News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-02-26
PLAQUES OF THE CITIES
ABLE SERMON DELIVERED BY DR..
7. De WITT TALMAGE.

NEW YORK, Feb. pa decided SEN
sation was produced in this city and in
Brooklyn today by DR.. Talnages an
nouncement of a series of sermons
which he proposes to preach on 1.-The
Ten Plaques of These Three Cities. J"
In this sermon, which is the first of the
series, he pays his attention to the prev
aIent curse of gambling. He preached
it in the Academy of Music in Brook
Ign in the morning, and again this
evening at The Christian Herald serv-
ice in this city His text was taken
from Elk. tx, IS, IA Let my people go
that they may serve me; for | will at
this time send all my plaques.
Last winter, in the museum at Cairo,
Egypt, l saw the mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the
ancient Israelites Visible are the very
teeth that he CRASHED against the Is
raelitish brick makers, the sockets of
the merciless eyes with which he looked
upon the overburdened people of God,
the hair that foated in the breeze off
the Red sea, the very lips with which
he commanded them to make bricks
without straw. Thousands of years
after. when the wrappings of the mum
my were unrolled, old Pharaoh lifted
up his arm as if in imploration, but his
skinny bones cannot again clutch his
shattered scepter. 1t was to compel
that tyrant to let the oppressed go free
that the memorable ten plaques were
sent
Sailing the Nile and walking amid
the ruins of Egyptian cities, l saw no
remains of those plaques that smote
the water or the air. None of the
frogs croaked in the one, none of the
locusts sounded their rattle in the other,
and the cattle bore no sign of the
murrain, and through the starry nights
lowering through the pyramids no de-
stroying angel swept his wing, but there
are ten plaques still singing and befoul-
ing and cursing our cities, and like
angels of wrath shifting not only the
first born but the last born.
Brooklyn, New York and Jersey
City, though called three, are practi-
cally one The bridge already fasten-
ing two of them together will be fol
lowed by other bridges and by tunnels
from both New Jersey and Long Island
shores. until what is true now will, as
the years go by, become more EN-
phatically true The average condi-
ton of public morals in this cluster of
cities is as good, if not better, than in
any other part of the world.
Pride of city is natural to men in all
times if they live or have lived in a
metropolis noted for dignity or PROV
ess. Caesar boasted of his native Rome,
Lycurgus of Sparta, Virgil of Andes,
Demosthenes of Athens, Archimedes of
Syracuse, and Paul of Tarsus. / should
suspect o man of base heartedness who
carried about with him no feeling of
complacency in regard to the place of
his residence, who gloried not in its
arts or arms or behavior who looked
with no exultation upon its evidences
of prosperity, its artistic embellish-
ments and its scientific attachments.
THE PRIDE OF CITY.
j have noticed that men never like a
place where they have not behaved
we'll Men who have free rides in pris-
on vans never like the city that fur
nishes the vehicle. When / see in his
tory Argos, Rhodes, Smyrna, Chios,
Colophon and several other cities
claiming Homer, l conclude that
Homer behaved we'll Let us not war
against this pride of city, not expect to
build up ourselves by pulling others
down. Let Boston have its Commons,
its Faneuil hall and its magnificent
scientific and educational institutions.
Let Philadelphia talk about its mint
and Independence hall and Girard col
lege and its old families, as virtuous as
venerable.
When | find man living in one of
those places who has nothing to say in
favor of them, feel like asking him,
''What mean thing did you do that
you do not like your native city?" New
York is a goodly city, and, when say
that, l mean the region between Spuy-
ten Duyvil creek and Jamaica in one
direction and Newark flats in the
other direction. That which tends to
elevate part elevates all. That which
blasts part blasts all. Sin is giant,
and he comes to the Hudson or Con-
necticut river, and passes it, as easily
as we step across figure in the carpet. !
The blessing of God is an angel, and |
when it stretches out its two wings one
of them hovers over that and the other |
over this
In infancy the great metropolis was
laid down by the banks of the Hudson |
Its infancy was as feeble as that of |
Moses sleeping in the bulrushes by the |
Nile, and like Miriam. there our fathers
stood and watched it. The royal spirit |
of American commerce came down to |
the water to battle, and there she |
found it. She took it in her arms, and |
the child grew and waxed strong, and |
the ships of foreign lands brought gold |
and spices to its feet, and stretching it |
self up into the proportions of a me-
trpolis it has looked up to the mount |
aims and off upon the seattle might |
est of the energies of American civiliza- |
ton
The character of the founder of a |
city will be seen for many years in its |
Inhabitants. Romulus impressed his |
life upon Rome The Pilgrims relaxed |
not their hold upon the cities of New
England. William Penn has left Phil
adelphia an Inheritance of integrity and
fair dealing, and on any day in that
city you may see in the manners, Gus
toms and principles of its people his
tastes, his coat, his hat, his wifes bon
net and his plain meeting house. The
Hollanders still WELD an influence over
New York.
NEW YORK A GRAND CITY.
Grand old New York What south
ern thoroughfare was ever smitten by
pestilence when our physicians did not
throw themselves upon the sacrifice!
What distant land has cried out in the
agony of famine and our ships have not
PIT out with breadstuffsl What street
Of Damascus or Beyrout or Madras
that has not heard the step of our mis-
sionaries! What struggle for national
life in which our citizens have not |
poured their blood into the trenches
What gallery of exquisite art in which
our painters have not hung their pict-
ures! What department of literature
not contributed
need not speak of our public |
schools, where the children of the cord
wainer and milkman and glassblower
stand by the side of the fattered sons |