St. Landry democrat., 1886-10-30


bid idea of the millennium, n they think
when the better time comes to our cities
and the world. people will give up their
time to psalm singing and the relating of
their religious experience, and as all social
life will be purified there will be no hilarity,
and as all business will be purified there
will be no enterprise. There is no ground
for such an absurd anticipation. In the time
Of which 1speak, where now one fortune Is
made there will be ONE hundred fortunes
made. We all know business prosperity de-
ponds upon confidence between man and
man. Now, when that time comes Of which l
speak, and all double-dealing, all dishonesty
and all fraud are gone out Of commercial
circles. thorough confidence will be estab-
lished, and there will be better business
done, and larger fortunes gathered, and
mightier successes achieved.
TIL great business disasters OF this oun-
try have come from the work Of goddess
spectators and Infamous stocks gam
blers. The great foe to business in New
York and Brooklyn is crime. When the
right shall have hurled back the wrong,
and shall have purified the commercial
code, and shall nave Numbered down the
Fraudulent establishments, and shall have
put into the hands of honest men the keys
VI -blSSSCo III III thS So1 Soih
makers. l am not talking an abstraction, |
am not making a guess. L am telling you
Gods eternal truth.
In that day Of which l speak taxes will be
a mere nothing. Now, our business men are
taxed for every thing. City taxes, county
taxes, State taxes, United States taxes,
stamp taxes, license taxes, manufacturing
taxes-taxes, taxes, taxesI Our business
men nave to make q small fortune every
year to pay their taxes. What fastens on
our great industries this awful loads
Crime. individual and official. We have to
pay the board of the villains who are lncar-
cerated in our prisons. We have to take
care of the orphans of those who plunged
into their graves through beastly indul-
gence. We have to support the municipal
governments, which are vast and expen-
sive, just in proportion as the criminal pro-
| c~livities are vast and tremendous Who
supports the almshouses and police stations
and all the machinery of municipal govern
ments The taxpayers.
And I tell you Republicans and you Dem
ocrats that if you do not let Town the taxes
and let the people up, we will form a new
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS taxation, anti-rum,
anti-monopoly, anti-abomination-and you
who have been fattening on the public spoils
and reckless of the public virtue shall not
have so much as the wages of a street.
sweeper.
But in the glorious time Of which I speak
grievous taxation will all have ceased.
There will be no need of supporting Grim
inals; there will be no criminals. Virtue
will ave taken the place of vice. There
will be no orphan asylums, for parents will
be able to leave a competency to their
ph;1I,cr TJ1,.n ,x-5l1 IA ~ af,p Of o,r
sums of moneys for some municipal I'M
provement, to drop into the pockets of those
who voted them. No oyer and terminer
kept up at vast expense to the people. No
i%mpaneling of juries to try theft, and
arson, and murder, and SANDER and black
mail. Better factories, grander architect
ure, finer %equipage, larger fortunes, richer
opulence, better churches.
In that better time, also, coming to these
cities the churches of Christ will be more
numerous, n they will be larger, and
they will be more devoted to the churches
of Jesus Christ, and they will accomplish
greater influences for good. Now, it is
often the case that churches are envious of
each other, and denominations collide with
each other, and even ministers of Christ
sometimes forget the bon of brotherhood.
But in the time of which I speak, while
there will be just as many differences of
opinion as there are now, there will be no
acerbity, no hypercriticism, no exclusive
ness.
In our great cities the churches are not
to-day large enough to hold more than a
fourth of the population. The churches
that are built-comparatively few of them
are fully occupied. The average attendance
in the churches of the United States to-day
is not four hundred. Now, in the glorious
time of which l speak there are going to be
vast churches, and they are going to be all
thronged with worshipers. Oh, what
rousing songs they will sing! Oh, what
earnest sermons they will preach! Oh,
what ~fervent prayers they will offer! Now,
in our time, what is called a fashionable
church is a place where few people, having
attended very carefully to their toilet, come
and sit down-they do not want to be
crowded, they like a whole seat to them.
selves-and then, if they have any time left
from thinking of their store and examining
the style of the hat in front Of them, they
sit and listen to a sermon warranted to hit
no mans sins, and listen to music which is
rendered bya choir warranted to sing tunes
that nobody knows! And then after ar
hour n a half of indolent yawning they
go home refreshed. Every man feels be
ter after he has a sleep.
In many of the churches of Christ in our
day the music is simply a mockery. have
not a cultivated ear, nor a cultivated voice,
yet no man can do my singing for me. ]
have nothing to say against artistic music.
The two dollars or five dollars I pay to
hear any of the great queens Of song is q
good investment. But when the people
assemble in religious convocation, and the
hymn is read, and the angels of God step
from their throne to catch the music on
their wings, do not let us drive them away
by our Indifference. I have preached in
churches where vast sums of money were
employed to keep up their music, and it