Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-10-02
SUNDAYS SERMON,
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE's
STERLING DIsCoURsEs-
subject. "Crooked Things

cred on the banks OF the MIG, winch, ny lus
overflow annually obliterated the landmarks,
and the restoration OF these LANDMARKS naue
mch a science necessary say geometry
ever since then has been busy with INES
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 was always considered admlraDie.
Isaiah recognizes the circle and says, Inc
lord sits upon the circle of the earth" The
altar of the ancient tabernacle was Tour
eauare.n and the breast plate OF the priests
stfour sduare,n and heaven, according 60 81.
John Is flour square," But the Bible has no
admiration for lines that are merely crooked
Indeed my text in prophesying the worlds
complete rectification declares, 1.-THE crooked
Ehal1 be made straight"
There have been so many moral eartn-
.uuakes that many things have got into a ter
Jrible twist-crooked laws, crooked Govern
sments. crooked fortunes crooked dispositions
and many of the efforts to stralghten
things have only made them more crooked
And some good people sit down In despair
& and become pessimistic, and glveup me, anu
+. the church and the world as dead failures.
With such lachrymose behavior l nave no
sympathy. 1t is promise Of the Lord Al
mighty. ''The crooked shall be made
straight" Ipropose. as may be divlnely
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 prohigate while many OF the
hest people are subjected to distressing prl-
yation. and there is going to be redistri-
button of property. IL it were possible u
would be a bad thing to have things divided
. eoually. 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 porn un-
-eaual, In no respect is this more evident
than in their capacity to endure success,
financial or social. have seen men by the
acquisition of $50, 900 made arrogant and
overbearing, and / have known others with
their millions of dollars childlike and unas'
suming and Christian. We would all De
affiuent, but the Lord cannot trust us. 1 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 en-
-nIoy 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 II
braries and built asylums for the orphan, the
crippled and the insane? Capitalists. But
for them there would not be an academy OF
music, or picture gallery, or a free library,
or a steamboat, or a railroad in America.
Who nut the world on seventy-hve years be-
yond what it would have been in enterprise,
In comforts. in educational advantage, in
good things without NUMBER Capitalists
The more money man gets the better, II
Il comes honestly and is employed righteous
". Nevertheless we all see that there needs
to be redistribution of property. Com
munism proposes to make that distribution
by torch and dagger and dynamite. Throw
the midnight express train Off the track and
nut the factory into conhagration. Disrupt
society. burglarize, assassinate. Such PEG
ME believe neither in God nor man nor wo
man, and they know how to make thing
worse but never have made and never car
make anything better.
/ tell YOU how there will come redistri
button of property. Under the divine bless
ing good people will get more alertness an'
acIImen and assiduity. Many good peopl'
are kept In straitened circumstances becaus
they have been INDECENT or lacked courage &
take honest advantage of circumstances, an'
were too stupid to get on. With the yer.
same surroundings others went on TO com
petencv, In the better days to come goot
men will have their faculties Weakened, AM
prosperity. On the other hand, estate
wrongfully accumulated will dissolve. II no
the sons then the grandsons will make tn
money fly, and it will gradually scatter i
their hands and become part of the genera
wealth.
Then, as to vast properties righteousl
Rathered-and there are thousands OF then
such estates will contribute toward help
fng the unfortunate, not more by charitie
than by helping struggling people into lucra
tive business, and the man who has amaSse
enough and a surplus will say, There is
Young merchant without any capital; | wi
start him on Fulton street," and There is
young mechanic who has no means OF hi
own, and l will put him on a career Of pro!
perity;n and "There is farmer with too bi
a mortgage on his land, and l viii help hir
lift the encumbrance.n The fact is that
the kindness and generosity manifested b
moneYed men toward the struggling durin
the last fifty years increases in the same rati
for the next Fifty years there will be cond
tion of society paradisiac. We are going
have a multiplication of William e. Dodg'
and Peter Coopers and James Lenoxes an
George Peabodys. So will come redistribl
ton, and the crooked will be made straigh
Mind this: God never yet undertook fai
ure The old book, which is worth all 9TH
books put together, makes it plain that &c
has undertaken to regulate this world !
gospel influences, and1t he has the power
will do what He says He will and no OF
who amounts to anything will deny II
mower. God has said a hundred times
will" but never once has said Il cannot
Wei may with our tack hammers pound awe
trying to mend and improve and straight,
the financial condition of the world, and
disappointed in the result, because our ar
Is too weak and the hammer we WELD t
small: but the most defiant difficulty W
f1atten and disappear when God with haI
mer made of summer thunderbolts strik
IL saving, "The crooked shall be ma
straight
In your business concerns there are ind
ences perplexing. Your affairs may see
all right to outsiders, for business firms
not advertise their private troubles; b
where one firm has everything just as
wants it there are hundred firms at tn
wits end what to do with that partner W
draws more than his share of the profits,
with that stakeholder who comes in Just oft
enough TO upset things, or with that disi
pearance of funds which you cannot accou
Tor. although you have suspicious you CT
not mention; or with that investment viii
was made contrary TO your judgment
cause there was determination to push
through, or because you are going behi
month BY month, without any prospect
extrication. The trouble is putting a wrin
on your forehead that ought not to app
there for ten years vet, and you will be 10
years old when you ought to be only thir