The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-02-08
DANGERS OF PESSIMISM.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Eloquently Sets
Them Forth.
The Prevailing Disposition to Distrust
Everybody Denounced as an Unmiti-
gated Evil--A More Cheerful
View OF Things Preferable.

Creu py rev l.. DeWlCJ ldlHnage IN u
New York Academy of music on tn
subject '"rhe Dangers of Pessimism
1t was based on the text:
i said in my haste all men are liars.-Psal
cxvi., II.
Swindled, betrayed, prosecuted D;
vid, In paroxysm of petulance an
rage, thus insulted the human race
David himself falsiied when he sale
s'AL men are liars" He apologize
and says he was unusually provoked
and that he was hasty when he hurle
such universal denunciation. II sal
In my haste, and so on. 1t was in hin
only momentary triumph OF pessim
ism. There is ever and anon, and neve
more than now, a disposition abroad t.
distrust everybody, and because some
bank employees defraud to distrust al
bank employees; and because some 20
lice officers have taken brides; to be
We've 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 to 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 to their breakfast if
the morning ne wspaper 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, it is to them disap-
pointment. They would rather be-
lieve evil than good. They are vultures,
preferring carrion. They would like
TO be on committee to find some
thing wrong. They wish that as eye
glasses have been invented to improve
che sight, and ear trumpets have been
invented to help the hearing, corre-
spending instrument might be invent
ed for the nose, to bring nearer
malodor.
Pessimism says of the church: "The
majority of the members are hypo-
critics, although it is no temporal ad-
vantage to be a member of the church,
and therefore there is no temptation
TO hypocrisy" Pessimism says that
the influence of newspapers 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.
The whole tendency Of things is to-
ward cynicism, and the gospel of
We excuse David of the |
text for paroxysm of disgust, be-
causes he apologies for it to all the |
centuries, but it is a deplora BILE 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 not
great work of reform in New York
'ity begins by a proposition to the
liquor dealers to break the law by
keeping their saloons open on Sunday
from two in the afternoon to eleven at
light. Never since America was dis
covered has there been a worse insult
% sobriety and decency and religion
han that proposition. That PROPOSE
ion is equal to saying: Let law and
rider and religion have a chance on
sunday forenoons, but Sunday after
ioon open all the gates to
rim and alcohol and Schielam
chnapps and sour mash and
Jersey lightning and the variegat-
d swill of breweries, and drunken
less and crime. Consecrate the first
Ialf of the Sunday to God, and the last
'alf to the devil. Let the children on
heir way to Sunday-schools meet the
lcoholism that does more than all
Their causes combined to rob children
{ their fathers and mothers, and
trew the land with helpless orphan
ge. Surely, strong drink can destroy
nough families, and sufficiently crowd
he aims houses and penitentiaries in
* days of the week, without giving it
n extra half day for pauperism and
Although we are not jubilant over a
reform that opens the exer-
lses by doxology to rum we have !
all faith in God and in the Gospel
hitch will yet sink all iniquity as the
tlantic ocean melts fake of snow.
That we want, and what believe we
ill have, is a great religious awaken
~ that will moralize and Christian
e our great populations and make
lem superior to temptations, whether :
nlawful or legalized. So | see no
luse for disheartenment. Pessimism
sin, and those who yield to it Grip
e themselves for the war, on one side
which are all the forces of darkness,
d on by Apollyon, and on the other
de of which are all the forces of light,
d on by the omnipotent. / risk 6
le statement that the vast majority S
people are doing the best they can. \