The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-08
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Crooked Things"

StTulJNI. -1Sd Sls, Il
: Geometry, from the time it 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 science necessary-I say geometry
ever since then hos 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 line that
was merely crooked. The circle and the
square was always considered admirable.
Isaiah recognizes the circle and says, Tho
Lord sits upon the circle Of the EARTH" The
altar of the ancient tabernacle was "four
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 world $
complete rectification declares, ''The crooked
shall he made straight"
There have been SO many moral earth
guakes that many things have got into ter
rible twist-crooked laws, crooked Govern
ments, crooked fortunes, crooked dispositions
land 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 lachrynose behavior I have no
sympathy. 1t is a promise Of the Lord AL
mighty, "The crooked shall be made
straight: propose. as I may be divinely,
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 redistrl-
button ofproperty. If it were possible it
would be bad thing to have things divided
equally. Some men are able to endure mora
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 tho truth, fol they are born un-
equal. In no respect j. this more evident
than in tEeir capacity to endure success,
financial or social. have seen men by the
overbeariug, and J have known others with
their millions Of dollars childlike and unas.
suming and Christian. We would all be
affluent, but the Lord cannot trust us. am
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
earn their daily breadP Capitalists Who
endowed your colleges and opened free Ii
braries and built asylums for the orphan, the
crippled and the insane? Capitalists. But
for them there would not be an academy Of
music, or picture gallery, or free library,
or 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
It comes honestly and is employed righteous
ly. Nevertheless we all see that there needs
to be redistribution Of property. Com
munism proposes to make that distribution
by torch and dagger and dynamite. Throw
the midnight express train off the track and
put the factory into confagration. Disrupt
Society. burglarize. assassinate. Such peo-
Die 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.
! tell YOU how there will come a redistri-
button of property. Under the divine bless.
ing good people will get more alertness and
acumen and assiduity. Many good peopla
are kept in straitened circumstances because
take honest advantage Of circumstances, and
were too stupid to get on. With the very
same surroundings others went on to COM
petency. In the better days to come good
men will have their faculties wakened, and
will in consequence rise to larger share OF
prosperity. On the other hand, estates
wrongfully accumulated will dissolve. II not
the sons. then the grandsons will make the
money ny, and it will gradually scatter in
their hands and become part OF the general
wealth.
Then, as to vast properties righteously
eathered-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; will
Start him on Fulton street," and "There is a
Young mechanic who has no means OF his
own, and I will put him on career Of pros
pelity;;" and "There is farmer with too big
a mortgage on his land and l will help him
lift the encumbrance." The fact is that If
the kindliness 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 condi
rion of society paradisiac. We are going to
and Peter Coopers and James Leno1es and
George Peabodys 80 Will come redistripu-
tiop, and the crooked will be made straight.
Mind this: God never yet undertook O fall
ure. The old book, which is worth all other
books put together, makes it plain that God
mas undertaken to regulate this world oy
gospel influences, andit He has the power he
viii do what He says He will, and no one
Who amounts to anything will deny bis
L.. h,,rl mo
will" but never once has said II cannot"
We may with our tack hammers pound away
irving 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
small: but the most defiant difficulty Will
flatten and disappear when God with a ham
mer made of summer thunderbolts strikes
it, saying, "The crooked shall be made
straight"
:, In Your business concerns there are int1u-
ences perple1ing. Your affairs may seem
all right to outsiders, for business firms 90
not advertise their private troubles; out
where one firm has everything just as 10
wants it there are hundred firms ut tnelr
wits end what to do with that partner who
draws more than his share OF the proats or
with that stockholder who comes in just orten
enough to upset things, or with that dlsap-
pearence of funds which you cannot account
for, although you have suspicious you can
not mention; or with that investment which
was made contrary to your Judgment, be.
cause there was determination to push 1t
through, or because you are going BEHIND
mouth by month, without any. prospect Oh
extrication. The trouble is putting wrinkle
on your forehead that ought not to appear
there I for ten years yet, and you will be forty
years old when you GU ght to be only thirty,
or sixty when you hit to be only. fifty, or
seventy when you ought to be only sixty;