anger or grievance. Nktxb talk at one another, either alone or in company. Nkolkct the whole world besides rather than one another. Lkt each one strive to yield oftenest to the wishes of the other. Nktxb make a remark at the expense of the other—it is meanness. Nktxb sigh over what might have been, but make the best of what is. Nktxb part for the day without loving words to think of during absence. Nktxb find fault, unless it is perfectly certain that a fault has been committed and always speak lovingly. Thk very nearest approach to domestic happiness on earth is in the cultivation on both sides of absolute unselfishness.

ODD CORNERS OF THE EARTH. In Japan they don’t throw flowers or wreaths at an actor. They give him a drop-curtain. Fashionabu: young ladies in Japan, when they desire to look very attractive, gild their lips. In Australia* it is the fashion to keep the bodies of the dead till Sunday in order to insure a large attendance at the funeral. The Egyptians were hard drinkers. Their first dish at the table was boiled cabbage, served with salt meat to stimulate their thirst. If an Egyptian desires a divorce all he has to do is to repeat three times the words “I put you from me,” and the legal separation is complete. A typical southern African householi* described by Olive Schreiner has an English father, a half Dutch mother with a French name, a Scotch governess, a Zulu cook, a Hottentot housemaid and a Kaffir stable boy, while the little girl who waited on Hie table was a llasuto. FUTURE PRESIDENTS. 44Willie, do you and your brother ever fight?” “Yes, sir.” “Who whips?” “Pa.” * THE MARKETS. New York. July S3, CATTLE—Native Steers.14 25 <a COTTON—Middling. 7 @ FLOUR—Winter Wheat. 2 00 <a . 50*® WHEAT—No. 2 Red CORN—No. 2... 46% OATS—Western Mixed........ 42 PORK—New Mess.. 14 50 ST. LOUIS. COTTON—Middling. 7 <& BEEVES—Shi opine Steers... 4 30 fiE Medium.. 4 10 $4 HOGS—Fair to Select.. 4 75 (& SHEEP—Fair to Choice.-.. 2 25 <& FLOUR-Patents. 2 7O0> Fancy to Extra do.. 810 @1 WHEAT—No. 8 Red Winter. ® CORN—No. 2 Mixed. 80* ® OATS—Nc. 8. ® RYE—No. 8.>... 42 & TOBACCO-Lugs..v... 4 50 © Leal Burley..IT,.. 7 00 © HAY-Clear Timothy.l. 9 50 & BUTTER—Choice Dairy.... 7b II & EGGS-Fresh.. .... ® PORK—Standard Mess (new).. 13 10 ® BACON—Clear Rib.. £n LARIL-Prime Steam. O CHICAGO CATTLE—Shipping.... 3 25 01 HOGS-Fair to Choice .. 4 90 0t SHEEP-Fair to Choice.. 8 50 ® FLOUR—Winter Patents. .... 2 80 @ Spring Patents...... 3 10 <pi WHEAT—No. 2Spring .... . 53% No. 2 Rod.. ® CORN—No. 2.. m OATS—No. 8.. . 36*® PORK—Mess tnev). 12 15 ® KANSAS CITY. ' 1804. 4 85 T* 4 35 57* If 45 15 00 TH 475 450 5 05 3 00 K 2 85 2 50 50* 30 >4 20* 45 11 00 10 00 11 50 15 7* IS 25 7% CATTLE—Shipping Steers.... HOGS—All Grades. 4 00 3 50 WHEAT—No. 2 Red. 45 OATS—No. 2 . 25 CORN—No 8. 35 NEW ORLEANS. FLOUR-High Grade. 2 80 CORN—No. 8. .... OATS—Western. 50 HAY-Choice. 17 00 PORK—New Mess... BACON—Sides... COTTON—Middling.. 0% LOUISVILLE WHEAT—No.2 Red. 50 CORN—No. 2 Mixad.. 45 & OATS—No.2 Mixed. 45 fis PORK—New Mess.... . 12 75 BACON—Clear Rib.. 8*© COTTON—Middling . ©

KNOWLEDGE Brings comfort and improvement and tends to personal enjoyment when rightly usea. The many, who live better than others and enjoy life more, with less expenditure, by more promptly adapting the world’s best products to the needs of physical being, will attest the value to health of the pure liquid laxative principles embraced in the remedy, Syrup of Figs. Its excellence is due to its presenting in the form most acceptable and pleasant to the taste, the refreshing and truly beneficial, properties of a perfect laxative ; effectually cleansing the system, dispelling colds, headaches and fevers ana permanently curing constipation. It has given satisfaction to millions and met with the approval of the medical profession, because it acts on the Kidneys, Laver and Bowels without weakening them and it is perfectly free from every objectionable substance. Syrup of Figs is for sale by all druggists in 50c and $1 bottles, but it is manufactured by the California Fig Syrup Go. only, whose name is printed on every package, also the name, Syrup of Figs, and being well informed, you will not accept any substitute if offered.

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Primitive Weapons la Corea. In the present Corean war the weapons used are almost as old as those of the Thlinklits or the Quiehias or the Patagonians, consisting of clubs and other missiles, bow and arrows, wooden spears and wooden cannon, showing that the improved armaments of the modern period have yet considerable spaces of the world to conquer. The one advantageous thing about these weapons is that a given number of soldiers will go farther with them and last longer many times over than with the improved variety. Chinese commanders and armies until recently relied a great deal upon noise in warfare and upon the exposition of large dragoons of teakwood and pasteboard, but have leared by experience against foreign invaders to distrust the efficacy of both, and have adopted the arms of their enemies. The Coreans have similar lessons to learn; that their bows and arrows and wooden guns are what are known as back numbers, and if they wish to shine in arms and conquest they must import the improved variety.—N. Y. Tribune.

Don't Gin Up the Ship) Bo say those who, having experienced its. benefits themselves, advise their despairing friends to use Hostetler’s Stomach Bitters for the combined evils—liver complaint, dyspepsia and irregularity of the bowels, fruitful of benefit is the Bitters in malarial, rheumatic and kidney troubles and nervousness. Use the great remedy with persistence. Mato—“I want you to come over this evening and meet Mr. Jingle. You are not acquainted, are you}” Grace—1“No; we’ve only been engaged for a few months.”—Inter Ocean. Dow Kates to St. Paul. On account of the Annual Convention of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, the North-Western Line will sell excursion tickets to St. Paul, Minn., and return at half rates—one fare for the round trip; tickets on sale July SO and SI, good for return passage until August fi, 1894, inclusive. For tickets and full information apply to Agents Chicago & North-Western Railway. Whbx a boy is vaccinated, he usually sees the poiut.

Nebber measure a man’s inteUec* by his size. lhab observe.! dat fine wine is rnut* alius served up iu small glasses, w’ile stop beer is invariably paraded in schooners,— Arkausaw Thomas Oak “Is that a real Englishman of title that is devoting himself to Miss G otdcoin 1" “Yea.” “Can you tell by the way ho drops his h'st” ; “No, bv the way he tries to pick up v’s and x’s.”—Inter Ocean. • --- —_ The desideratum in collars is something ! high enough to look uncomfortable and low j enough to allow one to turn thehead with- 9 out sweariug.—Puck. Red, angry eruptions yield to the action of Glenn’s Sulphur Boap. Hill’s Hair and Whisker Dye, 50 cents. i Uscalut Thin —She—“What are these pastels in prosein He—“It is wit in urateny colors.”—Brooklyn Eagle. Genius is madness—without the free accommodations.—Puck. Hall's Catarrh Care Is taken internally Price 75c. The man who sits down to wait for somobody’s old shoes will need a cushion on hia chair before he gets them. GOOD SPIRITS

ftw of >ng calamity » thousand i_ one deraiifft incuts of body and mind, result from pernicious, solitary prao~ in by tbo young, through ignorance off their ruinous conse» Bences. Nervous debit- , and lorn of manly

- ^wr power, nw rairvquenuy result from such unnatural habits. To reach, reclaim and restore such unfortunates to health and happiness, is the aim of an association of medical gentlemen, who have prepared*treatise, written in plain hut chaste language and treating of the nature, symptoms and ourability, by home treatment, of such diseases. > A copy of this useful book will, on receipt of this notice, with Jtf cents in stamps, for postage, be mailed securely sealed In a plain envelope. Address. World's Obwuu Msdical Ahtocutiow. Buffalo. N. T. °

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used tor jnilk, even down to the l baby’s bottle—these are things for ' which you need Pearline. With Pearline, they’re cleansed more easily, more quickly, more economically, and more thoroughly, than with anything else known* The people who know most about milk say just that. We can’t afford to print all the testimonials we hold* They’re free expressions of opinion —in conventions, in papers, every

where where milk folks have a voice. Their enthusiasm about Pearline is genuine. And it’s natural. For all kinds of washing and cleaning, nothing equals Pearline. \

Matilda.—It was a good turn you did me when you told me of Clairette Soap. It makes the clothes whiter than any other, and saves time and work. Mary.—Yes, and it does not injure the hands or the clothes. CLAIRETTE SOAP. feMKrarfhere. Made by THE N. K. FA1RBANK COMPANY, St. Leals, THE POT INSULTED THE KETTLE BECAUSE THE COOK HAD NOT USED SAPOLIO GOOD COOKING DEMANDS CLEANLINESS. SAPOLIO SHOULD be used in every KITCHEN.

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