Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-02-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
CHE BEOOKLYN DIVINEpD SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject. s.The Dangers ofPessimism.s :,

TExr: 'T said in my haste, All men ars
| Sars."-Psalm cxvi., II.
Swindled, betrayed, persecuted David, II
, paroxysm OF petulance and rage, thus in
| suited the human race. David himself falsi
fed when he said, "All men are liars" II,
apologies and says he was unusually pro
voked, and that he was hasty when he hurlel
such universal denuDciation, 81 said in ny
haste" and so on. It was in him only a mo
mentary triumph of pessimism. There Il
| ever and anon, and never more than now, Z
disposition abroad to distruss everybody,
and because some bank employees defraul
some police officers have taken bribes to be
lieve that all policemen take bribee. and be-
| cause divorce cases are in the court to be.
lieve that most, II not all. marriage relations
| are unhappy.
There are men who seem rapidly cominl
10 adopt this creed: All men are liars,
| scoundrels, thieves, libertines. When q new
case OF perfldy CONES to the surface, these
people clap their hands in glee. It gives
piquancy to their breakfast IL the morning
| newspaper discioses a new exposure or q
| new arrest. They grow fat on varmin.
| They join the devils In hell In jubiation over
recreancy and pollution. II some one
arrested is proved innocent, It Is to them a
disappointment. They would rather believe
evil than good. They are vu'tures. pre-
ferrng carrion. They wou like to be on
n committee to find SON thing wrong. They
| wish that as eyeG. is s.s have been invented
to improve the sight, and ear trumpets have
been invented to help the hearing, q CORE.
| spending instrument might be invented Tor
the nose, TO bring nearer a malodor
Pessim,sm says of the church, "The ma
| iority OF the members are hypocrites,
| although II is no temporal advantage 10 be a
member OF the church, and therefore there
Is no temptation to Hypocrisy" Pessimisn
says that the influence of newspapers is only
bad, and that they are corrupting the world,
| when the fact is that they are the mightiest
agency for the arrest Of crime and the spread
OF intelligence, and the printing press, secu-
lar and religious. Is setting the nations free.
The whole tendency of things is toward
| cynicism. and the gospel OF smashup. We
| rxcuss David OF the text for . paroxysm of
disgust. because ho apologies for 1t to all the
centuries, but it is "a deplorable fact that
many have taken the attitude OF perpetual
distrust and anathematization. There ar,
We must a NIT, depiorabe facts, and We
would not hide or mlnify them. We are
| not much encouraged to find that the great
| work of official reform In New York City be-
| gins by proposition to the liquor dealers
to break the law by keeping their saloons
| open on Sunday from two In the afternoon
| 20 eleven at night.
| Never since America was discovered ha,
there been n worse insult TO sobriety and de.
cency and religion than that proposition.
/
law and o-der and religion have a chance on
Sunday forenoons, but Sunday afternoons
| open all the gates to gin and alcohol anc
| Sciie.lan schnnpps and sour mash and Jer.
sey lightning, and the variegated swill o.
| brewcres and drunkenness and crime. Con.
secrate the first half OF the Sunday to God
and the last talf to the devil. Let the chill
| dren on their way to Sunday-schools in New
| York at O'Clock in the afternoon meet the
alcoholism that does more than all Other
| causes combined to rob children of thsi
| fathers and mothers and strew the land with
helpless orphanage. Surely strong drinh
! can kill enough people and destroy enough
| families and sufficiently crowd the aims.
houses and penitentiaries in six days OF the
week without giving II an extra half day foJ
| paupersm ana assassination,
Although we are not very jubliant over a
| municipal reform that opens the exercises
| by a doxologJ to rum, ws have full faith in
God and in the gospel which will yet sink
all iniquity as the Atlantic Ocean melts q
| flake OF snow. What We want, and what ]
| believe we will have, is great religious
| awakening that will moralizs and Christian.
| ize our great populations and maze them
| superior to temptations, whether unlawful
| or legaized. So see no cause for dis
heartenment. Pessimism is a sin, and those
who yield TO 1t cripple themselves for the
war, on one side of which are all the forces
\ OF darkness, led on by Apollyon, and on the
other side OF which are all the forces
OF light, led on by the Omnipotent. I
risk the statement that the vast majority OF
people are doing the best they can. Nne
hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand
of the officials of the municipal and the
United States governments are honest.
Out of a thousand bank presidents and
cashiers, nine hundred and ninety-nine are
worthy the position they occupy. Out of
thousand merchants, mechanics and profess
sional men. nine hundred and ninety-nine
are doing their duty as they understand 1t.
Out OF one thousand engineers and conduc-
tors and switchmen, nine hundred and nine-
ty-nine are true to their responsible posi-
tions. 1t is seldom that people arrive Mt
positions OF responsibility until they have
been tested over and over again. IT the
theory Of the pessimist were accurate. So
ciety would long ago have gone to pieces.
and civilization would have been submerged
with barbarism, and the wheel of the CEN
turies would have turne back TO the dark
ages. wrong impression is made that be-
cause two men falsify their bank accounts
those two wrongdoers are b!aZoned before
the world, while nothing is said in praise OF
the hundreds OF bank clerks who have stood
at their desks year in and year out until
their health Is we'll nigh gone, taking not Q
pins worth OF that which belongs to others
Tor themselves, though with skilful stroke OF
pen they might have enriched themselves
and built their country seats on the banks OF
the Hudson or the Rhine.
It Is a mean thing in human nature thai
men and women are not praised for doing
we'll, but only excoriated when they do
wrong. By divine arrangement the most oi
the families OF the earth are at peace, and
the most Of those united in marriage have
for each o:her affinity and affection. They
may have occasional differences, and here
and there a season OF pout, but the vast ma.
jority Of those in the conjugal relation chose
are happy in that relation. You hear nothing
Of the quietude and happiness OF such
homes, though nothing but death will them
part. But one sound OF marital discord
makes the ears Of a continent, and perhaps
Of q hemisphere, alert.
The one letter that ought never to have
been written printed In q newspaper makes
more talk than the millions of letters thAt
crowd the postoffices and weigh down the
mail carriers.wlth expressions OF honest,love.
when he prints a book for the depreciation
Of marriage. II your observation has put
you in an attitude OF deploration for the
marriage state, one OF two things is true in
regard to you. You have either been un-
fortunate In your acquaintanceship, or you
yourself are morally rotten. The world, not
40 rapid az We would like, but still with
long strides. is on the way to the scenes Of
beatitude and felicity which the Bible de.
ptcts. The man who cannot see this
10 wrong, either in his heart or liver or
spleen. Look at the great Bible picture
gallery. where Isaiah has set up the pictures
Of arborescence, girdlIng the world with
cedar and FIR and pine and lockwood and the
lion led by child, and st. Johns pictures
Of waters and trees, and white horse cavalry,
and tears wiped away, and trumpets blown
and harps struck, and nations redeemed.
While there are 10000 things 1 do not
like, have not seen any discoura2em n.
for the cause OF God for twenty-five years.
Tho kingdom Is coming. The earth Il pre-
pairing to put on bridal array. We need to
be getting our anthems and grand marches
ready. In our hymnology we shall have
more use for "Antioch" than for "Wind.
ham" )" for "Ariel," than for ''Naomi." La
sHark, From the Tombs Do.e:ul CryT h
submerged with "Joy to the World, tht
Lord is Gomez Really, IL l thought the
human race were as determined to be bad
and getting worse, as the pessimists repre-
sent. I would think it wis hardly wortl
savino II after hundreds OF years of go0