The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-02
REV, DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The City Streets"

Subject: "The City Streets"
TEXT: "Wisdom crieth tpithout;; she ut
tereth her uoice in the estreets."-Prov. l., 20.
We are all 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
either end Of the building, and the one
Instrument responds musically to the
! other, so in the great cathedral Of nature
lay responds to day, and night to night,
! and flower to flower, and star to star,
in the great harmonies of the universe
| The spring time is an evangelist in
blossoms preaching Of Gods love-, and the
denouncing woe against our sins We are
all ready to listen to the voices Of nature;
but how few Of Us learn anything from
the voices Of the noisy and dusty street.
| You 90 to your merchandise, and your mech
anism, 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
beaten with the feet of toll, and pain, and
pleasure. the slow tread Of old age, and the
Quick step of childhood3 Aye, there are great
haryests to be reaped; and now I trust in the
sickle because the harvest is ripe. "Wisdom
crieth without; she uttereth her voice IN the
streets"
In the first place tho street impresses me
with the fact that this life is scene Of toll
and struggle By 10 o'clock every day the
with feet, and humming with voices, and
covered with the breath OF smokestacks, and
rush with trafhckers. Once in while you
find man going along with folded arms and
with leisurely step, as though he had moth.
ing 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 moment. You are jostled by those
who have bargains to make and notes to sell.
Up this ladder with hod Of bricks, out OF
this bank with q roll of. bills on this dray
with load of goods, digging cellar, or
shingling a roof, or shoeing q horse, or
building a wall, or mending watch, or
binding book. Industry, with her thousand
arms and thousand eyes, and thousand feet,
goes on singing her song Of work! work.
workl while the mills drum it, and the steam
whistles fife it. All this is not because men
love toll. Some one remarked: EVERY man
is as lazy as he can afford to be-"
But it 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 on your way to work and business
YOU do not learn anything of the worlds toll,
and anxiety, and STRUGGLED? Oh! 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,
now many exasperations endured
what losses, what hunger, what
disease, what agony, what despair
Sometimes I have stopped at the corner OF
the street as the multitude went hither and
yon, and it has seemed to be great panto-
mime, and as I looked upon it my heart
broke. This great tide of human life that
goes down the street is a rapid, tossed and
turned aside, and dashing ahead and driven
back-beautiful in it's confusion and confused
in its beauty. In the carpeted aisles OF
the eternal shadow is never lifted, on the
shore of the sea over whose iron coast tosses
the tangled foam, sprinklng the cracked cliffs
with a baptism of whirlwind and tempest is
the best place to study God; but in the rush
ing, 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 SIM of be-
reavement-and as you go through the streets,
and come back through the streets, gather
up in the arms of your prayer all the sorrow,
al the losses, all the suffering, al the bereave-
ments Of those whom you pass, and present
them in prayer before an all sympathetic
God Then in the great day Of es,1nity there
will be thousands Of persons with whom you
in this world never exchanged one word who
will rise up and call you blessed; aud there
will be thousand fingers pointed at you in
heaven, saying: "That is the man, that Is
the woman, who helped me when was hun
cry and sick, and wandering, and lost. and
heart broken. That is the man, that IS tho
woman" and the blessing will come down
upon you as Christ shall say: Il was hungry
and ye fed Me, was naked and ye clothed
Me, was sick and in prison and ye listed
Me; inasmuch as ye did to these poor waits
of the streets, ye did il to Me-"
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that all classes and conditions of society
must commingle. We sometimes culture
wicked exclusiveness: Intellect desp!es lg.
norance, Refinement will have nothing to
do with boorishness. GloTes hate the sun
burned hand, and the high forehead despises
the fat head; and the trim hedgerow will
have nothing to do with the wild copsewood,
and Athens hates Nazareth. This ought not
! to be SO. The astronomer must come down
from his starry revelry and help us In our
! navigation. The surgeon must como away
from his study OF the human organism and
| set our broken bones. The chemist must come
away from his laboratory, where he has been
studying analysis and synthesis, and help us
to understand the nature Of the soils. bless
God that all classes Of people are compelled
to meet on the street. The glittering coach
wheel clashes against the scavenger's cart.
Fine robes run against the peddler's
pack Robust health meets wan sickness.
Honesty confronts fraud. Every class OF
people meets every other class. !ndepend-
ence and modesty, pride and humility, pur-
ity and beastliness, frankness and hypocrisy,
meeting on the same block, in the same street.
in the same city. Oil that is what Solomon
meant when he said: "The rich and the poor
meet together; tho Lord is the Maker Of them
all" like this democratic principle OF the
Gospel of Jesus Christ which recognizes the
fact that we stand before God on one and
the same platform. Do not take on any airs;
whatever position you have gained in So
ciety, you are nothing but man, born Of the
same parent, regenerated by the same Spirit
cleansed by the same blood, to lie down in the
same dust, to get up in the same resurrection.
It is high time that we all acknowledged not
only the Fatherhood Of God, but the brother
hood Of man.
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that it is very hard thing for man to
keep his heart right and to get to heaven. In
finite temptations spring upon us from these
places Of public concourse. Amid so much
afauence how much temptation to covetous-
ness and to be discontonted with our humble
lot. Amid so many opportunities for over
reaching, what temptation to extortion.
Amid so much display. what temptation to
vanity. Amid so many saloons OF strong