Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-29
TALMAGE ON CHRISTMAS.
The PASTOR PICTURES THE
COMING MILLENNIUM.

South Among True Friends and In 8
Congenial Clime-The Improvement in
the Nation.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Dec. 2S.-Dr. Tai
mage preached this morning in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle on the subject "Christ
mas Day in America" During service
the celebrated Mrs. Florence Rice-Knox
rendered three selections. The regular
artists of the church gave especial music
DIR. Talmage read passages of Scripture,
showing what yet would be the improved
condition of the world. The opening
hymn was:
''Hark the sound of jubilee,
| Loud as mighty thunder's roar,
| OR the violence of the sea
| When 1t breaks upon the shOrew
The text was from Isaiah xxXv., 6:
''rben shall the lame man leap as a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in
the wilderness shall waters break out and
streams in the DESERT" Following is the
| sermon
For fourteen Christmas times have spoke n
| 10 you Of the spiritual results of Christ S
| birth. To-day speak of the temporal. Fer
| UNITY to the fields, health to the body, manu-
| mission 10 serfs, homes for the shelterless
| goou government for the barbaric, blessings
| 1or TINS life asiwell as blessings for the next
| The cradle OF Christ was as wonderful as his
| cross. Admitted the first. l am not so sur
prised at the second. The door by which he
| entered was as tremendous as the door by
which he went out. Through that one stable
| gate of Bethlehem came in for us more tenn
! pOral advantage than the world has yet cele-
9rated IN song or sermon or picture or cathe-
| oral arch. "Then shall the lame man leap as
mart, ana the tongue of the dumb sing, for
| In the wilderness shall waters break out
| and streams in the DESERT" Banished crutch
| II Inn NJ II
| irrigated Saharas. Amid a thousand mercies
! we give each other the holiday cOugratula-
! tlons, by long established custom we eXhOrt
| each other to healthful merriment bv oifts
| by household games, by Christmas trees that
| blsssom and fruit in the same hour by long
| line OF candles lit, by surprises by children's
| procession, by sOnnd of instruments more bla-
tant than musical. we wake up the nights
and prolOng the days.
A merry Christmas to the nation! No land
has SO many happy homes as America, such
Varletles OF food on the table, such apprOpri-
ate family wardrobe or such healthful do
mestic architecture. At the same time we
recognize that these holidays find vast
multitude OF people without work and with
out food and without apparel and without
shelter. Something must be awfully wrong
as you VIII see when put two facts parallel.
More wheat IN Dakota, and Minnesota and
Michigan than they know what to do with
More cotton at the South than they know
what to do with. In other words q surplus of
bread and a surplus of clothing has been pro-
Vlded by divine goodness, and yet multitudes
OF people half stdrved and half clothed and
to hundreds of these it is a shivering and
hungry Christmas. | think all the matter
with the nation is an overdose of politics.
The trouble is that so many public men spend
their time in keeping the equilibrium
Of public affairs disturbed that bust
| campaigners make us believe that everything
depends upon the dominance of their party
When TO the great masses of the people it
makes not twocents difference for the next four
RrIt
abundance of harvests in wheat and corn and
cotton and rice must eventually be felt in
| better supply OF all our national wants. The
present national depression is not like that
| Which comes from drought or deluge or
| plague. 1t is more like that of man who
has plenty Of money in a safe or like that of a
housewife who has plenty of food in a pantry,
| put they nave lost the keys and they are try
| ing to lind them, and though it will be an i'm
patient and irritating search it will be sue
cessful.
But there are two things for the comfortable
classes to do-one to help those who are help
less, and the other to talk cheerfully. This eX-
pertinent has been made by medical scientists
n dozen men agree to meet man at different
points of his journey and tell him how very
SICK he looks, By the time he has been ac-
costed with the fourth melancholy salutation
he is ready to drop under the impression that
his doom has come, and the twelfth man
meets MIN just in time to help carry him
home on stretcher. Now the nation is only
one man on large scale. All you have to do
to PROSTATE the business of this country
is to talk gloomily and to keep on
talking in the same tone, let all the merchants
sigh and all the editors prognOsticate a hard
winter and all the ministers groan. In the
great chorus of cOmplainers those who play
the lOudest trombOnes are those who have the
fullest cellars and those who have the most
complete wardrobe. They are mad because
they have to tall back on the surplus of other
years or cannot make as large investments as
they, expected Artists tell us that it is i'm
possible to sing well on full stomach, but
there are thousands of men to-day demon
stratng that 1t is possible to groan well on
full stomach. Ii Christian people would for
few weeks exchange the lamentations of
Jeremiah for the eXultant songs of David, it
would be well for the country. I wish a con-
splracy might be formed, and would like TO
belong to 1t, q conspiracy of all the business
men and editors and ministers of religion, by
which they would have faith IN God and talk
cheerfully, and the revival of prosperity
would be imnediate and glorious. Stop
'NaOmi" and give us Coronation Merry
Chrstmas."
am glad that these holidays find us near
ing a righteous solution of question that
has been dominant in politics and philanthro-
py and religion for the last sixty years
what of the colored man? That was the ques-
tlon which dug the grave trenches for mil
lion soldiers and has kept our national finan-
ces a-jangle ever since. That question gave
most of my time to asking and answering
during my recent tour of 5000 miles up and
down the States through the South and South
west. have observed that the colOred man
Is better treated at the South than at the
North. The day spent in Montgomery, Ala,
the Legislature passed a law for the full and
thorough education of the colOred people, AS
mechanics they get all they can do. The col
Ored car men OF New Orleans have their SO a
day. The colored people have the preference
as hired help at hotels and boarding houses,
and in steamers and rail trains. They have
their race represented in the legislative halls.
The accomplished and eloquent Senator Bruce,
whom met in my journey, is an illustration
of the possibilities of their political elevation
They are IN better cheer than the cOlOred
people at the North. Which of the Northern
Legislatures has black men in them? How
many cosOred Representatives are there in the
State of New York? Zen? No. Five? No.
One? No. Introduce into one of our North
ern hotels group of coloIed servants and
how many of the other servants would re-
main? Not one.
If l were a black man with family to sup
port, and was determined to be industrious
and sober, would go South. The climate is
more lenient, the feeling of white people to-
ward the col0red is more kindly and
| Christian than with US. Knowing well
! the feeling toward colered people in this sec
tion and in that, am persuaded that that
| race will get justice done them sooner at the
South than at the North. We cannot teach
until we treat him better ourselves. Imagine
| a scene: state house, Boston, within five
| minutes of Fanueil Hall, and within one min
| ute of the historical commons. The 1egisla-
| ture assemblies and white members take their
| places. A colored man has been accidentally
elected. He comes in to take the oath of
| / hear his co-iegislators say? "Put that gen.
| tleman of color near me?" "Welcome to the
| halls of legislation?' Down trodden race
eebony?" No! They all snuff the breeze G and lti
the hair on the back part of the head rises in
wrath till it covers the bald spot on the top,
and one and all they cry: "Nigger!''
IS for myself, am so peculiarly construct
! ed that have not particle of race prejudice
| in my composition, and declare that should
| feel perfectly contented seated in church
with a cOlored man before me and one behind
me, and one on the right hand of me and one
on the left of me, and black minister in the
pulpit and black choir to lead the music.
/ But we are not all alike constituted. l find
| merry Christmas thought in this considera-
| ti0n, resultant from my recent observations,
that thorough Christian feeling is to be es-
| tahlished between the black and white races.
| Within few years this scene occurred in the
State House at Atlanta. Ga: A colored
| clergyman standing in that building said he
was thirsty and was looking around for a
/ drink. A white gentleman standing by said:
| II will get you a drink" The gentleman de-
peared with glass of water. Some one said
| to the black man: 'sDo you know who that is
| who is getting you glass of water?' NO."
/ said the black man, "whO is it?' The answer
| was, "Gov. COlguitt." When the black min
| ister received the water, he said: ''Thank
you, Governor; but L cannot drink
| it."s He poured 1t upon the floor,
| libation on the altar of Christian feeling be-
| tween the white and black races" On the
| prospect of a better feeling among the nations
| l say, "Merry Christmas"
Come nOWi / make prophecy. The land
/ is full of prophets and / have as much right
| as any of them to prophesy. We are not far
| off from the grandest prosperity this country
has ever seen Mechanics will get larger
| wages, capitalists will receive larger divi-
| dends and the factories that are now closed
| will have to run day and night to meet the
demand, ana your storehouses VIII be uneom-