The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-10-02
TALMAGES SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Talks About
Crooked Things"
There Is No Beauty In Crooked Things,
Neither In Law, Government OF
Individual Disposition - The
STRENGTHENING Process.

the following discourse on Crooked
Things" in the Brooklyn Academy Of
Music, taking for his text:
The crooked shall be mado straight
ISAIAH xL. 4
Geometry, from the time it was discov-
cred on the banks of the Nile, which,
by its overflow annually obliterated the
landmarks and the restorations Of
these landmarks made such a science
necessary-I say, geometry, every
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 were always
considered admirable. Isaiah recog-
nizes the circle and says: The Lord
sits upon the circle of the earth" The
altar Of the ancient tabernacle was
flour square," and the breastplate of
the priests "four square," and Heaven,
and 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
PRONUNCIATION ucCldTeSs no CEOOheu
shall be made straight"
There have been so many moral earth
quakes that many thing have got into
q terrible twist-crooked laws, crooked
governments, 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 pessi-
mistic and give up life and the
a lachrymose behavior have no SYM
patty. 1t is a promise of the Lord
Almighty. The crooked shall be made
straight" l propose, as l may be di-
vinely 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 profligate, while many
Of the best people are subjected to dis
tressing privation; and there is going
to be a redistribution 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 Independ-
ence 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. l
have seen men by the acquisi-
ton of $4,000 made arrogant
and overbearing, and l have
known others with their mill
ions of dollars childlike and unassum-
ing and Christian. We would all be
aff1uent, but the Lord can not trust US.
am glad there are those He can trust
Much is said against capitalists, but the
world would be a very shaky world with
out them. Who built the great rail-
roads which, while they give such
facilities of travel, employ 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
bread? Capitalists. Who endowed
your colleges, and opened free Libraries,
and built asylums for the orphan, the
crippled and the insane? Capitalists
But for them there would not be an
academy of music, or a picture gal
lery, or free library or a steamboat
or a railroad in America. Who put the
world on seventy-uve years beyond
what 1t would have been in enterprise,
in comforts, in educational advantage, in
good things without number? Capital
lists! the more money a man gets the
better if it come honestly and is en-
ployed righteously. Nevertheless we
all see that there needs to be redis-
tribution 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 confiagra-
ton. Disrupt society. Burglarize.
Assassinate. Such people believe
neither in God, nor man nor woman,
and they know how to make things
worse, but never have made and never
can make any thing better.
tell you how there will come a re-
distribution of property. Under the Di-
vine blessing good people will get more
alertness and accumen and assiduity.
Many good people are kept in straigh-
ened circumstances because they are in
dolent 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
awakened, and will in consequence
rise to larger share Of prosperity.
On the other hand, estates wrong
fully accumulated will dissolve. If
not the sons then the grand
sons will make the money fly, aid it
will gradually scatter in their hands
and become a part of the general
wealth. Then, as to vast properties
righteously gathered-and there are
thousands of them-such estates will
contribute toward helping the unfortu-
nate, 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 of his own, and / will
put him on q career of prosperity" and
"There is farmer with to big mort
gage on his land, and l will help him
I.rI - ;-o,o,h,o,oa The foot &c