Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-10-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: CROOKED Things"

me cTOOteO SiCtt De 7d0Qf
'strdight."-Isa. H, 4.
! Geometry, from the time il was discov.
cred on the banks of the Nile which, by its
overflow annually obliterated the landmarks,
and the restoration of these landmarks made
such a science necessary-I say geometry
ever since then has been busy with lines,
straight lines curved lines, lines in angles
and cones and spheres but has never been
able to evolve any beauty from a line that
was merely crooked. The circle and the
square was always considered admirable.
Isaiah recognizes the circle and says, THE
Lord sits upon the circle of the earth" The
altar of the ancient tabernacle was flour
square," and the breast plate of the priests
-four square," and heaven, according to st.
John, is -four square" But the Bible has no
admiration for lines that are merely crooked.
Indeed my text in prophesying the worlds
complete rectifcation declares, THE crooked
shall be made straight"
There have been SO many moral earth
quakes that many things have got into ter
rible twist-crooked laws, crooked Govern
ments, crooked fortunes, crooked dispositions
and many of the efforts to straighten
things have only made them more crooked.
And some good people sit down in despair
and become pessimistic, and give up life and
the church and the world as dead failures.
With such lachrymose behavior l have no
sympathy. 1t is promise Of the Lord AL
mighty, "The crooked shall be made
straight" Ipropose. as I may be divinelv
helped, to mention some of the crooked
things that are going to be Strengthened.
Much of the wealth of the world is in the
hands Of the prohigate, while many of the
best people are subjected to distressing pri-
walton, and there is going to be a redistri-
button of property. If it were possible it
would be bad thing to have things divided
equally. Some men are able to endure more
success than others, and prosperity that
might not unbalance you might destroy me.
The Declaration of American independence
declares that all men are born equal, but the
opposite is the truth, for they are born IN
equal. In no respect j. this more evident
than in their capacity to endure success,
acquisition OF $780, 600 made arrogant and
overbearing, and have known others with
their millions of dollars childlike and unas-
Stunning and Christian. We would all be
af1uent, but the Lord cannot trust us. lam
glad there are those He can trust.
Much is said against capitalists, but the
world would be very shaky world without
them. Who built the great railroads which,
while they give such facilities of travel en-
ploy tens Of thousands of laborers supporting
them and their families? Capitalists. Who
built great ships that stir the rivers and
bridge the ocean? Capitalists. Who reared
the thousands of factories all over the land
in which hundreds of thousands of employees
&c IL their daily bread2 Capitalists. Who
endowed your colleges and opened free Ii
crippled and the insane? Capitalists. But
for them there would not be an academy of
music, or picture gallery, or a free library,
or a steamboat, or railroad in America.
Who put the world on seventy-five years be-
yond what it would have been in enterprise
in comforts, in educational advantage, in
good things without number? Capitalists.
The more money man gets the better, if
1t comes honestly and is employed righteous
ly. Nevertheless we all see that there needs
to be redistribution of property. Com
munism proposes to make hat distribution
by torch and dagger and dynamite Throw
the midnight express train off the track and
put the factory into cOnflagratiOn. Disrupt
society. burglarize, assassinate. Such peo-
pie believe neither in God nor man nor wo-
man, and they know how to make things
worse, but never have made and never can
make anything better.
I tell You how there will come a redistri-
button of property. Under the divine bless
ing good people VIII get more alertness and
acumen and assiduity. Many good peopl>
are kept in straitened circumstances because
they have been indOlent or lacked courage to
take honest advantage of circumstances, and
were too stupid to get on. With the very
same surroundings others went on to COM
potency. In the better days to come good
men will have their faculties wakened, and
will in cOuseQ rise to larger share of
prosperity. On the other hand, estates
wrCnGfuly accumulated will dissolve. If not
the sons, then the grandsons will make the
money fly, and it will gradually scatter in
their hands and become part OF the general
wealth.
Then, as to vast properties righteously
gatherei-and there are thousands of them
such estates will contribute toward help
ing the unfortunate not more by charities
than by helping struggling people into lucra-
tive business, and the man who has amassed
enough and surplus will say, There is a
young merchant without any capital; 1 will
start him on Fulton street." and ''There is a
young mechanic who has no means o. his
own, and l will put him on career of pros
perity;" and There is a farmer with too big
a mortgage on his land and I will help him
lift the encumbrance." The fact is that if
the kindlinass and generosity manifested by
mOneyed men toward the struggling during
the last fifty years increases in the same ratio
for the next fifty years there will be a condi-
ton of society paradisiac. We are going to
have a multiplication Of William E. DOdges
and Peter CoopeTs and James Lenoxes and
George Peabodys so Will come red1str1bu-
ton, and the crooked will be made straight
Mind this: God never yet undertook a fail
ure. The old book, which is worth all other
books put together, makes it plain that God
mas undertaken to regulate this world by
gospel influences, andit He has the power He
will do what He says He will, and no one
who amounts to anything will deny His
power. God has said a hundred times Il
will, )" but never once has said II cannot"
We NAV with our tack hammers pound away
trying to mend and improve and straighten
the financial condition Of the world, and be
disappointed in the result, because our arm
is too weak and the hammer we WELD too
snail: but the most defiant difficulty will
fiatten and disappear when God with a ham
mer made of summer thunderbolts strikes
it, saving, "Ihe crooked shall be MADE
straight"
In YOUR business concerns there are infu-