The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-06-04
THE GOLDEN RULE.
Christian Panacea For the Labor
Troubles.
Human Desires Must Give Way to the
Divine Wiii-Sermon by Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID.

Divine Wiil-Sermon by Rev. I.
Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID.
After the usual preliminary exercises
Sunday morning, DR.. Talmage preached
in the Academy of Music on THE Old
Fight To Be Settled" from the text:
whatsoever 70 would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them Matt.
vii, 12.)
Two hundred and fifty thousand Ia
borers in HYDE Park, London, and the
streets OF American and European cities
filled with professions of workmen car
rying banners, brings the subject OF
labor ana capital to the front. That all
this vas done in peace and that as re-
suit in many places, arbitration has
taken place, is hopeful sign.
The greatest war the world has ever
seen is between capital and labor The
sttfe is not like that which in history
is called the Thirty Years War, for it
is war of centuries, it is war of the
five continents, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country, upon
whom the nation has depended for hold
ing the balance of power and for acting
as meditators between the two extremes,
are diminishing; and if things 60 on at
the same ratio as they have for the last
twenty years been going on, it will not
be very long before there will be no
middle class in this country, but all will
be very rich or very poor, princes or
paupers, and the country will be given
up to palaces and novels. The antagon-
istic forces have again and again closed
in upon each other. You may pooh
pooh it; you may say this trouble, like
an angry child, will cry itself to sleep;
you may belittle it by calling it
Foulerism, or Socialism, or ST. Simon
ism, or Nihilism, or Communism, but
that will not hinder the fact that it is
the mightiest, the darkest, the most ter
rife threat of this century. Most Of the
attempts at pacification have been dead
failures, and monopoly is more arrogant
and the trades unions more bitter.
"Give US more wages" cry the en-
ployes. "You shall have less" say the
capitalists. Compel us to do fewer
hours of toll in day." "You shall
toll more hours" say the others. 'Then.
under certain conditions, we will not
work at ALL" say these. Then you
shall starve," say those, and the work.
men gradually using up that which they
accumulated in better times, unless there
be some radical change, we shall have
soon in this country three million
hungry men and women. Now, three
million hungry people can not be
kept quiet All the enactments OF
Legislatures and Constabularies of the
cities, and all the army and navy of the
United States can not keep 5000, 900
hungry people quiet. What then? Will
this war between capital and labor be
settled by human wisdom? Never The
brow of the one becomes more rigid, the
fist of the other more clinched.
But that which human wisdom can
not achieve will be accomplished by
Christianity If it be given full sway.
You have heard Of medicines so power
ful that one drop would stop a disease
and restore patient; and have to tell
you that one drop of my text properly
administered will stop all these woes OF
society and give convalescence and com.
: plete health to all classes. "Whatso-
ever We would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them"
shall first show you this morning
how this controversy between monopoly
, and hard work can not be stopped, and
then I will show you how this contro.
versy will be settled.
In the first place there will come
no pacification to this trouble
through an cutlery against rich men
merely because they are rich. There is
, no laboring man on earth that would
, not be rich If he could be. Sometimes
. through fortunate invention, Oh
through some accident of prosperity, a
man who had nothing comes to large
estate, and we SEQ him arrogant and SUI
D percilious, and taking people by the
4 throat just as other people took him by
the throat. There is something very
mean about human nature when il
comes to tho top. But it is no more ;
sin to be rich than it is sin to be poor
, There are those who have gathered ;
great estate through fraud, and theI
there are millionaires who have gath
cred their fortunes through foresight il
regard to changes in the markets, anC
through brilliant business faculty, an(
= every dollar of their estate is as homes
), as the dollar which the plumber gets 70
mending q pipe, or the mason gets 70
building a wall. There are those wit
keep in poverty because of their owl
fault
They might have been well of, bu
y they smoked or chewcd up their earn
ings, or they lived beyond their means
!, while others on the same wages and OF
= the same salaries went TO competency
/ know man who is all the time com
: planning of his poverty and crying GU
against rich men. while he himsel
keeps two dogs and chews and smokes
0 and is filled to the chin with whisky an
y beer!
Micawber once said to David Copper
o field: 'Copperheld, my boy. ono poun
income, twenty shillings and sixpenc
: expenses; result, misery. But, Copper
l. field. my boy, one pound income, ex
y penses nineteen shillings and sixpence
result, happiness" And there are vas
Q multitudes Of people who are kept poo
e because they arc the victims of thei
Q own improvidence. II is no sin to b
q rich, and it is no sin to be poor. pre-
+ test against this cutlery which l hea
against those who. through econom
4 LII L.