Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-09-23
PULPIT UTTERANCES.
! The Extravaganza of Modern Life.

The Extravaganza of Modern Life.
NOT MONEY, BUT THE WAY WE USE I
THE SOURCE OF EvIL-sTIRRING SEE
MON BY REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The recent financial troubles have give
DR.. Talmage the theme of an interestiD
sermon. which he delivered in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle from the following text:
Gas the partridge sitteth on eggs an
hatcheth them not, so he that that gettet
riches, and not by right, shall leave ther
in the midst of his days, and at his en-
shall be fool" ."-Jeremiah, 1vii:11.
Allusion is here made to a well-know
fact in natural history. If partridge or
quail or robin brood the eggs of anothe
species, the young will not stay with th
one that happened to brood them, but, a
the first opportunity, will consort witt
their own species. Those of us who hav
been brought up in the country have seel
the dismay of the farm-yard hen, havin,
brooded the aquatic fowls, when, after
while, they tumble into their natural ele
ment, the water. So my text suggests tina
a man may gather under his wings tn
property of others, but it will after whil'
escape; it will leave the man in sorry
predicament and make him feel very silly
There are those who spread out their wing
until they get four, five, ten, fifteen for
tunes under them, and the financial incuba
ton seems to be going on very prosper
ously, when suddenly they chip the shell
and some take to the water and some th'
air, and leave the nest empty.
Across the island of New York, in 1885
a wall of earth and stone was built, wal
l IL IL
ages. Along this wall ran street, and as
the street kept the wall it was appropriately
called Wall street. Short, natural, un
and, excepting Lombard street, London
the United States Government was born
There Washington held his levees. There
Mrs. Adams and Mrs Arnold and Mrs
Caldwell and Mrs. Knox and other brillian
women of the Revolution displayed theil
charms. There preached Witherspoon
Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield
There DR.. John Mason chided Alexander
Hamilton for writing the Constitution
without any God in it. There negroes
were sold in the slave mart. The crlmi
nails were harnessed to wheelbarrows anG
compelled to draw burdens. There they
were lashed through the streets behind carts
to which they were fastened. Thatstreet has
seen the coronation and the burial of ten
thousand fortunes. The abode of lust the
opposites answering integrity and tip tor
scoundrelism; heaven-descended charity
and bloodless Shylockism. The history Of
Wall street would be the history of the
commerce Of America. We are all stunned
with the recent defalcations in Wall street,
and there is no more absorbing question in
America to-day than these: What caused
''Black Wednesday," what caused "Black
Friday?" what has caused all the black
days Of financial disaster with which Wall
street has been connected for the last forty
years? Some say it is the credit system.
Something back of that. Some say it is the
spirit of gambling ever and anon becoming
epidemic. Something back of that. Some
say it is the sudden shrinkage in the value
Of securities, which even the most honest
and intelligent men could not have fore
seen. Something back of that. The pri-
NAL cause of all these disturbances is the
extravaganza of modern society, which i'm
pels man to spend more money than he
can honestly make, and he goes into Wall
street in order to get the purposes of i'm
mediate display and sometimes his wife,
and oftener both. Extravaganza is the
|
forty years, and if you will go through the
history of all the great panics and all the
great financial disturbances, no sooner have
you found the story than right back of it
you find the story of how many horses the
man had, how many carriages the man had,
how many residences in the country the
man had, how many banquets the man gave
always, and not one exception for the last
forty years, either directly or indirectly,
extravaganza the cause. Now, for the ell
egances and the refnements and the deco
ratiOns of life cast my vote. l have not
much patience with a man who talks as
though decoration and adornment and the
elegances of life are sin when they are
divincly recommended. But there is lire
to be drawn between adornment and deco.
rations that we can afford and those we
cannot afford, and when man crosses that
line he becomes culpable. l cannot tell
you what is extravagant for you. You
cannot tell me what is extravagant for me.
What may be economical for you, man
with larger income, will be wicked waste
for me with smaller income. There is nc
iron rule on this subject. Every man be-
fore God and on his knees must judge what
is extravaganza, and when man goes into
expenditures beyond his means he is ex-
travagant. When man buys anything
he can not pay for, he is extravagant.
There are families in all our cities who can
hardly pay their rent and who owe all the
merchants in the neighboIhoOd, and YET
have on apparel unfit for their circumstan-
ces, and are all the time sailing so neal
shore that business misfortune or an attack
of sickness prepares them for pauperism.
You know very well there are thousands Of
families in our great cities who stay in
neighborhoods until they have exhausted
all their capacity to get trust. Then they
find the region unhealthy, and they hire a
carman, whom they never pay, to take
them to some new quarters, where the mer.
chants, the druggists, the butchers, the
bakers and grocerymen come around and
gave them the best rounds of beef and the
best sugars and the best merchandise of all
sorts until they find out that the only com.
pensation they are going to get is the &C
quaintance of their patrons. There are al
least five thousand such thieves as that il
Brooklyn. You see call them by the right
name, for if a man buys any thing he does
not mean of pay for he is thief. Of course
sometimes men are flung of misfortunes
Just as honest in having failed as other mer
are honest in succeeding. I suppose there
is hardly man who has gone through life
but there have been some times when he
has been so flung of misfortune he could
not meet his Obligations. But all that
put aside. John Randolph arose in the
American Senate when question of Ma
tional finance was being discussed, and
stretching himself to his full height, in a
shrill voice cried out +: ''Mr. Chairman, ]
have discovered the philosophers stone
which turns everything into gold-pay as
you go?' Society has got to be recon.
structed on this subject, or these times Of
pane and detalcation will never end. You
have no right to ride in carriage for which
you are hopelessly in debt to the wheel
wright who furnished the landau, and to
the horse-dealer who provided the blooded
span, and to the harness-maker who capar.
isoned the gay steeds, and to the livery
man who has provided the stabling, and te
the driver who, with rosetted hat, sits or
the coach-box. The finer the carriage the
better like it; the quicker the horses you
have the better I like it; but if you are
hopelessly in debt for them, get down and
walk like the rest of us. Oh! am so gla6
it is not the absolute necessities of life
which send people into dishonesties an6
fling them into misfortunes. 1t is almost