Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-17
THE BATTLE FOR BREAD.
REV. TALMAGE BEGINS A Sc
RIES OF LABOR SERMONS.

Those Who Have Quit Urged TO
Go Back-Those Long i'm Idleness
Urged to Jump into the Vacated
Places.
BROOKLYN. n. Y, May 16.-ReY. I.
Dewitt Talmage, DID, to-day began a
series of Sabbath morning discourses, in
the Brooklyn Tabernacle, on the all abb
sorbing labor question, He discusses the
following subjects in the series: :" The
Battle for Bread" "The Rights Of Capt.
tai and Labor" ''The Hardships of the
Working Classes" "How Employers and
Employees Ought to Treat Each Other,v
and "The Greatest Foe of Labor'-dye
in all.
The opening hymn Of the service this
morning begins:
Arm of the Lord. awake! awake
Put on hy STRENGTH the nations shake
And let the world adoring see
Triumphs OF mercy wrought by Thee.
After expounding appropriate passages
of Scripture, DIR. Talmage gave out the
text, Genesis l., .: ''The earth was with
out form aud void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit
OF God moved upon the face Of the
waters" DR.. Talmage said:
Out in space there hung a great chunk
OF rock ana mud and water and shell.
Thousands of miles in diameter, more
thousands Of miles in circumference. A
great mass of ugliness, confusion and
distortion, uselessness, ghastliness and
horror. 1t seemed like great commons
on which smasbed-up worlds were
dumped. II was what poetry and prose,
Set Chr.cffur in, fpe
chaos. Out of that black, rough, shape
less egg our beautiful world was hatched.
God stood over that original anarchy of
elements and said: "Atlantic ocean, you
90 right away and lie down therel Pa
cific ocean, you sleep therel Caucasian
range OF mountains, you stand therel
Mount Washington, you be sentinel there. I.
Mont Blanc, Ou put on your cOrOnet OF
crystal there! Mississippi, you march
there, and Missouri you marry il there"
And He gathered in His Almighty hands
the sand and mud and rock and rolled
and heaVed and moulded and dented and
compressed them into shape and tnen
dropped them in four places, aud the one
was Asia, and another was Europe, and
another Africa, and another America
North and South.
That original Chaos was like the con-
fusion and anarchy into which the human
plunge. God has said: ''Let there be
llgat0f laR, lightOf justice, light of peace,
light of loveP' SsNOl Mop say Anarchic
voices; s'let there be darkness, let there
be cut-throatery, let there be eternal i'm
broglio, let there be Chaos"
Such a social condition many are ex-
pectng because of the overshado wing
contest between labor and capital; there
has not been an intelligent man or woman
during the last two months has not asked
the question: ''Shall we have bloody
revolution in this countryW nave heard
many answer the question in the athrma-
tive: l answer it in the negative.
There may be and there have been ter
rife outbursts OF popuIaf frenzy but there
will be no anarchy, for the Church of
Christ, the mightiest and grandest insti-
tuition of the planet shall, laying hold OF
the strength of the eternal God, come out,
and putting one hand on the shoulder of
Labor and the other on the shoulder of
Capital say: 81 come in the name of the
God who turned chaos into magnificent
order, to settle this dispute by the prin-
ciples of eternal justice and kindness /;
and BOW 1 command you, take your hands
off of each others thrOats." The only
impartial institution on this subject is
the church, for IL is made up OF both capi-
talists.and laborers, and was founded by
Christ, who was a carpenter, and so has
a right to speak for all laDorers; and who
owns the earth and the solar system and
the universe, and so can speak for the
capitalists.
AS for myself, as an individual ! have
a right to be heard. Ny father was a
farmer and my grandfather, aud they
had to work for living; aud every dollar
i own earned by the sweat Of my own
brow, and ! owe no man anything, and if
any obligation has escaped my memory,
come and present your bill wnen / de-
scend from this pulpit and ] Will pay you
on the spot. am going 10 say all that
think and feel on this subject, and with
out any reservation, asking your prayers
that may be divinely directed IN this
important series OF sabbath morning dis
courses.
That labor has grievances will show
you plainly before I get through this
course of sermons. That capital has had
outrages committed upon 1t / will make
evident beyond dispute. But there are
rightand wrong ways OF attempting a re-
formation.
Wnen 1 say there will be no return TO
social chaos do not underTate the awful
peril OF these times. Wemust admit that
the tendency is toward revolution. Great
throngs gather az some points OF Disturb
ance In almost all our cities. Rail-traius
hurled over the rocks. Workmen beaten
TO death within sight Of their wives and
children. Factories assailed by mobs.
The faithful police OF our cities exhausted
by vigilance night and day. In some
cases the military called out. The whole
country asking the question, "What
nextw An earthquake has with one
hand taken hold OF this continent at the
Pacific beach, and with the other hand
has taken bold OF the continent at the
Atlantic beach. and shaken 10 Till every
manufacturing. commercial, agricultural,
literary and religious interest has trem-
bled. A part OF Belgium one great riot.
Russia and Germany and Austria keep
ing their workmen quiet only by standing
armies So vast that they are eating out
the life Of those nations. Tho only reason
that Ireland is ~ peace is because she Is
hoping for home rule and the triumph
Of Gladstoneism. The labor quarrel is
hemisphere, aye, a worldwide quarrel,
and the whole tendency is toward an-
archy.
But one way In which we may avoid
anarchy is by letting the people know
what anarchy is. We must have the
wreck pointed out in order 70 steer clear
OF IL. Anarchy IL abolition OF right OF
properly. IL makes your store and your
house aud your money and your family
mine, and mine yours. IL Is wholesale
robbery. IL Is every mans hand against
every other man. II is arson and murder
and rapine and lust and death triumphant.
IL means no law, no church, no defense,
no rights, no happiness, no God. IL