The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-02-01
SINS OF PESSIMISM.
REv. DR.. TALMAGE DEPLoRES THE
MODERN TENDENCY.

New York, Jan. 27.-When Rev. DR..
1almage came upon the stage in the
Academy of Music this afternoon, ha
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.
cd, while many thousands who had come
10 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, II said in my
haste, All men are liars "
Swindled, betrayed, prosecuted David,
in paroxysm of petulanoe and rage,
thus insulted tho human race, David
himself falsified when he said. "All
mon are liars, He apologies and says
he was unusually provoked, and that he
was hasty when he hurled such univer-
sal denunciation, 81 said III my haste, "
and so on. 1t was in him only a momen.
tary triumph of pessimisin. There Is
ever and anon, and mover moro 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 new case of pertidy comes to the
surface, these people clap their hands in
glee. 1t gives piquancy to their break
fast if the morning newspaper discloses
new exposure or new arrest They
grow fat on vermin. They join the devils
in hell in jubilation over reoreancy 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 Oh 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, a 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 a 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
for paroxysm of disgust, because he
apologies for it to all the centuries, but
it is doplorable fact that many have
taken the attitude of perpetual distrust
and anathematization. There are, we
must admit, 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 begins by proposition to the
to break the law by keep
Ie3sx their saloons open on Sunday from
liifThe afternoon to l. at night.
q Never since America was discovered
has there been worse insult to sohriety
and decency and religion than that prop
osition. That proposition is equal to say
ing: "Let law and order and religion
have chance on Sunday forenoons, but
Sunday afternoons open all the gates to
gin and alcohol and Schiedam schnapps
and sour mash and Jersey lightning,
and the variegated swill of breweries
and drunkenness and crime Consecrate
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 chill
dren of their fathers and mothers and
strew the land with helpless orphanage.
Surely strong drink can kill enough peo-
pie and destroy enough families and
sufficiently crowd the almshouses and
penitentiaries in six days Of the week
without giving it an extra half day for
and assassination
Power of Good.
Although we are not very jubilant
over municipal reform that opens the
exercises by doxology to rum, we have
full faith in God and in the gospel
which will yet sink all iniquity as the
Atlantic ocean melts flake of snow
What we want, and what believe we
will have, is great religious awaken
ing that will moralize and Christianize
our great populations and make them
superior to temptations, whether unlaw-
full or legalized So see no cause for
'disheartenment 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, and on the other side of which
are all the forces Of light, led on by the
Omnipotent. l risk the statement that
the vast majority Of people are doing
the best they can Nine 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 professional men, nine hundred and
ninety nine are doing their duty as they
understand it. Out of one thousand ell
igineers and conductors and switchmen,
mine hundred and ninety nine are true
ito their responsible positions 1t is sell
dom that people arrive at positions OF
responsibility until they have been test