The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-02-01
SINS OF PESSIMISM.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DEPLORES THE
HI MODERN TENDENCY.

Yhere Is No Place In the Life Of Chris
tian For Gloomy Forebodings-Touch.
ing Incident of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF
Christianity.
/ NEW YORK, Jan. 27.-When Rev. DR..
Talmage came upon the stage in the
Academy Of Music this afternoon, he
found before him an audience such as is
seldom seen in any public building in
America. The vast space was crowded
from auditorium to topmost gallery and
the aisles and corridors literally block
ed, while many thousands who had come
30 hear him preach crowded Fourteenth
Street and Irving place, unable to gain
admission. He took for his subject 1.-The
Dangers of Pessimism, the text selected
being Psalm oxvi, II, 81 said in my
haste, All men are liars.
! Swindled, betrayed, prosecuted David,
i'm paroxysm of petulance and rage,
thus insulted the human race. David
himself falsifed when he said, "All
men are liars. He apologies and says
he was unusually provoked, and that he
WAS hasty when he hurled such univer-
Bal denunciation. 81 said in my haste, !"
and so on. 1t was in him only momen-
tary triumph of pessimism. There is
ever and anon, and never more than
now, disposition abroad to distrust ev-
erybody, and because some bank en-
ployees defraud to distrust all bank en-
ployees, and because some police officers
have taken brides to believe that all
policemen take brides, and because di-
vorce cases are in the court to believe
that most, if not all, marriage relations
are unhappy.
There are men who seem rapidly COM
ing to adopt this creed: All men are
liars, scoundrels, thieves, libertines.
When a new case of perfidy comes to the
Surface, these people clap their hands in
glee 1t gives piquanoy to their break
fast if the morning newspaper discloses
b new exposure or new arrest. They
grow fat on vermin. They join the devils
lin hell in jubilation over recreancy and
pollution. If some one arrested is proved
innocent, it is to them disappointment
They would rather believe evil than
good. They are vultures, preferring car
rion. They would like to be on a COM
mittee to find something wrong. They
wish that as eyeglasses have been in
vented to improve the sight, and ear
trumpets have been invented to help the
hearing, corresponding instrument
might be invented for the nose, to bring
nearer a malodor.
Evils of Cynicism.
Pessimism says of the church, "The
majority of the members are hypocrites.
although it is no temporal advantage to
be member of the church, and there
fore there is no temptation to hypoo-
risy." 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.
secular and religious, is setting the ma
lions Free The whole tendency of things
Is toward cynicism, and the gospel of
Smashup. We excuse David of the text
Tor paroxysm of disgust, because he
apologies for it to all the centuries, but
Il is deplorable fact that many have
aiken the attitude of perpetual distrust
md anathematization. There are, we
must admit, deplorable facts, and we
would not bids or minify them. We are
not much encouraged to find that the
great work OF official reform in New
York city begins by proposition to the
liquor dealers to break the law by keep
ng their saloons open on Sunday from
in the afternoon to II at night.
Never since America was discovered
las there been worse insult to sobriety
nd decency and religion than that prop
sition. That proposition is equal to say
ng: "Let law and order and religion
ave a chance on Sunday forenoons, but
sunday afternoons open all the gates to
in and alcohol and Schiedam schnapps
nd sour mash and Jersey lightning,
nd the variegated swill of breweries
nd drunkenness and crime Consecrate
ne first half of the Sunday to God and
ne last half to the devil. Let the chill
rem on their way to Sunday schools in
lew York at 3 o'clock in the afternoon
leet the alcoholism that does more than
Il other causes combined to rob chill
rem of their fathers and mothers and
rev the land with helpless orphanage
urely strong drink can kill enough peo-
le and destroy enough families and
crowd the almshouses and
in six days of the week
ithout giving it an extra half day for
auperism and assassination.
Power of Good.
Although we are not very iubilant
yer a municipal reform that opens the
rercises by doxology to rum, we have
Ill faith in God and in the gospel
Itch will yet sink all iniquity as the
tlantic ocean melts fake of snow.
That we want, and what l believe we
i'll have, is great religious awaken
q that will moralize and Christianize
II great populations and make them
perior to temptations, whether unlaw-
i or legalized. So see no cause for
Pessimism is sin, and
lose who yield to it cripple themselves
r the war, on one side of which are {
] the forces of darkness, led on by I
pollyon, and ON the other side of which 1
Q all the forces of light, led on by the l