The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-09-26
TALMAGES SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of tho Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "Thc City Streets"

Subject; "Thc City Streets"
TKxT: "Wisdom crieth witho,,t; she at
fereth her roice IN the streets. 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
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 spring time 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 tho voices of nature;
but how few Of us learn anything from
the voices OF the noisy and dusty street.
You 60 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
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
cricth without; she uttereth her voice in the
Streets
In the first place ths street impresses me
with the fact that this life is a scene of toll
and struggle. By 10 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
q rush with trafickers. 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,
a. 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 roll Of bills on this dray
with load Of goods digging a cellar, or
shingling a roof, OF shoeing q horse, or
building wall, or mending watch, or
binding book. Industry, with her thousand
goes on singing her song of work. work.
work! while the mills drum it. end the steam
whistles fifeit. All this is not because men
love toll. Some one remarked: Every man
is as lazy Us he can afford to be-"
But it is because necessity, with stern
brow and with uplifted whip, stands over
Their ready whenever they relax their toll to
make their shoulders sting with the lash
Can 1t be that, passing up and down these
streets on your way to work and bWiness,
you do not learn anything Of the worlds toll,
and anxiety, and struggle? 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,
how many exasperations endured
what losses what hunger, what
Indebtedness, what pallor what
Sometimes l 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 l 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 carpeted aisles of
the forest, in the woods from which
the eternal shadow is never lifted, on the
shore OF the sen over whose iron coast losses
the tangled foam, sprinklng the cracked cliffs
with 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, l charge
| you look about-see these signs Of poverty,
Of wretchedness, of hunger, of sin, of be-
reavenent-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 suffering, all the bereave-
ments of those whom you pass, and present
them in prayer before an all sympathetic
God. Then in the great day Of eternity thore
will be thousands of persons with whom you
L + - u l.. r,,I,r rt,.x
will rise up and call you blessed; and there
will be thousand fingers pointed at you in
heaven, saying: sThat is the man, that is
the woman, who helped me when l was hun
cry and sick, and wandering, 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: II was hungry
and We fed Me, was naked and We clothed
Me, was sick and in prison and We visited
Me; inasrnuch as We did to these poor waits
of the Streets We did it to Me-"
Again, the street impresses me with the
fact that all classes and conditions of society
must commingle. We sometimes culture a
wicked exclusiveness. Intellect despies ig-
| norance. Refinement will have nothing to
| do with boorishness. Gloves hate the sun
burned hand, and the high forehead despises
| the fiat head; and the trim hedgerow will
have nothing to do with the wild copsewood,
and Athens hates Nazareth. This ought not
| to be 80. The astronomer must come down
| from his starry revelry and help us in our
navigation. The surgeon must come away
| from his study OF the human organism ana
| set our broken bones. The chemist must come
away from his laboratory, where he has been
studying analysis aud synthesis, aud help VI
| tOunderstand the nature Of the soils. btes;
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 pedd'er''
| pack Robust health meets wan sickness
Honesty confronts fraud. Every class Of
people meets every other class. Independ
| ence and modesty, pride and humility, pur
| ity and beastiiness, frankness and hypocrisy
meeting on the same block in the same street
in the same city Oh! that is What Solomon
meant when he said: 1.-The rich and the poQ1
meet together; the Lord is the Maker of theft
! ALL" l like this democratic principle OF thu
| Gospel of Jesus Christ which recognizes tht
fact that we stand bsto.e God Oh one anC
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, regeneratod by the same Spirit
cleansod by the same blood. to lie down in tbs
| same dust, to get up in the same resurrection
1t is high time that we all acknowledged moi
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 a man tt
keep his heart right and to get to heaven, In
finite temptations spring upon us from thest
| places of public concourse. Amid so muc!
affluence how much temptation to covetous
ness and to be DISCONTINUED with our humbl.
lot. Amid so many opportunities for over
reaching, what temptation TO extortion
| Amid 80 much display, what temptation K
| vanity Amid so many saloons of strong