Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-09-26
STREET LESSONS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses On
an Every Day Topic.
What Can Be Learned From Our Great
Business ThOrOughfares-An EQUAL
in the Street.-The World of
the Future.

Streets" His text was: "Wisdom crietb
without; she uttereth her voice in the
streets" Proverbs 20. He said:
Weare ALREADY to listen to the voices of
nature-the voices of the mountains 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
instrument responds unsteady to the
other. so in the great cathedral of nature
day responds TO day, and night to night,
and flower TO flower, and star to star, in
the great harmOnies 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 go to
your merchandise, your mechanism 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.
and the slow tread of old age, and the
quick step of childhood? Ave, there are
great harvests to be reaped: and now l
thrust in the sickle because the harvest is
ripe. Wisdom crieth without; she utter
eth her voice in the Streets"
In the first place the street impresses
me with the fact that this life is a scene
of toll and struggle. By ten O'Clock every
day the city is Earring with wheels, and
shuffling with feet and humming with
voices, and covered with the breath of
smokestacks and arush with traffickers.
Once in awhile you find q 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 erraDd
which must be executed at the first posi-
BILE 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 roll Of bills, on this
dray with load Of goods, digging cell
lar. or shingling roof, or shoeing horse
or building a wall. or mending a watch, or
binding a book. Industry, with her thou
sand arms, and thousand eyes, and thou
sand feet, goes on singing her song of
work! work work! 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 neces-
sity, with stern brow and with uplifted
whip stands over them ready whenever
they relax their toll to make their shoul-
ders 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 any thing of the worlds toll,
and anxiety, ana struggled
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 victories gained, how
many defeats suffered, how many exas-
perations endured-what losses, what
hunger, what wretchedness. what pallor,
what disease, what agony, what despair.
Sometimes 1 have stopped at the corner
of the street as the multitude went hither
and yon. it has seemed to be a great PAN
tomime. and as 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 its confusion
and confused in its beauty. In the car
peted 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, raw
ing street is the best place to study man.
Going down to your place of business and
coming home again, l charge you look
about-see these signs of poverty, of
Indebtedness 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 all
the sorrow, all the losses, all the suffer-
ing, all the bereavements of those whom
you pass, and present them in prayer be-
fore an all sympathetic God. Then in the
great day of eternity there will be thou
sands of persons with whom you in this
world never exchanged one word who
will raise up and call you blessed; and
there will be a thousand fingers pointed
al you in Heaven, saying: THAT is the
man, that is the woman, who helped me
when was hungry, and sick, and wan
dering, and lost and heart-broken. That
is the man, that is the woman" and the
blessing will come down upon you as
Christ shall say: Il was hungry and ye
fed me, l was naked and We clothed me. /
was sick and in prison and We visited me:
inasmuch as We did it to these poor waits
of the streets, ye did it to me-"
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that all classes and conditions Of So
ciety must commingle. We sometimes
culture q wicked exclusiveness. Intellect
despises ignorance. Refinement will Rave
nothing to do with boorishness. Gloves
hate the sunburned hand and the high
forehead despises the fiat head; and the
trim hedgerow will have nothing to do
with the wild copse~ vod and Athens
hates Nazareth. This ought not to be so.
The astronomer must come down from his
starry revelry and help Us in our naviga-
ton. The surgeon must come away from
his study of the human organism and set
cur 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
soil. l bless God that all classes Of peo-
pie 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. Every class
of people meets every other class. indie
pendence and modesty, pride and humili
ty, purity and beastliness, frankness and
hypocrisy, meeting on the same block, in
the same street. in the same city. o! that
is what Solomon meant when
he said: The rich and the
poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker
of them all" like this democratic prin-
ciple of the gospel Of Jesus Christ which
recognizes the fact that we stand before