Newspapers / The Messenger (Fayetteville, N.C.) / Aug. 17, 1888, edition 1 / Page 2
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REV. DR. TALMAGH. i ilii; Bl.OOKLY DIVINE'S SCMUT V SHC'l i -it njs a; Text: '.' content with menace. lieLrews xm, o. If I should ask someone: "Where is Hi o-jk-lyu to-day:"' he would say, 'At Brighton Beach, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island." 'Where is New York to-day." "At long Branch." "Wlure I hikvlelphia? ' '"At Cap.; May." "Wtere is boston f 4At Martha's Vineyard.7' "Where, is Virginia:' At the h'u phur Springs.'' "Where the great multi tude from ail parts of the land;' "At Sara toga," the rn-xiern i ethesda, where the angel tf health is ever stirring the waters. But, iny friends, the largest multitude are at home, detained by business or circumstances. Amons; t!wm all newspapermen, the hardest worfced and the least compensated ; city rail road employee, and ferry masters, and the police, and the teas or' thousands of clerks and merchants waiting for their turn of ab sence, and households with an invalid who cannot be moved, ani others hindered b7 stringent circumstances, and the great mul titude of well to do people who stay at home because they like hom better than any other place, refusing to go ana; simply because it is the fashion to go. When the express wagon, with its mountain of trunks directed to the Catsk lis or Niagara, goes through tha streets, we siand at our viuao.v envious and impatient, and wonder why we cannot go as well as others, F o s that we are, as though oiw could nut Le as happy at home as any where else. Our grandfathers and grand mothers had as good a time as we have, long beforo the first spring was bored at Sara toga,. or the first deer shot in the Adiron dacks. Thy made their wedd.ng tour to the next farmhouse, or, living in New York, the celehi ated thy event by an extra walk on the Battery. Now, the genuine American is not happy until he is going somewhere, and the passion is so groac that there are Christian people with their families detained in tiie city who come not to the house of God, trying to give people the idea that thc?y are out of town ; leaving the door plate unscoure I for the same reason, and for two months keeping the front shutters clo ei whi:e they sic in the back part of thy house, the thermomettr at ninety ! My friends, if it is better for us to go, let us go and be happy. If it Le best for us to stay at home, le us slay at homj and be happy: There is a great deal of good com mon sense- in I'au.'o advice to the Hebrews: 'Bo content with such things as-ye have." To be content is to be in good humor with our circumstances, not packing a quarrel with our obscurity, or our poverty, or our social position. There are four or five grand reasons why we should be content with such things as we have. The first reason that I mention as leading to this spirit devisedfin the text, is the con sideration that the poorest of us have all that is ind.speusahio in lire. V7e make a great ado atou: our hardsmps but how little we talk of : our bless. ns. Health and blv. which is given in largest quantity to those who have never been petted, aa J fondted.and spoiled by fortune, we take as a matter of course. Itather have this luxury, an 1 have it a one, than, without it, loo c out of a Ealace wiudo w upon parks of deerstalking etween fountains and statuary. Those peo ple sleep sounder on a straw mattress than fashionable invalids tn a couch of ivory and eagles' down. The dinner of herbs tastes better to the appet.te sharp ened on a woodman's ax or a reaper's scythe than wealthy indigestion experiences seated at a tab'.e covered with partridge, and veni son, ani pineapple. 'I ho grandest luxury God ever gave a man is health, lie who trades that o.T for all the palaces of the earth is infinitely cheated. We lock back at the glory of the qs5 Napoleon, but w h J would have taken his Versailles and his Tuileries if with them we had been obliged to take his gout? Uh," says some one, "it isn't the grosser pleasures I covet, but it is th8 gratifi cation of an artistic and intellectual taste." Why, my brother, you have the original from which these pictures sre copied. What is a sunset on a wall compared with a sunset hung in loops of fire on the heavens! "What is a cascade silent on a canvas coin pared with a cascade that makes the moun tain tremble, its spray ascending like the departed spirit of the water slain on the rocks? Oh, there is a great deal of hollow affectation about a foulness tor pictures on the part of those who never appreciate the original from which the pictures are taken. As though a parent should have no regard for Jiis- child, but go into ecstasies over its photograph. Bless the Lord to-day, oh, man ! oh, woman! thit though you may be shut out from the works of a Church, a Bierstadt, a Rubens and a Raphael, you still have free access to a gallery grander than the Louvre or the Luxemburg or the Vatican the royal gallery of the noonday heavens, the King's gallery of the midnight sky. Another considerat oa leading ui to a apiritof contentment is the fact that our hap piness is not depmdent upon outward cir cumstance?. You see people happy and mis erable amid all circumstances. In a family where the last loaf is on the table, and the last Mick of wool on the re, you sometimes 'find a cheerful confidence in G-od, while in a very fino place you wiii ses and hear discord sounding her war whoop, and hospitaliy. freezing to death in the cheerless parlor 1 stopped one day on Broodsvay at the head of Wali street, at the foot of Trinitv church, to so w no s I judged t-tlfpt. fOi" lhv had nn 1 hi-ir .brow- tho onrio tv of the dollar they expected to make; nor 'die people who came out of Wall street, foi ? mri t&$ liHpmest people passing. from tiieir Icoks the happiest peo- r.Ctt f.linco nlirt wpnt .?n-j.-T infn HT!1 A lii lroni the who sat at tiv l.eve real hap; window of ft i tat; opera zixs-f they they h I on their brow tic anx'ety cf thedolarti ty ha 1 lost; nor the people who swept by i a splendid eiu pa.je, to.- they ir.er. a ca.rriii.gi that wa hn-r than theirs. The happ:et p rson in all that crow I. ju i-ouatTiin. was me wo. tun apple s'aud knlttiuz. i i--iness often ?r ioo'c.-. oat ol vb humble h nii thtn through r,f th c-il.j-i l of a theite. I fi;i i Nero 2 owLn j; on th'i thron . i I Paul ain '.g i: a du ueon. I hn 1 Ivin? .-vhab go in -4 ti j U,l at nom trirougn m ;i m-?'.o!y. h:le xi'iir by : i Nabotli co:ite:it'i 1 in tli- yvi essioa or a vii eyar.i. Ham m. Prime Mmi? t?ro; Tersln. frts himself a'.ir.ost t deati l e- ausea po-jr Jew w.'.I not tip his hit: an i Ahithcpliei, o: e of the greatest lawyers ol K.ble times. Through fear of dyin?. hnr. h mself. The wealthiest man. forty year ago, in New "V ork, when conrratalati t over his large o-ta:e. replied: "Ah: you don't know how m ac-h trouble 1 havo in takiug care of it.' Byron declare I in his lit hoxirsthat he I ad never seen more thm twelve happy days ic all his life. I do net b.?Uev- he had seen tv-e'.ve minutes of t'.ioro.ish stt-i3fa'-tion. Napoleon I. said: "I turn w.t'i disgust from t he coward.ee an I seltishnn ot men; I hold Me a horror; deitu is repo-:e. What I have lufferedthe last twenty day is beyon i hurnaj coniprchansio.i." While, on the other ba id, to bhow how one may be happy amid t .e most disadvantageous eir cumtmces, iust after the ( cean Monarch had been wr iked in the English-channel, a steamer wa cruising along in the darkness, when the ct itiin heard a soni, a sweet so 'ig, coming ov the water, and ha ,boie dowa toward that voice, and foun I it wa' s Chris tian wo: oen on a plank of the wre -ked steamer, singing to the tune oi it. Mar tin s:" ecu, lover of mj soal. Let me to t'ny io.-o n fly. '.Vhiio the bi!-!)w9 went rae roll. While-the tempeei fi l; lilh. fhe hairt right toward Gol and man, w& are happf. The heart wrong towanl God and man. Ave are unhappy. Another reason why we should com? to this spirit inculcated in the text is the fact that all ti3 differences of earthly condition are trail litory. The bouses you build, the land yott culture, the places in which you barter, ure soon to go into other hands However hard you may have it now, if 3'ou are a Christian the scene will soon end. Pain, trill, persecution -never knock at the door of the grave. Aco2in mile out of pine 30irxs is jus as goo I a resting place at 3iie made out of silver mounted mahogany orros3wool. Go down among the resting p aces of the dead, and you will find that though people there had a greater difference of worldly circumstances, I now they are ali alike unconscious. The hand that greeted the Senator, a-;d the President. and the Iving is still as the hand that hardened on tha mechanic's hamnier or the manufacturer's w heel. It does not make any difference now whether fbere ia a plain stone above tbeji from wliich the traveler pulls aside the wee is to read the nama, or a tall shatt springing into the heavens as though to tell their vir tues to the skies In that silent land there are no titles for great men, and there are no rumblings of chariot wheels, and there is never heard the foot or' the dance. The Egyptian guano wich is t'nnwn on tha n?Ms in the eat for the enricauieiit of the soil is the dust rake 1 out fro n the sepul -hers of kings and lords and mighty ni in. Oh the chagrin of tiiosj men if they had ever known that in the after ages of the world thy would have been calle I Egyptian gumo. Of hosv much worth now is the crown of CjEsir? Who bids for it.' Who care3 now anythiag about the Amphictyonic council or the laws of Lycurgus.; Wh trembles now becausi Xerxes crossed the Hellespont 0:1a bridge of boats? Who fears because Nebu chadnezzar thunders at the gates of Jerusa lem? Who cares now whether or not Cleopitra tnarrie3 Antony? Who crouches before Fer dinemd, or Boniface, or Alarlc' Can Crom well dissolve the English parliament uowj Is William, Prince of Oranre, King of the Netherlands No, no! However much Elizabeth may love the Russiin crown, sha uiust pass it to-Pefter, and Peter to Catherine, ani Catherine to Paul, and Paul to Alex ander, and Alexander to Nicholas. Leopold puts the German scepter into trie hand of Joseph, and Philip comes down oj the Span ish throne to let Ferdinand go on. House of Aragon, house of Hapsburg, hoevsa of Stuart, house of Bourbon, quarreling about everything: else, but agreeing in this: "The fashion of this world passeth away." But have all these dignita ries gone? Can they not be calle i back? I hive been in assemblages where I have heard the roll called, and many distinguished men have answered. If I should call the roll to day of some of those m?ghty ones who have gone I wonder if they would not answer. I will call the roll. I will call the roll oJ th Kings first: Alfred the Great! William the Conqueror! Frederick II! Louis XV JJ No aaswe " ll all the role of the poets: Ro; Southeyl Thomas Campbell! Joha Keats! George Crabbe! Robert Burns! No answer. I call the roll of artists: Michael Angelo! Paul Veronese! Will am Turner! Christopher Wren! No answer. Eyes cosed. Eirsdeaf. Lips silent. Hands pal -siei. Scepter, pencil, pen, sword, put down forever. Why should we struggle for such baubles ? Another reason why we should culture this spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that Goi knows what is best for His creatures. You know what is best for your child. He think you are not as liberal w.th him as you ougit to be- He criticises your discipline, but yo look orer the whole field, and 3-ou. lovinj that child, do what in your deliberate judg ment is be3t for him. Now, (Jol is the bet of father's Sometimes his children think that be is hard on them, and that he is not as liberal with them as he might be. But chil dren do not know as much as a father. I I ;an tell you why you are not largely a tlu ?nt, I and why yu have not been granlly i m ruL It Ubocams y cannot stinl thtnn tat.on If vour path hal been saDOth, you would have depended upoa your own Ci, t-.f.w-r.tri but 'Jo I rU2hene l that latli, his hand null, voi you nave to iiio If th w.eather wou.-i :.ave i Mterei hold of had bv-en alonz the water courses but at the first howl of the storm vou quickens i your pa'-ce heavenwar l an i wrap; 1 ar ua 1 yo i th wnrm rob of j Soviour's rightiousties-s. "What have I doie'" says th; whitshe.af to the far.ner; what have I d m? th it o 1 beat rA? so hird wit'i vour flail. " The f armor makes no answer, but t'ue rake takes o.T the straw, an 1 th- null b'o.vs the chatl to the wind, an i tho co'u-a grain fal's down at the foot of the win imilk After awhile, the straw looking down from the mow upon the golden gram banked up on either side the floor under stands why the faruiir beat the wheatsheaf with the flail. W ho are thos before the throne? The an swer i-ime: "These are they who, out of great tiimilition, hid th ?ir robes washed and male whits in the bVd of the lamb." Wou d (jot that we cou'd un ierstand that our trials are the very bet thing for us. If we had an appreciation of that truth, then we should knokv why it was that John Noyra, the martvr, in the very nii 1st of the dime, reached don and -picked up one of the fagots thit was ousuming him, aud kisse l it, and said: "Blessed be Gol for the time when I was bora for this preferment" They who sutler with Him on earth shall be glorif.ed wit a Him in heaven. Be content, then, with such thinrs as you have. Another consideration leading us to th spirit of thetrx" is the assurance that the Lord wi 1 provide somehow. Will he who holds the water in the hollow of his hand a low his children to die of thirst.' Will he who oaiis the catt'e on a thousand hills, and all the earth's luxuriance of grain and fruit, allow his children to starve.' Go out to morrow morning at 5 o'c ock in the woods and hear the birds chant. They have had no breakfast, they know not where they will dme. they hive m idea where they will sup; but hear "the h:r.s chmt at 5 o'clock in the morning. " Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather" into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they?"' Seven thousand people, in Christ s time, went into the desert. They were the mot improvident people I ever heard of. They deserved to starve. They might have taken food enough to last them until they got back. Nothing did they take. A lad, who ha 1 more wit than nil of them put together, asked his mother that morning tor some loaves of bread oui some fishes. They were put into his sa.heL He went out into the desert. From this provision the seven thousand were fed, and the more they ate the larger the loaves grew until the pro vision that the boy brought in one sachel was multiplied so he could not have carried the fragments home iu six sachels. "O," vou say, "tiines have changed,nnd the day of miracles has gone." I reply that, what God did then by miracle, He does now in some other way, and by natural laws. "I have been young said David, "but now I am old: yet have 1 never seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread. It is high time that you people who are fretting about worldly circumstances, an 1 who are fearing you are cominj io want, understood that the oath ot the etei nal God is involved in the fact that you are to have enough to eat and to wear. Again: 1 remark that the religion of Jesus Christ is the grandest in.iuence to make a man contented. Indemnity against all finan cial ani spiritua' harm! It calms the spirit, dwindles the earth into insignificance, and swallows up the soul with the thought of. heaven. O 3-e who have been going about from place t place expecting to find in change of circum-tances .s'omethia.g to give solace to th spirit, I commend you, this morning, to the warm hearted, earnest, prac tical, common sense religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. "There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked, " and as long as you con tinue in your sin you will be. miserable Come .to Christ. . Make Him your portion, and stars tor heaven, and you will be a happy mac 7ct will bo a happy woman. - Yc i. Yiy friends, notwithstanding all tne3 indu omenta to a spirit of contentment I have to tell you this morning the hutnsn race js divided into two classes those who scold and those who get scoldeL The car . pent r wants to be anything but a carpenter, and the mason anything but a mason, and the banker anything but a banker, and the lawyer anything but a lawyer, and the min ister anything but a minister, and everybody would be happy if he were' only somebody else. The anemone wants to be a sunflower, and the apple orchards throw down their blossoms because they are not tall cedars, and the scow wants to be a schooner, and t: sloop would like to be a seventy-four pounder, and parents have the worst children that ever were, and everbody has the greatest mis fort u ia, and everything is upside down, of going- to be, A hi my frientl. you nV(r make anv advance through such a spirit aa that. You cannot fret yours jlf up; you may fret yourself down. Amid all this grat ing of tones I strike this string of the Gospel harp: 'Godlines3 with contentment is srrea gain. We brought nothing into the woriJ and it is very certain we can carry nothing out; having f 00 1 and raiment, let us there with he content." Let us all remember, if we are Christians, that we are going after a while, whatever be our ciicunistances now, to have a glorious vacation. As in summer we p it oft our gar ments and go down into the cool sea to Lathe, so we will put o.T thse garments of flesh, and step into the cool Jordan. We Mill look arounl for some place to lay down our weari-iess: and the trees will .say: "Come and rest under our shadow;'' and the earth wiliay: "Come and seep in mv bosom:" and the winds will siy: t4Hush! while 1 sing thee a cradle hymn,'1 aud while sir strong men carry us out to our last resting place, and ashes come to ashes and dust to dust, we will see two scarred feet standing amid thf a broken soil, and a lacerated brow u n over the open gravje, while a voice t. ' ' with all allectioa nni mighty. .' omnipotence, will d-c!atv: "l am x'i-' r '- . rection and the life: he that b 'brvtth thouzh he were d ad, yet shali h i tr Corufort one another with these wor is. Life in tUc Hah a ma-.. Fpjngimr I113 ail the at'rarti ns gamb'iutj ad" venture. Iho i d :'u- , rr ... be .suecoful, the j-ro.its arc i;- enough money iay le made :n a tim? to i::u:c the en;oy;:.e ;: of :. . :. of idleness. Anl ille::ess i .1 ; .x ury when a mau cm icclhc uudv: ;. shade of his own juava or orange t:v and have Ihc latent news from the : . 4,, iivj neiiih'.ors aa thev s-auntt r a.' .- . the.r faur.ers iio icd tlat haskt-ts of t leaves puci wnn glowing toim:-1 , lrgc greeu avocado jiears. or ic yel ow pepper, for sale in town ,; c 1., chew sugar cane or smoke a pijte. ;i.e spirit moves him, taking no th ''i-ht f r the morrow, which is pretty sure to . sunny and balmy as to-day. l)w, in the dark and sombre north tan i.ur i j realize the charm and joyousnt ss t L:t seem to radiate from earth and air in t:; lotus-eating southern clime. The ns- r sense of existence beo:i;es :u it t i: t happiness; one can understand w'.u: animals probably feel in p'.easa:;: tures on brilliant days Then. a th. sun sinks slowly downward, ill- .., heaven glows over a rejot in var,h. Hushing every moment into 1 beauty beneath the depart ng nys wh;io rosy beams of light streunsng upwrl like so nimy auroras is a s ngu.ar ta i very beautiful e.Tect often to be c.- i :a a Brthama sunder. When the sun hi. set new beauties appear, c ery buh ani tussock becDining alive with thou-ati i. of fireflies; and when a silvery gr-e:; moon rises in the calm deep s.i:,j,,irr sky, it is diftictilt to decide win th. t night or day be the more full of low.: ues. Beside the tire flics, a :irc berilt - -one of the Elytra is a singu'ar : c with a brill ant green phosphorc-n-: light uroceeding from two ro ml jo--on the thorax, added to which, whra excited, the inse t has the po.vt: ;j emit a reg i!ar blaze of light fro in tin. segments of the abdomen, of :, h brilliancy that one can read by u !i'ht. In Cuba ladie fasten thee e:tra is ornr.ments in their hair, or let thru; ;l.t-h beneath the fold of the tulle dresses. Xiiic(enth C n'ur:.. 1 The Leaping Salmon of Canada. The salmon rivers of Canada ar all streams of swift currents, whirli:;:; : i:- is and high f ills. The salmon m- his !o make its way up the-e sti earns wi:h 1 much case as he moves down. r.e f the sights in the vicinity of vr,iii- :s the sa'mou leaping at the Falls .. ! -vette, and during July many j.erso:; as semble there to see it. The fa ar.. 1 succession of steep tumbles ami the wa:. r n:she over the rocks with jrreat e! -: :y. The salmon gather at the f-ot ! ?!.e lower tumble, and, withmarveilou 1- a:s up the very face of the rushing waters, make their way to the summit with- ;: apparent difficulty, gliding up the -w f: chutes like a flash and mounting iach successive tumble until the grand s-::n-init is reached. The native Cana-liia will tell you, with a straight an so', ma face, that when there was no legal inter ference with spearing, the Indians were in the habit of gathering at the fot of the falls in their birch canoes and cast ing their spears at the salmon as they leaped up the torrents, making their cast with such marvellous skill that the sal mon aimed at was invariably stopped ia his vaulting career and fell back impaled by the Indian cruel barb. That mj be true, but I know for a fa -t that they tell the stranger muj queer things ;a Canada. Phi'adeIpJia Xev Turmoil for Trepj. Apropos of the vibrant property of wood, have you never heard the gi::i l ing in the dead, dry trunk of the pin- -the gnawing of the minute teeth of the borers? It is like a busy carpenter sh p in full blast. I remember, in a rev cat walk in Conway woods, that such at re' audibly announced it preseurc ' ; twenty feet in advance of inc. av i poured out from hundreds of aperrur--. and on lavintr mv ear against th tr.:.- j and cloing my eye I .-ecned t : " I the midst of a nietrojolit'ui bid! 5 who e city b ock behind iu it rt : and r.ishJd for its finish, withl. : i and i.anesj and ch-std in wild . : ' J confus on. I co.i'd hear the sa - - 1 . auger-, gouges, derricks a- d p::l!-y- most the hurried footfall indeed.- r thing but ihe profanity of the :. And yet a single oce of these di- 1 - ' in hi hiding place wa scarcely la:- -th-.ii a brad. iir;rV.
The Messenger (Fayetteville, N.C.)
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Aug. 17, 1888, edition 1
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