The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-01-16
TALMAGE'S SECULAR TALK.
eLANcEsAT THeoLoANo NEW YEARS.
The Brooklyn Divine's Midday Talk to
His People-A Large Variety of
Topics Discussed Briefly
And Entertainingly.

national flavor. 1t was listened TO with
deep interest by large audience. Said he:
The art OF guessing has at last reached the
sublime, while millions of people surmIse
and suppose and perhaps" IN regard to
the cabinet OF our next president. We
rather like the guessing, for 1T makes
interesting reading and gives our public
men opportunity OF having their virtues
properly brought out, and as IL is often
argued that there is more pleasure IN an
ticipaton than in realization, an enor-
nous amount OF happiness must be now
aboard. ii it could only 20 on and all OF
our friends whom we would have put IN
elevation could get their deserts, what a
delightful thing. But, alas, alas. the 4th
of March, which will smash more states
than ever before went to pieces at any
one Inauguration. What an admlrale retl-
cence at Indianapolis What a lesson to
all the world about keeping ones own
counsels. What rebuke to that large
class OF people who tell all they know.
Solomon said long ago that there is time
TO keep silence as we'll as time to speak.
The man who can chain his own tongue Is
master OF his own destiny. The most sue
cessful men have been the most reticent
1t is a great deal better TO tell what you
have done than to tell what you are going
ever made 10 an army was made during
our civil war by a general who came from
the West to take command OF the army OF
the East, but that brilliant address, telling
what he was going TO do, was the precur-
sor of ruin and displacement and recall.
He said: Il have come to YOU from
the West, where we have always seen
the backs of our enemies, from an army
whose business it has been to seek the
adversary and to beat him when found,
whose policy has been attack and not de-
tense. / presume that have been called
here to pursue the same system and to
lead you against the enemy, and it is my
purpose to do so, and that speedily. ! de-
sire YOU to dismiss from your mind GER
tain phrases which l am sorry TO find
much in vogue among you. l hear con-
stantly OF taking strong positions and
holding them, OF lines OF retreat and bases
Of supplies Let us discard SUCH ideas.
The strongest position that a soldier
should desire to occupy is one from which
he can most easily advance upon the
enemy. Let US study the probable line
of retreat of our opponents and leave our
own to keep for itself Let us
look before us and not behind.
Success and glory are in the advance. Dis
aster and shame Turk In the rear" That
was resounding address followed by de-
feat after defeat and disaster after disas-
ter. Better report after brave thing is
done than before. Better tell US on Dec.
81 what the year has accomplished than
tell US on Jan. l what the year will bring
forth. The reticence at In annapolis IN
regard to government appointments is
something worth imitation in all posi-
tons. 1t is great achievement when one
has much that he might say and yet says
nothing. Another cause Of graduation is
the fact that the new year is not urshered
in with the usual drunkenness. Whether
IL is through the fact that New
Years calling Is not as general
as once, and the habit of
many OF taking strong drink at
thirty or forty or fifty different calling
places on New Years day has ceased to be
fashionable, or whether the improvement
may be accounted for in the fact that peo-
pie see neither common sense nor good
friendship demands that man drink the
health OF others in that which Injuries his
own, | cannot say. On the first New
Years evening OF the world Adam drank
Ewes health in water from the River
Hiddekel. Then they took their wine in
clusters OF grapes hanging from bowers
Edenic. Wine will do no harm if you eat
it in clusters. 1t is the adulterated liq-
uids which have deluged the world with
wretchedness. Another cause of con-
graduation / find at this time in the char
acter OF the majority of those who govern
our city. There are unfit men in
some OF the official places, but for the most
part our city officers are moral, intelligent,
able, qualified, and higher stvle of men
/ have never seen at the head of munich
pal affairs in Brooklyn, and l hereby
salute them in their attempts TO make our
beloved city brighter and better. In the
tendency TO attack and malign public men
because they have been politically sue
cessful have no share. In the matter of
official talent and fidelity we can afford TO
have our city set in comparison with any
city under the sun. And how the doors
OF prosperity are opening on ali sides
Our mayor message, which some thought
too sanguine and roseate, does not in the
least exaggerate our possibilities or
our probabilities as a city. Our
bridge to be parallelled by
other bridges, our parks 70 be sistered by
other parks, our rapid transits to be null
tiplied by other tracks and trains, our i'm
proved architecture to be rivaled by other
great structures, set us all TO wondering
what Brooklyn will be when eleven wears
from now, the twentieth century shall be
ushered in. Upon those VINO are now
upon the stage OF action rests the reSpOn-
sibihty of the Brooklyn that is to be. The
present merchants will do much toward
deciding what the future merchandise OF
this CITY shall be, and the present lawyers
the style OF future jurisprudence, and
upon present reformers rests what will be
the state of public morals century from
now, and upon present ministers of
religion what shall be the character of
the churches that shall rise by
scores and hundreds in the years
that are to come. All hail to the
Brooklyn OF the year 1900 and the year
1000. Many of us will not see the first and
none Of us will see the last, but we may
reach them both with our benediction.
| find also cause for generalization in
wider peace than any opening year ever
Witnessed. The Haytian farce is not
worth speaking OF. But read the new
year utterance between ambassadors and
prime ministers and emperors all the
world over. Compare the state of things
now with the belligerent spirit one year
ago at Berlin and Paris and st. Peters
burg and Rome. The universal reckless
ness and threat which many thought
would come in with the young Emperor
William have not appeared, and the pulse
Of all Europe beats more calmly and
regularly than during the reign OF his emf
nent grandfather. Less trouble than the