The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-10-02
CROOKED PATHS,
There are Plenty Of Them
That Need Straig hten-
ing Out.
Dr.. Talmage Shows a w licked
World How it Can be
Done.

LIt DROOkLNN, special ine Su nlecW OF 5LO-
]. days ,sermon was "Crooked Things Text,
Isaiah Ill, 4: ''The crooked shall be ma dc
straight" s##sS6
Geometry, from the time it was discovered
on the banks of the Nile, which. by it's over
flow annually obliterated the landmarks,
and the restoration OF these landmarks
made such science necessarily 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 thesquare were always considered admir-
able. Isaiah recognizes the circle and says:
The Lord sits upon the circle of the EARTH"
The altar of the ancient tabernacle was
''four square," and the breastpate of the
priests -four square, and heaven accord
ing TO st. John, is -four square" But the
Bible nus no admiration Tor lines that are
merely crooked. Indeed, my text in prophecy
ing the worlds complete ratification declares:
The crooked shall be made straight"
There have been so many moral earth
quakes that many things have go t into
terrible twist-crooked laws, crooked gov
ernments. crooked fortunes. crooked dispo
sitions-and many oftbe efforts to strnighten
things have only made them more crooked
And some, good people sit down in despair
and become pessmistic and give up lie and
the church and the world as dead failure.
With such lschrym ose behavior have no
sympathy. 1t is a promise Of the Lord AL
mighty. The crooked shall be made
straight propose as l may be diyinely
helped, to mention some of the crooked
things chat are going to be Strengthened.
Much OF the wealth of this world is in the
han fiS Off hn TO IIn Sff ,n
best people subjected to distressing pr-
vation: and there is going to be IL redstribu-
ton oil property. Ifit were possible, it would
be n bad thing to have things divided equally.
Some men are able to endure more succe So
- than Others and prosperity that might not
unbalance YOU might destroy me. The De-
~claration of American Independence declares
that all men are born equal, but the opposite
is the truth, for they are born unequal In
no respect is this more evident than in their
capacity to endure success. financial or social.
have seen men by the acquisition OF $780,
900 mad, arrogant and overbearing, and I
have known others with their millions OF dol
lars childiike and unassuming and Christian
We would all be afHuent. but the Lord can
not trust US. am glad there are those He
itaiists. but the world would be very
shaky world without them. Who built the
great railroads which, while they give such
facilities of travel. employ tens of thousands
OF laborers. supporting them and their fam
ilies' 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 ofemployes earn their daily.
bread? Capitalists Who endowed your col.
leges, and opened free libraries, and built
asylums for the orphan, the crippled and the
insane? Capitaiists But for them there
would not be All Academy of Music. or q
picture gallery. or a free library or steam
boat, or a railroad in America Who put
the world on 90 years beyond what it would
have been III enterprise, in comforts, in edu-
catlonai advantage, in good things without
number? Capitalists! The more money n
man gets the better if it come honestly and
is employed righteously. Nevertheless we all
see that there needs to be redistribution of
property. Communism proposes to make
that distribution by torch and dagger and
Dynamite. Throw the midnight express
train off the track and put the factory into
conhagration. Disrupt society. Burglarize.
Assassinate. Such people believe neither in
God nor man nor woman and they know
how to make things worse, but never make
anything better
tell you how there will come a redistribu
ton of property. Under the devine blessin.
good people will get more alertness and acu.
men and assiduity Many good people are
kept in Strengthened circumst ances because
they have been INDECENT 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
competency. In the better days to come
good men will have their faculties wnkened
and Will IN consequence rise to larger share
OF prosperity. On the other hand estates
wrongfully accumulated will disolve Ifnot
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 right
eously gathered-and there are thousands Of
them-such estates will contribute toward
helping the unfortunate, not more bv chart.
ties than by helping struggling people into
lucrative business, and the man who has
amassed enough and surplus will saw:
There IS young merchant without anv
capital. Will start him on Fulton street y
and there is q young mechanic who has q
means OF his own, and will put him on 9,
career OF prosperity" and 'there is a farmer
with liIl too big mortgage on his land. and |
WlllheIp him lift the remembrance. . The fact
is that If the kindness and generosity man
rested by m:neyed men toward the strug-
CLING dnrlng the last so years. in creasps in
the same ratio for the next so years, there
VIII be II condition OF society paradiaic.
We are going to have a multiplication Of
Wilinm E. Dodges, and Peter Coopers. and
James Senoxps, and George Peabodys. SO
will come redistribution, and the crooked
will be made straight.
Mind this: God never vet undertook q fail.
= Hc olu DOOk Which jS worth all other
books put together, makes it plain God has
undertaken to regulate this world by gospel
influences, and if He has the power He Will
do what He says He will, and 10 one who
amounts to anything will deny His power
God has said q hundred times ~ will 2. but
never once has said II cannot.'' Wemay.
with our tack hammers, pound away, trying
to mend and improve md straighten the
financial condition the world, and be dis.
appointed in the result, because our arm is
too weak and the hammer we WELD too
small but the most defiant difficulty will
fatten and disappear when God, with a ham
mer made of summer thunder bolts, strikes
it, saying. "Tne crooked shall be made
straight
In your business concerns there are infu-
ences perplexing. Your affairs may seem
all right to outsiders for business firms do
not advertise their private troubles, but
where one firm has everything just as they
want it, there are hundred firms at their
wits end what to do with that pa rtner who
draws m ore than his share Of the profits, or
with that stakeholder who comes il, just OFT
en- enough to upset things, or with that dis
appearance Of funds which you cannot ac-
count for, although you have suspicious You
cannot mention, or with that Investment
n xvF,i or1o 4.