Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-09-27
CROOKED THINGS
DR.. Talmage's Sermon in the Brook.
Ign Academy of Music.

UeoHetry, from the time it was discov-
cred on the banks of the Nile, which. bv its
overflow annually obliterated the landmarks.
and the restoration of these landmarks made
such 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 1.-THE
Lord sits upon the circle of the earthn The
altar of the ancient tabernacle was sfour
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, 1.-The crooked
shall be made straight
There have been many moral earth
quakes that many things have got into a ter
rlbie 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
| amt become pesslmistic 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." propose. as l 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
I hands OF the prohigate, while many of the
best people are subjected to distressing pri-
\ walton, and there is going to be redistri-
| button of property. II it were poss BILE it
would be a 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 un-
! equal. In no respect is this more evident
/ than i'll tter capacity to endure success,
| fnanciator social. l have seen men by the
acquisition of S500 900 made arrogant and
overbearing, and l have known others with
their millions of dollars childlike and unas.
Stunning and Christian. We would all be
] afiiuent, but the Lord cannot trust u.s. | 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 families9 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
esrn their daily bread? Capitalists Who
| endowed your colleges and opened free IL
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 wears be-
/ yond what it would have been in enterprise.
4 in comforts, in educational advantage, in
1 good things without number? Capitalists
| The more money a man gets the better, if
! it comes honestly and is employed righteous
! ly. Nevertheless we all see that there needs
! to be a 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 confa grafton. Disrupt
! society, burglarlze, 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.
| l 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 assduity Many good people,
are kept in straitened circumstances because
! they have been indoleut 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 Weakened, and
will in consequence rise to larger share of
/ prosperity. On the other hand, estates
wrongtully accumulated will dissolve II not
! the sons then the grandsons will make the
money fly, and it will gradually scatter in
their hanas and become part of the general
| wealth
| Thep cs to vast properties righteously
gatberei-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 a surplus will say "There is a
! young mere lant without any capital; | will
| start him on Futon street, and There is a
/ young mechanic who has no means o. his
! OWN. and | will put him on a career of pros
I periuy; ana There is farmer with too big
| mortgage on his land, and | will help him
| lift the encumbrance. The fact is that if
| the kindness and generosity manifested by
moneyed men toward the struggling during
/ the asst fifty years increases in tine same ratio
| for the next fifty years there will be condi-
| tion OF society paradisiac. We are going to
! have multiplication of William E. Dodges
and Peter CUoFer5 and James Lenoxes and
George Peabodys. So will come redistribu-
! ton an the crooked will be made straight
| Mind this: God never yet undertook fail
ure. The old book which is worth all other
/ books put together makes it plain that God
has undertaken to regulate this world by
! gospel influences, and ii He has the power He
will 90 what He says He WILL and no one
| who amounts to anything will deny His
power God has said a hundred times II
will - but never once has said 81 cannot"
We may with our tack hammers pound away
| trying TO mend and improve and straighten
: the financial condition of the world, and be
I disappointed in the result because our arm
is too weak and the hammer we WELD too
I small but the most defiant difficulty will
fatton and disappear when God with a ham
mer made of summer thunderbolts strikes
ii, saying, THE crooked shall be made
straight"
/ In YOUR business concerns there are influ-
ences perp.exing. Your affairs may seem
all 7 ght TO outsiders, for business firms do
not advertise their private troubles; but
where one firm has everything just as it
wants it there are hundred firms at their
! wits end what TO do with that partner who
draws more than his share of the profits, or
! with shat stakeholder who comes in just often
/ enough to upset things, or with that disap-
/ pearancs 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 it
through, or because you are going behind
month by month, without any prospect of
extrication. The trouble is putting a wrinkle
on cur forehead that ought not to appear
there for ten years yet, AMI you will be forty
! years old when You ought to be only thirty,
J
seventy when you ought to be only sixty,
Stop worrying; either by the dissolution 81
that firm OF by adjusting matters you will
| be brought safely through if you put your
/ trust in God.
When commercial houses fail the suspen.
sion is advertised but of the tens of thous-
sn3s of men who are every day extricated no
public mention is made. Yesterday was Sat.
urday, and warrant that at the windows
of banks, and in counting rooms Of stores
and on every street Of every city Ged ap.
peared for the deliverance of good men as
certainly as when with His right foot He trod
Lake Galilee into placidity, and made Daniel
/ as safe among the lionsas though they had
been house dogs asleep on rug before a win.
ter S tire. Throw yourself on the text. or A
hundred other texts meaning about the same
thing.
never yet asked God to do ANYTHING but
! lie did 1t, If it were best and in all the cases
| Where my prayer has not been answered |
! nave found out afterward that it was best
! not to have been answered in nv wav. But
none of US has tested the full power of pray
er. 1t Is force very like some OF the forces
OF nature That were in ex stence but not en-
pioyed. For ages electricity wa, thought
COOL for nothing but to burn barns and kill
/ people with one fell stroke. The lightning
rod on the topo houses was the spear with
which the world charged on the thunder
storm, as much as to say: "If you dare to
come this way | will hurl you into the
ground.n But now electricity lightens
homes and churches and cities and Christen-
dom, AMI moves rail cars aud he is a rash
man who mentions anything as impossible
! to this natural energy.
50 the power OF prayer was to the world
rather Irigdtful power, if it was any