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About The Plattsmouth daily herald. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1883-19?? | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1888)
THE DAILY HERALD: PLAlw rwr, , ft 4 - i .1 title .111. .icUm BO. : A HAPPINESS AT II03IE. Zy. DR. TALMAGE TKE BROOKLYN v DISCOURSES AT TABERNACLE. altli the (Grandest Luiuiy Olvm to Mitn. ' - -Ilnpplneiwi Not 'A. jC'trcu instance lrp-iilnt on Outward "GodllneM with Con- fitment I Great Gain." - "jiOOKLYX, July 15. The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.f took for his sub ject today: 'In Gool Humor w ith Our Circumstances." His text was Hebrews xiii, 3: "lie content with bucIi tilings as ye have. " Tlic great preacher's discourse was as follows: If I bIiouM a.sk pome one, ""Where is Brooklyn today?" he would say, "At Brighton IVach, or East Hampton, or Shelter Island." "Where is New York today?" "At Loup; Branch." "Where Philadelphia?" "Capo Mar." "Where is iJoston?" "At Martha's Vineyard." "Where is Virginia?" "At the Sulphur Springs." "Where the great multitude from all parts of the land?" "At Saratoga," tho modern ISethcsda, where the angel of health is ever stirring the writers. But, my friends, tho larg-st multitude afro at home, detained by business circumstances. Among them all nowsiaer men, tho hardest worked and tho least compensated; citj' railroad employes, and ferry masters, ami the police and. the tens cf thousands of clerks and merchants waiting for their turn of alsence, and households with an invalid who cannot le moved, ami others hindered by stringent circumstances, and the great multitude of well-to-do people who stay at home because they like home letter than any other place, refus ing to go away simply because it is the fashion to go. When tho express wagon, with its mountain of trunks di rected to tho Catskills or'Niagara, goef through the streets, we btan.l at our win dow envious and impatient, and wonder why wo cannot go as well as others. Fools that we are, as though one could not be as happy at home as anywhere else. Our grandfathers and grandmothers had as gotd a time as we have, long be fore tho first spring was bored at Sara toga or the first deer shot in the Adiron dacks. They made their wedding tour to the next farm house, or, living in New York, they celebrated tho event by mi f xtra walk on tho Battery. Kow the genuine American Is not happv until he is going somewhere, and the passion is so great that there are Christian people with their families do tainetl in the city, who come not to the house of God, trying to give jieoplc the idea that they are out of town; leaving the doorplate unscoured for the same reason, and for two months keeping the front shutters closed while they tit In the back pait of the iCu;-e, the thermometer at ninety! My friends, if it is best for us to go, le$ lis go and le happy. If it is best for lis to stay at homo, let us stay at home and be happy. There is a great deal of good common sense in Paul's advice to the . Hebrews: "Bo content with such things r.s ye have." To be content is to be in good humor with our circumstanced, not picking a quarrel with our oliscurity, or ...k.t poverty, our social position. There are four or five grand reasons why we should be content with such things as f.vo have, Jng to this spirit advised in the text, is the consideration that the poorest of us n vo all that is indispensable in life. We nnkc a great ado alout our hardships, but how little we talk of our blessings. Health of body, which is given in largest quantity to those who have never leen pitted, and fondled, ami spoiled by for tune, we take as a matter of course. P:ithor have this luxury, and have it olonr, than, without h, look out of a palace window upon parks of deer stalking between fountains and statu ary. These ioople sleep sounder on a straw mattress than fashionable in valids on a couch of ivory and eagles' down. The dinner of herbs tastc3 better to the appetite sharpened on a wood man's ax or a reaper's scythe thai wealthy indigestion experiences seated at a table covered with partridge, and ven ison, and pineapple. Tho grandest lui- iry God ever gave a man is health. He who trades that oir for all the palaces of the earth is infinitely cheated. We look back at tho glory of the J;i-t NaioUoi,. but who would have taken his Versailles and his Tuileries if with them we had l-een obliged to take his gout? "Oh," savs some one, 'it isn't the grosser pleas ures I covet, but it is the gratification of an artistic and intellectual taste." Why, my brother, you have tho original from which these pictures are copied. What is a sunset on a wall compared with a 6uuset hung in loops of fire on the heavens? What is a cascade silent on a canvas compared with a cascade that makes the mountain 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 fondness for pictures on the part of those who never appreciate tho original from which the pictures are taken. As though a parent snouiu iiao noTegan. narent should have noTcgaru lor ins child, but co into ecstasies over its photo- H 1 . , V ,t t : i., . i, woman: mat iuouku uu nun w ut out from the works o: a church, a icr stadt, a Rubens, and a Raphael, you still j have free access to a gallery grander thm the IiOuvre, or the Luxemburg, or tho Vatican the royal gallery of the noon day heavens, the King's gallery of the inidnight sky. Another consideration leading us to a ;. Fpirit of contentment is the fact that our happiness is not dependent upon outward -j. circumstances. You sec people happy ; and miserable amid all circumstances-j In a family where tho last loaf is on the ' table, and the last stick of wood on the j lire, you sometimes find a cheerful con- j lidencc in God, while in a very fine place you will see and hear discord sounding j btr war whoop, and hospitality freezi:.;; I to death in a cheerless parlor. I stopped ! one day on Broadway at the head of Wall i street, at the foot of Trinity church, to : see who seemed the happiest people iass ir.g. I judged from their looks ( the happiest people wre not those who : went down into Wall street, for the-y had on their brow the anxiety of the dollar they expected, to make; nor tho people whocamo out of Wr.l- street, for they haJ on their brow the anxiety of the doi - lar Uiey had lct; nor the people who Bwept by in splendid equipage, for they met a carriage that was finer than theirs. The happiest jierson In all that crowd, judging from tho countenance, was tho woman who sat at tho apple stand knit ting. I believe real happiness oftener looks out of tho window of on humble home than through the opera glass of tho gilded box of a theater. I find Nero growling on a throne. " I find Paul singing in a dungeon. I find King Ahab going to bed at noon through melancholy, w hile near by is Naboth con tented in the iossession of a vineyard. Hainan, prime minister of Persia, frets himself almost to death because a poor Jew will not tip his hat; and Ahithophel, one of the greatest lawyers of Bible times, through fear of dying, hangs himself. Tho wealthiest man, forty years ago, in New York, when congratulated over his large ebtate, replied: "Ah! you don't know how much trouble I have in taking care of it." Byron declared in his last hours that he had never seen more than twelve happy days in all his life. I do not lielieve he had seen twelve minutes of thorough satisfaction. Napoleon I said: "I turn with disgust from the cowardico and selfishness of man. I hold life a horror; death is rejiose. What I have suffered the last twenty days is lieyond human comprehension." While, on the other hand, to show how one may lie happy under the most disadvantageous circum stances, just after tho Ocean Monarch had leeii wrecked in the English chan nel, a steamer was cruising along in tho darkness, when the captain heard a song, a sweet song, coming over the water, and he bore down toward that voice, and found it was a Christian woman on a plank of the wrecked steamer, singing to the tune of St. Martin's: Jesus, lover of my soul. I't me to thy bosom fly, WMle Uie billons near me roll. While the tempest still is high. The heart right toward God and man, we are happy. The heart wrong toward God and man, we are unhappy. Another reason why we should come to this spirit inculcated iix tho text is the fact that all the differences of earthly condition are transitory. The houses you build, tho land you culture, the places in which you barter, are soon to go into other hands. However hard you may have it now, if you are a Christian the scene will soon end. Pain, trial, per secution never knock at the door of the grave. A coffin made out of pine loards is just as good a resting place ns one made out of silver mounted mfthofffl"' or rosewood. Go 1qv? among" the resting places 7f tho dead, and you will find that though people the-VG liad a great difference of worldly circumstances, now the' are all alike unconscious. The hand that greeted tno benator, nnd the president, and the king' is still as the hand that hardened on the mechanic's hamtnex or the manu facturer's wl,eel. It does not make any dilference now, whether there is a plain stone aljove them from which the trav eler pulls aside the weeds to lead the name, or a tall shaft springing into the heavens as though to tell hir vutue to tho skies, tu that silent land there are no titles for great men, and there aro no i nmb lings of chariot wheels, and there is never heard the foot of the dance. Tho Egyptian guano which is thrown on the fields in the east for the enrichment of the soil, is tho dust raked out from tho sepulchers of kings and lords and mighty men. O the chagrin of those men if they had ever known that in the after ages of the world they would have been called Egyptian guano. Of how much worth now is tho crown of Ccesar? Who bids for it ? Who cares now anything about the Amphictyonio council or the laws of Lycurgus? Who trembles now because Xerxes crossed the llcllesjont on a bridge of boats? Who feavs because Nebuchadnezzar thunders at the gates of Jerusalem? Who cares now whether or not Cleopatra marries Antony? Who crouches lief ore Ferdi nand, or Boniface, or Alaric? Can Crom well dissolve the English parliament now? Is William, prince of Orange, king of the Netherlands? No, no! However much Elizabeth may love the Russian, crown, she must pass it to Peter, and Peter io Catherine, and Catherine to Paul, and Paul to Alexander, and Alex ander to Nicholas. Leopold put the Ger man scepter into the hand of Joseph, and Philip comes down off tho Spanish throne to let Ferdinand go on. House of Aragon, house of Hamburg, house of Stuart, house of Bourbon, quarreling about everything else, but agreeing in this: "Tho fashion of this world passcth away." But have all these dig nitaries gone? Can they not lxj called back? I have been in assemblages where I have heard the roll called, and many distinguished men have answered. If I should call the roll today of some of those mighty ones who have gone, I wonder if they would not answer. I will call the roll. I will call the roll of the kings first: Alfred the Great! William the Conqueror! Frederick 11! Louis XVI! No answer. I will call the roll of the poets: Poliert Southey ! Thomas Camp bell! John Keats! George Crable! Robert Burns! No answer. 1 call the roll of artists: Michael Angelo! Paul Veronese! William Turner! Christopher Wren! No i answer. Eves closed. Ears deaf. Laps i ., , - , , . , ,, , ?, silent. Hands palsied, lien, sword, put down Scepter, pencil, forever. Why should we struggle for such baubles? Another reason why we should culture this spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that God knows what is best for his creatures. You know what is best for vour child. He thinks you are not as liberal with him as you "ought to be. He criticises your discipline, but you look over the whole field, and you, loving that child, do what in your deliberate judgment is best for him. Now, God is the best of fathers. Sometinies his children think, that he is hard on them, and that he is not as liberal with them as ho might be. But children do not know as much as a father. I can tell you why you are not largely affluent, and why you have not been grandly successful. It is because you cannot 6tand the temptation. If your path hael been smooth, you would have depended upon your own surefoot edness; but God roughened that path, 60 you have to take hold of his hand. If the. weather had been mild, you would have loitered along the water courses; but at the first howl of the storm you quickened your pace heavenward, and wrapped arouud you the warm robe of a Saviour's righteousness. "What have I done?" says the wheatsheaf to the farmer, "what havo I done, that you beat me so hard with your flail?" The farmer makes no answer, but the rake takes off tho straw, and tho mill blows the chaff to tho wind, and tho golden grain falls down at the foot of the windmill. After a while, tho straw looking down from tho mow upon the golden grain banked up on either side tho floor, understands why the farmer beat tho wheatsheaf with the flail. Who are those before the throne? Tho answer came: "These are they who, out of great tribulation, had their robes washed and made white in tho bJood of tho Lamb." Would God that we could understand that our trials aro tho very lx?st thing for us. If wo had an appreci ation of that truth, then wo should know why it was that John Noyra, tho mart3-r, in the very midst of the flame reached down and picked up one of tho fagots that was consuming him, and kissed it, and said: "Blessed bo God for the time when I was bom to this pieferment." They who suffer with him on earth shall le glorified with him in heaven. Be content, then, with such things as you have. Another consideration leading us to the spirit of the text is the assurance that tho Lord will provide some-how. Will ho who holds tho waler in the hol low of his hand allow his children to dio of thirst? Will ho who owns the cattle 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'clock into the wotxls and hear tho birds chant. They have had no breakfast, they know not where they will dine, they have no idea where they will sup; but hear the birds chant at 5 o'clock in the morning. "Be hold tho fowls of tho air; for they sow not, neither tlo they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heav enly Father fecdeth them. Aro you not much better than they?" Seven thou sand people in Christ's time went into the desert. They were the most improvi dent people ever heard of. They de served to starve. They might have taken food enough to last them until they got back. Nothing did they tfiky. A Lid, who had more wit than all cf them put togethey, asked his mother that morning for some loaves of bread and some Wishes. They were put into his saphel. Ho went out into the desert. Frm this praviRiilii .1.- il. . .1 M i - more thevatetho Lu-- ' , ' "a 1 e until tl.-V ' ' - ' w,e ,oas grew i,UL" rxovision that the boy brought in one sachel was multiplied so he could not havo carried tho fragments home in six sachels. "O," you 6ay, "times have changed, and the day of miracles has gone." I reply that, what God did then by miracles, he does now in some either way, and by natural laws. "I havo been young," said David, "but now I am old; yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed lagging bread." It is high time that you people whe are fretting about worldly circum stances, and who aro fearing you are coming to want, understood that the oath of tho eternal God is involved in tho fact that you aro to have enough to eat and to wear. Again, I remark that tho religion of Jesus Christ is the grandest influence to make a man contented. Indemnity against all financial and spiritual harm ! It calms tiie spirit, dwindles the earth into insignificance and swallows up the soul with the thought of heaven. O ye, who have leen going about from place to place expecting to find in change of circumstances something to give solace to the troubled spirit, I commend you this morning to the warm hearted, ear nest, practical, common sense religion of tho Lord Jesus Christ. "There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked," and as long as you continue in your sin you will be miserable. Come to Christ. Make him your portion, and start for heaven, and you will be a happy man you will be a happy woman. Yet, my friends, notwithstanding all these inducements to a spirit of content ment, I have to tell you this morning the human race is divided into two classes those who scold and thoso who get scolded- Tho carpenter 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 minister anything but a minister, and everybody would be happy if he were only some body else. The anemone wants to be a sunilower, and tho apple orchards throw down their blossoms because they are not tall cedars, and the scow wants to be a schooner, and the sloop would like to be a seventy -four pounder, and parents have the worst children that ever were, and everybody has the greatest misfortune, and everything i3 upside down, or going to be. Ah! my friends, you never make any advance through such a spirit as that. You cannot fret yourself up; you may fret yourself down. Amid all this grating of tones I strike this string of the Gospel harp: "Godliness with content ment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world, and it is very certain we can carry nothing out; having food and raiment let us therewith be content." Let us all remember, if we are Chris tians, that we are going after awhile, whatever be our circumsiances now, to have a glorious vacation. As in sum mer we put off our garments and go down into the cool sea to bathe, so we will put off these garments of flesh and step into the cool Jordan. We will look around for some place to. lay down our weariness; and the trees will say: "Come and rest under our shadow;" and the earth will say: "Come and sleep in my bosom;" and the winds will sayj "Hush! while I sing thee a eradlo hymn;" and while six strong men carry us out to our last resting place, and ashes come to ashes and. dust to dust, wo will see two scarred feet standing amid t,he broken soil, anel a lacerated brow bending over the open grave, while a voice, tender with all af fection and mighty with all omnipotence, will declare: "I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," Com fort one another with these words. . A southern woman who took a con- tract for splitting rails, and without help of any land cut and split 400 a week, did not spend much time arguing upon the proper position of woman. SXie had a family to support, and worked up to the full measure ojftercapacit!T! DAUGHTERS OF EVE. Newspaper Kote Concerning tho Fair - Sex Personal Comment. A two-and-a-half-year-old daughter of Levy, tho conietist, shows extraordinary talent for music. Mrs. Charles Mason, of Fitchburg, Mass., is tho author of "Do They Misi Me at Home?" Mrs. Dr. Smith has contributed $12,000 for the purpose of constructing a "play house" for the uso of the children of Newark, N. J., who have no place but the streets to play in. Mrs. Mary Maies Dodge, now slightly past middle age, is still youthful in ap-jx-aranco ami spirits. Her "Hans Brinker" is almost as popular in England as in this country, and furnishes a mate rial part of her income. Mrs. Stanford, the wife of tho rich senator from California, has just en dowed another $1,000 bed, making eight in all, in different charitable institutions in Washington. She has endowed about sixty-six such beds in California, and probably a hundred more in various parts of tho country. Tewfik Pasha's sister, tho wife of Man sur Pasha, is described as having in herited the artistic tastes and bound" less extravagance of her father, Ismail Pasha. She is said to bo inextricably in volved in debt, and to have placed Iter finest jewels as pledges in tho banks of Alexandria. Tho statement, however, that she owes 30,000 francs tn her cigar ette account ought perhaps to be ac cepted with some ;;!f.ir-(v. Mile, Gabrielle Dumontet is today per haps the most distinguished young wo man in France. At tho recent examina tions in medicine and surgery, under the auspices of tho Women's Union of France, she gained the first prize and was awarded the medal and diploma of honor. Besides being unusually proficient in her profession und scientific studies, slio is an accomplished linguist, musician and painter, and a brilliant woman in so ciety. Alice French is tho veritable name of the lady who, writes for the magazines over the signature of "Octave Thanet," She has Mayflower blood in her vcin ' and is tho daughter of Judge Freu- e Davenport. Ia She saYs- - r mhoA ood " S -&m lt'U the (,uth in a3 ooii inplo English as I can pick lhis is goou as lar as it goes, juiss French, it is said, has lately been study ing character and life on an Arkansas plantation. "Princess Lelitia Bonaparte," says a writer in The American Register, "is a tall and beautiful woman, and there is a possibility that sho may become the queen of Itah'. I havo seen it recenty asserted I know not with how much truth that tho present crown prince of Italy is not very strong and has not, hu manely spcakintr, a very long leaso of life. However that may be, tins is sure, that somo sudden accident (which may Heaven avert!) might e-asily take off King Humbert and his son. Then it would be that Prince Amadeo would be the rightful heir to the throne of Italy, ind his spouse would be the queen of Italy." Mme. Pauline Lucca will make a pro fessional visit to the United States in the fall. It has been a great many years since Mme. Lucca was heard in this country, but her voice will have to have lost a great deal if it fails to attract large audiences if she is heard In "Faust" or "La Favorita. " After her last visit to this country Mme. Lucca went home and bought a farm, where she rested for a while and raised pigs and chickens; and sho hopes soon to return to the same pastoral occupation. It is the dream of every prima donna who ever trod the boards to ono elay retire to a fa.im. Italy is strewn with farming piime donne, who find a great charm in contrasting their past with their present life. Mrs. Harriet Beccher Stowo now scarcely weiglis more than 100 pounds, and is not much larger than a good sized 1 2-year-old girl. Her face is most expres sive, and always bears a gentlo and kindly look. Her thin gray hair is neatly arranged over a broad and thoughtful brow, beneath which aro eyes that al ways twinkle merrily when she speaks of a subject cf interest. Her mouth is more expressive than any other feature. It constantly speaks, though no word is spoken. She enjoys a good joke at all times, and laughs loud and long when one ia fastened on herself by her children or intimate friends. She say3 that since the war she has spent eighteen winters in her southern home, and had met all classes and conditions of southern people, but they had all treated her with tho ut most cordiality and courtcousness, with but very few exceptions. M'eury of Iligli Alt. It's getting very hard for a plain man of ordinary, every day, practical tastes to get on in the world now. When he comes to the city and expects to see the sights he is taken to picture galleries and theatres with strong French plays in progress and to bric-a-brac exhibitions. A simple, honest countryman was taken to a picture gallery and a violent and nersistent effort made to ntprtn?'n liim with a subject he did not care about. They showed him around tho gallery, they expatiated on the great pictures, tiie superb art, and all that sort of thing. He said notbiDg until he reached a win dow which looked out on the street. Then, as a horse car went rattling by, ho turned wearily to his artistic; friend and Eaid: "What kind of axla grease do they uso in tbia town?" Saa Francisco Chronicle,- A Caution to Corregpondents. Under the recent act of congress ap proveel by the president, any envelope, wrapper or postal card containing on the outside anything which reflects injuri ously upon the person addressed, or any one else, or upon liis character or con duct, or is plainly calculated and in tendeel to injure lus feelings or reputa tion, or bring him into discredit, or which threatens him, will be excluded from the mails. Anything in the nature of an offensive or threatening dun ap parent upon an envelope, outside cover or postal card, or conveying tho sug gestion that such dun is inclosed, will be excluded as non-mailable under thi3 act. New Orleans Times-Democrat. AVolapuk club has been formed at "Walla Walla, Wy. T. The Piattsmouth Herald Is on joying a DAXLT AND WEEKLY EDITIONS. The Year Will Lu ono liuiiio; which the f-ubjcctH of national interest ami importance will lie strongly nrit:itoil ami the election el' :i J're.ielent will take place. The people of Cass County who woiiM like to learn of Political, Commercial and Social of this year and woi.hl keep apace with the times should subsc ribb; Foli Daily or Weekly Herald. Now while we have the subject before the people we will venture to speak of our Which is first-class in all respects and from which our job printers are turning out much satisfactory work. PL ATTS MOUTH, Eo:;m in both, its 1888 Transactions KITH Kit TJ1K- U Q NEBRASKA. V 9