The Russellville Democrat., 1890-10-02
FALMAGEs SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Talks About
 Crooked Things" There is No Bcauty in Crooked Thingas Neither fn Law, Goyerhmert pr
 IndiYidaal Dispositi6M The
 sfraightening Process
rey. T. powitt Talmago aoiiver,

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
 the following discourse on Crooked Things in tho Brooklyn Academy of Music. taking for his text:
 The crooked shall be made straght.-- Isaiah XL. L
 Geometry, from the time it was discov- cred on the banks of the Nile, which, by it's. overflow annually obliterated the landmarks, and the ros storations of these landmarks made such science necessary II 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 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
 -four square," and the breastplate of the priests -four square, and Heaven, and St. John, is Hour square" But the Bible has no admiration for lines that arc merely crooked Indeed, my text in prophesying the worlds complete rectifcation declares: The crooked shall be made straight"
 There have been somany moral earth quakes that many thing have got into terrible twist-crool1ed laws, crooked governments, crooked fortunes, crooked dispositions-an many of the efforts to straighten things have only made them more crooked. And some good people sit down in despair and become pessi- mistie and give up life and the church as dead failures. With such lachrymose behavior hayo no sym pathy. It is a promise of the Lord Almighty. "The crooked shall be made straight" I propose, as I may be di- yinely helped, to mention some of the crooked things that are going to be straightoned.
 | Much of the wealth of the world is in
 the hands of the profigate, while many
 of the best people are subjected to dis i dressing privati0n; and there is going to be a redistribution of property. If it were possible, it would be bad thing 1 1 men are able to endure moreasuccess
 than others, and prosperity that might 1 not unbalance you might destroy me. 1 The Declaration of American Independ- ence declares that all men are born
 equal, but the opposite is tho truth, for 1 they are born unequal In no respect is | this more evident than ntheircapacity l to endure success, financialsorsoeial. I
 have seen men by the acquisi-
 tion of $50, 900 made arrogant 1 and oyerbearing, and l have 1 known others with their mill
 ions of dollars childlike and unassum-
 ing and Christian. We would all be
 afiluent, but the Lord can not trust us. I am glad there are those He can trust
 Much is said against capitalists, but the l world would be very shal1y world with l out them. Who built the great rail ! roads which, while they give such
 facilities of travel, employ tens of i thousands of laborers, supporting them
 and their families? Capitalists. Who | built great ships that stir tho rivers
 and bridge the ocean? Capitalists. Who reared the thousands of factories
 ail over the land in which hundreds of thousands of employees earn their daily
 bread? Capitalists. Who endowed 1 your colleges, and opened free libraries,
 and built asylums for the orphan, the l crippled and the insane? Capitalists! But for them there would not be an lacademy of music, or picture gal Ilery, or free library or steamboat
 or a railroad in America. Who put the
 world on seyenty-fve years beyond what it would have been in enterprise, | in comforts, in eductional advantage, in
 good things without number? Capital | istsl The moro money man gets the better if it come honestly and is em- 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 of the track and put the factory into confagra-
 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.
 | l tell you how there will come re- distribution of property. Under the Di-
 vine blessing good people will get more alertness and acoumen 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 l not the sons then the grand sons will make the money fly, ard it will gradually scatter in their hands and become a part of the general wealth, Then, as to vast properties rlghteously gathered-and there are | thousands of them-such estates will ! contribute toward helping tho unfortu-
 nate, 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; l There is young merchant without
 any capital, l will start him on | Fulton street." and ''TheFe is a | young mechanic who has no means of his own, and l will l put him on career of prosperity" and
 There is a farmer with to big mort gago on his land, and l will help him | Int tho incumbrance. The fact is, | that lf tho kindliness and generosity
 manifested by moneyed men toward the | struggling during the last fifty years
 increases in the same ratio for tho next | fifty years, there will be condition of
 society paradisiao We arc going tc
 have Q multiplication of William E. l nodges, and Peter Coopers, and James
 Lenoxes and George Peabodys So will
 come redistribution, and the crooked 70 F-.