Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1888 — USEFULNESS. [ARTICLE]

USEFULNESS.

Sbe That Liveth for Pleasure is Dead While She Liveth. UxafolnaM ta the Chief Aim of Human Use—With it Cornea H,pplneaa and Contentment—Mere Not to be Depended Upon. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. He took for bis text the words: “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” r He said: > The editor of a Boston newspaper a few days ago wrote asking me the terse questions, “What is the road to happiness?” and “Ought happiness to be the chief aim of life?” My answer was: “The road to happiness is the continu* ous effort to make othet.3 happy. The chief aim of life ought to be usefulness, not happiness, but happiness always follows usefulness.” This morning’s text in a strong way sets forth the truth that a woman who seeks in worldly advantage her chiet enjoyment w ill come to disappointment and death. My friends, you all want to be happy. You have had a great many recipes by which it is proposed to give you satisfaction—solid satisfaction. At times you feel a thorough unrest. You know as well as older people what it is to be depressed. As dark shadows sometimes fall upon the geographv of the school girl as upon the page of the spectacled philosopher. I have seen as cloudy days in May as in November. There are no deeper sighs breathed by the grandmother than by the granddaughter. I correct the populir impression that people are happier in childhood and youth than they ever will be again. If we live aright, the older the happier. The happiest woman that I ever knew was a Christian octogenarian; her hair white as white cotild be; the sunlight of heaven late in the afternoon gilding the peaks of snow. I have to say to a great many of the young people that the most miserable time vou are ever to have is just now. As you advance in life, as you come out into the world and have your head and heart all lull of good, honest, practical Christian work, then you will know what it is to begin to be happy. There are those who would have us believe that life is chasing thistle down and grasping bubbles. We have not tound it so. To many of us it has been discovering diamonds, larger than the Kohinoor, and I think that our joy will continue to increase until nothing short of the eveilasting jubilee of heaven will be able to express it. I know that Solomon said some very dolorous things about this world, and three times declared: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” I suppose it was a reference to those times in his career when his seven hundred wives almost pestered the life out of him. But I would rather turn to the description he gave after his conversion, when he says in another place: “Her ways are way§ of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” It is reasonable to expect it will be so. The longer the fruit hangs on the tree the riper and more mellow it ought to grow. You plant one grain of corn and it will send up a stalk with two ears, each having 950 grains, so that one grain planted will produce 1,900 grains. And ought not the implantation of a grain of Christian principle in a youthful soul develop into a large crop of gladness on earth and to harvest of eternal joy in heaven? Hear me, then, while I discourse upon some of the mistakes which young people make in regard to happiness, and point out to Ihe young women what I consider to be the source of complete satisfaction. And, in the first place, I advise you not to build your happiness upon mere social position. Persons at your age, looking off upon life, are apt to think that if, by some stroke of what is called good luck, you could arrive to an elevated and affluent position, a little higher than that in which God has called you to live, you would be completely happy. In finite mistake! The palace floor of Ahasuerus is red with the blood of Vashtils broken heart. There have been no more scalding tears wept than these which coursed the cheeks of Josephine. If the sob of unhappy womanhood in the great cities could break through the tapestried wall, that sob would come along your streets to-day like the simoon of " the desert. Sometimes I have heard in the rustling of the robes on the city pavements the hies of the adders that followed in the wake. You have come out from your home and you have lookednp at the great house and coveted a life upder those arches, when, perhaps at that very moment, within that house there may have been the wringing of hands, the start of horror and the very agony of hell. I knew such an one. HeY father’s house was plain, most of the people who came there were plain; but, by a change in fortune such as sometimes comes, a hand had been offered that led her into a brilliant sphere. All the neighbors congratulated her upon her grand prospects, but what an exchange! Op her side it was a heart full of generous impulses and affection. Qn his side it was a soul dry and withered as the stubble of the field. On her side it was a father’s house where God was honored ond the Sabbath lignt flooded the rooms with the very mirth of heaven. On his side it was a gorgeous residence and the coming of mighty men to be entertained there, but within it we.e revelry and godlessness. Hardly had the orange blossoms of the marriage feast lost their fragrance than the night of discontent began to cast here and there its shadow. Cruelties _and unkindnesses changed all those s'plendid trappings into a hollow mockery. The platters of solid silver, the caskets of pure gold, the head-dress of gleaming diamonds were there; but no God, no peace, no kind words, no Christian sympathy. The festal music that broke onthe captive’s ear turned out to be a dirge, and the wreath in the plush was a reptile coil, and the upholstery that swayed in the wind was the wing oi a destroying angel, and the bead-drops on the pitcher were the sweat oF everlasting despair. Oh, how many rivalries and unhappiness among those who seek in social Hie their chief happiness! It matters not how fine you have things, there are other people who have it finer. Taking out your watch to tell the hour ot the day, some one 'will correct your timepiece by pulling out a watch more richly chased and jeweled. Ride in a carriage that cost you SBOO, and before you get around thVpark you will meet

with one that cost $2,000. Have on your wall a picture by Copley, and before night you will hear of some one who has a picture fresh from the studio of Church or Bierstadt All that this world can do for you in silver; in gold, in Axminster plush, in Gobelin tapestry, in wide hallSi in lordly acquaintanceship, will not give you the ten thousandth part of a grain Of solid satisfaction. The English lord, moving in the very highest sphere, was one day found seated with his chin on bis band and his elbow on the windowbill, looking out and eayin?: “Ob, I wish I could exchange places with that do?!” Mere social position will never give happiness to a woman’s soul. I have bad wide and continuous observation, and I tell the youhg women that they who build on mere social position their soul’s immortal happiness are building on the sand. Suppose that a young woman expends the brightness of her early life in this unsatisfactory struggle and omits the E resent opportunity of usefulness in the Ome circle: What a mistake! So surely as the years roll around,that home in which you now dwell will become extinct. Tbe parents will be gone, the property will go into other possession, you yourself will be in other relationships, and that home which, only a year ago, was full of congratulation, will be extinguished. When that period comes you will look back to seq; ’what you did or what you neglected to do in the way of making home happy. It will be too late to correct mistakes. If you did not smootbe the path of your parents toward the tomb; if you did not make their last days bright and happy; if you allowed your younger brother to go out into »he world unhallowed by Christian and sisterly influences; if you allowed the younger sisters of your family to come up without feeling that there had been a Christian example set them on your part, there will be nothing but bitterness of lamentation. That bitterness will be increased by all the surroundings of that home: by every chair, by every picture, by the old-time mantel ornaments, by every thing you can tbink of as connected with that home. All these things will rouse up agonizing memories. Young women, have you any thing to do in the way of making your father’s home happy? Now is the time to attend to it, or leave it forever undone. Time is flying very quickly away. I suppose vou notice the wrinkles are gathering and accumulating onthoee kindly faces that have so long looked upon you; there is frost in the locks; the foot is not as firm in its step as it used to be, and they will soon be gone. The heaviest clod that ever fails on a parent’s coffin-lid is the memory of an ungrateful daughter. O, make their last day bright and beautiful. Do not act as though they were in the way. Ask their counsel, seek their prayers, and, after long years have passed, and you go out to see the grave where they sleep, you will find growing all over the mound something lovelier than the cypress, something sweeter than the lose, something chaster than the lily—the bright and beautiful memories of filial kindness performed ere the dying hand dropped on you a berifediction, and you closed the lids over the weary eyes of the worn out pi grim. Better that, in the hour of your birth, you had been struck with orphanage, and that you had been handed ever into the cold arms of the world, rather than that you should have been brought up under a father’s care and a mother’s tenderness, at last to scoff at their example and deride their influence, and, on the day when you followed them in long procession to the tomb, to find that you are followed by a still larger procession of unfilial deeds done and wrong words uttered. The one procession will leave its burden in the tomb and disband; butthat longer procession of ghastly memories will forever march and forever wail. Oh! it is a good time for a young woman when she is in her father’s house. Igo further, and advise you not to depend for enjoyment upon mere personal attractions. It would be sheer hypocrisy, because we may not have it ourselves, to despise, or affect to despise, beauty in others. When God gives it, He gives it as a blessing and as a means of usefulness. David and his army were coming down from the mountains to destroy Nabal and his flocks and vineyards. The beautiful Abigail, the wife of Nabal, went out to arrest him when he came down from the mountains, and she succeeded. Coming to the foot of the hill she knelt. David with his army of sworn men came down over the cliffs, and when he saw her kneeling at the foot of tbe hill he cried, “Hall!” to his men, and,, the caves echoed it: “Halt! halt!” That one beautiful woman kneeling at the foot of the cliff had arrested all those armed troops. A dew-drop dashed back Niagara. The Bible sets oefore us the portraits of harsh and Rebecca, and Abishag, Absalom’s sister, and Job’s daughters, and says: “They were fair to look upon.” By outdoor exercise, and by skillful arrangement of apparel, let women make themselves attractive. The sloven has only one mission, and that to excite our loathing and disgust. But alas! for those who depend upon personal charms for their happiness. Beauty is such a subtle thing, it does not seem to depend upon facial proportions, or upon the sparkle of the eye. or upon the flush of the cheek. You sometimes find it among irregular features. It is the soul shining through the face that makes one beautiful. But alas! for those who depend upon mere personal charms. They will come to disappoitment and to a great fret. There are so many different opinions about what are personal charms, and then sicknees and trouble and age do make such ravages! The poorest god that a woman ever worships is her own fzea. The saddest sight in all the world ie-a woman who has built every thing on good looks when the charms begin to vanish. O, how they try tn cover the wrinkles and hide the ravages of time! When Time, with iron-shod feet, steps on a face the hoof-marks remain, and you cannot hide them. It is silly to try to hide them. I think the most repulsive fool in all the world is an old fool. Why, my friends, should you be ashamed to be getting old? It is a sign, it is prima facia evidence that you have behaved tolerably well or you would not have lived to this time. The grandest thing, I think, is eternity, and that is made up of countless years. When the the , “His hair was white as snow.” But . when tne color goes from the cheek, and > the luster from the eye, and the spring ; from the step, and the gracefulness from

the gait, alas! lor those who have built their time and their eternity npon good looks. But all the passage of years can not take out of one’s face benignity, and kindness, and coni passion, and faith. Culture your heart and you culture your facte. The brightest glory that ever beamed from a woman’s face is the religion of Jesus Christ Again: I advise you not to depend for happiness upon the flatteries of men. It is a poor compliment to your sex that so many men feel obliged in your pres* ence to offer unmeaning comoliments. Men capable of elegant and elaborate conversation elsewhere sometimes feel called upon at the door of tbe drawingroom to drop their common sense and to dole ont sickening flatteries. They say things about your dress and about yonranpearance that you know and they know are false. Thev say you are an angel. You know you are not. Determined to tell the truth ,in office, and store, and shop, they consider it honorable to lie to a woman. The same thing that they told you on this side of the diawing*roem, three minutes ago they said to some one on the other side of the drawing-room. O, let noone trample on your self-respect. The meanest thing on which a woman can build her happiness is the flatteries of men. Again: I charge you not to depend for happiness upon the decipieship of woridliness. I have seen men as vain of their old-fashioned'and eccentric hat as your brainless fop is proud of his dangling fooleries. Fashion sometimes makes a reasonable demand of us, and then we ought to yield to it. The daisies of the field have their fashion of color and leaf; the honeysuckle have their fashion of eardrop, and the snowflakes flnng out of the winter heavens have their fashion of exquisiteness. After the summer shower the sky weds the earth with ring of rainbow. And 1 do not think we have a right to despise tbe elegancies and fashions of this world, especially if they make reasonable demands upon ue; but the decipieship and worship of fashion is death to the body and death to the soul. lam glad tie world is improving. Look at the,fashion plates of s the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and you will find that the world is not so extravagant and extraordinary now as it was then, and all the marvelous things that the granddaughter will do will never equal that done by the grandmother. Go still father back, to the Bible times, and you will find that in those times fashion wielded a more terrible scepter. You have only to turn to the third chapter of Isaiah, a portion of the Scriptures from which I once preached you "a sermon, to read: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets and the headbands, and the tablets and the ear rings, the rings and the nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantels, and the wimples and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen, and the hoodsand the veils.” Only think of a woman having all that on! lam glad that the worid is getting better, and that fashion, which has dominated in the world so ruinously in other days, has for a little time, for a little degree at any rate, relaxed its energies. All the splendors and the extravegances of this world dyed info your robe and flung over your shoulder can not wrap peace around your heart for a single moment. The gayest wardrobe will utter no voice of condolence in the day cf trouble and darkness. That woman is grandly dressed, and only she, who is wrapped in the robe of a Savior’s righteousness. The home may be very humble, the hat may be very plain, the frock may be very coarse, but the halo of heaven settles in the ro~m when she wears it, and the faintest touch of the resurrection angel will change that garment into raiment exceeding white, so as no fuller on earth could whiten it. I come to you, young woman, to day, to say that this world can not make you happy. I know it is a bright world, with glorious sunshine, and golden rivers, and fire worked sunset, and bird orchestra, and the darkestcave has its crystals, and the wrathiest wave its foam wreath, and the coldest midnight its flaming aurora; but God will put out all these lights vith the blast of his own nostrils, and the glories of this world will perish in the final conflagration. You will never be happy until you get your sins forgiven and allow Jesus Christ to take full possession of your soul. He will be your friend in every perplexity. He will be your comfort in every trial. He will be your defender in every strait. His word is peace. His.look is love. His hand is help. His touch is life. His smile is heaven. O, come, then, in flocks and groups. Come, like the south wind over banka of myrrh. Come, like the morning light tripping over the mountains. Wreath all your affections on Christ’s brow, set all your gems in Christ’s coronet, pour all your voices into Christ’s song, and let this Sabbath air rustle with thewings of rejoicing angels, and the towers of God ring out the news of souls saved.