The Penn's Grove record., 1895-02-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
rHE BROOKLYN DrvINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject. ..rhe Dangers of Pessimi.m

suited the human race. David himself faist
fed when he said, "All men are liars" HI
apologies and says he was unusually pro
and that he was hasty when he hurried
such universal d%enunciation, 81 said in ny
haste - and go on. 1t was In him only q mo
mentary triumph OF pessimi.m. There d
ever and anon, and never more thar now
disposition abroad to distrust everybody
and because some bank employees defraut
to distrust all hank employees, and benaust
some police officers have taken bribes to be
iieve that all policemen take brides, and be.
cause divorce cases are in the court to be-
iieve that most, II not all. marriage relations
are unhappy.
10 adopt this creed, All men are tars,
s~coundrels, thieves, llbertines. When new
case Of perhdy comes 10 the surface, these
people clap their hands In g1ee. 1t gives
piuuancy to their breakfast II the morning
Newspaper discloses q new exposure or o
new arrest. They grow fat on vermin.
They Join the devils In hell In jubIlation g
recreancy and pollution. II some one
disappointment. They would rather believe
evil than good. They are v%ultures, pre-
ferrlng carbon. They would ike TO be on
n committee to find something wrong. They
wish that as eyeglasses have been invented
to improve the sight, and ear trumpets have
been Invented to help the hearing, q corre-
spending instrument might be invented fof
the nose, to bring nearer a Talodor.
Pessimism says of the church, "The ma
iority Of the members are ~hypocrites,
although 1t is no temporal advantage to be q
member OF the church, and therefore there
is no temptation to Hypocrisy" Pesslmism
says that the influence of newspapers IL only
bad, and that they are corruptfng the world,
when the fact is that they are the mighties,
agency for the arrest OF crime and the spread
Of Intelligence, and the printing press, seeu'
lar and religious, is setting the nations Tree
The whole tendency Of things 10 towart
cynicism, and the gospel of Smashup. W.
excuse David OF the text for a paroxysm Q
disgust, because he apologizes for IT to all tn
centuries, but 1t Is a deplorable TACT tina
many have taken the attitude Of perpetua
distrust and standardization. There ara
we must admit, deplorable facts, and W
would not hide or minify them. We ar
not much encouraged to find that the grea
work Of official reform In New York Chy oe
gins by d proposition to the liquor dealer
10 break the law by keeping their saloon
omen on Sunday from two In the afternoon
tfssievsa&l night.
Never since America was discovered ha
been a worse insult to sobriety and de
zcency and religion than that proposition
That proposition Ia equal to saying! lie
law and orderand religion have a chance o.
funday ~forenoons, but Sunday afternoon
bpen all the gates to gin and alcohol an
3chiedam schnapps and sour mash and Jei
ey lightning, and the v~ariegated swill {
leweries and drunkenness and crime. Cor
sOscratsthe first half OF the Sunday to Go
/ and the last half to the devil. Let the chi
| dren on their way to Sunday-schools in Me-
York at 8 o'clock In the afternoon meet u
alcoholism that does more than all othe
causes combined to rob children OF the
fathers and mothers and strewthe land wit
| hvipiess -orphanage. Surely etrong drin
can Kill enough people and destroy enoug
| families and sufficiently crowd the aim
houses and penitentiarles In six days OF n
week without giving It an extra half day II
pauperism and assassination.
Although we are not very jubfant over
municipal reform that opens the exercis,
by a doxologJ to rum, we have full faith
God and In the gospel which Will yet SIN
all iniquity as the Atlantic Ocean melts
fake OF snow. What we want, and what
believe we will have, Is q great religion
awakening that will moralize and Christian
Ire our great populations and maze the
superior to temptations, whether unlawf
or legaiized. 80 I see no cause for di
h~eartenment. Pessimism is a sin, and tho
who Yield to 1t cripple themselves for Il
war, on one side Of which are all the fore
Il OF QHTKQeB9. lou uu W hHuA1Ony ~ ph -
other side OF which are all the ioro
Of Eight, led on by the Omnipotent.
FISK the statement that the vast majority
people are doing the best they can. Mi
hundred and ninety-nine ont of q thousal
Of the o~ficials OF the municipal and Il
United States governments are honest.
Out Of a thousand bank presidents al
cashiers, nine hundred and ~ninety-nine Q
worthy the position they occupy. Out Of
VI -zhn~fn unanhapI0o and prnfe
sional men, nine hundred aAd ninety-ni
are doing their duty a. they understand
Out Of one thousand engineers and condu
tors and switchmen, nine hundred and min
ty-nine are-true to their responsible POI
~ AbuaI II Is seldom that people arrive
bsitions OF responsibility until they ha
ten tested over and over again. III .
jory Of the pessimist were accurate, .
efsty would long ago have gone to piect
with barbarism, and the wheel Of the %
turtles would have turned back TO the do
ages. A wrong impression 10 made that
/, cause two men falsify their bank accour
q. those two wrongdoers are blazoned befo
the world, while nothing Is said In praise
the hundreds OF bank clerks who have sto
, al their desks year in and year out IN
their heath Is we'll nigh gone, taking moi
pins worth OF that which belongs to oth'
for themselves, though with skilful stroke
pen they might have enriched themscl'
and built their country seats on the banks
VI the Hudson erthe Rhine. Z,
!. It Is a mean thing In human nature Il
. men and women are not praised foy dol
well, but only excoriated when they
wrong. By divine arrangement the most
= the families of the earth are at peace, a
the most OF those united In marriage ~
for each o.her affinity and affection. II
may have occasional differences, and b
y and there a season of pout, but the vast 4
iority OF those In the conjugal relation CHI
/. the NEST appropriate companionship,
q are happyin that relation. You hear moth
70 Of the auietude and happiness OF 81
/ homes, though nothing but death will tn
!, part. But one sound Of marital DISC
makes the ears OF a continent, n perm
9 OF a hemisphere, alert.
The one letter that ought never to nj
been written printed In q newspaper ma
= more talk than the millions OF letters I
n orowd the postoftces and weigh down
mail carrierstwith expressions oil honestllo
Tolstoi. the great Russian author, Ia WIZ
u when he prints a book for the deprectat
Il Of marriage. II your observation has
Y you in an attitude OF deportation Tor
I marriage state, one Of two things 70 tru'
I. regArdto you. You have either been
y fortunate In your acquaintanceship, or
d yourseltare morally rotten. The world,
"a a. rapid as We would like, but still v
long strides. Is on the way to the scenes
beafitude and felicity which the Bible
n picts. The man who cannot see
: 4 wrong, either In his heart or live
spleen. Look at the great Bible pict
gallery, where Isaiah has set up the picti
1, 81 arborescence, girdhng the world Y
n cedar and Ar and pine and lockwood and
lion led by q child, and st. Johns picts
Of waters and trees, and white horse cava
and tears wiped away, and trpmpeis BIZ
and harps struck, and nations redeen
while there are 1000 things ! DO
Ike. I have not seen any discoqrageu
for the cause OF dod for twenty-five ye
The Kingdom Is coming. The earth 10
pairing 10 put on bridal array. We neet
e getting our anthems and grand marc
3 ready. In our hymnology. we snail !
more use for ssAntioch" than for wv
Aam.~ for aAriel,r than for s.Naomt".
EHark, From the Tombs 4 poieiul Cry.
knbmerged with sJoy to the World.
f,ord i Gomez Really, II thought
human race were a. determined 20 .
nnd getting worse, az the pessimlsts r
sent. I would think II was hardly Y
saving. II after hundreds OF years OF
peiirafion no improvement has been 2
lei Us give Il up and 80 q something
bsaides praying and preacning:
M oplnion Is that II We had enough
ouick results ard conid go forth Il!
MgslDped with the gospel call the bait
IA tFEr-@ o -eufS axl Affk