News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-11
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
I III DU II UA 1 . Ii Ia
REV. DIR. TALMtGE ON TIE DARK
SHADOWS OF THE CITY.
The Foes to be Met and Guarded AS ainst
On All Sides.

DR.. Talmage discussed to great
throng, as usual, Sunday, his text being
"And the streets of the city shall be full
of boys and girls playing in the streets
thereof" Zacharia, viii: ).
Printing presses and prophets are now
chiefly busy in describing the condition
of the present tim 4; but will it not be
healthful this morning for all Christian
workers, and all men and women who
are trying to make the world better -
and there are thousands of them here -
| If we look forward to the time when ouI
cities shall be completely rcvolutionized
by the Gospel of the Son of God, and all
sin and all sorrow and all suffering shall
forever be done away, land the streets
of the city shall be full of boys and girls,
playing in the streets thereof % The
Kingdoms of this world are going to be-
come the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There is great difference
whether you are toiling on toward de
feat, or tOiling on toward victory.
Now, in the glorious time spoken of in
my text, and which will come Just as
you are there and | am here in that
|
perities in all the cities. People have a
morbid idea about the millennium, as
though when it comes we will do moth
ing but give ourselves up to psalm sing
ing, and, all society being purified there
will be no hilarity, and as all business
will be purified there will be no enter
prise My friends, there is no founda-
tion in common sense or in the Bible for
such an absurd anticipation. Where not
one fortune is made there will be hun
dred fortunes made You know that
confidence betw cen man and man is the
founda ion of all successful business.
Now, when all dishonesty is gone and
all double dealing is gone and all un-
fairness is gone, there will be complete
confidence between man and man. Does
not that imply larger business, richer
opulence, grander architecture, finer
equipage. grander and more magnificent
prosperity ! You know that business is
injured by the infamous stock gamblers
and by the goddess spectators. You
know that the worst foe of business in
Brooklyn and New York, and in every
city, is crime, individual and official
crime. Now when God shall purify the
commercial code, when God shall thun-
der down the last fraudulent establish
ment, when God shall put the keys of
business in the hands of honest men,
what will that imply? The publication
of business and more bu mess and
grauder business. 1t is a logical Sc
quence. When that day comes-and l
am not talking about some guesswOrk,
l am not dealing in an abstraction, but
in something positive and as true as that
there is a God and that He ever present
ed us this Bible-in that time in our
cities all grievOus taxation will be gone.
Now business men are taxed for every
thing-city tax, county tax, State tax,
United States tax, license tax, manufac-
turing tax taxes, taxes, taxes. A
business man must make small fortune
to pay his taxes. \, have to pay the
board of al the Williams in our peniten
tiaries- We have to support the orphans
of those who plunged into their graves
from beastly indulgence. We have to
suppo.t all the machinery of city gov
ernment, which is vast and expensive
just in proportion as the criminal pro
clivities are vast and extensive. Who
pay for the station houscs2 Who pay
for the criminal courts? The tax pay
ers. And l say to you Republicans and
you Democrats, who are sometimes fat
tening on the public spoils, while you
are doing nothing for the public we'll
fare, that if you do not lessen taxes, and
do not let the peop:e up all over this
land we will after while form a party
anti excessive taxation, anti rum, anti
monopoly, anti abomination, and you
who are living in luxury now at the
public crib, you shall not have as much !
as the wages of Il street sweeper Now
in that time, that time which is coming
in all our cities, the time Of prosperity
spoken of in my text, we will not have
to support criminals, for there will be
no criminals. Virtue will take the place |
of vice. No more large sums of money |
voted for city Improvements, which |
moneys often before they reach the i'm !
provements go down into the pockets of |
those who voted them. No more i'm |
panneling of juries to try arson and mur
der and theft and slander and blackmail. |
Criminal courts abolished. Police stations |
abO ished AlmshOuses abolished. Oh, |
what prosperity that will make for all |
the cities and for all the world. In that |
time spoken of in my text the churches |
of Jesus Christ will be more numerous
and they will be exerting a migbtier |
influence for God. Now. churches are
sometimes envIous of each other and |
denominations collide with each other |
and even ministers of religion sometimes |
forget their bonds of Brotherhood. In |
the time Of which speak there will be
just as much difference of opinion as
there is now, but no accrbity, no hyper
criticism, no eXclusiveness Why the |
churches of our cities could not hold |
one-fourth of the population, The |
churches that are built. only a few Of |
them are fully occupied and the a acreage
i'll America to-day is less than !
four hundred. But in the glorious time |
OF which | speak there will be vaster |
churches and they will ali be thronged |
with worshippers. oh, what enthusias- |
tic songs they will sing! OH what ear
nest prayers they will offer Oh, what |
sermons they will preach. In our cities
now for the most part what is called
church is place to which
people come after very careful attention |
to toilet. and they sit down for u while
in pew where they want plenty of
room, nobody beside them, and then if
they have any time left from the th k.
ing of the store or the studying of tile
apparel of the person seated before them
they listen to u sermon warranted to hit
no mans sins, or TO music the tune of
which nobody knows. and then. after
an hour and a half of yawning, they 90
home refreshed We all feel better af-
ter we have had n good sleep! Why,
the music in many Of the churches is
mockery. | have not cultivated ear
or cultivated voice, but no man can
do my singing for me any more than he
can do my praying for me. | like ar
tistic music. ! think the dollar five
dollars / pay TO hear some queen of song
is a good investment, but when on the
Sabbath we are assembled in religious
and the hymn is given Out
and the angels of God step from their
throne to catch the music on their
wings, do not let us drive them back by
| have been in churches
where vast sums of money were paid for
the music. and it was exquisite, and ii
was artistic to the very last point and
ret for all religious purposes | would
rather have the outbreaking song Of
1acllwood Methodist camp meeting.
Let one Of these artistic songs that |
have sometimes heard sung in church
arrive in Heaven, and how mean
it would LOOK beside one of the
great doxologies of the redeemed.
WHY, if ore Of hose operatic
airs that sometimes goes up from
,hurch should got three hours start it
would be ovcrtakeu and passed bv the