The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-06-04
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Old Fight to Be Set
tied"

TENT: "I!hatsoerer ye 1Uould that mel,
should do to you, do ye ereh so unto thcm."
Matt. vii, II.
Two hundred and fifty thousand laborers
in Hyde PARK, London, and the streets OF
American and European cities filled with
professions of worSmen carrying banners.
brings the subject of LABOR and Capital to
the front. That all this was done in peace,
and that as result, in many places, arbltra-
ton has taken place, is hopeful sign.
The greatest war the world has ever seen
is between capital and labor. The strife is
not like that which in history is called the
Thirty Years War; for it is war OF CEN
turieS, it is war of the five continents, it
is war hemispneric. The middle classes
in this country. upon whom the nation has
depended for holding the balance OF power
and for acting as mediatorS between the
two extremes, are diminishing; and if
til ngs 20 on at the same ratio as they have
for the last twenty years been going on, 1t
will not be very long before there will be no
middle class in thus 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 antagonistic forces have again and
again closed in upon each other. You may
pooh pooh it; you may say that this trou-
Bile, like an angry child, will cry itself to
sleep: you may beiittle it by calling 1t Fou-
rierisn, or Socialism, or st. Simonsm, or
Nihilism, or Communism, but that will not
hinder the fact that it is the mightlest, the
darkest, the most terrific threat OF tnls
century. Most of the attempts at paclf1-
cation have been dead failures, and monop-
oily is more arrogant and the trades unions
more bitter. Give us more wages" cry the
t.V c,,ol las
capitalists. 'Compsl US to do fewer hours
of toll in a day." "You shall toll more
hours" say the others "Then, under GER
tain conditions we will not work at OIL"
say these. Then you Shall starve," say
those, and the workmen gradually using up
that whch they accumulated in better times.
unless there De some radical change, we shall
have soon in this country three million
hungry men and women. Now, three m!il,
ion hungry people cannot be kept quiet. All
the enactments of legislatures and all the
constabularies of the cities, and all tine army
all navy o. the United States cannot keep
thrae million hungry people quiet. What
them Will this war between capital and
labor be settled by human wisdom? Never.
The br ow Of the one becomes more rigid, the
fist OF the other more clincne1.
But that which human wisdom cannot
achieve will be accomplished by Christian
ity if 1t be given full sway. You have heard
of medicines so powerful that one drop
would stop a disease and restore patient,
and have to tel you that ona drop of my
text properly administered will stop all
these woes of society and give convalescence
and complete health to all classes. What
soever We would that men should do to you,
do YOU even so to Them" I shall first ShoY
ye this morning how this controversy be-
tween monopoly and ha-,l WORK cannot he
stopped, and then will show you how this
controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place there
will come no pacification TO this trouble
through an oltcry against rich men merely
because they are RIGA There is no laborinS
man on earth that would not be rica If he
could be. Sometimes through fortunate IN
vention, or through some accident or pros
perity, man who had nothing comes to
large estate, ard we see him arrogant anu
euperci!l0CS, and taking people bJ ia: throat
There is something very mean about
human nature when it comes to tne top.
But it is no more a sill to be r.cn than it IS
sin to be poor. There are those who have
gathered 4 great estate throu 5h fraud, anu
then there are millionaires vino have
gathered their fortune through foresight in
regard to changes III the markets, AMI
through brilliant business faculty, and every
Collar o. their estate is as honest as th9
dollar which the plumber gets for nlend'nSn
pipe, or the mason gets for builiing wall.
There ara those who keep in poverty because
OF their own fault. They might have been
we'll OF, but they smoked or chewed up their
earnings, o. they lived beyond their means,
while Others on the SANE wages and on the
same salaries went ca to competency.
know a man who is all the time mplaininS
OF his poverty and crying ont against rich
mer. while he himself keeps two dogs and
chews and smokes, and is filled to the cain
with whisky and beer.
Micawber said to David Copperield:
"Copaerfield, my boy, one pound income,
suit, misery. But Copperield, my boy. one
pound income, expenses nineteen shllllngs
and si1pe. ice: result, happiness" And there
are vast mutitudes of people who are kept
poor because they are the victims OF their
own improviience. 1t is no sin to be rich,
and it is no sin to be poor. protestagainst
this outcry which hear against tlnose who,
through economy and self-denlal ana
assiduitv, have come to large fortune. This
bombardment of commercial success Will
never stop this controversy between capital
and labor.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetic treatment of
the laboring classes. There ara those who
speak Of them as though they were only cat
tie or draught horses. Their nerves are
nothing, their domeEtic comfort is nothing.
They have no more sympathy for them than
a hound has Tor hare, or hawk for hen,
or tiger for calf. When Jean Valjeau,
the greatest hero Of Victor Hugo's writings,
after life of suffering and brave endurance,
goes into incarceration and death. they clap
" fr,. htr,,c Nl,oxv
stamp their feet with indignation and say
Just the opposite of Save the working
classes" They have all their sympathieS
with Shy,ocl:, and not with Antonio and
Port:a. They are piutocrats, and their fee
ings are Internal. They are filled with irrita-
tion and ilascibility on this subject. To stop
this awful imbroglio between capital and
labor they will lift not so much as the tip end
of the little finger.
Neither will there be any paciicatiol OF
this angry controversy through violence.
God never blessed murder. Blow up TO-
morrow the country seats on the banks Of
the Hudson, and all the fine houses on Madi-
son Square and Brooklyn Heights aud
and Brooklyn Hill and Ritte1house Square
and Beacon street, and all the bricks and
timber and stone will just fall back on the
bare head Of American labor. The worst
enemies of the working classes in the United
States and Ireland are their demsntsd CO.
adjutors A few years ago assassination
the assassination Of Lord Frederick Caven-
dish and Mr.. Burke in Phoenix Park, DUB
lin, Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the
wrongs of lreland-only turned away from
that afflicted people millions of synpa-
thizers. The attempt to blow up the House
of Commons. in London, had only this effect:
To throw out of employment tens of thou.
sands of innocent Irish people in England.
In this country the torch put to the fac
tories that have discharged hands for good
or bad reason: distractions on the rail track
i'll front of midnight express trains because
the offenders donot like the President of the
company strikes on shipboari the hour they