Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-02-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS SERMON IN THE NEW
YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
Subject: "The Dangers orPessImIsm.' IS

I u pAENAN-Nl OF HtiulAuEf anu EtEts AAlNN ltl-
/ suited the human race. David himself ialsi-
fed when he said, -An men are liars" he
| apologies and says he was unusually pro-
! voked. and that he was hasty when he hurried
| such universal denunciation, 81 said IN my
haste" and so on. II was In him only a mo-
mentury triumph OF pessimism. Ihere Is
/ ever and anon, and never more than now, a
| disnosi,inn abroad 10 disirus. everybody,
/ ami because some hank employees deiraud
/ 10 distrust all hank employees, and because
| soma nolica officers have taken brides To be-
| Ileye that all policemen take hribes. aud be-
] cause divorce cases are in the court 10 be-
leve that most, IL not all, marriage relations
are unhappy.
There are men who seem rapidly coming
l 10 adnpt this creed: All men are liars,
scoundres, thieves, llbertines When anew
l ease OF perfidy comas 10 the surface, these
people clap their hands in glee. IL gives
piduancy to their breakfast il the morning
newspaper discloses new exposure or
! new arrest. They grow fat on vermin.
| They join the devils in hell in jubilation over
recreancy and pollution. II some one
arrested is proved innocent il is to them a
disappointment. They would rather believe
evil than good. They are vultures, pre-
ferring carrion. They would like to be on
committee TO find something wrong. They
/ wish that as eyeglasses have been invented
TO improve the sight. and ear trumpets have
been invented 10 help the hearing, a corre-
spending instrument might be invented for
| the nose, to bring nearer malodor.
/ Pessimism says of the church, "The ma
jorty OF the members are hypocrites,
| although il is no temporal advantage TO be
| member of the church, and therefore there
| Is no temptation to hypocrisy" Pessimism
| 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
excuse David OF the text for a paroXysm Of
disgust because he apologies for it TO all the
centuries, but it is II deplorable fact that
many have taken the attitude OF perpetual
distrust and anathematization. There arr.
we must nit, deplorable 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 worse insult TO sobriety and de-
cency and religion than that proposition.
That proposition Is equal to saying: LET
law and o-derand religion have a chance on
! SUNDAY IOttHOODS, out Cuuudy HltetUOOuS
open all the gates to gin and alcohol and
Schiedam schnapps and sour mash and Jer-
sey lightning, and the variegated swill OF
breWeries 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 8 o'clock in the afternoon meet the
alcoholism that does more than all other
causes combined to rob children of their
utbapS nd DnOthprG and tha Ia nd wit "a
helpless orphanage. Surely strong drink
can kill enough people and destroy enough
families and sufficiently crowd the aims
houses and penitentiaries in six days OF the
week without giving it an extra half day for
pauperism and assassination.
Although we are not very jubiant over a
municipal reform that opens the exercises
by a doxology to rum, we have full faith in
God and in the gospel which will yet sink
all iniquity as the Atlantic Ocean melts a
fake OF snow. What we want, and what |
believe we will have, is great religious
awakening that will moralize and Christian
ize our great populations and make them
superior to temptations, whether unlawful
or legaljzed. SO | see no cause for dis
heartenment. Pessimsm 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, and on the
other side OF which are all the forces
OF Eight, led on by the Omnipotent.
risk the statement that the vast majority Of
people are doing the best they can. n ne
hundred and ninety-nine out of thousand
OF the officials of the municipal and the
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 a
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 swltchmen, nine hundred and nine
ty-nine are true to their responsible posi-
lions. 1t is seldom that people arrive at
positions OF responsibility until they have
been tested over and over again. II 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 GEN.
turtles would nave turned back TO the dark
ages. A wrong impression Is made that be-
cause two men falsify their bank accounts
those two wrongdoers are blazonei before
the world, while nothing is said in praise o.
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
for themselves, though with skllu stroke OF
pen they might have enriched themselves
ana DullI t1elr country seats on the DdnkS OIL
the Hudson or the Rhine.
It Is a mean thing in human nature that
men and women are not praised for doing
well, but only excoriated when they do
wrong. By divine arrangement the most oil
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 of pout but the vast ma.
toritv NJ thnca in n nni,,ryol aloti np ali
the most appropriate ompanionship, 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 q continent, and perhap;
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 postoffices and weigh down the
mail carriers with expressions OF honest'love.
Tolstoi, the great Russian author, Is wrong
when he prints 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 I'M
fortunate in your acquaintanceship, or yor
yourselfare morally rotten. The world, moi
as rapid as We would like, but still with
long strides. is on the way to the scenes oil
beatitude and felicity which the Bible de
picts. The man who cannot see this
is wrong, either in his heart or liver o.
spleen. Look at the great Bible picture
gallery, where Isaiah has set up the picture
OF arborescence, grdlng the world witt
cedar and fir and pine and lockwood and thu
lion led by child, and St. Johns picture
OF waters and trees, and white horse cavalry
and tears wiped away, and trumpe,s blow
and harps struck, and nations redeemed
While there are 10000 things I do no
like, have not seen any discouragem n
for the cause OF God for twenty-five years
The kingdom is coming. The earth is pre-
pairing to put on bridal array. We need t
be getting our anthems and grand marche
ready. In our hymnology we shall hav