The morning times., 1896-04-27

ing and evening yesterday, after an alb
| sence OF some da Us from the city.
His subject at the morning service was
THE Dangers of Pessimism," his te Xt being
Text: Psalm cxvi:ll: az said in my haste
All men are liars"
He spoke In part as follows:
'Swindled, betrayed, prosecuted, David,
in paroXysm of petulance and rage, thus
| insulted the human race. David himself
| falsified when he said, AN men are liars
He apologies and says he was usually pro-
| voked. and that he was hasty when he
| hurled such universal deDunciation. /
said in my haste and so on.
lit was IN him only momentary triumph
| OF pessmism. There is ever and anon. and
nevermore than now, disposition abroad TO
distrust everybody, and because in some
cities bank employees defraud, TO distrust
all bank employees; and because in some
cities police Officers have taken bribeS. to
| believe that all policemen take hribes; and
| because divorce cases are in court. TO be-
| lieve that most. if not all, marriage re-
| latons re unhappy.
| There are men who seem rapidly coming
to adopt this creed: All men are liars,
Scound rels. thieves, libcrtincs. When a
new case of perfidy comes TO the surface.
| these people clap their hands in glce. 1t
| gives piquancy to their breakfast if the
| ne ewspaper discloses a new exposure, or a
new arrest.
LOVE OF THE UNCLEAN.
They grow fat on verpiD. They join
| the devils in he'll in jub.lation over re-
creancy and pollution. If some one ar
| rested is proved innocent, il is to them a
! disappointment. They wonld rather be-
lieve evil than good. They are vultures,
| preferring carrioD. They would like to
! be on a committee TO find something wrong
Q hppn
| invented to improve the sight, and ear
| trumphets had been invented to help the
| hearing, corresponding instrument might
| be invented for the nose. to bring nearer
| a malodor. Pessimsm says OF the church,
The ma iority of the members are hypo-
| critics. although it is no temporal ad-
vantage TO be Il member of the church. and
| therefore there is no temptation to hypo-
| crisy.
"Pessimism says that the influences of
! newspapers is only bad, and that they are
| corrupting the world; when the fact isthat
| they are the mighticst agency for thearrest
OF crime, an 1.-THE spread OF intelligence. and
/ the printing press secular and religious. is
| setting the nations free. The whole tend
ency in many is toward cSnicism, and the
gospel OF smash-up. We excuse David Of
! the text for a parOXysm OF disgust, be-
| cause he apologies for it u all the CEN
turtles, but IL is a dep!orable fact that
many have taken the attitude OF perpetual
distrust and anathematiZation.
WILL MELT AS SNOW.
There are. we must admit. depIorable
| facts, and we would not hide or ma agnify
! them. But we have full faith in God, II nd
| in the Gospel, which will yet sink all iniquity
| as the Atlantic Ocean melts flake OF
| snow. After awhile we will have great
religious awakening that will moralize and
,r6C IN pTz.a taf ion md
make them sup perior to temptations, whether
unla wful or legalized. So l see no cause
| for disheart enment.
''PesSimiS ism is sin, and those who yield
1 to il 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 / risk
/ the statement that the vast majority of
people are doing the best they eau in their
occupations and professions. Nine hum
! dred and uinet y-nine out or a thousand of
/ the officials OF municipal AMI United States
| governments are honest.
"0ut OF a thousand bank presidents and
cashiers, nine hundred and ninety-nine are
| worthy the position they occupy. out OF
thousand merchants, mechanics, and pro.
fessionaI men. nine hundred and ninety
nine are doing their duty as they understand
| it. Out of one thousand engineers. and con-
| ductors, and switchmen, nine hundred and
ninety-nine are true to their responsible
| positions.
SUCCESS THE TEST.
at is seldom that people arrive at posi-
| tions Of responsibility until they have been
| tested over and over again. If the theory
| of the pessimist were accurate, society
would long ago have gone to pieces, and
civilization would have been submerged
with barbarism. and the wheel OF the CEN
turies would have turned back to the dark
| ages.
"A bank clerk falsifies his accounts and
| the fact is blazoned before the world, while
| nothing is said in praise of the hundreds
of bank clerks who have stood at their
| desks year in and year out until their health
is well nigh gone, taking not pins worth
| of that which belongs to Others for them
selves, though with skillful stroke of pen
they might have enriched themselves and
| abscoRded. 1t 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 of the
families of the earth are at peace. and the
| most of those united in marriage have for
| each other affinity and affection. They
may have occasional differences, and here
and there a season Of pout. but the vast
/
chose the most appropriate companion
ship and are happy in that relation.
''You hear nothing OF the quietude aud
| 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 news
| paper, makes more talk than the millions
of letters that crowd the postoffices and
weigh down the mail-carriers with ex.
pressions of honest love.
REMEDY FOR PESSIMIsM.
MY opinion is that If we had enough
faith in quick results, and could go forth
rightly equipped with the Gospel call,
the battle for God and righteousness would
| end with this nineteenth century, and the
twentieth century. only four years off,
would begin the millennium, and Christ
would reign, either in person on some throne
set up between the Alleghenies and the
Rockies. or in the institutions OF mercy
and grandeur set up by his ransomed
people.
Discouraged work will meet with de-
| feat. Expectant and buoyant work will
| gain the victory. Start out with the idea
that all men are liars aud scoundrels, and
| that Everybody is as bad as he can be, and
| that society, and the Church, and the
| world are on the way to demolition, and
the only use you will be to the world will
be to increase the value of lots in ceme-
| terry. We need a more cheerful front in
all our religious work. People have
enough trouble already, and do not want
to ship another cargo in the shape of
religiosity. If religion has been to you
a peace, defense, an inspiration, and a
| JOY, say SO. Say 1t by word OF mouth;
by pen In your right hand; by face illu-
mined with a Divine inspiration. If
this world is ever to be taken for God, 1t
will not be by groans. but by hallelujahs.
| II we could present the Christian religion