Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-09-27
TALMAGES SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "Thc City Streets"

tereth her u0ice ia 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 tho 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 the voices of nature;
but how few of us learn anything from
the voices of the noisy and dusty street.
You go 20 your merchandise, and your mech
anisn, 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 af toll, and pain, and
pleasure, the slo,c Lread 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
crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the
streets"
In the first place the street impresses me
with the fact that this life is a scene of toll
aud struggle. BY 10 o'clock every day the
city is Earring with wheels, and shuffling
with feet, and hummiug with voices, and
covered with the breath of smokestackS, and
a rush with traffickers. Once in a while you
find man going along with folded arms and
with leisurely step, as though he had moth
ing 10 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 errand
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 a roll of bills, on this dray
with a load Of goods, digging a cellar, OF
shingling a roof, or shoeing horse or
building wall or mending a watch or
binding book. Industry, with her thousand
goes on singing her song of work. work !
work! while the mills drum it, and the steam
whistles fifeit. ALI this is not because men
love toll. Some one remarked: Every man
Is as lazy rs he can afford to be-"
But it is because necessity, with stern
brow and with uplifted whip, stands over
theI' ready whenever they relax their toll to
make their shoulders sting with the lash.
Can it be that passing up and down these
you do not learn anything of the worlds toll,
and anxiety, and struggle? On! 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
wretchedneSs, what 'palloi, what
hot
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-
Inime, 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
burned 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 sea over whose iron coast losses
the tangled foam, sprinkling the cracked cliffs
with baptism of whirlwind and tempest, is
the best place to study God; but i'll the rush
Ing, swarming, raving street is the best place
to study man. Going down to your place Of
business and coming homo again, | charge
you look about-see these signs Of poverty,
of wFstchedneSs of hunger, of sill. of be-
reayement-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 there
will be thousands of persons with whom you
In this world never exchanged one word who
will rise up and call you blessed; and there
will be thousand fingers pointed at you i'll
heaven, saying: "That is the man, that is
the woman, who helped me when | was hun
CRY and sick and wandering, and lost, and
heart broken. That is the man, that is tho
woman" and the blessing will come down
upon you as Christ shall say: 81 was hungry
and We fed Me, was naked and We clothed
Me, was sick and in prison and ye visited
Me; inasmuch as ye 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 despise-
the fat head; and the trim hedgerow will
have nothing to do with the wild copsewOod,
and Athens hates Nazareth. This ought not
to be SO. The astronomer must come down
from his starry revelry and help us in our
navigation. The surgeon must conl@ away
from his study or the human organism anC
set our broken bones. The chemist must CONF
away from his laboratory, where he has beer
studying analysis and synthesis, and help III
tounderstand the nature of the soils. l bles
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 peddler'
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 beastliness, 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: ''The rich and the poor
meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them
ALL" like this democratic principle of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ which recognizes the
fact that we stand before God on 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 thu
same parent regenerated by the same Spirit
cleansed by the same blood, to lie down in the
same dust, to get up in the same resurrection
1t is high time that we all acknowledged moi
only tho Fatherhood of God, but the brother
hood of man.
Again, the street impresSeS me with tht
fact that it is a very hard thing for man tx
keep his heart right and TO get to heaven. In
finite temptations spring upon us from thesl
places or pubic concourSe. Amid SO mucl
affluence how much temptation to covetous
ness and to be disconnected with our humble
lot Amid so many opportunities for over
reaching what temptation to eytortion
Amid SO mnch disnlav what foundation te
vanity. Amid SO many saloons of strong
drink what allurement to dis
Ipation. In the maelstroms of tho street
how many make quick and eternal ship
wreck. If a man-of-war comes back from
battle, and is towed into the navy yard, w
go down to look at the splintered spars anC
count the bullet holes, and look with patri
otto admiration on the flag that fioated il
victory from the masthead But tina
man is more of a curiosity who la
gone through thirty years Of the sharp
shooting of business lie, and yet sail
on, victor over the temptations of the street
Oh! how many have gone down unde
the pressure, leaving not so much a