News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-24
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
subject; "a Bright Sunday Versus
Doleful Sunday"
TEXT: "Aad call the Sabbath a delight"

TEXT: "ARd call the Sabbath a delight"
Isaiah lviiL, -.
There is an element of gloom striking
through all false religions. Paganism is a
brood of horrors The god of Confucius
frowned upon its victims with blind fate.
MohammedaG SIN promises nothing to those
exhausted with sin in this world but an
eternity of the same paSSional indulgenyes.
But God intended that our rel gion should
havethe grand characteristic of ch~eerfulnesS.
St Pau struck the keynote when he said:
''Rejoice evermore, and again l say, re-
joice,n This religion has no spikes Tor the
feet; it has no hooks for the shoulder; it has
no long pilgrimages to take; it has no funer-
RlpyreS upon which to leap; it has no jug
ernauts before which to fall. Its good cheer
is symbolized in the Bible by the br ghtneSS
of waters, and the redOlencs OF lilies, and the
sweetness of music, and the hilarities of a
banquet A choir of serapbim chanted at its
induction, and pealing trumpet, and waving
palm, and Tapping wing OF archangel are to
celebrate its triumphS. 1t began its chief
mission with the shout: GLORY to God in
the highestin and it will close its earthly
mission with the ascription: 'H~allelujah, for
the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"
But men have said that our religion is not
cheerful, because we have such a doleful Sab
bath. They say: You can have YOU re-
ligious assemblages, and your long faces, and
your smiling cant, and our psalm books,
and your Bibles. Give US the Sunday excur-
sion, and the horse-race, and the convivial
laughter. We have so much JOY that we
want to spread it all over the seven days of
the week, and YOU shall not have one of our
days of worldly satisfaction for religious
dolefulneSs.n | want to show these men-if
there are any such in the house this morning
that they are under a great delusion, and
that God intended the fifty-two Sundays of
the year to be hung up like bells in a tower,
beating a perpetual chime of JOY, and glory,
and salvation, and heaven; for | want you to
carry out the idea of the text, land call the
Sabbath a delight"
Iremark, in the first place, we are to find
In this day the joy of healthy repose. In
this democratic country We all have to
wOrk-some with hand, some with brain,
some with foot. If there is in all this house
q hand that has not, during the past year,
been stretched forth to some kind of toll, let
it be lifted. Not one, not one. You sell the
goods. You teach the school. You doctor
in the sick room. You practice at the bar
You edit a newspaper. You tan the hides.
You preach the Gospel. You mend the shoes.
of bricks up the ladder on the wall. And
The one occupation is as honorable as the
other, provided God calls you to it. L care
not what youd do, if you only do it well. But
when Saturday night comes you are jaded
and worn. The hand cannot so
skillfully manufacture; the eve cannot
see as well; the bran is not SO clear;
the Judgment Is not so well balanced. A
prominent manufacturer told me that he
could see a difference between the goods
which went out of his establishment on Sat
urday from the goods that went out on Mon
day. He said: They were very different
indeed Those that were made in the former
part of the week, because of the rest that
had been previously given, were better than
those that were made in the latter part of the
week, when the men were tired out" This
Sabbath comes, and it battles the soreness
from the limbs, quiets the agitdted brain,
T,S- l1rE NA. g. - 49, @la& l--,
been burning all the week Our bodies are
seven-day clocks, and unless on the seventh
day they are wound up, they run down into
the grave. The Sabbath WIS intended as a
savings bank; into it we are to gather the re-
sources upon which We are to draw all the
week That man who breaks the Sabbath
robs his own nerve, his own muscle, his own
brain, his own bones. He dips up the wine
of his own life and throws it away. He
who breaks the Lords day gives a mortgage
to disease and death upOn his entire physical
estate, and at the most unexpected moment
that mortgage will be forecIosed, and the
soul elected from the premises. Every gland,
and pore, and cell, and finger-nail demands
the seventh day for repose- The respiration
the lungs, the throb of the pulse in the
wrist, the motion of the bone in its socket
declare: Remember the Sabbath day, TO
it holy.n There are thousands Of men
who have had their lives dashed out against
The golden gates of the Sabbath. A promi-
INV ASA-AS S@NAL tA@N NLAA ~
years ago he went to London. He says: II
during that time watched infinitely,
md l have noticed that the men who
went TO their bus ness on the Lords
lay, or opened their counting-houses,
without a single exception,
come to failure" A prominent Christian
in Boston saws: "Iind it don't pay
to work on Sunday. When l was a Toy, |
noticed out on Long Island there were mer-
chants who loaded their vessels on the Sab
dav- EPenlnr their men busy from I
morning until night, and it is my observa-
ton that they themselves came to nsthing-
these merchants-and their children came to
nothing. 1t doesn't pay" he says, Ito WORK
on the Sabbath"
Iappeal to your observation. Where are
the men who twenty years ago were Sab
bath breakers, ana who have been Sabbath
ever since! Without a single ex-
you will tell me, they have come
either to financial or to moral beggary. /
defy you to point out a single exception, and
can take the whole world for your
field. 1t has either been a financial or moral
iefalcatlon IN every instance. Six hundred
and forty physicians in London petition Par
saying: 1--WE must have the Sab
bath obeyed. We can not have health
in this city and in this nation un-
less the Sabbath is observed" Those
in our own country have given evil
dence on the same side. The man who takes
the shutters of his store on the Sabbath
takes down the curse of Almighty God.
That farmer who cultures his ground on the
Sabbath day rai ses a crop of neuralgia, and
of consumption, AMI of death. A farmer
said: Il defy you Christian Sabbath. l
will raise a Sunday CROP So he went to
work AMI plowed the ground on Sunday, and
narrowed II on Sunday, and he planted corn
Sunday, and he reaped the corn ON Sunday,
and he gathered it into the barn on Sunday.
There he says, II have proved to you that
oil this idea about q fatality accompanying
Sabbath work is a perfect sham My corn
Is garnered, and all is we'll" But before
many weeks passed the Lord God struck that
barn with his l~ightnings, and away went the
crop.
So great is the moral depression coming
upon those who toll upon the Sabbath day,
that you may have noticed IF you have not,
l call your attention to the fact that in
cases where the public interest emands
Sabbath toll the moral depression is so great
that there are bur very few who can stand
it. For instance, the police service, without
which net one of our houses would be safe
there are very few who can stand the pres
sure and temptation of it. In London, where
there are five Thousand policemen, the sta
tistic is given that in one year nine hundred
and twenty-One of that five thousand were
five hundred and twenty-three
were suspended, and two thousand. four
hundred and ninety-two were fined. Now,if
the moral depression is so great in occupa-
tions that are positively necessary for the
peace and prosperity of society, l ask you
what must he the moral depression in those
cases where there is no necessity for Sabbath
work, and where a man chooses worldly bust
ness ON the Lords day Just because he likes
it, or wants to add to his emoiumentS! Dur
the last war it was found out that these
public works which paused on the seventh
day turned out more war material than those
which worked all the seven days. Mr.. Bag
nall, a prominent iron merchant, gives this
testimony: II find we have fewer accidents
in our establishment and fewer interruptions,
we observe the Lords day; and at the
close of the year, now that we keep the Sab
bath, I find that we turn out more iron and
have larger profits than any year when we
worked all the seven days" The fact is, Sab
bath-ma1e ropes will break. and SABBATH
made shoes will leak, and Sabbath-made
coats viii rip, and Sabbath-made muskers
win miss fire, and Sabbath occupations will
be blasted. A gentleman said: Il invented
a shuttle on the Lords day. l was
very busy, so / made the model
OF that new shuttle on the Lords day: So
very busy was | during the week that | had
TO occupy many Sabbaths. 1t was a great
success. l enlarged my buildings; / built
new factories, and made hundreds OF thou
sands of dollars; but | have to tel you that
all the result of that work on the Sabbath
has been to me ruin. l enlarged my build
l made q great many thousands of dol
lars, but / have lost all, and | charge it to
the fact of that Sunday shuttle" / will
place in two companies the men in this COM
tnunlby VINO DTeak bne SaDoaGn anu bhe Iheh
who keep it, and then / ask you who are the
hest friends of society! Who are the best
friends of morals3 Who have the best pros
poets for this world! Who have the best for
the world that IS to come!
Sabbath morning comes in the household.
/ suppose that the mere philosopher would
say that the Sabbath light comes in a wave
current, just like any other light, but it does
seem so to me. 1t seems as il it touched
the eyelids more gently, and threw a brighter
glow on the maDtel ornaments, and cast a
better cheerfulness on the faces of the chill
drpn. and throw a supernatural glory over the
old family Bible. Hail Sabbath light! We