Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-02-11
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
SERMON.

Il
uel, XIV, 2.
My text introduces us to drunken bloat
OF large property. Before the day of safety
deposits and government bonds and national
banks people had their Investments, in flocks
and herds, and this man, Nabal, of the text
mad much of his possession in live stock
He came also of distinguished family and
had glorious Caleb for an ancestor. But this
descendant was a sneak, churl, a sot and a
tool One instance to illustrate: II was
WOOL raising country, and at the time of
shearing great feast was prepared for the
snearers; and David and his warriors, who
had in other days saved from destruction
the threshing floors of Nabal, sent TO him
asking, in this time of plenty, for some bread
Tor their starving men. And Nabal cried
out: who is David!" As though an Eng
lishman had said: "Who is WeIlingtongn or
German should say: "Who is Won Moltke."
or an American should say: "Who is Wash
ington." Nothing did Nabal give to the
starving men, and that night the scoundrel
lay dead drunk at home, and the Bible gives
us a full length picture of him sprawling and
maudlin and hopeless.
Now that was the man whom Abigail, the
lovely and gracious and good woman, mar
ried-a tuberose planted beside a thistle, a
palm branch twined into a wreath of deadly
nightshade. Surely that was not one of the
matches made in heaven. We throw up our
she ever consent to link her destinies with
such creaturel Well she no doubt thought
that it would be an honor to be associated
with an arlstocratic family, and no one can
despise great name. Beside this wealth
would come, and with it chains of gold and
mansions lighted by swinging lamps of
aromatic oil, and resounding with the cheer
of banqueters seated at tables laden with
wines from the richest vineyards, and fruits
from ripest orchards, and nuts threshed from
foreign woods, and meats smoking in platters
of gold, set on by slaves in bright uniform.
Before she plighted her troth with this dissi-
pated man she sometimes said TO herself.
How can endure him. To be associated
for life with such a debauche l cannot and
Will notT But then again she said to her.
self: 1T Is time L was married, and this is a
world to depend on, and perhaps l
tdo worse and may bo / viii mako @
- man out o. him, and marriage is a lot
terry anyhow" And when one day this rep
resentative OF great house presented himself
In parenthesls of sobriety aud with an
assumed geniality and gallantry of manner,
and with promises of fidelity and kindness
and self-abnegation. June morning smiled
on march squall, and the great souled
woman surrendered her happiness to the
keeping OF this infamous son of fortune
whose possessions were in Carmel; and the
man was very great, and he had three thou
sand sheep and thousand goats.
Behold here domestic tragedy repeated
every hour of every day all over Christen-
dom-marriage for worldly success without
regard to character So Marie Jeanne
Phlipon, the daughter of the humble en-
graver ef Paris, became the famous Nine.
Roland o. history, the vivacious and brill
liant girl united with the cold, formal. mo-
notonous man, because he came ofan affiuent
family of Amiens and had lortily blood in
his veins. The day when through political
wnnfu -
the scaifold around which lay piles of human
heads that had fallen from the AK, and she
said to an aged man whom she had comforted
as they ascended the scaffold: go first that
you may not witness my death, and then
undauntcd took her turn to die-that day
was to her only the last act of the tragedy Of
which her uncongenial marriage day was the
first.
Good and genial character in a man, the
very first requisite for awoman's happy mar
riage. Mistake me not as depreciative of
worldly properties. There is a religious
cant that would seem to represent poverty as
virtue and wealth as a crime. l can take
you through thousand mansions where God
Is as much worshiped as he ever was in n
cabin. The gospel inculcates the virtues which
tend toward wealth In the millennium we will
all dwell in palaces, and ride in chariots. and
sit at sumptuous banquets, and sleep under
rich embroideries. and live 400 or 500 years
AOi "a dCColuiiiB 10 bnb DlDle, III Those times
child shall die 100 years old, the average of
human life will be at least five centuries. The
whole tendency Of sin is toward poverty, and
the whole tendency of righteousness is toward
wealth. Godliness is profitable for the life
that now is as well as for that which is to
come. No inventory can be made of the
picture galleries consecrated TO God and of
sculpture, and of libraries, and pilIared mag
nifcence, and Of parks, and fountains and
gardens in the ownership of good men and
women. The two most lordly residences i'm
which l was ever guest had morning and
evening prayers, all the employees present.
and all day long there was an air of cheerful
plety IN tho conversation and behavior. Lord
hadstock carried the gospel to the Russian
mobility. Lord Cavan and Lord Cairns spent
their vaction in evangelistic service lord
Congleton became missionary to Bagdad.
And the Christ who was born i'm an eastern
caravansary has again and again lived in a
palace.
1t is a grand thing to have plenty Of
money, and horses that don't compel Won Ia
take the dust of every numbering and lazy
vehicle; and books of history that give YOU
q glimpse OF all the past; and shelves of
poetry TO which you may go and ask Milton
or Tennyson or Spencer or Tom Moore or
Robert Burns TO step down and spend an
evening with you; and other shelves to
which you may 20 while YOU feel disguised
with the shams of the world, and ask Thack.
cray to express your chagrin, or Charles
Dickens to expose the Pecksniiiianism, or
Thomas Carlyle 30 thunder your Indignation;
or the shelves where the old gospel writers
stand ready TO warn and cheer us while they
open doors into that city which is so bright
the MONDAY sun is abolished as useless There
is no virtue in owning horse that takes four
minutes TO go a mile, if you can own one
that can go in a little over two minutes and
a half; no virtne in running into the teeth
of a northeast wind with thin apparel,
II you can afford furs; no virtue in
being poor when you can honestly be rich
There are names Of men and women that
have only TO mention and they suggest not
only wealth but religion and generosity and
philanthropy. such as Amos Lawrence, James
1ennox. Peter Cooper. William Z. Dodge,
Shaftesbury, Miss Wolf and Mrs. Astor
A recent letter says that of fifty leading
business men in one Of our Eastern cities
and Of the fifty leading business men
of one Of our western cities threc-fourths OF
them are Christians. The fact is that about
all the brain and the business genius is on
the side Of religion. Iniidelity Is incipient in
sanity. All iniihels are cranks Many OF
them talk brightly, but you soon find that in
their mental machinery there is a screw
loose. When they are not lecturing against