The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-01-12
AT THE TABERNACLE.
REV. Or. TALMAeE breaches ON THE
BREAD QUESTION.

-"
Ever Present Distress Among the Work
ing Classes-Alcohol and Improvidence
Are Potent Factors.
BROOKLYN, Jan. Tt seemed appro-
pirate that DR.. Talmage should preach
this sermon after his personal contribu-
tion of 5000 pounds of meat and 1000
loaves of bread to the poor who gather
I'd shivering in the cold around the bak-
cry and meat store of Brooklyn, where
the food was distributed without tick
ITS, and no recommendation required
except hunger. The text was, Matthew
XVI. II, "Ye have the poor alw,tys
with YOU"
Who said thatp The Christ who
never owned anything during his earth
ly stay. His cradle and his grave were
borrowed. Every fig he ate was from
some one else's tree. Every drop of
water he drank was from some one else S
we'll. To pay his personal tax, which
was very small, only 81 d cents, he had
to perform miracle and make fish
pay it. All the heights and depths and
lengths and breadths of poverty Christ
measured in his earthly experience, and
when he comes to speak of destitution
he always speaks alphabetically, and
what he said then is as true now-"Ye
have the poor always with YOU"
For 5000 years the bread question
has been the active and absorbing ques-
ton. Witness the people crowding up
to Joseph's storehouse in Egypt. Wit
ness the famine in Samaria and Jeru-
salem. Witness the Z, 900 hungry people
for whom Christ multiplied the loaves
Witness the uncounted millions of peo-
pie now living, who, l believe, have
never yet had one full meal of health
full and nutritious food in all their
lives. Think of the 354 great famines
in England. Think of the 25, 600, 600
people under the hoof Of hunger year
before last in Russia. The failure of
the Nile to overflow for seven years in
the eleventh century left those regions
depopulated. Plague of insects in Eng
land. Plague Of rats in Madras P1esi-
dency. Plague of mice in Essex. Plague
Of locusts in China. Plague of grass
hoppers in America. Devastation
wrought by drought, by deluge, by
frost, by war, by hurricane, by earth
quake, by comets flying too near the
earth, by change in the management of
national finances, by baleful causes in
Vulnerable. proceed to give you three
or four reasons why my text is marked
ly and graphically true in this year
1894.
THE TARIFF BUGBEAR.
The first reason we have always the
poor with us is because of the perpet-
ual overhauling of the tariff question,
or, as shall call it, the tarific contro-
versy. There is need for such word,
and so | take the responsibility of man
ufacturing it. There are millions of
people who are expecting that the pres
ent congress of the United States will
do something one way or the other to
end this discussion. But it will never
end. When was years of age, re-
member hearing my father and his
neighbors in vehement discussion of
this very question. 1t was high tariff
or low tariff or no tariff at all. When
your great-grandchild dies at 80 years
of age, It will probably be from over
exertion in discussing the tariff. On
the day the world is destroyed, there
will be three men standing on the post
office steps-one a high tariff man,
another low tariff man, and the other
free trade man-each one red in the
face from excited argument on this sub
ject. Other questions may get quoted,
the Mormon question, the silver ques-
ton, the pension question, the civil serv-
ice question. All questions of annex
alton may come to peaceful settlement
by the annexation Of islands two weeks
voyage away and the heat of their vol
canoes conveyed through pipes under
the sea made useful in warming our
continent, or annexation of the moon,
dethroning the queen of night, who is
said to be dissolute, and bringing the
lunar populations under the influence
OF our free institutions; yea, all other
questions, national and international,
may be settled, but this tariffic ques-
fion never. 1t will not only never be
settled, but it can never be moderately
quiet for more than three years at
time, each party getting into power
taking one Of the four years to fix 1t
up, and then the next party will fix it
down. Our finances cannot get we'll be-
cause OF too many doctors. 1t is with
sick nations as with sick individuals
Here is man terribly disordered as to
his body. A doctor is called in, and he
administers a febrifuge, a spoonful ev-
cry hour. But recovery is postponed,
and the anxious friends call in another
doctor, and he says: "What this pa
tient needs is blood letting; now roll
up your sleeve!' and the lancet flashes.
But still recovery is postponed, and a
homeopathic doctor is called in, and he
administers some small pellets and
says, All the patient wants is rest''
Recovery still postponed, the family
say that such small pellets cannot
amount to much anyhow, and an allo-
pathic doctor is called in, and he says,
What this patient wants is calomel
and jalap." Recovery still postponed,
hydropathic doctor is called in, and
he says: What this patinet wants is
hot and cold baths, and he must have
them right away. Turn on the faucet
and get ready the shower baths" Re-
covery still postponed, an eclectic doc
tor is called in, and he brings all the
schools to bear upon the poor sufferer,
and the patient, after brave struggle
FOR life, expires. What killed him?
Too many doctors. And that is what is
killing our national finances. My per-
sonal friends, Cleveland and Harrison
and Carlisle and Mckinley and Sher-
man, as talented and lovely and SPLEEN
did men as walk the earth, all good
doctors, but their treatment of our Ian
gushing finances is SO different that
neither treatment has full opportu.
nifty, and under the constant changes II
is simply wonderful that the nation still
lives. The tariff question will never be
settled because of the fact-which /
have never heard any one recognize
but nevertheless the fact-that high
tariff is best for some people and free