Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-09-25
GOD WILLREFORM THEM
DR.. TALMAoE or GODS METH
obs OF PURIFIcATIoN.
The Bible Promises Arc for Mon In Busl-
ness and Social Life, Politics and Mar
riage, as Well as in Purely Spiritual
Matters-He Answers Prayer.

Matters-Be Answers Prayer.
The subject of Rev. DIR. Talmage's SER
mon, preached last Sunday at Brooklyn,
was ''Crooked Things" Text, Isa., xl.,
a: "TEe crooked shall be made
straight"
Geometry, from the time it was discov-
cred on the banks of the Nile, which, by
its overflow annually oblterated the
landmarks, and the restoration of these
landmarks made such science neceS-
sary-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 line that was
merely crooked. The circle and the
square 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 tab
ernacle 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 prophesy-
ing the worlds complete ratification de-
clares, 1.-THE crooked shall be made
straight"
There have been so many moral earth
quakes that many things have got into
a 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 pessimis-
tic, and give up life, and the church and
the world as dead failures. With such
lachrymose behavior l have no sympa-
thy. 1t is a promise of the Lord AL
mighty. "The crooked shall be made
straight" | 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 profigate, while many
of the best people are subjected to dis
tressing privation, and there is going to
be a redistribution of property. If ii
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 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 fifty
thousand dollars made arrogant and
overbearing, and l have known Others
with their millions of dollars childlike
and unassuming and Christian. We
woAld all be affiuent, 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 very shaky world
without them. Who built the great
railroads which, while they give such
facilities of travel, employ tens of thou
sands 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 thou
sands of employees earn their daily bread?
Capitalists. Who endowed your colleges
and opened free libraries and built asy-
lums 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, OF
steamboat, or a railroad in America.
Who put the world on seventy-fve years
beyond what it would have been in enter
prise, in comforts, in educational ad-
vantage, in good things without numbers
Capitalists.
The more money man gets the bet
ter, if it comes honestly and is employed
righteously. Nevertheless we all see
that there needs to be redistribution
of property. Communism proposes tc
make that distribution by torch and
dagger and dynamite. Throw the mid
night express train off the track and put
the factory into contiagration. Disrupt
society, burglariZe, asSasSinate. Such
people believe neither in God nor mar
nor woman, and they know how to make
things worse, but never have made and
never can make anything better.
1 tell you how there will come re.
distribution of property. Under the
divine blessing good people will get more
alertness and acImen and assiduity,
Many good people are kept in straitened
circumstances because they have beer
indolent or lacked courage to take honest
advantage Of circumstances, and were
too stupid to get on. With the very
same surroundings others went on tc
competency. In the better days to come
good men will have their faculties
wakened, and will in consequence rise tC
larger share of prosperity. On the Other
hand, estates wrongfully accumulated
will dissolve. If not the sons. then the
grandsons will make the money fly, anC
it will gradually scatter in their hands
and bee ONE a part of the genera
wealth.
Then, as to vast properties righteously
gathered-and there are thousands o1
them-such estates will contribute to-
| ward helping the unfortunate, not more
by charities than by helping struggling
people into lucrative business, and the
man who has amassed enough and a sur
plus will say, ''There is a young mer
chant without any capital; | will star
him on Fulton street," and there is 9
| young mechanic who has no means of hi.
own, and will put him on a career o!
| prosperity and "there is a farmer
with too big mortgage on his land, ane
| / will help him lift the encumbrance.
The fact is that if the kindliness anC
| generosity manifested by moncyed mer
toward the struggling during the last
fifty years increases in the same ratio
for the next fifty years there will be 4
| condition of society paradisac. We are
| going to have multiplication of William
Ia To-
Lenoxes and George Peabodys. So will