Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-02-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEu
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Subject: "The Dangers sofPessimism.' -

| suited the human race. David himself falsi-
hed when he said, "Al men are liars" He
| apo o2Izes and says he was unusually pro-
| Voked, and that he was hasty when he hurled
| such universal denunciation, 81 said in nv
| hasfe.' and so on. It was in him only q mo-
| mpntary triumph Of pessimism. There is
| ever and anon, and never more than now. a
| disposition abroad to distrust everybody,
| and because some bank employees dcfraui
| TO dfstruet ali hank employees. and because
| some police officers have taken bribes to be-
| lleve that all policemen take bribes. anf be-
| cause divorce cases are in the court to be-
| lieve that most, If not all. marriage relations
! are unhappy.
There ar6 men who seem rapidly coming
| to adopt this creed All men are liars
| scoundrels, thieves, Iibertines When anew
| cas9 or perfidy com5s to the surface. these
| people clap their hands in glee. 1t gives
| p'qulncy TO their breakfast ii the morning
| newspaper dIsc'CScs II new exposure or q
| new arrest. They grow fat on v.rmn.
| IhHy Join the devils in he'll in iubtlation over
| recreancy and pollution. If some one
| arrested Is proved innocent, it is to them a
| tppOintm"n'. They would rather believe
| evil than good. They are vultures, pre-
| ferrng cArrion. They would like to be on
| II committee to fnd something wrong. They
| WIsh that US eyeglasses have been invented
| 70 improve the sight. and ear trumpets have
| been invented to help the hearing. a corre-
| spending instrument might be invented for
| the nose, TO bring nearer ma!OdOr
| PessImIsm says of the church, "The ma
| lorty CT the members are hypocrtes,
| although if Is no temporal advantage TO be a
| member Of the church, and therefore there
is no temptation TO Hypocrisy" Pessimism
| says that the Influence of newspapers is only
| bad, Hnd that they are corrupting the world
| when the fact is that they are the miyhtiest
| agency for the arrest Of crime and the spread
| OF intelligence, and the printing press. secu-
! lar and religious, is setting the nations free
! me whole tendency Of things is toward
| cXnIcism, AMI the gospel of Smashup. We
| excuse David Oft the text for a paroxysn of
disgust. because he apologies for it to all the
| centuries, bat it is Il depIOrahle fact that
| many have taken the attitude of perpetual
| dfstrust and anathematizatiOn. There arr
| we must a nit, dep!Orable facts, and we
| would not hide or minify 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
| to eleven at night
| Never since America was discovered has
! there been Il worse insult TO sObriety and de-
| cency and religion than that proposition.
That proposition iS equal to saying Let
| law and Orderand religion have a chance on
| Sunday forenoons, but Sunday afternoons
| open all the gates to gin and alcohol and
| Schtedam schnapps and sour mash and Jer-
| sey lightning, and the variegated sWill of
| brewaries and drunkenness and crime. Con-
| secrate the first half of the Sunday to God
| and the last half 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 their
fathers and mothers and strew the land with
helpless orphanage. Surely strong drink
can kill enough people and destroy enough
families and sufficiently crowd the aims
houses and penttentiaries in six days of the
week without giving it an extra half day for
paupersm and assassination.
Although we are not very jubliant over
municipal reform that opens the exercises
bv GOxOlOgy to ram, we have full faith in
Col and in the gospel which will yet sink
all iniquity as the Atlantic Ocean melts a
flake OF snow. What we want, and what
believe we will have, is a great religious
awakening that will moraliza and Christian
tze our great populations and make them
superior to temptations, whether unlawful
or legalized SO I see no cause for dis
heartenment. Pessimism is a sin, and those
who yield to it cripple themselves for the
war, on one side of which are all the forces
OF darkness. led on by Apollyon, AMI on the
other side OF which are all the forces
OF light, led on by the Omnipotent. 1
risk the statement that the vast majority of
people are doing the best they can. n ne
hundred and ninetv-nine out OF a thousand
United States governments are honest,
Out Of 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 it.
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 at
positions OF responsibility until they have
been tested over and over again. If the
theory of the pessimist were accurate, So
ciety would long ago have gone to pieces.
and civilization would have been submerged
with barbarsm, and the wheel of the CEN
turies would have turned back to the dark
ages. A wrong impression is made that be-
cause two men falsify their bank accounts
those two wropgdOers are bazOned before
the world, while nothing is said in praise Of
che hundreds of bank clerks who have stood
at their desks year in and year out until
their health is well nigh gone, taking not a
pins worth of that which belongs TO others
for themselves, though with skilul 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 that
men and women are not praised for doing
we'll, but only eXcOriated when they do
wrong. By divine arrangement the most of
the families Of the earth are at peace, and
the most Of those united in marriage have
for each osher affinity and affection. They
may have occasional differences, and here
and there a season or pout, but the vast ma
jority of those In the coniugal relation chose
the most appropriate cOmpanionship, and
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 hemisphere, alert.
The one letter that ought never to have
been written printed in a newspaper makes
more talk than the millions OF letters that
crowd the postofflces and weigh down the
mail carriers with expressions OF honest love.
Tolstoi, the great Russian author, is wrong
when he prints a book for the depreciation
of marriage. If 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
yourselfare morally rotten. The world, not
as rapid as we would like, but still with
long strides. is on the way to the scenes OF
beatitude and felicity which the Bible de-
picts The man who cannot see this
is 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, glrdllng the world with
cedar and fir and pine and boxwood 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 L do not
like, l have not seen any discouragem NJ
for the cause of God for twenty-five yea1s.
The kingdom Is coming. The earth is 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 "ArieI,' than for Naomi" Let
HHark. From the Tombs Doleful Cry! be
submerged with "Joy to the World, che
Lord is Gomez Really, If l thought the
human race were as determined to be bad
and Getting worse, as the pessimists repre-
sent { would think it was hardly worth
saving. If after hundreds of years OF gos-
pelfzation no Improvement has been mace,
let us give it up and go at some>hins elSo
besides praylng and preaching.