The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Opening Discourse of a Series on
the Ten Plaques of New York.
The Pitfalls OF the Great Metropolis
Ever Ready to Catch the Feet of
the Unwary and Lure Them
On to Ruin.

lowing is the initial one, on The Ten
Plaques" that curse the great metrop-
oils. The text was:
Let my people go that they may serve me:
for will at this time send all my plaques
| Exodus tx, ID, II.
Last winter, in the museum at Cairo,
Egypt, saw the mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the
ancient Israelites. 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 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 num-
my were unrolled, old Pharaoh lifted
up his arm as if in imploration, but his
skinny bones can not 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, 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 about the pyramids no
destroying angel swept his wing. But
there are ten plaques still singing and
befouling and cursing our cities, and
/ IL,
| the first born but the last born.
Brooklyn. New York and Jersey City,
| though called three, are practically one.
The one 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
gears go by, become more emphatically
| 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. if they live or have
| lived in metropolis noted for dignity
or prowess. Caesar boosted of his ma
| tive Rome; Lycurgus of Sparta; Virgil
| of Andes; DemOsthenes of Athens;
| Archimedes of Syracuse, and Paul of
| Tarsus. ] should suspect a man of base
| heartedness who carried about with
him no feeling of complacency in re-
| gard to the place of his residence; who
| gloried not in its arts, or arms, or be-
| havior: who looked with no exultation
upon it's evidences of prosperity, its
artistic embellishments, and its scien-
| tific attachments.
| have noticed that 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
| vehicle. When l see in history Argos,
| Rhodes, Smyrna, Chios, Colophon and
several other cities claimin Homer, /
conclude that Homer behaved well. Let
us not war against this pride Of city, nor
expect to build up ourselves by pulling
| others down. Let Boston have it's Com
mons, it's Faneuil hall, and it's IN agnif-
| cent scientific and educational institu-
TONS Let Philadelphia talk about its
mint, and Independence hall, and Gil
rard ollege, and it's old families, as vir-
tuous as venerable. When | find man
living in one of those places who has
nothing to say in favor of them, l 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 l say that | mean the region be-
tween Spuyten Duyvil creek and ia
maica in one direction, and Newark
flats in the other direction. That which
blasts one blasts all. Sin is giant;
and he comes to the Hudson or Con-
necticut river, and passes it as easily as
we step across a 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
ether 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 itself
up into the proportions of metropolis,
it has looked up into the mountains and
off upon the seattle mightiest of the
energies of American civilization. The
character of the founder of city will
be seen for many years in its inhab
itants. Romulus impressed his life upon
Rome The Pilgrims relaxed not Their
hold upon the cities of New England
William Penn has left Philadelphia an
inheritance of integrity and fair deal
ing; and on any day in that city you
may see in the manners, customs ano
principles of its people his tastes, his
coat his hat. his wife's bonnet, and his
plain meeting house. The Hollanders
still WELD an influence over New York
Grand old New York! What Southern
thoroughfare was ever smitten by pestl
lence, when our physicians did moi
throw themselves upon the sacrifice
What distant land has cried out in the
agony of famine, and our ships have
not put out with breadstuffs! VIVA
street of Damascus, or Beyrout, OIL
Medras, that has not heard of our mis-
sionaries! What struggle for nationa
life in which our citizens have no
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 o.
science to which our scholars have no
contributed! / need not speak of oul