Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-01-25
THE POOR WITH Us.
A Timely Sermon by Rev. T. De.
Witt Talmage, D. D.
The Perpetual Overhauling OF the TariD
Question is One Re'son why We Have
the Poor Always with Us The
saloon Another Import.
ant Factor.


ing sermon appropriate to the present
industrial depression, from tae text.
Matthew XVI, IL: ''Ye have the poor
always with YOU" He said:
Who said that? The Christ who never
owned anything during His earthly
stay. His cradle and His grave were
borrowed. Every fig He ate was from
some one else tree. Every drop of
water He drank was from some one
else's well. To pay His personal tax
which was very small. only thirty-one
and quarter cents, He had to pc form
miracle and make fish pay it,
All the heights and depthsa and lengths
and breadths of poverty Christ meas
ured in His earthly experience and
when He comes TO speak Of restitution
He always speaks sympathetieally and
what lie said then is as true now: "Ye
have the poor always with yonn
For six thousand years the bread
question has been the active and alb
.orbing question Witness the people
crowding mp TO Jossph's storehouse in
Egypt Witness the famine ia samaria
and Jerusalem. Witness the seven
thousand hungry people for waom
Christ multiplied the loaves. Witness
the uncounted millions of people now
living who. | believe, have never vet
had one full meal of healthful and nu-
tritious food in all their lives. Think
of the 35I great famines in India.
Think of the twenty-five million peo-
pie under the hoof of hunger year be-
fore last in Russia. The failure of the
Nile to overflow for seven years in the
eleventh century left those regions de-
populated Plague of insects in En-
gland. Plague of rats in Madras
presidency. Plague of mice in Es-
sex Plague of locusts in China.
Plague of grasshoppers in America.
Devastation wrought by drought, by
deluge, by frost, by war. by hurricane,
by earthquake, by comets flying too
near the earth. by change in the man
agement of national finances. by bale
full causes innumerable. | proceed to
give you three or four reasons why my
next text is markedly and graphically
true in this year 1894.
The first reason we have always the
poor with us, is because of the perpe.
ual overhauling of the tariff question,
or. as shall call it, the tariff eontro-
versy. There is need for such word
and so | take the responsibility of
manufacturing it, There are millions
of people who are expecting that the
present congress of the United States
will do something one way or the other
to end this discussion. But it will new
\ 81
remember 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 90 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 high tariff man, an
other a low tariff man, and the other a
free trade man-each one red in the
face from excited argument on this
subject. Other questions may get
quieted the Mormon question, the sill
yer question, the pension question. the
civil service question. All questions !
Of annexation may come to peaceful
settlement by the annexation of islands |
two weeks voyage away, and the heat |
of their volcanoes 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 |
tariff question 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 in
topower taking one of the four years
to fix it up, and then the next party |
will fix it down. Our finances cannot
get well because of too many
doctors. 1t is with sick nations
as with sick individuals. Here is
a man terribly disordered as to his
body. A doctor is called in, and he adj
ministers a febrifuge, a spoonful every
hour But recovery is postponed, and
the anxious friends call in another
doctor. and he says: "What this per-
son needs is blood-letting; now roll up
your sleevel and the lancet flashes.
But still recovery is postponed, and
homeopathic doctor is called in, and he
administers some small pellets, and
sa $. "All the patient wants is rest"
Recovery still postponed, the family say
that such small pellets cannot amount
to much anyhow, and an allopathie
doctor is called in, and he says: What
tbs patient wants is calomel and
jalaa Recovery still postponed, a
h ropathic doctor is called in, and he
So s. What this patient wants is hot
and cold baths, and he must have them
rigal away. Turn on the faucet and
get ready the shower baths" Reeov-
err still postponed an eclectic doctor IS
called in an he brings all the schools
TO bear upon the poor sufferer, and the
pa emit after brave struggle for life,
n I