Connecticut western news., 1889-09-25
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
sTHE CITY STREETS.o
Dr. Talmage's Discourse September l5'

U1' Ialmage's Discourse september To-
 BROOKLYN, Sept. 15. The Rev. T: Dewitt Talmage, D, D., preached at the Taabernacle today to & vast congregation on "The City Streets" His text was: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets" Prov. i, 20. He said:
 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 cathed- rals in Europe there is an organ at either end of the building, and the one instrument re spends musically 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 uni verse. The spring time is an evan gelist in blossoms preaching in Gods love; and the winter is a 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 anything from the voices of the noisy and dusty street. You go 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 thrust In the sickle because the harvest is ripe. "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.
 In the first place the street impresses me with the fact that this life is scene of toll and struggle. By 10 o'clock every day the city is jarring with wheels, and shuffling with feet, and humming with voices, and covered with the breath of smokestacks, and a-rush with traffickers. Once in a while you will find man going along with folded arms and E hs ffsR as ae find 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 arc jostled by those who have bargains to make and notes to sell. Up this ladder with . bod of bricks, out of this bank with a roll of bills, on this dray with a load of goods, digging cellar or shipglng roof, or shoeing ahorse or building wall, or mending awatch, or binding book. Industry with her thou sand arms, and thousand eyes, and thousand feet, goes on singing her song of work :! work work! while the mills drum 1t, and the steam whistles fife it. All this is not because men love toll. Some one remarked l: 'fEvery man is as lazy as he can afford to be-" But it is because necessity, with stern them 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 business, you do not learn anything of the worlds toll, and anxiety, and struggle? Ohl 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 sui fered, how many exasperations endured what losses, what hunger, what wretched- nc Wh haf hat hot what despairl Sometimes have stopped at the corner of the street as the multitude went hither and yon, and 1t has seemed to be great pantomime, and as looked upon it Hfe that goes down the street is rapid, tossed and turned aside, and dashing ahead and driven back-Deautiful in its confusion and confused in it's beauty. In the carpeted aisles of the forest, in the woods from which the eternal shadow is never lifted, on the lhore 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 sdgns of poverty, of wretchedness, of hunger. of sin, of bereavement-and as you 50 through the streets and come back through the streets, gather up in the arms of your prayer all the sorrow, all the losses, au the suffering, all the bereavements present them in prayer before an au sympathic God. Then in the great day of eternity there will be thousands of persons with whom you in this world never ex- changed one word who will rise up and call you blessed; and there will be thousand "That is the man, that is the woman, who helped me when was hungry, 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 shan say: sI was hungry and ye fed me, I was naked and ye clothed me, I was sick and In prison and ye visited me; inasmuch as ye did it to these poor waifs of the streets, ye did 1t to me-"
 Again, the street fmpresses me with the fact that all classes and conditions of society must commingle. We sometimes culture 8 wicked exclusiveness. Intellect despises ig- norance. Refinement will have nothing to do with boorishness. Gloves hate the sun. burned hand, and the high forehead despises the fat head; and the trim hedgerow will and Athens hates Nazareth. This ought no, to be 30. The astronomer must come down from bis starry revelry and help us in oul navigation. The surgeon must come away from bis study of the human organism and ret our broken bones. The chemist must ", been studying analysis and synthesis, and help us to understand the nature of the soils l bless God that all classes of people are com pelled to meet on the street. The glitterine coach wheel clashes against the scaveneer'l cart. Fine robes run against the peddler'i pack. Robust health meets wan sick ness. Honesty confronts fraud. Every class of people meets every other class. In dependence and modesty, pride and humili ty, purity and beastliness, frankness and hy pocrisy, meeting on the same block, in tn, same street, in the same city! Oh! that i what Solomon meant when he said, ssTh, rich and the poor meet together: the Lord ii the maker of them all." I like this demo cratic principle of the Gospel of Jesus Chris which recognizes the fact that we stand be fore God on one and the same platform. D, not take on any airs; whatever position yol have gained in society, you are nothing bu man, born of the same parent, regenerate, by the same Spirit, cleansed by the sam blood, to lie down in the same dust, to get u in the same resurrection. It is high tim that we all acknowledged not only the Fla therhood of God, but the brotherhood o man.
 Again, the street impresses me with tn fact that 1t IS very hard thing for a man keep his heart right and to get to beaver Infinite temptations spring upon us fror these places of public concourse. Amid s much afduence how much temptation coveteousness, and to be discontented wit our humble lot. Amid so many opportun
 ties for overreaching, what temptation extortion. Amid so much display, whs of strong drink, what allurements to dissips
 tfon. In the maelstroms of the street, hoy many make quick and eternal shipwreck. l man-of-war comes back from 8 battle, an
 Is lowed into the navy yard, we go down t look at the splintered spars and count tn bullet holes, and look with patriotic admirs
 uon on the flag that fioated in victory from tn
 masthead. But that man is more of curiosit
 who has gone through thirty years of tn sharp shooting of business life, and yet sail
 on, victor over the temptations of th greet. Oh! how many have gon
 DO much as the hatch of canvas fn te