Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-01-08
AT THE TABERNACLE.
Rev. On. TALMAeE breaches ON THE
BREAD QUESTION.

Ing classes-AlcohoI 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 2, 900
.loaves of bread to the poor who gather
ed shivering in the cold around the bak-
cry and meat store of Brooklyn, where
the food was distributed without tick
cts and no recommendation required
except hunger. The text was, Matthew
XVI. IL, "Ye have the poor always
with you.
Who said that2 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
well. To pay his personal tax, which
was very small, only 81 ID cents, he had
to perform a 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 sympathetically, 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, 600 hungry people
for whom Christ multiplied the loaves
Witness the uncounted millions of peo-
pie now living, who, believe, have
never yet had one full meal of health
ful and nutritious food in all their
lives Think of the 354 great famines
in England. Think of the 25. 900, 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 Presi-
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 map
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 90 years
e. 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
a free trade man-each one red in the
face from excited argument on this sub
ject. Other questions may get quieted,
the Mormon question, the silver ques-
tion, 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-
tiou never. It 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
mp. and then the next party will fix 1t
down. Our finances cannot get well 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 febrifuge, 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
mp your sleevel" and the lancet flashes.
But still recovery is postponed, and
homeopathic doctor is called in, and he
administers some small pellets and
says. IAN the patient wants is rest. "
Recovery still postponed, the family
say that such small pellets cannot
amount to much anyhow, and an allo-
patLic doctor is called in. and he says,
What this patient wants Is calomei
and jalap." Recovery still postponed,
q hydropathic doctor is called in. and
he says: What this patinet wants is