The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-02-06
TALMAGE,
THE METROPOLITAN MORAL BAR
OMETER.
From Which the Condition Of the Country Is In
Herred-A Brighter and More Hopeful View
Of the SltuatlOn--The Darkness OF
the Night Paling into the
Crimson Bushes OF
the Morning

New York, Feb 2.--Rev, T. Dewitt Talmage to-
day delivered the third Of bis series of sermons
upon the "Moral Condition Of the CoHntry." III !,
understood that to morrow the Reverend gentle.
man will be arraigned before the Presbytery for
trial upon the charge that his preaching Is unor-
thodoX, The subject Of next Sundays discourse
will be Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy," Follow
ing is a verbatim report Of today's sermon
sUBJEcr-"sunrise over the Cities"
Texts, Genesis, Kill, As; Joseph laid up the
food in the cities" Numbers xxi, II And
pitched toward the unrising."
Joseph gathered the food in the cities, because
the best way 10 supply country with any thing
worth having is to make cities the channel, AS
in this case they we're the granarieb for corn, so
to-day they are the granarles OF thought, Of relig
iOus expedition, Of educational force, OF world
wide benehcence. When this land is finally say.
ed for morality and religion, II will be by great
movement on the part of the cities They will
open fire all around the sky, and then move on
toward the center till all the wrongs that are ram
pant will surrender to law and order and Christ
ianity. While preparing this sermon, | had on
my table the maps and histories of all our great
cities and the police reports and the sketches of
charitable institutions and the result Of all my
investigation is exhiarant anticipation, so that
this sermon like the tents spoken of in one of my
texts, is pitched toward the sun.rising The dark
ness of the night changes into the pallor that pre-
cedes the dawn, and the pallor bluShes into Grim
son, and the crimson reddens into the conaagra
tion of the morning that hoists the banners of
flame on all the spires of the city, till soon the sun
shall rise high enough to pour illumination into
deepest cellars Of poverty and lowest haunts of
crime. Hail to the morning. pitch my tent to-.
ward the sun rising,
If find in Boston that there are 1858 arrests
for crime in year, I only make 1t the dark back
ground Of the bright picture that last year she ex-
pended 81 756 ,440 in common school education,
and by the power which Horace Mann, the chief
apostle Of education in this country projected,s she
has made every school-house in the land feel the
elevating influence. The police report may tell
me that in Philadelphia last ear there were A.
220 arrests for crime, but make this only the
back ground OF picture in which are improved
academies and large churches and magnificent
phianthropies, that make her in some respects
the most delightful residence on the continent
The world has laughed at Quaker guns, but they
have been loaded with an ammunition with
which all guns must yet be loaded, namely,
peace and good will 10 men. l know by blissful
experience how happy her homes are, and to her
cemetery l have committed a sacred charge till
the resurrection. Beautiful Philadelphia l can
not speak her name without an arOusal of the best
and deepest emotion. What hope for the future
Of our great cities is to be found in the sublime
statistics that Chicago expends in education S6O4.
073 per year, Baltimore 100000, San Francisco
$4,000, Cincinnati S75,454, and New York 49,.
51S929. Mer say that st. Lous's growth in mum
bers is greater than her growth in morals but they
forget the establishment In that city Of some Of
the finest charitable institutions in the world and
the efforts unsurpassed on the Continent, for the
moral elevation of the people in that city, which
is the prospective Capital Of the nation. You and
may not see 1t, but In the days Of our children,
when the cities on the Pacific Coast shall balance
the cities on the Atlantic Coast and the table
lands Of the West shall be as populous as the farm
fields of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Presi.
dent of the United States may write his message
on the banks Of the Mississippi, and members Of
Congress before the opening Of the days session
take morning walk across the we'll nigh miracW.
lous bridge that hovers over the Father of Waters
But my hope for the cities Of this country is not
so much through the mental culture of the schools
and the advancement Of the arts and the worldly
enterprise OF the people, as through the gOspeliz
ing Of the great masses that tramp the streets of
our great thorOughfares. Hark to the stupendOus
tread of 2650OO people In San Francisco 275 900 in
Cincinnati $50 600 in Baltimore, $780, 900 in Boston,
100000 In IT. Louis, 425OOO in Chicago, 800 900 in
Brooklyn, 100000 in Philadelphia, and $780, 900 in
New York, and the aggregate millions of the other
cities of the land, marching on a host that no
man can number. Marching whittier? Eternal
God, help us In this overwhelming subject.
When say that religion Is to reform and save
the cities, want to make distinction. There
are two kinds Of religions that will never do this
work. One is the humanitarian religion, which
proposes TO make men honest and pure for this
life, but demands no inward reconstruction, and
the other is dead orthodoxy which makes every
thing Of belief and nothing Of practice. The one
proposes to build bridge for this life the othera
bridge for the next life. For either Of those relig
ions would not give SO much "a paper Of pins;
for who want bridge that will drop him mid
sream The religion that you and | want is q
bridge Of two spans the one arching this life, the
other archng the other life. That is the religion
Of the Bible as interpret 1t. The best sermon
ever preached was the one reported in Matthew.
In that Christ denounced uncleanness and anger
and blssphemy and persecution and hypocrisy
and phRriseeism, and told how to treat enemies
and promised by botanical and pathological H.
lustratlon enough TO eat and to wear, and wound
up by telling the Importance Of having right be.
lief which would be rock to hold them up in.
stead of the sand TO leE them down. Under the
reading of that have changed my theory used
TO think that II a man believed right his actions
must be right Every day demonstrates that to
be fallacy, Some of the most prominent coun-
terfelters and defrauders in our cities during the
last few years believed all the Heidelberg and
Westminster catechisms or sat at Methodist love-
feasts or went clear under the water Of the baptis-
try Their bridge was too short, because 1t start
ed at the other side the grave. On the other hand
there are men who pay all their debts, and keep
their lips pure and are models of good citizenship,
who have made no preparation for what is be-
yond this life Their bridge is too short for 1t ends
this side Of the grave. man may have Calvin'S
Institutes in one pocket and John Wesley's Ser
mons in another pocket, and the Episcopalian
liturgy in one hand and the Bible in the other
hand, and yet walk straight into perdition. The
mere profession Of doctrine will not put one an
inch toward heaven. The communion table and
the Church records are poor plank to uphold
man when the floods Of death come in. 81. James
in his episte, married a couple that may never be
divorced, The one he called Faith, the other he
called Works. What God has joined together let
no man put asunder.
Now, this practical religion for both worlds is
what is to save our cities. Some journalists have
asked how long this course of sermons will con
tlnue. Well, about thirty years. II live SO long.
In other words, the rest of my days am going to
preach With reference to both words-this and
the next We must keep things stirred up. It may
be very delightful for three or four hundred we'll
dressed people to come into church, and have q
choir 10 one end Of the church to do the music