News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-10-28
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
DIR. TALMAGE FINDS WICkEDNES> :
FLAMBOYANT IN OUR CITIES.
The Time Has Come fer the Turning
Sour Mash.

S0ur Mash.
The tabernacle in Brooklyn was
packed with people at the morning ser
vice Sunday. The Rev. DR.. Talmage
delivered a strong and characteristic
sermon, in which he dealt vigorous
blows at popular vices. Some of his
more pronounced statements made stir
among the audience, several of his hits
at the liquor traffic created laughter,
and occasionally the congregation
seemed on the point of applauding the
speaker.
The text was from David's Psalms,
xviii, 1-"Let God arise, let his enc
mics be scattered" DIR. Talmage said
that he would propose these words for
the battle cry of Christianity. ''Does
it not seem time for God to arise and
appear for the vindication of Christian
ity2" he asked. "Has abominat1on ever
had such foothold Has there ever
been so many fists shaken in the face of
the Almighty? Look abroad and see
the towering of blasphemy. The names
of the Lord and of Jesus are heard
everywhere treated with disrepect.
Blasphemy has become so common that
the public mind and ear are used 10 it.
A blasphemer can go up and down the
land defying all laws, and there is not
mayor to interfere, save one, former
may or of Toronto. Blasphemy is worse
than arson, burglary or murder. These
are attacks ON humanity; it is an at
tack on God. This country is becom-
ing pre-eminent for profane swearing.
An American who was travelling in
Russia was taken tor a clergyman.
When he asked the reason why, the
answer was, "Why, in America 1 hear
they all swear"
"Yet God sometimes demonstrates His
power. Two or three years ago, in the
AdirOndacks, | met the funeral process
sion of a man who had worked all Sun
day in the field and boasted that he had
cheated God out of one day at least. He
challenged God and God accepted the
challenge. Between Marsgate and Rams
gate, in England, there is place where
a young man was struck dead while
swearing. A prisoner in Pittsburg ap-
piled terrible epithet to Jesus Christ,
was struck down and died after two
days fearful suffering. In Sullivan
county are eight tombstones all belong
ing to one family. In 1861 diphthcrla
ragged in the neighborhood. A physician
who was very successful in checking the
di ease became so confident as to defy
God to produce a case he could not cure.
In a few days afterward little child of
his fell sick with diphtheria and died.
Another followed and another, till all
eight were dead. Last August a man
flourished a knife toward heaven and
dared God to come down, threatening to
cut Him if He did. That man himself
was cut down, smoke poured from his
mouth and nOstrIls and he was dying
for days while nobody could go near him.
"Oh, profane man, DO not think that
because your CRIME has never been pun
ished God is powerless to punish. There
is long list of those who have died
while blasphemng Most of the fataIi-
ties are hushed mp The crime still goes
on in gilded saloons, on the street, in
the pictured club rooms, in the haunts
of sin, amid the throwing of dice, the
clicking of billiard balls and the laugh
ter of her who has forgotten the cove
nant of her God. 1t is one seething,
boiling mass, f1inging its spray into the
face of a long suffering God.
Look abroad at the spread of drunk
enness In Brooklyn, New York, Sa-
vannah and other cities the increase of
saloons Is out of all proportion to the
increase of population. Christian
parents will have their sons pitched
dead drunk into their dOorways or their
daughters come back to their hearth
stones with their children fugitives
from drunken husbands frenzy
"a man who was intoxicated went
away from home When he returned
he was told that his wile's dead body
was in an upper room. He took the
corpse out of the shroud and pitched it
out Of the window. The most merciless
being on earth is Rum Fathers,
brothers, sons are sacrificed on the
funeral pyre of drink. Stir up the
flames. Pile the bodies higher Bring
more men, women, and children. Let
ali fall down before King Alcohol. Rum
is the criminal of the last thousand years
And yet what beautiful names are given
to it-cordials, bitters, appeusers -
(laughter) -digesters, invigorators, eye
openers and settlers. Why not call it
by its right name essence of perdition?
sour mash. 1t is advertised all over 1t
is well named, for it makes the DISPOSE
tion sour, and it is good to mash body
and soul, business and family. Then
there are those destructive habits of
treating customers, treating when they
come to the city, while they are in it
and when they leave it. The business
raises millions of dollars; it nominates.
elects. and controls nine-tenths OF the
office e-holders of America to-day. 1t is
backed up by all the myrmidons of the
neither world.
''Then look at the impurities. Ever
and aLon there is an explosion in social
life. Brooklyn fifteen years ago had no
sign of the social evil on the streets.
10 day its famboyant wickedness
equals that exhibited on upper Broad
way. Yet We hear no minister denounc-
my it unless some old church libertine
gives up his pew. There are agencies
here and in Canada engaged in this
traffic One procuress recently testified
that in six months she had furnished
$50 souls from country homes. Oh, for
five hundred Poll Mall Gazet es to throw
open the doors of this iniquIty!
''The exposure must come. What
chance is there of driving away by pop
ular Indignation wealthy Lotharios, as
long as we often see some young woman
at the seaside standing simpering and
looking sideways into the eyes of these
tirst-class satyrsl Matches are said to
be made in heaven Not such as
these. The birthstone about them indI-
Gates the opposite Or, Al. This evil, too,
is growing. Some call it gallantry; it is
styled peccadilloes. and the whole sub
ject is relegated to POPULARITY. There is
one great, glorious movement against it
the White Cross Society. All honor
to Miss Frances Willard. l have received
a letter asking me i; 1 did not believe
the earthquake was sent to Charleston
as a punishment for its sins. Ny an
swer was that if all cities were punished
the earth would be cracked transconti-
mentally. Brooklyn and New York
would be so far down that their hei4h-
est church splre would be five hundred
feet below the surface. God turns a
leaf about every two thousand years
The time has come for the turning.
When it comes the world will be like a
lOse on the bosom of Him who came to
save it,"