Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-17
THOUSANDS AT A SHRINE.
AN IMPRESSIVEsSCENE IN THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

DkOOkLTN, NOV. 6.-When the 6.00C
people in the Brooklyn Tabernacle rist
to begin the service by singing first the
Gloria in E<celsiS, and afterwards, tn,
tune being changed by few notes of tn,
organ, singing the long metre doxology
to the tune of sold Hundred" the scene
is one never to be forgotten. After the
invocation tonight DR.. Talmage gave our
the hymn, "Guide Me, o thou Great Je
hOvah." The subject of the evening ser
mon was ''The Influence of Cities" The
text was from Genesis iv., II: 'EAnd He
builded a city and called the name of the
city after the name of His son Enoch.'
DR.. Talmage said:
So you see, Cain was the founder of the first
city, and suppose it took after him in NOR
ais. 1t takes city a long while to escape
from the character of a founder. Where the
fou lders Of a city are criminal eXles, the
hiths, the vice, the prisons, are the shadow
OF those founders. 1t will take centuries for
New FORK to get over the good influence OF
the pious founders of that city-the founders
whose prayers went UP in the streets where
now banks discount and brokers shave and
companies declare dividends. and smugglers
swear custom house lies; and above the roar
of the wheels and the crack of the auction
eer's mallet ascends the ascriptOn: "We
worship thee, o thou almighty dollar!' The
old church that used to stand on Wall street
is to this day throwing its blessing on the
scene OF traffic, and on all the ships folding
their white wings in the harbor In other
days people gathered in the cities for defense.
None but the poor, who had nothing to be
stolen, lived in the country; but in these
times, when through civilization and christi
anity, it is safe to live anywhere people
gather in the cities for purposes of rapid gain.
The city is no worse than the country, The
wees OF the metropolis are more evident than
the vices Of the rural districts because there
are more people TO be bad II they wish to be.
The merchant is as good as the farmer. There
ls no more cheating in town than out of town
no worse cheating; it Is only on a larger
scale. Inc countryman sometimes prevari-
Gates about the age OF the horse that he SELLS
about the size of the bushel with which he
measures the grain, about the peaches at the
bottom of the basket as being as large as those
at the top, about the quarter of beef as being
tender when it Is tough; and to as bad an ex-
tent as the citizen, the merchant, ever pre-
varlcates about calicOes or silks or hardware: ::
and as to villages, think that IN some re-
spects they are worse than the cities, because
they copy the vices of the cities in the mean
est shape; and as to gossip, its heaven is a
country village Everybody knows every
b0dy's business better than he knows IT him
self. The grocery store or the blacksmith
shop by day and night is the grand depot for
masculine tlttle-tat and there are ALWAYS
in the village half dozen women who have
their sun bOnnets hanging near so that at
the first item of news derOgatOry they can fy
out and cackle it all over the town. Country
men must not be too hard in their criticisms
of the citizen, nor must the ploW run too
sharply against the yardstick.
Cities are not evil necessarily, as some have
argued. They have been the birthplace OF
civilization. in them popular liberty has
lifted its voice. Witness Genoa and Pisa and
Venice. After the death of Alexander the
Great among his papers were found extensive
plans of cities. some to be built In Europe
some to be built in Asia. The cities in Europe
were to be occupied bv Asiatics; the cities in
Asia were to be occupied, according to his
plans, by Europeans. and so there should be a
commingling and a fraternity and a kindness
and good will between the continents and
between the cities. So there always ought to
be. The strangest thing in my compre-
hension is that there should be bick-
erlngs and rivalries among our American
cities. New York must stop carIcaturlng
Philadelphia, and Philadelphia must stop
picking at New York; and certainly the con-
tinent is large enough for st. Louis and Chi
cagO. What is good for one city is good for all
the cities. Here is the great highway of Our
national prosperity. On that highway of ma
tional prosperity walk the cities. A CITY with
large forehead and great brain, that is Bos-
ton. city with deliberate step and calm
manner. that is Philadelphia. A CITY with its
pocket full of change, that is New York Two
cities going with a rush that astounds the
continent, they are st. Louis and Chicago. A
city that takes its wife and children along
with it, that is Brooklyn. Cincinnati, LOUIS
Iille, Atlanta, Pitsburg, 9ll the cities of the
North and all the cities of the South some
distinguished for one thing, some for another;
one for professional ability, another for afflu-
ence, another for fashion, but not one to be
spared. What advantages one advantages
all. What damages Boston Common damages
Washington square. Laurel Hill, Mount Au-
burn, Greenwood, weep over the same grief.
New \ Ork helping to pay for the obsequies of
plague-stricken New Orleans. The fires of
Chicago and Boston sore burn on the whole
land. The statue of Benjamin Franklin in
10 hrnnyn fofr % L N
ward Everett in Boston. All the cities a con-
fraternity.
l cannot understand how there should go on
chickering's and rivalries. plead for higher
state OF brotherhood or sisterhOOd among the
cities OF this country. But while there are
great differences in some respects, l have to
tell you that all these cities impress upon me-
and ought to impress upon you, three or four
very important lessons, all of them agreeing
in the same thing. 1t does not make any diff
ference in what part of the country we walk
the streets of a great city, there is one lesson,
think, which ought to strike every intelIi-
gent Christian man, and that is that the world
is scene of toll and struggle. Here and
there you find man in the street who has his
arms folded. and who seems TO have no parti-
cular errand. But if you will stand at the
corner of the street and watch the counte-
nances of those who go by, you will see in
most instances there is an intimation that
they are on an errand which must be eXecut-
ed at the earliest moment possible. SO YOU
are jOstled hither and thither by business
men. Up this ladder with hod of bricks,
out of this bank with roll OF bills, digging a
cellar, shingling a roof, binding book, mend
ing watch. Work, with its thousand eyes,
and thousand feet, and thousand arms, goes
on singing its song: Work! work work !"
while the drums of the mill beat it and the
steam whistles fife it. In the carpeted aisles of
the forest, in the woods from which the eter-
nal shadow is never lifted, on the shore of the
sea over whose iron coast tOsses the tangled
foam, sprinkling the cracked cliffs with a
ind 1nAf far,,
place to study God; but ir the rushing,
swarming, raVing street is the best place TO
study man.
Going down to your place of business and
coming home again L charge you look about.
See these signs of poverty, of Wretchedness. of
hunger, of sin, of bereavement; and as you go
through the streets and come back through
the streets, gather up IN the arms of your
prayer all the sorrow, all the losses, all the
suferings, all the bereavements of those
whom you pass, and present them in prayer
before an all-sympathetic God. In the great
day OF eternity there will be thousands of
persons with whom you in this world never
exchanged one word, who will rise up and
call you blessed; and there will be thousand
THAT is the man, that is the woman, who
helped me when was hungry and
sick, and wandering, and lost and
heart-broken. That is the man, that
is the woman" And the blessing will come
down upon you as Christ shall say: II was
hungry and ye fed me, l was naked and We
clothed me, was sick and in prison and ye
visited me; inasmuch as ye. did it to these
poor waits Of the streets ye did it to me-"
Again, in all these cities | am impressed
with the fact that all classes and conditions
of society must commIngle. We sometimes
culture wicked eXclusiVeness Intellect de-
splses ignorance. Refinement will have moth
ing to do with boorishness. Gloves hate the
sunburned hand, and the high forehead de-
spises the fiat head; and the trim hedgerow
will have nothing to do with the wild copse-
wood, and Athens hates Nazareth. This ought
not so to be. like this democratic principle
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which recop-
nlzes the fact that we stand before God on
one and the same platform. Do not take on
any airs. Whatever position you have gained
IN society you are nothing but man. born of
the same parent, regenerated by the same
spirit, cleansed In the same blood, to lie down
IN the same dust, TO get up in the same resur-
rection. 1t is high time that we all acknowl-
edged not only the Fatherhood of God but the
brotherhood Of man.
Again In all these cities / am impressed
with the fact that it is a very hard thing for a
man to keep his heart right and to get to
heaven. Infinite temptations spring upon us
from places Of public concourse. Amid SO
etousness, and to be dlseontented with our
humble lot amid so many opportunities fer
oyer-reaching what temptation to eytortiOn!
amid so much display what temntafion to
vanity! amid so many s2sioons of strong drink,
what allurement 20 dissipation! In the mael3
stroms and hell gates of the street how MANY
make quick ana eternal shipwreck? If man
Of-war comes back from a battle and is tOWed
into the navy yard we go down to look at the
spllntered spars, and count the bullet holes,
and look with patriotic admiration on the flag
that foated IN victory from the masthead.
But that man is more of curiosity who has
gone through thirty years of the sharp-shoot
ing of business life and yet sails on victor over
the temptations of the street. Oh how many
have gone down under the pressure, leaving
not so much as the patch of canvas to tell
where they persisted! They never had anv
peace. Their dishonesties kept tolling in their
ears.