St. Paul daily globe., 1889-07-30
THE WORLD IS BETTER
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
Takes a Cheerful
View,
And Believes That Each Man
Makes His Own
World.
An Immense Audience Listens
to His Words Of Elo-
quence.
Talmage Pays His Compli-
ments to the People Of

last night at Westminster church on the
question: ''Is the World Growing Bet
ter or Worse?" and of the hundreds
of souls who poured out from the church
at the close of the lecture there was
surely not one in whose depth the
question had not been answered most
conclusively in the affirmative.
At an early hour in the evening car
riages left their occupants at the church
doors and foot passengers thr0nged the
payements adjoining the church. The
crowd kept steadily filing into the
auditorium until long after 8 O'Clock.
Ushers flew hither and thither, seating
the comers as rapidly as possible, but
despite their efforts those to be seated
would gather on their hands. Strains
from the great organ filled the
air, and the busy chatter of hum
dreds of tongues making queries
about the great preacher who was to
speak, and the live interest on the sea
of faces made as thoroughly live scene
as could well be furnished.
At s o'clock, when DR.. Talmage, ac-
companied by President Cyrus North
rop, of the university, entered by the
door to the left of the pulpit, nearly
every seat in the house was
occupied, and still the people
were coming. After a few
minutes, when every available inch OF
space was occupied, DR.. NOrthrop rose
and made very pleasing Introduction.
ut is habit" said he, ITO introduce
public speaker. S !metimes it is merely
formalty. / think that it is tonight.
From the way you have come out it is
quite evident that you know the
man VINO is to speak to you.
Yet no matter how eminent man is
| think it is true that he can speak bet
ter if a few good words have been
spoken about him, and am honored by
being allowed to say those words. You
are to be addressed tonight by a
great man. How great never
knew till l stood by the
side of this speakers stand"
With this President Northrop laid his
hand on the tall rough stand which oc-
cupied the platform, and appeared to
have been made for DR.. Talmage' S own
use. He complimented the speaker of
the evening as being both witty and
wise, two traits seldom combined in one
man, and then introduced the orator to
the waiting audience.
DR.. Talmage opened his address with
FEW PRELIMINARY REMARKS
in conversational style. telling the au-
dience that he could not be sufficiently
thankful for the magnificent audience
or the gracious Introduction: He
time in Minnesota, complimented
it's climate, the architecture, of its
cities, its people, and, in fact,
all of Minnesota. He said that if he
was going to start out in an agricul-
tural OF mechanical pursuit he would
Just go back home, pack up his things
and move right out to Minnesota.
II am enjoying myself none the less"
said he. because the people of Waseca
have sued me for failing to fill
an engagement last summer" He said
the matter had got into the papers, and
he thought his Hearers might want to
know how it was. He explained that
he was physically unable to preach as
his manager had arranged last summer
at WaSeca, and that the people bad
abused him at the time, and now that
he had come back into the state had
sent their sheriff up to see him last
Friday, but he had just put the matter
into the hands of one of Minneapolis
best attorneys, Eugene NJ. Wilson. and
as thev didn't have any case against
him he would get along all right and
Then he proceeded to his lecture.
THE LECTURE.
about once in two thousand years
God turns leaf in the progress of this
world. He turned leaf and the world
was ready for habitation. Two thou
sand wears passed and then came the
deluge." He told of the leaves that
had been turned, and the next one, he
prophesied, would be the cOnquering of
| the whole world to Christianity.
'tThe world" he said, ''is much as we
make it. God made the world to start
with, but every man is making 1t over
again. Tell me the color of mans
eyeglasses and will tell you what his
world is. If they are blue glasses, it's a
blue world; green glasses, a green
world: yellow, and he sees jaundiced
world, and if he looks through clear
and transparent glasses he sees the
world as God made it, The first
thing for man to have is his
heart right, the next is to have
his liver right, and if his hearts right
and his liver'S right, he's all right
BY representing himself to be talking
to a dyspeptic friend. the reverend
gentleman showed most humorously the
way the world in all its different phases
one While he kept his audience in a
| roar of laughter, it was evident that he
| impressed the thought he wished to
| upon their mind.
"'There are some people," he con-
tinued, "who can't quote Scripture with
out seeing something bad in it. The
| good or the bad in the world very much
| depends on how we interpret things.
| Some people read from Solomon vanity
of vanities, all is vanity. And then oh !!
nv, they think the world isn't worth
living in. Now that Scripture is just a
little piece of Solomon's personal expert
ence. IeXpect his 700 wives had been pes
tering him nearly to DEATH" After
| bearing Oh this point he went on to
show how the largest number of COM
| plants were among the rich and we'll
to-do. The happiest people are the poor
and down-trodden, who make the best
of what they had.
"The trouble is. people have wrong
notion of what is necessary to be happy.
! If they are poverty stricken, they long
for livelihood, gaining livelihood
they wish competence, securing a
competence they demand affiuence, OBJ
tanning affluance they reach for super
fluffy, and gaining superfuity they
Want-mOre."
Next he said: "Do you know there
are very few bad people in the world?
mean men who start out to be bad,
who mean to be bad. and who want to
be bad, Men are very much made by
the circumstances in which they are
thrown, and before we condemn a man
we must ask ourselves would we have
done any better if we had been placed
in his circumstances" The great
student of humanity then showed how
mankind should have a more merciful
leaning toward the faults of others.
"With 500 faults of our own,we ought
to allow other people to have one.
With such excellent hunting on our
own grounds we should not, with rifle
and greyhound pack, go securing. the
low lands of others. Pm really afraid
the imperfection of others will worry
many of US to DEATH"
Following the same thought, he illus
trated how the best of men and all men
poraries. "And," said he, I'll
you haven't had the world
after you it's because you're too young,
L e. L.