The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-03-04
PLAQUES OF THREE CITIES.
DR.. TALMAeE OPENS A NEW BATTERY.
Gambling-rhe Swell Establishment and
the Policy Shop-Ruined Fortunes and
Ruined Homes-How the World
is Robbed Annually


DR.. Talmage's announcement of a series
of sermons which he proposed to preach
on "The Ten Plaques of These Three
Cities" In this sermon, which is the
first of the series, he pays his attention to
the prevalent curse of gambling He
preached it in the Academy OF Music in
Brooklyn in the morning, and again this
evening at the Christian Herald service
in this city. His text was taken from Ex-
odus TX, Is, IA: "Let my people go that
they NAV serve me; for l will at this time
send all my plaques"
Last winter, in the museum at Cairo,
Egypt, / saw tho mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the an
Gent Isrealtes. Visible are the very teeth
that he CRASHED against the Israelitish
brickmakers, the sockets OF the merciless
eyes with which he looked upon the
overburdened people of God, the hair that
floated in the breeze off the Red sea, the
very lips with which ne commanded
them to make bricks without straw.
Thousands of years alter, when the wrap
pings of the mummy were unrOlled, old
Pharaoh lifted up his arm as il IN implo-
ration, but his skinny bones can not
again clutch his shattered scepter. 1t was
TO compel that tyrant to let the oppressed
60 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 and 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 about
the pyramids no destroying angel swept
his wing But there are ten plaques still
singing and hefouling and cursing our
cities, and, like angels of wrath, shifting
not only the first born but the last born.
Brook YIN, New York and Jersey City,
though called three, are practically one.
The bridge already fastening two of them
together will be followed 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-
phatIcaliy true. The average condition 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, II they live or have
lived in a metropolis noted for dignity or
proves. Cesar boosted OF his native
Andes; Demos henes of Athens; Archi-
medes OF Syracuse. and Paul of Tarsus. /
should suspect man of observation-disclosures
who carries about with him no feeling of
complacency in regard TO the place of his
residence; who gioried not in its arts or
arms, or behavior; who looked with no
exUitaiion upon Its evidences of prosper
ity, its artistic embellishments, and It's
scientific attainnents.
| have noticed thai men never like a
place where they have not behaved we'll.
Men who have free rides in prison vans
never like the city that furnishes the We
hicle. When / see in history Argos,
Rhodes, Smyrna, ChiOs, ColOphon aLd
several other cities claiming Homer, con-
clude that Homer behaved we'll. Let US
not war against this pride OF city, nor ex-
pect to build up ourselves by pulling 9TH
ers down. Let Boston have its Commons,
its Faneuil hall and its magnificent scien-
tic and educational institutions. Let
Philadel phia talk about its mint and In
dependence hall, and Girard college and
Its old families. as virtuOus as venerable.
When / find man living in one OF thO-e
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, ami when / say that
! mean the region between Spuyten
direction, and Newark fars in the
other direction. That which tends to
elevate part eievates all. Sin is a giant;
and ne comes to the Hudson or Connecti-
cut river. and he passes it as easily as we
etep across a figure In the carpet. The
blessing OF God is an angel; and when it
stretches out its two wings, one OF them
h0vers 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, ike 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
it's feet; and stretching itself up into the
proportions OF a metropolis, it has looked
up into the mountains and off upon the
eea-the mightiest of the energies OF
American civilization. The character of
the founder OF a city will be seen for
many wears in it's inhabitants. Romulus
impressed his life upon Rome. The Pill
grims relaxed not their hold upon the
cites OF New Eng ana. william rem mas
left Philadelphia an inheritance of in
tegrity and fair dealing; and on any day
in that city YOU may see in the manners,
customs and principles of its people, his
tastes, his coat, his hat, his wifes bonnet,
and bis plain meeting house. The Hol.
landers still WELD an influence over New
York
Grand old New York! What southern
thOrOughfare was ever smitten by pesti-
lence, when our physicians did not throw
themselves upon the sacrificed What
distant land has cried out in the agony of
famine, and our ships have not put out
with brradstuffsl What street OF Damas-
Gus, or Beyrout, or Madras, that has not
heard the step of our missionaries What
struggle for national lille in which our citi-
zens have not poured their blood into the
trenches. What galley of exquisite art in
which our painters have not hung their
pictures What department of literature
or science to which our scholars have not
contributed i need not speak of our pub
lie schools, where the children of the
cordwainer and milkman and glass-blower
stand by the side of the hattered sons
OF merchant princes; or of the
insane asylums on all these islands,
where they who went cutting them
selves among the tombs now sit
clothed in their right minds; or OF the