The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-10-02
sTHE CITY STREETS"
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. D.
He Gives His Impressions Of the Sights
Seen In the City streets-scenes Of
Toll and struggis-A Great Fold
for Christian Charity and
the Study Of Mankind.

The subject of Rev. Dr. Talmage's recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle was
1.-THE City Streets" and his text "Wisdom
crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the
streets"-Prov. /. 20. The preacher said:
We are ready to listen to the voices Of
nature-the voices of the mountain, the
voices Of the sea, the voices Of the storm,
the voices OF the star. AS in some Of the
cathedrals in Europe there is an organ at
either end Of the building, and the one in
strument responds unsteady to the other, so
in the great cathedral Of nature day re-
spends to day, and night to night, and flower
to flower, and star to star, in the great har-
monies of the universe. The springtime is
an evangelist in blossoms preaching OF Gods
love; and the winter is prophet-white-
bearded-denouncing woe against our sins.
We are all ready to listen to the voices OF
nature but how few Of US learn any thing
from the voices Of the noisy and dusty street.
You 90 to your merchandise, and your me-
chanism, and to your work, and you come
back again-and often with an Indifferent
heart you pass through the streets. Are
there no things for us to learn from these
pavements over which we pass! Are there
no tufts of truth growing up between these
cobblestones, beaten with the feet of toll
and pain, and pleasure, the slow tread of
old age, and the quick step of childhood!
Aye, there are great harvests to be reaped;
and now trust in the sickle because the
harvest is ripe. "Wisdom crieth out; she
uttereth her voice in the streets"
In the first place the street impresses me
49, - xlrA% l.. t. 30 To- - <o.1
and struggle. By ten o'clock every day the
city is Earring with wheels and shutting
with feet, and humming with voices, and
covered with the breath Of smokestacks, and
rush with trafickers. Once In while
you find man going along with folded
arms and with leisurely step, as though he
had nothing to do; but for the most part, as
you find men going down these streets, on
the way to business, there is anxiety in their
faces, as though they had some errand which
must be executed at the first possible mo-
ment. You are jostled by those who have
bargains to make and notes to sell. Up this
ladder with a hod Of bricks, out of this
bank with roll Of bills on his dray with
load of goods, digging cellar, or shingling
q roof, or shoeing horse, or building wall,
or mending watch, or binding book. In
dustry, with her thousand arms, and thou
sand eyes, and thousand feet, goes on sing
ing her song Of work! work work while
the mills drum it, and the steam whistles
fife it. All this is not because men love to
toll. Some one rem arked "Every man is
as lazy as he can afford to be-" But 1t is
because necessity, with stern brow and
with uplifted whip, stands over them ready
whenever they relax their toll to make their
shoulders sting with the lash. Can it be
that, passing up and down these streets to
work and business, you do not learn anything
of the worlds toll, and anxiety, and strug
glel o, how many dropping hearts, how
many EYES on the watch, how many
miles travelled, how many burdens
carried, how many losses suffered,
how many battles fought, how many vic
tories gained how many defeats suffered,
how many exasperations endured-what
losses, what hunger, what wretchedness,
what pallor, what disease, what agony,
what despair Sometimes have stopped
at the corner Of the street as the multitudes
went hither and yon, and it has seemed to
be great pantomine, and as looked upon
1t my heart broke This great tide of hui
man life that goes down the street is a
rapid, tossed and turned aside, and dashing
ahead and driven back-beautiful in its
confusion and confused in its beauty. In
the carpeted aisles of the forest, in the
woods from which the eternal shadow is
never lifted, on the shore of the sea over
whose iron coast losses the tangled foam,
sprinkling the cracked cliffs with a baptism
Of whirlwind and tempest, is the best place
to study God; but in the rushing, swarming,
raving street is the best place to study man
Going down to your place of business and
coming home again. / charge you look
about--see these signs of poverty, Of
wretchedness, of hunger, of sin, of be-
reavement--and as you go through the
streets, and come back through the streets
gather up in the arms of your PRAYER al
the sorrow, all the losses, all the suffering
all the bereavements of those whom you
pass, and present them in prayer before ar
all sympathetic God. Then in the great
day of eter nifty there will be thousands Of
persons with whom you in this world never
exchanged one word who will rise up anG
call you blessed; and there will be thou
sand fingers pointing at you in Heaven
saying: That is the man, that is the wo
man, who helped me when l was hungry
and sick, and wandering, and lost, an(
heart broken. That is the man, that is tn,
woman" and the blessing will come dow
upon you as Christ shall say: 81 wa
hungry and We fed me, was naked and Y,
clothed me- l was sick and in prison ant
We visited me: inasmuch as We did it t,
these poor waits of the street, We did it t,
me-"
Again, the street impresses me with tn
fact that all classes and conditions of so
ciety must commingle. We sometimes cul
ture wicked exclusiyeness. Intellect de
spises ignorance. Refinement will hav
nothing to do with boorishness. Gloves hat
the sunburned hands and the high forehea,
despises the fiat head: and the trim hedge
row will have nothing to do with the will
copswood, and Athens hates Nazareth. Thi
ought not to be so. The astronomer mus
come down from his starry revelry and hel
us in our navigation. The surgeon mus
come away from his study of the human OF
ganism and set our broken bones. Tn
chemist must come away from his lat
! oratory, where he has been studying ar
alysis and synthesis, and help US to ur
derstand the nature of the soils. l blessGo
that all classes of people are compelled {
, meet on the street. The glittering coac
wheel clashes against the scavenger's cart
Fine robes run against the peddler's pacl
Robust health meets wan sickness. Honest
confronts fraud. Every class of peopl
meets every other class. Independence an
, modesty, pride and humility, purity an
beastliness, frankness and hypocrisy, NEE
ing on the same block, in the sam
, street, in the same city. OH that is wha
Solomon meant when he said: 1.-THE ric
and the poor meet together; the Lord is tn
> maker of them ALL" / like this Democrat