Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-16

our humble lot Amid so many opportunl.
ties for overreaching, what temptation tc
extortion. Amid so much display, what
temptation to vanity. Amid so many
saloons of strong drink, what allurement to
dissipation.
In the maelstroms of the street, how many
make quick and eternal shIpwreck. If a
man-of-war comes back from a battle, and is
towed into the navy yard, we go down to
look at the splintered spars and count the
bullet holes, and look with patriotic ad-
miration on the flag that foated in victory
from the masthead.
A MANLY RARITY.
But that man is more of curiosity who
has gone through 80 years of the sharp
shooting of business life, and yet sails on,
victor over the temptations of the street.
Oh! how many have gone down under the
pressure, leaving not so much as the patch
of canvas to tell where they perished. They
never had any peace. Their dishoneSties
kept tolling in their ears.
fl had an ak, and could split open the
beams of that fine house, perhaps would
find in the very heart of it a skeleton. In
his very best wine there is a smack of the
poor mans sweat. OH is it strange that
when man has devoured widows houses
he is disturbed with indigestion? All the
forces of nature are against him. The floods
are ready to drown him, and the earthquake
to swallow him, and the fires to consume
him, and the lightnings to smite him.
But the children of God are on every
street, and in the day when the crowns of
heaven are distributed some of the brightest
will be given to those men who were faith
full to God and faithful to the souls of others
amid the marts of business, proving them
selves the heroes of the street. Mighty were
! their temptations, mighty was their deliver
ance, and mighty shah be their triumph.
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that life is full of pretensions and
sham. What subterfuge, what double deal
ing, what twofacednessl Do all the people
who wish you good morning really hope ior
you happy day? Do all the people who
shake hands love each other? Are all
those anxious about your health who in
quire concerning it? Do all want to see
you who ask you to call? Does all the
world know half as much as it pretends to
know? Is there not many wretched stock
of goods with brilliant show window?
Passing up and down these streets to your
business and your work, are you not i'm
pressed with the TACT that much OF society
is hollow, and that there are subterfuges
and pretenslons.
AN UNNATURAL STRUTTING HOST.
Oh, how many there are who swagger and
strut, and how few people who are natural
and walk. While tops simper, aai fools
chuokle, and simpletons giggle, how few
people are natural and laugh. The courte-
san and the libertine go down the street in
beautiful apparel, while within the heart
there are volcanoes of passion consuming
their life away.
1 say these things not to create in YOU
increduiity and misanthropy, nor do for
get there are thousands of people a great
deal better than they seem; but 1 do not
think any man is prepared for the conflict
peril. Ehud comes pretending to pay his
tax to King Eglon, and while he stands in
front of the King, stabs him through with
dagger until the halt went in after the blade
Judas Iscariot kissed Christ.
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that it is a great field for Christian
charity. There are hunger and suffering,
and want and wretchedness in the country;
but these evils chiefly congregate in our
great cities. On every street crime prowls,
and drunkenness staggers, and shame winks,
and pauperism thrusts out its hand asking
for aims. Here want is most squalid and
hunger is most lean.
A Christian man, going along a street in
and said: "My boy, do you know how to
read and write?" The boy made no an
swer. The man asked the question twice
and thrice: Can you read and write?"
and then the boy answered with tear
plashing on the back of his hand. He said
in defiance:
mo, sir; 1 can't read nor write,
neither. God, sir, don't want me to read
and write. Didn't he take away my
father so long ago never remember to have |
seen him? and haven't had to go along the |
street to get something to fetch home to eat |
Tor the folks? and didn't I, as soon as 1 |
pick up cinders, and never have no school, |
ing, sir? God don't want me to read, sir. |
can't read nor write neither"
NO CHANCE IN THE WORLD.
Oh, these poor wanderersl They have no |
chance. Born in degradation, as they get |
up from their hands and knees to walk. |
they take their first step on the road to de- |
spair. Let us go forth in the name of the |
Lord Jesus Christ to rescue them. If YOU
are not willing to go forth yourself, then |
give of your means; and if you are too law
10 60, and if you are too stingy to help, !
then get out of the way, and hide |
yourself in the dens and caves of the earth.
lest, when Christ's chariot comes along, the !
horses hoofs trample you into the mire.
Beware lest the thousands of the destitute of |
your city in the last great day rise up and
curse your stupidity and your neglect.
One cold winters day, as Christian man
was going along the Battery in New York,
he saw a little girl seated at the gate, shiy,
ering in the cold. He said to her:
my child, what do you sit there for this
cold day?''
''Oh," she replied, 81 am waiting-I am
waiting for somebody to come and take care
Of me.''
"Why," said the man, ''what makes YOU
think anybody will come and take care of
you?''
'Oh," she said, "my mother died last
week and L was crying very much, and she
said: Don't cry, my dear; though 1 am
gone and your father is gone, the Lord will
send somebody to take care of you.' NV
mother never told lie; she said some one
would come and take care of me- and am
waiting for them to come.''
o, yes, they are waiting for you. Men of
great hearts, gather them in, gather them
N. 1t is not the will of your Heavenly
Father that one of these little ones should
perish.
ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT?
Lastly, the street impresses me with the fact
hat ali the people are looking forward. 1
zee expectancy written on almost every face
meet between here and Brooklyn bridge
n walking the whole length of Broadway.
Where you find 1000 people walking
straight on, you only find one man stopping
md looking back. The fact is, God made
is all to look ahead, because we are i'm
Mortal. In this>tramp of the multitudes Cd
he streets, hear the tram of great host.
marching and marching for eternity. Beyond
he Office, the store, the shop, the street there