The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-02-26
PLAQUES or THE CITIES.
ABLE SERMON DELIVERED BY DR..
T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

NEW YORK, Feb. GA decided SEN
sation was produced in this city and in
Brooklyn today by DR.. Talmage's an
nouncement of a series Of sermons
which he proposes to preach on 1.-The
Ten Plaques of These Three Cities"
In this sermon, which is the first of the
series, he pays his attention to the prev
alent curse of gambling. He preached
it in the Academy of Music in Brook
Ign in the morning, and again this
evening ct The Christian Herald serv-
ice in this city. His text was taken
from Elk tx, -, 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, saw the mummy or eInbalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the
ancient Israeltes. Visible are the very
teeth that he CRASHED against the Is
raelitish brick makers, the sockets of
the nerciless 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
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 sInote
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, "a
the years go by, become more EN-
phaticaIly true. The average condi
ton of public morals in this cluster O
cities is as good, if not better, than ir
any other part of the world.
Pride of city is natural to men in al
times if they live or have lived in /,
metropolis noted for dignity or prov
ess. Caesar boasted of his native Rome
Lycurgus of Sparta, Virgil of Andes
Demosthenes of Athens, Archimedes o
Syracuse, and Paul of Tarsus. SHOULD
suspect man of base heartedness wh'
carried about with him no feeling O
complacency in regard to the place O
his residence, who gloried not in it
arts or arms or behavior, who looke'
| Will Ilo pun CNldChCS
of prosperity, it's artistic embellisf
ments and it's scientific attachments.
THE PRIDE OF CITY.
l have noticed that men never like
place where they have not behave
; well. Men who have free rides in pri:
, on vans never like the city that ful
nishes the vehicle. When see in hi
tory Argos, Rhodes, Smyrna, Chic:
Colophon and several other cite
claiming Homer, L conclude tia
Homer behaved WELL Let US not wa
against this pride of city, not expect t
build up ourselves by pulling othel
down. Let Boston have its Commons
its Faneuil hall and its magnifceI
scientific and educational institution
Let Philadelphia talk about its mir
and Independence hall and Girard CO
t lege and its old families, as virtuous
n venerable.
When l find man living in one {
0 those places who has nothing to say
. favor of them, feel like asking hin
U ''What mean thing did you do thu
g you do not like your native cityT Ne
York is a goodly city, and, when So
that, 1 mean the region between Spa
!. ten Duyvil creek and Jamaica in OF
direction and Newark flats in IL
other direction. That which tends
elevate part elevates all. That whit
blasts part blasts all. Sin is gian
and he comes to the Hudson or Co
Ie necticut river, and passes it, as east
is as we step across figure in the carpe
The blessing of God Is an angel, al
when it stretches out its two wings OF
of them hovers over that and the 9th
over this.
In infancy the great metropolis W
laid down by the banks of the Hudso
Its infancy was as feeble as that
n. Moses sleeping In the bulrushes by t
~ Nile, and, like Miriam, there our fatht
al stood and watched it. The royal spi
O of American commerce came down
the water to battle, and there S
- found it. She took it in her arms, a.
u. the child grew and waxed strong, a,
the ships of foreign lands brought &c
and spices to it's feet, and stretching
self up into the proportions of n
III trpolis it has looked up to the moul
aims and off upon the seattle migf
- est of the energies of American civil
ton.
/ The character of the founder of
city will be seen for many years in
, inhabitants. Romulus impressed
n life upon Rome. The Pilgrims relax
. not their hold upon the cities of N
England. William Penn has left Pl
b adelphia an inheritance of integrity a
fair dealing, and on any day in Il
Z. city you may see in the manners, c
toms and principles of its people
tastes, his coat, his hat, his wife's b
net and his plain meeting house 7
Hollanders still WELD an influence O
- New York.