The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-02-08
DANGERS OF PEssIMISM.
Rev. DR.. Talmaga Eloquently Sets
Them Forth.
The Prevailing Disposition 20 Distrust
Everybody Denounced as an Unmiti-
gated EViI-A More Cheerful
View OF Things Preferable.

The following discourse was deliv
cred by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in the
New Y IrlS Academy OF music on the
subject The Dangers OF Pessimism.
1t was based on the text:
said IN my haste, all men are llars.-Psaiu
ezVi-, II.
Swindled, betrayed. prosecuted Da
vid. in a paroxySm of petnlance and
rage, thus insulted the human race
David himself falsiied when he said
'All men are liars He apologies
! and says be was unusually provoked
and that he was hosty when he hurled
such universal denunciation. Il said
in my haste. and so on. 1t was in him
only mOmentary triumph of pcssim.
ism. There is ever and anon, and never
more than now, a disposition abroad 70
distrust everybody, and because some
bank employees defraud to distrust all
bank employees; and because some po-
lice officers have taken brides; to be-
lieve that all policemen take brides;
and because divorce cases are in court,
TO believe that most, If not all, mar
riage relations are unhappy. There are
men who seem rapidly coming 10 adopt
this creed: All men are liars, scoun-
drels, thieves, libertines. When a new
case of perfidy comes to the surface,
these people clap their hands in glee.
1t gives piquancy 20 their breakfast II
the morning ne wspaper discloses n new
exposure or new arrest. They grow
fat on vermin. They Join the devils
in hell in jubilstion over recreancy and
pollution. IL some one arrested is
proved innocent, il is TO them q disa o.
pointment They would rather be-
lieve evil than good. They are vultures,
preferring carrlOn. They would like
20 be on a committee to find some
thing wrong. They wish that as eve
glasses have been invented to improve
the sight, and ear trumpets have been
invented 10 help the hearing, a CORE
spending instrument might be invent.
ed for the nose, to bring nearer a
malodOr.
Pessilnism says of the church: The
majority of the members are hypo-
critics, although it is no temporal ad-
vantage 10 be a member Of the church.
and therefore there Is no temptation
to hypocrisy PeSsimism says that
the influence of newspaper is 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, secular and
religious, Is setting the nations free.
ward cynicism, and the gospel OF
Smash-up. We excuse David of the
text for a paroNysm OF disgust, be-
causes lie apologies for II to all the
centuries, but IL is a deplorable fact
| that many have taken the attitude
OF perpetual disgust and anathema-
tiZatiOn. There are, we must admit,
| deplorable facts. and we would not
| hide or minify them. We are net
much encouraged to find that the
great work of reform in New York
| city begins by a proposition 20 the
| liquor dealers to break the law by
keeping their saloons open on Sunday
from two in the afternoon 10 eleven 1T
night Never since America was dis
covered has there been a worse insult
to sobriety and decency and religion
than that proposition. That PROPOSE
ton is equal 20 saying: Let law and
order and religion have a chance On
sunday forenooBs, but Sunday after
noon open all the gates TO
gin and alcohol and Schiedam
schnapps and sour mash and
Jersey lightning and the variegat-
cd swill of breweries, and drunken
ness and crime. Consecrate the first
half of the Sunday to God, and the last
half to the devil. Let the children on
their way to Sunday-schools meet the
alcoholism that does more than all
other causes combined to rob children
of their fathers and mothers, and
strew the land with helpless orphan
age. Surely, strong drink can destroy
enough families, and sufficiently crowd
the aims houses and penitentiaries IN
six days of the week, without giving il
an extra half day for pauperism and
assassination.
Although we are not jubilant over a
municipal reform that opens the exer-
cises by doxolOgy 10 rum we have
full faith in God and in the Gospel
which will vet sink all iniquity as the
Atlantic ocean meltS a fake of snow.
What we want, and what i believe we
will have, is a great religious awaken
ing that will moralize and Christian
iZe our great populations and make
them superior 10 temptations, whether
unlawful or legalized. So i see no
cause for disheartenment. Pessimism
is sin, and those who yield to it Grip
pie 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. ! risk
the statement that the vast majority
of people are doing the best they can.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a
Thousand of the officials OF the munich
pal and United States governments
arc honest. Out of a thousand bank
presidents and cashiers, nine hundred
and ninety-nine are worthy the posi-
tion they occupy. Out of thousand
merchants, mechanics and profess
sional men, Eine hundred and ninety
nine are doing their duty as they I'M
derstand it. Out of a thousand en-
gineers and conductors and switch
men, nine hundred and ninety-nine
are true TO their responsible positions.
II Is seldom that people arrive at po-
sitions of responsibility until they
have been tested over and over
again. If the theory of the pessimist
were accurate, society would long
ago have gone to pieces, and civiliza-
tion would have been submerged with
barbariSIn, and the wheels of the cen
turtles would have turned back 10 the
Dark Ages. A wrong impression is